The Beachcomber

by Josephine Cox

  On Kathy’s arrival, she said casually, “The kettle’s on if you want a drink. Oh, and if you’re making a brew, I’ll have a cup as well.” Bold as brass, and with the slyest of grins, she added, “Oh, by the way, Tom came here looking for you this afternoon.”

  Kathy was instantly on the alert. “Did he come in?”

  “I asked him to, but he said he’d come back.” Softly chuckling, she wiggled her toes. “Shame, that. We could have spent a pleasant hour together.” She gave Kathy a curious glance. “Still, there’ll be another time, I expect.”

  She had worked out that if she couldn’t have the house, she might have to settle for Tom instead. After all, he was good-looking, rich enough to keep her happy, and he had a boat. What more could a girl want?

  “Did he say why he’d come down earlier than we’d planned?”

  “No, why?”

  Kathy murmured her answer. “That’s funny. I told him I might not be back from the hospital until about tea-time.”

  Again, that sly little glance. “He’s a man, isn’t he? A woman never knows what’s on their devious minds.”

  Wisely ignoring Samantha’s jibes, Kathy pointed out, “I asked you to be gone when I got back. What’s keeping you?”

  Getting out of her chair, Samantha sauntered to where Kathy stood. “I told you before,” she said, “I’m not leaving until I get what I came for.”

  “I can see I’ll have to get you thrown out!”

  Samantha thought that amusing. “Hmh! I don’t think so. I’m my father’s daughter, too … the eldest one, don’t forget. So, if I were you, sis, I’d be very careful what you say to people around here. They might begin to wonder whether it was fair that you alone should get our father’s house.”

  She stared at Kathy for a full half-minute before laughing in her face. “I’m going out tonight – oh, and don’t try locking me out, or I’ll have to break a window, and what would the neighbors say then?” She yawned. “I’m just going for a lie-down. Then I’ll have a bath … I hope there’s hot water in this dump. After that, I’m off to the pub to get drunk.”

  Realizing she was being goaded, Kathy didn’t say anything. Instead she stepped aside to let Samantha through.

  When she was gone, Kathy wondered how it would all end. There were times with Samantha when she felt out of her depth. This was one of those times.

  She desperately needed someone to confide in. She really wanted to talk to Tom, but was it fair to burden him with all this, especially when he was leaving for London tonight? Maggie was in London. There was only one other person who would understand.

  “Hurry back, Jasper,” she muttered. “I need your help!”

  After asking the taxi-driver to wait for her, Lilian climbed the steps to the front door of the boarding house.

  One push on the big heavy door and she was inside a small vestibule. Another door led to the hallway, where she found the reception desk set into the recess under the stairs. None of it was what she was used to, but apparently there were only two boarding houses in the area, and no hotel as such. This one was nearest to the harbor, or so she had been told.

  There was a brass bell on the desk, which she thumped a couple of times before a small woman with an angular face appeared. “Yes, can I help you?” In spite of her sharp appearance, she was extremely pleasant.

  “Lilian Scott,” she introduced herself. “I have a booking; I rang a few days ago.”

  The woman located her name in the ledger. “Oh, yes. And how long will you be staying?”

  “Just the one night.” Lilian had high hopes. “I’m here to locate a friend; I expect to be staying with him from tomorrow.”

  She would have gone straight to Tom’s with her suitcase, but felt it might be best to see him first. She could always come back for her case.

  “How did you find out about us, my dear?” The landlady always asked her guests that question: it helped to place the adverts in the right places.

  “One of the salesmen from my company knew the area. He had stopped here a few times on his travels. He gave me your address some time back.” And she had kept it safe until she thought the time was right to pay Tom a visit.

  Showing a double row of small, brilliant white teeth, the woman grinned. “That’s good,” she said. “Word of mouth is by far the best way to build up a business.”

  A moment later, Lilian had signed the necessary form, paid her deposit and, following the woman up a long narrow flight of stairs, was taken to her room.

