Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sam spends the night in hospital. It’s precautionary, they tell her, as she was unresponsive when the paramedics arrived.
She must have passed out. Adam Taylor is there when she opens her eyes.
He’s brought Maltesers and daffodils. Sam closes her eyes again.
Adam sits for hours as nurses come and go.
To pass the time, he talks non-stop, in that awkward way people talk in hospitals.
He goes on about the case he’s working on, the London weather and his mother’s UTI.
Adam only leaves her bedside to go to the toilet and Sam takes one such opportunity to text Neil and check how Lindsay is doing.
Sam must have nodded off, because when she next opens her eyes, Taylor’s fingers are resting gently on her hand and he’s nodding off himself in his chair. One of the good ones. She smiles to herself, laces her fingers through his and closes her eyes again.
By lunchtime, Sam is ready to shower and get out of the hospital, but there’s zero privacy and she’s wearing a crinkly, open-back gown, as the police took her clothing into evidence. When she asks Taylor to leave, he initially refuses, so she begins to pull back the covers.
“I’d like to preserve the innocence of your eyes.” She grins and he blushes, taking the hint.
“Call me when they release you,” he says gently. “I want to drive you home and make sure you’re OK. I can stay over if—”
“Actually, Taylor,” she says. “Could you do me a favor?”
“Of course.”
She gives him instructions and her house key.
When Sam is discharged later that day, Taylor has been sent to a crime scene, so she calls Chloe Spears, who picks her up and drives her home. Sam stays quiet, like any traumatized victim of an attempted murder.
When they arrive back at Sam’s terrace, she asks Chloe to come in with her, just to check that everything is safe.
From outside, they can hear Toni yapping.
The little scruff continues to bark as Chloe checks the house.
Sam even has her colleague check under the bed, as if Richie Scott might have awoken from the coma she put him in and secreted himself under her mattress.
“Gosh, he’s noisy!” says Chloe as Toni launches himself directly on to the sofa, whining for Sam to sit with him.
Chloe goes into the kitchen to put the kettle on and too quickly reenters the lounge with a pair of steaming mugs.
They can’t be properly brewed, Sam thinks, but she sips gratefully.
She’ll make herself a decent cuppa once Chloe’s gone—though, given that Chloe has moved several boxes and taken a seat in the armchair, that might not be for a while.
“How are you really doing, Sam?” Chloe asks, concern etched on her face. “Don’t just say ‘fine’ to me again.”
“It’s tough.” She shrugs. “It just seems like there’s been so much…”
“Trauma, lately?” Chloe offers.
“Yes,” Sam says, helping Toni to get comfortable on her lap. “Exactly.”
“You’ve been through so much,” Chloe says, “what with Harry’s accident last week and now someone trying to murder you in your own home.
” Chloe slurps her tea, which no one should ever do.
“You and Harry were close, weren’t you?” She says it casually, but Sam detects a hint of something else in her voice.
Something that, to Sam, sounds a little like suspicion.
“Yes. Harry was my dad’s partner. They went through the academy together.
Inseparable. I was nineteen when my dad died.
He shot himself in the head with a collectible firearm.
He was in the basement and I was upstairs in the bath.
I didn’t even hear the gunshot. Harry stepped in and became like a father to me.
Luckily, I inherited this house, but I had no job.
It was Harry who helped me get into the Met.
We drifted apart last year, with my breakdown and what-have-you.
But we’d put that all behind us and then …
then … I lost Harry too.” Sam rubs the plaster on her wrist where a cannula had been.
“I’m so sorry, Sam,” Chloe says, and slurps again.
“I’d just had dinner with him the weekend before he fell.
Things were good. Our mutual friend, Pete Thomson, was there too.
He’s a good guy, Pete…” Sam lets herself think back to that meal and the one time she’d seen Harry after it.
Their walk along the cliffs by Botany Bay.
That had been a lovely day. Sam finds herself humming again.
“I’m so sorry, Sam,” Chloe says, and swallows some more tea. “Harry’s accident was tragic. He can’t have realized how close he was to the edge.”
“I feel so scared, back here. In this house. In this room,” Sam says, changing the subject.
“Richie Scott can’t hurt you anymore. Besides, you’re about to move to Newcastle, aren’t you? You’ve already got a place there? Taylor was saying he might come up for a visit once you get settled,” Chloe says, but Sam isn’t interested in small talk.
“How’s that lawyer doing? The one Richie attacked before he got me?” she asks.
“Julius Windsor. He’s still alive but unconscious, last I heard.”
“Richie Scott’s a monster,” Sam mutters.
“Not for much longer,” Chloe says. “I think they’ll switch him off later this week. They’re trying to find next of kin but he’s estranged from his brother and there’s no one else. It’s looking like his girlfriend Lindsay will make the final decision.”
“Mmm,” Sam says, wishing to God that Chloe had left the tea bag in longer. “You still seeing … Gosh. What’s her name? The woman who met Denver?”
“Amy,” Chloe smiles, blushing. “Yes, we’re still seeing each other. Although she’s back in the States at the moment.”
“Nice,” Sam says.
“Can I ask you something?” Chloe says.
“Of course, but I’m tired,” Sam says, ready for Chloe to leave so she can enjoy a good cup of tea and some Only Fools and Horses.
“I suppose I was just wondering where Toni was when you were attacked? If he’d been here, he might have barked.
Given you a few seconds to dial 999.” Chloe delivers the question casually, but Sam hears the challenge behind it: nowadays, people are never more than a meter from their phone, so why hadn’t Sam called sooner?
Sam smiles to herself. Her instincts were right about Chloe Spears.
She’s a good officer, with good intuition.
“Yes, Toni would have barked, little hero that he is.” Sam ruffles his head.
“He was at the vet’s. He needed his teeth cleaning and a minor operation on his back leg.
I’d put it off; to be honest, I was thinking of handing him over to a shelter.
Now I can’t imagine how I ever contemplated giving him up.
He’s my best friend. Taylor brought him home for me earlier today. ”
“So Toni happened to be at the vet’s the same day that Richie Scott’s girlfriend chose to run away from him and, for some reason, Richie thought—”
“Look, Chloe, can we talk about something other than last night?”
“Of course. Sorry, Sam. Tell me about your move to Newcastle.”
“I can’t wait to start afresh in a new place.” She smiles. “I just hope that the North is ready for my brand of justice.”
Chloe smiles back. “Newcastle’s not going to know what hit it.”