twenty-eight
Davey was sitting up in bed, waiting impatiently for a visit from Ramon, when a familiar but hated figure appeared behind the glass of the ward door.
His heart fell into his stomach. What was he doing here?
Perhaps he was having a bad dream? But the door pushed open slowly and he knew that the smirking face that peered in through the gap was all too real.
“What are you doing here?”
“Come to see how little Davey Dormouse is recovering from his horrible accident.”
“I don’t want to see you, Ned. Go away. You broke into the stables! That was my job!”
“All in a day’s work!” Ned grinned, collapsing into the same chair that Ramon sat in when he was here, and stretching his legs out under the bed. “Don’t be like that, Davey. We’re business partners.”
“We aren’t, we never were, just like I never wanted anything to do with your and Owen’s half-assed get-rich schemes. Anyway, why are you here? Didn’t they arrest you?”
Ned laughed. “Just a spot of burglary, nothing expensive nabbed. I have no previous offenses here, so I was back out on the street in a couple of hours.”
“How did you even find the stables? I never told you where they are.”
“Not hard, Davey boy. You were dropping hints all the while we were drinking together. Just so proud of your shitty little job there, you were, you couldn’t keep it dark.
All I needed to do was put two and two together and ask a few questions.
But I’d given you a job to do, and instead of doing it, you scarpered.
So, I knew I’d have to do it myself. That means you owe me. ”
“I don’t owe you! I want nothing more to do with you!”
“If you’d have done the job I’d given you, I wouldn’t have had to get anywhere near your precious stables, and I wouldn’t have got arrested. So you owe me.”
“What do you want, Ned? I’m not getting involved with you, not in any of your terrible schemes!”
“Oh, but you are, Davey Dormouse, that’s why I’m here.”
“No!” And David’s headache came back, sharp and painful.
He searched for the buzzer to call the nurse, but it had slipped down off the bed, and Ned just sat there grinning evilly at him.
All he could do was shut his eyes, hoping when he opened them again, Ned would have disappeared.
He did so, waiting a few long seconds to give the dream time to dissipate.
But when he opened his eyes, Ned remained sitting right there, large as life.
However, the other figure now standing there in the doorway was Ramon.
With one step he was across the room and had Davey in his arms.”
“Are you OK? What’s happened? You look terrible.”
From the other side of the bed, Ned looked across at them, smirking.
“My oh my, Davey, you’ve been busy! Got yourself a boyfriend?”
“And who are you?” Ramon asked.
“That’s Ned,” Davey said. “The guy who broke into Carme’s. A friend of my brother’s. He tracked me down here.”
“Nice to make your acquaintance, Sir,” Ned sneered. “I had no idea he had such proclivities. You make a lovely couple.”
“And what are you doing here?” Ramon asked.”
“I had business with your lover boy.”
“No, he didn’t,” Davey protested. “I want nothing more to do with him. Ever.”
By that time Ramon had come around the bed and had his police badge up in Ned’s face.
“So you’re not family, and not invited. You have exactly one minute to leave this hospital and not come back before I arrest you for trespass.
I probably needn’t remind you that with one offense on your record here already, another would mean you spend the rest of your time in Catalonia before your trial in the clink. ” Ramon opened the ward door. “Now go.”
And he stood there, stock still, as Ned got up and eased his way past Ramon—for once careful with his gangly presence—and out the door. Ramon continued to watch him until he had disappeared down the corridor. Then he closed the door and turned to David.
“Are you alright?”
David nodded. “I didn’t know how to get him to go.”
“Is there something you need to tell me?”
David nodded again. “The night you saw me in the stables, Ned had wanted me to go up there. He wanted tools, bolt cutters and the like, so he could set himself up for burglaries. But there was no way I was going to do that. I wouldn’t steal from Carme, not after everything she’d done for me.
I went up there to throw him off the scent, but it was really just to say goodbye to Boira and the other horses.
Then I was going to grab my stuff from Placa Reial and hitchhike out of town for good, get right away.
