Savage Redemption (The Caraksay Brotherhood #10)

Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

E than

“How long now?” I snap at Magda, our pilot.

“Fourteen minutes, boss.”

It’s only been about three minutes since I asked her last time. Beside me, Cristina reaches for my hand.

“Are you sure Tomasz is okay? Tony did say he’d seen him, didn’t he?”

“Yes. Definitely. Tomasz ran up the hill to the castle and raised the alarm, but someone had spotted the smoke already and they were on their way. He’s fine, my darling.”

Which is more than can be said for poor little Andrej, fighting for his life, or so I’m told. Tony was right to ignore our usual protocol which absolutely forbids external aircraft approaching our island. That lad needs urgent medical care, the air ambulance is the only way, since both our helicopters are with me.

It’s not the first time I’ve been relieved that my senior team know when to use their initiative.

Andrej is a sort of adopted son. Originally from Belarus, he’s the little brother of Arina, married to Rome, one of my other commanders. The family were orphaned, had no one, and were in danger from people traffickers. So we brought them back with us, and while Arina and Rome are based in Glasgow, the younger ones now live on Caraksay. It sounds as if it was their cottage, the home they share with Faith, my brother’s mother-in-law, that has burned down.

Faith was up at the castle for the day, helping with the younger children as Magda, our usual child carer, was on pilot duties with me. Andrej and Natalija were alone at the cottage when the fire started. Natalija’s fifteen, they should have been all right.

But they weren’t, and I’ll be needing to know why.

Carlos di Santo. What the fuck is he doing on my island? Not least as he’s supposed to be meeting me in Aberdeen.

Obviously, the so-called property deal was a ruse, a decoy to get me and several of my men off the island. It worked, and somehow, he managed to get past the depleted defences I left behind.

Fuck!

Luckily, Tony was on the ball. He and a couple more of my men managed to get the three casualties out, but the fire was beyond anything they could deal with, so he decided to let it burn. I’ll be getting a professional fire investigation team out tomorrow, another break with protocol, but I need to know what happened. This calls for experts.

I’ve instructed Tony to make sure no one except the air ambulance leaves Caraksay until I’m satisfied that I know exactly what’s been going on. If anyone else from that fucking construction crew isn’t who they say they are they won’t be leaving alive.

“Air ambulance to starboard.” Magda’s voice crackles into my headphones.

I glance out of the window and see the other helicopter, about half a mile to our right, heading for the mainland. At least Andrej is on his way to hospital.

Cristina squeezes my hand. “It’s bad,” she reminds me, “but it could have been worse. No one is dead.”

Yet.

I’m leaping from the chopper before the rotors even slow down. I cross the courtyard at a running crouch, Jack Morgan hard on my heels. Tony is waiting by the main entrance.

“Where are they?” I demand.

“Clinic. The other helicopter just left.”

“We saw it on the way in. How was he?”

Tony shakes his head. “Bad, boss. When we first got him out, I thought he’d gone. Megan brought him back with her oxygen, but he’s never regained consciousness.”

“I want to be kept informed of his condition.” That lad was in my care, and this happened to him on my watch. “If he dies…” I let my words trail off and spin on my heel. I need to get to the clinic.

The first person I see when I burst through the door is Tomasz, my stepson. He flings himself into my arms.

“Dad,” he mumbles into my shirt, fighting back tears. “It was awful. We were playing chess in Faith’s kitchen, and we smelled the smoke.”

I hug him to me. He may not be mine biologically, but it makes no difference. “It’s okay, son. You did your best.”

“It was in the bedroom, the front bedroom. Faith’s room. We tried to put it out, with buckets of water from the kitchen. But it was too much. The bed caught fire, it just all went up. It was so quick…”

It’s okay,” I repeat. “You did your best. No one blames you.”

“We… we decided to make a run for it. I thought the other two were right behind me, but when I got outside, it was just me. There was so much smoke. I was coughing, choking, but I knew I had to go back and find them. I would have, but that man arrived.”

“What man?”

“I don’t know his name, he was from the building site, one of the builders, I think. He told me to go for help, and he went in the cottage.”

I already know from Tony’s report that Faith spotted the smoke from one of the castle windows and she raised the alarm. Everyone, including the builders, piled out and charged down there. They met Tomasz halfway up the hill, heading for the castle to get help. He told them the other kids were trapped.

By the time they all arrived, the flames and smoke were near overwhelming, but Tony, Jake, and Nico went in. They found Natalija first, in the doorway, trying to crawl out. She told them where the others were, and they managed to drag the two unconscious forms into the fresh air moments before the roof collapsed.

Megan appears in the doorway, looking as near exhausted as I’ve ever seen her.

“Boss, you’re back.”

