The news hit me like a wet fish slapped across my face – Derek being conscious changed everything.
‘I’m on my way to the hospital now. Tarquin said I should drop everything and just go. Well, actually, Tarquin told me I shouldn’t have been in work today at all. Anyway, I thought you would want to know, but I am also calling to cancel the appointment tonight. I’m really sorry. I know we are tight for time, but well, maybe we are not anymore. Mum says dad is much improved and his skin is really healing.’
My brain was asking what Joanne really thought about Derek’s recovery and what she might be planning behind the tears of joy she was currently fake-crying.
What I said was, ‘That’s amazing news. Don’t worry about our appointment tonight, we can talk later and rearrange things. If your father is recovering and you want to push the wedding back … we can discuss it all later, like I said. Go see your dad. I’m sure you are desperate to see how he is doing.’
‘Oh, goodness, I am. This is the best news ever. I thought I was going to lose him. Oh, I’m pulling into the carpark. I’ll call you later.’
I let her go and put my phone away while my brain worked at triple speed trying to formulate a new plan.
Shane wanted us to stay put in Mindy’s car, but I knew the truth about Joanne and Dr Kimble and now I had the evidence. What would Joanne say when I presented her with the cream? I’d seen Patricia Fisher mesmerise a room full of people as she revealed who had done what and why. I was going to do the same.
If I could reveal the real conspiracy behind the mystery, maybe I could trick Joanne into telling us how she fiddled with John’s brakes to make him crash. The voice I heard talking about destroying evidence last night, could that have been Dr Kimble? I wasn’t convinced, but it certainly could have been. I only caught a glimpse of the man as he went up the street, but he was roughly the same shape.
I could do this. I just needed to get to the hospital and into Derek’s room without getting caught.
Drawing in a deep breath through my nose as I willed my brain to conjure a plan, I said, ‘Mindy we need to find a set of wheels. Can you hotwire a car?’
Mindy burst out laughing. ‘Auntie what happened to you?’
‘What do you mean?’
She was still laughing. ‘Yesterday you were drinking tea from a fine china cup at your boutique in Rochester. Today you are a hardened criminal. I am starting to wonder when you will ask me if I know where to buy a gun.’
She had a point. I’d broken so many rules today, so many laws, that stealing a car just didn’t seem like a big deal.
With a little shake of her head, Mindy said, ‘There’s a car out front. I’m guessing it belongs to someone here because the number plate reads ‘B1EAK’. ‘If the car is here then the keys must be too. If you want a different car because the police are looking for mine, maybe we should take that one.’
I nodded, chuckling at myself now. ‘Good plan. Let’s split up and find the keys.’
Caught
The car was Derek’s BMW seven series. I could tell that easily enough because the driver’s seat was ratcheted all the way back to accommodate his long legs. I had to bring it all the way forward just so I could touch the pedals. I knew the car was something Derek cherished so I insisted on driving – I didn’t want Mindy thrashing the gearbox the way she did her own car.
We took hats from the hallway, a black bobble hat for me, and a ball cap for Mindy. With our sunglasses on, it was as good a disguise as we could hope for and I told myself any cops we saw wouldn’t look twice at us. They were looking for a sporty hatchback, not a motorway cruiser.
Regardless of the confident voice in my head, I was so anxious with worry that my hands were shaking. I had to grip the steering wheel extra tight just to stop them.
The journey from the Bleakwiths’ house to Maidstone hospital took just over thirty minutes. Mindy would have done it in ten, but I was being extra cautious and obeying all the road signs.
We saw police cars on the way, each one making my pulse race even though it was already beating at twice its usual speed. None of the cops looked our way and I had to tell myself that I was seeing the usual amount of police. There were always cops on the road going here and there; today was no different. The difference was me noticing them.
At the hospital that changed, because there were cops outside the door to Derek’s room.
We had snuck in through A&E instead of using the main entrance where there might conceivably have been cops looking for me. Buster had to stay in the car. I took him most places, but we would never get through a hospital unchallenged with him at our sides.
Thankfully, Buster thought guarding the car was a worthwhile task and that was how we sold it to him. I suspected he was going to be asleep before we made it inside.
Now we were no more than a few yards from our destination, but there was no way we were going to be able to get past the two constables that stood between us and Derek.
‘What do we
