Blue at Midnight (12 page)

Chapter 27

Being woken up
by a phone call an hour before my alarm panicked me. Today was supposed to be dedicated
to studying. There were no classes but the college was open and we had recently
been given a new assignment. I preferred to complete my work as soon as
possible so I wouldn’t be stressing longer than I needed to be, like many other
students.
 

Surprised to see the
name Coffee Time on my mobile screen I answered the phone to an unfamiliar
voice.

“Hello is this Izzie?”

“Yeah, who is this?” No
matter how much I tried I could never clear the croakiness out of my voice in
the morning.

“Sorry to wake you up
but you were supposed to be here half an hour ago.”

“What? That’s not
right. I checked the rota two days ago and who is this?”

“It’s Cale and it looks
like you must have read it wrong.” Frustrated I told him I’d be there in half
an hour. If he was wrong I’d make sure he wouldn’t be standing around long
enough to finish his shift, let alone give orders! On the taxi ride there,
confusion continued to develop every time I tracked back to the few minutes I
had spent reading that rota. I’d never made a mistake like this before. Having
given the wrong impression of myself to Cale, I hoped he wouldn’t use this
incident to undermine me as I was not in the mood for silly games.

With my mind unprepared
for a shift, I waltzed into the empty coffee house at 9:30 a.m. having missed
the morning rush. Cale was standing behind the coffee bar with the rota in his
hand.

“Have a look for
yourself if you don’t believe me.”
 
My
Sunday shift had been swapped for today and to my horror I noticed every shift
this week was with this smug looking individual.
 

“My shift has been
swapped since the last time I checked.” Cale shrugged in response which I
thought was quite rude.

“Coffee?”

“No I’m fine,” I
answered trying to control the croakiness in my voice.

“Are you sure? You were
in bed roughly thirty minutes ago.” Suddenly, I felt like he’d poured a bucket
of ice-cold water over my head. What I did in my own time was nothing to do
with him. I glanced at him only to see an unexpected smile which played across
his mildly tanned face as he made a hot beverage for two. Yesterday he looked
rather pale but today his skin was radiant.
 

Stop staring at him
shouted a voice in my head. Realising what I’d been doing I busied myself
straightening the chairs and the tables until he offered me a soya chai tea
latte. Clearly, he had been paying more attention than I expected. Knowing
Hugo, the only reason that I would’ve been put on the same shifts as him was to
train him. Craig used to do the training of new employees.

Every couple of minutes
I glanced towards the front door hoping for a flurry of customers but it never
happened. Instead I locked eyes with Cale only to abruptly turn away. Meanwhile
my mind decided to reflect on how I ended up here, feeling like this. Not one
of my best ideas as I started to feel awful. This was his new job and I was
treating him like he had an infectious disease. I looked into the large mirror
on the back wall. Hugo thought this was perfect for spotting any trouble.
 

Cale had actually
finished re-arranging the sandwiches and was now looking through the front
window at the empty street.

“You worked in a coffee
shop before?” I asked, knowing he’d told Hugo he had years of experience. He
didn’t even turn around to face me when he replied.

“I’ve done a lot of
work. My last job was very… would you say the term ‘hands on’ is the right one
to use? I’ve heard it said a lot.” I moved towards him wondering what it was on
the street that had caught his gaze. Next I was standing right next to him,
curiously searching for anything besides cars driving past and the odd elderly
person taking their daily stroll. There was nothing of possible interest there
so I looked back at him, thinking he wouldn’t notice. Little did I know his
face was barely five centimeters from
mine.
He bent
his head, almost aligning his amazingly symmetrical features against mine.
Strangely, for a few seconds I couldn’t move, and my body became a stubborn
structure which my mind was hysterically demanding to move. Finally I broke
free only to misjudge the amount of force required and knocked over a mini vase
of bluebells before hitting the ground myself. Confused by what had just
happened I looked around wondering where the vase had fallen but instead it was
sitting high up on the table looking down at me.

“Izzie, Izzie,” his
voice had a slight echo. What on earth had just happened? I asked myself. Cale
was kneeling down to my left. Wearing a concerned expression he asked me if I
was OK.

