Working My Way Back to You (Dead Reckoning series - Part 48)

Continued from Episode 47 (Mother and Child Reunion)

The story so far:  This is getting longer than the actual story! Josiah's 'on the rebound' romance with the woman he thought was his old flame, Jeanette DeVille, proved to be with her twin sister, Nenette, and led to him and Archibald being left for dead in the rapidly rising waters of the cellar of Evanley Hall.  Since then, there has been much to occupy the Merkin-under-Heathwood police force, not least the apparent suicide of a young man in the local reservoir (last seen in the company of Precious DeVille - Nenette's supposed daughter) and then the further apparent suicides of Nenette and her 'driver' Hames.  The common denominator in all of these deaths appears to be Precious, who made a surprise reappearance, fetchingly dressed in lingerie, in Archibald's hotel room, a room he thought he had been given as a Secret Santa gift from Josiah.  Now Archibald is missing, along with two operatives from the rival firm of Cadwallader and Carruthers.  CCTV has shown Precious and the men from Cadwallader and Carruthers leaving the hotel in a van, with a body bag and Samantha and the Detectives have separately realised just where she might be heading!  Following a call from Precious, threatening Archibald's life, Josiah  arrived at Evanley Hall, only to encounter an open grave and the flat side of a shovel.  Samantha rushed to Jeannie's cottage to ask her to help and the Detectives, realising where she might have gone, are rushing to stop her doing anything impetuous.  Meanwhile, Jeannie and Samantha went up to the Hall to find out what is going on.  When it became clear that Josiah was in danger from Precious, Samantha wanted to take her down but Jeannie stopped her because she didn't want her possible daughter hurt.  Instead, Jeannie floored Precious with a flying tackle but was shot in the process.  The Detectives arrived just in time to sort everything out but with Jeannie and Josiah both seriously injured and Archibald unconscious, the hospitals are going to be busy!:

