by Tim Heath
He took a shower as quickly as he could; he couldn’t imagine starting the day without one. Pulling on some black trousers and a burgundy cotton shirt, he checked himself quickly in the mirror before walking into the lounge, remotely opening the curtains as he walked in.
The view out of the windows and across the lake into his estate was always inspiring and especially so now that morning.
“Today I feel is going to be a good day, if not interesting,” he said aloud, as he opened a window slightly, the fresh breeze blowing the curtains a little.
Sitting down on his favourite chair, which looked out through the windows over all the land he owned, he picked up the telephone, peering down at the piece of paper before dialling in the number. After about twenty long seconds the call was answered. Nigel took a deep breath.
**********
Robert Sandle had slept really heavily, mainly due to the amount he had drunk the night before and he woke to his alarm clock going off just before half past seven. His mouth was dry and sticky, so he emptied the glass of water that sat on his bedside table. Still thirsty he pulled himself out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen. His head was throbbing a little now and while he ran the cold water tap he rummaged around in a drawer trying to find something that would help his head, with little success. Boxes and small packets of various forms fell out and onto the floor. Robert filled his glass and turned off the tap. Looking more closely into the drawer he found what he wanted, but not before treading on one of the packets he’d dropped, the packet digging right into the base of his foot so that he cried out in pain and hobbled to a nearby chair. Sitting down and checking his foot there didn’t seem to be any major damage though it had broken the skin a little. Robert then took the two tablets and downed the glass of water.
It was still quite dark outside, the sun was only just starting to rise but he opened the curtains anyway. A pile of his clothes lay there on the floor by the front door which made him think back to last night, things still a blur but they were coming back slowly. He remembered speaking to Norman and the landlord...what was his name? No, he couldn’t remember. Maybe he didn’t actually know? He wasn’t sure. Picking up his trousers from the floor he suddenly remembered his encounter with Katie Taylor. A kind of heavy feeling came over him, the kind that told you nothing was going to be quite as easy any more. He remembered that brute of a husband of hers being removed from the pub by three men, who in themselves would be considered sizeable men.
She was trouble, he knew enough about that, but he was sure that she wasn’t the kind that would say anything. Chances were she wanted an escape from her life but knew no other way. Maybe she was like that with a lot of men? He remembered how she’d touched him, how he’d let her, though it had happened so fast and his reactions were a little impaired to say the least. He’d thought at the time she was the most incredibly sexy woman he’d ever met but now he knew that it most surely was the alcohol speaking, as it usually has a way of doing. And besides, she was married, and even then it was to some brute of a man that Robert sensed wasn’t the kind to do things the peaceful way. The thought of lying low again, even out here in the country, made him feel sick inside. Always on the run, always hiding, always alone. He sank his head a little and decided he needed some fresh air. He pulled on the clothes he now had in his hand and walked out of the front door, bending back round the house to the left and following a small path that led across an adjoining field towards a small brook that ran along the other side of the field, separating it from the wooded area beyond.
Thirty minutes later he was coming back along the field. In the distance down the road that ran in front of the house, at the end of the long driveway, he could see Norman, on his way into work. He presumed he could well have been already doing some deliveries as time was pressing on.
At the same moment a dog barked and he turned to see a white Labrador bounding over gently towards him, no one else obviously around. Robert liked dogs and waited for it to arrive before he stroked its head as it sat there next to him, tongue out, panting for air. In the distance he then heard a lady’s voice calling presumably the dog and a few seconds later Robert could see a figure coming up from the far side of the field which curved down as it approached the road. Robert stood up straight as he realised it was Katie Taylor coming towards him, and she slowed in pace and smiled as she not only realised the dog was with him but that it was indeed the man she’d spoken to last night. She showed no signs of embarrassment at all and Robert did his best not to look so either. But the most alarming thing of all to Robert was that far from being a lesser image of the alcohol induced woman he’d met last night, if anything this morning she looked even more attractive in a long cream overcoat with fur around the collar and high brown leather boots complimenting her legs. She walked confidently towards him and was now right in front of him.
“Hello again, stranger. We must stop meeting in such…circumstances.”
She seemed very playful and she spoke each word in such a way that it made Robert hang onto everything she said. She picked up a stick and threw it for the dog, who bounded off after it.
“And do you have a name?” she said, though she already knew much about Robert, being a local.
“Sorry,” he said, a little taken aback and trying to contain himself. “My name is Robert, Robert Sandle. And you are?” He didn’t see the point in telling her he also knew who she was.
