‘ think it’s time you went home,’ she said. ‘Frankly, we can make better use of your bed, and you’re so bloody determined, you’re going to make a great recovery in spite of us. You’ll have lots of visits back here for physio. If you think it’s been tough so far, wait till you have to start moving the joint again.’ She smiled cheerily. ‘You’ll be crying for your mother.’
‘I don’t think so,’ he said wryly.
Mrs Chakrabarti laughed. ‘I see your point. Maybe not. But you’ll certainly be crying. So, tomorrow morning, provided my SHO thinks you’re safe to be let out, you can go home. Do you have someone who can help you with shopping and cooking and so forth?’
‘I think so.’
‘You think so? What does that mean, Dr Hill?’
‘There is someone, but I think she’s a bit annoyed with me right now. I’ll just have to hope for pity. Failing that, takeaways that deliver.’
‘Try to behave yourself for the rest of the day, Dr Hill. It’s been an interesting experience, having you as a patient.’
Tony smiled. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
Another knock at the door, another take-charge woman. Carol swept into the room, her mouth open to begin her tirade, stopped short by the sight of Mrs Chakrabarti. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ she said hastily.
‘I was just going,’ the surgeon said. She turned to Tony. ‘his would be the someone?’
‘Yes,’ he said, nailing his smile firmly to the mast.
‘Better devote some energy to getting on her good side, then.’ She nodded to Carol and left.
‘I suspect that might take more energy than I have right now,’ Tony said, correctly identifying Carol’s mood.
She gripped the bottom rail of his bed. He could see the knuckles whitening. What do you think you’re playing at, Tony? You have one of my best detectives running round the countryside conducting interviews that are going nowhere on something that technically isn’t even our case. You have another of my detectives frightened to eat a cream cake in case the Bradfield Poisoner knows his cake preference and has taken a job at the precinct bakery. And you can’t even keep me in the loop. I hear about the poison stuff from Kevin. I hear you got nowhere with Rachel Diamond from Paula. You know, I’ve stood up for you I don’t know how many times-’
‘That’s not been such a hardship, as it turns out,’ he interrupted, too tired and in too much pain to bear the brunt of Carol’s frustrations with the system that was oppressing her right now. ‘My track record for getting it right is pretty good. And you know it. Hitching your wagon to my star hasn’t exactly earned you the “loser” label.’
She glared at him, clearly shocked as well as angry. ‘You’re saying my success is down to you?’
‘That’s not what I said, Carol. Look, I know you want to take a pop at CTC, but your hands are tied. So you come round here and take it out on me. Well, I’m sorry. I haven’t got the resources to act as your punch bag right now. I’m trying to help you, but if you’d rather I cut you out of the process, fine. I’ll deal with John Brandon instead.’
She literally stepped back, as if he’d slapped her. ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’ She looked on the verge of throwing something at him.
Tony screwed his face up and shook his head. ‘Neither can I. Maybe we shouldn’t be talking to each other right now. You’re wound up, and I’m fucked up.’
His words didn’t seem to have had much of a conciliatory effect. That is just so typical of you,’ she shouted. ‘You can’t even have a proper bloody row.’
‘I don’t like fighting,’ he said. ‘It makes me hurt inside. Like I’m a kid again. In the cupboard, in the dark. If the grown-ups are fighting, it must be my fault. That’s why I don’t do rows.’ He blinked hard, to keep the tears at bay. She was the only person in the world who could make him feel so exposed. It didn’t always feel like a good thing. ‘Carol, I’m going home tomorrow. I can’t manage without you. Not in any sense. So can we stop this now? I can’t do it.’
His words stopped her in her tracks. ‘Home? Tomorrow?’
He nodded. ‘I don’t need you to do much. I can get the supermarket to deliver a stack of ready meals…’
Carol tipped her head back, closed her eyes and sighed. ‘You are impossible,’ she said, all the anger dissipated.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tread on your toes. I just wanted to help and not be in your way.’ The jagged edges of the argument still filled the air, but the atmosphere between them had altered to something more like its normal state.
She sat down. ‘So now I’m here, fill me in on what you’re thinking. What can we do about Aziz now Rachel Diamond has closed down that avenue?’
‘I don’t know that it’s closed,’ he said. ‘I just need to work out another approach.’
‘Let me know when you do. I want to be there this time,’ she said firmly. ‘Oh, and here’s something I didn’t get the chance to tell you.’ She explained about the forensic team’s discovery of the two timers. ‘CTC think that it signals a new move, to more IRA-style terrorism, where the bombers live to fight another day. Me, I think it moves us closer to your idea of a hit man. Belt and braces. “If my timer doesn’t go off, I’ll be able to set it off remotely with my mobile.” That sort of thing.’
Tony felt the vague shape of something forming in the back of his mind. ‘That sort of thing,’ he said softly. ‘Yes.’ He gave her a quick, clear smile. ‘We’re moving further and further from any credible assertion of terrorism,’ he said.
‘We just need some incontrovertible evidence. I’m stuck in the middle of two cases where the evidence is intangible.’
Tony made an impatient movement with his hand. ‘When you find Jack Anderson, you’ll find your evidence. I think he’s connected to a poison garden.’
