Blood Tracks Page 14
“Really?” Tom softened on hearing her admission. “Well, that’s good to know, Gina.”
“And I would have paid you back anyway.”
“Either way, you don’t have to steal from me. If you need money then you only have to ask. You know I’d give you anything you wanted.” A smile played on his lips as he pulled a note out of the wallet.
“Here, have this, buy something nice for your mum.”
“No! I can’t take it,” she protested, seeing it was a fifty.
“Take it,” he insisted. “You don’t have to pay me back.” He grabbed her hand. She froze – the numbers she’d copied down were clearly visible. He dragged the hand towards him; she tried to maintain his gaze, willing him not to look down. She twisted against his grip, relieved to see the numbers roll out of sight as her palm appeared.
“You didn’t take much persuading,” he laughed, pressing the note into her palm and closing her moist fingers around it.
“Thanks,” she whispered, hoping he hadn’t noticed how her hand trembled.
Tom stood staring at her in baffled amusement. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you, Gina?”
Her mum came bustling into the kitchen. “There you are! I thought you were up in your room.” She scrutinized her guilty-looking daughter and sighed. “Have you two been having a go at each other again?”
“Not at all. Gina and I have just made up. Haven’t we, kiddo?” He put his arm around her stiff shoulders.
“Yeah.” She faked a smile.
“We’ve had a good talk. Cleared the air.” He squeezed her closer to him.
Her mum beamed with relief. “Well, that’s just great. It would make me so happy if you two could get along.” She threw her arms around them, rocking them. “You sillies. No more falling out, hey?”
“Don’t worry. Gina and me are the best of friends. We understand each other now, don’t we?” he said, with a wink that sent a shudder down Gina’s spine.
“Dive to the left, Danny!” Declan shouted as he booted the ball from the penalty spot yet again. The ball flew past Danny and into the back of the net.
“I can’t do it. I haven’t saved any yet. I’m so rubbish,” Danny grumbled, retrieving the ball.
“Don’t be a baby. You can. You’ve got to react faster, concentrate more.”
“Let me take a shot,” Gina said, placing the ball on the penalty spot.
“Okay, now come on, Danny, focus,” Declan coached. “Watch her as she runs up and see if you can work out where she’s going to place it. Stretch your arms out, bend your knees; get ready to dive.”
Gina took a short run-up and blasted the ball. It rocketed towards the right-hand corner of the goal. Danny dived and stretched his arms like they were made of plasticine. His fingertips just made contact with the ball, and deflected it away from the goal.
Declan sprang up into the air and did a somersault. He ran up to Gina and they threw their arms around each other, mucking around; cheering like Danny had just saved a penalty in a World Cup Final.
Danny picked himself off the AstroTurf, grinning. “Calm down, you two. It was only Gina’s shot and she’s a girl, so it doesn’t count.”
Gina released Declan but he kept his arms around her; he seemed reluctant to let her go. She smiled to herself.
“Get off the pitch,” Danny suddenly shouted. “Big Paddy and the team are here and there’s the Thunderbolts’ minibus!”
They watched apprehensively as a team of bruisers piled out of the minibus.
“Are you sure they’re under-11s?” Declan asked.
“Yep,” Danny groaned.
Gina and Declan exchanged worried looks.
“You’ll be fine,” Declan said breezily. “Just remember everything we’ve gone through.”
“Yeah, okay,” Danny said, walking to the goalmouth like a condemned man.
Gina and Declan stood on the touchline, watching the game under the glaring floodlights.
“God, I can’t watch any more,” Gina said, looking through her fingers as another ball sailed past Danny and into the net. “This is a massacre!”
Declan nudged her. “Don’t let him see you looking like that. Come on, Panthers!” he shouted at the sorry-looking team.
“I’ve been thinking about those numbers on Tom’s piece of paper,” she said in a low voice, although no one was in earshot. “Maybe they’re details of a bank account, or the code to a safety deposit box or a safe?”
“Yeah, they could be.” Declan shrugged. “We just don’t know.”
“But then, I was thinking that maybe the last three sets of numbers could be a date.” Gina got her notebook out of her bag and showed the sequence of numbers to Declan.
“Look – 874351/54/208/23/10/13. Couldn’t the 23/10/13 be a date?”
Declan nodded, impressed. “Possibly, in which case, it’s very soon.”
“So, as we haven’t got anything else to go on, I reckon we shouldn’t take our eyes off Tom on that day, and see if anything happens.”
“Okay, I can do that at the warehouse and you can take over in the evening, if he comes to your house.”
“We’ve got to be careful though. We don’t want him getting suspicious. I nearly died when he walked in on me in the kitchen. At least he didn’t realize what I was up to, but the way he was acting…he really gave me the creeps.”
“Yeah, he had a go at me this morning about the air-conditioning – said I’d wasted his time. We should definitely keep this to ourselves.”
“But what about my mum? She needs to know if he’s up to something.”
“No!” Declan seemed alarmed. “Don’t say anything. We need to suss out what’s going on first. It may be nothing and then you’ll just look like you’re making up stuff and your mum will be upset with you.”
