The Accidental Guest (2 page)

‘Why are you whispering?’ Jess asked. ‘It’s not like they can hear you through the walls.’

‘You never know,’ Gina began, but then a muffled voice called through the letterbox.

‘Is anyone home? Please…’

‘That’s it!’ Hannah grabbed a tea towel and wiped her hands. ‘I’m going to see who it is.’

‘It’s a man!’ Gina squeaked.

‘And he sounds pretty desperate,’ Hannah replied. ‘What if he’s in real trouble? Where’s your milk of human kindness?’

‘Gone off.’ Jess arched an eyebrow at her mum.

‘You’ll be sorry if you open that door…’ Gina said, ignoring Jess’s jibe.

‘Too bad.’ Hannah marched out of the kitchen. Gina gave chase, with Jess bringing up the rear.

‘This is crazy!’ Gina hissed.

‘Yup!’ Hannah replied.

As they reached the front door, Gina reached to cover the lock with her hand. Hannah moved it firmly but gently away. ‘I won’t let him in,’ she whispered. ‘I just want to see if he’s ok.’

‘What if he comes in whether you let him in or not?’ Gina whispered back. ‘What if he forces his way past you? What if there’re about twenty men with him?’

Hannah raised her eyebrows. ‘You’ve been watching too many films. We’re on the outskirts of Millrise, not Washington DC.’

‘I’ll sort him if he tries anything,’ Jess interrupted. Hannah turned to see that, on the way through to the front door, she’d picked up one of the soapstone elephants Hannah had brought back from Goa and was wielding it with surprising menace for a teenage girl.

‘Did you swipe that from my mantelpiece?’ Hannah frowned.

‘It’ll knock him clean out if he tries anything.’

‘The weight of that, you’ll kill him! Please be careful with it.’

Jess went to the window and looked out. ‘Not that I can see all of the porch from here, but he doesn’t look as if he has evil henchmen with him.’

‘Does he look dangerous?’ Gina asked.

‘If you think slumped against the porch wall looking as if he’s going to pass out is dangerous, then yeah.’

‘This is ridiculous!’ Hannah turned the key and yanked the front door open. There was an involuntary gasp at the sight that greeted her. The man had a supporting hand clamped on the frame of the porch door, and he did look distressed. Blood ran from a nasty looking gash that stretched from beneath the thick black hair at his temple and down his forehead, and it was steadily soaking into his powder blue shirt. He was shivering and soaked through, dressed completely inappropriately for the desperate winter weather in well-cut jeans and moccasins that looked like slippers. One thing was for sure, they weren’t suited to the four or five inches of snow that lay on the ground. There was no sign that he had a coat with him and no sign of a car that might belong to him parked anywhere nearby. In fact, he didn’t appear to have anything with him but the clothes on his back. He looked up and gave a pained smile.

‘I’m so sorry to disturb you, but I seem to be in a spot of bother.’

‘Oh my God!’ Hannah cried. ‘Come in out of the snow! What happened?’ She opened the door wider and gestured him inside. He stumbled, and she rushed to offer a supporting arm. Gina frowned at her and Hannah shot back a warning look as she led him to a chair.

‘Thank you so much,’ the man said, lowering his weight onto the seat and instantly looking better, as if the very act of standing up had been an incredible burden. ‘I wonder if I could use your phone.’

‘Where’s yours?’ Gina asked, eyeing him warily.

‘Gina!’ Hannah hissed.

Gina shrugged. ‘Everyone’s got one.’

‘I don’t know,’ the man said. ‘I suppose I must have had one but I don’t have it now.’

‘Have you been mugged?’ Hannah asked him gently. ‘Jess, run and put the kettle on, will you?’ She turned to the man again as Jess handed her mother the stone elephant with a pointed look and a little mime to indicate that she should clobber him at the first sign of trouble. ‘I bet you’d like a drink to warm you up, you look frozen to the bone,’ Hannah continued.

‘I… I don’t know. I think it would be good, yeah.’

‘How did you injure your head?’ Hannah bent to take a closer look. ‘It might need stitches.’

‘I don’t know,’ the man said. It seemed as if the idea pained him more than just the physical injury. Hannah had the sudden, inexplicable feeling that he wasn’t even trying to recall the event, like he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

‘We should call you an ambulance.’ Gina looked to Hannah for agreement.

‘They won’t come out in this weather on Christmas Day for a cut on the head,’ Hannah replied.

‘Yes they will. Head injuries can be fatal.’ Gina glanced at the man. ‘Sorry… I didn’t mean to freak you out.’

