‘You kept the location of the children secret even though you met with me and with my officers. At Riley’s house, you also declined to pass vital information on about their whereabouts, even when you had another chance to save them.’
‘You’re making this up. I’m innocent. You don’t have a shred of evidence–’
‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ Grant said. ‘It seems you have a favourite shampoo with an orange scent and Lisa Glover recognised it from your hair. You left them for dead. Lisa told us the last person who visited them in the locked room was a new woman. You wore a mask but Lisa realised it was you.’
‘From the scent of my hair? For God’s sake, Lisa is a child! She’s mistaken. I never went there. You can’t take the word of a four-year-old…’
Grant fixed Sylvie with his grey eyes. He’d met despicable criminals in his time and Sylvie Delacourt was one of the worst – a young woman willing to throw away the lives of two children. He savoured his final words.
‘There’s also the fact a long hair was found on the front of Emily’s clothing. It’s the same colour as yours. It will be tested for DNA and I’m sure it will be a match. The only explanation is – you visited them in the locked room. On at least one occasion. Which means you were Nick Riley’s accomplice.’
With Sylvie Delacourt in custody, Grant finally allowed himself to relax. To hell with the paperwork, he thought, and he drove straight back to the hospital.
Lisa had been dangerously dehydrated but she was slowly gaining strength. Emily’s situation was more serious. The paediatrician met him outside Emily’s room.
‘How’s she doing?’ Grant asked.
‘Emily came very close to dying but she’s a strong little girl. As I suspected, she had sepsis. By the time your officers found her, she’d gone into septic shock. It will take forty-eight hours for the antibiotics to do their job.’
‘It was pretty close then.’
‘The child was near death. Even a few moments more and it might have been too late.’ She placed her hand on Grant’s arm. ‘Seems like you did a fantastic job finding them.’
‘Not me. It was everyone.’
She laughed. ‘Yeah, you always say that.’
Grant’s next stop was checking on Diane. The nurse told him she was out of the operating theatre and the doctors had been able to repair the damage. Thank goodness, no ostomy bag for Diane. Diane was asleep, surrounded by her husband and three sons. Grant scribbled a get well soon note and left it by her bedside.
Emily and Lisa were safe. Riley was dead and Sylvie Delacourt would be sentenced. For the first time in days, he could have a proper night’s sleep.
56
It wasn’t until the following day that Tom and Ruby met Alice at the hospital. Tom had never seen Alice so happy and she definitely had a new confidence about her.
When Alice saw Tom she rushed towards him and flung her arms around his neck. ‘I’ve so wanted to see you. Thank you. Thank you so much for saving my children.’
‘My pleasure,’ Tom mumbled.
They walked towards Lisa’s room and every time Alice looked at him, she smiled. It was sort of nice and it was kind of embarrassing too.
‘Not used to being the hero?’ Ruby teased.
Tom went red. ‘DI Hunter had her part to play in it.’
‘Except I know hers was a minor one,’ Alice said. ‘Come and see Lisa. She wants to give you a hug.’
After a night in hospital Lisa was able to walk and the doctors said she could go home soon. Emily’s situation was now stable though she was still only permitted to see her mother. Not even her grandmother had been allowed beyond the glass window of Emily’s room.
‘My mother insisted I tell you again how grateful she is, Tom,’ Alice said. ‘And guess what? Emily wants to be a police officer when she grows up and she’d like to see you as soon as she can.’
Tom smiled. ‘Oh don’t you worry about that, she won’t be able to keep me away.’
When Lisa saw Tom she clung onto him like a koala, with both arms and both legs. ‘You save me and you saved Emmy.’
When Alice eventually persuaded Lisa to let Tom go, Lisa proudly handed over a drawing. ‘This is you.’
It was a picture of Tom carrying her and Emily from the house, with one child tucked under each arm. She had drawn him with sticking up hair and big boots. One child was crying and the other had their eyes closed.
Tom stared at it and felt a big lump in his throat.
‘What a lovely picture. How is Emily doing?’ Ruby asked.
‘The doctors are happy with her progress. She’s talking which is a very good sign and they don’t think she has any permanent organ damage. She’s still fragile, and it might take a couple of weeks, but they expect her to make a full recovery. A few minutes later, and well, you know…’ Alice dabbed at her eyes. ‘But this isn’t a day for being tearful. What you did was wonderful and I’ll never forget it.’
When they left, Ruby linked her arm in Tom’s.
‘Are you going to put Lisa’s picture on your wall?’ she asked.
‘If I do, are you going to come see it?’
Ruby smiled and tipped her head on one side in that nice way she had. ‘Maybe.’
And Tom really hoped she meant it.
On another hospital ward, Jack Glover had regained consciousness. They knew the first thing his wife had said to him was, she was going ahead with the divorce.
Zofia Kaminski had reported that Jack raped her at the Christmas party. She had decided to press charges. Once she knew of Jack’s part in Daniel Pearson’s break-in, it made her change her mind about keeping silent. Zofia said she owed it to the other women Jack had
