She stepped outside, on to the beam. Phil tried to move backwards, away from her. He felt himself slip, his foot go over the edge. His body lose its balance.
Oh my God, he thought. I’m going to fall.
111
‘Look up there,’ shouted Anni. ‘It’s the boss…’
Mickey followed her arm. Saw Phil Brennan standing on the top beam of the crane mechanism. ‘What’s he…’
‘No… he’s going to fall…’
Phil brought his foot round. Placed it securely on the beam. Steadied himself. He didn’t fall. His breathing was heavy, chest heaving.
And then he felt it. The tightening bands round his ribcage, squeezing, tightening…
No. Not now. Ignore it. Not now…
Fiona Welch smiled at him. ‘One push. That’s all it takes…’
‘Give it up, Fiona,’ he shouted. ‘You’re going nowhere.’
‘Oh really?’
‘Look down there. That’s my team. They’ve got this place surrounded. You can’t get away.’
She laughed. ‘One push. And you’ll be seeing your team sooner than you think…’
‘Don’t be a fool, Fiona. You’ve got nowhere to go.’
‘Apart from the history books. I’m going to be famous, Phil Brennan. You’re not. You’re just going to be the latest in my list of victims.’ She laughed. ‘So I suppose you’ll be famous, too, in a way. Isn’t that exciting?’
The wind was getting up. If it got too strong the argument would be meaningless. They would both go. And there was the pain in his chest…
‘Fiona… don’t. Give up. Please.’
Another laugh.
Phil didn’t think he could hang on much longer.
Suzanne opened her eyes. Sat up. She saw two sets of everything, had a sharp, shooting pain in the back of her skull. She could guess what had caused that.
She looked round. Saw that woman, Fiona something, outside on the gantry. The way Phil had gone. She looked beyond the Fiona woman. Saw Phil standing there.
And from the looks of him, he wouldn’t be there long.
She had to do something. Stop her.
She looked round, trying to find something – anything – that could be used as a weapon. Nothing.
Did another sweep with her eyes. Looked back into the building. Looked up, looked outside.
She had an idea…
‘You a religious man, Phil? You look the type.’
He didn’t answer.
Fiona Welch edged forward. ‘Only, if you know any prayers, I’d start saying them now…’
He tried hard to keep his balance, keep his breathing in check.
‘You’d better start believing in the afterlife. Not that there is one – I know because I’m a psychologist – but it might make your last few seconds more comfortable.’
She edged closer.
Phil felt himself begin to totter…
Then Fiona Welch flung her arms out wide, a preacher beseeching her flock. Her eyes widened, her arms began windmilling.
‘No, no…’
She flung out her arm, fingers extended, grasping only air.
‘No, not me…’
Her eyes were wide with terror, with the realisation of what was about to happen.
Fiona Welch screamed. And fell.
To her death.
Phil looked at the entranceway. There was a hook on a chain swinging backwards and forwards through it. Suzanne Perry standing beside it. He smiled.
Suzanne returned it.
He edged slowly back towards her.
Ready to get down.
Ready to go on living.
PART FIVE
112
The only sound in the room was the soft bleeping of the life-support machine. Regular and rhythmic, it had a soothing quality.
‘That noise,’ said Marina quietly, like she was in a church and didn’t want to talk above a whisper, ‘I always thought… always used to think… as long as it was going, everything would be all right. There’d be hope.’
Her final word was choked off by a sudden sob.
Phil, standing beside her, tightened his grip round her shoulder.
‘But that’s not always enough, is it?’ she said, still whispering. ‘Sometimes you need the truth. Stop dreaming.’ Another sigh. ‘Start living.’
She stepped forward, looked down at the figure lying in the bed. Phil stayed where he was, behind her. There if she needed him.
Tony seemed to be shrinking. Every time she saw him he seemed to get smaller. She thought of that old black and white science fiction film she had seen when she was a child, a man shrinking, getting so small he eventually becomes a microscopic organism, an atom at the heart of the universe.
This was different, though. He wasn’t shrinking, just wasting away.
And he wouldn’t be falling into the heart of the universe. And he wouldn’t be coming back.
Marina bent down, made to kiss him. Then straightened up, turned to the nurse, panic on her face.
‘What if he can see me? Or hear me? That happens, doesn’t it? People in comas for years suddenly come back to life, say they can hear everything that’s been going on…’
The nurse, standing silently at the side of the room, stepped forward. ‘Sometimes,’ she said, her hushed tone matching Marina’s. ‘In some instances. It depends on the kind of injuries the patient has sustained. The state they’re actually in.’
‘And Tony…’
The nurse shook her head.
Marina knew that. They had had this conversation over and over. But she hadn’t heard what the nurse had actually said.
