by Crin Claxton
Jade had a sudden rush. She went with it. There was a black arm holding the tiny, square Tony. Nobody’s skin was that color. The hand was a black glove. It sprung out from beneath a black cloak. The cloak flapped up and down. A hood rose to a point above the face of death.
Jade remembered that Tony was dead.
She tried to feel sad, but nothing happened. Everyone died in the end. Jade accepted her place in the universe. She was a drop of water flowing in a river.
Suni looked up from her laptop and smiled. “Checking Facebook,” she said.
Jade giggled at the idea. She wanted to say to Suni, “Why don’t you just see your friends?” She wondered if Suni even had any friends. Oh but, of course, she’d only been in the country for…
Jade couldn’t remember when Suni had come to the UK. She wasn’t sure it mattered anyway.
“Oh, my God. You’ll never guess who’s gotten in touch,” Suni said. She was staring back at the screen. Purple light flickered on the raised lid of her computer. It was very dancey. The lid snapped shut.
Jade jumped.
The purple light ran across Suni’s body. Jade watched it.
“Well, that’s a damned nuisance.” Suni folded her arms. Jade wondered why there was so much she didn’t understand. She didn’t know what her own face looked like anymore. There were no mirrors anywhere. Where were the mirrors?
“Goddammit! We can’t risk it. We’re just going to have to move things up.”
She got up and went toward the bedroom. Jade followed her.
Suni turned.
“If you can’t help, don’t hinder.”
Jade flew through the air. She landed on the couch. The purple light washed over her body. She dived into the spinning bubbles and began to swim.
*
Tony yawned and stretched. She glanced out the window. The sun was starting to drop on the horizon, sending a warm glow across the sky. How many Web searches can I do before I drill a hole in my own head? The World Wide Web couldn’t care less about Ron Somers.
Deirdre coughed. “Honey, you’ve been twiddling about with your bony and badly manicured digits for hours. How long does it take one barely sentient lesbian to look up an address in the phone book?”
“He’s not listed, Deirdre. That’s the first thing I tried. You need to be patient. Detective work takes time.”
Deirdre yawned pointedly and then tapped an imaginary watch. Tony wondered why she bothered. Couldn’t she conjure up a ghostly one for the effect? Did ghosts have to dress in ghostly attire the same as the living? Did Deirdre have a ghostly wardrobe somewhere?
“I’m afraid she’s already with a client. You’ll have to wait.”
Tony looked over at Deirdre. She was talking to fresh air. Smith was staring at the same spot of nothingness.
“What’s going on?” Tony asked.
“Another ghost wants you. You’re getting popular with spirits in need,” Deirdre said.
Tony smiled.
“It’s because they haven’t met you yet.” Deirdre smiled in a patronizing way. “No, not you. I’m talking about Tony. Actually, she’s not half bad,” she added in a stage whisper. “All the same, you’ll have to come back later. I’m afraid you’re in a queue. Just take a number and someone will get back to you shortly.”
Tony ignored Deirdre and tried to think of a new set of words to type into the search engine.
Smith sidled up to Deirdre. “Didn’t like the look of her. Troubled. Desperate. Wild eyes. She’s one of her lot, an’ all. I should know. Seen hundreds of them, I have. Hundreds.”
Tony clenched her jaw. She tried “prison guard suspected of killing Frankie White moves.”
The search result was very unhelpful.
“Excuse me. No pushing!” Deirdre cried.
“Help me, Tony,” a familiar voice murmured in Tony’s ear.
She looked up, startled.
A faint version of Rose Henderson swayed next to Deirdre.
“I’m at home, Tony, and in terrible trouble. Help me.”
*
Jade opened her eyes. The room was intensely bright. She flinched. She’d always hated the overhead light and never put it on. Tony had been promising to fit something more ambient for ages.
Jade sat up slowly. There was a lava lamp on her coffee table she didn’t recognize. She shook her head. She didn’t understand what was going on. Weird stuff kept happening, things she only had sketchy memories about.
