In the Gleaming Light

by H. R. Moore

  ‘Yes, definitely,’ said Sam, taking the smart metre over to his brother and thrusting it at him. ‘There you go, Ben.’

  Ben reluctantly took the device and gave it his details. ‘Thank you,’ said the metre, and Ben threw it down.

  ‘I’d forgotten about energy costs,’ said Ben, worried. ‘We’re really not going to have much money. We might have to cut down on some of our game subscriptions.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Sam. ‘We need those subscriptions. What would we do with our time otherwise?’

  ‘Or maybe the streaming services,’ said Ben. ‘We have a lot of those, and we don’t even have a television.’

  ‘We’ll have to buy one, then,’ said Sam, his tone becoming hostile. ‘We’ll find a way to make it work.’

  Ben took a deep breath. He picked up his glasses and started searching for a job, just as the doorbell rang. ‘That’ll be the butler,’ said Sam, happily, running for the door.

  ‘We can’t afford it,’ said Ben. ‘We have to send it back.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Sam, harshly, ‘who doesn’t have a butler?’

  ‘Well, I’m not paying for it,’ said Ben. ‘If you want it, you’ll have to pay for it yourself.’

  ‘Fine,’ said Sam, letting the butler in. ‘But you can’t use it to do anything for you. You’ll have to do your own washing up, your washing, your ironing, your cleaning, tidying, parcel retrieval. All of it, you’ll have to do yourself.’

  ‘Yes, I will,’ said Ben, flicking through his online subscriptions and cancelling a few. Once he had a job, he wouldn’t have time for all of them anyway.

  CHAPTER 13

  T.J. lounged on a sofa in Lulu’s studio. The space was cavernous; it used to be a church, and had a massive window at one end, taking up practically the whole wall. At some stage it had been converted from stained to clear glass, with a view out across the harsh Devon moorland.

  Lulu handed T.J. a gin and tonic. ‘To you and your miraculous rise to the top,’ she said, holding up her own drink and clinking his glass before slumping down next to him.

  ‘Why thank you,’ he replied, taking a sip, then leaning his head back on the sofa and looking up at the ornate ceiling. ‘I can’t quite believe it. It’s what I’ve been working for, for so long.’

  ‘And that’s why you deserve it,’ said Lulu. ‘Hard work and persistence pay off every time.’

  T.J. smiled. ‘With the help of a bit of luck.’

  ‘A bit of that never hurts,’ she agreed, thinking about her own luck, which had given her the life she now lived.

  ‘We’ve both done the impossible,’ said T.J. ‘Scaled to the top of the tree from the dirt at the bottom.’

  ‘The improbable,’ Lulu corrected, giving him a ‘get it right’ kind of look.

  ‘The improbable,’ he agreed, with a conciliatory smile.

  ‘How are your brothers?’ she asked, changing the subject. ‘I heard on the factory grapevine that your parents kicked them out?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said T.J. ‘As you know, I don’t speak to any of them any longer, although Ben sent me a message telling me that Mum and Dad are in financial trouble.’

  ‘What?’ she said, shocked. ‘Why? They always seemed so responsible and sensible.’

  ‘They had three kids,’ he said, shrugging. ‘They borrowed money to pay for stuff. They use pretty much all of their income just living, or at least they did when my brothers lived at home, and they’ve been working illegal extra hours for years to pay off the debt. That’s why we fell out, actually, because I didn’t agree with them breaking the law. If people found out, it would reflect badly on all of us.’

  ‘What?’ said Lulu, not believing this was his primary concern, and reeling at the information he’d just given her. ‘They work illegal hours at the factory? Guy’s factory?’

  T.J. laughed. ‘Yeah. Loads of them do. They’ve been doing it for years. I thought you knew. Maybe that could provide good fodder for a new painting,’ he said, amused with himself.

  ‘I’d heard rumours, but I never thought your parents would be involved. What do they do in the extra hours?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. This and that. They produce extra robots,’ he said, halting abruptly when he realised what he’d just said.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Lulu.

  ‘Nothing,’ said T.J. ‘I just realised something. Nothing important.’

