‘Talk to him,’ said Corinne.
So Ruby did, picking up the thread and telling him about what had happened after she had lost touch with him and with Daisy. How business had become her focus in life, because her children were missing.
‘One corner shop,’ she said. ‘And I wanted to turn that into a chain…’ She talked for nearly half an hour, telling him of her life without him, how difficult it had been and how lonely and yes, now she was a rich woman, she’d worked hard to become so, but she would give it all back, every penny, trade it all in a heartbeat, to have been able to spend that time with him.
Ruby looked at his lifeless face and squeezed his hand. The tears came again, hot and hard: Corinne, in passing, patted her heaving shoulder.
‘Oh, Kit, please come back,’ sobbed Ruby. ‘Please, please don’t leave me.’
For a while there were no voices, but now the tunnel was receding, that dim distant light had winked out, and he was back again in the inky-black wasteland, the ice-cold wind lashing at his skin, bringing with it the voices, the murmuring voices that he could almost hear clearly, sometimes. He made out words now and then: corner shop. Daisy. And this was a novelty – a whole sentence: please don’t leave me.
Leave who?
Leave where?
83
Daisy and Rob arrived at the hospital that afternoon to find the usually calm Ashok looking tense and agitated.
‘What’s up?’ Rob asked the minute he saw Ashok’s face.
‘I went down to the paper shop and when I came back there was some git up here asking about Kit,’ said Ashok. ‘He was right there, at the desk. He looked like a face and I heard him trying to pass himself off as a cousin of Kit’s. I went up to him and said I didn’t know Kit had any cousins, and he laughed it off and said OK he was a friend and wanted to see him, and was there anything wrong with that, but I tell you, the instant I called him on it he backed away and vamoosed.’
‘One of Vittore’s crew?’ asked Rob.
Rob had been into Gino’s where Kit had dined on Saturday night, asked the owner who he’d been with. A pale blonde young woman in a white dress and coat, he said, and she left in a hurry, Kit going after her.
Christ, that has to be Bianca Danieri, thought Rob.
Had her brothers done this then? Shot Kit?
‘I’m certain of it,’ said Ashok. ‘He fucked right off. They’re checking it out, Rob. They’re worried Kit’s going to come round and start talking.’
‘They’re trying to get to Kit?’ asked Daisy, her voice high with anxiety. Her skin crawled at the thought.
Rob looked at Ashok. ‘Double up,’ he said. ‘Cover any breaks, however short.’
Ashok nodded.
‘Set up Fats and one of the other guys to come over. When they’re here, tell them about this geezer, make sure they know Vittore’s sniffing around. Then you go home, rest up. You done good.’
Rob and Daisy went into ICU; Ruby was still there.
‘How’s he doing?’ asked Rob.
‘He’s holding on,’ said Ruby. ‘How’s everything with you two?’
‘Oh, fine.’ Daisy sat down on the other side of Kit’s bed, took his hand in hers. His hand felt hot and spongy; not lean and muscular, not like Kit’s hand at all.
‘I’ve been thinking…’ said Daisy.
Ruby looked at her with weary, deeply shadowed eyes.
‘… Rob and I ought to carry on with what Kit was doing. Trying to find out who was behind Michael’s death.’
As Daisy said the words, Ruby thought of Thomas saying that Michael had been unfaithful to her. Unfaithful with who, though? He’d said he had no more information; it had just been word on the street. So was it even true? Or was Thomas, in his Machiavellian way, trying to destabilize her loyal attachment to Michael’s memory, to have her transfer the whole of her affection to him?
‘I can do that on my own, Daise,’ said Rob.
‘I can help,’ said Daisy.
Rob made no attempt to conceal his amusement at this.
Daisy stood up, giving Rob a look of blazing contempt. ‘I’m going to the loo,’ she said, and swept past him.
‘Don’t treat her like a joke,’ said Ruby.
‘I’m not, I-’
‘Shut your gob for a second and listen, will you? Let me tell you something you don’t know about Daisy. You’ll have heard all about her upbringing: the private girls’ schools and so on. Oh, she had a fantastic education – if all you want in life is to make cakes and arrange flowers and play the grande dame at charitable functions. But she was never encouraged to achieve anything, and she left school with no exams behind her, and a typical upper-crust life mapped out in front of her: marriage to a wealthy man, two perfect children…’
‘Well, she got the wealthy man,’ said Rob, thinking of Simon, the twat. Dead now, poor bastard, and you had to show respect, but the fact was he’d been a bumptious little arsehole and nothing could alter that. ‘And the two kids.’
‘Don’t be fooled, Rob. Daisy catches on fast, and she’s a real force to be reckoned with.’ Ruby hesitated. She thought of her daughter, who had – shockingly – shown she had a violent side, banging those two bullies’ heads together. Maybe she had more in common with her twin brother than she wanted to think. ‘She’s going crazy with nothing to do except worry over Kit and being separated from the twins. So…’
There was an awkward silence.
‘Ruby,’ said Rob at last.
‘Hm?’
‘I’m sorry, but there’s something you should know. Someone tried to get in here. Ashok thinks it was one of Vittore’s lot.’
Ruby’s eyes widened. ‘Oh God.’
Rob’s gaze shifted to Kit’s still, unresponsive face. ‘He’s got to come out of it soon.’
‘I hope,’ said Ruby.
‘The sooner we can get him moved to someplace more secure, the better.’
They fell silent as Daisy returned, tetchily yanking her cardigan back onto her shoulder. She took up her position by Kit’s bed.
Rob watched her. It was hard to believe that the voluptuous and oh-so-posh Daisy, whose clothes always seemed to be about to fall off her, who was always tripping over something like to break her bloody neck, could actually be clever. Mind you, she was Kit’s twin; and sometimes when he looked in her eyes it was as if he saw Kit staring right back at him, and that was fucking spooky. He wasn’t sure about this, especially when there was still this weird frisson of attraction between them. Daisy could prove a nuisance, an encumbrance. And there was a danger she might get far too close for comfort.
‘Daise?’ he said.
‘Hm?’ Daisy wouldn’t look him in the eye, still hurt because he’d laughed off her offer of help.
Finally she glanced at him. Big China-blue eyes, kissable mouth, corn-gold hair tumbling in disarray like she’d just fallen out of bed, and oh God, all right, he really wanted her in bed, he had to admit that. He was going to have to be very careful here.
‘Daise – here’s what’ll happen,’ said Rob. ‘You can help…’
‘Great!’
‘… but what I say goes, OK? You keep your mouth shut – or some fucker’s going to eat you whole and spit out the bits. So I do the talking, right?’
Daisy nodded. ‘Right,’ she said.
‘Long as that’s understood…’
‘Oh, it is. Absolutely.’
84
Before they left the hospital Rob made sure that Fats was in place and aware of what had happened on Ashok’s watch.
‘Nobody gets in to see him unless it’s Ruby, me or Daise, got that?’
Ruby was still in there with Kit; she never seemed to leave his side.
From the hospital, Daisy and Rob went straight to Kit’s house. Rob had a spare key, he let them in. Daisy pulled off her cardigan and dumped it on the leather couch, then said: ‘So, how was Kit getting on with this? How far had he got?’