Love Lies Dying (10 page)

“We’ve all got our dirty little secrets, Johnny,” she smiled. “Sometimes it helps if you tell someone. Care to tell me yours?”

John pulled back from her and removed his hands from the table.

“This isn’t helping either of us,” he whispered.

“But it would if you’d let it.”

“Not here,” he said, looking around the lunch bar. “Not now.”

Zoe sat back in her own chair and crossed her arms over her pink top.

“Alright,” she nodded. “Have it your way. But I want you to remember that I’m here for you, okay?”

John nodded.

“If you ever want to talk, or anything, I’ll listen.”

“Okay,” John said.

“Good,” she smiled and finished off her mineral water with one last mouthful.

“But it felt good, didn’t it, Johnny?” she smirked. “Shopping with me.”

John smiled and then nodded, “Yeah. It made me feel young again.”

Zoe laughed out loud and then clasped her hand over her mouth until she calmed down. “Come on, Johnny. Don’t go all
grandpa
on me. ‘It made me feel young again,’” she mimicked his voice and then laughed again. “You’re only three years older than me.”

“I don’t feel it.”

“That’s life getting you down,” she said. “Stick with me and I’ll soon get you regenerated.”

John’s hands rested in his lap, trying hard to push his erection away from the underside of the table.

“That’s what worries me,” he smiled.

She smiled back and ran her eyes over his face, as if looking for something she hadn’t seen before. Her hands automatically went to each of her braids to check they were still in place and not coming undone.

She looks so hot in those braids and pink top
, John thought.
Imagine how good she’d be sitting on top of you.

Then he wished he hadn’t as his erection found new life.

Zoe turned in her seat and started to dive through her packages again.

“I’ve got a present for you,” she said as she searched.

“Really?” John replied, happy to change the conversation and get his mind off other things.

“Yeah, somewhere…” she continued looking. “I picked it up when you went for a browse through the men’s section of that last store.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said before sipping his coffee again.

“It’s a pleasure, and at least this way you’ll always have something that will remind you of me.”

“Yeah, like I need
reminding
,” he rolled his eyes.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Don’t be naughty or you won’t get it,” she said.

“Sorry, Mistress,” he replied and smiled at her.

She stopped searching through her bags and turned to face him. She was silent for a moment as her face changed with her thoughts. Then she smiled again and continued looking, this time through another bag.

“Ahh!” she yelled with excitement and victory. “Got it!”

She pulled out a small black box and handed it over the table to him.

“From me to you,” she said.

“It’s not that gold Rolex I’ve always wanted is it?” he smiled at her.

Zoe slapped her forehead with her hand, “
Now
you tell me!”

John pulled the lid off the box and stared down at a shining silver key ring; at one end was an eye-bolt and the ring at the other end held one single red key.

“Thanks,” he said, genuinely surprised.

“See,” she reached over and took it from the box. “It’s got this handy little bolt thingy at this end which allows you to slip it over a belt loop in your jeans and carry your keys on your hip! You’ll have them with you at all times and won’t have to worry about leaving them near the front door or losing them or anything. They’ll always be hooked to your hip.”

John pointed to the red key hanging from the other end of the key ring. It was an odd shape and design, not like a normal door key. It was less sophisticated and had only three large teeth. John had no idea what it was for. He’d never seen a key like it before.

“And that’s the key to…?” he prompted.

“My heart?” she smiled. “Or some sunken treasure? Fort Knox?”

John began to laugh.

“Maybe it’s the key to disarm all nuclear warheads?” she continued. “Or a prison cell?”

She giggled with him now as she handed him back the key ring.

“Or maybe it’s the key to freedom,” she whispered.

John took the key ring from her, “Thanks. I really like it.”

“I’ve used it once,” she said, her eyes burrowing through him. “Maybe you’ll need to use it one day.”

John stared back at her, unsure whether she was being serious or just joking.

After a long pause, he said, “Well, thank you, it’s very nice and a lovely thought. But you shouldn’t have bought it.”

“It’s my pleasure. And it’s solid silver too!”

“Yeah, I can tell,” he weighed it in his hands. “Heavy.”

“Strong things for strong men,” she said. “We petite ladies can’t be seen sporting those kinds of things around town.”

Zoe giggled again.

“I hope you like it,” she said.

“I do, Zoe,” John replied. “Thank you.”

He tested the eye-bolt a couple of times, drawing back the trigger and watching the catch open.

