Rachel Plays with Fire.
Waking up to a mystery.
Her head felt like hell. For a while she wondered where she was, who she was, and what she was doing. Her mind felt so foggy she had to crawl out of it. Somehow she felt like she had to do something to make sense of her surroundings. What was it? Oh, yeah. She opened her eyes, and blinked rapidly to adjust to the glare of the overhead lighting.
" She's awake!" someone squealed, and her head hurt even more, but her memory started returning even as her head hurt worse. It was like someone had smashed a claw hammer into her skull to make a hole and was using the claw to prise the bone open. She groaned at the sound, and the person said, " Sorry, Rach."
She couldn't move, but now she could remember what happened, who she was, and what she was doing here. Moving her eyes she saw Janet, Gill, and a woman wearing a smart blouse.
Rachel blinked at them. " Hi," she whispered. She couldn't raise her voice.
Janet was next to her in an instant. " Rach, how are you feeling?" She whispered, her eyes going to the bandage wrapped around her friend's head, and could barely imagine how much pain she was in. Unbidden her mind flashed to the pain and shock she'd experienced when Geoff had stabbed her in the stomach, but that hadn't been in the head.
Rachel grimaced. " My head...hurts," she replied honestly. Though her memory had returned her head still hurt to sift through her vocabulary of words for anything more complex.
Janet's eyes flicked up to the bandage wrapped around her best friend's head again. " I'm sorry," she said uncertainly. Janet couldn't think of anything to say about that.
" It's okay," Rachel said, dimly wondering why Janet would be sorry for something that wasn't even her fault. Her mind was in so many pieces she didn't realise Janet was merely offering the apology out of goodness, and the policewomen in the room had to strain to hear her. " How're you? You've been crying," she commented as she took Janet's appearance in as best she could. She lifted her hand, and used her finger to gently wipe the tears away from Janet's face.
Janet touched her eyes. " Yeah, I've been worried about you," she replied before pointing at Gill and Julie. " We all have."
Rachel's eyes flicked over to Gill and then to Julie. The latter shifted and was going to introduce herself, when Rachel said to everyone's surprise, including Julie's, " DSI Julie Dodson, nice to meet you. Heard lots about ya." She managed to raise a hand limply in the direction of the DSI, and Julie took it. Rachel was a little surprised by her firm and solid grip.
Julie smirked. " Thanks, I guess. When you say you've heard lots about me, anything bad?" She sent a teasing look at Gill and Janet, but Rachel chuckled which quickly changed to a grimace as pain rippled through her head. " No. Do you want there to be?" She pinned Julie with a look.
Janet frowned down at Rachel. " How do you know about Julie?"
Rachel smirked, but everyone could see it was pained, though her attention was fixed solely on Gill. " You're not the only MIT syndicate head I kept my eye on. I was in the CID and the sex crimes unit, so I had access to who was in MIT."
Julie stared at Rachel for a long moment, then she laughed. " I like her already," she said to Gill. Her opposite number from a different syndicate, though, frowned at Rachel. " Who did you want to join, Rachel? Me or Julie?"
Rachel would've shrugged if her body hadn't felt like lead. " Does it matter now?"
Gill shrugged herself. " Guess not."
Rachel was silent for a moment, then she said, " I overheard you, when I was unconscious, though it sounded like you were talking from far away, you were talking about Nick. What happened?"
Julie had driven Gill to the hospital to see Rachel, and to see with her own eyes the state of the DC who Diana Savage had accused of assault against her brother. She hadn't expected this. Part of Julie was a little bit...ashamed that Rachel had overheard when she was still recovering from the terrifying event that had happened to her, but she was delighted the DC was conscious enough to speak. For the next five minutes Julie laid down the case for Rachel, and though it most likely hurt her to do so, Julie, Gill, and Janet watched as Rachel thought about it.
