‘Hey!’ She turns at the sound of a voice. A rough-looking man smoking a foul-smelling cigarette is approaching through the gloom. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’

‘Run,’ Jamie says, grabbing Tor’s wrist.

They race down the corridor and past the stirring bodies and scramble out the way they came.

‘Oi. Come back,’ the man shouts, but they run fast down the road, not looking back. They don’t stop until they run to London Road and manage to get straight onto the bus. Tor doesn’t care which direction it’s going in, only that it’s going into town. Away from that terrible place.

They both swing down onto a spare seat. Tor feels shaken and she can tell Jamie is too. They’re both out of breath.

‘Who the hell was that guy?’ she asks.

‘Scully. He’s in charge. You don’t want to get into any kind of conflict with him. Believe me.’

‘You’ve been living there?’

He nods sadly. ‘I wouldn’t exactly call it living. More like not dying.’

Tor looks down at the book. She’s still gripping it tightly.

‘What did you mean about that?’ he asks. ‘Whose is it?’

‘It’s Helga’s,’ she says. ‘Our friend. From swimming. She really needs it. And I think it would mean the world to her to get it back.’

She stares at Jamie and he nods, taking it from her. He looks through the pages.

‘Then I’d better make sure she gets it,’ he says.

‘You sure? You’ll do it? You’ll give it back?’

‘Yeah. I will. I want to. I want to do something to put things right.’

50

A Promise Kept

He’s a scrap of a lad, Helga thinks. Way too thin and too pale. He needs some sea air and feeding up. Maddy smiles at him as Helga lets them in. She hasn’t been expecting their visit and she tries to tidy up the pile of papers on the coffee table and sofa. Her breakfast dish is still on the side.

‘I love your place,’ Jamie says.

Helga has spent the last few days trying to work out in her head where she’s going to put everything when she moves. Mette, who is thrilled Helga has relented and is moving back to Denmark, is coming over to help her start packing up. She knows she’s going to have to start throwing things away, but, somehow, she’s not quite ready to make the first move to dismantle everything.

She regards her living space with the detachment she’s been feeling since she came home from hospital. The heart attack and the operation has rattled her in a way she couldn’t have foreseen. She doesn’t feel quite the same as before. It’s as if she’s lost her nerve. The slightest noise in the night wakes her and she lies awake worrying about people breaking in.

Mette has convinced her that she’ll feel safe once she’s at the retirement village, but it’s still unsettling leaving everything she knows for a fresh start. Mette’s sent her pictures of the giant pool with its steam rooms and saunas, but it won’t be the same as swimming in the sea every day.