Duet

by O'Gorman, Brian

  It was all coming out verbally tonight. It was probably a good thing that they all just took her as insane, because if they had taken everything that was streaming out of her mouth literally then they would have all gone crazy with panic. As it turned out she got restrained. They didn’t have to be rough with her, because she knew that if you got restrained then you usually got a hell of a dose of sedatives to go with it. She wanted the sedatives, she wanted the thoughts to go quiet. She didn’t want to think about the man who had been attacked by the thing in the water and she sure as shit didn’t want to think about her inevitable meeting with the thing that was waiting for her out there, no siree. They did just as she had hoped. Two male workers came and dragged her off to her room. She was shot up with sedatives and one of the male workers sat with her as the drugs began to take effect. She had begun to drift away, mercifully. Her mind had become calm, her body relaxed. Her thoughts about the thing in the water began to fade away as her mind gave way to sleep and her body gave way to relaxing the painfully tense muscles in her neck. She slept, without dreams and without fear and awoke the next morning to the day shift manager who wanted to talk to her about the night before. She didn’t want to talk about it and she went and sat in her usual spot at the window, not wanting to go, but feeling the urge to. She had been interrupted from her thoughts when she was told that she had visitors. That was funny, you see, she never had visitors…..did she? Well, not for a long time, or so she thought, but it was all a bit hazy. There were visitors but her mind had mostly erased the memories of them. It had scrubbed their faces, but not the tone of their voices and not the smell that they had carried on them. Today’s visitors she did remember, they were right on the edge of the mass of memories and black holes. Most of all she remembered the smell of the young man in the uniform. She remembered it well. He was the one who had been brave enough to ask her about the thing in the water. He was the brave one, and he had come back, which made him even more brave. Perhaps he was brave enough to face the thing in the water with her.

  9.

  Louis was woken by her phone buzzing on the side. She had set the damn thing to have the most stupid and upbeat ringtone which would have been alright in the middle of the day, but first thing in the morning it was apt to get her handset thrown violently against the wall. It was fair to say that Louis had never been a morning person. She would be happy to sleep in until at least lunch time and start the day at a more reasonable hour. In fact, she would have made it law if she had the power to do it. The room was still in darkness and her phone screen was lighting up like a beacon. She snatched the damn thing up and saw that it was Monsun. She cursed him and pressed the answer button and readied herself to be as polite as she could. Her head was still fuzzy and half-baked from sleep and her neck was still hurting from falling asleep on the sofa and not moving for several hours.

  “Louis, we have a problem,” said Soames before she could even utter a word.

  “What’s going on sir?”

  “Whatever it was that attacked those animals in that reservoir, it has attacked a human this time. I need you and Junior to get down here right away.”

  Louis sat up. The news hit her like a hammer blow to the guts.

  “Oh shit. Where are we meeting you, the morgue?”

  “No Louis, the hospital. The guy is badly injured but he is still alive. Perhaps he can give us a clue as to what the fuck is going on out there. See you soon Louis,” said Soames and then he was gone. Louis scrambled for the switch on her bedside lamp and knocked several bottles of deodorant, most of which were empty, onto the floor. Her fingers found the switch and clicked it on. The light flooded the room, hurting her eyes and making her sleep-heavy head scream out in protest. She blinked several times and let her eyes adjust to the light and then she looked at the clock and saw that it was just after half past four. She groaned and toyed with the idea of going back to sleep for another hour, but she knew that Soames would be back on the phone if they didn’t show up quickly. He was like a dog with a Frisbee once something had got his attention and she knew it. She decided to get herself dressed and ready before she gave Greg a shout. Perhaps there would be another good cup of coffee in the offing if he wasn’t ready by the time she got to his house. She would swear to herself every time she had one that she would buy herself a proper coffee machine so she could enjoy such luxury every single day. She never got round to buying the damn thing though.

