The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(55)
‘I know he is.’ Judy hugs her stepdaughter. They both jump when Thing barks from the garden, keen to get inside and start his day.
The paramedics are in full hazmat suits. They carry Cathbad downstairs on a stretcher. Judy and the children watch from the hall. Miranda is crying but Michael is silent. Maddie has Thing on the lead and he pants to follow the strange procession. Judy knows how he feels.
‘Can I come with you?’ says Judy, knowing the answer.
‘I’m afraid not, love,’ says one of the suited figures. ‘Covid restrictions.’
‘How will I know how he is?’ asks Judy, hearing herself sounding like a frightened teenager, not like a tough detective inspector, used to dealing with life and death situations.
The paramedic hands her a piece of paper. ‘You can ring this number but give us time to get him to the Queen Elizabeth. We’ll give him oxygen in the ambulance. His levels are very low. You and your family will need to go into quarantine too.’
Some of the neighbours have come out into their gardens, shivering in the early morning air. The ambulance moves away, lights flashing.
Thing starts to howl.
Chapter 28
Nelson is on his way to work when he gets the call. He has his phone on hands-free so Judy’s voice fills the car. Nelson finds it hard to take in the details, even as he drives through the empty streets. Cathbad is in hospital, on oxygen, Judy is in quarantine.
‘I don’t know any more,’ says Judy. Nelson can hear her struggling to control herself. Judy, who is always in control. ‘It’s very hard not being with him.’
‘I bet it is,’ says Nelson, ‘but he’s in the right place. He’s getting good care.’ Even as he says this, he wonders if it’s true. Is a hospital full of Covid patients really the best place to be during a Covid pandemic?
‘Try not to worry, love,’ he says. Then he spends the rest of the journey worrying about calling his most senior officer ‘love’.
When he gets to the station, Tony is already there. Nelson groans inwardly. He doesn’t think he can take a day listening to Tony’s chatter. Sure enough, when Nelson explains about Cathbad, Tony launches into a long story about two cousins in China who caught, and subsequently recovered from, the virus.
‘That’s great, Tony,’ says Nelson, when he can get a word in. ‘Let’s get on with our work, shall we?’ In silence, he wants to add, like Sister Anthony used to say to his primary school class. ‘I’m casting my cloak of silence over you.’ But Tony seems to get the message.
Leah brings him a cup of coffee. ‘I hope Cathbad’s OK,’ she says. ‘Judy’s so lovely. I can’t bear to think of her being worried.’
Judy had been worried about Leah, Nelson remembers. What had she said? She seems a bit quiet. But Leah, unlike Tony, is not given to chatting. For which Nelson thanks God silently.
Thinking of God, as always, reminds him of his mother. He hadn’t rung her last night so he does so now.
Maureen sounds bracingly the same. No, she’s not ordering food online. She doesn’t hold with things like that. She goes to the shops with her wheely bag. Of course she wears a mask. Maeve brought her a pack. Nelson’s older sister, Maeve, lives near their mother, and visits every other day. ‘She doesn’t come in,’ says Maureen, ‘she stands in the garden and shouts up at me. It’s a gas.’ Nelson’s other sister, Grainne, lives further away but apparently she did one of those Zoom yokes the other night.
‘How are you, Harry?’ asks Maureen at last. ‘Are you still on your own? Is Michelle still in Blackpool with Georgie?’
‘Yes,’ says Nelson, ‘she’s a bit worried about her mum. Louise has diabetes, you know.’
‘She’s as fit as a fiddle,’ says Maureen.
‘She certainly seems it,’ says Nelson.
‘How’s Katie?’ asks Maureen. Nelson answers carefully. Maureen now knows about Ruth and Katie but he doesn’t want to get into an ethical debate with her, if he can help it.
‘She’s fine. Her school’s closed so Ruth’s teaching her at home.’
A silence.
‘Laura’s back home with me,’ says Nelson. ‘She was finding it a bit hard to cope, living in the flat.’
‘My prayers have been answered,’ says Maureen but without much surprise. She always expects her prayers to be answered. ‘Laura can look after you.’
‘I can look after myself, Mum.’
‘A home’s not a home without a woman in it.’
Nelson thinks of the little cottage on the marshes containing two of his favourite women.
‘We’re taking turns cooking,’ he says. ‘I’m sure Laura will go back to her flat when all this is over.’
‘Sure, it’ll be over soon,’ says Maureen. ‘I don’t know anyone who’s actually got the thing, do you?’
‘Cathbad. Remember him? He’s in hospital with Covid.’
‘Cuthbert? Of course I remember him. He’s a good soul. I’ll pray for him. I watch mass on the computer every day. Yesterday I went to the Vatican.’
‘You do that, Mum. Give the Pope my love.’
‘He’s a good man, is Pope Francis. He understands about life.’