Someone To Save you

by Paul Pilkington

  And that’s why she looked back.

  The girl was gone.

  Susan felt a stab of pain. She’d allowed herself to hope, and it hurt.

  She turned back around, and there she was, standing just a few feet away. It felt like a dream - one which she was desperate not to wake from. It had been three years, but she still looked essentially the same – the almost-black hair she had inherited from her father, still shoulder-length, the bright blue eyes from her grandparents, and the face that seemed to always offer a challenge.

  Her attitude had come from her mother.

  ‘Jody? It’s really you?’ She stepped forward, wanting to touch her and confirm that this was really happening.

  Jody nodded, holding her gaze, but taking a step back. ‘We need to go somewhere quiet. Over here.’

  Susan followed her daughter around the back of the buildings and towards a car park, her head reeling from what was happening. She felt dizzy, sick.

  They stopped at the back of a van, hidden from view. Susan wanted to reach out and hold her, but she resisted, instead taking in her face. Close up, time and experience had left its mark.

  ‘Jody, I can’t believe it’s you, I can’t believe you’re standing here. You’re okay. I thought you might be dead. We looked so hard, the police looked, for years we searched the streets, put up posters, but we couldn’t find you.’

  Jody looked to her feet.

  ‘I’m sorry, mum.’

  ‘You should have called. I know you weren’t happy, with school, with your dad and me, the way things were, but you should have called. Just one phone call, to let us know you were okay.’

  Jody seemed unmoved. ‘We haven’t got time to discuss this now.’

  Susan flinched. ‘Not got time?’

  ‘You and dad need to get away.’

  ‘Get away?’

  ‘For a few weeks. Go on holiday, go visit Aunt Edith in Scotland, go anywhere.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘You don’t need to understand. Please, just do it.’

  ‘But we can’t just away. Your father has got work. He can’t just decide to go on holiday without any notice.’

  ‘Mum, please, this isn’t about going on holiday. This is about saving your life, mum.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You’ve got to get away, or I don’t know what they’ll do to you.’

  ‘They? Who’s they? You’re in trouble, Jo. We can help you.’

  Jody laughed at the suggestion. ‘You can help by doing what I say. Take dad and go to Scotland. Do it today. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going. Stay there until I call you.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘No buts, Mum. Just do it.’

  Louisa stared at the phone as she turned it over in her hand, as if she was willing it to disappear. Her jaw clenched, lost in thought. Sam waited next to her on the sofa, saying silent. They needed to talk about this, of course, but he felt it was appropriate if Louisa took the lead. She would speak when she was ready.

  ‘I’ve been crazy to trust him,’ she stated finally, still glaring at the phone. ‘Blinded by love. It was him all along. Marcus killed Cathy, and he’s got Anna.’ She turned to Sam. ‘That’s what you think, isn’t it?’

  ‘No,’ Sam said, studying her surprised reaction.

  ‘You don’t think Marcus is behind all this?’

  ‘Do you?’

  Louisa looked down at the phone, her brow creased in concentration. ‘No,’ she said, her relief obvious. ‘I don’t think he’s behind all this, I really don’t. And I don’t think he killed Cathy.’ She held up the phone. ‘But what about this?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Sam admitted.

  Silence again descended for a few seconds.

  ‘Why are you so sure?’ Louisa asked.

  ‘About Marcus?’

  ‘Yes. A few days ago you still thought he murdered Cathy, and you suspected he was the one doing all this. I mean, I can explain the way I feel as being blind loyalty, or love. But it’s not the same for you. You were so sure. What’s changed? ‘

  Sam pondered on that. ‘I just know,’ he said. ‘I looked in his eyes when he said he had nothing to do with it and I believed him. For the first time since that night, I had the courage to listen to what he was saying. And now, no, I don’t think he killed my sister. What you told me about Cathy and Marcus being together just reinforces that.’

  ‘But what about the phone? What does it mean?’

