Fireflies

by Menon, David

  ‘I see’ said Rebecca who had no patience with male attitudes to infidelity. ‘Thank you for clarifying that’.

  ‘So, what do you do for a living, Alan?’ asked Jeff.

  ‘I’m a photographer’ Alan explained. ‘I run my own business from my office upstairs. I’m not doing too badly considering’.

  ‘What was he like?’ asked Jeff.

  ‘Who? James?’

  ‘Yes’.

  ‘Well like I said he was my closest friend which is why he’s godfather to our two kids and why I’d asked him to be my best man’.

  ‘Alan, do you know of any reason why anyone would want to kill James?’ asked Jeff.

  ‘No! The idea of it … like I say he wasn’t perfect but none of us are’.

  ‘How do you mean he wasn’t perfect?’ asked Jeff. ‘We’re just trying to build up an accurate picture of James Clifton to see if it might trigger off something positive in the investigation’.

  ‘No, I do see that, I really do’ said Alan who then looked down and stared at his folded hands resting on the table. ‘Look, all I can say is that James wasn’t entirely reliable when it came to relationships with women. We all thought he’d finally found the right one in Sophie. We thought she had what it took to satisfy him and stop him from wandering. But it wasn’t long before he was back to his old tricks and cheating on her’.

  ‘And this was Sophie Cooper?’ Jeff asked as the name bounced round his mind again like a ball hitting every wall in a closed room. Why did that name mean something to him? ‘How did Sophie react to that?’

  ‘I don’t … I don’t want to say anything bad because I like Sophie. She’s a great girl in many respects and I think … well that’s it really’.

  ‘But?’

  ‘Well she’s very needy, very insecure’ said Alan. ‘There were several times when we all got together and she threw a tantrum followed by tears because she thought he was talking to other people all the time and ignoring her’.

  ‘And was he?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘No, he wasn’t’ said Alan. ‘He was just chatting to everyone like we were all chatting to each other in that kind of social situation. He was just being normal but Sophie wanted him just to talk to her even when he was with all his mates. She’s neurotic and she can be very, very moody. She can walk into a happy occasion and suck all the joy out of it straight away. I’ve seen her do it many times’.

  ‘You just described her as a great girl’.

  ‘Well she is but she has this side to her that really pissed the rest of us off’ said Alan. ‘And I’m not just talking about the boys. The girls get as pissed off with her as the boys do. She had to have two hundred percent of James’ attention all the time and if she thought that she wasn’t getting it then there were these flare ups. She threw a pint of beer over him one night in the pub for no other reason than she wanted to go home as soon as they’d got there. James reasoned that they should at least have one drink but she said that he should want to go home just because she wanted to and that he shouldn’t argue with her. So she started the tears and he had no patience with that so he ignored her. That’s when she threw the beer over him. He had to do exactly what she wanted or there was hell to pay. They both worked shifts and if they had a common day off he would have to do what she’d arranged with no argument or else there’d be a tantrum. If she texted him and he didn’t reply straight away then she’d ring him and accuse him of ignoring her. The fact that he might be in the middle of a live TV broadcast made no difference to her. He had to drop everything, including his work, if she snapped her fingers. Unreasonable isn’t the word’.

  ‘And yet they were planning to get married?’ Rebecca questioned.

  ‘Well’ said Alan who rubbed the back of his neck. ‘There’s a thing. He wanted to break off the engagement and split from Sophie altogether. He just hadn’t worked out how or when to break it to her. Because she’s so emotionally irrational he didn’t know how she’d react. No doubt if he … if James had still been alive he’d have got the third degree from her about what might or might not have happened on the stag night. I wish to God he was here to get that shit from her now’.

  ‘Did they have what you’d call a volatile relationship then?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘Only because she was so neurotic’.

  ‘So you lay the fault entirely at her door?’

  ‘Yes, I do’ said Alan who didn’t like the look he was getting from Rebecca. It was the look of every woman who believes that whenever a relationship has problems it has to be all the man’s fault and anybody who says otherwise is a misogynistic pig. ‘And if you knew her you’d think so too.

