Bad Advice

by S M Mala

  Scottie immediately caught Stephen’s eye.

  ‘He came to see who was with me,’ Ruby said, letting out a massive sigh. ‘Why didn’t you tell me Mick the Dick arranged for me and the others to get attacked? That’s pretty important considering all the shit he’s caused.’

  ‘What happened to the kitchen?’ he asked, avoiding answering the question.

  ‘She had one of her mates here,’ Nana Gwen replied, looking at Ruby.

  ‘Who?’ Scottie asked gently, still seeing Ruby frown.

  ‘Annette,’ sighed Ruby. ‘She popped in.’

  ‘Bloody Samaritans all over, if you ask me. Shifty bunch other than Ruby, of course.’

  Scottie stood perfectly still and stared at Ruby.

  ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ she asked, still with her hands on hips, looking at him accusingly. ‘You know what? Something funny came to my head when she was leaving.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I thought it looked like Annette or even Gwen by the stairs but shoved it out of my mind.’

  He didn’t know what to say but noticed his grandma’s mouth drop open.

  ‘Me? I don’t look as old as her and I certainly don’t dress the same way. I have modern day style. The insult! And she wears her hair like Bette Davies in ‘What ever happened to Baby Jane?’ Give me a break!’

  ‘When you wear that oversized man’s cardigan, that’s what I meant,’ replied Ruby meekly. ‘As she was leaving, it hit me. Could be just a coincidence.’

  Instantly Scottie could see a flicker on Ruby’s face as he looked at her questioningly and she turned away.

  ‘Oh my god! She could be the murderer,’ Nana Gwen said, standing up quickly.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ smiled Ruby, looking confused. ‘Don’t be silly! I told her I was pregnant then she dropped a glass and…’ She hesitated. ‘I think something fell from her bag. I did ask and-.’

  ‘Can you please search the kitchen?’ Scottie said immediately to Stephen.

  This is when he had to use every ounce of calm he had in his body, examining Ruby who was staring at him. Then he noticed the change in her expression as if she understood.

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked Ruby quietly.

  ‘Listen to me,’ he said gently. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘What are you saying? You think Annette’s the serial killer? She’s a harmless little old lady,’ gasped Ruby, stepping back.

  ‘Things have come to light and we need to speak to her as well as the others again.’

  ‘Old people can kill, you know? Your mother’s been trying to knock me off with her cooking for years not to mention Diane’s rock hard cakes. She uses concrete for the icing,’ mumbled Nana Gwen in the background, making Stephen laugh.

  ‘Are you sure about Annette?’ Ruby asked, shaking her head, unconvinced. ‘So why did she come here? She knows I’m with you so this is the last place she’d want to be if she was the criminal. Really, you’re clutching at straws.’

  ‘I’m surprised you didn’t think it was me,’ said Nana Gwen, topping up her glass. ‘Medicinal for the shock.’

  ‘Nana, are you alright?’ he asked, wondering if his eagle eyed grandmother had seen something that Ruby hadn’t.

  ‘Well, this is better than staying in and playing bingo!’ she laughed out.

  The next thing he knew, Ruby collapsed and then the panic started.

  One hundred and twenty five

  ‘I’m fine,’ said Ruby, snapping out of her dizzy spell. ‘Why are you fussing? What are you looking for?’

  Scottie was frantically examining her arms and neck.

  ‘Are you alright?’ he said, on the verge of tears. ‘Fuck! This is awful!’

  ‘Stop panicking,’ she said, trying to get her bearings. ‘I forgot to have lunch because Hugh wound me up. I’m fine. She didn’t touch me, other than with her hand. Nothing happened. Please don’t look so worried. You’re scaring me.’

  ‘Listen, you need to get checked out.’

  ‘Sir,’ she heard Stephen say then noticed Nana Gwen was hovering in the background. ‘I think I’ve found something.’

  ‘Sir? Him?’ muttered Nana Gwen, flashing Ruby a concerned glance. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Don’t be horrible to him,’ she replied, stroking Scottie’s anguished face. ‘You seriously think it’s Annette?’

  ‘I don’t know what to think,’ he said, letting out a sigh before walking towards the officer.