  ‘Marcus is connected in some way,’ Sam said. ‘I saw his face at the art gallery. Something shocked him, and I’m sure it’s about Anna. I’m not saying that he knows where Anna is, or who has got her. But he knows something. He knows something. That’s why we’ve got to find him.’

  Louisa pulled out her other phone. ‘I’ll try and call him again.’ Once again, there was no reply.

  ‘Can you think of anywhere where he might be?’ Sam tried. ‘Some place he might have mentioned during the past few weeks? Or a name, anything? The people who have been hassling him, the gang, did he ever say where they’re based?’

  Louisa shook her head.

  Sam sat back, frustrated with the lack of leads. Then he had a thought. ‘Victoria Friedman,’ he said. ‘Marcus said that he thought she’d known more than she was letting on. Maybe he went back to challenge her about whatever he’d seen in the drawing.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Louisa said.

  ‘Come on,’ Sam said, moving up from the sofa. ‘It’s the best option we’ve got at the moment.’

  They left the flat and headed downstairs. But Sam’s mobile rang just as they exited the building.

  ‘Sam, how quickly can you get to the hospital?’ It was Professor Khan. His voice had an uncharacteristic edge to it.

  It wasn’t like him to be anything other than calm. Something out of the ordinary was happening. Sam thought quickly. ‘Twenty minutes.’

  ‘Good. I need you here right away. Your little patient Sophie has got the heart she’s been waiting so long for. It’s due to arrive here by helicopter within the hour, and I need you to be there by then.’

  A donor heart had been found. This was amazing news; news a lot of people had been longing for all these years. But how could he help? ‘I don’t understand. I’m suspended.’

  ‘Not anymore,’ he replied. ‘Things have changed. You’re now assisting me in this extremely important operation.’

  Sam explained the situation to Louisa, and then they caught a taxi over to the hospital. Just over twenty minutes after the conversation with Professor Khan, Sam entered the cardiac centre. The place was on red alert. This was the most high profile surgery of the year so far – all the staff had followed Sophie’s progress since her very first visit to the hospital those years ago – and now was the time. The adrenalin was flowing.

  The young nurse Maria Hennessey was by the nursing station, sorting out paperwork. She looked up, saw Sam and smiled, her eyes beaming. ‘Welcome back.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Sam replied.

  ‘Has the organ arrived yet?’

  ‘No, but it’s just a few minutes away. They’ve flown it in from France.’

  Sam nodded, thinking through how the day might go. It was a high risk operation, and there were certainly no guarantees it would work. ‘Are Sophie’s parents here?’

  ‘We’ve called them. They’re on their way.’

  ‘And how’s Sophie?’

  Maria handed Sam a blue folder. ‘All in here,’ she said. ‘But she’s doing well. Professor Khan seems confident.’

  Sam leafed through the folder. Her observations looked good. It would give her every chance. And he was being entrusted with the shared responsibility of giving her the best chance at a new life. For now he would have to try and compartmentalise the torment of Anna’s whereabouts.

  Sam looked up from the notes, glanced around and then asked the question he’d been desperate to ask since that initial phone call requesting his assistance. ‘Where’s Miles?’
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  ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘He was around early on, but he just disappeared.’ She lowered her voice. ‘There’s a rumour that he’s been suspended.’

  Sam couldn’t believe it. ‘What?’

  ‘Sam, better get ready.’

  Sam turned around. Professor Khan was standing behind them, his face serious.

  Sam nodded, resisting the temptation to ask him for more details about Mile’s whereabouts.

  Now was not the time.

  For the moment, despite everything else that was going on, Sophie was all that mattered.

  43

  ‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’

  Sam turned to face Louisa, pausing at the door of his office as he was about to leave for the preparation room. It was nearly time. The heart had arrived by air ambulance, direct from Toulouse. The surgical team were primed. Sophie had undergone her pre-theatre checks.

  ‘Two hours ago the hospital weren’t even letting you in the building,’ she continued. ‘And suddenly, with no explanation, they’re asking you to assist in a life-or-death operation.’