  ‘But you say he was unfaithful to her?’

  ‘Look he wasn’t a serial adulterer’ said Alan. ‘It happened a couple of times, that’s all and it was never more than a one night stand’.

  ‘Oh well that makes it alright then’.

  Alan swung on her. ‘Look, I’ve just lost my best friend in horrific circumstances and how dare you sit here in my house and look down on him! Now change your attitude or get out!’

  ‘Alan, let’s calm down, shall we?’ said Jeff with his hand in the air in a placatory gesture. ‘We’re not going to get anywhere by losing our rag’.

  ‘Don’t address your speech at me’ said Alan. ‘Give the reprimand to your friend here. James wasn’t a bad man despite what she’s trying to say’.

  ‘I’m not trying to say anything that would upset you, Alan’ said Rebecca who wasn’t sure whether she meant that or not. ‘And I’m sorry if I caused you any offence’.

  ‘Well I’m not interested in your apology because you shouldn’t have said what you did in the first place. He’s barely cold and you’re pulling him apart. You’re despicable. No wonder people are losing confidence in the police’.

  ‘Well that went well’ said Jeff as they got back into the car.

  ‘That James Clifton sounds like he was a right bastard’ said Rebecca as she fastened her seat-belt. Jeff was driving. ‘Men like him think nothing of being unfaithful’.

  ‘You were unprofessional, Rebecca’.

  ‘Oh I was waiting for that’.

  ‘You stamped all over that man’s grief, Becky’ said Jeff, turning on the ignition. ‘You tried to tarnish the memory of his best friend who hasn’t been dead five minutes’.

  ‘Yes, well, he said all that’.

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘Sorry’ said Rebecca. ‘I shouldn’t have used that tone of voice to you’.

  ‘And the last time I looked infidelity was not a crime punishable by genital mutilation and murder’ said Jeff as he indicated and pulled out into the road.

  ‘Perhaps it should be’ said Rebecca. ‘I can think of many women who’d think so’.

  ‘Well then they’d be wrong, DS Stockton’.

  ‘I thought you had respect for women, sir?’

  ‘And what have I said that’s made you doubt that?’

  ‘Well your opinion of James Clifton. I just thought you’d judge him more harshly’.

  ‘Becky, I’m not going to condemn him just because he’s a man who didn’t keep it in his trousers which is what you seem to want to do’ said Jeff. ‘And in any case, Sophie Cooper sounds like she’s a nightmare to live with’.

  ‘Oh of course it must be the woman’s fault’.

  ‘Well you’re quite prepared to throw all the blame on James Clifton. Rebecca, in all objectivity it doesn’t sound to me like Sophie Cooper behaved much like a woman. More like a spoilt little girl who couldn’t stand not to get her own way’.

  ‘He probably drove her to be that way’.

  ‘Rebecca, that statement doesn’t make any professional or even personal sense at all. What’s got into you?’

  ‘The question supposes that the problem is entirely with me like it is with Sophie Cooper according to Alan Travers’.

  Jeff took a deep breath. ‘Okay, so what have I done?’

  Becky looked at Jeff and
felt such an outpouring of feelings that she just couldn’t bring herself to have this conversation with him now. This was all such a flaming mess. She just wished he’d react in some way to all the signals she gave off. Any kind of reaction would be good. At least she’d know then that he’d noticed.

  ‘You haven’t done anything’ she said.

  ‘You’ve got a funny way of showing it’.

  ‘Look, I’ll shake myself out of the bad mood I’ve been in, Jeff’ said Rebecca. ‘I had a row with my sister yesterday and then another one with my mother this morning because she took my sister’s side like she always does. It just pissed me off but I’ll get over it’.

  ‘You were okay until Alan Travers started being critical of Sophie Cooper’.

  ‘Well maybe I’d just like to hear her side of things’ said Rebecca. ‘I’ve been on the receiving end of men who treat women badly and then wonder why they get upset’.

  ‘Men feel pain too, Becky’.

  ‘Yes, I know Jeff but men are far more likely to be unfaithful than women’.

  ‘I think that depends on the man and the woman’.

