Every Second Counts

Chapter Eighteen

I'M RELIEVED I have gotten through the harrowing session and I have just snapped my laptop shut as Lila walks back in through the door. I don't emulate my usual Friday evenings spending most of the night rocking backwards and forward with my knees under my chin on my cold tiles. Instead, Lila cooks a chicken and mushroom pasta and we wash it down with a few wines.

'We need to talk,' she says. 'Athena, you have to get yourself another shrink.' She sees the panic on my face and adds, 'I know no one will ever be as wonderful as Patrick Gladstone. But...' She stops because the panic on my face has turned to rage.

'I never want to hear that despicable man's name ever again. Do you hear me?'

Lila frowns then squints her eyes at me. 'Spill it girlfriend. What did he do? I've known for some time there was something you've been keeping from me. Something about the wonderful Patrick Gladstone. So, spit it out.'

I have never felt the time was right to tell Lila about my debauched Psychiatrist. But, tonight, right now, it is time.

It takes over one hour to tell Lila how Patrick had manipulated his clients and then blackmailed them, during which time I threw up twice (nothing to do with alcohol) and Lila broke down at least three times. I told her everything except how Patrick died.

He was the worst fucking fucker,' she grounds out at the end of my woeful tale. I nod.

It is while we are doing the domestics...stacking the dishwasher...when Lila says casually, 'So, now we have to discover how you knew Damien was murdered... seemingly at least 9 hours before the Old Bill found out.'

I drop a saucer. It smashes. I pick the pieces up and a sharp splinter pricks my finger. Blood trickles. Suddenly BONE CHILLING WHIRLS OF THUNDERY CLOUDS whip around me as I lose grip of my surroundings. I spin deeper and deeper. There is no light. There is just swirls of various gradients of darkness. And then images crash around in my head. They start off with jagged bright lights then for a splinter of a second I see images. A slide show of the horrors of my past; me at six crying 'Mama don't leave me,' Mother's beautiful blue frock splattered in blood, Patrick's twisted body on the pavement, a man with a knife in his chest. A flash of orange and I hear a woman wailing. I turn around. I cannot see anyone. But I hear her calling. 'I didn't do it. It's not my fault.' The bone chilling whirls of thundery clouds seem to stay with me for the longest time and I feel a tightness around my neck. I know what is happening. The claws of hell are trying to drag me down. Suddenly I start shaking all over.

'Athena. What's happening to you?' Lila is gripping me by my shoulders, shaking me.

I blink rapidly and then slowly Lila comes into focus. I'm standing in the middle of the dining room and she walks me back to my couch. We sit side by side.

'What happened?' I ask.

'You tell me,' she answers and she cannot hide the worry in her voice. 'You were...'

'What?'

'You went in some sort of trance.'

'For how long?'

'Over an hour.'

'For fucks sake. Why didn't you...'

'What? Try to pull you out of it?'

'Yes.'

'I tried. Nothing worked.'

'So, what happened to me?'

'We were talking. I had just said, "We have to discover how you knew Damien was murdered...seemingly at least 9 hours before the Old Bill.' Then you dropped a saucer and it smashed on the tiles. You picked it up and a shard pricked your finger. Then...out you went!'