  Nana Gwen sat next to her and shoved the glass under Ruby’s nose. She shook her head from side to side as the old woman took a massive slug from her drink.

  ‘No way could she have done anything like that,’ whispered Ruby. ‘She’s a nice woman, caring and considerate.’

  ‘Maybe that’s her technique?’ Nana Gwen said softly.

  Ruby sat there for a moment and something came into her head.

  She got up and walked to the laptop, watching Scottie and the officer speaking as another policeman in uniform walked into the house.

  Flipping up the top, she glanced at all the photos then opened the folder containing the celebrations for Annette’s birthday party the year before.

  She did a double take.

  All the people who were victims were at that party.

  One by one she flicked through them and realised that’s where she’d seem them all together last.

  Holding her breath for a second, she glanced over at Scottie who was looking at her.

  Then she sent an email before closing her laptop.

  One hundred and twenty six

  Nana Gwen got a ride back home in a police car, which she was chuffed about, knowing the commotion it would make when she returned home. Scottie stood outside the house half an hour later. Dave had turned up and smiled, shaking his hand.

  ‘Thanks for coming. I didn’t want to leave her. They found this.’

  He discreetly handed over an insulin pen in a bag, not wanting Ruby to see what they’d discovered, though she knew they’d found something.

  ‘Can you get it analysed?’ he asked, seeing the shock on Dave’s face.

  ‘She was going to use this on Ruby?’

  ‘I hope not,’ Scottie said, gulping hard. ‘Do you know where Annette Hector is now?’

  ‘She’s not gone back to her house and we’ve been asking the neighbours. Seems she has a holiday cottage in the Norfolk but we can’t locate an address at the moment. She might have gone there. Are you alright?’

  ‘I can’t take anymore shocks to be honest.’

  Just as he was going to turn and go back into the house, he recognised the car pulling up outside the house.

  Scottie saw Helen Trott get out of the vehicle, dressed in her finery, probably on the way to another function

  ‘What the fuck is she doing here?’ he mumbled under his breath, knowing this was out of the ordinary. ‘Don’t tell her a thing, okay?’

  ‘But-.’

  ‘Not yet until we’ve got it confirmed.’

  ‘I hear you think you’ve found a suspect regarding the attacks?’ she asked, glancing at the house. ‘Dave, what are you doing here?’

  ‘I just wanted to tell him something about Nigel Stubbs,’ said Dave quickly. ‘I was just on the way home.’

  ‘Thanks for telling me. I’ll see you first thing tomorrow morning,’ Scottie said, patting his friend’s arm then turned to Helen Trott. ‘I can’t ask you in, I’m afraid. Ruby’s feeling pretty worn out and-.’

  ‘No I’m not,’ Ruby said loudly from the doorstep. ‘She can come in for a moment if you have to talk privately.’

  Taking a deep breath, he wasn’t in the mood to face a quarrel so gestured for Helen Trott to go in as he followed. Ruby was standing in the kitchen, mopping the floor.

  ‘I’d have done that,’ he sighed, seeing she was deep in thought.

  ‘It’s fine,’ she replied, glancing at the Commissioner with
a little sneer. ‘You look nice. Going anywhere special?’

  ‘Actually I’m meeting a friend.’

  ‘Well it can’t be Hugh as he’s got Theo.’

  ‘Do you mind if I speak to Scottie alone?’ Helen Trott sniffed.

  ‘Go into the study.’

  Scottie noticed Ruby stare as Helen Trott walked away.

  ‘If she touches you, call me and I’ll batter her with my mop,’ whispered Ruby mischievously, making Scottie smile for the first time since he got home. ‘And I don’t care if I get charged for murder. It’d be worth it.’

  ‘I’ll order us a takeaway afterwards.’

  ‘Already done it. You have fifteen minutes then I will evict her sorry arse.’

  He hurried along into the study and shut the door.

  ‘I’m sorry I had to come here but I heard something which I thought you might need to verify. Is it true you intend to marry Ruby?’ she said, looking half amused. ‘I got an email from Hugh saying he thought it was rather tasteless, considering what’s happening. He called it tabloid fodder and wondered if it was a PR stunt. I told him it wasn’t true but he said Ruby mentioned it at lunch.’

