My stomach did a weird swirly thing and I tried again not to throw up. I took a deep breath, steadying myself against the outside wall of the hospital. "I'm sure."
"Well, is there anything else I can do?"
"Yes. Go out and buy the damned hat." I knew it was a ridiculous thought, but I figured if mum bought the hat, then Brad would be okay.
Ridiculous or not, that was the thought I was clinging to.
I sat next to Hacker in the waiting room, jiggling my leg up and down. The clock ticked away on the wall at what felt like a snail's pace.
"I've been trying to get hold of Tia to tell her, but she's on her lunch break and not answering her phone," Hacker said.
"It's okay. If you get hold of her, tell her not to come. There's nothing she can do and it's no fun sitting around hospitals, waiting for news."
"Do you want some coffee?" Hacker asked, his panicked face mirroring how I felt.
I shook my head. "What's taking them so long?" I looked at the clock again for the gazillionth time. Only an hour had passed, but it felt like a hundred.
Hacker threw his arm around my shoulder. "He'll be okay. Brad's the toughest guy I know."
I rested my head on him. "Of course. Of course he's going to be okay," I said with more confidence than I actually felt. "I think it was that bloody voodoo doll that cursed him."
I felt Hacker stiffen at the mention of voodoo. "I told you this stuff wasn't to be messed with."
"I was trying to find Chantal. Who knew it would all lead to this?" I sniffed.
"I'm not blaming you. This isn't your fault."
I pulled away, looking him straight in the eyes. "Hacker, can't you do some good voodoo to counteract the curse?"
"A healing spell?"
I nodded, biting my lip. "Why not? You can do healing reiki, so you're the perfect person, and you know how to do voodoo spells, don't you?" So what if I was always taking the piss out of Tia and her spells? So what if I didn't believe in all the hocus-pocus, heebie-jeebie shit? If ever there was a time to try it, it was now.
"Yes, I know how to do it." Hacker nodded. "But if Marie really has cursed him, then my spells probably won't be strong enough to counteract hers."
I gripped his arm tightly. "Please. Just do it. We have to at least try."
"I'll need some of his hair, and I need to go home to make a voodoo doll to transfer the healing power to in a specific ritual."
I rummaged around in my pocket. "Here's my key. You can get some hair from his comb."
"Don't you want me to stay with you?"
"No." I pulled him to his feet. "This is more important. Go." I pushed him toward the door.
"I'll be back as soon as I've done it."
I nodded and slumped down on the chair again, gnawing on my thumbnail and watching the hands of the clock tick around with intolerable slowness.
Two hours later, the young doctor came into the waiting room.
I leaped up. "How is he? What's happening?"
A frown crinkled his brow.
Uh-oh. That can't be a good sign.
"We've performed some tests and they've confirmed he has got bacterial meningitis. We're administering high doses of antibiotics and fluids." He paused, looking uncomfortable.
"What? Just tell me."
"He has a lot of swelling in his brain tissue so we're also administering some steroids and other drugs to counteract the inflammation. At the moment he's still unconscious and his blood pressure is quite low. We're monitoring him constantly."
"But he will recover, won't he?"
Another pause.
Stop fucking pausing and spit it out!
"Meningitis can cause complications such as hearing loss, brain damage, paralysis, blindness, and…even death."
I gasped. My hands flew to my mouth.
No, no, no. This can't be happening.
My mind jumped around all over the place, imagining the worst.
"It's too early to tell if he will have any long-term effects from it, but you got him here in time. You may just have saved his life." He patted my arm. "We're doing everything we can."
"Can I see him?"
He nodded. "He's in the intensive-care unit on the second floor."
I didn't have time to wait for the lifts, so I ignored them and ran up the stairs. Through a glass window I saw him in one of the rooms, hooked up to all sorts of equipment, drips going into his arms.
I stifled a sob in the back of my throat and raised my hand to the glass.
A nurse came up behind me. "It's okay, love, you can go in. He's only allowed two visitors at a time, though."
I nodded dumbly and opened the door.
