CHAPTER 17
I grabbed the phone and hammered in Blake’s number, getting it wrong four times before screaming at it. I found myself holding it in mid-air, tensed and ready to hurl it at the wall, as Fritz sprinted off into the kitchen.

Police, woman; Professional. Pull it back and breathe. I slowed my actions down as best I could, tapped in my husband’s mobile number, and got his bloody answering service.

Breathe, woman, centre yourself, and don’t look at the bloody television.

Bloody footprints. Oh fuck.

I managed to get Sammy’s number in, and he answered after only two rings.

“Inspector Patel”

“Sammy!”

“Di? What’s up? Not the baby? He’s out interviewing, have you called an ambulance?”

Breathe. P, P.

“Baby’s fine, Sammy. Can you get online? BBC News?”

“Hang on… Oh fuck. Anyone hurt? Anyone we know?”

“Yeeeessss…”

“Di! Keep with me, OK? Who is it?”

I looked down at my bump, feeling a sudden surge in bladder pressure as my distress clearly did something to my passenger.

“Adam? Remember Adam Price? That’s her footprints by the car, I think”

“Traffic lad? Hang on… Oh fucking shit and bollocks, I see the prints, and… Di. We will talk later, aye? I am going to shout Blake on the radio, you keep your mobile switched on and next to you. Ring someone. Mam, dad, whatever. I will get hubby home to you, and if I can’t. I will be there as soon as, OK? Not alone here, love!”

He cut the call, and I found myself dialling the number on the screen.

“Sussex constabulary”

“Hello. I have just seen the BBC report on the bombing?”

“Are you a witness of any kind?”

“Er, no. I’m sort of a friend of one of the victims”

“Please leave us your details and we will get back to you”

“Is there any more information you can give me?”

“Investigations are ongoing. Further details will be released when we are able to do so”

“Could you tell me what is up with Sergeant Price? Please?”

“I am not at liberty to say, I am afraid”

“Shit! Sorry”

I reeled off my details as requested, hung up, and dialled again, on autopilot this time. If anyone could find out more…

“Inspector Powell. I am on a tea break just now, so better be important”

“Lainey? Where are you?”

“Canteen, Di—ˮ

“Got a telly there?”

“Aye—ˮ

“BBC1, now!”

I heard her shout to someone near her, and there was the sound of the same programme I was watching, volume up high enough to clear the hubbub in the canteen. Elaine was muttering away, and a lot of her words were short and pithy. She seemed to have forgotten I was there, so I started calling her name.

“Sorry, Di. Just, shit, aye? What the fuck is that all about?”

“It’s Annie, Lainey! Not in the car, I mean, but—you got the news on? See the house? That’s her mate’s place, he’s in bloody intensive care. She’s…. that’s her blood, Lainey!”

She shouted something out to those around her, and their voices rose in clear shock and anger/ I kept trying to drag her attention back to me, but she was busy shouting out explanations to those around her. Finally, I had her on the phone again, just as I lost myself. Fuck Police, Professional: this was Annie. I tried to keep myself from sobbing, but it was no use.

“Nobody’ll tell me anything, Lainey! Not a bloody thing!”

She drew in a long and shuddering breath, and I realised how much she must be hurting in her own right.

“Di. DI! I will ask, aye? I have contacts. Go and get a cuppa or something and I will call you back when I have something, OK?”

“OK, Lainey. Thank you for this”

“Any time, woman. You know that, aye? Where’s Blake?”

“Sammy’s getting hold of him”

“Good. Ring your mam, aye? Ring her now?”

“Will do, Lainey. Thank you”

“Go! I will start calling round. Call me when you are sorted”

Fritz was climbing back up onto my lap as she hung up, and so I followed her instructions. Forty minutes later, an older woman was bringing two cups of hot chocolate into the living room, and then holding her broken daughter as she wept without explanation.

Eventually I came back to a better place, and clicked the news back on. Mam frowned, raising an eyebrow.

2You really want the telly on, love?”

“It’s what the problem is, Mam. A friend’s been hurt. They’ll have it back on again in a bit, just--- there you are”

She looked back to the telly, just as the same horrible footage began playing once more. Wreckage, smoke, bloody prints.

“Oh my God!”

Mam pulled my hand to her lap, almost crushing it, as the newsreader’s anodyne tones said the same words I knew by heart.

“Who’s that then, love? Armstrong?”

“Not him, Mam. Annie. Sergeant Price, isn’t it?”

“I don’t recall an Annie, love”

She watched the screen for a few seconds more.

“Di, love?”

“Mam?”

“There was that boy you talked about a lot”

“Did I?”

“Oh yes you did. Motorbike rider. You went to the hospital more than a few times, you know”

“Yeah. Suppose I did”

“And he went to England. Adam, wasn’t it? Adam Price?”

She lifted my head, and smiled softly into my eyes.

“You do pick them, love. What a good job you got it right with Blake. Now, I am going to take a guess, and it is that this Annie is like that Deb woman, and her girls. Am I right?”

“As you always are, Mam”

“Well, mothers always are. You will learn that soon, my sweet love. I will ask no more about this Annie Price except that you tell me when and if she is well. Have you called that number, the information one?”

Yes. They wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me a thing”

“Do you have other numbers?”

So solid, so steady. My Police, Professional was outmatched by her Mother, Mam.

“I rang Lainey, Mam. Elaine”

“That Inspector from over to Carmarthen you were working for?”

