Chapter two of my completed story involving an under cover police officer with extra sensuary powers
CHAPTER TWO
Bright light flooded the room. Kelly’s fingers were clawing at her throat when she awoke to find Joe staring over her, the bed covers flung back in a single swift movement.
‘What the hell Kelly, you just scared the bloody daylights outta me!’ She caught the stale alcohol on his breath as he threw his head back on the pillow, ‘See a doctor won’t you? Christ - you’ve not been right since you started the bloody job, get it sorted or get out and find something that doesn’t affect your state of mind.’
Kelly’s eyes widened as she met her husband’s glare, anger replacing the fright and bewilderment that still had her heart pounding like a drum, ‘I can’t just up and leave Joe, we can’t exist on your money at the factory - and anyway, when are you going to fix the damned car, you’re obviously too tight…’
‘Oh yeah, here we go, the car again…’
‘And why not eh?’ Kelly raised herself on the palms of her hands, stared him in the eye, ‘you know it’s in a dangerous state, keeps stalling – do you want me to have an accident, is that it?’
‘Oh don’t be stupid, I’ll do it before you leave for work,’ Joe mumbled, running his hand through his thinning hair and turning away from her.
‘And another thing,’ she clapped a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to face her, ‘I’ll have you know I’m well paid for what I do, and I like the job.’
She wasn’t at all sure about that bit, but his comments had needled her. He’d made it seem like only yesterday, not five whole years ago that she’d started the job. It was only recently that she’d begun to feel uneasy, and after all it provided her with some independence. Her heart pounding only a little less furiously in the aftermath of her nightmare, her mind took her on a topsy turvy course over fifteen long months of marriage, witnessing his drinking bouts, his explosive temper, his jealous mind which was capable of turning her mildest association into the affair of the century. Not that she’d a chance to form more than a slight acquaintance with a decent bloke. Chance would be a fine thing.
She’d expected a retort after her remark about liking the job but he was away with the fairies - or demons in his case. So much for his concern about her state of mind, his own broken sleep had been what concerned him.
And what was concerning her right now, as she lay back on the pillow, was her
nightmare. As vivid now as the moment she experienced it. What had caused it? The dark? The job? She didn’t think so, but she couldn’t think of a cause.
And then she thought of Carl Black.
*
Kelly eased the Ford Escort through the barrier of the council depot. Any moment now the nightmare that had bugged her throughout the day would start for real. The engine of the car had cut out twice on the way to work, once at lights at a junction, once when she slowed at a roundabout. Joe had grumbled on about her state of mind before reluctantly giving the thing about ten minutes of his time, then using it as an excuse for taking the day off work.
But still the car had stalled.
And here she was, at the point where it had stalled in her dream, the lights above, flickering, blinking, despite the complaints they’d all made to the authorities. When the hell was the city council going to employ electricians who weren’t on a competency level with her husband?
Two minutes to midnight and the ramp every bit as deserted as it had been then,
she found it difficult to appreciate it had really been a dream at all - except that this time there was a difference – this was for real.
She’d realised with a sigh of relief that she’d made it. At least past the point where in her dream, the engine had cut out. She carried on up the ramps -no sign of a car lying in wait, headlights low beam and sinister as they had been then - to the CCTV building on top, where the engine finally stalled.
No matter. She was there.
And Brendon McCain who would be on with her for a couple of hours, being due off at two, had flicked the switch and the door opened obligingly for her.
Kelly was thankful for that, even though her fears hadn’t materialised, and as she directed her fob key at the internal security door and turned left along the passageway, she could see McCain in the control room, glancing her way, his face breaking into a broad smile.
‘Hiya kiddo -Jees -’ his voice tailed off, smile turning to frown as through the low arc lighting he took in the expression on her face.
‘Jees -’
‘Will you stop saying that?’ she slipped off her coat, slung it over the back of her chair - no need to stand on ceremony on night shift - ‘Do I look that bad?’
‘I wouldn’t say that,’ she felt his green eyes upon her, held his gaze until she couldn’t resist smiling, ‘I sense a ‘but’ there somewhere McCain, go on.’
7
‘Those bags under your eyes tell me a story kiddo, it starts with lack of sleep, but where does it go from there I wonder. Too much of the other is it now?’
‘I don’t think so.’
Her reply must have been too emphatic, because she felt his gaze on her a moment longer, his look now quizzical. But she wasn’t going to discuss her matrimonial problems with a man who despite her time in the job, she hardly knew.
McCain must have sensed that too, because in a second he was on his feet, ‘It’s been a quiet night, I’m bored. I’ll get you a drink, what will it be - tea, coffee or something stronger?’
