Having dropped Gavin back at the airport, Millie drove the brothers to the hotel. The drive was interminable. A slushy snow fell, grid-locking the shopping and commuter traffic. Millie had to concentrate hard on the stopping and starting queues. It was December-dark and the headlights hurt her tired eyes. Jed sat in the back, his long legs bent up in her small car. In her mirror she could see him slumped against the door. He was holding his right arm with clenched knuckles. No one spoke.
When they arrived, Coral clucked around them. ‘Will you look at what happens when my back is turned for five minutes?’ She took charge of Jed. ‘Let’s get you upstairs and I’ll get that dressing changed.’
Millie watched their departure curiously. Jed’s bloodied arm had dried to a dark stain. ‘I think those bastard Blue Elephant morons must have hurt him really badly,’ she said to Alex, as he led them into the tiny kitchen which led off the office.
He flicked the kettle on. ‘I think you’d better sit down, Millie. I’m afraid that, once again, Jed hasn’t been entirely truthful.’
Millie pulled out a rickety old stool and perched on it. ‘What now?’ she sighed, too exhausted to be angry.
Alex came to her and leaned against the peeling Formica unit. ‘Jed was in Colombia and it’s true he was liaising with coffee growers on behalf of Blue Elephant. Then, and we now know why, he began to ask some uncomfortable questions. The political situation is much improved in Colombia for visitors to the urban areas, I think there’s even rather a good tourist industry. However, in the more remote, rural parts, where the coffee plantations are often found, it’s still under the rule of gangs.’
‘These bandas criminales?’ Millie put in, wondering where on earth Alex was going with this.
‘That’s right.’
‘But I thought they were just to do with drug trafficking?’
Alex shrugged. ‘Yes and no. It’s a murky area. Coffee is an important cash crop.’
‘But what has this got to do with Jed?’
‘Jed was obviously getting too close to the murky stuff. They ran him out of town.’
‘Oh!’
‘It’s rather worse than that, I’m afraid. They shot him.’
Millie saw the room spin. Bonelessly, she slipped off the stool and, just before she hit the tiles, found herself propelled to the chesterfield in the office.
‘Are you alright?’ Alex leaned over her in concern. ‘Here, sip this water.’ He held a glass to her lips until she’d recovered the strength to hold it herself.
‘I’m fine,’ she flapped at him, embarrassed at her show of weakness. ‘Jed was shot? I thought he was ill.’
‘He was. The wound became infected. It’s true he was very feverish but it was down to the wound, not a disease.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ She struggled to sit upright. ‘Why didn’t either of you tell me?’
‘Ah, nothing to do with me, that one. All Jed’s decision. He didn’t want to worry you.’
‘That’s why he had a nurse,’ said Millie as realisation dawned. ‘That’s why there was blood running down his arm when the heavies man-handled him.’
‘I think the wound reopened. Shame. It had nearly healed.’ Alex went into the kitchen and poured boiling water into a teapot. ‘Tea?’ He called through. ‘I’ve rather lost my appetite for coffee.’
Millie didn’t care one way or another. She just wanted to see Jed. He’d been shot! ‘Was it bad?’ she asked Alex as he returned bearing a tray.
‘Only superficial. Jed said his collar bone was more painful when he broke it skiing.’ He put the tray down on top of the untidy desk. ‘But I suspect he was trying to be brave. Apparently the medical team at the Blue Elephant office patched him up while he was there. So they’re not all bad.’
‘While they were interrogating him, you mean?’
Alex laughed. ‘I’m hoping it wasn’t quite like that, Millie. Think it was more a sort of robust conversation.’
‘No wonder he looked so ill when he came out. I thought it was just the questioning.’
‘Oh good heavens no. Jed’s tougher than that.’ Alex seemed much more cheerful. ‘He’s just had to rest quite a lot and needs to build up his strength.’
‘He does that,’ Coral said, from the door. ‘All nice and clean and re-bandaged. I’ve put the patient in the blue sitting room.’ She nodded to the steaming pot. ‘And I could murder a cuppa.’
‘Do you want to take a cup into him, Millie?’ Alex asked. ‘Do you feel strong enough?’
Millie felt foolish. ‘Perfectly thank you. I never faint. It was just the shock. It’s not often you hear the man you love has just been shot.’
‘Get in there with you,’ Coral said. ‘I’ll bring you a tray. His Nibs has been moaning for one as well.’
Millie wobbled to her feet. She was desperate to see Jed but had absolutely no idea what she would say to him.
‘I’d start with a declaration of love,’ Alex twinkled at her, alarmingly reading her mind. ‘It would work for me.’