Different (6 page)

Jay tossed another couple aside as though they were toys; her one thought was to help David. The other three stopped their attack on David and turned on her.

The glint of metal on the knife gave Jay just enough time to block the knife's thrust with the palm of her right hand. Her hand felt as though it was on fire and she stared for a millisecond at the blade that had impaled it. Her other hand gripped her assailant by the throat and lifted him off his feet. She threw him into the other two men and all three of them fell in a tangle of, bodies, arms and legs,

She wrenched the knife out of her hand, ignoring the blood that was pouring from the wound; she dropped to her knees beside David.

"David, are you all right,” she cried and then felt power flowing down her right arm, through her injured hand and a blue fire shot out of it, covering him. The flames died down until they were only about an inch high and looked like a covering of solid light.

It faded almost immediately, David stirred and sat up. He looked around him at the stunned pedestrians and then at the groaning thugs. “What happened to them?"

"I did,” she said and became aware of the wail of approaching sirens. She hauled David to his feet and then ran over to the boy who had fallen through the shop window. He was sitting up and looking dazed while trying to stem the blood that was pouring from a huge gash in his right arm. By the light from the streetlights, his face seemed almost white, without hesitating Jay placed her hands on him. The healing power shot out of her with such force that instantly she felt drained of energy. She felt so weak she thought she would pass out.

Then David was helping her up, staring transfixed at the blue translucent glow covering the injured youth.

"How...” he began, without looking at her.

But she urgently interrupted him as the urgent wail of approaching sirens filled the air. “Let's get out of here; otherwise I'm going to be in big trouble."

He didn't argue and none of the growing crowd of onlookers tried to stop them as they hurried away. David had an arm around her waist supporting her but by the time they turned into the same passageway that the thugs had emerged from, Jay's strength had returned.

"I thought I might have killed that boy,” she said. “I just threw him away from you and he seemed to fly through the window. Like in the Superman films, you know?"

He glanced at her in concern. “You laid them all out, Jay. Six, of them and you're just a seven-stone girl, and then there's that that light that came out of your hands. What the hell's going on, Jay?"

"I don't really know, but let's get away from here before the police find us and I'll tell you about it. I need to talk to someone. Do you think I'll be in real trouble for hurting those boys, David?"

"I hope not. But those guys know who I am and they'll tell the police for sure."

"Oh no! You'll have to tell them who I am.” Jay could almost feel herself being cuffed and placed in the back of a police car.

"No, I was on a blind date,” David winked at her. “I've never seen you before in my life.” He pulled her into a doorway as a police car with its blue lights flashing sped past the passageway. “Let's go,” he said. “They'll be looking for us soon."

"Look, why don't we circle around and go to McDonalds like we planned. They'll never think of looking for us in there and we can talk, besides I really need to wash my...” She broke off and stared at her right hand in shock. The knife wound was gone! She didn't even have a scratch. Jay knew she should have been grateful but it made her feel more isolated from everyone else than ever.

Detective Inspector Rebecca Carlyle watched the incident in the town's high street some two hours after the actual event, on film taken from a town centre security camera.

"Well, what d'you make of it?” she asked the officers who were crammed into the small briefing room.

"She was moving so fast it was hard to get much of an idea of what she looks like,” DS Thompson said. “Even when she stopped and sent that blue light over the two men, we didn't get too good of a picture because she was in the shadows. Mind you, it shouldn't be too hard to find her, not with that knife wound in her hand. She'll have to get it fixed up."

"Not if she can heal herself like she did the two men,” Rebecca said. “Is the car still outside the Jones boy's house?"

"Yes, they'll bring him in for questioning when he turns up.” Thompson shrugged, “But we haven't got anything on him, have we?"

Rebecca shook her head, “No, he was out of it, but he'll be able to tell us the name of the girl.” She knew everyone in the room was pre-occupied with thinking about what happened. Whoever the girl was, she was different to anyone they'd ever come across before, and although she'd healed the boy who'd gone through the window, the girl could still prove dangerous if cornered.