With his bare hands Josiah Oakshott was digging, furiously, but nothing seemed to change.  All he could see was the terrible blackness before him, all he could feel was the relentless pressure on his chest.  There was a vague impression of light, somewhere in the distance, but nothing more than that.  He tore at the earth with all of his might.  His mouth, his throat, his eyes and ears, everything seemed to be filled with something that clogged and choked.  He fought for breath but just gagged and spluttered.
Finally, there it was, just a pinhole of light, but it held the promise of an escape from this… tomb, he supposed.  He scrabbled with everything he had and the light became larger.  He choked, he gagged and retched and suddenly, it was light.
“Well done, Joshua” A female voice said, cheerily, “that’s the tube out, you’ve done it!”
“Nice to have you back, Mr. Oakshott” A male voice added.
“Try to drink a little water, Joshua” The female voice suggested and he was aware of a white plastic cup being held near his mouth.
The sudden intense light and the booming sound overwhelmed him but he drank, or attempted to, as suggested.  Much of the water seemed to go down his chin and his neck, but some trickled into his parched mouth and ran, in a rivulet, down his throat.  In that moment, it might have been the finest champagne, he was so grateful for the relief and the sense that his body was starting to function normally.
“You weren’t breathing all that well, when you came in, Mr. Oakshott” The male voice explained, cheerily, “So I’m afraid we had to give you a bit of a hand.  Had to keep you in a medically induced coma, just for a bit, you understand?”  The male voice asked.
Josiah shook his head, which prompted a resounding headache.
“Anyway, there’s someone here to see you” The male voice went on, sounding pleased with itself.
There was a swishing noise as someone drew near to his bed.
“Hello, Josiah, good to have you back” Samantha said.  She reached out and held his hand, tightly.  He squeezed back and felt a tear making its way down his cheek.
“Samantha?” He croaked, desperately trying to focus.
“That’s right, Josiah, I’m here”
“I can’t…I can’t seem to… focus on anything, I’m sorry” He whispered, hoarsely.
“You shouldn’t be trying to do anything.  You need to rest.  You’ve had a bad time”
“And Archibald…where’s…where’s Archibald?”
“Right here, Mr. O.” A cheerful, and very familiar, voice rang out from his right-hand side, “you can’t get rid of me that easily”
“I can’t see him” Josiah said, weakly.
“It’s ok, Josiah, honestly it is.  You’ve been unconscious for a while and your body will need to time to recover.   Archibald is in the bed next to you.  He has been all the time.”
“They’re keeping me in under reservation, Mr. O.” Archibald commented.
“Observation!  They’re keeping you in under observation, Archie” Samantha corrected.
“Oh, right.  Any road up, I’m alright but they don’t know what she injected me with, so they’re hanging on to me to see if owt happens”
“Injected? She?” Josiah looked perplexed as he sank back into the pillows.
“Yes, ‘she’ being Precious.  Do you remember Precious, Josiah?” Samantha asked.
“Precious?  No, I don’t think so” Josiah tried to shake his head, but the pain stopped that activity in its tracks.  He closed his eyes and began to doze.
“How is he, Mrs. Knight?” D.I. Wood was standing behind her.
“He’s very weak.  They’ve just brought him round, which is something, but he’s not in a good way.” Samantha looked up at the detective, with tears in her eyes.
“I’m sure he’ll pull through, he’s made of strong stuff” D.I. Wood in an effort to be comforting, went to pat her on the shoulder, and then thought better of it.  “When he’s in a better state, we’ll need to ask him some questions”
Samantha darted a fierce glance in his direction.
“Not yet!  Not yet!” D.I. Wood held his hands up in token surrender, “As I said, when he’s more himself.  We’ll also need a few moments of your time, Sunny Jim” He said to Archibald, who was cheerfully devouring a pot of yoghurt.
“Oh yeah, whenever” Archibald nodded, scraping earnestly at the bottom of the pot.
“Is there any news on Jeannie, Inspector?”  Samantha asked.
“Not sure, Mrs. Knight.  D.S. Stone is with her now” D.I. Wood replied, then smiled as D.S. Stone walked onto the ward, “Well, speak of the devil…any news, Stoney?”
“She’s conscious, sitting up and taking notice” D.S. Stone reported, “They seem to be happy with how the operation went but she lost a lot of blood along the way.  Only time will tell, really, but we should be able to talk with her soon, except…”
“Except?  What do you mean, ‘except’?” D.I. Wood frowned.
“Well, you’re not going to like it, sir”
“There’s nothing about any of this that I like, so what’s new?”
“Ok, well, she’ll talk to us.  In fact, she wants to talk to us…but, there’s one condition”
“Condition?  What do you mean, there’s a condition?  She’ll talk to us alright or I’ll have her down the nick, pronto!” D.I. Wood fumed.
“Wha…What’s happening?  There was shouting.  Who’s shouting?” Josiah flung himself up in bed, panting and looking around, wildly.
“Inspector!” Samantha snapped, “He’s meant to be getting some rest, do you mind?”  She eased Josiah back down on to his pillows.
“Sorry, miss” D.S. Stone apologised, and indicated for his boss to follow him out of the ward.
D.I. Wood glared at Samantha and then followed his Sergeant.
“Bloody cheek!” He fumed, “Now, what’s all this about a condition, eh?”  He asked as they entered the bustling corridor, outside.
“She says she’ll tell us everything but only…” D.S. Stone took a deep breath, “if Precious is there” He explained, in a rush, and flinched back, in anticipation of the storm to come.
“PRECIOUS?” D.I. Wood looked at his Sergeant with astonishment, “You’ve got to be joking!  Not a chance!”
“She says that she deserves to know the truth”
“We all bloody deserve to know the truth!  Particularly us.  She’s a serial killer, for God’s sake!  We’ve got her bang to rights on three murders and two ‘attempteds’ before we start.  She doesn’t ‘deserve’ anything, apart from a long stretch inside”
“Jeannie’s adamant, sir, and you know what she’s like”
“I am not dragging that evil cow out of the cells and halfway across town just so that Jeannie can have a cosy, bloody, family reunion, it’s not happening” He searched through his pockets for a reassuring cigarette.
“You can’t smoke in here, sir, sorry.  As for Jeannie, if she won’t talk, I don’t see how we can make her, particularly in her current state of health”
“This is a bloody nightmare, Stoney!  God knows what the gaffer’s going to say.  I can’t interview Oakshott because he’s hammering on death’s door, I can’t interview Jeannie because she’s not much better and wants a suspected serial killer present” D.I. Wood ran his hands through his hair and sighed deeply, “About the only one I can interview is Lurch and he’s away with the fairies most of the time.  What a bloody cock-up!”
“To be fair, sir, you could interview Ms. Knight.  She’d be a valuable witness”
“Oh, be still my beating heart!”  D.I. Wood groaned, “I shouldn’t think that would be much fun for either of us”
“What do you want me to do, sir?”
“Oh, I don’t bloody know!” D.I. Wood shook his head, sighed and frowned, “I’ve always thought that Jeannie knows more than she’s been letting on.” He paused and looked intently at his shoes.  “Right, Stoney, we’ll do it.  Make arrangements for a full security detail to bring Precious DeVille here.  Better make it tomorrow I suppose, then we might have a chance of getting old Oakshott involved as well, if he’s up to it.  I’ll be glad to see the back of this lot, Stoney, and no mistake”
“Get back to the Caribbean brochures, eh sir?”
“Something like that, Stoney, something like that” D.I. Wood said with a faint smile and a faraway look in his eyes.

You can find a lot more from Josiah and Archibald, including the prequel novel to this series, in The Undertakers collection.

Now read Episode 49