The Tied Man
‘But you can’t be sure?’ There was real anguish in Finn’s voice now.
‘I can never be a hundred percent sure.’ Nat calmly turned his chair away from the desk to face us. ‘Look, mate, I don’t know if Lilith told you, but I’ve done this before – I spent two years of a Master’s degree writing programmes to catch sick bastards. Right now there are five men still doing time because they were stupid enough to think a password was going to keep me out of their grubby little collections, and I fully intend to make it six after tonight. Now go and get that bloody knee sorted out, will you?’
*****
Finn dragged himself off to change his outfit, then begrudgingly sat next to me and rolled up the leg of his tracksuit. Even the soft jersey fabric brushing against his skin made him wince, and what he revealed was barely recognisable as a knee. The whole joint was swollen and hot to the touch, and had already begun to turn an interesting shade of claret where the tip of Coyle’s boot had connected.
‘Oh good grief, Finn,’ I sighed. ‘I am so bloody glad this is the last time I’ll do this.’
‘I think it’s touching that the fucker gave me something to remember him by,’ Finn said, then fell quiet as I tentatively explored the misshapen kneecap with my fingertips.
‘That utter cunt of a man.’ I packed handfuls of ice into a towel and twisted it into a parcel. ‘At a guess, I’d say it was your anterior cruciate ligament.’
Nat looked up from the screen and grimaced. ‘Ouch.’
‘How do you know all this shit?’ Finn asked. ‘The first time you did this for me, you were rattling off all the Latin – thought you were cursing me at first.’
‘I probably was,’ I smiled, remembering. ‘It was a course of anatomy lessons years ago, when I was just starting out. I went out with a junior doctor, just so he’d let me into the hospital morgue at night. I spent two solid months reading all his textbooks and sketching cadavers from dusk ‘til dawn, then dumped the poor sod.’
‘Really?’ He watched me for a while to see if I was being serious. ‘Y’know, I’m not sure if that’s normal, Lili.’
I shrugged. ‘It worked for Géricault.’
‘If you say so.’ Finn paused to take a low breath as I slid a small silk-covered cushion under his leg. ‘God, there’s so much I don’t know about you, isn’t there? A whole lifetime of things I don’t have a single clue about.’
‘And so very soon we’ll have all the time we need to catch up.’ I paused in my nursing duties to kiss him on the lips. He returned the gesture and I packed the ice-filled towel around his knee. Meltwater trickled down onto the delicate fabric of the cushion and the floral pattern’s subtle colours began to run and merge, ruining it forever.
‘Ah, what a shame,’ Finn said with satisfaction. ‘I think you’ve fucked it.’
‘Whoops. Right, that’s about the best I can do. We’ll find a proper doctor tomorrow, but for now, keep it elevated and keep it still, do you hear me?’
Finn rolled his eyes. ‘You have distinct dominatrix tendencies, woman. What if I need a piss?’
‘Then I’m sure there’ll be a Ming vase lurking around somewhere.’
*****
At half past one in the morning, Nat suddenly pushed his chair back and linked his hands behind his head.
Finn gripped my wrist. What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing at all, mate. Nothing at all,’ Nat said. ‘To quote every Hollywood hacker cliché in existence, I’m in.’
I gave Finn’s hand a squeeze and stood up. ‘I’d better go and shout Henry.’
*****
Gabriel escorted Henry right to the door of the study and patted him firmly on the back. ‘It’ll be all right, I promise.’
‘And you’re sure you’ll be okay by yourself, Gabriel?’ Henry asked. ‘If anything happens, or you hear anything, or need -’
‘Henry, there are busier graveyards than this place. I’ll be fine.’
‘Yes, but -’
‘If there’s the slightest problem I hereby promise to scream like a girl,’ Gabriel said, then looked across at me. ‘Sorry.’
‘I’ll forgive you this time,’ I said. ‘How’s the new job going?’
‘On balance, I’d say I prefer performing in front of a few thousand adoring women, but ‘Security Guard at the Castle of the Damned’ comes a pretty close second. I should be fine, as long as there are no ghosts.’