The One You Love (2 page)

‘Please, God,’ she whispered to herself, resting her forehead against the taxi window, trying to stop her mind from racing. ‘Please don’t let it happen again.’

2

‘Still nothing?’ Emma asked, as she climbed out of the taxi and approached Will.

Will was sitting on the apartment steps with his arms folded, wearing designer trousers and a bright white shirt that clashed dramatically with his thick dark hair. He shook his head and unfurled his bottom lip. Although he was only a few months short of thirty, he looked like a little boy waiting for mummy to come home.

‘I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation, Em,’ Lizzy said comfortingly, moving across to them as the taxi drove off.

Emma looked up at the top window of their rented apartment, which overlooked Marylebone High Street. For a second she thought she saw a figure looking back at her, but it was just a trick of the light. She’d calmed down a lot during the taxi ride – the circular breathing, taught to her by her karate instructor ten years ago, had helped her refocus away from those overly negative thoughts. Okay, it was weird, Dan not turning up like that, but the likeliest scenario was that there would be a perfectly reasonable explanation for his disappearance.

‘She’s right.’ Will got up from the steps and dusted himself down. ‘I was thinking about it while you were on your way over here. I’m overreacting, like I normally do. And if it wasn’t for that bloody intercom security system, I’d have been able to go up there and check for myself.’

‘Couldn’t you have just sneaked in when someone came out?’ Lizzy suggested.

‘That was the plan,’ he replied. ‘But no one’s come in or out since I got here. Bloody annoying. I also pressed all those buttons –’ He pointed at the intercom on the wall. ‘But nobody answered.’

‘It’s deserted in there at the moment,’ Emma explained, dragging her gaze away from the window and back at Lizzy and Will. ‘A lot of people are on holiday, I think. I’ve hardly seen anyone on the stairs in the last couple of days, and the post is building up.’

‘Someone’s in there, though,’ Will countered. ‘You can hear music when you open the letterbox.’

‘Right.’ Emma looked up at the other front windows: no signs of movement in any of them. ‘We’d better get inside and take a look.’

She pulled out her keys from her handbag, but they slipped from her grasp and fell into the gutter, narrowly missing a drain.

‘That was lucky,’ Will commented, as he picked up the keys. ‘Hey, Em, your hands are shaking – are you okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ Emma lied, taking the keys. Although mentally she had recovered her composure, her body was still in overdrive. ‘I’m just a bit on edge, that’s all. I guess I’ve been thinking through different scenarios and it’s shaken me up.’

‘Come on,’ Lizzy said, ‘let’s get up there and sort this out. He’s probably flat out on the bed and has slept through the calls.’

They could hear the music as soon as they entered the apartment foyer. It seemed to be coming from one of the upper floors, travelling down the wooden staircase. And from the bass vibration across the ceiling it sounded like it was set on maximum.

‘Someone’s having a party,’ Will commented. ‘U2, if I’m not mistaken. Sounds like the band are actually up there rehearsing.’

‘Dan was playing that CD just before I left,’ Emma said, beginning to hurry up the stairs, with Will and Lizzy following close behind.

She took the steps two-by-two; with each step the swirling music from above seemed to get louder. Something definitely didn’t feel right about this. Her imaginings flooded back, but now they weren’t about whether Dan had got cold feet – they were of something more sinister, more tragic. Maybe Dan had fallen and hit his head, and he’d been lying on the floor while she’d been out partying.

As she reached the middle floor, Mr Henderson, her elderly downstairs neighbour, blocked her path, stopping her dead. Judging by his reaction it seemed he had been waiting for her.

‘What do you think you’re playing at?’ he said, poking a wrinkled, liver-spotted finger in Emma’s direction.