  The muggy tiredness that was clouding her head was partially lifted by the semi cold shower. If she put it on too warm it would make her feel sleepy again and then there would be no visit to the hospital today. Perhaps she could just nod off whilst she was showering and fall backwards out of the stall and smash her head open on the edge of the toilet and that would be the end of the whole sorry mess. She wasn’t suicidal by any means but it was sometimes hard for her to make any sense out of the life she was leading. She had no sense of where everything was heading to, no real inkling of what the final goal for herself was. She had friends who had such wonderful plans for retirement and visions of travelling the world. She had her sights set somewhat lower. She just wanted a sense of normality to come crashing into her life once and for all and she was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen whilst she was wearing the uniform. She had thought long and hard about quitting before but she just wasn’t quite brave enough to actually go through with it. But it was getting to a point now where she didn’t even give a shit any more. She would find it a blessed relief just to walk the streets with no sense of responsibilities for paying bills and showing up on time every day. It was a rose-tinted fantasy and she knew it, she had to come up with a plan and perhaps after this day was over she might just do it. She finished washing and towelled herself off ready for another day of mystery and intrigue. She had to admit, this little case they had got themselves at the reservoir had her stumped. She had never witnessed anything like the remains of those animals they had found and she was pretty curious to meet the man who had survived the attack. Perhaps he had seen what the creature was and they could get on with getting the beast caught and out somewhere where it couldn’t slaughter the local wildlife. Then her and Greg would be back to escorting crazy old people back to their retirement homes when they had made a desperate bid for freedom. And that was when June Dobson popped into her mind. She had promised Greg that they would go and talk to the crazy old bird again. But, if this other person had seen what this mysterious creature was they wouldn’t need to go and see her because the mystery would be solved. She was hoping for that scenario, she had no patience for the mentally infirm. She knew that it was a pretty shitty way to be but there was no point in pretending otherwise. It was just a good job that Greg had far more patience with people than she did because it meant that she could stand back and let him get on with it which made her life a hell of a lot easier. The fact that June Dobson had taken a shine to him amused her. She took a great perverse pleasure in watching him squirm.

  She made her way downstairs and phoned Greg up as she did so. She thought about getting herself something to eat, but her stomach didn’t even feel like it was active yet, let alone capable of taking on board any nourishment. Greg answered on the third ring and she explained to him what was going on. He told her he would be ready in twenty, which was his stock reply. She knew it meant that he was going back to sleep for twenty and he would actually be ready in more like thirty to forty. She hung up with a smile on her face and began to gather up her keys and her dinner money for the day ahead. Just as she was getting into the car her phone buzzed. It was Soames asking her where the fuck she was.

  She got to Greg’s house ten minutes later and he was still getting himself dressed. Nicola answered the door in a thin off-white vest top that clearly showed her small but perfectly formed breasts underneath. She was also wearing a pair of pink shorts which left very little to the imagination. Louis began to wish that she had rubbed one out in the shower before she had left the house, but it was O.K. she w
as going to save the mental image for later on when she got home.

  “Jesus Louis, you just get earlier and earlier,” said Nicola her eyes still half lidded. “You want coffee?”

  “What would I do without you Nick,” said Louis watching Nicola’s well-toned buttocks striding away from her.

  “Drink less coffee?” shouted Nicola from the kitchen and Louis laughed. She dropped herself onto Greg’s sofa and began to feel sleepy all over again. Her head was beginning to drop to her chest when Greg came downstairs.

  “Morning Louis,” he bellowed snapping her out of her doze. Her head popped back up and let out a little yelping noise which made Greg laugh.

  “For fuck’s sake Greg, it’s too early for that shit.”

  “Hey, tell me about it. Couldn’t this have waited until daylight?”

  “Apparently not. Soames wants us to talk to this guy. Look on the bright side Greg, if this guy saw what it was then we won’t need to go and see June Dobson, the case will be over and done with. Then we can get back to sleeping regular hours.”

  Greg raised an eyebrow and stroked his chin, “Sound perfect to me, I’m beginning to forget what it’s like to have a full night’s sleep.”

  “Listen, what you and Nicola get up to is your own business,” said Louis, trying not to smile but failing.

  “Don’t you be so filthy,” said Greg smiling himself.

  Nicola came back through with the coffee for both of them in their travel cups.

  “Shall we hit the road Jack?” said Louis and Greg nodded. They both thanked Nicola and Greg gave her a long slow kiss before the left. When they parted Louis could see that Nick’s nipples were standing on end. For a fleeting moment she envisioned putting her mouth round them and tasting them. She tore her eyes away and vowed right there and then that she was going out and copping off this weekend, it had been far too long.

  Louis allowed Greg to drive this morning, only so she could drink her coffee in peace and then shut her eyes for a few moments before they got there. She had toyed with the idea of sitting outside in the car and catching a nap before they went in but her phone buzzed again. Soames was obviously getting impatient. Louis heaved herself out of the car with a sigh.

  “What’s up Louis, the D.C. giving you shit?” said Greg.

  “Oh, no more than usual. He is the most impatient man I have ever met in my life.”

  “Perhaps he has a touch of the OCD about him.”

  “You’re probably right. We’ll have to go by his house and see if he is hoarding rooms full of crap.”

  Greg laughed, “Yeah, or he could be going the other way and spending all his spare time cleaning.”

  “I bet he would look good in a pair of Marigolds,” said Louis and they both laughed.

  They reached the door of the hospital and went inside. Soames was standing near the desk waiting for them.

  “Well, thanks for showing up,” he said sarcastically. Louis was about to take a verbal swipe at him but Greg, sensing the incoming banter, squeezed her arm and shook his head at her. It wouldn’t be a good idea to piss him off and underneath it all, Louis knew it.

