Sandra was the first to awake the next morning, to see the three men asleep in her living room. It took her a while to remember what had happened the night before, and why they were there. Then it dawned on her, her mum, and several bottles of wine.
As she prepared her breakfast, Jack and Brian awoke. Carrying the coffee into the boys, Sandra saw Gerry still asleep and decided to leave him; they had no major cases on the go and were thererfore able to have a lie in, even on a working day.
"You heard anything from the hospital?" Jack asked, startling Sandra.
"Bloody hell Jack! I didn't know you were awake" Sandra said, her heart rate returning to normal.
"Sorry" he whispered, trying not to disturb Gerry.
"No, nothing yet, I'll drop in on the way to work" she answered.
"I'll drive you" came a voice that wasn't Jack's.
"What are you lot trying to do...give me a heart attack?" Sandra exclaimed, looking round to see who had spoken. Gerry only smiled.
"So?" he asked.
"So what?" she replied.
"Did your mother never teach you to not answer a question with a question?" Gerry joked.
"And did your mother never teach you to sneak up on people?" she shot back at him.
"Will the pair of you shut up?" Jack shouted over both Gerry and Sandra.
"Oh what's this, a lover's tiff?" Brian joked sleepily, unaware of how close he was to the truth. Gerry looked at Jack. Jack put his head down. The room fell silent and the atmosphere grew.
As Sandra left the room to get dressed the phone rang. Thinking it was Strickland, she ignored, there was no real excuse for all four of them being late, apart from their hangovers, which none of them could admit to. The first time, she ignored it and the phone rang off. The second time she rejected the call, not looking at who it was from. The third time, she threw the phone.
After checking her blackberry to see who was so desperate to talk to her, she found that it was not Strickland but the hospital. She quickly pressed call back.
"Hello, it's Sandra Pullman, you phoned?"
"Yes" came the voice at the other end of the phone. "We've been trying to get hold of you, it's not good news I'm afraid".
"What's happened, is she ok?" the worried daughter asked.
"I'm very sorry to have to inform you that your mother passed away this morning, we were phoning to get you to come and say goodbye to her" the nurse replied. Sandra dropped the phone to the ground without hanging up.
"Miss Pullman, are you there...are you ok...Miss Pullman?" Sandra could hear vaguely from the phone.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" she screamed.
"It'll be a spider" Brian joked."Esther always screams like that when there's a spider".
Then there was a crash. Sandra fell to the floor, silent tears flowing. Gerry ran towards her room, Jack not far behind. They froze as they saw her lying there.
"Sandra?" Jack said quietly, moving towards her.
"She's...mum...she's...dead" Sandra sobbed. Gerry knelt down beside her shaking body, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close.
"It's ok, it's all going to be ok" Gerry whispered, stroking her hair soothingly.