‘Come on Deana. We’ll talk downstairs.’
A smile crossed the old woman’s face as she patted Deana’s hand. ‘Off you go dear, I’m sure you have things to talk about.’
Deana followed Luke downstairs and waited until he shut the kitchen door behind them. ‘So, what’s going on with your dad?’
Not sure where to start or how much to say, Deana decided to blurt out a shortened version of the truth. ‘Dad’s been shot. We’ve cleaned the wound and taken the bullet out, but he’ll need antibiotics. We don’t want to involve a doctor, because we don’t want to involve the police. I wondered if you could get any for us… for him…’ Deana trailed off and looked down at the table as Luke placed her cup and saucer in front of her and sat down.
‘Shot? Christ, Deana, your family don’t do things by halves. I thought my life was fucked up.’ Luke’s eyes widened and he let out a low whistle. ‘I already knew there was more to your dad than met the eye, so I’m not that surprised. And yeah,’ he sighed, ‘I can get you the antibiotics, but not until at least lunchtime.’ Luke’s brows furrowed. ‘Why didn’t you just use your dad’s mobile to contact me? He uses it now and again if he needs to get in touch with me.’ Seeing the confused look on her face, Luke grimaced and put his head in his hands. ‘Oh Christ, you didn’t know about it, did you? Me and my big mouth. You can’t tell him I told you.’
‘I won’t. But I wish he’d told me. It would have saved me one hell of a journey and you a lot of embarrassment with me turning up. Anyway, are you sure you can’t get some quicker than lunchtime? I really need the meds now,’ she pleaded.
‘Actually…’ Luke said. ‘Mum had a chest infection a few weeks ago, and got given some antibiotics, but they didn’t agree with her, and they prescribed some different ones. The others will still be upstairs. I can give you those to start off with. As for painkillers, I can give you some of Mum’s morphine patches. The doctor always gives her more if needed, because they don’t always stick on too well.’
Taking a sigh of relief, Deana smiled. ‘Thank you Luke, I really appreciate you putting yourself on the line like this.’
‘You put yourself on the line for me once Deana. It’s payback time.’ He grinned. Looking down at himself, he realised he still wasn’t dressed. In all of the dashing about it had never dawned on him. Now, suddenly, he felt shy. ‘I’d better get dressed and sorted. Let me get those meds for you.’ Standing up, Luke reached for his wallet on the kitchen worktop. ‘And here’s thirty pounds. It should be enough for you to get a taxi home.’
Surprised, Deana looked at the money. ‘I can’t do that, Luke. I’ll get the bus, but thank you.’
‘Just take it Deana. Your dad clearly needs you.’ Pushing the money into her hands, Luke went upstairs and came back down with the medication. ‘There are some other painkillers in there as well. Naproxen is good for pain. If and when you can, let me know how he is, yeah?’
Giving him a weak smile, Deana nodded. ‘I will Luke and thank you. I really appreciate it and so will Dad.’ Without thinking, she reached forward and kissed him on the cheek, making him blush. Then she turned and left to catch a taxi on the high street.
As she approached the pub, Deana felt nervous. Her father could already be dead. And if things had gone differently earlier, they could have all been dead. The very thought of it made her blood run cold. Deep down, she knew whoever had sent those men would be waiting to hear news of whether the job was done. Which meant someone could come back tonight, she thought to herself. Walking into the pub, she was surprised to see that everything looked normal. It was as though last night had never happened.
Maggie was behind the bar and Deana caught her eye. Whatever Dante and her mum had done, they had cleaned this place up to perfection. Heading upstairs, Maggie was hot on her heels and once inside the bedroom, Maggie shut the door. ‘Well? What happened?’
‘I’ve got these. This is a morphine patch and here’s some antibiotics. I’ll be getting more later but we have to wait for now. This place looks amazing. What about all of the blood on the carpet?’
‘What can I say? I’ve never cleaned carpets so quick in my life,’ she laughed.
Deana turned towards the bed where her dad lay. ‘How is he? I must confess I’ve feared the worst. Oh God Mum.’ Deana wrapped her arms around Maggie. ‘What if he had died?’
‘Well, he hasn’t, has he? Look. He’s pale and has a temperature, but he’s mumbling in his sleep. Let’s put this patch on and see if it helps. I’ve already started to spread the word that he’s ill, so if anyone asks, that’s the story. Just tell them we think it’s Covid. I’ve put an ice pack in a tea towel on his forehead to keep the temperature down. We need to get these pills inside him.’ Maggie looked at the antibiotics. ‘Fortunately, they are capsules, so we can take the powder out and just open his mouth and pour it in. Let’s try and sit him up a little bit to get some water inside him.’
