‘Oh yeah? It’s damn well gone bang already. So why should 1 bother? Anyway, it’s what you want, isn’t it?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Oh, I can’t be bothered talking to you. Just get lost and leave me alone, will you?’
She tugged at his sleeve. ‘Come on, Ben, let’s get out of this place. I’ll drive you home.’
But he reacted violently, jerking his arm away, almost knocking over his whisky. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you, bitch.’
Now she began to feel angry. ‘I’m not going to put up with this, Ben. Are you going to come, or have I got to drag you out?’
‘Leave me alone!’
He was on his feet, stumbling against the table, oblivious to the stares of the other customers. The landlord was coming out
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from behind the bar again to speak to him.
‘I don’t want you anywhere near me, Fry,’ he said, with as much dignity as he could manage. ‘Just stay away. All right?’
Fry gritted her teeth and restrained herself from slapping his flushed face as he drained the last of his whisky and staggered out of the pub into the night. She knew she ought to go after him and remove his car keys — forcibly, if necessary — to prevent him from trying to drive home in his present state. But another part of her wanted to let him go and get stuffed.
‘Are you a friend of his?’ It was the landlord, leaning over her shoulder.
‘Sort of.’
‘Well, take my advice — he shouldn’t be wandering about out there in that state.’
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‘I’m not his nursemaid. It might seem like it, but I’m not.’ ‘Listen, take him home, or let us call him a taxi or something. But he shouldn’t be out there on his own, I’m telling you.’ ‘OK, OK.’ She walked out of the Unicorn and stood in the lighted
o
doorway, staring out at die dark street, conscious of the eyes on her back. The streetlights ended just below the pub, and the other side of the car park was in complete darkness. An alley ran along the edge of the car park. It wound its way between two high brick walls towards the back entrance to the bus station.
‘Ben!’
There was no answer. She crossed to the car park, where Cooper’s Toyota stood empty and locked.
She glanced back down the street towards her own car, but
o ‘
there was no sign of a figure staggering between the streetlights, no one slumped outside the darkened window of the Chinese takeaway or the insurance brokers.
‘Where the hell ‘
Then she heard the noise. Taunting laughter moving in the shadows. The sound of stumbling feet, animal grunts and stifled cries. A confused thudding and thumping, echoing dully from a wall somewhere. A chill ran across her neck as she stared into the blackness of the alley. She ran to the corner of the car park, peering into the gloom. Shapes were moving in the darkness, coming together and moving apart again, convulsing and thrashing their arms and legs as if involved in a primitive dance. She could distinguish four figures. Three of them had blurred features — collars turned up over their faces, caps pulled low on their foreheads. They struck and kicked at the fourth figure, one after the other, mechanical and brutal, aiming to hurt. The fourth figure was Ben Cooper.
‘Ben!’
Three faces turned towards her; the fourth slumped against the wall, oblivious to her presence, waiting for the blow that would bring him to the floor, ready for the boots to go in.
Fry began to move forward, then paused and froze, thinking furiously. She had two choices. What she ought to do was to announce herself as a police officer, call for assistance, attempt
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to make an arrest before Ben Cooper was too badlv injured, if she could. But to do so would make Cooper’s behaviour a matter of public record. He deserved a chance. Maybe no more than one chance. But a chance.
She did have a second option. It was dangerous, but if she was going to do it, she had to do it now. She ran into the alleyway, feeling the energy already pouring into her limbs, drawing in the deep breaths that expanded her lungs and quickened her muscles. The three youths turned towards her, astonished at her charge.
‘Who’s that?’
‘It’s a woman.’
‘She must be another copper.’
‘A copper!’
She could smell them in the darkness, see their shapes moving towards her through the shadows. Her brain began to flood with memories. It was the same old film that had run and rerun through her mind constantly, no sooner reaching its climactic end than it would start all over again. She felt hot and dirty, and suddenly hurting. A great rage came over her, swamping her resistance, and she badly needed something to hit out at.
The youths were grinning, even as they breathed hard through their flared nostrils and gaping mouths. They weren’t taking her seriously, even though she was now within reach. One of them turned away to give a final kick at Cooper’s battered body. Fry reacted. She hit him in the kidneys with a jumping lunge punch, swept his legs from
