Silas Nash Book 1: Hush GHush Honeysuckle: Chapter Thrity

Nash knew that look. Jessica might as well have been standing with her hand on her hips, tapping her foot with impatience. She didn’t adopt the stance, but it was the message her face was getting across without any possibility of a misunderstanding. Jess had followed Nash and Max to his car when they left.

‘What are you going to do about it?’

‘Do about what?’

‘The death threat, of course.’

‘Miss Hunter, nobody has threatened anybody with anything.’

‘She’s just seen it, clear as day. You need to get her into a safe house. Right now.’

Nash scoffed. ‘Are you kidding me? Have you any idea how much that would cost the taxpayer? I’d be laughed out of the accounts department if I put in a safehouse request because a misguided psychic saw her own death.’

‘Hang on, though,’ Max said. ‘You can’t ignore this. It’s serious.’

‘Damn right, I can. Bloody fortune tellers and kooks.’ He sighed and came to a compromise. ‘Fine. I’ll get the lads to drive by a few times through the night, okay?’

‘No, Inspector. It’s not okay. I need to get back in there because that lady is distraught. I’d stay with her myself, but my parents are still beside themselves, and I have to be with them. But I’m telling you now. You need to put your prejudices aside because if so much as a hair on her head is injured, the blood is on your hands.’

‘I agree, Nash,’ Max said. ‘Come on. You’ve got to admit she saw things that nobody knew. Personal stuff. You have to do something.’

‘Do it now, Inspector. There’s no time to waste. while you’re trying to pull every stitch of her credibility apart word by word, she’s in danger.’

‘Okay. You win, but I’m going to have a hell of a job getting this past my Super. I’ll arrange guards outside the house.’

‘Thank you, Chief Inspector.’

Jones looked pale. He was standing with a daft grin on his face until Jessica turned the corner. Nash had been so involved with the conversation with her that he didn’t see the colour drain from Jones’ face or the beads of sweat breaking out along his forehead and upper lip.

Before Jess’s shadow had disappeared, Jones was trembling. Nash ran to him in time to catch him as he fell. He stopped his head from hitting the floor and used his body as a buffer to lower Jones gently onto the pavement. He was between the next house’s garden hedge and the car and was shielded from the other officers and the house. Nash flipped him onto his side and put him in the recovery position. He felt for his pulse, which was strong but erratic, and when he lifted an eyelid, he saw that Jones’ eyes had rolled into his head so that only the whites were showing. He loosened his coat from around his neck and undid a couple of buttons on his shirt. Nash was pressing buttons on his phone as Jones’ eyes flickered open.

'Gonna be sick.' He lurched over to the base of the hedge and threw up.

Nash knelt down beside him and passed him a wad of tissue from out of the car. ‘Lie back down. I’ll get help.’

‘No ambulance. I’m fine.’

‘Yeah, I know, don’t say it. You’re fine for a dying man.’

‘You’re catching on, Nasher.’

Nash helped him up and opened the passenger door for him. Jones wilted into it and breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I didn’t want to do a dying swan in front of the sexy Jess.’

‘Yeah, I saw that.’

‘Thanks for being there.’

Nash drove him to his Barrow flat because it was closer to the hospital than his house in Ulverston. Nash wasn’t happy and nagged him about turning around and going to the hospital the whole journey. Jones wouldn’t listen and insisted on going home. Nash made them a drink and found a tin of chicken soup in the cupboard.

‘Sick people’s food,’ Jones said. ‘Chicken soup, it’s what you give to sick people. Though traditionally, it’s supposed to be homemade, so you could have made an effort.’

‘Sod off. I’ve got better things to do than be playing Nurse Ratchet to you.’

Nash saw that he was comfortable, fussed around him and made sure that he had his phone beside him in case he needed to call for an ambulance. By the time he was done, Jones virtually threw him out of the house to get back to work.

At the station, Nash put things in place to have a guard outside Amanda’s house. He spent the rest of the day putting together an airtight case against Finch, even though he had doubts about his guilt.