Disclaimer: BBC, Monastic and Kudos own Ashes to Ashes, all I own are the characters I invented.
Once again, thank to everyone who has kept with this story, and especially to those kind souls who have reviewed it. It really is appreciated.
Last chapter coming up. I know it's time to update when the previous chapter has been bumped off the A2A front page by this flood of great new fics!
As always, please let me know what you think!
Molly spent some time talking to Mrs Cobb, a bright, middle-aged lady who gave her a wealth of information on the market's opening times, the stallholders who had pitches on each day of the week, the locations of the stalls, and their merchandise. Most of the attacks had been carried out on stallholders as they packed up for the day or were preparing to bank their takings. Looking at a diagram of the stalls and noting the places where the attacks had occurred. Molly could see a pattern emerging, although there was no answer yet. Leaving the Market Association office, she looked at her watch. Ten-thirty. After only a moment's consideration, she headed for the Tube and travelled to a luxurious flat in Pimlico.
She rang the doorbell, and after a short wait the door was opened by an elderly, bearded, frail-looking man who brightened up with pleasure at the sight of her.
"Scrap! How lovely to see you. Do come in."
Molly smiled. "Hello, Evan." Privately she was shocked to see how much he had deteriorated in recent weeks. When I was a child, he was always so vital. He started to go downhill when Layton was arrested in 2011. God knows what he's been going through since I told him last week that Layton was back in London, and what I have to tell him now will make him even worse.
He saw her through to the elegantly appointed living room, decorated with prints of the foreign places which he had always longed to see, but had never been able to visit. Poor Evan, he gave up so much to look after Mum.
"Tea, Scrap?"
"No, thanks, I can't stay long, and I've just been to see a potential witness who filled me up with coffee and buns."
They sat down together on the large leather sofa. "So, how come you're here this time of day? Shouldn't you be on duty?"
"Well spotted. The Guv wanted me out of the station for a couple of hours while he charges someone we arrested yesterday. Arthur Layton."
"Oh." Evan's already pale face went almost bloodless, but he quickly rallied. "After so long. Oh, Scrap, I'm so pleased for you."
"It could be a long time before he comes to trial, if at all," said Molly, a shade too quickly, conscious that she was watching his reaction too closely. "The Brazilian authorities want him too, in connection with a murder there last year, and his lawyers will try to draw out the process as long as they can. He's old now, and he doesn't look well."
"Like me," said Evan with an unsuccessful attempt at a smile.
"Rot," said Molly with as much conviction as she could manage, which wasn't a lot. She could see that he was in torment, and cursed herself. I've got to find a way of telling him what Mum told me.
"Listen, Evan," she said firmly, taking his hands and looking into his eyes. "I had to explain to the Guv about my personal connection with the case. He knows now that I'm Molly Drake, and that I've been after Layton because of Mum. You know his parents arrested Layton in 1981."
"Of course." Evan's voice was faint, and he seemed to be speaking with difficulty. "Then your grandfather got Layton released, just before your grandparents were killed."
"Yes. The Guv doesn't reckon that we'll have anything on Layton for that, so I'm afraid it won't be included among the charges. But he told me that his mother kept a diary of the cases they worked on, including that one. She did that to protect her and his father. They came up against so many bad people."
"Yes," said Evan with unexpected fire. "I remember. There was one, Mackintosh. I'd lost touch with them then, looking after your mother, but I read about it in the newspapers. Their own Superintendent. He was dangerous and wicked, he killed people who got in his way. He could have destroyed them both. They were very brave to stand up to him. No wonder she wrote it all down."
"The Guv told me that he read it. It said that Layton did kill Gran and Grandad, just as we've always suspected. That he did it because he had a grudge against you and Grandad because of the way his case had been handled, and he wanted to get you blamed for it."
Evan's worn face lit up in astonishment. "Sh-she said that?"
"She also said that when Layton vanished, he left forged evidence blaming you, and the Guv's father destroyed it to protect you and Mum."
