4 February 1991
The flowers were on her desk when she got to work; a dozen red roses and as she stood in the doorway of the office staring at them, she suddenly wondered how she was going to explain them. She had to admit that they were beautiful, and she could only be grateful that he had seen fit to apologise, but it did seem a bit over the top to do it at work where everyone could see.
Frank's office was empty, but she knew that he had been due in an early policy meeting with Brownlow, Conway and Reid that morning, so it came as no surprise, not as much as the flowers did at any rate. Putting her bag down, she eyed them critically and felt a warm feeling spread through her belly. It had been years since she had received flowers, Stewart quickly deciding there was little need for them in a marriage other than on very special occasions. Perhaps Frank would be different.
"Wow…" She turned to see Viv coming in behind her. "Those are gorgeous! Secret admirer?"
"Mmmmm…"
"Is there a card?"
"Doesn't look like it." Of course he wouldn't have been stupid enough to put a message on it, even a cryptic one. She could only imagine Ted's face when he saw them.
"So, who are they from?" Viv asked. "You've not taken up with anyone, have you? You'd have told me."
"No, I haven't 'taken up' with anyone." She touched the petals gently.
"Well, they're hardly going to be from some villain you've nicked so I guess that only leaves one possibility."
"Who's that then?"
"Stewart, of course."
Of course, it was the perfect cover. The husband that she had left, the husband she wanted to divorce. Of course he would send her flowers to try and change her mind and win her back. And how was anyone to know that it wasn't him? It was the perfect ruse. "I suppose it must be," she agreed.
"He's got good taste."
"Well, I won't argue with that…" she pushed them gently to the other side of her desk. "Not that it'll do him much good."
"You're determined then," Viv said. "It's all over."
"Yes, it's all over."
"Not even his sudden show of sobriety the other day could change your mind?"
"No."
She thought back to how things had been left with Frank the previous day. After their argument over her failure to disclose her potential pregnancy, she had made her way into the station and been quickly tasked with looking at more CCTV that had come to light from a shop near the park. To everyone's relief, it had caught the image of a man talking to Sally Baines on the day she had been assaulted and they had managed to get a good picture of his face. Unfortunately, at the moment, they were none the wiser as to his identity, but the rest of her day had been spent overseeing the drawing up of photofit leaflets for uniform to distribute around the neighbourhood. She hadn't had the opportunity to speak to Frank, other than when he had told her, just before she had left for the day, that he wanted her to try and talk to Jodie Fleming. She had agreed and had wanted to try and clear the air with him, but there had been other people around and when she had tried to call him later that evening, there had been no answer.
She couldn't reconcile why he was acting the way he was. Yes, she knew that she should have told him about her suspicions at the time, but it was now so long ago as to surely be meaningless. Why he felt the need to hold it over her was beyond her.
"Well, I suppose you can't blame a bloke for trying," Viv said.
"Who?"
"Stewart," she gestured to the flowers again. "A lot of women might be swayed by a dozen red roses."
"Not me, not now."
"Good for you. Anyway, I called Mrs Fleming last night and she said that the best time to try and talk to Jodie would be at lunchtime, when she's home from school. I said we'd head over there about twelve."
"Suits me."
She worked in silence for a while, looking over some of the other investigations she had awaiting her attention, when the phone suddenly rang, and she lifted it automatically. "CID, WDC Lewis." There was silence on the other end. "Hello? Hello?" The dial tone buzzed in her ear, and she replaced the receiver.
"Who was that?" Viv asked.
"No idea. Wrong number maybe."
"What's all this then?" Ted's familiar brogue wafted into the office followed by the man himself, and he put his briefcase down and pointed to her flowers. "It's a little early for Valentines' Day, isn't it?"
"They're from Stewart," Viv said, before she could reply.
"Really?" Ted's eyebrows shot up. "The first step in his quest to win back the fair Christina?" She felt her face flush slightly. "What did the card say?"
"There wasn't one."
He cocked his head on one side, "No card? That's a bit odd, isn't it? Surely he'd want you to know they were from him." Lifting her eyes to meet his, she could tell exactly what he was thinking; that if they were from Stewart, then pigs were sailing past the window. He glanced towards Frank's office and then looked back at her. "But then maybe he prefers to be a man of mystery."
The description pertaining to Stewart made her laugh. He had certainly been many things, but man of mystery hadn't been one of them. "Maybe he's just trying something new."
"Hmmm, is it working?"
"I'm not going back to him, if that's what you mean."
"That's what I mean." She met his gaze again and felt his scrutiny. "Well, he clearly spent a pretty penny on them. I say, enjoy them."
