With their meal finished they flicked the TV through its many channels trying to find something to watch. “I wish I could get satellite. I only have terrestrial.”
“Yet despite the hundreds of channels I have we still can’t find something to watch.” Kelly flicked the channel to a programme with four women sitting around a restaurant table bitching about men. “What about this?”
“Sex and the City? Vetoed.” Craig shook his head and Kelly flicked the channel over to three men standing around a car and bickering. “Topgear!”
“Almost worth it for Richard Hammond, but no. Vetoed.”
Craig groaned. “We might have to do a trade-off soon or we won’t settle on anything.”
They both jumped as The A-Team ring tone of his phone rang out.
“The A-Team?”
Craig struggled to get his phone out of his jeans pockets. “It’s my brother. Sorry. And don’t mock ‘The Team’.” He leaned forward and took the call.
Darren cheered down the phone as Craig answered it. “How are you, bruv?”
“I’m okay, you?” Craig replied.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“You get mum’s messages?”
Craig slouched and sighed, his irritation edging his tone. “Yeah, yeah I called her earlier.”
There was a pause. “You did?” There was surprise in his tone.
“Yes.” Craig snapped bluntly.
“Alright, cut her some slack. She is worried about you. Maybe if you called her a little more often to put her mind at rest…” Darren must have sensed Craig switch off, because his brother’s tone changed from nagging to conspiratorial. “Just be thankful she can’t get your local news on the internet.”
“You been looking at it?”
“Yeah. I got an RSS news feed for London scrolling across my PC the whole time I am at work.”
Craig tipped his head back and rolled his eyes into his eyelids. “Not you worrying about me too.” He nodded his head back onto his chest and slumped back into his seat.
“It’s natural for families to worry about each other, isn’t it?”
He couldn’t argue with that. “Yes, of course, I know that.” He admitted quietly. He hated it when his brother was right.
“Don’t worry I haven’t been telling mum about it all. She would lasso you with her apron strings and drag you back home.”
Craig grunted, Darren might think it was funny but he didn’t.
Darren picked up on his mood straight away. “Jeez, you have a real stick up your arse about being helped. I remember as a kid you would bust your knee open and you wouldn’t let yourself cry or let mum or dad clean you up. You had to do it yourself.”
“You were the same.”
“I’m three years older than you; you probably didn’t remember my skinning-my-knee age back then. And even though I’m older I have asked you for help in the past.”
“When have you ever wanted my help for anything?” Craig realised his voice had climbed with his disbelief and he added a laugh to soften it.
“When I first moved out I had you stay with me for ages, remember?”
“Yeah.” Craig admitted sombrely. “I thought that was just you being cool.”
“Well it was, because I am the cool older brother, but it was also because I missed you guys and I was homesick. I missed you geeking off while I was trying to get ready for work, or trying to watch TV and stuff.”
Darren sounded serious. Craig hadn’t admitted it but it had taken him a while to adjust to Darren not being at home. Craig felt bad. “Sorry I didn’t realise.”
“Just check in with mum a couple of times a week will you. Call or text. Just while all this is happening in your building.”
“Yeah, sure. Anyway there isn’t much you guys can do about a spike in the crime rate.”
“Spike in the crime rate?” Darren repeated incredulously. “Seems a little more than that bro. I thought your building was pretty safe. It’s weird that it’s all happening at your place. The news are treating it like a bit of a novelty.”
“I know. But seriously I’m okay down here; I keep my wits about me.”
“I’m your older brother, not someone you have to impress or put on a brave face with. I don’t have any expectations you have to meet to qualify as my brother.”
Craig’s face got hot and his eyes moist. “Shut up. Dick.”
“You’re the dick. I was thinking; I could take some leave and come down and stay with you for a bit. I can keep you company, and you can show your country-brother the city night-life.”
Darren couldn’t come down. It was hard enough dealing with the strangeness of events as it was without having to convince him of what was happening. He couldn’t leave Kelly on her own either. “What about your girlfriend?”
