‘What do you mean?’ Prim asked.
‘I could have been married to the bastard.’ She chuckled. ‘Imagine if I had been, and he’d resurrected himself looking for half my property. He would have, too.’
5
Prim stayed with us until past the kids’ bedtime. She wanted to say goodnight to Tom, and that was fine, although I insisted that Ethel should get them all ready as usual, again so that he wouldn’t feel different from the others. I like to think that I’m a considerate father; if I am it’s because I had a good teacher.
When they were all tucked in, she went to see him and read him a story, probably something from his A. A. Milne collection. When she came back out to the terrace, where Susie and I had supper ready, there was a tear in her eye.
‘Is he asleep?’ I asked her.
She nodded. ‘I barely made it to page two before he was off.’
‘It’s been an exciting day for him.’
‘Are all his days like this?’
‘As many as we can manage,’ said Susie. ‘Oz and I decided long ago to chuck the parenting manual out the window, and spoil them rotten.’
‘I’ve got no problem with that. You don’t teach kids proper values by denying them things you can well afford. Making sure they appreciate them, that’s the trick.’
We’d invited Ethel, Audrey and Conrad to eat with us. I flashed the terrace lights to let them know we were ready, then opened a bottle of cooking champagne as we waited for them to arrive. That was when my cell-phone started to chirp.
I glanced at the panel; it told me that it was Ellen, my sister. I frowned; we kept in regular touch, but it wasn’t like her to call me in the middle of a Wednesday evening. I flipped Mr Moto open. ‘Hi, Ellie, what’s up? We’re just about to sit down to our tea here.’
There was a moment’s silence. That was all, but it sent a chill through me. With my Sis, getting a word in is usually an achievement. But it wasn’t my Sis. It was Harvey January, my brother-in-law. ‘Oz,’ he said hesitantly, and I knew for sure it was bad. Harvey is a QC, and not given to stumbling on the phone.
‘Who is it?’ It wasn’t a matter of ‘what’: I knew that. Something in my tone froze Susie and Prim in their tracks.
‘It’s your father. Mac’s had a heart-attack.’
We all spend some of our adult lives imagining, and dreading, moments like those, but we can’t prepare for them. My legs went limp under me, and I sat down hard on the terrace tiles. I didn’t want to hear the answer but I had to ask. ‘Is he. .’
‘No, but he’s very seriously ill. He collapsed at the golf club in Elie this evening; one of his playing partners was a doctor, who resuscitated him and kept him going till the paramedics arrived. They took him to Ninewells, in Dundee. He was unconscious when he arrived, and he’s being assessed now. Ellen’s on her way there.’
‘What are they saying? What’s the prognosis?’
‘They’re not making any promises, Oz.’
‘Harvey, I’m on my way.’
‘I’ll tell Ellen. With luck you should get there around midday tomorrow.’
I glanced at my watch: it was ten past eight. ‘Fuck that. I’ll be there tonight.’
I snapped the phone closed and picked myself up. Susie took hold of my arms. ‘What is it?’
‘Dad. Heart-attack.’ Just at that moment, Conrad and Audrey walked out on to the terrace. They saw me and their expressions changed.
‘Audrey, I want a private jet on the ground at the nearest available airport, ready to take off in half an hour and fly me to Dundee, or as near as they’ll let me land. Have an air taxi in position at the heliport right away. Conrad, I want you with me. This will go public and I cannot be fucked about by the media. Susie, drive us to the chopper pad; you can drop Prim back at the Columbus. Prim, find Dylan and tell him to stick around till further notice. I’ll cover his hotel tab.’
‘I’m coming,’ Susie protested.
‘No, love, you stay here with the kids for now: it would only alarm them if we both left. If it goes bad, you’ll all be over there soon enough.’
She saw the sense of that and nodded. Nobody else questioned anything: that wouldn’t have been wise.
6
We were on the road inside fifteen minutes, Conrad driving the off-roader, Susie in the front passenger seat, Prim and I in the back.
‘Tell me exactly what Harvey said,’ Prim asked quietly. She’s a nurse.
I ran through our conversation as closely as I could remember it. ‘Does that tell you anything?’
‘He survived the trip to hospital; that of itself says something. But any number of things could have happened. He could have had a coronary thrombosis, or an aneurysm. Maybe it’s an arterial blockage and they’ll be able to fix it with an angioplasty, a device that restores the proper blood flow without a full-scale bypass.’
‘Does it sound good or bad?’
‘Nothing about this is good, Oz,’ she pointed out gently. ‘But at least he isn’t simply lying on a life-support machine, in a coma, in an IC unit. Mac’s a pretty fit man for his age; strong, too. That will improve his chances.’
I took out my cell-phone. ‘I’ll try calling Ellie. She’ll maybe know more by now.’
She put a hand on mine, to stop me. ‘Ellen’s phone will be switched off in the hospital. She’ll get in touch with you if anything changes, I’m sure.’
I had to see the sense of that, but it was bloody difficult. Normally, I’m a patient guy, but crises are something else. My instinct is to solve them there and then, and if I can’t I get frustrated. When the solution is out of my hands. .
You know, physical fear I can handle. I’ve been in a few tricky situations in my life, including a couple in which it was actually in danger. I’ve dealt with them all, and it never occurred to me to be scared, not in the heat of the moment, at any rate. There’s a big adrenaline rush, sure, but I’ve always been too caught up in the action to dwell on the consequences of failure. I’ve got the job done, and dealt with the fear afterwards.
But this was different: this was something that I couldn’t handle personally. Other people were doing this job, and I had plenty of time to consider the consequences of their failure. I started to shake; I took a tight grip of my travel bag, trying to control it before anyone saw.
The chopper was waiting for us on the pad at the heliport behind the Columbus. Susie followed me towards it. As Conrad climbed on board, she reached up and touched my cheek. ‘Wish I could come,’ she whispered.
‘So do I, honey, but it’s best you stay here, especially with her around.’
‘What about Mike? Will he hang around indefinitely?’
‘That’s up to him, but if he wants to do this precious deal of his, he will. If things. .’ I faltered, then steeled myself. ‘If Dad doesn’t make it, I’ll make other arrangements with him, but I’m refusing to think of that. I’m assuming that he’ll come through this and that I’ll be back here by the weekend. Don’t you get drawn into it, though. Any messages that need to go to Mike, Prim can carry them. I don’t want Mike involved with my family, and I don’t want him in my house.’
She squeezed my arm, and gave me a half-smile. ‘Are you worried about me with my ex?’
I tried to smile back. ‘With the size of my ego? You have to be kidding. No, it’s just this: he betrayed us all, back then, and you most of all. We might be glad that he’s not dead, but it doesn’t mask what he did. I’m no moral paragon, but I don’t want my kids to have anything to do with him, anything at all.’
She got on her toes and kissed me. ‘Don’t worry, big guy,’ she said, raising her voice above the roar of the helicopter. ‘I feel the same way. You be on your way now: when you see Mac, tell him from me that he’s not to give us all such a scare again.’
Somehow, I felt better as I ducked the rotors and boarded the Jetcopter, sliding in beside Conrad on the bench seat, and fitting a headset to my ears. ‘Buckled in, gentlemen?’ the pilot asked.