LITMIR.BIZ

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ignored the outstretched limb, not yet ready to be fully grown up about the situation. He entered the lift and turned to watch Jeremy Taylor, partner of Price Barker Solicitors, shake himself as if from a daze and walk away.

      ‘Michael Lambert,’ he said, into the box outside the ward. ‘I’m here to see Sophie Lambert.’ He remembered a time twelve years ago when he’d said the very same thing into what looked like the very same box. Only then he’d been visiting on happier terms.

      The screams started as soon as he was buzzed into the ward, the sound of tortured women, flesh being torn. The nurses’ desk was empty. Lambert considered walking the corridors in search of Sophie but didn’t want to risk intruding on the other patients. Eventually, a smiling nurse gave him directions to Sophie’s room. The woman beamed at him as if this should be the greatest day of his life.

      He ambled down the corridor, debating whether or not to turn and flee the scene, until he reached the entrance to Sophie’s room.

      Taking a deep breath, he stepped over the threshold. For a time he just stood there dumbstruck, forgetting to breathe. Sophie sat upright in bed, cheeks pinched red, a tiny figure clamped to her breast. Smiling, she beckoned him over.

      It was too late to leave. He took a seat next to her bed. ‘How did it go?’ he asked, not knowing what else to say.

      Lambert had been virtually estranged from his wife, Sophie, for the last three years following the death of their daughter, Chloe, though they had continued sharing a house together. During that time Sophie had had a brief affair with Jeremy Taylor, the solicitor Lambert had just encountered, who was the father of the child his wife was holding.

      The child released itself from Sophie with a smacking sound and looked in Lambert’s direction. ‘Do you want to hold her?’ asked Sophie, as unsure about the situation as he was.

      ‘No. Thank you. I’m okay.’

      Tears welled in Sophie’s eyes. ‘This little thing is Chloe’s sister,’ she whispered, stroking the baby’s head.

      Lambert choked back his own tears. The baby was the closest thing there would ever be to Chloe but there was no avoiding the fact that she wasn’t his. He poured a beaker of water, taking some time to think. ‘Do you have a name for her?’ he asked, his voice coming out as a squawk – like an adolescent boy’s.

      ‘I wanted to call her Jane.’ Sophie hesitated, looked down at the baby for support. ‘If you will give me permission, Jane Chloe.’

      Lambert looked away, forcing back tears, picturing his little girl before the accident. Her curious smile and unending joy for the world, and how he had destroyed it all by losing control of his car. He didn’t know if it was a good idea giving this new child Chloe’s name. He didn’t want her to be haunted by her dead sister, or for her to grow up feeling she was a replacement, but he knew Sophie would never ever let her feel that way. ‘If you think that is best,’ he said.

      ‘What do you think, Michael?’

      ‘I think it would be wonderful,’ he said, darting his hand across his eyes, turning to face them. The child looked back at him as Chloe had done all those years before.

      He left ten minutes later, refusing to be overwhelmed by his growing sense of loneliness. He’d left the family home three months earlier, informing Sophie that it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to stay. He’d even discussed divorce proceedings with her but she’d wanted to get through the pregnancy before making any decisions. Although he was happy for her, he knew he should have been the father of that little girl back in the ward. As he took the lift, he envisaged a future without Sophie. He imagined her raising Jane without him.

      His vision blurred as he entered the main lobby of the hospital. Fiery lights danced in front of his eyes. The dizzying colours – flickers of burning ember, a multitude of shades and sizes – signified the start of a hallucinatory episode. From research on the internet he’d self-diagnosed his condition as a form of hallucinatory narcolepsy. It was the same type of episode he’d suffered when driving Chloe.

      The episodes had occurred more often in the last few months, ever since Sophie’s pregnancy and the Souljacker case. The trigger was usually a lack of sleep, or stress. At the moment, he was suffering from both.

      He sat down on a bench, the material cold and hard against his flesh, and closed his eyes. He told himself he was in a good place. The episodes normally occurred at home in bed, a smooth precursor to sleep. Knowing it was unwise to fight, he lay his head against the rough textured wall and fell asleep.

      ‘Sir, sir.’ The hand pulled at his shoulder, the accent foreign. ‘I’m sorry, sir, I need to clean here.’

      Lambert darted awake and took in his surroundings. He was still in the hospital. He checked his watch. He’d been asleep for three hours.

      ‘Sorry, sir,’ repeated the cleaner, switching on a floor polisher which whirred into life with a deafening drone.

      Lambert stood and stretched. The place had thinned out with normal visiting hours over. Lonely patients walked the floors like ghosts, occasionally passed by a hurrying doctor or nurse. The three hours had refreshed him and had evaporated, for a time, his worries over Sophie and the new child. It was eleven p.m. He considered calling Sarah, but decided it was too late. She would either be sleeping, or out working on the case. Either way, he wouldn’t know what to tell her. He didn’t fully understand how he felt about the situation at the moment, and was in no mood to analyse his feelings. Knowing he wouldn’t get back to sleep that evening, there was little option but to return to work.

      Lambert had resumed his position within the National Crime Agency two months previously, following his unofficial pursuit and capture of the notorious serial killer, dubbed the Souljacker. Since returning, he’d been working on an international drugs case. The case had proved challenging, and there was still months of work ahead.

      Lambert was part of a small specialised team, his NCA team working with the Met’s joint Organised Crime Partnership. So far they had arrested a number of small time dealers, and inroads were slowly being made into the main distributors.

      Lambert caught the tube to Westminster and made the short walk to the NCA’s headquarters, the June night air still thick with heat from the day.

      His office was deserted. Lambert often survived on three to four hours’ sleep a night so was often alone in the neon-lit open-plan office. He opened up The System, an unofficial amalgamated database of police computer systems, traffic systems, CCTV images, and social media back ends. The System had been created for the now defunct organisation called The Group and was only available for select officers within the NCA. He was about to log in when the office doors exploded open.

      ‘Just the person,’ said the rotund bulldog-like man who had barged through the doors as if they were an unnecessary obstacle.

      Chief Superintendent Glenn Tillman stood in front of him, hands on hips like some ageing superhero. Tillman had headed up The Group until it was disbanded six months ago and had recruited Lambert back into the NCA.

      ‘Sir?’

      ‘Sit,’ said Tillman. ‘Something important has come up.’

      Lambert, who was already sitting, swivelled his chair around. ‘I was just about to log in.’

      Tillman pulled a second chair over. ‘The drugs case? No, I want you to pass that over. Give your workload to Bryant. I need you on something else.’

      He handed Lambert a piece of paper. Lambert turned it over and read an address in Dulwich.

      ‘You know the journalist, Eustace Sackville?’

      Lambert nodded. He’d met the man, a crime specialist on a national broadsheet, on a number of occasions.

      ‘His wife’s just been murdered and the case has been assigned to us. I want you to work with Kennedy. Get down there straight away and take the case over. The body was found three hours ago so you better be quick. An Inspector

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