Bring Him Home (Dead Reckoning series - Part 27)

Continued from Episode 26 (Drowning Not Waving)

The story so far:  Josiah's 'on the rebound' romance with the woman he thought was his old flame, Jeanette DeVille, has, by a very convoluted path, led to him and Archibald being left for dead in the rapidly rising waters of the cellar of Evanley Hall.  D.S. Stone and Samantha, by disobeying D.I. Wood's strict instructions, have broken into the Hall and discovered Josiah and Archibald's plight.  D.S. Stone has heroically rescued Josiah and all should now be straightforward, except that Archibald has disappeared!:

“Remind me, what’s his name?” D.S. Stone asked, treading water.

“It’s Archibald…Archibald Thurble!” Samantha said, stifling a sob, “Please help him!”

“Mr. Thurble!” D.S. Stone shouted, but there was no answer.  “Archibald?”  Still nothing.  “I’ll go and look for him, don’t worry” He nodded to Samantha and swam back through the cold, dark water.

When he was reasonably sure that he was, more or less, in the same place where he had rescued Josiah Oakshott, D.S. Stone took a deep breath and plunged underwater.  Surfacing, moments later, he shouted,

“I can’t..pfft, I can’t see him!”

“He’s got to be there!” Samantha shouted back, frantically, “You’ve got to help him!”

“Hang on” D.S. Stone made another dive.   The surface of the water smoothed over where he had been and remained calm, dark and forbidding.  Some time passed and Samantha was getting more and more concerned, when the surface broke again, in a shower of droplets, and two heads poked out.

“I’ve…I’ve got him pfft” D.S. Stone managed to splutter, “but he’s not …he’s not in a good way”

With considerable effort, the Detective guided the chair-bound body of Archibald back to the cellar steps, and a waiting Samantha.

“Oh my God, Archie!” She cried, “Are you alright?”

“I don’t think he’s breathing” D.S. Stone managed to say, as he pushed the chair, and Archibald, out of the water.

“I’ve called the paramedics, Stoney, but as to how long they’ll be…” D.I. Wood grabbed hold of Archibald and tugged.

“Paramedics my arse” Jeannie muttered, “’ere, let me see ‘im” She stomped down to Archibald.

“The leg of his chair must have broken, after I left him” D.S. Stone explained, “he must have gone straight under.  I don’t know how long he’s been like that?”

“There’s a pulse, it don’t amount to much, but it’s there” Jeannie announced, “we need to get him off this chair and get working on ‘im.  Get me a knife or summat from the kitchen!”

Samantha scampered off at her command.  Entering the kitchen, she saw two paramedics hovering by the door.

“Oh, thank God you’re here!”  She cried, flinging the door open.

“Strewth, that was quick!” D.I. Wood said, approvingly, as he limped into the kitchen after her, “I’ve only just rung for you!”

“We were called to attend an elderly woman” The lead paramedic pointed out, “at the cottage down the lane?  Only, there doesn’t seem to be anyone there”

“There isn’t anyone when she is there!” D.I. Wood sniggered.

“I bloody ‘eard that!” Jeannie yelled from the cellar steps.

“Anyway, sorry about that” D.I. Wood said to the paramedics, looking sheepish, “she seems to be doing fine, but we do have a couple of patients here who could use your help”

They all trooped back into the entrance hall, where Josiah was sitting on the chair he was tied to, unconscious, dripping wet, but covered with a blanket.  Jeannie stomped up the stairs, grabbed the knife from Samantha, nodded to the paramedics, and hurried back down to Archibald.

“You’ll need to look at ‘im up there,” She yelled back up to the paramedics, as she busied herself sawing Archibald’s ties off , “keeps losing consciousness ‘parently, may have taken on a bit of water too, but there’s a couple of nasty ‘ead wounds I’m not ‘appy about”  There was the sound of frantic sawing, “but this is the one I’m really worried about, not breathing, weak pulse, not sure ‘ow long ‘e’s been underwater but it don’t look good”

There was a snap as the last of the bindings holding Archibald to the chair, came free and Archibald’s body slumped forward onto Jeannie, who grunted and attempted to drag him up the stairs.  The two paramedics rushed forward to help her get him onto the entrance hall floor.

“Have you had medical training, ma’am?” The lead paramedic asked.

“Did a bit with Queen Alexandra’s, didn’t I?” Jeannie said, curtly.

“Leave him to us now, please” The other paramedic suggested, “we can take it from here”

They began working on Archibald, whilst Jeannie set to work releasing Josiah’s bindings.  A sloshing sound indicated that the bedraggled figure of a wringing wet, D.S. Stone, was making its way up the cellar stairs.

