Second Intention (11 page)

At her insistence I went and had a shower (I had finished my run some six hours earlier, and wasn’t a very nice person to be near) and put some clean clothes on. She wasn’t particularly warm towards me, which I guess was fair enough, but at least she wasn’t upset or angry now.

While she had a good, long soak in the bath I got some food on the go and thought about it some more. Maybe she wasn’t angry, but
I
most certainly was. Whilst the upset with Sue hadn’t
directly
come about because of any action by our mystery man, what he had been doing really had got to me. I wasn’t seeing things clearly, and I had got things completely wrapped around my neck. My lovely wife had suffered as a result, and that was something I minded about.

A lot.

It was bad enough that he was trying to get at me. It was worse that he had caused the upset with half a dozen perfectly decent people at Medicom, just to make me look bad. Now that it was affecting my wife I was seriously pissed off about it, and vowed that when I finally got my hands on him I’d see that he regretted it.

I had absolutely no idea that there was more to come.

Twelve

Saturday morning brought something good and something bad.

On the good side, it was a bright, crisp, clear day, and my wife, despite my best efforts the previous evening, still loved me. That was clear from the look on her face and the tone in her voice as, with a certain trepidation, I took her a mug of tea just as she was waking up. It seemed her capacity to understand the circumstances and forgive my conduct were all that I could have hoped for. Perhaps more.

On the bad side, I had a hangover.

A serious one.

It was no more than I deserved though. Maybe Sue was letting me off lightly, but my body most certainly wasn’t. I had slept like a log from the moment my head hit the pillow until, at about half past four, with a parched mouth and a bursting bladder, I had to get up and sort myself out.

After that, I didn’t sleep well. The pint of water I had gulped down to try and counter the dehydration hadn’t done much to help, and my head felt like it had a party of French students living in it. I couldn’t get comfortable, and found myself unable to settle back into the deep slumber I craved. I lay there in the dark looking at the time displayed on the alarm clock, and got more and more angry with myself as the minutes continued to tick by before my eyes. When I finally did nod off it was never for more than about twenty minutes at a time, and I would wake to find that I just had to go through the whole process again.

It was a punishment. It was my just desserts for what had happened on Friday.

Sue was pretty chirpy over breakfast. She, at least, had slept really well for the whole of the night, and she seemed excited at the prospect of the day of Christmas shopping in
Norwich. Good. She could drive us there. I was in no fit state to, yet.

By the time we had finally got everything sorted and were ready to set off it was about ten thirty. I had been waiting patiently while she fussed about this and that and heaven knows what else, knowing from years of experience that trying to chivvy her along would be counter-productive. She had to be allowed to find all the things she needed, and make all her wardrobe adjustments, in her own time.

Just when I thought we were finally ready she began emptying her bag out on the kitchen table, then searching through the pockets of her coat, a look of concern on her face.

‘What’s wrong?’ I hoped my tone of voice wasn’t actually saying ‘get a move on.’

‘My mobile phone. I can’t find it.’

‘Well, do you really need it?’ I knew that if she had left it at the gallery we could spend all morning in a fruitless search and waste a lot of valuable shopping time.

‘Yes.’ She opened one of the drawers in the small cabinet by the front door, although how she thought it might have got in there I don’t know.

‘Are you sure? Because I’ve g
ot mine, and if anybody needs…’

‘Yes.
’ She turned and looked me in the eye, a look of wry amusement on her face. ‘There will be a time today when I will need you to go off and do your own thing, and we’ll need to be able to meet up after that. It will be easier to find each other if we’ve both got our mobiles.’

Ah. Of course.
Christmas.

‘Where were you when you last had it?’ I offered, helpfully.

‘If I knew that, pet, we wouldn’t be looking for it now, would we?’ She carried on rummaging.

‘No, I mean, where were you when you last
remember
having it?’

‘Oh, I don’t know.’ A note of exasperation was beginning to creep into her voice.

‘Car?’

She looked at me for a moment, then turned and opened the
front door to head out to the Fiesta.

When we finally got to Norwich we managed to find a space in a little car park behind the theatre. We were lucky. It seemed that the world and his wife were all on the same mission, the streets thronged with people wrapped up against the cold and laden down with carrier bags.

We did the Castle Mall, the market, and the High Street before heading off to Tombland for lunch at the pizzeria. It was a pretty successful mission, too. We managed to get most of the things we needed for most of the people we were buying for, although I couldn’t think of what to get for Phil. It was possible that I might find something in one of the gift shops in Elm Hill, the quaint little cobbled street with the creaky looking timbered houses near the cathedral. I’d have to check it out later when Sue went off on her own.

Lunch was good, and we
were both feeling pretty relaxed by the time we stepped back out into sunlight.

‘How long are you going to be?’ I asked, as she passed a couple of the heavier bags to me.

‘Oh, I don’t know. About three quarters of an hour or so?’

‘Is that all?’ I feigned a look of disappointment. ‘Surely you’ll be needing a lot longer?’

‘No, that’ll be fine,’ she chuckled. ‘I’m not after much, after all.’

‘Oh, right then.’

The teasing was nice after the previous day’s upset. Everything was back to normal, it seemed.

‘See you in a bit,’ she said, kissing me on the cheek, and turning to walk away. I watched her as she went, melting into the crowd of shoppers, then set out on my own quest for a present for my coach.

I didn’t have any success, but enjoyed strolling around the picturesque little area of Norwich all the same. Ah well. It was always possible I would find something suitable on our trip to Denmark.

As I walked back toward the market place I glanced at my watch and was startled to see it was three fifteen. Sue had been gone for an hour. If she was running late then it would be useful to know, as I could always go and browse the books in Waterstones for a while, but I didn’t want to do that if she was going to be done any minute. I pulled
my mobile out, found her in the contacts list and pressed the button to call.

