Beautiful Child

by Menon, David

  ‘You’ll be back soon?’

  ‘You can bet your life on it.’

  At that moment they were both shaken by the brick that came flying through one of the glass panels in Matt’s front door and landed heavily on the floor just a metre or so from where they were standing.

  ‘What the fuck!’ Adrian exclaimed.

  They were still holding onto each other when Natasha appeared in the gap left by the broken glass. ‘I hope you’re satisfied, Schofield! Because of you I’ve been dumped by Charles and now you’re going to pay… she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Matt with her brother-in-law Adrian. Then she started to laugh ‘…oh thank you, God. What a fucking result!’

  Adrian went chasing after her. She had a pink velour tracksuit on and her mascara was running down the cheeks of her face. Her hair was tied back. She had a sledgehammer in her hand and was poised ready to do damage to Matt’s car.

  ‘Don’t come any closer’ she warned.

  ‘Natasha, it’s not what you think’ said Adrian.

  ‘Oh beauty! That stupid cliché has just cost your lover his headlights.’

  Natasha then smashed both of Matt’s headlights.

  ‘Natasha, please…’ Adrian pleaded. His whole world could come crashing down on him if he wasn’t careful. He may have to let her take her vengeance out on Matt if he could agree to her not saying anything to Penny about why he was there.

  ‘…how long has it been going on?’

  ‘About six months.’

  ‘And does my sister know?’

  ‘No, Natasha, she doesn’t.’

  That earned Matt a massive dent in the bonnet of his car after Natasha had brought her sledgehammer down on it.

  ‘Well she will be pleased when I tell her.’

  ‘No, Natasha, please don’t do that’ Adrian pleaded, ‘[please don’t do that to her.’

  ‘Me do that to her? You’re the one who’s been sleeping with another man behind her back. You fucking disgust me!’

  ‘I know and I understand, Natasha’ said Adrian who was scared shitless about what this bitch of his sister-in-law would do. How could he explain to Penny about Matt? She’d never be able to understand it. Christ, this was a fucking nightmare!

  ‘Liar!’ screamed Natasha who then smashed the windscreen on Matt’s car. She was determined to destroy as much of it as she could. ‘You’re a liar! And so is that bastard inside who’s destroyed my life!’

  A crowd of Matt’s neighbours were gathering round to watch the show. Adrian noticed but he had to ignore their stares. He had to stay focused on Natasha and what she might do next. He stepped closer to her and held out his hand.

  ‘Natasha, please give the sledgehammer to me.’

  ‘Why? I haven’t stopped having fun yet?’

  ‘You really don’t want to do this, Natasha.’

  ‘Oh yes I flaming well do! So what’s it all about, this Brokeback Mountain thing you’ve got going on? I must admit, I’d never have expected it of you. Oh no, I thought you were just another boring straight man who didn’t have any guts.’

  ‘He seduced me, Natasha, I’d never done anything like this before … ‘

  ‘…and with what did he seduce you? I mean, does he give better head than Penny does? Is that it?’

  ‘Natasha, there’s no need for talk like that.’

  ‘Well what is it then because I can’t work it out!’

  Matt had got himself dressed and came as quietly as he could out of his back door. He’d heard everything that had been said. Natasha was so engrossed in her argument with Adrian that she didn’t even notice Matt creeping up behind her. She was about to send her sledgehammer crashing through another of his car windows when he lunged forward and grabbed her. She screamed. She struggled but Matt was intent on stopping her doing anymore damage and he managed to wrestle her down to the ground.

  ‘Put the sledgehammer down!’ he commanded.

  ‘Fuck you!’

  ‘I said put it down!’

  ‘Get off me!’

  ‘I will once you’ve put the sledgehammer down.’

  She thrashed around all over the place trying to break free but Matt’s grip was too firm. Eventually she dropped the sledgehammer. It fell onto the driveway next to his car and he looked up appealingly at Adrian for him to pick it up and take it away.