‘Is there something stronger?’ There was a twinkle in his eye that had made her wonder.
‘Nah, come on kiddo, me drink on duty? You know me better than that.’ She smiled as his hand clipped her neck, sliding through fair hair that hadn’t received its normal dose of attention.
She watched him stroll into the passageway, whistling a tuneless melody she guessed was some kind of Irish folk number and smiled. The truth was she didn’t know him that well at all, their shifts had hardly ever overlapped until they were recently changed. But she liked him if the truth were known, as little as she did know of him, although she didn’t know the reason why. He’d arrived at CCTV as a policeman on light duties but had joined the crew when an operator had left. He’d had a wife who was rumoured to have upped and left without warning and now he lived alone in a flat in the city suburbs. And that was as much as she knew.
But still she liked him.
Kelly turned her attention to the monitors, five on the control desk, others mounted on the wall, a vast bank of them, covering every prominent part of the city and suburbs.
It wasn’t quite high summer, and unusually chilly for the time of year, but McCain was right, it was unusually quiet. Even at midnight on a Sunday, you might have expected some activity, particularly when night clubs and bars had all been concentrated around a couple of streets by courtesy of bone headed council planners. Tonight though, there seemed nothing, not even a minor skirmish.
McCain was returning with the coffee when she spotted Carl Black smoking in a doorway near the square. The sight of him chilled her as much as the sound of his name.
The whites of his eyes shone like beads in the dark and it was spooky the way they seemed to turn the moment she directed the camera on him. In some stupid, illogical way this seemed personal. The fact that he knew he was being watched counted for nothing. It was the almost hypnotic sensation that he knew she was watching him. Ridiculous as she knew this to be, his eyes seemed to carry a hidden message, some kind of dark warning, meant solely for her.
McCain placed her coffee down, following her eyes on the monitor, ‘Oh it’s that turd, he’s been hanging around all night, him and his cronies, there’s that little been going on, I’ve been fed up at the sight of him,’ McCain’s mouth curved
downward into a scowl, ‘Yeah that’s right you fucker, give us the old finger.’
Kelly hadn’t heard his words, she was still glued to Black’s icy stare until she felt McCain’s hand on her shoulder. ‘Hey what’s up kiddo, you’ve gone rigid.’ He regarded her quizzically, before glancing again at the monitor, ‘He’s doing nothing out of the ordinary, just being the usual prat.’ He stood back and folded his arms; she could feel his eyes upon her,
‘Hey, that jerk’s not getting to you is he? You’re not going to tell me he’s the cause of those king size bags under your eyes.’
‘No of course not,’ she sighed, pushing herself against the high back of the chair, trying to appear more casual than she felt. She was determined not to tell McCain anything, but his soft Irish brogue invited confidence.
She rubbed her eyes, ‘I had a dream last night if you must know, it was weird but it scared the hell out of me.’
‘And you’re going to tell me about it?’
‘Only because it’s been on my mind all day.’ She breathed deeply, forcing her eyes away from visual confrontation with a man she’d never even seen in public; he was staring now, half turned, the whites of his eyes like small moons in the dark.
‘It must have been over in a few seconds, I can’t understand the effect it’s had. The car broke down as I came through the gates. I half expected it to happen tonight, Joe said he’d fixed it but he hasn’t. Anyway I had to climb the ramps and there was this car on the first floor, its headlights low. It came after me but I made it to the top floor, then dropped the fob key. This guy jumps out, grabs me by the throat, I scream and kick - and then wake up. That’s all there is to it, but I tell you, it’s given me a hell of a fright.’
She glanced at the clock, pushed the chair back, ‘I’ll get the video tapes out while it’s quiet, and prepare them for change.’
‘And you think the crazy guy in your dream was Carl Black?’ McCain called after her, a hint of amusement in his voice.
‘It’s not funny McCain.’ Her hands trembled and she felt the box of videos slip from her grasp.
‘Damn!’ the clatter sounded like thunder in her ears as they spilled over the floor, she bent down and began piling them back. ‘Hey now - easy -’ she felt his arm close around her shoulders and found it strangely comforting. Finding she wanted it to stay there she fought against it, pulling herself right up. She wanted to carry on, to prepare the tapes, to tap fresh information into the computer but she knew her fingers would find all the wrong keys.
She could feel McCain’s presence, his green eyes studying her. ‘You need a
break.’
‘Tell me about it -’
‘Drink your coffee,’ McCain raised the cup to her shaking hands, ‘What does your husband say about this dream of yours?’
