Chapter Eighteen

Please read everything that comes before this or the story won't make sense

Chapter Eighteen

I realised my mouth was hanging wide open as I stared at the determination in her eyes.

‘You don’t think it’s just a bit of a coincidence?’ I tested, being as tactful as I could.

Lisa stared around the corner just to make sure the two women were still in front of us. ‘Sometimes coincidences happen,’ she shrugged.

‘No,’ I shook my head firmly, ‘no they don’t, not like this. The first conversation you happen to overhear and it’s over? You know how ridiculous this all sounds.’

She made yet another shushing movement with her hands and carried on her slow creep, apparently oblivious to the truth.

The sun followed us in pockets down the dark alley and where the shade was deepest it was surprisingly cold. I shivered a little. There were houses here, or they seemed like homes, tiny windows that were too dirty to look in and music cutting into the silence every now and then. It was a dull place, away from the bright colours that drew in the tourists.

‘When I’ve had a feeling about something before,’ Lisa whispered, ‘have I ever been wrong?’

I tried to think of a time when she had been wrong about anything, but I couldn’t. It made me angry to think that someone so together with their head screwed on right would be seduced by a string of familiar words. The road seemed never ending, and it was growing darker by the second, the buildings overhead seemed to close on me like a ceiling.

‘We had a plan,’ I reminded her, ‘buried somewhere, we had a good plan. Talk to the police, find out about local murders, we should be doing that.’

‘Trust me,’ Lisa muttered.

‘I don’t think I can,’ I answered honestly, ‘you don’t know what you’re doing.’

She turned and looked at me, with one eye still firm on the women, ‘it’s not just that,’ she said, ‘it’s not just those words,’ and from the anger in her eyes I thought she would have spoken harsher.

‘So what else have you heard?’

‘Anna, the woman with the cane,’ Lisa whispered, ‘her granddaughter is pregnant, by a man they don’t know called Alex. She’s ill and needs a doctor but she’s only seventeen and it’s shameful, so they can’t go to a doctor they know. When they talk about medical help they keep saying the number forty five.’

‘That could be the doctor’s age,’ I hissed back immediately, ‘it could be his address.’ Lisa sniffed at me as if I were being stupid. ‘You’re dragging us into someone’s family,’ I continued, ‘I don’t want to be involved in this.’

I had spoken too loudly, the woman named Anna turned and looked at me. She stared at me with eyes filled with a blank and empty hopelessness. I wondered how hard life had been for her, how much she had suffered and how much she had seen. I felt guilty for being there, for following her and for listening to her problems. I felt myself blush with embarrassment as she stared.

‘You follow?’ She asked in thickly accented English.

‘You speak English?’ Lisa asked.

‘Little,’ Anna’s eyes were still fixed on mine, the other woman was staring at Lisa with distaste, looking her up and down repeatedly.

‘I couldn’t help overhearing,’ Lisa said, ‘I speak a little Spanish myself and I heard you need a doctor.’

The second woman gasped out loud but Anna continued to stare at me without a change in expression. Though I noticed fresh tears threatening to leak from her eyes,‘ none of business,’ she said, and they turned.

The other woman started hissing angrily in Spanish. ‘You’re right,’ Lisa shouted after them, ‘I am being rude.’ Something harsh sounding was directed at Lisa.

‘But I am a doctor,’ Lisa said, ‘I can help you.’

I tried to hide my own gasp as Anna was still staring at me. I felt colder than I had felt since we had been in Cuba, the sweat still trickling down my forehead felt like ice crystals.

‘You doctor?’ Anna asked suspiciously.

‘Yes,’ Lisa said, more convincingly this time, and she took a step towards the women with a reassuring smile. ‘I won’t ask questions, I just want to help, won’t tell anyone.’

Anna glanced at her companion, who shook her head firmly. I waited for a few agonising moments while Lisa spoke to them in Spanish, eventually the tone of voice got calmer, but everything else grew darker still. Overhead a woman glanced out from her balcony at the scene, she smoked a cigarette and ignored the childish screams from inside the flat.

