The Healing Place

by Clare Nonhebel

CHAPTER 42

  ‘Leroy!’ said Franz cheerily, into the phone. ‘Franz Kane, from The Healing Place.’

  ‘Oh yes?’ The voice was alert.

  ‘Listen, sorry to disturb you so late but I find myself with a bit of a problem and I’m wondering if you might help.’

  ‘I’m sure I can.’ There was a hint of amusement in the tone.

  He let his own voice reflect the amusement. ‘I’m in the embarrassing position of eating humble pie here, Leroy,’ he said. ‘I apologize for the abrupt ending of our last meeting.’

  ‘No problem. How can I help?’

  ‘One of our guides has cancelled, at short notice. We’ve got twenty-five people signed up for a self-awareness course, a one-nighter, tomorrow evening and I can’t find anyone to fill in. Is that something you might be able to offer, in some form?’

  ‘Self-awareness?’ There was a pause. ‘Yes. I can do something relevant to that. Using my own material, of course.’

  ‘Of course. It’s a two-hour session from seven to nine pm. Would you have enough material to cover that?’

  ‘Oh, I can do a lot in two hours,’ Leroy assured him.

  I’ll bet you can, thought Franz grimly.

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Well, I’m deeply grateful to you.’

  ‘My pleasure, Franz. I hope we can work together a lot more in the future, as colleagues. You and I have a lot in common. I hear you had a slight incident at The Healing Place last week?’

  Franz gritted his teeth. ‘Yes. No lasting damage, fortunately.’

  ‘Fortunately, yes, in the circumstances.’

  In the circumstances? In the circumstances that Leroy was now being offered a foothold in The Healing Place, he found it fortunate that he had not caused the building lasting damage?

  ‘There is just one thing, Leroy,’ Franz said.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘I’m afraid I haven’t asked you the most awkward part of the favour. I’ll need you to run through with me the material you’re going to use, and I’ll have to check you in so that Reception will give you a name tag tomorrow.’

  ‘No problem there, Franz,’ he said easily.

  ‘Tonight,’ Franz said.

  ‘Tonight is too late, obviously,’ Leroy said, ‘but first thing tomorrow morning, certainly.’

  Franz thought of the children in the basement and his vision of blood and decided to gamble. ‘Ah, now that’s a shame,’ he said, ‘because I’m away all day tomorrow. That’s the problem, you see.’

  ‘I can come in really early, before you leave.’

  ‘Night train,’ said Franz. ‘Unfortunately.’

  ‘I can email you the material, then come in first thing and talk to somebody else if necessary, and see the lady in Reception about my name tag.’

  ‘No, because I’d have to give you the keys. Reception won’t have them.’

  ‘Give me the keys?’ The interest in his voice quickened.

  ‘To the inner doors and to the room you’d be using. It’s a quiet night tomorrow; you and your students would be virtually the only occupants of the upper storey. Never mind, Leroy, I can see it wasn’t a practical idea on my part. Some other time, eh?’

  ‘No, okay, I can come in now,’ said Leroy quickly.

  ‘Are you sure it’s not too much trouble? No, I can’t ask it of you. I’m sure your wife doesn’t want you going out at this time of night.’

  ‘My wife’s a late owl. She’ll be cool about it. We don’t go to bed early. I’ll be with you in half an hour. Do I come to the front door?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll tell the …’ He decided on second thoughts not to mention the security guard. ‘I’ll let you in myself.’

  ‘Who else will be around?’ Leroy was instantly suspicious.

  Franz found his palms were sweating. ‘No one. I just realized. I was going to say I’ll tell the receptionist to let you in but the staff have all gone home now.’

  ‘Okay. See you soon.’

  Franz took a deep breath and dialled Sharma’s mobile. ‘We’re on,’ he said. ‘He’ll be here within half an hour. It sounds as if his wife’s at home.’

  ‘Right. The police sergeant here will tell you the procedure, Franz. I’m passing you over now.’

  ‘Mr Kane? Sergeant Archer. There’s a back way into your building, isn’t there?’