  ‘I have to do this,’ Sam replied. He turned over Louisa’s words in his mind some more. It was true, in the pre-operation briefing Professor Khan hadn’t mentioned the suspension once, despite having time alone where even such a sensitive issue could be discussed. It was as if the whole thing had never happened. He also didn’t explain Miles’s absence. Instead the Professor had stuck to script, outlining Sophie’s case and how he was going to play it. But such focus wasn’t out of character. Professor Khan always had tunnel vision in the time leading up to surgery, and that was certainly no bad thing. ‘Explanations will have to come later.’

  Louisa moved towards him. ‘It isn’t exactly the best of circumstances for you to be operating.’

  Sam pursed his lips.

  ‘You’re under so much pressure. And you’re tired, Sam, I can see it.’

  Sam pinched at the bridge of his nose. Louisa was right. He had been exhausted, and the operation, certain to take several hours and last well into the night would be punishing, even for someone with adequate rest. But since Professor Khan’s phone call, a swollen river of adrenaline had gushed through his body, extinguishing any feelings of tiredness. And now, on the brink, he was like an athlete ready for the hard race. There was no turning back. Not because he couldn’t, but because he didn’t want to.

  Louisa closed the gap between them. ‘Tell Professor Khan about what’s happening. Tell him that Anna is missing.’

  Sam shook his head.

  ‘If he knew what was going on, he wouldn’t let you anywhere near that theatre, Sam, and you know it.’

  Sam avoided her gaze.

  ‘Tell me I’m wrong,’ she pressed.

  Now Sam met her challenge, eye to eye. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘If I told Professor Khan what was happening, he’d tell me to go home. Then he’d have to draft in someone else for the operation. That would take time; time that we haven’t got.’

  ‘They could get someone else though.’

  ‘Not quickly enough. Sophie needs me,’ Sam added, surprising himself with what he had just said.

  Louisa looked almost amused. ‘Sophie needs you, or you need Sophie?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You need this, Sam; you need to save this little girl.’

  Sam knew just what she was alluding to. ‘I want to save all of my patients.’

  ‘But Sophie is different. It’s more than just a doctor wanting to save a patient, it’s personal.’

  ‘You sound like Miles Henderson.’

  ‘Sam, can you deny that this case is different?’

  Sam laughed off the suggestion, but Louisa was undeterred.

  ‘It has been from the start, Sam. From that very first moment when I heard you talk about Sophie, when I saw how you were with her and her parents, I could see what was happening. For you Sophie represents the chance to save an innocent girl in a way that you couldn’t save Cathy.’ She let that thought sink in. ‘Tell me I’m wrong.’

  The comment hurt. She was right, and he couldn’t deny it, even though he had tried to over the years. Sophie did represent something more than he had admitted, even to himself. He turned away to face the bank of sinks that ran along the wall.

  ‘I shouldn’t have said that,’ Louisa said, her voice softening. ‘Just be sure that you’re okay to do this. If something does go wrong, I don’t want you to come out thinking that it was your fault. I want you to go in there knowing that you’re going to perform at the top of your game. If you go in there thinking about Anna, or Marcus, or me, then you’re asking for big trouble. And I know you, if something goes wrong, you’ll never forgive yourself. Just like with Cathy.’

  Sam placed his hands on the sink and stared at the wall, exhaling one long breath. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘I do need to do this for myself.’ He turned around. ‘And maybe Sophie is all about me wanting to make up for not being able to save Cathy. Maybe you’re right, maybe that’s what my whole career has been about – saving as many people as I can because I couldn’t save my own sister from that sick bastard who raped and murdered her.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Sam.’

  ‘But even with all that, I want to do this because I feel like I’m the best person to be in there with her. Maybe that’s arrogance, I don’t know, but I really feel that she’s got a better chance if I’m in that theatre. And if I thought, for one second, that I wasn’t up to the task, then I wouldn’t go in there, Louisa. I really wouldn’t. You’ve got to trust me.’

  Louisa contemplated that.

  ‘I wouldn’t do anything that I thought would put Sophie at risk,’ he added. ‘You know I wouldn’t.’

  Eventually Louisa nodded.

