Salt

by David Chambers

  Dan had found a good one. A very good one and he was definitely going to keep hold of her. His skin crawled as he listened to these words coming from her rapist’s mouth. ‘Are you married?’ Dan wanted to stop thinking about Emma.

  ‘Me no. I enjoy the single life too much. I don’t want anyone complaining about my trips to the pub.’ Jaz smiled as he spoke.

  I bet you don’t. Don’t want anyone interrupting your raping either do you, you bastard. ‘Do you live alone then? It’s a big house for one person.’

  ‘It is but for now it’s just me. Maybe one day I’ll settle down but for now it’s just me in here.’ Jaz said.

  ‘One day then maybe. How much do you want for the table?’ Dan asked glad Jaz lived alone.

  ‘Well the reserve is four hundred and I’m sure it’ll be met. I’d want that to end the auction really.’

  ‘It’s a little more than I was hoping to pay to be honest, would you take three fifty?’ Dan said running his fingers around the table edge.

  ‘I don’t think I could go that low.’ Jaz said his face showing the pain of accepting lower than the reserve.

  ‘Ok, what about splitting the difference then? Cash.’ Dan held out his hand to shake on the deal.

  ‘Three seven five. Cash. Yeah ok then, since it’s for a good reason. Deal.’ Jaz took his hand and shook it.

  ‘Great. Good job I brought my wallet then’ Dan slipped his billfold out of his right-side pocket and opened it.

  ‘I’ll just go get you a receipt. Won’t be a minute.’ Jaz left the conservatory and went back into the front room.

  Dan counted out the correct amount of money and placed it on the table, he closed his wallet and dropped it on the floor behind him. He picked up the money from the table as Jaz walked back into the room.

  ‘There you go.’ Dan said handing the money to Jaz.

  ‘You don’t mind if I count it? Jaz said already starting to count the money out onto the table. ‘Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, one, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, two, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, three and twenty, forty, sixty, seventy and five. Three seventy-five, perfect. Here’s your receipt, it obviously doesn’t come with a warranty or anything but I like to keep a record of what I’ve sold.’

  Shit Dan thought, trails were a bad thing although a cash payment was as good as anonymous as you could get nowadays. Dan took the receipt from Jaz and slipped it into the pocket where his wallet should be.

  ‘Are you ok carrying it while I get the doors?’ Jaz asked.

  ‘Yeah, no problem, it doesn’t look heavy.’ Dan said folding down the leaves of the table and lifting it to his chest.

  Jaz walked back through the house, Dan followed him careful not to catch any furniture with the table legs. Jaz reached the front door and opened it, standing aside for Dan to go past with the table.

  ‘Shit.’ Dan said putting the table down on the floor and patting his pockets.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Jaz asked.

  ‘Sorry. I think I left my wallet in there somewhere.’ Dan sad still checking his pockets as if his wallet had come straight from Hogwarts and knew how to fly.

  ‘No problem’ Jaz said stepping past the table and walking through the house again.

  Dan moved to the bowl and picked up the BMW key, there were three other keys on the ring. He didn’t have chance to see what they fitted so he put them all into his pocket as Jaz walked back into the hall.

  ‘Here it is, you must’ve dropped it.’ Jaz said holding out the wallet to Dan.

  ‘Thanks, it’d be a nightmare having to cancel all my cards.’ Dan said slipping the wallet back into his pocket. He picked up the table and walked outside to the driveway. Dan paused and turned. I don’t suppose I could use your toilet could I please? It’s a long drive back.’

  ‘No problem mate, course you can. It’s just upstairs and to the right.’

  Dan put the table down on the drive and walked back towards the door. ‘Cheers mate, I appreciate it.’

  Jaz stepped aside and watched as Dan walked up the stairs. He paused at the top and looked around.

  ‘It’s just to the right mate.’ Jaz called up the stairs.

