Page 23 of Dying Breath
‘Is there a dog on?’
‘No, I’ve told control to call one in ASAP. I’m so sorry, Lucy.’
It wasn’t his fault, but he would ultimately end up getting reprimanded for it as the officer in charge.
Lucy caught sight of Mattie strolling along the corridor where the radios, keys and most of the other equipment was stored. He held open the double doors for a flurry of officers, who were all running in the direction of the rear yard and their vehicles. Smithy ran through after them, with Lucy following him.
‘Come on, we have to go!’
‘What’s going on? Are they evacuating the building?’
‘No – whoever was babysitting Lewis Waite let him escape.’
‘You’re having me on?’
‘I wish that I was.’
Lucy passed through the exit, grabbing the last set of car keys off the whiteboard, and Mattie followed her. They rushed out into the yard and she began to press the key fob to see which car’s hazard lights flashed.
Mattie groaned. ‘There – it’s for the minibus. It’s a nightmare to drive and twice as slow as your car.’
Lucy shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter, we can’t exactly travel immediate response to the hospital anyway, can we?’
Mattie ran back inside to the community office and came out with a set of keys for the small marked van that the PCSOs used.
‘It’s not much better, but it has flashing lights and sirens.’
Lucy wondered how much she was going to regret this – it had been a while since she’d been on an IR run at high speeds. She climbed inside and pulled her seat belt across her chest; she hated Mattie’s driving, even on a good day. He turned on the blues and twos, then put his foot down, just making it through the automatic gates before they closed. He began to drive as fast as the van would let him and Lucy felt the porridge she’d eaten for her breakfast lurch inside her stomach. She began talking into the radio.
‘I want every entrance and exit to the hospital locked down – he may still be inside. Then I want two cars doing an area search.’
A voice came back immediately: ‘Already done, Inspector.’
She looked at Mattie. ‘He could be anywhere. With all the bloody fields and houses it’s going to be a nightmare trying to find him, and he knows we’ll be looking. He’s not daft; he’ll be hiding somewhere.’
‘Yeah, he will, so let’s just hope there’s a dog on that can pick up his trail and track him down. Otherwise there’s a good chance he’ll get away.’
‘What a crap start to the day.’
Mattie couldn’t agree more.
They reached the hospital in record time. Mattie parked behind another van outside the A&E department. Smithy was already inside viewing the department’s CCTV footage. He glanced up at Lucy.
‘There’s the sneaky little fucker – he took off his paper suit and nicked a pair of trousers and a coat from the cubicle next door.’
Lucy watched the screen in horror as Lewis Waite came out of the cubicle next to his wearing someone else’s clothes, which were too big for him. His head down, he walked straight past the scuffle going on in the waiting room and no one even gave him a second glance. He marched straight out of the doors and into the car park.
‘Tell me there’s CCTV in the car park?’
The security guard shook his head. ‘Sorry, it’s been broken about three weeks now.’
Lucy groaned. Mattie, sensing she was about to go into a major meltdown, took hold of her elbow and guided her towards the car park. He whispered into her ear, ‘None of it is his fault.’
‘I know that, but I’m going to explode. How can we have lost the number-one suspect for a murder case?’
‘I guess Lewis Waite got lucky and realised that. Come on, he’s a smack rat with an addiction; he won’t be that hard to find. He’s going to have to come out of hiding to get a fix at some point – we’ll get him.’
Lucy looked at Mattie, who didn’t appear to be in the least bit flustered; he seemed like he always did. Impeccable, never frazzled, his big blue eyes had no dark circles under them, unlike hers. He smiled at her and she nodded. He was right; Lewis would have to come out of hiding at some point. He put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her towards him. She got a whiff of his aftershave, the one she’d bought him for Christmas because George wore it and she loved it so much. Her body relaxed into him and he smiled at her again.
