Dying to Live

Chapter 6 - I Have an Idea

London

Before Thailand

We arrived back at the flat with two, rather good, bottles of wine. Hazel had insisted on buying and she'd also insisted on a bit of quality. Quality had not been one of my concerns when I'd made my selection at the Iron Duke. To be fair, quality wasn't one of the choices, colour was the only option offered.

"You've a lot to learn about the pleasure of wine," she said as she opened the bottle of Hermitage.

"It's not a Crozes Hermitage," she pointed out. "It's a Hermitage, much better."

We clinked glasses and exchanged 'cheers'.

"Wow, this is good," I said. "This is really good."

"Let's take this to bed," she said, peeling off her jumper without letting go of her glass. How did she do that?

We stripped down to our underclothes and hopped into bed.

"Cheers," we said in unison as we clinked glasses again.

By the time the wine was finished, we'd made love once, nearly twice and I'd stuck a pizza in the oven. I opened the second bottle, a Fleurie this time, and we chatted about our lives, our likes and dislikes. We shared a taste in music but not a love for football. We liked the same sort of movies but she enjoyed reading whereas I was happy to wait for the TV adaptation. She adored horses, I couldn't stand the four-legged Devil-spawns. My hatred could be traced back to a childhood incident on a beach when a giant stallion bucked and threw me off, slamming me face-first deep into the sand or as my mother described the event, the donkey didn't move and I just slid sideways off the saddle. Either way, the beast clearly had it in for me and I wasn't about to forgive it or its kind.

It turned out that we had a nice mix of things in common and whatever the opposite is, things not in common, I guess. Then out of the blue, the conversation turned serious.

"Do you know why I left North Shields?"

"I don't even know where North Shields is."

"It up north, near Newcastle, but that doesn't matter."

"I say, I say, I say, why did the pretty girl leave North Shields?"

"Come on, Dave, I'm being serious. Do you want to know what happened or do you want to joke around?"

"Is 'joke around' a euphemism?"

The look on her face told me it wasn't; the look told me it was time to listen. She wanted to share something important with me, so I needed to stop messing around.

"Sorry," I said, "why did you leave North Shields?"

"My brother stabbed someone."

"What?"

"My brother stabbed someone. He said it was an accident but can you really stab someone by accident?"

I pulled her closer to me. A hug was a much better idea than a smartass answer.

"The problem was..."

"Apart from the fact that he'd stabbed someone?"

"The problem was," she said, without giving me one her special dirty looks, "the person he stabbed was connected."

"Connected?"

"Yeah, linked to local drug dealers. There was one almighty furore. Our whole family was threatened, so we packed up and ran. Mum and Dad headed to America to join my sister and I headed south. I've no idea what happened to my brother, I haven't seen nor heard from him since we all ran away. He could be dead for all I know."

"You nearly make my life sound okay."

She leaned into me and flopped her head onto my chest. Her short blonde hair tickled me but I wasn't going to let myself react. This was a serious story she was sharing. Flippancy or a clumsy attempt to have sex again was the last thing she needed from me.

"I changed my name. Metcalfe is my dad's mother's maiden name, I changed it by deed poll, which is easier than you'd think. I've got all the official documents now with my new name; driving licence, passport, the works. I applied to MIB using Metcalfe and was lucky enough to get the job."

"My job, you got my job."

"Listen, this is serious. Dangerous people have been looking for me and I think they're closing in."

"You're pulling my leg, aren't you?" I said. After all, this was my old, staid boss talking. This was Hazel Metcalfe, or was it?

As she carried on with her story, I glanced at her face every so often. I prided myself on my ability to spot a lie when I heard one. I wasn't picking up any lying-eyes signals but I was still pretty sure that this whole story was a big load of old bollocks. Having said that, when the sex was as good as this sex was, you could put up with a whole big load of old bollocks so as not to rock the boat.

"It all seems a bit, ahmmm, dramatic," I said paraphrasing my 'load of bollocks' thought.

"That's what I thought until Neil told me about the money."

"The money?"

"Yeah, before he went into hiding, he told me where he'd hidden money and guess what? There was nearly a hundred thousand quid."

"Shit."

"Exactly. I took the stash to my mum and dad. We were discussing what to do when the phone went. A cold, sinister voice told us we had a day to hand over Neil otherwise there'd be consequences."

"Consequences?"

"Yeah, I don't know exactly what he meant but we decided to take Neil's advice and get the fuck out of there. My folks took half the cash and headed to America, I took the rest and came to Newbury."

"Wow."

"That's the short version of the story. There was a lot of really nasty stuff along the way. I'm glad to be away from there."

"Even in its short form, that's a hell of a story. I'm blown away... you're not Little Miss Goody-Goody after all."

I split the dregs of the wine between us and wondered what bottles I had maturing in the wine cellar, or on the top of the fridge to use a more accurate description. Hazel downed her glass in one and snuggled into me, warm and sexy. I closed my eyes and thought about what I'd just heard.

The uninvited sunlight streamed through the bedroom window and woke me from an uneasy slumber. I really must try and remember to pull the damned curtains when it's time to go to sleep. I didn't need to stretch my arm out to know if anyone was in bed with me. The heaviness on my chest told me someone was here and for once it was nice to know who it was without going through a whole rigmarole.

We spent the day mooching around the flat. We snoozed, we kissed, we made love. We ate, we drank a little and we watched TV. Sometimes we even chatted. The day went in quicker than any day I ever remember, time really does fly when you're having fun. We made love one more time and then settled down for a well-deserved sleep.