Bella picked up the plastic cup in front of her, realized it was empty, and crumpled it in her fist, before tossing it onto the floor.
‘So I decided to do two things. To teach the vicious old cow a lesson, and somehow to make it up to David. To get to know him. To show him that I wasn’t bad. To get him to understand that I’d been through a rough time then, but that now I was OK. I wanted to be his mother. Do you understand?’
‘So you put morphine in her whisky flask?’
‘It seemed like a good way to do it.’
‘And how did you get the morphine?’
‘From my flat.’ Holden made a face, indicating that this was hardly an answer. ‘It wasn’t difficult. I often used to nick the odd pill or capsule. In case it came in useful. Occasionally, I’d give them to friends.’
‘But stuff like morphine is under lock and key and carefully monitored.’
Bella gave a snort of derision. ‘Sleight of hand! I’d help hand the drugs out sometimes. Fran or someone else would hand them to me, and I’d administer them, but if she gave me two, it was easy enough to slip one into my pocket and give the patient only one. They were so dopey they didn’t notice. Anyway, my next shift I brought some in, and when I was tidying her bed and stuff, I opened some of the capsules into her flask. To be honest, I didn’t think it would kill her. But it was a very nice surprise when it did.’
‘Even though it put David in the frame?’
‘That was unfortunate.’ She pursed her lips. ‘I hadn’t realized that he was the one he who filled the flask for her at home.’
‘So, just for the record, you admit that you wilfully murdered Nanette Wright?’
Ms Potter stretched her hand across her client, motioning her to silence. ‘Please don’t try and put words into the mouth of my client, Inspector. What she actually said was that she wanted to teach the vicious old cow a lesson. I am fairly sure those were her words. She has also stated that she did not believe that the dosage of morphine she put in the hip flask would kill Nanette. That is all she is going to say for now.’
‘I merely wanted to establish—’
But the not so fragile Ms Althea Potter had had enough. ‘My client has said all she is going to say until we have had a chance to discuss the matter further. I suggest you formally charge her, or release her.’
It is 7.45 p.m. on 21 December. Mrs Jane Holden and her daughter sit in the dining room of the Shillingford Bridge Hotel and watch in silence as the waitress removes their plates. The dining room is quiet, too, the other occupants are speaking in hushed, intimate tones. Several tables have been placed together for, presumably, an office party, but if the staff attending have arrived, they are still lubricating themselves in the bar. Apart from the Holdens, there are five other couples of various sorts taking advantage of the last Monday before Christmas, treating themselves to a restful meal out before the frantic assault of last-minute shopping, demented cooking and dreaded relatives overwhelms them. Not that this is the type of festive season that awaits Jane and Susan. There is no family beyond themselves, and a quiet, even lonely Christmas awaits them.
‘I do miss Karen,’ Susan says. Christmas has that effect, making you miss those who will not be there. She looks down, not able to look at her mother, but she yearns to be comforted by her, to be hugged and told that it will be all right.
Jane merely nods. ‘I know.’
Susan’s eyes grow moist. A tear runs down her right cheek, but she makes no attempt to rub it.
‘You do know that Karen would want you to move on.’ It is not a hug, but advice that Mrs Holden gives.
‘Yes.’
‘We are not designed to live alone.’ Susan looks up, and finds her mother looking at her with a glare of such intensity that she flinches. ‘Believe me. I know.’
‘You do?’
‘Perhaps you should join a dating agency.’
‘Mother!’
‘Or take out a small ad. Get yourself out there.’
This time DI Holden is speechless.
‘It would make me happy. If you would just find someone. Then I would die happy.’
‘Die happy? We’re meant to be having a nice evening out….’
‘And I would live happy too, for however much longer I’ve got.’
‘God!’ Holden picks up her glass and lifts it to her mouth, but there is only a dribble of white wine left.
The waitress appears at the side of the table, bearing coffee and chocolates. They relapse into silence until she is out of earshot, and then Mrs Holden tactfully changes the subject.
‘So what do you think will happen to Bella?’
This is more comfortable ground for her daughter – violent death. ‘I expect she will plead involuntary manslaughter. Throw herself on the mercy of the judge. Play the mother card – how David will need her now that Jim is dead and Maureen is likely to be in prison for a long stretch.’
‘Poor Maureen. She was only protecting her family.’
‘She killed two people. And she knew what she was doing.’
‘But who will look after David and Vickie?’
‘Christ, Mother. I’m a detective, not a social worker. I’m paid to solve crimes, not save the world.’
‘I know. But I can’t help feeling—’
‘Feeling?’ The word explodes across the room. Several pairs of eyes turn involuntarily, and then turn away as Susan Holden sweeps the room with a ferocious scowl. Then she focuses her baleful gaze on her mother. ‘Feeling is a luxury I can’t afford. Not as long as I’m doing this job.’
Mrs Holden says nothing for half a minute. She has too much experience in dealing with emotional fury. Not just recently from her daughter, but long before that, from her husband. Eventually, she speaks softly, so softly that her daughter is barely able hear what she says. ‘To feel is to be alive.’
Detective Inspector Susan Holden is briefly tempted to make a dismissive remark about people who read too many fortune cookies, but instead she looks across at her mother and bursts into tears.
