Part 30 (1/2)
Tyler jumped and grabbed his coat. ”Thanks.” He hurried for the door.
”Don't you want to know if you pa.s.sed?” Boris called.
”Did I?” He kept his back toward Boris.
”Yes.”
He turned and beamed. ”Thank you.”
”Next time follow the rules.”
Tyler emerged from the police station feeling like he'd been knocked down by a car.
”Are you okay?” Dunnock asked.
He nodded. ”Thanks for your help.”
”I take it I'm to send my bill to Haris?”
Oh G.o.d. More money? ”Yes.”
”I don't think you have anything to worry about, but contact me if the police want to speak to you again. They probably will.”
”Right.”
Tyler knew the police hadn't figured out why the sock and belt had been in his pocket. Jeremy hadn't been tied up when he arrived so it wasn't that he didn't remember freeing him. Someone must have put them in his pocket, and that someone could be the guy who'd stabbed Jeremy. Had he still been in the room? In the bathroom? If Tyler had been the target, he'd had a chance to kill him and hadn't.
Before he went back to Holland Park, he wanted to talk to Jeremy. He knew he might have made things difficult by speaking out and wanted to warn him. It hadn't been his place to tell about the rape, but it gave Gerald a motive to want Jeremy silenced.
When he finally found Jeremy's ward, a policeman sat outside his room.
Tyler approached him cautiously. ”I'm a friend of Jeremy's. I found him last night. Can I see him?”
”He's not allowed visitors.”
”I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”
The policeman stared at him and then said, ”I'll come in with you.”
Tyler bit his lip when he saw Jeremy. He looked battered and bruised and as pale as his pillow, especially with his hair dyed.
”He says he's your friend,” the policeman said. ”You happy for him to spend a few minutes with you?”
”Yes,” Jeremy croaked.
The policeman left and Tyler sat on a chair next to the bed. ”Christ, Jeremy, you look like s.h.i.+t.”
”Exactly the look I was going for.”
Tyler chuckled. ”You're going to live, I take it.”
”Thanks to you. You saved my life.”
”Hey, I took one look at the blood and pa.s.sed out.”
”Don't make me laugh. It hurts.”
Tyler smiled. ”How are you feeling?”
”Like c.r.a.p.”
”So what the h.e.l.l happened?”
”I opened the door when someone knocked. I thought it was you, but this stranger burst in and bowled me over. I struggled but he gagged me and tied me up on the bed. I thought he was going...but he grabbed a knife from the kitchen.”
Tyler took hold of Jeremy's fingers and squeezed gently.
”He pulled my phone and wallet out of my pocket and I thought he just wanted to rob me and then he'd go. But he went through the wallet and got all p.i.s.sed, started to swear-well, I guessed he was swearing, I had no idea what language he was speaking.” He stopped to take a breath. ”I think I had about twenty quid in there, but what the h.e.l.l did he expect to find from someone in a little bedsit? I thought, this is so unfair, I'm going to get f.u.c.king killed for twenty quid, but he just glared at me and called someone on his mobile. More of the foreign language before he grabbed my phone and sent a text.”
”To me. I had a feeling it wasn't you. I can barely understand yours. Though if he texted in English, he must speak it.”
Jeremy s.h.i.+fted and groaned. ”He didn't say anything to me. He just sat playing with the knife, checked his watch a couple of times and the next thing I knew, he'd stuck the blade in me a few times. ”
”Oh G.o.d.”
”The doctor said I was lucky he'd used a little knife. Lucky it hadn't gone an inch to the right.”
Tyler winced.
”Next time I opened my eyes I saw you.”
”I gave a statement to the police this morning.” Tyler was working up to telling him what he'd said about Gerald and Prescott's parties.
”They took a brief one from me. I wasn't much help. Don't know the guy. Don't know why he did it.”
”I thought it might have been Gerald.”
”It wasn't. He was in his mid-thirties, I'd guess. Curly dark hair, darkish skin, foreign. I suppose Gerald could have paid him to stab me. But why?”
Tyler took a deep breath. ”I c.o.c.ked up.”
Jeremy stared at him.
”I saw Gerald at a charity dinner at the Natural History Museum last Sunday. His name's not Gerald, by the way. It's George Blunt. He's a senior civil servant. He cornered me in the Gents' and I accused him of raping you.”
Jeremy pressed his lips together.