Wishful Daughters (aka Bike) Part 610 by Angharad

After we left Puddin’, who was gurgling to herself, we called in at the supermarket to buy some of the kiddie food that would go down for a birthday tea. I hadn’t thought to bake a cake, and I was tempted to buy one, instead I bought some icing sugar and some food dyes, along with some self-raising flour. Once Trish was in bed, I could bake her a cake and ice it later. I’d do a basic Victoria sandwich with jam and water icing on the top. I’d seen a piping set in Tom’s kitchen, in a tin at the back of his larder. It probably hadn’t been used since his wife died.

I’d never done any clever stuff with icing and certainly had never used a piping bag, but I’d watched my mother, so I had some idea and it would take my mind off Simon. Part of me was quite looking forward to it.

We bought jelly and more ice cream, mini sausages, some finger rolls and bags of crisps. I’d try and make sure they had a good lunch if we were eating crap for tea, except my lovely cake–that was home made crap!

I grabbed a few more things and we were soon pushing a trolley full of Morrison’s best. We had a long wait at the checkout, I almost goldfished at the varieties and amounts people buy for a bank holiday weekend. The shops are closed for Sunday, that’s all. I saw one woman put six large loaves of white bread on the conveyor belt–mind you, she was the same height lying down as she was standing up, so maybe she would eat six loaves over a weekend.

I thought I’d perhaps better get a loaf too, and left Trish in charge of the shopping as I dashed back to the bakery aisle. I returned just in time to see her being pushed past by some man with a basket.

“Hoy, there’s a queue here, wait your turn like we had to.”

“Yeah, what you gonna do about it, girly, set your kiddie on me?”

“The lady was here first,” said the checkout girl.

“Lady? She looks like a teenage mum, to me.”

“Actually, I am a lady, and I will not allow a peasant to pass me out turn in a queue.”

“Yeah, Lady Muck, beat it kid before I call your daddy to take you ’ome.”

“Daddy is up on his estate, shooting peasants.” I’d meant to say pheasants, although it was grouse Henry went shooting.

“Oh very funny. Well this one escaped and I’m in front o’ you.”

“Is there a problem?” Asked the burly security guard.

“Yeah, this bitch is bitching, probably needs a good seeing to,” the queue-jumper tapped his nose.

“This man pushed past us in the queue,” I said, looking at the security guard, he was looking at me strangely–no doubt was going to say something about dormice and juggling.

“Yeah, she’s got a jumped idea of her own importance, thinks she’s a lady, daddy’s up in Scotland strangling grouse or something.”

“It’s, Lady Cameron, isn’t it?” said the security guard.

“Yes, how did you know?”

“I saw your picture in the paper when you caught that bag thief. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He smiled at me, “You,” he poked the man in the chest, “can go to the back of the queue.”

“You can go…”

“If that’s an obscenity, sir, I have a right to detain you for antisocial behaviour,” the security guard stood up to his full height, he was well over six feet tall and broad with it. The annoying queue jumper backed down and walked to the back of the queue. I thanked the guard and the small crowd that was gathering, clapped his performance. He blushed and after acknowledging them, walked away. We paid for our goods and left.

“Stay close, Trish, just in case that man says something in the car park.” Trish held on to my arm as I pushed the trolley towards our car. We were yards from it when I heard a car engine rev and a squeal of tyres and a red car came speeding towards us. I scooped up Trish and we rolled across the bonnet of a parked car behind us as the speeding car–a red Toyota–smashed into our shopping knocking the trolley and it’s contents all over the car park.

Trish was trembling with fright and I was quite shocked myself, the squeal of brakes was followed by a tremendous crash and tinkling glass. People were running to us and to somewhere across the car park. Then there was a huge bang and a flash as something exploded and debris showered everywhere. I pulled Trish to me and bent over her to stop bits of glass and metal hitting her. A second explosion occurred and there were screams and yells from bystanders.

“Are you alright, sweetheart?” I asked Trish who was shaking like a leaf.

“Yes, Mummy, you were so brave, that car could have hit me.”

“Yes, I think it was the man in the queue who was rude to us.” I glanced towards the source of thick black smoke and flames. “The car’s on fire, we need to get away from here.”

People were rushing about like lunatics. We couldn’t help, so we picked up most of our shopping, the items which weren’t broken, and put them in the boot of our car. “Let’s go and get a cup of tea, I’m sure the police will want to speak with us.” We walked back into the supermarket and into the restaurant.

After carrying a pot of tea and glass of milk plus some biscuits back to the table, I poured myself a cup then found my hands were shaking too much to be able to pick it up.

The security guard and the manager–well some bloke in a suit were walking towards us. “Lady Cameron, this is John Smart, the store manager, he’d like a word with you.”