“Yeah, you’re right. We’ll keep it to ourselves for now.” Gina turned her attention back to the game. “Ooh…come on, ref! That was a foul! Number eight just elbowed that little number six in the face!”
The final whistle blew and there was relief all round that the slaughter was over.
“I think Danny’s going to need a little more coaching,” Gina said.
“Leave it to me. I’ll make him into a Ninja goalie before the end of the season,” Declan laughed.
Gina fought back an urge to hug him. It felt so great to have him around, to know that she wasn’t alone in this any more. Declan was helping her. He believed in her.
Declan looked at his watch. “Do you fancy seeing a movie tonight? If you get Danny home and I get changed and call back for you in half an hour?”
“Yeah, that sounds good. What were you thinking of?”
“Any – your choice.” Declan shrugged.
“My choice? But what if I want to see a chick flick full of women buying shoes and complaining about men?” she teased.
“I’ll watch whatever makes you happy.” He smiled.
Gina tried to mask her excitement. Oh my God! He’s actually willing to see a chick flick with me. What boy does that unless they fancy you?
“See you in half an hour then,” she trilled.
Gina made Danny rush home. Once they were in the house she ran upstairs, calling to her mum that she was getting ready to go out with Declan. Twenty minutes later, most of the contents of her wardrobe were piled on her bed. She’d changed half a dozen times, looking in the mirror and shaking her head.
The doorbell rang. She put on another coat of lipstick, slipped on her new shoes and clung onto the banister like she was walking downstairs on stilts.
She smiled when she saw the look on Declan’s face as she opened the door.
“Wow! You look nice.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“Oh thanks,” she said casually, “I just threw on the first thing I saw.”
“Well come on, your chariot awaits.”
“Where?” She looked around.
“On the High Street. It’s the number six bus. We’d better run,
it’s due in a minute.”
“No way, I can’t run in these heels!” she protested.
“Then I’ll give you a piggyback.” He turned round and offered his back.
“You must be joking.”
“No. We’ll miss the movie and you don’t want to sit through it with sore feet, do you? Come on, hop on.”
“Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m doing this!” She jumped up onto his back. “Giddy up then.”
He started to run up the street with Gina clinging to him, her arms around his neck, laughing so hard she thought she was going to fall off.
“Thanks for not making me watch a chick flick,” Declan whispered to her in the darkened cinema.
“It’s okay. I like thrillers better, anyway.” She lowered her hand into the cavernous tub that Declan was holding.
“Wow, you really like popcorn,” he whispered, rattling the near-empty tub.
She squirmed. “Have I eaten it all? The weird thing is that I could hardly eat after my dad died and now I can’t seem to stop. It’s since I’ve met you, you’re a bad influence on me.”
“I hope so.” He grinned. “Open up then.”
He held a piece of popcorn up to her mouth but, as she lunged for it, her lips accidentally sealed around his fingertips. Declan froze. He swallowed hard. She immediately released his fingers and nearly choked on the popcorn.
“Sorry,” she spluttered.
“No worries,” he whispered, flustered.
For the remainder of the film Declan didn’t seem to move a muscle. Every time Gina sneaked a look at him out of the corner of her eye, he was sitting with his hands on his knees, staring intently at the screen.
After the movie they jumped in a taxi home and by the time they were at her front door she was willing him so hard to kiss her that she felt sure he’d be able to read her mind. She stood up on the doorstep so that she was level with him.
“Thanks for a lovely night,” she said, looking into his languid brown eyes.
“No, thank you,” he said, grinning. But then his phone vibrated in his pocket, and the grin fell from his face as he answered it.
“Hi…okay…I’ll ring you back.” Declan’s voice was cold.
“Who was that?” Gina asked.
“Just a mate. I need to get back to him. I’ll see you soon,” he said, with that same tense look that she’d seen in his eyes before, and he left her standing alone on the doorstep.
Declan sat in his flowery bedroom and rang back his least favourite person. “Have you worked out what those numbers I gave you mean?” Declan asked the man.
“No, but something’s going down, lad. Cotter wouldn’t get a personal visit like that unless there were things in the pipeline.”
“Well, Gina reckons the last few digits could be a date.”
“What do you mean ‘Gina reckons’? Why the hell have you told her?”
“Because I wouldn’t have even got the information without her,” Declan replied indignantly.
“What does she know?”
“Only that I think Tom might be involved in something dodgy. She was more than willing to help. She doesn’t want him around her family, especially her mum. She thinks he knows things about her dad’s death, doesn’t she? What about the stuff in her notebook that I told you about? What about her description of the guy outside the house? It sounded like it was the same man who came to visit Tom, the man in the photo. You said you were going to look into it?”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about that,” he said dismissively. “The bottom line is, I’ve asked people who know and they say that Gina Wilson is unstable. All this stuff about her dad not killing himself – it’s rubbish. She hasn’t been able to handle his suicide and she’s been taking it out on Cotter.”
“Are you sure?” Declan asked.
“Yes, I’m sure.” He sounded irritated.
