Page 84 of Deep Blue Lies
I try to think, my mind has gone temporarily blank. “Simon Walker-Denzil.”
“Simon? Oh my God.”
I try to work out whether I should tell her about the baby. The baby she nearly killed, the baby I thought was me, but now I know can’t be. In the end I don’t get the chance, because she moves on quicker than I do.
“Simon doesn’t know anything. Is there anyone else you’ve spoken with?”
The question makes my mind spin through everyone I’ve talked to here, but I don’t say anything. At least not about that.
“There’s a reason I called.” I screw my eyes shut, trying to focus.
“Well obviously, I had no idea you were digging all of this nonsense up?—”
“I spoke to Imogen. A few days ago.” I cut her off the same way she did to me. “I told her some of the things Ifound out?—”
“You haven’tfoundanything, Ava. There’s nothing to find out?—”
“Even so,” I cut back in, “I spoke to her.”
Silence.
“And what didImogensay?” She layers something onto the name. A familiar note of contempt.
I take a deep breath. “She told me she was going to come out. Here to Alythos. And she was going to tell me everything.”
“Oh my God, nowImogen’sgoing to Alythos? Oh, this is fantastic. Bravo Ava, this just gets better and better. Listen to me Ava, you cannot listen to what that woman says. She’s been on Seroquel foryears. Twelve hundred milligrams a day. You know what that’s for, don’t you? It’s an anti-psychotic drug. One that doesn’t always work too well. I’ve always told you, Imogen is a weak, weak person. You can’t trust her.”
“She’s already here.” I can’t listen to my mother anymore. The rant flowing out of her. “But she didn’t get the chance to say anything. Someone attacked her. Someone tried to kill her.”
Finally,finallymy mother shuts up.
“What?”
I tell her again.
“I was going to meet her. When I got there she’d been attacked, someone hit her on the head. She was nearly dead.”
A silence. “Oh my goodness.” I hear her breaths. “Where are you now?”
“I told you. In Panachoria, outside the hospital.”
“She’s inhospital? Imogen’s in hospital?”
“I just told you Mum, someone attacked her. To stop her talking to me, someone smashed her head in, and I don’t know who, or what they’re trying to hide?—”
“What hospital?”
I shake my head. “Panachoria. It’s the town on the mainland near?—”
“I know where it is. Is she OK? Is she going to be OK? Is shespeaking? Does she know who attacked her?”
“No. The hospital put her in an induced coma. The police say it was probably Albanians. Apparently they have a problem with them here.”
“Oh my goodness, Ava. A coma? Is she going to be alright? Have you spoken to anyone who knows?”
“I’ve spoken with the doctor. She says they’ll know more in a few days. She might have brain damage, or she might be OK. They won’t know until she wakes up.”
“Oh my gosh. This is horrible news. Horrible, Ava.”
