Duplicity (3 page)

There was no way that she would allow some escaped circus freak to terrorise her in her own home. She slid out her sharpest knife from the wooden block and hurried back into the living room.

She noticed the top window was wide open as soon as she entered the room. The window ought to be closed, Eileen licked her lips.

“I’ve got a very sharp knife, whatever you are. I don’t have a problem with sticking this into you.”

There was no answer, not that she expected one. Eileen glanced around the room, her eyes darting from underneath the armchair to behind the television, they were the only places something that small could hide; she was sure that it hadn’t sneaked past her.

She shuffled closer to the window until the garden came into view. There was nothing there, no dropped stick and certainly no five foot troll. Eileen glanced at the knife in her hand then clamped down on an hysterical giggle. It had either run off or, more likely she’d imagined the whole bloody episode.

It could have been a very bizarre and vivid hallucination caused by a recent change in her medication. She wouldn’t have put it past that stupid doctor of her to have prescribed the wrong dosage or even given her something else by mistake.

“I ought to have him struck off for giving me such a bloody scare. I’ll be seeing giant green rabbits next.”

Eileen pressed her nose against the glass and checked her garden again. There was nothing out of place. Maybe it was the onset of senility. Mrs. Williams at number forty-eight started seeing things before she went loopy.

Eileen turned around, she saw her cup of tea and let out a heavy sigh Her tea would be cold now. That would never do, she’d have to make a fresh one to calm her nerves, she could put the knife away too before she hurt herself with it. She padded over to the coffee table and reached for her cup when the front room window exploded, showering her back with glass shards.

There was no time for her to draw breath before something heavy landed on her shoulders the weight knocked her off balance and she fell forward, her face smashing into the carpet.

The creature on top of her grunted then opened its mouth and bit deep. Eileen Mitchell felt a hundred needles pierce her neck then she felt no more.

Chapter Four

He’d put on a bit of weight. The thought of Henry’s best friend, William Norton getting heavy around his sides, brought a slight smile to Henry’s lips. It was the first event, this morning that had.

He checked his watch; they had twenty minutes before they were both due back to work at half past ten. The trip to the sandwich shop on their morning break to buy their lunch had been part of their daily routine now, for the past en years, ever since the shop had opened.

Back in those days, before the invasion of the American franchises, the workers had to put up with the less than edible canteen food. The sandwich shop had been like a breath of fresh air but at lunchtime, the queues had been out of the door and around the corner.

It hadn’t taken long for other fast food shops to spring up around town. Now, the sandwich shop had plenty of competition, even though, it still did a decent trade around mid-day.

The two men may have missed their mid-morning coffee but that was no great loss and the bonus of slipping into town denied them dubious pleasure of tolerating the noise of a canteen full of over two hundred middle-aged women bitching on for twenty minutes about inconsequential bullshit.

Oh yes, he could definitely see a bit of squeezed flesh by the man’s hips. Henry chuckled to himself, he couldn’t help it; this was the man who boasted that he could eat anything and not put on a single ounce of weight. Perhaps he ought to ask for low fat mayo to go on his two cheese salad sandwiches.

William skidded to a halt and spun around. “And just what the heck are you giggling for?” he paused, “And why are you staring at my arse?”

There was no doubt in Henry’s mind those blue faded jeans were way too small for William. “You’re getting fat, Billy boy. It looks to me like middle age spread has finally caught up with you.”

William pulled a hurt face before patting his stomach. “That’s crap,” he retorted. “I’m at the peak of my physical fitness.”

“Is why your sexy wife had to squeeze you into those jeans with the help of a tub of Vaseline and a crowbar?”

William dug his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans, with his slouched gait and sullen expression, he now looked more like the teenager the man so desperately tried to emulate. The expensive trainers, grey designer shirt and floppy, dirty blonde hair just completed the look.

Henry felt that he may have touched a bit of a sore point in reminding his best friend of his own mortality. Henry decided to keep any further insults regarding his age and imminent downward spiral into pension land to himself for the moment.

