Chapter 15
15
The interview with the Turners went well. The family were all in when it came to promoting the air ambulance, especially young Max, who couldn’t wait to meet Bess and Noah, the critical care paramedics who attended the scene on the day of the eight-year-old’s accident earlier this year. Max had been riding his skateboard in the street and had taken a tumble into the road. He’d been hit by a car. The air ambulance had been deployed and Max, with significant head injuries, was stabilised at the scene and transferred to a children’s major trauma hospital.
The Turners’ story, now he’d done the interview, would be written up after Hudson liaised with the communications assistant who worked remotely, and it would then go out as a media release which would hopefully lead to coverage in local if not national newspapers and publications.
Max’s parents’ emotions had really come through in the interview as they recalled the day they thought they’d lost their youngest son: how they felt as he fought to survive in intensive care for a period of time following the accident, and their absolute elation when he first opened his eyes and smiled.
Emotions went wild again when Bess and Noah showed up in Nadia’s office especially to see young Max. Neither of them were on shift but they’d come in because Max really wanted to meet the two people who’d rescued him from the road.
‘They’re true heroes,’ his mother Jenny told Hudson as she watched her son talking and laughing with the two paramedics.
‘They’re superheroes!’ Max declared with a few sound effects to boot.
‘Without The Skylarks, we might not have him today.’ Jenny’s voice caught. ‘Thank you to every single one of you.’
Her husband reiterated their gratitude, the couple hugged each other tight, and young Max made them all laugh with an eye roll and his claim, ‘They do this a lot.’
Hudson said goodbye to the Turners and assured Max he could come back another day to see the helicopter. He’d missed out on seeing it, perhaps getting a turn to sit in the cockpit, because right now, it was out with the crew to rescue someone else who needed a superhero at their side just like he had.
Hudson found Frank in the hangar. ‘Where’s Nadia got to? I wanted to tell her she can have her office back.’
‘She went with the crew. Hopped on the helicopter, asked me to man the fort.’
Nadia was a trained nurse but she rarely got involved in the practical medical side any more. ‘Why did she go out on the job?’
‘Beats me.’ Frank patted his shoulder. ‘Coffee? I’m making it.’
‘Just had one, thanks, so not for me.’
They made their way along the corridor and before Frank disappeared into the kitchen, Hudson saw two figures coming into the building via the front entrance. And he wasn’t quite sure what to make of what he was seeing.
Conrad, detective in the adjacent town to Whistlestop River, and Beau at his side.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ said Frank, recognising Beau, and of course Conrad who, when he was married to Maya and as they went through a divorce, Frank had always kept an eye on. He might only be the engineer here but much like Nadia, he cared about every member of the team as if they were family.
‘I think we need to talk,’ said Conrad as Hudson joined them in reception.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked Beau. ‘Why aren’t you at school?’
Beau had stayed over at his mum’s last night and she knew the deal: no falling for claims Beau wasn’t well, which he’d tried before and usually, she couldn’t be bothered to argue.
‘I had a headache first thing,’ said Beau. ‘I was going to go in but…’
Conrad prompted him to keep talking. Usually, the police detective was filled with so much self-importance, he didn’t do politeness or patience and definitely didn’t do any type of hand-holding for a teenager as far as Hudson knew.
Hudson led them over to the seating area. What was going on? Beau hadn’t been well, hadn’t gone to school, and somehow, he was with Conrad?
Beau looked up from beneath a fringe that was far too long – the kid wouldn’t have it that he needed a haircut and was probably growing it out of spite from the time Hudson had heavily suggested it might need a trim.
‘I need to tell you about the hoax,’ said Beau.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘The one last summer. For the air ambulance. The fake emergency call.’
He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach because he remembered it, even after all this time. Last summer, The Skylarks had been deployed to an emergency and landed in a field when they spotted what they thought was a person dressed in a hi-vis jacket. Except it wasn’t; it was a scarecrow. The crew had scoured the fields to find a patient in need, in case it was a coincidence and there was a real emergency. The only saving grace had been that someone had subsequently called the emergency services to admit that the call was a hoax. Otherwise, The Skylarks might have been looking for a victim or victims for a very long time.
‘I was involved,’ said Beau.
‘You made the prank call?’ Hudson couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Conrad interrupted. ‘There were a few lads involved; Beau says he didn’t make the call himself but he refuses to give us any other names.’
‘I’m not a grass!’ Beau told them.
Hudson didn’t get a chance to ask why he would tell a police officer, and why now, because Conrad took charge. ‘Beau here was talking on the phone to someone; I overheard.’
