by Jacqui Rose
‘Are you sure about this, Alice? When the others find out what we’re doing, they’ll go mental.’
‘They won’t find out though, will they? I don’t want them knowing anything about this. Look, we can be back before they wake up. Alfie was so drunk he won’t be awake for ages, and Lola won’t come into my room and she certainly won’t come into yours.’
Abel raised his eyebrows. ‘That’s true enough. But what happens if something goes wrong? Once you go in there, I won’t be able to look after you. You’re on your own.’
Alice gave a smile. ‘No, I’m not.’
Abel shook his head, his shoulders slumping. ‘Don’t tell me, you’ve got some archangel by your side.’
Getting out of the car, Alice gave a small laugh, teasing Abel. ‘Exactly! See, you’re learning! We’ll make a saint out of you yet, Abel Gray.’
Surprised and shocked at the sound of himself chuckling, Abel grinned. ‘Saint Abel – you know what, that sounds proper pukka!… But seriously, Alice, I’m worried.’
‘I know and so am I, but that shouldn’t stop us doing what’s right, should it? Come on, let’s go. And you know what you have to do, don’t you?’
Alice Rose walked along the corridor to the lift, which took her up to intensive care. Everything was quiet and except for a few of the night staff, the place was deserted, with an eerie calm in the air.
At the door of the unit, the nursing staff, who were expecting Alice, let her in and led her to where Cabhan lay in an induced coma, tubed up and ventilated, with the sounds of the machines quietly beeping in the background.
She gasped as she stared at her dad, looking at his bandaged stumps and battered face. Nervously she leant over, surprised at how warm he felt. She kissed him tenderly on his head, closing her eyes and feeling the rush of love and the now ever-present guilt surge through her.
She had missed him so much and when he did wake up, she wanted to make him proud. She wanted him not to have to worry about the Russos anymore, or about her. He had done so much to try to protect her, he had made so many sacrifices, and now it was time for her to make some, too.
‘Dad, it’s me, it’s me, Alice. I came to tell you that I love you, do you hear me? I’m not sure what’s going to happen to me, but they say you’re going to be all right, which is great, really great. And I need you to know that having you in my life has been so wonderful. I’m so sorry that I haven’t come to visit you before, I should’ve done, I was just being selfish, but never think I don’t love you. I’ve always loved you … Will you forgive me, Dad? I know that you can hear me, I just know it.’
Alice’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She answered it quickly.
‘Hello?’
‘Alice, it’s me, Abel. They’re here.’
‘Okay, I’m coming down, and Abel, remember to keep out of sight.’
Alice hurriedly slipped her phone back in her pocket and held onto her dad, burying her face in his chest before kissing him again. She wiped the tears from her eyes. ‘Dad, I’ve got to go, but everything’s going to be all right, I promise. I’m going to make sure it is. I love you, Dad, never forget that.’
Running out of the unit, Alice then made her way down from the third floor, taking the lift to the service area. She called Abel, speaking fast.
‘Where are they now?’
‘They’re just getting out of the car. Hold on, I can see Bobby but Salvatore’s still in there. It looks like he’s not getting out. Shit.’
Alice thought for a moment then said, ‘Okay, stay where you are, you can’t let them spot you, but what I’ll do is when Bobby comes into the hospital, I’ll go into the car park. That way Salvatore will be able to see me and I’ll be able to lure him out of the car.’
‘No, Alice, that’s too dangerous, that wasn’t the agreement! All you said was that you knew a way of bringing them to the hospital. Nothing else … Alice … Alice!’ Abel looked at the phone, realising Alice had cut him off. Angrily, he spoke out loud to himself. ‘For fuck’s sake, Alice, what are you doing? What are you doing to me? Have you got some kind of death wish?’
In the A&E department, Alice stood in the shadows watching Bobby walk across the car park. He looked exactly like the photo Abel had showed her: heavy, muscular build and thick black hair, pockmarked face and a long scar below his eye.
He strode towards the main entrance with purpose and once Alice was certain that he was safely inside, she took a deep breath, steadying herself, before she walked out into the car park.
