by steve higgs
‘Good morning.' I said with a smile remembering the night before. Then smiling again as I re-categorized my memory to be of the early evening, late evening, night and early morning before. My belly rumbled its emptiness as dinner had simply never happened.
‘Err, Hi.’ Hayley replied, squinting a little. ‘What is all that noise?’
‘The terrible attack dogs reacting to someone knocking on the door. I had better go and see who it is.’ I hopped out of bed unashamedly naked and grabbed jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. I pulled them on, leaned over to kiss Hayley quickly and headed along the corridor to go downstairs.
The dogs were both spinning in place, wagging their tails and doing their best to block my way so that I had to pick them both up first and deposit them in the kitchen before I could answer the door.
I yelled out, ‘Won't be a moment.' as I did so.
On my doorstep was Amanda looking lovely as usual and I felt a sudden pang of guilt over having sex with Hayley. It was entirely irrational I knew. ‘What’s up?’ I asked her.
‘Sorry for the early intrusion. I have been trying to get you for hours. There was a phantom attack at the Mill.’
‘Oh.’ I said dumbly. ‘I was, um, busy. Otherwise engaged.’ I hazarded.
‘Hello.’ Came Hayley’s voice from behind me.
Amanda was now looking over my shoulder at Hayley who had appeared at the bottom of the stairs wearing my shirt from last night. It was buttoned up using only two buttons so that the slightest movement would reveal her private topiary.
‘Hello.’ said Amanda politely. ‘Shall I come back later?’ she asked looking at me. Her tone was a little snippy.
‘Perhaps I could meet you at the office in thirty minutes? I could do with a shower.’
‘I bet you could.’ she said. Again, it was a snippy retort but then she seemed to recover her composure. ‘Of course, Tempest. Sorry. I didn’t think this through and it was rude of me to be hammering on your door so early. I have never asked you if you had a girlfriend.’
Hayley had wandered through to the kitchen where I could hear the kettle beginning to make noise.
‘I’ll, err. I’ll go. sorry. I’ll see you at the office later then?’ She seemed embarrassed now.
‘Thirty minutes. I’ll see you there.’
‘Okay.' She turned to go but then a thought occurred to me.
‘How did you find out?’ I asked. ‘How did you know there had been an attack?’
‘Brett called me. He wants us to take the case and find the Phantom.’ This was unexpected. The hiring us bit, not the bit where he called Amanda. He had been dribbling at her from the moment we went into his office yesterday. I elected to not say anything about Brett.
‘Okay. Well, that is a development. I will be as quick as I can.'
Amanda went back down the path from my house to the road. I saw her getting into her car as I closed my front door. I went into the kitchen where Hayley was searching through cupboards for something. She was standing on tippy-toes to investigate the top shelf and the shirt was riding up to reveal her peach shaped bum cheeks. A glow of desire shot through me.
‘Where do you keep your teabags?’ she asked. I walked over to her, spun her around and kissed her.
‘Forget the tea.’ I murmured then grabbed her waist and lifted her onto the breakfast bar. There was no resistance and I silently admonished myself as I undid the shirt buttons and accepted that I was probably not going to get to the office in thirty minutes.
The Office. Sunday, 10th October 0903hrs
I pulled into my parking space at 0903hrs. I had taken forty-three minutes and was hoping that Amanda would be cool about it. It was unusual for me to arrive late anywhere, but then it was unusual for me to have sex and one had caused the other.
I had checked my phone when Hayley and I had finally come up for air, there were thirteen missed calls from Amanda over a two-hour span starting at 0518hrs. She had also left text messages telling me what she was calling for, but I had missed it all as my phone had been downstairs and switched to silent.
I had left Hayley at my house rather than hurry her up and kick her out. When I left, she was still wearing my shirt and sat drinking tea on the sofa with both my dogs. I had promised to call her later, skipped breakfast because there simply wasn't time and had run out the door peeling a banana as I went.