“Were engaged and gonna be married in a couple of years time so I’m sure she will be grateful for a bit of space from me. We could geek off together. Treat it as a practice run for my stag night. It’s been a while since we had a night out together.” Craig could imagine it now, their dance versions of eighties boys programmes like the A-team, Knightrider, and Streethawk blaring from the stereo while they boozed and got ready to hit the town. He was surprised to find that for the first time he actually missed home. The realisation was nearly enough to floor him. It would be a good laugh. Yet it was too dangerous. There was no excuse he could think of except for a version of the truth. “It has been ages and that would be great, but I don’t want you down here with all that’s happening because then I would be worrying about you too. I’m ok anyway; I’m staying with someone tonight.”
“Someone?”
“Yes.”
“A female someone?”
“Yes.”
“That Vicki girl?”
“No.”
“Hello, Craig’s got someone else. Who?” Darren was in take the piss mode.
“Fuck off.”
“She there?”
“Yes.” Craig said bluntly.
“Put her on.”
“Fuck off.”
“You like her?”
“Fuck off.”
“Aw, okay. I’m fucking off. Speak soon Mr.”
Craig said goodbye, hung up on him and apologised to Kelly for the interruption. He saw that she was still flicking through the channels. “Okay, stick Sex and the City back on and then after that we can watch Topgear on catch-up TV, and I will show you what real cars look like.” He actually didn’t care what they watched; it was just nice being with Kelly.
“It’s a deal.”
Craig swung his legs back up on the sofa and got comfy again. He saw that as Kelly was now sitting with her legs pulled up onto the cushions too, his feet were about an inch from hers. Sod it, she had told him to make himself comfortable and he was. If she felt uncomfortable with him being so close to her then he was sure she would move. She didn’t. They both laughed at the character of Samantha brazenly returning a faulty neck-massager she had been using to massage something else.
“It’s nice to see you laugh.”
“Thanks. I think. Does that mean you think I am normally a miserable cow?”
“No. Not at all. A bit frosty to start with.” He saw Kelly’s mouth drop and he jumped in to put his comment back in the context he had meant it to be in. “I mean after today I’m surprised, and pleased to see you laughing. After what happened I was worried about you.”
Kelly cast her eyes down to the large glass of wine she cradled in her lap.
“You told me what happened up there,” Craig looked gravely at the ceiling thinking about Kelly’s chase to the roof way above their heads. “But you haven’t said how you feel. About Harry. About what happened.”
Kelly swilled the wine around her glass. “Pretty shitty. It was the last thing I expected. I thought he might lash out at me or Balin when we cornered him, I was prepared for that. When he disappeared over the edge it was all so quick. Like I had missed something. Missed him getting past us
, or something. I didn’t look over the edge, Balin did, but I couldn’t and yet I can see him in my head sprawled in a tangled mess at the bottom.”
Craig could see the slush of Harry’s brain and blood spread out from his head in a splatter. “Imagination filling in the blanks.”
“Yeah. Great. I dunno, I can’t believe any of it. That Harry was capable of doing anything like what he must have been doing. It all seems so out of character.”
“I lived next door to him for about two years. He didn’t smell too good and was a bit of an odd character but I would never have said he was anything but harmless.” Craig shivered at the thought of the grim events that had been taking place next to his home, sleeping with only a foot separating his head from the blood and carnage of Harry’s charnel house flat.
“The same goes for Malik, I mean he was a bible-basher and liked a few brandies more than he should, but he was a nice old guy, a bit hail and brimstone but not a stalker or someone you would think would try and knife someone.”
“Or give you a black eye…”
Kelly fingered the blemishes on her face. “Yeah.”
“You didn’t seem to want to talk about it earlier so I didn’t mention this to you, but when you went down to get Balin to do the arrest, and you left me watching over Harry’s door Cat appeared at the fire escape at the end of the corridor.”
“What did she want?”
