A Room Full of Bones: A Ruth Galloway Investigation

pass the Brighton gates, the road ahead shimmers and almost disappears. For one terrifying moment, Nelson thinks he sees a lorry bearing down on them. Then the lorry turns into a skull with glowing red eyes. Suddenly he knows he’s going to be sick.
    ‘Harry! What’s happening?’
    Somehow Nelson makes it onto the hard shoulder. He staggers out of the car and is violently sick in the undergrowth. He feels hot and cold in rapid succession. Crouched on the scrubby grass at the side of the road, he stares at a twig as it smoothly turns into a snake.
    ‘Harry.’ Michelle puts her hand on his shoulder. She sounds scared.
    ‘I’m OK.’ Nelson forces himself to stand up. ‘Must be something I ate. Those bloody chips.’
    ‘I’ll drive,’ says Michelle.
    This time, Nelson doesn’t argue.
    Kate wakes at ten-thirty. Her crying soon escalates from sad whimpers into full-blown howling. Ruth rushes upstairs and attempts long-range soothing, as recommended by the books. ‘It’s OK, Kate. It’s OK. Go back to sleep.’ Kate roars louder, arching her back and flailing her arms. The sound seems to expand to fill the little house. God knows what Max must be thinking. Ruth picks Kate up and paces the room with her. ‘It’s OK. It’s OK.’ Kate is rigid against her shoulder but the crying decreases slightly in volume. Ruth starts to sing.
    ‘Three little men in a flying saucer …’ Kate stops sobbing but manages to convey that she will start again if Ruth dares to try to put her down.
    ‘Two little men …’
    ‘Is she all right?’
    Max is standing in the doorway. Ruth feels her face growing red, embarrassed to be caught singing, embarrassed to be failing in what the books call ‘crying management’, embarrassed that Max is in her bedroom with the bed stretched out, vast and smooth, between them.
    ‘Shall I hold her for a bit?’
    Ruth hands Kate over and Max strides along the landing with the baby against his shoulder. From the bottom of the stairs Claudia and Flint watch anxiously. Kate’s head lolls against Max’s neck. ‘Dada’, she says sleepily.
    By the time they reach the outskirts of Norwich, Nelson is almost delirious. Strange lights and shapes blur before his eyes. When he looks at Michelle her profile is wonderfully familiar but, when she turns slightly, he sees the skull beneath the skin.
    ‘Don’t,’ he mutters. ‘Don’t look …’
    Michelle drives straight past the turn-off to King’s Lynn and heads into Norwich. Nelson wakes from a dream of skulls and snakes and buried children.
    ‘Where are we going?’
    ‘To A and E,’ says Michelle grimly.

CHAPTER 21
     
    At first Judy doesn’t recognise the voice on the phone.
    ‘DS Johnson? It’s Superintendent Whitcliffe here.’
    Judy sits up in bed, feeling the utter wrongness of being caught talking to the Superintendent while wearing a baby doll nightdress. Next to her, Darren stirs in his sleep.
    ‘Morning, sir.’ Judy looks around the room for something to make her feel more professional. She puts on her watch.
    ‘Johnson. DCI Nelson has been taken ill in the night. He’s in the university hospital. It looks bad. I’m making you SIO on the drugs case and the museum case.’
    Senior Investigating Officer. At first that is all Judy can hear, then the rest of the sentence filters through.
    ‘Nelson’s in hospital? What happened?’
    ‘I’m not quite sure. I’ve just come off the phone to his wife. It might be something viral, maybe meningitis. He’s unconscious.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘That’s all I know but it sounds serious. He’s in intensivecare. I’m going to need you to rally the team. They’ll be in shock.’
    Clough will also be madder than a snake, thinks Judy, getting out of bed. He’ll think he should have been put in charge. He’ll be devastated about the boss too; he worships Nelson.
    I’ll call a meeting,’ says Whitcliffe.
    Judy looks at her watch. It’s Sunday and they’re meant to be having lunch with Darren’s parents.
    ‘I’m on my way,’ she says.
    ‘Good girl. I’ll see you there.’
    Ruth, too, is in bed. Weak sunlight is filtering through the blinds, she stretches and is instantly aware of two, no three, things. There are no blinds in her bedroom, she must be in the spare room. It’s morning and Kate isn’t awake yet and she’s in bed with Max.
    The last thing will have to wait for a moment. She pads across the landing and looks into Kate’s cot, standing beside the pristine double