"I intend to," she replied, silently conveying to him that she wanted him to stop talking. Every time he made a comment, even one that no-one else but her or Frank would pick up on, she felt a wave of panic sweep through it. It was such a fragile period of time and until something changed, no-one could know what was going on between them. Which was why, as nice as the flowers were, she couldn't quite understand why he had been so brazen.
XXXX
The policy meeting was deathly dull, and yet it seemed as though every meeting he had of late was the same. There was constant criticism from every quarter; Area, the public, local government…it felt as though nothing they ever did was good enough to satisfy everyone. Perhaps he had been too long on division. Perhaps it was time to get back to something more niche, like the Flying Squad.
"Frank, what do you think?"
Brownlow broke into his thoughts, and he looked up from the paper he had been pretending to study. "Yes sir, I would agree."
"You think that improvements can be made across the board?"
"Yes sir, with the right support and implementation of resources. People can't expect miracles if we're not given the appropriate tools."
"Yes…indeed…right, let's move on to page six…"
He tuned out again, thinking about Christina and the last meaningful conversation they had had. Discussing the molestation case didn't really count and he could still see the look of confusion in her eyes when he had left her flat after their disagreement. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was that had irritated him so much and yet something had. By the time the meeting was finally over, he felt desperate to seek her out and try to make amends, but Kim caught him as he was leaving the office.
"What's happening with the molestation?"
"Viv and Chris are going to speak to Jodie Fleming this afternoon. Her parents think she's ready to try and give us a statement now."
"Good, and the CCTV?"
"Still no hits from the leaflets but it's early days yet. Someone must know who he is."
"Do you think a spot on local radio might help?" she looked at him curiously.
"Well, it probably wouldn't hurt, Ma'am. The more information we can get out there, the better our chances of catching this bloke before he does it again."
"Nothing more on Mr Smith?"
"No Ma'am."
"All right," she nodded, "keep me posted."
"Yes Ma'am." He rolled his eyes behind her back and then headed for the stairs, his blood crying out for caffeine. As he rooted in his pocket for change for the machine, he caught sight of Ted coming down the back stairs. "Morning Ted."
"You want to watch yourself."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about having a dozen red roses delivered to Christina in the office. At least by not putting a card in then everyone can just assume it was Stewart trying to win her back, but come on…"
Frank paused, "Red roses?"
"Yeah, big as your fist." Ted paused. "You look like you're about to tell me you don't know anything about it."
"I don't know anything about it," he replied. "Do you really think I'm that stupid?" He pushed the money back into his pocket, turned for the stairs and took them two at a time up towards CID, Ted in pursuit. He saw them before he reached the office, displayed as they still were on her desk and, despite their beauty, found himself looking at them distastefully. "I didn't send these."
"Oh well…they must really be from Stewart then, though you'd think he would have included a card."
He felt a stab of anger go through him, possessive anger, jealousy even. She was his now, why couldn't Stewart just accept the fact that she had left him instead of trying to win her back with ridiculous gestures? He had half a mind to toss them in the bin. "Flash git."
"Have you and she had a falling out?" Ted asked, following him into his office.
"What makes you say that?"
"Call it Irish intuition. She clearly thinks they're from you. So, have you?"
He paused, "Not really."
"Not really?"
"We had words the other day, or rather I had words," he sat down at his desk. "We were talking about kids…"
"Jesus Christ, you are moving things along quickly."
"No, not like that. We were talking about the past, and she told me, amongst other things, that she had a pregnancy scare in early 1989."
"So?"
"So…it was the day that Victor McDonald raided the City bank. We were all there on obbo. She was in the same bloody car as me and she didn't think it was important to tell me."
"Tell you what, that she thought she was pregnant?" He nodded. "Why should she?"
"Because I should have known!"
"Why?"
"Because Ted, I was in charge and if I'd known, I would have taken her off the job, as protocol requires. She would have been on a desk, not throwing herself at armed blaggers."
"But she wasn't pregnant?"
"She didn't know that at the time of the obbo. She thought she was."
Ted shook his head, "I don't understand your problem. All right, she should have told you, but nothing happened to her, and it was two years ago."
"What if it was to happen now?"
"What if what was to happen now?"
"What if she thought she was pregnant?"
"Does she?"
"No, that's not the point, Ted. I'm saying what if?"
"Well, presumably, she would tell you."
"What if she didn't. What if she didn't say anything?"
"Why wouldn't she, this time around? I mean, I'm assuming if she did become pregnant, it would be yours."