  ‘A side entrance, leading to a door with stairs up to my office on the first floor.’

  ‘With a gate on the street?’

  ‘No. The fire door in the basement, which is alarmed, leads out into that side alley, so we can’t gate it.’

  ‘Leave the door to the entrance with the steps up to your office unlocked. We’ll send a couple of officers to block the alley and gain access that way if necessary. No other entrances, apart from those doors and the main one?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Right. Leave the main front door unlocked, after Mr Watson arrives. We’ll have officers in unmarked cars near the front entrance. Instruct your security guard not to admit anyone after Mr Watson. Lock all the internal doors except the door of your office where you will take Mr Watson. Do you have an alarm in your office, if you need to call for our back-up?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Keep your mobile phone switched on, and on your person. I will call you from the number I’m going to give you now, if there is a need. If this number doesn’t show, leave all other calls unanswered. Are you clear on this or do you want me to repeat the details?’

  ‘I’ve got it.’

  When the sergeant rang off, Franz rang Phil, who was awake, having just heard from Sharma who had given him all the details.

  ‘Watson’s coming in,’ Franz told him. ‘Within half an hour.’

  ‘I’ll come over. He needn’t see me; I can be in another room.’

  ‘No. Thanks, but it might alert him.’

  ‘I’ll pray for your protection, then.’

  ‘Do.’

  He dialled home and left a message for Ella, glad she didn’t answer the phone. He hoped she was with Maz, or already asleep. He spoke quietly, in case she was.

  ‘It’s Franz: I’ve been delayed at work. Don’t wait up. See you later.’

  Would he see her later? There were so many things that could go wrong. He tried not to think about the risks and found he couldn’t think about anything at all. He felt very alone.

  He unlocked the side door and went to see the security guard.

  ‘Everybody off the premises, Darren?’

  ‘Yes, they’ve all gone home.’ The guard yawned and looked at his watch. ‘Where I’m going any moment.’

  ‘No! You’re here for the night!’

  ‘Not me. Night guard is coming in - should have been here ten minutes ago.’

  ‘Listen,’ said Franz. ‘There’s a late visitor coming in. I’ll let him in myself. I want the front door left open after he comes in but no one else is to be allowed in after him. The side door will also be left open. I’m about to lock all the internal doors now and I want them kept locked. I want you to stay out of sight till the visitor arrives. Once I’ve taken him up to my office, come back to the foyer and meet the night guard and pass this information on to him, all right?’

  ‘If he arrives before the visitor you can tell him all this yourself,’ said the guard, unwilling to take on this extra task.

  ‘No. I don’t want the visitor to see security guards, so I’m hoping his arrival doesn’t coincide with the night guard’s. If it does, I’ll send the night guard through to you, without any explanation. I’m relying on you to explain the arrangements to him.’

  ‘Where am I meant to wait, then?’

  ‘Just inside these internal doors here from the foyer. I’ll leave them unlocked, but as soon as you come out, lock them behind you and when you give the night guard your keys, tell him not to open any internal doors until I let him know I’m going home.’

  The guard stood foursquare, considering this information, his body language unco-o
perative. Franz pushed open the double swing doors leading to the toilets, the lift, and the stairs to the basement. The doors were sticking slightly. Franz had left a note for the maintenance man to take a look at them tomorrow. Instead of closing level with each other they bowed inwards, unless locked.

  Franz gestured to the guard to go through the doors, then pulled them together as far as possible.

  He made his way round the building, locking doors. In the main hall, he looked up at the ceiling and was comforted by the sight of Pat’s plastering. It made him feel less alone.

  As he checked that all the inside doors were locked and returned to the main entrance to await Leroy’s arrival, he tried to think of questions to ask Leroy about his teaching material and ways to prolong his visit long enough to allow the police to gain access to his flat.

  Waiting in the foyer a vivid recollection struck him, of his father pointing to the wooden figure of Christ on the cross in the sacristy. He could hear his voice clearly: Look at the wounds he bore for us; what do we have to complain about?