Declan didn’t want to believe it. Gina was so convinced about her dad and she’d trusted Declan to help her. He felt so guilty about what he was doing. He despised the person on the phone but, on the other hand, there was no reason for the man to lie about this. If it was true, it meant that Gina wasn’t well; that all her thoughts and theories were just delusions that she’d built up to protect herself from reality.
“Poor Gina,” Declan whispered to himself.
“Just don’t get sucked into her problems. You’ve got a job to do; so keep a clear head and for God’s sake don’t tell her anything else!” he said, infuriated.
Declan gave a hollow laugh. “What could I tell her? I don’t know anything. If something’s about to go down, then maybe it’s time you told me what you’ve got me involved with.”
“I’ve told you as much as you need to know and that’s the way it’s going to stay. Your immediate problem is making sure the girl keeps her mouth shut about this. We can’t have Cotter knowing he’s being watched.”
“I’ll do my best,” Declan said quietly.
“I need better than that. There’s too much at stake here for you to cock this up.”
“I hate all this lying. It’s not something I’m good at,” Declan protested.
“Oh, don’t be so modest, Declan. I’d say you had a real talent for it,” he replied, sneeringly.
The forklift truck whirred as Declan pulled the lever and the sacks rose up into the air. The machine juddered as he brought the load safely down onto the shelves, sending a cloud of chocolate dust into the atmosphere.
“Well done, Dec. You’ve really got the hang of this,” Pete, his workmate, shouted up to him.
Declan smiled beneath his hard hat. Yeah, he was okay at this and actually enjoying the job had been a surprise bonus for him.
He climbed down from the truck and went to see if he could spot Tom. He’d been trying to keep an eye on him all morning. If Gina’s theory was right, if the last set of digits on that piece of paper did represent a date, then today was the day, and he didn’t want to let Tom out of his sight.
As Declan strode down the aisle he spotted Tom heading out of the warehouse and towards his car. Declan rushed into the office and found Kylie dunking a biscuit into a steaming cup of tea.
“Hiya, Declan, fancy a cuppa?” she asked.
“No thanks. I was just wondered where Tom had gone?”
“He said he had to pop over to Clare’s house. Said he’d be back in a couple of hours.”
“Thanks,” Declan said, his mind racing. He jogged out of the warehouse and onto the quayside into the bracing sea air.
He got his phone out and started to text. Please have your phone on, Gina, he willed.
Mr. Hannigan, the history teacher, was fighting a losing battle, trying to enthuse class 11H about the War of the Roses, when Gina’s phone vibrated from inside her schoolbag.
She ducked down to answer it before Mr. Hannigan noticed.
She opened the text from Declan: Phone me now, urgent.
Gina’s hand shot up. “Sir!”
“Good to see that someone was listening.” The ageing teacher smiled. “So, what was the turning point in the conflict, Gina?”
“Er…I don’t know, sir, but can I be excused? I’ve got really bad stomach cramps. I think I need something from the nurse.”
The teacher looked uneasy – he knew the code for female problems and wasn’t about to question her.
“Off you go, then,” he said wearily.
Gina headed for the toilets and phoned Declan.
“What is it?” Gina whispered.
“Tom’s just left the warehouse to go to your house. Is anyone home?”
“No, Danny’s at school. Mum’s working till six.”
“You know what the date is?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then can you get back to your house and see what he’s up to?”
“What? Now? But I’m in school!”
“So? Haven’t you ever bunked off before?”
“No,” she replied, sounding disappointed in herself.
Gina felt her pulse quickening as she started to rehearse her lines to get past the school receptionist.
She could see Tom’s car parked outside her house. As soon as Gina entered the hallway she heard noises coming from upstairs. She reached the landing and listened. He was in her mum’s bedroom. She opened the door quickly, hoping to catch him, but for a second her world froze.
She gawped at the figure with his back to her. He was crouched over a drawer that had been pulled out from the wardrobe. His head was bent forward. All Gina could see was the green tweed jacket he was wearing: her dad’s favourite jacket. The one he wore for best. The one he’d worn for so many happy celebrations in their lives.
She didn’t know why she said it. It made no sense but, for a split second, despite all logic, every fibre in her being willed it to be him.
“Dad?” she called out, her voice tremulous.
But the face that turned to her was Tom’s.
“Oh, Gina. What must you think?” He looked dismayed and guilty. He stood up and approached her.
She stepped back, shaken. “What are you doing? Why have you got my dad’s jacket on? Why are you going through all my dad’s things?”
“I’m clearing out, for your mum,” he answered gently.
Gina looked around at the plump black bags sitting around the room, her father’s clothes poking out of them. She saw that all the bedroom furniture had been pulled away from the walls. Box files of her dad’s paperwork lay open on the bed.
“I’m so sorry if I’ve upset you with the jacket. I didn’t expect you’d be home. I saw it in the wardrobe and…I know this is going to sound strange, but I suddenly needed to put it on. I can’t explain it, but wearing it, I feel close to Marty, connected with him somehow.”
Gina watched Tom’s face crumple with emotion.
“How did you get in?” she asked coldly.
“Your mum gave me a set of keys.”
“Well give them back!” she ordered, putting out her hand.