‘We’re following them,’ Lisa said with something strange shining in her eyes. The look was of insane triumph, unfounded suspicions and leads that wouldn’t really lead anywhere. The pressure in the small alley was so harsh that I felt I was being boiled alive. I became lightheaded as the heat continued to close on me, a headache was forming and I felt unsteady on my feet.

She gave me another insane grin and bounded along after the women. Anna’s eyes were dry now, and she had a weak smile on her lips. She walked only on the support of the cane now and there was a noticeable gap between her and the other woman. The other woman threw dark glances back at us and whispered under her breath, words that apparently weren’t intended for anyone but herself.

Anna answered her often in a tone that suggested hope and blind faith in these two strangers who had agreed to help her with nothing to gain from it themselves. I walked on a few paces behind Lisa, who was still distancing herself from the women, though she spoke to Anna with the same hopeful tone to her voice.

After a few moments of enduring this I caught up with the missing steps to talk to Lisa.

‘Could you please tell them that I want to talk privately to you?’ I asked.

Lisa stared at me, ‘they won’t be happy about that,’ she scowled, ‘there’s a sick girl, had you forgotten?’ I felt that boiling sensation again and rolled my hands into fists to stay calm. ‘We could lose our only possible connection that way.’

I was aware of the way my mouth hung open in shock, though I was surprised that anything about Lisa could shock me anymore. ‘I really have to speak with you,’ I said through gritted teeth.

She stopped Anna and said something which made both women fix their eyes on me, since Anna had taken her eyes off me I had relaxed a little, but I remembered what it was like to be faced with that stony, helpless gaze and my anger only increased.

They sat down laboriously on the steps to a grubby front door. They sighed and creaked into the stone, still barely speaking to each other though, the other woman’s mouth was puckered into a thin line of disapproval.

I took Lisa into an archway which looked private enough.

‘What are you doing?’ I rounded on her.

‘Following a lead,’ she shrugged, for the thousandth time since I met her I wondered how she could be so cold and unfeeling.

‘You’re not a doctor,’ I spat at her.

‘They’ll hear you,’ she whispered, stealing a glance around the corner.

‘You’re not a doctor,’ I repeated, ‘how are you going to help this girl?’

‘I’m not,’ she said, plain and straight faced. ‘But what if this is the Alex we’re looking for? If I can get this girl alone for just a moment I can ask her.’

‘This is the worst thing you’ve done yet,’ I hissed back, ‘and you’ve done some pretty bad things.’

‘Sometimes you have to,’ she said, ‘to get what you want.’

That darkly determined look returned to her face and I took a step back. I knew she was capable of pretty much anything, but if we were messing with this young girl’s life, stealing time away from a real doctor, that made us morally bankrupt. I couldn’t help wondering if I was losing a part of myself in cooperating with this.

‘You don’t think you’re going too far this time?’

It happened before I could blink, she slapped me hard across the face. I felt her hand stinging once she had taken it away.

‘Listen,’ she hissed at me, her teeth were grinding together and her eyes were wide and crazed. ‘This is about my family, my sister, it always has been.’

‘I know that,’ I said in a diminished voice, I squinted hard to prevent my eyes from watering.

‘Then you should understand something, it’s only too far when I say it’s too far, because I would have done anything for Angelica. That doesn’t change even after her death.’

I could only nod, her eyes were like the fires of burning skyscrapers, I could see screams and pain behind them, all the things she was capable of. I had been scared of her before, but this was new. She relaxed her face into the reassuring smile she had reserved for Anna. Her expression changed so suddenly that I took another step back from her. Only when her back was turned and she was talking softly with Anna did I allow myself to press a cool hand to my face.

I looked back down the twisting alley, the way which we had come. It was brighter than the way ahead, but where would I go? Like a dog I crawled back to Lisa, kicked and down but still faithful. I had no idea why.

We entered an intricate system of turnings and alleyways. I would never have been able to find my way out again alone. With the two women leading the way the streets grew darker and narrower around us. Instead of tall and straight the buildings were squat and fat, with fixtures that looked stuck on, crumbling balconies and tin chimneys.

