House of Straw Read online

  Copyright © 2018 Marc Scott

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Matador

  9 Priory Business Park,

  Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,

  Leicestershire. LE8 0RX

  Tel: 0116 279 2299

  Email: [email protected]

  Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador

  Twitter: @matadorbooks

  ISBN 978 1789012 972

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

  For Marissa, Amie and George, for making this world a better place. I am so proud of you.

  And in memory of Ian. One beautiful soul who I was truly privileged to call my friend in this journey of uncertainty. You are never far from my thoughts buddy.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter One

  The dark clouds opened over Oxley village on that treacherous November night, the heaven-sent rains cleansing the sins of most, but not all, of its residents.

  Locals of the Rising Sun public house were becoming concerned that the car park at the rear of the main bar was in danger of flooding. The newly laid tarmac was certainly being tested to the full. Awash with a deluge of rain it had begun to resemble something out of a disaster movie. As the passing storm gathered pace, the constant thumping noises of the heavy rainfall sounded out like wild stallions racing across the rooftop of the bar. This was the worst weather that regulars of the establishment had seen for years.

  Bree sat opposite Jamie in the middle of the main bar, the sour expression on her face a clear indication that she did not want to be here on this damp and dismal night. She didn’t care too much for the rowdy crowd that frequented this pub and had planned to spend the evening at home finishing a work project. Her preferred choice of company that night would have been a photomontage and a chilled bottle of Prosecco. But Jamie had called her, in a drunken stupor, not for the first time that week, begging her to collect him from his favourite pub. She had been sitting here for nearly two hours now and her patience was wearing thin. ‘That is definitely your last drink,’ she said to him, trying hard to keep her composure.

  Jamie simply smiled and raised his hands to acknowledge a song that had started to blare out from the pub’s sound system. ‘I bloody love this one!’ he yelled, waving his arms and singing along to the tune, much to Bree’s embarrassment. His drunken behaviour had attracted the attention of the bar manager, who had warned him earlier about his loud shouting and dancing in the middle of the seating area. The publican, like many of the patrons of the Rising Sun, knew Jamie, not on a personal level, but simply because he had become a constantly irritating source of amusement for them over the past couple of months. But in truth, that’s all he was. Despite his six-foot frame and well-toned body, he was a harmless soul who avoided confrontation at all costs. He seemed to live in his own little world most of the time, oblivious to his surroundings, his headspace clouded by the excessive amounts of alcohol he consumed each day. Some of the regulars of the public house may have been hoping that he might be so drunk that he would fall into one of those large puddles forming in the car park when he left the bar that night. They would certainly find that entertaining.

  ‘Finish your drink and let’s go, Jay!’ Bree snapped. ‘People are looking at you!’

  Jamie unleashed his inimitable childlike grin. ‘When did you become so boring?’ he asked. ‘Give that resting bitch face of yours a holiday for once and smile. God, sis, you are turning into a right sour-faced cow!’

  Bree did her best to contain her anger and tried to reason with him. ‘Come on, Jay, the weather is getting worse, the roads will be flooded.’

  Jamie simply smiled and put his hands together as if to beg. ‘One more drink and I promise we can go.’

  Bree swiftly rose to her feet and made her way to the bar, cursing him as she walked away. ‘This is your last one, then I will just leave you here, Jay, do you understand? You can make your own way home.’

  Bree was pleased to leave the table. Jamie’s selfishness and drunken antics had really been getting to her and she did not want this night to end with an argument. As she approached the busy bar area, Bree spotted her best friend, Kayleigh, tucked away in a corner seat. She was with a strange-looking man. She waved and caught her attention, beckoning her friend to join her at the bar. Kayleigh acknowledged her wave and quickly rose to her feet. She had been around Bree long enough to know that her call was not a request, more of an order. She gave the man sitting beside her a friendly peck on the cheek and made her way to join her friend.

  ‘Where the hell did you dig him up from?’ Bree asked, as Kayleigh reached the busy bar area. ‘Have you been robbing graves or something?’

  Her friend looked over at her date for that evening, offering him a smile and a small wave. ‘He is only thirty-six,’ she said. ‘He is thirty-six, he just looks a bit older.’

  Bree laughed out loudly. ‘Thirty-six! Fuck off, Kayleigh, his waist size may be thirty-six, but he won’t be seeing his forties again anytime soon.’

