Fireflies

by Menon, David

  ‘No, I’m not saying that at all, Andrea’ said her Gran. ‘And I appreciate that she’s paying her way. I just wondered that was all’.

  It had been twelve years since Andrea had moved in with her Grandma. She was only eleven at the time but life at ‘home’ would’ve become intolerable for her.

  She’d known from an early age that her parents weren’t happy. She’d often felt like she was the link that kept them together and she’d quickly got to know what her mother meant when she described her father as an adulterous liar. It meant all the times she shut herself away in her room with her fingers in her ears whilst her parents slugged it out with each other downstairs. They’d had a business together in Blackpool, a hotel with fifteen bedrooms near the Central pier and all the attractions of the Golden mile. Sometimes it got a little noisy, especially at weekends, but her mother used to just take everything in her stride and provide a motherly influence on young lads and lasses who thought they could hold their drink when really they couldn’t hold a toilet seat by the time they got back from partying.

  It was during one of those nights when her mother had been trying to diffuse any violent clashes with her husband by going out with her friends that Andrea caught her father kissing another woman. She hadn’t been a guest at the hotel. Andrea found out later that they’d met at an exhibition in Manchester of hotel businesses and ways to improve your hotel property for the modern age, but her eyes had been frozen at the sight of this bitch being so intimate with her father. When the woman saw her she used her foot to slam the door shut but seconds later it opened again and her father came running after her. But he didn’t catch up with her and when she sneaked back to the private flat in the hotel that she shared with her parents, Andrea heard the woman say to her father that ‘she would have to know sometime’ and ‘you’ll have to tell her that Daddy won’t be around for much longer and that it’ll be better for all concerned if they make a clean break and wait until she’s older so she can decide if she wants any contact’. Andrea was heartbroken. This woman who stared at her with such hatred was planning to take her Daddy away from her and her Mummy. She was only eleven years old and yet she understood perfectly well what was happening. ‘She’s been no good to you for years. With me by your side we could really go somewhere. You know what it’s like between us. A fire like this doesn’t come along more than once in life and we’ve got to grab it with everything we’ve got. And if that means letting go of what’s gone before then we have to do that or else life won’t forgive us. It just won’t. Now don’t be weak, Brian. Be strong’.

  Andrea’s mother had overheard that particular part of her husband’s lovers entreaty and it had made her sick. She’d tried her best to be a good wife and she couldn’t stand to hear her husband being tempted away so blatantly. It had taken away all that had been left of her pride and her self-belief.

  The next morning Andrea found her mother dead in bed. She’d taken an overdose. The empty bottle of paracetemol was lying beside her open hand. Her eyes were open there was a trail of dried up vomit coming out of the corner of her mouth. It somehow didn’t occur to Andrea to call her father because she had no idea where he was. But with a shaking hand she was able to call an ambulance and call her grandma who came over immediately to be with her as well as dealing with her own grief over the loss of her daughter in such tragic circumstances. She’d already lost her beloved husband Frank several years before and now she’d lost her dear daughter too. But she had to be there for her granddaughter. Poor Andrea was in a terrible state and she should never have had to find her mother like that.

  Brian Curzon hadn’t expected a slap across the face from his mother-in-law Marjorie when he came home later that morning. He hadn’t expected to find that his wife had taken the exit door from life either.

  ‘You’ve got to take this as an opportunity, Brian’ Helen reasoned. ‘We’ve been lovers for so long and we’ve been waiting for the right chance for you to make that break and here it is. She was weak, Brian, weak and feeble. You’re better off without her and you know it’.

  Andrea came up behind them and smashed a vase across Helen’s back. Helen swung round ‘You horrible little bitch! You’ve drawn blood!’ She raised her hand to slap her but Andrea, who was almost as tall as Helen, stopped her arm in mid air and gripped it like a python grips its prey.

  ‘If you so much as touch me I’ll tell the world that Daddy has been touching me in a bad way for years’ Andrea threatened.

  Helen turned to Brian who was stood motionless and panic stricken ‘Brian?’