“Bloody well done, Stoney!” D.I. Wood went to congratulate his colleague.

“Get ‘im one of them blankets!” Jeannie commanded.  Samantha dragged one from the pile she had brought down earlier, and wrapped a shivering D.S. Stone in it.

“You played a blinder there, Stoney!” D.I. Wood grinned as he helped his colleague to sit down on the grand staircase.  “There’ll be a medal in this, you mark my words!”

“I don’t want any medal” D.S. Stone shook his head, “I just want those two to be alright…after all this” D.S. Stone looked across at the scene where both Archibald and Josiah were being worked on by the technicians.  “You know, it was really strange” D.S. Stone shook his head, “when I found him, under all that water, he was like…smiling.  Not a proper grin, I mean, just a faint smile.  Isn’t that weird?”

“I guess he was glad he’d managed to get his boss out” D.I. Wood suggested.

“It’ll be a…” D.S. Stone stifled a sob, “it won’t be fair if he doesn’’t make it!”

“If I’ve learnt anything in this game, Stoney,” D.I. Wood patted his colleague on the back, sympathetically, “it’s that life ain’t fair”

* * * *

Samantha sat in the Relatives Room of the hospital, absently sipping tea from a plastic cup and blankly viewing the various crisis support helpline posters and outdated covid advice, on the opposite wall.

There was a tentative knock on the door, which made Samantha jump.  The door opened and D.I. Wood sidled in.

“Any news yet?” He asked.

“No, nothing so far” Samantha shook her head, “I thought that…when there was a knock on the door, I thought that it would be the Doctor”

“Sorry!” D.I. Wood said, and sat down beside her.

“How’s your Sergeant, is he ok?”

“They’re checking him over, now, but I think he’s come out of it alright” D.I. Wood said, “thanks for asking”

“He was very brave” Samantha said, in a choking voice.

“Yeah, he did us proud!” D.I. Wood nodded, “I tried to get that bloody madwoman checked over but she wouldn’t have any of it!”

“Jeannie?  She’s not mad, it was a good job she was there” Samantha pointed out.

“Yeah, well” D.I. Wood shrugged, “she nearly bit one of the medical staff!  All she could bind on about was who was going to feed her cats if they kept her in!  I’ve had her taken home by one of our drivers”

“That was…kind of you”

“Anything to get her out of my hair” D.I. Wood went to light a cigarette, then thought better of it. “I reckon she knows more about them three that have done a bunk, than she’s letting on”

“Is there any sign of them?”

“Nah! Gone completely off the radar” D.I. Wood said, bitterly, “they know what they’re about, that lot”

“I wish…I wish I could get my hands on them” Samantha said, grimly.

“You leave them to us” D.I. Wood assured her, “they’ll slip up, eventually, and then we’ll have them”

“How could they…”  Samantha began, crushing her empty cup in her hands, “how could they leave people to die like that?  Why would anyone do that, eh?”

“I don’t know” D.I. Wood sadly put his prospective cigarette back in the packet, “it’s a fair jump up from distraction robberies in jeweller’s shops, and no mistake”

There was a tap on the door and a doctor, in blue scrubs, entered, closely followed by a nurse.

“Miss Knight?” She asked.

“Mrs.” D.I. Wood supplied, automatically, but withered under Samantha’s glare.

“I’m sorry, I have to ask, are you a relative?” The doctor continued, ignoring the Detective.

“Well…I’m…I’m engaged to be married to Josiah, Mr. Oakshott” Samantha said, with a slight blush, noticing D.I. Wood’s eyebrows shooting up.

“And the other gentleman, Mr. erm” The Doctor consulted her notes, “Ah yes, Mr. Thurble, is he connected to you?”

“Not as such” Samantha shook her head, “he's a colleague of mine, and Josiah…Mr. Oakshott.  How is Archie?”

“I’m sure you’ll understand that I can’t discuss a patient with you, unless you are related to them?”

The nurse whispered urgently in the Doctor’s ear.

“Ah, yes, I see” The Doctor nodded, “apparently, it is the case that Mr. Thurble’s mother and grandmother are on their way in to the hospital.  Are there no close relatives of Mr. Oakshott, other than yourself?”

“Not to my knowledge” Samantha said, glumly.

“Well,” The doctor nodded and sat down opposite her, “in that case, I need to give you an update…”

You can find a lot more from Josiah and Archibald here - The Undertakers Collection(link is external)

Now read Part 28