The Valley of Longing 17

“Because I figured it would take whoever answered the call to the police station a while to get to my place, and I didn’t fancy getting trapped in my bedroom by three guys who were planning on killing me,’ Jack answered. ‘I figure my chances were better if I didn’t trap myself, and instead surprised them when they got to the top of the stairs. I figured Isobel would be safer if I did that as well. If Ollie and his friends had come after me in my bedroom, there was every chance that Isobel would have gotten hurt as well as me, and I didn’t want that. ‘He saw the question Mitchell was about to ask in his eyes, and answered it before it could be voiced. ‘I waited until the trio were almost at the top of the stairs, and then I jumped out at them, yelling as loudly as I could. ‘It had the desired effect; it sent all three of them tumbling down the stairs.’ He finished the story quickly after that, ending with a brief description of the injuries he had received at the hands of Ollie - though serious, they were far from the fatal wounds intended by the teen, for which he was duly thankful. ‘Given the situation, with Mr Hendricks being given the impression that I am responsible for the murders of both his sister and his girlfriend, I wouldn’t normally insist on him being charged - just about anyone would react the way he did to the murder of someone they love. That said, I wasn’t alone last night, and as drunk as they were, I don’t think either Ollie or his friends would have noticed that they had the wrong person if they had come across Isobel before me. ‘Charging him is unlikely to change his mind about what he wants to do to me, only you finding the person who really killed those girls will do that, but at least it’ll keep him from putting anyone who happens to be with me in danger. ‘I don’t think you need to worry about that,’ Mitchell said, ‘Ollie’s friends will be out of hospital later today, they suffered only minor injuries during their tumble down the stairs, But Ollie’s going to be in hospital for a while. You shattered his kneecap and fractured his skull; he’s in a coma, and the doctor’s is unable to say when he might wake up. I hate to say this, Mr Wild - that was about as far from the truth as it was possible for him to get - but I am going to have to speak to my superior, and to the CDI, so a decision can be made about whether you should be charged with assault or attempted murder.’ Jack said nothing for a short while, he simply stared at the sergeant. Finally, he said, ‘I guess I’ll have to hope that the CID sees sense then, won’t I. I’m sure they will, once Isobel speaks to them, after all, it was self - defence. ’He was reasonably confident that the CID would make the right decision, but he had known them to make some very strange ones. ’Is there anything else you need from me, sergeant?’ he asked. ’Only I’m supposed to be meeting a friend in town for lunch, and I’d hate to be late.’ Mitchell stood on the top step, and watched as Jack Wild drove away in his Land Rover. Only when the vehicle had disappeared, did he turn to the constable at his side. ‘Do you want to tell me why you decided to invite yourself to sit on Mr Wild’s statement, when you knew I wanted you researching him?’ he asked, barely able to contain the anger he was feeling, and making no effort to hide it. Melissa looked thoroughly abashed, but also a little defiant. ’After what happened at the interview last night, I thought it best if you had someone with you. I didn’t want that lawyer of Mr Wild’s to have a reason to cause trouble for you.’ That was not the only reason she was there, it was not even the main reason, but it sounded good, and she hoped it would satisfy the sergeant. ’She’s already threatened to do so.’ Reluctantly, because he did not want to admit that Melissa’s reason was a good one, Mitchell accepted her explanation. ’You’d better get back to your research,’ he told her. ’I want to know everything you can find out about Wild, everything, especially the details of those incidents that were in the summary of his personnel file. He’s clearly a violent person, but I want something that will connect him to the murders, And, if possible, I want you to find out what he’s done with that fancy Mercedes of his.’ Melissa had no idea how she was supposed to do that, but knew better than to waste her time saying as much. Instead she nodded and made her way back into the station so she could get on with her work. She hoped that while she was looking into Wild’s life, she would come up with some inspiration for how to find the Mercedes. Jack saw Sophie almost as soon as he into the ’Die Geel Kombuis’ restaurant; his, former, sister - in - law was sipping a drink at the bar. She was looking away from the entrance but seemed to sense his presence, for he had barely walked through the door before she turned towards him. The smile of pleasure that lifted the corners of her lips when she saw him, changed to a look of curious concern at the sight of his limp, and the grimace that crossed his face with each step. The moment he reached her, and before he could say hello, Sophie asked, ’What’s with the limp?’ ‘Hi, nice to see you,’ Jack said, kissing his ex-wife’s sister on the cheek before taking the stool next to her. ‘It’s good to see you too, Jack, but what’s with the limp?’ Does it have anything to do with you needing Izzy’s help so urgently yesterday? What was that, by the way, she didn’t say.’ Jack had to smile. He always forgot, when he hadn’t seen Sophie in a while, just how energetic and full of questions she was’ she never stopped, either moving or questioning what was going on, not until she had worn herself out completely, which never happened until everyone else was exhausted, and she knew everything that had happened or was happening. He did not respond to any of the questions until he had caught the attention of the bartender and ordered himself a glass of whiskey with two rocks of ice; even then he settled for saying, ’I’ll tell you everything that’s been going on, but let’s see if our table’ ready first, I’d rather not be interrupted, and I could do with taking the weight off my ankle.’ ‘Be right back then.’ Sophie hopped off her stool and went to check on their table. ‘Right, now that’s out of the way,’ she said once they had given their orders to the waiter, ‘what have you been getting yourself involved in? Why did you need Izzy’s help yesterday?’ ‘I was arrested for murder.’ Jack Laughed as he anticipated the response from his friend, he was not disappointed - she reacted almost exactly as he had expected her to. ‘What the hell? What d’you mean you were arrested for murder?’ Sophie flushed when she realised she had asked the question more loudly than intended, and that it had drawn attention - ‘Sorry” she apologised. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Jack told her, ignoring the curious looks being thrown his way from the neighbouring tables. ‘Like I said, I was arrested for murder. I found the body of a teen first thing yesterday on my run…’ ‘You still go running first thing? What the hell for? You’re retired, you can go running whenever you want, if you really must do something that stupid. Personally, I don’t see why you do it, I can’t see the point in running and getting all sweaty just to stay in shape. East what you want, drink what you want, and do what you want, that’s my philosophy. It’s better to be happy than to be in shape.’ ‘Easy for you to say, you can eat and drink whatever you want without putting on weight, so you never have to worry about staying in shape. We’re not all as lucky as you, and some of us don’t fancy ending up resembling a fat blob.’ Jack got on with his story then. ‘When a second teen was found in the woods, and the sergeant in charge of the case discovered I was the last person to see her, he decided that I killed both girls.’ It took him a short while to fill Sophie in on everything that had happened from the moment he discovered Lynne’s body to when he was released after being questioned the previous evening. ‘It sounds to me,’ Sophie said once Jack was finished,’ as though the sergeant is a complete moron. Is that where you got the limp? Did the sergeant try to beat a confession out of you?’ Her eyes swept over Jack, searching for other injuries. ‘What?’ The question surprised Jack so much he spluttered and sprayed Sophie with the whiskey he had just taken a sip of. He apologised quickly, but still had to laugh, both at the question and what had resulted from it. ‘You should be the writer with an imagination like that, not me. Of course he didn’t try and beat a confession out of me, but now you mention it, I think he might have tried that route if Izzy hadn’t been there. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone to be so fixated on a suspect without a scrap of evidence to back it up. ‘Would you believe he even wanted to know where my Mercedes is - he seemed to think there might be some evidence in there, that I’m kidnapping teen girls, stuffing them into the car’s boot and with just enough space for a willing person, and taking them away to kill them.’ He shook his head disbelievingly. ‘If you didn’t get limp through the sergeant trying to beat a confession out of you, how did you get it?’ ‘After Izzy persuaded the sergeant to let me go, told him to is probably closer to the truth, I suppose,’ Jack remarked. ‘The brother of the girl I found, who’s also the boyfriend of the other girl that was found, decided to get drunk and break into my place with a couple of friends so he could attack me - he decided not to say that Ollie’s intention had been to kill him, it sounded too melodramatic, and was likely to prompt and overreaction from Sophie, which he didn’t need just then - Izzy called the cops while I dealt with them…’ He could not helping thinking, as he listened to his own description of events, that his actions sounded a lot braver and less fraught with danger than was the truth. ‘Jesus, Jack! In the space of, what, four months, you’ve gone from investigating murders, to writing about them, to being accused of them.’ Sophie could not keep either her amazement or her concern from her voice as she stared across the table at her friend. ‘What’s next? No, I don’t even want to think about that. You should never have moved to that Dusty DORPIE,’ she told him. ‘I know you wanted to get away from Cathy and all the trouble she caused, but there was no need to move so far away, or so quickly, especially when it makes it so tough for you to see Jo-Jo, she misses you.’ Jack could not deny that he disliked not being able to see his daughter as much as he wanted to, nor could he deny that his decision to move more than two hours away from where he had lived had been a hasty one. He was stuck with the move he had made, however. ‘You know how the saying goes,’ act in haste, repent in leisure.’ I’m repenting in leisure.’ He gave a short, humourless laugh as he said that. ‘And this investigation, led by the idiotic Sergeant Mitchell, is my punishment. Fortunately, Izzy should be able to make it go away soon enough; she’s already made it clear she’s not happy with the way things have been handled so far. Maybe once I’m no longer in the frame for murder, times two, I can try and figure out what I’m going to do - I’m not sure I fancy staying somewhere that finds it so easy to consider me a murderer - but that’s going to depend on what money comes in over the next two or three months.’ ‘Are things as tight as all that?’ Sophie knew her friend’s finances had been strained by the divorce and the actions he had taken afterwards, but she had not suspected to just what a degree he had overextended himself in trying to get away from his troubles. Jack answered with a shrug that suggested the problem didn’t matter, though he did admit, ‘Tighter than I’d like. Tighter than I anticipated. It’ll be alright,’ he said. ‘It’ll just take me a bit of time to get myself sorted, and into a more comfortable position, The new book’s going alright, though, so I’m sure everything will be okay. That’s enough about me, though, what’s going on with you, has anything exciting happened since we last spoke?’ ‘Hah,’ Sophie snorted in response to the question. ‘Even if we hadn’t spoken only a week ago, there’s little chance of anything exciting happening to me, I don’t live an exciting life, you should know that by now. About the most exciting thing that happens to me is the coffee machine at work having a fit and spraying hot water everywhere; thankfully, that hasn’t happened in a couple of weeks, I swear, it doesn’t matter how many times the bloody thing breaks, Barry’s not going to replace it until someone gets scalded.’ ‘Still not getting on with the boss I take it,’ Jack said. Sophie shook her head. ‘I honestly don’t know why he made me assistant manager, he doesn’t listen to a thing I say; I’ve told him about the machine I don’t know how many times now.’ ‘Maybe because he’d be out of business in next to no time without you, and if he goes out of business, he’s got no hope of selling the coffee shop, at least not for a price worth getting.’ He knew why Sophie had not bought THE ROASTED BEAN, which she wanted to do, but he still thought it was the best thing she could do; the he were a different kind of person, he would have advised her to let the business fail so she could buy it at a knockdown price. The two friends continued talking about the things that had happened to them since they last spoke while they finished their meal. Melissa waited nervously just behind Sergeant Mitchell, less than thrilled to be at her grandmother’s door. She couldn’t help wishing that she was somewhere else. It was not that she didn’t want to see her grandmother, she was always happy to see her, it was the reason they were there that she had a problem with. ‘Hello, Venter, Melissa, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?’ Louise Hawkins asked when she saw who was on her doorstep. ‘Hello, Louise, sorry to disturb you on a Sunday,’ Mitchell said. ‘But we need to ask you some questions, I hope that’s alright.’ Louise smiled. ‘Of course it is, I’m always happy to have visitors, no matter what the reason. You’ve timed your visit quite well; I’ve just put the kettle on for a cup of tea, would either of you like one…?’