There was a horrible noise droning on and on. It was like a needle bumping against a record. Except she didn’t have a record player. Or any vinyl.
Jade shuffled over to the MP3 player and switched the iPod off. The track info said it was a sound effect.
There were bags and cases sitting by the bottom step. Jade recognized her suitcase. She didn’t remember packing it.
Suni came through the bedroom door with another bag. “You’re up. Good.”
Was Suni moving in or moving out? It was possible they were already living together. Everything was very hazy in Jade’s mind.
“Stay there a moment.”
Jade didn’t think she could move anyway. Her body was heavy. She wanted to go back to sleep. She turned her head toward the sofa. Her cupboard doors were all open. The cupboards were empty. Good God, was she moving out?
“Look at me.”
Jade turned to Suni. Dust blew into her eyes. She sniffed sharply at the same time as taking a step back. Her eyes streamed for a minute and she couldn’t see, and then she felt intensely calm.
“Come with me.” Suni stretched out her hand.
Jade took it. Suni’s hand was very cold. “Your hand is freezing,” Jade said.
“Hmm?” Suni walked Jade up the steps to the kitchen. “Oh yeah, I have cold hands, I guess.”
Suni led the way to the front door of the boat. “Wait here,” she said. Jade was completely happy to wait. Suni stuck her head outside.
A minute later, she took Jade’s hand again. “This is the perfect time. Actually, it’s better to go now, less people about. Right, Jade, keep next to me. If we bump into anyone on the way to the car, let me do the talking, okay?”
Jade nodded. She wanted to please Suni.
They stepped outside, walked across the deck of Jade’s boat, and onto the walkway. The marina lights threw an amber light onto the boardwalk and across the black water. There were faint sounds from the other boats of people cooking and the quiet chatter of TV sets.
They passed no one on the way to the gate. Suni hit the release button.
“Wait here.” She dropped Jade’s hand and opened the gate. Jade glanced up at a streetlight. There was a halo around the lamp.
Suni took her hand again and pulled her through the gate and onto the street. They walked quickly to a car Jade had never seen before. Suni opened the back door.
“Get in and lie on the backseat,” she said quietly.
Jade scrambled in and stretched out across the cloth seats. Suni laid a blanket over her.
“I’m going to pull this over your head. You’ll be able to breathe just fine. I’ve got to get some more stuff so just lie here quietly. In fact, you must be tired. Why don’t you go to sleep?”
The car door shut. Jade felt a wave of tiredness wash over her. She shut her eyes and felt the rise and fall of her chest. She counted the breaths, and then she slipped away, into a dream.
*
Tony rang Rose’s intercom.
There was no reply.
She pressed her hand against the door.
It opened.
Tony hesitated.
Listening for any noises, she stepped inside.
It was dark.
She fumbled until she found a light switch. It didn’t work.
Deirdre and Smith had disappeared just after she’d left the Tube station. Tony had decided to continue to Rose’s flat anyway. She needed to reassure herself that Rose was okay. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, Tony made out the stairs leading
up to Rose’s flat.
She started walking up them.
Light spilled out onto the upstairs hallway. Rose’s flimsy door had been kicked in and was ajar.
“Rose,” Tony called.
As she walked quickly into Rose’s flat, an old man came out of her sitting room.
“Oh, someone’s come to help. Thank God,” he said.
The short, broad-shouldered elderly man peered at her with an anxious expression. He had a square jaw, a small nose, large ears, and a good head of white hair. The same white hair came out of his ears and nose in clumps. His shoulders bent forward giving him a stoop.
“Where’s Rose?” Tony asked.
“They’ve taken her to hospital.”
“Why? What happened?”
The old man looked at her doubtfully. “I thought someone had told you. Some toe rag broke in. Rose went for him. You know what she’s like, but she came off worse, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, no! Which hospital? I’ll go and see her,” Tony said. She was too late. She felt awful.
