‘Give me five minutes.’
Kulwinder was relieved they would not have to call Sarab. He might say, ‘Kulwinder, are you sure? Try calling her again – you know how young people never answer their phones.’ And he would stop at all the yellow lights that Sheena was speeding through.
They arrived in front of the pub and Sheena let them out. ‘Go, go,’ she said. ‘I’ll park and come inside.’ Kulwinder and Manjeet burst into the pub, hollering at each other to find the stairs. They were so involved in their mission that they didn’t notice the other customers, who had all stopped to stare.
Kulwinder made a beeline for the bar. ‘You know where is the flat of Nikki?’
‘Just upstairs,’ the girl replied. She looked amused. ‘Are you her mum?’
‘How do we get inside?’ Kulwinder asked.
‘You need a key to access that door outside on the left. Only residents have the key. You’ll have to call her and she can let you in.’
‘I try calling her, she don’t answer. Please. There could be a bad man upstairs.’
The girl bit her lip to keep from laughing. Kulwinder saw what she saw then – a pair of frantic Indian aunties trying to stop something improper from happening to one of their daughters. ‘He is a killer,’ she said desperately.
‘I’m sure he is. Look, I can’t let anybody in, so—’
Kulwinder sniffed the air. ‘Manjeet, do you smell that?’ she asked.
Manjeet’s eyes widened. ‘It’s smoke.’
Sheena came running into the pub. ‘Fire! Get out! Everybody out!’ Sheena commanded. The bartender blinked at them in confusion as customers ran out the door.
‘They haven’t paid,’ she cried.
Kulwinder pointed to the window. ‘Look. Smoke! Give us the keys.’
The girl’s eyes widened. She dived under the counter to rummage for the keys and finally held them aloft triumphantly. Kulwinder snatched them from her hands. ‘Let’s go!’
They raced out of the building, dupattas flying, fumbled with the door key, and then burst through the door, sandals slipping off and tumbling down the stairs behind them as they raced upwards, shouting. ‘Nikki! Nikki!’ The smoke thickened as they got closer to her flat door. Kulwinder searched through the smog for the doorknob and flinched at its warmth. To her surprise, the door was unlocked. That bastard must have started the fire and then run off.
As the door opened, smoke began to pour into the stairwell and the three women began to cough. Kulwinder pushed on, ducking to see under the billowing black clouds.
‘Stay here! Let me see if I can find her!’ she shouted.
She could see the flames and through the smoke, she could see a figure on the floor. It was Nikki. Trying to stay as low as possible, Kulwinder grabbed Nikki’s ankles and pulled. She inhaled some smoke and coughed violently, her shoulders shaking. She pulled again and felt Nikki start to move across the floor. It was a long way back to the door. She pulled again with all her weight. Another wave of coughing made her body convulse. Her eyes itched madly and tears ran down her face. She wanted to yell but she couldn’t. She dropped to her knees. The impact sent jolts through her body, bringing her back to the moment she found out that Maya was dead. No, no, no, she had cried. Please, please, please. Frantically wishing for time to reverse itself was as desperate as suffocation. Kulwinder gave the girl a last futile tug.
Suddenly a hand gripped Kulwinder’s ankle; another wrapped around her waist.
‘Wait! Stop!’ She couldn’t leave Nikki here. Thinking quickly, hearing her own laboured breathing and nothing at all from Nikki, she pulled off her dupatta and tied it around Nikki’s ankle, and then with Sheena and Manjeet’s help, the strength of three women allowed them to start dragging Nikki towards the door.
‘We’ve got her!’ she heard Sheena shouting.
Chapter Seventeen
Nikki could only see shadows through her narrow, squinting vision. There were snatches of conversation but they amounted to nothing. Somebody was holding her hand. As her eyelids fluttered open, she heard the hushed excitement of Mindi’s voice. ‘She’s waking up.’
The hospital room was glaringly bright and Nikki groaned. The light gave her a headache. Mindi squeezed her hand. Next to her, Mum was leaning anxiously towards Nikki, tugging the edges of her blanket so they covered her legs. ‘Mum.’ It was all Nikki could manage before she went back under.
When she next woke, it was evening. Two police officers stood beside Mum and Mindi at the foot of her bed. Nikki blinked at them in confusion. She remembered a powerful knock that sent her tumbling backwards. After that, there was only the sharp pain in her head.
‘Hello, Nikki,’ one of them said gently. ‘I’m Police Constable Hayes and this is PC Sullivan. We’ve got a few questions for you when you’re ready to answer them.’
‘Maybe just give me a little bit of time,’ Nikki said. There was a growing pain on her leg and her mind was not clear.
‘Sure,’ said PC Hayes. ‘Right now, I just want to inform you that the man who entered your home has been found and charged. We’ve got him in custody. Are you willing to make a statement about what happened?’
Nikki nodded. The constables thanked her and left. She slumped back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling. ‘Why does my leg hurt?’ she asked. From the corner of her vision, she saw a look passing between Mindi and Mum.
‘You got burned,’ Mindi said. ‘Not seriously, but it’s going to be sore for a while.’
‘Burned? How long am I going to be here?’
‘The doctor said you’ll be all right to come home tomorrow,’ Mindi said. She glanced at Mum. ‘We’ll set up your old bedroom …’
Mum abruptly turned on her heels and left the room. What’s her problem? Nikki wanted to ask.
Mindi watched Mum as she headed out the door. She looked back at Nikki and seemed to read her expression. ‘Don’t worry about her. So you don’t remember anything?’
‘I remember he hit me. After that I blacked out,’ Nikki mumbled. Patches of events appeared and dissipated in her memory. ‘There were two people,’ she said.
‘They set fire to the flat,’ Mindi said.
‘Fire?’ Nikki struggled to sit up.
‘Shh,’ Mindi said, gently pushing her back to the bed. ‘Don’t try to get up so quickly. It’s all right – there was a kitchen fire. They lit it and then ran off but it didn’t spread much further than the kitchen.’
‘Luckily,’ Nikki said. She pictured the flat engulfed in flames and she shuddered.
‘Very lucky. It could have been a lot worse. You’re lucky those women were around. They saved you, or at least that’s what I understand from the police.’
‘What women?’
‘Your students.’
‘They were there?’