It was dark with only a couple of solar lights to brighten the area. Alice, not knowing which one was the Russos’ car, walked slowly down the line of parked vehicles.
She could feel her heart racing and she jumped at every noise, aware that if this was going to work, she couldn’t get caught.
Over at the far end of the car park, Alice heard what sounded like a car door open and close. Squinting, she thought she could just make out in the distance the silhouette of someone walking towards her, but she had to be certain it was Salvatore. All she needed was to get a quick glance at him, see his face, before she turned to run.
As Alice watched the person getting ever nearer, her phone buzzed in her hand. She glanced down and saw the first line of the text on her screen. It was from Abel and it simply read: run!
Alice sprinted back towards the entrance of the A&E, hearing footsteps running across the gravelled car park behind her, sounding like they were getting nearer and nearer.
Frantically, she flung herself round the door, banging into the pile of wheelchairs by the entrance. She skidded on the polished floor, her heart racing as she bolted down the corridor and turned the corner, fear pumping through her veins. She headed towards the lift, though she could see it was still on the top floor. Catching a glimpse of Salvatore pushing an elderly doctor out of the way, alarmed, Alice, not wanting to take the risk of being caught, began to run again, through some double doors and down the backstairs, descending into the darkness of the basement corridors …
Outside in the car park, Abel walked across to the Russos’ car, all the time keeping an eye on the entrance of the hospital. He checked around, making sure that no one was about, before pulling out Alfie’s wrench from the small canvas bag he was carrying.
Crouching down by the boot, he placed the wrench on the ground and took from his pocket a piece of galvanised wire, which he expertly slotted into the lock. He wiggled it about until he heard a click, then, holding the wire steady with one hand, he scrabbled in his jeans pocket and yanked out a small flat-head screwdriver, sliding it into the lock along with the wire, which he still held in place.
Turning both the wire and the screwdriver anti-clockwise, Abel felt the latch connect and with one last turn the boot bounced open.
Checking again that no one was coming, his eyes darted around. Working quickly with the wrench to lift the boot’s floor and liner, Abel managed to expose the empty space directly underneath the spare tyre.
After zipping open the side pocket of the bag, he pulled out Alfie’s iPad, which they’d taken from his room, and made sure it was switched on, then placed it carefully against the side of the car in the empty well, jamming it in so it wouldn’t move about.
Satisfied, he hurriedly replaced the floor and lining before shutting the boot, checking that the lock was still intact before jogging away into the darkness. Now all there was left to do was find Alice.
Ignoring her fear, Alice Rose crept along the vast corridor trying not to make a noise in the pitch-black when, suddenly, behind her, she heard the sound of running feet and the double doors at the other end swish open.
But the footsteps suddenly stopped. Alice, chewing nervously on her lip in the blackness, could hear the sound of heavy breathing. She couldn’t see who it was but she just knew it was Salvatore Russo.
Crouching down carefully, conscious that she must not make a single sound, Alice, trembling slightly, hid under one of the steel trolleys left in the stone corr
idor and slowly, slowly, began to crawl along, pausing every few seconds to listen for Salvatore’s movements.
Backing into some doors that opened quietly, Alice felt a sudden temperature drop as she heard the footsteps again. They were definitely coming her way.
Quickly getting to her feet, alarmed, Alice – just able to see the outline of another door on the other side of the room – tiptoed across. Frantically she pulled the handle, but it was locked.
Panicking, Alice spun round and with her eyes adjusting to the dark, she realised where she was. She was in the hospital morgue …
There were four large steel tables with the bodies of the dead on them, all of them covered in green sheets, an empty post-mortem trolley and freezer drawers lining the room, but there was nothing else. Nowhere to hide.
Dashing towards the door she’d come through, Alice, frightened now, stood on tiptoe looking out of the small fire window, wondering if she could make a run for it, but the swish of another door just outside told her it would be impossible without being seen.
The footsteps were getting louder and she could hear Salvatore looking in the different rooms and offices along the corridor. Alice knew, any minute now, he’d find her.
