Once again, Sophie left Sam and Laura in Costa while she visited Intensive Care where a tall, white-coated woman introduced herself as Dr Thea Graves, the resident psychotherapist. She explained that scans had confirmed that Mr Perrin’s injuries were restricted to the superficial brain tissue, with circulation within the brain returning to normal as the swelling and inflammation decreased. She further explained that the area of brain affected would not necessarily be associated with memory defects. Memory and other aspects of higher neurological function were deep-seated within the brain, although it was possible that additional trauma might have resulted from sudden impact as with some closed head injuries, and this might explain the memory loss. She was hoping to observe his responses upon encountering someone with whom he was previously familiar, and cautioned that, although he was able to respond to requests, he was not yet able to offer complete sentences. They were also experiencing a slight dilemma related to his aversion to the smell of disinfectant and was this an existing problem?
‘Jonah… I’m sorry, Robert, has always been hypersensitive to strong smells. They give him really bad migraines. I did wonder whether it would be a problem when he regained consciousness. The disinfectant, that is.’
‘Well, there’s not much we can do about the smell of disinfectant in a hospital, is there? Anyway, I’d like to thank you for coming in like this. It must be very difficult for you.’
Sophie forced a smile then followed Dr Graves to the side room, wondering if everyone in the entire hospital knew that she had been living with an adulterer for the last five years and was now pathetic enough to still agree to aiding his recovery. She was surprised to find Jonah raised up on pillows, his bandages reduced mostly to one side of his head, his face almost fully uncovered apart from a thin strip across his forehead. His eyes watched her as she stepped into the room. Dr Graves indicated the chair for Sophie to sit down. ‘Hello, Robert,’ she said. ‘I’ve brought someone to see you.’
Sophie cringed at the patronising tone, clearly reserved not only for the very young, the very old and the very pregnant, but also for the recently brain-damaged. Jonah continued to watch for a few moments then closed his eyes. ‘Stinks,’ he said. ‘Stinks!’
Dr Graves gave a half-smile, half-grimace. ‘Robert, do you know who this is? It’s your friend, Sophie. Would you like Sophie to speak to you?’
Jonah opened his eyes but said nothing. Sophie experienced a wave of uncertainty. She had lived with this man, had his child, and yet right then and there she couldn’t think of a single thing to say to him. She wasn’t even sure what to call him. So, she fell back upon the obvious. ‘The doctors say you’re making excellent progress. And we’re all hoping you’ll get well very soon.’ Five years and nothing but platitudes. ‘Do you remember me? We’ve known each other for a long time. Do you remember Laura?’
‘Issy and Laura,’ he mumbled.
Sophie looked at Dr Graves. ‘They’re his…’
‘Yes, I’m aware of that.’ She leaned towards him. ‘Do you know why you’re here, Robert?’ There was no response. ‘Do you remember what happened to you? Would you like Sophie to say what happened to you? To help you remember? Sophie, would you like to remind us what happened that day?’
Sophie took a deep breath. What could she say? How about: Completely out of the blue after living with me for five years you drove to our house with your new girlfriend in the car and told me you were leaving me and your daughter, you bastard? No, that wouldn’t do. ‘We used to live together. And I used to call you Jonah. And one day three weeks ago, you were putting things into your car and you fell and hurt your head. Do you remember that, Jonah?’
‘Where’s Rosie?’ he said.
Another deep breath. ‘She’s at home at the moment. She came to see you when you were not properly awake. But she sends her love.’ Like hell she does. ‘She’ll come and see you again soon.’ Actually, I’m the only fool who’s willing to waste my time coming here and you don’t even recognise me.
Jonah stared at her. A fixed stare with no expression attached. Then, all at once, the traces on the monitor were becoming erratic. He leaned forward, dragged taut the tube that was feeding into the crook of his arm and tried to touch Sophie’s hand. ‘Stinks!’
Sophie recoiled from the threat of contact. Dr Graves leaned forward to pat his arm. ‘It’s OK, Robert, we’re trying to do something about the smell. It will be better once you’re up on the wards. I’ll leave you and Sophie to have a chat.’ She got to her feet. ‘I’ll wait for you outside, Sophie. Take your time.’
Thea Graves left. Sophie wanted to leave too, but, curious to understand the plight of this man she had lived with for so long, she lingered. She lied that everything was fine, that all his things were safely packed away. Jonah watched her speaking then, without warning, threw himself upright and towards her, again dragging the line but this time managing to close his fingers around her wrist. Sophie gasped as his skin touched hers. It felt laminated, too smooth to be alive, just like that day, stroking her mother’s cold, lifeless cheek as she lay in the funeral parlour. She managed to pull free then backed away towards the door, watched his outstretched hand begging her return. Then, clear as anything, she heard him say, ‘Don’t give it to them, Sophie.’
