Chapter 2:
Each day was the same, kept in an old stone cellar, cold air creeping through the cracks in the stone mortar and water leaking down the walls. Nothing to do each day but to wait for the daily torture session to begin, hope the food was edible and wait for an opportune moment to devise a master plan. It was hard, his lips were cracking from the dehydration and he could feel his muscles loosing their strength. He tried his best to counteract the situation by doing push ups and sit ups every day but he knew after 5 weeks of limited rations that he could be doing more harm than good. He'd spent almost two weeks on that boat according to his calculations with nothing but a few bars of beef jerky, some rum and a few bottles of water he'd found in amongst the supplies in the cargo container he'd been locked in. He had no idea where he was, or who was behind it or even if Maurice Becker was still alive. He tried not to let himself think of Leslie too much, he couldn't let himself get emotional right now, even though the thought of getting back to here was keeping him alive. If he was going to survive this then he needed all of his wits about him. Only one thing was certain, he was on his own.
"Oh good she's asleep." Rose pulled the blanket over Leslie's shoulders and joined Mal at the table in their office above the bar.
"It looks like she was onto something. She's been scribbling some notes down here."
"What does it say?"
"Plenty of fish in the sea?"
"I don't understand."
"We'll ask her when she wakes up. In the meantime, what are we going to do about getting her to take it easy?"
"Nothing we can do."
"Over my dead body. I'll tie her to a chair and make her eat myself soon. This punishment of hers has got to stop." Mal was getting really worried for her.
"Give her time, it's not like you've been acting much better. When was the last time you finished a decent meal, or fell asleep without the help of a bottle of whiskey?"
"You and I both know there is more at stake here than we've been told."
"So what are you going to do? Force it out of her?"
"For her own good, if I have to. Yes." Malachy raised his voice, stirring Leslie from her sleep.
"Well done Malachy." Rose went and poured her a glass of water and placed it in her hands as Leslie sat up, half groggy. "Here you go my dear, you look a little pale. Drink this and I'll make you something to eat."
"No thanks, I'm fine." Leslie protested, Mal paced back and forth in the background.
"That's it." Mal threw down the file and made his way to the seating area where Leslie sat.
"Mal!" Rose warned him, but it was no good, sitting on the coffee table in front of Leslie, Mal took her hands and forced her to look at him.
"I know you love Jake, we all do but this has got to stop. If you don't eat something soon it's Jake whose going to come back and have to bury you. We need you at full strength."
"I am at full strength." Leslie insisted.
"Shag that. You look as skinny as a rake, you're as pale as a ghost and you haven't slept in weeks. You're ready to collapse from exhaustion and malnutrition."
"Don't be ridiculous." Sure she was tired and a little dizzy occasionally but Mal was just overreacting.
"Me ridiculous." Mal protested
"Mal.. take it easy." Rose insisted.
"What are you saying Mal? Do you want me to stop looking for Jake? Have you given up on him too?"
"Of course not but you can't keep punishing yourself like this."
"I'm not its just…"
"Stop lying to yourself Leslie. Every cop on the force has been where you are today, it's terrible I know but you have to push past the anger and the hate or it will tear you down."
"I'm fine."
"You are not fine Leslie. If Jake were here he'd be the first person to tell you what a fool you are being."
"But his not here is he." Leslie bit back.
"No, but you are, and me and Rose and Tinny and Des. We all love Jake, and we'll all keep looking for him as long as it takes but you need to look after yourself first. I want you to take a break, just for a day or so, get some rest and some perspective."
"No."
"Please Leslie." Rose pleaded.
"No. You can't tell me what to do. I'm not one of your children and you're not my father."
"Is that so." Mal shouted in that loud disapproving parents get right before they scold you.
"Leslie." Rose couldn't believe she could be so rude. It was not like her.
"No, she's right." Mal stood back, "But I am the grandfather of that baby you're carrying and in Jake's absence it's my responsibility to see that it's looked after."
"Wh….." Leslie looked up at Mal… tears streaming down her face. "How dare you."
"Because somebody has to knock some sense into that thick head of yours."
"MAL!" Rose was upset, he'd gone too far. "Enough!" She demanded.
"Get out!" Leslie ordered him, pointing towards the door.
"This is my office, not yours and I'm staying." Mal folded his arms and stood his ground.
"Get out NOW!" Leslie ordered rising to her feet and pointing to the door again.
"Leslie honey." Rose comforted her, "stay calm."
"No." Mal disagreed. "Let it out."
"Get out of this office right now Malachy Doyle or I swear to god…"
"What is going on here?" Rose asked, she'd never seen Mal have such fire towards Leslie, or anyone for that matter.