With her fear rising, an idea suddenly came to her. She ran across to one of the tables in the darkest corner of the room and pulled back the heavy green cotton sheet, uncovering the body of an elderly man.
Making the sign of the cross and plucking up courage, Alice climbed onto the metal table, squeezing herself on, immediately feeling the cold clamminess of the man’s body next to her. She shivered before quickly covering both herself and the man with the sheet. A moment later she heard the mortuary door open.
Alice held her breath, trying to keep as still as possible, as Salvatore Russo walked into the room. She could almost feel him next to her as she tried to push away the fact she was lying skin to skin with a dead man, the smell of death in her nostrils.
The footsteps paced about, and Alice prayed that the darkness would protect her and that he wouldn’t notice the strange outline that no doubt she and the dead man created under the cotton sheet.
Suddenly, Alice sensed Salvatore coming closer, nearer, towering over where she lay. Fighting the urge to scream, she was certain that Salvatore would be able to feel her warm breath through the sheet or hear her heart pounding as he stood only inches away.
Then, after what seemed like forever, Alice eventually heard the squeak of Salvatore’s shoe turning on the polished lino floor as he headed for the exit and walked away into the corridor.
Letting out a giant sigh of relief, Alice began to climb off the table when, unexpectedly, she felt her phone begin to jump in her hand, vibrating before it buzzed then beeped loudly. Echoing through the silence.
Outside in the corridor, hearing the noise of a phone, Salvatore Russo stopped in his tracks. He listened again before striding back to the room he’d just come out of, at the same time as Alice slid her mobile across to the far corner, diving under the table. She watched from where she hid as Salvatore walked back in.
For a moment he stood by the door, but seeing a phone gleaming on the floor in the corner, he walked across to get it. He bent down to pick it up, but as he started to open the message on the screen, a violent blow to the back of his head knocked him unconscious, sinking him to the floor.
Standing above him, holding a wrench, was Abel Gray.
48
‘We did it! We did it! We’ll be able to trace their location now from the tracker Isaiah sent to the iPad – we’ll know where they are. It’s brilliant!’ Alice grinned at Abel, who stared at the road as they sped away from the hospital.
He didn’t reply but sat gripping the steering wheel, clenching his jaw.
‘Abel, aren’t you happy? Don’t you see? This is just the first part. The Russos won’t know what’s coming. We can do this, I just know it. See, I told you it’d be easy.’
Abel turned the car hard, skidding up the grassy bank and screeching to a halt. He turned to Alice, his eyes dark and thunderous. ‘You think that was easy? Are you having a fucking laugh, Alice? What would have happened if I hadn’t found you? You were so close to Salvatore catching you, don’t you get that? You could’ve been killed.’
‘Know that God is—’
‘Stop right there! Just stop! I don’t want to hear that shit. You understand me? We need to call this off. It’s too risky. It’s over.’
Frantically, Alice shook her head. ‘No. No, it’s not.’
Abel’s face darkened. ‘Alice, listen to me, Salvatore will know now that something’s wrong.’
‘He doesn’t, he didn’t see you.’
Frustrated, Abel banged his fist against the side of the car door. ‘Oh, come off it, Alice, he got clumped round the head, what’s he going to think? That it’s some hospital porter taking the law into his own hands?’
‘No, of course not, but I do know if I call Nico, I can straighten it out with him, I can play dumb.’
‘And how long’s that going to last, hey? He’ll see right through it soon.’
Alice sounded defiant. ‘No, he won’t, you don’t know him like I do.’
‘Alice, listen to yourself, you don’t know him at all. I do. What he’s pretended to be isn’t him at all.’
Alice’s face was screwed up in anger. ‘It’s you who doesn’t get it. I’m his weakness, it’s me he wants and because of that, he’ll make a mistake.’
‘I’ve told you before, this isn’t a game, Alice.’
Crossly, Alice stared back. ‘You keep saying that like I don’t know, as if I haven’t been through everything I have, as if my dad isn’t lying in hospital, Franny and Bree aren’t taken and Sister Margaret … isn’t dead.’
