The Lonely Widow (Completed) (Editing)

Chapter 21

        Kurt and Darren half dragged a hung-over Steve out of the lift towards the intensive care unit to see his wife. After hours of sitting waiting patiently for him to wake up, they’d had enough and woken him up themselves to just bundle him into the car and drove off. Once ordering him to sit, Kurt shouted Luke over to speak to them.

        “Have you found out who did this?” Luke asked as he bounded over to them. He was eager to get to the bottom of it, believing that it had gone too far now.  

        “Not quite.” Darren hesitated. “But we’ve found out where the calls are coming from.”

        “That’s great.” Luke noticed the doubt on Darren’s face. “Isn’t it?”

        “It’s the address of an AWOL soldier.”

        Luke glared at them as he processed the information, not quite sure he understood what was being said.

        “What…?”

        “We don’t know. Darren sighed, running his hands through his hair, tugging at it a little. “All we know is that these funny calls are coming from his address. He’s been Absent Without Leave for about a month after being out in Afghanistan with us. He just disappeared one day and no one’s seen him since.”

        “Is that even possible?”

        “I don’t know. There’ve been cases of soldiers going AWOL because they don’t want to leave, but actually while they’re out there… that’s unheard of.”

        “Is it possible that he’s dead?” Luke furrowed his brows, “I don’t know much about all of this, but could someone have been blown to bits and they’ve ‘missed’ him?”

        “That’s quite a way to put it… ‘Blown to bits’. Very tactful in front of Daisy, don’t ya think?” Kurt nodded to behind Luke where Daisy was sat talking to Lee. “You’re lucky she didn’t hear that. However, while it’s possible for someone to go missing and then be found dead, it’s been a month. He’d have been found by now.”

        Luke shrugged. He knew that Daisy wasn’t listening; there was no need to be tactful. “So you think he’s the one behind all these calls?”

        “It’s definitely possible, but we don’t know why. There’s no reason for him to dislike Daisy and we don’t understand why he’s making the calls in the first place. Anyway, we’ve got a contact address for his mum, so we’re gonna go there and see if there’s anything she knows, anything she can tell us about him.”

        Luke nodded thoughtfully, running things through his mind. “Do you need me to come?”

        Sharing a look at each other, Kurt and Darren mentally debated taking Luke along, knowing that he’d flip if he didn’t get the answers he wanted. After a few seconds, Darren nodded. “Yeah, but only if you keep your cool, I know what you’re like.”

        Luke held his fingers up in mock salute. “Scout’s honour.”

***

        “Mrs Hunter,” Kurt started, “My name’s Private Kurt Baptista, this is Private Darren Hillan and our friend Lucas Carter here, is a Lawyer. We’re here to ask some questions about your son, John.”

        The old lady in front of them wasn’t at all what they were expecting. She was older than they had originally thought, with her dark, wrinkly skin and her dry, haggard hair. Her eyes were dull and cloudy as though she had seen too much suffering and her back was slight stooped over as if she carried the weight on the world upon them. Her sliver hair was thinning, and her small smile showed that her teeth were rather yellow.