" I can see why his sister would feel that way," she admitted to them, " but I had nothing to do with the attack. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't. I've put too much effort into getting to where I am, and I'm not letting that man haunt me. I made that mistake once before, and I'm not letting him get in the way of my career again. Ever." Julie wondered what she meant by that, but Janet and Gill knew precisely what Rachel was talking about. Julie shrugged and carried on. " If you weren't in this bed, and it wasn't already known, then you would be questioned," Julie admitted, leaning in over Rachel though not close enough to intrude on her personal space. " You were almost the prime suspect."
Hearing that had Janet and Gill on Julie's case, but Rachel quickly interrupted. " It's okay, really guys," she whispered at the two women whom she knew best, besides she didn't want to hear an argument with raised voices. Her head felt like it was splitting, only her concentration was keeping her from falling back into being unconscious. Not a nice place to be. She turned back to Julie. " Ma'am," she began but Julie interrupted her. " Please, call me Julie, these two do." She pointed at Janet and Gill.
Rachel's head was swimming to much to care, but she did so anyway because Dodson was probably trying to make her feel better. " Okay, Julie," she whispered, trying out the name. " Since I heard Nick was being let off by the CPS, I decided to simply try and forget that the man existed. I changed the locks to my flat, he had keys. When my brother crashed my car after taking it for a joyride, I missed my sergeant's exam, and later I drowned my frustrations on that and Nick on a bottle of wine. Aside from that I haven't seen Nick, to the point where he's a bad memory. If this hadn't happened then I would've put the lying knobhead out of my mind."
Julie stood up. From what she'd heard Rachel hated Nick for leading her on, he'd almost killed her. She had good reasons to hate him for what he'd done. She looked deep into Rachel's eyes. Over the years during her time with the police, Julie had developed a sense of when someone was telling the truth. Rachel was.
" Do you have any idea who would want to see Nick injured or dead?"
Rachel made a movement with her head that Julie realised quickly was a shake. " No. Sorry."
Julie looked down at her again. Same thing, Rachel was telling the truth.
Then something occurred to Rachel. " You said that Diana Savage was keen on me getting arrested?"
" Yes," Julie replied, curious as to where this was going.
Rachel closed her eyes for a moment, making the other woman wonder if she was unconscious again. But Rachel woke up a moment later. " I met her once, at Nick's flat. She had her own keys. You said Nick had been attacked in the car park, under the Bridgewater estate, well there are two ways into that building. The main entrance is biometric, the second needs a key fob. Diana probably has both."
Julie frowned as she considered. Diana Savage wasn't someone she'd taken too at once, but now Rachel had added a possible suspect she had to admit that Diana had got to her quickly. Too quickly.
Janet frowned. " Why do you think she did it, Rach?"
Rachel's eyes turned to her. " Diana and Nick don't have a good relationship, but beyond that I dunno," she explained. " I heard them arguing, and I even heard a slap, but she'd gone before I could do anything. Nick had introduced us, then he asked me if he could speak, and I can tell you, the look she was sending me and him was anything but friendly."
" Doesn't mean there's any proof of that," Gill pointed out.
Rachel rolled her eyes. " I know," even lying on a bed with her voice quiet and slurred, she was capable of sounding like a child. " But it's a possibility. Whenever I saw them in public, they were so cold to each other. Don't tell her I said that."
Julie nodded, " I won't."
" Why do you think it might be Diana? Nick may have had other enemies." Gill asked.
Rachel licked her lips. " I know. But Diana hates me, but when I gave evidence against the arse, she didn't look angry. She looked pleased by the result, and she smiled at me. Now he's been let off, she's probably pissed off. Attack her brother, frame me...Gift from heaven if I was arrested."
Janet nodded. " It seems to fit."
" Still no evidence." Gill hated to point out, but she had to anyway. Julie was thinking things through in her mind, and she was already thinking of how to investigate the case. Diana Savage's name hadn't appeared on the list, but Julie could see Rachel was telling the truth. Surely there were other people who were aware of what the sibling's relationship was like?
