I blinked my eyes open and tried to angle my head as if to drain the sound out of one ear. Edith’s face loomed up in front of mine.
“Are you okay, dear?” Edith asked, her hands on either side of my face as she tilted it around. She dipped her head so she could look at my neck and then tilted my face back to hers. “Bridget?”
I gave her a nod. She stared into my face for a moment and then disappeared. And then I saw where the screaming was coming from. My housemates were climbing over Richards like a swarm of ants. At least I assumed it was Richards. I couldn’t see anything through the mess of limbs.
“Bridget’s alive,” Anna announced from the side of the melee. I wasn’t surprised to see that she wasn’t involved. My housemates peeled off him and launched toward me. I saw Richards try to get up. Kate aimed a flat-footed kick into the side of his knee. He cried out, dropped to his knees and then she swung her fist at his face. He toppled like a tree. If I’d have been able I’d had cheered.
Not only because he’d been incapacitated by a group of women but because punching a GB in the face must have felt amazing to Kate.
“Bridget!” The slapping of Oz’s flip-flops echoed down the escalators. He got to the bottom and took in the whole scene. Kate standing guard over an unconscious Richards, who she’d rolled onto his side so he didn’t choke on his own blood, which was more than I’d have done. Anna holding up the wraparound dress and admiring her reflection. Petal wrapped around me as if I were her favourite cuddly toy, Pam trying to examine my injuries and Lucy patting me on the head, scowling as she scanned the rest of the shop floor as if looking for more threats.
“Leonard!” Oz roared. Like, literally roared.
I felt like everything on the shop floor vibrated. Or maybe that was just my head.
“Are you okay?” Oz called to Kate as he jogged over to us and she nodded.
“I’m okay too.” Anna declared as she waded into the dress section.
Oz eased Petal off me and helped me to my feet. He moved my collar out of the way to get a good look at my neck. I smiled and patted his shoulder. It was okay. Richards was down. Everything was okay.
Oz gave a small shake of his head. “That’s not the point.”
I shrugged. And then movement over Oz’s shoulder caught my attention. Officer Leonard was hovering over Richards and saying something to Kate. Oz was still cataloguing my injuries. I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. His head whipped around.
“It appears Ms Green has broken her parole restrictions by attacking a member of the GBs, Officer Salier. I’m going to have to take her with me,” Officer Leonard called to us.
Kate squared her shoulders and focused her attention into the distance.
“I did it,” I said. At least I tried to but it came out as a croak. And it hurt.
“What was that, Ms Sway?” Officer Leonard asked.
“I did it,” I said, stumbling over and standing directly in front of Kate. Petal moved up and stood next to me, holding me up and making sure to keep Kate behind us.
“Is that what he is going to say when he wakes up?” Officer Leonard asked.
“He killed people,” I croaked. “Who cares what he says? Who are you going to believe? Me or him?”
“You understand there will be repercussions?” Officer Leonard asked.
“Like ice cream?” I asked hopefully.
“He was strangling her when we got here. Bridget defended herself,” Lucy said as she strolled over to us, still scanning the store. She stood on my other side and kicked Richards’ foot.
“You can’t punish her for not letting him kill her,” Petal said. “That’s not right.”
“Did you break his nose, too?” Officer Leonard asked me as he crouched down to examine Richards’ face.
I nodded with a grin. I was proud of that. I couldn’t wait to tell Sabrina. Officer Leonard arched an eyebrow at my grin and I dimmed it a little to a more appropriate, less psychotic, level.
“Who did he admit to killing?” Officer Leonard asked as he beckoned an unfamiliar GB over. The GB placed a hand on Richards and they disappeared.
“Jeremy, Magnificent Malcolm, Allseeing Eric, Zendar the Mighty.” It was hard to talk but I needed to get it all out. “And he admitted to attacking Madame Zorina to deflect the blame onto Janice. He faked a form in the records office. And he’s killed other mediums before this.”