“I’m Miss Katie Taylor.” She was very deliberate with the ‘miss’ part. Robert didn’t know what to think, but he knew she was bad news for him, had been since he’d first noticed her in the pub. Clearly she liked him and wanted him to think she was single. There was a silence that lasted just a little bit too long for comfort, the kind that told each person that the other was thinking about a lot of stuff, but it was Katie who spoke next.
“Last night was fun. We’ll have to do that again sometime!” Robert looked into her face and took her in: the beautiful green eyes, her high cheekbones, the deep brown long hair that caught the sun so that light flashed up and down each strand as it moved in the morning breeze, the lips that looked so inviting. She was around five feet nine and slender and so much in him wanted to hold her tight. In another life she’d be perfect, a dream girl for him but it was all so messed up. She was bad news for him and yet Robert was hooked.
She could see in the way he looked at her that there was something there and she played on it all the more. Robert hadn’t replied, so she said:
“Why don’t you give me your number and I could come around later for a drink and who knows?”
Robert didn’t know what to say but found himself taking out a small card that had his number on it and giving it to her. What was he doing? She was trouble and yet everything within him longed for more. He didn’t want to be lonely any more and maybe things would work out, or so he tried to convince himself as they parted and he walked very slowly along the path back towards the house, but he was too worked up to go in, deciding that he needed a little more fresh country air to calm himself. What was it with her? The fresh air, the early morning, their two encounters? It was like a drug, he was being hooked and knew if he carried on he’d be stuck and end up in a mess.
Robert walked around for five minutes trying to convince himself that this was all okay. He reasoned that maybe the landlord had got it wrong, maybe they weren’t married? Were they even together? And besides, would she even call him, though everything in him wanted there to be another meeting, another encounter, and this one behind closed doors, away from prying eyes. If she’d been so free with him in a corridor at a crowded pub, what would she be like at home? The rush of thoughts was getting too much for him and he realised he might as well go back inside for all the good the air was doing him with his mind racing as it was.
Getting to the front door his heart jumped as he knew she was calling him, the ringing telephone being easily heard from the outside. Robert raced inside, taking off his wet boots and hoping that she didn�
�t hang up.
Reaching for the phone, he picked it up slightly breathless:
“Hi, it’s Robert.” There was a pause at the other end of the line. Robert could hear the intake of breath. The anticipation was electric.
**********
Tommy was awoken by the telephone ringing loudly next to him and he jumped up to answer it. Catching sight of the clock on the wall, he needed a second look at it, as it showed just before twelve. It was the reception giving him a gentle but firm reminder that checkout was normally at midday but that they could have another half an hour at the most, because the room needed to be cleaned for someone arriving that day.
Tommy said his apologies and hung up as Jessica stirred from her sleep, like a waking princess from some fairy tale story, with Tommy being the prince who’d broken the spell.
She opened her eyes and smiled immediately as she saw him looking at her.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said.
“Hi.” She smiled in such a way that Tommy loved her all the more and they kissed again, Tommy running his hands down under the sheets and onto her soft body, everything in him desiring her more than ever and wanting to make love again but he knew time was short. He told her the time and they jumped out of bed quickly, throwing some clothes on and putting a few bits into a bag, though they hadn’t come with much so there wasn’t really much to pack away.
“Thank you for a truly wonderful night, Mr Lawrence.”
“You naughty girl. You know what happens when you call me that!”
“What happens, Mr Lawrence?”
“Oh, you…,” and he grabbed her so that she let out a small shriek and pulled her to the bed again, arms embraced, kissing passionately, teenagers again and happy to be so, just enjoying one another regardless of the rules.
**********
“Hello, Robert. It’s me…,” the long pause only throwing Robert completely off guard before the caller continued, “now I bet you didn’t think I’d call you, did you?”
Robert was stunned, taken aback by the voice he’d just heard, his mind having been in another place and quickly trying to catch up.
“Nigel Gamble, I presume?”
“The one and only.”
“How did you get this…,” he started to say and then realised it was a stupid and needless question to ask. He was still trying to compose himself, so sure had he been that it was Katie who was calling him.
“You sound disappointed? Didn’t you want to speak to me? You had said you wanted to when you spoke to Brendan Charles.”
“You were listening then,” Robert said, back on form now, his mind properly engaged on the task he’d come to do.
“Are you in town today then?”
“In town?” Robert thought a little, trying to understand the meaning of the question before the understanding flashed into his head like lightning in a dark sky.
“Oh, of course, you can track my actual number in order to call me but can’t locate where I’m calling from without speaking to me. Mind you it’ll still only tell you a little info after several minutes and we both know I’m not going to allow you to speak for that long. But I’m not far away, I’ll give you that for free.”
“Come on, let’s not be like this. The way I see it you’ll be needing all the help you can get soon enough.” Nigel had hit on a sore point.
