Lola gave a scornful smile. ‘Aren’t you going to answer it?’
I took the phone from my jacket pocket. Whelan. He must have got my text, but I couldn’t speak to him now. I cancelled the call, switching my phone on to silent before putting it away.
‘Don’t you want to talk to them?’ she mocked.
‘It can wait.’
Lola continued to stare at me with that knowing smile. I felt a sudden unease, some instinct urging Get out, now. But that was ridiculous. She was an old woman. And this had gone on long enough.
‘Who was in the bed, Lola?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘It wasn’t Gary, was it?’
She glared at me, and again I felt that touch of disquiet. ‘Think you know it all, don’t you?’
No, I didn’t. But I was beginning to guess at some of it.
‘Gary’s dead, isn’t he?’ I said quietly.
Her composure cracked. Her mouth quivered as her eyes went to the photographs of her son on the cabinet. A tear ran down a wrinkled cheek, joined by one on the other side.
‘He was my boy,’ she whispered, her voice broken and hoarse. ‘My lovely boy.’
Despite myself, I felt sorry for her. ‘I know you want to protect him, but you can’t. Not any more,’ I told her gently. ‘It’s over.’
‘Over?’ She spat the word. ‘You think it’s ever going to be over? My Gary’s gone! All because of them… them three scum! They weren’t fit to lick his boots!’
She dashed the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. I’d heard enough. Sickened and weary, I reached for my phone.
‘I’m going to call the police now, Lola. You need to tell them what Gary did.’
‘What he did?’ Her mouth curled in a sneer. She came towards me, still clutching the newspaper. ‘I told you before, my Gary was a good boy. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
She suddenly lunged, thrusting out the newspaper. I dodged back but the bed was behind me. As I stumbled against it the newspaper fell away to reveal a long, black tube. I tried to knock it away but the blunt end glanced off my chest. Agony seared through me.
And I stopped breathing.
Chapter 31
The pain was worse than anything I’d known. The world seemed to white out in a bright flash as every nerve in my body screamed. I fell on to the bed, my muscles locked in spasm. There was a coppery taste of blood in my mouth. I could feel my heart stuttering, feel my lungs bursting with the need for oxygen. Then my chest heaved and I could breathe again.
Jesus Christ, I thought, trying to gasp in air, Jesus Christ, what just happened?
Someone was moving nearby. Heavy, shuffling footsteps. There was the scrape of a chair being drawn up, then Lola sat down with a grunt and picked up a mug from the table. When did she make that? Had I blacked out? I’d no idea. Lola took a noisy drink before lowering it with a sigh.
She looked down at me and smiled.
‘Not so clever now, are you?’
My thoughts were muzzy, like thinking through a fog. I still couldn’t move. There was still pain but it was somehow distant, as though I were anaesthetized at the same time.
The old woman took another drink of tea and smacked her lips appreciatively. She reached for something on the table. I wanted to shrink away when I saw it was the black tube, but I was unable to move. There were thick wires at the end she was holding, while protruding from the other were two stubby metal prongs.
She held it up to show me.
‘About the only useful thing my husband left me, this. Brought it back with him from South America. Like a cattle prod, only stronger. The police there would charge them up and then…’
She made a jabbing motion towards me, stopping short with a grin. I would have yelled, but I couldn’t even do that. I could only lie there, paralysed.
‘Hurts, don’t it? He tried it on me once when he was drunk. Just that once.’
Her grin had gone. She laid the thing across her lap, the end with the two stubby prongs pointed at me.
‘I stuck him with it after he knocked Gary’s teeth out. How do you like that? I said. Pissed and shat himself like a baby, he did.’ She looked down at me as though to check. Her mouth turned down with disappointment. ‘Didn’t expect it to kill him, but served him right.’
Sensations were beginning to return. I could feel the lumpy bed under me, smell its sour, unclean odour. I hurt all over but the sharpest pain was on my ribs, where the thing had touched me. A bright, hot burning. You’ve been shocked, I thought, dazedly. She gave you an electric shock. A bad one.
‘My Gary was upset at first, but he was a good boy,’ Lola was saying. ‘Always did as he was told. It’ll be better now, I said, you’ll see. Just the two of us, it’ll be better. And it was. He helped me clean up, get everything tidied away in case anyone came and asked about Patrick. Nobody did, though.’
She paused to take another drink of tea. My muscles were twitching uncontrollably, agonizing shivers running through them. I still couldn’t move but my hands and feet had started tingling, a savage pins-and-needles. I told myself it was a good sign.
Above me, Lola’s voice droned on.
‘We were fine until that bastard Booth turned up.’ Her mouth curled as she glanced down at me. ‘It was him that got my Gary sacked from St Jude’s. Did you know that, Mr Smartarse? Him and them other two, Crossly and that foreign slut. Made his life a misery, they did. Always picking on him, laughing at him for being big-boned. Crossly’s girlfriend was shagging the head pharmacist, the nasty little bitch. Getting him to turn a blind eye so they could nick meds and sell them. Except they weren’t as clever as they thought, so when Security started sniffing round they hid stuff in my Gary’s locker. Made him look like a thief. The hospital must have known, but they didn’t want a scandal, did they? So my Gary got sacked while Booth and them other two bastards stood back and laughed! “Who’s been a naughty boy, then? Got caught, did you?” I’ll never forget his face when he came home that night. Like a whipped dog.’
There was a thrumming in my chest. I thought it was a muscle spasm before I realized it was my phone. I’d switched it to silent before putting it back in the breast pocket of my jacket, and its rubber case must have insulated it against the shock. I could feel it vibrate and pause, vibrate and pause, against my ribs. Whelan again? I could have wept with frustration. But even if Lola hadn’t been sitting a few feet away, I could no more move my hand to reach my phone than fly.
She hadn’t noticed. Her voice took on a crowing tone. ‘Christ, didn’t I laugh when they shut St Jude’s down a few months later! Made the whole lot of them redundant! Boot was on the other foot then, wasn’t it? My Gary had a job at the local supermarket while they were in the dole queue. See how they liked it!’
The vibrations from my phone cut off. No, don’t hang up! Distracted, it was a few seconds before I noticed that Lola’s flow of words had stopped. She was staring down at me, and I realized I’d been shifting my arm fractionally as the stunned muscles and nerves began to recover.
‘Wearing off, is it?’
Her smile was cruel. She lifted the black tube from her lap. I tried to push myself away as she leaned towards me, but my muscles wouldn’t cooperate. No! No, no –
There was a crackling SNAP as the two metal prongs jabbed into my stomach. The world whited out again as my nervous system screamed. This time I didn’t lose consciousness. I was aware all the time as my back arched, lifting me juddering off the bed on just my heels and the crown of my head.