‘How’s the head?’ a familiar voice asked, splitting through Alice’s dream.
Trying to open her eyes and focus on the voice, Alice momentarily saw a thin figure standing between two doors shrouded by light. She blinked again and the figure was gone. As her mind tried to process the noises and lights around her, she became aware of the feeling of motion. A series of ceiling tiles and bright bulbs whizzed above her head. Blinking again, she saw two figures in light blue staring over her, their face masks moving as if they were speaking, but no sound came out.
Darkness returned, and it took all her strength to fight against the grip of the painkillers flooding her system to concentrate enough to force her eyes open. The thin figure was back, no longer shrouded by light, but sitting in a low chair near the edge of the bed.
DC Hazelton sat forward in the chair and smiled empathetically. ‘Try not to speak. You’ve been through a lot, but all you need to know is you’re safe now.’
The sky through the window told her it was day, but she had no idea if it was early or late. A series of beeps sounded somewhere behind Alice, but it felt like her spirit was floating just above the mangled body in the bed.
‘Where am I?’ Alice asked, unable to recall anything immediate.
‘You were brought here anonymously,’ Hazelton said. ‘You had no identification or phone, it was only when an eagle-eyed nurse recognized your face that I was called. One of the nurses who was tending to Faye’s injuries was just about to finish her shift when you were brought in on the stretcher.’
A hospital room certainly explained the array of strange noises, but that didn’t account for the dull ache in her leg or the heat around her neck. The smell of disinfectant assaulted her nostrils.
‘Try not to move,’ Hazelton cautioned, coming closer as Alice struggled to sit up. ‘The plaster on your leg is temporary.’
Alice tried to wiggle her toes and felt the constriction around her right ankle.
‘What happened?’ she croaked, her throat dry and hoarse.
‘Looks like a hit-and-run,’ Hazelton said. ‘What’s the last thing you can remember?’
Alice allowed her eyes to temporarily close, focusing on any memories, seeing Hazelton bringing Faye to the house, the excitement on Isabella’s face as she was reunited with her mother, Dave appearing at the front door, a flash of Andrew Hook slamming into the patio door.
‘You were found in a ditch on the track near your mum’s house,’ Hazelton continued, ‘but there was no sign of your car. I spoke to your mum but she said she hadn’t seen you, and wasn’t expecting to. I woke her up in fact. I tried to speak to your husband, but there was no answer at your house.’
Ben’s smiling face appeared in her mind, and she felt her own lips curling up, but then an image of Ray in his embossed jacket, arm around Ben, flashed up, and her joy turned to anger.
‘Ray,’ Alice coughed. ‘Ray … Ben’s dad, he … he …’
The beeping behind Alice’s head grew louder and faster.
‘Calm down, Alice, you need to relax,’ Hazelton soothed. ‘Okay? Are you in pain? Do you want me to call the nurse in?’
Alice was suddenly back in the Range Rover, watching Ray’s lips confess to killing Kerry and watching Mary’s mother die. The words wouldn’t come out in a logical order. ‘Murder … cover-up … Ben … Kerry dead … he did it.’
Hazelton pressed a cool hand against Alice’s forehead. ‘It’s okay, Alice, we’ve arrested the man responsible for Kerry’s murder. Remember? Abdul Farrar is in custody. Stay calm.’
‘No, no,’ Alice said, her eyes filling as she shook her head.
The door at the far side of the room flew open, and a woman dressed in blue came over to the bed, firing questions at Hazelton and reading the output from the machine.
‘He did it,’ Alice tried again, taking shallow breaths, trying to compose herself.
The nurse moved around to the opposite side of the bed and adjusted the dial on the intravenous tube in Alice’s arm, and suddenly the pain and the angst evaporated.
The light behind the blinds was fading when Alice next came around. The effect of the painkillers had now vastly reduced and the dull throb in her leg was suddenly more apparent. Propping herself up on her elbows, she surveyed the room. It looked almost identical to the room they’d kept Faye in after her attack, but Alice doubted it was the same one. That was the problem with hospitals, they all tended to look the same. Though this time she noticed the small bunch of flowers in a glass vase on the cabinet to the right of her bed.
Her leg, covered in an enormous plaster cast, was being held in the air by some kind of harness, and as she attempted to wiggle her toes, she was relieved to see them jiggle slightly.
Everything after the moment she’d climbed into the Range Rover was a blur in her memory. Pressing her hand against her temple, she could feel the raising of the skin where a large bump remained, presumably caused when the car had collided with her.
