War Torn

Dave booked an early slot when the satellite phones were finally reopened after Jamie’s death. He wanted to break the news to Jenny himself. But when she answered he could tell at once that she already knew.‘Who told you?’‘Adi, of course.’ She was sniffing back tears. ‘Plus it was on the TV news when they were going on and on about the SAS rescuing the hostage.’‘What did they say?’‘That a soldier in the regular army had died during the ambush. Then Adi rang to say who. I was shocked, Dave. But the first thing I thought was: thank God it wasn’t you.’‘You liked Jamie,’ he said.‘Yeah. A lot.’‘Who’s with Agnieszka?’‘No one. I tried. But she’s sort of frozen. It must be the shock.’‘No one’s there! Not even her bloke?’‘She said she wanted to be left alone. So Adi’s taken Luke and I think the Families Officer’s going back soon. Dave, listen, I want to call the baby after Jamie. Do you think Jamie’s an OK name for a girl these days?’‘I don’t know. At the moment it just makes me think of Jamie.’‘Some people spell it J-a-i-m-e for a girl.’‘Let me think about it.’‘Dave. Are you all right?’Dave felt a stabbing pain in his chest area. There was a long silence. Jamie’s silence, again.‘Not sure,’ he said at last.‘I always knew he was your favourite.’‘We’re not supposed to have favourites.’‘But sometimes people do. And Jamie was yours.’‘He was badly wounded but he didn’t die at first so I let myself hope for a few minutes. Even though I knew there wasn’t a chance.’‘You were right to hope,’ said Jenny. ‘Miracles can happen.’‘Not this time. He was so badly maimed that it was probably better not to live.’‘He would have wanted to live for Agnieszka.’‘She’s a bitch.’‘Oh, Dave, she’s really suffering. And we don’t know for sure she was messing about.’‘She had another bloke. And Jamie knew about it too. Because she told him.’‘No!’‘Jen, he had a mobile phone here. It’s unbelievable that Jamie would take a risk like that. But he did. I found it. And there was a message on it from her, which he must have got just before he died. Saying she loved someone else.’There was a long silence.‘Jen?’‘He had that mobile phone because she asked him to and because he loved her a lot.’‘Yeah, and she loved him so much she sent him a message like that.’‘No! Agnieszka didn’t send it to him.’Dave suddenly grew suspicious.‘You knew he had that phone?’‘It was the Taliban who sent the message. Agnieszka never would have done it.’‘But the Taliban didn’t know she was messing about!’‘She might not have been! The Taliban didn’t know anything about her, they just wanted to hurt him. And he read it and believed it . . .’‘How the fuck do you know about all this, Jenny?’‘Don’t be angry with me, Dave. I promised not to tell you before. But now Jamie’s dead, I suppose I can.’

Chapter Seventy-one