‘That’s a nasty cut,’ he said, crouching down and examining it. ‘You should really go to hospital.’
‘No. Please, no hospital. It’s fine. I’ll bandage it up.’
‘Erika. It’s the bottom of your foot. There are big arteries there, and it’s a deep cut. We should get it checked out. I’ll take you. I should just put some clothes on first.’
Erika looked down at the yawning cut on the underside of her foot. The pool of blood was growing on the floor. Igor reappeared a moment later, dressed and carrying her clothes.
‘You really want to take me to the hospital?’ she asked.
‘Of course,’ he said. As he helped Erika on with her trousers, she felt so comfortable with him, like suddenly she wasn’t alone in the world anymore.
It was a scary thought to have, and she pushed it out of her mind.
57
Peterson arrived, bleary-eyed, at Lewisham Row the next morning. It was very cold, and even at 8am the day seemed to be struggling to get light, a blue twilight hue hung in the foggy air.
He hadn’t slept well, and as he grabbed his bag and the hot sausage rolls he’d bought from Greggs on his way in to work, he wanted nothing more than to go back to his comfy new bed with Fran. As he hurried across the car park towards the main entrance, a huge Argos delivery lorry pulled up to the barrier, and then came rumbling through. Next to the Argos logo on the side of the lorry was a huge garish photo of a smiling Father Christmas with his thumbs up.
It came to a stop at the main entrance, and a fit-looking young bloke with a beard climbed down from the cab and ran around to the passenger side. He opened the door, and Peterson was surprised to see Erika sitting in the passenger seat. The man half lifted her down, and she stepped gingerly onto the tarmac. Her right foot was bandaged, inside an ill-fitting flip-flop. The guy reached up into the cab and took out a pair of metal crutches, handing them to Erika.
Peterson stared, and the bloke nodded at him in acknowledgement. He could see Erika was embarrassed.
‘Morning,’ said Peterson. ‘Is everything okay?’
The guy said something to Erika that he couldn’t understand, and Peterson realised they were speaking Slovak. Erika muttered something back to him which looked like she was saying thank you.
‘This is Igor, Igor this is James,’ she said. There was a honk from behind the delivery van, and Peterson saw Moss had just driven through the barrier and was trying to get into the car park but the Argos lorry was blocking her.
‘I have to go, can you help her inside?’ said Igor in English to Peterson.
‘Sure.’
‘Bye. You call me, and take those painkillers,’ said Igor to Erika.
‘Yes,’ said Erika.
‘And if you have a shower, put a bag over your foot,’ he said and he leant over to kiss her on the cheek. Peterson noticed that Erika didn’t look too happy about the kiss but she didn’t shrink away from it either.
‘Bye, have a good day and thanks again,’ she said to Igor.
Erika limped over to Peterson, leaning on the crutches, as Igor got back into the lorry, slowly backed it out of the car park, and then drove off with a wave. Moss pulled into the car park and came to a stop beside them, rolling down her window.
‘What’s happened to you, boss?’ she said, looking at Erika on her crutches. ‘And why were you being delivered to work in an Argos lorry?’ she added. Peterson looked at Erika; he could see that she didn’t want to explain the Argos delivery man.
‘I stood on a broken bottle at home,’ she said. ‘A stupid accident. The cat broke the bottle.’
‘Shouldn’t you be resting?’ asked Moss, peering out of the window down at Erika’s bandaged foot.
‘I’m fine. They stitched it up, and I have strong painkillers… I’ll see you in the incident room.’
She limped off on her crutches, and Moss raised an eyebrow at Peterson.
‘Do you know who the bloke was?’ she asked quietly. Peterson shook his head. ‘Never mind. I’ve got an Argos catalogue in the glove compartment. I’ll see if I can find him in there,’ she added with a smile. ‘And since when has she had a cat?’
‘No idea.’
‘Good on her,’ said Moss. And she drove off to park her car. Peterson saw that Erika was struggling to get up the front steps to the main entrance and he ran to help her.
*
Erika was cringing from the encounter she’d just had outside, but when she got into the reception area and up to the front desk, she soon forgot her discomfort. The officer on duty told her that Charles Wakefield had been discharged from hospital in Hove, and he’d been placed in a cell in the custody suite. Moss and Peterson came through the door into the reception area and joined Erika at the desk.