Chapter Twenty-Six

Although her face was obscured by the wet hair hanging over her shoulders in lank strands, Penny knew who it was. “Riley!” she exclaimed, reaching out to pull the girl into her small entranceway and out of the driving rain. “Come in. What are you doing out on a night like this? What’s happened? Are you hurt?”

The girl was panting so hard she could barely breathe. Her ragged breath came in great, heaving gulps, and when she opened her mouth, no words formed and no sound came out.

“It’s your friend,” she finally managed to gasp before bending over, resting her hands on her knees and drawing another deep breath.

“What friend? My friends are right here,” Penny said, gesturing at Victoria and Bethan, who had come to the hallway to see what was going on. Riley pointed at Bethan. “Her,” she panted. “She’s the one to help him. She needs to go. Right now.”

“Help who?” Penny said.

“Your friend at the nursing home. I heard them talking. They’re on their way there now. I ran here to warn you. Oh, please, you’ve got to hurry.” She was standing straighter now, although still breathing rapidly. Her eyes darted wildly from Penny to Bethan.

“Oh my God,” exclaimed Penny. “Jimmy. They’re after Jimmy.”

Riley nodded.

Bethan grabbed her coat as she sprang for the door. “Penny, you’re with me. Victoria, you stay here and look after this girl.”

“Bookshelf. Redouté,” Penny shouted to Victoria before chasing after Bethan, without bothering to grab her coat. In less than a minute they were in the police car and reversing out of the parking space in front of Penny’s cottage. Somehow, between changing gears and steering the vehicle, Bethan managed to radio the station to alert them to what was happening and request that any officer closer to the nursing home go there immediately.

“What’s Jimmy’s room number?” she asked Penny. “Room one oh eight,” Bethan barked into the microphone, repeating what Penny told her. “Bring a member of the night staff from the nursing home with you. If you have to break the door down, do it. Get into that room as soon as you can. An elderly resident’s life may be in danger.”

Just as they passed the site of the travellers’ encampment, a white van shot past them at high speed, forcing them off the road and onto the verge. Bethan swore under her breath as she struggled to keep control of the vehicle. Penny twisted round in her seat and had just enough time to glimpse the purple writing on the side of the van. ROBERT SYKES WINE AND SPIRITS. “That’s the same white van I saw parked at the Hall last Saturday night,” Penny exclaimed. “The one Gwennie said was dropping off the complimentary champagne.” Concentrating on her driving, Bethan did not reply.

After what seemed an eternity but was in fact just minutes, they pulled up in front of the nursing home, and Penny leapt out of the passenger seat and bounded up the stairs. Bethan shut down the vehicle, switched off the flashing lights, and raced after her. They burst through the doors and ran past the empty reception desk.

“Down here,” Penny shouted, pointing to the right, indicating a hallway just before the now darkened residents’ lounge.

“I know where his room is,” responded Bethan. “I’ve been here before.” They tore down the hallway, desperately hoping to find that a police officer had arrived before them and had the situation under control. The hallway was empty.

They slowed as they reached Jimmy’s room, and Bethan wrenched at the door handle. It was locked. “Stand back,” she ordered. She didn’t body-slam the centre of the door, but one well-aimed kick from her sturdy police boot to the left of the door handle and the door splintered open with a loud crack. A man was bent over Jimmy’s bed, holding a pillow, while a blonde woman hovered nearby shouting and swearing at him. As Penny and Bethan burst into the room, she directed her loud curses at them.

Bethan ignored her. “Put it down,” she yelled as she dived at the man, grabbing him by his arms, wrenching him away from the bed and flinging him onto the floor. Holding his hands behind his back, she pulled a set of handcuffs from her pocket and secured him. The woman pushed past Penny, who was trying to reach Jimmy, and bolted out the door. Leaving the man sprawled on the floor, Bethan sprang to her feet and took off in pursuit. A moment later she returned with the woman and pushed her into a chair. “Don’t you move,” she said, keeping one hand on the woman’s shoulder as she whipped out her phone and called for backup and an ambulance.

Jimmy, his sparse white hair sticking out on all sides of his pink scalp, had watched all this wide-eyed with Penny standing beside him, holding his hand.

“I kept them talking as long as I could,” he said.

“You did great,” Penny replied. “You kept them talking and distracted long enough to stay alive.” She leaned over him, and they clung to each other in wordless relief until two uniformed police officers arrived, handcuffed the woman, and took the pair into custody.

Jimmy sighed, and then, using the side rails on his bed and with Penny holding him under his shoulders, he pulled himself into an upright position, then raised the head of the bed. When he was comfortable, he smoothed his hair, adjusted his blue-and-white-striped pajama top, and asked Penny to pour him a glass of water.

