off, and pulled from his inside pocket a small gun, pointed it at Lois and Cowgill, and shouted at them, “Keep away from me, or I shall shoot.”
Lois froze, but Cowgill slowly moved forward. Through the rapidly emptying waiting area, a number of men were now visible, also approaching as if on wheels, so steady was their motion. Policemen, of course. Cowgill will have organized it all, thought Lois. The little bugger doesn’t stand a chance. “I don’t think that gun’s real,” she said in a low voice, and Cowgill nodded.
“Can’t risk it, though,” he replied.
He cleared his throat, and Lois knew that now Betts would be encouraged to do the sensible thing and hand over the gun. She looked at Mrs Betts. A small woman, she seemed to have shrunk to a shadow, still close beside him, her face as white as paper. And then she heard the voice, loud and screaming.
“Dad! Don’t, Dad!”
Mr Betts’s head shot round to look, and in that moment Cowgill rushed forward and knocked the gun from his hand. Mrs Betts took his arm and pulled him back down on to the seat, where he sat with his head in his hands. Prue and Hazel, running now, hand in hand, came up, and Prue flung her arms around her father. Tears streamed down her cheeks and Cowgill, for once, looked at a loss. Nobody moved.
Then Lois walked forward and put her arm around Mrs Betts’s shoulders. “Time to go, I think,” she said. “There’s a lot of sorting out to do. Prue, you take your dad and mum and go with Inspector Cowgill, and Hazel will take me home. Got your car, Hazel?”
She waited until the family had been slowly ushered away from the now reassembling crowd, and then she turned to Hazel. “D’you want a coffee?” she said. She looked at her watch. “Bloody hell,” she said, “it’s the middle of the night.”
“Better call Derek, Mrs M,” said Hazel. “He’ll be worrying, for sure.”
Lois dialled home, and immediately Derek answered. “Lois? Are you OK?” To her surprise, she found she couldn’t answer. “Lois? Is that you? For God’s sake, gel, say something!”
Lois cleared her throat, and finally said, “Can you check Gran brought the washing in?” There was a moment’s silence, and then Derek said, “OK, me duck. We’ll check. See you soon. Love you,” he added, and rang off.
? Terror on Tuesday ?
Forty-Nine
Lois arrived home at dawn, and slept, on and off, for twenty-four hours. Derek gave orders to the family that she was not to be disturbed, and Gran took the kids off to Tresham, first to start clearing and packing up in her bungalow, and then on to the movies for a treat. It was Monday when Lois awoke to see Derek standing by the bed, holding a mug of tea.
“Mornin’ gel,” he said gently. “Time to get going.”
She struggled to sit up, and took the tea. “Ugh!” she said, making a face. “You’ve put sugar in it!”
“Phew!” he said, grinning broadly. “Glad you’re back to normal. Come on then, get up, the kids are skulking about looking worried, and Gran’s doin’ a fry-up to beat all fry-ups.”
He took the mug from her and pulled her out of bed. “Get moving, then,” he said, making it impossible for her to do so, holding her tight, and added, “Gran’s trying to do everything, there’s wet washing on the line…Time to get back where you belong, my gel.” He was smiling, but Lois knew he meant it.
“Right,” she said, pushing him away. “Ten minutes, and then I’m downstairs. You’d better be ready for me. And why wasn’t that washing brought in? There was I, stuck in the middle of bloody nowhere, and you couldn’t even…”
He put up his hands. “OK, OK, can we have a truce, just for now?” he said.
“Mum!” said Josie, when Lois appeared. “Where’s my library book?”
Jamie sidled up to her and touched her gently. “You all right, Mum?” he said.
“Fine,” said Lois. Douglas just looked at her without speaking. Lois said, “Anything up, Douglas?”
“Nothin’,” said Douglas, looking innocently surprised. “Should there be?”
“Now, now,” said Gran, standing over them all with a large frying pan. “Who’s for eggs and bacon, fried bread and sausage?”
¦
The staff meeting was a subdued affair. Hazel still looked bleary-eyed, and sat hunched up between Bridie and Sheila.
“Where’s Gary?” said Sheila. “He didn’t turn up at the surgery this morning, and it was all I could do to finish in time. I thought of ringing you, Lois, but held on, waiting for him, and then it was too late, and I thought I might as well carry on by myself.”
“Sorry about that,” said Lois. “Gary won’t be coming back, I’m afraid. He’s resigned.” She hesitated, and Hazel muttered something she didn’t catch.
“What’s been going on?” said Sheila. “Has Gary done something wrong?” She looked around at the others. Bridie had clearly been told at least some of what had happened last night, and Hazel looked steadily at the floor.
“Probably,” said Lois. “Sorry, Sheila, can’t say any more at the moment. But as soon as I can, I’ll tell you.”
“I liked him,” said Sheila stubbornly. “He was a good lad. Needed some proper mothering when he was growing up, I reckon. He talked to me quite a lot, y’know, Lois, when we had our coffee break, an’ that.”
“Yes, well…” Lois was determined to change the subject, and said that she would be looking for new staff, and that if any of them knew likely candidates, they were to let her know.
Bridie looked at Hazel, then said, “Is it all right if Hazel stays on, Lois? I know it was meant to be sort of temporary, but…”
“Fine by me,” said Lois. “But you’re young, Hazel, and what with everything being cleared up, an’ that, don’t you want to go off round the world, or something?”
Hazel shook her head. “I’m happy if you are, Mrs M,” she said. “It’s a good job, something new every day. And it gives me time to do other things I’m interested in,” she added, without looking at Lois.
After the others had gone, Hazel lingered. “D’you want a sandwich?” Lois said, “I’d like a word, if you’ve got time.”
The house was empty, except for the two of them. Gran had gone off to continue her packing, and Derek was working the other side of Ringford, too far to come home for lunch.
“How’re you feeling?” Hazel opened the conversation when Lois came back with the sandwiches.
“Fine,” said Lois. “But curious.”
“I’ll tell you what I know,” said Hazel defensively.
Lois said, “I don’t expect you to tell me everything. It’s not like that, I know. But I would like to know more about Gary’s part in all of it. And exactly what was the set-up at the theatre. You probably think I’m stupid – Derek does – but Sheila’s not the only one with a soft spot for Gary. I suppose what I’m saying,” she continued, “is that I’d like to help him, if there’s anything to be done.”
Hazel looked at her sandwich. Then she took a knife and cut it in quarters and rearranged them on the plate. Finally she looked up at Lois, and her eyes were sad. “Gary is hooked,” she said simply. “He controls it well, and can carry on most of the time so’s you wouldn’t know, unless you could recognize the signs. But it gets to him now and then, and he passes out, or loses it and does something stupid. Joanne Murphy was a cleaner at the theatre, and operated from there with quite a few contacts. That’s where Gary met her, and Betts too. Betts wasn’t in on the drugs, but he knew about it. He blackmailed Gary into helping him.”
“Sod it,” said Lois. She sighed, and said, “And Joanne Murphy? She’s not the big time?”
Hazel shook her head. “Just a little frog in a big pool,” she said. “And now she’s out of the way there’ll be a few frantic loonies about. But another like her will pop up in no time.”
“But Cowgill said he’d got her boss in Leicester. That’ll dry up the supply for a bit, won’t it?”
Again Hazel nodded. “For a bit,” she echoed, and began to eat her sandwich.
¦
