Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
It was ten minutes back to Didsbury with the way Vinny drove and his knowledge of the back streets, which was better than any taxi driver, or Satnav. I didn’t speak, clutching the handle and watching the scenery, clearing my head and trying to think of absolutely nothing.
It was the come down from the high, the adrenaline crash, my body going numb while it tried to stabilise its levels of cortisol and all the other hormones that it’d released to keep me alive, make me brave. Or stupid.
Vinny pulled up outside my flats and turned the engine off. “Can I wait inside? I’m dying for a piss.”
“Try not to shag any of Lucy’s colleagues. I know it’s difficult because for some reason, women seem to fall at your feet with their legs spread, but keep it in your trousers for now, yeah?” I opened the car door, getting out and slamming it with some satisfaction.
“Touché.” Vinny locked the car. “I’ll behave.”
He followed me in the flats and upstairs, having the intelligence to keep quiet. I slipped into my room and left him to it, needing to shower, to feel hot water hit against my skin and have no sound except the water falling around me, the scent of something soothing and dirt washed away.
When I came back into the lounge to find Vinny, wanting to get the rest of the day out of the way and maybe uncover some more answers, I wasn’t expecting to see Cavan on the opposite chair, expression dark, hair ruffled.
“Vin, I – Cav, I thought - ” I folded my arms, the tension sharp. “What’s happened.”
“Did you know your boyfriend was having it off with your flatmate, Mia?” Vinny stood up, blocking the door. “He wasn’t expecting to be interrupted.”
“You had no right to go into Lucy’s bedroom - ”
“You had no right to be poking someone else while you were seeing her.” Vinny pointed at me.
“What the fuck’s it got to do with you? Is this because you wanted at her – it was fucking obvious at the party that you wanted Mia.” Cavan stood up, shifting towards Vinny, fancying his chances.
I shifted between them. “Leave it. I knew you were sleeping with Lucy. I figured it out more than a week ago.” I’d lost track of time how long it was exactly, and it wasn’t just because of Atlas’ photos.
The date that he didn’t turn up for, the weekend with his mates when Lucy was at a wedding with a date – that had been Cavan.
Whatever it was between them, it was worth hurting me for.
Cavan looked shocked, taking a step back and almost tripping over the coffee table. “What do you mean - ”
I turned to Vinny. “Did you really walk in Lucy’s bedroom?”
His expression was grim. “I heard noises like someone was being strangled. So I went in to check.”
“Without back up?”
He grinned. “Took a leaf out of your book. Yeah, anyway, he was balls deep in your flatmate with his arse stuck up in the air. I can punch him if you want.”
“No, you’d get into trouble and we all know you wouldn’t want that. I punch better than you anyway.” Although my knuckles were a bit busted after the fight with Justine.
“I’d probably agree with that.” He raised his brows at me. You good?
I nodded. All fine. Then I turned back to Cavan. “We’re over, but you knew that.”
Cavan tapped his foot, an overgrown petulant child. “It was never going to work. You were always at work or thinking about work – I was never on your radar.”
“That’s okay. I don’t mind. You do you and all that.” I walked to the door. “Let me see Lucy and then we’ll go. Two minutes.” I patted Vinny on the arm, not even giving a single thought about what Cavan had said to do with how Vinny had been looking at me.
Lucy’s bedroom door was closed, but I didn’t bother knocking on it before entering. She was sat on the bed, wearing a dressing gown, her hair tied up, looking like a young Blanche Dubois, fragile and wronged.
“Mia, I’m sorry. I feel so bad – I don’t know what to say.”
I let her carry on for a few more seconds before interrupting. “I’m going to pack. I think that’s best.”
Her mouth opened; words stolen from her.
“But where will you go? I’ll end things with him, I don’t know why I let it happen. I’m so sorry, Mia. I didn’t expect you back, else – else you wouldn’t have found out like this.” She was tearful, wiping at her face.
Her bedroom still smelt of sex and Cavan’s socks were on the floor. I still felt numb, numb with a hint of relief that was sinking in.
“You shouldn’t be shagging your flatmate’s boyfriend even if you knew she was away for a fortnight. It’s not really the done thing.” I leaned against the doorframe.
She was lost for words for a second. “We really like each other, Mia. I wanted to tell you after the case, but we, you know. You know how it is.”
“I don’t. I also don’t care. I stopped a woman from being killed today, you’ll read about it in the papers tomorrow.
The fact you’ve slept with the man I was seeing doesn’t really reach the relevance scales.
But I don’t want you as a flatmate anymore.
” I walked away, not bothering to close my door, went into my bedroom and packed a bag for the night, toiletries, a change of clothes, make-up, the photos placed in frames with seashells stuck to them that me and Heidi had made one glorious summer.
I didn’t have many possessions. One day, when I had my own house, where no one could throw me out of, I’d nest there. Until then, I only kept what I could carry in a binbag or two. I’d come back for the rest after work tomorrow. Tonight, I’d find somewhere else to stay.
Vinny was watching me put underwear in my bag from the doorway, making me jump more than Justine had.
“That’s rather creepy, you know?”
“I always thought you’d be a sensible knickers sort of girl.”
“I’d rather you didn’t think anything about my underwear.”
“Yeah, well. Are you okay? About that dickhead. He’s gone, by the way.” He tipped his head towards the flat door. “Not that I expect you’re bothered.”
I shook my head. “I’m not. I knew they were involved. I didn’t know if they were sleeping together, but I figured they were.”
“How did you know?”
“The date he didn’t turn up for, a few other things. Atlas gave me photos of them together too.”
“He’s been rather handy, this Atlas, hasn’t he?”