“Sorry. I’m OK. I just
slipped.” I hurried myself up and looked around wondering how there wasn’t even
a single drop of water on the table.

“Did you pick up the
vase?”

“No.”

“I thought I’d knocked
it over.”

“You were close but not
close enough,” Cale smiled back. Something was odd; I was feeling a bit
unstable on my feet. Thankfully lunchtime arrived and our first group of
customers washed over the awkward atmosphere as they made their way towards the
counter. Both of us went to serve and nothing was mentioned of this peculiar
incident again. When the queues started to decrease I decided to leave Cale
behind the counter. There were enough customers to keep a single person busy.
This gave me an opportunity to do a stock take in the quickest time ever whilst
pondering over what had happened to me.
 

The more I replayed the
incident in my mind, the more disorientated I became. I was sure of one thing:
something forced me to keep still and that was why I couldn’t move. This all
happened when Cale’s hypnotic glare was upon me. Somehow he was around me as
well as in front of me, crushing me from each direction. I didn’t want to spend
any more time with this person. He was setting my instincts on high alert.

 
At the end of my shift I decided to call Hugo
but then I imagined the conversation we would have. No matter how many times I
reworded it, it sounded unhelpful. Now the cloud above my head was starting to
rain. To work this shift I had cancelled a day of laughs and giggles with
Sonia. No money in the world could have replaced the amount of fun we would
have had. Meanwhile toasting sandwiches and serving as many customers as I
could drove the time forward speedily.
 

“Hello Izzie.” Hugo’s
voice washed all the concern off my face, triggering a smile that stretched
from the right side of the coffee house to the left.

“You’re looking happy
today.”

“It’s working with me,”
interrupted Cale. I could have whacked him across the head with a baguette if I
wasn’t so spooked by him.

“Very funny.
So Hugo, what brings you here? You
working?”
Desperate
for a ‘yes’ I stared at him hoping he could read my eyes whilst Cale
uninvitingly moved closer.

“Well, I got up this
morning and realised I’d forgotten to tell you I changed your shifts so I came
here worried, thinking this poor lad might have been here all by himself but
no, you managed to get here.”

“Oh don’t worry Hugo. I
called Sleeping Beauty this morning to let her know. I’ve got it all under
control.” I just couldn’t help myself so I rudely nudged him with my elbow
before swiftly moving away in case he returned the gesture or even worse. With
Hugo present I was feeling stupidly courageous. The look on Cale’s face showed
an unconcealed grin which made me move to the front of the counter, right next
to Hugo.

“You know I’m flexible,
happy to help. I’ve done the stock take. Also I noticed that you put me on the
same shifts as him.”

“Yes, I thought you
could train him. Is that OK?”

“Urm oh, err yeah
sure,” I lied.

“Right I’m
working the afternoon Izzie. I only put you down on the rota to work till one
and it’s now half past so I’ll take it from here. Unfortunately Leah’s not able
to do the afternoon shift so I’m covering for her.”

This was what it
must’ve felt like to win the lottery. I raced into the back to grab my jacket
then texted Sonia to meet me at a bookstore on the high street. Excited by my
new-found freedom Sonia phoned me back straight away stating that freedom was
something to be celebrated. Therefore, we decided to go to a restaurant with a
bar that also did non-alcoholic beverages for Sonia as she was driving.
 

We spent most of the car
journey discussing the events of my horrible morning. Sonia found it exciting
as it involved an attractive guy. I tied my hair back as the tips felt damp
when I leaned back into my seat. Why was my hair wet? I touched it again and
found my hand damp from a clear liquid… water. We’d had no rain so how could my
hair get wet? The only water I remembered splashing onto me was from the vase
of bluebells but apparently that hadn’t happened.

Chapter 28

Not a single
sign of Cale had been detected lately and Christian was starting to become more
paranoid about whatever plan he’d been plotting. During his walk along a side
street which took him to the old factory, he couldn’t help but notice more
people than usual either carrying or reading the same newspaper. Something had
happened, tensions seemed high. Sitting outside an old sandwich shop sat an
elderly lady, peacefully drinking a cup of tea whilst eating a cucumber
sandwich. On the woven straw chair next to her was the same newspaper, looking
a little ruffled.