For the first half of the journey home, Sophie refused to talk about her time with Jonah but eventually, when she was convinced that her thoughts were going to burst straight out of her head if she didn’t release them, she said, ‘He asked about Rosemary. And Issy and Laura.’ She twiddled with the strap of her bag. ‘He’s freaking out about the disinfectant. It’s a shame he didn’t lose his sense of smell instead of his memory. He’s a bit paralysed down one side, but they think it’s only temporary.’
‘Do they think his memory loss is temporary?’
‘I think so. He seemed to be recovering bits and pieces while I was there. At first, he didn’t know who I was but then, just as I was leaving, he said, “Don’t give it to them, Sophie”.’
‘Don’t give them what?’
‘Perhaps he meant his laptop.’
‘You didn’t ask him what he meant?’
‘No. I don’t care what he meant.’
‘Sophie, if he has secreted something, the laptop or whatever, somewhere in your house, and there are people looking for it, then we need to find it first, so we can give it to the police.’ He blew out a lungful of air. ‘I want you and Laura to move to my place. ASAP.’
‘But they’re fitting the alarm tomorrow.’
‘I don’t care. I want you out of your house until we’re sure what Jonah was referring to. I need to know you’re both safe. I mean it, Soph.’
‘But what about Jesse?’
‘I’ve already spoken to him about it.’
She sighed. ‘So, how did it go today?’
Sam glanced at her. ‘Sorry?’
‘At the site. You wanted to make sure they were leaving holes for the windows.’
‘Oh yes. Loads of windows. Doors too.’
Sophie lifted a crinkly grey hair from Sam’s sleeve. ‘Are you having an affair with a curly pensioner?’
Fitting the intruder alarm took most of the next morning. Sam stayed home to make sure that none of the security engineers were gangsters in disguise and Sophie continued with the packing she had started the previous evening: just the things she and Laura might need for a warm, late August that sooner or later just had to turn to rain. As she folded her clothes into her mother’s old suitcase, she couldn’t help remembering Jonah’s similar undertaking those three fateful weeks ago, remembered his library book, last seen lying in the road, never to be returned, the fine mounting up indefinitely. She thought about the missing laptop. She ought to ask Suzie about it but, in truth, she’d avoided contacting her ever since she’d shopped her to the police. She heard Sam thanking the security team and closing the door behind them, quietly so as not to wake Laura. Moments later the doorbell rang. Laura stirred but didn’t wake. Sam could be heard directing someone along the hallway. Voices behind a closed door. Sophie hurried downstairs and discovered Inspector Blake and two other officers in the kitchen. Sam instantly reassured her that there was nothing to worry about, which is what people usually say when there is something to worry about.
‘Inspector Blake has a warrant to search the house. It means that if they find anything, it will be permissible evidence. Allowed in court.’
‘But why do they need a warrant? I never said they couldn’t search?’
‘It’s really just a formality,’ said Inspector Blake. ‘You have been very helpful at every point in our investigation. But, given the latest circumstances, we now have to do things by the book. Constables Barry Lane and Susan Rice will assist me in the search.’
‘What latest circumstances?’
‘Last Saturday, Jonah’s car was stolen from the Business Park,’ said Sam. ‘It was found dismantled and burnt out on a disused refuse site. There’s also been a break-in at Jonah’s Exeter house. Yesterday morning. They were all out at the time, apart from the dog, which seems to have slept through it. Apparently, nothing was taken but the place was turned over.’
‘But what about the alarms? Rosemary’s house was covered in alarms.’
‘All alarms can be defeated by someone,’ said Inspector Blake. ‘It was a professional job undertaken by individuals who were experienced at thievery. The Devon police concluded that several perpetrators were involved. And the fact that they have broken into Mr Perrin’s home, would suggest they failed to find what they were after when they searched his business premises.’ He glanced at Sam. ‘And we must presume that, if their search of the Perrin residence was also unsuccessful, they’ll continue to search elsewhere. If there is anything incriminating hidden in your home, we need to be the first to find it.’
Sophie immediately felt threatened. ‘Inspector, when I visited Jonah yesterday he was very confused, but as I was leaving he said “Don’t give it to them”. Do you think he was referring to his laptop? And that’s what they’re looking for?’
‘That’s possible.’
Sophie frowned. ‘Have you asked Suzie Kay about it?’
