Survival of Thomas Ford, The (20 page)

A soft rain began to drizzle down on the windscreen of the Subaru as Lanski drove to the end of Broomfield Road.

Jimmy felt light as he sat in the passenger seat and watched the raindrops fall individually down the glass in front of himself. Robert had come in from the kitchen with the knife. After that, there had seemed to be no choice left about what could be done. Jimmy blinked and looked out the window to his left. Robert had been his only friend.

“Where are we going?” said Jimmy.

Lanski sniffed.

“Maybe I drive somewhere far from anyone, Jimmy. I find you a nice ditch and leave you there maybe.”

Jimmy looked down at the shirt tied round him. It was already dark with his blood. Lanski sniffed again.

“Maybe you die, Jimmy. Maybe you don’t.”

Jimmy looked over at the Pole and laughed.

“I always thought you guys were funny eh? Dark Bohemian sense of humour eh.”

“I’m not Bohemian.”

“Near enough,” said Jimmy.
“Maybe you die, Jimmy. Maybe you don’t
. Near e-fucking-nough man. Jesus, man, it’s weird. I’m fucking hungry, man. All of a sudden. Got a Mars Bar or that?”

“You need sugar maybe. You’re losing blood.”

Jimmy nodded.

“I’ve got nothing,” said Lanski.

Jimmy laughed again.

“So tell me, Jimmy, what’s it all been for? Maybe I take you to the hospital if you tell me. Or I get you a Mars Bar at a garage. It’s not my business any more, but maybe you tell me anyway.”

“I don’t want to go to hospital. Fuck hospital,” said Jimmy.

Lanski looked over at his ex-employer’s son’s face. The bird-like nose stood out starkly against the wet passenger window.

“Who was the man and the girl, from the house at Cromwell Drive?” said Lanski.

“That bitch,” said Jimmy. “She was my girlfriend. She turned out to be just a grass. You know what a grass is eh Lanski? Like when someone tells on you for working illegally in a country or that eh?”

“I know what grass is.”

Jimmy nodded.

“I trusted her like. I loved her. You should have seen the thighs on her man.”

“I saw,” said Lanski.

Jimmy looked up quickly.

“Aye? Fuck’s sake. What did my dad do with her like?”

“She is on the hill.”

“Aye. Right. That’s what my dad says on the phone. The hill. Is Ford there too?”

Lanski nodded. He braked the Subaru suddenly and twisted hard on the steering wheel to bring the car into a tight parking place. Jimmy cried out as the seatbelt cut into his side.

“Stay there, Jimmy,” said Lanski.

Lanski got out of the Subaru, the ignition keys in his palm. He walked across to the buzzer for the flats above. He pressed the button for 53. There was no answer. He pressed again.

“Yes?” said a sleepy metallic voice from the wall.

“Elena. Bring me down my phone here.”

“What?”

“Phone Elena. Come down now with my phone.”

“You come up.”

“I can’t.”

There was silence.

Lanski walked over to the Subaru and sat in the driver’s seat again. He left the door open wide. After a minute, Jimmy saw a young woman in a dressing gown appear behind the outer door of the building. She looked startled. Lanski waved his hand at her. She opened the door of the building. She had a mobile phone in her hand.

“What are you doing?” she said in a Polish accent.

“Nothing,” said Lanski. “Working. I need the phone. Thanks.”

“Come here for it then. I’m not going out there in slippers.”

“Throw it,” said Lanski.

The woman craned her thin neck forwards. She could see Jimmy in the passenger seat.

“Who is that there?” she said.

“It is no-one Elena. You have not seen him here, OK?”

“Who is it?”

“It is Jimmy, my boss’ son. He is dying maybe. Someone put a knife in him. Throw me it.”

She threw the phone awkwardly. It bounced off Lanski’s palm when he tried to catch. Luckily it flew upward and Lanski caught it on the way back down.

“Come in Lanski,” said the woman. “Come home.”

“I will be home soon Elena.”

He looked at the woman and smiled sadly.

“Won’t you risk your feet to come out and give me a kiss Elena?”

She looked at him. She opened the door of the building and hopped through the light rain like a huge rabbit. Jimmy heard her breathing loud in the Subaru as she gripped Lanski’s shoulders and kissed him. She looked over Lanski’s cheekbone as she kissed him, straight into Jimmy’s eyes. Jimmy saw her eyes move down to the wet patch on his side.

“Now go in,” said Lanski. “Get your feet dry. I’ll be home soon.”

The woman smiled. She did not look at Jimmy again. She turned and ran back to the building. Before she could get past the big glass door and back to the dry, she heard the Subaru engine come alive behind her. By the time she turned round to look, the car was gone.

Lanski started to punch buttons on the phone with his thumb, as he accelerated the Subaru along the broad road.

“Ah,” he said, “stupid! They can trace it, no?”

Jimmy turned dazed eyes on the Pole.

“Eh?”

Lanski shook his head.

“Where a phone box, McCallum boy? This city still have some no?”

Jimmy shook his head.

Lanski started making random turns in the Subaru. It was a while before he saw a vertical metal box on a corner in the distance.