"What if…" he paused, the whole crux of the matter, the whole niggle about the story running around in his brain and finally making sense. "What if she didn't tell me because, if she did, everyone would wonder why she was suddenly deskbound? What if she felt she couldn't tell me because no-one is supposed to know about us? And what if she didn't tell me and then I sent her out somewhere and something happened…"
"Hold on…" Ted put up his hand and then sat down in the chair opposite. "You're racing away at a hundred miles an hour here, thinking about things that haven't happened and probably aren't likely to happen."
He looked at Ted sharply, "What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm assuming that you're using protection."
"I'm forty-four, Ted, not fourteen. I do understand how it works."
"Then the chances of it happening are pretty slim. And even if it did happen and even if you did have to put her on desk duties, nobody would necessarily twig that it was because she was pregnant."
"No, but the fact that we have to sneak around right now would mean it would have to be a secret." He stared at the phone, as if watching it would make Tommy ring him with news from the Flying Squad.
Ted paused. "Where is all this anxiety coming from anyway? I've always thought you hated kids."
"I don't hate kids," he replied quickly. "I've just never been interested in having any of my own, that's all."
"You mean you've never been with someone that you want to have kids with," Ted said, sitting back in the chair and eyeing him knowingly. "Just because you didn't want kids with your ex-wife doesn't mean that you don't necessarily want to have kids with someone else…am I right?"
He hesitated, "I wouldn't mind having kids with her, if that's what you're getting at."
Ted shook his head, "You're away with the fairies right now, Frank. She's been away from her husband for all of a month, she's just moved into her own flat and she's starting divorce proceedings. Her life has flipped itself on its head, due in no small measure to her relationship with you, and now you want to knock her up?"
"That isn't what I said! I don't expect you to understand…"
"Why, because you think I've never been in love? Never been with someone I've wanted to build a proper future with, have a family with?"
Frank looked at him, surprised at the words. Ted had always been the fly-by-night type, much like himself. Divorced, no kids, footloose and fancy free. He had never really considered that there might be more to it, more to him.
"Let me tell you something, Frank; you're not the first man to fall in love with someone. You're not the first man to find yourself consumed by it, and that's what you are; consumed. But your situation is different, it's tricky and you need to get a grip and slow down. Not to mention the fact that you can't punish her for things that happened a long time ago and the decisions she made back then. Who knows, maybe if she thought she was pregnant she was hoping something would happen to her."
"You don't mean that," he said, shocked. "No woman would…"
Ted held up his hands, "I'm only saying. She can confide in you as much as she wants about her past with Stewart but only she knows what she was thinking that day, or what she would think if it were to happen now with you. Anyway…" he paused. "Getting back to the main issue at hand, you didn't send the flowers, which means he did, and the question is why."
"Why do you think? He doesn't want her to divorce him." Ted raised his eyebrows. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because you need to consider that perhaps Mr Church isn't going to just roll over and let you walk off into the sunset with his wife."
"You think he'll want a dual?" It was meant as a joke, but Ted's face remained serious. "Oh, don't be ridiculous Ted."
"Fine," Ted got to his feet. "Call it ridiculous if you want, but something tells me that when he finds out that part of the reason she's gone is because she's sleeping with you, he's not going to be overly pleased."
Alone again, Frank found himself musing over Ted's words, aware that he was most likely partly correct. Stewart would in all likelihood be upset when he eventually found out that he and Christina were together, but what could he do about it? She was resolute in her decision, or so she had said, and by the time Stewart found out about it, he would most likely be away from Sun Hill, so there would be nothing for anyone to be disciplined over.
At that moment, Christina and Viv came into the office together and all thoughts of Stewart faded from his mind. What was important right now was to make amends with her, try to explain why he had reacted the way he had and hope they could move past it.
XXXX
Jodie Fleming was a small child, fair-haired and blue-eyed, clearly destined to be a good looker when she got older. It was probably no surprise that whoever had molested her had chosen her. She sat next to her mother on the couch, her eyes wide and frightened, and Christina felt a mixture of pity for what had happened to her and anger that they still hadn't caught the person responsible.
"Can you tell us what he looked like, Jodie?" she asked softly.
"He was big."
"Do you remember what colour his hair was?"
"Black."
"And what colour were his clothes?"
"Black…but he had white shoes."
"White shoes…" she wrote the description down in her notebook, everything so far according with the description Sally had given and with the footage from the CCTV camera. "And did he speak to you?" Jodie paused. "Did he say hello or ask you anything?"
"He asked me my name."
"And did you tell him?" Jodie nodded and her mother shook her head in obvious frustration. "Did he ask you to go anywhere?"
"Into the trees."
"And can you tell us what happened in the trees?" As Jodie gave her answer, she carefully wrote down what the little girl was saying before turning to Viv. "It matches what Sally said."