  ‘Are you going to pay off their debt?’ asked Lulu. ‘It’s not like it’s from gambling or lavish holidays, and you directly benefitted from it.’

  ‘I didn’t ask them to put themselves in that position,’ said T.J., bristling.

  ‘But even so, it can’t be that much, especially if they’ve been paying it off for years. You could help them. Do it anonymously if you don’t want them to know.’

  ‘No,’ said T.J. ‘I don’t want to help them. I think it’s around a hundred thousand and I don’t have that kind of money to just throw away.’

  Lulu raised her eyebrows, not believing the words coming out of T.J.’s mouth. ‘Helping your parents would be throwing money away?’ she asked.

  ‘Would you do it for your parents?’ he threw back, eyes flashing viciously.

  ‘That’s totally different, and you know it,’ she snapped, getting up off the sofa, and moving away.

  ‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry,’ said T.J., ‘I’ll think about giving some money to my parents. Happy now?’ he said, indicating that she should sit back down.

  ‘Fine,’ said Lulu, taking a large swig of her drink and telling herself to let it go.

  ‘How’s the boyfriend?’ asked T.J., changing the subject as she sat down.

  ‘The one you hate?’ asked Lulu, sceptically.

  ‘Yes, that one,’ he said, amused.

  ‘Fine thanks. Great, actually,’ she said, pausing for a second. ‘Why don’t you like him anyway? I bumped into your parents the other day and they said he helped start your career.’

  T.J. shook his head, as though she wouldn’t understand. ‘Best not to start down that route,’ he said. ‘No good can come of it. I shouldn’t have brought him up. But, Jesus, since when has there been so much stuff we can’t talk about? It’s never been like this.’

  ‘I know,’ said Lulu. ‘Let’s just draw a line under it all and get back to the way things were.’

  ‘Fine by me,’ said T.J. ‘Come on, let’s hug it out.’

  Lulu laughed and rolled her eyes, but scooched over and gave him a hug. He left his arm around her and she rested her head on him, enjoying his familiar warmth. She grabbed a cushion and put it in his lap, laying her head down on it, like they had a hundred times before. T.J. smiled, stroking her hair. For a while, it felt like maybe it could be as it always had been, like they could be best friends and confidants, like what had happened the other day in the park hadn’t happened. But, of course, it had.

  Lulu sat up, suddenly awkward.

  ‘What is it?’ said T.J., taking hold of her hand.

  Lulu pulled it away and moved to the other side of the sofa. She took a deep breath. ‘We can’t do this anymore,’ she said, her tone resolute.

  ‘We can’t be friends?’ he asked, laughing, although Lulu could see he knew what she meant.

  ‘Don’t,’ said Lulu. ‘You kissed me the other day. I don’t want to give you the impression that anything’s going to happen between us, and lying on the sofa like this kind of gives that impression.’

  ‘Lulu,’ he said, ‘don’t do this. We’ve been friends forever. Don’t let him come between us.’

  ‘It’s not Guy,’ said Lulu, gently. ‘It’s you and me. We’re not the same people we used to be. We’ve been growing apart for ages; you know it as well as I do.’

  ‘What do you want me to do?’ he pleaded. ‘I’ll do anything, whatever you want. I can’t not have you in my life...I love you.’

  ‘And I love you too,’ said Lulu, ‘but only as a friend. And I will only ever love you as a fr
iend. But if I met you now, I’m not sure we’d even become friends. Your parents need you and you won’t help them.’ She was starting to get agitated.

  ‘Is that what this is about?’ he asked, aghast. ‘I’ll transfer the money to my parents now.’ He pulled out his smart glasses.

  ‘I thought you “didn’t have that kind of money”,’ she said, angrily. ‘You’ve just proven my point. The T.J. I knew growing up would have helped his parents because he wanted to. And the only reason you’re saying you’ll do it now is because you want to appease me.’

  T.J. didn’t respond. There was no way to refute her accusations. ‘But you’re the one I want with me at the top of the mountain,’ he eventually said, head in his hands.

  ‘What?’ exhaled Lulu. ‘You’re not making any sense.’

  ‘Lulu, I need you. You’re the only one I’ve ever cared about.’