  ‘Cheers.’ Dan called back looking around the landing. The decor was as tired upstairs, but luckily the doors were all open. Dan could easily see which room was Jaz’s bedroom, all the others were piled with boxes and furniture. He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind himself, he counted to twenty, flushed the chain and ran the tap for a few seconds before walking back downstairs. He walked past Jaz and picked up the table. ‘Thanks for that.’

  Jaz called goodbye as he walked away but Dan kept walking until he reached the street.

  ‘Suit yourself then.’ Jaz said shrugging his shoulders and closing the door.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  It was full dark. Council budget cuts meant that every other street light was turned off. Dan smiled, there was no light outside the house. He pulled onto the curb and turned off his headlights. The road was quiet, it wasn’t the kind of place that had much activity at midnight. People would be sleeping or doing whatever people in villages did at night. He opened the door and cursed under his breath when the interior light turned on, it was the only light source for fifty metres so stood out like a firework. Dan shut the door quickly but it remained on, he didn’t want to lock the doors because then the indicators would flash so he left it as he walked towards the drive. He thought to himself that he would need to turn the interior lights off when they do this for real or maybe even remove the bulbs.

  Dan pulled his hoodie up tight around his head, he might look more suspicious but his concern was people not seeing his face. He took the BMW keys from his pocket and checked the house key was attached to the ring.

  It was so he walked towards the driveway. He looked around the hedgerow, there were no lights on in the house. He nodded to himself and jogged to the front door keys in hand. Dan stood still at the door, the house was quiet and dark, Jaz must be in bed. He needed to be fast and quiet, his pulse thumped in his ears as he put the key to the lock. He pushed slowly, feeling each tumbler lift as he slid the key home.

  He turned and jogged back out onto the street, forcing himself to slow to a walk as he reached the pavement. The car lit again as he opened the door but started as soon as he pushed the engine start button, the Audi’s keyless start system saving him seconds. He turned in the road, keen to head back into the countryside where he wouldn’t be seen on CCTV.

  He passed the Thank You sign and accelerated along the dark lane, smiling to himself that Jaz would spend the first fifteen minutes of tomorrow searching for his keys before convincing himself that he had been stupid enough to leave them in the door. Any hawkeyed Neighbourhood Watch busybodies might mention they saw someone at his door at night but then what self-respecting burglar wouldn’t steal from a house with the keys already in the door.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  Dan joined the queue of traffic entering the carpark, it looked like he was driving into a giant version of the pin art sculpture he’d received one Christmas when he was at the age between wanting toys and money. He’d loved it but there were only so many times you could press it against body parts before it gathered dust on a shelf. The traffic inched forward and soon he was inside and could no longer see the exterior of the building inspired by a Paco Rabanne dress. Underneath the Selfridges building was a carpark much the same as any other shopping mall carpark, the first few valuable spaces now taken up with a car wash promising a range of premium and convenient valeting services.

  Dan had never liked the idea of leaving his car with strangers at a car wash and today certainly wasn’t the day to try new things. Today was a shopping day but not one involving wandering around for ages looking at nothing and drinking coffee.

  He carried the cash he’d withdrawn during the week and his note filled Moleskine with the shopping list that had taken so much thought. He didn’t plan on being in Birmingham longer
than he had to. He spotted a parking space and pulled into it, luckily it didn’t have a small car hiding inside so he was able to park. He locked the car and walked to the lifts.

  The shopping centre was busier than he expected. The crowd was the usual mix, teenagers on phones walking four abreast, stressed parents trying to keep their children together, couples on shopping trips and groups of girls buying clothes and make up. Dan stood still for a moment people watching, the first thing he noticed was that almost nobody had empty hands. Everyone carried coffee cups or mobile phones, sometimes both while the shopping bags took a minor role and hung from whichever hand wasn’t being used for caffeine or conversation. People passed either side of him like a bollard, some showed their displeasure at having to change path with a tut or sigh. All this done without making eye contact with him or each other. Teenagers seemed especially evolved to walk without lifting their eyes from their phones and only occasionally came to a standstill when they met a lesser evolved adult who wasn’t sure whether to step to the left or right. Most impressively they managed the task while wearing headphones to remove another sense. He was confused how these same teenagers could navigate a busy shopping mall without sight or sound were completely unable to find anywhere without using Google Maps.

