Chapter 34

By the time I turned into our street I was breathless from running all the way from Kathy’s house. I stopped dead as I turned the corner. Outside our house and Cal’s two police cars and an ambulance were parked.

The sight of them there, gave me my second wind and I sprinted the rest of the way, bursting through the front door and skidding to a halt in the living room.

The sight I was confronted with in the living room horrified me. Cal was lying on the floor, apparently unconscious, being attended to by two ambulance paramedics. Mum and Aunt Mary were on one sofa, comforting each other, Alison, Andy and Charlie were somewhere else, and there were three other people in the room, two police constables, one male one female, and a man in a cheap grey suit.

As I headed towards where Cal lay, grey suit man, reached out an arm to bar my way.

“Just a moment sonny,” he said, “I want a word with you.”

“And if you don’t move that arm,” I told him, my voice low and menacing, “I’ll break it.”

“Threatening a police officer in the course of his duty is a very serious offence,” he said, “now I want to ask you some questions.”

“And I want to get down on the floor and comfort my oldest friend,” I replied, “Am I under arrest?”

“No,” he replied.

“Then get the fuck out of my way,” I snarled.

I think my vehemence must have got to him, because he stepped away. As I knelt down, I glanced across at Mum and knew I’d be in trouble later for my language. I knelt down beside Cal on the floor. Her eyes were closed and one of the paramedics had a mask over her face and was regularly squeezing a bulb attached to it, forcing air into her lungs.

“Can I hold her hand?” I asked softly, “I’ll stay out of your way.”

The female paramedic nodded.

“Though if you hear my colleague say ‘clear’, you must let go, we may have to shock her.”

I nodded my agreement and took Cal’s hand gently in mine, watching her as the medics worked away. After another fifteen minutes, the male medic announced that she was stable enough to transport.

“Could you let go of her hand now please?” the woman asked.

I did so, and stood up.

“Now, young man, I need to ask you some questions,” grey suit started.

“Has it occurred to you, that I don’t want to answer them right now?” I retorted, turning to face him, “these two people are about to cart my best friend off to hospital, and either my Dad is going to take me along after them, or I’m getting a taxi.”

I turned back to the medics.

“Which hospital?” I asked.

“Pinderfields,” they replied.

“OK, I’ll follow,” I said, then turned back to grey suit, just staring at him.

“You need to answer my questions,” he said.

“Am I under arrest?” I asked again.

“No,” he replied.

“Well quite frankly constable,” I began.

“It’s inspector, Inspector Matthews.”

“Well Inspector Matthews, I’m not going to answer them. If you don’t like that, then arrest me, I’ll come quietly. Then when we get to the police station, I shall refuse to say a word until one of my parents, preferably my Dad is present.”

“Then he can come with us.”

“Once he is present, he will advise me not to say anything until he can get our family solicitor there.”

I turned to my Dad.

“When does Mr. Skillington’s office open on Monday Dad?”

“Nine am,” he replied.

“Then at nine am my Dad will ring him, and make arrangements for him to come along. He’ll then need to discuss matters with me and my Dad, so, if you’re lucky you might get to ask your questions sometime on Monday afternoon,” I told him, “alternately, you can back off, and we’ll come down to the police station tomorrow, once I know my friend is all right, and you can ask away to your heart’s content. How about that for an idea?”

I’ll give him his due, he knew when he was beaten, and he dropped the bad cop act, and turned to my Dad.

“Very well, Mr. Barker,” he said, handing Dad his card, “I’ll look forward to hearing from you tomorrow. I’ll need to take this with me.”

This was the DVD he was holding.

“Very well,” Dad said, “but I’ll need to see it sealed into an evidence bag, then you and I will both sign across the seal, just so that we can all be certain it hasn’t been tampered with.”

I swear there was a look of disappointment in his eyes as Dad said that.

“And I presume you will give us a receipt for it.”

During this exchange I noted the amused smiles on the faces of the other two police officers.

While this was going on, the two ambulance medics had loaded Cal onto the trolley that one of them had been out and brought in and they disappeared out of the door, closely followed by Aunt Mary.

