A Terrible Beauty

'We'll be all right,' Katie reassured him. 'It won't take us more than another five minutes.'

'Can't you use your blue light?'

'To take my husband to a lunch appointment?'

'You used it when you were late for the dentist.'

'That was a genuine emergency. I had an abscess.'

As they approached the city center, the traffic began to thin out, and as they drove alongside the quays, Katie was able to speed up. Paul said, 'That's better?I shouldn't be more than ten minutes late.'

At that instant, however, there was a heavy bang at the back of the car, and Katie found herself struggling with a steering wheel that seemed determined to wrench itself out of her hands. Oh, God, blowout, she thought. The Mondeo's tires screamed on the road surface, and the car started to slide wildly to the right.

'What thehell-?' shouted Paul.

Katie twisted the wheel into the skid, and the car straightened up. But then there was another bang, and another, and Katie saw the Range Rover looming in the rearview mirror. 'Jesus, they're hitting us on purpose!'

She jammed her foot on the brakes, but the Range Rover slammed into them yet again, and this time it locked its front bumper right up against the Mondeo's trunk, and rammed them onto the sidewalk, so that they burst right through the chainlink fence that separated the road from the open quays.

'Oh, my God,' said Lucy.

Katie kept her foot pressed hard on the brake pedal but the Mondeo was no match for the Range Rover's weight and power. It forced the Mondeo along the quay, nearer and nearer to the edge, its tires shrieking in unholy chorus and black smoke billowing out from under its wheel arches.

'For Christ's sake!' Paul screamed. 'They're pushing us into the water!'

Katie spun the wheel hard and yanked on the parking brake, so that the Mondeo skidded around in a 180- degree turn. The Range Rover surged forward and hit their offside passenger door with a deafening smash. It ricocheted sideways, stopped, tilted, and then toppled off the edge of the quay and disappeared.

Katie didn't even see it go: she was wrestling to bring the Mondeo under control. It skittered around in another half circle, and just when she thought she had caught it, one of the rear wheels went over the quay. There was a crunch, as the exhaust pipe was crushed, and for one long horrible moment they rocked and swayed, right on the very edge.'Get out!'Katie shouted.'Quick as you can, before we go over!'

Paul opened the rear passenger door, but as he did so the car shuddered and let out a harsh metallic groan, and slid backward off the quay into the river.

Immediately, the interior was flooded, and Katie was slapped in the face with filthy, freezing-cold water. Paul called out,'Jesus!'followed by a sharp gargling noise. Katie tried to turn around and see what was happening to him, but her seat belt was tightly jammed across her chest. Lucy released her own seat belt and managed to open her door. The river water was rushing into the car faster and faster, right over Katie's shoulders, even though-when she looked up-she could still see the gray sky through the windshield, and the edge of the quay, and the faces of people looking over.

Lucy forced her door wider and struggled out. One of her boots kicked against Katie's arm as she swam away. The Mondeo turned slightly, and then sank. Water filled the whole of the passenger compartment, and Katie hardly had time to take a breath before the car dropped slowly down into a peatish-tinted gloom.

She tugged at her seat belt buckle but it was jammed tight. She cursed herself for not carrying a craft knife in the car, as she had always promised herself that she would, after seeing a young mother burned alive in an accident out on the North Ring. She jabbed the release button again and again, until she broke her fingernail. She tried twisting and jiggling, but still the seat belt wouldn't release her.

Oh, Christ,she thought.I'm going to drown.Her head throbbed and her lungs ached so much that she was almost tempted to take a deep breath of river water. Strangely, she wasn't panicky. She felt that she simply wanted to get it over with, without anyone suffering.

Paul must have drowned almost at once.How ironic, she thought.Just when I've decided that I can't live with him, I'm going to die with him.

It was then that she saw a dark shadow flicker across the windshield. The next thing she knew there was a sharp rapping on her side window. She turned, and through the brown, particle-filled water, she saw Lucy, her eyes wide, her face colorless.

Lucy opened the Mondeo's door. Katie pointed to the seat belt buckle and Lucy nodded. Katie saw the glint of a knife, and Lucy cut through her harness in two quick strokes. Then she took hold of Katie's arms and pulled her out of the driving seat. She kicked up for the surface, supporting Katie all the way, like an angel carrying her up to heaven. As they appeared beside the quay, there were shouts and whoops and applause, and Katie saw to her amazement that the whole quay was already crowded with people and cars. Lucy swam to the side with her, and helped her onto the rusted iron ladder.

'Paul,' Katie coughed. 'Did you see what happened to Paul?'

'I'll go look,' said Lucy. Two men came halfway down the ladder, took hold of Katie under her arms, and lifted her bodily onto the quay, with water pouring from her sodden coat.

'Are you all right, girl?' one of them called to Lucy, but Lucy, without another word, turned and dived under the water again.

'My husband's still down there,' said Katie.

'Sacred name of Jesus.'

Farther along the quay, three men who looked like merchant seamen had taken a small boat out, and one of them was repeatedly diving where the Range Rover had gone down. Its roof was still visible under the water, like a submerged coffin. A squad car arrived, and then another, closely followed by an ambulance. Detective Garda Patrick O'Sullivan was in the second car, and he came over to Katie immediately.