  ‘It isn’t true, I swear, she’s just lost her mother and she’s firing out because she’s in shock’.

  Helen turned back to Andrea. ‘So you’re a liar too’.

  ‘Can you afford to take that risk?’

  ‘You’re pure evil’.

  ‘No, I’m looking at pure evil’ said Andrea. ‘And one day I’ll get you back for killing my mother’.

  ‘She killed herself because she was weak and pathetic!’

  ‘Shut your stupid mouth!’

  ‘Oh what’s the matter? Don’t like hearing the truth? Well I’m going to be the proper supportive wife to your father that he’s always needed. You can do what you like’.

  Later that evening Andrea went home with her Grandma and that’s where she stayed. Brian Curzon sold the Blackpool hotel he’d co-owned with his wife and invested the money in the Mayfair in Stockport which Helen already owned. Helen and Brian were married a month later.

  Andrea hugged her Gran. ‘You’ve been so good to me, Gran. I’m just trying to help a friend like you helped me’.

  ‘And I’m proud of you for doing that, love’.

  ‘It’s depends what the police say’ said Andrea. ‘If they drop the charges then I think Tina will go home fairly soon. If they don’t drop the charges and carry on with them then … well I really don’t know what will happen but Tina won’t have any choice about where she lives then’.

  FIREFLIES FOURTEEN

  It was never an easy job for a police officer to visit the parents of someone who’d been murdered. In the case of Rhodri and Paula Jones it was going to be especially difficult because of the circumstances in which Paula Jones had found the body of her son. It had sent her into a not surprisingly hysterical state and she’d had to be sedated but now, several hours later and with her husband Rhodri having returned from his business trip to Helsinki, she said she wanted to talk to the police.

  ‘Mrs. Jones?’ said Jeff, gently. ‘We’d first of all like to say how sorry we are for your loss’.

  ‘Thank you, detective’ she replied in a meak voice. She was sitting on the sofa holding hands with Rhodri. They looked so lost like two little kids in search of their missing parents. They’d also both been crying. They seemed to be overwhelmed by the tragedy they were facing. ‘Have you arrested Tina Webb?’

  ‘Mrs. Jones, Tina Webb has an alibi for last night’.

  ‘Well she’s lying!’

  ‘Mrs. Jones, there’s also other evidence suggesting that Tina Webb wasn’t responsible for your son’s murder’ Jeff explained. He watched Paula Jones look up to the heavens with a look of disbelieving disgust and then shake her head. ‘You’ll have to trust us’.

  ‘What kind of evidence?’ asked Rhodi Jones through gritted teeth.

  When the body of Piers Jones was taken by the pathologist June Hawkins to her lab she found, despite the state he was in, DNA to suggest that Piers had experienced sexual intercourse before he died. And the DNA wasn’t that of Tina Webb and nor did it match anything they had on the database.

  ‘We’ll talk about that later, Mr. Jones’ said Jeff who didn’t think they’d want to hear about their son’s rampant sexual activity on the night of his murder. ‘We need to ask you a little about Piers. How was he getting on with his fiancée Clarissa?’

  ‘They were getting on fine’ said Paula, her eyes welling up with tears again. ‘They were absolutely made for each other. E
verybody said that. They were blissfully happy and couldn’t wait to spend the rest of their lives together’.

  Rebecca watched Rhodri as his wife spoke. From the look on his face he didn’t exactly concur with the picture his wife was painting of their son and his fiancée.

  ‘Would you agree with that, Mr. Jones?’ Rebecca asked.

  Rhodri paused and his wife questioned. ‘Rhodri?’

  Rhodri squeezed his wife’s hand. ‘My darling there are some things you don’t know’.

  ‘What things?’ Paula demanded almost hysterically. ‘What have you been keeping from me?’

  ‘I only kept it from you because I didn’t want you to worry’.

  ‘What? Damn you, tell me!’

  ‘Piers was having an affair with another girl and he was having serious second thoughts about marrying Clarissa’.

  Paula placed her hand on her chest. ‘It’s not true’.

  ‘It is true, Paula’ said Rhodri who then pulled his wife close and held her tight.

