DEATHLOOP (41 page)

After a few moments Jason began wondering if he should investigate. No one else was about and it could be something he could use back at his flat, or something he could sell even. Two flights down Jason noticed blood on each step, a dribble at first, then a spray, then a pool. He stopped when he saw her, the girlfriend. Her head was bent at a funny angle and seemed to be jutting out from her shoulders as though someone had twisted it right round. Her hair covered her face and had sponged up quite a bit of blood. She was lying vertically head first as though a step had broken her fall. Why this step Jason wondered when she had fallen down so many others?

He finished his crisps, then screwing the packet up into a ball he threw it into the air and punched it, watching as it floated soundlessly down the stairwell to the basement. Jason squatted next to Veronica while he dug out particles of crisps from his back teeth, debating what to do.

The girlfriend might possibly be dead, therefore what
could
he do? A lift had been called to Zack’s floor which suggested to Jason that someone was with her when she fell, so why didn’t they get help? In the end, Jason decided to call an ambulance. It might just save the girlfriend’s life and then Zack would be pleased with him, and ask him to move into his flat straight away in case of further trouble.

Jason managed the emergency services very well, telling them that he knew the girl’s boyfriend and that he was a very well-known criminal lawyer and also his best friend. The ambulance people didn’t believe him at first, but when he gave them Zack’s mobile number and some basic information, it was obvious to Jason that they realised he had been telling the truth all along.

When Zack phoned Jason, it seemed as though he actually wanted to talk to him for once, demanding to know everything that had led up to Veronica’s fall. Jason could tell he was panicking. He could hear the Mercedes being driven really fast, and it seemed like Zack was crying. He was surprised to hear Zack blubbing like this. Jason’s grandma had told him once that if anyone upsets you or tries to hurt you or anything like that, build a wall round yourself so they can’t get in. He’d been doing it for as long as he could remember and it usually worked quite well. Jason decided to pass this information on to Zack when next he saw him, like his speedy action calling the ambulance, it could well prove another successful tactic in his campaign to become Zack’s right hand man. About two minutes after they had signed off Jason’s phone went again.

“So what were you doing there?” asked Zack, abruptly.

“What?” said Jason, his mind racing, cursing himself for not working out an answer in preparation for the question he should have known Zack would ask.

“What the hell were you doing in my apartment block?”

“I came round to tell you something.”

“And what is that something?”

“That Tracy’s good! She’s trying hard so I won’t get sent down, she’s told me.” It wasn’t the best excuse in the world but it was all he could think of for the time being.

“What was Veronica doing on the stairs?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you push her?”

Fear made Jason speechless for a moment. “
Me
? No! Not me it wasn’t me! I never pushed anyone!”

“If I find out that you are responsible for this…”

“It wasn’t me… Zack…
it wasn’t!
”

Zack had enough to worry about, so Jason’s surprising ability to track down his home address had to be put on ice for the time being, but his involvement with Veronica’s accident had to be suspicious. Jason was jealous of Veronica, he had made that clear in McDonalds, so maybe this was his way of dispensing with the competition once and for all. But as the Mercedes sped along the North Circular back into town, his head besieged with questions, Zack found himself dismissing the idea. Jason was an oddball, no doubt about that, but he didn’t seem particularly aggressive towards other people. The nurse’s revelation of self-harm fitted in with Zack’s assessment, that the abuse he had clearly suffered had manifest itself in self-loathing, and his inability to fit in to society had more to do with that than anything else. For now anyway, he decided to let Jason off the hook.

By the time Zack had reached the hospital, Miriam and Clarissa were already there and Veronica was in Critical Care. Clarissa sat down beside him in the corridor and threw a heavy arm across his back. Miriam was talking with a doctor and although Zack was within earshot what they said was incomprehensible. He allowed himself a secret little smile at the naive optimism that had marked his weeks of domestic bliss with Veronica. Obviously it was a false dawn and he felt idiotic now thinking otherwise. Either he was seeing dead people or back in the real world, everyone he knew and loved, because of their involvement with him seemed to be lurching from one crisis to the next.

