Flesh and Blood (A DI Amy Winter Thriller) by Caroline Mitchell (best love novels of all time .TXT) 📗

swallowed when his feet could no longer touch the bottom. How he had swum towards the submerging car, his wet clothing dragging him down. The piercing cries of seagulls as they circled the vehicle overhead. The almighty crash of waves against steel.

‘I was in uniform back then,’ he said. ‘Too sure of myself, without the experience to back it up. I’d just got news of my promotion when we nicked Noel Rix over a domestic with his ex.’ Donovan stared out to sea, his thoughts in the past. ‘I was impatient to get out. I didn’t want to spend my evening doing paperwork. Rix had been stalking his girlfriend for weeks, even turning up at her place of work. She was scared, but I didn’t want to see it. Back then, I hated domestics. All I could think of was the paperwork it generated. I couldn’t see beyond it.’

‘I can’t imagine you ever being like that,’ Amy said.

Donovan knew he had a reputation for being conscientious. He had pulled Amy up on her paperwork enough times. ‘I used to be a bit of a scally. I’d been in trouble a few times. Then one night I was given some advice by a copper whose name I wish I could remember. He said I was heading one of two ways. To prison, or to making something of myself. He said I had the potential for either and that it was my choice which road I went down.’

‘Sensible advice,’ Amy said.

‘It was. So, the next day I went down my local station to talk about recruitment. They made it sound exciting, and I was always hunting that next buzz. I kept that in my head for years after joining. Police work was meant to be exciting. Anyone who preferred to stay in doing paperwork was a numpty.’ Donovan shook his head. ‘So instead of keeping Rix in overnight, I persuaded my sergeant to give him one last chance and had him bailed for court.’

‘Oh,’ Amy said.

‘Oh, indeed. If my judgement wasn’t clouded . . . He should never have been let out of the nick.’

‘But it ended up OK in the end,’ Amy said softly.

Donovan finally met her gaze. He watched her face fall as she took in his broken expression, still haunted by the memory of that day. He remembered when the call came in: Carla was in the passenger seat and he was at the wheel. She had offered them both up to respond. It was a bitterly cold day, a week before Christmas. Rain lashed against their car windscreen, making it difficult to see. ‘It was the weekend,’ Donovan said, clearing his throat. ‘Dix’s ex had been out Christmas shopping. She’d stopped to get some petrol when Dix stole her car.’

‘She left her child and her car keys inside?’

Donovan nodded. ‘I wish she hadn’t. The whole sorry incident was a culmination of everything coming together. But I had a part to play too.’

‘So, you and Carla answered the call?’

The warm glow that Donovan had experienced earlier had now melted away. He remembered with painful clarity as the call came in. ‘Dix was acting like a maniac. He drove on to the seafront at the esplanade and just kept going. He was as high as a kite. A man possessed.’ Donovan recalled the sharp spikes of rain hitting his face as he leapt from the police car. Then the dread-inducing sight of Dix’s rear brake lights blurring as they submerged in the water. The sense of surreality. Taking a deep breath, he forced down his growing discomfort as he recalled that awful night.

‘Carla was screaming at me to wait for backup. But I couldn’t. Not when there was a child strapped into the back seat.’ Before he knew it, he was tugging off his boots and throwing his utility belt aside. ‘I told Carla to stay and wait for paramedics. I pulled a rope from the car. She told me afterwards she was too scared to go in. By then, Dix was getting out of the water. She had her hands full with him.’

‘And you?’ Amy said, laying her hands on his. Donovan hadn’t realised how tightly knotted his fingers were until then.

‘I ran into the water with the rope slung over my shoulder from the boot of the car. All I could think about was getting the child out. But the car was almost submerged. Control told me to wait, that the coastguards were on their way. But if there was a chance – no matter how small it was – I had to try.’

Donovan closed his eyes as he recalled how the cold water had shocked his system. How he had gasped for breath as his lungs burnt for air. The sound of Carla’s shrill cries as she called after him. Then the rush of water in his ears which matched the thundering beat of his heart. On and on the tide pushed against him as he battled with forces of nature much more powerful than him. ‘The car was submerged by the time I got to it, all I could see was the roof. I kept diving into the water, knowing that it was too late. The doors wouldn’t open, and I had to keep going up for air. I could see the beam of a helicopter light and hear the coastguards in the distance. Any other night, they would have been there, but yet another set of circumstances had kept them away.’

Amy nodded in understanding.

Taking another breath, Donovan continued. ‘I went in through the driver’s window, where Dix had escaped from. The force of the sea had jammed the car doors shut. I remember squeezing myself through the gap between the driver and passenger seat, my lungs burning with the need for air. Then I saw him, the baby . . .’ Donovan blinked as he swallowed the lump in his throat. ‘I pulled at the buckle of his car seat to get him out . . .’ His voice faded. He closed his eyes,