As the green uniforms came down the steps, Nikki thought that maybe, for the first time ever, she had something to thank Frankie Doyle for.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

‘THIS HOSPITAL HAS more people in it that I know than the bloody nick! Visiting time is taking me hours!’ Nikki handed Joseph a large bag of seedless grapes. ‘Thought you’d start carping on if I forgot them again.’ She smiled down at him. ‘How goes it?’

‘Fair to middlin, as my mum used to say, but I’m starting to get suspicious about what they are doing with all the blood they keep taking from me.’ He eased himself higher in the bed, and winced. ‘And my gut is still tender as hell.’

‘Ah, then you’d better give me that fruit back. Maybe they weren’t such a good idea after all.’ She moved a chair up to the bed, sat down next to him and pulled a small cluster from the bunch of grapes. ‘Everyone sends their love, or their regards, delete which is not applicable.’ Nikki bit into a grape. ‘So, any news on when they are going to discharge you?’

Joseph pulled a face. ‘Five, maybe six days. Things aren’t operating quite normally yet, and some liver function test was not quite what they expected, either.’

‘More blood tests?’

He nodded glumly. ‘I know I should be just happy to be alive, but my boredom threshold is pretty low. I need to be doing something.’

‘How about concentrating on getting better?’

‘Done that. I’m improving by the hour! Oh, and how’s Kerry?’

‘That’s one resilient kid! If it hadn’t been for Kris Brown’s dog, I’m not sure she’d have made it.’ Nikki grinned. ‘I saw her earlier, and she was raving on about the light/shade juxtapositions in the Coggin’s cottage cellar! Can you believe it, she actually wants to go back there and photograph the place for her final project?’

‘Incredible! But I wish her well.’ Joseph moved uncomfortably. ‘Have you pieced together what actually happened to her yet?’

‘More or less,’ said Nikki with her mouth full. ‘Nice grapes. Sorry about that gut of yours. Now, just prior to Kerry’s abduction, Fluke III mugged Kris Brown, nicked his wallet to make it look good, but actually took his mobile phone.’

‘Ah, that answers a lot. Texting her, luring her up to the sea-bank, and diverting the suspicion to Kris.’

‘Spot on. And lucky for them that Kris was a bit of a weirdo. I was so unhappy with that boy, but it turns out he was always obsessive, then his father’s death made him ten times worse. He watches the heavens to be closer to his dad.’ Nikki looked slightly abashed. ‘I may just have to make a few apologies there.’

Joseph smiled. ‘You were pretty hard on him. But going back to Kerry, why didn’t Fluke kill her?’