  It was a poky place, with a tiny window overlooking the main road, and a bed that looked as if it was out of the ark. “I pride myself on my cleanliness.” Flinging the eiderdown back, the woman displayed the stark-white sheets underneath. “If the bed is clean, you can be sure everything else is too, that’s my motto.”

  She showed Lilian where the bathroom was, and told her what time breakfast would be, and which room to go to. “You can get food at the pub, or there’s the fish and chip shop,” she told her. Then she bade her goodnight and went back down to her half-read newspaper.

  Left on her own, Lilian unpacked only what she needed, afterward laying the case on the armchair in the corner. She paid a visit to the bathroom, where she splashed her face and neck with cold water to freshen up.

  Ten minutes after arriving, she was on her way out, to where the taxi-driver had been taking a well-earned nap. “Sorry, Miss!” Her tapping on the window had woken him. Leaping out, he let her into the car, before clambering back into the driving seat, shivering when the chilly evening air got into his bones. “The harbor is it, Miss?” She had mentioned it before.

  Lilian gave him the full address and, filled with excitement at the thought of seeing Tom, she anxiously settled back. She had to think what she would say, because he didn’t even know she was coming. “I hope he’ll be pleased to see me.”

  The driver cocked an ear. “What was that, Miss?”

  “Nothing.” Lilian grew agitated. “I was just thinking out loud.”

  Curious, he sneaked a look at her in his mirror; to see her softly talking to herself, and sometimes smiling. “God! I hope I haven’t picked up some bloody crackpot.” There had been a case in Dorchester where a driver was attacked by his passenger. It was the first time anyone had heard of such a thing. In the end it turned out to be some drunk who’d had an argument with his girlfriend. Right now, he was languishing in prison where he belonged.

  By the time they came up the hill toward Tom’s house, Lilian’s heart was beating nineteen to the dozen. “Be in, Tom,” she muttered, increasingly anxious. “Please be in!”

  She was disappointed. When they arrived, the house was in darkness; however many times she banged on the door, there was no answer.

  “What the devil d’you think you’re doing … trying to knock the damned door down, from the sound of it!” The man from next door had been alerted by her continuous banging. “He’s not in – can’t you tell that … I mean, look! The house is in darkness. If he were in, you’d expect there to be a light on.”

  An old misery, he kept himself to himself, though he quietly relished the gossip in the village shop, and liked to watch the goings-on from his window. What he didn’t like was being disturbed by some stranger pounding on next door.

  He shook his fist at her. “Clear off! And give an old man some peace, why don’t you?”

  Lilian was desperate. “Do you know where I can find him?”

  The man continued chewing on his baccy, his avaricious old eyes noting the slim figure and the pretty face, and he smiled knowingly. “Who are you then?”

  Now that she was here, Lilian’s fantasy had become reality. “I’m his sweetheart.”

  “I see.” He chewed a bit more and stared at her a bit longer before asking, “Does he know you’re looking for him?” In his own youth he had often played one woman off against another. It was a man’s thing.

  “No. I wanted to surprise him.”

  He chuckled, and chewed a b
it more and rolled the baccy around in his mouth, before telling her with great glee, “Oh, you’ll do that all right. He’s gone to see his other sweetheart …” He pointed in the direction of Kathy’s home. “You’ll find him down there … Barden House, that’s the name. That’s where you’ll find him … with his other sweetheart, name of Kathy.” Muttering and chuckling, he went back inside.

  Lilian was confused and upset. “Barden House,” she told the driver. “Back down to the harbor. Be quick!” She must have told him that a dozen times as he drove around looking for Barden House, but in the end, impatient and edgy, she told him to stop the car.

  Glad to do so, he parked by the harbor while she set off to find the house the old man had mentioned. “You needn’t wait for me.” Digging in her purse, she took out a handful of coins and threw them into his lap.

  He watched her running across the road to the houses. “Mad as a hatter!” he muttered, driving off with his foot hard down on the accelerator.