  For a moment, he’d forgotten she went to see her ex and wondered what happened, presuming it didn’t go down too well.

  ‘What else did he say?’ asked Scottie, noticing how she eyed him with suspicion.

  He felt self-conscious.

  ‘The most absurd thing was that he said she was pregnant! I told him-.’

  ‘It’s true. We’re getting married and she’s having my baby.’

  Helen Trott’s mouth dropped open and she looked stunned then angry.

  ‘She’s going to ruin your career, you do know that?’

  ‘I don’t see why?’

  ‘Does she know that you kissed me all those months ago when you were in between your relationship with her?’

  Helen Trott looked at him challengingly, as if she had the upper hand.

  ‘I told her you tried it on with me last week and she still let you into her home. I think that speaks volumes about her forgiving heart.’

  ‘It’s her or your job. I mean it. I can’t trust you if I know you’re with her, pretending to play happy families. She couldn’t even do that with Hugh! How the hell do you think she’s going to do it with you?’ she seethed, going red and breaking into a minor sweat. ‘You’re a simple man to think it will work out.’

  ‘I’m simply in love and happy for the first time in ages. To me, that’s worth letting the job go.’

  ‘I need to speak to you first thing tomorrow morning. Don’t be late!’ she snapped and walked out of the study, marching down the corridor then stopped.

  Scottie followed and noticed she was looking at Ruby, who was sipping a glass of water.

  ‘Is it true? You’re pregnant?’ Helen Trott asked, walking towards her. ‘Is that how you’ve managed to trap him?’

  Ruby let out a long sigh and shook her head slowly from side to side.

  ‘One day Helen, I hope you find a man as good as my father and don’t give them a heart attack or indigestion or both,’ she answered lightly. ‘And you need to vacate Sidney’s house as I need the money.’

  ‘Never!’

  ‘Then court it is. I take it you’re taking up squatter’s rights?’

  ‘You’re going to ruin him, do you know that?’

  ‘Are you going to try and get him to slip one in over the office desk?’ Ruby laughed. ‘You see, I know all about you. Hugh stopped me from telling the world nearly, six years ago, that you like to groom your officers to suit your needs, isn’t that so?’

  ‘Fuck you!’ shouted Helen Trott, storming out of the house and slamming the door.

  ‘Ah, how lovely to catch up,’ she said through gritted teeth, turning to Scottie. ‘Go take a shower. Hopefully she didn’t lay a finger on you but she was probably thinking about it, so I need you clean, do you hear me?’

  ‘We need to talk.’

  ‘You need to have dinner, take a shower then go to bed with me. We can talk tomorrow. I need to think.’

  Slowly he walked towards her and put his finger under her chin, pulling her face towards him.

  ‘I love you, do you know that?’ he said quietly.

  ‘You better do or I’ll take your truncheon and stuff it up your arse if you don’t, after all the trouble you’ve put me through.’

  One hundred and twenty seven

  ‘Considering what’s happening, you seem cheerful,’ she said, watching him sing under the shower. Today’s song was ‘One love’ by Bob Marley. He was murdering the tune. ‘Scottie, will you tell me what’s going on?’

  ‘I’m singing,’ he said, getting the shower gel and rubbing it on his chest. ‘Do you want to join me?’

  ‘Okay,’ she said, stripping off and putting her hair up in a clip. ‘Tell me.’

  ‘Why don’t you tell me what happened with Hugh? He went straight to the Commissioner. Don’t you think that’s a little strange? I thought they weren’t together.’

  ‘Oh,’ she groaned, recalling what happened. ‘I told him about us and the baby then he left me in the pub, sitting alone. Took it badly.’

  ‘How did you feel about telling him?’ he asked, pulling her gently under the water, stroking her skin. ‘Was it harder than you thought?’

  ‘He was saying things about you and I needed him to know. It’s his fault that Mick…’ She hesitated. ‘Are you sure about Annette? This could be a total misunderstanding.’

  ‘I don’t want to talk about this now. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?’

  ‘Okay but-.’