“To freak me out, I think.” Craig’s skin tightened on his arms and he felt their hairs bristle as he recalled what she had told him. “She looked scared. She pointed at me, at Harry’s flat and said ‘It is in there with Harry’. I don’t understand and I’m not sure I want to. Nothing came past me when you left to chase Harry. I wonder if there is still something in there.” He shivered visibly but didn’t care because Kelly was rubbing her arms too.
“Cat might not be so coherent after her coma.” Kelly cautioned with little conviction. “But then, who knows. I certainly don’t anymore.”
Craig became aware of their vulnerability again. Sitting in the pool of light that the standard lamp cast down on them, the rest of the room seemed like some featureless void that held only shadows. He imagined what the Blitz was like, sitting in the dark, waiting for something that could rip through the home that was usually a sanctuary against danger. Waiting for something they were seemingly defenceless against to take one or both of them.
“There is another thing that bugs me. The station has been trying to get more police presence on the streets, the local bobby walking the pavements getting to know people. I thought it was a shame that our community having the intercom controlled door between us and the world, and being up in the sky and not in the streets, wouldn’t really get that relationship with the police. So when I got off work I would sometimes walk around this place in uniform, chat with old dears who spend most of their days here, say ‘hi’ to the teens, chat with the caretaker. You get to know the building that way, and that door to the roof is always locked. I mean always. There are no railings up there, there’s barely even a lip between the roof and a big fall. It is always kept locked, except today. The one time when someone is seemingly and deliberately heading up there to throw himself off the building.”
“It was probably an oversight. Alec may have been doing some work up there. I didn’t even know you could get onto the roof to be honest.”
“Alec was in the crowd that gathered around outside. I asked if he had been working up there, if someone could have gotten the key. He had the keys on him.”
“You think Alec unlocked it for Harry to get up there and top himself?”
“I don’t know what I think, we stumbled across Harry and it was a fluke. Harry wouldn’t have known he was going to have to do what he did today. He chose to run up instead of down, and for the first time I know of, the door to the roof was left unlocked. I just feel like were on a playing board and someone is moving the pieces around, keeping ahead of us in some game where we don’t even understand the rules.”
“That’s it. You need a dose of sanity. You’re starting to sound like Rachel now!”
Kelly laughed with him but their noise was silenced as the intercom buzzer sounded from the wall and startled them both. Kelly choked a mouthful of wine down in a spluttering cough and got to her feet laughing once again. “Oh my God, that’s probably Rachel now! Freaky timing.”
Kelly pressed the door release at hearing Rachel crackle hesitantly onto the intercom. Rachel had rung while they had been waiting for their Chinese to arrive, she had called Cat several times to press for information but she was not picking up, Rachel had said that if she didn’t get an answer she was coming over. She was convinced that Cat had some link or may have seen something that could offer an insight into what might be happening. Jason didn’t want Rachel to come back to the tower, but at least he was settled at hers and safe, even if something happened to her.
Twenty minutes later a flushed and sweaty looking Rachel disturbed the cosiness that had been just Kelly and him. Kelly got a glass from the kitchen and offered Rachel some wine, but Rachel declined and slugged back the contents of a miniature bottle of spirits instead.
“Just think of me as a self-treating St Bernard.” Rachel replied to Craig’s arched eyebrow. “Despite fourteen floors to Cat’s flat,” she swallowed a breath. “The lift didn’t appeal.” Rachel eyed Craig and his new injury. “I see you have traded in your sling for a crutch. You might want to stop throwing yourself at things!”
“You’re a couple of hours too late; all the jokes have been had.”
“Oh that is a shame.” Rcahel’s face became serious. “And how are you, dear?”
Kelly nodded. “I’m okay. It shook me up like I said to you earlier on the phone, but I’m okay.”
Kelly prompted Craig to tell Rachel about his experience with Cat outside Harry’s flat. When he did Rachel looked grave and sombre.
“It would seem that I am right to push Cat for answers. I had better go to it. I don’t want to leave Jason too long. Not fair to leave him worrying about me. I better get this over and done with and climb the rest of the way up there.”