She rose to her feet and made her decision. “When we find out who she is, I'll talk to her myself. I don't think she really meant to hurt anyone. She was just trying to stop them from hurting Jones. She even helped the boy who went through the window. So I don't want anyone approaching her except me. If she does turn violent then you can take an appropriate course of action."

"What about the press, Guv?” Thompson asked. “When they get wind of this they're going to tie in tonight's incident with the one on Friday,” he shrugged. “Well, you don't get that many patients covered in light around here. We're going to be inundated with reporters and TV crews again."

"Tell me about it,” she said. “Right you lot,” she said to the rest of her team. “I want statements from the witnesses to the car accident on Friday and tonight's incident."

"Shaun,” she turned to DS Thompson, “you and I'll go to the hospital and have a word with those boys."

"They'll probably want to sue the girl,” Shaun said. “Are we going to charge her with GBH?"

"After seeing the way they were beating up Jones, and they were carrying a knife, I think I can persuade them against making a complaint, don't you?"

Thompson grinned and held the door of the office open for her. “Perhaps we ought to sign her up,” he said.

Jay and David had decided to go for curry instead of McDonald's and as it wasn't yet nine-o-clock the restaurant was quiet. They chose a corner table and as they waited for their order to be served, Jay told him almost everything. She couldn't tell him about the girl and the egg, and as the staff seemed responsible for her newly acquired strength and healing powers, she kept that to herself as well.

"Perhaps you ought to go the police,” David said. “Get them to search that place where your grandmother saw you."

"I can't. I'd get them into trouble and besides, what if that American, Russell found out about me? He'd come after me or my grandparents for sure."

"Hmmm, I suppose you're right, but what are you going to do?"

"Keep my head down, wait and see what happens when granddad removes his hypnotic block, tomorrow."

"You can spend the night at my place, if you like. My flat's a bit small but I can

always sleep on the settee."

"Thanks, but no. I'd better go home and tell them what happened, before they find out from someone else."

Ben Nesbitt liked a drink, like most streetwise journalists, he'd booked hotel rooms for himself and his cameraman rather than driving straight back to town and risk being stopped. He was nowhere near pissed, but then you didn't have to be to fail a breathalyser test, as one or two of his colleagues had found out to their cost.

He raised his glass in a silent toast to his colleague and cameraman, who was in fact a woman, and she responded in kind. Only a fool or someone with a death wish would however, refer to Cassie Harper as a camerawoman. She'd fought her way up the ladder of national TV journalism and would be damned in hell before she let some politically correct non-entity rob her of her title. Cassie was a cameraman, full stop. She was also young, extremely attractive and way out of his league. It was perhaps because he'd been able to accept that he'd had no chance with her that they'd become friends, good friends. Ben was content to settle for that.

"Well, there doesn't seem much point in hanging around here any longer,” he said, gesturing around the bar with his glass. “We'll head back to the office in the morning,"

"Yes, you're right,” Cassie agreed. Her blonde hair was, as usual, tied back with a bandana. In her line of work she couldn't risk losing a shot just because her hair had flopped over the lens of her camera. “At least the story we submitted made the front page and we've got enough material to do a follow up,” she said. “I have two or three shots of Dr. Newman, he came across well."

Ben's mobile rang and he pulled it from his pocket. “Hello, Ben Nesbitt."

"It's PC Brown, Mr. Nesbitt. We've got a lad covered in that blue light in the hospital. It's happened again!"

"Thanks Pete, we're on our way. We'll be about fifteen minutes or so. If you meet us in the car park, I'll give you some cash for a drink."

"I think you should forget the hospital and meet me in the car park of the Green Man instead. What I've got for you is worth a couple of hundred at least."

Ben tensed expectantly and tried to keep his rising excitement out of his voice. An exclusive would be worth a bloody fortune. “That depends on what you've got, Pete."

"I know who the girl is."

"The girl?"

