The Debt

by D A Latham

  "I did warn him. I could tell he was falling for you and concealing who he was. Well, let's just say that deceit never ends well."

  "I had no idea how he felt. I got him to admit that he liked me, but that was all," I confided. Rupert just shook his head.

  We'd been so busy talking I didn't notice Aaron walk over to Andy. The music was too loud to hear what was being said, but I could get a pretty good idea from the triumphant sneer on Aaron's face. Andy said something back, then turned and walked off. "Wonder what that was about," said Rupert.

  "I can take a pretty good guess," I remarked.

  Aaron wandered back over, a big smile on his chops. "Rupert, how's it going?" He said. "I've just been catching up with Michelle. You still working at the tax office?"

  "Sure am," said Rupert in his usual jovial way. "I was just complimenting Sally on how lovely she looks tonight."

  Aaron wrapped his arm around my shoulders and planted a kiss on my cheek in a show of ownership. "She does indeed."

  He steered me over to another group of people he wanted to introduce. I couldn't help but admire how good he was at making small talk and how many people appeared to regard him as a good friend. It seemed everywhere we went, people were stopping us to chat, pressing champagne on us at every opportunity. I was getting a little light-headed. I caught a glimpse of Marcus chatting up a beautiful young man, who was equally as tanned as him. I wondered if looking like a Wotsit was some sort of gay code, so they could identify each other. The thought made me giggle.

  "What's funny?" Aaron asked.

  "Marcus is chatting up some orange fella. I wondered if, oh never mind," I said. His mouth twitched.

  "I think you need some water young lady," he whispered as he steered me to the bar, where I downed a pint of water gratefully. Aaron disappeared to the loo, so I used the opportunity to just take in the sights around me: the myriad beautiful dresses and the people dancing and having a good time. I felt part of it, not an outsider. A DJ had taken over from the band and was playing Valerie, the celebrity girls were all up dancing with a group of fellas. Even Sherry and John were boogying. In my slightly drunken state, I could see Andy seated at his table watching me.

  I became aware of a kerfuffle at the other end of the bar. A short, bald man was gesticulating, ramming his pointed finger into someone's chest, whom I couldn't see. The bald man was clearly livid, his features twisted, his skin purple with rage. People crowded round to watch. I moved closer, wondering what was going on. As I reached the crowd, I realised it was Aaron he was berating.

  I guessed it was business they were arguing over, rather than a woman, due to the age of the man. As I got closer, I heard him shout “fifty grand, you fucker!”

  Aaron simply shouted back, "You gambled, you lost. Not my problem," as he swatted the jabbing finger away from his chest. The man made a move to try and punch him, which was a bad one considering Aaron was about a foot taller and at least twenty years younger. He caught the feeble punch in his hand quite easily, and forced the man down onto the floor. Aaron then turned and walked away, nonchalantly, as though nothing had happened. He smiled at me, unruffled by the encounter. People crowded around the man, helping him up. He glared at me and stormed off.

  "What was that all about?" I asked.

  "Investor who held onto his bonds just a bit too long. He got greedy, ended up losing a chunk of his gains. Don't feel too sorry for him. He made nearly a quarter of a million in profit."

  "And he's angry it wasn't more?" I asked, incredulous. It really was a different world.

  "Shall we make a move?" Aaron said.

  "Sure. Do you have a number for a cab?" I asked. I didn't have my phone.

  "Don't be daft, I'm fine. I haven't had that much. Let's go find Marcus and see if he's ready to leave."

  We wandered around, eventually finding Marcus snugged up with the beautiful young man I'd seen him with earlier. He waved us away, telling Aaron he'd be fine and blowing us both drunken kisses.

  As we walked to the car, I asked; "Did it never bother you that Marcus was gay?" Aaron had never seemed remotely fazed by it, nor at the way some people could have assumed they were boyfriends, living together.

  "Nope. I always knew really. Personally, I don't understand it, but it's never bothered me. I just think that who Marcus shags is his own business."

  "Is he in love with you?" I asked. Aaron laughed.

