His loud agonizing scream was heard as far out as the front desk and sent the officers rushing into the room where June Perkins was trying to comfort him as he beat off the loving arms that she attempted to comfort him with.
‘Bugger off! You killed her! You sent her away, didn’t you? Told her to clear out. You told her she was a bad girl, didn’t you!’ he yelled back at her.
‘You’d better go, Mrs Perkins. He might hurt you.’
Peebles said, ‘I never knew the kid had it in him. Shows he’s got a violent side, doesn’t it?’
53
Peebles opened up the cell with a strong sense of alarm. There was a pool of blood on the floor and Raymond Perkins was lying with an arm hanging limply over the side of the bed. The Sergeant saw the slow trickle of the red stuff running down his hand and the shirt sleeve on the arm that lay across his chest was drenched crimson. He raised the alarm immediately.
Kent was given the disturbing news as he studied his notes at home with a glass of shandy for company. ‘The ambulance is on the way now, sir.’
Kent exploded. ‘How the hell did he manage it?’
‘He threw his meal across the floor and he must have kept a piece of plastic cutlery, sharpened a broken bit and used it to jag a vein in his wrist with it. Made a pretty good job of it an’ all.’
The prisoner had attempted suicide. It wouldn’t go down well in Head Office. How long he’d been losing blood wasn’t certain. They were keeping his arms above his head. The police doctor had been called and came quickly, sensing the urgency of the situation. The Para Medics followed up and Raymond was on his way to the hospital now.
‘Raymond Perkins! Suicide attempt! How is he, guv?’ Turner said sleepily. He hadn’t long got into bed. ‘How on earth did he manage it?’
‘His Gran visited him in the afternoon. Perhaps she said something to him that he didn’t like. They said he was upset and went bananas. She had to leave. He didn’t need much to tip him over the edge obviously. Something that upset him so desperately he wanted to take his life.’
‘So where does that leave us?’
‘Sherwood is in the hospital. More than likely helping his gran to mop up her tears.’
The night’s rest was over as far as Kent was concerned. He tried not to make many sounds moving around the flat. The car would be coming early for him. And it was the Hospital first stop. He was becoming increasingly more distrustful of the evidence which seemed to point at Raymond’s guilt. He heard the back door open downstairs. Beazy was going out early it seemed.
Viviane stayed in the kitchen when she heard him come down the stairs. She didn’t move from the table. She tried to imagine that she had concrete blocks for feet. She must not display too much interest lest it came out as nosiness for her part. It was so early he wouldn’t expect her to be up anyway.
So when the knock came on the kitchen door she didn’t get up in a rush to open it. She called, ‘Come in.’
He was in his blue towelling robe still. ‘Not interrupting anything, am I?’ Kent said looking at the plate of buttered toast set in front of her. ‘Are you so hungry? And so early. Since when have you got up at five?’
‘I couldn’t sleep. You want to talk?’
‘Yes-if you don’t mind?’
‘I got up; Beazy wanted to go out. And I can’t stop thinking about the case. And Raymond Perkins.’ She laughed. ‘I didn’t realise that I was making so much toast, not at first. I can’t eat it all. Even Simon’s appetite is not so good with this hot weather.’
‘May I,’ he said taking a chair. ‘I thought I’d better tell you now. Just in case you bump into Mrs Perkins later and you don’t know.’
‘Don’t know what?’
‘Raymond is in hospital.’
‘Why?’ Her cup clattered in the saucer. ‘What’s happened? You haven’t tried to beat it out of him, have you?’ He wasn’t smiling. ‘Sorry I take that back. I didn’t mean it. It wasn’t funny.’
‘It’s worse than that, Viviane. He’s in there because he tried to kill himself last night.’
‘Tried to kill himself.’ She stared back at him for a moment. Blinked and shook her head. ‘No. You aren’t kidding are you? Oh, God! How dreadful!’
‘Yes.’
‘How? Did he try to hang himself? I thought care was taken so prisoners can’t do that.’
‘It is.’
‘So how then?’
He picked up a piece of toast and munched it. ‘It ought not to have happened, Viviane. The young devil cut his wrists with a sharp piece of plastic cutlery. Perhaps he was only trying it out. He was determined to do some harm to himself somehow. Peebles had a shock when he went to see how he was after the evening meal. He was worried about him. He hadn’t been eating.’