‘Were you boasting about it, Beau?’ Hudson asked.
‘No, I wouldn’t do that.’
‘Then what were you saying?’
‘There’s this girl… at school. She was going to go on a date with a guy and he’s bad news. He was one of the boys involved with the hoax. I told her; I wanted to warn her.’
Conrad interrupted yet again. ‘I wouldn’t usually deal with cases like this but took this one on board seeing as it’s Beau and because it’s the air ambulance. Vested interest, you know.’
Vested interest? That was a joke. And did he think he and Hudson were buddies? Was that why he was saying he took the case? Hudson wasn’t sure everything added up here; his head was all over the place.
Perhaps Conrad was just being Conrad – possessive, a giant pain in the arse. He didn’t have any vested interest really – the only link he had was Maya, who was only polite to him because she was a nice person. Conrad had made himself such a nuisance around here before Maya put a stop to his interference once and for all that sometimes, he felt like a bit of the furniture, except not a nice piece, but rather one you wouldn’t even give away to a thrift shop. Hudson would’ve thought the guy would be sheepish around the crew but no, here he was, bold as brass. Arrogant, that’s what he was, and he probably thought – and he’d be right – that he had something over one of them now.
Hudson turned his attention to Beau. ‘Whatever made you do it? You know how dangerous that is, that you could take time and resources from someone who really needs help. And this is my place of work…’
Beau hung his head. ‘I’m sorry, Dad.’
‘Are you?’ Hudson didn’t raise his voice much, certainly not here, but he could feel his temper rising. ‘Your little joke could’ve cost lives. You’re damn lucky The Skylarks weren’t needed on another call.’
‘I knew it was wrong?—’
‘Then why do it?’ he roared, causing Beau to look up through his fringe in shock.
Tears tracked down Beau’s cheeks. Hudson hadn’t seen those for years; the anger always got in the way, and he was fifteen. He resisted showing emotions in front of anyone, especially his parents. He hadn’t even cried when his mother moved out; his sadness was masked by fury, which he took out on Hudson in the days following Lucinda’s departure.
‘I didn’t make the call, Dad, at least not the first one, but I was with a gang when they did it. We waited in the fields near the scarecrow, saw the helicopter land, then ran away. I hung back and made the second call.’
‘Second call?’
‘Your son called the emergency services again and said it had been a hoax.’ Conrad sure liked to cut in. ‘The message went through HEMS and Maya… sorry, The Skylarks, were able to leave the scene.’
Hudson rubbed his hands up his cheeks, let out a long breath, rested his forearms on his thighs.
‘Who were the other lads, Beau?’
‘Dad…’
‘Don’t Dad me. Who were they?’
‘No, no way. I’ll take my punishment but I’m not grassing; they’ll make my life hell. I’ve got ages left at that school.’
‘But you warned the girl off?’ It didn’t make sense that he’d expose himself like that if he was worried the others would make his school days hard. And then it dawned on him. ‘You like her.’ His son had wanted to show his good side; that was why he’d called it in to stop the air ambulance searching for a patient who didn’t exist. He’d wanted to impress the girl.
Beau’s cheeks took on a telltale crimson shade.
Conrad butted in. ‘Ultimately, hoax calls to the emergency services are a police matter.’
‘Is he going to be charged?’ Hudson asked before looking at Beau. ‘You get a criminal record and it’ll follow you around. It’ll stump your chances of university, finding a job, everything.’ Hudson had no idea whether any of these things were true but the look on Beau’s face, the utter fear and regret, told him it didn’t matter; saying them was making his son see that actions had consequences.
Hudson didn’t know whether to yell some more or cry. Had they done this? Him and Lucinda. Had they been such crappy parents, so wrapped up in their marriage problems, that they hadn’t seen their son navigating towards other students at the school who thought things like hoax calls were a way to pass the time, fun, a joke?
Conrad told Hudson, ‘Whether this is taken further hasn’t been decided. There are ways around it, maybe.’ But he told Beau matter-of-factly, ‘Hoax calls to the emergency services are a criminal offence. You could face up to six months in jail, a five-thousand-pound fine.’ Conrad’s chest expanded. Both Beau and Hudson were at his mercy now. ‘But… I’m human.’ He nudged Beau as if they were mates. ‘I know we dick around when we’re in our teens, boys will be boys and all that, and we make mistakes.’
Hudson wasn’t sure whether dick was the sort of word a police detective should be using and he hated the way Conrad said boys will be boys as if they were all in a club together. He was acting as if he knew Beau personally too, which was odd. Come to think of it, so was Conrad letting anyone off rather than punishing them to the full extent of the law.
