Collecting Scars (20 page)

“What can I do?” he pleaded.

“She really needs a doctor and a hospital.”

A shadow passed across his eyes, she had pushed him too far, and he charged at her, she braced herself, waiting for the blow. It never came, instead, he stood over her, fist raised as if he was about to strike. He looked menacing.

“I told you already, no fucking hospital.”

“But what if she dies?” Asha stared him in the eyes, defiantly.

Mr Arnold sneered. “She dies,” he looked to his daughter lying limp on the bed. “You die, and maybe I will bury your body somewhere Xavier would. How would you like that huh?”

Asha squinted at him. “You really are a bastard aren’t you?”

“Fix my fucking daughter,” came his reply in a dark voice, before stepping back and giving her space again.

“Well, I’m going to need some better drugs, for a start I need some azithromycin IV, some corticosteroid and a couple bags of sodium chloride solution. I’ll also need a cannula and tubing to get it into her, assuming I can even find a vein in her state.” She shook her head sadly.

“And where exactly do you think I am going to be able to get access to these things?” he scoffed.

“You want her live don't you? I’m sure you will find them.” Then she turned and mumbled to herself, “it's not like, you’re not a criminal or anything.”

“You might want to watch you smart mouth little girl,” Mr Arnold seethed. “Just you remember who's running this show.”

With that parting shot, he left her and Maddie alone. Asha sat on the floor beside her patient and read the articles of the newspaper aloud. She had read and re-read the paper to Maddie. As much for Maddie's sake as her own. It was the only link she had to the outside world and whilst she had read the articles more than once. It was at least keeping her a little bit sane.

When she was not reading, she would talk to Maddie. Maddie never responded, occasionally she would open an eye, but mostly nothing. Asha persisted anyway. She told Maddie about the latest movies she had seen and books she had read. Told her about Xavier and how he owned Ex's and Oh's and he was doing really well for himself. She hoped it would give Maddie a reason to hold on. She wasn't sure it would be enough.

***

Hours later, Mr Arnold returned with the requested items. Asha had to wonder where they had come from, but she dared not ask. She instead offered him a thank you and got to work with administering the new medication. Praying all the while, that it would actually work. It had to work, hers and Maddie's lives both depended on it.

Maddie was very dehydrated. Try as Asha might, the past few days she had not had much success at getting fluid into her. There had been very little urine output, giving Asha reason to be concerned about Maddie's kidney function as well. It took Asha three attempts to insert the cannula into Maddie's vein. She eventually managed to insert it into the back of her right hand and attached the bag of antibiotics. Asha was used to working in a hospital or clinic, never in a situation such as this. Looking around, she wondered how she was going to suspend the fluids. Usually, she would have a stand to hook the bag onto. Spotting the first aid kit she had an idea.

Reaching into the box, she snagged a crepe bandage. Opening the packaging, she threaded one end of the bandage through the hanging hole and then she unravelled the bandage and strung it up over the top of the bathroom door and tied it to the door handle on the opposite side.

“Yep, that ought to work,” she said to herself, feeling pretty pleased.

Within a half an hour the antibiotics had been administered, and she had replaced the bag with the bag of fluids. Sitting back on the floor beside the bed, she picked up the newspaper and continued reading the articles aloud to Maddie, again. There was nothing more she could do right now but sit, watch, wait and hope for the best.

Chapter 28

Xavier

“LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE OUT BUDDY,” a gruff voice called from the cell door.

He had sat there for days, leaving only when someone else wanted to ask him, even more, questions, usually the same ones that he still had no answer for.

“Where is Asha Harper?”

“What is the nature of your relationship with Miss Harper?”

“When was the last time you saw Miss Harper alive?”

“Did you fight?”

“Did you hit her?”

“Did you kill her?”

“Where is she?”

“What have you done with her body?”

Again and again, Xavier told them he knew nothing about where she was or what had happened to her. Yes, they had fought the last time they had been together, but that was Wednesday before she went missing. Besides it was more an argument than a fight. He was going to go look for her the day he found out she was missing. Try and make things right between them.