“So what’s wrong with you today, Henry? All this aggressiveness from you this early is most unlike you.” William clicked his fingers and beamed, “Of course! You’re jealous.”

Henry laughed.

“You’ve finally realised that I’m so much better than you and it’s eating into you like acid.”

He shook his head, wondering how William would react if he told his friend that he’d just spotted a few grey hairs in the side of William’s head.

“Well if it isn’t that, I can only conclude that your Bernadette is denying you her bedroom body.”

“There’s nothing wrong with our sex life, mister. If you really want to know the truth, I snuck into your house on Saturday night for a couple of hours. We had a great session in your bed, William; I’m just a bit pissed off because she wouldn’t go down on me.”

“That so did not happen.” he replied, shaking his head.

“Oh? And just how would you know that? If I recall, Saturday night is your wargaming night.”

“Because, on Saturday night, our Debra was servicing the milkman and I’ve got the DVD to prove it.”

Henry’s face broke up; William soon joined him in the giggle fits whilst walking into the sandwich shop.

Their sandwiches were already made and waiting for them on top of the glass counter. Two cheese salads for William and two ham salads for Henry. They hadn’t deviated from their choice in all the time they’d been coming here.

Debra, the woman who owned the shop gave William a shy smile and a wink. Henry didn’t mind too much, his friend may have gotten the attention but it was Henry who received the extra ham.

William paid for all four sandwiches; his friend hadn’t had a sudden generous urge, his friend always paid for lunch on a Monday.

“Okay Henry, I’ll see you at lunchtime.”

“What? Where are you off to in a hurry?”

William sighed, “Didn’t I tell you?”

Henry shook his head, “Tell me what?”

“I’m sure I said something. I have to run an errand for my wife. I’ll tell you all about it later, I promise.”

Henry looked at the clock on the wall above the counter. “Well you’d better get a move on; we’re due back in fifteen minutes.”

“I will.” He placed his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “And don’t you worry about that review. I had mine yesterday and it’s a breeze. I know about the rumours about it affecting our pay but that’s just bullshit. The union has already made the deal.”

“I wasn’t worried,”

“Yeah right,” snorted William. “Don’t give me that, you worry about everything and anything, so don’t you give me that ‘I’m not bothered attitude’ I’ve known you too long, Henry.”

He blew a kiss to Debra and hurried over to the shop door. “I’ll be seeing you.” With his pleasantries out of the way, he rushed out the shop door.

Henry watched his friend crossing the high street through the shop window. The truth of it was that he’d pretty much forgotten about his review, that horrid girl and the café owner had taken up much of Henry’s thoughts today. For the life of it, he just couldn’t work out how the hell they’d known his name.

“Don’t tell me that I’ve given you the wrong order, Henry.”

He wasn’t even aware that he’d turned around and walked back over to the counter. Henry shook his head. “No, Debra, they’re fine.”

Henry hadn’t even opened them.

“I’ve got a question to ask you, if you don’t mind.

The woman smiled, “This is a turn up for the books, young Henry. Go ahead, hit me with it.”

“Do you ever serve a customer one day and then serve that same customer the next day but it turn’s out to be a different person?”

Debra smiled, “Well, ain’t that an odd question but now you come to mention it, that happened to me just a couple of days ago.”

Henry leaned forward, trying to calm his racing heart.

“This fellow came in here last Thursday and bought himself a can of lilt. I only remembered him because he had nothing less than a twenty. Anyway, the next day the same bloke comes in later on and asks for a beef sandwich. Well I goes and asks him if he had change this time. He didn’t half give me a funny look.”

Debra grinned.

“It turn’s out, they were identical twins and had just moved into the area last week. We did laugh, anyway, why do you ask?”

“It’s nothing.” said Henry, shaking his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

The woman leaned across the counter giving Henry quite an eyeful of cleavage. He felt the blood rushing to his face.

“I don’t mean to pry, but I think that your mate has another woman on the go.”

Henry bit the inside of his cheek to stop the laughter from bursting out. “That’s absurd, come on, Debra, this is William we’re talking about here. He might be a bit of a flirt but he wouldn’t go behind his wife’s back, he loves her.”

