The Valley of Longing 29

‘That does fit,’ Mitchell said, a touch of excitement in his voice, which he quickly got under control as he realised how inappropriate it was. ‘Wild most likely bumped into her while he was taking Amy away from the house, and grabbed her so she couldn’t tell anyone where she had seen him. The last of his excitement drained from him as a thought occurred. ‘What if Amy is still alive because he bumped into Daisy? What if she’s still alive because he was too busy raping and murdering Daisy?’ He was struck with horror at the thought. ‘Jesus! How do I tell Cecil his daughter’s alive right now only because Wild was too busy raping and murdering a second, younger, girl to realise she wasn’t dead?’ ‘I have no idea,’ Stevens admitted. ‘Have you been able to find out anything else?’ Mitchell asked of his superior after half a minute or so of silence had passed. ‘Not so far, no,’ Stevens said regretfully. ‘I’ve been trying to find out if anyone saw Daisy after her neighbour did yesterday, so we can be certain she was heading for the farm, but no luck yet. I want to look more closely at Wild’s alibi as well; I know you’ve proved his blood - type matched the killer’s, and you’ll have the DNA results back in the next couple of days, but It will help our case if we can prove he lied about his alibi. ‘What’s the situation over there at the hospital?’ he asked in a change of subject. ‘Unknown at the moment. Unless someone has come up with some news while I’ve been talking with you, we’re still waiting to hear what the results of the scans are, and we won’t know how good or bad Amy’s situation is until we get them.’ Mitchell reached out to shake his friend’s shoulder, bringing him back to the here and now, as he squatted in front of him. ‘I need to talk to you about something.’ It was a few moments before Cecil became fully aware that Mitchell was before him, and a similar amount of time before he found his voice. ‘Wh…’ He cleared his throat when his voice died in a croak and tried again. ‘What?’ ‘I need to talk to you about something.’ Mitchell said. ‘I know this is a difficult time for you, but I need to know; why didn’t you tell me Daisy Hawkins was supposed to be staying at the farm last night?’ Cecil went white. ‘Oh GOD!’ he gasped, wringing his hands until they matched his face for skin colour. ‘OH GOD! How could I have forgotten about her?’ There was a brief silence as he mentally castigated himself. ‘Her mum called yesterday morning, they had some kind of family emergency and had to go away; they didn’t want Daisy to miss school, so she asked me if I’d have her for the night so she could go to school with Tara this morning. I said yes, but she couldn’t come to the farm ‘til dinner time ‘cause we were all busy. ‘I can’t believe I forgot she was coming.’ ‘It’s alright, it’s not your fault,’ Mitchell reassured his friend. ‘It’s no surprise that you forgot about Daisy, the arrangements were made at the last minute, and you had much more important things to worry about.’ Cecil nodded, though it was clear that he didn’t quite believe what the sergeant had said. ‘Is she alright?’ he asked. ‘What happened to her? Why didn’t she come out to the farm?’ Looking at his friend, Mitchell realised Cecil wasn’t thinking straight, he was too distracted by concerns for his daughter, which was perfectly understandable. ‘We think she did come to the farm,’ He said in a gentle voice, not wanting to add to the distress, his friend was clearly suffering, though he realised it couldn’t be avoided. ‘We think she was on her way to the farm when she ran into Wild, and that he took her so she couldn’t tell anyone she had seen him. Her - her body was found a short distance from Amy in the Hardwell Farm House.’ ‘My God!’ Cecil’s left hand went to his mouth, while his right shook, spilling coffee from the cup he held. ‘You mean she’s - she’s dead? That if she hadn’t been coming to the farm, if I hadn’t said she could stay the night, she would be alright? Oh God! It’s my fault isn’t it, that’s what you’re telling me; it’s my fault she’s dead.’ The paper cup fell from his hand, spilling the last of the coffee it held over his shoes. ‘I should have made certain…’ Mitchell cut him off quickly before he could say anything that might incriminate either of them. ‘It’s no good thinking about what you should or shouldn’t have done, or blaming yourself for something that isn’t your fault; you didn’t kill Daisy, or Lynne, or Lily, it was Wild, and now we’re got the evidence to prove it,’ He couldn’t keep the satisfaction he felt from his voice as he said that. ‘There is something I need from you, though; I need your permission to have a forensics team search your house and yard for evidence that Daisy made it as far as the farm before Wild grabbed her. The more evidence we can find, the better our case against Wild.’ Melissa followed her superior through the door and into the private room occupied by Jack Wild, though it felt more like she was swept along in his wake. Is she could have, she would have chosen to be just about anywhere else in the world rather than in Wild’s hospital room; following her grandmother’s suggestion had only left her more confused than before regarding Wild’s guilt or innocence, if that were possible, and that confusion left her deeply uncomfortable in his presence. Things were hard enough for her as it was, the shock of her cousin’s murder was massive, and it was all she could do not to break down in floods of tears - why Mitchell had insisted on her accompanying him, first to the hospital, and then to this room, she didn’t know, but it felt cruel. She wanted to be with her cousin’s parents, or with her own, though that was not easy since they no longer lived in the village, or her grandmother, she would even have preferred to be at home on her with a large bottle of something for company while she allowed her grief to run its course. Jack was surprised when he looked up from his book and saw that it was not a nurse who had just entered. Sergeant Mitchell was the last person he would have expected to see at that time - the radio he had on to dispel the quietness of the room had not long ago announced that it was ten p.m…. ‘You’re here late, sergeant,’ he remarked as he set aside his book and reached for the cup of water on the cabinet next to him. ‘What can I do for you?’ Even if the lateness of the visit hadn’t told him that something more had happened, the look on Mitchell’s face would have. ‘Have you found Amy?’ Mitchell nodded, his head jerking up and down in short, sharp movements as he said, ‘We found her alright; we found her and she’s still alive. Does that surprise you?’ It was Jack’s turn to nod. ‘Given what you’ve said of what was done to Lynne and Lily. I’m very surprised. She must be tougher than she looks.’ ‘More like luckier, certainly luckier than the other two,’ Mitchell said. ‘She’s only alive because you were too busy raping and murdering Daisy Hawkins.’ ‘Who?’ Jack had no idea who has supposed victim was, though he suspected, given that they shared a last name, that she was related to his neighbour, which meant she was also related to the constable at the end of his bed, who looked about as miserable as a person could. ‘Who?’ Mitchell went red in the face. ‘WHO?’ he said a second time, a moment before he launched himself across the room. Melissa was caught by surprise by the sudden move. Before she realised what Mitchell had in mind, let alone could react to it, he had Wild by the throat and was choking him. ‘Who?’ Mitchell said, his hands around Wild’s throat. ‘She was only fourteen, you sick sonofabitch. FOURTEEN! You raped and murdered a fourteen - year - old girl, and you don’t even know her name.’ Jack tried to pull himself free from Mitchell’s grasp, but it wasn’t easy, Not only was he growing steadily weaker as the life was choked out of him, but he had been half-dragged out of bed and now hung down with the blood rushing to his head. His fingers scrabbled against those around his throat, but he lacked the strength to remove them, and what strength he did have was disappearing rapidly as blackness crept in at the edges of his vision. Melissa was horrified by what was happening, what her superior was doing right in front of her, but she was unable to move to do anything about it, It wasn’t until a nurse entered the room, stopped dead for a moment when she saw what was happening, and then hurried forward, bumping into her on the way past, that Melissa found the will to move. Coming to her senses, she rushed to help the nurse pull Mitchell off Wild, whose eyes were mostly closed, and whose lips were starting to go blue by the time they were successful. ‘Are you alright, Mr Wild?’ the nurse asked as she heaved her patient back onto the bed, proving that even a medical professional could ask a stupid question when someone was hurt. ‘Is he alright?’ Mitchell asked in disbelief. ‘That sick sonofabitch should be dead. He’s a God dammed murderer, who the hell cares If he’s alright.’ It took every ounce of strength for Melissa to keep hold of Mitchell and stop him finishing what he had started. She was glad when two more nurses, and a security guard, entered the room in a rush, responding to the alarm the first nurse had sounded. The nurse went to help their compatriot with the patient, whose face was beginning to regain some of the colour it had - had when Melissa and Mitchell first arrived, They got him straightened up and checked him over, making sure that he was alright as he could be under the circumstances; fortunately, the attack had done no lasting damage. While the nurses did that, the security guard helped Melissa to restrain Mitchell and guide him from the room. Only when they got him out into the passage did Mitchell calm down and allow himself to be led away. Melissa felt the eyes of both the security guard and the senior nurse watching them as they headed down the passage towards the lift; she could tell they wanted to say something about what had happened, so did she, but she could not think what to say - Mitchell’s actions had come as a complete shock to her…‘