  ‘Maybe some time without me will encourage you to connect with other people then. I think you should go.’

  ‘Lulu...’

  ‘There’s nothing you can say,’ she said, walking in the direction of the door.

  He followed her, picking up his coat. ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘but maybe once you’ve had a chance to cool off, we could talk.’

  ‘No. And don’t call me,’ she said, opening the door to find Guy coming up the steps on the other side.

  ‘Thomas?’ said Guy, shocked. ‘How do you two know each other? Wait. Is Thomas your muse?’

  ‘He was my muse,’ said Lulu, firmly.

  ‘Sell-out,’ hissed Thomas, sneering at Guy as he stormed past.

  Lulu ushered Guy in and closed the door, sinking down to the floor, her back pressed against the wood, her body shaking.

  ‘God, Lulu,’ said Guy, rushing to her side. ‘What’s going on?’

  Lulu shook her head, still shaking. ‘T.J. isn’t who he used to be. I’ve known it for ages, but he seemed harmless enough. Then he kissed me the other day, and I knew I’d have to put an end to it. And then he came here today, telling me he’d just been made CEO of his company, all smug and arrogant, and I realised I didn’t even recognise him any longer. Then he told me about his parents: they work in your factory, and they can’t cover their debt repayments because their extra hours have been ended, presumably because of the investigation. And he said he wouldn’t help them out, like they meant nothing to him. They gave him everything. Did you ever meet them? Penny and Gerry? They’re lovely; they’d do anything for anyone.’

  Guy hung his head. ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘let’s get you somewhere more comfortable.’

  He helped her up and led her to the sofa, settling her there. ‘I’m making tea,’ he said, ‘seeing as you don’t seem to have a butler to ask.’

  ‘No butler in here,’ she said. ‘Almost tech-free zone, remember?’

  Guy rummaged around in the kitchen and made two mugs of tea, heaping a spoonful of sugar into Lulu’s and stirring it well. ‘Here you go,’ he said, handing her a mug and sitting down at the other end of the sofa. ‘I had no idea you even knew Thomas.’

  ‘Everyone used to call him T.J. growing up. It was only when he started in the corporate world that he changed it to Thomas.’

  ‘I’ve known his parents for years,’ said Guy. ‘I managed the factory in Exeter for a while, when I was working my way up, and got to know them and Thomas then. Gerry and Penny have always been too kind for their own good, but I didn’t realise they were in that much debt, not any longer at least. They asked me to help Thomas at the start of his career, and I asked Richard to give him a job. Richard looked over his profile and decided to do it; not illegal, but borderline. Thomas started in the finance department and has been working his way up there ever since.’

  ‘It seems he’s managed to work his way right to the top now,’ said Lulu, cynically, taking a sip of her tea.

  ‘Yeah. That is strange,’ said Guy. ‘Richard would never just give up his business.’

  ‘He told me not to tell anyone,’ Lulu replied. ‘Said they were still working out the details of the transition.’

  ‘Thomas must have something on Richard,’ said Guy, ‘and they don’t want the world to know, so they’re going to try and make it look as above-board as they can. Happens a lot.’

  ‘Shady commercial world,’ said Lulu, scathingly.

  Guy shrugged. ‘I guess so.’ He took a sip of his tea. ‘I gave Gerry and Penny extra hours because I found out about the debt they were in. And it fitted well,’ he said, slowly, ‘because I needed trustworthy, hardworking people to help me with an off-the-books project. They’ve been working extra hours for me for years; I didn’t realise cancelling the hours would affect them so badly, not that I had any other choice.’

  ‘Because of the investigation?’ asked Lulu. Guy nodded, darkly. ‘What’s the side project?’ she said, quietly, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

  Guy took a long, slow breath, standing up and walking around. ‘I will tell you,’ he said, ‘but I can’t yet. I really hope you believe me when I say it’s not something for profit or personal gain. It’s charitable. But, in order to protect the other people involved, I have to wait until our latest project is complete. I promise I’ll tell you everything then.’

  ‘And when will that be?’ she asked, her tone edgy.