"But - " Evan hesitated and forced himself to go on. "Will your Guv produce that as evidence for the trial?"
"I'm afraid not. She destroyed it before she died."
Evan looked shocked. "I didn't know she was dead."
"She and her husband both. Two years ago." Molly strove not to make that sound important. She was not meant to have known these people. To conceal her emotion, she hugged him. "Oh, darling Evan, you must have been so afraid all these years that if I caught Layton, he'd try to accuse you over Gran and Grandad. You needn't worry any more. I know the truth now, and Mu - Mrs Hunt - her diary said that Layton hasn't got any evidence."
"Yes... the truth..." said Evan faintly. Molly released him and looked into his face. It had a smile of such beatific sweetness that it twisted her heart.
"God bless Alex Hunt," he said softly.
"Amen to that," said Molly, with tears in her eyes.
"I knew her and her husband quite well at one time, did you know? Before I adopted your mother." He spoke hurriedly, wanting to change the subject. Molly just about registered that, lost in the realisation that she could talk to someone else who had known her mother in her other life. "It's strange... her name was Alex Drake too, before they were married. She was very beautiful. Rather like your mother, actually, tall, amazing figure, dark hair, only hers was curly. One of those 80s perms. She was the first female Inspector in her Division, very fiery, very dedicated, but she couldn't have dressed less like a policewoman."
"I know. The Guv showed me photos."
"She was a bit...odd. Eccentric. Always acted as if she knew things that nobody else did. I couldn't understand what she said, half the time. But a brilliant police officer. Very much ahead of her time."
Yes, she would have been.
"I had rather a crush on her," Evan added, almost shyly.
"Did you?"
"Oh, yes." Evan smiled at the memory. "But she only ever seemed to regard me as a father figure or maybe a favourite uncle. Which was odd, given that we were around the same age."
No wonder. He may have been young and handsome then, but she still thought of him as her guardian.
"But to tell the truth, she never had eyes for anyone but Gene Hunt," Evan continued amusedly. "Rather an affront to my masculine pride. He was a brute and a bully, ten years her senior, as far behind the time as she was ahead of it, overweight, swore like a gang of navvies, smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish. But underneath all the bluster there was a good man, and she was the one who found that out. Then she was shot and went into a coma, just like your mother. He contacted me to ask if I knew where her daughter was."
"Her daugh - " Good God, he means me. They were looking for me. Fifteen years before I was born.
"She'd mentioned a daughter, but I didn't know anything about her. I visited the hospital to tell Hunt that I couldn't help, and he was so different. Subdued, almost gentle. He'd been watching over Alex, night and day, since she'd been admitted. He was exhausted, but he wouldn't leave her. I knew then, how much they needed each other, and I tried to tell him that. She recovered consciousness about twelve hours later."
"The Guv says that they were always very happy."
"I didn't see them often after that, but I was at their wedding, and I've never seen two people so much in love. I've always liked to think that I'd helped them a little, to repay them for what they did for your mother and me. Now it looks as though they've repaid me again."
"Yes."
He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "You were right, Scrap. I've been so afraid of what Layton might try to do to me if he were arrested again. That he'd try to turn you against me. You're all I have left."
"He won't. He can't, now," said Molly soothingly. "Oh, Evan, can you ever forgive me? For years I've thought about nothing but catching him. I didn't stop to think how it might hurt you. Even after you were so ill nine years ago."
Evan shook his head. "Nothing to forgive. You weren't to know that Layton had - had manufactured a hold over me, and I couldn't let that make me try to stop you or anyone else bringing him to book. I owed that to your mother and your grandparents. But I have been very frightened about what accusations he might make if he was caught again."
"You've given up your whole life for Mum and me", said Molly remorsefully. "All this time, I've taken you for granted, taken everything and given so little back. I hope Mum was more grateful to you than I've been."