Julie nodded. " Okay Rachel," she said, " I'll keep in touch. You coming or staying, cock?" She asked Gill. The former shook her head. Now Rachel was awake, she wanted to spend quality time with her and Janet. " Nah, I'll be fine," she replied. " I can always grab a taxi or something."
Julie smiled, and sent a warm smile in Rachel's direction. " Thanks for coming," she smiled. The Detective Superintendent was about to leave when she had a brain wave. " You said you'd heard lots about me, did Kevin say anything about me?"
Rachel's head was swimming at that point, but she answered as best she could. " Yes, he did." She didn't go into details and Julie didn't seem like she wanted to know because she was already aware of what Kevin thought of her. She nodded and left.
Rachel looked between Janet and Gill. " Please don't let me fall asleep again, how are things with the kids?"
Gill and Janet glanced at each other, and Gill started by saying what Sammy was doing with Orla. " He's thinking of becoming a police officer."
" No?" Rachel smiled at her.
" Yeah, says he wants to be like me."
Rachel tried to conjure and image of Sammy Murray, older and wiser, standing at the head of a table at an MIT syndicate, giving a lecture on a crime. She had a dim image of it, though whether or not it was down to her head almost split open was an open question. " Good luck to him," she whispered. " How are Elise and Taisie?" she asked Janet.
" Worried about you, I can tell ya," Janet replied. " Mum's with them, they came to visit. When they were told what had happened to put you here, Taisie pointed out it could've happened to her."
Rachel dimly remembered what had happened with Andy. It was like a bad dream made solid. She remembered how Andy had reacted when she'd brought his thugs drugging the girls up by accident, how painful it had been. Andy had an obsession with Janet, sometimes it made Rachel uncomfortable when she noticed how Andy would stare at Janet longer than was proper. Worse, those looks were like those of a predator. She had never said anything to Janet out of fear of their friendship collapsing.
" I thought Alison would've been here," Rachel moved on.
" She's been here, but with the arrangements for Holly's funeral and you being here, and work, she's been run ragged."
The mention of Holly was like a distant memory too, but it brought with it old pain for Rachel. She sighed. " How far has she got?"
Gill sighed. " She was trying to find a reasonable price for the funeral"
" She's been talking about cremation, but her husband talked her out of it. Said they should have a place for her in a graveyard where they can visit her." Janet said heavily.
Their father had been cremated, Rachel remembered organising the thing with Alison's help, her sister had called her hard when Rachel had been cold about the whole thing. Rachel had gone for cremation because she hadn't wanted anything further to do with their father, but Holly was different. Unlike her useless layabout granddad Holly had had a life ahead of her, but it was cut short. Rachel was a little angry her sister would want to cremate her own daughter, but she'd probably hoped that if she didn't visit a plot at a graveyard then the pain might fade with time.
What about ashes? Holly had barely lived her life, so there weren't many places they would be able to scatter ashes. That meant they would have an urn in their living room.
Personally Rachel couldn't see anything wrong with visiting a graveyard; her father had been a useless bastard who hadn't deserved a plot as it had been too good for him, but Holly was different. She'd been an innocent girl who'd gone way over her head. Rachel hoped to speak with her sister as soon as possible about it.
Alison came as the conversation with Gill and Janet dwindled. She came walking in, hair messy. When she saw her sister awake, she squealed with delight, and ignoring the others and Rachel's position, Alison wrapped her arms about her head and squeezed. Rachel almost screamed with the pain, and Alison remembered how badly hurt her sister was. Janet and Gill pried her off with ease. Alison was all apologies. " Oh, Rachel, I'm so sorry."
Rachel waved it off even as her head stopped aching. " It's okay." She tried to project she was recovering, but everyone could see the lines of pain around her features.
" No, it's not," Alison chided her. " I blamed you for not going anywhere with the case, next thing I hear is you're here with a hole in your head."
Tears started welling from her already red and sunken eyes. Typical.