For the first time since I’d know him the amiable smile dropped from Officer Leonard’s face. “What do you mean before this?”
“He thinks that the GBs need more male mediums so he’s been killing people for a while,” I said.
“Well, that’s creepy,” Lucy muttered. “I thought you were meant to be the good guys.”
“I’m taking everyone home now,” Oz announced. “We’ll come and give statements tomorrow morning.”
“Anna. We’re going,” Pam called.
“Okay.” Anna made her way over to us. Officer Leonard’s eyes narrowed on the three dresses she was holding. She lifted them for him to see better. “I brought these with me in case anyone needed a change of clothes.”
Lucy shook her head at Anna. “You’re such a klepto.”
“What’s a klepto?” asked Petal.
“Someone who can’t help stealing,” Pam whispered back.
“We’re going.” Oz gestured for everyone to hold hands. We did and he tunnelled us into the back garden. “You all go inside. I’m going to take Bridget to a doctor to get checked. Will one of you make sure Katie ices her hand, please?”
“She prefers to be called Kate,” Pam informed Oz.
“Is that right?” Oz asked. “Then will one of you make sure Kate has some ice for her hand?”
“Can’t we come with you?” Petal asked.
“I don’t want to go,” Anna said.
“Guys, come on. Cut me some slack here,” Oz said.
“Okay.” Petal hugged me and then tentatively reached out a hand to Kate. Kate looked at it. She didn’t take it but she stepped closer to Petal and they walked toward the house together with Pam and Lucy following closely behind. Shockingly, Anna had already gone inside.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Oz tunnelled us to what reminded me of a dentist’s waiting room. Everything from the carpet to the sofa to the walls was mint green. Maybe it was the minty fresh idea that made me think dentist, not doctor. We sat in the empty waiting room.
“Are you okay?” Oz asked.
“My throat hurts,” I whispered. “And my neck.”
“I’m sure. Anything else?” Oz was eyeing me as if I’d broken my legs and was lying about it for some reason.
I held up the whistle. “Well, I’d like a more reliable method of communication, please? And I don’t want to go shopping anymore.”
Oz laughed. “I’m going to need that in writing. And we’ll see what we can do about this.” Oz tugged on the whistle.
“Are you mad at me?” I asked.
“You did everything right here. As much as you could.” Oz put his arm around my shoulders and I leaned into the sideways hug, resting my head on his shoulder. For a long minute, I felt at peace. We sat in silence. Everything hurt. Everything.
“And Kate is making an effort. How did you manage that?”
“I’m amazing.”
“I know. But that wasn’t what I asked.”
I lifted my head off his shoulder to grin at him. He looked down at me and held my gaze for a long moment.
“Bridget?”
Oz and I both jumped and separated. I turned to see Alexander standing in the doorway.
“Oh, Bridget!” Alexander crossed the floor in three strides and picked me up off the chair and wrapped me up in an extremely painful hug. “I don’t know how you did it but I know you did it. I know you made them let me go. And I did just like you said. When they abducted me I asked for my parole officer.” Alexander released me and held me at arm’s length. He saw my neck and grimaced. “That looks sore. Ho
w did that happen?”
I shrugged. And half turned to introduce Oz to Alexander and motioned for Oz to explain. He did, briefly and to numerous gasps from Alexander.
It turned out that Treble had been supposed to take me to evac point B. And despite my housemates loudly questioning Officer Leonard about my absence, he had decided to wait to check on me until Oz returned from the police station. When Officer Leonard finally dropped the blocking, everyone had tunnelled to save me. Oz had, accurately but tardily, assumed I’d be hiding in the lingerie section so that’s where he tunnelled to, but Anna convinced my housemates that I’d be at the fitting rooms trying clothes on and ignoring the fire alarm.
Officer Leonard had tunnelled to rescue his GB brethren who, for some reason, Richards hadn’t killed before he came after me. I interpreted that to mean, despite me being a woman, he considered me more of a threat. I took just a little bit of pride in that.