‘Your mum will be upset about this,’ Conrad went on, again to Beau. Hudson wanted to point out that it wasn’t his place to be commenting on their family, but he didn’t want Conrad to rescind the offer of perhaps sorting this out without it going further.
Conrad addressed Hudson. ‘I have a son too. If this were Isaac, I’d want him to have a chance to redeem himself.’
It was a first to have Conrad being understanding. He couldn’t wait to tell Maya that one, although then he’d have to tell her what his son had done. Oh hell, everyone would have to know; he couldn’t keep this from them.
‘How can I do that?’ Beau pleaded. ‘I’ll do anything; I don’t want to go to jail.’
‘What do you suggest?’ Hudson prompted Conrad, putting the police detective firmly in the driving seat on this one. It wasn’t like he had much choice.
‘Whatever I suggest might not matter if the official body of the air ambulance decide to press charges. That’s out of my hands. But we can take steps to maybe prevent that from happening, if we’re smart. Like I said, I’ve got a son too; I’d want him to have the chance.’ He patted Beau on the back reassuringly. That definitely wasn’t his place but again, Hudson stayed quiet; he didn’t want anything to trigger this police detective into making a different decision entirely.
Hudson suspected the only reason Conrad was really doing this was to get in Maya’s good graces. Maybe he was so deluded that he thought she’d hear about what he’d done for Beau and she would go back to him eventually. Some men just never took no for an answer.
‘I would suggest a very sincere written apology from Beau here,’ said Conrad.
‘Done.’ Hudson would agree to pretty much anything to help Beau out of this mess. And hopefully, he’d learn from his mistake; the fact that he was here with a police detective had to be scary enough to make him think twice about ever pulling something like this again.
‘I could have a word with Maya,’ said Conrad. ‘I’m sure she’d be open to having help cleaning the helicopter; that’s a big job.’
‘There are plenty of jobs around here that Beau can do,’ said Hudson, ‘including cleaning the helicopter. Why don’t you let me take it from here? I’ll ask Maya or Vik; I know how busy you are in your job.’ He’d inflate the guy’s ego a bit, anything to make sure he wasn’t hanging around any more than he needed to.
Beau’s dirty trainers scuffed on the floor as he sat up taller. ‘Everyone will hate me here for what I did.’
Hudson was inclined to agree. ‘Maybe they will. Go wait in the office for me.’
Beau went off without a word while Hudson stood to see Conrad out of the building.
‘He’ll hate being here under my watch, believe me,’ said Hudson. ‘But thank you for bringing him in, for making me a part of the decision about his punishment. You didn’t have to do that and I appreciate it.’ Why had he done it, really?
‘Like I said, boys get in trouble; I certainly did at that age.’ Conrad looked over Hudson’s shoulder. ‘Is Maya around?’
‘She’s out on a job. Do you need me to pass on a message?’
‘No worries, I’ll send her a text. We’re having dinner.’
Hudson didn’t respond to that. They had a son together and now Hudson wasn’t with Lucinda, he got it; sometimes, you had to be together for the kids, whether you wanted to share your time or not.
He took a deep breath after he showed Conrad out the door and made his way to the office, where he found Beau, feet up on the desk and lolling in a chair. ‘Are you serious?’
Beau had the good grace to sit up properly and remove his feet from the desktop. Just when he thought the kid might be having regrets about what he’d done, he showed the arrogance of someone who clearly wasn’t all that sorry.
‘Go get a cloth from the kitchen, the disinfectant spray, and clean that surface.’
Beau did it without any backchat, without even looking at his dad again.
Hudson waited, stared out of the window. He stayed there the whole time his son was cleaning the desk surface behind him.
‘What’s next?’ Beau asked with more than a hint of the sulks. ‘Seeing as I’m your slave for the next God knows how many days.’
‘You can lose the attitude right now.’ He sat down. ‘Do you realise how lucky you are to have a second chance? How lucky you are that this wasn’t any worse?’
Beau slumped down in the chair next to Hudson and this time, kept his feet firmly on the floor.
‘I mean it, Beau. A criminal record would ruin things for you; I shouldn’t have to point that out. Nor should I have to tell you that your stupidity could’ve cost lives.’
‘I know. Conrad went on about it enough on the way here.’
‘Where did he overhear the phone call?’ Hudson hadn’t thought to ask before.
Beau hesitated before he admitted, ‘At Mum’s place.’
‘Mum’s place?’