  ‘Well did Clarissa find out?’

  ‘I believe she did and that Piers had managed to assure her that it had all been a big mistake and he’d ended the affair’.

  ‘And had he?’

  ‘No’ said Rhodri. ‘He lied to her because the girl he was having an affair with told him she was pregnant with his child’.

  Paula screamed. ‘The stupid, the stupid little fool!’

  As Jeff and Rebecca walked up the stairs to the first floor flat just off Palatine road in Chorlton of Annette Bryson, they were clearly going to be walking into a situation with the noise that was coming from behind her door.

  ‘Well if you hadn’t been the rotten little slag who’d open her legs for any passing fiver then you wouldn’t be in this mess!’

  ‘Mum, how could you? How could you say that to me when I’m in this state?’

  ‘What on earth is Pastor Edwards going to say? You’ve brought shame on the whole congregation by getting pregnant out of wedlock! Of course your father wanted me to go easy on you but then he’s always been soft where Daddy’s little girl is concerned. It’s always been me who’s had to instill the discipline in our children’.

  ‘Yes, Mum, and we’ve all got the scars to prove it and I don’t mean just on the inside’.

  ‘It was for your own good’.

  ‘Oh spare me! You ruled us all with fear because you weren’t capable of showing love! You’re just another pathetic excuse for a human being who hides her weakness behind religious intolerance. Here I am, your daughter, your pregnant daughter who’s just lost the father of her unborn child to some sick individual and you’re incapable of reaching out to me with anything that might be comfort or support. What does that say about you, Mum? Well I tell you what it says. It says that you didn’t deserve to have children’.

  ‘If you hadn’t rejected the word of the good Lord you wouldn’t be in this immoral mess!’

  ‘You’re a nasty, vicious, cruel woman and I’m ashamed, yes ashamed to call you my mother’.

  ‘You dare to speak to me like that. The devil has truly taken hold of your soul’.

  ‘Just get out Mum and never, ever come anywhere near me ever again’.

  Jeff was about to knock on the door when it burst open and a tall black woman in her late fifties and looking eminently respectable in her hat and long tailored coat came darting out.

  ‘Who are you?’ she demanded.

  ‘The police’ said Jeff. ‘We’re here to speak to … ‘

  ‘ … if you want to speak to that slut who used to be my daughter then feel free. I wash my hands of her’.

  And with that she was gone. Jeff and Rebecca ventured inside and found Annette in a heap in the middle of the living room floor crying her heart out. Rebecca managed to get her up and onto the sofa where she sat next to her and put her arm round her shoulder. Jeff went into the kitchen and brought her a glass of water.

  ‘Thank you’ said Annette who Jeff thought was a really pretty girl with big dark eyes and hair down to her shoulder blades. She was shaking.

  ‘Have you got someone who can come and sit with you, Annette?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘Yes, my sister Rochelle’ said Annette. ‘She’s been in London with work and she’s on her way back up on the train now’.

  ‘Who told you about Piers?’ asked Jeff.

  ‘His father rang me’ Annette answered. ‘He thought I had a right to know. He’s such a kind man. He’s promised to look after me when … when the baby comes’.

  ‘How far gone are you?’ asked Rebecca.

  ‘Five months’.

  ‘And how long had you been seeing Piers?’

  ‘Just over a year’ said Annette in a slightly whimpering voice. ‘I met him on a night out with friends, you know, the usual kind of thing. He came back with me that night and the next morning he asked to see me again and it went from there. We fell in love and he was very conflicted because of Clarissa. I knew they were engaged but I also knew he wasn’t happy with her and though that’s what you’d expect me to say it was true. He wasn’t happy with her but he couldn’t … he just couldn’t manage to pull himself away’.

  ‘He was on his stag night, Annette’ said Jeff.

  ‘Yes, yes, I know! I know it sounds like I’m being some stupid delusional little girl who pinned all her hopes on a man who just wanted to have his cake and eat it. I’ve had my nose rubbed in all that more than once, detective’.

