Lynch (15 page)

‘Bit of a kafuffle in
Yorkshire
. The upshot is, the wrong man ended up taking the prescribed medication and your friend Fernandez may or may not have done a bunk.’

Silently hushing her daughter by rubbing her hand up and down her chest, María said, ‘Mr Walter, I have neither the patience for your riddles nor the inclination to decipher them.’

‘Fernandez took out the wrong person,’ Walter said. ‘Rider is still breathing and Fernandez is at large.’

‘
Madre de Dios
,’ María sighed. ‘Was your intel inaccurate?’

‘I should hardly think so,’ Walter said.

‘Did you take the address down wrong?’

With resentment, Walter said, ‘My fingers may be fat, Miss Herrera, but I’m still capable of typing.’

‘How did you learn of this discrepancy?’

‘It’s all over the news,’ Walter told her. ‘The dead guy is certainly not our man. There’s no mention of Fernandez beyond a vague description so I’m guessing he wasn’t made. But it’s likely only a matter of time.’

‘He must have been disturbed,’ María said. ‘He’s a professional. He would not allow himself to be interrupted like this.’

‘What should I do?’ Walter asked.

‘Meet me at
City
Airport
tomorrow. I’ll email you my arrival time.’

‘You’re coming over?’

‘I’ll finish this job myself,’ she said. She disconnected and placed the phone on the bedside cabinet.

‘Mama.’

‘Yes,
mi hija
. How would you like to visit your favourite nurses for a few days?’

She stood and picked up the discarded wipes and her mobile phone. Lucia sucked a fist between her already saliva-moistened lips, her gaze back in the corner of the room.

In the kitchen, after throwing the used wipes away and washing her hands, she dialled the number of the respite facility from memory, a number she had called many times over the years. Reception was staffed twenty-four hours a day. ‘This is María Castillo Herrera,’ she said. ‘My daughter, Lucia Herrera, will need a bed first thing in the morning for a number of nights. No more than three or four, I hope. I have to fly to
London
on urgent business.’

‘I’m sorry, Señora Herrera, that won’t be possible. There’s a fourteen day lead-time on bed approval and we have no available capacity.’

‘But you have to. I’m leaving the country in the morning.’

‘I wish there was something I could do to help,’ the receptionist said, ‘but unfortunately—’

‘I’ll speak to Dr Roth, then,’ María said.

‘By all means, you can try, but he’ll only tell you the same as I have. I’m very sorry.’

María hung up without another word. She had known Dr Roth for many years; he was on Ramirez’s payroll. He would see to it that Lucia be given a bed. And María would travel to
England
and put an end to whatever mess had arisen.

Chapter 18

‘How could you be so fucking stupid?’
Clark
screamed.

Scott, Jesse and John had driven home almost half an hour ago and, consequently, the tirade of expletives from
Clark
was both anticipated and expected. Scott had let Jesse fill Katherine and
Clark
in on the events of this evening before he in turn informed them all of John’s identity and his connection to their past.

‘Does the whole fucking world know who you two really are?’
Clark
asked. ‘Might as well strap a bell round your necks and stand in the middle of
Leicester Square
, shouting your names out.’

Scott slumped into an armchair in the living room and said, ‘Bumping into John was an accident—pure chance—and telling Jesse everything was the right thing to do, all things considered.’

‘All things considered?’
Clark
mocked. ‘You’ve succeeded in implicating two innocent civilians in a threat against your own life. Bravo, Kane. Well fucking done.’

Stating the obvious, Katherine said, ‘You just called him Kane.’

‘There’s hardly any point in pretending any more, is there?’
Clark
yelled. She turned and pointed a sharp finger at Scott. ‘You’ve no one to blame but yourself in this. Do you realise that because of you, your boyfriend was almost murdered tonight?’

Scott sat morose and silent.
Clark
paced up and down the small living room, the ceiling fan spinning and shaking the light fitting so that shadows whimpered. Her hands were gesticulating and her hair swinging, eyes narrow in thought. ‘The one rule I gave you—both of you,’ she said, glancing at Katherine, ‘was to keep your bloody mouths shut about who you really are. I couldn’t have made it any simpler. One rule, that’s all I gave you. It would have been easier all round if I’d let you take your chances in
Belfast
.’

Katherine set her face in steel and gripped the bulbous end of her walking cane with both hands. ‘That’s uncalled for,’ she said, her lips barely moving as she spoke.

Clark
span on her heels to face them all. ‘I’ll tell you what’s uncalled for—’ But Katherine cut her off.

‘Ann,’ she said.

‘This idiot—’

‘Ann. Enough. This is getting us nowhere.’ She stood slowly, painfully, as though the old bullet wound was back and bleeding. Scott stood to help her but she shooed him away from her. ‘We need to find out how this Spanish guy knew where Jesse lived. We need to know how to stop him if, as far as Jesse sees it, the man is likely still alive after his knock on the head. If he’s wandering the streets of
Harrogate
, he’ll no doubt be heading this way.’

Clark
rubbed her face with her hands, turned to John. ‘Who did you tell?’

‘What? No one.’ On the sofa, John stiffened in resentment. ‘I value the lives of these two greatly. I’m not stupid. Besides, I don’t even have a clue where Jesse lives. I never met him until tonight.’