She froze at this fresh memory. Ray had tried to kill her. He’d driven straight at her, and it was blind luck that she’d survived.
A knock at the door was followed by a much more alert DC Hazelton entering. Now dressed in jeans and a thin sweater, she no longer carried the air of a crime fighter. To an untrained observer, she could have been Alice’s sister.
‘Ah good, you’re awake,’ Hazelton said, placing a small brown paper bag on the cabinet next to the flowers. ‘Grapes,’ she clarified, pulling one from the stalk and popping it in her mouth. ‘I know it’s a cliché, but it felt weird turning up empty-handed. How are you feeling?’
‘Like I was run over,’ Alice replied, her throat feeling as if it hadn’t been lubricated in weeks.
‘Here,’ Hazelton offered, moving a plastic beaker from the cabinet and placing the straw between Alice’s dry and cracked lips.
Alice sipped, grimacing at the pain as she swallowed. ‘Thank you.’
Hazelton returned the beaker to its place on the cabinet, before pulling the seat over and perching on the edge. ‘Has the doctor spoken to you yet?’
Alice shook her head, feeling an ache in her neck.
‘I’ll let them explain why they’ve had to put pins in your leg. The short version is you’ll live, and were lucky to escape with a few bumps and bruises. They did X-rays of your neck and back as soon as the bleeding in your leg was sorted. It was touch and go for a bit – it was lucky you were brought in when you were.’
Back on the road in Ray’s Range Rover, she’d hoped for the kindness of a stranger to save her from Ray, and now it sounded as though the prayers had been answered.
Events felt clearer in her mind, even though the blur of memories of Ray’s confession felt more like the fragments of a dream. Taking a deep breath, Alice said, ‘I know who killed Kerry Valentine. It wasn’t Abdul.’
Hazleton pressed her fingertips together, like she was summoning the courage to speak. ‘I know. A lot has happened since you were brought in last night, Alice. I checked the hospital’s security cameras, and it was Ben’s friend Dave who brought you in. He was wanted in connection with an incident in Ringwood yesterday: a drugs bust. He was caught trying to board a ferry from Portsmouth early this morning, and admitted to finding you in the ditch. He wanted me to let you know that he’s sorry for any pain his actions have caused. He didn’t say any more than that, but I could see in his eyes how fond of you he is.’
‘Ben’s dad killed Kerry,’ Alice sighed, unsure why she felt guilty uttering the words.
Hazelton nodded. ‘We know.’
Alice frowned in confusion. ‘You do? How?’
‘Ben called me and asked if I would come out to the house this morning. He told me his dad attacked Kerry and then forced Ben and Abdul to help cover his crime. He also wanted me to know that you knew nothing about his involvement, and that only the three of them were in on it.’
Alice’s hand shot up to her mouth. ‘He told you that?’
Hazelton raised her eyebrows. ‘It came as a surprise to me too. Ben is at the station now making a formal statement of his actions following events in Bournemouth.’
‘What about Ray?’
‘We haven’t located him yet, but it’ll only be a matter of time until we catch up with him. We’ve spoken to his wife, but she claims not to know where he is.’
Alice’s frown deepened. ‘I don’t understand. Ray is Ben’s hero. He would never betray his dad.’
‘It seems there’s someone Ben loves more than his father. Ray must have told Ben what he’d done to you, and that was all the motivation Ben needed to decide who meant more to him.’
The ache in Alice’s heart grew. ‘So you know that Ray stabbed Kerry and that the shirt Ben gave to your forensics team wasn’t the one he was wearing that night?’
‘Ben’s account was very detailed. Only time will tell, but my instinct is he’s telling the truth. If only he’d done so when we first spoke to him on Saturday, all of this mess could have been avoided.’
‘Will Ben be charged?’
‘I don’t know,’ Hazelton said, though her expression suggested she was trying to spare Alice’s feelings.
Alice felt fresh tears splash against her cheek, but didn’t bother to wipe them away. ‘Will Kerry’s son be told? That his mum’s killer will be brought to justice?’
The expression on Hazelton’s face changed – not quite a smirk, but somewhere between incredulity and indifference. ‘What is it with you and that kid?’
Alice couldn’t answer.
‘I don’t know whether he’ll be told,’ the detective finally sighed. ‘It’s up to social services now. The important thing is that a killer is off the streets.’