MERCURY'S SECRET

by Tobias Roote

  Abbey looked fondly at them both as they chatted away and she occasionally looked over at me with a quiet smile that said she was more than content.

  I envied her the peace as I did John’s. Their lifestyle was working out perfectly for them here and you could see the years had gentled away much of the evidence of a hard lifestyle that had preceded it.

  They had carried the family through some troubled times. His government career had put him in some of the worst places on earth with little, or no support from his superiors and at times, this had resulted in severe hardships for his first wife who had to bring the children up almost single handed while John was abroad and out of touch, often for months at a time.

  Alice was the youngest of the five and the only one who had managed to not settle down. Although if the smidgen of information that had come out of East Africa was true she had nearly got hitched to a local and John was now sitting here counting his blessings as well as the cows, goats and sheep he did not have to hand over as a dowry.

  I didn’t know much of what had transpired except that she had somehow got caught up in some political affair and had to be pulled out of wherever she was, involving diplomatic measures and John’s personal intervention. The earlier look I had received from Alice I thought was related to that, a bad experience perhaps, wanting to be forgotten. That would be understandable.

  Much later, we were sitting in the lounge and chatting amiably; Mercury made himself a new friend by smooching up to Alice. She had decided to sit on the same sofa as me, so we were able to talk without disturbing John who was having a conversation with himself, as he tried to talk to his crony down at the boatyard using his iphone and an earplug.

  John isn’t the quietest chap, ever.

  Abbey was doing the washing up, consisting of rinsing stuff down and loading the dishwasher, a machine that I solidly detested and wanted nothing to do with.

  I heard the phone ring in the kitchen and then Abbey’s voice as she answered it. She spoke for a few minutes, a serious sounding conversation before calling to John to hang up his call and join her in the kitchen.

  Mercury was sprawled half on Alice's lap and half on the sofa, a move he would have regretted instantly if I had been my usual stern self, but Alice had softened even my edges this evening. I decided to let it go for now. I could break him of that habit in a second. His sly look over at me while having his tummy rubbed told me that he knew it too.

  Alice took the opportunity of us being on our own to put her arm through mine and cuddle into my shoulder. I was surprised, but she made it seem so natural I thought nothing of it.

  “You know, I feel like I have known you for years, its a weird feeling to actually meet you for the first time tonight,” she smiled up at me.

  “I suppose its a little the same here. Your Dad, as you realise, is very proud of your achievements and has spent many a lunchtime talking my ears off about you. Abbey, in her usual way is quietly proud too, but she lets your Dad do all the talking. She just adores you from afar,” I said looking at her pert nose which tweaked as she smiled.

  I could only wonder if I had been twenty years younger what might have happened. I must have sighed because she grabbed hold of my arm tighter.

  “That was a sound of regret Dan. You missing something, or someone?” she asked a little too perceptively for comfort.

  I laughed quickly changing the subject and we spent the next half hour talking about the smallholding and the workload, as well as the island's economy. It didn't seem to matter what we talked about, it just seemed casual and easy. She was right, it was just like we had spent years together, things were very relaxed.

  When John came back in, his mood had changed dramatically. He was worried, I could tell, so when Abbey also walked in and I saw the tired pinched look between her eyes that she gets when one of her goats is sick, I knew there was something brewing.

  “Is everything all right? You both look a little shook up.” I looked at Alice who had also suddenly paled, did she know something about what was going on?

  John remained pensive for a moment and then his mood changed again as he answered. “No, Dan, just an old friend who needed some help and advice. Nothing to worry about.” He fiddled with his iphone while Abbey sat in her chair and bravely smiled.

  As was my way I never interfered in their lives other than to enjoy their companionship, even when they asked for advice or viewpoints I always made sure I kept it all at arms length. Their problems never needed a third person’s involvement to complicate things.

  John and Abbey worked hard for the rest of the evening to recover the atmosphere. Alice and I both felt for them and rallied. We chatted on and it eventually settled down to an amiable mood once again, the undertones still felt in the room, though dully.

  Eventually, as it got late, I moved off the sofa ready to do my last evening check with Mercury. It was a habit we had gotten into after a few late night raids of the animal shed had all but left Abbey bereft of chickens and rabbits.

  My routine was to traverse the property carrying the shotgun and a torch with a searchlight beam. In the two years I had lived at the cottage we had chased off two sets of intruders and there had been none at all for the last eighteen months. It was a very good habit.

  “I’m off to the gun cupboard, John. Thanks for dinner Abbey. As always, I love your food, but look forward to walking it off as well. I will see you soon - ‘Miss Alice’,” I winked and smiled to show I was winding her up.

  Mercury, visibly reluctant, slid off Alice’s lap and came to heel without being asked. He knew his duty and took it as seriously as I did. Nonetheless, he wasn’t happy at leaving what was a cushy lap and attentive scratcher.

  Alice was looking up at me concerned at the sudden mention of a gun. She hesitated, as if to ask something, but changed her mind and looked quizzically at John instead. Abbey looked at her and then at me, a slight frown on her face. Not knowing what any of it was about, I called out my goodnights and with that, Mercury and I left to enjoy the night air, sharing it with the cicadas and the bats.

