慖 texted,?says Nelson. 慖 got caught up in a case. I slept in the station. On one of the sofas in the custody suite.?Tony had told him that Katie slept there last night. Katie made Tony a thank you card with one of her special pictures of Flint on the front. Nelson forgot to hand it over and it抯 still in his pocket.
慏id you catch the bad guys??says Laura, going into the kitchen.
慖 think so,?says Nelson.
慣here抯 a postcard for you from Grandma,?says Laura. 慖 think she抯 the only person on earth who still sends postcards.?
The card shows an illuminated Blackpool tower and the message on the back reads: 慔aving lots of fun （joke!）。 Wish you were here Mumxx? Nelson feels strangely tearful. His mother misses him, that抯 the reason she took the card from her stash, stuck on a stamp and braved the walk to the post box. And, strangely enough, he misses her too.
After his shower, Nelson comes downstairs to find Laura heating something up in the microwave. She抯 in the garden with Bruno and he can hear the dog抯 excited barks. Thank God there抯 a can of beer in the fridge. Nelson drinks it while the plate revolves in the microwave. He thinks of Samantha Wilson and her Weight Watchers?meal. When did she decide to kill herself? Between the defrosting and the eating? Did Hugh Baxter really persuade her to take her own life? Sadly, that will be impossible to prove but they should be able to get him for Zoe抯 kidnapping. Even so, with a good lawyer and considering his age, Baxter might get away with a suspended sentence. How many people are there, thinks Nelson, who kill without using a lethal weapon? 慔e just talked to them,?said Jo earlier. How many people whispering poisoned words in their victims?ears? How many men like Jay, outwardly respectable, yet fiends of cruelty in their own home?
This line of thought is making Nelson very depressed. He takes his beer into the sitting room and switches on the TV. But there抯 no sport because of lockdown and all the other programmes seem to be repeats. He抯 looking for an American cop show, something like Colombo or Kojak, when his phone buzzes. It抯 Michelle.
I抦 coming home.
Chapter 44
Monday, 20 April
Three weeks after he was rushed into hospital in an ambulance, Cathbad leaves in a wheelchair to a rapturous round of applause from the ICU staff. Cathbad is embarrassed about the wheelchair ?he抯 perfectly able to walk ?but is told that this is hospital policy. He抯 overwhelmed too that the doctors and nurses are actually cheering him. 慖t抯 a success for us all,?Abbas told him, 憌hen someone who was so sick goes home again.?Cathbad thanks Abbas by the main doors, pressing his hands together in a namaste although he would love to be able to give the nurse a hug. Abbas bows back, eyes smiling behind his mask. Cathbad remembers looking into those same eyes during the many hours when he couldn抰 speak and was scared that his next breath would be his last. 慘eep going??that was the message Abbas sent him silently. Cathbad also has a confused memory of Nelson saying, 慪ou抮e not dead yet, Cathbad.?Was this an actual memory of the night on the marshes or did Nelson visit Cathbad in a dream? He doesn抰 know but he hopes to find out one day.
A week earlier Boris Johnson also left hospital. He credited two nurses, Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal, with saving his life. 慣hey kept vigil,?he said, 憌hen things could have gone either way.?Hearing this, Cathbad experienced a rare feeling of kinship with the Prime Minister.
Judy drives him home. Cathbad thinks that the sky has never looked so high and blue. When he sees the sea, sparkling away like a tourist poster, he almost cries again. He抯 always prided himself on being in touch with his emotions but, in recovery, he抯 found himself laughing and weeping at the smallest things. Yesterday, Abbas told him a joke about David Beckham that almost killed him.
The tears flow again when they reach the house and Cathbad sees his neighbours lining the road: Steve and Richard, Jill and Barney, Vikram and Elsa, Donna, Sue and Dorothy. Across the porch is a banner saying, 慦elcome home, Dad? Ruth and Kate are standing by the gate, waving madly, and Maddie, Michael and Miranda are in the doorway. As Cathbad approaches, wiping his eyes, they run towards him, but Thing is too fast for the humans. He flings himself on Cathbad, almost knocking him to the ground. Cathbad remembers the day he first met the dog, at his friend Pendragon抯 cottage on Pendle Hill, when the bull terrier抯 exuberant welcome had succeeded in flooring him.