Alex Gray: A Pound Of Flesh

‘Oh, Chancer!’ she sighed, noting the paw prints all over a cream-coloured fitted sheet; but the cat simply opened one eye, stretched out a front leg then curled back to sleep, a deep purr expressing his satisfaction at her return.

‘Bad puss,’ Maggie scolded, not really meaning it, her fingers already caressing the cat’s soft fur.

Later, sitting in her favourite rocking chair, her hands clasping the steaming mug of coffee, Maggie reflected on her first day back at work. When Bill came home she would tell him that everything had gone well, not wishing to bother him with things that had been less than pleasant. Like the new woman in their department who had come to provide cover for her during her absence and had somehow managed to inveigle her way into staying on for the remainder of the term. She’d been given Maggie’s room and had taken down all of her favourite posters, leaving them to gather dust in an untidy heap on top of the cupboard.

Maggie felt her cheeks burn with indignation as she remembered how Lena Forsyth had slapped down her diary on her desk ( her desk, not Lena’s!) and made her look at the class lesson plans that had been created, as though Mrs Lorimer were a probationer who didn’t yet know the ropes. The woman’s effrontery had continued as Lena had suggested (no, not suggested , thought Maggie, insisted was a better word to describe her manner) that Maggie continue to follow her recommendations to the letter. From the first glance Maggie could see that this teacher had been chancing her arm, failing to follow several guidelines as well as having done very little in the way of issuing and marking written work. Her mouth narrowed as she remembered how she had sidestepped the woman’s commands. She would drop a hint to her head of department when the time was right but for now Maggie knew she would simply have to put up with Lena’s strident manner, especially since they were to share the responsibility for two first-year classes. It had irked her to see that Lena would have use of her classroom during some of Maggie’s non-teaching periods. To make matters worse, the new member of staff had spent what seemed the entire lunch break talking in a loud voice about her Christmas skiing holiday in France. At least Maggie would only have to endure her till the end of term. Then she could regain total control of her classes and her beloved classroom.

Pity she didn’t manage to break her leg , Sandy, Maggie’s friend, had muttered. Ah, dear Sandy! It had been good to catch up with her pal again. Sandy, one of the Business Studies teachers, had an acerbic tongue that made Maggie chortle with glee whenever a few apposite words were thrown out to describe one of their fellow colleagues. She was an excellent mimic, too, and could give a few of the staff a red face whenever they became too full of themselves.

Maggie yawned, suddenly wearied by the day’s events. She closed her eyes, stretched out her feet and, in a matter of minutes, was fast asleep.

There was no reply to his usual ‘Hi!’ as Lorimer stepped into the house and locked the door behind him, shutting out the biting wind. Shrugging off his winter coat, the policeman listened intently for the domestic noises that usually came from the kitchen at this time of the evening, but there were none.

‘Maggie?’ His voice held a note of anxiety as Lorimer walked through the doorway into their study-cum-dining room. He stopped next to her rocking chair, his expression softening as he spotted his wife lying asleep. Reaching down, he smoothed her unruly dark curls away from her face, but that small movement disturbed her and Lorimer felt a pang of regret as she blinked and yawned, wishing he could have let her rest a little longer.

‘What time is it?’ she asked sleepily, gazing up at him.

‘It’s gone seven,’ Lorimer replied.

‘Oh dear. Sorry about that,’ Maggie yawned again. ‘Haven’t even started dinner yet.’

Lorimer hunkered down at her side. ‘Tell you what. How about a fish supper, eh? I can be at the chippie and back by the time you’ve got the kettle on and warmed the plates. Okay?’

Maggie smiled and nodded, taking his outstretched hand in hers. ‘Ooh, you’re cold. Sure you want to go back out there again?’

‘No worries.’ He hesitated, looking at her sleepy eyes.

‘What’s your first day been like?’ she asked, stroking his fingers.

‘Tell you all about it later. There’s an interesting double murder case but I don’t know if we’ll take it on,’ he added with a wry smile. He dropped a kiss on her forehead. ‘See you in a bit,’ he told her, then straightened his long frame and stood up. He’d save the news about his new car for later.

Outside the wind had gathered strength; the trees in next door’s garden were being whipped sideways and Lorimer struggled to button his coat as he headed towards the Lexus. It wasn’t a night to put a dog out but in every part of this city there would be officers driving or on foot, their job taking them into some of the seediest parts of Glasgow as the offices closed and the night life began. He’d done his share of foot slogging as a young uniformed copper and could still remember how his trousers would turn stiff and hard with hours of constant rain lashing against them. As he drew in to the kerb by the chippie he spotted a young girl shivering in an office doorway, her short jacket barely covering a flimsy dress and sparkly tights. Her pallid complexion and stick-thin arms were a dead giveaway. Was she waiting for a punter? Or simply craving her next fix? Location seemed of no importance now; even in what was considered respectable suburbia there were lassies who had succumbed to the relentless pull of some drug or other. Tonight there would be young policemen and women walking around their beats, some of them taking in the pends and cobbled lanes that comprised the red light district, or drag, as it was usually called. Not his business, he told himself, heading into the shop. But the image of the girl outside in the rain stayed in his mind.

As Lorimer stood waiting for his order in the steamy warmth of the chip shop he thought about these women who sold their bodies for a quick fix of heroin. Over the years, thanks to schemes like Routes out of Prostitution, Strathclyde Police had helped to reduce the hundreds of prostitutes on the streets and now there was barely a tenth of the number that had been on the game when he had been a new recruit.

‘Three fish suppers,’ he said, wondering if he was daft and if the lassie would even be there when he emerged from the shop or if Chancer would be getting an extra special treat tonight.

Lorimer held the vinegary parcel close to his chest as he left the shop, his eyes immediately drawn to the empty doorway.

So, she’d gone.

Looking up the street he could see two figures, one whose skimpy dress was blowing all ways in the vagabond wind; the other the dark-coated figure of a man clinging to her as if for support. Her pimp? A punter? Her dad, perhaps? Telling himself once more that it was none of his business, Lorimer shoved the food onto the passenger seat and drove off into the lashing rain.

It had been a night like this when she had died. A bleak night of wind and rain battering against the sheets of corrugated iron that had served as a backdrop to the crime scene. Carol’s body had lain for ages, soaked through, until those police officers had found her and called for an ambulance. Amazing that she had been able to survive for so long , one of them had remarked later, as though it was the junk in her veins rather than her own resilience that had kept her lingering for those few hours.

The injuries did not bear thinking about, but she had made herself look and learn them by heart, as though remembering was the single most important thing to do. When that call had come she had hurried out right away — a night-time scurried panic through near-empty streets, leaving the car parked any old how, running, running through the hospital corridors until she came to that small cubicle with its dingy yellow curtains drawn around the bed. It had afforded Carol scant privacy, especially with the constant noise of trolleys being wheeled past and some man in the cubicle next to theirs yelling in drunken incoherence.