  ‘It was supposed to be done already, but because of Iva’s investigation, we’ve had to delay. We’re going to wait until it’s over, which shouldn’t be much longer. She hasn’t got anything on me, so she’s only got another few days before legally she has to stop.’

  ‘But if she knew about this side project?’ asked Lulu.

  ‘I’d be finished,’ he said, without hesitation, ‘and probably put in jail.’ Lulu raised her eyebrows. ‘But I promise, unless I’ve totally misjudged you, you would approve.’

  ‘I think you should go,’ said Lulu, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘Twice in one day. It never rains, but it pours.’

  ‘Lulu,’ said Guy, begging with his eyes.

  She shook her head. ‘If and when this whole thing is over, and you can be honest with me about it, then maybe we can start seeing each other again. But until then, I’m not interested. I don’t want to be in a relationship with secrets. If you don’t trust me enough to tell me what’s really going on, then maybe we shouldn’t be together after all.’

  * * * * *

  Thomas was furious. Guy had done it again. He was always there, one step ahead, stealing his thunder, ruining his dreams. He’d had enough; Lulu was his and he wasn’t going to sit back and let Guy have her. He pulled out his smart glasses and thought, call Mila. A few moments later, the call connected.

  ‘Thomas?’ said Mila, surprised.

  ‘Where are you?’ he asked.

  ‘In London. Why?’

  ‘And Iva? Where’s she?’

  ‘Here too,’ said Mila, hesitantly. ‘Thomas, what’s going on?’

  ‘I need to talk to you both, but it should be in person. I’m in Devon. I’ll jump on the hyperloop and will be with you in a couple of hours, max. Tell Iva it’s important.’

  ‘Thomas,’ said Mila, hesitantly. ‘I know you and Guy have a turbulent relationship, and Guy doesn’t seem to realise there are issues between you, which must be frustrating, but are you sure you want to do this?’

  ‘I think you need to work out where your loyalties lie,’ snapped Thomas, knowing she would do whatever her job demanded, no matter what.

  ‘It’s not my loyalties I’m concerned about,’ said Mila, hotly. ‘See you when you get here.’ She terminated the call.

  * * * * *

  Iva was waiting for Thomas in the lobby, tapping her foot nervously as the minutes ticked by. She knew he could get cold feet; he was a high-profile informant and it had happened to her before. She would need him on the record, and willing to testify, and he’d had plenty of time to cool off on the journey up. She started pacing, hating the waiting, running through every scenario in her mind. What if it had nothing to d
o with Guy? What if it was all a big ruse? What if he had nothing significant? She was almost out of time, and she needed something big. What would he want in return for the information? She’d been around long enough to see it all; nothing could surprise her any more.

  Thomas walked quickly into the building. He looked around and headed for the reception desk, Iva intercepting him before he could make it there.

  ‘Mr Watson,’ she said, warmly, knowing the best way to get someone like Thomas to cooperate was to treat him with respect, to act as though the king had come to inspect the department. ‘So kind of you to come. Do come right this way. I’ve got a pass waiting for you.’

  Thomas smiled. ‘Thank you,’ he said, as she held the security door open for him. They got in the lift and Iva handed him the pass.

  ‘Just fingerprint it please,’ she said, in a way that was more than a request, but not quite an order, like it was a simple formality over which he had no choice. He did it without even thinking. Iva noticed the twitch of Thomas’ mouth as he realised he’d made a mistake. If he changed his mind and wanted to back out, it would be harder now; Iva could prove he had been in the building, and she had the recording of his phone call with Mila too.

  ‘Let me get you a drink,’ said Iva, as she led Thomas into her office and gestured towards one of the comfortable looking chairs.

  ‘No, thank you,’ said Thomas, keen to get to it.

  Iva sat in the other chair, strategically placed at an angle to both ensure they could talk comfortably and to make Iva seem open and non-threatening. ‘What can I do for you, Mr Watson?’ she asked sweetly, happy to oblige his unspoken request to get a move on.

  ‘I want to tell you about Guy’s illicit activities,’ said Thomas, evenly.

  Iva tried not to show any reaction, but the corners of her lips twitched up and a light came to her eyes. ‘Please,’ she said, sitting forward in her chair, ‘go ahead.’