Mark paused, then said, ‘You did, though, right?’
‘Of course,’ Melissa assured him. ‘I couldn’t remember specific nights, obviously, but I told him you were driving her around to try and get her to go off to sleep.’
‘Might have looked odd if you could remember specific nights,’ Mark said, sounding distracted.
‘So, why was he asking?’ Melissa urged him.
Another pause, followed by a heavy sigh. ‘Cummings,’ Mark answered tightly.
‘Your detective sergeant?’
‘Unfortunately.’ Mark sounded tense now. ‘You remember we had an… er… altercation a while back?’
‘Oh God, yes. The womaniser. I remember you told me. You hit him.’
‘Not hard enough,’ Mark replied angrily, and topped up the second glass. ‘He has a penchant for younger women, outside and inside of work. Harasses female members of staff. It’s way beyond acceptable.’
‘But… has no one brought him to task? Reported him?’ Melissa asked, disbelieving.
‘Nope.’ Mark laughed sardonically. ‘Not even the girl who he was helping himself to a grope of when I clocked the bastard. Scared of losing her job. Long story short, I was reprimanded. Psychologically evaluated, not to put too fine a point on it.’
And she didn’t know all this? Jade gawped at the kitchen door. What an uncaring, self-centred bitch.
Melissa gasped. ‘What? Oh no…’
‘It was just after Jacob. My emotions were all over the place.’ Mark sighed audibly.
‘Precisely because you had just lost your son! They must have known that. They must have known that you wouldn’t attack someone, however emotional you were, without provocation.’
‘He didn’t exactly provoke me, Mel,’ Mark said, less passionately. ‘Pissed me off, severely, but in the eyes of my superiors, that wasn’t provocation.’
‘Idiots,’ Melissa seethed. ‘DCI Edwards is well aware of how losing Jacob affected you. He knows that you would do anything for your children, including driving endlessly around at night to try to get your baby to sleep. I honestly can’t believe someone could be so vindictive as to try to make that into anything but what it is.’
‘There’s more to it than just the so-called attack,’ Mark said, and then paused. ‘This is just between you and me, though. I have no evidence.’
‘Of?’ Melissa waited.
‘I saw him kerb-crawling. I’ve been keeping tabs on him. I think, but I can’t yet be certain, that he’s helped himself to drugs, possibly from various crime scenes, the evidence room maybe…’ Again, Mark paused, as if debating how much information to divulge. ‘It looks like he’s supplying those drugs to sex workers, some of them clearly underage.’
‘You’re joking,’ Melissa gasped, incredulous.
‘I wish. Bottom line is, he knows I’m on to him. I suspect he’s out to discredit me before I get enough to make sure he’s kicked off the force and, hopefully, banged up.’
‘So, he’s a sexual predator and a drug pusher,’ Melissa growled angrily. ‘What a disgusting individual. I can’t understand how he’s been allowed to get away with it.’
Digesting this latest information, Jade gulped back a sudden overwhelming nausea. Hard though she tried not to, she felt it over again, the repulsion broiling in the pit of her stomach, the pain, the powerlessness of being at the mercy of such an individual, touching and pawing, salivating and thrusting and grunting. Closing her eyes, claustrophobic in the confines of the hall, she tried to block it out: the odious smell of him, body odour and beer; the look in his eyes as he studied her face, one of lust, his exhilaration fuelled by the fear of being found out, by her fear. The taste of him. She would never forget the sour, salty taste that would make her gag until she was sick.
Sweat prickling her forehead, her heart thrumming a drumbeat in her chest, she didn’t hear the sound of Melissa’s chair scraping back. She did register the sudden silence though. Sensing body contact in there, Jade snapped her eyes open. She couldn’t allow that.
Time to announce her presence. Taking a few steps back up the hall, she started singing. It was the same song her mother had sung to her, a mother who actually couldn’t have cared less if she’d cried. ‘Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird. And if that— Whoops! Sorry,’ she said, pretending embarrassment at finding Melissa on Mark’s lap. She was kissing him! Stuffing her tongue down his throat probably, the slut.
Melissa shot to her feet when she saw Jade. And Mark – poor Mark – looked as if he wanted to drop through the floor. Gathering herself, Jade beamed in his direction. It wasn’t his fault, she reminded herself. He was trying to be a good husband. He would continue to try until he saw Melissa in her true light. That was simply who he was: a good man right to the core. She hadn’t needed to hear his revelations about his detective sergeant to realise that. Jade couldn’t force it. She had to handle it carefully, peel the scales from his eyes slowly. He would realise eventually that to deny his heart’s desire for a weak woman who was using him as a cash cow was a ridiculous waste of a life.
As for this DS Cummings, who was trying to ruin Mark, Jade thought it was time the man got his comeuppance. She would make sure that Mark did get some evidence he could use against him. She couldn’t entice the man to supply her drugs, as Mark would obviously become aware of her involvement, but Jade was quite sure she could entice him to other things. Yes, using his pathetic inclination to abuse women in order to ensure his downfall was entirely feasible. She needed to make the acquaintance of the delightful Cummings, Jade decided.
‘No need to apologise, Jade,’ Melissa said, as Jade went to fill up the kettle. ‘We shouldn’t have been canoodling in the kitchen.’
Canoodling? How twee. Jade tried to hide her immense irritation behind a sweet smile.
‘We got carried away, I’m afraid.’ Melissa smiled and yawned. And stretched, showing far too much boob over her low-cut top for Jade’s liking. Mark could hardly avoid noticing them, could he?
‘Why don’t you go on up and run yourself a nice hot bath,’ he suggested, averting his gaze as he got to his feet. ‘I’ll clear up down here.’
‘Good idea,’ Jade said, possibly a touch too enthusiastically. ‘You look absolutely exhausted,’ she added, fancying that, given the woman’s age, saying she looked tired wouldn’t go down very well. ‘I’ll give Mark a hand and then bring you up a hot chocolate.’
‘Oh, don’t bother, Jade,’ Melissa said. ‘It’s really sweet of you, but you’ve done far too much for one day.’
‘It’s no problem,’ Jade assured her, already on her way to the table to collect up the plates. ‘I’m making one for myself anyway. A good night’s sleep is what you need, isn’t it, Mark?’
‘Looks like it.’ Mark smiled as Melissa tried and failed to supress another yawn, and then, conceding defeat, headed sleepily for the door.
Seventeen
MARK
She really was exhausted. Mark looked down at his wife, sleeping on her tummy as she usually did, her face turned towards him. Ripe for kissing. His eyes strayed to her lips, her glorious copper hair, which was splayed sexily around her. He would very much like to make slow, sensual love to her but, despite her suggestion that he do all the work, he guessed that waking her up might not be deemed pleasurable foreplay.
Undressing quietly, Mark thanked God again for Jade, who he’d left downstairs in the lounge, making sure Hercules was well tucked up. True to her word, she’d made hot chocolate for Melissa and brought it up to her, checking on Evie and Poppy as she did. She’d practically shooed him up to bed when she’d found him dozing in the lounge. She really was a godsend, arriving just when they’d needed her.