Page 79 of Carbon

“We don’t even know for sure it was him yet, not until we get hold of the CCTV footage. Would you mind coming to the office later to take a look at it?”

I nodded. “Can’t we go now?”

“There’s no point. We might as well eat lunch seeing as it’s ordered.”

How could I contemplate eating after that revelation? The remains of the juice I’d drunk for breakfast rose in my throat, and I swallowed it back down again, fighting the urge to run for the bathroom.

“I’m not hungry anymore.”

“I’ll eat mine quickly.”

Emmy wolfed down her burger as soon as it arrived, then attacked the fries as I picked at a couple of croutons.

“Do you want any of these?” she offered.

I shook my head. What I wanted was to get in a cab, go to Blackwood’s headquarters, and find out what the hell was going on. When Emmy finally dropped two twenty pound notes on the table and stood up, it was all I could do to stop myself from running out of the restaurant.

And the cab took forever. It was after three when we drew up outside the huge building with its fancy glass atrium, something I’d missed seeing on my first visit there.

“We’ll go straight up to the fifth floor,” Emmy said, her trainers squeaking on the polished floor as she strode past the receptionist with a quick wave.

“Do you think there’ll be any news?”

“Let’s hope so.”

The same people were in the conference room as on my first visit—Black, Nye, Luke, Xav, and the woman I now knew as Sofia—except the bearded guy and Dev were missing. Nobody said why. Nye smiled, while Black drilled me with a gaze that left me squirming in my calfskin boots.

“Anything?” Emmy asked.

Luke glanced up from his screen. “We’ve got them walking into the hospital. I’m just going through the exterior footage to see if there’s a decent picture of the bike. The camera closest to the entrance wasn’t working that night.”

“Bloody cutbacks,” Nye muttered.

“Can you play what we’ve got?” Emmy asked.

Seconds later, the stark waiting room of a hospital flickered onto the screen. A lady sat next to a small boy who appeared to have glued a model of the Starship Enterprise to his hand, and a few seats away, a middle-aged man in football kit held his wrist. Then the sliding doors opened, and a man rushed in with a blonde woman in his arms. Even with the towel wrapped around her thigh, it was obvious she was bleeding badly, and her face was a mess too. But my gaze only lingered on her for a second.

“Is that Beau?” Emmy asked.

I nodded. Despite the untidy beard and the blood running from his nose, I couldn’t mistake him for anybody else. “What happened?”

“Davies and his friend weren’t particularly forthcoming with the details,” Nye said. “He just told them to help the girl.” Nye waved at the screen, and sure enough, Beau could be seen shaking his head at a nurse and pointing. “And she told the doctor it was a mugging gone wrong.”

“And the doctor’s thoughts?” Black asked.

“She didn’t look like the kind of girl who’d have anything worth stealing, and she seemed nervous as hell.”

“Of who? Davies? The staff?”

“Not any of them. When she left, she stole a bunch of medical supplies from the nursing station, and Davies was in the car park waiting for her.”

“Got the footage now,” Luke announced. “Same bike.”

On screen, the girl stumbled out of the exit and looked both ways before spotting Beau to the left. A different camera showed them under a light in the parking lot. A few words, and she hopped on the back of the bike, wrapped an arm around Beau, then they took off.

“Thoughts?” Black asked.

“Dev and Logan are still at the hospital talking to people,” Nye told us. “The woman gave her name as Irena and spoke English with an Eastern European accent.”

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