by Kit Eyre
I put the desk between me and the incoming staff, more for the illusion of protection than anything else. If Bobby or Ed decided to smash my face in for not letting them out, it wouldn’t do much to stop them. I was more worried about Michael and Caroline, I recognised, when their heads popped up above the banister in unison like something out of a horror movie. Matt came after with Sunita and Vicky, their faces raw with fear. The seven of them settled on the opposite side of the desk, all watching me. Below their eye line, my knees began knocking together.
‘What’s going on?’ Caroline queried.
Matt cleared his throat. ‘Was he specific that we had to be on the landing, Danni? Only it’d be comfier in the meeting room, wouldn’t it?’
I glanced to Michael in time to see his flash of revulsion. He mastered it and ushered Sunita towards the door. Vicky, Bobby and Ed followed like stunned sheep.
‘Go into my office instead. It’s at the back of the building. Matt – you go with them.’
He looked at me then Michael and Caroline and tucked his hands into his pockets. ‘If it’s all the same, I’d rather show a united front out here. They’ll be right, won’t they? Nice and cosy in there anyway.’
None of them looked capable of argument. The lads seemed more detached than Sunita and Vicky, as though the toll of pretending they were macho enough to deal with this had shrivelled them up. Michael wafted all four of them through the door before he twisted back to the rest of us.
‘Is he still on the phone?’ he questioned.
I shook my head.
‘Then what does he expect us to do, hmm? Listen to them leave downstairs and just wait for him to call back?’
‘It’s bizarre,’ Caroline put in.
‘That’s not Danni’s fault,’ Matt said.
Caroline threw Michael a significant look. ‘Isn’t it?’
All at once, my insides liquefied again. Of all the people Michael could’ve told, why had he picked Caroline? The venom was spewing out of her, neatly complementing Michael’s disgust and circling round me like a fog. I finally appreciated Harriet’s reluctance to leave me locked up with the pair of them and edged closer to Matt. He stretched an arm around my shoulders, squeezing hard.
From downstairs, Harriet called, ‘We’re going, all right?’
‘All right,’ Michael returned.
Every sound coming from down there was accentuated by the strained silence on the landing. I heard the key screech in the lock and the door being hauled out of its frame. It’d been close to buckling in the heat last summer and hadn’t properly recovered. No point replacing it, the board had said; not when you’re relocating.
People began shifting downstairs and the idea of Jude stepping through the door tremored through my body. I hadn’t thought Conrad would let it get this far and I looked back to the phone, expecting it to start bleating at any second. One more minute and he lost control; none of this made sense as anything other than a power play.
‘What does he want us to do now then?’ Caroline asked as the door thudded shut below. ‘When’s his next trick?’
I dug my toes into the soles of my shoes. ‘I’ve told you, I don’t know.’
She sniggered and crossed her arms. ‘Come on, Danielle, you can let the act drop now.’
‘What act? I don’t know what you mean – what act?’
‘What happened?’ she persisted. ‘Did you get bored? Realise the night was going to be too long stuck in here with poor Michael for company? So you end it early, but you have to make it convincing, don’t you? Too bad you couldn’t think of anything.’
Matt growled and stepped in front of me. ‘Now, hold up. We’ve been through this a dozen times. It’s not a bloody joke, Caroline. Anyone looking at her should know that.’
‘No one looking at her would think she made a career out of seducing men’s wives.’
‘That’s between them,’ Matt returned.
Michael let out an incredulous snort. ‘You knew?’
‘Mate, I wasn’t –’
His head snapped sideways when Michael’s fist connected with his jaw. He fell back against me as Michael reeled away towards the staircase. At least Caroline had the good sense to shrink into the wall, her eyes flicking back and forth between us all.
For a minute, the four of us stood in stasis. Then a guttural groan started up below us. Before I could react, the landing convulsed and shards of glass began coursing through the air like bullets, I dragged Matt under the cover of the desk and closed my eyes as the ringing in my ears became a roar.
