Valerie

by Kit Eyre

  VALERIE

  Kit Eyre

  Copyright © 2017 by Kit Eyre

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First Published, 2017

  For Marie, with love.

  Chapter 1

  The dashboard clock winked over to 02:32.

  Max peered through the rain gushing along the windscreen wipers then slowed to a crawl. No one else was on the bypass, but the cab juddered as puddles slapped along the wings and she clenched the steering wheel to keep the car from shuddering. It’d take another twenty minutes to get to the General like this – if she made it at all.

  Flashing hazards off towards the nature reserve caught her eye. The cab drifted across to the central reservation as she craned her neck to see into the car park. A fancy interior, lit up like a lighthouse, was glittering while the rain sheeted down. Max strained her eyes until they picked out a figure bent over near the bonnet, coat and hair billowing out in the wind.

  Knowing it was a woman back there made her ease off the accelerator when she came to the break in the carriageway a quarter of a mile further up. She squealed around in a U-turn and veered into the nature reserve’s car park. The cab crunched over the gravel, stopping in the middle of sodden weeds glistening under the headlights of the two cars. No woman in sight.

  Max rolled down the window, rain spraying into her face.

  ‘Hello?’ she called.

  Nothing. Just the sound of water hammering against metal and the clinking of hazard lights. She clicked her seatbelt loose then tugged her collar up before she lurched out into the downpour. Not that it made a blind bit of difference – rain slithered along her throat and dribbled into her shirt the second her head was exposed.

  ‘Hello? Look, I’m not after anything. I just wanna help, yeah?’

  Still nothing.

  Maybe it was a trap. Some of the lads had been done over by damsels in distress in the past. Drew had even ended up at the General when some pretty redhead nabbed the takings and shut his hand in the cab door. He’d bleated about it for weeks, yammering on about how it was the worst pain in his life and she ought to try it. Only when she’d threatened to do the same to the other hand had he shut up.

  ‘Hello?’ Max shouted again.

  She reeled when a stumpy jack handle loomed out of the shadows, jerking out of the way and catching her heel on a lump of something. Her spine cracked against the pebbles and she rolled onto her hip, automatically shielding her face from whatever was coming next.

  Then the jack handle clanked to the ground and a hand grappled for hers.

  ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Max blinked at the voice, smooth as a pint of Guinness. She gave in to the fingers coiled around her wrist and clambered up to her feet, water slopping into her shirt. The woman didn’t let her go, almost drawing her closer, though Max still couldn’t see anything apart from her outline. Diluted perfume mingled with the rain and tingled on her tongue as the woman edged into the light and the image sharpened.

  Petite, blonde hair drizzling rain into the hollow of her translucent blouse. Max’s eyes followed the trim down until words whirled around with the incessant clicking of the hazards.

  ‘Are you all right? I thought you might be a murderer or something. I broke down about an hour ago – I’m on my way back from a meeting – and I dropped my phone in a puddle and I couldn’t . . . I’m sorry, did you hit your head?’

  Mascara was trickling from her nose, dribbling across her plump lower lip and dripping down her throat. Max was transfixed by it then the question filtered through and jolted her back into the soggy car park. Her jeans were waterlogged, lugging towards her flooded trainers. She shifted and tugged her arm away to shield her eyes against the rain.

  ‘Tyre, is it?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, I can’t get the jack to move anything. It just keeps slipping out of my hand.’

  ‘This thing would.’ Max crouched to pick it up. ‘I’ve got a proper one in the boot.’

  ‘Thank you, I’d – I’d appreciate that.’

  It only took a minute to get it, but it was enough for Max to give up on keeping anything dry. She rolled up her sleeves and bent down to lodge the jack handle over one of the wheel nuts. She strained to the left then growled when it didn’t shift. Once she’d tightened her grip, she put her back into it as the woman hovered above.

  ‘What’s your name?’

  She switched position, pushing instead of pulling. ‘Max.’

  ‘Well, I’m Valerie Smythe. You know, I’d say it’s good to meet you, but I’m sure you’re cursing me right about now.’