As he walked down the long corridor, he wondered who had come to bail him out. His Mum? Aunty Polly? His father perhaps? What a joke, his father had refused to even take his calls. So much for helping him. Surely he couldn't believe he was in any way responsible for hurting Asha. He loved her. If he ever got to see her again, he would tell her so too. He would not take no for an answer, he would make sure she understood just how much she meant to him. Not just because of what had happened. He loved her before all this, this just confirmed it.

Xavier followed the constable down the hall. He had half expected to see his father, but he stopped dead in his tracks as he rounded the corner and laid eyes on Frank Duncan.

“Frank.”

“Xavier,” Frank nodded.

It took a while to sign all the official paperwork. He had to promise not to leave town and could expect the police to call on him at any time. They were then free to go and Frank led Xavier out to his car.

“Well thanks for busting me out I guess,” Xavier huffed, perplexed by the turn of events.

“No probs, buddy, let's get you home and cleaned up huh? Where are you living these days, down at the club?”

“Er...yeah, thanks.”

Not much was said on the ride back to the club. Frank pulled up and immediately got out of the car.

“Uh, well, thanks for the lift home. Can I buy you a beer?” Xavier offered.

“How about I grab a beer, you go grab a shower, get some decent clothes on,” Frank suggested as he eyed him up and down. Xavier had been in the same clothes for several days and even he could smell himself.

“Then I think we need to have a chat yeah?”

“Ah yeah, sure Frank, come on in.”

Xavier led Frank into the bar, grabbed him a beer and a stool. It was early in the morning, so the club was closed. He left Frank alone, while he slipped out the back to have a long overdue shower.

He had been in and out of a holding cell for four days so it felt surreal to be home again. Standing under the hot steady stream, Xavier's mind was racing. Frank had been an asshole since his father had accused him of taking Maddie, and he wasn't sure he had liked him much before that either. Over the years, he had not seen much of Frank, avoided him mostly. Until of course, he had started seeing Asha.

He and Joanie had always got along. She was closer to Maddie's age than his. When she was younger, he was sure she had a crush on him. Would always flutter her eyelashes at him with those pretty blue eyes. He was flattered, but she was just a kid, eight years his junior. As soon as she was old enough, she started coming to his club. Often leaving with different men. He tried to look out for her, managed to scare a few guys off that he thought were no good for her, but she was an adult. It was none of his business who she chose to keep company with.

Turning the shower off, he reached for a towel and roughly ran it over his body. Best be going and facing the music he figured. He just didn't know what song to expect Frank to sing.

Xavier walked back into the club, slipping in behind the bar, he grabbed himself a cola from the fridge and stood opposite Frank. He felt the most comfortable on the working side of the bar, as it was where he spent the most of his time. Leaning across the bar, he eyed Frank with suspicion. Why this sudden turnaround in his attitude toward him?

“So Frank, what’s this all about? You bailing me out and bringing me here?”

Frank stared at him for the longest time, studying him. Xavier felt like a bug under a microscope. He remembered his dad doing the same when he was younger, must be a detective thing.

Finally, after what seemed like five minutes, Frank spoke. “You know Xavier, your family and mine were good friends before your sister disappeared?”

“Yeah of course,” he huffed impatiently. It was hardly something he could easily forget.

“Well, when your sister disappeared, your dad wanted someone to blame. He was not allowed to work on her case for obvious reasons.”

Xavier nodded, he remembered the old man being angry at not being a part of his sister's case.

“I worked on her case with a few of the local officers and another detective.”

“Yeah I know all this Frank, I just don't know how it relates to the present situation,” Xavier grumbled.

“Please hear me out,” Frank pleaded. “So Mick and I worked together on the case, all the while it seemed your dad decided I had something to do with your sister's disappearance, which was ludicrous. I loved your sister like a daughter,” he said sadly then hung his head.

