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A
“Okay,” said Banks, stepping forward. “I want you and your partner to organize a search for Calvin Soames. He can’t have gone far. Get some help from uniformed branch in Eastvale if you need it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Banks turned to A
A
“You okay to drive?”
“I’m fine. Really.” To demonstrate, A
Tuesday, 23rd September, 1969
“Yes, what is it?” Chadwick said when Karen stuck her head around his office door. “I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed.”
“Urgent phone call. Your wife.”
Chadwick picked up the phone.
“Darling, I’m so glad you’re there,” Janet said. “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to reach you. I don’t know what to do.”
Chadwick could sense the alarm in her voice. “What is it?”
“It’s Yvo
“She’s not at school?”
“No. And she’s not here, either, I checked her room, just in case.”
“Did you notice anything unusual?”
“No. Same mess as ever.”
Chadwick had left for the station before his daughter had even woken up that morning. “How did she seem at breakfast?” he asked.
“Quiet.”
“But she left for school as usual?”
“So I thought. I mean, she took her satchel and she was wearing her mac. It’s not like her, Stan. You know it’s not.”
“It’s probably nothing,” Chadwick said, trying to ignore the feeling of fear crawling in the pit of his stomach. McGarrity was in jail, but what if one of the others had decided to take revenge for the drugs squad raids? He had probably been foolish to identify himself to Yvo
“Should I call the hospitals?”
“You might as well,” said Chadwick. “And have a good look around her room. See if there’s anything missing. Clothes and things.” At least that would give Janet something to occupy her time until he got there. “I’m on my way. I’ll be there as quick as I can.”
Eastvale General Infirmary was the biggest hospital for some distance, and as a consequence the staff there were overworked and its facilities were strained to the limit. Just down King Street, behind the police station, it was a Victorian pile of stone with high drafty corridors and large wards with big sash windows, no doubt to let in the winter’s chill for the TB patients it used to house.
A and E wasn’t terribly busy, as it was only Thursday lunchtime, and they found Kelly Soames easily enough with the help of one of the admissions nurses. The curtains were drawn around her bed, but more, the nurse said, to give her privacy than for any more serious reasons. When they went through and sat by her, A
A
Kelly said nothing, just continued to stare at the ceiling.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Banks asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Kelly said. Her speech was a little slurred from the painkillers she had been given, and from the split lip, but she made herself clear enough.
“I’d rather hear it from you,” Banks said.
A
“I don’t know,” Kelly said. “Honestly. The last thing I remember is feeling like my head was exploding.”
“It was a chair leg,” Banks said. “Someone hit you with a chair leg. Was it your father?”
“Who else would it be?”
“What happened?”
Kelly took some of the water A
“He didn’t interfere with you in any way?” A
“No. No. It wasn’t like that at all. He wouldn’t do anything like that. But the names he was calling me… I won’t repeat them. They were the same ones he used to call Mother when they fought.”
“What happened to your mother?” A
“She died in hospital. There was something wrong with her insides – I don’t know what it was – and at first the doctors didn’t diagnose it in time, then they thought it was something else. When they finally did get around to operating, it was too late. She never woke up. Dad said something about the anesthetic being wrong, but I don’t know. We never got to the bottom of it and he’s never been able to let it go.”
“And your father’s been overpossessive ever since?”
“He’s only got me to take care of him. He can’t take care of himself.” Kelly sipped some more water and coughed, dribbling it down her chin. A
“We don’t know yet,” said A
“I don’t want anything to happen to him,” Kelly said. “I mean, I know he’s done wrong and all, but I don’t want anything to happen to him.”
A