Singapore Sling Shot - Andrew Grant [101]
Some of the faces I didn’t know, but most I did. I’d killed so many people in my life and so many had died because of me. Was this my hell?
Then I saw Simone and knew it truly was. She was stepping out of the rear of the Hinde. She was wearing a wedding gown, a beautiful creation of flowing silk. There was a long train and two young people followed, tending to it. They were her children. There were flowers in her hands. White roses.
Chekov was no longer wearing the sweaty fatigues of just moments before. He was dressed in a morning suit. With Simone on his arm, he came to where I lay in the blood-drenched dirt.
“Mr Swann, I want to introduce you to my wife. The beautiful woman you killed when you tried to kill me. You are dead and she is mine forever!”
Now I found a voice and the screaming started.
“Daniel, Daniel. It’s all right. Everything is all right, my darling.”
I opened my eyes. Simone was beside me, holding my hands in hers. I was lying on soft grass. Her hands were warm. There was no ice in them or on the lips that brushed my cheek. She was alive and her smile enveloped me as I lay there dazed, looking up at her. The grey sky was blue and the grass under me was as soft as cloud. This was not the coarse carpet of the cemetery in which I had died.
Simone was wearing the gown she was to have been buried in. It glowed with an inner light, purer than fresh snow. The little gold crucifix that had been entwined in her cold fingers while she lay in her coffin was now around her neck. It sparkled in the sunlight.
“Come with me, my darling.” Simone rose to her feet, drawing me effortlessly to mine. We weren’t in the cemetery. We were standing in a garden. Hedges defined a pathway that stretched into the distance. Trees towered above us. Flowers filled the air with their sweet perfume. Was this heaven? Had a sinner like me gone to heaven? It must be heaven for Simone to be here with me.
We started walking, she gently leading me after her. It was as if she had walked this way before. Along the avenue of trees we moved, following the pathway to only she and her God knew where.
Then I knew it wasn’t heaven. Simone was gone in an instant. Voices were calling a name. It wasn’t my name, but I knew it. I had heard it before, somewhere.
A bright light was on my face, my eyelids were being pried open. I fought against it, but failed. There was a face above me. Not one but several and a voice was calling that name again.
“Mr Crewe, can you hear me? Mr Crewe, are you awake?”
I knew Mr Crewe from somewhere, but I wasn’t awake. The light vanished and the voice faded. I wanted to find Simone again. I wanted for us to walk hand in hand to eternity or wherever she had been leading me.
But she was gone and I was lost in a black cloud.
38
Fractured skull and heavily concussed. He’s been drifting in and out of consciousness for the last twenty-four hours.”
“Do you think he’ll be okay?”
“I think so, but it’s difficult to say with head injuries like this. He may suffer any number of complaints, temporary or permanent, because of it. Amnesia, for instance.”
“That might be a blessing, Doctor,” Sami Somsak replied.
“It was a terrible thing that happened.”
“Yes it was! Thank you. Please call me if there is any change.”
Sami stood and looked down at his friend lying in the hospital bed. Daniel’s face was the colour of chalk. There was an oxygen feed running into his nose, but he was breathing unaided. A drip feed was connected to his left wrist. His shaven head was covered in an iodine solution and a mass of staples created jagged patterns across the top of his scalp.
The doctor had told him