I left Oz trying to reassure a sobbing Alexander I was fine when the doctor called me in. By the time we got back home Pam had helped Kate to finish making the cheesecake and it was setting in the fridge. Petal offered to scoop me some out, despite Pam’s protests and Kate’s scowls, but the doctor had filled me full of apricots, the afterlife version of painkillers, so I was feeling pretty queasy. And I was too tired to do anything other than go straight to bed. My housemates were banished from my room for a night or two on doctor’s orders so no one accidentally slept on me and damaged me. Maybe it was because the apricots had knocked me out or because I had the whole bed to myself for a change or because I wasn’t worried Kate was going to murder me or anyone else in the house while we slept but I woke up early. Like super early.
I left a note for Oz and went for a walk along the beach. I had intended to visit my parents but something my mam had said about me haunting them made me reconsider. I was on my third cup of tea and second dose of apricots when Sabrina sat next to me in the canteen.
“Okay, so I know you don’t want to investigate but I really think we need to look into the GBs as suspects. Definitely this Treble.”
I frowned at her. “What?”
“I was pulled in by the GBs yesterday for pretty much no reason and then released late last night with no explanation for anything.” Sabrina paused with her coffee halfway to her mouth. “Why are you looking at me like that? I know we said we wouldn’t investigate but—”
“Yeah, so, Richards did it,” I said and stirred some sugar into my tea. Those apricots might be an awesome painkiller but I just did not like the aftertaste.
“Did what? Which one was Richards?”
“Richards.” I fashioned my hand into a gun and fake shot her.
She frowned at me. “The one from our first GA meeting? What did he do? Wait, he’s Treble’s partner, right? So that means—”
I squinted in her face trying to work out if she was having me on. “Do you really not know?”
“Know what?” Sabrina’s eyes darted around the canteen looking for answers. “What? I was released last night and Shirley locked us all in our rooms for ‘safety’s sake’ and you’re the first person I’ve seen that I know. What happened? Did you find another body?”
“Make yourself comfortable,” I said and then explained the events of the previous night. And then Charlie and Pete turned up in the middle of my story so I had to start again to a backdrop of complaining from Sabrina.
“I’m going to look into this whole Officer Leonard thing,” Sabrina announced, as we wandered along the hallway toward the tunnelling room. “There is something so fishy about him.”
“You think there’s something fishy about everyone,” I retorted.
“Don’t you think it’s weird that he keeps dragging you into these things? And, so far, there have been no repercussions either. Don’t you think it’s weird? I think it’s weird. I think something else is going on. Something huge that we don’t understand.”
“You think there’s some sort of conspiracy going on?” I asked. “That is so unlike you.”
Sabrina wagged her finger at me. “Mock me now, but you wait. You’ll be laughing on the other side of your face when I find proof.”
“If you’re right, I’m pretty sure I won’t be laughing on any side of my face. And how about you don’t look into this for now? How about we try to go a week without getting in any sort of trouble?”
Sabrina pointed to my eyes. “I think you should start wearing the eyeliner again. Eyeliner Bridget would be all for this.”
“Well, Eyeliner Bridget isn’t the one hyped up on dried apricots, so she can just mind her damn own business.”
“You know you’re talking about yourself in the third person, right?” Sabrina asked as she positioned herself onto a tunnelling circle.
“Shut up.” I pointed a finger right in her face as she tunnelled. “And don’t investigate!”
Sabrina cupped her hand around her ear as she disappeared,
“Yeah, you heard me just fine,” I mumbled to myself as I tunnelled to Arrivals. Sean was pacing across the entrance to the room and mumbling to himself, as if he were rehearsing a speech.
“Morning,” I called to him as I stepped off the tunnelling circle.
Sean’s head whipped in my direction. His face lit up with a gut churning amount of happiness as he saw me. “Bridget!” He ran across the room and practically launched on me. I stumbled backward a step under the assault.
“Everything okay?” I asked when he finally released me.
