She turned again to a shaking Achilles.
‘Keep talking to him until I get back. Don’t let him go to sleep.’
As she crossed the terrace, Grace aimed a kick at the guy lying on the ground, the knife well out of his reach a few feet away. It was covered in blood, Will’s blood. She knew better than to touch it. It would be needed as evidence.
The ambulance screeched to a halt at the edge of the path just as she reached it herself, followed by three police cars, blue lights flashing.
Two paramedics, a man and a woman, jumped out of the ambulance and ran towards her.
‘This way!’ Grace shouted into the wind. ‘Please hurry.’
She led the paramedics down the path to Will. While running, she shouted back to the police that she’d seen a man run towards the beach. One of the teams peeled off in the direction of the escaped burglar, while the other two headed for the house. Not that she cared where they were going.
All Grace could think about was Will. The paramedics knelt and took over from Achilles, who had to be pulled away from the older man’s body.
The security guard got straight on the phone, presumably to their boss at his holiday home, but Grace couldn’t understand any of the shouted Greek conversation.
Not that it mattered what he was saying; all that mattered now was that Will received the right treatment and survived the stabbing.
Achilles got it together enough to help the medics carry the stretcher up the path and into the back of the ambulance. While she waited for the paramedics to stabilise Will for the journey, with a drip and an oxygen mask, Grace witnessed the police tear off the assailant’s balaclava and put him in the back of the police car. He was barely more than a boy.
She climbed into the ambulance after Achilles, who sat rocking in the corner. She positioned herself firmly at Will’s side, as close as the paramedics would allow her. Will’s face took on a grey tinge as they tore along the coast road, and Grace held on fast to his hand.
The speed of the vehicle made every streetlight illuminate the gory scene in the back of the ambulance like a freezeframe from a film. There was blood everywhere, on the floor, on the hands of the paramedics and all down Achilles’s front, besides what was still coming out of Will.
When the lights of the town concertinaed up together, Grace breathed a sigh of relief. It could only be moments until they reached the island’s tiny hospital.
But the ambulance turned the opposite way, away from the town, which struck fear into Grace’s heart.
‘Where are you going? The hospital’s the other way. We need to go there, now!’
The female paramedic turned round.
‘Don’t worry. This injury is too serious to be dealt with on the island. This man, your… friend, will need an operation. He is being taken to a private hospital in Athens, where he will have a much better chance of survival.’
So, there was a chance he wouldn’t make it. It was all she heard. Grace choked back the tears.
‘But that will take too long.’
‘There’s an air ambulance helicopter waiting for us at the airfield, with fully trained paramedics on board. It’s all been arranged and it’s only a short flight, twenty minutes at the most.’
‘But it’s dark. Helicopters don’t fly at night!’
The paramedic put her hand on top of Grace’s for a moment.
‘They do in emergencies and with a skilled pilot. Please don’t upset yourself.’ The woman nodded her head at Will. ‘Things will be smoother if you are calm.’
That was her told, then.You try being calm when someone you care so much about is hovering between life and deathwas what Grace wanted to say, but the paramedic was only doing her job. The patient came first, and the hysterical Englishwoman on board wasn’t helping.
Grace concentrated on stroking Will’s hand as the ambulance climbed up the road to the airfield. His hand was all she could reach, as the oxygen mask covered most of his face.
In front of them, as promised, was a helicopter waiting with its lights on, ready for take-off.
The rest of the airfield was deserted, with a single light in the tower. They must have pulled someone in to man air traffic control. Will’s boss was obviously a powerful man. It gave her a little hope.
The back doors of the ambulance sprang open as soon as they came to a halt, and a second paramedic crew worked seamlessly with the first to transfer Will onto a trolley, with all his equipment attached.
Achilles was still curled up in the corner, and Grace saw for the first time in the bright overhead light that he had huge purple weals on his wrists. He’d need some attention too, but hopefully it was something they could deal with at the island hospital.