  Franz thought of the kidnapped boys and of the emotional wounds they would have to live through and deal with if they survived. I can do this, he thought; I have to. He wished suddenly that his father were here and wondered if the funeral had taken place yet. Funerals in Ireland tended to be arranged sooner than was customary in England.

  A car drew up on the other side of the street. A heavily-built man – not Leroy – got out and the car drove off. He hadn’t sent in the heavies, had he, instead of coming himself?

  The man crossed the street and Franz saw his uniform. Hank the Tank. The night guard. Franz went outside and, standing sideways on to the man as if not speaking directly to him, said, ‘Hank?’

  ‘Yes. I know I’m late but …’

  ‘Look, would you stand out of sight further down the street till you see a tall black man in his thirties arrive and enter the building? Give me five minutes after that, then come in and go through the swing doors to the left of the foyer. The day guard will give you instructions. It’s important,’ he added urgently, seeing the man about to ask for explanations. ‘Please go now.’

  Franz went back into the building, barely registering the man’s dismissive shrug as he strolled off down the street.

  It was just in time. Another car drew up and Leroy got out of the passenger side. The driver was a man. Franz felt a chill of apprehension. If a man had been available at short notice to give him a lift, were there more men in Leroy’s flat right now, with the boys? Along with Leroy’s wife – if the wife did exist and had not been invented by Leroy to give an impression of respectability?

  ‘Franz! Good to see you again!’

  He could hardly avoid touching Leroy this time, though remembering Sharma’s warning from last time, and returned his handshake.

  ‘What cold hands!’ Leroy commented, with a laugh Franz found unpleasant.

  ‘I’m afraid the heating’s gone off,’ Franz said. ‘Thank you for coming at such an unsocial hour.’

  ‘How can it be unsocial?’ Leroy asked, grinning. ‘When it gives us an opportunity to socialize?’

  My father would hit him now, Franz thought suddenly, remembering him confronting Groper George in the sacristy. But surely it was better to go through this charade as a hypocrite than to give an honest reaction and let two small boys suffer the consequences?

  He determined not to think about the boys. He focused on Leroy and forced himself to smile.

  ‘We’ll go up to my office,’ he said.

  The doors from the foyer to the toilets were still bowed inwards. There was no sight or sound of the dayshift security guard, Franz noted with relief. He hoped the man would pass on his instructions accurately to the night guard.

  ‘The place looks bigger at night,’ Leroy commented, ‘without all the people in it.’

  It would have been at its most crowded, Franz reflected, when he had come in – or sent someone in – to place the smoke bombs. It must have been frightening for a child, pushed into the air ducts, to hear the noise inside the building, echoing. He wondered if the boy had been tempted to stay in the duct, risking death unknown to anyone but his captors, rather than return to them?

  He would not think about the boys. He must be pleasant to this man, for the sake of their safety. And his. He stood back to let Leroy go ahead of him into the office, and noticed Leroy glance at the framed plans of the building on the wall. Of course – that must have been how he knew the layout. He had been in Franz’s office that time, on his own, when Franz came in and found him and then threw him out.

  As if hearing Franz’s thoughts, Leroy said, ‘Last time I came here, I was not so welcome!’

  I must be careful even not to think too loudly, Franz thought.

  ‘You’re welcome this time,’ Franz told him. ‘Would you like a coffee?’

  ‘I don’t have stimulants, this time of night.’

  Franz noticed the snake emblem on the metal belt buckle and looked away, not letting himself remember the vision this evening.

  ‘You were going to give me keys,’ Leroy reminded him.

  Over my dead body, Franz said silently.

  ‘Yes, before you leave. Let’s have a chat about what you’re planning to do tomorrow evening.’

  ‘I’ll leave you these notes to look through,’ Leroy said. ‘They’re self-explanatory, you’ll see.’

  He hadn’t sat down.

  ‘I’m no good at taking in written stuff late in the evening,’ Franz said. ‘Trouble with my eyes.’

  ‘Mid-life problems,’ Leroy commented.