  ‘Well don’t just stand there!’ cried Matt as he continued to struggle with a determined Natasha. Adrian looked like he was in the presence of some dangerous animal that he didn’t know how to handle. ‘Pick the bloody thing up, Adrian!’

  Adrian picked up the sledgehammer and moved it to a safe distance several metres away. He didn’t know whether to just go or stay in case he might be needed. He decided to stay.

  ‘Get off me you home wrecking bastard!’ screamed Natasha.

  Matt almost laughed at that. Was it the best she could do? Maybe under the circumstances he shouldn’t expect more in the way of wit from the brain dead trolley dolly.

  ‘Now you listen to me,’ he said, firmly as he tightened his grip around her. He looked over to Adrian who was still doing nothing except to just stand there. ‘You don’t walk into my life and start calling the shots. Make sure you remember that. Charlie dumped you because you’re a selfish, manipulative little bitch who tried to use the fatal illness of his first wife and the mother of his children to get your own way. You’re scum, Natasha. You’re nothing but gold digging scum and now Charlie has finally woken up to that. Now you get off my property and expect a very large repair bill tomorrow.’

  Matt loosened his grip around Natasha. She looked round at him but realised her little performance was all over as she stood up and sloped off back to her car. She got in and drove off. Matt got himself back onto his feet and walked back towards his front door, stopping when he got to Adrian.

  ‘Matt, I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘Call yourself a police officer? She could’ve knocked down my fucking house and you’d have stood there.’

  ‘I didn’t know what to do!’ pleaded Adrian, rather feebly. ‘She’s my sister-in-law for God’s sake.’

  ‘Oh just go home now, Adrian! And don’t come round here again.’

  *

  Angus Carleton drove out of the staff car park that was to the east of Terminal 2 at Manchester airport. It had been a difficult flight back from the Greek island of Corfu. The weather had been absolutely shit from Switzerland onwards and hadn’t let up until they were halfway across England and about to make their approach into Manchester. The passengers had all complained because he and the Captain had told the cabin crew to suspend the service for half an hour whilst they went through a rather nasty and unpredictable area of turbulence. It seemed like the mass of the travelling public didn’t mind crew risking life and limb as long as they got their tax free goods.

  His car was a dark blue Renault Megane that his parents had helped him buy when he first qualified as a pilot. His mother and her long-time boyfriend Malcolm were coming up from Surrey this weekend to spend it with him and Susie and the four of them were going out to a rather posh restaurant in Prestbury with Susie’s parents. They were also going to go to Susie’s brother Matt’s place for Sunday brunch. Angus’ Mum and Malcolm liked Matt. But then everybody liked Matt. It was such a shame, thought Angus, that Matt couldn’t find anybody to love him as well as like him. He was still working on trying to find him a beau but all the stewards he worked with, although great fun, were all a bit too fabulous and Angus knew that would put Matt off. Either that or they were pretentious, snooty little bastards who pursed their lips at anybody they deemed to be beneath them, which often turned out to be the entire world except themselves. That would certainly put Matt off. His future brother-in-law was definitely a substance over style man. He didn’t care what you did or where you came from. It was about who you were now that mattered to him.

  Angus had taken his tie off and undone the top two buttons of his shirt. He’d also removed th
e epaulettes and his name badge from his shirt. He wanted to pop into Tesco’s on the way home and he thought that one of the naffest things ever was when he saw someone in uniform doing their bloody shopping. Okay, so you work at the airport. That’s great! It just doesn’t need to be rubbed into people’s noses as they reach for a stone baked pizza. You’re not a celebrity. You just do a job.