"Nonsense." Evan sounded almost angry. "Don't ever let me hear you say that again. The two of you have been the best things in my life."
"But, because of us, you were never able to have your own life, never find anyone of your own - "
Evan smiled sadly. "That didn't matter. There was only one woman I was ever really in love with, and I couldn't have her."
"Alex Hunt?"
"No. Someone else. It was all a long, long time ago."
"Did she love you?"
"I don't think so. She was flattered by my attention, but that was all."
"Do you still see her?"
"No, she died long ago."
Inspiration struck. "Was it Gran?"
He looked horrified for a moment, but soon recovered. "Yes. Yes, it was. She was so strong and brave, it was impossible not to admire her. Pure calf love, of course, she was much older than I was. She probably just thought of me as a silly boy. Tim, your Grandad, was away a lot, and I used to visit their house to help her out with looking after your mother. Layton must have known that, and guessed how I felt about her, and he tried to use it against all of us. But there was nothing to it, really there wasn't - "
"Of course not. Oh, Evan, I'm so sorry. I wish I hadn't told you anything about Layton. I've upset you."
"No, of course you should. It's best that I know."
He looks so tired. I 've just given him a big shock, and he's trying to cover for it.
She looked at her watch. "Sorry, Evan, I'll have to go. The Guv wants me in at noon, and I'll have to use the Tube as I haven't got my car. I'll come back this evening, if that's OK."
"Yes, please do, darling. We'll talk some more then."
She left the flat wishing that she had not come. In one way I've made things easier for him. He knows now that I won't believe Layton. But Layton's still a loose cannon, and he could try to descredit Evan at his trial. If only Evan had told me years ago why he's been so afraid. But of course he didn't dare. When I was younger, and so bitter, I might even have thought Layton's claims were true. And whatever Evan said, it wouldn't have made any difference. I had to get Layton, whatever the cost to me or to anyone else.
Oh, Mum. We'll have to be Evan's guardian angels now. Just as Sam is mine.
As she was walking into the tube station, she stopped so suddenly that someone behind her nearly cannoned into her. He didn't know that Alex Hunt was dead. So he can't have met her after she came back from Spain. He can't have told her about Mum's goodbye on the Millennium Bridge.
Still pondering, she made her leisurely way to the station, arriving just after noon. As she passed the desk, Sergeant Pine said, "Oh, Ma'am, the Guv said that you were to go straight to his office as soon as you got in."
"Thanks, Charlie. I hope I'm not in trouble again. I haven't been AWOL, he told me to go and see a witness first thing."
"He didn't look angry, Ma'am, and if he was, the whole of CID would know about it," said Pine judiciously.
All the same, she felt a flutter of trepidation at the pit of her stomach as she tapped at his door. Hearing his usual bark of "Come!", she opened the door and walked in. He looked up and smiled.
"Ah, Molly. Shut the door and sit down. Could Mrs Cobb help with the market muggings at all?"
She obeyed. "Nothing directly helpful, Guv, but it might help in the long term. I'll look at the witness statements again and see if I can build up a picture."
"Good, good." He leaned towards her across the desk. "Layton's been charged and been taken to the Scrubs. In view of what happened in 2011, I got them to phone me when he arrived. He's in the pen."
Molly sighed deeply. "Thanks for telling me, Guv."
"During the interview, we found that his lawyer has another card to play."
"Guv?"
"He told us that his client's suffering from prostate cancer. He's estimated to have six months left, a year at the very outside."
Molly felt as though everything were crashing around her ears. "Then there won't be a trial. Anywhere."
"I'm afraid not. I'm sorry, Molly. He's unlikely to last long enough. His lawyer said he's on pain killers now, and within four months he'll probably have to be sedated. He's in the Scrubs infirmary now, being checked out to see if it's true. I'm afraid it probably is. There would be no point in lying when it could be disproved so easily. In the circumstances the CPS will regard a trial as academic. But the Brazilians might not be feeling so lenient. And he's unlikely to be released, even to die. Not after yesterday."