“Thanks to you. It was you who made the GBs release me, wasn’t it?” Sean held up his hand. “Don’t answer that. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped on you—I know you’re not a fan of excessive emotional outbursts but I am immensely grateful.”
“What makes you think I had anything to do with it?” I asked.
“The GB who released me implied that you’d found evidence to exonerate me.” Sean tugged on the sleeve of my jumpsuit to make sure he had my attention. “I am very appreciative of your help, Bridget.”
I nodded and took a step back before all his gratitude leaked over me. First Alexander and now Sean. Why would Officer Leonard, if it had been him who had released them, make a point of saying that?
Sean must have recognised it was time to stop because he took a step back and pointed the corner of his clipboard at me. “This doesn’t mean you get off easy today, though. We have a new group to induct, so let’s get to it.” Sean spun on one foot and did a happy-hoppy dance as he made his way out of the tunnelling room and along the corridor. I followed. I didn’t do the happy-hoppy dance, though.
The Bus of Death was circling the carpark when we made it down to greet the busload of newly transitioned. Charon must’ve seen us because he pulled out of his loop and turned the bus in our direction. It careened on two wheels with the sharpness of the turn and then slapped back down. I wasn’t sure if it was the tyres or my imagination, but I thought I’d heard screams.
The bus screeched to a halt in front of us. The doors sprang open and passengers poured out. They literally tripped down the steps in their hurry to get off. Sean scurried over to help them up.
“My little Bridget,” Charon called from the driver’s seat and waved to me. “Did everything work out last night?”
“Yes, and thank you for your help with it,” I called back over the heads of the still disembarking passengers. Charon waved me to him and I gestured to the still disembarking passengers. “Do you want me to climb over them?”
Sean’s head shot up from the passenger he was helping. “Bridget, no. Health and safety.”
“I was being sarcastic, Sean. I would never climb over people.”
Sean nodded. “Oh, okay. Good.”
“I’m pretty sure you would,” Charon said as I dodged the last escaping passenger and climbed the stairs of the bus to see what he wanted.
“In certain circumstances, perhaps,” I said, checking over my shoulder to make sure Sean didn’t hear. “So, what’s up?”
&n
bsp; Charon shrugged. It was the worst attempt at casual I’d seen in a long time. “How’s your friend?”
I checked over my shoulder again. “Sean? Fine. Why? Oh, he wanted me to ask you if you’d take him inside a volcano but otherwise he’s okay. I think.”
“Did he now?” Charon peered through the windscreen at Sean. “What’s in it for me?”
“Good karma.”
“Karma isn’t a currency.”
“Says you.”
“Says everyone.” Charon leaned back in his seat and grinned at me. “How about a favour?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you want?”
“Nothing right this second. A future favour.”
I shrugged. “Sure. But I reserve the right to refuse it if I think it’s going to get me in trouble with Oz.”
“Not the police? Not the GBs? Not people you don’t currently know?”
I shook my head. “Nope, just Oz.”
“Deal.” Charon held out his hand to me.
I looked at it and arched an eyebrow at him. “Why do I suddenly feel I’ve made a deal with the devil?”
Charon snorted and slapped his hand into mine. Then he tapped on the windscreen and crooked a finger at Sean. Hesitantly, Sean came to stand by the open doors of the bus.
Charon made a shooing motion. “Off, my little Bridget. And watch out for that friend of yours.”
I tripped down the last step and Sean caught me as I spun back to face Charon. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“All aboard who’s coming aboard,” Charon said, crooking his finger at Sean.
“Bridget?” Sean looked to me, to Charon, then back to me as he stepped up the first step.
“It’s fine, Sean, he’ll take good care of you.” I pointed at Charon. “Won’t you?”
Charon grinned, pulled on a lever and the doors to the bus closed.
∞
I made it through the whole morning without worrying too much, but by the time it got to the end of the day and Sean still hadn’t returned I was beginning to get slightly concerned. I knew that Charon knew I liked Sean, so he wouldn’t damage him on purpose. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t damage him by accident.
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