Page 40 of Not in a Million Years

Daniel didn’t say anything. His jaw was clenched, and I saw him swallow hard. I reached out and gently squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back with a force that almost crushed my fingers.

‘This way, please.’ Hakan led us into a glass-walled elevator and pressed a button, and we glided upwards. He made cheerful small talk on the journey to the sixth floor and during the walk along a few light-filled, clean-smelling corridors, past doors with sleek metal plates screwed to their surfaces and more calm, smiling staff.

Was it our first time in Turkey? Had we had a good flight out? Where were we staying? Would we be taking the opportunity to enjoy the local sights while we were here?

I answered politely, managing to resist asking any of the questions that were crowding my mind. But one answer was clear already: he expected us to be here for some time, and that meant that Andy would be, too.

‘And here we are.’ Hakan pushed open a door, wide enough to admit a hospital bed. ‘Mr Sinclair, you have visitors.’

Beneath the window in the cool, fresh-smelling room, its walls painted a restful pale blue, was a bed, and on the bed was Andy.

His blonde hair had grown out from his usual on-trend side-parted quiff and was held back from his face with a kirby grip. Whatever tan he’d acquired since arriving in Turkey had faced to a yellowish pallor. He was wearing a blue-and-green hospital gown, and a clear tube led into his arm, its end covered with a dressing.

‘I’ll be just down the corridor if you need me,’ Hakan said. ‘Feel free to buzz.’

Andy looked at us, his face breaking into a familiar, dazzling smile. ‘Well, look who’s here. If it isn’t Mulder and Scully. Or maybe not – the two of them actually got along. You took your fucking time, didn’t you?’

‘Yeah, we had to check the twelve-islands cruise, the Bronze Age rock tombs and the butterfly safari off our itinerary before we could fit in seeing you,’ Daniel deadpanned.

‘We had to get our priorities straight, you know.’ I felt a bubble of laughter rising in my chest but didn’t let it out, because I knew it was dangerously close to tears. Then I dropped the pretence of indifference and hurried to Andy’s bedside. ‘Jesus Christ, Andy. You had us worried there for a bit.’

‘Careful.’ Alarm flashed over his face. ‘I can’t actually move. And a hug might just finish me off.’

‘Okay.’ I squatted down next to the bed and took Andy’s hand. Daniel pulled a chair over to the other side and sat down. ‘So, do you want to tell us what happened to you?’

‘A slight disagreement with the side of a mountain,’ Andy said. ‘Weirdly, the mountain won. Entirely my fault, of course. I was driving like a prize pillock. The mountain was an innocent bystander and will probably take me to the cleaners.’

‘I dunno, mate,’ Daniel said. ‘I reckon those dodgy ambulance-chasing lawyers that keep cold-calling me about a car accident I never had could probably be persuaded to take on a mountain. What’s the damage, anyway?’

Andy shifted uncomfortably in bed and reached for his water glass. ‘They had to sort out the serious stuff first. The internal bleeding. Make sure that wasn’t going to finish me off.’

‘Internal— Oh my God. That sounds awful.’ The cold feeling was settling inside me again.

‘Sure was. But – once I could say anything, that is – I told them my liver’s taken far more punishment over the years than a crushed Renault Fluence could inflict on it in a few seconds. They took me to the state hospital first, then moved me here once they realised my travel insurance was legit. And then they operated to patch up my pelvis. It’s a vertical shear fracture, apparently – the worst kind.’

‘Well, you never did do things by halves,’ Daniel said.

‘Nope,’ Andy agreed. ‘There’s a bunch of pins and plates and shit in there now holding it all together. The surgeon assures me that I’ll be able to fuck again, but I don’t fancy it somehow, can’t think why.’

‘Why didn’t you get in touch with anyone?’ I asked.

‘For the first couple of days I was pretty out of it, I’m not going to lie. I mean, it really was nip and tuck. I’ve got more donated blood sloshing around in here right now than my own stuff. I couldn’t have told you my own name, but fortunately they found my passport, so they worked it out.’

‘And after that?’ Daniel adjusted his position in his chair, wincing as if he was imagining what a vertical shear fracture of the pelvis might feel like.

‘I didn’t have my phone – long story with which I’ll regale you in due course – so I couldn’t get in touch with any of you lot. I don’t think I’ve remembered a phone number since I did my A levels. And like a total idiot, when I took out the travel insurance, I put Mum as my emergency contact.’

‘So why didn’t they contact her?’ I asked.

‘I’d completely forgotten, but she’s off in Northumbria doing one of her silent retreats. No talking, no technology for a fortnight. Bit of a gift to humanity that they can get her to keep her gob shut for that long – Dad certainly never managed it. So as an emergency contact, she was a total non-starter. And, like I say, I’ve been pretty much out of it until the past couple of days. They’ve still got me on some seriously good drugs though, mind.’

Daniel and I met each other’s eyes. Seriously good drugs might be necessary for someone in Andy’s position, but for Andy himself they could spell a load of trouble down the line.

‘And there’s no need to look like that,’ Andy went on. ‘What do you expect me to have done while they were hammering steel rods into my sacroiliac joint – bite down on a stick?’

I laughed, but dodged his question. ‘Seriously, we’re just relieved you’re okay. How long do they think you’ll have to stay here?’

Andy shook his head wearily. ‘Trying to get them to commit to that has been like trying to get that Ronan boy I went out with a few years back to commit to a date on a Saturday night. They’ve got some physiotherapist woman coming in twice a day to torture me, and they say she and the surgeon will let me know when they think it’s safe for me to fly. I can’t actually bend anything right now. How did you find me, anyway?’

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