Iceline

by Martyn Taylor

Steel's reality was taking a turn for the worse where the stitches had pulled and leaked blood into the dressings. He kept quiet, not wanting to distract Josie from putting as many miles as possible between themselves and Oban. She turned off the road and down to the slipway at Corran Narrows. The roll on/roll off ferry was loading its next customers, six cars and a boat trailer had already rolled on to the steel deck and were positioned by the deckhand. Josie drove straight up the ramp and parked alongside the boat trailer. The deckhand collected the fare as the ramp was hauled up and the propellers churned the shallow water to muddy froth and the ferry scuttled across the channel.

  Steel eased the tension on the seat belt and winced noisily. "Are you alright?" Josie asked.

  "Not entirely, I think some of the stitches have pulled.” Josie eased his belt, lowered the back and dragged his sweater out of the way. She peered under the bandages, "Seems OK, it's not bleeding much. Just lie still for now, then we'll sort you out later, I'll pull over down the road and have a look in the medical chest."

  "I'll hang on then." He said, pulled down the sweater and tucked it in again. Josie gazed straight into his eyes and lunged forward to kiss him, a dashed contact on his lips, clumsy in its hastiness. Steel was taken aback and he saw the colour rise to her cheeks as she dropped back in her seat and stared fixedly ahead. "Josie?" He said.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't do that, forget it. I just wanted to say I'm glad you're alive, couldn't find the words, should've looked harder," She blustered, "these last few weeks have been a bit of a strain, nothing compared to what you must have been through, but not easy."

  Steel raised his seat back, then leaned across and gave her a peck on the cheek, not quite an air kiss. His lips barely brushed her skin.

  "Thanks for caring. “He said.

  "That's OK." She smiled and patted him on the knee. The ferry began its final approach to the slipway on the western side of the narrows with a surge of reverse thrust from the engines. The ramp clanged as it went down on to the foot of the slip and the push from the propellers held it against the concrete. Josie turned on the engine and waited to disembark, joining the little convoy as it rumbled over the ramp and up the slipway to the road. Steel settled back. They would be at Salen well ahead of Charlie. A couple of miles further on Josie pulled off the road and dug the medical kit from somewhere amongst the baggage. Steel stripped to the waist and settled himself against a tree, while he waited, using his sweater as a pad against the bark. Josie pulled on a pair of disposable gloves before she cut away the bandages, peeling gently and swabbing at the areas where the blood had matted the bandage and his chest hair together. When he grumbled she told him to stop being such a baby, it was nothing compared with having your legs waxed and as for the bikini line, he wasn't to mention it.

  "What about the bikini line?"

  "I said don't mention it, that is excruciating. I really don't know why we do it."

  "Well, if you don't there's no point asking me is there." Steel retorted. Josie had finished cleaning up and was threading a surgical steel needle with sterile thread. She worked deftly while Steel watched, then checked himself. Damn, but she was pretty, not just the flaming corona of her hair, but the line of her cheek and the set of her jaw, right down to the shape of her. Fit and lithe she was graced with a naturally good figure that benefited from but didn't need hours of work in the gym. The muscle tone was firm without being too hard. She applied a wash of alcohol to the skin where she was going to sew and settling herself comfortably she straddled him, her thighs pressing down on his and took the skin in her gloved hands. Steel turned his head away and prayed that this wasn't going to hurt. Her proximity mingled the smell of her with the warmth of the day and began to exert an influence that was not conducive to having wounds stitched. She carried on as if nothing was happening, focused on the work at hand.

