Thursday 1 November, 7 a.m.
‘Darling.’ Matthew was shaking her shoulder.
There was a brief second before she put events in order. ‘Mike?’
‘I’ve rung the hospital and had a word with the medics.’ He sat down on the edge of the bed.
She couldn’t bear to ask but appealed mutely.
‘The operation went well apparently but it was a bad break. Tibia and fibula both with compound fractures. They’re notoriously difficult and slow to heal. They just have to see whether the blood supply is sufficient.’
‘And if it isn’t?’
Matthew looked away and didn’t even try to answer her query. ‘Hopefully it will. He’s a fit guy, Jo, but it’s going to be a long time before he’s back at work.’
‘That doesn’t matter. Oh, Matt,’ she said, clinging to him. ‘This is awful. Is Fran still with him?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Who’s with Ricky and Joss?’
‘Her mum.’
He hesitated before continuing. ‘You’ll know more about this than I, but there was a message on your phone from the station. You were asleep. From CCTV footage it appears it was a deliberate hit-and-run.’
‘Deliberate?’
He nodded and she sat up. ‘I need to get into work.’
‘Yeah. Me too.’
‘I wonder if they’ll let me see him.’
‘Jo.’ Matthew put his hand on her arm. ‘Darling. I wouldn’t if I were you. I’d just leave him with Fran. She won’t appreciate your turning up.’
As she climbed out of bed she knew she couldn’t explain to her husband how excluded, how shut out and how frightened she felt.
But she had her compensations.
Matthew held her to him, kissed her hair, put his arm around her shoulders. She looked up into his face.
By eight o’clock she was at the station searching through CCTV footage. Everyone knew, of course. There was an air of gloom, as though the building and all its personnel had been swathed in dark gauze. In every corner theories were being swapped. It was deliberate, it was an accident. A revenge for someone Mike had exposed. A couple of joyriders out of control. But most of all it exposed their vulnerability. Everyone felt exposed. It could have been them.
From Fran Korpanski there was not one word, and when Joanna rang the hospital at 8.30 she was given little detail except to be told he was currently in a stable condition. What did that mean? Desperate to find out more, she texted Matthew.
Any chance you could get a bit more of an update on Mike? Please? Love you X
The accident had been recorded from two angles with well-appointed CCTV cameras mounted on shops. Just over a year ago, the police had liaised with the town council on the siting of CCTV cameras and this collaboration had paid off. A white van coming towards Mike, veering on to the pavement. There was little doubt DS Korpanski had been deliberately targeted. Joanna winced as she watched the impact and saw Mike lying still, blood pumping from his lower right leg and the van speeding off. He could have died.
DC Alan King was watching over her shoulder. ‘Can you enhance it?’
‘Already done, Joanna,’ he said. ‘We got the number plate. The van was nicked from outside a builder’s yard two nights ago.’
‘So this was premeditated.’
Alan King nodded.
‘And it’s been kept somewhere overnight?’
He nodded and she swivelled around to meet his eyes. ‘Don’t tell me,’ she said wearily, ‘it’s been torched.’
‘Yeah.’
‘So will we get anything from it?’
‘Probably not.’
11 a.m.
Telling her fellow officers had been hard, watching their faces and sharing the news that DS Mike Korpanski, her (beloved) colleague had sustained a serious injury and it was touch and go whether his leg might have to be amputated. All she read in their expressions was shock.
No one said anything personal but she felt bound to add, ‘Fran’s with him at the moment.’ And though the news had already spread she finished with, ‘It looks like it was a hit-and-run and that DS Korpanski was deliberately targeted.’
She didn’t add a Why? A Why him? or Who? All these questions would be unravelled later when they had some hard evidence, although everyone knows that to torch a vehicle after it’s been involved in a serious incident is the best way to destroy forensic debris.
By midday the burnt-out shell of the van was on a low-loader heading for the police pound. It had been found near a small trading estate off Ball Haye Road, only half a mile from where it had been stolen. It was an old vehicle without a sophisticated burglar alarm or anti-theft device. Which again pointed to someone with criminal knowledge.
