The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(88)

‘Eileen,’ says Nelson. ‘Go home to your mum.’

As he walks back to his car Nelson suddenly feels very tired. His head is still pounding, and he feels slightly dizzy. He texts Judy to say that he won’t be going back to the station and he drives straight home. He wants to sleep for about ten hours.

As he turns into the cul-de-sac, he realises that something is different. There’s a new sound in the air, as there was when he first heard the clapping for carers. But this is louder and somehow more heart-warming. Barking. He opens the door and is hit by a solid wedge of fur and muscle.

‘I got him back from Jan’s,’ says Laura, who is sitting on the stairs. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’

‘Of course not.’ Nelson squats next to the dog, patting him and pulling his ears.

‘I’m going to be working from home next week,’ says Laura, ‘so I can take him for walks. He’s so happy to be back.’

Bruno licks Nelson’s face and goes in search of a present. He comes back with Michelle’s bra, which is still hanging over the banister.

‘He misses Mum too,’ says Laura. ‘Here, you stupid dog. Give that back.’

Nelson gets to his feet. ‘I need a shower.’

‘What happened to you last night?’ says Laura.

‘I texted,’ says Nelson. ‘I got caught up in a case. I slept in the station. On one of the sofas in the custody suite.’ Tony had told him that Katie slept there last night. Katie made Tony a thank you card with one of her special pictures of Flint on the front. Nelson forgot to hand it over and it’s still in his pocket.

‘Did you catch the bad guys?’ says Laura, going into the kitchen.

‘I think so,’ says Nelson.

‘There’s a postcard for you from Grandma,’ says Laura. ‘I think she’s the only person on earth who still sends postcards.’

The card shows an illuminated Blackpool tower and the message on the back reads: ‘Having lots of fun (joke!). Wish you were here Mumxx’. Nelson feels strangely tearful. His mother misses him, that’s the reason she took the card from her stash, stuck on a stamp and braved the walk to the post box. And, strangely enough, he misses her too.

After his shower, Nelson comes downstairs to find Laura heating something up in the microwave. She’s in the garden with Bruno and he can hear the dog’s excited barks. Thank God there’s a can of beer in the fridge. Nelson drinks it while the plate revolves in the microwave. He thinks of Samantha Wilson and her Weight Watchers’ meal. When did she decide to kill herself? Between the defrosting and the eating? Did Hugh Baxter really persuade her to take her own life? Sadly, that will be impossible to prove but they should be able to get him for Zoe’s kidnapping. Even so, with a good lawyer and considering his age, Baxter might get away with a suspended sentence. How many people are there, thinks Nelson, who kill without using a lethal weapon? ‘He just talked to them,’ said Jo earlier. How many people whispering poisoned words in their victims’ ears? How many men like Jay, outwardly respectable, yet fiends of cruelty in their own home?

This line of thought is making Nelson very depressed. He takes his beer into the sitting room and switches on the TV. But there’s no sport because of lockdown and all the other programmes seem to be repeats. He’s looking for an American cop show, something like Colombo or Kojak, when his phone buzzes. It’s Michelle.

I’m coming home.





Chapter 44


Monday, 20 April

Three weeks after he was rushed into hospital in an ambulance, Cathbad leaves in a wheelchair to a rapturous round of applause from the ICU staff. Cathbad is embarrassed about the wheelchair – he’s perfectly able to walk – but is told that this is hospital policy. He’s overwhelmed too that the doctors and nurses are actually cheering him. ‘It’s a success for us all,’ Abbas told him, ‘when someone who was so sick goes home again.’ Cathbad thanks Abbas by the main doors, pressing his hands together in a namaste although he would love to be able to give the nurse a hug. Abbas bows back, eyes smiling behind his mask. Cathbad remembers looking into those same eyes during the many hours when he couldn’t speak and was scared that his next breath would be his last. ‘Keep going’ – that was the message Abbas sent him silently. Cathbad also has a confused memory of Nelson saying, ‘You’re not dead yet, Cathbad.’ Was this an actual memory of the night on the marshes or did Nelson visit Cathbad in a dream? He doesn’t know but he hopes to find out one day.

A week earlier Boris Johnson also left hospital. He credited two nurses, Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal, with saving his life. ‘They kept vigil,’ he said, ‘when things could have gone either way.’ Hearing this, Cathbad experienced a rare feeling of kinship with the Prime Minister.

Judy drives him home. Cathbad thinks that the sky has never looked so high and blue. When he sees the sea, sparkling away like a tourist poster, he almost cries again. He’s always prided himself on being in touch with his emotions but, in recovery, he’s found himself laughing and weeping at the smallest things. Yesterday, Abbas told him a joke about David Beckham that almost killed him.

The tears flow again when they reach the house and Cathbad sees his neighbours lining the road: Steve and Richard, Jill and Barney, Vikram and Elsa, Donna, Sue and Dorothy. Across the porch is a banner saying, ‘Welcome home, Dad’. Ruth and Kate are standing by the gate, waving madly, and Maddie, Michael and Miranda are in the doorway. As Cathbad approaches, wiping his eyes, they run towards him, but Thing is too fast for the humans. He flings himself on Cathbad, almost knocking him to the ground. Cathbad remembers the day he first met the dog, at his friend Pendragon’s cottage on Pendle Hill, when the bull terrier’s exuberant welcome had succeeded in flooring him.