by Shaun Hutson
He smiled. ‘I’ll be in touch,’ he told her.
And he was gone.
Hailey made her way back towards the lifts, and rode the next car to the third floor.
She had no idea how long she’d been sitting there at his bedside.
Every now and then he would groan softly in his pained sleep, sometimes open his swollen eyes as best he could. Once he looked straight at her.
Hailey sat by the bed holding his unbandaged hand, her own head lolling forward onto the sheet.
‘Hailey?’
She heard the voice through a veil of sleep.
Hailey jerked her head up and stared at Rob. There was a jug of water on the bedside table and she poured him some, holding it to his ravaged lips, watching as he managed to take a couple of sips.
The effort seemed monumental and it caused him pain.
‘Oh, Jesus,’ he murmured finally.
‘I’m so sorry, Rob,’ she said, tears welling up.
He squeezed her hand. ‘I saw his face,’ he said, each word forced out with effort.
‘Who was it?’
‘Don’t know.’ He winced.
She began to stroke his hand slowly.
‘Just rest,’ she urged him.
‘Don’t know who it was,’ Rob continued. ‘But it wasn’t Walker.’
85
HAILEY SAT IN the car park of the Happy Brig, puffing on a cigarette.
She wasn’t sure how many she’d smoked since she’d arrived, but her throat was feeling raw. However many it was, she had a feeling it was too many.
He was late. Perhaps he was doing it on purpose.
Paying you back?
More than once she had wondered if Walker would show at all.
Why should he? After everything that had happened between them, who could blame him if he failed to appear?
Feeling sorry for him now?
She tried to push the butt into the ashtray, but it was already full. She tossed it out of the side window instead.
Again she checked the dashboard clock: 1.16 p.m.
How much longer?
Even when he arrived, if he ever did, she wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to say to him.
‘I know you didn’t beat my husband almost to death, but did you push dog shit through our letterbox, slash the tyres on Rob’s car, and then try to kill him by running him off the road?’
Simple.
She was reaching for another cigarette when she saw his Ford Scorpio swing into the car park.
Hailey watched as he parked about three vehicles away from her and clambered out. She, too, slid from behind the steering wheel and walked towards him.
‘Sorry I’m late,’ Walker said.
‘I thought you weren’t coming,’ she told him.
‘I wouldn’t have missed it for anything,’ said Walker, and she heard the slight hint of sarcasm in his voice. ‘I couldn’t imagine why you wanted to speak to me. After all, you’ve gone to such great lengths to avoid me.’
‘Don’t make this harder than it already is, Adam.’
He shook his head. ‘You’re amazing, Hailey.’ He smiled humourlessly. ‘Why is it so hard for you? I’m the one who’s been treated like an idiot. All I wanted to do was talk to you, and when I tried you didn’t want to know. And, all the time, all I wanted to do was apologize to you. What’s so bad about that?’
She exhaled deeply.
There was a long silence, finally broken by Walker.
‘So what do we do now?’ he wanted to know. ‘Stand here and talk about the weather? You were the one who called me at two o’clock in the morning. So I assumed it must be important.’
‘Things have been happening,’ she said vaguely.
‘What kind of things?’
She told him about the slashed tyres, the dog shit, the incident with Rob and the maniac in the other car.
‘And last night Rob was beaten up,’ Hailey told him finally.
‘You think I’m responsible, don’t you?’ It sounded more like a statement than a question.
‘At first I did. I—’
‘How could you?’ he interrupted angrily. ‘Why would I want to do anything like that? Why would I want to hurt you or your family?’
‘It started not long after you and I . . .’ She hesitated, as if reluctant to finish the sentence. ‘After I asked you to stop calling me.’
‘And you thought it was some kind of sick fucking revenge?’ he rasped. ‘What do you take me for, Hailey?’
‘I didn’t know what to think, Adam.’
‘You think I’d do that just because you wouldn’t speak to me? Give me some fucking credit, will you? I think you’re flattering yourself a little, too, don’t you?’
‘Meaning what?’ It was Hailey’s turn to be angry.
‘I think a lot of you, but not that much,’ he snapped. ‘I don’t want revenge. I just wanted to be friends.’
She nodded slowly.
‘Rob knows what happened between us,’ she told him. ‘Or at least he thinks he does. He thinks we were having an affair. He’s walked out on me.’
‘Didn’t you tell him the truth?’
‘I tried. I told him everything, but I can understand the way he feels.’
‘After what he put you through? Don’t you think he’s being a little hypocritical?’
‘So what was I supposed to do? Call you and get you to come round to our house and explain that we didn’t ever have an affair? That it wasn’t really anything for him to get worked up about, because we didn’t have sex? Not real sex, as we didn’t go all the way. Do you think he’d have accepted that?’
Walker looked at her in silence. He could see how tired and wan she looked.
‘Who did attack Rob?’ he said finally.
‘No one knows,’ she told him. ‘Rob didn’t recognize them. And the police don’t have any idea.’
‘How is he?’
