A Bagful of Dragon - Sample

3. Police

Molly and I stared at each other in horror as I clambered to my feet. Indira stepped out of the doorway, a tiny figure with her hand over her mouth.

"Is he dead?" she whispered.

I knelt and put the back of my hand to his open mouth. His head wasn't completely smashed in, but the nasty gash on the crown had done its job. He had broken some teeth as he went down, a few crumbled white pieces lay around his face and I was careful not to touch him. A shallow, moist breath touched my hand and my stomach turned. I leapt to my feet.

"He's alive, what are we going to do?"

Molly closed her eyes for a long moment. "Call an ambulance."

"Oh my God, babe, how did it get to this?" Indira turned towards Molly. "Who are you?"

"Call an ambulance," Molly said. "Can you call nine-nine-nine? Have you got a phone?"

Indira stopped short and stared at her, eyes wide. "Yeah, inside, I'll call them." She turned and dashed into the house.

"What are you doing?" I whispered to Molly. "What are we going to do?" Faced with a grim police officer, I didn't have much hope for my brain to connect with my mouth. I was the shittest liar I knew. I couldn't coordinate my tongue with what passed for considered thought at the best of times. I didn't have it in me, not feeling like this.

Molly must have seen the terror in my face.

"We need the police as well," she told me in a normal voice. She was very straightforward, down to earth. "We're fine. Just tell them everything. The visitation, everything. Tell them you're into witchcraft and pagan stuff. They won't section you. You've got witnesses in the pub for your story."

I had a sense I was falling. "Me? But you hit him. You can't put that on me." She was a complete stranger and she'd nearly killed the guy and now she was dumping it all on me.

She smiled, but her eyes filled. "I'd never do anything to you like that." She sniffed and blinked, dashing away the two tears that ran down her face. "You tell them the truth and I'll tell them the truth and because it's the truth, we'll be fine."

I was scared. "They're going to say it was my fault. I shouldn't have gone out with him when I wasn't going to sleep with him. I don't want them to say it was me, it's going to be us in court, not him."

She stepped forward and rubbed my shoulder. "It's going to be okay, don't worry about it." She smiled encouragingly, didn't seem worried at all. I looked into her eyes for a long moment, but she had nothing but reassurance for me. I couldn't believe her. My foolish actions surrounded me, acting out my flirtatious laugh and the way I thought up new things to entertain him. And all the time I had no intention of sleeping with him.

Indira came out of the flat, talking on the phone.

"I don't know, he's unconscious, I've no idea who he is." She advanced on me, making meaningful faces at me as she spoke. "Hold on, I'll give you to someone who knows what's going on." She covered the receiver with her hand. "It's the ambulance people, they asked if you want the police."

I took the phone and stepped past David's prone body, wandering down the drive a little way away from the lit scene outside the porch. The tears were coming, like an overwhelming tidal wave of fear and shock, but I had to do this call.

I steadied myself. "Hi, what do you need to know?"

"What's your name?" The operator's voice was calm, almost disinterested.

"Inayat Tate."

"What happened, Inayat?"

My stomach spasmed as I remembered the feeling as he grabbed me. I couldn't speak, too busy holding down the freak-out. I took a long, slow breath, gradually let the oxygen back into my body.