Gran looked so pale. She lay motionless and Hannah felt tears welling up inside her, Indy’s hand on her back. Dorothy’s left arm was heavily bandaged, scrapes and cuts across the side of her face, bruises blossoming along her neck. Hannah stared at her chest under the sheet, willing it to rise and fall, hoping to see movement.
‘She was lucky.’
Hannah jumped at Thomas’s voice behind her. He’d left to speak to a doctor, find out what he could. Hannah got a call from him an hour ago. She was walking home with Indy from the meal with Esha and Ravi when Thomas told her that Gran was in hospital, she’d been found by a dog walker.
‘Tell us,’ Indy said.
‘It was the jaguar,’ Thomas said, shaking his head.
The words coming out of his mouth didn’t make any sense.
He moved to the bedside, touched Dorothy’s bandages. ‘Her injuries are consistent with a big-cat attack. Lots of tissue damage to her arm, severe blood loss.’
He glanced at the drip she was on, keeping her going. Then his fingers went to her face but he didn’t touch her. He looked terrified.
‘But there’s no bone damage to the arm and her ribs are bruised not broken. She’ll be in a lot of pain, but she’s OK.’
Hannah breathed out, only then realising she’d been holding her breath. ‘Whiskers.’
Thomas stared at her. ‘Sorry?’
Indy shook her head. ‘It’s the stupid name we gave the jaguar.’ She looked at Dorothy. ‘It feels even more stupid now.’
Hannah looked around the hospital room. White walls, blue curtains, waste bins in the corner, a shower with a wide door and railings for the infirm, signs up everywhere about washing hands. She saw the clipboard of notes at the bottom of Gran’s bed and wondered what secrets it held.
‘Where the hell is Mum?’ she said.
‘On her way,’ Thomas said. ‘She was out in Cramond with Fiona.’
‘Doing what?’ Indy said.
Thomas looked at Hannah. ‘It seems your father has been in touch.’
‘What?’
‘She received a text message.’
Hannah reached out and held the railing at the side of Dorothy’s bed, gripped it tight. ‘This is too much.’
‘We don’t know anything for certain yet,’ Thomas said.
Indy’s hand on her back again, this time almost holding her up. If she fainted, did they have a spare bed for her in the ward?
Hannah felt guilty that someone else found Dorothy, when she and Indy had been a few hundred yards away just minutes after. She imagined Dorothy lying on the grass, blood pouring from her arm, lonely in the dark.
Something nagged at her mind, it didn’t make sense.
‘What was she doing in the Links at night?’ She hesitated, the words stuck in her throat. ‘And this sounds awful, but why didn’t the jaguar kill her?’
Thomas looked around the room for a reason not to answer. It came through the door.
‘What the fuck?’ Jenny bustled in and stood by the head of the bed, reached out and stroked her mum’s hair.
Hannah wanted to cry all over again.
‘What the fuck happened?’ Jenny shouted at Thomas. Her voice was so loud amongst the gentle buzz and thrum of the room.
Thomas began explaining and a look of incredulity spread across Jenny’s face.
‘I’m going to kill that fucking cat,’ she said.
‘That’s ridiculous,’ Hannah said.
Jenny turned to her. ‘My fucking mum is lying here.’
‘She’s my gran.’ Hannah burst into tears, then felt her mum’s arms around her.
‘Shit,’ Jenny whispered in her ear. ‘I’m so sorry. I’m just really scared.’
‘Me too.’
They hugged for a long time, and Hannah couldn’t remember the last time she’d hugged her mum, which made the tears rise up again. She hugged her a hundred times a day when she was little, Gran too, always tactile, the reassurance of another human body nearby, there to touch and hold. Now they parted and Hannah wiped at her tears with the back of her hand.
‘Shit.’ This was Dorothy in bed, croaky, followed by a coughing fit, her good arm rising to her chest. ‘That hurts.’
Her eyes were still closed.
‘Mum,’ Jenny said, taking her hand. ‘It’s OK, you’re OK, we’re here.’
‘Gran.’ Hannah just needed to say her name out loud, to let Dorothy know she was here.
Dorothy’s eyes opened, taking in the three women and Thomas standing around her bed like a Renaissance painting, a vision of empathetic pain.
She looked at the hospital fixtures, swallowed hard. She stared at her arm, bandaged from wrist to bicep. Hannah dreaded to think what lay underneath. Dorothy ran a finger along the bandages then looked around.
‘Where’s Einstein?’
Hannah and Jenny shared a confused look, then turned to Thomas, whose face was not good news.
‘I’m sorry, Dorothy,’ he said softly. ‘He’s dead.’
‘What?’
‘His body was found fifty yards from you.’ Thomas looked around the room and down at the edge of Dorothy’s bed. ‘What was left of him.’
‘No.’ Dorothy closed her eyes and her head sank into the pillow.
Hannah felt a shiver. ‘That’s why the jaguar didn’t kill you. She took Einstein instead.’
Dorothy wheezed. ‘He was barking like mad, trying to get her off me. He saved my life.’
They all stood there in a heavy silence, no one willing to break it.
‘Where is he now?’ Dorothy said eventually.
‘Archie took him back to your house,’ Thomas said.
‘We’ll get to say goodbye.’
Thomas frowned. ‘Dorothy, it’s not pretty.’
Dorothy reached for his hand. Hannah felt electricity crawl over her body, overwhelming her, so much bad karma, as if they’d messed up in past lives and it was coming back to get them. Anxiety rippled through her lungs and chest and into her throat.
‘What about the foot?’ Dorothy said to Thomas, so quiet that Hannah wasn’t sure she’d heard right.
‘What?’
Dorothy turned to the women. ‘Just before the attack. I found another foot.’
Jenny shook her head hard. ‘Another fucking foot?’
‘We can talk about it later,’ Thomas said. ‘Get some rest.’
‘But you found it?’ Dorothy said.
Thomas looked around the room. ‘Yes, when we searched the area.’
Jenny rubbed at her head, looking as bemused as Hannah felt. ‘So we’re getting closer to finding the whole body?’
Thomas’s face was bad news again. Hannah wondered how he coped, bringing shit into people’s lives all day.
‘It’s not a match,’ he said eventually. ‘It’s from a different body.’