“You stay put boy. You’re better in here sitting still anyway. Out on the street you bleed away in minutes I think.”

“Who are you calling?”

Lanski slammed the door shut and went into the phone box. He picked up the receiver then swore. He walked back to the car, opened the driver door.

“You got change Jimmy?”

Jimmy sneered.

“Who are you calling?”

Lanski opened the glove compartment by the dashboard. He rifled through the boxes and CDs there. No money.

“You can phone my dad on the mobile no worries, Lanski. Give it to me. I’ll phone him.”

“I’ll phone your dad soon boy. First, I’m getting ambulance for that woman you hurt.”

Jimmy blew out air.

“You fucking dumb Pole. 999 calls are free here. This is a civilised nation.”

Lanski looked at the boy’s face. It looked very pale and thin. The black eyes and black hair made a surreal contrast with the white skin.

“You better be telling truth, boy,” said Lanski.

Jimmy grinned and his teeth gleamed. He nodded as though to himself.

“Should just let that bitch go peacefully though, Pole. She’d be happier with her husband and boy anyway.”

Lanski slammed the door. Jimmy watched him walk back to the phone-box. The Pole made the call. Jimmy saw the angular mouth talk into the phone. Jimmy saw the Pole’s head shake. It occurred to Jimmy to open his door and walk out onto the pavement. But the Pole was right. It felt to Jimmy like his blood would all run away onto the concrete if he left the car.

Soon Lanski was back in the driver’s seat. Jimmy felt better when the Subaru was moving again, as though centrifugal force and momentum were the only things keeping the blood inside him now.

Thomas Ford was moving slowly through the darkness. The moonlight wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate all the way down to these spaces between the tight-packed birch trees. The girl could be anywhere. She could be dead by now. Polish. The man who had left as Thomas came up the hill and passed him, he had been Polish. He had not been the bird-faced driver, nor the square-jawed passenger. What was he doing here then? If he was involved at all, then why leave so easily?

Ford could call the girl’s name, but then how many people could he be warning of his presence? At least there was something egalitarian in the darkness. Everyone at the same disadvantage.

Thomas stopped walking up through the trees. He stood quiet and listened. He could hear the water flowing, the stream, but it seemed to be in the middle-distance. There were occasional rustles and so far Thomas had moved towards them, but maybe that had been a mistake. They could be anything, animals, or just the wind in the branches.

As Jack McCallum dragged the girl through the trees, he heard the sounds all round himself of things moving in the forest. The moonlight illuminated big, sudden shapes that Jack took to be Thomas Ford, but they were never Thomas Ford. They were always trees.

Lorna thrashed on the leaves as Jack pulled her along, like an eel. She had stopped screaming. Jack wondered why he was putting up with it, the hassle of her movements. He could knock her out with one boot. Then he realised, he must want her awake when she comes out of the blankets. But that would be stupid. He should get this done quick. She should go in the hole without ever leaving the blankets. It seemed hard though. All this work with no fun at all. There should be some fun involved, or why bother? A man had to live. Seek his amusements. Even with Ford loose out here somewhere, or down in the village telling his story maybe, even then there should be time for a little play. The girl writhed with renewed vigour as Jack dragged her over an unusually thick tree-root.

“That’s it, girl,” hissed Jack. “Never give up! Fight til the last fucking drop!”

Jack laughed in the diluted silver light. He looked up. The trees weren’t so thick overhead. He looked down and around himself. It was the clearing. They were nearly at her grave now. Just another minute. Jack had chosen to put the girl down far from Shandlin’s hole. It was an instinctive thing, the positioning of the holes. Jack had all the co-ordinates memorised, like a game of battleships. From Poppy the kitten onward.

Jack’s mobile rang in his pocket. The sound filled the forest. The feral cats cringed and hunkered low to the leaves in dread.

Jack dropped the girl’s feet. He put a boot on the middle of the blankets to pin her in place. She jerked and he stamped on her. He got the phone out of his pocket and its metallic scream filled the night air. Jack pressed the button.

“McCallum. It is me. I am with your boy. I have your boy. He is dying maybe. Someone put a knife in him.”

“Eh? Lanski? Jimmy? What’s happened to him?”

“I have your boy,” said Lanski again. “He is maybe not dying. I bandage him. It is not certain.”

“Let me talk to Jimmy,” said McCallum.

In the Subaru, Lanski passed the phone to Jimmy.

“Dad,” said Jimmy. “They put a knife in me man. Is this Pole working for you or not man eh? What’s fucking going on eh?”

“Are you alright Jimmy?”

“I’m bleeding eh.”

“Go to hospital boy!”

Jimmy laughed weakly.

“I don’t think this fucking Pole wants to take me dad.”

“Put that cunt on,” said Jack.

Jimmy passed the phone back to Lanski.

“Hello McCallum.”

“You get that boy to the fucking hospital now, Lanski!”

Lanski sniffed.

“I’m not taking your orders any more, McCallum. I don’t care if your boy dies in your Subaru passenger seat here. I don’t care if your houses crumble in the earth. You are an evil man. Your family is evil. My grandmother taught me better than to run with wolves. I only forgot what she said, that is all. Now I understand her.”