Christian approached
the elderly woman who wore a cream woolly cardigan over a peach blouse and a
long woollen skirt. Politely Christian asked if he could read the article on
the front page as it happened to feature a picture of a familiar face.

“Certainly dear.
Terrible news of a poor local boy being poisoned,” she responded. Sitting amid
the scent of lavender with the rays of the sun reflecting off the metal outdoor
table, Christian found himself stunned. According to this newspaper the poison
used was from a marine creature which was yet to be identified. Although there
were no traces of sea water on the victim, this kind of poison wasn’t from this
part of the world.
 

Only if you had access
to all the wonders the sea had to offer, would you be able get hold of such a
rare poison. This wouldn’t even be a challenge for his kind. Yet what did Craig
have to do with all this? Why kill him?
 

“Did you know this
person?” Christian asked the elderly woman who had been peering over his
shoulder, reading the article for what sounded like the tenth time as she kept
reciting some of the phrases to herself.

“No love but I know
Hugo, poor Hugo.” Christian was surprised by the name as he remembered he was
Izzie’s boss.

“What’s Hugo got to do
with all this?”

“Hugo, bless him and
that poor boy,” the concerned woman then suddenly stood up to leave, leaving
Christian rather confused. All I need is a direct response, he thought.
 
She seemed rather fragile so he tried another
approach. Carefully he stood up to move his chair out of her way and asked her
if she’d got all her things.

“Well I think I have.”
She then did the slowest three hundred and sixty degree turn Christian had ever
seen. Children of Orsa, no matter how much they aged, never became as frail as
humans did. Christian tried his best not to stare. When she faced him he took a
step closer and bent over to look directly at her.

“How did Hugo know this
person?” She looked at him as if she was a bit irritated because according to
her she had already told him.

“He worked for Hugo,”
she finally responded.

“At Coffee
Time?”
Christian almost
shouted when the woman picked up the newspaper and showed it to him.

“You must read
carefully son. It’s all in the newspaper. Here you need this more than me by
the look of it!” None of this information was in the newspaper, which was why
Christian had asked her in the first place. However, from that brief encounter
he knew that explaining this to the lady was pointless.
 
Watching her hobble down the street,
Christian was amazed at how she stopped an oncoming car with the wave of a hand
before crossing in front of it, fearlessly.

Christian finally had
the answer he needed: Craig worked at Coffee Time with Izzie. Why didn’t Cale
kill anyone else that worked there? This was the second time Cale had been
linked to the place Izzie worked. That’s when Christian realised why he was
there and not sniffing around her at the college… that was the one place where
she was mostly alone, away from Christian. It was time for him to go and see his
brother.

I didn’t tell
Sonia that I thought Cale had some sort of an unnatural ability. As we parked
up outside the bar/restaurant I wondered what Christian was doing today so I
decided to send him a text message, asking him how he was. Just when I was about
to press the send button I realised I didn’t actually feel confident enough to
do it. I asked Sonia what she’d thought of him and unintentionally expressed a
desire to get to know him better. Sonia barely took a second to think before
accusing me of fancying him. I couldn’t help but laugh it off. It had been a
while since I made a new friend. A lot of people had been highly judgmental of
me except him. After explaining this to Sonia and telling her about the
incident where Christian stopped me from getting myself excluded the first day
back, she was left almost speechless.

“Send him a text. See
how he is,” she ordered looking quite pleased.

“I was thinking of that
but didn’t know what to say.”

“Well he’s kind of a friend
now so ask him how his day is going and if he isn’t doing anything ask him to
join us.” This sounded like a great idea. Unexpectedly he texted back straight
away saying he had some work to do but would definitely see me soon. Seeing the
grin on my face Sonia knew he’d replied and looked more excited than me when I
read out his response.

Four fruit cocktails
and a nacho platter later we decided to go home and make a start on the new
assignment Chidlow had set us.