They were allowed to view Veronica though glass, like she was some kind of medical experiment and observing her there in those very white sheets, so magnificent a specimen of life on the cusp of extinction made Zack want to howl. People kept speaking to him but he had been made deaf by the trauma he decided, because even when he heard sounds they made no sense to him at all.

He couldn’t begin to start picking his way through the car wrecks that had become his life but how and why they were happening did not matter. What mattered was finding a way to get them to stop. Justin was right, the weirder the better at one time, but not anymore, all this was pushing weirdness too far. Zack eventually told Miriam and Clarissa to go home, he would stand guard and report back if there was any change. He wanted to be alone anyway. He didn’t like the way Miriam was looking at him, and from Clarissa there was a sense of hopelessness that he felt he really could do without.

At one o’ clock in the morning Tracy turned up, confirming what Zack already feared that Brian Smith had got wind of the accident and wanted to have a few words. He had been incandescent with rage apparently when, before his relapse, Sam had refused to press charges, insisting that he was as much to blame for their fight as Zack, and dismissing the whole thing as a disagreement that had got out of hand. The idea of Brian Smith lording it over him, with Veronica lying in hospital gravely ill meant that Zack would have to be very careful, the wrong word from the ghastly little termite and he would be up and over that table ringing his bloody neck.

“Hasn’t he got anything better to do?”

“He wants to be seen to be thorough I imagine.”

“And when is the guy anything
less
than thorough?”

“You can’t go back to the flat by the way, not until forensics are finished. Did they tell you?”

Zack shrugged, he couldn’t think why he’d want to go back there anyway. “Why was Jason there?”

“Search me, and before you ask, no I didn’t give him your address, although it’s probably just as well all things considered. Thankful for small mercies, Mr Fortune,” she said quietly, tapping Zack on the knee.

They sat in silence after that, until a few minutes later Tracy prepared to leave.

“Thanks, Tracy,” said Zack, “I should have got you a coffee or something.”

“Not this late, I’d never sleep.”

“Call me, yeah?” said Zack, slumping back in his chair.

As Tracy was about to turn away, Zack stood up, pulled her round to face him and took her into his arms. Tracy disengaged first, a little taken aback at the show of affection.

“You’ll be okay on your own?” she said, thinking it might be Zack’s way of keeping her there.

“Sure, but thanks anyway.”

Zack watched Tracy walk off, clocking her strange selection of clothes that always made her look as though she’d got dressed in a gale, the hemline of her skirt that fell a good two inches from one side to the other, the wrinkled black tights and the clapped out shoes. Zack found himself wondering if Tracy ever sought intimacy, or if past disasters had precluded her even thinking about it. He knew nothing of Tracy’s personal life, but he didn’t need to, she might just as well have had the words ‘unlucky in love’ stamped in huge letters right across her back.

At the mention of the word ‘coffee’, Zack found himself longing for one and got up to find a machine, but as he left Critical Care and navigated a few deserted corridors, a prickle of fear spread through him. Thinking back to the nurse discovered in similar circumstances albeit in a different hospital, Zack turned on his heels and shot back to the ward like a boomerang. Another dead person would be too much. The ship that was Zack Fortune would go down, all hands on deck, absolutely no question about that.

The following day Zack agreed to meet with Brian Smith really just to get it over with. At the police station Tracy was waiting for him, looking spruced for once. The make-up was back and it looked like she’d done something to tame her hair that always looked like it was about to fly off to a distant galaxy.

“So you were back in Derbyshire, Mr Fortune, with Barbara Quinn I believe. Rather fortunate all round,” said Brian, with a hopeful grin.

It took Zack a huge effort not to rise to this comment, and in a swift glance, he clocked Tracy sending him a very clear message not to let the little toad get to him. Zack did not respond at all, or appeared not to, although his heart was thumping so loudly in his chest he thought there was a good chance it would pick up on the tape.

“Had you had a disagreement with Miss French lately?”

“No,” said Zack, patiently, “we parted on the best of terms.”