“Go on,” she said. “Put your keys on it.”

While Zoe watched, John pulled his keys from his pocket and transferred them from his old key ring to the new one.

“There,” he said when he was done. “Easy!”

“Perfect,” Zoe beamed. “It’ll look so good on you.”

He placed the key ring in his left hand and brought it down towards his left hip.

“Hey, hang on,” Zoe said.

“Huh?”

“Wrong side,” she pointed to his left hip.

“What?”

“It goes on your right hip.”

“Right, left,” he shrugged his shoulders. “What’s the difference? It’s the same thing.”

Zoe shook her head, “Nope. You’re wrong. It’s got to go on your right hip.”

“But, Zoe, I’d prefer it on my left,” John replied.

“You just told me right, left what’s the difference! So you shouldn’t mind wearing it on your right hip.”

“But I –”

“
Please
, Johnny,” she pouted. “For me?”

John let out a deep sigh, “Left, right, right, left…”

He took the key ring from his left hand and transferred it to his right. He held up his right hand so Zoe could see the key ring easily and then he pointed to his right hip.

“Right hip,” he mouthed silently to her.

She giggled and was smiling once again.

John found the belt loop on his right hip, pulled back the trigger on the key ring to open the eye-hook and hooked it around the loop. He stood up and moved to the side of the table where he modelled the key ring for Zoe; swinging his hips from side to side so that the keys jingled.

“And what does madam think?” he asked in a mock-English accent.

Zoe laughed louder, “Madam is impressed.”

“Good,” John smiled at her and then looked at his watch. “We’d better get going. It’s quarter-past three and we want to be home in time to get that call from Helen.”

Zoe nodded. She stood up and began to gather all her parcels together.

“You should have a cell phone, Johnny,” she said. “Then we wouldn’t have to race home.”

“Don’t like them,” he said. “They give you brain cancer.”

Zoe laughed as she turned around to face him with all her bags in her hands.

“And people can always find you,” Zoe said.

“That too,” John agreed. “Is that why you don’t have one?”

“You don’t need one if you’re stuck in a house all day surrounded by guards,” Zoe said. “Ricky always knew where I was.”

Her smile disappeared as she looked to the floor.

John took hold of her bags and gave her a quick hug.

“Come on,” he said. “Enough of that. Let’s not spoil a great day so far.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “I’ll try.”

“And I don’t want your tears staining my new-fangled key ring, either,” he said as he bumped his right hip against hers.

Zoe’s laugh drowned out the sound of keys jingling.

“You didn’t take the red key off the ring when you put all your keys on it,” she said as they walked out of the coffee shop.

“Why would I?” he said. “You said it was the key to freedom.”

“It is,” she replied.

“Well, maybe I
will
need it one day,” he said.

She looked up at him and smiled.

“You never know,” she said.

“That’s right,” he agreed. “You never know.”

Nine

John drove the car along his street with a little less than ten minutes to spare before four o’clock.

The trip home had been a quiet one. Zoe hadn’t said much and even though John had tried to start a conversation, he realised that this trip meant the end of the fun and the start, once again, of all the worry and problems with Fox.

He hoped Helen had found out something useful for Zoe. Otherwise she was going to be in this uncertain state for days, maybe weeks.

Where will she go?
he thought to himself.
She can’t stay here; not for weeks or months. That’s bound to cause problems.

“You okay?” he had asked.

She only nodded and continued to stare out the side window.

“Feel free to put the radio on if you like.”

She had turned to him then and smiled, “Thanks, Johnny. I think that just might help the situation.”

She reached over and scanned the stations until she found something that she liked.

The music was too loud for John’s taste, but he wasn’t about to stop her listening to it if it helped her.

The loud beat actually gave them both much-needed time to think.

And before long, John was turning into the driveway.

“And here we are,” he turned to face Zoe as he brought the car to a stop in the driveway.

She smiled at him.

John turned down the music on the radio.

“Murdock Tours hope you enjoyed your day,” he said with his hands cupped over his mouth. “Please take time to look through our gift shop and pick up some of our brochures detailing other exciting Murdock Tours!”

Zoe giggled and slapped him on the shoulder, “You idiot.”

“All part of the service ma’am,” he replied as he mimed tipping his hat in her direction.

“A question for the tour operator,” she put up her hand and batted her eyelids.

“Yes, little lady, what can I do for you?”

“Are we going to sit here all day or what? A certain little lady has had too much mineral water and needs to use the bathroom.”