‘When questioned, she had no knowledge of a laptop. We have also acquired a warrant to search Miss Kay’s home.’ Again, he glanced at Sam. ‘Mr Barnes has informed me that you will be moving over to his premises for the time being. I believe that might be a wise move. At least until we know what we’re dealing with here.’
Sam accompanied the officers from room to room. They started by excavating the contents of the cupboard under the stairs. Sophie cringed at the piles of junk being pulled out into the hallway. They found nothing, so Sam escorted Officers Blake and Lane into the lounge whilst Sophie helped Constable Rice load everything back under the stairs. A shrill scream interrupted their awkward conversation. ‘It’s my daughter’s lunchtime,’ explained Sophie. She hurried upstairs to collect Laura, uncertain what kind of psychological damage she might suffer watching strangers pulling her house apart. Half an hour later, having phoned Rosemary to offer condolences about the break-in, Sophie carried Laura into the lounge and discovered her sofa on its side. Constable Lane was investigating its innards by poking a camera through a hole in the fabric across its base. ‘How would Jonah have put anything in there without me knowing?’ asked Sophie.
Officer Lane stepped over and handed Sophie a gold locket and chain. ‘So far this and some loose change is all we’ve found. Down the back of the armchair.’
Sophie rubbed the dusty locket between her fingers. ‘It was my mother’s. I thought my sister had all her jewellery in Ireland.’ She eased her fingernail into the small indentation in the side and it flipped open to reveal two tiny, faded photos: two little girls, perhaps five and six. She tried to remember her mother wearing it but Laura started to wriggle so she left them to their searching, hurried upstairs, shut herself and Laura in the main bedroom and resumed packing. But after a few hectic minutes of Laura pulling things down on top of herself, Sophie lifted her into her travel cot with her caterpillar book and sat down on the bed to take another look at her mother’s locket. She looked up as Sam stepped into the room.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Not really. It makes me sad to imagine what my mother would have thought about her house being pulled apart like this. And it scares me how you can’t know what fate has in store for you.’ She handed him the locket. ‘That’s me and Josie, when we were little, with our whole lives ahead of us. We had so many plans. About all the things we were going to do together. And now Josie’s in Ireland married to a farmer and I’m an abandoned single mother with the police rummaging through my possessions.’
‘Sophie, these little girls and their plans belong to the past.’
‘But the past is all you can be sure of. Although, I suppose I can’t even be sure of that.’
Sam closed the locket and handed it back. ‘The greater part of your life is still ahead of you. And it’s going to be the best part because it will have me in it. And however disastrous the last few years might seem right now, you have Laura to compensate.’ He smiled. ‘Although we need to teach her to read her books rather than eat them.’
The search of Sophie’s house continued for several hours, with little success until they came, at last, to the spare room. They removed a number of things into evidence bags and then prepared to leave, but Sophie was reluctant to let Inspector Blake escape without some further explanation. ‘Inspector, what do you think could possibly warrant this degree of searching? What on earth do you think Jonah was involved in?’
Inspector Blake chose his words carefully. ‘Over the last few days, we have retrieved data from Mr Perrin’s computers and phones that confirm his involvement with individuals Serious Crime have been trying to link to certain criminal activities. In addition, we now suspect not only that he was involved in wrongful access to both private and business bank accounts, in order to move funds into as yet untraceable accounts abroad, but also that he has been trading in false identities for use in criminal practices. The break-ins might be related to individuals attempting to claim services they have already paid for. But an additional concern, indeed DCI Gardener’s main concern, for yourself and others, is that Mr Perrin might have secured his own safety by holding incriminating information on the individuals he was dealing with. And they would be keen that such information did not find its way into police hands. Considering Mr Perrin’s passion for conundrums, it is likely that the data is held in more than one location.’
‘Have you checked his puzzle books?’
‘Yes, and I have to say, the man has an astounding appetite for such things. We’ve already had someone working on those retrieved from the Topsham Road property but there appears to be nothing significant in any of them. Just a few red herrings.’
Sophie sighed. ‘What kind of criminal practices, Inspector?’
‘I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to share that information at the present time. Suffice it to say that your ex-partner might well be implicated in what is an ongoing criminal investigation by the National Crime Agency. There is every possibility that he was not fully aware of what he was involved in.’
Sam saw the officers to the door. When he walked back into the lounge he spoke with a sense of urgency. ‘Sophie, we’re out of here now. Just get whatever things you need for the next few days and don’t forget it’s Bank Holiday weekend. We’ll come back for some more stuff when you need it.’ Sophie didn’t argue. She just concentrated on packing whilst Sam watched Laura and the pavement outside.