Briggs sighed and paused. ‘His voice. He said all debts must be paid in full.’
Gina gasped for breath and held her hand over her mouth. She didn’t want Brodie to turn around and see her coping badlywith this news but they had Fabien in custody. It couldn’t be him. He could be working with Craig Crawford but he wasn’t the attacker.
Brodie’s phone beeped. ‘Bear with me a moment.’ He stepped out of the room, leaving the door open while he made his call.
‘Sorry, could you please make the call over there?’ a nurse asked as she tried to wheel a gurney past him with the help of a porter.
They were alone. Gina stood and hurried over to Briggs. ‘I was so worried. I’m sorry, I should have known something was wrong when I called.’
‘It’s okay. I wasn’t myself. I don’t know what came over me. It’s all going to be okay. I didn’t tell him you called but they’re going to look at my phone so you have time to work it out.’
‘I’ve already told Brodie. Don’t worry about that now. I’m here now so it looks like they’ve cleared you.’
‘You thought I could be involved in killing those men, Gina… did you really think that?’
‘I don’t know. It’s a confusing case. I’m sorry. If you need anything when you come out, let me know, or I can pick you up. You can stay at mine if you need. In the spare room.’
‘Gina, stop. My brother is coming down from up north to stay with me. I have it covered.’ He forced his eyes open again.
‘I only meant to help… nothing more.’
‘I know.’ He forced a smile that cracked a scab in the corner of his mouth. ‘Ouch.’ He exhaled slowly. ‘I worked with Zavier and Kain in my twenties. You have to look up a name. Barry something. When he said that I had to pay the debt, it clicked because… Sorry, my mind is a total blank. It was about thirty years ago when I was stationed at Kidderminster, the teddy bears. I was a custody sergeant and I checked in a personal item. A bear, a small bear… Ahh.’ He screamed and a nurse ran in.
‘How do you know about the bear?’ Gina leaned over him but Briggs screamed out in pain again.
‘I’m sorry. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.’ The nurse ushered her out while starting to prep a syringe.
Briggs screamed again. That’s when Gina noticed that the dressing had come off his arm exposing a huge open wound. ‘When can we speak to him again?’
‘I can’t answer that yet. We’re trying to manage the pain at the moment. Call back later or in the morning.’
‘I believe you, Chris,’ she said quietly as the nurse ushered her out. She almost bumped into Brodie outside the door. He popped his phone back in his pocket. Gina blinked a few times to get rid of the tears forming in her eyes. Seeing Briggs like that had been a shock. ‘Sorry, it got bad in there. Did you see his arm?’
‘No.’
‘It was covered up when we went in but it’s all open. He must have got hit really hard. He just started yelling in pain and I… the nurse told me I had to leave.’ She raised her brows and blinked a couple of times before looking up at Brodie. ‘Was the message to do with the case?’
Brodie nodded. ‘They found a small blue bear. DCI Briggs’s neighbour was standing outside asking if he was okay and PC Smith saw it in the dog’s mouth. We have a couple of officers on their way here. We can’t leave the DCI alone while the case is ongoing.’
‘Do you think they’ll come back?’
‘Yes, whoever attacked him wanted him dead. A hosepipe had been attached to the hot kitchen tap. I’m theorising that the killer was going to wait until whatever drug he’d given to DCI Briggs had taken effect before feeding the hose into his mouth and drowning him.’
Gina leaned against a cold wall as she fought the panic brewing up within her. Medical staff carried on about their duties all around her and all Gina could do was imagine the scene they could have been attending had Briggs not spilled his drink. ‘We need to get to Justine’s mother’s, speak to her and her son again and see how the family liaison officer is getting on.’ She realised she’d said all that at speed and wondered if Brodie had even properly heard her. ‘The three friends, Justine, Lindy and Pia are the thread in all this, I know it.’ She took another deep breath and tried to push the image of the hosepipe out of her head.
‘Do you need a break, Gina? You and the DCI have known each other for a long time. It’s a lot to take in when one of your own has been attacked like that.’
‘The whole department has known him for a long time and no, I don’t need a break. We need to catch the killer before Lindy’s body turns up, so no thank you to the break.’
‘But you and DCI Briggs worked closely, maybe closer than the rest.’
‘What do you mean?’ It was as if Brodie could read her thoughts. ‘I just care, that’s all. We’re all like family at Cleevesford. You never stop caring—’ There, she’d said it.
‘I agree and I understand,’ he replied, as if he knew. ‘I never stopped thinking or caring about you, Gina.’
FORTY-SIX
JUSTINE
