Page 44 of Dying Breath
He drove past the police station once more on his way home. He couldn’t help himself, even though he’d finished work for the day and should have gone straight home. He wanted to get a clear idea of the layout of the front of the building and the land around it. He’d never really taken much notice of it before, because he’d never had to. If he was going to be brazen and bold enough to leave his next victim outside in the car park as a calling card, he needed to know exactly where all the security cameras were.
Whoever had designed this building hadn’t taken into account the fact that the floor-to-ceiling wall of glass windows gave anyone outside the perfect view into the offices and of the staff who were working in them. The ground floor was like a beehive; so many officers dressed in black and wearing fluorescent yellow vests. They were flocking around computers or standing talking to each other. None of them was interested in who was outside in the car park watching them. He glanced up to the second floor, where there were lots of desks and people in plain clothes milling around – this was either CID or office staff.
Starting his engine, he slowly drove out of the car park, counting the security cameras. There were six. That was an awful lot of cameras to have just outside the front of a building, but with the state of the country today it probably still wasn’t enough. He knew what he would do; this place was like a ghost ship at night. The upstairs offices would no doubt be empty; downstairs, the staff would be out on patrol. If he used the van with his Drain Busters logo, he could get away with parking outside. As long as he had on overalls, a baseball cap pulled low over his head and a jacket that zipped up high, he would be able to park up, get the drum out and leave it in the best place to get noticed, and then he’d be straight out of there.
He would steal some number plates from the estate later on tonight; there was a man who sold second-hand cars and left them parked all over with big white ‘For Sale’ signs inside the windows. If he took them from one of the cars furthest away from any houses, no one would even notice, and if they did it didn’t matter. He knew the locations of the ANPR cameras that would ping the registration if he passed, and he didn’t need to go anywhere near them. This was a brilliant plan and he even had his victim now, thanks to that chance meeting on Friday night with Lewis Waite.
What better present for Lucy than to deliver her escaped fugitive to her in a barrel of acid. This was going to be a lot more exciting than the last killing; that had been a necessity. He hadn’t gained any pleasure from shooting the kid or his parents, if he was honest; the excitement came only from getting away with it. They were just pawns in his game of chess and they had served their purpose.
Chapter Forty-One
Lucy felt as if her life had stood still for the last seven hours. She’d forgotten how hard it was to stand up in the same position for so long. She walked out of the ladies’ changing rooms to see Mattie leaning against the wall waiting for her.
‘That was tough.’
He nodded. ‘It was very tough indeed.’
‘Should we go and see how the boss is?’
‘Great minds and all that.’
They walked down the long corridor and followed the sign for the intensive care unit. Lucy never even noticed Stephen who was talking to a nurse in the corridor, but he saw her and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the pair of them. He watched her walk along the long corridor towards the Intensive Care Unit, until she turned the corner and was gone from his sight. The double doors that led into it were shut and Lucy pressed the buzzer. A nurse came to the door and Lucy showed her badge.
‘Tom Crowe is a close friend and colleague. Can you give us an update?’
The nurse scrutinised the badge. ‘Hold on.’ Then she shut the door.
Lucy stared at Mattie. ‘She did not?’
‘Yeah, she did. You know, a please or a thank you might have helped just the tiniest bit. Let me do the talking.’
‘I only asked a question.’
‘Yes, in your best Attila the Hun voice. Honestly, Lucy, your people skills are sadly lacking at times.’
‘I forgot, okay? All I can see in my head is Arran’s cold, white, frozen body. I’m not thinking straight.’
The door opened again and Alison came out, her face was pale and blotchy. Her eyes were puffy and she looked tired. She held it ajar so it didn’t shut and lock.
‘How is he?’
‘He’s okay, I think. They managed to keep him stable overnight. He opened his eyes before, so things are looking up.’
‘Can we nip in and see him?’
‘I don’t want you upsetting him or talking about work.’
Mattie grabbed Lucy’s arm, reminding her to let him talk. Lucy had to bite her tongue at the cheek of it – the woman standing in front of her was the one who’d been screaming at him when he’d collapsed.
‘We wouldn’t dream of it. We just wanted to say hello.’
Alison held the door open for them. ‘I’ll go grab a coffee while you’re here, although I doubt they’ll let you stay long; they keep kicking me out. He’s in the second bed on the left-hand side.’
She headed off in the direction of the relatives’ room and they walked into the ICU. It didn’t look like a normal hospital ward; it was more like an aeroplane hangar. It was much cooler in here than the rest of the hospital. There were beds surrounded by so much equipment that Lucy had no idea how the staff could even remember what to do with it all. Every bed had a patient; the noise from the machines filled the room. There were so many beeps and alarms going off – it was Lucy’s idea of hell.
Walking towards the bed to which Alison had directed them, her heart skipped a beat. Tom was a slightly better colour than he’d been the previous night when he’d collapsed, but he looked tiny in the big bed, attached to every piece of equipment there was. Standing close to the head of the bed, Lucy bent down and whispered ‘Hi.’
Mattie’s much louder voice echoed in her ear. ‘Boss, how you doing?’