  ‘Well men are hopeless about admitting to what they’ve done. That’s why I went to Sophie Cooper’s defence because she was being got at by Alan Travers’.

  ‘Because he knows her and you don’t’ said Jeff.

  ‘Can’t you give me a day off from being perfect?’

  Jeff laughed. ‘Well, alright. But don’t take a week’s leave on it’.

  An awkward silence fell on them that lasted for the rest of the journey back to the station leaving Jeff totally unconvinced that Becky had told him anything like the whole truth.

  ‘Look’ said Jeff before Rebecca got out of the car. ‘Are we good, Becky?’

  ‘Yeah, yeah we’re good, Jeff’.

  ‘I hope so, Becky. I really do. You’re a good friend and a valued friend. I’d hate to lose that’.

  Sharon Bellfield was trying to figure out where the hell she was. She could hear her phone ringing somewhere. Why had she changed the ring tone to that irritatingly banal Ellie Goulding piece of crap going burn, burn, fucking burn all the time? She reached out from underneath the darkness and realised she was in a bed. It wasn’t her bed. So whose was it? She had to go into a semi fight with the duvet to get the thing from being wrapped round her like a fucking python. She opened a bleary eye and reached out for where she could see her phone vibrating on the bedside table but her hand fell short. A bedside table? That was a bit domestic for the men she liked to go with. Rough and ready types who showed a girl a good time was what she was partial to and they tended to have a bed in the bedroom and not much else.

  She could barely remember being in that last bar and looking at her watch seeing it was after half past two. That last vodka and coke had been a mistake. She could feel something beside her. Something was breathing. This was no good. Thirty-three years old and waking up in someone’s bed with a hangover from hell and having no idea where she was. It had got to stop.

  ‘Are you going to get that fucking phone?’

  The voice was aggressive but female. Oh no, thought Sharon. When was she going to learn that if she couldn’t find a man to get off with she shouldn’t fall for the charms of the nearest lesbian. She’d always had a bit of a lesbian fan club. It came from her being slightly on the butch side but she wasn’t a lesbian or even just a little bit bisexual. She liked men. She just couldn’t find one with a bed with a table beside it.

  ‘Sorry’ croaked Sharon. She edged further towards the end of the bed and this time managed to grab the phone to her ear.

  ‘Sharon?’

  ‘Get your arse down here pronto’.

  ‘Oh good morning to you, Ken’.

  ‘You were supposed to be here ninety minutes ago. I can’t keep covering for you, Sharon. I don’t care where you are or what state you’re in. Get yourself here. I’ve got a job for you’.

  Sharon pressed the end call button and rubbed her face. Ken was a good sort. Shame he was old enough to be her Dad and had been happily married for thirty years. He was just the kind of man she needed because he took no crap from her and told her in no uncertain terms when she was out of order. This was another morning in a long line of mornings when she felt like shit. She’d get through it. She wondered what kind of job he had for her. Bless him. Even though she gave him so much bother he did tend to give her some juicy stuff to do.

  ‘I think you should go now, please’ said the woman next to her as she got out of bed and walked round to the door in the corner. Sharon could see she was quite a fit looking bird with shoulder length red hair and big well defined tits that were much better than her own.

  ‘I’m sorry if I passed out’.

  ‘I don’t mind you passing out. What I mind is you using me for sex tourism. You were useless in bed. I might’ve known you weren’t gay’.

  ‘Could you tell me where I am?’

  ‘You’re in the northern quarter a couple of blocks from Piccadilly gardens’ said the woman before disappearing into the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her.

  ‘I suppose a coffee is out of the question?’ Sharon shouted. Her request was greeted with silence. ‘I’ll take that as a no then’.

  FIREFLIES FIVE

  Jeff got himself showered and dressed before seeing to Toby and preparing breakfast whilst his son was watching the cartoon channel on their TV set in the kitchen diner. They both had toast with cheese spread on and whilst Toby went for coco pops, Jeff made himself the kind of instant porridge that you just add boiling water to. Toby had a cup of Chinese tea which he’d really taken to after his grandparents had introduced him to it and Jeff had a mug of earl grey with a slice of lemon. As they sat around the breakfast table talking and consuming Jeff was acutely aware, as he always is, of who was missing. It was as if there was an empty space in every room of the house since Lillie Mae died.