‘Except at the show bar,’ Jesse said.

‘Honey,’ John told him, ‘Daphne wasn’t paying you the slightest bit of attention last night.’

‘Enough,’ Katherine said again. ‘You, put Daphne in her box and leave her there. And you,’ she said to Jesse, ‘we don’t tell tales in this house.’ She turned to
Clark
. ‘None of us tell tales. It might be the only rule you gave us, but it’s also the one rule we’ve never broken. He found Jesse some other way. Maybe he and Scott were followed.’

Scott chewed on a thumbnail and closed his eyes. ‘Could he have intercepted a phone call?’ All eyes drilled on his face. ‘I told you I bumped into Daphne—John—in town last night. But I didn’t tell you how we met up again this morning before I went to work.’ He paused, sensed that they all knew his next words before he even said them. ‘I called him. From my mobile.’ He looked apologetically at Jesse. ‘From Jesse’s house.’

‘This morning?’ Jesse asked.

‘Stupid fucking idiot,’
Clark
said.

‘I’m sorry,’ Scott told Jesse.

Clark
said, ‘Sorry doesn’t even begin to cut it.’

Scott stood. ‘I wasn’t saying sorry to you. I was talking to Jesse.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’
Clark
scoffed. ‘Why don’t I just leave the fucking room? No point in me being here anyway. Let me just pack my things and fuck off back to
London
and leave you to it.’ She stormed out of the living room and into the kitchen where they could hear her clattering around in the cupboards.

Katherine sucked her cheeks in for a moment, then said, ‘John, darling, why don’t you join me in the garden. I’d love to show you our vegetable patch.’

When they had left the house, Scott said, ‘She was never very subtle about clearing a room.’ He tried to smile.

Jesse turned and stared out of the window.

‘I’m sorry,’ Scott said. ‘This is all my fault.’

Without turning, Jesse said, ‘If you’re looking for forgiveness, I already gave it.’

‘No,’ Scott said. ‘I’m looking for understanding. You do know I have no feelings for John beyond friendship, a memory of my past?’

‘You lied to me.’

‘I did. I’m sorry.’

‘You told me you were going to work.’

‘How could I have told you the truth without you jumping to the wrong conclusion?’

Jesse turned at last and faced him. ‘Which conclusion? That maybe my boyfriend was seeing another man behind my back? Or that he was in witness protection and on the run from the bloody Spanish mafia?’

‘They’re not the mafia.’

‘That’s hardly the point,’ Jesse said. ‘The point is you lied to me. You’ve been lying to me since the day we met.’

‘You know I couldn’t tell you.’

‘What about Sylvia? Does she know?’

‘She knew about Ryan,’ Scott said, ‘but not about Kane Rider.’

‘Kane fucking Rider. I’m sick of that name already.’

‘You and me both,’ Scott said. ‘That’s not who I am any more. I’m Scott Lynch and you’re my boyfriend. None of the past matters. Kane Rider is dead.’

‘But he’s not,’ Jesse said. ‘Don’t you see? The moment some stranger kicked my door down, Kane Rider lived and breathed. Kane Rider brought him to my door.’

‘I can’t say sorry enough.’

‘I don’t want you to say sorry.’ He took a small, tentative step towards Scott. ‘I just want you to know how I’m feeling. I need you to understand that this completely changes us, changes my life. You’ve brought me into this lie and one way or another we’re going to get through it. I don’t know how, but we will. But nothing’s going to be the same again, not ever. The last time I kissed you, you were Scott Lynch the stable hand. The next time I do, you’ll be Scott Lynch the potential murder victim. If you’d told me—’

‘If I’d told you—’

‘I could have done something,’ Jesse said.

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. Probably nothing. But at least I’d have known what I was getting involved in.’

Clark
turned from a cupboard as Katherine and John came in through the back door. She slammed the cupboard door closed. ‘Where the hell’s the alcohol in this house?’

‘Irish Whiskey’s up there,’ Katherine said, pointing to the wall-mounted cupboard above the dishwasher. ‘I think we could all do with a drop.’

As
Clark
reached for it and Katherine took down some tumblers, she said, ‘You know I have to call this in, don’t you?’

‘I’m surprised you haven’t already,’ Katherine said.

‘Mann is going to have my arse on a plate. That’s the only reason I’ve held off so long. I’m already suspended. This is going to get me kicked off the force.’

‘Pour me one of those and I’ll start packing,’ Katherine said.

Clark
tipped generous amounts of the brown liquid into five glasses. ‘Once I call him, the ball will be in motion. We’ll be on the move within twenty minutes.’

‘Where will we go?’ Katherine asked.

‘At this time of the night, it’ll be a local holding cell with the police. Interpol will reassign you in the morning.’

‘Is there anything I can do after you’ve gone?’ John asked.

‘Not unless you can do anything from a holding cell,’
Clark
told him. ‘You’re in the thick of this now. You and Jesse will be coming with us.’

‘But I’m going home tomorrow.’

Clark
handed him a tumbler of whiskey. ‘Consider this a last minute change of plan.’

As Scott and Jesse came into the kitchen to join them, holding hands and holding hopes, John told them the news.

Scott looked at Jesse. Jesse said, ‘What the hell, I’ve always loved an adventure.’ He looked at the glasses of whiskey. ‘Make mine a double.’