  He drove his car along the side roads that took him through the more salubrious parts of South Manchester where footballers and people like his fiancée Susie lived, and now where he lived too. Some of the Captains at work were amazed when he told them where he lived. They thought it was an area for them with their established careers and not for co-pilots like Angus who were barely on the first rung of the ladder to greatness. So then they assumed that his family must have money and he soon put them straight on that. His parents aren’t poor but he wouldn’t call them rich either. They’d just taken care of what they had and been careful. So eventually Angus told them that he was marrying someone who owned a highly successful company and he’d moved into their house. So by that they assumed it was a man and that Angus was gay. It made him laugh. What century did these bastards live in? Someone was highly successful in business so they must be a man. And when he suggested that when he and Susie started a family that he might put his career on hold and stay at home to raise the kids whilst Susie carried on with the business, they virtually lynched him. Flying aeroplanes wasn’t just a living to some of these guys. It was also a means to get away from their God awful wives. Angus had met some of them and they could be even more socially ignorant than their bloody husbands! And God, some of them had let themselves go. It all went to prove what some of the gay boys at work often said. ‘There’s nothing as plain as a Captain’s wife and nothing as desperate as a Captain’s mistress.’ Well he and Susie were going to create their own little world where they were as far removed from all that shit as possible, even if they were living in the same private lane with the right kind of Cheshire address.

  He got what he wanted from Tesco’s and loaded his shopping bags into the back of his car. He then drove home and unpacked everything. He went upstairs and had a shower and got changed. He was starting to feel tired now. He’d been up since four but thank God he didn’t have to be at work tomorrow until ten in the morning. After several early starts the last few days he’d be glad of the opportunity to have a lie in. Unless of course Susie decided to use and abuse his body in which case he wouldn’t object however knackered he felt.

  He looked at his watch and saw that it was half past. He was due to meet Susie for a meeting with Canon O’ Farrell at the church in an hour but he didn’t have to leave just yet so he decided to make himself a cup of tea and sit down with those bits of the paper that he hadn’t been able to get through on the flight deck. The meeting was intended to go through the service and for him to listen to the Canon giving him another disguised lecture on the word of the Catholic Church. He didn’t mind though. It made Susie happy because it made her Mum happy so that was fine and Canon O’Farrell wasn’t a bad old boy. Angus thought he was quite human for a priest really.

  He filled up the kettle and flicked the switch on just as he heard a knock at the front door. When he opened it he was surprised to see who was standing there.

  ‘Hi! What are you doing here?’

  *

  Susie was standing outside the church waiting for Angus. The place held a lot of memories for her. It was where both Susie and her brother Matt has been baptised, where they’d each received confirmation, and where Canon O’Farrell was going to marry her and Angus in just over a week’s time. She was so excited when she thought about it all, like a little girl waiting for Christmas. Angus was so perfect for her. A few years younger but very much the man, strong, unwilling to take any crap from her, but sensitive, kind, and warm hearted too. She got on great with his Mum and Dad and his two sisters. Everybody in the whole extended family on both sides got on. She’d landed on her feet. She knew that and she got down on her knees and prayed thanks to God every day but only when Angus wasn’t looking. Prayer was a bit like vomiting. She preferred not to have an audience for either.

  But where was Angus?

  ‘Don’t you be worrying yourself now, Susie dear,’ said Brendan O’Farrell as he joined her at the end of the path to the presbytery door, ‘I’d rather your man be late today than on your wedding day.’

  Susie smiled. ‘Brendan, you’ve known me since the day I was born. You know I don’t like to be late for anything.’

  ‘Well come on in,’ said Brendan, leading her by the arm, ‘My housekeeper, I think you know her, does a very acceptable afternoon tea with home made scones, jam and cream and the lot.’

  Susie laughed at the look on Brendan’s face as he talked about her Mum as if she didn’t know her. ‘I’m supposed to be on a diet, Brendan, or I’ll never fit into my wedding dress. That’s why I’ve not been back to Mum and Dad’s for anything to eat lately because, as you well know, Mum is such a feeder.’

  ‘Well indulge this old man for just one afternoon,’ said Brendan with that familiar twinkle in his eye. ‘Do you think you could manage that?’

  ‘Well, seeing as it’s you,’ replied Susie before casting a concerned glance over her shoulder. Angus was fifteen minutes late and there was still no sign of him. What the hell was he doing?

  Susan’s mother Ann had made the scones and tea and left them out for the pair of them. Although Ann was great friends with Brendan, this was a kind of official talk that priests have with their members of their congregation and so for that reason she decided to go home before Susie arrived. She didn’t want to interfere and she knew she wouldn’t be able to help herself if she stayed.