  "I doubt it. I mean, we're close like brothers, but I've never even been curious about the gay thing, and he knows that. He likes his men small, sleek, and pretty, all of which I'm not."

  I thought about his hairy chest and had to agree. Aaron was a physically imposing man with an intense masculinity. I was surprised he'd dismissed the notion of being fancied by Marcus so easily, especially given what an arrogant and cocky sod he was.

  I was also concerned he'd had too much to drink and shouldn't be driving. "Are you sure you want to drive?" I asked nervously.

  "Sally, would you stop behaving like my mother? If I say I'm OK, then I'm OK." Meekly, I got into the passenger seat and made sure my seatbelt was fastened securely. Aaron fired up the engine and pulled out of the space, before accelerating much too fast down the track, narrowly missing a gaggle of girls who were walking towards the main road.

  Whether he drove too fast because I'd questioned his fitness to drive, or whether it was recklessness borne of too much alcohol, I wasn't sure, but he pushed the powerful car hard as we crossed Chislehurst common, causing me to grip the edge of my seat in fear. I noticed the car kept drifting as he struggled to control it.

  "Aaron, I really think you should either slow down or stop and get a cab," I squeaked. To my horror, he seemed to forget he was driving and turned to face me.

  "Will you stop nagging? You sound just like my mother. Where's your sense of adventure?"

  Then it happened.

  He mounted the kerb, jolting us both and careened towards a group of people walking along.

  In films, accidents are always portrayed in slow motion. In reality, they happen faster than a blink. We came up behind the group, leaving them no time or opportunity to jump out of the way. Aaron noticed at the last moment and pulled the wheel in a vain attempt to avoid them, only partially succeeding. I heard a sickening crunch as we made contact with someone, sending him flying.

  "Shit!" Shouted Aaron, as he realised what had happened. "Fuck fuck. It's your fucking fault for distracting me."

  He carried on driving, speeding up slightly. "You need to stop," I shouted, trying to look behind me to see what had happened. It was too dark to be able to check if the fella was OK. We'd hit him at such speed that I was dubious anyone could possibly survive. Aaron kept going, gripping the wheel so tightly that I could see his knuckles turning white. "Aaron, what's wrong with you? You can't just drive away from an accident, and if you don't slow down, we'll have another one." I was panicking, verging on hysterical by that point. Aaron simply ignored me. He seemed to be in some sort of trance, just staring at the road ahead.

  "Please let me out," I begged as he pulled across junctions without even checking to see what was coming. I prayed the lights on the A21 would be red and I'd be able to jump out of the car. I unclipped my seat belt in readiness.

  He screeched straight through the red light at about eighty miles an hour, narrowly missing a lorry coming in the opposite direction. I screamed in fear.

  "Will you keep. Fucking. Quiet!" Aaron berated me.

  "You're scaring me," I shouted. "You nearly fucking killed us."

  "Mind your language," he snarled.

  Instead of heading towards Lakeswood, he turned off towards Keston Common. "Why're you going this way?" I demanded. He didn't answer. He just pointed the car towards a large tree a hundred yards away and put his foot down. Two seconds later, everything went black.

  CHAPTER 14

  I became aware of light shining brightly onto my face. I tried to turn my head away, but it felt leaden and immovable. The ligh
t was irritating, preventing me from going back to sleep. I guessed it must be morning. I tried to shift myself off my back, to roll over away from the sunshine, but my body seemed stuck, as though the covers were hemming me in. I tried to grip them to move them out of the way, my hand grasping at the sheets covering me.

  "Sally, can you hear me?" A foreign accent permeated my dream. I felt a warm hand wrap around mine. "Sally, can you open your eyes?"

  They felt as though lead weights were holding them closed. It took almost superhuman strength to lift the lids and peer at whoever it was waking me. A small Asian girl in blue scrubs was standing by my bedside. "Sally, you're in the hospital, you had an accident." She smiled at me, her eyes like two molten chocolate buttons set against pale coffee-coloured skin. In my confusion, I wondered if all angels were Asian. "Can you see me?" She asked.

