by Simon Okotie
This would not, of course, prevent him from examining the piece of evidence in front of him more closely as soon as he could. Nor, of course, would it prevent him from identifying the item more generally for us, as it were, as a book of matches bearing the name of the hotel from which his colleague, Marguerite, had commenced following Isobel Absalon7 in pursuance of his investigation into the disappearance of her husband, Harold Absalon, the Mayor’s transport advisor, a hotel that he knew, moreover, belonged to the family of Richard Knox. For now, though, he continued leaning towards the gate but with the added feature of twisting slightly, counter-clockwise, as an additional means of reducing the distance between: his right hand and his left-hand jacket pocket; and his left hand and his left-hand trouser pocket, as well, of course, as the contents thereof.
11
Having said that the counter-clockwise twisting of his body was intended as an additional means of reducing the distance between: his right hand and his left-hand jacket pocket; and his left hand and his left-hand trouser pocket (as well, of course, as the contents thereof), he realised, as he continued leaning and twisting in the manner described, that this was not, in fact, his primary reason for engaging in this action. Nor did the increasing proximity of the upper reaches of his body – the head, in particular – to the gate in question, to the extent that his nose, which was the most protuberant part of that upper portion of his body, would, were this trend to continue, find itself in actual contact with the gate leading to the area in front of the townhouse, provided, of course, that it did not protrude between the bars of that gate, were the gate to be constructed in that way, or between/within any other open space that that gate, which he may, earlier on in his investigation, have identified as being of a wrought-iron construction thereby suggesting, at least to the most astute of those of us following in his footsteps, that the nose, or other, similar protuberance, may, were it to find open spaces contained within that gate of wrought-iron, interpose itself within those spaces such that it did not, in fact, come into contact with the material from which the gate to the area in front of the townhouse was constructed, had it not (his body, this was) simultaneously, or thereabouts, been twisting itself, and twisting itself, more specifically, in a counter-clockwise direction, provide the primary reason for engaging in this action. Did this counter-clockwise twisting of his body relate, he wondered, to the proximity, now, of his multifarious pursuers; which is to say, did it relate to him wanting to distance himself, albeit marginally, from them? Whilst confirming that it did, he responded, to himself, note, as well as, indirectly, to us (through some medium that must, of necessity, remain mysterious to him), by asserting that this was not the primary reason for his twisting motion either. In summary, then, just as reducing the distance between: his right hand and his left-hand jacket pocket; and his left hand and his left-hand trouser pocket (as well, of course, as the contents thereof) was a proximate but not the main reason for the twisting of his body in a counter-clockwise direction such that the head rotated further in this angular direction than the neck, which rotated further in this angular direction than the shoulders, which rotated further in this angular direction than the chest, which rotated further in this angular direction than the stomach, which rotated further in this angular direction than the hips, which rotated further in this angular direction than the genitals, which rotated further in this angular direction than the knees, which rotated further in this angular direction than the ankles, which rotated further in this angular direction than the feet (which did not, in fact, rotate at all, of course), nor, in fact, was the proximity of his nose to the gate, which is to say that the avoidance of such contact did provide a rationale for the twisting of his body in the manner described (which is to say the twisting in a counter-clockwise direction such that the head rotated further in this angular direction than the neck, which rotated further in this angular direction than the shoulders, which rotated further in this angular direction than the chest, which rotated further in this angular direction than the stomach, which rotated further in this angular direction than the hips, which rotated further in this angular direction than the genitals, which rotated further in this angular direction than the knees, which rotated further in this angular direction than the ankles, which rotated further in this angular direction than the feet (which, as before, did not, in fact, rotate at all, of course) but, as before, it was not the primary reason, just as the proximity of his multifarious pursuers was not the primary reason either. What then, given that the proximity of: his right hand to his left-hand jacket pocket; his left hand to his left-hand trouser pocket (as well, of course, as the contents thereof); his nose to the plane, and perhaps also to the material, of the gate; and his multifarious pursuers to him, had not been the determining factors in the commencement of his twisting in the manner described (and on this one, rare, occasion he spared us the details), what was that determining factor, he wondered, as, continuing to twist and, note, lean, in the manner described, his shoulder, the right, made contact with the gate leading to the area in front of the townhouse? It was, in fact, this very contact, for those still requiring such clarification, that had been the reason for him twisting and leaning in the manner described (which is to say twisting in a counter-clockwise direction such that the head rotated further in this angular direction than the neck, which rotated further in this angular direction than the shoulders, which rotated further in this angular direction than the chest, which rotated further in this angular direction than the stomach, which rotated further in this angular direction than the hips, which rotated further in this angular direction than the genitals, which rotated further in this angular direction than the knees, which rotated further in this angular direction than the ankles, which rotated further in this angular direction than the feet (which, as before, did not, in fact, rotate at all, of course). He had, in other words, rotated in this way (which is to say the twisting in a counter-clockwise direction such that the head rotated further in this angular direction than the neck, which rotated further in this angular direction than the shoulders, which rotated further in this angular direction than the chest, which rotated further in this angular direction than the stomach, which rotated further in this angular direction than the hips, which rotated further in this angular direction than the genitals, which rotated further in this angular direction than the knees, which rotated further in this angular direction than the ankles, which rotated further in this angular direction than the feet (which, as before, did not, in fact, rotate at all, of course) in order to bring about contact between the right shoulder and the gate such that the latter, which is to say the gate leading to the area in front of the townhouse would begin, at least, to open (and note that the way in which it did this was by turning, rather than twisting, on its hinges, which were, remember, to his right, such that this turning traced a clockwise arc when seen from above (often when seen from above), at least to the extent that the constraints of the locked chain wrapped around it allowed. It was, then, this police procedural – that of putting one’s shoulder to it, as it may, or may not, be referred to in the manuals – that was the main reason he had started to twist his body whilst leaning it, at the same time, remember, as reaching: with his right hand, across his body, towards his left-hand jacket pocket; and with his left-hand towards his left-hand trouser pocket, a pocket that he knew contained a bunch of keys that would allow him not only to access the area in front of the townhouse but to enter the townhouse itself in search of the circumstances of the disappearance of his senior investigative colleague, Marguerite, who, in turn, had last been seen on the trail of Harold Absalon, the Mayor’s transport advisor, who had, prior to this, been missing.