  ‘Not really.’ Her fingers skimmed along the jack handle and she swore. Then she blew rain from her lips and adjusted her weight. ‘Sorry, that wasn’t at you.’

  ‘No, I know.’ Valerie paused. ‘Forgive me, Max, are you all right?’

  More pressure and the handle groaned and gave way. Instead of twisting the nut around, she’d crushed it in on itself. She jumped up and kicked the tyre then scrubbed her face with her arm. Before the pain faded from her toes, she booted it again and again.

  A hand on her bicep worked like a tranquiliser dart. She stopped with her foot aloft and lowered it to the ground, tasting that perfume again in the rain. She let the hand steer her into the rear seat of the BMW, squinting against the dazzling ceiling lights.

  ‘The car . . .’

  ‘Is due for a valet,’ Valerie answered as she slipped in beside her. ‘I’m so annoyed with it right this minute, it might end up in the crusher.’

  Max tried to smile, but her face wouldn’t stretch that way. ‘Some white knight I am. Usually, I could change a tyre with my eyes closed.’

  ‘So, what’s different?’

  She shrugged and water drizzled between her shoulder blades.

  ‘You’re a taxi driver,’ continued Valerie. ‘Were you out on a fare at this time of night?’

  ‘No.’ Max sniffed then cleared the rain from her throat. ‘You a customer? Feel like I recognise you.’

  ‘Not to my knowledge. You might’ve seen me in the paper or something. I’m standing for election next year.’

  ‘Really? That’s . . . way above my head.’

  ‘I don’t believe that.’ Valerie stretched slender fingers onto her wrist, warm despite the weather. ‘Come on, tell me what’s wrong. I tried to decapitate you not ten minutes ago, I think you get a free ear.’

  A flush crept onto Max’s face, burning more when Valerie’s tongue flicked out over her lips. She shivered and clumped her knees together.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said.

  ‘Pardon my saying it, but you don’t look fine. Listen, you stopped when you didn’t have –’

  ‘And made it worse,’ she interrupted then she clenched her jaw. ‘Damn it. I haven’t even got my phone. I left it on the side before I . . .’

  Valerie’s palm settled on her bare forearm when she trailed off. ‘You’re still here, you still tried. I’d be worse off if you hadn’t – I’d be alone. So, let me help with whatever’s bothering you. Look, I’m exceptional at keeping secrets. I want to be a politician, after all.’

  Max’s chuckle bubbled up before she could stop it. Once she met Valerie’s eye, she couldn’t help the words spilling out.

  ‘I shouldn’t have stopped. I’m meant to be at the hospital right this minute. My business partner – my mate’s – girlfriend lost her baby. Well, I say lost but . . . She was six months gone. They’re making her go through it all. Drew called me in bits, asked me to get down there.’

  ‘Now I’m even more grateful you stopped.’

  ‘Don’t
be,’ Max muttered.

  Valerie exhaled. ‘Oh, I see. Still, there’s no shame in wanting to avoid something like that. They don’t have a choice but to endure it – you do.’

  ‘Doesn’t make it right, me sitting here.’

  ‘Then I’ll come with you,’ Valerie replied.

  ‘Hang on, you just said –’

  ‘One good turn deserves another. This is either a colossal coincidence or the universe trying to tell us something. I’m in dire need of help and you appear. You need assistance, here I am. It’s irresistible as far as I’m concerned. Besides, I was about to cadge a lift to civilisation anyway. What’s wrong with extending the journey a little further, hmm?’

  Max rubbed her neck with her free hand. ‘Are you sure? I wouldn’t want –’

  ‘Trust me,’ Valerie interrupted. ‘I always know what I’m doing.’

  The rain wasn’t letting up and the further they drove the more Max noticed how her jeans clung to her like leeches. She’d be walking into the hospital like Frankenstein’s monster, as dignified as a bloody Jack-in-a-Box. Mind you, she wasn’t the only one who looked a state.

  She glanced to the passenger side. ‘Can I suggest something?’

  ‘By all means.’ Valerie shifted, reclining further into the seat. ‘Oh, this is wonderful after an hour in that car park, absolute luxury. Suggest anything, I’m completely at your disposal.’