“There’s nothing you can do for her there, love. But there is something you can do here. Her place is a mess, and we need to secure her front door.”
“Okay,” she said, happy to help. She followed the old man into Rose’s sitting room.
The room had been ransacked. Books had been tipped from the bookcase and strewn across the carpet. The drawer from the little side table was upturned on top of the books. Cushions from the chaise were scattered next to it. The framed photos and posters had been ripped off the wall and thrown to the floor. Most of the frames were smashed. There was glass everywhere. A big cupboard near the armchair was open and empty. Its contents lay tumbled and broken at its feet.
The old man went through the sitting room and into Rose’s kitchen. The kitchen had been torn apart in a similar way.
“Hey, love, do you know where Rose’s laptop is? She’ll want it in hospital,” he asked.
Tony shook her head. “I don’t know, sorry. But if you can’t find it, the burglar probably took it, right?”
The old man frowned. “No. He ran off, just after Rose collapsed. That’s when I came. I scared him off. He ran past me, but he was too quick.” The old man looked ashamed that he hadn’t managed to catch the thief. “He didn’t have a bag, and nothing in his arms. Think. Where have you seen her with it? You know how attached Rose is to that thing. She was mumbling for it when they took her away.”
Tony peered at the old guy. “I don’t know where she kept her iPad, sorry. How do you know Rose? You didn’t say, Mr.?”
The old man pulled his head back out from a kitchen cupboard. “Jones. We go back years. Where’s her tools then?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know Rose that well. We’re acquaintances really.”
Mr. Jones straightened up. “I see. Have a look in those cupboards.”
Tony opened one of the few cupboards that hadn’t been disturbed. There was a small metal case in one corner. She pulled it out and blew off a layer of dust. There were several old tools inside.
“Found them,” Tony said.
“Good. Take them to the front door. There’s some boards along the passage, leaning against a wall. Go get them, will you? We can use them to fix the door. I’ll meet you there,” Mr. Jones said. He walked over to her, bent down, and began looking through the cupboard where she’d found the toolbox. “We need nails,” he grunted.
Tony found the boards where Mr. Jones had described. When she brought them to the door, Mr. Jones was already there with a box of nails.
“Right, hold one across here.” He indicated one of the split panels. “I’ll tap the nails in.”
Tony knelt in front of Rose’s sorry-looking door. It had been weak to start with. At least they’d leave her with a stronger door. She held the board up against the bottom half of it.
Deirdre appeared on the inside of Rose’s flat. “Sorry, Tony, I got called away,” she said.
Tony glanced at her. She was concentrating on holding the board.
“Smith’s too scared to come out, but he says that’s Ron Somers.”
“What?” Tony looked behind her.
The old man was bent over the toolbox. “Didn’t say nothing,” he grunted.
“Tony, you need to be careful.” Deirdre peered through the doorway. Her eyes widened in horror. “For Christ’s sake, Tony, watch out!”
Tony turned.
Somers was two steps from her, his arm raised, his fingers wrapped around a hammer.
The hammer crashed toward Tony’s head.
*
Maya came out of the subway, crossed the road, and walked along Aspen’s Way until she came to the turnoff to Poplar Marina. She knew she had no evidence or any real reason to think that Suni was the evil villain that Maya had decided she was. But Maya was not going to be able to rest until she’d seen Jade.
About a hundred meters away, she hung back as Suni came through the gate, carrying a box. Maya tucked herself into a shop doorway. She wasn’t ready to confront Suni. If Suni was on her way out somewhere, it would be a perfect opportunity to talk to Jade on her own.
Suni put the box into the boot of her car and then turned back to the gate. She let herself through it with a key and disappeared inside.
Once the gate had closed, Maya walked quickly up to the car. There was nobody in the passenger seat. Maya peered in the back.
The whole backseat was taken up with stuff covered in a blanket. Maya’s curiosity was piqued. Maybe it was valuable items that Suni didn’t want anyone breaking in for. Maya could see some bags at the foot of the passenger seat now that she was up close. Suni looked like she was moving a lot of stuff.