“Yeah. She knows her, and she’s got friends over there. She’s going to call when, you know”

“Then drink up while it’s warm. Nothing more you can do now”

The front door banged, and my beloved man was there, and to my surprise and gratification he went to Mam first, kissing her and saying, very simply, “Thank you, Dot”

She squeezed him back. “No need, son. Not ever, aye? We are a family, and it’s what we do. I’ll put the kettle on again, and Di will talk you through it all”

He settled into the space she left on the settee, and suddenly things were better. Not completely, for Annie was lying hurt somewhere, but I was safe now, mother and man there for me.

“Do you mind if I see the news footage, love? I know it’s not nice, but I just want to see what happened”

On it went, the same images, the same unchanging commentary.

“Shit on a stick, Di. Have you rung Lainey? She’ll be the one with the contacts, but I couldn’t get through to her, and her office says she’s on leave”

Odd. She had definitely been at work when I caught her.

“I caught her in the canteen, Blake. She’s ringing her friends over there. Said she’d get back to me when she knows something. Oh, and Mam knows about Annie”

He kissed my cheek.

“Your friend, love. You go whichever way you need to. She OK with the idea?”

I smiled back at him.

“What do you think? She did say that I do know how to pick my men!”

I left that for a second before adding, “And then she said what a good job it was that I got it right with you. She also said Mams are always right”

He kissed me on the lips, tender, gentle.

“No disagreement there, my love. Now, Sammy’s signed me off for a couple or three days. Domestic emergency, aye? What is Mam doing? Dot? Ta”

He took the cup she handed him, setting it down on the coffee table.

“What are you and Mark up to tonight, Dot? I was just going to get a takeaway of some kind in, try and relax and stuff. It would be good to have you both here with us tonight”

Mam was nodding. “That’s why I have already rung Dad and told him to come up after work”

Blake grinned back at her.

“Mams are always right, aye?”

She just nodded, and in the end we had a Chinese meal from the local place, and Mam prattled on about baby clothes and modern nappies as Dad and Blake dissected the current Wales squad, which brought me warm thoughts about Gemma, Charlie and another evening in a Cardiff pub. There were no updates of any importance on the news, and so we gave up waiting, and around nine-thirty Blake rang Elaine again, looking puzzled as his phone was answered.

“Mind if I stick it on speaker, Siân? There’s me, Di, and her parents here. They know who Annie is. Ta!”

He did the necessary, and Siân’s voice was clear enough.

“Hi, everyone. Sorry I can’t give you the wife, but she’s not well just now”

I felt the panic rising again as I saw two of my best and dearest friends fading, but Blake simply held me to him and continued speaking.

“What’s up, Siân? Nothing serious?”

There was a long sigh at the other end, and some muttered Welsh.

“Not really sure, Blake, but I think she’ll be fine. Just a bit of a breakdown, ah? Lot on her plate just now, and this one just caught her blindside. Got our uncle’s wife over in a bit to see to her, so I am just letting Lainey sit quiet. You’ll be worried about Annie, though”

I found my voice.

“Worried about all the people we love, woman!”

She was silent again, just for a few seconds, before a simple “Thank you all for that”

I caught a suspicion of a sob, but she was as strong as ever, and came back with a steady voice.

“Remember the tall woman with the ginger hair, back when you went blonde, Di? Steph Woodruff?”

That name again. I found myself smiling.

“She’s a good mate to Annie, isn’t she?”

“Aye, she is. Anyway, she’s on the case, her and her Geoff, and then we have our sister, and that Eric, Annie’s fiancé, he works at the hospital she’s in, so one way or another we’ll get the news to you, so settle down, look after each other, and I will see to my sweet wife”

I tried again.

“Tell her we love her, Siân”

“She knows that already, Di”

She hung up on us abruptly, and I found myself crumbling again. I managed to make it to ten o’clock before I simply had to get away and into our bed, just to be held and comforted.

I didn’t sleep well, and was up all too early as Dad set off back to work and Mam groaned at the lack of Decent Breakfast Things in our larder and set off for the Co-Op.

News on, tea in hand, cat on lap, and an hour later a shamefaced husband beside me, I found myself crumbling again as soon as our breakfast was done I started weeping again. It came and went until lunchtime, when our phone rang. Blake answered it, grinned and turned to me to mouth, very clearly, “Lainey”.

“Aye, Inspector”

“Lainey, she’s not good. Have you got anything, any better news?”

“Lainey”

“No shame, girl. No shame at all. That’s what makes us good coppers, aye? We care. Now, you take care; I’m going to take my wife somewhere I can hold her and let her know it’s all going to be OK”

“Got a lot to live up to, innit? Talk later, love”

He hung the phone on its hook, and turned to me with a smile.

“Time to breathe easier, love. Lainey’s… Lainey’s struggled a bit, but she’s realising she’s got people round her”

Mam looked at me, and saw I was having my own struggles, so she asked for me.

“What is happening, son?”

He shook his head.

“Stress, Dot. We all get it, and sometimes, well, it gets a bit much. Obvious, I know. Di: Annie’s fine. Much the same as Elaine, in truth. Just one more incident than she was able to cope with. That’s all”

He held me tighter, just as he had promised Elaine.

“Annie had a collapse, but she’s back with us, just like Elaine. Dot, want to come up to St Fagan’s with us? We’ll have a walk round, and a pub lunch, and then we’ll see what we shall see this afternoon. Elaine has promised us updates as and when, but we are not going to fester in here all day waiting. I’m not going to allow it”

He grinned suddenly, and put his hand to my bump.

“Dot, she tells me Mams are always right, so I thought I’d show you Dads could be right too”