"Had you seen this man before Jodie?" Viv asked. The little girl paused and then nodded. "You had? Where, at the park?" She nodded again. "When was this?"
"I saw him a few times."
"Did you see him speaking to any other little girls or boys?" Jodie shook her head. "Do you think you would recognise him again if you saw him?"
"Yes."
"That's been really helpful Jodie, thank you," Christina said. "Thank you, Mrs Fleming."
"Do you have any idea who he is?" Jodie's mother asked. "I'm sick with worry about her going outside at all now."
"I can understand that and we're doing everything we can to try to identify him. As soon as we've got any more information, we'll be in touch." She and Viv let themselves out of the flat and walked back over to the car. "He must be local."
"But we've ruled out all the known sex offenders," Viv said. "Well, not Smith conclusively, but you said you didn't think it was him."
"It's not. I would have recognised him from the footage. The bloke we're after is definitely younger." Christina sighed. "Maybe we need to put someone in undercover in the park."
"What, borrow someone's kid?"
"Yeah, and have officers there pretending to be the parents, see if our mystery man shows up. It's worth a try, surely."
By the time they had returned to the station, she was convinced that it was the best way forwards and her first port of call would have been Frank's office, if he hadn't met them coming along the corridor from the yard.
"Did you speak to Jodie?"
"Yes Guv," Viv replied. "Chris has come up with an idea."
"Oh yeah?" his eyes searched her face. "Well, you can tell me all about it but…can I have a word first?"
"Sure," she replied, nodding to Viv who moved ahead of her on up the stairs before following him into the vacant sergeants' office. "I should say thank you, for the flowers."
"I didn't send them."
"Oh…" she felt suddenly embarrassed. "I just assumed…"
"Yeah, well I wouldn't have been so obvious."
"No, I suppose not. I guess they really were from Stewart then." It put a whole new spin on how she viewed them, lovely as they were. Knowing they were really from her husband made her feel slightly uncomfortable, as though he hadn't fully accepted what she had told him.
"Are you going to keep them?" It was a casual enough question, but she could read his true meaning.
"Probably not."
"Anyway," he shifted. "Flowers or not…I reckon I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have had a go at you the other day so…I'm sorry."
"No," she shook her head. "No, you were right. I should have told you at the time. I was going to and…I don't know, something just stopped me. It was the wrong decision and I know that if I had been pregnant and something had happened to me…well…but what I don't understand is why you were so angry about it now. It was so long ago, Frank."
"One of the many downsides of rank," he thrust his hands into his pockets. "Having to be responsible for everybody's welfare, on top of everything else. It makes a difference when you care, really care, about someone on your team. I suppose I just wanted you to understand that if something like that were to happen now, you would need to tell me."
"And I told you I would. There would be no question about that."
He paused, as though he was thinking about asking her something and wasn't quite sure how to do it. "Did part of you hope that, if you were pregnant, something would happen?"
She took an intake of breath, her mind going instantly back to that time, the memory of Viv urging her to tell him as fresh as though it had only been the day before. The thoughts she had had at the time…part of her was almost ashamed to admit them. "Maybe." His eyes widened slightly. "I didn't want a baby, not then. I knew what would happen if I was pregnant; I'd be deskbound, and I thought that…"
"Thought that what?"
"I thought that you'd use it as an excuse to get rid of me. As I said, we didn't exactly have the best relationship back then." He turned his back on her and wandered over to the other side of the desk before turning back. "I'm sorry; it's how I felt at the time."
He nodded, "The truth is, I probably would have, back then."
Him giving voice to what she had feared surprised her and yet she felt somewhat gratified that he was able to admit it. "If it were to happen now…I know I would feel differently."
"You want to have a baby?"
"No, I mean…not right now…I don't know…" she found herself floundering, unsure of what she was really saying, unsure of what she really felt. "I just know that it wouldn't be the same. I wouldn't even consider not telling you." Holding his gaze, she felt a pull somewhere deep inside her, something she couldn't quite recognise. Was it the inherent pull of motherhood that every woman was supposed to possess? Was it telling her that she had finally met the person she was meant to procreate with, even if he was the last person she would have, at one time, considered?
Before either of them could say anything more, the door opened and Bob appeared, his expression one of surprise at seeing them.
"Everything all right in here?" he asked.
"Fine," Frank replied. "Conversation over. We all square then, Chris?"
She nodded, "Yes Guv."
"Good, let's get back to it then. Sorry for taking up your space Bobby."
"No apology necessary," Bob replied as she followed Frank out of the door.
As they made their way back up the stairs, he briefly caught her hand in his and squeezed it gently before releasing it again. "Right then, what's this idea you wanted to run past me?"