Part 38 (2/2)

'She's not awake yet,' the nurse at the desk said. 'You can go in, but just for a minute.' The nurse had curly brown hair tied in a very high ponytail. It looked insultingly jaunty to Gwen but, at that moment, everything did. How could people be walking around, talking on their mobiles, eating chocolate bars, breathing, when Katie was critically ill? It wasn't right. Nothing about this was right.

Ruby and David looked up as they walked into the room and then looked straight back to Katie. Gwen thought she'd prepared herself for the sight of Katie in a hospital bed, but she was nowhere even close to ready. Katie looked so young. Just a little child again. She was lying unnaturally straight, her hands lying neatly at her sides on top of several layers of blankets.

'They warmed her up,' Ruby whispered. 'Her core temperature was really low. Hypothermia.'

'They said she was really lucky,' David was whispering, too. 'Another hour out there and-'

'Don't,' Ruby said. 'Don't say it.'

'Is she all right?' Gwen said, stepping closer to the bed. She reached out and touched Katie's hand. The one that didn't have tubes coming out of the back.

'They don't know. She hasn't woken up yet. They don't know how long it'll be.'

A nurse appeared, wheeling a portable blood pressure monitor. 'You'll have to go now. Only two at a time.'

'Call me later,' Gwen said.

Ruby didn't look up, and Gwen's last impression was of her sister's hunched form, bent over Katie's bedside.

Chapter 26.

Back at End House, Cam went upstairs and ran a bath. He poured a gla.s.s of wine and pushed it into Gwen's hand. 'Drink this, then go and have a soak. It'll help.'

'Okay.' Gwen hadn't realised that she was s.h.i.+vering. The red wine slopped about in the gla.s.s until she held it with both hands.

Cam rubbed soothing circles on her lower back as she sipped her drink. 'You found her; she's safe.'

Gwen felt the tears well up again and she buried her head in Cam's shoulder, breathing in his scent and letting the pressure of his arms soothe her. 'What if she isn't okay, though? What if she doesn't wake up?'

'She will,' Cam said.

Gwen thought that if she voiced her worst fear, perhaps she'd feel better. She didn't. The tears kept falling until they were dripping off her chin. She scrubbed at her face with her sleeve.

'Are you hungry? Shall I order a takeaway?'

'Not for me,' Gwen said.

'You need to eat something.'

'Okay,' Gwen said. She realised that she hadn't eaten that day. She took another hit of wine, willing it to undo the knot in her stomach.

'Right.' Cam started hunting around the kitchen. 'Do you have any menus?'

'Just put the cannelloni in the oven. It'll be ready in forty minutes.' Gwen hesitated as Cam looked at her, suddenly wary. The cannelloni. Their big argument. It seemed to belong to a different time.

'About that...' he began.

Gwen shook her head. There was no room for anything else right now. She went upstairs to the bathroom before he could say anything else.

She soaked in the bath and tried to stop crying. Every time she thought she was getting a handle on the situation, she would think about how Ruby must be feeling or about how pale and young Katie had looked, and she started sobbing again.

She had just got into some clean clothes and into the living room, when the doorbell rang. Cam jumped up from the sofa. 'I'll tell them to sod off,' he said.

But he didn't come back through. After a couple of minutes, Gwen followed him and found an uncomfortable-looking Harry in her hallway with an older man in a police uniform.

'Katie's fine,' Cam said immediately. 'No change.' He put an arm around her shoulder.

'I'm sorry,' Harry said. 'I need to ask you a few questions.' He gestured to the uniform. 'This is PC Albion.' PC Albion was gazing around as if he'd never been inside a house before. 'We can do it here, though,' Harry added.

'What the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l is going on? Harry? Is this an official visit?' Cam looked tense, Gwen realised with a jolt of fear.

She moved out from under his arm. 'I'll make tea. Make yourselves at home.' She escaped to the kitchen to do some deep breathing. The penny dropped. Harry meant questions here, rather than at the police station. Something was very wrong. No, no, no. Not again.

She flicked the switch on the kettle and got out mugs. The kitchen looked the same. The dresser looked the same. The cupboards were still perky lemon and the mugs were still aqua polka dot, but there was something wrong with the picture. Oh yes, the police were sitting on her sofa waiting to question her.

She carried a tray into the living room and PC Albion jumped up to help her with it. Everything was surreally polite and calm.

'Okay, Gwen. First off, I need to ask where you were last night. It's routine.'

'I was here.' Gwen sat in the armchair by the door.

'Alone?'

'Yes.'

Harry looked questioningly at Cam. 'You weren't with her?'

Cam shook his head, looking furious. 'Don't say anything else, Gwen.'

Harry met his stare without flinching. 'Gwen has agreed to answer a few routine questions. It would be better if she does so.'

'In her home, Harry?'

'Not if you prefer we relocate to the station.' Harry's voice was even and toneless. Then he said in his normal voice, 'Come on, man, don't make this harder than it already is.'

'Make what harder?' Gwen said.

Harry was still looking at Cam. 'If I don't follow procedure, I could make things worse.'

'Make what worse? Katie's definitely okay, isn't she?' Her heart clenched. 'What are you not telling me?'

'Nothing.' Harry looked uncomfortable, and Gwen would've felt sorry for him, but there wasn't any room in her mind for it. This whole thing was so weird and she was exhausted from not sleeping the night before,;the adrenaline that had kept her going while they were looking for Katie had ebbed away, leaving her shaky and tearful. She blinked. Harry was speaking and she needed to concentrate.

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