She was heading for the door, brushing past Kiki as she went.
Fear brought Kiki’s voice back.
‘Ava, just wait a minute. Where are you going?’
‘What does it matter? Out. Or would you rather I just lied to you? Isn’t that what we’re doing now?’
This wasn’t her. Ava never spoke to her like this. Never raised her voice. Never challenged her. They were a team. Which was probably why Kiki’s lies hurt more, and why Ava’s misdirected anger was coming full force in her direction. Bloody Kev. He wasn’t even here to see the chaos he’d caused. Kiki had never hated him more than she did right now.
Ava went flying out of the front door and Kiki chased after her. ‘Ava, wait. Let’s talk about this. Ava…!’
As soon as she got to the landing, she saw Ava disappear through the doors to the stairwell. Kiki was about to run after her when two things happened. The first was that she had to stop, because she realised that she didn’t have her front door keys, so if she closed the door behind her they’d be locked out.
And the second was, right at that moment, the door to Mr Tavish’s flat opened and he appeared in the doorway, leaning against the left-hand side of the chipped wood frame.
‘I thought… I thought I heard… heard you there, lass,’ he mumbled, taking deep gasping breaths between his words.
Kiki realised straight away that he didn’t look right. His face was even more flushed than it had been earlier, but there was a greyish tinge to his lips, and he was bent over as if he was in some kind of pain.
‘I don’t think… I don’t think I’m very well.’
Going after Ava wasn’t even an option now, not when this poor man obviously needed help.
‘Mr Tavish, I’ve got you, don’t worry.’ She darted across the concrete landing, ready to help him back inside. Maybe get him some more water. Call someone, a family member, maybe a doctor for him.
She didn’t get that far. Because just as she reached him, the poor soul let out a chilling groan and then slumped to the ground.
20
GINNY
Ginny banged on the door of Stevie’s home like the chief of a SWAT team that was about to storm the building. It was in the west end of the city, a garden flat just off Glasgow’s busy Great Western Road, and it had taken her well over half an hour to get here in a taxi, through traffic that was building up towards rush hour. Not to mention the fact that the driver had refused to put on the AC, so she was perspiring in a manner that had her hot, bothered and saying prayers for strength to the patron saint of antiperspirant.
She banged on the door again. No answer. She plonked down on the stone steps, leaned against the black iron railings that led down from street level and texted Stevie.
Hey, doll, I’m outside your flat. Please let me in.
Send.
Nothing.
Damn.
Yet Ollie had definitely mentioned that Stevie said she was going home, so either that wasn’t true or she was inside and refusing to answer. But Ginny hadn’t sweated out the majority of the water in her body to come all this way and get no answer. Not when it was Stevie and not when something had to be wrong for her to have blown up her relationship with Ollie today of all days. Sure, Stevie wanted no part of the limelight – and no, that wasn’t something Ginny could understand, given that she’d been demanding people watch her re-enactment of the ‘big mistake’ scene inPretty Womansince she was eight – but they were also madly loved up in a way that no amount of acting skills could pull off. They might even be more devoted than she was to Caden… especially right now, after he was late for her audition today.
He’d sent her a grovelling text just a few minutes ago, with another half-hearted apology, repeated that it had been the fault of the entire taxi service serving Glasgow and told her he’d make it up to her later. The wink emoji at the end had suggested what would be involved in making it up to her, and Ginny had been so irritated that she had chosen not to respond.
Before her feelings about that could re-escalate any further, she typed another text to Stevie, deciding not to call because she only had five per cent battery left on her phone and she was going to need that later to summon a taxi back to the Academy and to call Caden on the way to moan at him for being a dick earlier. And no, she hadn’t expected either of those things to be on her to-do list today. She also had to keep the phone alive in case the director called her to offer her the job or to deliver a killer rejection. She still had no idea which way it would go, so she decided to concentrate on her text to Stevie.
I’ll just sit on the step until you answer…
Send.
She waited for thirty seconds. No reply.
Please don’t worry about me…
Send.
