Dying to Live

Chapter 14 - John Wayne

London

Before Thailand

"Bloody hell, mate, I leave you alone for a couple of days and that's the shit you get yourself into."

We finished the Chinese and I finished telling Marty all about my fling with Hazel, the late-night phone call and her disappearance. He'd already had a fiddle with her phone but he hadn't found out any more than I had.

"And who's this Tommy guy?"

"I told you, he's just a random bloke who threatened to beat me to a pulp if Hazel hadn't shown up. Once she was there, he told me to fuck off."

"And you did."

"And I did. You should see this guy... calling him a big mean bastard doesn't do him justice. And his mate, Geoff, isn't someone you'd want to mess with either. I thought a, ahmmm, tactical retreat was the right thing to do in the circumstances."

"Tactical retreat? Full scale runaway sounds more like it."

"Come on, give me a break. I did wait for them outside but they must've gone out a back way. How was I to know?"

"Just pulling your leg. Okay, get another couple of beers and we'll talk through the options."

We did a cheers with the cans and fired a few ideas about.

"First thing I'm going to do is phone Tommy," said Marty. "I'll withhold my number of course. It's worth a try, see if I can get anything out of him."

He dialled the number and put his phone on speakerphone.

"Hello."

"Hi, is that Tommy?"

"Who's that?"

"I was wondering if you knew where Hazel was."

BEEEP. BEEEP.

He'd hung up.

"Well that wasn't particularly useful. Although it allowed us to score one of our options off the list."

"When you say score off one of the options, you actually mean score off the only option we had?"

"Don't be such a pessimist. We'll come up with something. Trust me, I'm Mr Fixit."

"So you keep telling me."

We sipped our beers in silence for a while.

"John Wayne," said Marty out of the blue.

"What?"

"John Wayne," he repeated unhelpfully.

"Do you mean what would John Wayne do if he was here?" I asked although I didn't think that was what he actually meant. We usually asked what Spiderman would do when we were seeking divine help.

"No."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"Let's go and see the Duke."

"Ha ha. But seriously, you're suggesting we go down to the Iron Duke?"

"Yeah, let's go to the Iron Duke for a pint."

No other ideas sprung to mind, so I grabbed my wallet and keys and headed for the door.

"No coat?" said Marty, pulling on his coat.

"I'm not a woose, like some people I could mention."

I hunched my shoulders against the cold, not saying anything. It was all I could do to stop my teeth chattering, I was freezing but I certainly wasn't going to admit it. A straight-from-the-artic gust bit into my ears and face. Why in God's name hadn't I worn a coat? Marty was fine, he had on his big Parka with the fur lined hood. He must've spent the day listening to the weather forecasts and come prepared.