I watched Matthews place the disc in an evidence bag, seal it, then he and Dad signed across the seal.

“Can you take me to the hospital Dad?” I asked, “or should I get a taxi.”

“I’ll take you, then on the way I’ll explain what’s going on.”

A few minutes later we were in the car and on the way to Wakefield.

“What was that all about Dad?” I asked once we were on the way.

“OK,” he began, “first of all we owe you an apology.”

“What for?” I asked.

“We were all at home, Mary and the girls came round for a drink, and we thought it would be good, and you wouldn’t mind, if we watched the final version of what’s it called? Star School?”

“Star Academy,” I corrected.

“So, Alison went upstairs and got it from your desk and we put it in the player.”

“That’s not a problem,” I said, “I was going to suggest we all watched it tomorrow anyway.”

“Well, David, it’s not the final version of Star Academy,” he said.

“It’s not?” I asked “then what is it?”

“David, we didn’t watch much of it, but I’d say it’s a video of what Cal was up to in Germany.”

“What?”

“It’s a video, and some stills of Cal having sex with a group of boys, and they’re definitely speaking German. Cal collapsed on the floor, luckily your Mum was CPR trained. Her heart stopped, but your Mum managed to keep her alive until the ambulance arrived. Closely followed by the police. That’s when I rang you.”

“So she really was a willing participant, then,” I said, the tears starting to form in my eyes.

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that, from the little we saw, she looked pretty well out of it,” he said.

“But how did the DVD get to James in LA?” I asked.

“It’s a matter of record that he’s your agent. You have an entry on his company website, our home address is, however, not publicly available.”

“We’ll address the question of whether she was a willing participant when she’s better,” I said, “maybe the police will be able to tell us.”

“I wouldn’t gamble on that,” Dad replied, “I got the impression that the inspector’s first instinct was to arrest me and charge me with possession of child pornography.”

“What?” I yelled, “The man’s a complete fucking cunt.”

“You know David,” Dad said, “this being round actors is having a terrible effect on your language.”

“Sorry, Dad,” I apologised, “it’s not acting, it’s just idiots.”

“You know, I think you get that from me,” he said, “back when Mr. Price was still running the company, before he retired and handed it over to me, I heard him and his wife talking. She said ‘one thing you can say about James, he doesn’t suffer fools gladly’ he told her, ‘you’re wrong he doesn’t suffer fools at all’. It was the only time I heard those two disagree on anything.”

That little story managed to lift my mood a little, and we pulled into the hospital car park. We got out of the car, and Dad went to the pay and display machine, paid for a couple of hours, and we went inside and asked a porter for directions to A & E.

He did better than directions, he took us round, which was an advantage since he had a pass to get through locked doors and take short cuts.

After a lot of twists and turns we ended up in the waiting room, where I saw Aunt Mary sat alone in a corner. We walked over and I hugged her.

“Any news?” Dad asked.

Mary just shook her head.

After a few moments, she looked up.

“She’s in there,” she said, indicating a door with Resuscitation over it, “they think she had a heart attack.”

“What about the baby?” I asked.

“They haven’t said anything yet,” she replied, “they know she’s pregnant. I’m sorry David, I assumed you’d want to stay, so I told them that you were her fiancé and the baby’s father.”

“That’s fine,” I replied, “you’re right I’m staying, and I did ask her to marry me when we were seven, she said yes, so I guess that’s still valid.”

At least that got a smile from her.

She reached out her hand and squeezed mine.

“What will I do if she dies?” she said weakly, “She’s my life.”

“She won’t,” I said, “I won’t allow it.”

She gave me a strange look when I said that.

“I just won’t,” I said, quietly.

We sat in silence for a long time then, until Dad stood up.

“Do either of you need anything?” he said, “David are you sure you’re going to stay?”

“If they want me out of here, they’ll have to drag me out screaming.”

“I’m fine thanks, James,” Mary said, “David, you should go home and get some sleep?”

“No,” I said firmly.

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