“Why go and see Barbara Quinn, anyway? What light could she throw on things?” said Brian, actually curious.

“Okay, look, while I was out of town, my girlfriend fell down the stairs of my apartment block. I don’t know why she was there, or if she was with anyone else, or more to the point if anyone pushed her, I know as much about the incident as you do.”

“We think she’d had some kind of fight,” said Brian.

“A fight?”

“Your door was open, and when investigating officers arrived there, the place was in disarray.”

Zack knew nothing of this, and by the look on Tracy’s face she didn’t either. “Did someone break in then, is that what you’re saying?”

“No evidence of that, so if she opened the door it was obviously to someone she knew,” said Brian pointedly. “And Jason Heart… would you care to fill us in?”

“He wanted me to defend him on a criminal matter,” said Zack, knowing full well Brian’s ears would prick up at this.

“Oh yes? What kind of criminal matter?”

“A drugs charge,” said Zack, a little sheepishly.

“A drugs charge, eh?” said Brian, with a forced chuckle, “
well, you should know about all that
.”

Zack counted to ten, allowing Brian his few moments of amusement at his expense.

“So what was he doing on the stairs… any ideas?”

“None at all,” said Zack.

“Does Miss French know Jason Heart? Had they met before?”

“Yes, briefly.”

“So if he had come knocking, she might well have let him in?”

“Unlikely,” said Zack, thinking back to their encounter in Holloway.

“Is he a frequent visitor?”

“No, I’m not sure how he found out where I lived. I certainly didn’t give him the information.”

“Bit of a coincidence then all things considered.”

“Yes,” said Zack, looking defeated, “I agree, it is.”

An hour later, Zack and Tracy were in their usual greasy spoon, Zack checking his mobile every few moments, gulping down the first food he had seen in a while.

“Just by chance Jason is hanging about on the stairs…” said Zack, his mouth full, “weird or what?”

“Oh God, back to Jason are we?” said Tracy, sounding exhausted suddenly.

“I should have been there,” said Zack, giving up on the food and pushing his plate away.

“But you weren’t there,” said Tracy, “so stop beating yourself up about it.”

“You don’t really think Brian Smith thinks I put him up to it, do you?”

“
No!
” she barked, “well… I think he’s maybe trying to make a connection with Susan’s allegation but he won’t get very far, and he knows that, he’s just a bad loser that’s all.”

For the first time since they’d met, Zack got the distinct impression that Tracy was sick of him. If his lawyer, who was getting handsomely paid for her time and expertise was beginning to wish he had instructed someone else, things were worse than he thought. A few minutes later Zack stood up saying he needed to get back. Tracy got up too, and as though she regretted her quick temper, she patted him on the back and wished him well.

At the hospital as Zack turned into the corridor leading up to Critical Care he was thrown to see Jason there, on patrol. He looked even smaller today, like some funny little scarecrow guarding a field. Jason’s eyes locked onto Zack’s at his approach, exuding a combination of self-consciousness, insecurity, terror and an eagerness to please.

“Is she better?”

“Not yet…”

“It wasn’t me that pushed her. Is that what you think? Well it wasn’t me. I didn’t push her, I didn’t push anyone. I just found her there on the stairs, then I talked to the cops, gave them your number so they could call.”

“Yes, thanks Jason, you did the right thing.”

“I could have gone home, or to the pub, or to the pool hall or anywhere really,” said Jason, reasonably, “but I thought I should stay and help, so I did, because she’s your girlfriend, and I knew you would want me to because of us being such good friends.”

“I appreciate it,” said Zack with a distant smile. Jason looked at him as though waiting for something else. “So, I’ll catch up with you later,” said Zack, turning towards the door.

“When?”

“I’ll call you.”

“Yes, but what time?”

“Jason, I can’t talk now, mate, I have to go and see Veronica.”

Jason handed Zack a plastic carrier bag that he had kept hidden behind his back. “I got her a present…”

“That’s very kind of you,” said Zack, pressing the buzzer, and hoping for a swift release from the conversation.