Authors: Colum Sanson-Regan
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lucy gets close to Kayleigh, blowing on her neck, taking her shirt off. She says,
Close your eyes,
as she runs her fingers through her hair and pulls her hands up above her head. She touches her neck.
Kayleigh has never felt anything like it. She has never felt a touch so soft yet charged with electricity. She feels the touch of Lucy’s fingers on her back and it draws a current of sensation which runs across her skin like a gust of wind on the barley tops in the sunshine. Lucy’s touch is accessing channels of colour which run just below the surface of her skin, and until now have been dormant.
“Now you touch me,” Lucy says.
Kayleigh opens her eyes. The colours in the apartment are alive, they pulse and radiate an essence which expands beyond the boundaries of the objects. The air feels alive, and when she breathes in it feels like breathing in life itself, and there in the middle of her vision is the beautiful Lucy, like a sensuous angel, peeling off her clothes as if they are layers of skin, and she is luminous, glowing from within. Kayleigh starts to touch her, gently running her fingers all over her body. Lucy’s eyes close, and Kayleigh sees that they have stepped somewhere together. Lucy is the most beautiful thing Kayleigh has ever seen. Kayleigh has lost track of what time it is. She hears a noise on top of the music and realises that she has started talking. She is stringing words together, talking incessantly without pause.
“… And hasn’t this song been on before? Oh, my god, look at your eyes, Lucy, are mine the same? I’m going to have to look, my god, I feel my heart racing but it’s okay isn’t it? It’s just the drug, oh, I’ve got to move, come on let’s dance. I’ve never felt so, so, I can still taste the coffee, oh shall we have some more, or make it just so that we can smell it, I’ve never felt so, oh I’d love to smell the coffee again.…”
When Spike gets there he knocks but there is no answer. He can hear the music coming from inside. He opens the door and walks in on Lucy and Kayleigh undressed except for their panties with their arms around each other, moving slowly to the music, eyes closed, oblivious to his presence in the room.
At that moment his phone rings. Lucy and Kayleigh both turn their heads and look his way. They look like zombies, their pupils dilated so much that their eyes are black. They start to laugh and say his name, and he looks to see who the caller is. It’s Gregor.
Kayleigh is saying,
Oh, my god, you’ve been gone for so long,
and moves toward him with her arms outstretched. Their movements are slow, as if they are underwater. He crosses the room past the two of them to turn the volume of the music down. The ringing stops.
He says, “Kayleigh, what have you taken?”
She is hugging Lucy again. Lucy has her eyes closed and a great big smile across her face.
“She had some pills.”
Spike feels the vibration of the phone in his hand before the ringtone starts again. He backs out of the apartment and closes the door before answering it.
“Hey, Gregor.”
“Is Lucy ready for me to pick up?”
“No, no. It’s a bad time now.”
“Bad time. How is it a bad time?”
“She and Kayleigh are pretty smashed. I’d leave it a few hours if you wanted to get any sense out of her.”
“Drinking?”
“Yes, I think so, I just got here. Maybe some pills.”
“Pills? You let Lucy take pills?”
“I didn’t think Kayleigh had anything, she doesn’t usually unless I get them for her. I just got here, Gregor, and they’re smashed already.”
“Where have you been?”
“Trailing. Trailing Ali.”
“And?”
“He went to the docklands, hooked up with some guy I’ve never seen before, went in to the old—”
“Fishery.”
“Yeah. What’s that about?”
“That’s the new location for the deal.”
“Again? You changed again? And you had Ali check it? When you don’t trust him?”
“I’m coming to get Lucy.”
“Gregor, seriously you won’t like what you find, give her a few hours to come round. Even wait till tomorrow. They look pretty off it.”
Spike hears squeals of excitement and the music starts up again from behind the door.
“Where are you?” Gregor asks.
“I’ll bring her to you.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at Kayleigh’s. Please don’t come here, Gregor. I’ll bring her to you.”
“Okay. Call me when you are going to bring her.”
“Thank you.”
“How about Ali? Before that meeting? Where was he then? Who was he with?”
“He was in his office, he was alone. He spent a lot of time on the phone, but that’s it. When he went to the location he was with a small bald man.”