Between them they managed to get some water and the medication inside of Alex and even though he was half-conscious, he seemed co-operative before falling back to sleep. ‘That’s the best we can do, love. Only time will tell now.’
‘Where is Dante?’ Deana asked, wondering how her brother had been dealing with it all.
‘Mr Cool as a Cucumber? He helped me and then went to school, keeping everything normal. Christ Deana, I don’t know if we’d have managed without his idea to put the bodies in the freezer! I thought we’d have to stage a break-in and take your dad to the hospital.’
‘Me too,’ Deana agreed. ‘What about the people who sent those gorillas? Won’t they be waiting for an outcome? Surely they will want to know if the job was finished. Maybe we should have gone through their pockets to find out who they were?’
Maggie wrung her hands nervously. She wasn’t sure if she should be telling Deana this but then again, what did it matter? They were all in this together now, after all. ‘When your dad did a job… in the old days.’ Hesitantly, she thought about her words. ‘Well, the word was to keep your head down or disappear for a few days after the hit. No contact so that no one could connect you to the person who’d been killed. That old plan will still be the same I presume, so that will give us a few days’ grace until we have time to think clearly. God, I’m exhausted.’ Maggie sat on the edge of the bed and sighed as tears rolled down her face.
‘Don’t, Mum, or you will start me off. We need to carry on as normal. And I know all about Dad’s past Mum, so don’t worry. He told me where he had hidden the rifle I used to kill that guy,’ Deana said, shaking slightly with shock.
‘You were so brave, Deana love! Me and Dante looked to see if there was anyone else waiting in the shadows, but there wasn’t even a car outside. They must have driven here, but I don’t know where they parked their car. It will have been a stolen one, so the police will probably find it once it’s reported missing.’ She stood up and rubbed her hands together. ‘Right, I’m going to freshen up this bedding up as best as I can. When you pick up the new medication later, will you get more bandages, too? We’re going to need some.’ Maggie pulled back the duvet and saw that Alex’s bandage was soaked with blood and it was seeping through into the sheets and possibly the mattress.
Leaving the room, Deana let out a huge sigh. She too felt exhausted. ‘What a bloody day,’ she muttered to herself. But then she thought of Luke and a smile spread across her face. Maybe it hadn’t been such a bad day after all, she mused to herself.
Days passed until a week had gone by. Luke had got them all the medication they needed and Alex had passed the worst. They had taken it in turns sitting with him through the night mopping his brow, but each day he had got stronger until slowly they could spoon soup into his mouth. And now he was sitting up in bed speaking coherently. Everyone had asked about him, including the police. And Luke had been better than his word and had sent a positive Covid test for them to use as proof of Alex’s continued absence.
They all felt like they were treading on eggshells, permanently lying to everyone, even more than they already were. Once Deana was alone with Alex, she mentioned the mobile phone Luke had told her about and told him about the part he had played in saving his life.
‘He’s a good kid Deana. I saved his life and he saved mine. We’re equal now. But we need to sort those bodies out,’ Alex remarked. ‘I’ve had an idea.’
‘Yeah, Mum’s already sorted a lot of that out. She had a couple of those suit covers in the wardrobe and after we put cling film over them, we managed to get both of them into one of those. We put them so far to the back of the freezer we nearly froze to death.’ She laughed, making Alex laugh too. ‘In the meantime, we have the brewery on our backs wanting to dig up half the beer garden to build a bike shed. All part of their “ditch the car, have a drink” promotion for the summer.’
‘Really?’ A flash of an idea passed through Alex’s brain. ‘They’re digging up the beer garden? That means they’ll have to lay cement, doesn’t it?’
‘Yeah, it’s going to be a pain in the arse. All that noise and builders, although Mum thinks it will bring in “more custom”,’ Deana mimicked as Maggie entered the room.
‘What are you two plotting?’ she laughed.
‘Deana was just telling me about the builders and the bike shed. It seems like God has sent us a winning hand – don’t you think?’ Alex smiled.
Following his train of thought, Maggie’s eyes lit up. ‘Oh my God Alex. Do you think we could get away with it? It would solve a problem. A really big problem.’
Deana looked from her dad to Maggie. ‘Anyone want to let me in on the secret?’
‘We’re going to bury one of the bodies under the bike shed,’ Alex whispered.
‘Yeah, but there are two bodies, Dad, so what about the other one? More to the point, those builders are going to lay the cement in daylight. It will be set by the time they leave. How are we going to put a body underneath it?’
‘Leave that to me and your mum. The second body, as you point out, well, we need him. We need to have a male body found in Kent to satisfy their boss’s curiosity. It’s going to be gruesome, because he can’t have any DNA.’