12
And what he found, as he continued to push the gate open in the manner described (which, for now, he refrained from summarising) was that, rather than becoming fully taut, the chain that he had believed was securing the gate to the gatepost as a means of barring entry to those, unlike hi
m, who had no key to the padlock securing that chain, was, in fact, simply coiled around the gate and gatepost in a manner that, whilst it kept the two elements of that perimeter security system momentarily together, it only did so to the extent that, were someone, such as him, to simply uncoil it, then that simple act would be sufficient to gain access to the area in front of the townhouse in question. In other words, whilst giving the appearance of securing the gate to the gatepost such that one would need a key to unlock it, the padlock, whilst being secured to the chain that was rapidly, now, uncoiling from around the gate and gatepost, was not secured to that chain in a way that would serve to prevent one from accessing the area in front of the townhouse by traversing the gateway that was rapidly, still, opening up through the pressure of his shoulder against the gate that would need to open to form the gateway to the area in front of the townhouse which he wished to move into. There was a manner, then, in which the padlock locked into the chain that continued to uncoil (counter-clockwise, note) based on the pressure he continued to apply (a pressure which he, in fact, intensified, given the success he was finding in this propulsive strategy) such that the gate continued to open (clockwise, remember) could be locked into that chain to give at least the impression that it was securing the gate to its post (to refer to it in that fashion, now, and possibly again in the future) whilst it was not, in fact, doing so. (It could, also, of course, be locked in that way – which is to say to give the impression that it was securing the gate to its post whilst in fact securing the gate to its post, and in that way deterrent, in the form of appearance, would be backed up by actual security, unlike in the present instance.)
Conscious of his struggle to express, with precision, the circumstances that he found unfolding, or rather uncoiling, unravelling, before him, he decided to go back to first principles, and in the following way: in order for a padlocked chain to be used effectively to secure a gate to its post such that those without a key to that padlock would be unable to secure access to the area beyond that gate (assuming that the gate and its posts, left and right, formed part of a wider, and deeper, gateline, as it is known, around that area, as in the current scenario) then the chain must circle around both gate and post – specifically it must circle around the gate and its post at the point where the gate would ordinarily open (the left-hand side of the gate and the left-hand gatepost in the current instance) and it must be secured in that arrangement so that it was sufficiently tight to prevent the gate opening widely enough for someone to pass under or over that chain and through the gateway that had been opened up by the slackness of the chain secured in this fashion, despite it being secured in the way described. The chain must, then, circle tightly around both post and the edge of the gate closest to that post and be secured, with the padlock, such that the padlock connected links in the chain that would maintain that circle, as well as sufficient tautness to prevent entry through the slackness to which he had previously alluded. That this wasn’t the case in the current situation was evidenced, as before, by the fact that the chain continued to uncoil anti- or counter-clockwise around the left-hand gatepost as the gate continued to open in a clockwise fashion around the fulcrum of the right-hand gatepost, to the extent that the chain had nearly, now, completely uncoiled and would be left hanging, he thought, from the gate as it continued to swing open in the way so recently described.
