As they sat, leaning forward with their glasses touching, Sujin toasted, “To a bright future together.”
“A bright future. Together,” Keya repeated, smiling.
Sujin looked into her eyes and said, “When I saw you standing in the hospital earlier, I didn’t know what to do. I was paralysed. You are so beautiful.”
Keya’s smile broadened. Although she was the one who was paralysed, nobody had called her beautiful for a long time.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Keya was still smiling to herself when she woke on Monday morning. The smell of disinfectant, partly masked by the aroma of Sujin’s vase of summer flowers, and the efficient activity in the ward only made her evening out with Sujin feel all the more surreal.
They’d had a fabulous meal, washed down with the wonderfully expensive pink fizz, which they’d finished off with the theatrical performance of flaming Crepes Suzette.
And they’d talked over tea and coffee until they were the last ones in the restaurant.
Keya leaned back on her pillows and regarded the stained off-white ceiling.
They’d agreed to take things steady for the moment, as Keya needed to recover and she would still have the demands of both her police work and the cafe. But Sujin had urged her to accept Dotty’s offer to accompany her on a trip to the Lake District.
“Are you ready for breakfast?” asked an orderly. “And you might want to ask a nurse to help you dress. Monday mornings are always busy in here as new patients come onto the ward from operations.”
Dressed in her tracksuit bottoms and a fresh T-shirt, Keya sat up in bed eating a peach yoghurt - no strawberry this morning - as she watched the comings and goings on the ward. One of the elderly patients had been moved the previous evening and there was a gap where his bed had been.
“I hope you’re thinking about our case,” Inspector Evans remarked as he strode up to her bed.
“Inspector. This is a surprise.”
“Yes, well, I’ve come with my cap in my hand, so to speak. I know you need your rest and recovery time, but we’re almost done with Daisy Bentham’s case.”
“You think it was accidental, don’t you?”
“That’s the way the evidence is pointing. That Doreen Skinner got the recipe wrong and made a deadly batch of her hot sauce and both you and Daisy ate it, with tragic consequences.”
Keya remembered being inside the standing stones and the voice that had been so insistent inside her head. “I still think there’s more to this, sir.”
“I thought you might, which is why I need your help. Do you feel up to returning to the station with me this morning?”
“If you’ll provide lunch. The stuff they serve in here is dreadful. And some decent tea.”
“Done. I’ve spoken to the ward sister, and they’ll be busy all morning. You’re due for physio this afternoon, but not with Laura. Sister said if you can remember to do your exercises you can skip that, but hopefully we won’t need you for too long, and I can bring you back to rest this afternoon.”
On the drive from Cheltenham to Cirencester, Keya asked Inspector Evans, “How was your interview with Doreen Skinner yesterday evening? I thought you were sending Warren with Inspector Sue.”
“I was going to,” agreed the inspector, “but since Doreen’s sauce caused Daisy’s death, as well as your illness, I wanted to look her in the eye.”
“And do you think she’s innocent?”
“I’m not sure. Probably. But she was too upset for me to read her. Distraught is actually the term I’d use. But then we had just told her she’d effectively killed her daughter.”
Back at the station, Inspector Evans had to chaperone Keya to the team room after she’d been enthusiastically welcomed back by the duty sergeant, who’d then spent several minutes questioning her about her ordeal.
Word must have spread as other officers appeared until the inspector took charge and escorted her through the entrance and along the corridor to their team room.
Applause erupted as they walked in and beside her desk there were three balloons bobbing about, attached to ribbons which rose from a stand on the floor. A silver one had ‘Welcome Back’ printed on it.
She smiled gratefully, but thought the sentiment was premature. It was only as she’d entered the station that she realised it might be some time before she was officially passed fit enough to return to her police work.
As she approached her desk, she stopped and laughed. Sitting on her chair was a furry brown teddy bear wearing a black and white apron and a replica police hat.
“He’s great, isn’t he?” Ryan said. “Sujin brought him in this morning and asked Sue and me if we thought you’d like him. And when he heard you were coming into the station, he left him to welcome your return.”
“And it is a relief to see you,” Sue said, sitting behind her old desk.
Warren was seated at the other unallocated desk, and Stan was standing beside Ryan.
“The Chief Inspector wanted to greet you personally,” Stan said, “but he’s been called to a budget meeting.”
Keya picked the teddy bear up with her right hand and placed him on her desk next to a pile of coloured envelopes. Looking down, she realised she’d struggle to open them. Even the simplest of tasks were going to prove difficult without the use of both arms.
But she mustn’t think about that now. She was here to do a job.
“Sorry I’m late,” Sujin said breathlessly as he entered the room. “I was just double checking all the data before we go through the case.”
“I’ll make the drinks while you settle Keya in,” Stan said.
