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Authors: Tom Graham
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every
turn, Sam, I’m not about to go off you.’
Sam laughed and, with exaggerated chivalry, indicated with a sweep of the arm for the lady to go first. Annie led the way along a short corridor which bustled with nurses and porters and hobbling patients. She stopped at a discreet bench tucked away beneath a notice informing of the dangers of whooping cough and a stop-smoking poster depicting a small girl being made to breathe in her father’s cigarette smoke. The legend IF YOU LOVE HER, DON’T KILL HER were emblazoned above the image.
‘This bench is so narrow we’re going to have to squash against each other,’ said Sam. ‘Up close.’
‘What a nightmare. We’ll just have to endure it.’
‘I suppose we will.’
They squeezed themselves, flank to flank, onto the bench. Sam felt Annie nestle tighter against him. He nestled back.
‘Do you think she’ll show up?’ Sam asked.
Annie shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’
‘But what do your instincts tell you?’
‘They tell me …’ For a moment, she chewed her lip and thought. Then she looked at Sam intently, with a strange expression behind her eyes. ‘I don’t know what my instincts are telling me, Sam. I …
feel
something … something about Tracy, and this whole case, but …’ She searched in vain for the right words, but gave up. ‘Oh, I don’t know.’
‘
Try
and explain,’ Sam prompted her gently. He took her hand. ‘Try, Annie. I might understand more than you think.’
He felt her fingers close around his.
‘Well,’ she said, her voice very low, her manner hesitant. ‘You know how I said this case was getting me down? The thing is, I’ve been worrying about it all the time. I’ve even been dreaming about it.’
‘That’s one of the hazards of this job.’
‘Oh, I know that. But this is different.’ She broke off, lost in her own thoughts, and then, choosing her words carefully, she spoke with great deliberation. ‘I’ll tell you. These feelings I’ve been getting, Sam … these fears … I’ve been having them for a while, just sort of vaguely floating about in the back of my head. I sort of ignored them. But then it all changed when the nurses here called me in to see Tracy Porter. She was fresh in – she’d just been beaten up. I got here and I … I sensed it even before I walked into the room where she was lying.’
‘What, Annie? What did you sense?’
‘That something was wrong. I mean,
really
wrong. You know that feeling you get when the phone suddenly rings at like three in the morning? You know how your heart jumps into your mouth, coz you know, you just
know,
it’s going to be something awful? Well, what I got was a feeling just like that. Even before I reached the ward they’d put her in, my heart was going, Sam, it was really going, and my palms were all damp, and it was like I was bracing myself for … for jumping out of a plane, or something. And what for? I mean, what the hell for?’
She checked Sam’s expression to see if he was following what she was getting at. Sam said nothing, merely held eye contact and gave her hand an encouraging squeeze.
Annie took a breath, and carried on. ‘So, anyway. I tried to keep my mind on the job, and I walked in the room, and there was Tracy on the bed, her face swollen and her eyes half shut with the bruises. You remember the photo. Now the thing is, Sam, I’ve seen worse stuff than this before. Hundreds of times. So have you. We all have, it’s what coppers deal with every day. But it was really upsetting me – and I mean
really
upsetting me. I got frightened, like I was the next one line to get battered like that.’
‘You felt vulnerable?’ Sam asked.
‘Yes! Helpless. And really scared, like I wanted to look over my shoulder all the time. Why would I feel that way, Sam? Why would it affect me like that?’
Sam sighed and fidgeted awkwardly. What could he say? How could he tell her that somewhere out there, something was
every
turn, Sam, I’m not about to go off you.’
Sam laughed and, with exaggerated chivalry, indicated with a sweep of the arm for the lady to go first. Annie led the way along a short corridor which bustled with nurses and porters and hobbling patients. She stopped at a discreet bench tucked away beneath a notice informing of the dangers of whooping cough and a stop-smoking poster depicting a small girl being made to breathe in her father’s cigarette smoke. The legend IF YOU LOVE HER, DON’T KILL HER were emblazoned above the image.
‘This bench is so narrow we’re going to have to squash against each other,’ said Sam. ‘Up close.’
‘What a nightmare. We’ll just have to endure it.’
‘I suppose we will.’
They squeezed themselves, flank to flank, onto the bench. Sam felt Annie nestle tighter against him. He nestled back.
‘Do you think she’ll show up?’ Sam asked.
Annie shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’
‘But what do your instincts tell you?’
‘They tell me …’ For a moment, she chewed her lip and thought. Then she looked at Sam intently, with a strange expression behind her eyes. ‘I don’t know what my instincts are telling me, Sam. I …
feel
something … something about Tracy, and this whole case, but …’ She searched in vain for the right words, but gave up. ‘Oh, I don’t know.’
‘
Try
and explain,’ Sam prompted her gently. He took her hand. ‘Try, Annie. I might understand more than you think.’
He felt her fingers close around his.
‘Well,’ she said, her voice very low, her manner hesitant. ‘You know how I said this case was getting me down? The thing is, I’ve been worrying about it all the time. I’ve even been dreaming about it.’
‘That’s one of the hazards of this job.’
‘Oh, I know that. But this is different.’ She broke off, lost in her own thoughts, and then, choosing her words carefully, she spoke with great deliberation. ‘I’ll tell you. These feelings I’ve been getting, Sam … these fears … I’ve been having them for a while, just sort of vaguely floating about in the back of my head. I sort of ignored them. But then it all changed when the nurses here called me in to see Tracy Porter. She was fresh in – she’d just been beaten up. I got here and I … I sensed it even before I walked into the room where she was lying.’
‘What, Annie? What did you sense?’
‘That something was wrong. I mean,
really
wrong. You know that feeling you get when the phone suddenly rings at like three in the morning? You know how your heart jumps into your mouth, coz you know, you just
know,
it’s going to be something awful? Well, what I got was a feeling just like that. Even before I reached the ward they’d put her in, my heart was going, Sam, it was really going, and my palms were all damp, and it was like I was bracing myself for … for jumping out of a plane, or something. And what for? I mean, what the hell for?’
She checked Sam’s expression to see if he was following what she was getting at. Sam said nothing, merely held eye contact and gave her hand an encouraging squeeze.
Annie took a breath, and carried on. ‘So, anyway. I tried to keep my mind on the job, and I walked in the room, and there was Tracy on the bed, her face swollen and her eyes half shut with the bruises. You remember the photo. Now the thing is, Sam, I’ve seen worse stuff than this before. Hundreds of times. So have you. We all have, it’s what coppers deal with every day. But it was really upsetting me – and I mean
really
upsetting me. I got frightened, like I was the next one line to get battered like that.’
‘You felt vulnerable?’ Sam asked.
‘Yes! Helpless. And really scared, like I wanted to look over my shoulder all the time. Why would I feel that way, Sam? Why would it affect me like that?’
Sam sighed and fidgeted awkwardly. What could he say? How could he tell her that somewhere out there, something was
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