  ‘I’m sure you’re right. Have a seat, Leroy.’

  A moment’s hesitation, as though poised for flight, then Leroy capitulated, sinking into the chair, stretching out his long legs towards Franz. Franz recoiled, drawing his feet back. Leroy’s sharp eyes registered the movement. Franz stood, trying to make the movement seem like a prelude to standing, and picked a notepad off a pile on a shelf.

  ‘I’ll make a few notes,’ he said, ‘if you don’t mind.’ Notes would take more time. He could ask Leroy to repeat things or speak more slowly. He would not let his mind stray to the basement flat or the boys, or the police waiting ….

  ‘I don’t want to take up your time,’ Leroy said. ‘You must have had a long day.’

  ‘I’m used to working late.’

  ‘I know that. But this late is unusual.’

  The man was goading him, making him aware he had been watching the building. Franz refused to rise to the bait.

  ‘Pretend I’m one of the students,’ he said. ‘How are you going to start?’

  ‘I’ll play it by ear. I’m not a structured kind of guy.’

  Franz forced himself to breathe evenly. ‘Fine. So you’ll introduce yourself, presumably, and outline what you’re going to teach. How would you summarize it, to a class expecting a session on self-awareness and not familiar with your approach to the subject?’

  A lazy smile played on Leroy’s face as he sat watching Franz. He didn’t answer the question for several seconds, letting his gaze roam over Franz’s face, his long nose, quirky eyebrows and wide mouth, then travel over his slim body and long legs encased in the white suit.

  Mind games. Franz had a sudden image, once again, of his father. He saw the old man’s face for a second, as if in the flash of a camera shot, then it was gone. He’s here, Franz thought, irrationally. He was aware that the heaviness and lethargy that had assailed him on Leroy’s previous visit were not afflicting him this time, and thought of Phil, awake and praying for his protection.

  His mobile rang and he checked the caller. Ella. He would have liked to talk to her. He diverted the call to message-taker and returned his attention to Leroy, who had tensed when the call came but relaxed now.

  ‘I’m aiming to take the people through a few exercises,’ Leroy said, ‘that will have the effect of freeing their minds and opening them to new possibilities.’

  Fr
anz felt a chill. ‘What does that involve?’

  ‘Well, people get stuck in ways of seeing things. Like, they see themselves in terms of moral rules.’

  ‘Do they?’

  ‘Yeah, you know, measure themselves against some kind of standard imposed by culture and society. It inhibits their free thinking.’

  Franz thought of the graffitists who regularly daubed the frontage of The Healing Place building with obscene slogans, the drug dealers who used the side alley and the gangs who blocked the pavement and hard-stared him on his nightly walk home. He forced himself not to think of the kidnapped boys.

  ‘You think people are inhibited by having moral standards?’ he asked Leroy.

  ‘Sure. We need to throw away all this outdated morality and experience ourselves as free creatures.’

  ‘This is what you’ll be teaching tomorrow night’s seekers, as self-awareness?’

  ‘That’s right. Is that cool with you?’

  Don’t react. The only priority is to keep him here. There is no self-awareness course tomorrow night, so no Healing Place seekers will be harmed by this man.

  Franz nodded.

  ‘What time did you say the course started?’ Leroy asked.

  Such hard eyes. Was he fooled?

  ‘Seven pm,’ Franz said. ‘It’s as well to arrive a bit early.’

  ‘Which room will I be using?’

  Franz pointed at the plan of the second-floor layout. ‘Two of the upstairs treatment rooms with the partition removed.’

  His mobile rang. It was the police number this time. Franz let it ring, hoping Leroy would go on talking.

  ‘Will there be other activities going on in the next-door rooms?’

  Franz lifted the phone to his ear. ‘Hi. No,’ he said to Leroy.

  ‘Mr Kane? Ready when you are.’

  They must have moved quickly.

  ‘Okay, I’m just finishing a late meeting now and I’ll be home shortly. Bye. No,’ Franz continued to Leroy, ‘the rooms on either side of you will be unoccupied.’