  I tried to reply that I could, but my voice was barely a croak. "I'm going to get the doctor to come and have a look at you, then I can give you some water to help your throat," she said. She bustled off, and I was left to look around at my surroundings. The hospital smell was horribly familiar, that nasty mixture of antiseptic and stale food which gets right up your nostrils and embeds itself in your brain, never to be forgotten. I was in a bay, with a window and a portable table. What was odd was that my bay had a door, so it made it into a private room. I wondered if Aaron had insisted on it. I wanted to check that my arms and legs were still there, but I couldn't move, which made me panic.

  My nurse returned, accompanied by a doctor. "Hello Sally, Iris tells me you've woken up. Shall we take a look at you?"

  "Cut… anything... off?" I managed to rasp out.

  "Goodness, no. You had a nasty bang on the head though. At least you're alive, not like the other poor devil."

  "Aaron?" I rasped. I tried desperately to remember what had happened but my brain was just a fog.

  "No, the man you hit. He died at the scene, massive head injuries." The doctor shone a light into my eyes and noted down the results. He seemed cold and impersonal, as though he was going through the motions. He turned to the nurse "She can have water now. I'd give it another twenty four hours before she's well enough to be interviewed." With that, he went.

  "Your name's Iris?" I rasped, as she brought a jug of water and a paper cup over to my bedside. She nodded and smiled as she poured a small amount and helped me drink it. The water felt like cool nectar, soothing my parched throat.

  "Is there someone I should call?" She asked. I looked at her quizzically. "To tell them you woke up."

  "What day is it?" I asked.

  "It's Monday morning," she told me. "We didn't know who to call to say you were here. The man who was your passenger, he came yesterday, but didn't give us his number."

  "What happened?" I asked, "How did I get here?"

  "You crashed your car," she said softly. "There was a lot of alcohol in your blood. The police think you hit a pedestrian first."

  As soon as she said it, the memory came flooding back. I remembered Aaron driving like a maniac after drinking champagne. Begging him to stop after he hit the man, sending him flying into the air.

  "I wasn't driving," I said. "Aaron was."

  "The policeman, he said you were pulled out of the driver’s seat," she said.

  "I wasn't driving," I repeated. I sank back into the pillow as despair hit. I knew I hadn't gotten behind the wheel of that car. I wondered if Aaron had crashed deliberately to put me, unconscious, into the driver's seat to pin the blame on me. As I lay there, alone and in deep trouble, I tried to think through what I should do, but my head was pounding so much it was hard to keep focus.

  I was dozing when Aaron strode in. He had a serious scowl on his face, nothing like the smiling, kind person I'd known just a few days before. "You're awake," he barked, "good." He said it like he didn't mean it. The thought flashed through my mind that maybe he'd tried to kill me too, so I'd be a dead person taking the rap, meaning he'd never get any comeback.

  "I brought you some coffee," he said. I eyed it warily.

  "Thanks. I'm not sure if I can drink it or not. I only woke up an hour or so ago."

  "So have you spoken to the police yet?"

  "No. The doctor said 24 hours till I'm well enough." I paused. "What happened?"

  "How much do you remember?" He asked.

  "I remember you hitting that pedestrian and me begging you to slow down," I said. I noticed he had a small plaster on his jaw. He obviously hadn't been badly hurt.

  "You're not gonna tell them that though," he said, his voice taking on a more sinister tone. "You see, if I went to prison, all those people who depend on me for their livelihoods, well, they'd all be destitute. You know what that's like, don't you Sally? If you took the rap for this, you'd get two years tops. I'd give you enough to buy a nice house. It makes sense."

  "I wasn't driving," I said firmly. "I didn't kill that man."

  "Just don't forget how much you owe me Sally. You were fast enough taking my money, now it's time to pay it back. You were pulled out of the driver's seat of that car. I've testified that you were driving because I'd had too much to drink. Nobody on Earth will believe you over me, and we both know it, so you can make this easy, and make yourself rich by taking the blame, or you can do it the hard way and end up a penniless ex-con. You decide." With that, he strode out of the room.

  As soon as he'd disappeared, Iris, the nurse came in. "I was listening," she confessed. "I heard what he said. It's no fair what he done. Is there nobody can help you?"

