The Nurse by J. Corrigan (list of ebook readers txt) 📕

has it all wrong about Marion. But if not, what then?

He slumps into the car seat. He does not know.

On the M1 leg of his journey, he succumbs to an attack of conscience and pulls in at the services to call Marion and let her know he’ll be dropping by. No answer on the landline, so he tries her mobile. Maybe she’s away visiting Sam. Maybe he has it all wrong and Sam’s father-in-law really is helping him buy the villa.

Maybe he shouldn’t be doing this.

Her mobile rings for minutes. Finally an agitated Marion answers. ‘I can’t speak, Theo. I have the police with me.’ She rings off.

Suddenly needing air, he gets out of the car. Marion didn’t sound confrontational towards him; whatever has encouraged Alison Greenwood to visit her is not connected with what he told the policewoman, therefore it must be associated with what Ed Madden revealed during questioning.

Or maybe Greenwood is just a good detective.

As the wind whips up in the service station’s exposed car park, Theo buttons up his jacket and gets back in the car. He returns to the motorway and at the next junction does a U-turn, travelling back the way he came.

He makes his way to Chesterfield and Old Whittington, hoping Miles will be at home. He doesn’t bother to call. What will be will be, although he does wonder if the police have beaten him to it.

Theo is sitting in Miles’s kitchen. Miles has cleared up since his last visit. He’s put his house in order, as if he were going on holiday.

They sidestepped any pleasantries. Miles puts on percolated coffee and pulls out a bag of croissants, and the smell wafting over tells Theo they were bought fresh that morning. Today Miles is shaved and appears less forlorn than he did on Theo’s previous visit.

‘Good timing,’ he says as he places two croissants on separate plates. ‘Best croissants in Old Whittington.’

‘Have the police been in contact with you?’

‘No, not yet, but I’m sure they will be soon. I’ve already spoken to a barrister, and Rose’s solicitor.’

‘Was it you, Miles?’

Miles sits down on the chaise longue, the plate holding his croissant balanced precariously on his lap. He picks up the pastry and takes a bite, chews laboriously and puts it back on the plate, setting it down next to him. He doesn’t answer.

Theo continues. ‘I had a wild theory that it could have been Abigail Deane who killed Abe and that you and Rose have been protecting each other, thinking the other did it.’ He contemplates his croissant. ‘But I’m wrong, aren’t I?’

‘For Christ’s sake, I don’t think even Abigail Deane is capable of murdering her own son, and why would she? No, it was me. A doctor, a saver of lives.’

Miles doesn’t know that Abigail is not Abe’s biological mother, and he certainly doesn’t know who is. Why then is he confessing to Abe’s murder; what is motivating him to tell the truth now?

‘Why did you allow Rose to take the blame? You love her.’

‘It’s what she wanted,’ Miles replies.

‘Why did she want it?’

‘That’s for Rose to tell you.’

‘It might need explaining in court.’

‘Rose has already served some time in prison,’ Miles says. ‘The prosecution won’t pursue her for the perversion of justice.’

‘Is that what your barrister said?’

‘No, it’s what Rose’s solicitor said.’

Although he was starving in the car, Theo leaves the croissant untouched. ‘I want to share something with you, Mr Marlowe.’

‘I’m waiting.’

Time stands still and Miles’s expression doesn’t change as Theo drops the Armageddon bomb.

That Abe Duncan was Rose’s child.

At last Miles turns away. His shoulders begin to move, small waves, but then after seconds they jolt, and his sobs echo through his tidy kitchen. A fresh wind circles in through the open window, caressing the upright hairs on Theo’s arms.

Finally Miles faces him. ‘There is no reason to tell Rose,’ he says. ‘What’s done is done, and cannot be undone.’

‘I think you are forgetting…’ Theo’s own throat is full, Elliot so clear in his mind, as is the fact that he and Sophie had their son for fifteen years. ‘About Abe’s daughter. Rose has a grandchild.’

‘Yes, you are right.’ Miles moves closer to him. ‘You have feelings for Rose?’

‘I…’

‘I killed Abe. Not Rose. Never Rose. She thought I had much more to lose than she did. She went to prison for me so I could carry on working. But I couldn’t work. I let her down in so many ways. Her sacrifice was for nothing. It’s imperative she leaves prison. More so than ever because, as you say, she has a granddaughter.’

‘I’ll do everything I can to help,’ Theo says.

‘She’ll need all the help she can get,’ Miles replies quietly. ‘There’s one last thing you need to know. But that really is for Rose to tell you.’

Theo stands up and puts his plate on the countertop. ‘I’ll make my own way out.’ He turns to go, but then stops and swings around. ‘How could you let an innocent woman, your wife, go to prison for a crime she didn’t commit?’

‘I am weak. And this has always been so.’

Theo walks from the kitchen and towards the front door.

Back in Manchester, he decides he needs to clear his mind. He makes a quick stop-off at his flat to pick up his swimming stuff, then heads to the local public pool, unable to go to his health club because he cancelled the hefty subscription a month before.

There’s nothing more for him to do except wait for news from the police, if indeed they decide to share anything with him, which is highly unlikely.

The ending to this story is too tragic and harrowing, too darkly ironic to comprehend.

57

10 May 2016

Eleven days later, Daniel and Abigail Deane are breaking news again.

Theo is reading page 5 in The Times: Deanes Arrested in Morocco As New Evidence Comes to Light in 2015 Abe Duncan Murder Case: Rose Marlowe Granted Bail. He folds up the newspaper, and as he does so, a