  "Is this where I say it will hurt me more than it will you." She laughed. Steel smiled back. "Just get on with it, I've heard that one before, it won't." She began stitching and Steel did his best not to complain too much, there was one moment when he glanced at her, catching her eye and breaking the rapt concentration on her face, then turned his head aside. Josie worked steadily, braiding the wounds with small neat stitches. Steel leaned back, resting his head against the tree and watched the sunlight play on the waters of the loch, a kaleidoscope of silver through gunmetal to white. He cleared his mind, focusing on the visual image, losing himself in it and the aching tiredness in his body eased him towards sleep, even the occasional tug of the needle and thread failed to stop the slide. Josie shook her head in disbelief when she heard the rhythm of his breathing deepen to a snore. She tidied off the last few stitches. She snipped the cotton close to his skin and gently eased herself to a standing position. Sleep would do him good and her slow movement failed to disturb him. She cleaned him up with antiseptic wipes and did the same to herself before all the discarded material was packed in a polythene bag that remained open until she had everything back in the medical kit and stripped off the gloves. Josie put the kit in the car and draped a travel blanket around Steel's shoulders. For half an hour she sat with her own back against a tree and watched him. He was comfortable for now and whatever was going on inside his head his body seemed to be resting peacefully. The sun had passed its zenith and eased into the downward slope across the afternoon when Steel finally stirred, suddenly aware of his surroundings again, his head jerked back, narrowly avoided a hard impact with the tree behind him he blinked and looked up. He shivered.

  "Cold?"

  "A bit, not too much though, probably just stayed put for too long." Steel threw off the blanket and struggled into his sweater, then picked up the blanket as he got to his feet.

  "Frankly," she said, "you ought to be in hospital and you know that, but after what happened this morning that isn't going to be possible is it?"

  "No it isn't, I knew the moment he walked through the door something was terribly wrong."

  "How, or did I miss a vital bit?"

  "Constable 999, for want of a better description, had become 666. The devil is in the detail. He was wearing Fowler's..."

  "You called him Ducker?"

  "Right, but his name was Fowler, he was wearing Fowler's number on his shoulder."

  Josie folded the blanket, "I still don’t get it."

  "He forgot to change his after-shave;” Steel tucked the sweater into his jeans and buckled up the belt.

  "It may be for the best that we left him behind." Josie said as they walked back to the car and made ready to leave. "I'm not sure I could have coped with you persuading him to talk." Josie tossed the blanket on the back seat and slid behind the wheel. Steel eased himself on to the passenger seat as she started the engine. The Range Rover swung back on to the road and headed west, the delay may have been avoidable, but it reduced the waiting time at Sunart and she reckoned that was the vulnerable part of the journey. Jammed at the end of the road they would be effectively trapped until Charlie arrived with Westering Home.

  "Why Salen, why not Ardnamurchan, as far down the road as we can go, there's a little ferry across to Tobermory which would probably take the Range Rover?” Josie pushed for an answer. Steel said nothing for a few minutes, but stared out of the window. That wasn't the question she wanted to ask and they both knew it. "Ardnamurchan is too far, when we reach Salen I'll ask Kurt to take the Range Rover across to Mull via Lochaline. When we reach Salen, no, before then, past the Lochaline turn off we need to change the plates, there should be a spare set under the rear floor."

  "And probably a lot of other stuff as well." She muttered.

  "No doubt, but by the time we've finished, if anyone is watching the Lochaline route they won't immediately link this vehicle with us."

  "It can't fool them completely?"

  "No, it can't, but it will give us time. Time is what we need, what I need. After this morning's little episode I'm in no fit state to charge around like a maniac." Steel fell silent again and w
atched the scenery flit past. "Josie, will that mobile work here, even with the mountains around us."

  "It should do, it's a sat-phone."

  Steel picked up the handset, untangled the charging lead and found Jill Darling's number crumpled up in his pocket. He keyed in the number and pressed call; the phone rang and clicked on to the answering machine. "Jill, it's Steel," he began, "it doesn't matter whether you're listening to this or not, you'll hear it eventually. There is an explanation for what happened today, I need to talk to your friend in the Coastguard. Meet me, both of you, tomorrow, where you'll find the water of life in Mary's well." He switched off the phone and dropped it back beside the seat. Josie ignored the road for Lochaline and drove on, now more conscientiously checking the road ahead and behind and waiting for a spot to pull off and make the changes Steel had planned.