The car beeped and its headlights flashed.
“Hey, Maya. Can I help you?”
Suni was right behind her.
Maya straightened up. Suni was holding a box of groceries. How had she got back to the car so quickly? Maya’s mind raced as she tried to make sense of Suni catching her by surprise. Maybe she’d left that box on the boardwalk rather than make the trip all the way back to the boat.
“I just dropped in to see Jade,” Maya said.
Suni looked good. She had the same confident, bordering on arrogant, air as always. She didn’t respond to Maya’s comment. Instead, she strolled up to her boot, balanced the box on the edge of it, flipped it open, and slotted the box inside. Maya spotted bedding, towels, and a suitcase before Suni shut the lid again.
Suni walked over to Maya. She looked Maya’s body up and down.
“Been working out?” Suni asked. “You’ve got great definition.” She squeezed the top of Maya’s bare arms with both hands. Maya shivered. Suni’s touch was icy.
“God, you’ve got cold hands,” Maya said.
“Why is everyone obsessed with that?” Suni muttered.
“Isn’t it a professional disadvantage, what with you being a masseuse?” Maya said.
“Some people like it,” Suni said tersely. “It’s good I ran into you. It gives me the chance to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye?”
“Yes. Things are coming to the end with me and Jade.”
“Oh.” Maya tried not to sound too delighted. “Well, relationships are hard.” She didn’t know why she felt the need to make a banal comment. “But you said good-bye? I’ll see you at the clinic, won’t I?”
Suni shook her head. “I’m moving on. I’m done with London. To be honest, the UK’s such an insignificant little island. I don’t know how you stop yourself from going stir-crazy.” Suni took a step closer to Maya and dropped her voice. “Don’t you feel like someone is always looking over your shoulder?”
Suni stared hard into Maya’s eyes. Maya stood her ground, though she wanted to pull away. “So you’re leaving the whole of the UK?”
Suni nodded.
“You’re leaving? Just like that?”
Suni shrugged. “I’m impetuous that way.” She smiled without no trace of warmth.
&
nbsp; Maya took a step back. She felt they understood each other. She was burning to say something, but she didn’t dare. Not until she knew Jade was safe.
“Well, good-bye then. I’m going to see Jade.” Maya turned away.
She walked to the gate and pressed the buzzer to Jade’s houseboat. She glanced over to Suni’s car. She was sitting in the driver’s seat, texting.
Maya pressed the buzzer again. There was no reply.
Maya had a thought. She walked quickly up to Suni’s car.
Suni put her window down a crack.
“Can you let me through the gate?”
Suni shook her head. “No can do. That would be an invasion of Jade’s privacy. If she wants to see you, she’ll let you in.”
Maya clenched her jaw. “Is she there?”
“She was there fifteen minutes ago. Maybe she’s gone to see a neighbor. Why don’t you try the buzzer again?”
Suni shut her window, buckled up, adjusted her rearview mirror, and drove off.
Maya memorized the number plate. She had a strong feeling Suni was playing with her. She jotted the number down on her phone.
She rang the buzzer another time. There was no reply. She tried calling Tony. It went straight to voice mail. Maya’s stomach tightened. She wasn’t going to feel okay until she’d spoken to Jade. And now she urgently needed to talk to Tony.
*
Tony instinctively raised her arms to protect her head.
Bam! The hammer smashed into her right elbow. White-hot pain shot up her arm. She went for the tool, trying to grab it as Somers took another swing.
The hammer glanced off Tony’s cheek. She darted through into the flat and tried to close the door.
The door crashed into her. The force of it shot her along the hallway.
Somers came at her again. She reached for the hammerhead, wrapped her fingers around it, and held on.
Somers pushed back. He was a hell of a lot stronger than he’d been playing. Gone was the frail old man, replaced by a strong, snarling thug. Sheer terror helped Tony hold her ground.