Sitting on the bed next to him, I gripped his hand. It felt lifeless and cold. "You're going to be fine, Brad." If I kept repeating it, maybe I'd believe it. And maybe he would, too, in the depths of his unconsciousness.
I stroked his face as the tears snaked down my cheeks, and listened to the
beep, beep, beep
of the monitors echoing in the room.
Hours passed with nurses coming and going, taking his temperature and recording his blood pressure, adjusting his drips, adding more medication, but he didn't wake up. I kept my vigil on the bed. Somehow, I knew he could feel me there.
A tapping on the glass window caught my attention. I turned to see Mum and Dad waiting outside. Kissing Brad's hand, I said. "I'll be back in a minute."
Mum enveloped me in a hug as Dad stroked my hair.
"How is he, honey?" Mum asked.
"It's too soon to tell. Oh, God, what if he doesn't get better?" I clutched her arm.
"Ssshhhh," she whispered into my neck. "He's got a fighting spirit."
"Of course he'll get better," Dad said softly. "I'm not missing out on the wedding, not now your mother's finally bought the damned hat she's been raving on about for months."
I managed a slight smile at that. I had to think positively.
"But the doctor said there might be some complications." I turned to look back at Brad, dread seeping through my veins.
"Do you want us to stay?" Dad asked.
I shook my head. "No. I'd rather be alone with him. And there's no point in you both sitting here doing nothing. I'll phone you if anything changes."
Mum gave me a quick squeeze. "Everything will be okay. I'm sure of it."
"If you need anything, just call us," Dad said.
I waved them goodbye and went back in the room.
At some point, I must've fallen asleep. I woke with a start when Hacker entered the room.
I rubbed my swollen eyes and leaned forward, hoping that his spell had miraculously worked and Brad would be awake and talking.
No such luck.
"Did you do the spell?" I asked Hacker.
He slumped down in a chair on the opposite side of Brad's bed, nodding. "I fed Marmalade while I was at your house, too."
"Thanks. So how long do they take to work?"
Hacker shook his head, staring at his best friend. "Impossible to tell. Sometimes they work straight away, sometimes it takes a few days."
What if Brad didn't have a few days?
"If the black magic is too strong, sometimes they won't work at all." He gave me a solemn look.
I choked on a new wave of panic.
A nurse came into the room and hooked up another packet of drugs to the IV. "You may as well go home and get some rest. We'll phone you the minute he wakes up."
I shook my head. "I'm not leaving."
She gave me a smile. "Of course. It's your choice." And she slipped out the door.
I glanced at Hacker. "You don't have to stay."
"I'm not leaving either."
A few hours later, I stood up and stretched, pacing the tiny room like a caged lion, gnawing on my thumbnail again so much I made it bleed.
"You're making me dizzy," Hacker said after a while.
"I need something to concentrate on to stop me worrying. Can you get your laptop?"
"Sure."
"Dad gave me a CD of some CCTV footage that shows Steven meeting Chantal on the day she disappeared. It's in my rucksack at home. Can you bring them both here so we can check them out?"
He stood up and hugged me. "If there's any news, call me."
"Will do."
"Want me to get you something to eat?"
"No. I'm not hungry."
He pulled back. "But bad news always makes you hungry."
"I know. Maybe it's just other people's bad news that makes me hungry. Right now my throat's so tight I couldn't even swallow a wafer-thin mint."
"Okay. I'll be back soon."
After he'd left I thought about the case, not taking my eyes off Brad for a second in case he stirred. I had a hunch about where Chantal was, but I needed to see the CD first.
An hour later, my hunch was confirmed.
Hacker and I watched the CD on his laptop as Brad's monitors continued to beep around us. It showed Chantal arriving on foot at the Burger Land car park at seven p.m. on the day she disappeared. She hastily made her way to the rear where the bins were stored and where Pink Hair had gone for her smoke break. Chantal was nervous, her eyes constantly darting around. Ten minutes after she arrived, Steven exited the building from the rear entrance and met her. They had an animated conversation, Chantal's arms flying around, Steven trying to calm her down. Then he handed her something and she kissed him on the cheek. Steven stood watching her with worry as she got into a Ford Focus parked in the spot reserved for the manager and drove off.