Chapter 27
July 2011
‘I’m sorry about last night, that I couldn’t . . .’
Gemma yanked the zip across on my rucksack then landed beside me on the bed. ‘Don’t worry about it. Maybe it was a bit fast for both of us.’
‘Not exactly unfamiliar territory though.’
‘With all this going on, it’s no surprise.’ She leaned forward to kiss me. ‘We’ll get home and it’ll be fine.’
‘Gem –’ I began, but she cut me off.
‘We don’t have to go home. You know, maybe we could finish here and go up to see your parents. Or is that odd?’ she added with a grimace.
I tried to smile. ‘Just a bit. Look, do you want to go see if Harriet’s ready?’
‘Oh, yeah, give me the easy job. When I left her last night she was already on her second bottle of wine.’
‘Get out of sticky situations free card,’ I replied, holding up my stick.
Gemma rolled her eyes yet rose to her feet. ‘You’ll be using that same excuse when we’re ninety, won’t you? Okay, I won’t be long.’
After another kiss, she bounced out of the room and I flopped back onto the mattress. The beige curtains around the bed fluttered before settling with only the odd ripple running through them. Catching the waves with my eyes kept my mind distracted until there was a rap on the door and I groaned as I shifted to answer it.
‘I thought you had the . . .’
Finding Harriet on the threshold derailed me. I hadn’t seen her since the pond last night, and I hadn’t planned on talking to her alone till after we were all back in Leeds and everything was settled. Any hope of putting her off disintegrated when she barged through the door and kicked it shut.
‘What the hell are you playing at?’
I limped back to the bed. ‘Come in, why don’t you?’
‘You were meant to be sorting it out,’ she went on, tramping across to the window then spinning around so violently she almost took out an ornate lamp on the dresser. ‘Not screwing your vulnerable ex-girlfriend because it’s –’
‘We didn’t,’ I interjected.
Harriet rolled her eyes. ‘Not for want of trying on her part, I bet. She’s been after this for months, building her hopes up. Ever since she saw you in Scotland over Christmas, it’s been glowing in bloody neon, Danni.’
‘I wasn’t leading her on.’
‘Not then, you’re weren’t. But last night?’
‘Is between me and her. Anyway, Gemma’s not vulnerable, I don’t know where you’re getting that from.’
‘Oh, of course she bloody well is. Just because you’ve not seen it, you’ve not wanted to. She blames herself so she’s put on herself.’
I frowned at her. ‘What are you going on about?’
The anger drained from Harriet’s shoulders and she crossed to join me on the bed. She plopped down, kicking out her heels against the sheepskin rug. Gemma had been right about the booze last night – it hung from her like a toxic perfume, not that she seemed worse the wear for it.
‘She blames herself for you getting with Jude in the first place,’ Harriet explained finally. ‘She reckons that if she hadn’t cheated on you, maybe none of this would’ve happened. Or, at least, you wouldn’t have been on that phone trying to do that right thing for your girlfriend. I don’t buy it myself. Jude was part of it, but you were never leaving the rest of us to burn. It still would’ve happene
d, only Gemma can’t see that. It suits her not to.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ I asked.
‘She quit her job, she moved back home then followed you up to Scotland. All her experience and she’s scraping a living as a freelancer because she’s keeping an eye on you.’
‘I know she’s done a lot for me.’
Harriet rubbed her neck. ‘Yeah, so does she. Sooner or later, you start wanting a reward. You’re looking for it yourself with Radison.’
‘Hang on, that’s about –’
‘Justice, I know. Only, if that was it, you’d hand Radison’s name over to the police and be done with it. You’re following through on it because you need to hand everything over, am I right? You give the police his head on a platter so all they have to do is pick him up and that’s your payoff for the last eighteen months of crap.’
Her bluntness mixed unpleasantly with Lenora’s snide assertion that I was the same as her and Radison. For a minute, I kneaded my knuckles into my thigh, finding the sorest spots, then I swallowed and glanced back to Harriet.
