Read Online A Kind of Hush by Richard A. Johnson - Free Book Online Page B

seconds, then scurried still crouching to the car.
    Fucking hell,' said Mick. 'What have you been up to now?'
     
     

  Chapter Ten

     
     
     

    I stood by the monument to Dick Whittington and his cat on Highgate Hill, just down the road from the hospital. I was waiting for eleven o’clock and keeping a sharp lookout for anyone that I might know. I had rung the hospital earlier and had been told by the ward sister that I could see Ali for just ten minutes as I was her brother, but I had to wait until the doctors’ rounds were over, and they finished at eleven.
    I was being ultra-careful because it seemed sensible to me that the evil bastard that had jumped me at the hotel could well have gone to my old man and between them they may well have sussed that I would come here.
    It was eleven. Everything seemed okay, so I slipped into the hospital. Ali was a mess. Her face was one big bruise. There was a tube coming out of her nose and another from under the bedclothes about halfway down. That one emptied into a clear plastic bag hooked to the side of her bed. The bag was half-full of blood-stained piss. Both of her arms were in traction and the fingernails on both hands were black and inflamed. Her throat rattled with phlegm as she breathed and her blackened and swollen eyes were twitching as though  some kind of insect was under her eyelids scurrying about.
    I sat down beside the bed and softly called her name. She caught her breath for a second. I called again and this time gently placed my hand on her shoulder, I felt her pull away. I again whispered her name and this time she opened her eyes.
    I gasped. I saw a Dracula film once where Christopher Lee's eyes had turned blood red, and as he died, tears of blood streamed down his face. I remembered laughing. But this wasn't Dracula, this was Alison. I couldn't bear it, I had to force myself to look at her. As she opened her eyes a pool of blood collected in the corner of each as she strained to see who it was that had awoken her.
    'Hi, Ali,' I said softly, 'it's me, Stu.'
    'Stu, is it really you?' she whispered.
    'Yes, toots, it's really me,' I said. I had a massive lump in my throat and was finding it hard to control myself.
    She smiled as best as she could and said, 'It's you all right, toots indeed.' I always used to call her toots when I wanted something.
    I didn't ask her how she was, that was bloody obvious, so I said, 'Jen's safe, I've got her.'
    'Thank God,' she said and breathed a long sigh of relief.
    'I'm going to get him, Ali,' I said.
    'You can't, you don't know, he's
    'He's what?' I asked, 'he's what?'
    'You just can't,' she mumbled with resignation.
    'Course I can and I will.'
    'Please don't, you don't understand,' she said.
    'Understand what?' I asked. 'The slag can't get away  with this.'
    'Look Stu,' she said. 'Just take care of Jen, I don't matter any more, just forget it and look after Jenny and yourself.'
    'Forget it!' I exclaimed. 'You know I can't do that. What else is there Ali? There's something you're not telling me.'
    She went very quiet and started to weep softly.
    'He's got my baby,' she said quietly.
    'He's got what?'
    'My baby, he's got my baby,' she said again between sobs.
    'What baby?' I asked. I was gobsmacked.
    T had another one. A little girl, her name's Cheri, he chose that too,' she said and sobbed softly. 'I don't know what he'll do with her, she's only three.'
    'Right!' I said. 'That's enough. I promise here and now that you will never have to worry again, I'm going to sort it'
    'Not the police,' she said. 'They messed it up last time.'
    'No,' I said, 'not the police.' My mind was in overdrive. The sister told me that I had to go. I kissed Ali gently on the cheek and left.
    I was mad, so fucking mad that it hurt. I ran down the stairs barging past everyone in my path and out of the hospital. I ran up the hill to the church on the corner. In front of the church was a giant crucifix with a figure of Jesus nailed to it.
    'I thought you