dying of cancer. Going inside one, seeing the signs pointing to X-ray and Chemotherapy and the familiar uniforms worn by nurses and porters stirred uncomfortable memories.
Ryan followed Frank’s hospital trolley to a cubicle, while the driver got rushed to an intensive care bed. After a few minutes waiting around, a nurse suggested he go to the waiting area. Three of Hagar’s heavies stood by vending machines, while Craig spoke frantically into a cellphone.
‘Hey,’ Ryan said.
Craig gave orders as soon as he hung up. ‘At least two of Eli’s casualties have been brought in here, and some of his people are around. I’m heading off to take care of some business. I need you four to stay here and make sure they don’t try to attack our wounded.’
Ryan fought sleep as he sat in a plastic chair for more than two hours. Tensions rose when a couple of Eli’s boys came by and bought bottles of Lucozade from the vending machine, but they looked as tired as Ryan felt and it never escalated beyond a staring contest.
Ryan was gazing down at gum trodden into the floor tiles when Craig came back and slapped him on the knee.
‘Rise and shine, kiddo,’ Craig said, as Ryan rubbed his right eye. ‘Walk with me.’
Ryan followed Craig through a hundred metres of corridors, eventually reaching the hospital’s minor injuries unit. Hagar was there in a cubicle, sat in a wheelchair with his leg strapped up and a crutch resting across his lap.
‘Guess who just called me?’ Hagar asked.
‘Eli,’ Craig said.
Hagar looked surprised. ‘How’d you know that? Did you speak to Eli first?’
‘I know how the man’s mind works,’ Craig said. ‘What did he have to say?’
‘Says he didn’t start no war and doesn’t want this to escalate. He says Fay and that other girl are the ones who wrecked my garage, and that I should watch my CCTV footage if I don’t believe him.’
‘Have you checked the CCTV?’
‘System’s in a cupboard at the back of my garage. If the flames didn’t melt it, the fire hoses won’t have done it much good.’
‘A techie might be able to get something out of it by remounting the hard drive in another unit,’ Craig suggested.
Hagar shrugged. ‘Eli doesn’t know shit about my CCTV system, but he must know it wasn’t one of his people for him to say that. It’s possible he put them girls up to it. But why would Eli burn up the stolen crop, when he could make a mint putting it on the street?’
Craig nodded. ‘There’s no business sense in what happened tonight. Ramming your house is the action of someone who wants to piss you off on a personal level.’
‘Fay Hoyt, the teen terror,’ Hagar said dramatically. ‘I should have known it’s her. She knows I’ve got a short fuse and it’s the kind of stunt her aunt or mother would have pulled.’
Craig looked uncomfortable. ‘So where does this leave you and Eli? He must be pretty pissed that you burned his apartment up, and it won’t take much for it to kick off over in casualty.’
Hagar smiled. ‘Eli says he’ll forgive me his interior decoration bill, if I forgive him for buying the stolen cocaine from Fay.’
Craig looked relieved. ‘I haven’t done the sums, but that sounds fair. A war will cost us ten times that and the law will be all over us if things turn violent.’
‘Eli and I are gonna hug it out on Friday,’ Hagar said. ‘In the meantime, he’s promised to do everything in his power to track down Fay Hoyt.’
‘Any leads?’
Hagar shrugged. ‘We need to find those girls fast. Spread word that there’s a price on their heads. Ten grand for Fay. Three for her accomplice.’
‘Fay’s always out sniffing for info on the street,’ Craig said. ‘With ten grand on her head, she’ll be putting her neck in a noose every time she surfaces.’
Ryan realised he’d lucked out getting to hear this conversation and he was itching to get away and warn Ning.
‘Why’d you bring the kid over?’ Hagar asked.
‘You said he was OK, and our regular guy’s over in casualty with his eyeball hanging out,’ Craig explained.
‘Ahh, the pick-up,’ Hagar said.
Craig laughed. ‘Business doesn’t stop, just because you throw a hissy fit and declare war.’
Although Craig was his subordinate, there was no indication that Hagar minded Craig’s bluntness as he turned to Ryan.
‘You up for a trip, boy?’ he asked. ‘Or is it past your bedtime?
*
It was a bright morning as Ning walked across the allotment