‘I’m sure it would,’ replied Jane. ‘He’s out of surgery and I’m sure he’d be delighted to meet you both.’
‘He saved Sarah’s life, and we’d like to thank him.’
Her father swallowed hard. ‘The surgery went well and we’re being told she should make a full recovery; the scans look good and they don’t think there’s any permanent damage.’
‘Where is she?’ asked Jane.
‘She’s in intensive care for the time being. They’re going to keep her in a medically induced coma until the morning and then bring her round.’
‘We can offer you a lift home—’
‘We’re going to stay, thank you,’ replied Sarah’s mother. ‘They’re finding us a room somewhere, so we can be here when they wake her up.’
‘You will let me know.’
‘Of course.’ Sarah’s mother had clasped Jane’s hand. ‘You go, you’ll need some sleep yourself. Just thank you for being there for her.’
‘You’re on speakerphone, Lou.’ Jane was sitting in the passenger seat of Dixon’s Land Rover holding his phone in front of him as he drove south on a deserted M5, lights on full beam.
He eased off the accelerator and flicked the windscreen wipers to intermittent, to cut down the background noise.
‘What’s going on, Lou?’ he shouted.
‘The Fiat 500’s gone off to the lab, but Scientific still say they’ll be at the barn until the end of tomorrow. There’s an occupational therapist’s uniform in the boot of the car, and a can of petrol, so I reckon he’d come back to finish them off and then he was going to take the car somewhere and torch it.’
‘Any sign of Jos?’
‘Not yet, and his phone’s switched off.’
‘What about his father’s will?’
‘I’ve got a copy, like you asked. Do you want me to scan it and email it?’
‘Yes, please,’ replied Dixon. ‘Did you get a chance to look at what Sarah was working on before she went off with Nige?’
‘She was doing family trees.’
Of course she was.
‘Hang on to the papers and let me see them in the morning.’
‘Will do.’
‘What time is Diana Hope-Bruce up before the magistrates?’
‘Ten; court one.’
‘What about the bank statements I asked for?’
‘The request’s gone in, but it’s a Sunday don’t forget. We’ll follow them up with calls in the morning,’ replied Louise. ‘How’s Sarah? We’re all on the edge of our chairs here.’
‘She’s going to be all right, they think,’ replied Jane, turning the microphone towards her. ‘The surgery went well and the scans are showing no signs of permanent damage.’
‘Thank God for that. Nige is going to be all right too, apparently.’
‘We know.’
‘Go home, Lou,’ said Dixon. ‘Who else is there?’
‘Mark,’ replied Louise. ‘I think he feels a bit guilty he didn’t check the barn with her when we were over there yesterday.’ Louise was whispering, her voice just carrying over the engine noise, despite being on full volume.
‘Tell him to go home and get some sleep. And I suggest you do the same.’
Jane rang off. ‘Are you going to tell me what this is all about then?’
‘Money.’
‘Not revenge?’
‘Sean Rodwell was revenge. Will Hudson killed the man who started the fire that killed his wife.’ Dixon took a deep breath. ‘Not sure I blame him for that, either.’
‘After all this, it comes down to money. Four murders.’
‘Five. You’re forgetting the poor sod on the park bench in Torquay.’
‘You’ll never prove that after all this time.’