“We have CCTV film of you being harassed at the checkout plus some of the incident in the car park. They will be handed over to the police as soon as they arrive. Thank you for returning to the store instead of trying to leave.”

“I knew that the police would want to speak with us as soon as the cars crashed, how bad is it?”

“We think there was loss of life. The emergency services are dealing with it.”

“Did the bad man, die, Mummy?” asked Trish.

“It looks like it, sweetheart, rather a heavy price to pay for impatience,” I said philosophically.

“He did try to run us over, Mummy.”

“Maybe, sweetheart, that’s for the police to decide.”

The manager nodded, “Is there anything, you or your little girl need? Would you like to wait in my office?”

“No we’re fine here thank you, although we lost some items when he hit the trolley in the car park.”

“If you could give me a list of them, I’ll get someone to organise it for you.”

“I’ll need to pay for them.”

“We can sort that out later, Lady Cameron.”

“Mummy is going to make me a birthday cake.”

“Is your birthday soon, then?”

“Yes, tomorrow.”

“Here come the police, look, would you like to go with this lady and choose a birthday cake from the bakery?”

Trish looked anxiously to me, “It’s okay, sweetheart, they’ll bring you back to me in a few minutes.” I was shaking a little with shock, my legs wouldn’t stay still.

Trish went off with one of the women staff and another took down the list of items I’d lost in the incident. Just as we finished the police arrived, and I was pleasantly surprised to see PC Bond accompanying a woman inspector. Suddenly this didn’t feel quite so daunting.

A small group of people were being taken into the restaurant; presumably other witnesses, me being the primary witness–I was walked off to the manager’s office with the two coppers. At least I wasn’t being arrested although people were staring at me as if I was, and one or two were pointing. As we went up the stairs, the flashes of blue light from the emergency vehicles lit up the stairwell despite it being day time. I glanced across at the car park, another fifty yards and it would have happened at the petrol station. Geez, that would have been calamitous.

“Are you okay, Cathy?” asked PC Bond.

“Yeah, just a bit shaken up by it, he could have killed us.”

“Please take a seat, Lady Cameron, isn’t it?”

“Not quite yet, I’m engaged to Simon, we’re not yet married,” and maybe never will, I thought wistfully, “but the media jumped the gun and people do call me by the name. I tend to accept it, it’s easier than explaining things.”

“I can see that, but your current name is, Cathy?”

“Yes, Catherine Watts, and my little girl is called Patricia.”

“I don’t recall her last time, Cathy,” said PC Bond.

“No, she’s a new acquisition, I’m her foster mum, although both she and Mima act as if Simon and I were their natural parents. It seems to make them happier, so we go along with it.”

“Your foster child, so her name is, Patricia what?”

“No, Watts, same as me–quite a coincidence.”

“Indeed. So do you mind if I call you Cathy?”

“Not at all, what should I call you?”

“Oh, sorry, yes, I’m Inspector Irene Dodd and this is PC Bond, whom you seem to know?”

“Yes, we’ve met before.” I smiled back at her, if only all coppers were like Andy Bond?

“So, Cathy, could you tell us what happened?”

“Yes, a man queue jumped us at the checkouts, one of the security guards came up and he was told to wait his turn. He apparently left the store before we did. As we pushed our trolley to the car, he drove at us at speed, the tyres squealing made me see him and I grabbed Trish and we both dived over a car bonnet. We were picking ourselves up, when I heard a screech of brakes and then the crash followed moments later by the explosion. I think there was a second one. Did another car explode?”

“We’re not sure yet,” said the inspector, not giving anything away.

“Did anyone die in the explosion, I presume it was a petrol tank?”

“We think the man from the dispute might have done, and there were two people in the other car.”

“Geez, three people die because he couldn’t wait for five minutes,” I felt a tear slip down my cheek then I felt strangely cold, the voices seemed far away, and it all went black.

I came to looking at a woman paramedic, “What happened? Where’s Trish, is she alright?”

“She’s fine, she’s downstairs with a huge birthday cake and a bunch of flowers.” The paramedic stepped aside and I could see the speaker, the woman inspector.

“Seeing as you’re obviously very shocked, we’d like to take a statement tomorrow if that’s possible?”

“It’s my little girl’s birthday, tomorrow.”

“So we gather, therefore, PC Bond will call by tomorrow morning and take your statement if that’s okay, or you could alternatively call in at the station. Unfortunately, because there has been loss of life, we will have to investigate, although hopefully, the CCTV will be our best witness.”

“We’ve sent for Professor Agnew, to drive you home, he’s on his way by taxi,” said Andy Bond.

“I seem to have caused everyone a lot of trouble, if I’d let that chap go through ahead of us, this wouldn’t have happened.” I felt a tear run down my cheek again, trouble seemed to follow me around.