THE END
ALSO BY PETER TICKLER
DETECTIVE SUSAN HOLDEN
Book 1: Blood on the Cowley Road
Book 2: Blood in Grandpont
Book 3: Blood on the Marsh
DOUG MULLEN
Dead in the Water
White Lies, Deadly Lies
The Girl Who Stole The Apple
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GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH SLANG FOR US READERS
A & E: Accident and emergency department in a hospital
Aggro: Violent behaviour, aggression
Air raid: an attack in which bombs are dropped from aircraft on ground targets
Allotment: a plot of land rented by an individual for growing fruit, vegetable or flowers
Anorak: nerd (it also means a waterproof jacket)
Artex: textured plaster finish for walls and ceilings
A Level: exams taken between 16 and 18
Auld Reekie: Edinburgh
Au pair: live-in childcare helper. Often a young woman.
Barm: bread roll
Barney: argument
Beaker: glass or cup for holding liquids
Beemer: BMW car or motorcycle
Benefits: social security
Bent: corrupt
Bin: wastebasket (noun), or throw in rubbish (verb)
Biscuit: cookie
Blackpool Lights: gaudy illuminations in seaside town
Bloke: guy
Blow: cocaine
Blower: telephone
Blues and twos: emergency vehicles
Bob: money
Bobby: policeman
Broadsheet: quality newspaper (New York Times would be a US example)
Brown bread: rhyming slang for dead
Bun: small cake
Bunk: do a bunk means escape
Burger bar: hamburger fast-food restaurant
Buy-to-let: Buying a house/apartment to rent it out for profit
Charity Shop: thrift store
Carrier bag: plastic bag from supermarket
Care Home: an institution where old people are cared for
Car park: parking lot
CBeebies: kids TV
Chat-up: flirt, trying to pick up someone with witty banter or compliments
Chemist: pharmacy
Chinwag: conversation
Chippie: fast-food place selling chips and other fried food
Chips: French fries but thicker
CID: Criminal Investigation Department
Civvy Street: civilian life (as opposed to army)
Clock: punch
Cock-up: mess up, make a mistake
Cockney: a native of East London
Common: an area of park land/ or lower class
Comprehensive School (Comp.): High school
Cop hold of: grab
Copper: police officer
Coverall: coveralls, or boiler suit
CPS: Crown Prosecution Service, decide whether police cases go forward
Childminder: someone who looks after children for money
Council: local government
Dan Dare: hero from Eagle comic
DC: detective constable
Deck: one of the landings on a floor of a tower block
Deck: hit (verb)
Desperate Dan: very strong comic book character
DI: detective inspector
Digestive biscuit: plain cookie
Digs: student lodgings
Do a runner: disappear
Do one: go away
Doc Martens: Heavy boots with an air-cushioned sole
Donkey’s years: long time
Drum: house
DS: detective sergeant
ED: accident and emergency department of hospital
Eagle: boys’ comic
Early dart: to leave work early
Eggy soldiers: strips of toast with a boiled egg
Enforcer: police battering ram
Estate: public/social housing estate (similar to housing projects)
Estate agent: realtor (US)
Falklands War: war between Britain and Argentina in 1982
Fag: cigarette
Father Christmas: Santa Claus
Filth: police (insulting)
Forces: army, navy, and air force
FMO: force medical officer
Fried slice: fried bread
Fuzz: police
Garda: Irish police
Gendarmerie: French national police force
Geordie: from Newcastle
Garden Centre: a business where plants and gardening equipment are sold
GP: general practitioner, a doctor based in the community
Graft: hard work
Gran: grandmother
Hancock: Tony Hancock, English comedian popular in 1950s
Hard nut: tough person
HGV: heavy goods vehicle, truck
HOLMES: UK police computer system used during investigation of major incidents
Home: care home for elderly or sick people
Hoover: vacuum cleaner
I’ll be blowed: expression of surprise
Inne: isn’t he
Interpol: international police organisation
Into care: a child taken away from their family by the social services
Iron Lady: Marg
aret Thatcher, applied to any strong woman
ITU: intensive therapy unit in hospital
Jane Doe: a person whose identity is unknown/anonymous
JCB: a mechanical excavator
Jerry-built: badly made
Jungle: nickname given to migrant camp near Calais
Lad: young man
Lass: young woman
Lift: elevator
Lord Lucan: famous aristocrat who allegedly killed his children’s nanny and disappeared in 1974. Has never been found.
Lorry: a truck
Lovely jubbly: said when someone is pleased
Luftwaffe: German air force
M&S: Marks and Spencer, a food and clothes shop
Miss Marple: detective in a series of books by Agatha Christie
MOD: ministry of defence
Mobile phone: cell phone
MP: Member of Parliament, politician representing an area
MRSA: A strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Myra Hindley: famous British serial killer
Naff: lame, not good
Naff all: none
National Service: compulsory UK military service, ended in 60s
Net curtains: a type of semi-transparent curtain
NHS: National Health Service, public health service of UK
Nick: police station (as verb: to arrest)
Nowt: nothing
Nutter: insane person
Nursery: a place which grows plants, shrubs and trees for sale (often wholesale)
Old bag: old woman (insulting)
Old Bill: police
OTT: over the top
Owt: anything
Pants: noun: underwear adjective: bad/rubbish/terrible
Para: paratrooper
Pay-as-you-go: a cell phone you pay for calls in advance
PC: police constable
Pear-shaped: go wrong
Petrol: gasoline
Pictures: movie
Pillbox: a concrete building, partly underground, used as an outpost defence
Pillock: fool
Pips: police insignia indicating rank
Piss off: as exclamation, go away (rude). Also can mean annoy.