She shrugged. ‘I saw him this morning,’ Hailey said. ‘He’s feeling much better. The doctors say he can come home in a couple of days. He’s worried about how Becky will react. He still looks pretty bad, even though the worst of the bruising and swelling has started to go. He really doesn’t look very pretty.’ She swallowed hard.
‘How’s Becky?’ Walker wanted to know.
‘She’s fine, I think. We’ve managed to keep most of this from her. Well, until Rob got beaten up.’
‘Have you got any idea who would want to do this to him?’
Hailey shook her head. ‘I wish I had. And I wish I knew where the bastards lived, because I’d like to do to them what they’ve done to us.’
‘What do the police say?’
‘They try their best, but they haven’t even got any suspects. What’s that expression: “We’re all pissing in the wind”?’ She smiled bitterly.
‘If there’s anything I can do, let me know. Anything.’
She met his gaze and held it. ‘I’m sorry for thinking you might have been behind this, Adam. But I didn’t know what to think.’
‘It’s all right,’ he said softly.
He reached out and touched her cheek.
Hailey pressed her own fingertips to his hand, then stepped back.
‘I’d better go,’ she said, her voice low.
He watched as she climbed into the Astra.
In her rear-view mirror she could see him still standing out in the car park, watching as she pulled away.
She touched her cheek where he’d put his fingertips.
It was as if she could still feel his warmth on her flesh.
86
‘HE HURT YOU, so I hurt him.’
David Layton sat back on the sofa, gazing at the television set. He took a swig from the can of Special Brew he held.
Sandy Bennett looked at him, her face expressionless.
‘I thought you would have thanked me,’ Layton continued.
‘What exactly did you do?’ she wanted to know.
‘I taught hi
m not to fuck around with my sister,’ Layton said.
Sandy switched the TV off.
‘I was watching that,’ Layton proclaimed with mock indignation.
‘I want to know what you did,’ she repeated.
‘What’s your fucking problem? This bastard Gibson had been messing you around. You said that yourself. He sacked you. You loved him, Sandy, and he took advantage of you. You told me that.’
He drained what was left in the can and crushed it in his fist.
‘What am I supposed to do?’ he continued. ‘Sit around like a cunt while somebody makes my sister look like an idiot?’ He shook his head. ‘No way. He got what was coming to him. He’s lucky he didn’t get it worse.’
‘How long has this been going on?’ she demanded.
He shrugged. ‘A couple of weeks, on and off.’
‘And what exactly did you do?’
‘I frightened him a bit, that’s all. Played a couple of little tricks on him.’ Layton smiled crookedly. ‘I wasn’t going to sit back and see you used, Sandy. I know you: you would have let him get away with it. He fucks around with you, gets fed up, and goes running back to his wife and kid. Now he knows he can’t get away with it.’
Sandy ran a hand through her hair and glared at her brother.
‘How badly is he hurt?’ she wanted to know.
‘Does it matter?’
‘Yes, it matters,’ she rasped.
‘We put him in hospital.’
‘We?’
‘Russell Poole helped me. He owed me a favour, and he seems to enjoy things like that.’ Again that twisted smile.
‘I don’t believe this,’ Sandy said quietly. ‘You could have killed him.’
‘He’s lucky we didn’t. Like I said, it’ll teach him not to fuck around with you again.’
‘Am I supposed to thank you for this, Dave?’ she snapped.
He looked blankly at her.
‘I told you that it was over between Rob and me – that he’d sacked me.’
‘You said you loved him.’
‘Perhaps I did. But I didn’t ask you to start some sort of bloody vendetta against him. I didn’t ask you to put him in hospital. Jesus Christ, if the police find out it’s you, you’ll be back inside again.’
‘Let me worry about that. Besides, they won’t find out, will they? The only two people who know what’s happened are Russell and you. And Russell’s not going to open his mouth.’ He looked accusingly at her. ‘The only one who can grass me up now is you. But why would you want to do that? I did you a favour. What are brothers for, eh?’ He chuckled.
‘I never wanted this,’ she said quietly.
‘Well, you got it. Perhaps you should be thanking me.’ Layton got to his feet and took a step towards her. ‘And I’ll tell you something else: if he ever comes near you again, I will kill him. Him, his wife and his fucking kid.’
87
HAILEY SQUEEZED ROB’S hand and looked into his face.
The worst of the swelling had receded. There was still puffiness around his eyes, but now he was able to open them both with relative ease, although blackened by bruises too. Several blood vessels in the right eye had been ruptured during the attack, and a crimson mark stood out vividly against the surrounding white.
The intravenous drips had also been removed. On the whole the doctors had expressed delight, and also surprise, at the speed of Rob’s recovery. However, he was all too conscious of the cuts and bruises that still crisscrossed his face and upper body.
There were several bunches of flowers in the room, including a small bouquet of lilies that bore the note: HOPE YOU ARE FEELING BETTER, DAD, LOVE BECKY.
There was also one from Jim Marsh: a large bunch of white carnations.
A smaller arrangement of mixed blooms had arrived from Frank Burnside. There were Get Well Soon cards too.
Hailey hadn’t told too many people what had happened to her husband, but those she had informed seemed to have responded with some gesture of concern.