In the car, during the short ride to the office, I replayed the previous night. It had, quite simply, been fantastic. Hayley has a great body and knows how to have sex. She had been thoroughly enthusiastic, knew exactly what she wanted and exactly what I would want her to do. However, now that I was no longer in her company, I found that I wasn't thinking about her so much as I was yet again thinking about Amanda.
Fortunately, it was a short drive to my office, so I could not dwell on the confusing complexities of my desires for very long. I ran up the stairs to my office. Amanda was sat at my desk using the computer.
‘Good morning.’ I called as I went past her to the kettle and cups in the corner by the window. ‘Do you fancy a tea?’
‘Yes, please.’ she said nothing else while I filled the kettle and set out two mugs but was clearly waiting to speak when turned around.
‘Everything okay?' I enquired.
‘Err, Yes. Only no, sort of. I feel bad about this morning. I had no idea you would have company. Is that your girlfriend? No, sorry. Forget I asked. It's none of my business.' Amanda was blushing now. It was the first time I had seen her flustered. ‘Sorry. I'm being odd. Can we just focus on work?'
‘The young lady you met is Hayley. I need to tell you that because she works in the coffee shop across the street and you will almost certainly bump into her at some point working here.’
‘Oh. Okay.’
‘She is not my girlfriend. Actually, I don’t know what she is, or how she would class herself if I were to ask her to.’ I thought about that for a second myself. ‘Perhaps focussing on work is what we should do.’
I handed Amanda a mug of tea and went over to see what she was doing on the computer. I didn’t want to talk to her about Hayley.
‘I have been researching the Phantom, trying to correlate the attacks with other events at the Mill or events in the Barker family. I wondered if I might find a link between the chaps that have been injured or killed and something else that was going on at the time. So far nothing, but with one hundred years of history to dredge through it might take a while.’
‘Tell me about the attack last night.’
‘It would seem that a couple of lads saw something and went to investigate what it was. They came across the Phantom going into a building, gave chase and got hurt. One of them has a burn to his upper arm where the Phantom touched him.’
‘Really? Is it bad?’
‘Bad enough I think. He is still in hospital, so we can visit him and get a better account of the events. I got his mobile number and name out of the ladies on reception at the Mill. The name is,' I watched as she lifted a piece of paper to read the note on the page underneath, ‘Chris Partridge. The other guy got away without being injured but we will need to speak to him as well to corroborate the story or give an alternate account.'
‘It sounds like you are on top of everything. What hospital is he in?’
‘Dartford general.’
‘Okay. Do you want to visit the Mill first or the hospital?’
‘Brett asked how soon we could start the case. I did not confirm we would take it, I figured I needed to talk to you first, but he is very much expecting us to be back in his office tomorrow morning to discuss the case.’
I took a slurp of tea and let the hot liquid warm my insides for a moment while I thought about it. I didn’t like Brett Barker, he a was a classist git, but that was not a good reason not to take his money or to refuse to pursue a potentially prominent case and solve a hundred-year-old mystery.
‘Okay.' I concluded. ‘I don't think the Phantom case and the death of Mr. Barker are
linked. Whoever killed George Barker was not playing at being the Phantom one hundred years ago, and whoever is playing the part of the Phantom now is still operating even though Mr. Barker is dead.
‘That makes sense.’ Amanda agreed.
I downed the rest of my tea. ‘I guess we need to go see the poor chap in hospital, visit Brett Barker to officially accept the case and agree on costs before we start looking into the Phantom properly.'
‘Have you given any more thought to hiring an assistant to handle paperwork, emails and phone calls?’ she asked.
‘I have actually. I even looked at where to place the advert. The Weald World have a job page on which I can run an advert for free. We can do that now if you like.' I had been considering the merits of an assistant for some time. My initial plan had been to hire a person that could help with research, do some paperwork and sift emails and calls, but then Amanda said she wanted to work for me and suddenly I had a partner. She would share the burden of the growing workload and do the research with me or even have her own cases, so the nature of the assistant role had changed or perhaps increased in its necessity.
