The sign on the door said Closed, but the door opened when Claire turned the handle and pushed hard on it. The old bell above the door rattled asthmatically, sounding as if it were in its death throes as she stepped inside.
‘Saw you through the window, standing there looking lost,’ she told David Taylor. ‘What on earth is going on? It looks as if you’ve dumped all your stock on the floor. And all these cardboard boxes – are you moving out already? I thought you said the closing down sale would be on till the end of the month. What happened?’
‘Trying to decide what to keep out of this lot,’ he told her. ‘As for the closing down sale, I’ve made a deal with The Paint Pot in the shopping centre to take the lot. They made me an offer on the weekend – not much of one, but then I’ve only got a week to get rid of everything, and the way sales have been going I’d never have made it. Anyway, I rang them back yesterday and told them I’d take it. They’re getting the best of the bargain by far, but I’m just glad to have it settled. Now, as I said, it’s just a matter of picking out a few things I want to keep, then packing up the rest.’
‘What about the apartment upstairs?’
‘Oh, I’m out of that at the end of the month as well. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if that hasn’t been let already.’
‘So what are your plans?’
He shrugged. ‘Kev said I can stay with them until I sort something out, but meanwhile I have to find somewhere to store my stuff. Kev’s got a big garage, but I doubt if either of them would be best pleased to have this sort of stuff cluttering up the place. You know how neat those two are.’
‘Then why not bring it over to Aunt Jane’s house?’ The invitation was out before she realized what she was saying. But in for a penny . . . ‘You can stay there as well,’ she continued recklessly. ‘I’m planning to move there myself when the lease on the flat expires later this year, but it will be sitting vacant until then. I don’t fancy the idea of letting it out, so you would be doing me a favour if you’d like to move in – at least until then. In fact, you could set up your studio in the conservatory. What do you say?’
David hesitated. ‘It’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, Claire,’ he said at last, ‘but I have to be honest with you. By the time I’ve cleared all my debts, I’ll be left with just about enough to feed and clothe myself, which leaves me virtually nothing for rent, and I couldn’t do that to you. There are still things like the rates to pay and the upkeep of the place. It wouldn’t be right.’
Claire shook her head. ‘You leave the rates and things like that to me,’ she said. ‘But as I said, I really would like to have someone living there, and I’d rather have someone in there I know I can trust. So let’s say I’m hiring you as a live-in caretaker. You look after the place for me, and I’ll let you stay there rent free. How does that sound?’
David Taylor picked his way through boxes containing what was left of his business to stand in front of Claire. ‘You really are a lifesaver, Claire, and a wonderful friend,’ he said with feeling. ‘I could kiss you for this.’
Then, why don’t you, for heaven’s sake? Claire said to herself as he pulled her to him and gave her a hug.
Slumped down in his seat in the van in the hospital car park, Al Jessop looked at his watch for perhaps the tenth time in the past five minutes. Still another ten minutes to go before visiting hours began. He was anxious to get going, but was forcing himself to wait so he could mingle with the rest of the visitors going in at two o’clock, because the last thing he wanted to do was attract attention.
By five minutes to two, people were beginning to leave their cars and make their way into the hospital. Jessop waited a couple of minutes more, then joined them. Up the steps to the main door, into the rotunda, left down the corridor to the lifts. Head down, hands stuffed in his pockets, he stood at the back of the group waiting for one of the lifts to arrive.
The white light went on and the bell sounded softly as the doors opened. The people in front of Jessop pressed forward, barely allowing those in the lift enough room to get out. Jessop started to move with them, then slid to one side as two uniformed policemen pushed their way through. They passed within inches of him, but were too intent on their conversation to pay any attention to him. Even so, he had left it too late, and the doors closed.
He joined the throng at the next door and managed to get in without any trouble. ‘Four,’ he muttered when a woman closest to the door asked who wanted which floor. Fourth floor. That would be the one Sharon was on, he was quite sure. He’d been in and out of this hospital a few times himself, so he knew the structure of the wards. The next question was one that had dogged him ever since yesterday, and that was, would she be guarded?
Chances were she wouldn’t be, he told himself. He couldn’t see the cops spending time and money guarding someone like Sharon. One of the conditions of bail was that he stay away from his wife or bail would be revoked. That’s what the magistrate had said. He snickered to himself as he got out of the lift. Silly old fart. Did he really think that was going to stop him?
They were too busy at the nursing station to be paying any attention to the visitors streaming to the various rooms. Jessop looked right and left. The hall to the left was the shortest, so he tried that first. The doors to the rooms were open, so all it took was a quick look inside as he made his way to the end. No luck there, so he made his way back and tried the other end.
And there she was; fifth room down on the right-hand side. Room 428. Single room, no sign of any security. That was handy – but it wasn’t like the NHS to give a private room to someone like Sharon, so how the hell had she wangled that? He carried on walking, turned at the end and made his way back
She was lying on her side, eyes closed. He looked up and down the hallway, then stepped into the room.
He wasn’t really worried about Alcott, Paget told himself, but he remembered all too vividly how hard it had been to cope with Jill’s untimely death, and he felt the need to satisfy himself that the Superintendent was all right.
