Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
G race crept into the garden a few seconds later. As her eyes became accustomed to the gloom, she had to stifle a scream. Will was stood over a man whose arms and legs were tied with ropes and there was some sort of gag over his mouth. Will ripped off the tape and there was a rapid conversation in Greek.
Before she could move towards them, two masked men dressed in black came out of the front door of the villa, carrying holdalls. Grace clearly saw a knife glint in the low light.
‘Will! Behind you.’
Her heart was in her mouth.
Will spun round and tackled the man with the knife, wrestling him to the ground. They rolled around on the earth together while the other guy dropped his bag and ran off towards the beach.
Grace darted forward and started to untie the security guard’s ropes, Achilles or Andreas, she didn’t care which, while glancing back at Will’s struggle every few seconds. It was a close contest, but he appeared to be winning against the masked man and was managing to hold the knife away from his own body.
His eyes met hers for a moment.
‘Grace, stay back!’
She ignored Will’s shout. The security guard’s wrists were nearly clear of the ropes. He worked with her to free his feet and leapt up to help Will tackle the knife-wielding intruder.
The two of them held the man down and turned him onto his front. Grace saw Will rip the knife from the raider’s hand and throw it across the terrace.
She had an idea.
‘Catch!’
Grace lobbed the discarded rope their way and Will bound the man’s arms and legs tightly, while the security guard knelt on his back.
‘Call 112, please, Grace.’
It was the international emergency number, which Grace had installed on her phone when she arrived, never thinking she might need it. She pressed the contact.
Will sat back on the path and in the dim light Grace gasped as she caught sight of the bloodstain on his white T-shirt. It was getting bigger by the second. He must have been stabbed in the fight.
The security guard shouted over to her as the operator answered her call.
‘He’s hurt. Ask for an ambulance as well as police.’
Grace gave the operator the details and rushed to Will’s side. She’d been one of the trained first-aiders at her school. She knew what to do. The ambulance would take a while to get to them on the cliff path.
The security guard looked like he was about to lose it. He was probably in shock, but she needed to keep him calm. He was no use to her as a quivering wreck.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Achilles.’
He got a phone out of his pocket.
‘I must ring the boss, to tell him what’s happened. It’s all my fault.’
‘Not yet… Listen to me carefully.’
The man managed to focus his wild eyes on her, rather than staring all round him. Will was slumped forward now, and his eyes were already shut, which made Grace’s heart miss a beat.
‘Take off your T-shirt.’
Achilles looked at her as if she was mad.
‘We need it to staunch the blood. Now!’
The man ripped off his top and Grace showed him where to hold it against Will’s body. His arms would be stronger than hers, and it would free her to direct the ambulance.
‘Don’t move. Keep up the pressure.’
Grace put her phone in torch mode and tried to examine the wound from above. It was on Will’s right side, but she had no way of knowing if it had pierced any of his vital organs. Blood loss was the most immediate worry.
She moved round to stroke his head and face.
‘Can you hear me, Will?’
There was a soft grunt.
‘Try and open your eyes. It’s important that you stay awake.’
Very slowly the brown eyes she knew so well opened and fixed on her. Will attempted to speak but Grace put a finger to his lips.
‘Don’t worry about talking. An ambulance is on its way. You’re going to be OK.’
She had no idea if it was the case, but positive thinking could work, couldn’t it? It had to work. She couldn’t cope with the alternative. The wail of screaming sirens cut through the night air and became louder and louder. Before she raced up the path to show them exactly where to go, Grace leant over and kissed Will full on the lips.
She turned again to a shaking Achilles.
‘Keep talking to him until I get back. Don’t let him go to sleep.’
As she crossed the terrace, Grace aimed a kick at the guy lying on the ground, the knife well out of his reach a few feet away. It was covered in blood, Will’s blood. She knew better than to touch it. It would be needed as evidence.
The ambulance screeched to a halt at the edge of the path just as she reached it herself, followed by three police cars, blue lights flashing.
Two paramedics, a man and a woman, jumped out of the ambulance and ran towards her.
‘This way!’ Grace shouted into the wind. ‘Please hurry.’
She led the paramedics down the path to Will. While running, she shouted back to the police that she’d seen a man run towards the beach. One of the teams peeled off in the direction of the escaped burglar, while the other two headed for the house. Not that she cared where they were going.
All Grace could think about was Will. The paramedics knelt and took over from Achilles, who had to be pulled away from the older man’s body.
The security guard got straight on the phone, presumably to their boss at his holiday home, but Grace couldn’t understand any of the shouted Greek conversation.
Not that it mattered what he was saying; all that mattered now was that Will received the right treatment and survived the stabbing.
Achilles got it together enough to help the medics carry the stretcher up the path and into the back of the ambulance. While she waited for the paramedics to stabilise Will for the journey, with a drip and an oxygen mask, Grace witnessed the police tear off the assailant’s balaclava and put him in the back of the police car. He was barely more than a boy.
She climbed into the ambulance after Achilles, who sat rocking in the corner. She positioned herself firmly at Will’s side, as close as the paramedics would allow her. Will’s face took on a grey tinge as they tore along the coast road, and Grace held on fast to his hand.
The speed of the vehicle made every streetlight illuminate the gory scene in the back of the ambulance like a freezeframe from a film. There was blood everywhere, on the floor, on the hands of the paramedics and all down Achilles’s front, besides what was still coming out of Will.
When the lights of the town concertinaed up together, Grace breathed a sigh of relief. It could only be moments until they reached the island’s tiny hospital.
But the ambulance turned the opposite way, away from the town, which struck fear into Grace’s heart.
‘Where are you going? The hospital’s the other way. We need to go there, now!’
The female paramedic turned round.