Amanda and I spent a few minutes crafting a job description after which we did a quick spell check and sent it to the website. A second or so later a note pinged back to say our advert had been sent for review and would be live within the hour.
Dartford A&E. Sunday, 10th October 1200hrs
‘We need to visit the chap in hospital, yes?’ Amanda asked.
‘That is our natural next step. We are still stumbling around in the dark trying to piece bits together at the moment. Chris Partridge, that was his name, wasn’t it?’
‘I believe so.’
‘He ought to be able to provide us with a new perspective.' I continued. ‘He came into direct contact with the Phantom. Physical contact in which he got injured. I want to hear exactly what he saw.'
Amanda had offered to drive, and I saw no reason to argue so we were whizzing up the M2 motorway to Dartford in her nippy little Mini Cooper just a few minutes later. It was the first time I had ever been in a Mini. A fact which I had never given any thought to before, but now struck me as odd given how many of them were on the road. The Mini was a masterpiece of design and a British automobile icon from the sixties. This was the relaunched version that BMW brought out two decades ago. I knew there were several different derivatives available now, but this was the original two-door un-mucked-about-with design and was nearly new. I liked it. It sounded good. It felt, from my passenger seat, as if the steering and handling were crisp and Amanda clearly enjoyed being at the wheel.
‘I do almost all my driving around town.' she had said when I asked her about the car. ‘So, it rarely gets a decent run. It feels nice to let her stretch her legs.'
‘I notice a gym bag on the back seat, do you work out often?’ I asked to make conversation.
‘Three or four times a week I guess, depending on my shift pattern. They have a small weights room at the station that someone put in years ago, but I go to SupaGym in town. The one by the clock tower.'
‘Oh, Yes. I know it. Is it expensive?’
‘I don't think so. There are cheaper options but SupaGym has lots of classes at times that suit me, so I think it is my best option. You clearly workout.' she said glancing at me. ‘Which gym do you go to?'
‘A small place on the Aylesford Industrial Estate called Meatheads. It has nothing fancy and everything I need. The type of gym that puts sawdust on the floor to absorb the blood and sweat.’
‘Sounds delightful.’ Amanda said wrinkling her nose.
‘I would love to be able to never go again, but I would be fat within a month.’ We continued talking about nothing much at all for a few more minutes.
The hospital Chris Partridge had been taken to was on the outskirts of Dartford where it bordered Crayford and was just a couple of minutes ahead of us now. Amanda put her indicator on and moved to the offramp to leave the bypass. I had not been to Dartford General before, neither had Amanda she said, so we followed the road signs to find first it and then its car park. The car park was a multi-story affair, but we were able to park on the ground floor as there were plenty of parking spaces available.
Inside reception, Amanda showed the middle-aged and rather portly gentleman on reception her Police ID and was immediately given the exact whereabouts of the person she wanted to visit. We set off to the burns unit in the direction he had indicated. The hospital was colour coded, the walls of different areas painted to match the colours on the map. We were looking for the red area.
Amanda had helpfully found and printed a picture of him this morning and pulled that from her bag now. We walked along fresh, shiny corridors. Skylights and full-length windows let in plenty of light. There were people bustling in both directions and when we reached an intersection there were people crossing through the flow and getting caught up as they tried to weave between the continuous stream of human traffic. Dartford General was a new, purpose-built hospital with wide corridors and automatic doors. We passed through Radiology and X-ray and then maternity following the signs onwards to our destination. We reached a vaulted atrium where a coffee shop, newspaper and magazine stand and gift shop were located. It was all rather nice I suppose, but it was still a hospital, so unless you were here to have a baby I doubted many came here for joyous events.
We reached the burns unit easily enough, Amanda flashed her ID at the desk once more and was pointed further into the ward.