‘Just going to pop round to Mr Alcott’s house to see if there is anything we can do,’ he’d told Fiona, and knew he’d done the right thing when he saw both relief and gratitude in the secretary’s eyes.
‘Tell him we’re thinking of him,’ Fiona called after him as he’d headed for the stairs.
Now, as he neared the house, he was relieved to see that the door to the garage was up, and Alcott’s five-year-old Volvo was inside. Paget parked the car on the street and walked up to the front door and rang the bell. He waited. No answer. He rang again. Still no answer. Perhaps Alcott simply didn’t want to be disturbed, but Paget was reluctant to go away without seeing the man himself to make sure he was all right. Perhaps, if there was a door leading directly from the garage to the house, he could get in that way.
He crossed a narrow strip of lawn and entered the garage. Coming out of the bright sun, it was hard to see anything clearly at first, so he had moved almost the full length of the car before realizing that Alcott was inside. Sitting behind the wheel, head slumped forward, the Superintendent appeared to be fast asleep.
Paget opened the door and shook him gently. Alcott grunted and stirred. Paget shook him again. Alcott lifted his head, opened his eyes to squint at Paget, then shut them again. ‘What do you want?’ he demanded gruffly. ‘Leave me alone and let me sleep.’
‘I will as soon as I get you inside,’ Paget promised. ‘Come on, sir. Give me a hand.’
Alcott breathed a sigh of resignation. ‘Never could leave well enough alone, could you, Paget?’ he grumbled as he allowed the DCI to help him out of the car. ‘And I haven’t been drinking, if that’s why you’re sniffing. I’m just tired, that’s all. So bloody tired I just want to go to sleep and never wake up again.’
Paget got him into the house, then rang Valerie, who thanked him profusely when he told her he was with her father. ‘He must have just come home,’ she said, ‘because I’ve been round there twice myself and he wasn’t in. I can be there in fifteen minutes, if you wouldn’t mind waiting until I get there.’ She paused to draw breath. ‘How is he, Chief Inspector?’
‘Exhausted,’ he told her. ‘He just wants to sleep, so he could be in bed by the time you get here.’
But Alcott was shaking his head. ‘Tell her I’m all right and I’ll be awake when she gets here,’ he said, then headed for the kitchen.
Paget put the phone down and followed him. ‘Have you eaten anything today?’ he asked.
‘Don’t want anything,’ Alcott said, ‘and I don’t want another one of your lectures, either. I’m not hungry – but since you ask, a hot cup of tea wouldn’t go amiss. Mouth tastes like a Sumo wrestler’s armpit on a hot day.’
‘Can’t say I’ve ever been that closely acquainted with a Sumo wrestler or his armpit,’ Paget said as he filled the kettle and plugged it in, ‘so I’ll take your word for it, sir. Where do you keep the tea?’
‘Excuse me, but what do you think you’re doing?’ The speaker’s tone was sharp and challenging.
Caught bending over the bed, Al Jessop swung round to face a heavy-set man in a white coat. The man was drying his hands on a paper towel after washing them at the dispenser behind the open door.
‘Came to see the wife,’ Jessop said belligerently. ‘Something wrong with that, is there? And who the hell are you?’
Before the doctor could reply, Sharon stirred and opened her eyes. She opened them wider and screamed. ‘No, Al, no!’ she gasped as she tried to scramble away from him. ‘Get him away from me. Please, please get him away from me,’ she pleaded hysterically.
The doctor took a phone from his pocket as he moved swiftly between Jessop and the bed. ‘I’m calling Security,’ he said as he flipped it open, ‘and—’
Jessop drove a fist into the doctor’s stomach, then bolted through the door and made for the stairs at the end of the corridor. He crashed through the door and leapt down the stairs, two, three, four at a time. He had to get to the ground floor and out of the building before the doctor recovered and alerted Security. Once clear, he would have to put as much distance as possible between himself and the hospital, because, after assaulting a doctor, every cop in town would be looking for him.
‘It’s not your fault, Molly,’ Ormside told her. ‘If it’s anyone’s fault it was mine. You put your case to have her guarded, and I discussed it with Mr Paget, but I must admit I didn’t press all that hard what with our people spread as thin as they are. Obviously I was wrong, so I’m setting up a twenty-four hour watch on Mrs Jessop. I haven’t had a chance to speak to the boss yet, but I’m sure he will back me up after what’s happened this afternoon. Meanwhile, I want you to get over to the hospital and get statements from Sharon and the doctor her husband assaulted.’ He looked at the clock. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to stay there until I can set up a rota and get someone else to take over, but I don’t have any other choice. All right?’
Molly sighed heavily as she picked up her handbag and slung it over her shoulder. ‘There goes another exciting evening at home,’ she said. ‘Mind if I take the file on Sharon with me? I don’t know if it will do any good, but I’d like to review what she told me before and after she was attacked. There might be something in there that will give me a clue about where we might find Jessop. Funny thing is, I still think she’s holding something back, and I don’t know why.’
Ormside hesitated. ‘Go on, then’ he said. ‘But don’t let her see you with it. Keep it in your case until you get home, and I want to see it back here first thing tomorrow morning.’