Running Shoes (The Shades of Northwood) (8 page)

“Jesus Christ!”
The man threw an arm up to shield his eyes but not fast enough. On
a stroke of impulse, Katie thrust the spoon handle up and jabbed it
in his eye. He screamed and swore and Katie let go of the bowl of
the spoon. The metal handle was lodged between his eye and eyelid.
She looked at the man before her; tall, chunky and wearing dark
clothes about a size too small… and all she saw was the pain and
lines of blood on his face. Not a man she knew. “What a
welcome!”

“You nearly
gave me a heart attack.”

“You might’ve
blinded me.”

He kept a hand
slapped to the eye she had stabbed while the skin around it turned
red. Katie looked down at her hand, still gripping the spoon, and
saw blood speckling the metal handle. She threw it to the floor
with a clang, wanting it as far away from her as possible. There
seemed to be blood on her hands. Stabbing a man who might yet be
completely innocent was unforgiveable.

“You really
know how to make a guy feel wanted, don’t ya, Kate?”

“Uncle
Billy?”

“The very
same.”

“What are you
doing here? In my house?”

“I was coming
to say hi.”

“At three in
the morning? And I thought I was keeping strange hours lately.”

A light snapped
on in the hallway. “What’s all the noise for?” mumbled Lainy as she
padded into the kitchen, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “Who
died?”

“Nearly me,”
said Uncle Billy and Katie together.

Lainy rushed
over to the bleeding man, and after confirming he was in no
life-threatening conditioning, shrugged off her robe and offered it
to Katie who was shivering. “Put it on.”

She did and
then belted it. The dressing gown was quite a bit bigger than her
but it was cosy and warm with body heat. “Why are you here?”

“I came to
collect my van.”

“Again, at
three in the morning?”

“It’s a long
walk. Your dad said he left the keys here and even I’m not stupid
enough to knock and wake everyone up.”

“So you thought
you’d try a little breaking and entering instead?” Katie stalked
out of the room, went upstairs to get the van keys, then stomped
back down with them. Lainy was standing with Uncle Billy and trying
to pry his fingers away from his face. Katie put the keys on the
table and sat down, arms folded. “Lainy, I tried to take his eye
out with a spoon.”

“Ow ow ow!” he
yelped when Lainy prodded the flesh around his left eye.

“He broke in
and tried to snoop around while we were sleeping. You had every
right to defend yourself. But if anyone asks,” she turned to Billy,
“you did this to yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah.”
Billy sat down opposite his niece and waited until she was looking
at him before he took his hand away from his face. “Look what you
did. I might be permanently scarred.”

“And I wouldn’t
know anything about that, would I?” Katie slid the keys over. “Good
luck starting that heap of junk.”

Lainy soaked a
piece of cotton wool in warm water with a drop of antiseptic and
tried to clean the marks around his eyes. Billy took the cotton
wool from her and did it himself. “Just let me sleep here’til
morning and then I’ll be gone. Stop fussing, woman.”

“Look,” began
Lainy in that voice Katie already knew meant people better shut up
and listen because she was in charge. “I think you’ll be fine but I
want to take you to the medi centre in case there’s infection.”

“Am I your
first housemate to be dodging an ABH charge?” There was a silence
that Katie would have said was diplomatic. “Oh, I do feel
special.”

“For Gods sake,
girl. I am fine.”

The more people
insist things were okay, the guiltier Katie felt. She knew that
things were not fine. Nothing could excuse or justify such
violence. She told herself that she had a reason – that man had not
– and while that made her feel a bit less bad about it, it did not
make it forgiveable. “Uncle Billy, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I
never realised it was only you.”

“Girl, this is
barely a scratch.” He let Lainy tape a circle of bandage over his
eye and tenderly prodded it. “Oh, your Mom sent this down.” He took
a letter from the back of his jeans.

“They sent a
spy. Make sure I haven’t slashed my wrists yet. Their faith in me
is astounding.” The envelope was a large cream one with her name
written on it in curlicue lettering. Inside was a sheet of paper
crammed with tiny handwriting. Katie listened, with half an ear, to
the conversation going on above her as she skimmed through the
page.