Molly buried her face in her hands. "After all this time..."
"Yes, after all this time! Think, Molly. He must already have known when he came back to the UK."
She looked up at him, and her hands flew to her mouth. "Oh, my God, the bastard. He said yesterday that he'd been keeping an eye on me. He'd been hacking Met records, so he knew I'm with the Met and working for you. He came back, made sure I'd know where to find him, then he rigged the house and waited for me to come for him, and you to come after me - "
"Exactly." Hunt's face was as grim as a graveyard.
"You saved me. Saved us all. Guardian angel."
"Think nothing of it. Hunts saving Drakes, that's a family tradition. Mum was so headstrong, she had this habit of walking into dangerous situations. Dad reckoned that he'd had to rescue her on nearly every major case they had together. Just try not to make so much a habit of it as she did. I don't like sticks of dynamite tickling my sternum every day of the week."
"He planned this. All of it."
"What he planned was to go out in a blaze of glory. A quick, easy death, blowing the daughter of the woman he murdered, and the son of his greatest adversary, to kingdom come along with him. Instead, he'll die slowly and agonisingly, in the Scrubs hospital, with the British and Brazilian authorities fighting over a carcass that's rotting before it's dead. Like I said yesterday, some justice. Better than none."
Molly was silent for a long time, fighting her horror and disappointment. At last she was able to smile shakily and say, "Maybe that's better in some ways. With a good lawyer he could have played the system for years. At least like this, we know where we've got him."
"Yes." Hunt's face was very solemn. "No escaping from that judge. No time off for good behaviour. And where he's going, he'll pay, and pay, and pay again for what he's done. To you, to Mum, to Sandoval and his other Brazilian victims, to all the drug addicts and to all the other people whose lives he's ruined."
"Above all, Evan will be safe. If only I hadn't visited him this morning. When I told him Layton was under arrest, he looked terrified. I told him what I know now, and that set his mind at rest, but he was still so afraid of what Layton might say in court. I'm seeing him again tonight, so I can tell him that there won't be a trial. That he'll be all right."
Hunt looked thoughtful. "Layton might still make some sort of deathbed confession. At the worst, Evan could face questioning, but I should be able to field that."
"Thanks so much, Guv. Sam. For everything. I - I don't think Evan's got very long either. He looks so frail. He deserves to die in peace."
Hunt nodded. "We'll both do our best for him."
"Poor Evan. I brought all this on him. All this time, I've been obsessed with revenge, without thinking or caring about what it would do to him. I've destroyed him. And I could have killed us all, yesterday."
"No. Not you. Layton. Nobody asked him to blow up our grandparents, kill Mum, blackmail Evan, or try to wipe out the four of us," said Hunt strongly.
"But - Layton - "
"Yes?"
Molly bowed her head, thinking through everything she had learned during the past twenty-four hours. He was silent, letting her take her time.
"All these years, I've wanted nothing but revenge on Layton for killing Mum," she said at last. "But now I've got it, I know what it's done to Evan, and I've come close to destroying myself with hatred and bitterness. Maybe I would have done, if it hadn't been for you and what I learned yesterday."
"Revenge is hardly ever worthwhile, just for itself," Hunt agreed. "It's said to be a dish best served cold, but more often than not it turns to ashes in the mouth."
"But if I hadn't gone after Layton, I'd never have known what really happened to Mum and we'd never have known that we're related. So Layton drove Mum and me apart, but in finding him, I've found out the truth. About Mum, about Gran and Grandad, and about you. I've found her family, after so many years alone."
"Don't start thanking him," said Hunt drily.
"I'm not. But - in that sense, my revenge has been worthwhile."