There had once been bright paint on these flats, but it was peeling and broken so that everything seemed grey, under the garish colours the wood looked delicate and decaying, this whole part of the city seemed under threat of collapse. There were no beggars down these streets, when we did pass people they were coming back from the town centre, clutching Styrofoam boxes of food, chatting freely and laughing. There were children playing football in one street. An elderly man banged against his grimy window every time the ball hit.

We stopped, mercifully, by the entrance to what looked like a block of flats, flats that had been taken from three completely different blocks and stuck together. The door was painted turquoise with a black rusted knocker. The paint was flaking, but the colour was still visible over the grey. On a balcony a young woman nodded sombrely at Anna and her friend and eyed us darkly.

We dodged past a man smoking a fat cigar on the tarnished steps. Frothing water wound through the crack separating this building from the next.

As we made our way up the rickety winding stairs I turned to Lisa. ‘If I carry on, I can’t go back.’ I whispered.

‘Of course you can go back,’ she sighed, ‘just follow the path we came on.’ She pretended she didn’t know what I really meant, but of course she knew.

Anna stopped by a door also painted brightly, a lime green this time, a light in the dark hallway flickered and buzzed, I could see the outlines of dead moths inside the glass globe. She turned to speak to Lisa and Lisa answered in that caring, understanding voice that made my stomach turn. Anna placed her hand on Lisa’s and ran the other along a cross which hung from a gold chain around her neck. I panicked inside, what were we about to face, if Anna was so willing to put her trust into a stranger. She briefly looked at me again, with sad, kind eyes.

As soon as the door was opened two women came rushing to us. One was the woman we had seen on the balcony.

She looked young, but there were worry lines pressed into her face. ‘English?’ She asked.

‘Yes,’ Lisa pushed forwards, ‘I’m Karen, this is Jack.’

‘Vala,’ she said with narrowed eyes, she looked at Lisa’s outstretched hand but she didn’t take it. Vala’s eyes were heavily made up and her hair curled from a loose bun. The blue eyeliner had worked into the creases above her eyes, I noticed this as she turned the other woman, whose name we still didn’t know, and they exchanged dark glances.

Anna pointed to us and spoke to Vala. They spoken pleasantly enough, and the suspicion died from Vala’s eyes a little. She still puckered up her mouth into a thin line though, it was a look of distaste we had seen from Anna’s companion, and I had to assume they were related.

The second younger woman seemed just a teenager, and she stayed behind, demurely or sullenly watching the floor, I hadn’t decided which yet.

‘Can we trust you?’ Vala asked us in clipped English.

‘Yes,’ I Lisa said firmly.

‘We don’t want the authorities informed,’ she went on, ‘and we don’t want the local doctor to know. Are you practising in England?’

‘Yes,’ Lisa lied, ‘I’m a family doctor. We’re on holiday here.’ She signalled to me and I wished she wouldn’t acknowledge me. Vala’s eyes rested on me just a little too long, my expression must have betrayed how I felt.

‘I’m sorry,’ Vala smiled, ‘but we’ve already had problems with one doctor, and Anna is willing to trust anyone. You understand.’

Lisa nodded, one look conveying her promise of discretion and an unwavering honesty that was so far removed from Lisa’s real character I could have laughed. A shrill scream ran through the small flat.

‘Maria!’ Anna wailed and she rushed through a doorway.

‘What exactly is wrong with her?’ Lisa asked Vala. The scream had shaken me and left me cold, but Lisa was composed as ever. Hanging next to the balcony there was a washing line, the garments on it were bright and fashionable, the sort of things a teenage girl might wear, there was a poster of a shirtless movie star on the door which Anna had rushed into. I swallowed hard to hide my guilt.

‘She is having a baby,’ Vala turned her eyes to the floor. There was a blush in her cheeks and disapproval painted into her creased face. I couldn’t understand the fear, but I knew how different my own society was to this one, and Anna wore her faith for everyone to see. That was when I saw the religious icon juxtaposed with the movie star, there was more shame here than just in what the neighbours thought.

‘She is in labour?’ Lisa asked.

‘No,’ Vala shook her head firmly, ‘she has many months to go.’

‘How far along is she?’ The concerned doctor voice was surprisingly well rehearsed despite this being that particular persona’s first outing.

‘We don’t know,’ Vala said, she seemed shocked by the question.