"He is my son and I have just as much at stake here as you. I'm not going anywhere. You can either deal with that or leave but this is my office."
"How dare you. When Jake gets back were going to leave you and this place behind and you are never going to see us, or this baby ever again." Leslie went to storm out of the office. As she brushed past Mal to grab her jacket, he took her arm and prevented her from leaving. "Let me go."
"No."
"Mal this has gone too far." Rose tried to intervene, but Mal wasn't paying any attention to her.
"Let me go I tell you." Leslie knew it was irrational but she searched for her gun, it was on the table out of reach. Rose was alarmed when she realised what she was looking at. Would she really draw her weapon on Mal? "Let me go!" she screamed again, this time clawing at Mal's hand and then pounding his chest with her fist. "You son of a bitch. You always put him down. You never thought he was good enough but he was a better man than you would ever be, a better detective, a better cop.."
"He was a screw up. Always has been always will be."
"No!" she slapped him across the face, "He was a good man, is a good man." She pounded on him some more.
"Mal let her go." Rose ordered. Leslie was enraged. Rose was sure she was going to crack one of Mal's ribs she was pounding on him so hard.
"That's it let it go." Leslie started ranting over and over again, until exhaustion overcame and she found herself falling into Mal's arms and crying. "I hate you" she whispered again.
"I know you do." He smiled.
"I don't get it." Rose had no idea what had just happened.
"She let it out." Mal smiled, holding Leslie tight as she cried into his shoulder. Too long she had tried to keep dethatched, clear headed. She needed to grieve, to mourn, to fear. She wasn't a cop on this case, she was the grieving wife, the distraught girlfriend, the fearful mother.
"There, there." Mal comforted her. "I'm sorry but I had to do that. I couldn't have this hunger protest of yours go on much longer. You've got responsibilities now and it's time you started looking after them."
"How long have you known?"
"Three weeks. Rose figured it our first. Why didn't you tell us?"
"I wanted Jake to be the first to know."
"He doesn't know yet? I can't wait to see his face when he finds out."
"Do you think he'll be upset?"
"Are you kidding me. Jake will be over the moon. Just wait and see."
"I hope your right." Leslie imagined what his reaction would be, the fear on his face, then a fake smile until finally the real smile shone through. She knew he'd be a good dad, after all he had played a big part in raising Tinny, but they'd never spoken about starting a family and they were both so carer driven, maybe, she giggled, he'd be the stay at home dad while she climbed the ranks at work. Jake, vacuuming, washing dirty nappies and playing tea parties, that'd be the day.
"There." Mal saw the faint smile touch her lips, "Now why don't you tell me what this means." He asked, holding up the note she had left on the file.
"And I'll fix you something to eat, and this time you're going to eat it." Rose added, glad things had settled down.
"Mal?"
"Yes dear." He said passing her a tissue.
"I don't really hate you."
"I know." He said holding her tight. "Now, let's find this son of mine so we can tell him the good news."
"Deal." He helped her up, and handed her another tissue. Leslie wiped her eyes and took a seat at the table.
"Hmm." She said reading it over again, "It's something Hood told me." Then she remembered, "Actually it's something I accused him of thinking about Jake, I guess I have a few apologies to make there as well."
"All in good time. What do you think it means?"
"I'm not sure." Leslie looked at the board again as she twisted the paper in her fingers.
"Fish in the sea?" Rose repeated.
"That's it." Leslie pulled out the file of surveillance photos and flipped through them. "The tankers."
"We searched them all, no one matching Jakes description boarded any of the ships to the mainland."
"Not officially, but what if he was taken against his will?"
"What are you thinking?"
"There were an awful amount of shells on that dock, but no blood."
"Yeah that was odd."
"You don't think?"
"It's the only possibility we never checked into. Everyone thought he was dead or he'd been taken but there has been no sign of them anywhere."
"Becker certainly had enough money to buy his way onto a shipping container."
"And the camera's never track that far in the yards. They mainly concentrate on the passenger terminals."
"Right. I'll get Des onto that. I'm sure he can scrape up something."
"Even if you're right. There must have been at least 20 ships docked in the harbour. How do we know which one he is on and where he is heading?"
"If I was Becker? I'd want to stay at sea until things cooled down." Leslie thought aloud.
"I'll track down the routes of every ship that has come and gone from St Johns in the last 5 weeks. See if any have gone missing or altered their course." Rose stepped closer and hugged Leslie.
"I have a good feeling about this Rose."
"I know boy, me too."