When the big man appeared, holding a mobile phone to his ear, he looked surprised for a moment, shocked to find her there. But then he smiled. It was a tired smile, as if he were pulling it up from somewhere dark and painful. He lowered the hand that was holding the phone and put the handset in his jacket pocket.
“What do you want?” She clutched her empty belly. The remnants of whatever she had carried there gave her strength. She could remember now — she had birthed something in the night, a brood that had come to help her and her mother. “Why have you been following me?” The Needle seemed to bend forward behind her, enclosing her within the protective dimness of its shadow.
“Am I really seeing this?” The big man stared up, his eyes huge and wet and unbelieving. “The building… it moved. It actually leaned towards us.”
Hailey smiled. “Things are different here, in the middle. Tell me why you’re following me and I’ll show you.” She heard the creaking and groaning of the building behind her. The earth vibrated softly, as if a minor tremor were following a fault line located directly beneath her feet. “I’ll show you something amazing.”
“I was told to keep an eye on you, and then to come and get you. My boss is a bad man. I was a bad man. But now I don’t want to be bad. Not anymore.” Tears gleamed on his smooth, round cheeks. “I’m sick and tired of being bad… I want to be someone else now.”
The air filled with the sound of the Needle shifting on its foundations. Hailey didn’t turn to see, she just listened to the music of its movement: the high, sharp keening of twisting steel beams and stanchions, the crisp cracking of concrete, the gunshot-popping of old timber frames.
The big man raised his arms above his head. Hailey wasn’t sure if he was fending off the sight or trying to embrace it. “I can see trees in there.” His voice was quiet, awed. “There’s a forest behind the windows. A fuckin’ forest…”
Hailey stepped forward, out of the shadow of the Needle. Her feet felt quick and light; her body moved through the air as if carried on invisible wafts and currents. “Come on, Mr. Bad Man. Let’s go inside.”
“My name’s Francis,” he said, softly, his gaze still locked onto the Needle.
Francis reached out to her and she took his hand. It was huge, like a slab of meat. She gripped his fingers tightly. She was trying to reassure him, to transmit to him by touch alone that there was nothing to be afraid of, not unless whatever had possessed the building was afraid of you. It was a simple equation, one that even she could work out: Fear plus Fear equals Death. The opposite — because every force must have its equal and opposing reaction — was that Peace plus Acceptance equals Survival. This wasn’t something she had ever learned at school: it was knowledge gained from a tantalising glimpse of another world.
And if the price of admittance to that world was suffering, then once the toll was handed over her remaining currency had to be left behind at the door. No change would be given; exact payments only.
Hailey led her giant companion to confront whatever waited for them inside, within, and behind the walls of the estate.
PART FOUR
The Killing of a North-East Loan Shark
“I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE BLACK-PAINTED STEEL frame of the bridge formed a shadowy grillage around her as Lana strode along the walkway. Sunlight danced through the gaps, stuttering in bright little flashes to blind her momentarily as she made her way towards the waiting figure she assumed was Tom. The dazzling light behind him didn’t allow her to make out any details: he was just a tall, dark silhouette standing with his hands in the pockets of his overcoat.
When she’d called him on the telephone earlier, desperate to hear his voice once Hailey had left her alone in the flat, he had seemed distant and elusive. When he had asked her to meet him here, at a point suspended above the River Tyne, she had at first been filled with trepidation, but then her desire to see him had overcome any doubts prompted by his odd request. Of course she would come, she’d agreed. Of course she would meet him on the bridge.
What else was she supposed to do?
The riverside air was cold. The water below her looked as thick and black as crude oil. People stared at the water from the riverbank on either side — Gateshead and Newcastle — and watched as a small working boat moved slowly under the bridge, following the flow of the river towards its mouth, and then possibly out to the open sea.
Tom didn’t turn to greet her when she approached. He just stayed in the same position, staring eastward along the Tyne, perhaps looking for a way to follow that little boat out to sea.
“So what’s with all this
“I… I’m not sure.” He kept staring along the river. Then his gaze drifted down and off to the right, towards the tacky nightclub-boat that was always docked at the south side, beside a grubby concrete access road. His hands remained inside his pockets. “It’s just, this has always been my favourite place. Ever since I was a kid, when I used to come down here with my parents, I loved it, the sense of being cut off and standing above everything. And I didn’t want to meet you in that awful place — the Grove.”
“Why not?” She looked at him. The side of his face was slightly swollen, the skin shiny and red. She’d not noticed before, but there were fresh bruises smudged along the edge of his jaw. “I don’t understand.”
Finally he turned to look at her, and as he lowered his face towards her the sun blazed behind his head, creating a glaring nova. “Neither do I. There’s been some stuff happening that I just don’t get. It’s like I’m living inside a dream.”
“Or like a dream that was living inside you has finally broken free?”
“You, too?”
She nodded. “It isn’t just you. I can’t explain anything that’s been happening, but the only part of it that feels real — feels
Tom removed one hand from his coat pocket and grasped her wrist. “What’s going on? What have we started?” He licked his lips. The nova around his head dimmed as he shifted position, turning fully to face her. He held both of her hands with his own, squeezing them firmly but not so tight that it hurt.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with us. Not really. A lot of different things are combining to create something that’s bigger than us all. Hailey’s condition, that loan shark Monty Bright, his hired hands… and it all starts with the Concrete Grove. I think what’s coming through the cracks we’ve created has always been there, and that it’s using our desperation as a doorway.” She tried to laugh but all she managed was a sort of croaking sound. “I know how stupid and melodramatic this all sounds, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I’ve seen things, stuff that I could never have thought of as real before now.”
“I’ve seen things, too.” Tom smiled but it seemed to pain him. He raised a hand and touched the side of his face.
“Those bruises,” said Lana. “What happened?”
“Last night. I fell down the stairs. I’d been drinking, and thinking about us.”
She could see that he was lying. He couldn’t even maintain eye contact; his gaze drifted back to the river,
