The Things You Didn't See(49)

‘Mr Hawke, really,’ says Lauren. She reaches past me to press the call button on the wall by your bed. ‘I’m calling for assistance.’

‘Lauren, please don’t. I’m afraid Cassandra isn’t well.’ I can’t believe Daniel is making this about me, about my health. Why is Holly the only other person who can see the truth? ‘Where are your tablets, love?’

‘I don’t want tablets. I want you to be on my side!’

Daniel seems desperate to pacify me. ‘Cass, look at the facts: the police let Ash go. They didn’t charge him with anything. They don’t think he’s guilty.’

‘But they still have Janet! And we found the contract, didn’t we, Holly? Mum had signed away the farm.’

Daniel’s fingers squeeze my shoulders. ‘Where is it, Cass? It’s best if you give it to me.’

‘No, Dan.’ I move away from him, closer to Holly. ‘It’s best if we give it to the police.’

Holly’s face remains neutral, though her dark eyes are assessing everything that’s going on. I want to know what she’s thinking, what she’s making of this, when Ash starts blubbing again. He wipes tears and snot with the back of his hand.

‘This is a witch-hunt,’ spits Dad. He lifts his damaged hand and points a gnarled finger at my face. ‘And I forbid you to show the police that contract. It will only make things worse for everyone!’

Lauren has had quite enough. She turns to leave in a squeak of rubber soles. ‘I’m fetching Dr Droste. This shouting has to stop. We have a very sick patient in the room.’

Daniel is trying to manage the situation, trying to calm Dad. ‘I’ll call Jackson’s Solicitors and get someone down to the police station straight away to help Janet.’

There’s a bang outside, a firework exploding, and I think I hear you moan softly, but when I turn, you’re still inanimate, still unaware of anything.

‘It’s me who’ll need a solicitor. I’m going to end this.’ Dad stands, bones cracking as he does so. ‘I’m off to that police station to sort one or three things out.’

Daniel stands too. ‘Hector, you can’t go alone,’ he says.

And then both men walk out of the hospital.





DAY 6

THURSDAY 6 NOVEMBER





22

Holly

It had been twelve hours of focused hard work, but as the sun rose, her shift was finally over. As she worked, Holly tried to forget about Innocence Lane, she made herself not wonder what Hector and Daniel had said to the police, and what had happened about Janet’s arrest.

Jon said nothing about Holly’s tardy arrival for the night shift, though she felt his questioning gaze. She set her shoulders back, kept her face neutral, keen to show him that she was the professional he believed her to be. She was shadowing him and Hilary again, and their first call came just after seven; a home birth that wasn’t progressing, where the midwife had asked for assistance.

They found the woman pacing the hallway, breathing on an Entonox mouthpiece for dear life. Her husband, deathly pale and banished to the corner of the lounge, pleaded with his eyes for them to fix this and Holly went to speak with him. The whole house reeked of lavender, and scented candles burned on every surface. ‘First-time mum,’ the midwife whispered to them when they arrived. ‘In her thirties. Wanted to do it the natural way.’ She held up her index fingers to show them the quote marks she was putting around ‘natural’.

‘Leave it to me,’ said Jon.

As it happened, the woman didn’t need any persuasion – she was quite ready to abandon her plan and get a spinal block at the hospital. The husband was already blowing out the candles in relief.

Around eleven there was an inevitable call-out to a bonfire party. They treated a man for third-degree burns; he’d been hosting a display for his teenage grandchildren and had foolishly returned to an unexploded firework only to have it detonate in his face. His reddened skin would heal quicker than his pride.

In the early hours of the morning came one of the more common calls, a suspected heart attack, and luckily they were in time to stabilise the man, who was in his seventies and had already had a bypass.

As she clocked out at 7 a.m., Jon told her what a good job she’d done that night. She’d felt it too: in control and calm, she’d managed to keep her synaesthesia at bay. It was only as she was driving home that thoughts about Innocence Lane once again began to intrude. She saw the sign for Kenley and slowed down.

Leave it alone, she told herself. The police are on it now, there’s nothing for you to do. Go home and sleep! But their focus on Janet felt instinctively wrong to her, how could they think that a woman who had devoted her life to the Hawke family could suddenly turn on her employer so violently? Hector had certainly implied that he had some new information for the police, and in the twelve hours since they left the hospital something would have happened. She needed to know what.

Minutes later, she pulled up outside Janet’s cottage, not thinking through her actions, not even sure who would be here. There was a light on downstairs, so someone was awake. She parked her car and went to the front door, tapping lightly.

It slowly opened a crack and Holly saw Janet’s pale face. She was home then.

‘It’s only me, Janet. I know it’s early but I wanted to check you were okay? I heard what happened.’