‘I never tell him much; he’s a tosser -’
‘Ah -’ McCain coughed, fell silent.
The words had come out with a bitterness that astounded her. Never before had she complained about Joe to anyone. It had been an unintended, spur of the moment reaction and she wasn’t even sure whether she meant it, at least not to that extent. But McCain by his expression was clearly taken aback.
‘Listen, why don’t I take a look at your car before I go, I’ll put it under the porch light. Perhaps I can find the fault, I’ve hidden talents you know.’
‘I’d be grateful,’ Kelly said, smiling thinly.
‘At least it might remove one element of your nightmare from your mind.’
‘It might,’ her smile faded as she sat back down. Black had gone, vanished into whatever hole he lived in. But once McCain had left she’d be alone, with the silence of the night broken only by the wind creaking the panels. Right now she felt vulnerable, as vulnerable as she’d ever felt in her life, and she couldn’t explain why.
McCain might have been gone about fifteen minutes, it wasn’t very long before she heard his footsteps return along the corridor. He slapped the palms of his hands on the sides of his dark trousers, examined them and smiled, ‘There you go, all done and dusted. I found a loose connection, my guess is you’ll have no more problems. Your husband’s no mechanic kiddo, is he?’
‘Thanks McCain,’ but Kelly wasn’t rising to the jibe, her bitter remark was all she was making tonight on that score.
McCain stretched and glanced at the clock, `Soon be time to be off, you sure you’ll be alright?’
‘Yes of course,’ Kelly managed a smile; if she felt apprehensive, it wasn’t going to show.
He sat on the edge of the long, curved workstation, his outstretched hand clipped her on the shoulder, ‘You know you could do with a night out, what say we give it a try?’
‘What?’ she suddenly felt hot, and the suggestion had thrown her back. She liked McCain, even allowing for his stupid ponytail that made his dark curly hair look frizzled, but as much as she’d become disillusioned and disenchanted with Joe she wasn’t about to embark on a journey into the unknown.
And that was what it would become - She looked up, meeting his bright gaze, ‘I don’t think Joe would like -’
‘Oh to be sure, I don’t have any ulterior motive kiddo, you don’t think–‘
‘No of course not,’ she chided herself on being foolish, ‘listen, why don’t we make it a social evening, invite the others, those who won’t be working that is?’
McCain’s mouth twisted into a derisive smile, he tapped an index finger on the thumb of his right hand, ‘Let’s see who we’ve got, shall we?’ He stretched out the fingers of his right hand, tapped them with the thumb of his left. ‘Clive
Patterson, the midnight trainspotter, nice guy but I can’t see him being up for it, and
as for Richard, I reckon he carries a radio around in his pocket even when he’s off duty. You’d be lucky to get a sentence out of him that doesn’t have “eyeball” in it somewhere. Jees, I hate that term…’ he saw her reproachful look and threw out his hand, ‘sorry, but let’s be honest, the others are just not the outgoing type, and as for the boss man, he’s got a few problems I’ve heard say-’
She looked at McCain long and hard. He was dismissing them all out of hand, that in itself made her uneasy. They were a decent enough bunch but despite McCain’s exaggerations she couldn’t see them fitting together as a unit, not in a social way.
The truth was she needed a break.
She had to take McCain on trust.
‘I suppose I could do with a night out, when did you have in mind?’
McCain placed a palm against his chin, ‘Say Friday evening, we’re both off I think.’
‘Okay,’ she nodded, aware of the glint from his green eyes and trying not to sound overly keen. In any case Joe would be at the pub, he always was Friday evenings, so she would be out with a friend, unusual, but that was all he needed to know.
‘Fine kiddo,’ McCain jumped from the workstation, slapped her on the shoulder then for a second ran his fingers through the ends of her hair. She could feel the nail of his thumb brushing gently against her upper back, the resulting goose pimples making her blush.
To her relief he didn’t seem to notice, ‘I’ll be on my way then, are you sure you’ll be okay? I could maybe hang around a while.’
She shook her head, ‘I’ll be fine.’ Curiously some of the tension had left her, though whether it was McCain’s influence or her own resolve, Kelly wasn’t certain.
Just as she wasn’t certain of why Carl Black gave her the shivers when all she was doing was eyeing him through a screen. He didn’t know her any more than she knew him. She wasn’t the nervy sort. Not normally. During the five years she’d spent in the control room she’d faced nothing she couldn’t cope with.
But she was beginning to doubt that now.
I have taken pride in writing this novel as so many people have the wrong impression on bikers because they dress in leather clothing which is to protect themselves in case of an accident. The majority of bikers are known Policemen, Firemen, Doctors,