She shook her head, “I don’t mean to be rude here, but you’re just a man, you can’t see the subtle differences, the change in body language. Believe me, Henry, I speak from experience. My first husband had a woman on the go.”

“How did you find out?” Henry wanted to shoot his own mouth, he didn’t want to hear about her history, all Henry wanted to do was to get back to work; this didn’t concern him.

“I didn’t find out, not at the time, I was only a kid myself, but looking back, all the signs were there. I was just too young to see them.”

This was all wrong; he wanted to go back to the pretend smiles, the extra slices of ham and the bluff camaraderie. More than anything, Henry wanted to leave.

“Apparently, William’s gone to see a solicitor because she has pranged the car.”

“She doesn’t drive.” There was something else going on here, he was sure that he detected a brief self-satisfied smile appearing on the woman’s face just then.

Debra coughed and made a show of looking at the wall clock. “Listen to me, gassing on about stuff that doesn’t concern me; look, take no notice, Henry, I’m probably wrong about it all. I’d better get back to work. Speaking of work, Henry, you’d better get a move on before you’re late.”

Bloody hell, the woman had a good point, he only had five minutes left before the mill whistle sounded. He’d never get there on time.

“If you cross over the road and cut into the Church Street, there’s a footpath around the back of the shops, it’ll take a couple of minutes off your journey.”

He nodded, Henry hadn’t used that short-cut for a long time, he’s forgotten all about it.

She followed his eyes to the clock.

“And don’t you worry about that old thing, Henry. It’s started gaining time. I think it is at least ten minutes fast now. I really ought to buy a new one.”

Henry gave her the briefest of smiles and rushed out the door.

The light traffic made the crossing easy. He thanked his lucky stars; it was usually hell to get across this road. He checked his watch and found that he did indeed still have fifteen minutes left.

That devious woman must have thought that Henry had just fallen out of the apple cart, the only reason Debra suggested the short cut was because that must have been William’s chosen route.

Even so, he still couldn’t work out why she made such a song and dance about looking at the clock and suggesting he may be late. Then again, what did he know? Poor Henry was just a man who couldn’t see the subtle change in body language.

Henry turned into Church Street anyway. As he hurried along the cobbled road, he asked himself if this really was a good idea. Hell, Debra could have made it all up, and even if William was seeing someone else, it wasn’t his business what he got up to.

It’s not as if William didn’t have the opportunity, they worked in a female dominated environment and as William often said, the place was just bursting with sex starved cougars and MILF, just dying for a bit of attention from a hunk like William. Henry didn’t have a clue what his mate had been talking about until he looked up the words on the internet.

He turned into the shortcut then ran between the two rows of Victorian houses and caught himself peering over the crumbling brick walls and into the overgrown gardens and concrete yards.

This was just ridiculous; he was getting caught up in Debra’s paranoid fantasies. Just what was he expecting to see, his best friend bending some slapper over a wheelie bin? He needed to get a grip on himself. Henry put Debra’s ridiculous notion of William having an affair behind him and concentrated on getting his head right for this bloody review.

He was nearing the end of the short cut, Henry took his eyes off his feet and looked up to see a green delivery truck roar past the opening in front of him. Henry looked down, just in time to stop his feet from being wrapped up in a ripped carrier bag full of broken beer bottles. Henry noticed some bright red flash past in the corner of his eye. He spun to the side and gazed into a neglected garden choked with bramble and nettles but he saw nothing amiss.

“Stop it, Henry.” He muttered. “You’re jumping at shadows.”

He was about to continue when he caught the sound of a low moan. Henry crept a little closer to the low wall, treading around the shards of glass that littered the cobbles.  He crouched down and peered over the wall. There was somebody in there; there was definitely movement beyond the dense foliage.

Common sense, coupled with the fear of being late for work urged him to ignore it and just go but Debra’s malicious words had taken root, he just had to take a peek. Henry pushed his two sandwiches into his jacket pockets and vaulted over the low wall, the soft grass on the other side muffled his landing.