When Sorry Is Not Enough (2 page)

‘Only that the sadists are demanding that I visit a dentist before I take up my post.’

Luke now passed the letter to Sally for perusal.

Sighing, she admitted to herself that she had mixed feelings about Luke going to Hong Kong. Of course she was pleased that Luke’s dream had come true and he had been selected. After all, their childhood had been so blighted that it was only fair that their adult lives should be better. On the other hand, since things had got sorted out between Luke and herself he had slowly filled the gap left by the death of her older brother Peter – and now she must learn to live without his daily visits. Once she had sorted things out in her mind it left only one concern: Luke, her warrior brother Luke, had one big phobia – the dentist. And here, she glanced down to read the letter again, was an order that he must see one before going to Hong Kong!

Sally, against her better judgement, had accompanied Luke into the practitioner’s consulting room and all she could do was shudder when the clinician announced that Luke’s teeth required several fillings.

This news unnerved Luke. Strumming on the arm of the consulting-room chair he accepted he either put his hatred of dentists to bed right now or there was no Hong Kong. Without giving the problem any more consideration he announced he had decided to have
all
of his teeth extracted so could the quack immediately administer an anaesthetic and get on with the job?

Sally and the dentist tried their best to have Luke reconsider his rash decision but from past experience Sally knew once his mind was made up then that was it.

The result of the removal of his teeth meant that when he was ready to take up his post in Hong Kong he did so with a dripping blood smile and a mouthful of dentures that made him look like a cross between Red Rum and Dracula.

* * *

Luke had initially intended to do just one tour but last year he had written to Sally to say he would be signing up for another three years. He further pointed out he would be back for a long holiday which would give him time to look into what had happened to Irish. The only regret Luke had when he had left for Hong Kong was the necessity for him to go before Irish’s trial. Poor Irish who continually pleaded his innocence when charged with the murder of his prostitute wife had seen Luke’s departure as, at best, his abandonment of him and, at worst, him being another who had stitched him up.

It was all very well Sally reminiscing about Luke’s past but she had to get to grips with what he required today so she found herself crooning, ‘Now, Maggie, you will remember that you haven’t to let the single room at the front of the house as that is where I intend to accommodate Luke when he comes home.’

‘Are you sure he’ll be coming this soon?’ huffed Maggie.

‘Yes, I am,’ was Sally’s emphatic reply.

‘So you’re thinking that as it’s Daisy’s wedding on Saturday he won’t want to miss it?’ snipped Maggie.

Exasperated Sally shouted, ‘Maggie, he can’t miss it. After all, Daisy postponed her big day until now so he could give her away.’

‘Right enough,’ Maggie conceded in mellowing tones but allowing a picture of a pregnant Daisy to flash before her eyes.

‘Oh, look at the time. I just have to get going. You get inside, Maggie, and do what you are good at: getting squared up and disinfecting the lavatories.’

Sally stood and waited until Maggie had gone indoors before she lightly tripped down the stairs and stood in front of her of her brand-new red Ford Escort estate car. She, however, still didn’t have the confidence of a seasoned driver; hence she’d sent Maggie inside. No way did Sally wish Maggie to see that the car, perhaps, had been filled up with kangaroo petrol.

Once the car was up and running smoothly, Sally drove it towards Lochend Road, where Nancy, who ran the Royal Stuart pub for her, had been allocated an Edinburgh Corporation one-bedroomed flat. She had just drawn to a halt when Nancy appeared. Leaning over, Sally opened the passenger door of the car to allow Nancy to get in.

‘Well, if this isnae luxury you cannae afford,’ huffed Nancy as she struggled into the car, ‘then I dinnae ken what is.’

‘Aye, you’re right there. And do you know, I didnae get enough change from seven hundred to buy us a cup of tea.’

‘Dinnae tell me that and here’s me thinking, as I’m doing you a favour, that you would be treating me to high tea,’ quipped Nancy.

‘Oh, you’ll get that all right.’ Sally sniffed before adding, ‘And with a bit of luck maybe bed and breakfast thrown in.’

‘Bed and breakfast?’ exclaimed Nancy. ‘Surely if they dinnae lock us up tae we’ll hae plenty of time to get back hame.’

‘Aye, if we were to go straight home,’ Sally advised, ‘but on our way back I intend to take a detour over country to visit Flora and Shonag at Culloden.’