‘Excuse me?’ Emma was taken aback by his unusually aggressive tone. Normally he was so placid. He and his wife had been living in the apartment for over twenty years, and had welcomed them with offers of help when Dan and Emma had first moved in. They were amongst the few people in the apartment not to be renters, and seemed to revel in their role as the building’s surrogate grandparents. But although Mr Henderson still said hello when they passed on the stairs, Emma hadn’t seen much of his wife in recent months. Some time ago, while looking out of the window, she had seen her being helped into an ambulance. But she didn’t know what had been wrong and felt it would seem overly nosey to ask them.

‘That music,’ Mr Henderson said angrily, gesturing upstairs. His face was blood-red and his eyes burned in a way that Emma had never seen before. ‘Your boyfriend’s had that on full blast ever since I got back from the shops. Edna’s trying to get to sleep in here; she’s not well, you know. She gets distressed easily. She was crying when I got back home, sitting in the corner of the room, covering her ears. People think just because you’ve got dementia that you don’t matter. But she matters to me. I love her.’

Tears welled up in his eyes as his anger faded.

‘Doctor says she’s dying,’ he added. ‘Please let her rest. Please get your boyfriend to turn the music down. He won’t even answer the door for me. I’ve been up there three times, but it hasn’t done any good.’

Emma looked at Will and Lizzy, who returned anxious glances.

‘Sorry,’ she said, feeling desperately sorry for the old man but also wanting to get to the top floor without delay. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said again, sidestepping Mr Henderson and heading for the next set of stairs, almost launching at the first step.

‘I’ll call the police if you don’t turn it down,’ Mr Henderson shouted, before breaking out into a bronchial cough. But Emma had already turned the corner at the top of the stairs.

She reached the front door, fumbling with the keys to a rock soundtrack. The music was coming from inside their apartment, and it was extremely loud. Dan never played music that loud, and that thought only intensified her sense of foreboding about what lay inside.

‘Dan!’ she shouted. ‘Are you in there?’

She was really panicking now, feeling dizzy with nerves. The key wasn’t going into the lock, so she began banging on the heavy wooden door with her fists.

‘Dan!’

‘Come here, Em,’ Will said, taking the keys gently from her. ‘Let me do it.’

Emma stepped back, surprised to find that she was crying.

Lizzy hugged her. ‘Everything’s going to be all right,’ she said, but she didn’t sound convinced anymore.

Will unlocked the door and a crescendo of guitars and drums swept out onto the landing.

‘Danny, you in here?’ he shouted, moving into the apartment. He turned left towards the lounge, from where the music was coming from, while Emma and Lizzy headed for the kitchen.

‘Dan?’ Emma neared the kitchen. ‘Where are… oh my God!’

‘What is it?’ Will shouted.

‘Something’s wrong,’ Lizzy replied, as Emma stood in stunned silence, taking in the scene. Her worst fears were realised. Blood rushed to her head, sending her reeling, and she placed a steadying hand against the fridge-freezer.

The kitchen was smashed up: broken plates and dishes littered the floor, the bin had been overturned and emptied, the blinds were half torn down, and the water was running in the sink.

‘My God,’ Will said, as he appeared breathlessly at their shoulders and surveyed the damage.

‘What the hell’s happened?’ Lizzy asked, of no one in particular.

‘The other rooms,’ Emma said, pulling herself out of her shock.

She turned and headed for the bedroom, flinging open the door, expecting to find something horrible inside. But there was nothing. The bed was immaculately made, just as she had left it. Everything was in its right place. A faint hint of Dan’s favourite aftershave hung in the air. Emma turned to head for the bathroom, the last remaining room of the apartment.

‘Oh, shit!’ she heard Will shout from behind her. ‘Shit! Call an ambulance! Somebody get an ambulance!’

‘What’s wrong?’ Emma rushed out into the hallway. Will appeared from the bathroom, his hands covered in blood. ‘Oh no,’ she said, covering her mouth and shaking her head. She backed against the wall. ‘Please say he’s okay.’

‘It’s not Dan.’ Will’s face was pained as he held blood-soaked hands out in front of him. ‘It’s Richard. I think he’s dead.’