“I am. I gather we have a lot to thank you for.” But for her, I suspect we’d have at least one, maybe two bodies to dispose of.

“I did my job.”

And the rest. “What’s Andrej’s status?”

“Critical, but there’s an excellent specialist team at the Richmond. Even so, it’s going to be touch and go.”

I nod. “What about the others?”

“Natalija will be okay. A fair bit of smoke inhalation, and I’ll be keeping her on oxygen for the next few hours.”

“Can I talk to her?”

“Of course. She’s through there.”

“Thanks. And what about the other one? The man?”

“Still unconscious.”

“Has he come round at all?”

“Not so far. If you hadn’t instructed otherwise, I’d have sent him to the Richmond, too. I still think…”

I pat her arm. “I know, and noted. But I need to know what he was doing here in the first place before I risk letting him loose.”

“He’s through there.” She gestures to the other treatment room. “Nico is with him.”

Thanks.” I take step towards Nataliya’s door, then pause. “Tomasz, just one more thing. Did you see which direction the man came from?”

“Direction? I’m not sure…”

“Did he come round from the back of the cottage?”

He shakes his head slowly. “No, I don’t think he did. I was lying on my back gasping for breath, and suddenly he was next to me.”

“On which side?”

He lifts his left arm. “This side. He caught me with his foot, almost tripped over me, in all the smoke.”

“Okay. Thanks. Unless Megan needs you to stay, you’d best go find your mother. She’s been out of her mind worrying about you.”

He gives me a laddish grimace but ambles off to do as I’ve asked.

I turn to Tony, still beside me. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

His face is grim. “If our mystery man approached Tomasz from the left, he couldn’t have come from the castle, or the construction site.”

Exactly my thoughts. “There was a lot of smoke, it was chaotic. Tomasz could be mistaken.”

“Worth talking to him again, find out exactly where he was lying, but he seemed pretty clear to me.”

Again, I can’t disagree.

We find Natalija seated on a high-backed chair, her oxygen supply provided through a narrow tube in her nose. She’s thumbing through one of those music magazines teenagers are so fond of, but she puts it aside when we enter her room. “We never meant to do anything wrong,” she blurts. “I don’t know how it started.”

I pull up a chair and settle down opposite her. “I know that. Tomasz said it started in Faith’s bedroom.”

She nods. “I think so. We threw water on it, but it was spreading too fast. We tried to get out, but Andrej fell, and I went back for him.”

“What do you remember after that?”

“Andrej was a dead weight. I tried, but I was choking on the smoke. I tried to get him to get up and run, but he didn’t. I thought… I thought we were both going to die.”

Her face crumples. She starts to sob. “I was scared. I don’t know how…”

“Someone helped you?”

She nods. “A man, I didn’t know him, but he was there, in the kitchen. He picked Andrej up and told me to hang on to him. We tried to get to the door, we were nearly there, but he fell down. He didn’t move. I don’t…I don’t remember anything after that, not until I was outside and I could breathe again.”

I doubt I’ll get much more out of her for now. I smile and hand her magazine back to her. “You’ve been very helpful. Thank you.”

I’m almost at the door when she calls out to me. “Ethan?”

I turn. “What is it?”

“That man, he tried to save us. Is he… I mean, will he be all right?”

I tell her the truth. “I honestly don’t know, Natalija.”

We file into the other treatment room where the man claiming to be Carlos di Santo lies unconscious on a trolley. His skin is ashen, his hands and feet swathed in bandages.

“The burns are fairly superficial,” Megan assures me, “from contact with the floor and walls. Andrej didn’t get off so lightly.”

“What else do you know about his condition?”

“His airway is affected, inhaling heat as well as smoke. He’s breathing on his own, but if his condition deteriorates and his airways narrow too much, he’ll need a respirator.”

“Okay.” As luck would have it, we do have one of those on Caraksay, left over from Covid. Every cloud and all that.

The doctor hasn’t finished. “Smoke is toxic, full of all sorts of nasty chemicals. Hydrogen chloride, phosgene, sulphur dioxide, ammonia. Not to mention carbon monoxide. I’ve run blood tests to try and isolate exactly what he inhaled, and so far, he’s holding his own, but he’s not out of the woods yet.”

“Let me know as soon as you have the blood results back. Or if he comes round.”

“Of course.” She leans over the trolley. “I just need to do some obs.”

“We’ll leave you to it.” We all troop out. Once we’re away from the clinic I issue my orders. “Apart from the doc, and Natalija, obviously, I need everyone who was anywhere near that fire in the conference room in ten minutes. Two of the men who were in Dundee with us can relieve Nico. Where are the construction crew?”

“In the library, boss,” Tony informs me.