‘We’re going to Smithton, Culloden, but why?’ expounded Nancy, who couldn’t keep the sense of incredulity out of her voice.

‘Know something?’ Sally got ready to confide to Nancy, a woman of the street whom she had rescued and now trusted to be an honest manager in the Royal Stuart for her. ‘I’m no quite sure …’ Sally hesitated, ‘… but I feel in my guts there’s something far wrong there.’

‘Like what?’

‘Don’t know. But what I do know is that Sweet William landed back there a month ago and …’

‘Another of his dalliances gone belly up,’ Nancy brusquely interrupted. ‘See, Sally,’ she continued, ‘if he’d been a male prostitute with the number of men he’s bedded, he’d be a millionaire and only the good Lord knows how many times over.’

‘Millionaire?’ queried Sally.

‘Aye. Believe me there’s no many like William is who go about touting for business on the streets.’

Sally grimaced. ‘Anyway, what’s different this time is he’s come home and that Flora, my darling mother-in-law, who of late wouldn’t have given him the time of day never mind a buckshee fiver, has gone all weepy when I ask her how things are. All she is saying is that Shonag, his mother, and herself will need to start putting themselves on Queer Street to keep him comfortable.’

Nancy didn’t answer for a minute or two, and when she did she slowly drawled, ‘Beggaring themselves to help him, but why?’ She allowed a long pause before mumbling, ‘Oh surely, good God, no.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Sally demanded.

Nancy shook her head and quickly changed the subject. ‘Aw, here, Sally we’re just about to cross the Forth Road Bridge. I’m always excited when I cross it, how about you?’

Sally didn’t respond. All she could think of was that this was the first time she’d driven over the bridge and instead of being elated she was allowing sheer panic to overtake her. Glancing to her right she noticed a train crossing the rail bridge. Sighing she thought,
Oh why, oh why didn’t I suggest that we go by train?
She was so engrossed looking at the racing locomotive and keeping time to its rumbles over the bridge that she was unaware, until Nancy grabbed her arm, that the traffic in front of them was stationary. She had just started to react to the situation when Nancy screamed, ‘Oh, no. We’re going to be killed!’ Sally’s car then came to an abrupt halt when it careered into the back of the car in front.

It wasn’t just the insistent and impatient ringing of the door bell that annoyed Maggie, it was also the rattling of the door handle. Throwing open the heavy storm door and waving the vegetable knife she hadn’t had time to put down she shrieked, ‘I’m no deaf. And if you dinnae take your finger aff that bell I’ll cut it aff …’ She was about to brandish the knife again when she became aware of who was standing in front of her and immediately the knife dropped submissively to her side. ‘Oh, it’s you, Luke. I wasn’t expecting you until later,’ she simpered. ‘Just cutting up some carrots for putting in the broth, I was.’

Luke was taken aback.
Surely to heavens
, he thought,
that daft sister of mine heeded what I said and sent this conniving bitch packing. Only she couldn’t have. But wasn’t that so like Sally? Och aye
, he continued to himself,
who else but Sally would give house room to a rat like Maggie?
Maggie whom he knew would pull the rug from under Sally’s feet the first chance she got.

Unaware of Luke’s hostility towards her Maggie opened the door further before announcing, ‘Sally said to put you in the single room at the front. I’ve just finished getting it ready for you.’

Luke did not respond but he did follow Maggie up the wide staircase. The door to the room Sally thought he should occupy was open but he did not venture over the threshold. ‘Naw,’ he drawled. ‘Not quite big enough for me. Let me have a look at the palatial room that Sally is always writing to me about.’

‘Fit for honeymooners that room is,’ Maggie said, giving a coquettish wink before going on, ‘and it costs three times as much a night as that wee single does.’ Maggie then advanced into the room and immediately opened up an adjoining door to reveal the very latest in must-haves – a tasteful pastel coloured bathroom en suite. She then moved over to the king-sized double bed and bounced up and down on it. ‘Never been slept in yet, it’s not.’

‘Then that’s for me,’ Luke replied, flinging his suitcase up on the bed. ‘Now get me some tea.’

Maggie huffed. ‘You make your own tea. All you need is on that wee table over there.’

Luke was about to tell her forcibly that she would make his tea when the doorbell shrilled. ‘Anybody at home?’ a loud voice hollered.

‘Aye,’ responded Luke, bounding down the stairs in front of Maggie.

