by R L Stephens
***
Just over an hour later Harry was sitting in the dining room for breakfast, his eyes nervously dashing around the room from behind his paper looking for the unmistakable form of a police officer come to inform of Susan’s complaint. As his eyes darted paranoically from guest to guest and from staff member to staff member Harry was sure that his worst fear was about to come true. Eventually he forced himself to hide behind the newspaper and periodically munch on some toast, while remaining firmly hidden. Then without warning it happened.
“Excuse me sir,” said the over polite voice of the owner of the hand that rustled his newspaper.
“Y-y-yes,” Harry said having just almost leapt five feet in the air from his stationary seated position with fear.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you,” said the waiter and Harry braced himself for the request that he should follow him t reception. “But would you like some tea or coffee?”
“Pardon?” Harry asked still shivering from the unexpected query and wondering whether his ears had deceived him and that he had actually been asked something else entirely.
“Did you want any tea or coffee sir?” The waiter asked again in a more impatient tone of voice that was still laced with politeness that seemed to Harry as if the man could be telling him the most awful things imaginable and yet still make it sound inoffensive and ordinary.
“Oh coffee please,” Harry replied and exhaled a huge sigh of relief as the waiter wondered off without looking back. You really must get a grip Harry; Harry heard a calm, but not very reassuring, voice echo though his mind. But the words were true and he desperately wanted to follow that sensible piece of advice, despite the feeling in the pit of his stomach that at any minute things would happen just as he imagined they would. And every minute that nothing out of the ordinary occurred made him far more anxious that it would any minute, instead of having the calming effect that inaction should have had.
A few minutes later the waiter returned with the requested beverage and Harry earnestly watched him pouring the hot black liquid into his cup and thanked the man when he had finished. A sense of nervous anticipation flowed through every corner of Harry’s being and he couldn’t remember every having had watched another person so closely before for signs that something, anything was amiss, even though it all seemed every bit as normal and ordinary as it should.
“Oh is it too late for a fried breakfast?” Harry asked just before the waiter was about to turn and leave, more giving the other man a chance to say something than from a real concern that he had missed out on bacon and eggs that morning.
“No sir, please help yourself to the buffet,” the waiter added and then casually turned and walked away to serve the next guest. As he did so Harry could still feel his heart beating, or rather more like pounding, his chest with unfulfilled anticipation and expectation.
After that Harry did indeed have a hearty breakfast and as he made his way through bacon, two fried eggs, a couple of hash browns, mushrooms and four more rounds of toast Harry finally began to relax. The occasional nervous glance around the room couldn’t detect anyone who even remotely looked as though they were watching, and by the time he had finished eating Harry felt considerably calmer than he had when had woken up those hours before with a strange woman in his bed.
Feeling more than a little stuffed Harry soon found himself back in his hotel and feeling like just climbing back into bed and trying to forget the events of last night and this morning. Instead though he fell back on the bed and starred up at the ceiling. Things are definitely getting out if hand, Harry thought to himself as he considered everything that had happened recently. But then nailed his sails to the masts of certain decisions that he had made over the last eighteen months or so and there was no going back now.
That wasn’t completely untrue as Harry probably could to slip back into his former life and continue where he had left off. But he had lost contact with most of his former friends and colleagues, and there would be a massive gap of almost two years that he would need to explain away. Trying to start a new life, as he had decided to all those months ago, had been far easier to sip into. New friends and acquaintances needed little or no explanation, just a convincing and consistent storyline that he could easily trot out as required. The hard part had been trying to set up a new history for him in terms of education and employment as, while he did have some money in the bank, he would eventually need a source of income.
New, very convincing false identity documents he had found surprisingly easy to come by, but the trouble would start when a new employer tried to get references and trace his background. He was fairly confident that things were in place so that this would be relatively painless for Harry. But there was always that nagging doubt that something could go wrong or that he had missed something. In any case it may be too late now as he was pretty confident that the interview he had attended the day before went well enough for them to offer him the job. If not then this whole trip would turn out to have been a complete waste of time.
Speaking of time, Harry thought as he reached for his mobile and checked to make sure he wasn’t running late for his train. And while he was still in time, he didn’t have much to spare so he all but sprang off the bed and quickly packed his things in his overnight bag. No more than fifteen minutes later Harry was striding out of the room toward the elevator which would take him to reception so that he could check out. Fifteen minutes after that he was climbing into a taxi that would take him the station in order to catch his train. And he arrived at the station with more than enough time to buy a paper, a coffee for the trip back to Manchester and find the right platform. All of which was done without any kind of incident whatsoever and Harry more than thankful that.
With twenty minutes of the train leaving Euston station Harry found himself leaning back in his seat and trying to doze off. While he didn’t mind long train journeys, Harry did like to try and close his and let his mind wonder a little, or failing that to read a newspaper, magazine or book. Anything to try to make the journey go quicker, but regardless he soon found himself approaching his destination.