Books

Books
Books written by Ray Sullivan

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Parallel Lives chapter 31


Stirring the coffee impassively occupied Karen as she stared at the Formica topped table. She had tried looking out of the grease streaked plate glass window at the grey strip of sky topping an even greyer background mix of Victorian and 1960s facades, stone and concrete mixed indiscriminately. The few pedestrians out had contributed to the dull colour scheme in all the shades of grey known to man. So Karen had changed her focus to the posters and blackboards dotted around the café, advertising unwholesome and heart threatening fare with gusto. Electing to ignore the delights she had resorted to studying the patterns previous occupants of the table had inadvertently made with stray scatterings of sugar and salt. It was as she drew her finger through one such congregation that she was startled by the voice.
‘I came as fast as I could,’ said Alan, sitting down opposite. Karen looked up, realising too late that her face must have revealed a desperation and relief at the man’s presence. She regretted not keeping a sharp ear out for the door, even if she couldn’t bear to sit and watch it.
The look she gave Alan was registered as he adjusted his position, and inside he felt a warm satisfaction. An opportunist by nature where women were concerned, Alan chose to suppress his instinct. Her eyes had changed now, dulling down to her normal appearance from the sharp, bright lights that had greeted him. She was assessing him in a different way, he could tell. What a difference a second makes, he thought.
‘What?’ he asked, a mock affront in his voice.
‘Your clothes, I didn’t quite expect…,’ Karen tailed off, grateful for the opportunity to banter. Alan drew his hands down the front of his body, in self mockery.
‘You think I wear a suit all the time, eh? Give me a break,’ he said smiling.
‘You wore a jacket and tie to our house on Saturday night, what do you expect me to think,’ replied Karen.
‘I didn’t know what to expect, don’t forget I’d only seen Jack in his work and immediately after. Anyway, I’m in the office all day today writing reports and generally that means I don’t get to see the public, so I dress for comfort. I would have changed if I had realised it was an issue,’ he smiled. Looking round at the counter he invited Karen to join him in another coffee.
‘Not for me,’ she insisted, ‘but please have one yourself. I’d hate to die alone,’ Karen smiled weakly. Alan waved to the counter and continued talking to Karen.
‘I take it that your meeting didn’t go too well,’ he said in a matter-of-fact voice. Karen shook her head.
‘He out-classed me, I reckon. Basically he reckoned John had misinformed us, either accidentally or by design. Of course we can’t check this out, and as far as Jackson is concerned we don’t know where John is.’ Karen paused, watching Alan’s face. ‘I didn’t let on that we know, in case you’re wondering.’ Alan flinched.
‘Knew, to be accurate. Who knows where they took him after Friday? At best we can use our knowledge to lever some information out of Jackson, and I believe we have no more than a day or so to use that. Even then we could find ourselves on the back-foot.’
‘You think they could have moved him again?’ Karen’s head whirled at the thought, one that hadn’t occurred to her previously. Alan shook his head.
‘Unlikely, judging by the way the military were trying to keep me away from the base, but we can’t assume that is where he will remain.’
‘But if you let Jackson know what you know…’ Karen tailed off, allowing Alan the opportunity to complete her sentence.
‘…they’ll certainly move him then. Probably within short order. I’ve been thinking, we might have to use this to our advantage.’ Alan leaned forward conspiratorially. ‘I have a plan, but we need Jack’s help for this one.’


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Copyright Ray Sullivan 2011


The characters, places and events described in this novel are fictitious and any resemblance to persons, places or events, past or present, is coincidence.  All rights reserved

Parallel Lives is published in paperback and as an eBook


I can be followed on Twitter too - @RayASullivan
or on Facebook - use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me


Why not take a look at my books and read up on my Biog here

Want to see what B L O'Feld is up to?  Take a look at his website here

Worried/Interested in the secretive world of DLFs?  Take a look at this website dedicated to DLFs here, if you dare!

No comments:

Post a Comment