“I’ll go if I
have to but I’m not hurt. I get worse than this from my dog.”

“I just want to
be sure.”

“My van’s
outside and I have the keys now. Dope me up and see the doctor in
the morning. It’s fine.”

“You are not
driving with that eye. You’ve got 50% vision and you’ll crash
somewhere along the way. I’m not going to be the last person to see
you alive and Katie’ll be worried sick.”

That was a true
statement but not for the reasons Lainy thought. Uncle Billy could
go jump off the nearest cliff for all she cared; he wasn’t a bad
person, just insensitive and annoying – really annoying. The last
few lines of Mom’s letter had said how much everyone missed her
already and that she didn’t think this could wait until she came
back home. Another envelope, smaller and stamped with the police
crest.

“Anyone still
sleep at night around here?” Adam yawned and dragged into the
kitchen. He was wearing grey boxers and yanking a t-shirt down over
his awesome chest. It was a sight to behold but Katie barely gave
him a second glance. “Get that man to hospital,” he said, then
stopped as if just realising a man with a bandaged eye was sitting
at his table with his fiancée and new young charge in the bunny
pyjamas. “Wait, why is there a strange, wounded man in my house?
And which of my girls tried to kill him?”

Katie just
stared at the envelope in her hand and kept turning it over, not
brave enough to open it. “He broke in.”

“That’s my
girl.” Adam sounded almost proud. “Anyway, you need medical
attention, mate.”

“I’m not taking
advice from a bunch of kids. Mate.”

“Uncle Billy,
just move. The sooner you’re out of my house, the better/”

“Fine. Let’s
get this over with. Katie, you’re driving.”

There was brief
discussion where Katie pointed out that she was too young to have a
license and had never even watched closely when her parents drove.
Uncle Billy couldn’t drive the van because he was liable to kill
them all. It couldn’t be Lainy as she would have to stay in the
back to look after him. Adam could drive but didn’t want to leave a
group of sleeping students alone in the house. During the course of
the conversation, Uncle Billy swallowed a couple of painkillers dry
and started to moan that his eye was really starting to hurt, Leo
stomped down and complained he couldn’t sleep through this racket
then mentioned he could drive, eventually agreed to drive them to
the medical centre, Katie hardly looked down at the police envelope
but couldn’t quite let go of it.

“Leo and Katie
can ride in front and I’ll stay with Billy. He doesn’t look too
good. You’ll be okay here with the girls, Ad?”

“I don’t think
Hell opening in the back garden could wake those two.”

“We should go.
Billy, are you okay to walk to the van?”

He nodded
weakly. He had been planning to drive home half an hour ago and he
suddenly looked old and fragile. It was amazing how a little blood
loss affected a person. Katie did not see her uncle much but they
had never really been the best of friends but, looking like the
Salvation Army had just spewed him up, she just couldn’t find it in
her to hate him. Or even dislike him much.

Between the
three of the – Lainy, Billy and herself – and as little help from
Leo as he could possibly manage, they all got into the van – a
funny looking group on an early hours road trip. Adam waved them
all off and hurried back inside. There was nowhere Katie wanted to
be less than in the passenger seat of this grungy old Transit, in
her night clothes, being driven through the pressing dark by Leo.
The thin, greasy-haired and dark Leo.

“What you got
there?” he asked and jerked a thumb behind him. “Heard you tried to
kill him.”

“I thought he
was going to attack me. It was self defence.”

“Save your
alibi for the cops. A strange man breaks into my house in the
middle of the night… he’s either going to kiss me or kill me.
Either way, he’s gonna die trying.”

“Remind me to
avoid you. Especially when it’s dark.”

“Just
saying.”

“Let’s play the
quiet game. First one to not be quiet loses.”

The silence
only lasted a few seconds before Uncle Billy started muttering
about his face and seeing things and doctors who fixed things.
Lainy made soothing noises and pulled more tape off the roll to
stop him tugging off the bandage.

“Bitch.” Leo
looked distinctly unhappy at having to listen to the whining in the
back and knowing that Katie had caused this injury meant she was
responsible for his whole night – maybe even his life – being
ruined regardless of the fact she had been the one scared to
death.

