It took all three girls to keep James upright and muscle him out of the church and along the pavements. It helped that he retained some autonomous muscle control and could manage a sort of sleepwalk, thrusting a leg forward now and then to aid their cause.
Renfrew had mobility issues of his own to deal with. Broken straps made his prosthesis wobble with each step, and sometimes it came loose entirely. Lacking crutches, he was forced to employ a stolen umbrella as a cane.
Luckily, the authorities were distracted by the commotion up the street. Two of Sturgie’s musical friends were in the process of being arrested. He and Alfie skulked low among the parked cars, trying to make their way back to their van unnoticed.
They piled into the little blue Ford, Karla and Isobel sliding James between them, his head flopping from shoulder to shoulder as he was jostled. His lids lifted slightly to reveal the whites of his eyes rolled back, his body surrendered to the fugue state that meant his soul was absent from this world.
Karla reached over his lap and got him buckled. His clothes smelled like the inside of a decommissioned phone box, but she didn’t mind. She nestled her cheek against his chest as a slow but steady drip of tears found their way down her cheek in rivulets.
Renfrew took the wheel while Jessica held his detached prosthesis in her lap.
“You’re missing a prong in the buckle,” she said.
“I realize that.”
“How about we just knot the ends together?”
“How about we worry about that later? One leg’s plenty to drive an automatic.”
A squeal of tires and a cloud of blue smoke told them that Sturgie and Alfie were fulfilling their promise to create a further diversion. Renfrew waited until a police car went wailing past them after the white van, before pulling out from the curb
He drove as if he were heading to the grocer’s on a Sunday morning to pick up a carton of milk.
“You could stand to go a little faster, Ren,” said Jessica, anxiously. “We’re practically crawling.”
“Don’t want to draw undue attention.”
“Fifteen clicks in a forty zone will draw it quicker than anything.”
“Alright. I’ll speed up a bit.” He glanced up into the rear view. “How’s the boy?”
“He’s alright,” said Karla. “Breathing a little ragged, maybe.”
Jessica peered over the back of her seat. “He don’t look so good.”
“How about we go straight to the hospital, have him checked out?” said Renfrew.
“Not here,” said Karla. “Not in Inverness.”
“But if the poor boy’s suffering….”
“We can’t, Ren. Not here.”
“We could just drop him off.”
“No! Papa knows people at the hospital. Some of the nurses attend our church.”
“What would they do? Poison him?”
“I wouldn’t put it past them. I’m all for taking him to a clinic, but we need to get him out of Inverness first.”
“Bugger,” said Renfrew.
Isobel, all smiles, leaned over and took her sister’s hand. Karla forced a smile in return, but the tension in her face turned it into a scowl.
