by R. S. Higham
James passed her the juice. “You really want to know?”
“Know what?”
“Who I was talking to.” He said.
“Oh, it’s OK if you don’t want to tell me.” A piece of blonde hair swirled in her fingers.
“There was someone here, but he left. He slipped out after you.”
“Why did he have to slip out? Why couldn’t I see him?”
“It’s a long story, and it’s more like I didn’t want him to see you, he’s not…”
“What?”
“He’s not the most savoury of characters.”
“Come again?”
“And I’m sure he would like you very much.” James mumbled.
“Ah.” Kate blushed and took a sip of her juice to cool her skin.
“I think I’m gonna go.” She stood and started towards to the door. “Thank you for the drink.”
“Don’t go, please.” He put a hand on her shoulder then quickly drew it back. “Why are you really here?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve turned up out of the blue. There must be a reason.”
“No reason.” She pulled at that strand of hair again. “You fancy going out for lunch?” She asked.
“It’s a bit early but sure, know a place?”
“MacDonalds?”
“Great!-” He checked his watch. “–In time for breakfast!”
14
It was just before ten when the two friends left the apartment leaving enough time before the breakfast cut-off when the yellow arches came into view. Kate bought a Sausage and Egg Mcmuffin and James had the same with an added order of pancakes. They both drank hot coffee and chatted as the frostiness of earlier melted.
Inside the McDonald’s wasn’t much warmer than outside, especially when someone came through the sliding doors, but the food and the coffee raised their temperature and helped them relax, there were a few kids running riot getting the most out of their last few days of the holidays, although James didn’t know when they went back, could be tomorrow, could have been last week. There’d always be kids pulling sick days or –as James’s mother used to do– the parents might take the kids out just to spend some time with them. Kate pulled out a tissue and sneezed into it.
“Caught a cold?” James asked.
“Most likely. Red’s is germier than a kindergarten.”
“Good to know.” He laughed. “Maybe he should put that below the neon. ‘Come to Red’s if you want head lice, runny noses and help using the toilet.’”
“That wouldn’t be far from wrong.” She paused. “James?”
“Yeah?”
“You know my bruises…?” She asked.
He nodded. “Your boyfriend?”
She sighed. “I came to you because I wanted to get away from him.”
“I hope I’m not being dragged into something here, he doesn’t mind us being friends, does he?”
“He doesn’t know I’m with you.”
“Brilliant. Should I expect a few of those when he finds out?” He pointed to her face. She shied away and James retracted his hand.
“No. And you could probably take him anyway.”
James raised an eyebrow; it seemed like a strange assumption to make. “I don’t want to take anybody. Look, I didn’t mean to offend you, and I appreciate our friendship, I really do.”
“But?”
“But nothing, so long as he and I don’t cross paths.”
“Trust me, he’ll be in bed all day and he will probably assume Red’s made me work the day shift as well, wouldn’t be the first time.” Kate supped the last of her coffee and she and James cleared the table and headed to the door, James holding it open for her. They both shivered as the outdoors hit them, the snow was mostly melted but the temperature was still in the minuses.
Kate wrapped her arms around her “Was it this cold when we left the apartment? I’m freezing!”
“Want my jacket?” James smiled, pulling at his lapel.
“No it’s OK, we’ll be there soon anyway, I think, to be honest I’m completely lost.” She laughed.
James laughed too. “Don’t you get out much?”
“Not really, Manny likes me staying close to his flat, the tavern is about as far as I usually travel.”
“Who?”
“Oh sorry, Manny is my boyfriend.”
“What exactly is the deal with him? Why does he keep you on a short leash? And why does he hurt you? Shouldn’t you go to the police?”
“Jimmy can we please not talk about it? Please.” She asked, looking at him sternly, “does he need a reason to hurt me?”
“Of course, I’m sorry. We’ll stop.” He gripped her shoulder and gave her a friendly squeeze. They walked with arms around each other the way back to stay warm. But James couldn’t shake the feeling Manny would catch them, he did not want to be nursing an black eye tonight.
They were laughing at a silly joke James told as they turned the corner just before the apartment, but the laughing quickly ceased –for James anyway –there was a police cruiser parked outside.
He stopped on the spot and stared at it wide-eyed. Kate heard the sound of only her voice and turned to him. “Not frozen have you? I know it’s cold but –“ she stopped short. “what’s wrong?”
“Why are the police outside my house?”
“I don’t know. Who cares? It’s not like they’re here for you.”
“If you only knew.” He gulped.
They walked through the glass doors. They had been propped open but no one was about. Kate and James looked at each other. “Weird…” She said.
They climbed the stairs to James apartment, his door was ajar.
“Did you leave it open?”
“Course not! They’re in there!”
“Who? The police?” She asked.
He returned her question with a sheepish face. She frowned.
Now she was starting to doubt herself. “What is going on?” She thought. “Can I even trust him?”
