No One I Knew by A McDine (best e book reader for android .TXT) 📕

‘Who did this to you?’ she said, looking down the lane behind me. ‘Your husband?’ She must have seen my confusion, because she gave a glimmer of a smile and said, ‘My old man battered me for years until I had the balls to walk out.’

‘It wasn’t…’ I began, but she had turned back to the other driver and was demanding to know if the police were on their way.

He nodded. ‘They’re sending an ambulance, too. They asked about injuries.’ He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes looking everywhere except at Immy’s leaden body. ‘I didn’t know what to say.’

The woman gave a dismissive shake of her head and muttered, ‘Useless tosser.’ She glanced down the track again, as if she was expecting to see my knife-wielding husband charging towards us. ‘Come and sit in my car while we wait,’ she said. ‘You and your daughter will be safer there.’

‘Thank you,’ I said, following her to her ancient Volvo. She opened the back passenger door and ushered me in. ‘I’ll be right here if you need anything.’

I smiled my thanks and sank into the Volvo’s worn leather seat. Emotion threatened to overwhelm me as I gazed at my daughter’s perfect face. There’d been times this last week that I thought I’d never see her again. I bent my head and breathed in her scent, the scent that had clung so faintly to the yellow duvet cover in Sheila’s box room. I’d recognised the smell but had struggled to place it because it was such an intrinsic part of me. I inhaled it now, like a drowning man sucks in air. And I drank in her features. Her alabaster cheeks and rosebud mouth. Those long, long lashes.

‘Mummy?’ she murmured, her eyes flickering open.

‘It’s OK, baby,’ I whispered, kissing her forehead. ‘You’re safe now. Go back to sleep.’

Chapter Forty-Nine

Immy slept through the ambulance ride to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. She was still asleep when the paramedics gently lowered her onto a stretcher and carried her into A&E, flanked by two police officers. She woke momentarily when the triage nurse took our details, and when another nurse arrived to lead us to a curtained bay on the ward, she was sitting on my lap sucking her thumb and winding a curl of red hair round and round her index finger.

It wasn’t long before a doctor arrived.

‘Sorry about all the kerfuffle,’ I said, nodding at the two officers who were standing, sentry-like, outside the cubicle. They hadn’t left our side since we’d arrived, and although I never would have admitted it, I found their presence reassuring.

‘No problem at all,’ he said. He showed Immy his stethoscope. ‘Ever seen one of these?’

She pulled my head down and whispered in my ear.

‘She said we have one in our dressing-up box at home,’ I said.

‘Excellent. Well, I’m going to use mine to listen to your heart and then I’ll use my little torch to have a look in those beautiful green eyes of yours. Is that all right? And once I know you’re OK, I’m going to have a look at your mummy’s cheek.’

Immy looked at me with round eyes, and I smiled. ‘It’s OK, sweetheart. I’ll be here the whole time. The doctor wants to make sure you’re all right after your stay at Sheila’s.’ I gave him a meaningful look, and he nodded. Immy was too young to understand that she’d been kidnapped. I would tell her when the time was right, but not before.

After the doctor had checked her blood pressure, pulse and oxygen levels, taken her temperature, shone his torch into her eyes and listened to her heart, he replaced the stethoscope around his neck. ‘Can you tell me what you know about the medication Immy was given?’

‘I think it was mainly Temazepam with the odd travel sickness pill. I saw an empty packet of Easy Traveller tablets in the house.’

‘I know the brand,’ he said. ‘Drowsiness is a well-known side effect. Coupled with the Temazepam, they would have completely knocked Immy out. Has she had any breathing difficulties or fits as far as you’re aware?’

‘Not since I found her.’

‘Good.’ The doctor wrote something on his clipboard. ‘That she’s fully conscious is a good sign, but we’ll do an ECG to make sure. And we’ll keep her in overnight for observation.’ He must have noticed the look on my face because he said, ‘She’ll be on the children’s ward. You can stay with her. And her dad, too, if he wants?’

‘He’s on his way,’ I said. I’d called Stuart from Sheila’s phone as we waited for the ambulance. He’d reported me missing when I hadn’t come home the previous evening. The police had tried to trace my phone, but Sheila must have taken out the SIM card. She was more tech-savvy than I’d given her credit for.

‘Super,’ the doctor said. ‘Now, let me look at that incision.’

Half an hour and ten stitches later, a nurse arrived to take us to the children’s ward. ‘They’ve given you a side room,’ she said, as we waited for the lift to take us up to the next floor. ‘Your husband’s already there.’

Stuart was staring out of the window, his hands deep in his pockets.

‘Daddy!’ Immy said, her face lighting up. She wriggled out of my arms and scampered over to him. He gathered her up and hugged her tightly. His eyes met mine over the top of her head and widened when he saw my face.

‘You OK?’ he mouthed.

I touched my cheek. It was still numb from the local anaesthetic and the stitches felt as though they belonged to someone else. The A&E doctor said I’d have a faint scar, but it was a small price to pay.

‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘Have you spoken to the police?’ I jerked my head at the officers outside the door. ‘These two won’t tell me anything.’

‘Sam Bennett and DI Jones are in the parents’ room waiting to talk to you.’

‘Have they