Written In Blood

Chapter Twelve

If Melissa had any doubts, they disappeared when they reached the Wright farm, and she saw the mess Oliver had made of the gate, and his VW Golf a short distance away – abandoned rather than parked, the driver's door wide open.

Mitchell brought the patrol car to a stop in front of the house and hurriedly got out, as did Melissa. They had no sooner done so than they heard a scream.

"That didn't sound like Ollie or Kieran," Melissa said as she hurried around the car so she could make for the front door, which stood ajar, and from which came the sounds of a fight.

"I know, it sounded like a girl," Mitchell said, unhappy with the development. "You take the front, I'll go round the back; give me a minute to get there, then we'll both go in."

Melissa could not remember a longer minute as she counted slowly. The moment she reached sixty she burst through the partially open door; she expected to find Oliver on the other side, instead she found an empty passage and had to hurry down it to the kitchen, where the sounds of fighting were coming from.

She threw open the kitchen door the moment she reached it, and heard a sudden cry of pain, high-pitched and obviously female. Melissa guessed that the person she had just hit with the door was one of Kieran's sisters, the other being a short distance away; she didn't have time to worry about her, though, for in the middle of the room, Oliver Ryder was wrestling with someone. She couldn't see the face of the person Oliver was wrestling with, but she assumed it was Kieran, since it was clearly male.

Without waiting for Mitchell, who should have already been there, Melissa moved forward to try and break the fight up. If she didn't, she suspected Kieran was going to be killed, or at least left permanently injured, given the energy and enthusiasm with which Oliver was smashing his head onto the floor. It quickly became clear that it was not a good idea for her to wade in; the moment she got within a foot of the fighting pair, she was caught across the cheek by a wild swing from one of Oliver's fists.

She reeled away from the fight, but the moment she recovered her balance, she threw herself back into the fray. As best she could, she avoided the flailing arms as she sought to separate Oliver and Kieran, with only minimal success. Fortunately, Mitchell arrived before she could receive more than a few painful and annoying bruises; between them they managed to drag Oliver away from Kieran, and hold him long enough for his wrists to be secured with cuffs.

"It might be a good idea if you take the girls into the living room, while I speak to Oliver and Kieran," Mitchell said to Melissa, once he had the two young men on opposite sides of the kitchen.

"Okay." It took Melissa some persuasion to get Amelia and Tara, Kieran's sisters, out of the kitchen and along the passage to the living room. Amelia went willingly, but Tara had to be all but dragged from the kitchen.

Mitchell waited until he was reasonably sure Melissa and the two girls had reached the living room, and then he turned to Kieran. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"What the hell are you asking him for?" Oliver demanded. "He's the sick bastard killed Georgie." He launched himself across the room, catching the sergeant by surprise, and threw himself on Kieran. The fact that his hands were cuffed behind his back didn't stop him, he rammed into Kieran with his shoulder, driving him backwards into the upturned table, which had clearly suffered as a result of the fight between the two, and when Oliver stepped back, Kieran fell to the floor. There was just enough time for Oliver to lash out with a booted foot, burying it in Keiran's stomach, before he was dragged away.

"You okay?" Mitchell asked of Kieran. He shoved Oliver across the room, out of the way, and then bent to help Kieran to his feet.

"Sure. That pussy couldn't hurt a flea," Kieran said dismissively, ignoring the fact that the so-called 'pussy' had just floored him.