  Sam smiled his appreciation. ‘Thanks for trusting me.’

  Louisa looked thoughtful. ‘You couldn’t have done anything to save her,’ she said. ‘None of us could. It took me a long time to realise it. Maybe I only just have.’

  Sam didn’t need to ask for clarification about what Louisa meant. He simply nodded. ‘I know. I think I’m only just realising that too.’

  Louisa placed a hand on his arm. ‘I’ll be there when you come out,’ she said, ‘for as long as it takes.’

  ‘You don’t have to,’ Sam replied. ‘It could be a very long night.’

  ‘That’s fine,’ she said, ‘I offered to wait with Sarah in the family room. She doesn’t want to be on her own tonight.’

  ‘Tom’s not with her?’

  ‘No, he’s still missing. She hasn’t seen him now for days.’

  Sam shook his head. ‘He should be here, with his family. Where the hell is he?’

  Sarah Jackson managed to raise a smile as Sam stepped through into the family room. But her face told a different story, bearing the stress and strain of the situation. She looked like a woman on the edge, in danger that just a gentle puff of wind could send her plummeting into the abyss. He would have to tread very carefully.

  ‘I’m so glad it will be you in there, Sam,’ she said, standing up to greet him, her smile forced and nervous. They both sat back down. ‘Is everything going okay?’

  Sam nodded. ‘All the preparations have gone fine.’

  ‘So this is really it?’ she said.

  ‘Yes.’

  She ran a hand through her hair, and then sat back, her head against the wall, looking up as if for divine intervention. ‘I wish Tom was here.’

  ‘I know,’ Sam agreed. ‘Have you heard anything from him?’

  ‘Not a word,’ she said. ‘He’s still not answering his mobile. He hasn’t turned up for work since he disappeared. I’ve called friends, family, work colleagues. I’ve been to places where I think he might go – places we visited together – parks, museums, the cinema. I even went to the Zoo,’ she lamented, her laugh humourless. ‘Can you believe it? I paid and walked around, looking for my husband in London Zoo.’

  ‘I’m sure he’s okay.’
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  ‘Oh, I’m sure he is,’ she said. ‘But what about me and Sophie?’ She turned to face Sam, searching desperately for an answer. ‘Doesn’t he care about us at all?’ Her face registered regret as soon as she asked the question.

  ‘I’m certain he does,’ Sam comforted. ‘I know it’s hard to understand what he’s done, but I’m sure it’s because he’s upset. It’s not because he doesn’t care about you, or Sophie. He loves you both more than anything.’

  ‘I should have seen it coming,’ she said. ‘The other day, when Sophie deteriorated and I just left him here on his own to deal with things, something changed in him. I should never have left him like that. I don’t know why I did it. I think I just had to get away, I felt like I was suffocating with everything that was going on.’ She shook her head. ‘I just wish I’d realised things were that bad.’

  ‘You couldn’t have done anything.’

  ‘I’ve left a message on his phone,’ she said. ‘I’ve told him you’re doing the operation tonight. Maybe he’ll be here.’

  ‘I hope so.’

  Sam waited a few beats. ‘The nurses have explained the operation, and how long it’s likely to take?’

  She nodded.

  ‘And you know about the bed next door?’

  ‘I won’t be sleeping.’

  Sam nodded. ‘Louisa will be with you. If you want anything, just ask – drinks, food, something to read…’

  ‘Will there be updates? Updates on how it’s going?’

  ‘I can’t promise anything,’ Sam replied. ‘Possibly – but usually we don’t tend to comment until after it’s over.’

  Sarah nodded.

  ‘But as soon as it’s over, I’ll come to see you.’

  She smiled. ‘Thanks, Sam.’ For a second she just looked at him, and Sam could see the question in her teary eyes. ‘What are the chances?’

  This was of course what any relative really wanted to know, but ironically it was the one question he could never really answer. ‘As good as they can be,’ Sam replied. ‘Much better than they were a week ago. Sophie is a fighter. And she’s in the best hands. Professor Khan is a world class surgeon.’