CHAPTER 43
He did, or so Mam told me the day after.

“She’s really found a good man, Lainey. And that boy will grow up sound as well. We have hope now, after so long. Your Dad and I, well, Twmi can be very soft at times. We have sent flowers to Alison and her husband. They will understand why”

“And you got the discount from Ellie?”

Mam laughed happily. “And you assumed your mother was stupid as well as old, aye? Now, we have also spent time with that Alice, and Sarah seems to have been fortunate in at least some of her friends. We would do something for her”

“You say ‘her’ so easily now, Mam”

“Eh? And she is something other than a woman. Arwel was asking after her this morning”

Tread gently, girl. “And?”

"He would have our grandson visit for a longer stay than last time, to show him where his family is from”

“And you say that so easily as well, Mam”

She was quiet for a while, and then much softer in her speech. “It was always the worst thing, Elaine. We were slow to see, slow to accept, but Sarah is what she is and as she should be, aye? Samuel was never really there, and, well, how could we not love Siân as you do? But you both brought a halt to our family, an end, and it hurt. And suddenly, there is my Twmi, with a boy who needs a story for his sleep and a shoulder to ride on, and all things are as they should be. Yes, Elaine. Our family, our grandson”

She paused, and then softly added “And leave your uncle alone, girl”

Shit. “When are they coming?”

“In a few weeks, once they can arrange the time off. Sarah has already had a holiday, of course! We will let you know when we find out. Arwel has Plans”

Oh did he? Leave it, Elaine. I was back to work, now, back in my old place, my lovely team under new direction, but the legacy of the two cases was some serious waves. Someone in the Assembly had clearly been watching too much television, or perhaps just enough, and they were being groomed and funded exactly as the hints had been, a national resource for us and available (for a small fee, naturally) to assist the benighted foreigners the other side of the bridge. As for myself, I could have screamed. Administration. I ask you!

Wyn had sniggered. “Think about it, Elaine. I told you that I see you progressing, I said it years ago, and I was right. I know you are a street copper, as they might say in America, a thief taker, but this is CV material. A Chief needs to have many strings. You’ve effectively written the book on the investigation side, but it’s all about budgets”

My body language must have been obvious, for he sighed and shook his head. “Elaine, it IS all about money. You made that unit, you showed what could be done, and they’ve got their own national budget now. What happens when some politician decides that our time is better spent on vote catching, aye? Cyclists on the footpath, noisy parties?”

“I’d argue hard against that. We’re not politicians”

“Elaine, we are not, but our masters are. If you are to progress you need to understand the ins and outs of administration. If you are to argue effectively against some reptile of a vote grabber, you need to know how it works. That’s why you are now going to handle the force overtime budget”

There was more to the conversation than that, but a lot of it was spoken entirely within my own head, including all of the swearing. I could see his point, of course, but that hardly helped. I went home that evening ready to kick the cat we didn’t have.

He was, of course, right. The actual financial mechanics were handled by civilian support staff, and that left me free to concentrate on priorities. By that I actually mean deciding what area was more important than another, and realising that ‘important’ didn’t always mean what I thought it did, and that I couldn’t always get my own way.

I was deep in the middle of some argument about ‘bobbies on the beat’ on foot rather than in cars, explaining yet again how having a foot patrol near a pub where a brawl was likely didn’t help when the actual fighting started at another pub five or more miles away, when the phone rang on my desk. Yes, I now had a bloody desk, in an office, with a name plate on the door.

“Inspector Powell? I have your mother for you”

“Thanks, Adele. Hi, Mam, They set a date then?”

“Detective, aren’t you? Yes, they will come in ten days, and they will be bringing friends. That woman who plays the violin, and that other woman who got to know your cousin at the wedding. Suzy”

She dropped her voice, as I suspect Dad may have been nearby. “In the ladies’, wir! Hywel has no shame!”

I laughed out loud at that one, imagining my mother’s blushes. She might be able to cope with transsexuals, accept them as women, but she was still a woman of her time, and a modest one.

“Where will they stay, Mam?”

“Well, my daughter, son in law and our grandson will stay here, of course! There will be that Alice, Hywel’s … friend and Tony’s Mam to put up”

“Siân and I can cope, Mam. Can you let Sar know?”

“Sarah had other news as well. I believe you remember that man we met in Canterbury at Christmas, Andy? His woman is pregnant”

Hit me where it hurts, Mam, just one more time. “This is the man who was so nice to Alice?”

“Yes. They will be married before the child is born, so he is as moral as people are today”

I could say nothing to that one, given the circumstances of so many of our family. I sent my wife a short e-mail after we finished the call, and then rang Hywel.

“I want some promises, dear cousin. You watch your Dad round that Alice, aye? And you watch yourself round that Stephanie”

“Bloody hell, Lainey. You think we’re both thick, or what?”

“I know you two. You might not be that stupid, but you’ve never let thought get in the way of anything you do”

“Oh, bugger off, aye? That girl, Suzy, you said she’d be over too?”

“Of, for fuck’s sake! Sorry, Adele!”

Her voice was faint through the door. “Too many years on the bike, Inspector, aye? Forget the volume control”

“Aye. Sorry. Hywel, don’t get me swearing, my secretary doesn’t like it. What’s with this Suzy?”

“Don’t know yet. Find out when she comes. Got space for her if she wants, aye?”

“Oh, fu-- add her to the list, aye? Think before, that’s all I ask. What’s the plan?”

“Dad’s got the Rugby Club to save us some space for a meal, and he wants to do a grand tour thing, down Bosherston and that. Show his boy the best bits”

“His boy?”

“Aye, Jim. They bringing the dog?”