"Yes the girl who healed them,” Pete said, as though he thought Ben ought to know what girl he was talking about. “She put her hands on the boy who fell through the shop window and that blue light shot out of her hands and covered him. You can't tell from the security cameras who she is, but I know. She goes to the same school as my boy. I know her. And I also know where she lives. The DI knows the name of the boy the girl's with but he hasn't gone home yet, so you'd have a head start on everyone else."

"Ok, it's a deal. How do we get to the pub?"

The Green Man was on the outskirts of the town and when Ben and Cassie entered the bar. Ben spotted the policeman who was wearing an anorak over his uniform, sitting at a table in the corner. After ordering a non-alcoholic drink for them both, despite the fact that Cassie was driving, they joined Pete Brown at his table.

"This is Cassie, my cameraman,” Ben said and slid an envelope over the table towards Pete, who took it and without checking the contents, slipped it into his pocket.

"There's two hundred, like we agreed, Pete” Ben said. “Now, tell us about the girl."

"Her name's Jay Williams, she's sixteen and lives with her grandparents.” Pete reached over the table and pressed a piece of paper into Ben's hand. “That's their address and directions on how to get there. The girl was with a boy when a gang attacked them. They had her boyfriend on the ground and were giving him a good kicking when suddenly the girl's there. She threw one through a shop window and then...”

Ben and Cassie listened in stunned silence as Pete finished his account of the fight and the aftermath. Then standing, he drained his pint. “I'd better get back to the nick before I'm missed.” He smiled at Cassie. “Perhaps I'll see you around,” he said, hopefully.

Cassie returned his smile, “You might, Pete. It's been nice meeting you."

He hesitated and Ben half suspected that he was about to ask her outright for a date but then he seemed to think better of it and turned on his heel and left.

Cassie stared in the direction in which he'd gone and shook her head. “Bloody married men,” she said. “They're all the same. Always after a bit on the side."

Ben who'd started to unfold the piece of paper stared at her in surprise. It wasn't like her to be bitter. Normally, she'd have simply dismissed a man like Pete from her mind.

"Are you all right?” he asked.

Cassie turned to face him and sighed. “Graham and I have split up,” she said. “He wanted me to stop taking the pill and get pregnant. Said I ought to get a job on a local rag and settle down. We've been arguing about it for ages on and off, but a couple of months ago, he gave me an ultimatum, either I let him put a baby in my belly or he'd move out. When I phoned the flat last night, to tell him we were staying over, he told me he'd be gone by this morning. He's moving in with his secretary. Apparently she's been consoling him recently while I've been away on our assignments, and now she's six weeks pregnant."

Ben reached over and squeezed her hand. “I'm sorry, Cassie. You deserve better than that. Look, if you want to get back and sort things out..."

"No,” she said firmly. “I love my job, more than anything. More than Graham I suppose. Perhaps he sensed it. I don't know. Anyway, talking of jobs, what's the girl's address?"

"Fifteen Poplar Road,” Ben said studying the piece of paper, “and according to this we're only a few minutes drive away."

Cassie drained her orange and was up on her feet. “I've got all my equipment in the car,” she said, “but if this story turns out to be as big as you think it will we'll need a full crew out here."

"Yes, but let's go and talk to the grandparents before we make a decision. It's nine-fifty now, so with a bit of luck, we might just have something for the eleven-o-clock news."

The man who answered the door looked to be in his late sixties and when he saw Cassie standing behind Ben and holding her video camera he started to shut the door in their faces.

Ben shot out a hand stopping the door from closing. “Mr. Williams,” he said urgently, “We know about Jay's healing powers, and as soon as the police find out who she is, they'll be here ... alongside every national newspaper and TV journalist in the country. Talking to us might just prevent that, and I promise you, we won't film or broadcast anything until we've edited it to your satisfaction."

"You'd better let them in, Tom.” The woman was about the same age as her husband and Ben thought she had a resigned look about her and her next words confirmed it. “Someone was bound to find out about Jay sooner or later and perhaps it would be best to trust Mr. Nesbitt, I've seen you on television,” she explained. “Please come on in."