Chris Partridge was sat up in bed talking to another man who had his back to us as we approached. Chris was wearing jogging bottoms and a t-shirt, his right arm was bandaged from the elbow upwards, the dressing protruding from his sleeve. He looked up as we approached, and I saw his attention focus on Amanda. His eyes widened slightly, then I saw very visibly his eyes look down from her face to her chest, pause there and then go back to her face. It was something I had never seen before and I wondered what that was like for a woman. I brought his attention back to me.
‘Good afternoon, Mr. Partridge. My name is Tempest Michaels, this is my associate Amanda Harper.'
The chap that had been sitting with his back to us turned around and leaned back in his seat, then interrupted me before I could say anything else.
‘My Lord. Look, Chris. It’s an angel come to take you away.’ He was looking Amanda up and down.
‘She can take me anywhere she wants.’ he replied from the bed. They were both young men, perhaps mid-twenties and full of life. Which is to say, they were acting like lads, full of bravado and ready to outdo any other lads around them. They were not being very gentlemanly. I automatically opened my mouth to berate and belittle them both but caught myself before speaking. Amanda would most likely handle this herself and did not need me.
Looking bored Amanda leaned forward so that her boobs were right in front of the seated man’s face. He would be able to see down her top. She looked across at Chris on the bed.
‘If you two virgins need to see some tits, then here they are. See them?’ The boys were looking a little surprised, but the seated chap had a growing smile on his face. Amanda put a hand out to rest it lightly on the edge of the chair between his legs.
The seated man turned, smiling to his friend on the bed and was about to say something that he undoubtedly thought funny when her hand shot forward and grabbed his scrotum. His smile vanished instantly, replaced by a look of shock and terror.
‘What's the matter?' she asked. ‘Not had a lady touch you down there before?' she looked across at Chris again. The jovial look had disappeared from his face also. ‘Now then chaps,' the seated man tried to squirm away, but stopped as I watched her grip tighten, ‘we are going to have a little chat about what happened last night, what you saw etcetera and at no point during our little chat will either one of you look at my tits. Is that clear?'
On the bed, Chris remained silent. In the chair, the chap moved his head to glance across at his friend, probably for moral support but
his attention swung immediately back to Amanda when she gave another little squeeze. ‘I asked you a question.' she reminded him.
‘Yes. Yes! Just please let go.' she didn't. Instead, she looked across at Chris and raised her eyebrows in question. He nodded and was very definitely looking at her face when he did so.
Amanda took a last look down her own top and seeming satisfied stood back up finally releasing her handful of balls.
‘So, as I was saying, chaps.’ I restarted. ‘My name is Tempest Michaels, you seem to have gotten acquainted with my colleague Amanda Harper. We have been engaged by Barker Mill to investigate the Phantom sightings and your assault last night. Kindly sit back and pay attention because we have a few questions.’
‘Let’s start with your name.’ Amanda asked the seated man who was now nursing his testicles.
He looked up. ‘Err, Gary Mitchell?' he hazarded as if unsure himself.
‘You were with Chris last night, were you not?’ she asked
‘I was.' he replied. He was a much meeker version of the Gary that had been sat there when we came in. It was a neat trick, subduing them the way she had. I was impressed but acknowledged that it was not something I could learn. I suspected that if I tried such a tactic a fight would quickly ensue.
For the next forty-three minutes, we both asked the pair questions about what they had seen, what had then happened, how the injury came about and most importantly what they thought they had encountered. We had both looked up at one point and demanded Chris repeat what he had just said.
‘I said: It smelled like a girl.’
‘In what way did it smell like a girl?’ We might be onto something here.
‘You know those cheap as anything Katy Price perfumes you can buy in Wilkinsons or the supermarket? Well, she smelled like one of those. I have dated girls that wear them, so I recognised it because you cannot get the smell out of your clothes even after your mum washes them.’