‘Gemma’s not selfish, not like you mean. I’ve known her for years, she was my best mate before anything else.’
‘It’s easier to think you deserve something when you’re in love. Look at Jude – she reckons her reward should be you.’
‘No chance,’ I muttered.
Harriet inhaled deeply. ‘The more you say that, the less I believe it.’
Her eyes latched onto mine, but I turned away. I was saved by the key rattling in the door and Gemma walking in. She caught sight of Harriet and pulled a face.
‘I’ve been halfway round the place looking for you. Are we good to go?’
After sparing one more glance for me, Harriet stood and stretched out. ‘Jude’s already waiting in the car.’
Whatever I’d expected, Jude saying nothing during the drive to Oak House wasn’t it.
She sat rigid in the passenger seat, immune to Harriet’s curses as we rattled along narrow country lanes towards the coast. Even the stench of horse manure that clogged up the air con failed to get a reaction and I sat staring into her hair wondering what was going on in her head. Whenever she got like this, I’d never been able to read her. That was how I’d ended up in bed with her in the first place. Beside me, Gemma clutched my hand and gazed out of the side window.
Even with the sat nav telling us we’d arrived at our destination, none of us were sure of that straight away. Only when Harriet pointed out the Gerbera mosaic sign festering under a pile of rubble did we accept we’d actually come to the right place. The four of us got out of the car and wandered around the yard, stepping over debris and covering our noses against the stench of a rubbish pile mouldering beside a clump of slack weeds.
‘It’s a wreck,’ Gemma said.
Harriet nudged a blackened branch with her toe. ‘You’d have thought the council would’ve pushed to clean it up. Must be attracting all sorts. There was nothing in my day about it, wasn’t even on the books after it shut.’
‘They transferred it to a contingency account,’ Jude supplied, her voice wooden. ‘A couple of other properties are in there as well, all discontinued sites.’
‘More cover-ups?’ Harriet suggested.
‘Probably. They were pulled from the main account the day after closure. All the paperwork was signed off as if it was a sale – your signature was on it.’
‘It must’ve looked legitimate,’ argued Harriet. ‘I paid attention, you know. I didn’t just sign anything.’
Jude tried to suppress her sigh. ‘Who’s saying you did? Look, for all intents and purposes, it was legitimate. It was sold to a subsidiary of the company under a name I’d never heard of till I went digging. Companies House has the director down as a nobody, some lackey based at the South East Support Centre. Gerbera never let it go, but they didn’t want it broadcasting.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us this before?’ Gemma questioned.
‘You never asked.’
Gemma sniggered. ‘Once a liar . . .’
‘All right,’ Harriet said as Jude bristled, ‘back to your corners, ladies. Danni – are we going in or what?’
My attention had been captured by a Coke can bouncing between two piles of faeces. As it squelched into one of them and stuck fast, I dragged my eyes back to Harriet. Even after everything this morning, she was still letting me take the lead and I managed a thin smile.
‘The door’s boarded up,’ I pointed out.
‘Sod that,’ she replied. ‘Gemma – give me a hand.’
She marched over to the door and rolled up her sleeves. With Gemma’s help, she levered her hands inside the board and braced herself as if she was hauling a boat ashore. I risked a look at Jude, but her chin was low. From this angle, I could see her hands clamped behind her back and the effort it took to pin her lips together.
My gaze lingered and she finally glanced across. Instead of triumph or anything like that, her forehead creased. The lines around her eyes, faint when I’d known her, had flourished in the last eighteen months. I was struck by the sudden desire to know how they’d feel under my fingertips and how strong they’d become when she smiled properly.
A smash from the doorway snapped my attention back to Harriet and Gemma. The board had given easily and the two of them were sprawled on the gravel beside a smattering of broken glass. I started forward, though Jude didn’t.
‘You okay?’
‘Fine, fine,’ Harriet muttered, allowing me to help her up as best I could. ‘What’s this – age before beauty?’
