Jasmine, Dan and I left Clarissa and Natasha choosing drinks and braved the freezing wind outside. It was blasting straight down the long street that Flicker was on, numbing our exposed faces, so it was a relief when we turned into an alley. We planned to cut through to a busier street where we’d be more likely to find a cab. Dan was lagging some way behind Jasmine and me because he had his wallet out, trying to figure out if he had enough money left for his cab fare. There wasn’t a lot of light in the alley, and he was using his iPhone to count the bills, the screen glow lighting up his face.
“You think they’ll be okay?” asked Jasmine.
“Clarissa and Neil?”
“Mmm. It has always been about sex, with them.”
I thought about it. A relationship based entirely on sex was about as far from my personal experience as it was possible to get. I glanced around while I thought—it was that sort of alley. “I don’t know. I—Where’s Dan?”
He wasn’t behind us. He wasn’t anywhere. Then I saw a flicker of light—the glowing screen of his phone, reflecting off the brickwork in a side alley near where I’d last seen him.
Jasmine and I looked at each other, and then Jasmine ran towards the side alley. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, and I grabbed for her hand but just missed it. I hesitated for a split second and then ran after her.
She stopped at the mouth of the side alley and I managed to grab her arm to stop her going any further. Dan was halfway down, backed up against a wall by a bigger guy who was holding something against his throat. It was only when it caught the light that I realized it was a knife.
“Shit,” whispered Jasmine. We both hovered there, unsure of what to do. Scream? Try to help? Would that stop him stabbing Dan, or make him do it?
“Hey!” yelled Jasmine, her voice breaking as she said it. The guy didn’t even look round. Dan handed over his phone and wallet and started to take off his watch.
I pulled my own phone out and dialed 911. My brain kept freezing and I had to think about each digit.
Dan almost dropped his watch as he handed it over. The guy grabbed his shirt and ran him towards the opposite wall, pushing him hard when he was halfway across. I winced as I saw Dan bounce off the bricks. It looked like he managed to slow himself a little by putting his arm out, but he still whacked his forehead and folded to the ground.
I screamed his name and ran into the side alley, only to realize the mugger was running straight towards me. I screwed my eyes shut as we passed, waiting to feel the knife slide between my ribs, or feel myself hurled into the brickwork—
But he ran straight past and was gone. I knelt beside Dan. He had his eyes open but looked groggy, blood trickling from his forehead.
A voice from my phone asked what my emergency was and, in a small, scared voice, I told it.
***
About five minutes later, the police arrived. We had Dan sitting up against the wall—he’d thrown up, but otherwise seemed okay. Jasmine had called Clarissa and Natasha and they’d raced over from Flicker. We were all standing around offering words of support to make up for the fact that we were essentially useless.
Blue and red lights filled the alley and we heard car doors slamming. Two cops strode in: the first was in his fifties, with gray eyebrows fatter than my finger; the other looked no older than us—he could have been one of Fenbrook’s actors, in a borrowed police uniform.
“Paramedics are right behind us,” the young one said. “Who was here? Who saw it?” He stopped beside Clarissa and Natasha. “Were you here?”
“No,” they both said in unison.
“I was here,” said Jasmine.
The young cop looked at her and froze for a moment. In itself, that wasn’t unusual—Jasmine had that effect on men. But this seemed like something more, like he was entranced. At last, he nodded. “Okay. I have a couple of questions, while it’s still fresh in your mind.”
I figured I should step forward and say that I was a witness too, but as I did I saw the look Jasmine was giving the officer. I recognized that look. And it dawned on me that the cop was quite well built, and good looking, if you went for the clean-cut look. Oh! She wanted to give him her statement…and probably her phone number.
As they talked, the paramedics arrived and started shining lights in Dan’s eyes and asking him to follow fingers. I half-listened to what the cop was asking Jasmine.
“So you were walking together when it happened?”
“I was sort of leading the way. He was checking his wallet, to see if he had enough money. I think that’s why he got jumped,” Jasmine told him.
The cop looked at Dan. “And I’m right in thinking he’s not your husband or boyfriend?”