“Priorities. I should think so, as there’ll be nobody at the house, Alice and Enid coming, innit?”

“Aye. So your turn, girl, to keep your mouth shut and your nose out. Time for you to show Dad some bloody trust, aye?”

“She’s still---“

“Shut it and leave it, Lainey. Dad’s business, his alone”

Ten days would pass far too slowly, I realised. I ended that call and the phone went as soon as I put the handset down. Who the hell was it now?”

“Call from Cardiff for you, Inspector”

“Ta Adele. Inspector Powell, how can I help you?”

“Lainey!”

“Diane! Thank everything, a voice of bloody sanity at last! I heard about the national funding. How is everybody?”

She nattered on for what seemed like an hour about the team, and obviously one in particular, and jobs they had been given. I got the usual second-hand greetings from everyone, including Chris, and then there was a pause in her prattle.

“Diane, I know that sort of pause. I know you. There’s something else, isn’t there?”

There was a long sigh at the other end of the line. “Aye, Lainey, you do know me, far too well. Yes, and it’s not good. Do you remember a Sergeant Price?”

How could I ever forget that one? Kevin had been so lucky in where he ended up that day, far away from the screaming and that tiny, tiny corpse.

“Di. What’s happened to him?”

“Got the word back from his new nick, innit? Had another really shitty one, and broke down. Gone indoors after gardening leave, aye?”

Gardening leave: where to lose someone you want to keep when keeping them at work will make their loss a certainty. “What was it, Diane? An RTA?”

“That’s why I’m calling you, Lainey. Someone you know was involved in it. No, not like that! She organised finding the people to blame, or at least helped a lot. Woman was chased off a motorway bridge, over the rail and under the traffic. Adam was on scene”

I suddenly realised she was weeping. “He’s a good man, Lainey. This happened ages ago, and nobody here knew anything. How do we lose a friend like that, lose them so easily? The shit he’s had. Look, you know that Woodruff woman, aye? Could you have words? She lives near his nick. We don’t want to ring up, stir things, aye? Just let him know he’s not forgotten”

Oh shit. My plate was getting very full indeed. “I will do what I can, Di. Give my best to everyone, aye? I’ll try and arrange a trip over, have a few beers and a curry, catch up. Do it soon, aye?”

“Yeah. Sorry”

“Never, ever say that for being the person you are, for caring, aye? Soon, girl”

I sat for a while, remembering a fellow police officer sat by the side of a busy road, sobbing, and resolved to see what I could do for him. Shitty, shitty world.

The appointed day duly arrived, and after unloading the Old Biddy car, as Alice called it, we were off round the rugby club, and it was a lovely warm evening. Siân kept breaking into giggles at Sar’s friend, who had gone all out on the seduction front, and I am sure her feet were in agony by the end of the night. I totally disregarded Hywel’s instructions to have a go at his dad, but all I got was a flat stare, and then he simply walked past me. When my uncle was like that, it was impossible to talk to him, Stiff-necked old bastard.

Aunty Gwen and Uncle Gethin were better, and the way they fawned over the newlyweds was astonishingly normal. I took a few minutes to get Sar and Tony to one side, Mam’s news slicing into my heart. Tony was clearly shocked. Sarah was as direct as ever

“We need to talk, you three, while we have the time and are sober enough. Tony, I’m going to get straight to the point: these two are broody, and are hoping to sort that out. They want to know if you will consider knocking them up”

I had to laugh at that one. “You don’t mince words, do you, chwaer fychan?”

Tony was pale under his honeymoon tan. “Can I assume that this little project will not involve me actually doing the, er, knocking? Do I get a say?”

I stood as calmly as I could while Sarah went through the proposal. Tony was quiet for a couple of minutes, and we left him to think it through. He had a question.

“What happens if I decide I would like to be a dad to my own child? I would love to help, obviously, or perhaps not so obviously, but…”

My wife was crushing my hand. I gathered my words carefully, for that had always been the critical issue.

“You would always have access. We would sign any agreement you wanted, we just think that if we are going to pick any man, we want one we know, trust and love.”

To my astonishment, he was close to tears. “You know who Jim is? He is the only thing I have left of my Annie, and if I could have given him a brother or sister …we were never given the opportunity. If he could have a cousin, or two, perhaps….”

He shook himself. “Let me think. This is a big thing, and if we do it, it must be right. Look, there’s Steph. Let’s go and feed, and please, for now, change the subject”

Crap again, two to head off, father and son, and now she was here. Before I could get there, Hywel was speaking to her, and there was a kaleidoscope of emotions running over her face. Her husband tensed, and I knew that expression from too many fights, but suddenly Hywel was hugging her, and I wound back the work thoughts. By the time I was with them, they were deep into rugby anecdotes, and Hywel took his chance to flash me his own flat stare: how dare I distrust my family?

I managed to get Steph to one side, eventually, when she stopped talking rugby with Hywel and visited the ladies’.

“Got a question for you, girl. Had a call a few days ago, from a colleague. She tells me you were very helpful in a murder case over---shit, I’ll hold your hair”

I put some paper towels under her knees while she was sick again, and then dug some wet wipes from my handbag. “You OK now?”

She was horribly pale. “Mel Stevens. I was sick at the trial as well. Please don’t bring this up---I mean mention it—to Geoff”

She shuddered again, wet eyes off in the past. “It was awful. What’s your interest, Elaine?”

“Colleague was at the scene. Just heard he had a breakdown, aye?”

She nodded. “Not surprising. She was a mess even before the lorries and cars hit her. Please, not today. If I can, I’ll ask about your friend, but let’s leave her in peace for today. Please”

I made my promise, and we walked back out into the sunshine, the details of that woman’s death left for another day. Poor Adam.