  As he went, he couldn’t help but see another taxi parked at a big old house opposite. “Watch out, mate,” he laughed, “you don’t want to be picking that one up. If you ask me, she’s straight from the funny farm!”

  Having located the house, and being camouflaged by the dark, at a point where there was no street-lamp, Lilian crept up the path. From here she had a clear view in through the window. What she saw only served to infuriate her all the more.

  As promised, Tom had called in before setting off to London. “I don’t want to leave you,” he murmured, his gaze enfolding Kathy, “but I have to, you know that, don’t you?” He saw the misery in her light-brown eyes and his heart ached to be with her. “I had thought about asking you to go with me,” he confessed, “but I know you can’t just leave your job. And in any case, I would have to be out and about, going places, seeing people, asking questions. I need to get to the bottom of what happened. The inspector’s already promised he’ll work with me. He says he’s as keen as I am to see this case solved.”

  Drawing her to him, he held her for a time. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “I wouldn’t let you go if I didn’t believe that.”

  In his arms, Kathy felt safe from the world. She had shed her tears, and now she was resigned to the idea of Tom going away, if only because she knew it meant they could be together all the sooner.

  “Look at me.” Holding her at arm’s length, he smiled into her troubled eyes. “I love you.”

  She gave a small nervous laugh. “I love you too.”

  “If I asked you, would you come with me?”

  “No.” She wanted to go with him, but it was wiser not to. “It’s not my place. You go and do what you have to do,” she murmured. “I’ve got my job to do, and I’ll still be here when you get back.”

  He nodded, a smile lighting his face. “You’d better be!”

  They talked a while longer, and kissed, and held onto each other for a while. There was so much in their hearts they wanted to say, yet each knew what the other was feeling, and it was all right.

  Outside, looking in, Lilian was beside herself with rage.

  She could not hear what they were saying, but the sight of another woman in Tom’s arms was too much. “Bastard!” she kept saying. “You bastard!” In her tortured mind, she could only see that he had deceived her. He had left her alone in London, and now he was deceiving her with another woman. “BASTARD!”

  “I’d better go, darling.” With his arm around Kathy, Tom started toward the door.

  “I’ll see you to the taxi.”

  “No need. It’s chilly out there. You stay in the warm.”

  Kathy would not take no for an answer. “I’ll get my coat. I think I left it in the kitchen when I got back earlier.”

  He shook his head and smiled. “What will I do with you, eh? An obstinate woman who won’t do as she’s told?”

  “Marry me.” Kathy’s deep-down love was alive in her eyes as she looked up at him.

  For a precious moment they held each other. “That’s what I’ve promised for us,” he murmured. “There is nothing I want more in all the world.”

  From outside, Lilian saw Kathy go through a door at the back of the room. A moment later she returned, dressed in a long blue wool coat.

  Tom put his arm around her and they walked across the sitting room; when Lilian saw them turn, almost as if they were coming right at her, she panicked.

  Running away, she hid behind the wall, where they could not see her. And neither could she see them.

  Panting and fearful in her hiding place, she peeped around the corner to see the two of them walking down the path, arm in arm, for all the world like lovers.

  When suddenly Kathy looked back, she dived behind the wall again and kept out of sight.

  Enraged, she didn’t see Tom get into the taxi, and she didn’t see how Kathy waved him goodbye, her sad face betraying her deeper feelings.

  Instead, she stayed where she was, stiff with rage, her back pressed against the wall, her nails scraping the brickwork until the blood spurted from her fingertips. “Bastard!” She was distraught. “Bastards, the pair of them!”

  Inside the house, as Kathy closed the curtains, Samantha appeared. Bathed and beautiful, she was combing her long tresses. “How do I look?”

  Busying herself, Kathy didn’t even turn to look.

  Samantha smiled. “You might as well accept it, sis.” Putting a final dab of lipstick on, she collected Kathy’s blue wool coat from the arm of the chair. “You don’t mind if I borrow this, do you?”