Beau rolled his eyes.
‘Oh, don’t tell me… your mother is dating Detective Dickhead?’
Beau laughed and before long, Hudson had joined in, releasing the tension that had built up.
‘Detective Dickhead.’ Beau nodded his approval. ‘I like it.’
‘Don’t repeat it again.’ He wagged his forefinger.
‘He’s actually the best out of the men she’s dated since you split up.’
‘There have been others?’ He held his hand up straight away. ‘You know what, I don’t need to know. All I know is that he did the right thing by you. Maybe he does have a heart.’
‘What do you think will happen when you tell people here, Dad? About what I was involved in.’
‘That information won’t come from me. It’ll be in the form of your written apology, which you will take your time over before I send it to anyone. It’s up to The Skylarks whether they agree to you being let off with a punishment that doesn’t involve the police in a more official capacity.’
‘Do you think they might want me charged?’
Hudson was a little bit glad to see Beau had panic written all over his face.
‘Let’s just hope they’re as forgiving as possible. In the meantime, let’s find you something else to do.’
Hudson led the way to the hangar and found a bucket, some sponges and the car shampoo. ‘Fill the bucket with hot water, squirt some shampoo in, and you can start by cleaning the rapid response vehicle outside. After that, I want you in the office working on your apology letter.’ Hudson intended to have the letter circulated sooner rather than later. Beau could come here and do his homework instead of hanging out with friends after school and only when Hudson was convinced he’d done his time, and if the crew decided they didn’t want to take the matter further, would things go back to normal for him.
Beau said nothing, just got on with the task he’d been given as they heard the helicopter on its approach and The Skylarks came in to land.
Although grateful Conrad had chosen to give Beau a chance to redeem himself, Hudson wasn’t sure about having the man in Beau’s life, but Beau seemed to think he wasn’t that bad. His opinion probably had a great deal to do with how Conrad had dealt with this matter and maybe Conrad had been lenient because he wanted to stay in Lucinda’s good books by doing right by her son. Who knew what his motives were. And to be honest, as long as Lucinda kept her commitments with her kids, taught them right from wrong and didn’t let them down, who she saw in her personal time was up to her now.
He thought about what else he might be able to get Beau to do after the vehicles. The hangar was forever in need of a sweep – the doors were open often enough that leaves blew in, dirt accumulated. He could get Beau to pull cabinets out from around the edges and clean behind them. He could also put him on tea and coffee duty, make sure nobody else had to do it. And the reception area had a load of glass that attracted fingerprints like nobody’s business, especially when kids visited them at the airbase.
He watched his son get to work on the car outside. Perhaps he should’ve made sure Beau remembered how to wash a vehicle – he’d done it at home but not for years. Once upon a time, it had been a treat to help his dad clean the car.
Hudson quickly went outside and reminded him that if he dropped the sponge, he was to come inside and wash it in the sink to ensure it hadn’t picked up any stones that would be rubbed across the paintwork and leave scratches.
He’d only just gone back into the building when Vik came through from the hangar. He shook his head. ‘A terrible job. Kate will give you the report but we all need a big mug of coffee after that one.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Yeah, these jobs are the worst.’ But he rallied; they had to when some things were out of their control.
With Vik needing to leave early today, Maya arrived at the airbase to take over from him. ‘I’m impressed,’ she told Hudson as she came through the front door. ‘Isn’t that your son out there washing the rapid response vehicle?’
‘It is.’ Beau was facing away from them, stretching up to wash the roof of the car first, tyres last as Hudson had taught him.
‘Earning some extra pocket money?’
‘Something like that.’
‘I hear Conrad came to see you. He texted me when I was on the job, just called him back quickly. Isaac is coming down for a visit. Have to communicate, unfortunately.’
He knew that feeling well. ‘Conrad told you he talked to me?’ He hoped Beau’s letter would circulate before the team got wind of what he’d been involved in; he wanted his son to have a chance to apologise first if he could.
‘Not the details. You know what he’s like; he likes to be the one that knows something when nobody else does. Everything okay?’
‘Yeah, everything is fine.’
She went off to the locker room and he came face to face with Kate next as he walked along the corridor. He could see the job had been a tough one just as Vik had said.
‘Nothing we could do,’ she told him as she put the drugs away in their rightful place.
Brad was similarly out of sorts as Hudson went into the hangar and Nadia was the last to step out of the rear of the helicopter.
‘Was it horrific?’ he asked her as she came up to him.
But she didn’t say a thing.
She looked at him, her whole face took on a different expression and she burst into tears.