The Rabbit Hunter

114

Saga tries her best, but she doesn’t manage to wake Grace before the doctor reaches the room on her round. She opens the door, turns away from the staff, walks to the cafeteria and pours herself a mug of coffee.

A middle-aged woman with beautiful green eyes stares at her, then shakes her head.

‘It isn’t visiting time,’ she mutters, then starts to pull a muffin to pieces on her lap.

Saga drinks the weak coffee, puts the mug down and takes another look at David Jordan when he was in the military. His eyes and cheekbones look a little like Rex’s, but otherwise they don’t look particularly alike.

She picks up the mug again and takes another sip, then walks around the cafeteria and watches as the staff leave Grace’s room and knock on the next door.

Saga waits a few more seconds, then hurries back inside, closes the door carefully behind her, goes over to Grace and pats her on the cheek.

‘Wake up!’ she whispers.

The woman’s eyelids tremble slightly but remain closed. Saga can hear that her breathing is shallower now, and pats her cheek again.

‘Grace?’

Slowly she opens her heavy eyelids, blinks, and looks up in wonder at Saga.

‘I fell asleep,’ she whispers.

‘You can go back to sleep again soon, but I need to know why you’re so sure that Rex is the father of your son, seeing as he didn’t—’

‘Because I’ve seen the DNA test,’ Grace interrupts, trying to sit up in bed.

‘There was no police investigation,’ Saga says. ‘No samples were taken from you, don’t you remember? You said you’d been in a car accident... you didn’t tell anyone about the rape.’

‘I mean the paternity test,’ she replies.

Saga looks at Grace in surprise, sits down on the edge of the bed, and then suddenly realises what happened thirty years ago.

‘You were seeing Rex before you were raped, weren’t you?’

‘I was stupid. I was in love...’

‘Did you have sex?’

‘We just kissed,’ Grace says, looking at Saga in confusion.

‘Is that really all?’

Grace picks at her nightdress and looks down at the floor.

‘We did it on the meadow behind the school... But, I mean, we stopped before he... you know, the way you can stop things...’

‘That isn’t always enough, as you probably know by now?’

‘But...’

Grace lifts the sleeve of her nightdress to her face and wipes her cheeks and nose.

‘Listen,’ Saga says, ‘Rex was locked up in the stable while you were raped... if he’s the father of your child, then you must have been pregnant before.’

A trace of recognition flits across Grace’s face.

‘He was locked in the stable... Are you sure?’ she asks.

‘Yes, I am. The others beat him and then locked him up. He had no idea what was going on.’

‘Dear God,’ she whispers, and tears start to trickle down her cheeks.

Grace lies back on top of the bed and her mouth opens, but she can’t bring herself to say anything.

‘Do you have a phone?’ Saga asks, patting her hand.

A pane of glass shatters somewhere in the building and an alarm starts to ring in the hall. Saga sees a guard approach along one of the paths.

‘Grace,’ she repeats. ‘I need to know if you have a phone.’

‘We’re not allowed,’ Grace replies.

Something hits the floor hard in a neighbouring room, making the picture on the wall sway.

‘It isn’t visiting time!’ a woman screams through the wall, her voice breaking. ‘It isn’t visiting time!’

Saga leaves the room and is hurrying towards the exit when the heavyset guard comes running around the corner, his keys jangling. He stops when he sees her, breathing hard, then pulls his Taser from his belt.

Without hesitating she heads towards him, yanks a bright-red fire extinguisher off the wall and marches on with long strides.

The guard stares at her, loosens the safety catch of the Taser and starts to walk towards her.

The heavy fire extinguisher is hanging from her hand, and she swings it up into her arms and rushes at him.

‘I need to borrow a phone,’ she says, ramming the base of the extinguisher straight into his chest.

He groans as the air goes out of him, staggers backwards and fumbles for support along the wall as she slams the fire extinguisher into his chest again.

He drops the Taser as he falls, reaching out with his hand and pulling down a picture.

Saga moves with him, kicks low and hits him in the calf, knocking his foot out from under him and sending him crashing to the floor. He hits the wall with his shoulder and lands awkwardly on his backside.

‘What the hell?’ he coughs, staring at her in bewilderment.

Saga drops the fire extinguisher, steps between his legs, grabs his head with both hands, pulls it towards her and hits him in the face with her right knee. His head snaps back, spraying beads of sweat. His heavy body follows and he slumps to the floor, inert. He lies there on his back with his arms out and his mouth bleeding.

‘How hard can it be to lend someone your phone?’ Saga pants between breaths.