‘Then if you know that, why are you behaving the way you are?’
Angry tears ran down Alice’s face. ‘Behaving? You sound like a teacher, Abel. I thought I was helping.’
Abel slammed down his hand on the wheel, his eyes wild. ‘How is getting yourself killed helping? Look at me, Alice. I said, look at me!’
With Alice refusing to look at him, Abel leant over and grabbed her face, turning her head towards him. ‘You know what they did to Natalia, why push it? Why risk it? You’re acting like you’re on some kind of mission. And don’t say anything about God.’
Furious, Alice pushed Abel’s hands away. ‘How can you say that, you of all people? I thought you wanted to bring Nico down?’
‘You know I do, Alice.’
‘Then why are you acting like this? I don’t understand.’
‘Then don’t.’
Alice’s eyes darted across Abel’s face, confusion wrinkling her forehead. ‘Is it because you wanted to bring Nico down on your own, is that it? Because I don’t want to take any of the glory, I just want to get Franny and Bree out of there.’
‘Grow up, Alice,’ Abel hissed through his teeth.
‘Maybe that’s what I should be saying to you!’
Abel shook his head, seeing the fire in Alice’s eyes. ‘Think what you like.’
‘I will, and I know what I think. I think you’re scared. I think that without Nico in your life you have nothing and that’s why you hold onto him so hard. Admit it, Abel, you need Nico and you’re afraid to let him go.’
The sound of the slap on Alice’s face resonated around the car. Abel’s voice was low and dangerous. ‘How dare you. You don’t know me, Alice Rose. You think you’ve got it all worked out, don’t you? But you haven’t. Be careful, you don’t want to cross me, don’t make me your enemy. I’m not Alfie, I’m not Franny, I don’t forgive people so easily. I know I’m damaged but even before I was, I come from a place, a way of life that has silly girls like you for breakfast.
‘Think about it, Alice, I worked for Nico. Me. I was his right-hand man, so what does that say about who I am? I learnt the error of my ways through a very painful lesson, one that haunts me to this day, but don’t make the mistake of thinking, because
I’m not like Nico now, that some part of me, when pushed, isn’t still like him. So be careful what you say, Alice. Make sure that youthful exuberance of yours doesn’t get you into trouble.’
Shocked, Alice rubbed her face, feeling the sting of humiliation more than she felt the sting of the slap. Then, annoyed that tears were rolling down her cheeks, she spoke in a whisper.
‘I’m so sorry, Abel, I went too far. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I had no right and the stupid thing is I don’t even mean it. I know how you love Natalia and what I said must be really hurtful to you. It was cruel. I got carried away because I just want to sort this out, but I’m really sorry about what I said. Will you forgive me?’
There was a long pause before Abel spoke. ‘Thank you, Alice, for your apology. It means a lot. I shouldn’t have slapped you, that was wrong of me. I’m just tired of it all. I want to sleep and never wake, but I can’t, Alice, I can’t. All I do is just continue to walk along the boundary between life and death. I’ll have no peace until Nico is dead, so no, Alice, I want no glory, I just want it to end. But I also need you to be safe …
‘I’ve never told anyone this before, but Natalia thought she could get Nico to listen to her, that she could convince him that I hadn’t taken the money, and I hadn’t, but she underestimated him. She didn’t even tell me she was going to see him, but she did that for me. She loved me, Alice, and she walked into his trap. Nico knew I would come looking for her and I did.’ Abel paused before adding, ‘A man once said, l’amore è fatale, condannato dalla vita stessa. Do you know what that means, Alice?’
Alice, thinking hard, took Abel’s hands and nodded. ‘Yes … love is fatal, condemned by life itself.’
‘That’s right, so whatever you choose to do, be careful if you do it in the name of love.’
Alice smiled, the print of Abel’s hand still on her cheek. ‘I need you and you need me to do this, both for our different reasons, but only we can do it. Let me phone Isaiah, let’s do this and whatever happens, happens … Agreed? Let’s shake on it.’