The chain did not, of course, have to form a perfect circle – that would, he thought, be too much to ask for; what was not too much to ask for – what was, in fact, part of the rudiments of the security of such situations – was the previously referred to requirement that the circle, ellipse, oval, or other similar shape (and there would no doubt be a word for the family of such shapes that he, or we, could look up using whatever extant reference system that took his, or takes our, fancy) should be secured around both gate and post as a means of both keeping those two elements together and of demonstrating that it was keeping those two elements together, rather than in the current case where it had appeared to him, and by extension, to us, that the padlock secured to the chain would, by being so secured, prevent, through restraining the gate in the manner described, its clockwise angular movement (with the clock in question being viewed from above, even though this went against the ordinary, day-to-day, convention that clocks should be placed in locations where people such as ourselves could see them, as a means, of course, of telling the time, regardless of whether those clocks were analogue, as in the current situation, or digital). That this was not the case in the current situation – that the chain had been secured, in circular fashion, but not in such a way as to secure the non-hinged vertical edge of the circumferential frame of the gate to the gatepost that was closest to that edge – was evidenced by the fact that the chain, now, finally swung loose from that gatepost and collided noisily with the gate to which it was attached, allowing him access, finally, to the area in front of the townhouse, without so much as needing to retrieve the key to the padlock in question, a key that we now know him to have about his person.
Why, he wondered, as he placed the glove in his left-hand jacket pocket and commenced the transition from leaning to crouching, as a precursor to retrieving the book of matches that had been located underneath the gate, had the inhabitant(s) of that house, or others who weren’t inhabitants of that house, wanted to give the impression that a chain that had simply been wrapped, numerous times, around the left-hand gatepost, was, in fact, securing the non-hinged, vertical edge of the gate adjacent to that gatepost to that gatepost by means of a locked padlock? Was it that they wanted to give the impression that the townhouse was uninhabited but secured, whereas it could be that it was, in fact, inhabited and unsecured? If so, who was it that was inhabiting this unsecured space, and why did they want to give the impression that they weren’t and that it was? It was with these, and numerous other pressing questions, that he would enter the area in front of the townhouse, pursued, he was sure, by Harold Absalon, who, despite our investigator’s success in opening up that area would want to do everything he could to prevent him from opening up the townhouse itself, given its centrality to the investigation into the disappearance of Marguerite, last seen, remember, on the trail of Harold Absalon, the Mayor’s transport advisor, who had hitherto been missing.
13
He was relieved that, since the gate was unsecured, he would not have to retrieve the keys from his left-hand trouser pocket prior to entering the area in front of the townhouse, and the reason he was relieved related to the fact that, in that circumstance, which is to say, him having to retrieve the keys from his left-hand trouser pocket, he would have run the risk, as it is known, were he to have had to retrieve the keys prior to entering the area in front of the townhouse, of a passer-by snatching them from his hand; he would not, however, have been holding them out if he knew there to be a passer-by passing him by at that moment. The reason he would not have been holding them out under those circumstances was that he didn’t want a passer-by to snatch the keys, and the reason that he didn’t wish for that eventuality was that he wanted to use the keys to open the front door to the townhouse, knowing, somehow, that the secret to the disappearance of his senior colleague Marguerite, last seen on the trail of Harold Absalon, the Mayor’s transport advisor, lay therein.
The only passers-by in the vicinity at that moment remained his multifarious pursuers and they could not properly be classed as such as ‘passers-by’ for the obvious reason that they wanted to apprehend him for peaceful or less peaceful purposes and this apprehension, so to speak, would involve moving directly to him rather than passing him, let alone passing him by, were there to be any difference, in fact, between these two latter phrases and activities. They would make straight, or thereabouts, for him, his pursuers, he was sure of that. Another way of establishing this fact in his mind was to think to himself that to the extent that the people in his vicinity were pursuing him, then, to that extent, they would not be passers-by in relation to
him.
How, though, did he know he was being pursued, he wondered, as, having successfully completed the transition from leaning to crouching, he examined, more closely, the book of matches? His reasoning was as follows: he suspected – strongly – that Marguerite had got too close to unearthing the circumstances of Harold Absalon’s disappearance and that it was the proximity to these circumstances that had precipitated his disappearance. In other words, when an investigation is underway in which there is, in fact, substance to the assertion that an unlawful act had taken place, or that an unlawful act was taking place, then, at the point where those who had perpetrated that act, or who were engaged in that activity, became aware that an investigator was as it were (and literally) on their case, which is to say at the moment when that investigator’s cover is blown, as it’s known, a chain of association would immediately be set up in the sense of human (or, granted, in certain circumstances, canine) subjects in pursuit of one another, which, in this case, he thought, had taken the form of missing person (Harold Absalon, the Mayor’s transport advisor) pursued by investigator (Marguerite) pursued by alluring, possibly dangerous, certainly unreliable and volatile female (Isobel Absalon, the wife of the missing transport advisor),8 plus, perhaps, henchmen (and, granted, -women) intent on thwarting the investigation for reasons relating to the circumstances surrounding the disappearance, a chain of association that, at the point where the law enforcer, to call them that, gets too close to unearthing those circumstances, would dramatically collapse, in that those who were, in turn, following him would close in, as it’s known, and at speed, as a means of thwarting that investigation knowing that he was on to something, and thereby confirming to the investigator themselves, perhaps, that they were on to something although at a point where it is too late to act on this realisation, given what his pursuers would perpetrate at that moment (assuming, as before, that he wasn’t able to stay at least one step ahead of them).