Kelly’s mouth briefly drew down at the corners. “Well, good luck. She has a spy hole in her door like everyone else here so she might not even answer to you.”
“I know, but I have to try.”
“Yeah, because if Cat doesn’t help, or doesn’t have any information then we are just back to waiting for something else to happen. The only way I can see us getting answers at the moment is for something to happen to us.” Neither women answered him and he realised that they hadn’t thought of that.
“Yes, quite. It’s late, I better go. I don’t want to leave Jason too long so I won’t call in on the way back down. Going down is easier anyway. I will ring you when I’m safe at home and fill you in or arrange to meet up with you tomorrow or something.”
Kelly agreed and saw Rachel out and then returned to Craig’s side. “Are you okay?”
“Me?” Craig felt his face flush.
“You gave a grim summation of our situation a second ago. I didn’t quite realise it was like that until then.”
He thought of Vicki and his frustrations poured out. “What has been happening in this building. What happened at the hospital. The thing with Harry. None of it makes any sense. There’s no explanation to be found in any of it. When are we going to get some answers?”
Kelly glanced down into her glass, clearly unsure at how to respond to his outburst. “We are closer to anyone else on this. Hell, we are on top of it. We will work something out.”
Craig sighed and rested his head on the back of the sofa and closed his eyes.
He felt the leg of his jeans being tugged at the hem. “You want to sleep?” Kelly whispered.
“No.”
“You were asleep.”
“I was?”
“I thought you were thinking then your breathing changed.”
Craig liked the idea of someone watchi
ng him sleep. He would prefer watching Kelly sleep though. That was one of the things he had liked about being in a relationship when he had been with Lisa back at uni; someone feeling comfortable enough with you to fall asleep beside you. “I’m sorry, it’s nothing personal. Sleep has a way of sneaking up on me lately.” He widened his eyes as if he could prop them open with everything he could see, but he could feel the tiredness like some invisible creature squatting on his chest. “Yeah, maybe I should call it a night. Sad, isn’t it. I’ve been tired for days, maybe weeks.”
“Not sleeping?” Kelly asked as she dragged a quilt from behind the sofa. She perched on the arm of the chair and looked down on him. “It’s not surprising really after all that’s been happening.”
Craig looked up into Kelly’s face as he considered his words, unsure if he wanted to tell her what he had been experiencing. “I sleep, but I dream a lot.”
“Bad dreams?”
“The worst. Not like any nightmares I have had before. They are so vivid, so graphic.” He watched Kelly’s face as he considered telling her more. Her concentration hadn’t faltered. “There are really intense emotions; pain and terror. It’s all so raw and real.”
Kelly slipped from the arm of the sofa onto the seat. “I have had dreams I thought were real before.” Kelly read Craig’s discomfort and prompted him. “What?”
Silence crept in around them in the gloom before Craig could say what he needed. “You don’t understand. The things I dream about – They feel intense and real…” He paused. “Because they are real.” Craig emptied his glass into his mouth and was relieved at having told someone.
“Memories?”
He cringed at having to spell it out to her. “I have had some dreams of quite specific events. Then later, hours or days later, I hear about something that has happened or I find myself coming across something and I find that what I dreamt has happened for real.”
Kelly looked a little scared. Of him? “Coincidence?” She suggested.
“I have been down that road too. I dreamt that old guy that drowned in his bath. I dreamt the woman gutting her husband at breakfast.” It was clear Kelly didn’t know what to say. “I have dreamt other things too; people I don’t know about. Horrible things that I haven’t heard about yet. Things that haven’t been discovered maybe. I dreamt something about Vicki that I can’t or don’t want to remember and now I can’t get hold of her, and no one at her office has seen her even though she had a hot story from here.” Kelly took his hand, and although her touch felt good he had to pull his hand away and move to the edge of the sofa to break the connection between them as her kindness might cause him to break down. “When I sleep I worry that someone will die.”
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