Hailey herself kissed his hand, noticing the bruises on his knuckles and wrist.
‘The doctors said you must be pretty strong to recover so quickly,’ she said.
‘I don’t feel very strong,’ said Rob, shifting position slightly, wincing in pain. ‘These bloody ribs are killing me.’
‘It’s going to take time, Rob. You were hurt badly.’
‘Tell me about it,’ he said sardonically.
There was an awkward silence broken by Hailey.
‘You are coming home when they release you, aren’t you?’ she wanted to know.
He tried to take a deep breath, but the pain from his broken ribs prevented even that simple action.
‘Rob?’ she persisted.
‘I suppose I was unlucky,’ he said. ‘Storming out and leaving you was supposed to create more of an impact. Now I’m going to need your help just to get in and out of a fucking chair.’
‘Would you really have left us?’ she wanted to know. ‘Permanently, I mean?’
‘I needed time to think things through. I still do – but I suppose what you said was right. I wasn’t in any position to preach to you about having affairs, was I?’
She opened her mouth to say something. She was going to remind him that what had gone on between her and Walker wasn’t an affair. In the end she said nothing.
‘I suppose we’re even now,’ said Rob sadly.
‘That isn’t how it was supposed to be.’
‘No, but that’s the way it is.’
Hailey glanced at her watch. ‘I’d better go,’ she said, getting to her feet. ‘Becky will be worried.’
‘Give her my love.’
‘You can give it to her yourself when you come home.’
‘If I don’t frighten her too much.’ He touched a hand to his battered face.
Hailey leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead and lips.
‘I love you, Rob,’ she whispered.
‘I know,’ he said, squeezing her hand.
She picked up her handbag and headed for the door. As she reached it, she looked back at him and smiled.
He returned the smile.
Then she was gone.
88
9.26 P.M.
He was sleeping when Sandy Bennett entered the room.
She moved slowly towards the bed, her eyes narrowing as she saw again the mass of abrasions and bruises that covered his face and body.
Clutching a small bunch of flowers in one hand, Sandy stood at the end of the bed, watching the gentle rise and fall of Rob’s chest.
She had bought the blooms from a small shop in the foyer, just after she’d entered the hospital almost three hours ago.
There was a florist, a coffee shop and a small gift shop on the ground floor, where she’d sat patiently since her arrival, watching the visitors come and go. So many people.
Some had arrived with packages, with flowers. Some with balloons, some with toys.
She had wondered where they were all heading – what kind of illnesses the patients they were visiting suffered from.
That passed the time.
She had seen Hailey arrive around 7.30, watching her as she strode towards the row of lifts.
Sandy had been sure to remain well hidden amongst the other visitors and patients who populated this busy area of the hospital. She had positioned herself at a table behind a concrete pillar, able from there to see both the lifts and the main entrance to the hospital, but hidden from view should Hailey glance in that direction.
At one point a man in his mid-forties, dressed only in a dressing-gown and pyjama bottoms, had joined her at her table and sat there drinking his tea. He’d told her all about his prostate operation, and she listened politely, her attention hardly wavering from the lifts across the way.
The man had finally left her in peace to continue her vigil, drinking more of the strong coffee that the café sold. Continuing her game of guessing who each visitor had come to see. New-born
children? Relatives with terminal illnesses? Mothers with arthritis? Fathers with kidney trouble?
She’d seen Hailey leave about fifteen minutes ago, but Sandy had waited deliberately before she’d headed briskly towards the lifts. When she’d first entered the hospital she’d checked with the receptionist which floor and room he was in. She now rode the lift to the third floor.
She was forced to lie to the ward sister at the nurses’ station, telling her she was Rob’s sister. She said she’d come a long way to see him, and that was why she was so late. But she’d promised not to stay long. Visiting hours were almost over.
The sister had relented and allowed her into his room.
Sandy moved nearer to him.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered close to his ear.
He didn’t stir.
Sandy laid the small bunch of flowers on the bedside cabinet.
The small card bore the words: FROM SANDY.
She stepped back, gazing at him once more, before turning and heading for the door. She didn’t look back.
As she closed the door behind her, a draught swirled across the room.
The card on the flowers fell to the floor. It floated down like an autumn leaf, and lay unseen beneath the bed.
Sandy never realized she was being followed.
The same eyes that saw her clamber into the Nova also watched the car from behind as she drove home.
In the gloom, she wasn’t even aware that there was another car within fifty yards of her during the whole drive home. Similarly unaware that those same eyes watched her parking outside the flats where she lived.
Watched the light go on in her kitchen window.
She had no reason to think that anyone was interested in her movements.
Or those of her brother.
The same eyes that had watched her saw David Layton return to her flat just before 11.00 that same night. Saw Russell Poole wave him off as he headed into the small block.
The watcher waited another ten minutes, then left.
89
‘YOU DIDN’T HAVE to do this, Jim,’ said Hailey, smiling.
She looked across at James Marsh, who was sipping his Southern Comfort.
‘I know I didn’t have to,’ he told her. ‘I wanted to – just to say thanks and all that old crap.’