Burning Bright

Chapter 19

Of course, my head was telling me that this was A Good Thing, that the pressure would be off me and Eoin. But the rest of me wanted to slap her silly face and tell her he was mine. But I couldn’t dwell on that now, I had some very unwelcome news to deliver.

I found a quiet corner of the gardens behind the court where I phoned first Moira who confirmed she would immediately promote the fund raising, confirming the figures with me, and then Eoin’s Mum. We were both in tears by the end of that conversation, Mrs Macken thanking me for taking care of Eoin, me apologising that I couldn’t have done more.

I checked my twitter account and already there were links to the fund raising page but I couldn’t get the actual page to load. I wasn’t sure whether that was good or bad.

‘Kate!’ I looked up to see Pierre waving at me from the far side of the garden. He trotted over. ‘Need a lift back to the compound?’

‘Oh God, yes please.’

‘I’ll bring the car round to the back.’

Of course, I spent the entire journey glaring daggers at the back of Veronique’s head as she talked about how she had felt compelled to say something in defence of Eoin as only his lawyer had spoken out on his behalf. The dig at me would only have been less subtle if she’d been holding a spade. But I was trying to convince myself that her help, any help, would be beneficial. For Eoin, if not my sanity.

Pierre asked me if I wanted to come back to their flat for lunch, but I declined. ‘I’ve so much to do and I really need to speak to Eoin’s agent to make sure we co-ordinate things. I need to get him out of there ASAP. But thanks for the invitation.’

‘I understand. Obviously I’ll be promoting the fund raising with my contacts, but let me know if there’s anything else we can do.’

‘I’ll do anything for him,’ Veronique added. ‘Anything. Just ask.’

‘Thanks. I will.’

Returning to the flat alone was not what I had wanted. There were traces of Eoin everywhere I looked. I picked up the odd stray item of clothing and returned them to “his” room, although he no longer slept there. I made a cup of tea and sat down with my computer to Skype Moira.

‘Jesus, you look knackered,’ she said.

‘Yeah well, didn’t get much sleep last night.’

‘Have you seen the fund raising site?’

‘Couldn’t get on it.’

‘OK, so we need six hundred thousand Euros to get Eoin out? Is that right?’

‘Fifty million rupees. Whatever that is.’

‘I worked it out. Twelve times, just to make sure. So, we had €250K earlier.’

‘Yes.’ I was hoping it had started to rise, maybe hit 275, or even 300 by now.

‘OK, it’s currently at €400K.’

‘What?’

‘Yep, and rising by the second. Kate, this thing has gone viral.’

‘It’s done what?’ It sounded horrible.

‘Erm, been picked up globally.’

‘Wow.’

‘He shouldn’t be in there for too long.’

‘I hope not. God, Moira, the look on his face when the magistrate passed sentence, it broke my heart.’

‘It’ll be OK, Kate. I’ve drafted some follow up press statements I’d like you to approve. I’ve had to leave some gaps as I don’t know the proper terminology for some things.’