The Valley of Longing 27

‘Daddy!’ The cry announced the arrival of Jack’s daughter, who reached him before he had a chance to react in any way. In seconds the ten - year - old had clambered up onto the bed, given him a big kiss and a hug, and settled down to cuddle with him. ‘Hello, honey,’ he said, pulling his daughter closer so she was no longer in danger of falling off the edge of the bed. He was both pleased and surprised to see her, and looking beyond the end of the bed he greeted his ex-wife. ‘Hello, Cathy, what are you doing here? How did you know I was here?’ ‘I called her,’ Sophie said from the seat she had been occupying at the side of the room since her arrival before dawn. ‘I thought Cathy should know where you are.’ ‘Why are you in hospital, daddy?’ Jo-Jo asked, twisting around on the bed so she could look at her father. ‘Yes, why are you here?’ Cathy wanted to know. ‘What the hell have you been doing? Sophie said someone tried to kill you.’ Jack glared furiously at his ex - wife, he couldn’t believe she had mentioned that while his daughter was in a position to hear; fortunately, Jo-Jo was too distracted to register what her mother said. ‘I got hurt,’ he said, speaking to Jo-Jo rather than to Cathy. ‘I’m okay, though, I’ve got to be here for a couple of days, until I’m feeling better, then I can go home.’ ‘What about Isobel?’ Cathy asked, forcing her ex-husband to pay attention to her. ‘Sophie said she was with you. What the hell was she doing here? What the hell has been going on?’ ‘Aunt Izzy’s here as well?’ Jo-Jo asked of her father. ‘Where is she? Is She alright?’ ‘We can talk about that later,’ Jack said to Cathy, he had no intention of discussing his situation while his daughter could hear, he didn’t want her knowing or worrying about the trouble he was in. ‘Izzy’s upstairs in another room, honey,’ He told his daughter. ‘She’s hurt, like me, but she’ll be okay.’ Cathy looked as sceptical as a person could. ‘You expect me to believe that after what Sophie told me? I’m not a fool, Jack, you should know that by now.’ She seemed to come to a decision then for she said. ‘We’ll talk about this later,’ as though Jack hadn’t already said as much. ‘Right now, I’m going to find out what helping you with your problems has cost my friend. Come on, Jo-Jo. I said, come on.’ When her daughter made no effort to move from the bed, she strode across the room and took her by the arm. ‘Oww! Don’t mummy, you’re hurting me,’ Jo-Jo cried when she was pulled by the arm and all but dragged from the bed; it was only her father’s arm around her waist that kept her from falling onto the floor. ‘OWW!’ she cried for a second time as her mother continued to pull at her arm. ‘Let her go,’ Jack told his ex-wife as he held onto his daughter; he was concerned about hurting Jo-Jo by holding onto her too tightly, but more worried about how she would be hurt if he let go of her and allowed his ex-wife to yank her away. ‘I said let go,’ he snapped in a sharper voice, ‘She’s a kid, you can’t treat her like this.’ Cathy let go of her daughter’s arm as though she had been slapped, though she didn’t move. For a long moment, she glared down on her ex-husband. Finally, she turned and strode from the room, her anger clear for all to see. ‘Are you alright honey?’ Jack asked of his daughter when he saw her rubbing at her arm where her mother had grabbed her. Jo-Jo nodded, but cuddled her father more strongly. Melissa was a little surprised there were no guards at the door when she and Mitchell reached the room they had been directed to. With the circumstances being what they were, she would have expected to find a hospital security officer, if not a police officer, outside the door; it was not her place to say anything about it, however, though she was tempted to, so she kept her mouth shut. ‘Mr Wild,’ Mitchell greeted the man in the bed. ‘How are you feeling?’ Jack wasn’t bothered by the lack of a genuine greeting, nor was he bothered by the perfunctory nature of the inquiry about his health; given how the sergeant had treated him since discovering he was the last person, supposedly, to have seen Lily, he would have been surprised to hear any warmth or genuine concern in his voice. ‘I’m as well as can be expected.’ ‘Shall we go to the shop and get Daddy some chocolate or something?’ Sophie asked as she got to her feet. She could see the sergeant who had just entered the room, whom she assumed was the same sergeant Jack had told her about yesterday at lunch, was keen to talk to her friend about something, most likely the incident that had resulted in him being there, and didn’t think it a good idea for Jo-Jo to be there. Jo-Jo looked from her aunt to the two police officers and then at her Daddy. Having lived through the divorce of her parents, which had been far from amicable, she knew when someone was trying to get her out of the room so an adult conversation could be had. She didn’t want to leave her daddy just then, she got to see him so rarely that she wanted to enjoy every moment she had before she had to go home, but she knew when to do as she was told. ‘Can I have some chocolate as well, Daddy?’ she asked. Jack smiled at his daughter. ‘Of course you can, honey, not too much, though, or your mother will kill me.’ He accepted a kiss, and then watched as Jo-Jo jumped down off the bed and accompanied Sophie from the room. Only when he was confident his daughter was out of earshot did he address the sergeant, who was now standing at the end of the bed. ‘I take it you’re here to talk about the last night.’ ‘Yes,’ Mitchell said with a quick nod before getting straight down to business, he didn’t want to be there any longer than necessary, ‘What happened?’ Jack allowed himself a moment or two to order his thoughts. ‘After I left the police station, Isobel drove me home, where she had a lot to say about the state my home was left in, and my physical condition. She started taking pictures of everything on her phone so she could prepare a lawsuit - he took pleasure in the alarm that showed on Mitchell’s face at that - while I went into the kitchen to make some food and get something to drink. It must have been about thirty - five minutes after we got to my place before the food was ready, and I was just carrying it into the living room when I saw something move in the garden outside the window.’ ‘What did you see?’ Mitchell asked. ‘At first wasn’t sure, it was just a dark blob, a little darker that the sky outside the window,’ Jack admitted. ‘Then I realised it was a person, and he was holding something. An alarm went off in my head and I yelled for Isobel to get down while I threw the plates I was holding and dived for cover. There was a loud blast I thought was thunder, before I realised the window had been shattered and Isobel was bleeding; that’s when I guessed it must have been a shotgun. Isobel was still on her feet, don’t ask me how, so I scrambled to mine and dived on her to get her down and safe. That’s when the shotgun went off again. ‘I was the one who got hit that time, though I didn’t know it; I was too focused on making sure Isobel was alright, or at least as alright as she could be under the circumstances. I didn’t know I’d been shot ‘til I got up to take a look out the window to try and see who had tried to kill me.’ ‘You’re sure whoever it was, was there to kill you?’ ‘Of course I’m sure,’ Jack all but snapped. ‘People don’t generally shoot at you through a window with a shotgun if they’re not trying to kill you.’ ‘Okay, so the person in your garden was there to kill you, with the unfortunate result that they came closer to killing your lawyer.’ ‘I’d hardly call it merely unfortunate.’ ‘Yes, I’m sure, sorry,’ Mitchell apologised, with as much sincerity as he could muster, which wasn’t much. ‘Can you tell me anything about your attacker?’ ‘Not enough for a positive identification,’ Jack said regretfully. ‘I only really saw a silhouette.’ ‘Can you tell me anything about what you did see that might help to identify the person that shot at you?’ Mentally, Mitchell crossed his fingers while he waited for an answer. Jack thought about that for several long seconds, while he conjured up a mental image of the figure he had seen. ‘He was about 1.9 tall maybe a fraction over, and big built, not fat, I don’t think, but definitely not slim or medium build. I only saw a silhouette, as I said, but I’d say he was wearing dark clothes.’ Mitchell frowned. ‘You’ve said, ‘he’ a couple of times, what makes you so sure your attacker was male?’ ‘It’s mostly just my impression,’ Jack said. ‘I suppose there’s every chance it could have been a woman, but my instincts say it’s a bloke, so do the height and build. Unfortunately, that’s all I can tell you, except that I’m pretty certain the person who tried to kill me got to and from the house on foot.’ ‘What makes you think that?’ ‘I didn’t hear a car,’ Jack said straight away. ‘I might not have heard one when he arrived because I was in the kitchen, but if he had a car, I should have heard him drive away, I didn’t. The only reason I can think of is that he was on foot.’ Mitchell was trying to think of something else to ask or to say, when his thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Jack’s daughter. Despite the carrier bag she held in one hand, Jo-Jo soon made it onto the bed, where she again nestled against her father. Ignoring the two police officers, she said, ‘We go you lots of chocolate, Daddy. Dairy Milk and Fruit & Nuts,’ as she named each bar she brought it out of the bag to show him, ‘Aunty Sophie says that’s your favourite, and some toffees and some Jelly Tots - they’re for me. We got you grapes as well; Aunty Sophie says you always get grapes for people when they’re in hospital. Is that true?’ she asked with a suspicious glance at her aunt. Jack looked over at his former sister - in -law and saw her shrug an apology, which he suspected had more to do with their unexpectedly quick return that the grapes. He then turned his attention back to his daughter. ‘Of course it’s true, honey,’ he said. ‘Grapes help you get better quicker.’ ‘We got you some magazines as well,’ Sophie said. ‘They didn’t have a very good selection, but it was better than the books, so we got you what I thought you’d like.’ ‘Thanks.’ Jack glanced at the titles as Jo-Jo took the magazines from the carrier to show him: TOTAL FILM, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, HEAT, and a couple of others, none of which were his usual reading material, but he supposed they were better than nothing if he was going to be stuck in hospital for a few days - he had been surprised when the doctor had told him he would only be there for a short time, surprised but pleased; he could only guess that his injuries were minor enough, all things considered, that he could do most of his recovering at home, which would free up the bed for someone who needed it more. Mitchell finally recovered from the surprise caused by the arrival of Jack’s daughter and resumed his questioning. ‘Do you have any idea where the figure you saw went after he left your garden?’ Jack wasn’t comfortable with the sergeant questioning him while his daughter was there, but he doubted any notice would be paid if he asked to put it off. He shook his head. ‘No idea; I suppose he could have gone anywhere, but I guess it’s most likely he headed back down the road to the village.’ ‘Yes, that’s more likely where he went. Going up the road would only have got him to the Wright Farm, and I wouldn’t have wanted to try and cross the fields at night,’ Mitchell remarked. ‘Even with the moon out, it would have been risking a twisted ankle or some other injury. What did you do after you went to the window to look for the guy who attacked you?’ ‘I called for an ambulance and you guys,’ Jack said after a quick, worried glance at his daughter. Fortunately. Jo-Jo was engrossed in unwrapping and breaking up the giant bar of Dairy Milk chocolate. ‘Thank you, honey.’ He accepted the square of chocolate she gave him, and pretended not to notice that while he received one square, and another square was tossed to Sophie, Jo-Jo took two for herself. ‘After that I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember is waking up here.’ ‘Daddy,’ Jo-Jo said in a tone that Jack recognised only too well, despite the mouthful of chocolate she was talking around, as her ‘I want something’ voice. ‘Can I stay with you during the summer holidays?’ Cathy chose that moment to return from the ICU. ‘JO-JO! Didn’t I tell you not to mention that? I told you I would discuss it with your father when there’s an opportunity. There’s a long time to go until the December Holidays, a lot could happened between now and then,’ she said with a look that very clearly suggested that if it was at all possible, she would find a reason not to let Jo-Jo go to her father’s. She turned to the sergeant then. ‘I suppose you’re here because of the attempt on Jack’s life.’ ‘That’s the main reason right now,’ Mitchell said with a nod of his head. ‘There’s other stuff with a nod of his head. ‘There’s other stuff I need to question him about, but it can wait.’ He Didn’t really want to wait to talk to Wild about the murders, or about the missing Amy Wright, but he could see what a bad idea it would be to try and do so just then, while his suspect was being visited by his daughter and his ex-wife. ‘For now, I’ll settle for one last question - what’s your blood type, Mr Wild?’ Jack could only shrug; he had never needed to know what his blood type was. ‘O positive,’ Cathy answered. ‘Why do you want to know that, sergeant?’ ‘It’s nothing important,’ Mitchell said quickly. He Didn’t want to get into the situation with someone who wasn’t involved. ‘We just need to compare Mr Wild’s blood - type against a sample we have.’ Melissa waited until the doors of the lift had closed, only then did she ask the question that was on her mind. ‘Have you got any idea who could have tried to kill Mr Wild?’ ‘I wish I did,’ Mitchell said, sounding as genuine as he could. ‘The last thing Doring Draad needs right now, after everything else that’s happened, is a vigilante, or whatever Wild’s attacker was; we’ve got enough to deal with. Unfortunately, Wild’s description is so vague it could be just about anyone; we can’t even say for sure whether it’s a man or a woman. Unless his lawyer can tell us anything extra when she wakes up, or someone confesses, I don’t see how we’re going to figure out who did this, we’ve got absolutely no evidence to help us.’ ‘Since we’re almost certain Mr Wild’s attacker is from Doring Draad, I think we can be pretty sure it was a man,’ Melissa said. ‘I can’t think of a single woman in the Dorpie, or even anywhere around it, that fit’s the description we just got. I can’t even think of any women who comes close to it; those who are tall enough are too slim, and those who are the right build are too short.’ Mitchell glanced at his partner briefly. ‘I take it you’ve never met Aggie Jameson,’ He said. ‘She works over at Breeder Huis, over near Silverton; she’s one of the gamekeepers there and she’s a pretty scary - looking woman, a real AMAZON, with strong, not very complimentary, opinions about men. If there’s any woman in the local area who’s likely to take a shotgun to someone she thinks is responsible for raping and murdering girls, it would be her - she was attacked a few years ago, and ever since then she’s been of the opinion that pretty much all men are rapists and should be killed for the good of humanity, or some such thing. Terance Farrell noticed the police tape marking off a section of the field to his right and glanced quickly to the passenger seat. Thankfully, his girlfriend showed no sign of having seen what he had, he was sure she would have said something if she had. ‘Where are you taking me?’ Cynthia Naude asked, a touch of concern in her voice as the car turned off the narrow road they were driving along and started down a dark path that looked as though it belonged in a horror movie. ‘This doesn’t look like the kind of place we should be.’ ‘Don’t worry, it looks worse than it is,’ Terance told her. ‘When the sun’s out - it was typical, he thought, that after a sunny weekend, this evening had to be cloudy - this area looks great, trust me, I’ve been here before.’ ‘With other girls?’ Cynthia asked, more than a trace of jealousy in her voice. Terance smiled at that, though he was careful to turn his head away until he had it under control. ‘OF course with other girls,’ he said. ‘It’s not like there’s many places around here where you can get some privacy. Come on, don’t act like it’s News that I’ve had other girlfriends, I’ve had other girlfriends, and you’ve had other boyfriends.’ He reached out to give her leg a reassuring squeeze and stroke. ‘We’re together now, and you’re the only one I want to be with, here or anywhere else.’ ‘Well, alright then,’ Cynthia said, reluctant acceptance was audible in her voice but she was actually pleased to hear him say that. ‘I still don’t like it here, though, it’s creepy.’ It was an opinion that didn’t improve when they reached the end of the short drive and entered the yard surrounding the farmhouse. ‘I know it’s not the best looking of places,’ Terance admitted, ‘But like I said, there aren’t many places you can go around here if you want some privacy. We can’t go to my place, my family’s there, and if we go to your place in town, your house mates will be there, I’ve got a few things that will make the place a whole lot better, you wait.’ He brought the car to a stop almost half a dozen feet from the front door of the burned - out farmhouse and got out. ‘Come on, give it a chance,’ he told Cynthia, who was reluctant to move from the passenger seat. ‘You go inside while I get the things I’ve brought. I promise, if you really don’t like the place, we’ll go back home.’ Cynthia stayed where she was for more than half a minute before finally slipping the seatbelt off and exiting the car. She moved slowly across the yard to the doorway, where the door hung off its hinges, and made her way inside. She entered the dim interior with a feeling of trepidation; she didn’t think she had ever seen anywhere, let alone been anywhere, that would make a more perfect setting for a horror movie. Terance waited until his girlfriend has disappeared through the doorway and then made his way to the boot so he could get the things he had brought. He had the blanket slung over his shoulder, and the Radio in one hand, and he was just picking up the picnic basket, when the scream sounded from inside the house. He dropped everything as he spun away from the car, and darted into the house. He nearly knocked over Cynthia, who was frozen like a statue just inside the doorway, when he reached the living room. It was only by twisting and half - jumping aside that he was able to avoid running into her. When he saw what it was that had made his girlfriend scream, he felt an urge to do likewise, it was only the desire to appear strong, rather than weak or girlish, that kept the scream that bubbled up this throat from erupting out of him. The scream that threatened to un - man him subsided slowly as he turned Cynthia, who showed no sign of being aware he was there, and steered her from the room and the house. Once he had his girlfriend in the passenger seat of his car, wrapped in the blanket he had brought for them to sit on, he returned to the house. Terance stopped the moment he was over the threshold so he could steel himself, and so he could take out his mobile and call the police station. While he listened to the phone ring, he hesitantly entered the living room and slowly approached the nearest of the two objects on the floor; as much as he wanted them to change as he got closer, they didn’t, they remained a pair of bodies, bodies belonging to two young girls; one clothed and the other naked....