As they drew closer they could hear voices inside, whoever had broken in was still in there and James knew it would be the police, searching his apartment, they must have had good reason to get a permit. He put a hand on Kate’s chest, signalling her to stay back. Then he stepped in.
15
He didn’t speak as he turned the corner into the living room where the voices were coming from; he thought it would be best to wait to be noticed. He stood for about ten seconds before one of the officers turned around.
He jumped back a little surprised. “Ah, Mr Jones is it?”
“Yes.” James answered.
“I’m afraid I have a warrant for your arrest.”
“What?”
“I’m arresting you on suspicion of the murders of Mr Alan Shepherd, Mr Mohammed Sharma and Mr Andrew O’Toole. You have the right to remain silent you do not have to say anything but anything you do say will be –“
“No! I didn’t do it. I don’t even know those people!”
“James! What’s going on!?” She shouted as another police officer took hold of her. “Get off me!”
“Ma’am please. Calm down.”
“But I don’t understand.”
“Kate!” James called as he was lead down the corridor. “You believe me, right? I did nothing wrong, you believe me?”
She couldn’t speak.
The police marched James out of the building with his hands cuffed behind him. Kate was still standing in the doorway for a few minutes in total shock, surely James wouldn’t have… couldn’t have killed anyone?
“Could he?” She thought.
She toyed with idea of running after them, really she just wanted an explanation, he had seemed on edge this morning, and there was that person he was talking to, the one who he said had slipped out of the apartment after she arrived. It just wasn’t making sense. She knew James well enough to know he could never do something like that, or at least she hoped she did, but she consider
ed herself a good judge of character, and a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach yearned to help him.
“They’ll hold him at the police station tonight. She thought. I’ve visited Manny in the cells enough times to know that. Tomorrow morning I’ll go down and see him.”
Right now she needed a ride home. The thought of going back to Manny’s made her skin crawl but there was little choice. She checked her phone for the time. The twenty past eleven bus should be on its way. With shaking legs she clasped the handrail and slowly made her way down the stairs, reciting over and over in her head “poor James.”
The cold seemed to bounce off of her sweating body and she caught a whiff of her underarms as she loosened her collar. “Better than smelling like James’s aftershave I guess.”
She didn’t have to wait long for the bus but the below freezing temperatures had just begun to penetrate her clothes and was lightly encasing her thin frame. She stepped onto the number 13, the back seat littered with teenagers and the front with mothers and prams.
“You look a little chilly, love.” The driver frowned. “I can feel the outside hitting my face each time the door opens and I must say a young thing like you shouldn’t be out in it. You should be wrapped up warm inside. I won’t take you anywhere unless it’s home.” He joked.
“Just to Carter Road. And trust me I’ve suffered worse.” She laughed and his ageing face lit up behind a firework display of burst capillaries on his cheeks.
She sat just a short way down the aisle on a free seat, one of the mothers was staring at her, Kate smiled and she smiled back and looked away. Then her heart raced and her underarms began to sweat again, she lifted her phone out of her pocket and looked at her face in the reflective screen. The bruise around her mouth was as bold as ever. A tear lingered in the corner of her eye and with a blink fell out onto her skirt. She felt hideous, and stupid for forgetting about it. She hid her face best she could into her collar and turned to the window. After a while the passing world hypnotized her and she calmed. The city whizzed past and so did her stop.
“Stop!” She stood up and pressed the button. Now everyone had turned to face her. Her heart tried to race again but she was too focused on stopping the driver. The bus slowed to a halt and the now less friendly driver looked at her with a rather angry expression.
“Try and be more awake next time, love.” He swung the doors open.
As she was about to step down one of the teenagers called after her from the back.
“See ya beautiful.”
She stopped and looked behind her, the boys in the back were bumping fists and the mothers were staring expressionless at her.
“Come on, love. You getting off or what?” The bus driver said. His cheerful smile became a mocking, devilish smirk.
She stepped backwards onto the road unable to take her eyes off the bus and its inhabitants. The boat of Charon entered her mind, and in her mind’s eye the road turned to a boiling lake of red liquid.
Worst of all it hadn’t been her stop.
It was only a ten minute walk to Manny’s but once she was there it felt like she’d walked miles. His car was parked out front which meant he was most likely still inside. She didn’t have a key so this was a good thing (and a thing she had only realised on the bus). The man on reception was dozing in his chewed up office chair with a cup of coffee balancing in his hand that looked like it would drop at any moment. She went past him and up the stairs and then along the corridor to Manny’s apartment. Kate heard laughter. A woman’s laughter. She cupped her ear to the door. At first she felt like bursting in on them guns blazing, but with each passing moment her anger subsided. Not because she felt better but because what good could she do? As if Manny would even care, it wasn’t exactly the first time she’d caught him. Instead she slowly slumped with her back against the door onto the floor and sat there for a while. The corridor wasn’t heated and she soon began to shiver again.
“Screw it!” She thought and jumped up. She took a deep breath and banged on him door. The laughing ceased and for a moment it was quiet inside.