  ‘There’s a box of wipes, that’s all. In the glovebox. For your face, I mean. You’ve got a bit of . . .’

  ‘My face?’ Valerie yanked down the visor and giggled. ‘Well, I’d certainly know if I walked into a hospital looking like this. Thank you.’

  Max said nothing, just focused on driving safe while Valerie cleaned herself up as best she could in a damp cab with only streetlight streaks to help her. It wasn’t far to the hospital, even though the car sloshed along the side streets once they pulled off the dual carriageway. The car park was swamped, crisp packets bobbing in the puddles like a raft of headless ducks. Max steered through standing water into the nearest space that wasn’t doubling as a swimming pool then unbuckled her seatbelt.

  ‘I’ll find a payphone when we get inside, call one of the lads to come and get you. Free of charge, yeah?’

  Valerie stretched for the door handle. ‘Let’s see how your friend is first.’

  Water slopped around their shoes as they rushed across the saturated tarmac. Max tugged her jacket off and held it above their heads, more over Valerie’s than hers.

  ‘Don’t suppose you know where the maternity unit is?’ she asked.

  ‘Top floor. Carless Wing. This way.’

  Max slid over a kerbstone, nearly going headfirst into the verge. ‘How the hell do you know that?’

  ‘Three reasons. One, I’ve been here before for party visits with the Shadow Health Minister. Two, I work in the care sector so appointments aren’t exactly uncommon for me.’

  ‘Okay, what about number three?’

  Valerie tilted the jacket to cover them both. ‘It was on the sign as we came through the gates.’

  Max snorted and kept pace with her. They worked their way round the puddles until they reached the gleaming foyer, trampling in enough rain between them to coat the floor with a slick layer of grime. Max scraped the water from her hair and shook her jacket out while Valerie just fluttered her suit sleeves towards the floor.

  ‘We’ll need to take the lift,’ she said.

  They made a few false turns upstairs then hit the maternity ward and a locked door. Valerie jabbed at the buzzer, getting them access into what looked like a chicken coop with cockeyed aqua splodges on the wall. A gaunt nurse was waiting for them, more asleep than not.

  ‘Can I help?’ she queried.

  ‘We’ve been called to attend to a friend,’ Valerie replied. ‘Her name is . . .’

  ‘Elena Marshall,’ Max croaked. ‘Her boyfriend, Drew – er, Andrew Wallace – called me as his support.’

  The nurse’s expression softened. ‘Of course. Come sign in for me and I’ll let Mr Wallace know you’ve arrived. It’s good of you to come out in weather like this. You look soaked to the skin, the pair of you.’

  ‘Well, I could be persuaded to put my head under a hand dryer,’ Valerie said.

  ‘The bathroom’s just off to your left when you get through the doors.’

  Valerie nodded, meanwhile Max dragged her eyes away and onto the sign-in sheet. She scrawled her name across two boxes then scrubbed it out with her fist. The ink speared through the dividing lines and smeared off the edge of the paper. She stared at it before passing the pen to Valerie who printed, signed, and handed the sheet back with a flourish.

  They were buzzed through to the deserted waiting room which stretched from one side of the wing to the other. Porthole windows on the left were just dark, but the floor to ceiling windows on the right were being lashed with rain. All you could see of the town were tower blocks wedged amongst washed out specks of streetlights.

  ‘It’s a sight, isn’t it?’

  Max flinched then thumbed behind her. ‘Think the loos are that way.’

  ‘You need to clean up yourself, you know,’ said Valerie.

  ‘I’m all right, I’ve warmed through.’

  ‘I understand,’ she answered as she stepped away. The scent of her perfume stuck for a bit then dissolved the further away her heels clipped.

  A door closed in the distance and Max blew onto her palms until they tingled. Her breath came back at her, laced with the dregs of last night’s booze. She screwed up her face and scuffed her palm over her nose, pressing the stench out of her nostrils. Then she tried levelling her hair out with her fingers, but it just curled up more. She’d about given up when a creak spun her around.

