Lee Weeks - Dead of Winter

‘No, Ebb. Don’t leave me alone here. I don’t want to die alone.’

Ebony took out her phone and phoned Robbo:

‘Ring the reception here. Tell them to get a paramedic out to the back of the hospital fast. Jeanie’s been stabbed.’

Carmichael followed the ambulance as it swerved erratically and turned off at an exit. The police helicopter was circling. He knew they would have spotted him. He knew he only had to see this through. He followed from the end of the lane as the ambulance drove up towards an intersection and took a left turn as it continued to climb up over the brow of the hill. Carmichael could see a few small planes to his left, a flattened field, a landing strip. He watched the ambulance park haphazardly and saw Nicola get out and run towards a small six-seater aircraft whose pilot was waiting. Carmichael drove his bike onto the runway and stopped between Nicola and the plane. For a few seconds his heart stopped.

‘Linda?’

Nikki de Lange stood watching him walk towards her. His rifle in his hands.

Davidson and Harding stood alone in his office. Harding was still on the phone to her ex-husband. On the other end of the phone Simon was feeling a growing nausea in his stomach. She had it on loudspeaker for Davidson to hear.

‘I thought it was a miraculous thing, but you have to understand: I was the surgeon standing there with a woman with her chest open, waiting for a donor heart. I wanted to have a happy ending for this scenario. When Martingale said he had another heart I was relieved, I didn’t really give a shit where it came from. I wanted my patient to survive. We waited another hour and the heart arrived. It was healthy. The blood supply to the new heart was good. We performed the transplant and I left.’

Carmichael walked towards Nikki. She didn’t move. She stood waiting for him. When he reached her she took his hand and placed it on her chest.

‘You knew when we met. . when we made love. . our hearts recognized one another.’ She smiled sadly. ‘You can’t kill me; the heart that beats for you inside this breast is your wife’s. I’m dying. She’s coming home to you. Let me go.’

Carter saw the smoke billowing out of the ground floor of Martingale’s house way before he reached it.

Carter ran back to his car and pulled out the fire extinguisher from under the back seat. ‘Call the fire brigade,’ he shouted to the officer in the surveillance car as he passed him and ran towards Martingale’s front door. He kicked it open as he opened the valve on the fire extinguisher and aimed the jet of foam into the hallway. Flames ripped along the ceiling as he made his way into the living room on the left. He looked towards the middle of the room where there was a solid ball of flame with a human being sitting in the middle of it.

‘Hold on, Jeanie.’

Jeanie let go of Ebony’s hand as the trolley pushed through the operating theatre doors and Ebony stood and watched them swing. Noel came running in, recognized Ebony and handed her Christa, who was making her mind up whether to cry as she stared at Ebony in confusion. . Ebony smiled nervously at Christa and took out her phone to call Carter.

‘How’s Jeanie?’

‘She’s gone in to be operated on now. Nicola got away from here. I don’t know whether she made it.’

‘She got away. Carmichael could have shot her, apparently, but he didn’t. He chose to let her go. I don’t know why. She’s unlikely to get far. They’ll arrest her when the plane touches down in Berlin, hopefully.’

‘Is Martingale in custody?’

‘Killed himself. . couldn’t face it. He set fire to himself.’

‘Jesus.’

‘Why do you sound like you’re running?’

‘I’m bouncing a baby and trying to keep Christa from realizing she doesn’t know me and bursting into tears. Noel’s just run in to be with Jeanie.’

‘Ebb. . left holding the baby.’

‘Don’t think it suits me, Sarge.’

‘Yeah, can’t see me having a big family either. I’ll be a Saturday dad, I suppose. See you back here when you can.’

‘Noel shouldn’t be long, Sarge.’

Christa started to wail.

‘What did you do?’

‘I made the mistake of looking at her.’

Carter laughed. He sat in the police car outside Martingale’s house, watching the fire crews finish damping it down. He switched on the engine and drove to a home improvement store on the way back from Hampstead.

He rang the doorbell and waited for Cabrina’s father to come to the door.

‘Hello, Theo. Okay?’

Theo nodded. He looked at Dan like he had come to ask his daughter out on a first date.

‘I want Cabrina to come home.’

Theo nodded. ‘And for Christ’s sake take that damn buggy blocking up my hallway.’

‘Will she come. . do you think?’

‘Maybe. . Cabrina ?’ He turned and called down the hallway. ‘You have a visitor.’

She didn’t hurry towards him; she took her time; she wasn’t smiling. Oh God. . it had all been for nothing. He should feel a fool but he was beyond that now. In fact Carter felt like a teenager again when he saw her. He had a terrible urge to cry. When she reached him she put her hands either side of his face and looked really hard into his eyes: he’d forgotten how hers made him melt. Any minute she’s going to say it , ‘ Just go. . Sorry ,’ thought Carter.

‘What took you so long?’

‘Pink or blue?’ He held up the paint pots.

‘Purple.’

Bridget heard the bike coming as she finished chopping wood. She watched Carmichael park it in the barn and go inside the house. He found the young girl Anna feeding one of the lambs with a bottle of milk in the kitchen. Rusty got out of his basket to come over and say hello. Carmichael bent down to pet him.

‘You made it then? Good boy.’

‘And you made it then?’ Bridget came into the house. ‘Are you staying?’ He nodded. ‘Then Anna can sleep with me in the spare room. No problem,’ Bridget said and smiled. He nodded again. ‘You need a rest,’ she said and left him in the lounge.

Carmichael unzipped his bag, took out the photo of Louise and Sophie and phoned Ebony.

Ebony was waiting in arrivals at the airport. Tina had phoned her and asked her to pick her up. She saw her walking towards her.

‘Where have you been, Teen? The canteen said you were sick and then asked for holiday leave? What’s happening?’

‘I went to Poland. I was supposed to be having some work done but you know, when it came to it, I thought, fuck it. Men either like me as I am or fuck them. Besides, I was frightened I wouldn’t make it back in time to buy stuff in for Christmas and I knew if I left it to you we’d be eating beans on toast.’

Ebony stepped aside to take Carmichael’s call.

‘Hello, Carmichael. You back at the farm?’

‘Yes. Did you have an officer injured?’

‘Yes, Jeanie. She’s alright; she’ll make it.’ Ebony listened to Carmichael. He sounded distant: calm, spent. She spoke: ‘I don’t know how things will go but I want to say thank you to you.’

‘Yeah?’

‘You cleared your name.’

‘The kid okay?’

‘Yes. . being brought back to consciousness. Thank you for what you did. . what you didn’t do.’

‘I couldn’t kill her.’

‘Yeah. . I heard. I couldn’t have either. Her life expectancy is not good. A sample of her hair shows that she’s on a large dose of anti-rejection drugs. Martingale had a heart condition. He was a carrier for it. It doesn’t always get passed on. Nikki must have had it. He must have sought out the perfect match. As it happened, Chrissie had inherited the heart condition too. And as her other organs began to fail, they came for Adam. .’ She heard him breathing. She knew where he would be standing. By the side of the fire, looking at the photo of Louise and Sophie. ‘They found Justin de Lange: following the trail of Mr Hart. His fingerprints matched the set on Tanya and the print left by Sophie’s bed.’