Hannah turned to the man again. ‘Is there someone we can call for you? Anyone who can come and get you?’

He screwed up his eyes, as if reaching for a thought that wouldn’t quite stick.

They were interrupted by Jess coming back with her mobile phone. She handed it to the man. ‘Here,’ she said. ‘You can use mine.’

He took it from her, and then stared at it.

‘Can’t you remember the number?’ Jess asked.

‘I can’t even remember who I’m supposed to be ringing,’ he said in a dull voice.

‘But you must have someone,’ Hannah said gently. She gave him another swift appraisal. Apart from his injury, and the fact that he was massively ill-equipped to be wandering around in the snow, he definitely looked as if he had someone. If he didn’t, then tramps were a lot more upmarket these days than they used to be. His clothes looked well made – the shirt sporting the little Ralph Lauren logo – his hair was expensively cut and he was well-built, like he was no stranger to the gym. Under different circumstances, he had dark eyes that would have sucked Hannah in like quicksand, the sort of eyes that had often been her undoing over the years. There was no way this man was some directionless hobo. He had a family, or at the very least a partner and a comfortable home somewhere – she was sure of it. ‘Where do you live?’ she added in an attempt to prompt him.

‘I’m not sure.’

‘You’re not sure?’ Gina asked, curiosity now getting the better of her fear and suspicion. The stone elephant that she had been holding in a defensive pose was now hanging at her side. ‘Your accent is local.’

‘Is it?’ he asked, frowning.

Hannah threw a worried glance at her sister. ‘Perhaps we’d better call that ambulance.’

‘Could I trouble you for some cotton wool or tissue or something?’ the man asked. ‘I seem to be bleeding all over your sitting room.’

‘That’s alright, I don’t use it very often,’ Hannah said cheerfully. ‘I’m usually in the little back room or in the kitchen; far cosier in this weather.’ She turned to Jess. ‘There’s a first-aid kit in the bathroom cupboard. Not a lot of first aid in it, to be honest, but there will be some bandages and plasters. Would you pop and get it?’

Jess nodded and ran off.

‘I’ll call that ambulance,’ Gina said, making her way towards the sitting room door. She seemed to have decided that the man was harmless after all, gesturing to Hannah as she did. ‘Can I have a quiet word?’

‘I’ll be back in a second,’ Hannah told the man. ‘What’s up?’ she asked her sister as they left him.

‘Do you think we ought to call the police too?’

‘You’re not still convinced he’s dodgy are you?’

‘No… not that. I think he’s lost his memory and there might be a family out there going out of their mind with worry. At least if the police know he’s here there’s more of a chance they can reunite them.’

Hannah was thoughtful for a second. ‘You’re right. Ambulance first, police after. I’ll go and talk to him some more first, make sure he has actually lost his memory. He could just be confused right now from his clunk on the head, but with a cup of tea and a warm up he might remember it all.’

‘And that’s another thing… why on earth would he be out in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm on Christmas Day in just his slippers and a shirt? It’s all very weird if you ask me. And he hasn’t got a phone. Who goes out without their phone these days?’

‘Me,’ Hannah smiled.

‘Apart from you and we all know you’re a bit cuckoo,’ Gina said.

‘I think you’ll find lots of people do. We don’t all want to be contactable all the time.’

‘Ask him if he has a wallet on him. He may have some ID in there.’

‘Good idea,’ Hannah agreed. ‘You get the ambulance and I’ll go and see what I can find out.’

Jess arrived with a green plastic box. ‘This gets a lot of use,’ she said wryly as she indicated the thick layer of dust.

‘As there’s just me living here, I try not to get injured if I can help it,’ Hannah smiled. ‘It’s a bit awkward trying to tourniquet yourself.’

Jess thrust the box at her. ‘Go to it, Florence. Go and patch up our random guest who you obviously fancy.’

‘How on earth do you come to that conclusion?’ Hannah asked, taking the box from her.

‘Firstly, you haven’t kicked the weirdo back out into the snow where he obviously belongs and secondly, you’ve been gooey-eyed ever since he arrived.’

‘If gooey-eyed means I’ve been showing concern, then guilty as charged. He clearly has someone out there who’s missing him. I only want to help him get back to them.’

‘What about our dinner?’ Jess said.

Hannah clapped a hand to her head. ‘Shit! I forgot about that!’

Jess rolled her eyes. ‘I’ll go and get the turkey out and I’ll turn the veggies off for a while.’

‘Be careful!’ Gina called after her.

‘I’m not ten!’ Jess shouted behind her.

