Alone with a Stranger

It was the hands that stuck in her head. Even after the police had been called and the area cordoned off she still remembered the hands, outstretched, reaching for her, frozen forever in supplication. As the body was taken away, she found herself trying to sneak a second glance, though she had no idea what she was looking for. Maybe she hoped that by seeing it twice it would remove the memory, like the toggle of a light switch. As it was, it would be some time before she would be leaving by the front door in future.

Milly had found the corpse that morning, when she went out to take the bins to the front. The alley ran along the back of the house, a communal passageway linking the rear doors of the terrace like a secret passage hidden in plain sight. The expensive houses behind were blocked off by high wooden fences, shielding them from the awful view of the concrete path and dishevelled council house gardens, but Milly liked the fact that her own garden was only separated from the alley by a low chain link fence. She liked to watch the neighbourhood children playing on scooters and skateboards. It was nice to have somewhere safe for them to play, even if watching them left an ache inside her for something she still didn't have.

Derek had comforted her of course. They had married when Milly was 29, three years ago, which made her 32 now and if that wasn't depressing then she didn't know what was. When they met they'd had so many dreams for the future. She didn't feel like she'd given up on them, not really. She was just more aware of the barriers than she had been.

"Do you think you should take the day off work?" 

Milly shook her head. She didn't want to take time off, time which would only be spent thinking about things best not thought about.

"I'm sure he wouldn't have suffered."

"How do you know?" Her voice was taut. "That's a stupid thing to say. He was dead in a back alley and I hardly reckon he died feeling peaceful."

"Alright, alright," Derek said soothingly, stroking Milly's back while he held her. "I was looking for something to say is all."

Milly let him comfort her, standing in the front room so she didn't need to look at the bins out of the kitchen window. She didn't know where the anger had come from. After a while they both went to work and Milly tried to pretend nothing had happened.

The policeman was waiting for her when she got back. She was back before Derek, which happened a lot lately, and now she wished she had stayed longer, started work on another case study so that Derek could have come home first and she wouldn't have to deal with it.

"Morning Mrs.Ossam." The policeman was young with short cropped blond hair that made him look like a grown up Bart Simpson. She resisted an urge to reach out and muss it up.

"You'd better come inside," she said, fumbling with her key, hoping to get the door open before the curtains started twitching.

"It's alright, said the policeman, "I won't stay long." He came inside anyway.

His name, as it turned out, was Brian and he took his tea with milk and two sugars.

"You see, Mrs. Ossam," continued the policeman, "it turns out the the man you found didn't die of natural causes, if you get my drift..." He paused, presumably to give time for Milly to process what she had been told. She found herself wondering if this was all part of police training. Did you get a long pause for a murder, a short one for a break in, and something in between for obscene graffiti in your vestibule.

"Now," continued the policeman in a bright but serious tone, "obviously we're not considering you a suspect at this time, but we will be wanting to ask you a few questions, and we'd ask you to make no arrangements to leave town without checking with us first."