“I don't know that we, as in Mum and I ever thought you had anything to do with it,” Xavier confessed. “But you know how the old man gets.”

“I do know and that’s why I'm here.” He lifted his head and his watery eyes stared deep into Xavier's.

“I need to know boy, did you have anything, at all, to do with Asha's disappearance?” Xavier clenched his fists and slammed one down on the bar.

“I can't believe you of all people would ask me that Frank. After everything, my dad put you through. I love Asha and would do nothing to hurt her ever.” His voice so loud it reverberated around the empty club.

Frank lifted his hands, showing his palms as if in surrender. “That’s what I thought, but I had to ask. Sorry.”

“The fuck Frank?” Xavier shook his head perplexed.

“The thing is Xave', your mum and I have stayed in touch over the years.”

That took Xavier by surprise, he bet his dad never knew that.

“She was the one who rang and asked me to come and bail you out.”

“Ah,” Xavier nodded, that kind of made sense. He knew his mum would be on his side. He also knew his mum was terrified of his father and would rather keep the peace than suffer the old man's wrath. However, she had gone out on a limb getting his father's mortal enemy involved. If Dad knew that, he hated to think what the consequences might be.

“Ever since you went to her, to tell her that Asha was gone, your dad has been, um...how do I say it? Worse than normal?”

“He's been beating on her again, hasn't he?” Xavier shook with anger thinking about his father. His mother had suffered at his hand, many times over the years, everyone knew. Sometimes if things were calm, he seemed to go for months, without laying a hand on her. This had obviously triggered him off again. Probably raised all his repressed feelings over Maddie. Xavier felt     a sense of overwhelming guilt slam into his chest.

“Asha tried to get him in to see a counsellor and he refused to go. I've begged Mum to leave him. I've tried standing up to him myself, but Mum,” he shook his head in despair. “Mum always got between us. I will never understand why she stays with him.”

“It's the only life she knows Xave, it's not your fault,” Frank soothed. “Doesn’t make your dad any less an asshole. I took him on myself one time.”

“Really?” Xavier's eyes widened. That was a story he had never heard.

“Your mum is a good woman Xavier. But she needs you right now. You hear me, son?”

He nodded. “Thanks, Frank.” He extended his hand to Frank to shake. “You're a good man, I'm sorry for everything my family put you through.”

Frank shook his hand, then reached over the bar and patted his shoulder.

“It's all good buddy. Go to your mum yeah?”

With that, Frank walked out and Xavier picked up his phone and called his mum.

***

Arriving at his parent's house, Xavier tentatively approached the house. His mother had sounded odd on the phone. She insisted he come to the house, to talk. He had rushed over there, taking the corners a little faster than he knew he should. Parking his bike in the front he dismounted and removed his helmet. Looking up he saw his mother already standing in the doorway. He could tell from where she stood that her face was swollen with the beginning of a bruise darkening the area around her eye.

Hot anger rose from the pit of his stomach. The frustration he felt at his father's violence towards his mother and her refusal to leave him, had long grated on him. He could never understand how any man could hit the woman he loved. He knew his dad loved his mum, but he also had a terrible temper and thought taking that temper out on his wife was acceptable.

Was this why Asha had been so upset about him fighting with Patrick? Did she really think he would turn out like his dad? Was she trying to save herself from a life like his mum had endured? He would never, could never turn out like his dad.

Xavier ran to his mum, cupping her face gently in his hands.

“Oh Mum, what’s going on?”

She waved him away with her hand and ushered him into the house. He quietly followed her into the kitchen. Eventually, she let out a huff and dropped her shoulders. Xavier waited wondering what was coming next.

“It's time Xavier.”

“Time? Time for what Mum?” His mind raced, thinking she was going to tell him something about her ill health.

“All these years, I've allowed that bastard to keep your sister from you. From me. No more.”

Xavier shook his head and interrupted, “Hang on, wait. What? Who? What are you talking about Mum?”

“Your father. It was your father, Xave. He took Asha. He has Maddie.”