Part 27 (1/2)

'I've got it!' Mickey said. 'I've got a pulse, but it's faint. Radio for the ambulance to meet us on the harbour. Let's get him back quick.'

The side ward in the hospital looked over the car park and a sprawling cemetery.

Grant lay in the bed with a drip in his arm, an oxygen tube in his nostrils and a big bandage round his head. The young doctor was talking to Grant's parents and Jesse.

'He's had a pretty big bang to his head. He must have hit something when he fell. Not a rock but maybe a piece of flotsam. Piece of wood, maybe. There's not much of a cut but he has a lot of swelling. When he wakes up he's going to have quite a headache.'

'It's a miracle he didn't drown,' said Jan, his mother. She was sitting on a small chair at Grant's bedside and was holding his hand.

'Indeed,' agreed the doctor. 'He managed not to swallow much water but I think that the amount of alcohol he'd already consumed meant that he was very relaxed when he fell and therefore didn't panic when he hit the water.'

Edward was standing by the window, his back to the room. He was watching an elderly man wearing a tweed hat standing by a grave. A small girl of about twelve, maybe his granddaughter, guessed Edward, was hopping and skipping around him whilst swinging a Marks & Spencer plastic bag. The man said something to her and she stopped her skipping and opened the bag, taking out a potted plant with garish pink blooms. The old man took it and reverentially removed his tweed hat and bent to place the offering at the headstone. As he struggled to stand up, the young girl offered her arm and the two of them walked away. Edward turned his back on the comforting mundanity of the scene, and faced his own.

'It's Freddie and young Hal I'm proud of,' he said. 'Young lads. To do what they did. b.l.o.o.d.y brave.'

Jesse nodded. 'Yeah. They'm did well.'

'What was Grant doing on those cliffs?' Edward asked. 'We haven't heard from him for years.'

'Two years,' said Jan. 'We had that letter from him. Remember? Telling us he was out of ' she lowered her voice so that the doctor wouldn't hear 'prison.'

Edward's mouth tightened to a thin line. 'Sorry, Doctor, but you may as well know. Grant has been a h.e.l.ler all his life. Since he was a boy. If there was a fight he'd have started it, if there was trouble, he was in it.' Edward shook his head. 'When he joined the Marines we thought he was in the perfect job.'

'He got his green beret, Doctor,' said Jan, wanting the doctor not to think too badly of her son, but Edward ploughed on.

'Fat lot of good that was. He couldn't keep his fists to himself. Got court-martialled. Banged up in chokey for eight years.' Edward put his hands to his head and rubbed his temples. 'Dishonourably discharged four or five years ago. We haven't heard from him since. He couldn't even send me a note just to let me know he was all right. We had no idea he was back till today.'

Jan started to cry quietly and rummaged around in her handbag for a tissue.

Edward looked at her with pity. 'He broke his mother's heart and now look at him. I wish he'd never come back.'

Jan shouted through her tears. 'Don't say that.'

'I'll say what I like.' Edward raised his voice in return. 'He's brought us nothing but heartache and-'

Jesse stepped in. 'Dad. That's enough. We're all upset.' He turned to the doctor. 'I'm sorry, Doctor.'

Jesse had insisted that his parents go down to the hospital cafeteria to get something to eat and drink.

'Let me sit with him till you get back.'

On his own with Grant, Jesse wondered what his brother's dramatic reappearance would mean to the family. Did Grant know that Jesse was managing director of Behenna and Clovelly? Bryn and Edward were still nominally joint chief executives, but the day-to-day running of the company was in Jesse's control. Had Grant come back hoping to get a slice of the company? There was no way Jesse would give him one. He looked down at Grant, lying so still in the bed, so white against the pillow. How could he come back here after all this time? Jesse had seen the damage that Grant's behaviour had done to his parents, and he had worked his fingers to the bone doing fourteen-hour days to make Behenna and Clovelly the best in the business. He had clients across the globe, and a reputation that was the envy of his compet.i.tors. He was d.a.m.ned if Grant was going to come back and f.u.c.k it all up.

'What are you doing back here, Grant?' he asked.

Grant didn't open his eyes. But he answered, 'I missed my family.'

Jesse put his face close to his brother's. 'Well, we haven't missed you,' he said with menace.

'That's nice, little brother.' Grant slowly opened his eyes and winced. 'My head hurts.'

'It will.'

'I didn't mean to fall off the edge. I was just having a little drink when I saw the boys in the boat. Thought I'd get a better look at 'em.'

Jesse's heart started to pound. 'You're lucky we got you out.'

'You rescued me?' Grant coughed a little. 'Got any water? My throat's sore.'

Jesse looked and saw a plastic jug of water and a beaker on the bedside cabinet. He poured half a cup and handed it to Grant. 'Here. I ain't nursing you. Hold it yourself.'

'How lucky I am to have a brother so kind.' With difficulty, Grant took the cup and held it to his lips, taking a couple of mouthfuls. 'So you rescued me then.'

'c.o.xswain on the lifeboat, ain't I.'

Grant attempted to laugh but started to cough, spilling the water on the bedclothes.

'Lifeboat, eh? What a pillar of the community! So unlike your scallywag of a brother. How proud Mum and Dad must be,' he said with venom.

Jesse couldn't take any more of this bulls.h.i.+t. In a dangerous voice he said, 'Just tell me what the f.u.c.k you're doing here.'

'I told you,' Grant smiled. 'I missed my family.' He opened an eye. 'And those lovely boys.' He smiled a smile of pure evil. 'By the way, how is the gorgeous Loveday? Oh, and your uptight wife, Greer? I'd have had a go at Loveday myself, but I don't like taking sloppy seconds, especially from my little brother.'

Jesse lifted his fist and would have smashed it into Grant's face sending him spiralling back to oblivion, if it hadn't been for the door opening and the arrival of Jan and Edward.

Jan ran to Grant's side. 'Son. You're awake. It's OK. You've had a terrible fall but the doctor says you'll be fine. You're safe with your family now. We'll take you home.' She took his hand and, rubbing it, dropped a kiss on his forehead.

'Thanks, Ma,' said Grant. 'Give us a hug.'

Laughing through her tears, she bent and hugged him as best she could.

Over her shoulder Grant looked at Jesse and winked slyly. 'Yeah. I'm home, Ma. With my family. For good.'

26.

Normally Jesse took enormous pleasure from arriving at the new offices of Behenna and Clovelly.

He parked his car in his reserved s.p.a.ce. He climbed out of the new Jaguar XK V8 and breathed the clean, salty air. His head was aching. He hadn't slept well. Grant's reappearance had left him troubled.

'Morning, Jesse.' Mickey was walking towards him with Loveday. ''Ow's Grant doing?'

'Morning!' Jesse pressed the b.u.t.ton on his key fob and the car bleeped and locked itself. 'He's all right. Coming out today. He's going to stay at Mum and Dad's for a bit, but I'm worried for them ... they could do without a scrounger like him living off them.'