“You arse hole he murmured cheerfully, tucking the pin into the front of his jumper.
“I feel ill,” said Roz.
“Sit down, then.” He took a chair and pressed her into it before moving to the back door and flinging it open.
“Out,” he ordered the man at the sink.
“Get yourself to hospital as fast as you can. If your friends have an ounce of decency they’ll keep your name to themselves. If they haven’t’ he shrugged - ‘you’ve got about half an hour to get yourself admitted before the police come looking for you.”
The man needed no persuading. He launched himself into the fresh air of the alleyway and took to his heels.
With a groan of exhaustion, Hal shut the door and slithered to the floor.
“I need a rest. Do me a favour, sweetheart, and take off their masks.
Let’s see what we’ve got.”
Roz’s head was aching intolerably where the roots of her hair had been loosened. She looked at him with burning eyes in a pasty white face.
“For your information, Hawksley,” she said icily, “I’m just about out on my feet. It may have escaped your notice, but if it hadn’t been for me you wouldn’t have got anything.”
He gave a mighty yawn and winced as pain seared around his chest and back. Fractured ribs, he thought tiredly.
“I’ll tell you this for free, Roz. As far as I’m concerned you are the most wonderful woman God ever made and I’ll marry you if you’ll have me.” He smiled sweetly.
“But at the moment I’m bushed.
Be kind. Get off your high horse and take their ski-masks off.”
‘“Words, words, mere words”,” she murmured, but she did as he asked.
The side of his face was already thickening where a baseball bat had split the skin. What the hell sort of state must his back be in?
Covered in weals, probably, like the last time.
“Do you know any of them?” She studied the slack features of the unconscious man by the door. She had a fleeting impression she knew him, but his head moved and the impression vanished.
“No.” He’d seen her frown of brief recognition.
“Do you?”
“I thought I did,” she said slowly.
“Just for a moment.” She shook her head.
“No. He probably reminded me of someone on the telly.”
Hal pushed himself to his feet and padded over to the sink, his stiffening body protesting at every step. He filled a bowl with water and sloshed it into the gaping mouth, watching the eyes flicker open.
They were instantly alert, wary, guarded, all of which told Hal he wasn’t likely to get anywhere by asking questions.
With a shrug of resignation, he looked at Roz.
“I need a favour.”
She nodded.
“There’s a phone box about two hundred yards down the main road. Take your car to it, dial 999, tell them the Poacher’s been broken into, and then go home. Don’t give your name. I’ll call you the minute I can.”
“I’d rather stay.”
“I know.” His face softened. She was wearing her lonely look again.
He reached out and ran the back of a finger down the line of her cheek.
“Trust me. I will call.”
She took a deep breath.
“How long do you want?”
He’d make it up to her one day, he thought.
“Fifteen minutes before you phone.”
She retrieved her handbag from the floor, cramming the contents inside and zippering it closed.
“Fifteen minutes,” she echoed, pulling the door open and stepping outside. She stared at him for a long moment then shut the door and walked away.
Hal waited until her footsteps faded.
“This,” he said gently, reaching for the hat ping ‘is going to be extremely painful.” He grasped the man’s hair and forced him down until his face was flat against the floor.
