Page 122 of Fire Must Burn

‘Certainly, dear,’ said the nurse. ‘Call out if you need anything.’

‘I will. Thank you.’

She waited until the door closed, then leaned over, put her lips close to his ear, and whispered, ‘Tony.’

There was no response.

‘Tooooony,’ she half-sang more loudly. Then she followed it with a sharp ‘Tony!’ accompanied by a shove.

He kept sleeping.

‘Damn you,’ she muttered, sitting back in her chair. ‘I’m very disappointed by this, Tony. I really wanted to have one last conversation with you. I’ve had this moment planned for so long, and you are refusing to play your part in it.’

She looked up at the intravenous bottle hanging from a hook on the pole over him, then opened her bag and pulled out a hypodermic needle.

‘It’s a pity about the sedatives and the painkillers,’ she continued, holding it up and depressing the plunger until a drop of clear liquid appeared at the end of the needle. ‘I wanted you to feel this. I wanted there to be suffering involved right up to the end. I would have liked you to have known that it was me who brought it about, but I guess you can’t have everything. Oh, by the way? The kiss wasn’t all that great. In fact, I ran upstairs and threw up the second after I closed the door.’

She stood and reached for the IV bottle with the syringe. Then Sparks burst through the door and hurled herself at her, grabbing Lowle’s wrist and twisting it. The syringe fell onto the pillow, close to Danforth’s face.

‘Let go of me!’ shrieked Lowle as she spun and drove her left hand at Iris’s eyes.

Sparks ducked the blow, causing her to relinquish her grip.

‘It’s over,’ she said. ‘Stop.’

‘Here, what’s this noise about?’ said the constable as he came in.

‘She attacked me!’ cried Lowle.

‘She’s trying to— no!’ yelled Sparks as Lowle made a grab for the syringe.

She leaped at the other woman and wrapped her arms around her in a bear hug.

‘Look at her hand!’ Iris yelled to the constable. ‘Get that needle away.’

‘I don’t know what the hell this is about, but the two of you have to stop this,’ said the constable.

He stepped forwards to separate them. The instant Lowle was free, she whirled and hit him in the throat with the heel of her palm, sending him to the floor, choking. Then she faced Iris.

‘My brother died because of him,’ she said.

‘Your brother was a bastard and a rapist,’ said Sparks. ‘He deserved everything that happened to him and more.’

Lowle screamed in rage and charged at her. Sparks sidestepped her and tripped her up, shoving her down hard as she passed. Lowle’s head slammed into the radiator as she fell. She dropped to her knees and Iris grabbed her left arm, twisted it behind her back, then pressed her down to the floor and sat on her.

‘That’s one thing I can still do better than you,’ she said, panting.

‘Miss Sparks, what’s going on?’ came a voice from the doorway.

She looked up to see Parham looking down at the two of them, a pair of constables behind him.

‘Is this the person I’m supposed to be handcuffing?’ he asked.

‘One of them,’ said Sparks. ‘She just tried to kill Mr Danforth. Again. The syringe is lying over there somewhere. Oh, and she assaulted your constable just now. Sorry about the timing – I was expecting her later.’

Parham went over to the constable and helped him to his feet.

‘Are you all right, lad?’ he asked him.