Hatred of Life and Love- Part 2

...

Back at the station, Banks was hit with some news that he didn't want to hear.
"Ken where are we at with the DNA traces?"
"Forensics have a delay, they're not sure when they can get the results to us. But in the meantime while we are still waiting, we need sometime to talk to Evie, but our Chief Superintendent doesn't want you, says it's a personal case."
"And who else do they think Evie's going to talk to?"
"They think a family liaison will be the right route to take."
"It's not happening!"
"Skye Hunt has spoken to the family liaison, they need us back over there, and Chief Superintendent Anderson wants a word." Banks started to walk to his office, he knew exactly what Anderson was going to say.
"Ah Banks, I see with a have a complex case on our hands, with no suspect to speak of, am I correct?"
"Not entirely sir, we are waiting for forensics to get back to us before we make an arrest."
"Well, that's my problem. You see Banks, your personal connection means we cannot afford for you to make any mistakes, which is why I don't want you taking any lead. Look what happened when it was the investigation into DS Cabbot's death. You contaminated the scene."
"And because of my lead and connection Annie's killer is now behind bars! No! I'm not having it!" Banks had stood up to anyone higher then him before.
"I call shots here, my team, my orders!" He stormed out the room,
"Ken, with me." They both left, heading first to interview Skye, then Evie up at the hospital.
...
"Skye, now you wanted to tell us something, something you remembered."
"Yes, about Mum."
"Okay, what about her."
"I remember, where she worked. I overheard her talking to Molly, saying one of the senior team tried to make a pass at her, or something like that. She hated him."
"Can you remember where she worked."
"Sort of, I know it was a solicitors place, on Park Lane, because the park could be seen from her office."
"Thank you Skye." Ken and Alan stood up and walked out the flat. Alan still dismissed the idea of who it could be.
...
When Ken and Alan arrived at the hospital, Alan was greeted with Isla running into him for a hug and Tracy slowly following. He caught a quick glance of the dark bruise on Isla's shoulder, which was slowly creeping up her neck. Tracy noticed him and whispered
"Don't ask about it now, focus on Evie. Oh, and I haven't told Helen yet, she's just gone for a coffee. "
Alan held Isla's hand as Ken followed. She climbed onto Alan's lap so both can speak to Evie.
"Hello, Evie. I don't think we have met properly before. I'm DC Ken Blackstone."
"I'd like to ask you a few questions, but first of all, how are you feeling? Are you recovering well?" Evie nodded,
"Feeling a bit better, thank you."
"Before you were hit, can you remember anything?"
"No, just shouting then nothing."
As Ken and Evie's conversation went on, Helen returned and entered the room silently. Tracy stood up,
"I need a word." She went out into the corridor to speak to Alan and Ken.
Outside in the hallway, there was nobody in sight.
Tracy started to speak. "Do you have a suspect?Because if not, you might have one soon." Ken got out his notebook and pen with Alan  listening intensely.
"Now this may be something or nothing, but a couple of nights ago, David Hornby dropped Isla back at ours. I can't be completely sure, but David was wearing a light coloured shirt and there were what seemed to be bloodstains on them. They had faded a bit, as if something had happened a couple hours before I saw him. He knew I had spotted them and when he saw me, instantly zipped up his jacket like he had something to hide."
After Tracy had spoken, all three went silent and the only sounds were Ken's pen scratching the paper.
"Right. Anything else?" he asked.
"Yes. This may sound ridiculous, but last night, David did not come out of his car to drop off Isla. Maybe this is nothing-I don't know. Later on, Isla was complaining of a pain on her shoulder and when she showed me, I saw a large, dark bruise. When I asked, she told me she fell on the stairs. I don't really know someone her size can fall on stairs and have such a bruise on their shoulder. It sounded very fake and rehearsed. I didn't question her about it though." They stood there in the cold and silent hallway for a few moments.
"Right, let's see if we can get to the bottom of this." He turned to open the door, but Helen signalled to him to come in quietly. Alan opened the door so he could hear what was happening, but so he didn't interrupt the conversation between Evie and Isla and so he could listen in.
Evie asked, "Where did you get this mark from?"
"I'm not allowed to tell, daddy said it was a secret," Isla replied.
"You can tell me, I promise I won't tell anyone."
Isla was oblivious to them standing at the door.
"Daddy got mad when we got in the car after swimming, because he found my drawing."
"What drawing?"
"That I did of you and me. He said you weren't part of the family, that he was the boss and that was that."
"And what did you say?"
"That I loved you, and mummy loved both of us, not him."
"So he got mad?"
"Yes, said I was a bad girl, then he hit me." Evie carefully sat up and cuddled Isla, kissing the top of her head.
"Tracy's going to take you to play with the toys for a bit, love you." Tracy came in and carried Isla out the room.
"Don't take your eyes off her, Evie commanded. Once the door was shut, Evie's temper became recognisable.
"Why didn't you say anything? She's been hit by David and you don't even bother to let me know, you wait until I find the bruise?"
Alan tried to calm her down.
"Evie, you have to know, because of your condition, the stress would make you worse. We thought it best to leave you out of this..."
"Don't you dare bring my health into this! I'm her sister, I have the right to know! What else haven't you told me, is my mother still out there somewhere, just lied and abandoned me all over again and done the same to Isla, left you with the burden!" This hit Alan hard, like someone had just taken a swing at him.
"How dare you talk about her like that! You don't realise how lucky you were having a mum like that, how much love and affection she would have given you, if she'd had the chance, I'm not having you dragging her name through the mud!" He stormed out, slamming the door. Ken chased after him, leaving just Helen and Evie left in the room.
It felt horribly cold and empty now. Alan knew she hadn't meant it, it was all the stress and upset of how she was. But Evie felt worse, knowing what she had just said.
"I didn't mean it!" Tears began to roll down her face, and Helen went and sat next to her, taking her hands to calm her down.
"You're ill Evie, you need to accept this. All the pressure and heartache you've had, everything that's happened in the past, the stress is going to get to you, trust me." Helen then noticed that the tears were not just normal ones of sadness, but they were ones of pain, agony.
"Evie...Evie what's wrong." Evie smashed her head back on the pillows, and started to move uncomfortably in agony. That's when Helen noticed the blood running out from Evie's side, where they had recently performed surgery to stop her internal bleed. Helen pressed the buzzer and a group of doctors shortly came running in to investigate. They asked Helen to step outside. Alan saw the doctors running in with medical equipment, and Helen being escorted from the room. He ran up the corridor.
"What's happened?" He asked her anxiously.
"They won't say, she just started bleeding, she was in agony."
"This is my fault, I should've told her about Isla in the first place."
"No Alan, that's the worst thing, now stop. You can't blame yourself every time something goes wrong. This is the hardest part: how much she's been through, how much she just wants to be back to normal. This isn't Annie, stop blaming yourself for it. Evie's alive and you feeling bad won't help her. Think about what Annie would do if she were here." The common sense from what Helen had just said kicked in, knowing she was right, and had been all along.