‘Is she showing?’

Vala stared blankly at Lisa.

‘I’m just trying to get a clearer picture before I examine her,’ Lisa smiled, ‘are you sure that is the problem, that she’s pregnant?’

Vala sighed at the floor. ‘She told us,’ she sounded angry, ‘after she met that boy,’ she hissed the word angrily, ‘she fell ill, she stopped eating and drinking. She couldn’t move from the bed, and she complained of a fever, then she felt extreme pains in her chest. She told us what she had done because she was worried the pain might mean the baby was in danger.’ Another scream seemed to shake the whole flat.

‘I would very much like to meet her now,’ Lisa said calmly, ignoring the screams.

‘She may not be able to speak,’ Vala said with her voice shaking, ‘she has moments of intense pain where she can’t talk to anyone.’

Lisa nodded. Vala barred the door when I tried to enter, ‘my boyfriend is a medical student, he might be able to help.’ Another lie, lies just fell out of Lisa effortlessly.

She looked at me, I knew she didn’t believe for one second that I was a medical student, but I was allowed to enter the room all the same. I wish I could’ve waited outside, but in my strange way I really did hope I could help. If Lisa was so far into all this that she would carry on the lie at the risk of the young girl’s health I might be able to stop her, somehow.

The room was dark, heavy black curtains were drawn across the windows and the lights were off. The teenage girl who had come to the door was leaning against one wall biting her lip, and Anna was kneeled at the foot of the bed, she looked as if she were praying, the other older woman was comforting her with a firm hand on her shoulder.

It was the smell which hit me first, it was a burning acidic smell, too sweet. It was the smell of decay, and I recognised it with a flush of excitement which sickened me. It was the same horrible smell that had been on the children in Norway.

Lisa approached the bed, adopting an official look to her movements. The smell made my eyes water, it was like stagnant water in an open sewer. I found it strange that it was confined to this room.

‘Maria?’ Lisa asked the thing on the bed with gentle concern.

At first I thought the bed was empty, it was so dark I couldn’t see properly, but the person in the bed was so diminished that their body was moulded into the sheets. I forced myself to move closer as the smell got worse. She was deathly pale, shinning in the dark, and her mouth was slightly open, her lips dry and cracked.

Dark hair was spread out on the pillows like weeds on a beach, tangled and greasy. The body was giving off small jerks every few seconds.

‘Alex!’ The girl called out so abruptly that it made me jump. Then she screamed again and jolted, her arms thrashed out wildly. Anna grabbed the flailing arm and whispered scared prayers to her granddaughter.

‘She keeps asking for Alex,’ Vala’s lip curled up in disgust.

‘And Alex is?’ Lisa asked.

‘Who do you think?’ Vala spat back, ‘are you going to try and help her?’

‘Of course,’ Lisa said briskly, she approached the bed. I thought I saw her stumble for just a moment. She said something to Anna who nodded and wiped back tears as she stepped away from the bed. Lisa peeled the blanket away from Maria’s frail body but the girl lashed out with her arm, her body jerked as she screamed again. Lisa pulled harder and the blanket fell away to leave a starving thin body.

Lisa gently knelt down and pulled the nightgown over the girl’s thigh. I gasped, there was a deep gouge on her leg, a chunk of flesh had been ripped away, the skin was torn and rough, I could see that much. There was purple bruising around the wound, and the dried blood was black in the dark room.

‘How did she get this?’ Lisa asked in English.

‘We cleaned it properly,’ Vala said, ‘it’s not a problem,’

‘How did she get it?’ Lisa asked, less calmly.

Vala looked at the floor again. Anna began to speak, Lisa’s face was somewhere between disgust and intrigue.

‘I’m sorry you had to hear that,’ Vala said, ‘Anna is not as mindful of her words as she should be.’ She threw a reproachful glance at the old woman.

‘What did she say?’ I asked as Maria called out for Alex again. A solitary tear fell from Vala’s make-up caked eyes.

‘She told me that she knows all about European men and the kind of depraved things they like to do to women.’ Lisa said.

‘You mean?’ I held my breath as she smell crept over me again.

Lisa nodded, ‘he bit her.’