Start again down south, far away from Ned, and even farther from a particular cop who I couldn’t stop thinking about.
And then… there you were. And you offered the same…
to take me south. So it felt like fate. I was meant to leave, go with you.
I just didn’t realize I’d be leaving behind such a mess…
for me… and for you. I’m sorry, Ramon. I should have confessed before this. ”
Ramon walked up to the head of the bed, and took his Davey’s hand.
“Just swear to me that you were never planning to do anything illegal with him… or with anyone.”
“I swear, Ramon.” And David’s blue eyes were dark with intensity.
“I swear on… the memory of our Mam, I did never and will never ever get involved… or intend to get involved with anything crooked. That Ned, he’s one of our Owen’s friends.
He’s bad news, and I’ve never wanted anything to do with him. ”
“I believe you, Davey. I’m sorry, but I just needed to hear you say it. I risked my job for your innocence. And I knew you were innocent, even when the evidence seemed to point otherwise… so, I do believe you. We just needed to say that out loud, didn’t we?”
David nodded and pulled him close. “We did.”
Ramon encircled him with his arms, and they stayed that way, silent, for long moments.
When Davey and Ramon pushed through the hospital’s glass doors, the early summer midday sun struck them like a bar of incandescent iron after the many days they’d spent in the hospital’s air-conditioned environment.
“Wow, that’s hot!” Davey breathed. “I never knew how fierce the sun is here.”
“And this is just the start,” Ramon said. “I’d forgotten you arrived in winter. It gets worse. Have you never been here in summer?”
“Once, when I was just a tyke, about seven I think, but I don’t remember it being like this.”
“The summers have been getting hotter. Do you want to wait inside, and I’ll bring the truck around the front?
“Nah, I’m good. I just want to get rid of this hospital.”
“Lean on me if you want.”
But Davey preferred to walk determinedly on his own two legs, even though Ramon knew that the discharge and leave-taking from Mariona and Sa?d had sapped more energy from him than he’d wanted to admit.
But he said nothing, merely nodding and matching Davey’s leisurely pace up toward the rear of the hospital where he was parked.
Perhaps a worse leave-taking had been the one between Davey and his father.
Mr. Howard had wanted to take his son back to Ravenscragg to recover once he was ready to be discharged.
Ramon had not wanted to interfere in the wishes of Davey’s family, so he’d been relieved when Davey had refused point blank.
“No, not Ravenscragg, not yet,” Davey had told his brooding dad. “I will come home, but I don’t think that’s the best place for me to recover just yet. Too many memories.”
“With Owen gone, I’ll need you… or someone,” his father had grumbled. “Blaze and Smart Alec are running to seed. Plus the place needs that much work…”
“Get someone from the village for this summer. Use a bit of the money on our Mam’s data stick. I’ll be back, I promise, but I need to… do a few things before I come home.”
Ramon had waited for the older Howard to leave, before asking:
“So, what do you want to do? Carme’s offered to put you up. I have space at my Barcelona place… and also—“
“Yeah, down there,” Davey had said, his eyes fixed on Ramon, the blue intense and insistent in a way Ramon had missed and never dared to hope he might see again. “I want to ride along the Trabucador again,” Davey declared.
Not the best cure for concussion, Ramon thought, though he said nothing aloud. To have Davey with him down at his masia was an almost impossible dream. Almost.
When they finally reached Ramon’s truck, Davey’s only shocked comment was:
“You’ve cleaned it.”
“Cheeky brat,” Ramon growled, as he opened the passenger door and helped Davey in. “Seat belt, this time.”
Once Davey was settled, he got in and drove carefully out of the hospital and onto the Ronda de Dalt, in the direction of the AP7 heading south.
He was worried what Davey’s reaction might be to taking the freeway once again so soon after his accident, but the guy didn’t seem hugely traumatized.
Though once they were clear of Barcelona, he rolled down the window some, to let salt air enter the cabin.
“That’s better,” Davey breathed. This feels like coming home finally.”