I thought back to Steven's words in the confessional box:
What if I did it for her own good?
He was doing something he thought would protect her—providing her with a vehicle to run away with.
"Chantal's car was parked in the train station car park in a blind spot from the CCTV cameras," I said. "I think she did that deliberately. She knew where those cameras were, and she wanted it to look like her car had been abandoned there."
"So then she walks to meet Steven and borrows his car."
"She wanted to disappear without a trace. She knew that Andrew Scott and his cronies at Holbrook would be after her because she'd worked out what was going on with the transplants. She panicked and took off. That's what Steven was lying about when I spoke to him. He was involved in her disappearance by helping to protect her, not by doing something to hurt her."
"So where is she?" Hacker asked.
I had a mental eureka moment. "I've got a good idea." I glanced at Brad, who was still unconscious, and chewed on my bottom lip to give my thumb a rest.
"Go." Hacker rubbed my arm. "I'll be here. If he wakes up, I'll phone you."
"But I want to be the first person he sees when he wakes up."
"But you also need to find Chantal and make sure she's okay."
I was torn. Hacker was right—I couldn't do anything for Brad at that moment. I'd been trying really hard to hold it together, but if I stayed there, I might end up falling apart, and that wouldn't be any good for anyone. Someone needed to find Chantal before Andrew worked out where she was and caught up with her, and I needed to channel my energy into not thinking about the possibility that Brad might never regain consciousness.
I stood up. "Okay, but promise me you'll call the minute there's any change."
"Guaranteed."
I hugged Hacker and rushed out of the hospital, dialing Steven's number.
"Hello?" he answered.
"Steven, it's Amber Fox."
"Look, I've told you everything I know. I haven't got—"
"She's in danger," I said. "I know she took your car to try and disappear to a safe place."
He paused for a second. "How did you know?"
"I saw the CCTV camera recording from Burger Land car park."
"I was just trying to help her," he wailed down the phone. "She said if anyone found out where she was they'd kill her."
"She's at Liza's parents' house in Dorset, isn't she?"
"How did you know?"
"It's somewhere she feels safe. A place probably not many people know about."
"Yes," he said. "Please bring her back safe and well."
"That's my plan." I hung up and dialed Romeo as I walked to the Toyota.
The phone rang for a while and then his sleepy voice picked up. "Amber?"
"Sorry, did I wake you up?" I glanced at my watch. Eleven forty-five p.m.
"Who is it?" a female voice said in the background.
I wanted to feel jealous but I didn't. Romeo was getting on with his life just like he needed to. I was happy for him. My future was in a hospital bed, fighting for his life.
"It's nearly midnight," he said to me.
"I think I know where Chantal is and I need your help." I filled him in on everything I'd discovered about the Holbrook Clinic. "Chantal's hiding out at Liza's parents' house in Dorset. Can you get in touch with the local police and get them to check out the address?" I gave him Steven's vehicle details, praying that they'd find her alive and out of harm's reach. The other more chilling possibility was that Andrew and his gang had found her before she'd managed to get away. "And you need to get a warrant and do a raid on the Holbrook clinic. There could still be women there that they're keeping alive for these transplants. Hacker printed off the evidence from their patient and financial records."
I heard rustling and his voice was now alert. "Organ trafficking? That's unbelievable."
"Isn't it just? It's a massive business."
"I'll meet you at Hi-Tec in half an hour. Give me the address of Liza's parents."
I told him and hung up, then beeped my key fob to unlock the Toyota door.
That was when I had a cramping pain in my back and the whole world turned black.
My brain was alert before the rest of my body. When I woke up, I knew I was lying on something cold and hard, like concrete or brick, but my eyes felt heavy, struggling to open. My throat was parched, and my whole body was weak and achy, like I'd just come down with a bumper flu bug.
When I managed to get my eyes open, a feeling of pure dread turned my stomach over.