When the Tide Comes In

  The longcase clock standing against the wall at the bottom of the stairs in the dark hallway struck twelve thirty with a single tuneless dong as Suzie opened the front door. The light from the moon creeping from behind the clouds illuminated the man standing there. Moments later the clock on the parlour mantel piece struck twelve thirty with a delicate ding making him look round. “Shush,” she whispered, putting a finger over Dave's lips as he was about to speak, “you’ve a deep voice you’ll wake mum. You know she sleeps light…. In here,” and she pulled him through the door shutting it silently and into the front room. Then moved into the bay window to draw the curtains.   “Leave them. The moonlight’s nice.” said Dave.   The stones had gently rattled on her bedroom window. She had not been asleep. Dave was expected. She knew who he was meeting and when he had left her last night he had said, “I’ll be round late tomorrow. You ok with that?” and she had said there was no pr...

“ So, there’s no ooh la la’s for you then. I knew it. I just knew it. Last night when we was talking. I just knew she was your all-time girl. All that ooh la la talk. What crap….and a kid on the way.” Frank was sitting at the mess table pushing his empty plate about all smeared with tomato sauce and spaghetti bits. The smell in there was unmistakable. A mixture of mass cooked food and closely packed sweat soaked men sitting on long wooden benches. He was sitting all casual, kind of slouching with his shoulders hanging loose and smiling. He lifted his head and laughed a long, loud one, “old Dave,” he said, “getting hitched. Who’d ‘ ave thought it.”   “And what’re you all so happy about today? I know, I bet you've made up with Lucy. That’s it, isn’t it? You’ve made up… You give him a spanking?”   “Nope. Just a Frankie slap. A real hard one. Just to put him in his place.”  

April 2022     The train was gently swaying as it swept through the countryside. It was nearly full but strangely quiet, just a gentle background murmuring. Amy was watching Jane looking out of the window. She was tall. Blon d as well. Just as she had expected. And really strong looking. Confident for sure. Maybe from her profession. You needed to be confident to look into other people’s heads. If you were going to succeed that is. She was not sure what she had been expecting but she was surprised how nice Jane was. Amy thought that this was a lady that she could really get to like.    “You’ve been staring out of that window for a long time. Been thinking about something nice? Maybe all those hunky sportsmen with their fit, strong bodies,” said Amy with one of those all knowing kind of mischievous looks.    “No, not at all. I’ve been thinking about family. All the stories my dad told me. About his mother and father. You know my grandfather was an Americ...

It was not far to the office from the cafe. Fifteen minutes quick pace to around the back of Mint Street Park. A small sublet with Dobson-Hanson Private Investigators on a tab next to the third bell push down on a stack of eight right hand side of the black paint peeling door. He stood on the top step, turned his key, pushed open the door and went up the tight staircase to the first-floor office with his shoes drumming a tune on the bare wooden treads. The office door with a number three in the middle unlocked with a Yale. Drab was the kindest description. Two desks and two piles of jumbled paper. A filing cabinet and three chairs. If they had two guests Eddie stood. If they had three guests they both stood. They had never had four guests so they only needed three chairs. Most of their work was done out of office which was just as well; the place stank. Mike threw open the large sash window and fanned in the air. He was still wondering how high rising damp was able to climb. It was ...

The banging on his door was loud and persistent. Waking up Andy Cronin rolled over taking the duvet with him. It ended up in a pile on the edge of the bed. His pillow was covered with slight blood smears. His face hurt. It was dark. He switched on the bedside light and looked at his alarm clock. It was six thirty. What day was it? he thought. It must be Sunday and he had slept for hours. The girl next to him stirred and pulled back the covers. She moaned about the light so he turned it off. She would get up and go. Eventually. Her name was Peta and she was Spanish and had long dark hair that shone and a way about her that Andy found so exhilarating.    Swinging his legs out of bed he momentarily stood in creased T-shirt and blue striped boxers rubbing his eyes and running his fingers through his hair then staggered through the jumble of a bedroom tripping over scattered clothes to the hall and flicked on the light. The knocking stopped and through the stained-glass door p...

  Chairs scraped as a couple with two young boys sat down. The kids bickering. Then a quick slapped down type of look and a whispered word and silence. The kids looking at each other and smiling then giggling. The room large and square and more inviting than the rest of the hotel with wooden chairs with soft brown faux leather seats. Wooden tables nicely laid out though. An out of place flower in a small vase. Mike picked up the coffee pot and poured a fresh one into his breakfast mug. “You want more of this or are four cups enough for you?”   “It’s enough and I still have some anyway,” said Eddie.   “You want more toast or are six slices enough?”   “It’s enough.”   “Anything else? More eggs? Bacon? What about more cereal?”   “Nope I’m just about done.”   “Good I was in danger of thinking you were overeating. Not bad coffee, eh?”   “Nope, not bad at all. What d’you think then? This place?”   “Not bad. Looks like a dump from outside. And the ...

  The room was an exact replica of Jane’s. Just a different colour scheme. Amy put the envelope with Lucy written on the front back in her bag and sat back propped up on the bed. From the letter her grandmother had written she knew all about Dave Somerton and Frank Anderson and their activities with the London villains. She had no photos so to see pictures of her grandfather and grandmother had been very emotional.    She knew her grandmother had moved to London after her grandfather was killed on Omaha beach and when she discovered she was expecting. It had been hard bringing up her mother in tough times when things were difficult to get just after the war. She had married but the man turned out to be a lazy drunk. She resented supporting him with the remaining cash from the sale of the diamonds she had got from Amy’s grandfather, so she kicked him out after only a few years. By the early seventies her mother had married a man with prospects as she liked to describe him...