Dead and Buried (12 page)

‘I’m going for a smoke,’ he said. ‘Be back shortly.’

When he had gone she felt her phone vibrate. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked down at the screen in case it was Joshua. The name
Henry
showed. Puzzled, she put it back in her pocket. A comedian came on at the same time that Jamie returned. It was a lad from her college. She recognised him and laughed at some of his jokes. Her phone vibrated again. She looked at the screen and saw the name
Henry
again. What did he want? At eleven o’clock on a Friday night?

‘I’ve just got to make a call,’ she said to Jamie.

She walked out of the room and through the main bar, heading for the door to the street. She edged through the throng of people and went outside. Once there she was in the middle of a dozen or so smokers so she found a space against the wall and returned the call. It was cold and she pulled her jacket tight. Henry answered after a couple of rings.

‘Rose? I’m at A and E at Whittington Hospital. It’s near Archway. Do you know it?’

‘Not really. Maybe. I’m out with friends, Henry.’

‘I was called here because of a serious RTA.’

‘What?’

‘Road traffic accident.’

‘OK. What’s that got to do with me?’

‘I was walking round, waiting to speak to a witness, and I saw your stepbrother, Joshua. He’s been in a fight of some sort. I’m afraid he’s pretty badly hurt.’

Rose held her breath. Beside her a couple were kissing passionately, the girl on tiptoes, the boy’s arms around her back, gathering her up towards him. The girl’s hand was in mid-air, her cigarette glowing in the dark.

‘Did you hear me, Rose?’

She felt sick. She put her hand out to lean on the brick wall.

‘How badly is he hurt?’ she said.

‘I can’t say for sure but I thought you’d want to know. Do you know where the Whittington Hospital is?’

‘No, but I’ll find it. I can get a cab. I’ll be there soon.’

‘I don’t know if I’ll still be here . . .’ Henry was saying but Rose ended the call.

She stood very still for a moment. Joshua had been in a fight? It wasn’t possible. She went back into the pub and made her way through to the back room. A girl was singing on the stage. It was mostly quiet apart from a few murmuring voices.

‘I’ve got to go,’ she said in a low voice.

She leant across Jamie and pulled her coat from round the back of the chair.

‘Why?’ Jamie whispered.

‘Personal stuff. Sorry, I’ll see you in college.’

She left before anyone could say anything to her, Outside, on the street she asked a couple of smokers if they knew where a cab place was. She walked briskly along until she came to it. The cold air freshened her up. When she got to it there was a long queue and she swore gently. Just then a black cab was coming along. She stepped out into the traffic and confidently hailed it. She’d seen Anna do it often enough.

‘Can you take me to Whittington Hospital A and E?’

The cab driver looked suspiciously at her.

‘Just you. I don’t want no one injured in the back of my cab,’ he said.

‘It’s just me.’

‘It’ll be about twelve quid. You got that?’

‘I can give it to you now if you like.’

‘Hop in,’ he said.

She got in and sat in the corner of the seat, pulling the seat belt across her. She didn’t look out of the window but closed her eyes and tried to keep calm.

She paid her money and ran into the A and E department. She sidestepped people who were standing round to get to the reception desk. There was a queue and she had to wait. She looked around, bursting with frustration. Then she saw Henry. He was in uniform and was standing by a pair of swing doors talking into a mobile phone. She walked swiftly towards him, waited until he’d finished and then patted him on the arm.

‘Henry, where is Joshua? Can I see him?’

Henry took her arm.

‘I can take you to him in five minutes or so. It’s not my case. I’m here for something else but I‘ve got a few minutes so I can show you where he is. He’s being stitched up at the moment.’

‘He’s having stitches? He’s been cut?’

‘He said he’d been in a fight.’

‘Joshua isn’t like that!’

‘I asked him if he’d been attacked and whether he knew the boy concerned but he just wouldn’t say. He says it was nothing and he didn’t want to talk about it. I’ve seen this before, Rose. Teenage boys attacked by others. They won’t press charges – they just have some idea of revenge and that could lead to even greater injury. Maybe you could talk to him. We could press charges. If he needs any reconstructive surgery then someone could go to prison for this.’

‘Reconstructive surgery! How badly has he been cut?’

Rose’s voice was squeaking with alarm.

‘Don’t upset yourself, Rose. I spoke to the doctor very briefly. Like I said, it’s not my case but . . .’

‘Henry,
please
tell me what’s happened to him.’

‘It looks as though someone has tried to cut off his ear.’

Rose felt faint. She stepped backwards and felt the wall behind her. Henry put his hand out to keep her steady.

‘It’s horrible, I know. I’ve never heard of a gang round here using this method but maybe it’s a new thing. I hope it isn’t,’ he said grimly.

TWELVE

Rose felt sick. She made as if to move past Henry but her step faltered. She didn’t know where to go. The rest of the waiting area was packed, all the seats taken and with other people standing around. Straight across from where they were a man was sitting on the floor, his legs splayed out. He had only one shoe on and the other foot showed a grey sock. He had a towel held to his jaw and a woman was kneeling down beside him, mumbling something. Rose looked about hopelessly.

‘I can’t believe it,’ Rose said. ‘Joshua’s ear?’

‘They don’t know how bad the damage is . . .’

‘Who would do such a thing?’

But even as she spoke she knew who it was. A feeling of absolute certainty held her. She would have sworn an oath to it. Henry looked pained and she realised that she was crying. She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and pressed it against her eyelids. In her head she saw a deserted cottage on the mudflats in North Norfolk. She and Joshua had been there months before. It had been cold and dark and the two of them had been hiding in an outbuilding. They had sat very stiff, hardly drawing breath while Viktor Baranksi’s son, Lev, together with his men, searched the place. They’d been discovered and dragged out to the front of the cottage. Joshua was bruised and battered and she had stood weak and useless beside him. The lights of Lev Baranski’s silver SUV had been turned on them as if they were being interrogated. He spoke icily.
You tell your father I will never stop looking for him.