  As we walked through the night I contemplated the evenings happenings.

  Firstly, Alice. She was amazing! I knew I was being drawn to her and like a moth to a flame, I knew I would get burned. I didn't understand the development there, not being the type of bloke to be attractive to women, I was an ex soldier, remote, isolated, apart. I didn't do relationships, especially with young women. My usual acerbic qualities that I used to keep them at bay had been missing tonight. I briefly wondered at that.

  Despite all this Alice had warmed to me, I could sense her proximity like heat from a radiator. She wasn't the kind of girl to not know what she was doing, so I had to assume she was intentionally flirting with me tonight and I hadn't minded. I shook my head in the darkness not making much sense even to myself. In matters of this nature, I was often lost.

  I missed the security that being married and having a daughter gave me. I missed the cocoon they built around me with their presence. Their love and lives rooted me when I was home and gave me the reason to keep going when I was away. But the accident had ripped them away from me, I was just getting used to being on my own again.

  Now, I suddenly felt exposed, something about this situation was unsettling me. I decided I needed to tread carefully around Alice, although I didn’t feel as though I was the one in charge of that little matter.

  Then there was Abbey and John. Something had occurred tonight and I wound back my thinking to a couple of months ago. John had disappeared after a series of long phone calls. He had called out to me as he left saying he would get back when he could, but things had gone pear shaped abroad and he had to sort them out, a mercy mission he joked.

  His eyes weren't laughing then, they were not smiling tonight either.

  Still, it wasn't any of my business and despite living really close, we did generally keep our lives separate and each other at arms length. My previous history had left me physically
as well as mentally scarred and unable to form trusting relationships. They, in turn, I knew, had dark secrets they were holding onto and these were bound to rear their ugly heads occasionally. That said, we had as close a friendship that the three of us could manage given the circumstances.

  I thought back to my arrival on the Island, I had retired from a career that most people never get the chance to leave. Yet, I had been required to make concessions and promises to get the release to walk away. I didn’t look over my shoulder, not quite. It wouldn’t take much to set me off though, and I felt that tonight was just one of those situations that set my warning bells ringing. I decided to keep an eye on things for a while, something was not right.

  CHAPTER 3

  It was four days later when I finally had the chance to go out on the bike. John had to shoot off all over the place on errands and Abbey was testing her new camera out. I managed to get a good shot of her and John on my terrace before he left. I’m not the world’s greatest at taking people’s pictures, but Abbey was ecstatic and rushed off with her new purchase mentioning something about macro photography.

  I had only seen Alice once during that time when she surfaced from her slumber to drive John off to the airport. She wasn’t avoiding me, but I think I might have been keeping my distance. I do that, a lot.

  As soon as I jingled the keys at him, Mercury knew he was off on an outing. He leapt onto the bike seat and crept forward until his front paws were on the steering bar. Being a small dog, he could straddle the tank to gain relative stability and keep his back legs pressed against the front of the seat.

  Not legal, but he loved it and the local people did too. He was a bit of a celebrity, was my Mercury.

  The Island did have rules and regulations, particularly for cars and motorbikes. However, with only three policemen on the Island it made sense for them to keep the locals happy and minimise their workload.

  In return, the locals provided support as needed. The villagers, using a system of ruling Elders, had been self regulating their municipalities for over five hundred years.

  As a result, most of the locals ignored rules about wearing helmets on their bikes. Roads being what they are, they couldn’t get up a high speed anyway. The majority of riders were on small engined mopeds and scooters which rarely got past twenty miles an hour. So, when I used my bike I followed the local trend enabling me to blend in, I was accepted as a local which suited me perfectly.

  It was a hot morning, summer had arrived with a vengeance. Already I could see the ground drying hard as concrete and wisps of drying vegetation. As I rode the flow of air cooled the perspiration already starting to build, and by the time we reached the road I was feeling much cooler.

  When we stopped at the Post Office I was just about to get off the bike when a white car with the logo of the local Police pulled up alongside. My friend Spiro leaned out smiling, his aviator sunglasses hid hawkish eyes that would fix on you and hold you in their grip.

  A good police sergeant, Spiro knew the best way to keep the law was to tread softly, the big stick was never in evidence unless he thought it was going to be needed. We had an understanding.

  “Good Morning, Dan,” he put his left hand out for me to grasp. We did a left-handed shake.

  “Your new friend up at the house, she is cute, eh?” he smiled revealing his gold tooth which perversely always made me think of an old drug boss I had come across in South America.

  I laughed, “Yes, she’s cute all right and you are just old enough for her to call grandfather, so stop dreaming!”

  “Pah! If a man cannot dream, then he’s not long for his deathbed, neh?”

  I looked at him, he didn’t usually stop to chat about his libido, I kept quiet giving him time to get around to his reason for stopping. It didn’t take long.

  Removing his aviators he looked at me, the chiselled look I had come to respect was there, this was business.