‘How’d you guess?’ I retorted.
Gemma was already on her feet, brushing away chunks of glass and dirt with a grimace. ‘Please tell me that isn’t dog crap.’
‘Course it isn’t,’ I lied.
‘You’d tell me anything, wouldn’t you?’
‘If it stops you chucking it in my hair, yeah,’ I said with a grin.
She swatted me, but her good humour was intact. ‘Come on inside before someone sees us.’
Harriet went first, booting the splintered board on the way through the doorway. I snorted and followed her, allowing Gemma to fall in behind me. The buffer between me and Jude was welcome as we passed through the claustrophobic corridor, windows blacked out on each side. It gave way to an airy vestibule with daylight gushing through a jagged hole in the roof. I shielded my eyes until the sunspots disappeared then took a look around.
Everything that could’ve been ripped out had been, from the reception desk right up to the light fittings. Plaster had peeled off the walls into cobwebs, catching in streams that fluttered in the breeze. Compared to the outside, it looked idyllic, but I still shivered.
‘Let’s split up,’ I muttered.
‘I’ll have a look around here with you,’ said Gemma.
I shook my head. ‘This place is giving me the creeps. Quick as we can, yeah?’
‘Agreed,’ Harriet added.
Jude had already taken off along one of the dank corridors that led into the heart of the building. Only after watching her go did Gemma turn and head in the other direction. Harriet shot me a look before putting one foot on the rickety staircase and testing her weight.
‘Hearing somebody fell through it isn’t doing wonders for my confidence,’ she said.
‘You survived a bomb,’ I reminded her.
‘Is that supposed to cheer me up?’ she retorted.
While she edged up the stairs, I made a show of poking around the piles of debris with my stick. Harriet complained all the way up until her voice faded and then I exhaled. I’d already clocked a thin door off to the side that either led to a storeroom or a cellar. A large lock had been clumsily gouged out, leaving streaks of black along the speckled paintwork, and I slotted my thumb inside to yank the door open. I had to wipe a green cobweb off on my trousers before peering inside and then I clapped my hand over my mouth.
It probably had been the path to a cellar – once. Now it was a bricked u
p cubicle that squatters had used as a toilet then shut the door on. The whole place reeked and only biting down on my tongue stopped me throwing up. I twisted to leave, but my foot caught on a piece of wire. As I tried tugging it loose, graffiti on the back of the door gleamed under the light seeping in from the lobby. Most of it was standard stuff scrawled in biro or scraped into the wood, but one thick block of eight letters and numbers stood out.
My hand slipped and the smell nearly overtook me. I dragged my leg free and staggered out into the vestibule. Jude was waiting for me, shielding her nose with her arm.
‘What did you find?’ she asked.
‘A house number and a postcode – an address.’
Chapter 28
February 2010
‘Danni? Danni, are you all right?’
I rolled onto my back and squinted at Matt’s face peering into mine through the gloom. The lights had blown, but an orange glow was flickering beyond the warped slab of wood that had been the desk. An acrid cloud was swelling across the landing, burning my throat when I tried to speak, and alarms were blaring through the building.
Matt eased me up until my knees scraped against my chin. ‘It’s all right, deep breaths.’
‘What happened?’ I croaked.
‘You saved my life, that’s what happened. Thank you.’
Glass prickled on my tongue. I spat it onto the floor then tasted blood and spat again. When I tried to lever myself up using the desk, my hands snagged on splinters and I hissed.
‘Slow down,’ Matt said.
I clamped my hands around the wood, wrenching myself up into the smoke. It stung my eyes, but I persevered and made out the buckled window frame and the twisted metal tangled in the shreds of the blinds. I blinked at them until I realised the problem.
‘Matt,’ I murmured.
He clambered to his feet and followed my gaze. ‘Oh, shit.’
‘It was outside. It was . . .’ I wobbled against him, spots of black swimming at me through the smoke. ‘Jude . . . I’ve got to get to her.’