  Dan shook his head when he realised how old he sounded moaning about teenagers and reminded himself that he was here for a reason. He walked through the crowd without the aid of his mobile phone or coffee cup until he reached the escalator. Dan joined the queue between the red tensile barriers and shuffled along until he reached the metal steps and moved upwards.

  He hated crowds. Nobody would believe him because of the amount of time he spent working in London and the inevitable tube journeys but most people didn’t understand that in London the rush hour crowds are terrible but have uniformity. Everyone moving in the same direction. The opposite direction separated by a physical barrier so the only factor becomes how fast you want to move. Stand on the right or walk on the left, have your payment card ready at the barrier and there were no issues. Everyone had a purpose at rush hour but here it was random. It was almost as bad as an airport where people stop at the top of an escalator completely unaware that the escalator will continue to deliver people to the spot they’ve stopped in.

  Luckily there were no stair stoppers today but there was a mix of the rushed and the seemingly lost, the young phone watchers and the old wanderers who were still amazed at how much shops had changed. He stepped around them all and headed for the door.

  The natural light was dull compared to the artificial brightness but the walk was only short until reaching the other doors to take him back inside. To his right was St Martins Church, it had stood there for hundreds of years and somehow the angular listed architecture worked well with the curvy pin art next door. He had no idea how many times he had walked past the church without going inside. He promised himself that one day he’d go inside although he had made the same promise every time he walked past. He decided that today was not the day to go inside, he doubted that God would approve of his plans. Well the New Testament God of forgiveness wouldn’t approve, he certainly wasn’t planning on turning the other cheek. The Old Testament God might approve, he hadn’t actually read the Bible but from what he remembered from his Religious Education classes the Old Testament God had taken a much harder line on revenge. He promised himself that he would look it up once it was done, maybe when he visited St Martins.

  Through the doors the crowd was less obstructive so he had less trouble walking towards Selfridges though he stopped before he got there. He didn’t want Selfridges, now he thought about it, he could do with another shirt since Emma had developed a habit of appropriating his. His shirts were expensive and he needed them for work but she did wear them exceptionally well, his shirt and a little Victoria Secret thong was the sexiest outfit Emma could wear. He smiled as he remembered how the shirt made her look small and fragile and hid her completely unless she left the buttons unfastened which he was sure she did on purpose. His smile grew as he remembered how when she walked the back of the shirt would sometimes expose a little flash of her bum which was somehow more arousing than seeing her completely naked. She looked amazing naked, better than anyone he had been with before but somehow a flash of skin got him excited and feeling like a fourteen-year-old boy. He would get a new shirt, right after he bought the other stuff, definitely a new shirt and maybe one that was shorter at the back.

  First, he had to get the items on his list. He walked to The North Face shop, he saw what he wanted immediately, the Rolling Thunder luggage. He’d researched the suitcase online and knew it was the one for him but he hadn’t wanted a credit card payment linking it to him. It was the large version he needed and now seeing it in real life it looked plenty big enough for his needs.

  He rolled it down from its stand and stood beside it, it stood to his hips and was wider than he was around his waist. He didn’t think he’d fit inside it, he was sure Emma could, though neither of them would. It was perfect.

  ‘Are you looking for anything in particular?’ The sales assistant asked.

  He wore a branded sweatshirt and looked all of thirteen years old. ‘I’d like one of these please?’ Dan said pointing to the bag.

  ‘Good choice, it’s our biggest bag. I’m not sure if anyone does anything comparable. It should last you a long time too. Are you going somewhere specific?’

  ‘No, I just need a new bag for camping and this one has good reviews.’

  ‘Well it’s a good choice, just follow me to the till and I’ll get you one from the back.’