“Well, as long as you know that whatever it takes, I’m bringing you down.”
“That’s bold talk coming from someone in such a weak position. I’ve twenty years on you. That’s long enough to bury myself so well that it’s easy to spot any vermin that comes to try and spoil it all. And besides, where can you go now? You can’t even go back home. Last time I checked, your Agency didn’t exist in the same way it once did and you’re also a wanted man there. I don’t know what your family must be thinking.”
There was silence at this point. Nigel thought about his last point and continued.
“But of course, they wouldn’t send someone back with family, would they? Too easy to track and eradicate. What was it, given up at birth? Abandoned, discarded, like a piece of unwanted trash?” Robert’s blood boiled.
“And what would you know? You’re nothing more than a murdering fake! You play with life as if it’s a game and don’t even think of the consequences.”
“What consequences? This is my life now, I have nothing back in that time that’ll break my heart to lose. And besides, I’m having too much fun here.”
“Fun? Is that what you call it? You’re a multi-murderer, a thief and a fraud.”
“Not in this life, I’m not!”
“What do you mean? This isn’t your life!”
“It is now, I’ve got all I need to live here. There is nothing that I can’t get now, nothing I can’t buy, no one outside my reach. Can you even start to imagine what that feels like? No, of course you can’t. You’re too busy chasing me to realise that the world has changed. There’ll be no medals for you, no rewards. Where could you take me to? What crimes have I actually committed that could stand up in court? You’ve given yourself into a life that’ll destroy you. You can’t win, Robert, you just can’t win.”
“I have nothing else to live for now. I have to finish this.”
“You’re sounding pathetic now! Admit it, you’ve lost. Go home, where ever that is, and live your life. I’ll even make it all okay for you if you give up the Door you used to come back here.”
“You’d love that, Nigel, wouldn’t you, for me to just stop, to go away! Well, you’ve taken everything away from me and this is all I have left now. What would I do otherwise? I’ve given my life for this and I’ve seen you destroy so much that I’m too far into it to ever get out. There’s no going back now.”
“That’s foolish talk. There’s always a way back, if you give up the Door and leave me alone. I promise to make it okay for you.”
“You promise?” Robert said, now wound up. “Oh yeah, that makes it all okay now because your word means everything, right? Like hell it does! What did you say to those four students while you strung them along for all that time as they worked so hard on that first Door for you, only to see you burn them alive and leave them to rot? I bet you said all sorts of lies to get them to do exactly what you wanted.”
“I was young and stupid. I saw something I wanted and took it.”
“No, it wasn’t that simple, Nigel. You planned it all along and then carried it out like an executioner carries out an order. There was no youthful stupidity in that. Greed yes, but you’re a sick man and you’ll go to any lengths to protect yourself because all you think and care about is yourself!”
“And you’d do well to listen to your own words, if I were you.” Nigel sounded almost calm again now. “If you keep pursuing me who knows what I’ll do.”
“You forget who you are talking to with all these threats. I’m still here, aren’t I? You haven’t stopped me yet and there is no way that you’re going to stop me later. You see you may feel like you’re way ahead of me and hidden but to me you’re just a fox and I’m a hound. I’ve got your scent and I just need to bide my time and I’ll find you, don’t think I won’t. And when I do find you that’ll be the end of the game for you. No more playing after that!”
“Oh please, stop all this cowboy talk, you’re embarrassing yourself.”
Robert looked down at his watch again, aware of the time he’d been, though not really wanting to finish the conversation.
“Look, I’d best go. You have my number,” and he hung up and fell back into the chair, arms flopped over either side.
Chapter 21
Tommy Lawrence drove into work a different man. Pulling into his usual space just outside the main entrance, he bounded up the stairs two at a time with a kind of school boy enthusiasm. He got into his office before anyone had seen him and got his head down, fully focused on the task ahead.
Last night had given him the boost he needed. Once and for all it had proved that he and Jessica were simply
meant to be. And in an odd way it was this satisfaction that gave him his fresh drive that afternoon, a determination to press on and master this big challenge, which was still relatively new to him, as he had to keep reminding himself.
Not that he took too long to get into the swing of things anyway. Everything in him knew that he could do it and yet life and outside experience said that he was just a rookie. He’d been getting on great with all the new younger lads now at the club who had been sourced and signed by Brendan Charles and his team of people working somewhere behind the scenes. No, the problem had not been with these new arrivals who knew no different, but with the existing players, especially the older ones or the ones that thought themselves something special. It was as if they’d straight away turned their noses up at this young upstart who’d been put in place for some unknown reason which they’d assumed had nothing to do with his managerial ability.