  Rebecca’s heart was going out to Annette but it also made her think of what she had going on with Jonathan Freeman. Although she was beginning to find him somewhat arrogant and opinionated they’d slept together another couple of times because he was wonderful in bed and she didn’t want to cut off her nose to spite her face by denying herself the many carnal pleasures he gave her. But he did seem to have a negativity towards Ollie Wright for some reason but which nevertheless made her agree with Jeff Barton that Ollie would never have spread rumours about Jeff and herself. So had Jonathan been making it all up?

  ‘Your mother seemed pretty angry when she left’ said Rebecca who still had her arm round Annette who was still shaking.

  ‘Oh she’d have me burned at the stake if she had her way’ said Annette, bitterly. ‘Five kids and not one of them ever goes to see her. But instead of wondering why that might be she turns it back on us and somehow makes it all our fault for not following her ways. She’s got a heart of stone that one. She was almost sadistic when we were kids. But like child batterers always say she did it for our own good. No hugs, no cuddles, no smiles ever on her face, just this stern, determined look as if she was about to lead the army into battle. God only knows what my Dad ever saw in her. No joy on birthdays with presents or cakes. We had to devote the day as thanksgiving to the good Lord for giving us life and we were just slaves to her interpretation of religious dogma at Christmas too. It’s going to be so different for my child. They’ll know they’re loved and needed and cared for. Their life will be full of fun and laughter. They won’t know what fear is and I’m not going to allow my mother anywhere near them’.

  ‘It’ll be her grandchild’.

  ‘I’m her daughter but that didn’t stop her beating me to within an inch of my life when she thought I was possessed by the devil or some other such nonsense that filled her nasty head’.

  ‘Annette, you know we have to ask you’ said Jeff.

  ‘What was I doing last night? I understand. Well yes, Piers was here and we made love’ She wiped the tears from her cheeks with her hands. ‘He was afraid he might hurt the baby, you know, and I had to reassure him it was all okay and he didn’t need to worry. Then afterwards he started to cry. He said he felt like his life was out of his control and he was hurtling towards something he just didn’t want. He didn’t want to marry Clarissa. He wanted me and our baby but he was under pressure from his mother and from Clarissa herself’.

  ‘We’ll have to take a DNA sample, Rebecca’ said Jeff who was glad to have discovered w
ho Piers Jones had slept with the night he died. At least that wasn’t going to be another gaping hole in the investigation.

  ‘I thought you would and yes, of course that’s fine’.

  ‘What happened next, Annette?’

  ‘I made him a coffee and we talked some more’ said Annette. ‘I was surprised at how well he was. I could tell he’d had a drink but he wasn’t pissed. Then he headed off to some nightclub he knew where his mates would be waiting for him’.

  ‘And what time was that?’

  ‘About three’ said Annette, holding back more tears when she thought of the last time she’d seen Piers. ‘He’d been with me since about one. Oh God what am I going to do?’

  Annette started sobbing again and Rebecca held her close and tight. ‘Now come on, Annette, sweetheart. I know it must seem like the bottom has fallen out of your world but that baby growing inside you is going to need the wonderful mother who I know you’ll be. Kind, loving, everything your own mother isn’t. You’ve got to find it in you to be strong, Annette. You’ve got to find it in you somehow even though I know how hard it must be’.

  ‘My baby will never know their father’.

  ‘They will because you’ll keep his memory alive and you’ll tell your child all about his father’.

  They all heard the sound of something coming through the letterbox and Jeff went to pick it up. It was a padded brown envelope with Annette’s name hand written on it.

  ‘Were you expecting anything, Annette?’ asked Jeff.

  ‘No? What is it?’

  ‘I don’t know but you don’t have to open it now’ said Jeff. He turned it over and on the back was written ‘Something to remember him by and this is all you’ll get’.

  ‘That’s a strange thing to have written, don’t you think?’ said Annette.

  ‘It does seem odd’ said Jeff. ‘Do you want me to open it?’

  ‘No, it’s okay’ said Annette. She took the envelope from him and tore it open. Then she screamed before dropping it and throwing up.