  "What happened to my bag?" I asked. I needed Andy. I could only hope and pray that he'd still be willing to help me. Iris shook her head.

  "Police must have it. It not with you when they brought you in."

  "Iris, can you call someone for me? He works at a law company called Alpha. His name is Andy. Can you tell him Sally Higgs is in trouble and I need him? Tell him where I am... please."

  "Is he your lawyer?"

  "No, he's my ex. I'm only hoping it's not too late."

  "I get him for you. Now try to rest and not worry too much. I tell the desk that the tall one with the scruffy beard is not allowed in again." She smiled her radiant smile and went off to try and find Andy.

  Andy. I wondered if he'd help me, or leave me to languish in my own stupidity. Tears leaked down my bruised face as I contemplated going to prison. I knew full well that drunk driving, on a ban and running someone over would be far longer than two years. My life really was well and truly over. Twenty minutes later, Iris returned. "I left a message. They wouldn't let me speak to him. I'm sorry."

  "Let's hope he gets it," I said.

  "I can tell the police what I heard the devil-man say. I hate liars."

  "Where are you from Iris?" I was intrigued by her accent.

  "Myanmar, but I've been here a long time." She saw my puzzled look. "Used to be called Burma," she clarified.

  "I've never met a Burmese person," I said.

  "It's a beautiful place, so not many people leave. I'm only here because my father took up a post in London. I go back very year for a holiday, to see my grandparents and family. Do you have a family?"

  "Nope, nobody. I'm an orphan." I didn't often use that term, but at that moment, it was an apt description. Nobody would even notice if I went to prison, let alone worry. I'd just become another ex-care home statistic in the prison system.

  "That's such a shame." Her molten chocolate eyes were filled with compassion. "One day you can make your own family," she said.

  "Maybe." Inside I was calculating how much fertile time I had left. If I got twenty years in prison, that would be that dream scuppered.

  Iris gave my hand a little squeeze and set about taking my vitals.

  Two hours later, I was lying still, trying not to move my head, when the door opened. Andy stood in the doorway, sweating profusely as if he'd been running. "I'm sorry, I didn't get the message straightaway. What the Hell happened?"

  "You were right," I told him.
"He shit on me from a great height."

  He sat on the edge of the bed and grasped my hand. I winced as I became aware of some new bruises. "What do you mean? Did he do this to you?"

  "When we left on Saturday night, he drove like a maniac; he'd had too much to drink. He ran someone over and just drove off. I begged him to stop, or at least slow down, but he wouldn't listen."

  "I see, where does you being in trouble fit into all this?"

  "He drove the car into a tree. I was knocked out. Apparently the police pulled me out of the driver's seat. He told them it was me that killed that man." Andy's eyebrows flew up. "He came in here today to pressure me into saying it was me. He said I owed him, plus that it will be my word against his, nobody will believe me."

  Andy sucked in a breath. "I believe you." He paused. "I was watching as he drove away. I saw you get into the passenger seat."

  "The nurse heard him threaten me. It's why she rung you. I'm in so much trouble, and I'm so sorry." Tears coursed down my cheeks. "I only went with him because he paid off my debt, then it was too difficult to call a halt because I'd have been homeless as well as jobless." I could barely get the words out through my sobs.

  "Oh Sally, you should have come to me sooner," he said. "I wouldn't have let you live on the streets. I know I'm an ass, but I'd have never allowed that." He paused. "And he didn't pay off your debt."

  We were interrupted by Iris bustling in carrying some pills in a paper cup. "I have your painkillers." She stopped when she saw Andy. "Andrew, I didn't realise it was you I was calling. I'd have just got Phillip to call you direct."

  "You two know each other?" I asked.

  "Iris is Phil's girlfriend," he explained.

  "Here I'm Nurse Winn," she said sternly, before flashing her lovely smile and kissing Andy lightly on the cheek.

  "Were you wearing the teal-green dress on Saturday night?" I asked. Without her makeup on and with her hair in a neat bun, she looked completely different.

  "Yes, that was me," she said. "So Andrew, you help Sally with the liar-man, yes?"