‘No, but you act like it sometimes,’ Gina muttered.

‘We’d better get back to our mystery man,’ Hannah said. Wiping the dust from the first-aid box with the hem of her apron, she made her way back to the sitting room with Gina following. Hannah turned to her. ‘I thought you were going to call the ambulance?’

‘I am, just as soon as I check that he’s not putting all this on and lying in wait for us with a huge axe.’

‘I really don’t think so. He’s a bloody good actor if he is.’

The man hadn’t moved. He looked as if he had spent the whole time staring into space, and he glanced up vaguely at the entrance of the two women.

‘Are you feeling sick?’ Hannah asked as she opened the box and produced a roll of bandage.

‘No,’ he replied.

‘Dizzy? Like you want to go to sleep?’

‘Not really.’

‘How many fingers am I holding up?’ Hannah asked.

‘Three.’

‘Why do people do that?’ Gina asked.

‘What?’

‘The finger question.’

Hannah shrugged. ‘I have no idea. I just know that you’re supposed to ask.’

‘Cortical blindness,’ the man said.

Hannah and Gina both turned sharply to him.

‘What did you say?’ Hannah asked.

‘Cortical blindness,’ he repeated.

‘What’s that?’ Hannah asked.

‘It’s a rudimentary diagnostic test to assess whether someone is suffering from it.’

‘How do you know that? Are you a doctor?’

He shrugged.

‘You’re not a doctor?’ Gina asked.

He shrugged again. ‘I don’t know.’

‘What’s your name?’ Hannah gave him a gauze pad and indicated that he should press it against his head wound.

‘I don’t know,’ he replied simply. He didn’t seem distressed about this, just vaguely irritated, as if he had left his umbrella on the bus.

‘You don’t have any ideas at all?’

‘I’m afraid not.’

‘Do you have a wallet or something in your pocket?’ Gina asked. ‘Anything that might have some ID in it?’

While Hannah wrapped a bandage around his head to hold the pad in place, the man felt in his trouser pockets. ‘I don’t seem to have,’ he said apologetically.

‘Not even a set of keys?’ Gina pressed.

‘Sorry…’ he said. ‘Nothing in my pockets at all.’

‘Did you drive here?’

‘I don’t think so. I feel as if I’ve been walking for ages.’

Hannah tied a knot in the bandage and studied him thoughtfully. In different circumstances she would have burst out laughing at her nursing handiwork. The man now looked like a war casualty from a black and white film. She was quite sure the professionals would have far more sophisticated methods of treating his wound but hers would have to do for now. ‘So you’re out in the snow in quite a cut off area – at least, a good hour’s walk from the nearest town – and you have no coat, no sensible shoes, no keys, no phone and no wallet. Don’t you think that’s odd to begin with, even if you didn’t have this head injury?’

‘I suppose it is,’ he said.

‘Oh!’ Gina squeaked. ‘Perhaps you were mugged and dumped out here to die!’

‘He was mugged?’ Hannah asked with a wry smile. ‘So that means he must have been out in the snow in his slippers in the first place for a mugger to find him.’

‘Maybe they broke into his house and dragged him out. Maybe they’re holding the rest of the family hostage!’

At this, the man looked properly alarmed for the first time.

‘I don’t think you need to worry,’ Hannah said, doing her best to reassure him and shooting her sister a warning look. ‘It might happen to Liam Neeson or Tom Cruise, but those sorts of things usually only happen in films. I’ve never heard of it on Holly Way.’

‘Holly Way?’ the man asked. ‘Is that where I am?’

‘Yes. Does it ring a bell with you?’ Hannah asked.

‘I’m not sure… yes, maybe.’

‘It could be because it’s Christmas,’ Gina said. ‘Holly and mistletoe and all that.’

‘Oh… probably,’ the man said, the hope wiped from his expression again. ‘It’s Christmas, then?’

‘Christmas Day. We did just say that,’ Gina replied.

‘So you did,’ the man said quietly. ‘Sorry.’

‘Stop being sorry,’ Hannah said. ‘You’re sure you don’t have a clue about your name?’

‘Tom!’ Everyone turned to see that Jess had returned.

‘Tom?’ Gina asked. ‘How do you know that?’

‘I don’t,’ Jess said. ‘But he looks like a Tom to me and we have to call him something.’

‘He
is
here, you know,’ Hannah said, frowning.

‘Sorry, Tom,’ Jess said with a sheepish grin.

The man smiled. It was a lot brighter than it had been. ‘That’s alright. I don’t mind if you call me Tom.’