It rang. And rang. And rang.

Weird. The phone was definitely switched on, as I would have got the voicemail messaging service otherwise. She just wasn’t answering.

Oh well.

I switched over to “messages” and keyed in the text -
How long are you going to be?
- then pressed send.

I could see from the little black bar displayed on my screen that I had a good signal, so she would have been able to get through to me. All the same, I didn’t want to go indoors and possibly lose signal strength when she was trying to reply, so I spent a few minutes just window shopping. There was a bleep and a buzz in my pocket, and I pulled the phone out and glanced at the screen.

It was very clear -
1 message received - Sue.

I thumbed the button for the message to be displayed:
All done now.

Why hadn’t she answered when I called? Did she want to avoid me telling where she was from hearing what was going on in the background? Was she taking this Christmas present secrecy thing a little too far?

I texted her back -
Meet outside the Forum, ten minutes? X.

She replied within a few seconds -
See you there. X.

It’s funny, but there are some things neither of us ever do. Sending messages in text speak is one of them. Typ
ing in “see you” instead of “C U” might take longer, but we would never demean ourselves by mangling the English language like that. People even tease us about it.

We are both incredibly old fashioned when it comes to modern electronic technology. We don’t use Facebook or Twitter, and we don’t have iPads or smartphones. We both carry the most basic of pay as you go mobiles, and just use them for texting or calls.
Friends think we’re crazy, but we just don’t need it.

I began walking up toward the Forum, the enormous, hangar-like structure which houses shops, the library, Pizza Express, and the BBC Look East news room. The sun was beginning to sink now, and from my position on this slightly elevated part of the city I could see an expanse of roofs bathed in a washed out tangerine glow.
As I reached the Forum I positioned myself where there was no chance of her missing me. The shoppers down in the market square appeared to be thinning out, but all around me there were still a fair few people. A crowd of kids was hanging around, casually chatting, and each one trying to perform the occasional trick on a skateboard, drawing mutters of admiration when it worked, and snorts of derision when it didn’t.

One of these, a thin looking lad of about eighteen, with blonde dreads and a lip ring, noticed me watching them, and gave me the briefest nod of acknowledgement
as he breezed past.

‘Alright mate?’ he mumbled, before trying to skip the board up two steps and falling off.

I smiled when I saw the sheepish look he sent my way as, unhurt, he picked himself up and turned to his friends, giving them all an overly theatrical bow.

They responded with a round of applause, and a little playful teasing.

It all seemed very good natured, and I remembered  how easy it was to misjudge some people if you just went on their appearance. These teenagers looked like the sort of people you might try to avoid, with their baggy, ragged clothes, and freaky hairstyles, and affected “cool”. Underneath it all though, they were just kids doing what kids have done for such a long time. Only the costume and the props had changed.

I glanced at my watch again. Fifteen minutes had passed since I’d received the message saying she’d only be ten. Where the hell was she? Had she got lost? Had she got sidetracked into buying something else and lost track of the time?

I gave it another five minutes, then sent her another message.

Where are you? X

Her reply came back almost immediately.

Outside the Forum, like we said. I can’t see you.

This was weird. I looked around, but there was absolutely no sign of her. Had we got it mixed up somehow? Were there two places in Norwich called the Forum? I tried again.

I’m by the skateboarders.

As soon as I’d sent it I realised this was stupid. Surely by now she’d answer if I tried ‘phoning again? She was obviously receiving my text messages, so she must be able to get an ordinary phone call.

I found her number on the telephone menu and made the call.

Again, nothing.

It just rang and rang.

Now I was beginning to get really edgy. Something was seriously wrong here. Why couldn’t I see her, and why wouldn’t she answer my calls?

The mobile bleeped and buzzed again, and the message I read took my anxiety to a new level.

What’s going on? I don’t like this, Pet.

I could feel the wave of panic wash over me. It was now dark, and Sue was somewhere out there, but lost. What the hell was going on? What should I do? Stay and wait for her, or go looking?

Just then the phone rang. I felt the briefest flicker of relief, thinking it must have been her, before dismay at seeing the call was actually from Karen, her assistant at the gallery.

‘Richard?’ She sounded concerned.

‘Yes.’

‘Where are you?’ she almost snapped at me. ‘I’ve just had a call from Sue, on a payphone, and she’s in a real state. She asked me to call you direct, because something strange is happening with her
phone.’

‘Where is she?’

‘She said she’d wait for you at the display area in the Castle Mall.’

‘I’m on my way.’

It took me about five minutes to reach her. The crowds had, by now, completely died down, and I could see her almost from the entrance way. Her expression was a curious mixture of anger, impatience, and anxiety.

I threw my arms around her, and I could feel the tension in her. She was really upset.

‘What’s happening, Richard?’ She was close to tears. ‘Just what is going on?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve been waiting for you where we said for ages. Where were you?’

She looked at me, open mouthed for a moment before responding.

‘
I’ve
been here, where your message said to wait. Look.’ She thrust the mobile at me, the screen clearly displaying the message -
Display area, Castle Mall, ten minutes? X

‘Why wouldn’t you answer when I called?’ she went on.

‘Sue,’ I looked up at her from the screen, frowning, ‘this isn’t right. These aren’t the messages I sent you.’

She said nothing, but took in a deep breath and turned away. She knew, just as I did, that our mystery man had found a new way to torment us. Even our private messages to each other were not safe from hijacking.

I thumbed a message into my phone, the simple word
Test
, and sent it off to hers. It should have taken a few seconds for it to reach the mobile in my left hand.

When my own mobile bleeped and buzzed about half a minute later I knew something was very,
very
wrong.

What I read chilled me to the bone.

Well. That certainly took you long enough, didn’t it?