“Right, I’ll be starting there, then. Jack, you’re with me. Tony, you organise the men in the conference room. Oh, and send Nathan Darke to the library, too, please.” They are his crew, after all.

They’re an incongruous lot, a bunch of dusty, smoke-streaked workmen cluttering up my genteel library. Mrs McRae had the sense to throw some dust sheets over the furniture before they were herded in here, and now they perch awkwardly on my antique furniture, surrounded by first editions probably worth more than a year’s wages to most of them.

The foreman — correction, forewoman — sits apart from the rest and leaps to her feet as we enter. “How is he? How’s Carlos?” she demands.

“Poorly,” I reply. “Our medic is taking care of him.”

“Why isn’t he in hospital? He needs a specialist. Proper facilities.”

She’s not wrong, but I’m not about to go into the details of my security concerns with her. “You’re in charge of this lot? Right?”

“Yes. I am.”

Nathan enters behind me. “This is Rebecca Bartley. Bex. She runs this crew.”

“I see. Then tell me, Bex, why was one of your workmen wandering around my island on his own? Were my instructions not perfectly clear?”

“Yes, sir, but?—”

“But?” I harden my expression, usually enough to elicit whatever explanation I require from any of my men.

Bex Bartley is a different kettle of fish entirely.

She tips up her chin and meets my glare head-on. “He had an injury. Sprained wrist, needed an X-ray. I sent him to that clinic you have here to get it checked out.”

“What part of ‘no one leaves the site unescorted’ was not clear to you, Ms Bartley?”

“And what part of the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 is not entirely clear to you, Mr Savage?”

I narrow my eyes. Pretty much all of it, actually. What the fuck does health and safety have to do with me?”

Rebecca Bartley steams on. “He was hurt. At work. As his supervisor, I am legally obliged to provide for his health and welfare. That meant seeking medical attention for a suspected injury in the workplace.”

“It could have waited until he was back on the mainland.”

“Could it? You know that, do you? You could tell all that, from over there in Dundee?”

Tony barely manages to conceal his smirk.

Nathan Darke tries to intervene. “It’s my fault. I should have?—”

The feisty little site forewoman is having none of it. “I’m in charge on the site, not you, and not him.” She jerks her thumb in the direction of the architect. “It’s my licence on the line. The last thing any of us need is the Health and Safety Executive crawling all over everything. I do things by the book. Always.”

I’m beginning to suspect the Health and Safety ship may have sailed, and I briefly reconsider my decision to bring in a fire investigation expert. As to the matter in hand, clearly there’s going to be no intimidating Ms Bartley, unless I’m prepared to get really unpleasant, which I don’t think I am. Nevertheless, I plough on.

“So, as far as you were aware, he was at the clinic?”

“Yes.” She nods emphatically. “I told him half an hour, max.”

“And how long was he gone?”

“Well, more than that, obviously. I was just about to send someone to find him when the alarm went up about the fire. We all downed tools and ran to help. Next time I saw him, he was lying on the grass outside that burning cottage.” Her shoulders stiffen. “I want to go and see him. Now.”

“I’m sorry, Ms Bartley, that will not be possible. Believe me, he’s in excellent hands.”

“He should be in a hospital,” she repeats.

“And he will be, if his condition worsens.” I scan the rest of the room, assessing the value of questioning the men. Frankly, I doubt any of them know anything beyond which is the business end of a trowel. I decide to cut my losses. “Your boat is waiting down on the jetty. I suggest you get yourselves on it now, before the tide turns and you’re stuck here all night.”

Our harbour isn’t tidal, but they don’t know that, and I want them gone. Most of them don’t need telling twice, and they pile out within seconds. Ms Bartley is another matter.

“I’m afraid I can’t leave without first seeing Carlos. I have forms to fill in, a report to file.”

I really don’t like the sound of that. “How about a trade. You can visit him, in exchange for no forms and no files.”

“That’s impossible. I?—”

“Bex, why not leave the formalities to me?” Nathan adopts his most professional expression. “I can deal with the authorities, let you get on with organising the men. We’ve already lost the best part of half a day, and you’ll be a man down tomorrow. You’ve a lot to do.”

She looks unconvinced. “Well, that’s true, but I really should?—”

“I can hold the boat for twenty minutes, no more,” I point out. “That’s all the time you have for visiting. Tony will show you where your man is.”

Alone in the library, I pull out my phone and hit the speed dial number for Megan. “Hey, one more question. Any sign of a sprained wrist on your patient? No? You sure? Okay, thanks.” I hang up and turn to my architect. “Well, will the upstanding and very proper Ms Bartley be putting in a formal report?”

He shrugs. “She would in a heartbeat if she thinks something fishy is going on. Is it?”

I return his gaze. “I expect so, but it has nothing to do with Health and Safety. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m needed in my conference room.”