Page 133 of We Chase Shadows

‘Are you Steve and Amy?’ he asks.

‘Yes,’ say Steve and Amy.

‘I have a message from a Mr De Sousa de Cuéllar, in room 14B. He wondered if you might be able to pay him a visit?’

Amy gives Steve a nod.

‘We can’t both go,’ says Steve. ‘What if Rosie … what if she wakes up?’

Amy looks at Adam. ‘If she wakes up, don’t believe a single word she says about either of us.’

Amy kisses Adam goodbye. When was the last time a lover kissed Steve goodbye? No, of course, Steve knows the answer to that. Debbie. The morning of the day she died.

Amy takes Steve’s arm, and they follow the nurse out.

‘You okay?’ Amy asks.

‘Thinking about Debbie,’ says Steve. Why lie?

‘Rosie’s not going to die,’ says Amy.

‘People do,’ says Steve. ‘It’s not up to you.’

Amy takes Steve’s hand as they are guided through a series of corridors, down a flight of stairs where a smoking woman is being coaxed back to her ward, and finally through the door into 14B.

Ernesto is in bed, his leg in a cast, but otherwise looking unscathed. On a plastic chair in the corner of his room is a young woman.

‘This is Clara,’ says Ernesto. ‘She has come to take me back to Spain. Terrible taste in music, but a very good officer.’

Steve and Amy shake Clara’s hand. Amy takes a seat in a small armchair. Steve perches on the end of the bed.

‘You got questions, I think,’ says Ernesto. ‘It’s fair enough.’

Steve shakes his head. ‘Only got one question, mate. Why?’

Ernesto gives a small laugh. ‘Yes, there is only one question. One question, many answers. Is Rosie okay?’

‘None of your business,’ says Amy.

‘She’s alive,’ says Steve.

Ernesto nods. ‘Too many deaths.’

‘I mean, two of them were yours,’ says Amy. ‘Vern Blackwood and Mark Drury.’

Mark Drury was the name of the blond hitman.

‘I won’t make excuses,’ says Ernesto.

‘There are no excuses,’ says Steve.

‘I just make an observation though,’ says Ernesto. ‘Both guys I killed were killers.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ says Steve.

‘It matters where I come from,’ says Ernesto. ‘Where I come from, you can lie to a liar, you can steal from a thief, and you can kill a killer. I’m just saying, is justice.’

‘I come from a tougher background than you,’ says Amy. ‘I guarantee you that. And you didn’t kill those two men for justice, did you?’