“Well, now we know who tipped me out of my wheelchair,” he said as Penny picked up the jug of water on his bedside table. “Before that fellow tried to smother me, I got a good strong whiff of tobacco. I’m sure he was the one. And turns out you were right, it was meant as a warning to keep my nose out of their business.”

He took a deep breath and leaned back against his pillows as Penny poured water into a glass.

“It’s that Mrs. Lynch,” he said as he straightened up a little, then took the glass from Penny’s hand. After taking a slow sip through the bent straw, he handed the glass back to her and settled back down in his bed. “She was behind the theft of the Black Chair. I overheard her in the lounge on her phone today, talking about how they’d had to abandon the black goods, and when she caught me looking at her, she knew that I’d heard and that I knew. She organized the theft.”

“Do you have any idea where she might be now?” Bethan asked.

“No idea. Halfway to Dublin, possibly, although she was still here at teatime.”

“Let’s hope she didn’t get that far,” said Bethan. She stepped out of the room and returned a moment later. “I’ve ordered officers to the travellers’ encampment and requested a search warrant for the place, since that’s where the white van was headed. And we need more officers for this building.” A police officer approached her and said something in a low voice. “Check at reception,” Bethan said to him. “There must be some night staff around, but where are they?”

The police officer returned a few minutes later with paramedics, and while one examined Jimmy, the police officers conferred in the corridor.

“He seems okay,” said the paramedic, removing his stethoscope from Jimmy’s chest. “Surprisingly okay, considering what he’s been through.” He then motioned to the police officers in the hall that they could come back into the room.

Jimmy insisted he was fine and refused to go to hospital. “You know what we’re like, us old folks,” he grinned at Penny. “We don’t like a fuss.”

“It’s strange that we haven’t seen any night staff,” said Bethan. “I don’t like it. We need the property searched.”

“Try the room two doors down,” Jimmy suggested. “That’s Mrs. Lynch’s room. I’ll bet she summoned the night nurse to her room to lure her away from the nursing station, and when she got there, the woman and young man were waiting to overpower her, and they left her in there, then came in here to kill me.”

“Was Mrs. Lynch in your room tonight?” Penny asked Jimmy.

“No, just those two.”

“How’s this for a theory?” said Penny. “The white van delivers the blonde woman—who, by the way, is Riley’s mother—and the young man. I don’t know who he is, but he looks like Rhodri’s friend. The one Eirlys photographed in the club last night.”

“Yes, he does,” said Bethan.

“I don’t know either of their names, though.”

“Doesn’t matter. We can get their names from Riley.”

“So,” Penny continued, “The van delivers the man and woman here, and they go to Mrs. Lynch’s room. Mrs. Lynch summons the night nurse, but before she arrives, Mrs. Lynch leaves the room and hides, down the hall, let’s say. When the night nurse comes to her room, the two overpower her and tie her up. Then, when she’s safely out of the way and the reception desk is empty, Mrs. Lynch leaves the building and is driven away in the white van that passed us on the way here. The blonde woman and the young man then attack our Jimmy—the man who knew too much.”

A police officer entered the room to tell them the missing night nurse had been found tied up in Mrs. Lynch’s room and asked the paramedics to see to her. They returned a few minutes later saying she was unharmed, if a little shaken up, and was insisting on returning to the nursing station.

“Right, then,” said Bethan. “I’m just going to take a look around Mrs. Lynch’s room. And no, Penny, before you ask, you can’t come with me. You stay here with Jimmy.” She motioned to the uniformed police officer standing in the doorway.

Penny stayed by Jimmy’s side until Bethan returned to let them know the police were wrapping up. After settling Jimmy in for the rest of the night and ringing Victoria to let her know she was on her way home, they prepared to leave. As Penny switched off the light to Jimmy’s room, his voice came out of the dark.

“How did you know I was in trouble? How did you know to come here?”

“The woman who tried to kill you. Her daughter ran through the rain to my cottage to warn us that they were on their way here and that you were in trouble. If she hadn’t …”

Jimmy did not reply. Penny quietly closed the door to his room, and she and Bethan made their way through the silent building, past the empty reception desk, and out the front door. The rain had let up, but without a coat, Penny shivered during the short walk to a waiting police car.

Bethan decided to return to the station and assigned a woman police officer to drive Penny home and remain in the cottage overnight.

“We can’t take the chance that a member of the traveller community will come looking for Riley,” she said. “It’s too late to talk to her tonight, but we’ll keep her safe until we can speak to her in the morning.”

Once in her cottage, Penny took off her wet shoes and, with the police officer following, entered the sitting room to find Victoria reading in a wing chair. The only light in the room came from a small lamp beside her. Victoria held her index finger to her lips, then pointed to the sofa, where Riley was stretched out under a soft blue blanket, asleep, one arm wrapped protectively around the book of Redouté drawings.