“He’s my uncle.
I like to think of it as an accident of birth.”

“I like to
think you’re an accident waiting to happen.”

“I’m thrilled
you think of me at all.” Only she wasn’t. Being thought of by Leo
was an extremely worrying prospect especially considering the
choice depictions of women in his room. “How are you Uncle?”

“Nearly having
my left eye gouged out put a dampener on things but otherways never
better.”

“Okey dokey.”
Through the mesh Katie could see him kneeling on the floor between
it and Lainy and trying not to show the pain she felt sure he was
feeling. Maybe it was really not as bad as she imagined. Honestly
Uncle Billy might just be sensitive enough to try to hide it from
her but it really only made things worse because there must be
something underneath the bravado. “Nearly there.”

“I only tried
to show you what you could do when you put your mind to it, Kate.
This could have been real bad. Just turn that run away impulse into
stay and fight and you can do some damage.”

“Thanks.” She
left him in Lainy’s capable hands – well they had been capable so
far – and turned to the window. The student medical centre was
looming up before them; a grey steel and cement building attached
to the back of the main college building. It was large enough to
have a small car park. Leo swung the van into a space and turned
the engine off. He started fiddling with the keys as Katie got out
and opened the back to help her uncle and friend out then looked
through the drivers’ side window as they helped the man inside. Leo
was leaning back in the seat with one arm dangling out of the open
window and lighting up a cigarette. “Coming?”

He said nothing
and made no attempt to move.

“Whatever.”
Katie shrugged and went inside. Whether Leo came inside or not was
really of no concern to her one way or the other. It just would
have been nice to have another face there.

The medical
centre, as soon as she stepped inside and took in the huge, open
reception area and the clinical, authoritative atmosphere of it,
made Katie feel very small and shy. Hospitals were a strange thing
to her, never having been ill enough to stay in one.

“Now, here’s
some excitement,” said the woman on reception. “Don’t see one of
these every day.” Katie thought she looked a little like her mother
with her tight perm and hoop earrings. The woman pressed a button
on her phone. “Dr de Rossa. Patient out front for you.” No, her
voice put her a good few years younger than Mom. It was the hair,
had to be.

A middle-aged
man – balding, short and stocky – came out of one of the doors that
led God-knew-where. “Ah, Elaine. So lovely to see you again. You
should come by ere more often. We need new nurses.”

“Nice try, Dr
de Rossa. I’ll work for you when you apologise for failing me my
first year.”

“You should
have studied more.”

“You shouldn’t
have cancelled all of your lectures.”

“Now now. Not
all.”

“Sorry to
interrupt the reunion but maybe we can get him patched up first,”
Katie suggested. Dr de Rossa – she trusted him a little already –
manoeuvred Uncle Billy into a chair, then wheeled him off deeper
into the centre with Lainy in tow. The woman at the desk asked
Katie questions about Uncle Billy and his medical history, she
answered what she could. “Do you know where they took him?”

“Hang on, I’ll
check.” The woman started tapping things into her computer. Feeling
a bit of a draught blowing through the doors, Katie belted the big
robe tighter and shifted her weight from foot to bare foot. “Room
3. Through those doors , turn left and it’s at the end. There’s a
waiting room next to it if you want to get yourself together. No
offense but I’ve seen corpses look more lively than you.”

“Great start to
campus life, right?” She swung through the doors and headed to the
room at the end, just poking her head around to see what was
happening – the doctor was injecting something into Uncle Billy’s
face and Lainy was hovering over a covered tray of medical looking
lumps and bumps. “It’s not as bad as it looks. It’s not as bad as
it looks.” The chant carried her through the next ten minutes or so
of waiting, during which time she heard nothing but dared not go
back to Room 3 to look. “Barely 24 hours here and I nearly kill my
own uncle because he frightened me.” It was pretty ridiculous when
you thought about it.

A woman
wandered through the door and sat down with a cup of coffee. It
obviously was not very good coffee because the woman took a sip,
pulled a disgusted face and put it on the floor. “They never rush
to tell you anything around here. My son fell out of bed,” she told
Katie.