“Who is it?” A man shouted.
“Who do you think?” Kate shouted back. Silence again. The lock clicked and before Manny could open the door fully Kate pushed it into him nearly sending him flying backwards. She marched over to the wardrobe never looking once at the woman standing behind Manny in nothing but a towel. After clumsily forcing a few T-shirts and jeans into a duffle bag she slung it over her shoulder and marched back out again and slammed the door, stopping just to listen. Silence. She smiled, -despite not knowing where she would stay- floated down the steps and out of the door drawing in a deep breath of the chilly air she was now getting used to.
16
James was sat in ‘Interview Room B’ in a small plastic chair similar to those the kids learn in at school. He wondered if that meant they were going to teach him a lesson. The desk in front of him was much bigger than the one the teacher had at school however. James had been left alone now for nearly forty five minutes. He had spent that time thinking; firstly how there was no two-way mirror on the wall like the interrogation rooms in movies. Secondly about his story, he thought it was pretty solid, “It was Stacey, Sir. He’s the man you want.” Then he and the chief detective would hunt him down together and at the end of the day share a cigarette as Stacey was driven away in the back of a police car. Maybe that’s not exactly how he knew it would go but he liked the idea. Never once did it occur to him that they might not believe it; but Stacey was a person, he must have records somewhere. They would find him eventually. Another thing that had crossed his mind was how they could have traced the murder back to him, but he knew he would have an answer to that soon enough.
Finally a man entered. He was middle-aged and greying at the back of his dark brown hair. He had a pair of glasses hung around his neck by a metal chain and was carrying a folder under his right arm and a mug of coffee in his left hand. He sat down opposite James.
He opened the file and placed the glasses on the end of his nose which instantly aged him by ten years or more. Without saying a word he spread pictures of the body out on the table facing James, one picture was of an evidence bag caging a thin brown hair.
“Missing one?” The man asked.
“What?”
“Your hair was found on this man’s body” He looked at James with a blank almost bored expression.
James cleared his throat but didn’t speak.
“Thanks to your kind donation of a DNA sample to Officer, er… –“ He flicked through his notes. “Sergeant Mike Sullivan I can report that this is your hair. Must have fallen out from the back somewhere otherwise surely you would have noticed.” The way he was speaking made James nervous. “I’ve got to wait for a lawyer, don’t tell him anything.”
“I want a lawyer.”
“And you’ll get one.”
“I’m not saying a thing until I do.”
The detective took a sip of his coffee. “We’ll have a lawyer for you tomorrow.”
With that he stood.
“You’re leaving?”
“Oh, did you want to talk some more? I’m all ears.”
James opened his mouth and closed it instantaneously. The man sighed and left. Shortly after two younger police officers entered and walked him out of the room and down a deserted hallway. At the end of the hallway was a guard stood pin straight with his hands held behind his back, when he saw it wasn’t the chief he relaxed a little. Without speaking to each other the guard turned and opened the bolted door leading to the prison cells, he nodded to the two men as they passed through. There were only five or six cells; all empty which James was glad of, this wasn’t the best place to start making friends. One of the men shouted the number of the first cell along, it opened, and James was locked in, the clang of the metal echoed beside the men’s fading footsteps.
17
The sky was beginning to line itself with thick grey clouds; they seemed to be blowing in
from the east. Not the usual white clouds that covered all the blue when the snow was about to fall, but the ones that covered it when the rain was coming. These were close to black. The first few drops fell and in a matter of seconds it started to bounce down. Kate and everyone else out in New Hatton were rushing to shelter. As she stepped into the doorway of a supermarket where a few other people were keeping dry her phone starting to ring. She didn’t recognise the number.
“Hello?”
“Kate?”
“…James?”
“Yeah, I’m using my one phone call.”
Her face glowed red, above his family he’d called her.
“I need to ask you a really big favour. It’s really important.” James said. Kate cupped her hands around the phone so she could hear better. “Could you find out everything you can about a man called Stacey?” Kate frowned, she wanted to do whatever she could for James but even finding out about a man with an as unusual name as Stacey was a vague request to say the least.
“Can you tell me more?” She answered.
“I wish I could, and I’m sorry to have to ask you, but you’re my only hope in this. He was the man I was speaking with in the apartment before you came. He’s about forty five, five foot seven-ish and maybe 230 pounds. Have you got this down?"
Kate searched her pockets –in vain – for a pen and paper but of course they were empty.
“I think so.”
“Because it’s really important.” He repeated.
“Go on.”
“He has a big black beard, wears leather jackets and dark jeans. He’s a biker. But I only know his first name; Stacey. Also he told me he was originally from down south.”
“What do you want me to do, exactly?” She asked.
“Just find out who he is. I tried phoning him but he’s switched off. His number is 338-4539.”
She swallowed. “This isn’t dangerous is it?” She looked around her, the rain had stopped and everyone had vanished. She stood alone in the heated doorway.
“Extremely.” “No. I promise nothing will happen to you.”