“She could have had the spare room,” whispered Penny.

“She fell asleep there, and I thought it best to leave her where she is and not disturb her,” said Victoria. Penny gestured toward the matching wing chair, and the police officer sat down. “She had a bath,” Victoria continued. “Her clothes were filthy, so I gave her an old nightdress of yours and I ran her clothes through the washing machine. They should be dry by morning, so at least she’ll have clean clothes to wear when she leaves.”

“Did she have something to eat?” asked Penny.

“She was ravenous,” said Victoria. “And I’m sorry to tell you this, but she’s eaten all your dinner.” Penny smiled. “But that’s not all. I caught a glimpse of her back and arms when she handed me her clothes for the wash. She’s covered in bruises. Old greenish ones and fresh purple ones.”

The police officer glanced at Riley’s sleeping figure and opened her notebook.

A few minutes later, Victoria left for home and Penny went upstairs to bed, leaving the police officer to make herself as comfortable as she could in the wing chair with a blanket and a cup of tea. As Penny lay in the dark, her whirling mind going over the events of the evening, her thoughts tumbled over one another, demanding attention, then disappearing, to be replaced by others. Finally, she gave up, turned on her side, and drifted off into an uneasy, restless sleep.

*   *   *

She woke as a soft, grey light filtered under her window blind, signalling that a new day was about to begin. As the events of the previous night flooded her consciousness, she pulled on a dressing gown and went downstairs. The chair and sofa in the sitting room were empty, but warm, inviting smells were coming from the kitchen.

Riley, wearing her clothes that had been washed and dried overnight, looked up from the table and gave Penny a shy smile backed by a mouthful of toast and marmalade. “There’s a full pot of coffee,” said the police officer. “I hope you don’t mind we made ourselves some breakfast. Riley was starving, and I thought it best we eat here rather than going out.”

“Yes, of course,” said Penny. “I hope you found everything you need.” She slid into a chair and pulled a slice of toast from the rack. “Have you heard from the nursing home this morning? Or maybe it’s too early.”

“I haven’t heard from anybody yet,” said the police officer. “May I have a word in private?”

“Of course,” said Penny, putting down her toast and joining the policewoman in the sitting room.

“Inspector Morgan has asked that you not speak to Riley about what happened last night, or anything that led up to it. She’s an important witness, and we don’t want her recollection clouded or tainted,” the policewoman said in a low voice. “We know the right questions to ask, in the right order, and we need to be the ones to ask them.”

“Of course,” Penny replied. “I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the nursing home. Sorry.”

“As soon as she’s had her breakfast, I’m to drive her to the station, and we’ll take it from there.”

“What’s going to happen to her?” asked Penny.

“Living arrangements, you mean?”

“Yes. With her mother in custody, I really hope she doesn’t have to live with her aunt. She’d be nothing but an unpaid child minder helping raise her cousins. And that would be such a shame when she has ambitions for herself so far beyond that. She wants to go to school. She’s eager to learn. She’s got a bright, active mind and she’s got so much talent.”

The police officer shrugged. “Not for me to say. That’ll be up to social services.”

“I hope it won’t come to that. I hope suitable private arrangements can be made for her.”

The police officer glanced at the kitchen door. “I’d better get back to her. My instructions are not to leave her.”

“And I’d better get dressed.”

Penny rooted about in the front hall cupboard for a couple of spare carrier bags, then ran upstairs and changed into casual clothes. She then entered her spare bedroom, where she pulled out items from the cupboard and placed them in the bags.

When she returned downstairs, the police officer and Riley were preparing to leave. Remembering that the girl had arrived on her doorstep the previous night without a jacket, Penny took a dark-green jacket that she wore sketching from her cupboard and offered it to her.

Riley shook her head. “I can’t take your coat.”

“Yes, you can,” said Penny. “You’ll need it today.” When Riley shook her head again, Penny said, “You can bring it back when you’ve got a warm jacket of your own. That’ll give you an excuse to come back and see me.” The girl grinned and reached out for the jacket. “And here,” said Penny, holding out the carrier bags she had just filled with art supplies. “I thought you’d like to have these, and I hope you get a chance to use them. There are a couple of new sketchbooks, some pencils and some watercolour paints, brushes … everything you need to be going on with.”

Riley’s smile lit up the hallway.

“You’re one of the best botanical artists I’ve ever seen,” said Penny. “And you’ve got a brilliant future ahead of you. Wait a minute. Where’s …?” Her eyes turned in the direction of the sofa, and when she spotted what she was looking for, she sprinted across the room and picked up the Redouté book. “Here,” she said, “Take this with you. I want you to have it. My gift to you. Let it inspire you.”

As Riley started to cry, Penny reached out and wrapped her arms around her.