‘Don’t worry. This injury is too serious to be dealt with on the island. This man, your… friend, will need an operation. He is being taken to a private hospital in Athens, where he will have a much better chance of survival.’
So, there was a chance he wouldn’t make it. It was all she heard. Grace choked back the tears.
‘But that will take too long.’
‘There’s an air ambulance helicopter waiting for us at the airfield, with fully trained paramedics on board. It’s all been arranged and it’s only a short flight, twenty minutes at the most.’
‘But it’s dark. Helicopters don’t fly at night!’
The paramedic put her hand on top of Grace’s for a moment.
‘They do in emergencies and with a skilled pilot. Please don’t upset yourself.’ The woman nodded her head at Will. ‘Things will be smoother if you are calm.’
That was her told, then. You try being calm when someone you care so much about is hovering between life and death was what Grace wanted to say, but the paramedic was only doing her job. The patient came first, and the hysterical Englishwoman on board wasn’t helping.
Grace concentrated on stroking Will’s hand as the ambulance climbed up the road to the airfield. His hand was all she could reach, as the oxygen mask covered most of his face.
In front of them, as promised, was a helicopter waiting with its lights on, ready for take-off.
The rest of the airfield was deserted, with a single light in the tower. They must have pulled someone in to man air traffic control. Will’s boss was obviously a powerful man. It gave her a little hope.
The back doors of the ambulance sprang open as soon as they came to a halt, and a second paramedic crew worked seamlessly with the first to transfer Will onto a trolley, with all his equipment attached.
Achilles was still curled up in the corner, and Grace saw for the first time in the bright overhead light that he had huge purple weals on his wrists. He’d need some attention too, but hopefully it was something they could deal with at the island hospital.
While they prepared Will, Karen’s little face leapt into Grace’s mind. They’d left her there all alone.
‘Achilles.’
The man looked up with hollow eyes.
‘There’s a cat locked in Will’s house. She needs to be fed. There’s a key under one of the pot plants. Please can you sort it. Or ask Angeliki, the vet in town to help you. Do you understand?’
The man nodded slowly.
The paramedics had finished their work. There couldn’t be any more delays. Will had to come first.
Grace climbed out of the back of the ambulance and followed the trolley with the stretcher across the airstrip.
One of the new team of paramedics turned back to speak to her.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m coming with you. On the helicopter. I can’t leave him now.’
The man shook his head.
‘We have limited space. It’s strictly family only.’
There was no way Grace was going to let Will go off on the most important journey of his life without her.
‘I’m his sister.’
Will made a small sound from the trolley.
The paramedic looked from her to Will and back at his colleague, who shrugged.
Grace put her hands together in prayer.
‘Please.’
The man obviously had bigger things to worry about than arguing with her.
‘OK, you’ll have to wait till we’ve loaded him on, and do exactly what we say.’
‘Thank you.’
Grace watched Will being taken on board and winced every time there was a tiny adjustment of the stretcher. They were being as careful as they could be, but she experienced every movement along with him. His soft moans were agony to her ears.
It seemed ages but it was probably less than a minute before the first paramedic beckoned her up the stairs and showed her to a seat near the back.
‘Strap yourself in, and don’t try and get up at any point during the flight.’
Grace nodded and smiled to herself. She’d made it onto the helicopter. At any other place and time, she’d have been excited by the prospect. She’d always wanted to go on one. But this was no joyride over the sights of Athens.
Will was up the front of the helicopter being worked on by the team. She hadn’t wanted to leave his side, but the guy had made it pretty clear he was doing her a favour by even allowing her on board.
‘Clear for take-off.’
The pilot’s voice over the tannoy was loud. But it was nothing to the noise of the rotor blades as the metal machine rose up and swooped low over the tip of the island, along with Grace’s stomach.
She looked through into the cockpit to see the pilot and co-pilot wearing ear defenders. They needed them. She wouldn’t have been able to speak to Will anyway over the noise. Once they’d stabilised, Grace stared out of the window at the blackness all around. There was one fishing boat out there below them, throwing out a tiny shaft of light, but otherwise it was a sea of darkness. Grace strained to see the mainland ahead.
Pinpricks of light told her they’d reached the Athens coast and gradually the lights arranged themselves into strings, then clusters, and finally whole baskets full of diamonds, twinkling away.
The helicopter dipped in the sky, and the pilot came on for the last time.
‘Prepare for landing.’
Anonymous shapes turned into definite structures. Grace was puzzled that they appeared to be above central Athens and not coming into the airport, which was to one side of the city.
A large, illuminated building came into view, with blue-lit ambulances pulling up to its entrance far below them.
They were going to land on the roof of the hospital! She’d seen it done in movies, and in any other circumstance she’d have been excited.
A steep drop knocked the breath out of her, but the touchdown on the tarmac was soft. The paramedics were up and headed for the exit with Will in moments. The man who’d allowed her on leant in as he passed.
‘Stay put until we’ve got him on the ground.’
Grace managed to touch Will’s hand as the trolley passed.
She rushed down the metal stairs as soon as she could and followed the others into the lift that opened its doors onto the roof.
It was a tight squeeze, but she wasn’t waiting for the next one.
When it stopped a few floors down she kept within touching distance as they raced the trolley along the passageway. At the end of the corridor, a big sign said operating theatre in both Greek and English.
The doors swung open, and Grace saw a gowned-up team waiting on the other side. The paramedic who’d been kind to her put his hand on her arm.
‘This is as far as you go.’
Grace reached forward to give Will’s hand one last stroke before the doors slammed shut in front of her.
How could she ever have thought they could be friends? Who was she kidding?
She was falling in love with him. Pure and simple.
It had taken something truly horrific to shake the truth out of her. She’d already had one man she loved torn from her. She couldn’t go through it again. Grace bowed her head and prayed.