“That’s alright, he’s a member of the development company. I arranged that. Someone’s letting light in, Spike. Just make sure that Lucy is alright, and get her back to me. Don’t let her take anything else.”
“I don’t even know what it is she’s taken.”
“Just take care of her.”
Gregor hangs up. Spike puts the phone back in his pocket. He stands for a moment then turns and goes back into the apartment. When he opens the door the music rushes out at him, past him, and down the corridor. Lucy and Kayleigh are swaying in the kitchen.
* * *
Sitting in his car in the street below the student apartments, Henry leans his seat back and lights a cigarette as he puts the earpiece in and switches on the bug. There is music playing, music for a nightclub, big beats and throbbing bass lines. Then a door closes and the music decreases in volume. He hears Scorpion’s voice.
“So what is it you’ve taken?”
Kayleigh and Lucy giggle and laugh. Lucy says, “They were in a bag, a bag in the cupboard.”
“You’ve been in my bag? Kayleigh, I told you not to touch that. What the fuck were you doing going into my bag? That stuff’s not even mine.”
Kayleigh says, “Oh, babe, you should have one, they’re amazing. C’mon take one.”
Lucy joins in, “Spike, you really are so huge, I didn’t see it before.…”
“Do you know what it is you’ve taken?”
“It’s fucking amazing whatever it is.”
Lucy and Kayleigh start laughing again.
Henry gets out of his car and walks across the road to the apartments opposite. He passes Scorpion’s big black four-by-four. The door of the apartment block is open again. He throws his cigarette down and goes in. As he walks up the stairs the conversation continues.
“That stuff isn’t even on the streets yet. How many did you take?”
“One.”
“Just one.”
“Well I’m taking the rest out of here.”
“What? You’re going to go? Babe, stay and get high with us.”
“No, I’m going to leave you girls to it.”
“No, stay, it’s amazing.”
Lucy says, “We could have some fun, the three of us. Come on, just take your jacket off and …”
When Henry reaches the same spot as he did before, he looks across into the corridor. The curtains are open and he sees Lucy’s naked back, swaying. Scorpion passes her with a hold-all under his arm. Kayleigh, topless, follows him past the window toward the door.
“Stay with us,” she says again. “C’mon, it’ll be amazing. I’ve never felt anything like it. Why are you going through my bag?”
Lucy goes away from the window and toward the mirror. Scorpion is saying something about getting the keys and phone while Henry hears Lucy’s voice loud as she talks into the mirror, “Holy shit my eyes. I’ve never seen that before. My eyes, my eyes.” Scorpion is telling Kayleigh that they can’t go outside, for their own safety and he’s taking the keys to make sure they don’t. Lucy walks away from the mirror, passing the window again, and turns the volume of the music back up, louder than it was before. Now the door opens and Scorpion is in the hallway talking to Kayleigh. He has the hold-all over his shoulder. Henry can just about hear what he’s saying.
“Call me, call me if you need anything or if anything happens. Make sure Lucy knows where your phone is, I’ve put it on the table. Just call me. I’m locking the door so don’t try and go out. You’re going to be up for a few more hours yet. If you need anything call me, okay? I don’t want you to go outside, so if you need anything call me, you got it?”
Kayleigh steps out of the doorway into the hallway. Henry sees her thin body, her long dark hair cascading down her naked back as she reaches up to Scorpion. He leans down and takes her in his big arms and they embrace and kiss. It’s a deep passionate kiss. She says something to him and he nods and says something back to her. Henry can’t hear, but it is one word and looks like, “Always.” They embrace again and he cups her buttocks in his big hands and squeezes. She puts her hand on his groin and rubs.
In the apartment Lucy is at the window about to draw the curtains. She is looking straight at Henry. At that same moment, Scorpion lifts his head from Kayleigh’s dark hair and looks across, too. In that moment Henry is seen, through two windows, by both of them. He turns around and walks up the next flight of stairs. When he looks again the curtains are drawn and Scorpion is locking the door. He turns around and starts down the stairs.
When he gets to the street he sees Scorpion’s car and walks the opposite way. He comes to an iron fence beyond which is the university grounds. He has to turn around and walk back past the black four-by-four. He doesn’t look in to see if Scorpion is in it. He gets in his car and takes off as quick as he can. He keeps an eye on his rear view mirror and switches on his tracker. Scorpion is stationary, still outside the university building.