  “Why have I had enquiries about your boss, ‘Mr Crouch’ in the last week, eh?” he emphasised John’s name and I could tell from his expression he was deadly serious about something.

  “He has been doing a lot of travelling recently. My officers tell me they have seen him go through the departure gate at least half a dozen times in as many weeks.” He paused.

  “That wife of his, Abbey is it? She has been gone too, but not together, or at the same time. Do you not think that strange, my friend?” he looked at me, eyebrow cocked in my direction.

  I did think it strange. They had done that on the quiet, I hadn’t noticed their absence more than a couple of times. Still, it was their business I wouldn’t gossip about them not even with Spiro. A man had to know where his loyalty lay. An innocent word on my part might cause mayhem for them. Say nothing, regret nothing.

  I still had to respond. “You know bosses, Spiro, they never think to tell the hired help what they’re up to. I do know he went overseas to help his daughter, you know, that cute young lady you saw?” I attempted to misdirect his instinct a little. Whatever John and Abbey had been up to it wouldn’t have been illegal, I was certain.

  I was equally sure that they wouldn’t want anyone drawing attention to them either. Or me, for that matter. One might lead to the other and neither of us wanted that.

  “You know Dan, I trust you, right? So, if you knew something was happening that I should know about, as opposed to not needing to know about, you would tell me, right?” His eyes searched my face looking for the affirmation he expected to see there. Seeing what he needed, he pushed his sunglasses back onto his nose; as he put his car into gear ready to move off he left me with a parting comment.

  “You be careful up there Dan, I don’t want to be visiting you anytime soon, okay, my friend?” He emphasised the ‘friend’ bit, like it might be a question as to whether we still were. I hoped so.

  I saluted him with a friendly nod and remained sitting on the bike watching pensively as his vehicle drove off. A hundred metres on, it swung left and out of sight.

  “Now, what was all that about, eh, Mercury?” I muttered absently while patting him lightly on his head as I contemplated Spiro’s warning.

  When he mentioned ‘not needing to know’ I knew he was referring back to when I had resolved a local problem with a gang of thieves using illegals to conduct raids on homes and small businesses. He had found himself with a compound full of illegal immigrants who swore they had paid a local hood to work on the Island. They were unable to question anyone, the gang had since disappeared.

  After he had worked out what had probably happened from local coffee shop gossip and interviewing illegals, he came to me and questioned me extensively until he had established that either I had nothing to do with any of this, or was never going to say. Since then local elders always invited me to their official festivals. I was always seated on his table with his family and enjoyed ‘honoured’ status. The matter was never discussed again.

  He was now telling me that something was bothering him. I trusted his instincts which immediately became mine as I felt a weight settle deeper in the pit of my stomach. Trouble was coming in my direction, or John’s. Either way it was a problem. The premonition I had acquired a couple of nights ago had just got stronger.

  The rest of the day Mercury and I ran errands. He enjoyed the attention of friends while I paid bills and ordered supplies for the house.

  He loved these trips out and got excited with the speed despite occasionally being rewarded with a zap on the head from a colliding insect when he poked his nose above the windshield.

  Finished for the day, the heat still shimmering on the tarmac, we arrived at our turning looking forward to the shade of the grove and a long cold drink.

  As we made our way onto the track back up to the house I espied a distant walker trudging up the hill, cutting a fine figure in tight khaki shorts and thin red T shirt, the tanned body looked fit and strong. Something about them set of a distant twitch in my subconscious. I was getting paranoid after meeting Spiro
.

  Many hikers used the trails running between hills and villages it was part of the pull of the Island; an ancient network made up from hundreds of years of olive pickers working the groves.

  As we approached I realised it was Alice. She turned smiling at me as I slowed, Mercury barking a greeting for both of us.

  The damp had given her tightly fitted T shirt a degree of transparency and it clung to the curve of her body leaving little to the imagination. Tanned legs carried a sheen of perspiration from a hard and long work out. She looked like a real-life Lara Croft, but without the holsters.

  Close up she looked hot, small dew beads collected around her neck and chest, droplets running down between her breasts which, despite being bra-less, were rounded and firm; her nipples showed as slightly darker through the material drawing my attention.

  When I finally pulled my eyes up to hers she was smiling, taking enjoyment from my immediate discomfort at being caught in the lustful pursuit of her body.

  I knew I should know better with the age difference being what it was, so in penance I paid extra attention to her eyes which still glittered and her mouth which now had an amused smirk, sure she was laughing at me, I probably deserved it.

  “You look like you could do with a cold beer, did you want a lift the rest of the way?”

  She looked at me questioningly, then at the bike then without another word she slipped her leg over the pillion and flipping down the footpegs planted her feet. Then, leaning forward so she could pat Mercury, she made contact with my back. As I felt her heat she pressed herself harder against me as if willing me to respond. Something stirred deep within. I fought the urge to lean back and increase the contact. I was suddenly in need of that cold beer!

  The ride up the track was virtual torture, Alice remained pressed to my back as she fought to keep steady on the robust ride to the cottage. As a result I was overly conscious of the heat she gave off, her breasts rubbing against me distracting me almost to the point of stalling the bike.