A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [180]
All at once Dan remembered Yvette, and knew he mustn’t let the boy see that.
‘Yes. Go and get in the car. I’m bringing her out.’
‘I knew you’d come for me,’ Fifi whispered, her voice so cracked Dan could scarcely hear. ‘You’ve never let me down.’
Chapter twenty
‘I’ve found her,’ was all Dan could manage to say to Clara when he telephoned her hotel from the hospital.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, to spin round the room or to get down on his knees and thank God. He certainly couldn’t hold a sensible conversation.
‘You tell them about it, I can’t,’ he said, handing the receiver to the policeman with him. ‘Tell them I’ll ring them later when I’ve gathered my wits,’ he added, grinning like an idiot.
He walked down the hospital corridor from the private room where they’d put Fifi, and in a quiet spot away from other people he paused by a window overlooking the car park. The rain was still lashing down, and it was already almost dark though it was only about seven, but he felt he had been blessed today, and such a holy state should not be spoilt just yet with explanations.
He would never forget driving back down that narrow lane, Fifi slumped in the seat beside him, Lightning leaning his head over from the back seat, his long nose on her shoulder, Clive, also in the back, firing out questions.
It was from Clive’s house that he phoned the emergency services, after giving Fifi her first drink of water. He thought it was funny how often people claim to be dying of thirst, when they really have no idea what it must be like. He certainly got the idea as he watched Fifi drink; she would’ve drunk a gallon if he’d let her, but he remembered from old Westerns that people got sick if they drank too much at once.
How he managed to speak coherently to the police, to say who he was, that there was a body in the barn, explain where it was, and that he needed an ambulance immediately to Hurst Road, he didn’t know. But he’d barely drunk a cup of tea, and it was at the door.
He smiled as he remembered Jean, Clive’s mother; just a very ordinary mum with a flowered frock and a tight perm. She was so startled when he burst through the door behind Clive, carrying Fifi in his arms. No doubt young Clive would be rabbiting on about it for weeks, driving his poor mother mad. He would have to phone her soon, explain and thank her properly, not to mention apologize for dragging her son into a potentially dangerous situation.
By the time the local police got to the hospital, Fifi had only managed to tell him that Yvette took her own life. He could tell by her expression that there was a tremendous amount more she wanted to say, but she was too weak. Dan felt much the same; he knew that very soon he would have to explain his part in all this fully to the police – all he’d told them so far was the barest essentials – but right now all he cared about was that Fifi was alive. The doctor had said she’d be fine in a few days as she was young and strong, and that was all that counted.
Dan felt a tap on his shoulder. It was the policeman again.
A nice copper, middle-aged, fat-faced and fatherly.
‘I’ve explained as much as I can to your in-laws,’ he said with a warm smile. ‘But given that I don’t know much myself, that was difficult. They are coming over here now; I’ve arranged for one of the officers from Kennington to bring them. Will you be up to talking to them? And would you like me to drive you back to Hurst Road to collect your car while we wait for them?’
Dan took a deep breath. ‘It’s not mine, it’s Jack Trueman’s. I think I told you he is the man behind all this. Did the Kennington police tell you if they picked him up?’
The policeman half smiled. ‘Indeed they have. They said you doled out some very rough justice. That was foolhardy, you know, by all accounts he is a very nasty customer.’
Dan remembered then that he still had the gun in his pocket. He couldn’t own up about it as it might get Johnny into hot water. He needed to get outside and hide it somewhere before