Jack stood in the moonlit clearing. Lorna gave a muffled screech from under her blankets.

“Is that the girl?” said Lanski.

Jack kicked at the blankets.

“What do you want, Lanski?” shouted Jack into the phone.

“Maybe I take your boy to a hospital. Maybe he lives. What that worth to you, McCallum?”

Jack swallowed.

“What do you want?” he said again, very quietly.

The feral cats were shifting among the trees like a strong wind. Their fur and feet rustled among the leaves and twigs.

“Maybe I want everything you have, McCallum. Maybe I take that home with me to
Warsaw
and I start building my own houses there eh? Or maybe I only need half of everything you have. Or maybe I only want you to let that woman go now. Let her go now and maybe I take your boy to the doctors now. What you think, McCallum? What you think it is I want from you now?”

Jack took a deep breath. A loud snapping sound came from the trees, beyond the moonlit clearing, from the darkness. Beneath the blankets, Lorna quivered. Jack could see the cloth vibrate where it touched her body. It was like electricity flowed through the girl.

“Don’t hurt my boy, Lanski,” Jack whispered.

“I’m not hurting him. He was already hurt when I got him. All I do is take him for a nice drive now. But he’s bleeding on your car, McCallum. We all know you love this car.”

“Please Lanski. Take him to the hospital. Money, aye, I’ll get you all you want.”

“You let that girl go.”

“I can’t. Not now.”

“Then your son might die tonight.”

Jack’s mouth hung half-open in the moonlight. He thought of Cathy, in the house at Culloden, waiting for Jimmy and himself to come home. Jack felt lost suddenly on the hillside. He always knew what was best, for McCallum Homes and for the future, for himself, for his family. It had all been one thing in Jack’s mind, one huge edifice. Now the foundations were crumbling, into the earth like Lanski had said. How could it all come apart so quickly? Jack stared at the blanket on the ground. It was because of her, that bitch there. Without her starting it all off this morning, coming to his office, trying it on, without her trying to blackmail his family none of the rest of it would have unravelled. Jack faced losing everything because of this woman on the ground beneath the blankets. His future, his business, his wife, his son, even his loyal foreman and his car.

Jack licked his lips.

“If I let her go, Lanski, I still lose everything. Either way now, I still lose everything.”

“Not Jimmy. Not your son. He will be at the hospital. He will be alright.”

Jack laughed into the phone.

Jimmy turned his face toward Lanski in the Subaru. He blinked and looked at the side of the Pole’s left eye.

“Let me talk to the boy,” said Jack.

Lanski passed the phone to Jimmy.

“Dad, I feel funny, I just…”

The phone felt heavy in Jimmy’s hand. His eyelids felt strange too. It seemed like what he needed was to eat something sweet like a Mars Bar but he didn’t have one.

“You can handle that fucking Pole, boy. I know you can do it. Do it for McCallum Homes. I’d love to help you boy but I’ve got to finish this job here. You do that fucking Pole son. Do him for me. Do him for your mum eh?”

“Dad…”

“I can’t help you boy. I’ve got to put this bitch in the ground for what she’s done to us. I’m putting her in the hill boy, beside Poppy the kitten. Good luck boy. I love you.”

Jimmy heard the phone go dead.

“Dad.”

Jimmy’s neck felt strange now, like someone had loosened the bolts in it that should have been tightly holding it to his head. His tongue felt thick.

“Lanski,” said Jimmy. “Lanski…”

Jimmy turned his head towards the Pole. He felt Lanski’s hand taking the phone from his palm. Jimmy saw Lanski’s eyes beneath the moonlight that shone down on the parking place where the Subaru was resting. Lanski’s eyes looked solid and honest to Jimmy, like Robert’s eyes used to.

“You’re dying boy,” said Lanski. “I thought your father would let the girl go to save you but he is worse madman than I ever knew.”

Lanski shook his head.

Jimmy blinked slowly.

“Aye, he is mental,” said Jimmy. “You could still take me to the hospital eh?”

Lanski looked solemnly out the windscreen. They were parked above the loch, on the road between the city and the hill. The water sparkled with moonlight. It was just like sunlight glistening there except it was moonlight. Lanski hadn’t expected McCallum to still be there to answer the phone. The Ford man had seemed an Angel of Death walking up the hill to the generator lights. Lanski had thought that maybe the girl would have been lost by now, if Ford was too late, but when he phoned McCallum’s number he had not expected McCallum to have survived Ford’s rage, the rage Lanski had felt in the air when he stared at Ford’s eye on the hill. Lanski had expected a dead line, no answer. Then he would have left the boy at the hospital. Or was that true? If any of that was really true then why had he driven halfway to the hill with the bleeding boy before making the call?

It wasn’t too late to turn away from it all. Lanski could open the passenger door now and push the boy onto the gravel. Then all he had to do was go back for his passport, then home. There was nothing difficult about it.

Lanski felt an intense and sudden sensation, in his stomach.

He swallowed and raised his hand to the ignition key.