  A while later Susie was enjoying every morsel of her mother’s home made scones and regretting what they must be doing to her waistline. But that was nothing compared to the mounting anxiety she felt over Angus. He was never late. That’s one of the things they had in common. He was so used to having to abide by schedules at work that he transferred the same attitude to the rest of his life. And if he said four o’clock then normally he meant four o’clock. So why was it now heading towards a quarter to five and still no word?

  ‘Oh Brendan, you don’t think he’s had an accident, do you?’

  ‘I’m sure he hasn’t,’ said Brendan in his best reassuring voice although he was starting to worry himself now too. ‘There’ll be a perfectly logical explanation, Susie. Have you tried the airport to see if his flight was delayed?’

  ‘Do you know, I never thought about that,’ said Susie as she pressed the button on her mobile. Angus had programmed in the airport information number just in case she needed it. She pressed in his flight number but when the automated voice came back with her information her face dropped.

  ‘According to that his flight landed seven minutes early,’ said Susie.

  ‘Well try his mobile again,’ said Brendan now trying to hide his anxiety.

  Susie dialled Brendan’s mobile from her phone once again and it went straight through to voicemail.

  ‘No good,’ she said, anxiously. She dropped the hand that was holding the phone down to her lap. ‘It’s the same as before.’

  ‘And your home landline?’

  Susie dialled her home number but that went to voicemail too.

  ‘I’m going home!’ said Susie quivered. ‘Something’s happened.’

  ‘Now Susie all that will have happened is that he’ll have fallen asleep,’ said Brendan. ‘The man will be tired keeping all those unsocial hours and you’re putting two and two together because it’s getting nearer the big day and you’re getting nervous.’

  ‘Well, we’ll see. Thanks, Brendan.’

  ‘Will you phone me when you get there?’

  ‘Sure,’ said Susie, attempting a smile. ‘I will.’

  ‘Give the man chance to explain himself.’

  ‘Oh I will, Brendan’ said Susie. ‘After I’ve torn a strip off him.
’’

  Just under half an hour later Susie got home and saw that Angus’ car was there. If he had fallen asleep she will not be very bloody impressed. She marched up to her front door but saw that it was slightly ajar. She pushed it open and tried to switch the light on but it wouldn’t work. It was getting dark outside and there were shadows everywhere. That’s when she got scared. She swallowed hard. Something wasn’t right.

  ‘Angus!’ she called out. ‘Angus!’

  She found him slumped in one of the armchairs in the living room. He was covered in blood. His eyes and mouth were both wide open. His throat had been cut.

  Susie stopped, momentarily frozen by shock, before she ran out of the house screaming.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  ‘ Paddy?’ said Angela, who wasn’t getting much out of him today. ‘I can’t talk to myself.’

  ‘Can I go to the funeral, Doc?’

  ‘Rita’s funeral?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Paddy, ‘and will you come with me?’

  ‘I can only ask the prison governor, Paddy, and see what he says.’ said Angela. ‘ I promise you I’ll do that much.’

  ‘And you will come with me?’

  Angela smiled. ‘If you want me to then I’d be glad to come with you, Paddy.’

  ‘Thanks, Doc,’ said Paddy who then brightened a little. ‘So I reckon you want to know what happened after I came out of prison the first time?’

  ‘Yes, and the fact that Andy Cook was alive and testified on your behalf. That must’ve come as quite a surprise?’

  ‘It was and the daft bugger was waiting for me when I got out on Christmas Eve 1978. He’d been coming to see me all the time I’d been in there and if it wasn’t for him, Doc, I’d have had nobody at visiting time.’

  ‘What did he do the day you came out of prison? Did he take you back to his place?’

  ‘Yeah’ said Paddy. ‘He was married by then to a girl called Jolene. Pretty thing she was with long auburn hair and a small, round mouth. They didn’t have much. Just a small unit, sorry, flat, a mile or so outside the city. But they opened it up to me and told me to treat it as my own.’