"I should say so. For both of us. I've found another sister, and we've nailed a vicious, murdering bastard who deserves everything that's coming to him. Talking of bastards, I sent Frank and a couple of plods round to Nine-Toed Eddie's place. He'd scarpered, but traffic cops nailed him doing a ton on the M25. Looks like he was trying to get to the Dover ferry. He probably didn't know that Layton planned a demolition derby on his house, but he's been harbouring a known criminal. With luck we should get him to spend a bit of time at one of Her Majesty's lodging houses too."
Molly was able to smile. "Thanks, Guv."
"Thank you too, for remembering my title in the workplace. I'm afraid we won't be able to tell anyone here we're half-brother and sister."
Molly nodded. "I know. It would be altogether too complicated. But we'll both know, and so will Allie. That's the main thing."
"Indeed it is. In the meantime, Allie and I would like you to grace us with your presence for lunch this Sunday. Uncle Chris and Auntie Shaz are coming. They'll be glad to meet the DC who tracked down Arthur Layton."
"Oh, thank you. You know I'll love to come. It'll mean so much to me, to meet people who knew her."
He smiled. "I know. That's why I'm asking."
"Will you tell them? About Mum, and me?"
"Not right away, if you don't mind. Give them a chance to get to know you first, then we'll all see whether it would be a good idea. Same applies to Carrie, you'll have to meet her soon too."
She nodded. "Yes. I think that's best. I'd be a bit nervous of our trying to explain it to anyone I don't already know."
"Good." He smiled again. "In the meantime, let's see whether what Mrs Cobb told you can help us get that bloody mugger out of Borough Market."
Understanding that she was being dismissed, and that their relationship was returning to a professional footing for the time being, she rose. "Sure thing, Guv."
She returned to her desk and renewed her work on the Borough Market statements. Suddenly something seemed to jump out at her. A connection. Three of the victims stated that their attacker had said, "Hope I didn't hurt you, but my need is greater than yours". Now, who do we know who uses that phrase? Suddenly galvanised, she tore into the database, did a quick word search, and came up with a string of statements from a series of house robberies which the team had cracked eighteen months ago. A member of the gang had said, "Our need is greater than yours." Froggy Winterton, released two months ago on parole, reduced to working solo while the rest of the gang was still inside. Just before the muggings started.
"Right, Frogs, my lad, we're a-coming for you!" she murmured gleefully as she printed the statements. Longing to show the Guv how she had repaid his faith in her, she picked up the whole sheaf of papers and surged into his office, crying, "Guv, the Borough Market muggings - I've made the connection! Froggy Winterton - ", only to halt in embarrassment as she realised that he was not alone. A man whom she had never seen before sat in the chair facing the desk. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Guv. I didn't realise you were busy."
The Guv looked up with a smile. "That's all right, Molly. Come in. As you know we've been waiting on a new DI. Andy Carling. Welcome on board, Inspector."
The newcomer beamed. "I'm so proud to be working for you, Sir. It's been my ambition. My father was your father's DS for most of his career."
"Yeah, and my Dad used to say your Dad was a div!" the Guv growled, but his eyes were twinkling. "Carling, meet DC Molly Drake. The two of you will be working a lot together."
Carling stood and held out his hand to Molly. "Delighted." She shook hands and looked a long way up into a friendly face, topped by a thatch of dark blond hair, with the bluest eyes she had ever seen. He smiled, and she felt her knees melt.
The Guv draped one long arm around each of their shoulders and looked from one to the other. "Well! With a Hunt, a Drake and a Carling on the team, not to mention a Skelton looking after the little 'uns at home, it looks like South Londoners can sleep easier in their beds at night!"
As they both looked at him, Pine came puffing into the room. "Call just in, Sir. Attempted robbery and arson at the Freemans' mail order warehouse in Clapham Road."
"On our way." The Guv grabbed his coat and raced out of the office, bellowing for Bill and Frank. Molly and Carling looked at each other, and he smiled again, gesturing that she should go first. She smiled back.
Well, Mum, she thought as she followed the others out to the car with Carling behind her, maybe I'm allowed more than one guardian angel. Just maybe.
THE END