  When Kathy appeared not to have heard, she threw the coat on and buttoned it up. “There’s nothing you can do,” she said, preening herself in the hallway mirror. “I’m owed half of what Father left you. So you might as well sign an agreement to that effect and get it over with.”

  Confident that she had got Kathy on the run, she declared triumphantly, “I’ll make us an appointment with a solicitor first thing in the morning.” She gave a wry little chuckle. “That’s if there are any decent solicitors in this half-baked place!”

  Not if I can help it! Kathy thought angrily.

  She had no intention of signing any such “agreement.”

  Jasper tumbled wearily out of the last bus of the evening. Having spent almost all day on the road, the traveling bag in his fist felt twice the weight it had when he’d started. His poor old back ached from the long hours in the train, and his feet were throbbing in his shoes.

  “Goodnight, mate.” The bus conductor was a jolly sort, who had chatted to his few passengers all the way. “Mind how you go.”

  Jasper bade him goodnight before walking the few hundred yards to his cottage, where he quickly let himself in, made a cup of tea, and fell into bed almost immediately. “By! I must be getting old,” he complained. “Once upon a time I’d ’ave walked all the way to Woburn and back, wi’ never a second thought.”

  He was looking forward to seeing Tom and Kathy tomorrow. “I wonder what they’ve been up to while I’ve been away.” No sooner were the words out of his mind than he was snoring like a good ’un.

  Half an hour after Jasper had gone indoors, Samantha emerged from the house.

  Once outside in the cold evening air, she shivered. “This is a godforsaken place,” she muttered, drawing the coat about her. “The sooner Kathy signs that paper, the sooner I can get out of here.”

  Needing to clear her thoughts, she headed for the pub, by way of the harbor, making her way carefully along the slippery stones of the harbor wall. There were no railings along this stretch of the walkway; the bollards were the only markers of the wall’s edge. Beyond them she could see the oily, dark waters of the harbor and the looming shapes of the boats. There was no street-lamp here and only now did Samantha realize how hellishly dark it was. “Dammit!” Tripping once or twice, she began to walk more carefully. “You’d think they could at least afford to put up another street-lamp!”

  She was almost at the pub when she ima
gined she heard footsteps behind her. Quickly, her heart leaping, she turned, and there was no one there.

  She quickened her steps, almost running. And there again, seeming right behind her, was that same sound. She swung round, angry now. “Who’s that? Is that you, Kathy?” Her stern, harsh warning belied the fear inside her. “If you’re trying to frighten me, it won’t work, so you might as well show yourself.”

  There was a low, throaty laugh, then the dark shadow lunged at her. She saw a raised arm, and that was all; there was no time to scream before she felt a vicious push which sent her toppling over the wall edge. As she fell, her fingers clawing aimlessly at the air, another laugh was the last thing she heard before her head crumpled against the side of a boat as she plunged into darkness.

  After Samantha had gone, Kathy found it hard to settle. It was always the same when Samantha was near. She had the uncanny ability to rile her, until her emotions were in turmoil.

  For a long time she sat in the chair thinking, full of regrets. Then she went to the window and looked out. The night was dark, eerily silent. “If she’s not at home by midnight, I’d best go and find her.” Even now, she had a kind of affection for her impossible sister.

  Pacing the floor, she grew agitated, angry that she should be made to feel responsible. “No! Why should I?” she thought. Determination shaped her features. “If she wants to stay out all night, it’s up to her!” With that, she went upstairs and got ready for bed. From outside, she could hear the pub turning out, then the sound of people softly talking, and a woman’s laughter.

  She climbed into bed, and was soon asleep, though troubled by dreams she had not experienced in an age.

  The fishermen were out with the first light. “Good luck, matey!” The tall, lean fellow nodded to his colleague as they parted to go their separate ways.

  Climbing down to his boat, he imagined he saw something floating in the water, half submerged, yet cradled by the broken oil spills, which shifted back and forth amongst the boats. He peered down for a closer look, taking care as he came nearer, his footsteps negotiating the narrow decks and fishing paraphernalia which littered his way.