" No," The last thing Rachel wanted for her sister to blame herself. She could just see the tell tale signs of tears welling up in Alison's eyes. Her sister had always been the more emotional of the family, with Rachel as the tough one and Dominic as the simpleton. " It's not your fault. I couldn't tell you most of the details. That's how it goes with investigations because you don't know where it will go."
Alison sat down heavily. Janet and Gill caught Rachel's eye. She wanted them to go so then she could speak to Alison. " We'll be off then," Gill said, picking up her coat and her handbag. " You'll be okay, right kid?"
Rachel smiled, and Gill bent down to kiss her on the cheek. Janet followed suit. " See ya, pal."
" Give my love to the girls and Dorothy." Rachel said to Janet quietly, who smiled. Taisie and Elise had been badgering their mother to visit Rachel for a while now. Dorothy...Janet honestly had no idea what it was about her friend that repulsed her mother, but at least with Rachel in hospital after uncovering such a sinister case...Janet walked out of the room to her car, her mind on Rachel and on the case. Being a police officer had shown Janet how disgusting human beings could be, but never would she have suspected someone like Andy doing something so evil. As always whenever she thought about the innocent girls he and his gang had taken, thoughts of Taisie and Elise sprang to mind, and the girls horror when they realised the same thing could've happened to them as well, Rachel's screams of pain as Andy beat her for even thinking about it, it made Janet wonder what had been going through the deranged lunatics mind. But there was worse to come; Gill had hesitantly asked if Janet could question Andy, the last thing she wanted. She didn't know what she would feel if she looked into his eyes, what she would say to him, what she wanted to say to him after learning what he'd done. This was the bastard who'd said he'd done it all for her, and that made it worse for Janet to comprehend. What in the world had possessed Andy to think she would simply accept what he'd done? Kidnapping girls and turning them into whores was something Janet Scott, a deeply moral woman, hated. How could Andy not know that?
What would Rachel do? She'd already confronted Andy in her own flat, a place outside work and therefore not safe. It wasn't her fault, she'd had no idea who was there with her until it was too late. You didn't need to be Sherlock Holmes of Miss Marple to guess the real reasons behind Andy's visit; he'd gone round there to kill Rachel no matter what she knew.
What would Rachel do? Her mind repeated. The answer came to her at once; she would want to get to the very bottom of the case, find out what Andy had done and damn the personal pain, but if Janet walked into an interview room where Andy was sitting at the opposite end of the table then she would need to draw upon all her years of experience to stop herself from lashing out. Like Rachel, Janet had once been impudent and impatient with questioning suspects, it was only time that had shaped her into the interviewer she was today. Rachel was already learning, thanks to example, but her best friend had a weapon; she could see things in words and actions, body language, and make guesses into what made someone tick. She would use that against the suspect, and the best thing was Rachel could manipulate someone into telling her the truth without them realising until the last moment. It was a Machiavellian type of questioning, but it got results, but Rachel would never accuse an innocent man of anything without significant proof.
Janet sighed as she ventured into the car park. Rachel would question Andy, no matter what, ask him questions. Janet paused as she opened the car. Could I question him, after everything he's done? To those girls, to Rachel?
Still troubled, Janet got into the car and drove home.
With the two sisters alone, Alison and Rachel found they didn't know where to start. Finally Rachel said. " I'm not surprised you said that to me over the phone. You had every right to be angry with me."
Tears trickled down Alison's face. " But, Rach-"
Enough. Rachel's patience was beginning to snap. " No, Ali I had no idea what I was doing. I was looking at a case that horrified me because it had been done so carefully. Our Holly had gone in way over her head when she should've told someone, told me."
" You were never there," the moment the words left her mouth Alison wished she could suck them back in. Rachel closed her eyes and gave the best nod she could. " I know," she replied. " But Holly was twelve years old, she was more than capable of picking up a phone, or email me. She had my email address, and my phone number. She could've called but she didn't, and that annoyed me. It still does to an extent."