“Very. I have no idea who he is.” I’d tried a reverse image search again last night and still nothing came up. He was a ghost.
“I have. I’ll tell you one day if I’m right.”
“I won’t hold my breath.” I paused. “Vin, can I kip at yours tonight?”
“Yep.”
“You won’t try and steal my underwear for your collection?”
“No.” He tapped his head with his finger. “It’s all in here.”
I decided to ignore that, picking up my bag to have it ripped from my hands.
“At least let me do one manly thing.”
“Carry a unicorn bag?”
“You have to be a proper man to be a man carrying this.” He slung it over his shoulder and walked out. “You know what, Mia? You can do better than him.”
“You might be right. Just this once.”
We headed straight to the hospital, only I drove this time, needing to start to refocus and Manchester during the rush hour was the perfect time to do it.
It was the same hospital where Sophie worked, but this time we found her in a side room just off A and E, an officer at the door, more to prevent the media from gaining access rather than another attack.
She was sitting up in bed, Mike on a chair beside her, both of them nursing proper mugs of tea, which I figured someone from Sophie’s ward had provided.
“How are you?”
Her face brightened and then she started to cry. Shock, relief, fear - any amount of different and contradictory emotions.
“Aching. My head’s on fire.” She sniffed and picked up a tissue. “I can go home when I’m ready – there’s no lasting damage because she didn’t get the chance to do anymore because you were there.”
I took the seat on the other side of the hospital bed and studied her. She’d been one of the three people in that garage at the end.
“How did Justine – Kelly-Anne – take you? We’ll need to get a formal statement from you, but we can do that later or tomorrow morning. But it’ll be helpful if you can tell me a few things now.” Because we’d want to interview Justine soon, if we could, if she was deemed medically fit.
“I was at the shop – I needed to get a birthday card for one of Mike’s daughters and they have nice cards.
A woman came in, upset, saying her daughter was outside, hurt and could I help.
I didn’t think, I just went with her, although I thought it was the same woman I’d seen walking out of A and E because she looked similar.
I didn’t think anything of it. I followed her outside to the part where they’re doing building works, so no patients are around, and she stabbed me in the neck with a needle.
The next thing I knew I was in the garage, and you were fighting her, and then the door opened, and the light came in.
” She took a long drink of her tea. “I should’ve known it was her. Kelly-Anne.”
“How?”
“Her eyes. Her eyes haven’t changed. There was something empty even back then, as if she’d seen things she was never meant to.” She shook her head, her eyes far away now, maybe back in Aberwyn.
“What did you do to her, Sophie? When you were in North Wales that summer?” I asked her gently, trying to soothe, buttering out the answers.
Sophie bit her lip. I saw Vinny gesture to Mike from the corner of my eye, stopping him from intervening maybe.
“We were awful to her. Evelyn told her a boy liked her and wanted to meet her for a date near the pier. That wasn’t true – we turned up there, laughing at her.
We made her drink stuff, horrible stuff, but the worst was one afternoon when we went to this abandoned old mansion house, a proper wreck.
We dared her to go in the cellars, then basically we attacked her – or Chelsea and Dolly did.
They held her down and made her drink the vodka and tequila they’d stolen, then they pulled her clothes off and called her about how she looked.
We all joined in, kind of. I hated what I was saying to her, but I did it anyway because I didn’t want the same to happen to me.
” She started to cry again, trying not to sob, I could tell.
“She’d have been really drunk and I knew we could’ve killed her.
Chelsea and Dolly put this big barrel at the door so it wouldn’t open.
It was so heavy. If she’d choked on her own vomit or not been able to get out – no one but us knew where she was.
I went back later and collected her clothes, all the ones I could find, and pulled the barrel away from the door so it could open as much as I could.
I was too scared to look in. It was horrible.
I don’t know why we were so horrible. I hate to think about that time – I can’t even go back to Wales now.
” She buried her head in her hands, Mike rubbing her back.
“Will she be in trouble for what happened when she was a teenager?” He looked worried.
I shook my head. “I doubt it. We’re going to need a statement. One of our colleagues will come to take it or you can go to the station in the morning, whichever’s easiest for you.”
She pulled her hands away from her face. “I’d rather do it tonight at home. Then I can wake up tomorrow and it’ll all be over. It is over, isn’t it? You have arrested her?”
“We have. She won’t be coming out.” One way or another. It would depend now on whether Justine, or Kelly-Anne, was fit to be interviewed, or whether she would be detained under the mental health act. Having met her at Ashcombe House, I suspected she’d be fit to be interviewed and then stand trial.
“Thank fuck for that.” Mike dropped his head. “Who’ll take Sophie’s statement? One of you two?”
I shook my head. “DC Verity Golding or DC Lachlan Dixon. When are you going home?”
Sophie looked more relaxed now. “Another hour or two. We found out when they’d done some tests on me that I was pregnant.” A smile blossomed on her face, watered with more tears. “We didn’t think it could happen because I have endo, but it has.”
“And what she injected you with hasn’t caused any complications?” My medical knowledge would never be the best, and there was no chance of me trying to improve it.
“It was benzodiazepine, so it can have an impact, but they’re not concerned at the moment. They’ll be monitoring me closely anyway. Lots of complications.” She patted her stomach. “Fingers crossed.”
Mike took hold of her other hand as I stood up. “I wish you all the luck with it.” Because sometimes that was what it came down to – sheer luck. “I’ll leave you in peace now, and one of my colleagues will be over in a couple of hours to take a statement.”
“Thank you. You know, for saving my life.” She teared up again. “Not every day you say that, is it?”
“Thankfully not.”