‘I was involved,’ said Beau.
‘You made the prank call?’ Hudson couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Conrad interrupted. ‘There were a few lads involved; Beau says he didn’t make the call himself but he refuses to give us any other names.’
‘I’m not a grass!’ Beau told them.
Hudson didn’t get a chance to ask why he would tell a police officer, and why now, because Conrad took charge. ‘Beau here was talking on the phone to someone; I overheard.’
‘Were you boasting about it, Beau?’ Hudson asked.
‘No, I wouldn’t do that.’
‘Then what were you saying?’
‘There’s this girl… at school. She was going to go on a date with a guy and he’s bad news. He was one of the boys involved with the hoax. I told her; I wanted to warn her.’
Conrad interrupted yet again. ‘I wouldn’t usually deal with cases like this but took this one on board seeing as it’s Beau and because it’s the air ambulance. Vested interest, you know.’
Vested interest?That was a joke. And did he think he and Hudson were buddies? Was that why he was saying he took the case? Hudson wasn’t sure everything added up here; his head was all over the place.
Perhaps Conrad was just being Conrad – possessive, a giant pain in the arse. He didn’t have any vested interest really – the only link he had was Maya, who was only polite to him because she was a nice person. Conrad had made himself such a nuisancearound here before Maya put a stop to his interference once and for all that sometimes, he felt like a bit of the furniture, except not a nice piece, but rather one you wouldn’t even give away to a thrift shop. Hudson would’ve thought the guy would be sheepish around the crew but no, here he was, bold as brass. Arrogant, that’s what he was, and he probably thought – and he’d be right – that he had something over one of them now.
Hudson turned his attention to Beau. ‘Whatever made you do it? You know how dangerous that is, that you could take time and resources from someone who really needs help. And this is my place of work…’
Beau hung his head. ‘I’m sorry, Dad.’
‘Are you?’ Hudson didn’t raise his voice much, certainly not here, but he could feel his temper rising. ‘Your little joke could’ve cost lives. You’re damn lucky The Skylarks weren’t needed on another call.’
‘I knew it was wrong?—’
‘Then why do it?’ he roared, causing Beau to look up through his fringe in shock.
Tears tracked down Beau’s cheeks. Hudson hadn’t seen those for years; the anger always got in the way, and he was fifteen. He resisted showing emotions in front of anyone, especially his parents. He hadn’t even cried when his mother moved out; his sadness was masked by fury, which he took out on Hudson in the days following Lucinda’s departure.
‘I didn’t make the call, Dad, at least not the first one, but I was with a gang when they did it. We waited in the fields near the scarecrow, saw the helicopter land, then ran away. I hung back and made the second call.’
‘Second call?’
‘Your son called the emergency services again and said it had been a hoax.’ Conrad sure liked to cut in. ‘The message wentthrough HEMS and Maya… sorry, The Skylarks, were able to leave the scene.’
Hudson rubbed his hands up his cheeks, let out a long breath, rested his forearms on his thighs.
‘Who were the other lads, Beau?’
‘Dad…’
‘Don’tDadme. Who were they?’
‘No, no way. I’ll take my punishment but I’m not grassing; they’ll make my life hell. I’ve got ages left at that school.’
‘But you warned the girl off?’ It didn’t make sense that he’d expose himself like that if he was worried the others would make his school days hard. And then it dawned on him. ‘You like her.’ His son had wanted to show his good side; that was why he’d called it in to stop the air ambulance searching for a patient who didn’t exist. He’d wanted to impress the girl.
Beau’s cheeks took on a telltale crimson shade.
Conrad butted in. ‘Ultimately, hoax calls to the emergency services are a police matter.’
‘Is he going to be charged?’ Hudson asked before looking at Beau. ‘You get a criminal record and it’ll follow you around. It’ll stump your chances of university, finding a job, everything.’ Hudson had no idea whether any of these things were true but the look on Beau’s face, the utter fear and regret, told him it didn’t matter; saying them was making his son see that actions had consequences.