Alison sighed.
" What're you doing about the funeral?" Rachel asked. This was the real part of the conversation she really wanted to speak about. Alison was hesitant, but she told her sister. Yes, she had considered cremation, but she'd been talked out of it.
" Thank god for that," Rachel said in relief. Seeing her sister's confusion, she explained. " Do you remember when I had our father cremated?" She refused to say the word " dad."
Alison nodded. " It was because I didn't have any decent memories of him, not any I would like to repay by having him in a graveyard."
" But he was our dad-" Alison protested. " Doesn't mean anything, not anymore," Rachel snapped, it had the affect of mercifully shutting her sister up.
" Far as I'm concerned he was a drunk who was more of the sperm donor who hung round. You know he gambled, Ali, I'm surprised he didn't get desperate enough to sell us to a pimp, even you've gotta admit he was moral enough not to go that far."
It had been a problem growing up. It was lucky that Alison had been old enough to drop out of school and go into work to earn a living, bringing back enough cash to put food on the table, keep the electricity, gas and water circulating. Life was tight then, but sometimes Rachel had been worried that their father would go too far, and have a debt that would take more money than Alison could bring in, and their father would sell his daughters into prostitution. It was a fear that had been with Rachel until the day she'd joined the police, and until now she'd had it firmly out of her mind.
This business with Holly and the other girls had brought that fear back.
When Janet had gotten home, she found the house quiet with the lights on. Part of her wished Ade was here, but if he had been then she would need to watch him, hear him say nothing despite her attempts to talk with him. Janet missed Adrian to a point, but it was a smallish point. Their marriage had been in decline for years, and there had been nothing they could do about any of it. They'd both known it, and they'd made every attempt to try and make the best of it, for the sake of the girls.
Now Adrian was out. Part of Janet felt as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, but now a greater weight was on her shoulders.
Deciding what to do about Andy.
She found some Shepherds pie with gravy sloshed over some peas and carrots in the microwave, a note on the side telling her she should get some sleep. Janet smiled at the note her mother had written though it didn't reach her eyes.
As Janet was waiting for the microwave to ping with her meal, she poured herself some wine, grabbed her notebook and pen and wrote down the pros and cons of talking to Andy. She kept an ear out for her meal, and when she was eating it she became engrossed with writing and eating she didn't notice someone coming close to her.
She almost had a heart attack when her mother opened her mouth. " I thought the note said you should get some sleep," she said pointedly.
Janet yelped. " Don't do that!" she chided her mother, one hand over her chest. " Fucking hell, you scared me."
Dorothy was taken aback by Janet's surprise. " Sorry, love," she held up a hand to shut her daughter up, and to stop her from waking up the girls. She took a seat. " What're you doing?"
Rachel had once inadvertently caused a court case to be thrown out because she'd told Nick Fucking Savage things, something Janet never did. She kept her home life and professional life strictly private, but this was different. Janet sighed. " I've been asked to interview Andy."
Dorothy was already aware of the case, and was immediately advising Janet not to. " After what he's done?"
" Because of what he's done," Janet replied forcefully. " Mum, he practically admitted too murdering Holly, and he tried to kill Rachel, and he almost succeeded. I wanted to refuse when Gill asked me-"
" Gill? Gill asked you to interview him?!"
Janet sighed; her mother seemed to favour Gill, but she didn't understand that her boss couldn't be her friend all the time. " Mum, Gill understands only too well if I refuse, she can draft another person to interview Andy, like Lee or Pete, but I'm the best interviewer she's got. Aside from Rachel, but Rachel's in a hospital bed thanks to Andy. Gill won't do the interview because she likes to observe them, and make her own deductions from a different point of view."
All this was too much for Janet, and she got to her feet and started to pace. " You have no idea what this case has done to me, to Gill, to Rachel, and the team. It's landed my best friend in hospital with a bullet in her hip, leg and head, and it's shaken the team because of what Andy has done for christ knows how many years.