She’d finished the briefing with a statement. ‘I’ll be taking the case along with a couple of uniformed, Jason, Dawn and Bridget, together with DC King and DC Gino Salvi.’ DC Salvi was a newcomer to the team and Leek. An Italian father and Staffordshire mother had produced a black-haired, blue-eyed son, the apple of his mother’s eye. He’d endured the ragging of the team when his father arrived, smacking a sound kiss on his cheek and presenting him with boxes of delicacies at regular intervals. His parents owned a small Italian restaurant on the Stone Road. So far, as a detective, he hadn’t exactly excelled, but he listened intently and, Joanna felt, was prepared to learn. He also had an engaging grin which was hard to ignore.
It was DC Salvi who asked a question. ‘What about Mr Foster’s case?’
‘DC Phil Scott will continue to pursue Mr Foster’s disappearance. I’ve kept him up to speed and he’ll report back to me if there are any developments. So …’ She waited but no one commented. Everyone knew how close the two were. It was natural she should investigate what looked like a deliberate assault.
‘Our first job is to visit the scene and see what we can get from that.’
Their nods were enough. Some of the officers’ eyes were warm with sympathy.
She wished she could delegate her next job, which was to inform CS Gabriel Rush of the circumstances of Mike’s accident. Relations between her and the senior officer who had replaced her beloved Chief Superintendent Arthur Colclough (now retired) had never been good. After the paternalistic Colclough, Rush had come across as a cold fish. Hostile to his predecessor’s ‘pet’. With the result that they had not gelled. Her failure to locate the missing geriatric and the resultant negative headlines were hardly going to put her in his good books. And now Korpanski had sustained serious injuries in a hit-and-run. The only silver lining was that Chief Superintendent Gabriel Rush was not based in Leek but in Hanley, so a phone call should suffice.
She still dreaded it.
‘Sir.’
He interrupted, his voice sharp. ‘I heard about DS Korpanski. How is he?’
She’d not heard back from Matthew and, as anticipated, Fran had not been in touch. Hardly a surprise for a wife who considered her husband’s career and colleagues a serious threat to happy family life.
‘I have no update, sir, except that he’s come through the operation and they’re waiting to see if he can keep the leg.’
The image that shot through her mind was too painful. She swallowed and luckily Rush took up the conversation. ‘It was a hit-and-run, I understand.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I take it you have several officers on the case?’
‘Yes, sir. We’ve located the van, which was torched. It’s been sealed and towed.’
‘Stolen?’ Rush was a man of few words.
‘Yes, sir.’
He paused and she sensed a frown. ‘You haven’t had much taking without consent in Leek?’
‘No, sir. Not since we put the Riley brothers into the Young Offenders.’
A deep sigh. ‘Let’s hope there isn’t another couple of yobs heading down that road.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘You think a local or a couple of guys from the Potteries or even farther afield?’
‘We’re keeping an open mind, sir.’
A pause. ‘You’ll be visiting him?’
‘Family only at the moment, sir.’
‘Right.’
He paused. ‘Are you treating this as a chance hit-and-run, or do you think it was a deliberate assault on Korpanski as a serving officer?’
She could only repeat, ‘We’re keeping an open mind, but looking into various cases he’s been involved in. Looking at the CCTV it does appear that DS Korpanski was deliberately targeted.’
‘I see. Well, keep me informed.’
‘Yes, sir.’
A long sigh before he took up another unwelcome subject. ‘I take it there’s been no sign of your missing man, Piercy?’
‘No, sir.’
A deeper sigh this time.
‘Tell me, Piercy, do you have any leads?’
She didn’t dare tell him about the teddy bear, the anomaly about the doors or the suspicion that a member of staff had been involved. She was looking bad enough as it was.
‘I have a few ideas, sir.’
He wasn’t going to let her off the hook. ‘Which are?’
‘I wonder if he was abducted.’
‘Abducted! Why?’
‘It’s just a theory I’m working on.’
The pause seemed to contain astonishment. Had circumstances been less dreadful, Joanna would have smiled. She was actually managing to surprise the chief superintendent? But he hadn’t quite let go. He changed his question to, ‘How? You think it was an inside job?’
Knowing he wouldn’t see, Joanna nodded instead of answering.
At which point her mobile pinged with a message.
Korpanski’s awake and talking. He’s asked to speak to you.
And it gave her the perfect excuse to end the conversation.
‘I’ve just had a message from the hospital that DS Korpanski is awake and asking to speak to me.’
‘Well, you’d better go then.’
Thank you, Mike.