  ‘Oh yes, you said. A quiet night tomorrow. I recall that now.’

  The man was testing him, checking out details Franz had told him on the phone.

  Franz checked his watch. ‘Okay. So you intend these exercises to make up the bulk of the time?’

  ‘That’s right. Followed up by a few suggestions.’

  ‘Yes?’ He tried to maintain his air of interest. The side alley would be covered, in case Leroy scented deception and ran that way. All Franz had to do was lead him downstairs and out of the main entrance. The internal doors were locked. If he tried to escape from the foyer , the police would enter the building.

  ‘Recommendations on making some immediate changes in their lives.’

  ‘Right. Well, I’ll read through this material you’ve left me, Leroy, tonight, but I don’t foresee any problems.’

  ‘Don’t you want to know what recommendations I’ll be making to your clients?’

  Franz really didn’t. ‘I’m assuming you’ll tailor the recommendations to the responses of the individuals in the class as you get to know them during the session, will you?’

  Leroy smiled. ‘Right.’

  ‘Well,’ Franz said, hearing his own heart pounding and hoping it couldn’t be heard, ‘I’m satisfied with that. I hope you enjoy the session, as well as the students.’

  ‘I surely will. Aren’t you forgetting one thing?’

  Franz, now that the time had come, was experiencing the same deadening of his senses that he had struggled with last time.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘My keys. And you need me to register, you said?’

  ‘Downstairs. In the foyer. After you, Leroy.’

  ‘No. After you.’ He stood aside.

  Franz wanted to keep him where he could see him. ‘I have to lock the office. Go ahead.’

  A pause, another hard stare, then Leroy slowly walked ahead of him towards the stairway.

  A few more steps. You can do this. Concentrate on moving at a normal pace.

  Leroy had stopped again at the head of the stairs. He waited, gesturing for Franz to go ahead of him. The stairway was wide. Franz linked his arm into Leroy’s and drew him down the stairs alongside him.

  ‘You’ve really done me a favour, Leroy,’ he said.

  The man’s arm was like steel, not only physically hard-muscled but conveying a sense of cold hardness in the core of his being.

  Slow to anger, full of compassion. Where did that phrase come from? A line from some piece of scripture his father liked. Franz should have asked for it to be read at the funeral. It would have described his father perfectly.

  Was the funeral over now? Was his father with his God who was slow to anger and full of compassion and love? Franz’s head was spinning. Franz was arm in arm with the man of whom Sharma had said "Don’t touch him," the man who was the antithesis of everything his father had lived for: full of anger, devoid of compassion and love.

  They had reached the bottom of the stairway. Approaching the foyer, Franz saw no one. That was okay. The sergeant had said they were ready. All the better if they stayed out of sight. Where were they?

  ‘Where are the keys kept?’ asked Leroy.

  Franz, unable to speak, pointed towards the front desk. A movement caught his eye, outside the glass front door. Leroy tensed, following the quick flick of his glance.

  Franz felt Leroy’s arm tighten. He let go of him quickly, not wanting to be attached to him when the police moved in. As he did so he noticed, with horror, that the double swing doors leading to the lifts and the basement were still ajar, bowing away from them in a clearly half-open V-shape.

  Leroy followed his glance in that direction now and as the first three police officers charged the front doors and ran into the foyer, he ran for those side doors.

  Franz had never seen anyone sprint with such speed; it seemed almost superhuman.

  If he got into the basement, or into the lift and up to the other floors, they could lose him, or he could cause trouble – more damage than before. The man was clever, strong, intuitive and fast. He had nothing to lose, in resisting arrest, and was ruthless.

  Franz felt a hand on his shoulder. It felt warm and supportive even as it held him back from pursuing Leroy.

  As Leroy reached the doors, head forward and shoulders hunched like an Olympic athlete, Franz heard his father’s words to Father George in the sacristy: "May God put a stop to you and your indecencies."

  He wasn’t aware he had said those words aloud, till the doors suddenly ricocheted open towards them and he saw both edges catch Leroy at full force in the centre of his forehead.