Nick Oldham - Bad Tidings

Henry saw her reaction to this idea and did not quite know what to make of it. It was like a cloud had scudded across her face, then it was gone.

‘I know this is a tough time for you, Janine, but at some stage I’m going to need a formal identification of your father.’ She inhaled sharply at this in terror. ‘Unless we can do it some other way,’ Henry relented quickly. ‘You know, dental records, fingerprints, DNA. . but you may have to, yeah?’

‘I know.’

‘And we will have to sit down and have a chat. . but for the time being, I realize you have to be with your family and be there for Freddy,’ Henry said, all heart.

‘I don’t suppose they’ll let me fly in the helicopter with him?’

‘I doubt it.’

Once more she exhaled long and hard. ‘This is unbelievable. My dad and my uncle.’

‘They weren’t the best of buddies.’

‘No — but murder and suicide? That’s so extreme.’ She stood in front of Henry. ‘I need to get up to the house, sit down and try to contact Gran. Then I’m going over to Preston and be there when they operate on Freddy.’

‘I could give you a lift.’

She shook her head. ‘I’ll manage. I’ll just have a quick look in at him.’

‘OK.’

‘What’s going to happen with Dad. . his body, you know?’

‘When we’ve done what needs doing at the scene, he’ll be brought to the public mortuary here, but that could be a few hours yet.’

‘I understand.’

Henry asked, ‘Did you know about the cannabis factory, by the way?’

‘No. . no, I didn’t.’ Suddenly she moved to Henry and hugged him unexpectedly. He patted her shoulder and she seemed to relax into him. He inhaled her aroma, which made his nose wrinkle. Then she drew away and wiped her eyes. ‘I’ll go and see him, then go.’

Henry walked her to the room and stood back as she entered and went to Freddy’s side. All Henry could think was, ‘I hope you recover, you bastard.’

After touching his arm, Janine left the room and made her way towards the hospital exit.

Henry folded his arms and considered Freddy for a few moments, visualizing Janine standing next to him. He frowned. Then he spun away as a nurse entered the room, and headed out. He passed the consultant’s office and saw the doctor was speaking to the nurse who had been with Freddy a little earlier. He was briefing her, Henry guessed, as to what would be happening to Freddy.

As he reached the hospital foyer, Henry’s mobile rang and he stepped outside to answer it.

‘Henry. . it’s Lisa.’ Her voice was strained.

In the distance Henry heard the clatter of a helicopter and saw the air ambulance approaching from the west. But he wasn’t really thinking about it as he walked towards the car park where he’d left his Audi, and only part of his mind clocked that the small van Janine had arrived in was still parked where she’d left it — and that she wasn’t in it as he would have expected. He was concentrating on Lisa’s words.

‘Henry. . you need to come. . it’s Mum. They reckon she’s only got a little time left. . she’s really deteriorated overnight. . Henry, what should I do if. . if. . you know?’

Henry upped his pace to his car. ‘Do exactly what we’ve decided and what she wanted, if it comes to it. The hospital know.’

‘Let her die?’ she sobbed.

‘Yes,’ Henry said firmly, an answer he truly did not want to give. He wanted his mother to live for ever and his instinct was that the doctors should do everything in their power to save her, but it wasn’t the right thing. He almost vomited on the word.

‘Oh God, Henry.’

‘I know, I know, sweetheart.’

‘Is Rik with you?’

‘He’s at a crime scene.’

‘Can he come, please? I think I need him.’

‘I’ll see what I can do. . are the girls there?’

‘No.’

‘Phone them, get them there, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

‘OK.’

Henry hung up and approached his car, noticing there was a missed call on his phone which must have landed at the same time as he talked to Lisa. He got into the Audi and started the engine to heat it up before returning the call,

He sat back in the comfortable driver’s seat and waited for the connection, again noticing that Janine’s van was still parked — she must have gone to the loo or something, maybe to wash and freshen up. He cricked his neck and peered up through the windscreen to see the air ambulance up above, manoeuvring over the big H of the helicopter landing pad about a hundred metres from the entrance to A amp;E. Standing on the edge of the circular pad were the consultant and the nurse, ready to greet the crew.

‘Jerry — you called?’

‘Yeah,’ the DC said gruffly. ‘Another public holiday.’

‘I haven’t called you out — yet.’

‘No — but I know what’s happened and you were going to ruin another day off, weren’t you, so I got in first. .’

‘And ruined your own day, all by yourself?’

‘Something like that. But you were going to call me, weren’t you?’

‘Hard to say,’ Henry teased. ‘This could just be a murder/suicide and a lot of things will be sorted by the deaths, unless Freddy lives, that is. . So why call me? You should’ve gone out for the day, made yourself unavailable.’

Henry’s mind wasn’t really engaged in the conversation. He was thinking about his mother, how long it would take him to get to Blackpool. Would she still be alive when he got there? How would he deal with it all? His eyes wandered lazily from the always spectacular arrival of a helicopter, landing with just a little bounce, back to the hospital, where he thought he saw Janine Cromer entering the A amp;E department through the sliding doors.

Tope was saying, ‘I don’t know if this is of any interest, but I’m telling you anyway. . just some things I got back late yesterday, was going to tell you tomorrow when we all rolled back in.’

He started to explain.

Less than thirty seconds later Henry leapt out of his car and sprinted fast and hard to the hospital entrance, a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach as his arms and legs pumped. His vision was blurred from the exertion and his hearing distorted by the whump-whump of the copter rotor blades.

The automatic sliding doors opened with agonizing slowness, but then he ran through the reception foyer and into the A amp;E department, his eyes jerking left at the reaction of the startled receptionist and down towards the treatment room in which Freddy Cromer was located.

He swerved into the room.

The nurse who had been treating Freddy was on her knees, clutching the back of her head, and Henry was too late.

The drips had been ripped out of Freddy’s hands.

The sticky pads that connected the wires from the machines monitoring his vital signs were torn off and dangled uselessly by the bed.

The soft pillow that had been used to smother and suffocate the comatose Freddy lay diagonally across his chest.

Henry bent by the nurse, and she glanced up at him and gasped at the pain in her head. ‘Somebody hit me,’ she said and swooned. Henry caught her, twisted her round so she was sitting on her backside and pulled her back to the wall, where he propped her up.

‘Did you see who?’

‘No.’

He went to Freddy and checked for a pulse in his wrist. Nothing. Then he pushed his thumb and forefinger into the soft flesh underneath the jaw and felt for the jugular vein, but could find no pulse there either.

This time Freddy was dead.

‘Shit.’

Henry spun out of the cubicle and stood in the corridor. Which way?

He chose left and ran, coming to a T-junction in the corridor, his head jerking both ways. Seeing an arrow that pointed towards an exit to the left, he ran in that direction, knowing that Freddy’s killer had maybe a minute, maybe ninety seconds on him. Not long, but plenty long enough to make an escape.