" It's shaken me and Gill to the core; Gill because it was her own sergeant, someone she thought she could trust, but when she saw the picture of Holly, she didn't make the connection like I did. Rachel identified the body there and then. Could you imagine how Rachel must have felt, going to work to see a picture of a dead girl who happens to be her niece? Later Gill watched as Holly spoke from a DVD she'd recorded, and she watched Rachel break down in tears. Rachel never breaks down in tears, mum. She tries so hard to project a facade of hardness, but she's still a person at heart. Gill stood up for Rachel to Andy after giving Rach permission to find out what happened because technically it was personal."
Janet sighed. " Gill and Rachel were later attacked by two thugs who knew where the latter was, and later she had to listen as her own DS confessed to what he'd done, then she watched the bastard saunter into the office before we confronted him and he tried to escape before his victim attacked him."
" For me this case has been an eye opener," Janet looked at her mother with empty eyes. Dorothy shivered at it. " Andy did all this, for me, because he loves me," she sneered at the word. " Love? Does he really think I'd accept what he'd done to those girls, to their families? If he did, then he hasn't got his brain wired up properly."
Dorothy was silent. She hadn't expected all this, this outpouring from her daughter. Who would've imagined it would all have started if Holly Bailey hadn't played detective, a game she didn't understand? She didn't like Rachel for two reasons. One she was a bad, corrupting influence on Janet and her granddaughters; her daughter had never been much of a drinker before meeting Rachel, now look at her. She was drinking from the bottle, and it was now half empty!
The second reason was jealousy; jealousy for the relationship she had with Janet and the girls. Rachel was like a second mother and a sister rolled into one with the girls, and she was able to talk and relate to them in ways neither Dorothy and Janet could. With the girls, Rachel acted like an overgrown teenager, but with Janet she was like a younger sister but also someone who could get through to Janet in ways Dorothy had never been able to do since her daughter had been younger.
It was being a police officer that had turned Janet into a more harder person, Dorothy knew that, but it also made her less approachable. With Rachel or Gill, Janet had someone to confide in. Dorothy had no problem with Gill; she was a mother herself, diligent, hard working. She sometimes questioned Janet about why she never seemed to want to become like Gill; she already had the experience to become a Detective Chief Inspector, or Detective Superintendent, but Janet liked where she was. Dorothy was jealous of how opposite Rachel was; she wanted to be like Gill, no better, and Dorothy was affronted someone like Rachel would want something that someone like Janet didn't, and she had limited experience.
Unknown to Dorothy, Janet was watching her mother. She had good ideas about why her mother didn't like Rachel, but she wanted to be sure.
" Mum, are you jealous of Rachel?"
Dorothy jumped at the question. " No, why should I be?"
Too fast. Janet smiled at the lie. " Tell me the truth." Her tone broke no argument. Dorothy heard the tone, and frowned internally. But she relented because she wanted to voice what she felt.
" I'm afraid she might be taking you away from me." Dorothy winced; it just sounded so...petulant.
So much like Rachel.
Janet frowned. " What do you mean?"
Dorothy winced when she heard the anger in her daughter's voice. " Rachel wants to be like Gill when you don't, she gets on better with the girls than you or I."
Janet blinked. " That's it? Mum, I don't want to be a DCI, never have. It's better being a DC, or even a DS, but I'm not interested in rising higher than that. I love where I am. Rachel wants to be better than Gill because she's ambitious.
" She gets on with the girls because she's like a kid herself, but she's like a sister and daughter rolled into one with me. She knows the difference," Janet was saying as she washed up and prepared to get to bed. Her empty bed. No matter.
When she was finished she saw her mother was thinking over what her daughter had just said. " Take my advice, mum, move on from it. It's not fair to any of us, you included. Rachel will never take me away from you. You're the woman who raised me, not her and certainly not Gill. Thanks for dinner."
Dorothy watched as her daughter left, and sat in the dark with nothing but her own thoughts for company.
