TWENTY TWO
I FOLLOWED 'Bald Guard' to the meeting room and found a middle-aged man sitting on the other side of the mesh. I took the phone. "Hello?"
"My name's Harvey. I'm the PI."
"I didn't know we'd hired one. Nigel sent you?"
"…He doesn't know I'm here."
"How could he not know?"
"He was taken to hospital."
"Hospital! Why - what happened?"
"He had an anxiety attack."
"Was it serious?"
"Did you know he had a heart condition?" I nodded.
"Is he all right?"
"Well, he's still alive."
"You can't die from an anxiety attack," I added, trying to ease a little guilt that had already settled.
"You can die from an anxiety attack if you already have a heart condition," Harvey explained.
"What do you think caused it?"
"Who knows, but he's old, it's hot…."
"I never wanted him to come here."
"I'm sure, but he did and he's in a bad way. I don't know how much longer he can go on running around in all this heat. He's staying with his son at the same hospital. It was your father who called me. Don't you think it's time you end this stress you're causing everyone?"
I never thought I could feel worse than how I'd felt the first time I was brought here….I was wrong.
"Michael?"
"Alright I'll take the deal."
"Excuse me?"
"I said I'll take the deal.”
"You'll plead guilty?"
I nodded as a smile widened Harvey's face.
"You're doing the right thing. How you've lasted so long has surprised me; most farangs would've caved, then paid and gone home by now."
"Get me the papers."
"It might not be that easy. Once a case goes so far and procedures have been followed, it becomes more difficult to pay your way out; too much paperwork to disappear."
"Please make it happen. I'll do anything."
"Tell me about Nincotte."
I couldn't concentrate. I thought about Nigel lying in hospital, far from home. How he'd come all the way here to save me and now lay in a hospital bed next to my father. Guilt riddled me but then the image of Nincotte entered my mind and I was overcome with anger. I raised my eyes to the PI's, tightened my grip and held the phone like I wanted to strangle it. "What do you want to know?”