Read Online Falling by Gordon Brown - Free Book Online Page A

Wrong phone. I need a phone
that can’t be traced. The safe. I take out the key and open it. I pull out a
phone. I hit the power button but nothing happens. I hit it again. Dead
battery. I pull out another phone. Dead as well. I fumble in my pocket for the
battery from the first phone I used. It is the wrong make. I reach for the
office phone. I have no choice. Anyway the phone I’m calling is a Pay As You Go
- not traceable. I dial the number and wait. It rings and rings then cuts out.
I try again. Still nothing. I try a third time and it is answered.
    ‘I told you not to phone again.
Anyway it’s done. He’s outside the building. Don’t think he’ll make it. Need to
go.’
    All of this was said in one
breath. The connection is severed. I ring back but the line is dead. What’s
done? Not Leonard. Outside the building? What building? This building? Of
course this building. Didn’t they tell me not ten minutes ago that they were in
the building?
    ‘Don’t think he’ll make it?’
    That means he isn’t dead yet. I
kick back from my desk. The chair leaves a mark in the wall that will need
filler.
    Outside the building. Leonard
Thwaite is outside the building. Dying outside my building!
    I dive through the office and hit
all the lift buttons. Up and down. The lift arrives. I jump in and press for the
ground. I pause. The top floor button is lit. I realise there is a woman in the
lift and a second later I’m back on my floor waiting on the next lift. I look
up. None of the lifts are within ten floors of me. I decide to take the stairs.
I know this is irrational. Waiting on a lift will be far quicker but I need to
be doing something. I hammer through the fire escape door.
    The stairs vanish under my feet -
three steps at a time. There are two flights of stairs per floor. At the bottom
of each flight I fling myself round by the hand rail, I pick up speed. Twice I
miss my footing and come within inches of a cropper.
    The final flight appears and then
I’m out in the lobby. I can see a large crowd outside. I rush to join them. The
sound of an approaching ambulance can be heard. I squeeze my way into the crowd
and towards the front. I ignore the indignant mutterings as I force myself
through.
    In the centre I find two guards,
a policeman and a man lying on the ground. The policeman is beginning to push
people back, telling them to move on. He is standing between me and the man on
the pavement. I edge round to get a better look. He confronts me and asks me to
move along. I try to ignore him. He gently grabs my arm and steers me away. I
contemplate saying I know the man but realise that would be folly. I pretend to
walk away. I then circle back to the other side. The policeman keeps moving
everyone on. He notices I’m not leaving and he starts over to me. I decide to
call it quits and walk off.
    The frustration is immense. I
need to know if the man on the ground is Leonard. I need to know that if it is
Leonard then is he alive? I need to know that if he is alive then will he stay
alive?
    I stop walking away and make my
way over to the building side of the pavement. I edge myself back to the scene.
If the policeman asks I’ll say I work there. Hardly a lie.
    I pass by the circle of people
and gain the front entrance of the building before taking a further eight or
nine steps. I turn and walk back to the incident. This time the policeman is at
the far side of the crowd talking to someone else.
    I move in.
    The guard is still kneeling down
next to the man. I have to move round to get a better view. I see the blood,
running from body to gutter. The man looks like Leonard from this angle. I try
to get a better view. The man is curled in a ball on the ground and I can’t be
sure. I keep circling, my eyes fixed on the man’s head. I bump into someone and
look up. The policeman. ‘Have I some interest in what is going on?’ ‘No.’ ‘Wasn’t
I told to move on?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘So why am I back?’ I’m struggling on that