  ‘Toby, would you mind if someone came to live here who could look after you when I’m at work?’

  Toby looked up at his father quizzically. ‘Have you got a girlfriend, Daddy?’

  Jeff smiled. ‘No, mate, I haven’t got a girlfriend but when I do I promise you’ll be the first to know’.

  ‘So what’s up, Daddy?’

  ‘Well I think we need someone here all the time’.

  ‘You mean we’d get a servant like in Downton Abbey? They couldn’t live downstairs though because there isn’t enough room in that little cupboard and they wouldn’t be able to breathe’.

  Jeff ruffled his son’s jet black hair. ‘No, they wouldn’t be like a servant, mate. They’d be more like a friend who was here to take care of both of us’.

  ‘But we’ve got Uncle Lewis and Uncle Seamus to do that. Don’t they want to do it anymore?’

  ‘Of course they do, of course they do’ Jeff reassured. ‘We’d still see Uncle Lewis and Seamus as much as we do now. It would just make life easier when I get called out to go to work at short notice. I mean, do you remember that time I had to run you round to Pam’s in your pyjamas and dressing gown?’

  ‘Yeah but I didn’t mind’ said Toby who was shaking his legs up and down under the table. ‘I got to have breakfast with Stephen and Jennifer and Pam made pancakes with strawberries. She says I’m cute as Christmas’.

  Jeff laughed. ‘And she’s right you are, mate’.

  ‘So what’s the problem?’

  ‘Well Pam might not always be there when we need her’ said Jeff. ‘But if someone lived here then neither of us would ever have to worry’.

  Toby sat and thought for a moment. ‘Okay’.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah’ said Toby. ‘Why not? It might be fun’.

  ‘Okay, well your Uncle Lewis and Uncle Seamus have got a mate called Brendan who wants to make a living out of caring for people like me and you’.

  ‘You mean people without a Mummy?’

  Jeff brought his hand up to his mouth and gulped. ‘That’s it, mat
e’.

  ‘Well then okay get him to come round’ said Toby. ‘If he can play xbox and cook as good as Uncle Lewis can then he’ll be sound. On one condition though?’

  ‘What’s that, mate?’

  Toby slid off his chair and got on his Daddy’s knee. Jeff put his arms round him. ‘After Mummy died you said we’d always be the A team?’

  ‘Yeah and we always will?’

  ‘So if someone else comes to live with us then we’ll still be that A team, Daddy?’

  ‘Of course we will’ said Jeff. ‘Nobody else gets to be part of our A team’.

  ‘Daddy?’

  ‘Yes, mate?’

  ‘Are you missing Mummy?’

  Jeff had to take another deep breath before answering. ‘Yes, mate. I am missing Mummy’.

  ‘Well you’ve still got me’.

  Jeff kissed the top of Toby’s head. ‘I know mate and that makes me the luckiest Daddy in the whole world’.

  Jeff dropped Toby off at school and then drove into work. When he got to the station he sat in his car for a few minutes to try and compose himself. Grief was such a long and drawn out process and recently he thought he’d been doing okay. But it wasn’t as simple as that. Just when he thought he might be starting to come to terms with it he’d woken up that morning and been struck by an emotion that was as crushing as the day he’d been told that Lillie Mae had died.

  But he also had a case to think about and he simply didn’t believe that the body of a grown man could be dumped at the back of a large hotel without anybody noticing. Someone had carefully planned the murder of James Clifton. He was certain of that much. But was James Clifton the actual target or did he just happen to fit the profile of whatever the killer was looking for? Was he simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? It’s rarely as simple as that in Jeff’s experience but they needed to delve more deeply into Clifton’s background to see if he’d done anything that might go some way towards explaining the horror of his fate. Then there was the familiarity he felt about the name of Sophie Cooper. He still hadn’t worked out why that meant something to him and it was still driving him mad.