3

‘Do you think Dan did that to Richard?’ Emma asked, as the three of them sat in the hospital waiting area.

Ever since they had found Dan’s brother Richard unconscious on the bathroom floor, with what was undoubtedly a life-threatening head injury, Emma had been desperate to ask that question. But she was afraid of what her brother and best friend might say. Lizzy hadn’t said anything, either in the apartment waiting for the paramedics to arrive, or in the taxi on the way to the hospital. But although Will hadn’t commented either, Emma knew him well enough to sense that something deeper was troubling him about the situation.

‘No, no, of course not,’ Lizzy said, snapping out of her daydream. ‘Dan couldn’t have done something like that.’

Will sat with his head resting in his hands, staring blankly into space.

‘Will,’ Emma said, noticing his silence. ‘You don’t think he did it?’

‘I don’t know what to think,’ admitted Will, rubbing his eyes.

‘Dan would never hurt Richard!’ Emma said, turning on him. ‘Dan said they’ve never fought in their lives. They couldn’t be closer.’

‘Could you try and keep the noise down, please,’ said a passing nurse. ‘We’ve got patients who are trying to sleep.’

Emma apologised, feeling suitably chastised.

‘I’m sorry, Em,’ Will said. ‘But it doesn’t look good, that’s all.’

As much as Emma hated to admit it, Will was right – it didn’t look good. The paramedics made it pretty clear to the arriving police that they believed Richard had been attacked, rather than just falling and hitting his head. The injuries indicated that someone had used a blunt instrument, and had smashed it into his head more than once. It was no accident. And Dan had now disappeared. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. It was little wonder that most of the police questioning at the scene had centred on Dan’s likely whereabouts and the relationship between him and his brother.

‘He couldn’t have done it.’ Emma refused to believe that the man she had fallen in love with would be capable of carrying out such a violent attack. ‘I can’t believe you’d ever think he could.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ Will said. ‘I really do.’

‘I am right. I believe in him.’

A tense silence descended for a few seconds.

‘Do you think the police will want to talk to us again?’ Lizzy asked.

‘They’ll definitely want to talk to us in more detail,’ Will said. ‘Those were just preliminary questions before. But we’re talking about possible attempted murder here, or even murder, so they’ll want to know more.’

‘I really thought he was dead back there,’ Lizzy reflected. ‘When you couldn’t find a pulse, and there was all that blood, I thought that was it.’

‘So did I,’ Will admitted. ‘I can’t get those images out of my head – of Richard lying there against the bath. His head was twisted. I thought he’d broken his neck. You never expect to experience something like that. Thank God the paramedics got there quickly.’

‘You saved his life,’ Emma said, ‘doing the first aid work on him.’

‘I’m not sure I did anything really.’ Will deflected the compliment. ‘But at least he’s got a chance now.’

‘Sorry I shouted at you just now. None of us are thinking straight.’

‘Don’t worry about it, Em. I probably deserved it. Look –’ He got to his feet and exhaled. ‘I’m going to nip outside, call the others and let them know that the celebrations are on hold. They’ll be wondering where we’ve got to.’

‘What are you going to say?’ Emma asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Will admitted. ‘That there’s been an accident?’

‘Just don’t tell them where we are. I don’t think the hospital would appreciate twenty drunkards descending on the ward. And anyway, I can’t take all the attention, not yet. Not until I’ve had time to let this all sink in.’

‘Understood,’ Will replied. ‘I’ll be suitably vague.’

Emma nodded her thanks.

‘I won’t be long,’ he said, ‘and hopefully you’ll have had some good news by the time I get back.’

‘I hope so,’ Emma replied.

***

‘Will’s been gone a while,’ Emma commented, watching a team of medics wheel past an elderly man with an oxygen mask held over his face. The man seemed to look right at her, as if trying to communicate something with his watery eyes. It took her back to a time she had tried to forget.