  “So what’s the deal on this guy sir?” she said.

  Soames started walking down the corridor of the hospital. Given the early hour, Greg thought to himself that he could at least have kept his voice down a bit, but he, just like Louis bit his tongue in the name of diplomacy.

  “Bentley Mason, aged thirty-nine. Went night fishing last night and thought he had found something big in the water. He said that he fed it a few hard chips from his fish supper. Then he went wading in with his net to catch it and he said something got hold of him. I wasn’t able to get anything more out of him yet, as they have him on a shit load of pain relief. He keeps lapsing in and out of consciousness. He sustained a nasty injury to his right arm.”

  “Was it a bite?” asked Greg.

  “No, son, it wasn’t a bite. He had his skin, his muscle, everything but the bones stripped off his right forearm. And before you ask, yes it was just like the wounds on those animals we found,” growled Soames. Greg was beginning to think that by his gruff demeanour that Soames wasn’t a morning person at all. He made a mental note to tell Louis about it later when the grumpy old sod had gone on his way.

  “And he hasn’t said what it was that did it?” said Greg.

  “No, only that something grabbed him,” said Soames. They were entering a private room and Bentley was lay on the bed, partially propped up by what looked like a mountain of pure white pillows. Bentley’s complexion matched the pillows. There were lines in is good arm and Louis suspected that one of them was feeding him a decent supply of morphine to keep him quiet. The injured arm was covered with a stained dressing that was giving off a faint but utterly foul odour.

  “Well, here is folks, he is all yours. Now if you will excuse me, I have other shit to soak. Give me a shout if he tells you anything useful,” said Soames.

  “Will do, sir,” said Louis and Soames left the room with a sniff.

  “Jeez, I’m not surprised this fellow didn’t want to talk with Soames in that kind of mood. Hasn’t he ever heard of bedside manner?” said Greg.

  “I don’t even think he has even heard of bedtime,” said Louis. She looked knackered to Greg, like she hadn’t slept properly in days. He thought about saying something, but he decided that she would probably chew him out for saying so.

  “So, what do we do?” said Greg.

  “You can sit down and wait here in case he wakes up. I’m going to go and talk to some of the staff and see what the deal is. Perhaps Soames missed something, unlikely I know but it’s worth double checking.”

  “Right, I’ll babysit whilst you do all the fun stuff,” said Greg.

  “Listen Greggy, if he talks to you and tells you what did this to him then you can have all the credit for solving the case, how does that grab you,” said Louis.

  Greg shrugged, he looked unimpressed.

  “I’ll bring you a coffee too, how about that,” said Louis.

  “Throw in a bacon roll and you have a deal,” said Greg.

  Louis saluted him and then left the room. Greg went and sat on the comfy chair next to the bed and immediately began to feel sleepy. Nicola’s coffee was good, but it couldn’t perform miracles. The hospital was well heated and it fuelled Greg’s tiredness. He tried to fight it but the chair that was moulded almost perfectly to his back was drawing him down into sleep. His eyes began rolling backwards in his head. He slapped his own cheek hard enough to rattle his teeth and the world swam back into focus. He had a sudden and almost overwhelming urge for a cigarette. He only smoked when he had a few beers these days, quite an advancement on the twenty a day habit he used to enjoy before he met Nicola. She had been a smoker too and they had decided to give up together when they realised that they would be shortening the life they were going to have together. They had both thought that the other was doing well, but in reality they had both fallen from grace on several occasions. He hated keeping secrets from her so he had eventually confessed to his sins. She listened to him without saying a word and then she had reached for her handbag and produced a battered pack of Embassy cigarettes. He had looked at her, his mouth hanging open in shock, unable to believe that she had allowed him to make his long and painful confession, knowing that she was just as bad as him. She had burst out laughing and he had tickled her ribs until she had screamed the house down. They wrestled each other to the living room floor and made love right there in front of the cheap shitty electric fire. Then they had lay on the rug and both smoked from her pack until they were dizzy and nauseous from the nicotine rush.

  He had never had a cigarette that had tasted so fine since.

  He wondered how many people in this world had ever had a cigarette as good as that one. He wondered how many people could ever experience a relationship like he and Nicola had. He looked over at the injured man in the bed and saw that his head was turned towards him and his bloodshot eyes
were staring right at him. Greg jumped and almost cried out.

  Bentley’s mouth was working, he was trying to say something. Greg heaved himself out of the chair and bent down towards Bentley.

  “What is it? What did this to you?” said Greg.

  Bentley tried to speak again. Greg tilted his head so that his ear was almost touching Bentley’s mouth. A faint whisper came from Bentley mouth, just four words repeated over and over.

  It’s in the water.