Page 47 of Savage Redemption

“He never came to see me,” the doctor replies. “He must have realised there was something wrong and come to help. Did a detour.”

“What’s his name?” Tony wants to know.

“Carlos di Santo. He’s a plumber but labouring just now. We’re not at the fit-out stage yet.”

“Di Santo? Are you certain?”

The woman stiffens. “Of course. I have his papers.”

“I’ll want to see those.”

“They’re back on the mainland, in our office.”

“I’ll arrange for them to be picked up.” He drags his phone from his back pocket and hits a speed dial button. It rings for a few seconds, then, “Boss? Me again. Yes, air ambulance is on its way.” There’s a pause, then,” Megan’s doing what she can, but it looks bad. I’ve let Rome and Arina know, they’re going straight to the Richmond.”

The Richmond is a private clinic close to Inverness where they don’t apparently ask many questions and any really serious medical conditions are treated, anything that can’t be covered by Megan here on the island.

“Thing is, boss, we have a situation here. Apart from the fire.” Again, he pauses, then continues. “There are three casualties. The two kids, and an unknown adult male who we also dragged out of the cottage. He’s from the building site, one of their crew. Thing is, he gave the name of Carlos di Santo. Yes, I know. No, he’s unconscious. The doc’s with him now. Right. Will do. What’s your ETA, boss?”

He ends the call and shoves the phone back in his pocket.

“Boss wants to talk to him. He’s on his way, he’ll be here in a couple of hours.”

The doctor closes her medical bag. “He’s inhaled a lot of smoke. I need him in my clinic, too, or no one’ll be talking to him.”

“I want to know exactly what he was doing here,” Tony argues. “And who he really is, given that Carlos di Santo is supposed to be three hundred miles away meeting with Ethan. For all we know, he might have started that fire.”

“The questions will have to wait. He’s very sick.” Megan gets to her feet. “If you want to have any chance of questioning him, I suggest you let me do my thing first.”

Tony concedes. “Right. You four, take him up there, and I want at least two guards with him at all times.”

I can only watch, rooted to the spot. They think Adan set fire to the cottage, hurt those children. They want to question him. And they know he’s here using a false name. What will happen if they discover who he really is?

I’m utterly bewildered. What was he even doing here? How did Adan get injured in the fire? He was on his way back to the building site, he told me that.

“Miss, you need to go back up to the castle.” One of the guards takes my arm and tows me away. “It’s not good for the baby, being here, what with all this smoke.”

“I need to?—”

“He’s right.” Adan is being carried from the scene by four of the guards, and Megan is peering at me anxiously. “Small children are particularly susceptible to smoke. Jake, can you take her up to the castle, please? Make sure she gets back okay.”

“Come on, miss.” The guard smiles at me. “Shall I take the little one?”

“No. No, I’m fine.” My head is still whirling as I allow him to lead me away.

CHAPTER 14

Ethan

“How long now?”I snap at Magda, our pilot.

“Fourteen minutes, boss.”

It’s only been about three minutes since I asked her last time. Beside me, Cristina reaches for my hand.

“Are you sure Tomasz is okay? Tony did say he’d seen him, didn’t he?”

“Yes. Definitely. Tomasz ran up the hill to the castle and raised the alarm, but someone had spotted the smoke already and they were on their way. He’s fine, my darling.”

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