Poetic Justice

3

3

Zack rose to his feet when the doorbell sounded, an action that required more effort than would normally have been the case because of his injuries, and because he was sitting on the floor, his furniture having been taken away to be repaired and reupholstered as a result of the damage done to it during the attempt on his life a few nights ago.

“Mr Wild? I’m Detective Inspector Martins.” The smartly-dressed coloured lady on the doorstep held up her warrant card.

“I’m Zack Wild,” he confirmed, giving the warrant card only the most cursory of glances. He could spot a fake a mile off, and he doubted a journalist with a phoney police ID would be there so soon. “How can I help?” He had a pretty good idea.

“I’ve been put in charge of the situation here,” Martins said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to speak to you about this morning’s events, and last night’s events at the Southdene hospital, get your account of them. I’d also like to speak to Constable Turner and Tara Wright, I’m told they’re both here.”

Zack took a step back from the door so the inspector could enter. “I can’t help you with whatever operation went on at the hospital last night, I wasn’t involved, and I know nothing about it. I can’t help you with Constable Turner either, she’s next door at her grandmother’s, but Tara is here, and I’d be happy to tell you what I know about this morning. The living room’s just through there.” He indicated the doorway to his right. “Would you like something to drink, tea, coffee, water?”

“No, I have a lot to do this morning, and I’d rather get on.” Martins slipped past Zack and into the living room, where she looked around bemusedly, surprised to find herself somewhere that appeared to be only a step or two up from what might be found in a squat — the room was cleaner than a squat, but the boarded-up windows, which she hadn’t noticed from the outside, and the lack of furniture, matched what she had seen in buildings occupied illegally. “I thought you said Constable Turner is next door,” she said, her eyes on the woman on the living room floor next to Tara, who was being kept occupied, and distracted from everything that had been going on, by f*******:.

“She is, this is my friend, Sophie,” Zack said. “Would you like me to go and get Melissa while you speak to Tara?”

“It’ll save me time.”

Zack wondered, as he made his way out the front door and down the path, if the inspector always lacked courtesy, or if she was simply reacting to the stress of the situation she found herself in charge of. While he had never had to deal with anything as serious as what had happened that morning, for which he was grateful, he liked to think that he had always remained both kind and courteous, no matter what the situation, and no matter who he was dealing with.

When he returned to his living room with Constable Melissa Turner he found Inspector Martins on the phone. It sounded, from the little he could hear, as though something serious had happened.

“What’s going on?” he asked once Martins ended her call, unable to shut off either the need to know what was going on or the desire to take charge.

Martins hesitated before answering. Glancing at Tara, who was pretending to be fully occupied with the laptop, while surreptitiously listening, she indicated with a quick jerk of her head that they should talk somewhere more private.

“Kieran Wright has escaped,” she said once she, Zack, and Constable Turner were in the kitchen. “I don’t know how, or exactly when. All I know right now is that he somehow managed to get out of his cuffs and attack a constable and a technician at the hospital. I’m going to have to speak to you both about the morning’s events another time. Right now I’ve got to get back to town to coordinate the search for him. The press are going to have a field day with this.

“I doubt there’s any real cause to be concerned,” Martins said, speaking in what could only be described as a deliberately light voice, “but given that he tried to kill his sister this morning, it might be wise to keep an eye on her.”

Zack agreed with her doubts. He didn’t credit Kieran Wright with that great a level of intelligence, at least not based on what he had done over the past week, but he didn’t think the teen murderer was stupid enough to return to the village, especially not to kill his sister.

“Don’t worry, ma’am, I’ll make sure nothing happens to Tara,” Melissa assured the inspector.

“Good, now, what’s the situation in the village? I’ve got to go, but I want to make sure everything’s alright here before I do. You’ve lost your sergeant and one of your fellow constables, and another is in critical condition, do you have enough officers to help you maintain order here?”

Melissa would have laughed at Martins’ phrasing if it wasn’t for the circumstances that had prompted the question. “Outside of recent events with Kieran, Oakhurst is generally a pretty quiet place, we don’t get a lot of trouble,” she said. She wasn’t about to admit as much to a senior officer she had only just met, but in a usual week there wasn’t enough work to keep her, let alone her colleagues, fully occupied. “I have Constable Johnson, he’s at the station at the moment, and there’s always Inspector Stevens who can lend a hand if needed, he has more experience than the rest of us combined.”

“Okay, good. If you need any support, I’m sure your inspector can arrange it. In the meantime, there will be people back and forth for most of the day, sorting out this mess.” Martins left then, without even a goodbye.

Melissa was startled by the abruptness of the inspector’s departure, and it was a few moments before she recovered. Once she did she turned to Zack to ask, “What do we say to Tara?”

“Nothing, for the time being.” Though he tried not to make it sound as if he was giving an order, Zack couldn’t avoid the authoritative note that entered his voice. “It won’t do her any good to know her brother has escaped. If anything, it’ll put her at risk of going into shock again, and if that happens I don’t think the internet will distract her.

“With a bit of luck Martins will catch Kieran quickly, before he can hurt anyone else, and there won’t be any need for Tara to know what’s happened.” He suspected, though he hoped he was wrong, that before Kieran Wright was back in custody more people would be hurt, perhaps even killed.

“I hope you’re right,” Melissa said, pleased that the doubts she felt didn’t make it into her voice. “I know this is a bit cheeky, under the circumstances, but will you look after Tara for me for a while, I’ve got a few things I need to take care of.”

The curiosity that had led Zack to become a detective, and which still led him to investigate anything that intrigued him, made him want to ask what it was Melissa had to do; courtesy kept him from doing so, however. He imagined there was a lot the constable had to do, given everything that had happened that morning and over the past week, so he simply nodded.

“Sure, I’ll keep an eye on her. She’s already here so it won’t change anything. We’ll need to do something about getting in touch with whatever family she has, though, she can’t stay with me indefinitely. Even if I was equipped to look after a teenage girl who isn’t related to me, I doubt social services would let me. I assume she has no family left in the village.” He was basing that on the fact that no-one had turned up to take Tara off his hands.

Melissa shook her head. “No. The Wrights are pretty new to the village. I think they’re just about the only family that isn’t related, by blood or marriage, to every other family in the village. I think there might be an aunt somewhere, though, I seem to remember there being one who moved away years ago.”