‘Well, well. If it’s no the lucky bugger,’ blurted the impatient police constable.

‘Archie MacDonald, and are you no a sight for sore eyes?’ Luke responded, holding out his hand.

Both men shook each other’s hand vigorously in between slaps on the back. ‘Now, tell me this, Luke, did the tide wash you up here?’

‘Naw. This is my sister’s place and I’ve just arrived back in the country.’

‘Yer sister owns this place?’ Archie asked, allowing his eyes to rove about the comfortable house.

Luke nodded. Suddenly Archie was no longer smiling and he reached in his pocket for his notebook and slowly he began to read from it. ‘I regret to advise you that one, Sally Mack,’ he hesitated before adding, ‘was travelling northwards in a vehicle that she was driving and the said vehicle was involved in a multi-car crash on the Forth Road Bridge which resulted in her and her travelling companion, one Nancy, no managed to get a surname for her, sustaining injuries that has resulted in her …’

‘Oh my God, Sally’s not dead … she just can’t be,’ Luke screeched before collapsing on the bottom stair.

Archie glanced at Luke before shaking his head and continuing, ‘Being detained …’

‘Arrested?’ Maggie butted in. ‘Nancy, aye, but then she should have been run in years ago but no Sally.’

‘Look you, whoever you are, just gie yer tongue a rest ’til I’ve finished.’ Archie coughed before adding, ‘In the Dunfermline Infirmary.’

Luke got up and slapped Archie on the back. ‘She’s no dead, mate! That’s marvellous. And that’s one I owe you. Now I have to get going over to Fife, but tell all my other police buddies I’m back for nearly five months and we’ll all meet up and get rat-arsed.’

Sally was in a receiving room in the hospital and the pain racing up and down her neck and shoulders was such that she had decided that dying would be a good idea. Especially now there was a doctor, who looked so young that he should still be in nappies, asking her to follow his finger. ‘Can you remember what happened?’ the young man asked as the digit wandered from left to right.

‘The first bump was just a bump. I remember asking Nancy if she was all right and her saying that her having her head bounced off the windscreen might be all right to me but,’ Sally sniffed, ‘poor Nancy didn’t finish what she was going to say because the car behind us ran into our back and everything went black.’

‘Black? Do you mean it got dark or did you … ?’

‘Oh, son,’ Sally exploded, ‘it’s the middle of April and it doesnae get dark until about the back of eight. And before you go on, was anybody killed?’ The doctor didn’t respond so Sally knew there had been fatalities. ‘Look son, do you know if my pal is … ?’ stuttered Sally.

‘Who would she be?’

Sally closed her eyes and immediately she was thinking back to just after the second collision. She remembered that through a haze she had looked over and Nancy’s bonny face was beginning to swell and blood was spouting from her nose and mouth. ‘Nancy, Nancy. Please, please say you’re all right?’ she had implored.

An agonising thirty seconds passed before Nancy weakly responded though gasps and pants. ‘Here, Sally, are you saying you want to ken if I’m all right? And why should I no be? After all nothing happened except my heid being bounced not once but twice off your bleeding windscreen, my neck,’ she hesitated to draw in breath whilst she rocked her head from side to side, ‘having been stretched so far oot that I’m sure I now resemble a giraffe. And if aw that wasnae enough to gie me a headache, hasn’t my national health wallies been shot oot of my mouth and are now God knows where.’ She stopped again and sniffed and panted before adding, ‘So, Sally, if you’re asking if I’m all right? Well,’ Nancy now put up her hand to try and stem the flow of blood from her nose, ‘I bloody well am … no.’ Her breath which was now coming in even shorter pants had her wearily lean her head back and Sally could see that she was no longer conscious and then merciful blackness drifted over her too.

Neither Sally nor Nancy was aware of being taken to Dunfermline Infirmary in an ambulance with flashing blue lights. Nor were they conscious when the doctors first examined them. It took an hour for Sally to open her eyes and immediately a young doctor asked her where her worst pains were. The only response that Sally could give was to start weeping because, without warning, the horror of the crash flashed back to her. Again she could see that Nancy was injured and unconscious. Sally shook her head as she considered that something happening to dear Nancy that she was somehow responsible for would just be too much.

With Sally not responding verbally, the young doctor admitted defeat. He had reluctantly decided that it would be best just to leave Sally with her thoughts and she was relieved when he disappeared back through the screens.