I feel his nose crack and he
yells, instinctively snapping his head away from the source of pain. Blood
erupts from his nose and he rolls back and onto the floor. I lash out with my
feet and catch him on the chin. His head spins away and he smashes into a
display cabinet and a rain of china and nick nacks comes down from the heavens
and crowns him.
But he is a hardy bugger and
comes up ready for a fight only to find his rising head introduced to a falling
Cuckoo clock made of solid oak. This time his eyes go out. He falls forward and
pins me to the floor.
His sweet breath blows in my ear
and I twist my head to see Karen staring down at the devastation. She is
focussed on the tall gorilla who is still hugging his privates and then she
glances at Simon - dead to the world. Above me the short gorilla has joined
Simon in beddy-bye land and out of sight on the other side of the room I can
hear Robin moaning.
I struggle to get the short
gorilla off me. Karen sees me start to move and picks up a letter opener from
the mantelpiece and starts towards me.
My luck is running out. The short
gorilla weighs in at nearly two hundred pounds and I am pinned between him and
the display cabinet. I shake, thrash and throw myself around but I can’t get
free of him.
Karen has reached the door and is
stepping round the up-ended sofa - the letter opener high in the air. She takes
one more step, bends over and I close my eyes as she starts to plunge the knife
towards me.
Then there is another crash and
voices. I open my eyes and Karen has frozen mid strike and is no longer looking
at me but staring at the door to the hallway. The door bursts open and the room
seems to fill with bodies. Karen is caught in the midriff by the first
blue-coated body through the door and she is catapulted to the far wall.
Things get a little crazy.
I am wired to the moon. Tubes to
the left of me and tubes to the right of me bubble and burp. The heart machine
bleeps reassuringly and a litre of plasma is drip feeding my battered organs.
I am out of intensive care but
still on the critical list. I had been moved from the ICU less than an hour ago
to be informed that the police had some questions for me but I told them that
they would have to wait.
The door opens and in walks Tina
with George on at her heels. Both look the worse for wear but both are smiling.
‘How many stab wounds does it
take to put you down?’
George grins like a cat as he
says it.
‘And do you often leave friends
for dead on a bench in the middle of the city?’
I am smiling.
It had been close. I had come
round on the bench in George Square knowing I was in a bad way but as the
ambulance men were strapping me to the gurney and trying to stop my life
leaking onto the ground I begged to talk to a policeman.
It had always been the plan to go
back to Tina’s friend - although Tina had found her less than a willing
accomplice. I could only think that’s where they would go if they weren’t
around.
The policeman eventually agreed
to go to the address. I refused to co-operate with the para-medic unless he
did.
The police had arrived at the
flat to coincide with a call to 999 from a neighbour who told them that he had
just witnessed a man being dragged into the next door flat.
The police had reacted quickly
and broken down the door to find the carnage beyond.
Apparently they had trouble
equating the punishment that had been dealt out by George given his restrained
state.
George chipped up and told me his
side. I was weak but the story from the flat was wild. I asked what had
happened since.
Tina took up the story.
Simon, Karen and Robin were
helping police with their enquiries. A forensic accountant was going through
the documents and a court order had given the police access to Retip’s offices.
By all accounts a lot of trash and burn had gone on. But the police were
confident that not everything had been destroyed and that there would be enough
to go on.
The two gorillas had clammed up
and were saying nothing but three witnesses from outside Tyler Tower had ID’d
them and it was only a matter of time before they either sang or decided to try
and cut a deal.
George had heard from one of his
contacts that after the police had left the Retip offices someone else had
ripped the place apart. No doubt one of the many Retip clients who now faced
exposure from the documents.
Tina says the betting is that
none of the trio from Retip would make a trial. Too many enemies. This might or
might not be true but it is great news from our end. They are all going to be
far too worried about there own future to make it worse by coming after a small
time accountant, a maintenance man and his girlfriend.
George sits on my left and Tina
on my right. I look at both of them and think I might have just found some
friends for life.
‘You know,’ I say. ‘When I was
lying on that bench I thought this is the bottom of the well. It can’t get any
worse.’
George pats me on the arm and
says, ‘We fell a long way in a short time.’
Tina nods.
‘Maybe,’ she adds. ‘But it’s time
to stop falling and start climbing again.’
I grin and look down at my
bandages.
‘With the state of my legs?’ I
say.
George starts to laugh and
doubles in pain. Tina starts to laugh, bends over and hits her head on the bed
side cabinet. She yells. There is a second’s silence and then George starts
laughing again and I just break down.
By the time the nurse comes in to
see what is happening I have wet myself.
‘Pain, pee and past caring,’ I
say to the nurse.
She doesn’t smile.
‘All and all it’s a nice way to
sum up my life at the moment,’ I say.
She still doesn’t smile
I slump back in my bed and smack
my head off the wall. I let out a cry.
Now the nurse smiles.
I close my eyes.
Pain, pee and past caring – it
would make a good epitaph for me one day.
A very good epitaph.
The
End
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