He looked uncomfortable, far from relaxed. ‘I’ve parked my car out the back. Will it be safe?’
‘I think so.’ Lily swallowed.
‘You think so?’ He took a step back towards the door. The kind of man who sees his car as an extension of some minuscule part of himself. ‘And what about your friend? Whoever owns this place. They’re not coming back?’
I held my breath. Behind me I felt Sam’s steadying hand on the small of my back.
‘Oh. No. It will be fine.’ She smiled, suddenly reassuring. ‘She won’t be back for ages. Do come in. Would you like a drink, Mr Garside?’
He looked at her as if he were seeing her for the first time. ‘So formal.’ He took a step forward and finally closed the door behind him. ‘Do you have Scotch?’
‘I’ll check. Come through.’
She began to walk to the kitchen, him following, removing his suit jacket. As they entered the living room, Sam walked past me out of the bedroom, strode across the hallway in his heavy boots and locked the inside door to the flat, placing the keys, jangling, in his pocket.
Garside, startled, turned and saw him, joined now by Donna. They stood there in uniform, against the door. He looked at them, then back at Lily, and faltered, trying to work out what was going on.
‘Hello, Mr Garside,’ I said, stepping out from behind the door. ‘I believe you have something to return to my friend here.’
He actually broke out in a spontaneous sweat. Until then, I hadn’t known it was physically possible. His eyes darted about for Lily, but as I had stepped out into the hall she had moved so that she was half behind me.
Sam stepped forward. Mr Garside’s head reached just above his shoulder. ‘The phone, please.’
‘You can’t threaten me.’
‘We’re not threatening you,’ I said, my heart thumping. ‘We would just like the phone.’
‘You’re threatening me just by blocking my exit.’
‘Oh, no, sir,’ said Sam. ‘Actually threatening you would involve mentioning the fact that, if my colleague and I chose, we could pin you down right here and now and inject you with dihypranol, which would slow and ultimately stop your heart. Now that would be a threat, especially as nobody would question the word of the paramedic crew who had apparently tried to save you. And as dihypranol is one of the few drugs that leaves no trace in the bloodstream.’
Donna, her arms crossed across her chest, shook her head sadly. ‘It’s a shame, the way these middle-aged businessmen just drop like flies.’
‘All sorts of health issues. They drink too much, eat too well, don’t take enough exercise.’
‘I’m sure this gentleman here isn’t like that.’
‘You’d hope not. But who knows?’
Mr Garside seemed to have shrunk by several inches.
‘And don’t even think of threatening Lily. We know where you live, Mr Garside. All paramedics have that information to hand if and when they need it. It’s amazing what can happen if you piss off a paramedic.’
‘This is outrageous.’ He was blustering now, his face drained of colour.
‘Yup. It really is.’ I held out my hand. ‘The phone, please.’
Garside glanced around him again, then finally reached into his pocket and handed it, to me.
I tossed it to Lily. ‘Check it, Lily.’
I looked away, in deference to her feelings, while she did so. ‘Delete it,’ I said. ‘Just delete it.’ When I looked back, she had the phone, screen blank, in her hand. She gave a faint nod. Sam motioned to her to throw it to him. He dropped it to the floor and stamped down on it with his right foot, so that the plastic splintered. He crushed it with such violence that the floor shook. I found myself flinching, along with Mr Garside, every time Sam’s heavy boot came down.
Finally, Sam stooped and gingerly picked up the tiny SIM card, which had skidded under the radiator. He examined it, and held it up in front of the older man. ‘Was that the only copy?’
Garside nodded. Moisture was darkening his collar.
‘Of course it’s the only copy,’ said Donna. ‘A responsible member of the community wouldn’t want to take the risk of something like that turning up anywhere, would he? Imagine what Mr Garside’s family would say if his nasty little secret got out?’
Garside’s mouth had compressed into a thin line. ‘You’ve got what you wanted. Now let me leave.’
‘No. I would like to say something.’ My voice, I noted distantly, shook slightly with the effort of containing my fury. ‘You are a sleazy, pathetic little man, and if I –’
Mr Garside’s mouth hooked upwards in a sneer. The kind of man who had never once felt threatened by a woman. ‘Oh, do be quiet, you ridiculous little –’
Something hard glittered in Sam’s eyes and he sprang forward. My arm shot out to restrain him. I don’t remember my other fist pulling back. I do remember the pain that shot through my knuckles as it made contact with the side of Garside’s face. He reeled backwards, his upper body hitting the door, and I stumbled, not expecting the force of the impact. When he righted himself, I was shocked to see blood trickling from his nose.
‘Let me out,’ he hissed, through his fingers. ‘This minute.’
Sam blinked at me, then unlocked the door. Donna stepped away, just about allowing him through. She leaned towards him. ‘Are you sure you don’t want a dressing for that before you go?’
Garside kept his pace measured as he left, but as the door clicked shut behind him, we heard the sound of his expensive shoes picking up into a run down the corridor. We stood in silence until we couldn’t hear them any more. And then, the sound of several people exhaling at once.
‘Nice punch, Cassius,’ said Sam, after a minute. ‘Want me to take a look at that hand?’
I couldn’t speak. I was bent double, swearing silently into my chest.
‘Always hurts more than you think it will, doesn’t it?’ said Donna, patting my back. ‘Don’t stress, sweetheart,’ she told Lily. ‘Whatever he said to you, that old man is nothing. Gone.’
‘He won’t be back,’ said Sam.
Donna laughed. ‘He pretty much crapped himself. I think he’ll be running a mile from you from now on. Forget it, darling.’ She hugged Lily briskly, as you might someone who had toppled off a bike, then handed me the pieces of the broken phone to throw away. ‘Right. I promised to pop round my dad’s before our shift. See you later.’ And then, with a wave, she was gone, her boots clumping cheerfully down the corridor.