Phil Rickman - The Cold Calling

‘Nothing I didn’t have before,’ he said thickly. ‘I’m sorry. I’m really sorry about this.’

‘Save it. How about the other eye? Can you see out of that OK?’

Bobby fumbled a deathly smile. ‘What’ve you done to your hair?’

‘Good.’ She rummaged in her holdall, dug out a packet of lightweight gauze. ‘You got any Sellotape, hen?’

‘Drawer over the bookcase, Vic. Would you mind? I’ll make some tea. Can you … I mean, is he going to be all right?’

‘A hospital would tell you better than me. And a hospital’s what he needs, I kid you not.’

‘Forget it,’ Bobby said. ‘Really.’

‘Shut up, you.’ Andy turned to Em. ‘All right. Forget the tea. No bullshit. How’d this happen?’

‘We took him back to his flat to get some things,’ Em said. ‘Vic-?’

‘These two blokes was already in the flat, Sister. In the dark. Dead quiet. Suddenly all the lights go on, no warning, and they come for him. With these iron bars. Crowbars.’

‘Jesus God. Burglars?’

‘What I thought. At first.’ Vic looked at Em.

‘Tell her,’ she said, biting a thumbnail. ‘Tell her the lot. I don’t care who goes down for this.’

Vic shuffled. ‘Well, it was … It wasn’t burglars. You surprise a burglar, he might go for you in a panic, sorter thing. Not these two. It was what they’d come for. They was waiting for him. Give him a beating.’

‘With iron bars ?’

‘A big beating,’ Vic said.

‘Say it,’ the girl said. ‘A final beating.’

‘Yeah,’ Vic said. ‘Looked like it was gonna be a final beating. Sorter thing.’

‘You mean …’ Seen-it-all Andy knowing she’d gone white. ‘… they were waiting to kill him?’

‘Would’ve looked like he’d interrupted a burglary. When they found him.’

‘God above, what’s he into ?’

Vic looked across at the bed then at Em. Em said, ‘Bobby?’

‘Sure,’ he said. ‘You can say what you want in front of Andy. We go back.’

Vic rubbed his jaw. ‘What a bleeding mess.’ He sat on a corner of the bed. ‘Course, they never thought there’d be two of us. And I had me little tool kit.’

Andy said, ‘Against iron bars ?’

‘I threw the tools at the window, Sister. Well, it’s a quiet street, in spite of the bypass. Em hears the glass go, thinks it couldn’t be me, and starts on the car hooter. Course, they’ve no way of telling, these lads, how many of us was out there. Could’ve been we was mob-handed, for all they know. They piss off smartish, the front way. Self-preservation cooling their aggression, sorter thing.’

‘You told the police?’

Em and Vic looked at one another.

‘That’s a problem, is it?’ Andy starting to wonder who these people were, how they connected with Inspector Maiden. Like, were he and the girl an item?

‘It’s one hell …’ Bobby tried to sit up, moaned, fell back on the bed. ‘… of a problem.’

‘I told you to stay still,’ Andy snapped. ‘Don’t you dislodge those peas.’

‘We do have a problem with the police,’ he said. ‘Though not all the police.’

‘There are policemen and policemen in this town,’ Em said. ‘Like everywhere, I suppose.’

‘After they’d gone, we didn’t hang around,’ Vic said. ‘We’re practically dragging him back to the car. He’s half out of it, as you can imagine. I know we shouldn’t’ve moved him, sister, but if them guys came back … Which was a possibility. Be quite an earner for them. You know?’

‘Listen, I don’t want to know. The less I know the better. What I do know is you ought to be in hospital, Bobby. You ought never to’ve come out. This is some kind of madness.’

He didn’t reply. He was looking deathly.

‘Look, I’ll make him an eyepatch with Sellotape, but he needs a proper one, Long John Silver job. No pressure’s the thing to remember. Ice packs till then.’ She stood back. ‘Could look worse than it is, but we cannae be sure. There’ll be bad bruises where they hit him with the bar. Could still be internal injuries. He needs constant attention. Any change for the worse, any change at all that isnae for the better, you get on to a bloody doctor pronto, y’hear? Can he bide here a while?’

‘No way,’ Maiden said. ‘Not now.’

‘You be quiet, son,’ Andy said. ‘You make too many of your own decisions. Did I no tell you to think first?’

‘I think he might be right, Mrs Anderson. It sounds ridiculous to say he wouldn’t be safe here …’

‘But that’s what you’re saying, is it, hen?’

‘Maybe. We knew things were difficult, we didn’t realize how difficult.’

‘Those lads,’ Vic said. ‘Not local. They was of an age I’d know them if they was local. Well, you think about it. You don’t just hire complete strangers, half an hour’s notice, to go and beat somebody to death. They was on a retainer. They was just waiting for the word.’

‘If this is Pa, I’ll bloody kill him.’

‘I’d say not. I’d say somebody lost patience with your old man. It’s getting less difficult to find people who’ll do for somebody for a couple of grand. Plus, there’s a lot of very discreet middlemen about, so it don’t get traced back.’

Andy said, as calmly as she could manage, ‘They’re gonny try again, are they not?’

Vic shrugged.

There was an answer to this situation. Andy closed her eyes momentarily and saw a pale red sun against the lids. Oh aye, a very obvious answer here. So obvious, she wanted to resist it.

‘I hear your daddy was at the hospital, Bobby. Is there no chance-?’

‘Don’t even ask.’

‘Like that, eh? You got a problem, then, son.’

Andy walked over to the window. Saw her own grim-faced reflection hologrammed over the lights of Elham. She should’ve been in St Mary’s by now.

‘So what did you have in mind to do about this, Bobby?’

‘Get out of town. Book into a hotel somewhere for a few days. Except my wallet’s in the hospital safe. Cash. Credit cards. Looking like this is going to be another problem. You book into a hotel with a face like this, they do a courtesy check with the local police. I’m a bit buggered, really.’

‘We can sort out the money. Jonathan’ll get that. Bobby, listen, there’s a place you could go. Well out of it. Where nobody’s gonny find you. Where you could have the time to heal, son. You need to heal. Physically, mentally and …’

It was as if, when she’d placed her hands on his head, bringing up High Knoll, she’d made a connection, plugged into a live circuit and it wasn’t going to be broken; the current was strengthening. It was the right thing to do.

‘… and spiritually.’ Andy looked at him, blood all over his Elham Hospital Fun Run T-shirt. ‘There are some places you heal quick. Some places heal parts of you you didnae know were sick.’

‘I’m sure there are,’ he said, ‘but it’s not your problem, Andy. We’re really grateful for what you’ve done. Don’t get involved any further. Not many laughs in this.’

‘Hey!’ Andy walked to the foot of the bed. ‘Don’t you tell me what’s no my problem, Bobby Maiden. They’re gonny kill you, son, you hang around here, and then you’ll die and go back to the nasty grey place, am I right?’

She regretted it at once. His whole body went rigid.

‘I’m sorry, son,’ she said.

She rang Jonathan and told him as much of everything as she could pack into four minutes.

‘What a colourful life you lead, Sister Andy,’ Jonathan said. ‘How long will you need?’

‘Well, I already begged two days. I’ll try and stick to it, but if it takes longer, it takes longer.’