John laughed, reached over and opened the glove compartment. Sitting inside was a small zip-top leather pouch. He picked it up and handed it to her.

“Open it,” he said.

She pulled back the zip and placed her fingers inside, pulling out a handful of keys.

“Spares,” he said.

“Great!”

He pushed some keys around until he found the one attached to a chain with a small blue plastic alien hanging from it.

“This is it,” he lifted it up for her to take. “The front door key.”

Zoe giggled, “You’re the best tour operator ever. Such service! And I bet the bathrooms will be spotless.”

“Of course!”

He returned the rest of the keys to the pouch, zipped up the top and threw it back into the glove compartment.

“Out you get,” he said to her. “I’ll bring in your bags.”

She smiled and pecked him lightly on the cheek, “And such a gentleman too.”

As she climbed from the car, he tapped her on the shoulder.

“One thing,” he said.

“Anything.”

“Open the garage door for me, please?”

She turned around and smirked at him. “And I thought you were a gentleman,” she said.

“Hey I’m bringing in all those large and heavy bags!”

“Ha, ha.”

As she ran around to the front of the car, he watched her buttocks jiggle in her cut-off jeans.

Some women just have it all,
he thought to himself.

She bent down to open the garage door, pointing her butt in the air and wiggling it as she worked the handle.

“Jesus,” he muttered to himself as he watched. “What an ass.”

Then she stood and pulled the garage door. It swung up past her and thudded into position in the ceiling of the garage.

“Voila,” she mouthed as she swept her hands forward allowing him access to the garage.

He mimed tipping his hat to her again and drove forward into the garage.

He pulled up just short of the back wall and beside Helen’s car. He turned off the engine. The music on the radio stopped at the same time. He was thankful for that. A bit of peace and quiet would help him think better than anything else.

He looked in the rear-view mirror but could see no sign of Zoe. She’d probably turned and run straight for the front door to get to the bathroom as soon as possible.

The bags in the back of the car reminded John of the wonderful few hours he had spent with her.

Everything was so easy and simple. She lived only for the moment and could be amused or distracted by simple, everyday things.

Such an easy life,
he thought to himself.
Yeah, right. Who are you kidding? She’s spent years being beaten every second night by Fox. Yeah, great life!

But what would she do now?

Maybe she was trying not to think about it, but John knew he had to.

If that prick Fox was dead, then everything was fine and he couldn’t come after her. But what if it wasn’t that easy? What if some of his guards and employees actually did phone the police and get them involved? Fox may not be hunting her any more, but the police might be. There was no way that he and Helen could hide her out here for long.

They’ve got a term for that, “accessory after the fact” or “harbouring a wanted criminal” or something,
he thought.

And that was the
easy
option.

What if Fox wasn’t dead? What if he had only been knocked unconscious and was now on her trail and hunting her down, determined to kill her, and anyone helping her?

And what if Helen came back and said she couldn’t find anything? That didn’t necessarily mean that Fox was dead or alive. They’d still be in limbo wondering whether he was coming after them or not. That was the worst situation of all.

John rubbed his hands over his face.

Nothing’s ever easy,
he thought.
Nothing.

He climbed from the car and shut his door. He stood looking out into the street, focussing on the houses opposite.

“Does everyone have such a complicated life?” he muttered.

Then he turned and stared over at Helen’s car. He hoped she would have good news for them. He opened the back door and climbed in to grab Zoe’s shopping bags. It looked to him as if they had multiplied in the back of the car on the way home. She brought new meaning to the phrase, “Spending up a storm.”

John laughed to himself. “Well, it’s her money…or it was.”

He dragged out the bags, shut the car door and walked out of the garage. He looked up at the garage door and thought about closing it, but changed his mind. He’d have to put all the shopping bags down to do it, and he couldn’t really be bothered. Anyway, they were going to meet Helen in an hour or so for dinner, so he decided to leave the door open.

There’s no law against it,
he thought as he walked up the paved path towards the front door.

As he walked, he managed to hook his new key ring through the belt loop on his right hip.

“Got to keep her happy,” he muttered. “Left, right, what’s the difference?”

The bags were beginning to get heavier so he quickened his pace. He looked ahead, hoping to see Zoe coming to help him carry her purchases, but there was only the front door.

The
open
front door.

The door was wide open, the little blue alien hanging from the key.

The key still in the lock.

“Shit,” John said as he dropped the bags and sprinted for the door.