‘I know this is upsetting for you. I wish I could find you a seat but . . .’ Henry held his hands out at the crammed waiting area. ‘I’ll go and check on Joshua. Probably better if he doesn’t see you upset like this. When you’re calmer you can make arrangements to take him home.’

Rose watched him go and thought back to that night at the cottage in Norfolk. Lev Baranski and his men holding them prisoners, threatening Joshua.
I have not forgotten my father’s death and I never will.
Mikey, the man who had pulled out a knife, pointed it at Joshua and said,
You want I should rough him? Hurt him? Just a little message for father? An eye? An ear?
Lev Baranski, who thought that his father had been killed by Brendan, had taken a minute to think over Mikey’s question.
No, not this time. This time I want him to go to his father and say that Lev Baranski wants to see him . . .

Henry came through the swing doors.

‘You can see him now. He’s a bit drowsy and numb. But he’s awake.’

Rose followed Henry through the doors into a wide corridor. They passed a number of cubicles, some with their curtains drawn, some open. Doctors seemed to wander round in their scrubs, looking as though they’d been called out of an operating theatre. There was a group of people studying a whiteboard which had been divided into sections and had names scribbled on in untidy black felt-tip.

When they got to the end of the corridor Henry paused by a cubicle. Rose looked inside. Joshua was sitting on a chair. He was dressed, his elbows on his knees. As he turned to her she saw that his ear was bandaged. On top of the bandage, sticking plaster stretched across his cheek and down his neck.

‘Oh no,’ she said.

‘Rosie,’ he said, cupping the injury with his hand as if to hide it.

‘I should get back to my RTA,’ Henry said.

‘Thank you so much,’ Rose said, gripping Henry’s hand for a moment.

When the policeman had gone Rose pulled up a chair and sat alongside Joshua and put her arm around him, turning him towards her so that she could look at his face. It wasn’t just his ear. He had a black eye and there was blood on his lip. His neck looked red or bruised. He had on a checked shirt and it looked as though the top buttons had come off.

‘Baranski?’ she whispered.

He nodded. He paused a moment as if making sure no one but Rose was listening to him.

‘He came to the flat. I answered the door and there he was. I tried to close it but his minder – the guy with the knife, Mikey? He was behind him. He dragged me into his car.’

‘When did this happen?’ she said, pointing to the bandage on his ear.

‘He drove up to Hampstead Heath. We got out of the car and they spent a lot of time questioning me, being nice, joking with me. Then it turned nasty. Mikey got his knife out.’

‘Oh . . .’

She grabbed his hand and held it tightly.

‘It was awful, Rose. Pain like I’ve never felt. It was red hot, like my head was on fire. I think I might have passed out. When I woke up I was in the car and they drove me here and dumped me outside. There’s a split at the top of my ear. Some cartilage has been damaged and I’ve got stitches,’ he shrugged.

‘I can’t believe it!’ she said. ‘You can’t go back to the flat. You have to come back to Anna’s. Stay with us for a while.’

‘Your gran’s?’

‘She’ll be fine about it,’ Rose said.

A picture of Anna’s worried face came into her head but she pushed it away. Just then the curtain was pulled back, making a sharp sound that rang in her ears. She looked up to see a young male doctor. He looked tired and had a pen nestled behind one ear. While he was speaking he fiddled with it.

‘Mr Johnson, I have your medication here. Antibiotics and painkillers.’

Rose stood up.

‘He’ll be ready soon,’ the doctor said to her.

‘I’ll be outside, Josh. I’ll just phone Anna and let her know that we are coming.’

Joshua nodded. Rose walked out through the swing doors and headed for the exit. She felt the tension of the last hour drain from her. Joshua needed to stay with her. She had to look after him. Outside, she stood next to the building in the glow of the light spilling from the windows. She got out her phone and was thinking of what to say to her grandmother when she felt a hand grab her arm roughly and hoist her away from the light.

‘What?’ she said.

She pulled hard, holding herself back, trying to dig her heels into the ground but another hand had gripped her free arm and in moments she found herself half dragged, half lifted round the corner of the building and pushed rudely into a recess between two pillars. In front of her were Lev Baranski and Mikey.

Even though she’d only seen them once she recognised them immediately. Lev Baranski was tall and thin, dressed in a knee-length leather coat over trousers. Mikey was shorter and wider and wore a large roll-neck sweater over jeans. He had her bag in his hands and she put her hand out to get it but he pulled it back like some tug of war.

‘You see your boyfriend?’ Lev Baranski said, ignoring what was going on.

He was staring intently at her. His hair was thin at the front. It made his forehead look larger than the rest of his face. Mikey was on the ground, picking up her things.

‘Get off,’ she said. ‘Give me my bag.’

But Lev pushed her back and grabbed the front of her coat, pulling it towards him. His breath was hot on her face.

‘You see what we can do? Next time the whole ear. Or maybe worse. You tell him that we want to speak to his father. Tell him that, for now, we just want to talk. If we have to wait much longer then there will be no talking.’

Rose heard a flicking sound and saw Mikey holding his knife up in front of him.

‘Shame if pretty girl like you lose her looks.’

Rose stared hard at him. She would not cower. She would not flinch. He moved the knife in a circle in front of her face like a silly game. She was still as a rock, her heart thumping like a bass drum. He rested the tip of the knife on her chin.

She held her breath.

Then he took it away and retracted the blade and threw it into the air as if he was juggling it. Both of them turned and walked away, Lev Baranski pulling at his leather coat as if to smooth it down, Mikey out front, jauntily heading away from her.