* * *
Henry drives back into the city through the centre and to the river. At the junction at the river he goes straight across the bridge and heads down to the old docks. On one side the water pushes and rolls, on the other all of the abandoned buildings stand silently; the boarded up doorways, bare roofs with exposed beams like broken bones. He drives past dock yards with great rusting hulks of machinery standing like fossils. He passes an old church with graffiti on its walls—
God sucks my cock
.
The sky is darkening, the night coming in and the decaying silhouettes loom with an ancient malign intent. Out here in the rubble of the docklands, there is one bar which stands alone in this abandoned landscape. Its permanently drunken landlord is oblivious to the apocalypse around him. The Bucket O’ Blood. It’s displaced, out of time, isolated. Its yellow light shines out through dirty windows across the desolate concrete ruin beckoning souls to step across the threshold, keeping its long held promise of a place to find intoxication, a place beyond the reach of the everyday life. Henry orders a drink. He rings Maya.
“Two days’ work, that’s all you owe me.”
“What do you mean? What did you see?”
“You’re right, he’s in another relationship.”
The landlord, red-eyed and drunkenly licking his lips and chewing on air, puts a large whiskey in front of him.
“With who? Did you see? With who?”
“With your daughter.”
“Kayleigh?”
“Your daughter, Kayleigh.”
The silence he expected goes on longer than he thought it would. He has time to sit down at a table facing the door and take two mouthfuls of whiskey. He can feel the cold spreading from the phone. She must want to die.
“Are you still there?”
“Are you sure?”
“I followed him. He went to her flat, near the university, and when he came out, they, well, they kissed.”
“You saw them kiss?”
“Yes. It was a lover’s kiss.”
Henry sees the doorway darken. A huge figure comes through. It’s Scorpion.
“I’ve got to go.”
Henry hangs up and puts the phone in his pocket. He swigs down his whiskey and goes to stand up.
Scorpion steps in front of him and puts a big hand on his shoulder and says quietly and firmly, almost politely, “Sit down.” Henry sits down. Scorpion sits opposite him. This close he can see Scorpion’s muscles bulging beneath his shirt, he can see just how wide his shoulders are. Henry feels light and two dimensional in front of such mass.
“Who are you working for?”
“Hey, I’m not interested in what you do.”
“Then why did you follow me, who do you work for? Has Gregor sent you to keep an eye on me? You had a tracker on my car. What else have you done?”
Scorpion leans across so that his face is right next to Henry’s face. Henry’s heart starts to pump and he feels shivers run up his back as he feels the heat of breath on his cheek and the latent power in the huge muscular frame close to him. The giant is brimming with violence, the sinews in his neck are taut, the scorpion on his neck is pulsing.
“One last time,” he says slowly, “one last time before I take you outside and rip you apart piece by fucking piece. Who do you work for?”
“Well, at the moment, I am working for your wife.”
Scorpion leans back as if dodging a punch and looks at Henry in shock for a moment. He joins his hands together and puts the tips of his fingers to his lips. He knows what’s going on.
“Was that her on the phone?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her already?”
“Yes.”
Scorpion lets his head slip down into his hands. His shoulders slump and he sinks lower, as if he has been punctured. Henry’s heart settles down, but he can still feel adrenaline in his veins. He glances around. The only exit he can see is past Scorpion, and from where he is sitting there is not a clear view of the rest of the bar; it is obscured by a wooden panel and the massive bulk in front of him. The massive bulk which seems to be losing its form. He turns his empty glass in his hand.
“Do you want a drink? Because I’m going to have another.”
“Do you know what she’s going to do?”
“No, she just asked me to find out who you are sleeping with.”
“And now she knows.”
“And now she knows.”
Henry waves his empty glass at the barman.
“Another double whiskey and…?”
“Make that two.”
“Listen, I’m just an investigator. I just gather information and present it. I don’t do hits, I don’t do intervention. I don’t care what you do, or what your job is. I had to find out one thing. Your wife wanted to know the truth, so she called me. That’s it. My job’s over now.”