  Drew shuffled out from a corridor and leaned against the door. It cracked back into its frame when he made it clear then he twisted towards it, confusion etched over his face. He finally started moving again with lumpy steps while Max stared, wondering whether someone had lopped him off at the knees when he’d walked into this place tonight.

  ‘Max . . .’ He cringed at the gravel in his voice and staggered over to the nearest chair. ‘It’s done. The labour, I mean. They’re . . . Elena said to come out, said she wanted a minute. I’m off back.’

  ‘How long?’ Max sat next to him, watching his legs ripple. ’Drew – how long?’

  ‘They don’t know. Might be an hour, might be more.’

  ‘How’s Elena coping?’

  He dug both thumbs into his eyes. ‘She’s not. Can’t do anything, can I?’

  ‘Yeah, you can get your arse back in there.’

  ‘I will. In a minute, I will.’ Tears trickled over his hands, clumping in his beard like rock pools. ‘You should see him, Max. So small, like he’d – he’d blow away.’

  That caught at her throat, coiling around and strangling her voice. She worked her fist in and out of a ball till the coil loosened itself then she gripped his elbow with her other hand.

  ‘Drew, mate, you’ve got to get back in there, all right? She needs you with them, spend as much time there as you can. Doesn’t matter how you get through it, but you will. Think of what it’s doing to her. Help her – that’s what you want, yeah?’

  He raked his heel against the floor. ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Okay.’ Max glanced at the teddy bear cuckoo clock on the wall. ‘You’ve got thirty seconds.’

  They sat in silence until the little hand was at the hour. Even when it twitched past, she didn’t have the heart to move him. It wasn’t the way they worked, her and him. They were all banter over rugby and roadworks, never anything more serious than what gossip the customers had come up with. She couldn’t picture going back to that, not after seeing his knees give way when he tried to stand up. He wobbled back into the chair then threw her a pleading look.

  ‘Go,’ she insisted.

  Fresh tears clustered in his eyes, but he hauled himself up and swayed towards the door. Only when he w
as nearly there did she chuck him a bone.

  ‘You’ll be all right. You and Elena, you’ll be all right.’

  His throat quivered then he slipped through into the corridor. She held her chin until the door cracked shut before burying her head into her hands. Damp hair wilted around her fingers and she became aware of every pucker in her clothes, from her stiff collar down to the hem of her jeans scratching at her ankles. The fabric stretched between her thighs was still sodden, along with the insoles of her trainers. Her whole body was numbing through.

  A hand rested on her wrist, rubbing circles into the skin. She raised her face enough to see Valerie kneeling in front of her. It was the first time she’d been close enough to notice how blue her eyes were, little baubles of sapphire glistening under the white lights.

  Max swallowed. ‘You’ll do your knees in.’

  ‘I think I’ll be lucky not to come down with pneumonia after tonight, actually. You know, you can be as tough as you need to be in front of him, but that’s not to say it isn’t taking its toll on you.’

  ‘It’s not like that.’

  Valerie’s hand shivered down her arm. ‘Are you close to Elena?’

  ‘Not massively. They haven’t been together long, the baby wasn’t planned or anything like that. But Drew went the whole hog and proposed right off. She’s got a lousy family, mad mother and all that. Once she found Drew, they were happy together. Even if he is an idiot most of the time. I don’t – I don’t know what happens next though.’

  ‘Well, I haven’t got any remarkable words of wisdom. I can’t imagine what they must be going through or how they’ll cope. But you’re here, Max. You’re supporting them when they need it most. Trust me – that’ll be remembered, and it matters, don’t you dare think it doesn’t.’

  She gazed into Valerie eyes until she picked apart the pigments. ‘You said you work in care or something?’

  ‘Hospice nurse,’ said Valerie with a smile. ‘Only part-time these days, what with the election and everything.’

  All Max could do was nod then she shuffled to her feet and offered a hand to Valerie. She took it and rose like a swan in a cardboard skirt, clinging onto her fingers with her left hand. Max squeezed as she helped her up, not deliberately, but enough to notice there was no wedding ring on her finger. Just thinking that was a betrayal of Drew and Elena so she set her jaw and let go.