Faith - Lesley Pearse [203]
‘Have you visited Stuart?’ David asked, beginning to feel angry.
‘I went there as soon as I heard about it, but he was in intensive care and not up to visitors. I haven’t been able to get there since due to pressure of work, but I do know that he has been able to give the police enough information for them to open a new investigation into Jackie Davies’s murder.’
‘He’s found evidence it was Charles?’
‘Apparently he alleges Belle killed her.’
David left Julia and the children and drove straight down to the hospital in Kirkcaldy. The long drive, and the inevitable hold-ups because of the holiday traffic, only increased his anxiety and by the time he reached Stirling he had a thumping headache.
For as long as he’d known Stuart he’d always been something of a madcap. He would be the first to take up a challenge, always inclined to take the side of the underdog, impulsive, daring and often reckless. Perhaps that was what David liked and admired most about him, but at the same time it had often infuriated him too.
The night before Julia flew into Edinburgh, David had sensed Stuart wanted some kind of action. If he’d known that leaving him to his own devices would lead to him risking his life, he would have insisted he came up to the Highlands too. But his old friend wasn’t the kind anyone could lead around by the nose. And it certainly wouldn’t have occurred to him just how many people would have grieved for him if he had been killed.
It was such a relief when he walked into the ward to find Stuart sitting up in bed, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Apart from his chest being swathed in bandages and his pale face, he looked remarkably well.
‘It’s a good job I didn’t rely on you to rescue me,’ he joked. ‘Some mate you are turning up nine days too late!’
David didn’t consider himself to be an emotional man, but he felt like hugging Stuart just because he was alive. He listened to the story of exactly what had transpired in Kirkmay House: the fight in the kitchen, how Belle stabbed him and how he got out of the cellar. Although he chuckled along with Stuart as if he was relating some schoolboy adventure, in fact his blood ran cold and he felt sick at the thought of what could have happened.
But he found he couldn’t hide his true feelings for long. ‘You harebrained imbecile!’ he blurted out once he’d heard the whole story. ‘What on earth possessed you to go there?’
‘I just wanted to stir things up,’ Stuart grinned. ‘I succeeded too, didn’t I?’
‘Stir things up!’ David shouted, forgetting that he was supposed to be a calm, mild-mannered man. ‘You could easily be dead now, or so badly injured you’d never work again. The ward sister told me it was touch and go when you were brought in here. Didn’t you think of those who care about you before you took such risks? You’ve got an elderly mother and a brother and sister, not to mention friends like me who love you!’
Stuart had the grace to look a little sheepish. ‘Okay, maybe it was a tad extreme, but at least the police have arrested them both, they are looking into Jackie’s murder again, and Laura will almost certainly get bail if Patrick can get an emergency hearing in court for her.’ He paused, then went on, a sly grin twitching his lips, ‘I never realized you loved me, Davey! Good job I didn’t know that in some of the remote places we’ve been together!’
David had to laugh then, but that was another thing he liked about Stuart – he could find humour in anything. And the man was right. Laura’s appeal in the High Court of Justiciary could now go through unchallenged, as long as the police had sufficient evidence that she hadn’t committed the crime.
‘It’s good to see you,’ Stuart said. ‘I’m sorry you had to cut your holiday short and drive all this way. Do you know if they’ve found my car yet?’
‘No, I don’t. Funnily enough, I was more concerned about you than your car,’ David retorted. ‘But I’ll find out for you. It will serve you right if Charles parked on double yellows and it’s been towed away. Anyway, you won’t be driving for some time.’
‘You can be a bit of an old woman,