  ‘Great.’ Dan said putting the bag back on its stand and walking to the till. It was an expensive bag and the durability would be wasted but the last thing he wanted was it tearing at an unfortunate moment. He waited and the shop assistant appeared with the bag wrapped in plastic.

  ‘Here we go, we only had black is that ok?’

  ‘Yes, no problem. Can you unwrap it for me please? I’ve got some more shopping to do and I may as well use that instead of carriers.’ Dan said

  ‘Of course.’ He scanned the barcode into the till. ‘That’s two hundred and sixty pounds.’

  ‘Ok’ Dan said counting the money out of his wallet. He passed it to the sales assistant and waited as he put it into the till and printed the receipt.

  ‘There you go.’ The sales assistant said handing the receipt to Dan. He then began to pull the plastic from the bag and put it in the dustbin behind the counter.

  He rolled the case to Dan.

  ‘Thank you very much.’ Dan said as he took it from him and walked out of the shop.

  He walked straight into Jack Wolfskin shop next door. He needed another bag and wanted to buy this separately. He didn’t know why but it made sense to him. He felt conspicuous wheeling around a suitcase but anyone who bought one must have done the same.

  Dan spotted the ruck sacks and walked straight to them, he hadn’t done any research into these but he knew roughly what he wanted. He stood the Rolling Thunder beside him and began looking through the smaller bags which were now called day packs. He liked the second one he picked up, it was black, had plenty of pockets inside and was called Daytona 30. He had no idea why the bag was named after a very short version of the famous car race but the bag was perfect. Dan picked up two Daytona’s and carried them to the check out.

  ‘Did you find everything you wanted?’ An almost identical sales assistant asked with a paw print t shirt instead of next doors sweatshirt.

  ‘I did thanks, it’s ideal.’ Dan said.

  ‘Excellent, are you going anywhere nice?’ They asked the same questions as well as looked the same.

  ‘No just upgrading some old stuff.’ Dan said handing the cash to the sales clone.

  ‘Ok cool, thank you.’ Clone said. ‘And here’s your receipt. Would you like a bag?’

  ‘No thanks, I’ll use this.’ Dan said slipping the day packs into the Rolling Thunder. ‘Thank you very
much. He walked out of the shop.

  He still felt obvious walking with such a big suitcase but he headed towards Selfridges.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

  Dan stepped off the bus alone, nobody else wanted off at that stop and he didn’t blame them. A boy with a red cap and a moustache he was trying hard to grow tried to get on before Dan stepped off, doing his best to push past. The white headphones of his iPod made it pointless for Dan to protest. ‘Twat.’ He thought and shook his head.

  It was lunchtime so the streets were mostly empty, he walked the two hundred metres to the rental company dodging dog shit and cracked paving slabs. It was the kind of area where Staffordshire Bull Terrier owners ignored the council signs urging owners to clean up after their dogs.

  He arrived at the rental company and walked across the pot hole peppered car park, it was located in a piece of abandoned ground between rows of terraced houses. It felt like an odd place to put a hire car company, he would return the vehicle to a different depot but this had been the easiest to get to on public transport. He wondered how long it would be before the land became more houses as he kicked a squashed Coke can aside. Dan climbed three stairs and entered the porta cabin. To his left was a desk covered in paperwork with a middle-aged woman sitting behind a grubby looking computer.

  ‘Hello, my names Dan Browne. I’ve got a van booked for the weekend.’ He stepped forward so he could see the woman sat behind the screen.

  ‘Hello.’ She said her eyes moved from the screen to his, she smiled and then went back to the screen. ‘Browne. Dan Browne like the writer?

  ‘Yes, though sadly not as rich and with an E on the end.’ Dan said.

  ‘I bet you get that a lot though?’ She asked.

  ‘Not as much as I used to.’

  ‘Must be annoying. Just a moment.’ She said.

  ‘I’m used to it to be honest.’ Dan said.