  He started to kiss her more passionately than usual and it took her breath away. His hands were stroking and caressing every bit of her top half. She wrapped her arms around his back, kissing him frantically.

  Then he pushed her up against the cold tile on the wall, holding her back by the shoulders, thrusting his groin into her stomach. There was something hard poking it.

  Scottie started quickly kissing all the way down her stomach, caressing her gently. She stroked his head then he put her leg on his shoulder, shaking the top of his head against her pubic bone. Ruby jumped when she felt his teeth on her nub, gently biting her.

  She couldn’t really balance and was scared of falling over but stood firm. Then she felt squirting of water on her clitoris. He was filling his mouth from the shower and spraying it at her.

  Ruby laughed as he smiled up then rubbed her.

  All the time she watched him.

  Slowly the build-up started.

  ‘Keep looking at me,’ he said, staring at her. ‘Don’t close your eyes.’

  ‘I might fall over.’

  ‘Not when you’re in my arms.’

  Controlling her breathing, she stared hard as his fingers went faster and she saw his tongue poke out to help. Then she felt as if her knees would buckle when the orgasm tightened her hole.

  The clear blue eyes were looking at her all the time as she came shouting loudly and groaning, seeing her hips pushing into his face. He licked her nub again and again while her body shivered.

  Within seconds, he had picked her up and placed her legs around his waist then pushed himself in, making her yelp out.

  Scottie was strong enough to keep her pressed firmly against the wall as he humped her gently, all the time looking into her eyes.

  She knew he had no intention of looking away so she stayed fixed on his lips, kissing him. The eyes were bright. He rested his forehead against hers, his mouth starting to quiver, slightly ajar. Ruby pushed her tongue between his lips, her eyes so close to his then he came. His eyes were half closed as ground himself into her and kissed her back.

  ‘God I love you so much,’ she said then burst into tears. ‘I don’t want anything bad to happen to us, ever.’

  One hundred and twenty eight

  ‘I see,’ Ruby said, arms folded firmly across her chest as he had a sinking feeling. ‘That’s why you can’t sleep.
Guilt!’

  They were lying in bed the early hours of the morning and he knew she was furious.

  ‘It didn’t seem important at the time,’ he added.

  ‘Well, you’d dumped me and moved onto bigger and better things.’

  ‘You wanted me to be honest.’

  ‘I asked you!’ she said, turning her head sharply to look at him.

  ‘You asked if I slept with her and I haven’t. You didn’t say kissing, did you?’ Scottie said in his defence. ‘She came onto me and, I admit, I might have slipped my tongue in but I was very drunk. All I could think about was you.’

  ‘Oh give me a break!’ snapped Ruby, jumping out of bed. ‘Here was I thinking she was trying to accost you but no, you were trying to get into her knickers!’

  ‘That’s not true. Stop twisting it,’ he replied calmly, watching her stomp around the room. Her nightdress has ridden up, revealing her butt cheek. ‘She might think there’s something in it but I don’t.’

  ‘Am I to be grateful for that?’ she hissed, glancing over her shoulder then walking out of the bedroom.

  ‘Give me strength!’

  Scottie lay in bed knowing she wanted to know about Annette and Mick but instead he told her about the conversation with Helen Trott. Given her hormones and general annoyance at the situation, he realised he should have held off.

  He got out of bed, put some underpants on and walked down the stairs. Ruby was standing by the patio door, staring out of the window.

  ‘Come back to bed,’ he quietly asked. ‘Please?’

  ‘It’s nearly five so I’ll be getting up soon.’

  ‘It’s quarter past four. I don’t want to fight. I just want to go back to bed and be with you.’

  ‘I know things about her, believe me. Not everything with that woman is necessarily up front. Or it is, if you know what I mean.’

  ‘Come again?’

  ‘Exactly,’ she said and Scottie was none the wiser.

  He noticed her laptop was open, so he walked towards it only to find she rushed forward and shut the lid.

  ‘What if you regret being with me?’ she said, looking genuinely annoyed. ‘You’d have thrown it all away, that glittering career of yours. Oh for fuck’s sake, you kissed her, twice! That woman is a slut features and you know it!’