  Her friend felt slightly awkward. ‘He is a neighbour of my boss, it’s only a drink, don’t start getting judgmental, babe.’

  Bree shook her head. ‘No, Kayleigh, we all know that it is never only a drink with you.’

  ‘He is not that bad,’ Kayleigh said, shrugging her shoulders.

  ‘Twice your age, he looks at least twice your age. Are you really that desperate?’

  The barman took Bree’s order. ‘A pint of lager, a fresh orange juice with ice, and you better give me a large white wine and some new contact lenses for my friend here.’ This amused him, having caught part of their previous conversation, and he scurried off to fetch their drinks with a large grin on his face.

  ‘Jamie looks like he is having fun,’ Kayleigh said. ‘They will miss him in here, he livens t
he place up.’

  Bree was less complimentary of his behaviour. ‘He has been here since four o’clock this afternoon. He acts like a complete idiot when he drinks like that.’

  ‘He leaves this Sunday, doesn’t he?’ Kayleigh asked. ‘Are you taking him to the airport?’

  ‘No, ‘the bitch’ is taking him. She wants to make sure he gets on the plane. God, I fucking hate that woman!’

  ‘It is only six months, the time will fly, babe. He will be back before you know it.’

  ‘He can fucking well stay out there for all I care. He obviously doesn’t give a shit about me now, does he?’

  Kayleigh knew when to keep quiet and this was one of those moments. Her friend, however, had not finished her rant. ‘Do you know what really pisses me off?’ she said. ‘He never even asked if I wanted to go with him. I could have sorted something out with my job, but he never even asked. It is as if he can’t wait to get away from me.’

  Taking a large mouthful of her drink, Kayleigh looked over at her companion for the evening. She wasn’t put off by his rapidly receding hairline or the dark circles under his eyes at all. Maybe the amount of wine she had drunk that night had clouded her senses, but she felt strangely attracted to him. ‘Tom and I are going to the Shallows club when we leave here,’ Kayleigh said. ‘They have a couple of bands playing down there tonight. I was told that one of them is quite decent.’

  Bree shook her head and laughed. ‘You and him down the Shallows? Fuck me, Kayleigh! I can see him in a museum or a steam train convention, but the Shallows! You really can be embarrassing at times.’

  ‘Why don’t you and Jamie join us? Tom is driving, he can drop you home afterwards.’

  Bree looked over at Jamie, still slumped over the back of his chair, waving his arms around to the music and making faces at some girls at the side door. ‘No, I really need to get him home and I have got some work which needs to be finished by tomorrow.’

  ‘Come on, babe,’ her friend insisted. ‘He will be gone in a couple of days, might be good to spend some time together.’

  Bree shook her head and repeated herself firmly. ‘I said no, Kayleigh!’ That was her best friend’s cue to keep quiet. When Bree said no she usually meant it.

  As the girls left the bar area, Bree felt slightly uneasy. She could sense that someone was watching her. She turned her head from side to side but did not recognise anybody. An uncomfortable feeling stayed with her as she returned to her seat.

  Suddenly, the side door of the public house was flung open and a small crowd of students rushed in to escape the torrential downpour. They made their way through the bar dressed in nothing more than T-shirts and jeans. They were either very thick-skinned or completely stupid. As Bree sat back down and gave Jamie his drink, she noticed that he had been distracted by one of the new arrivals. ‘God, doesn’t she look like Jess?!’ he said. Bree glanced over at the soaking wet students but kept her thoughts to herself.

  The heavy rain could now be heard thrashing against the windows as the wind began to take hold of the stormy weather outside. ‘Hurry up with that drink, Jay, I really want to get home before the roads get any worse.’

  Jamie gulped down a third of his lager. ‘There is that grumpy old woman back again. Liven up, girl, you are only young once, you know.’

  Bree shook her head and frowned. The resting bitch face had returned to its usual place. ‘Fuck off, Jay!’ she said. ‘You can be such a moron sometimes.’

  As the cluster of drenched students walked back past their table with their drinks, complaining about the cost of the taxi fare and the rudeness of the barman, Jamie was once again drawn to the pretty girl with long dark hair. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. ‘She really does remind me of Jess, you know,’ he said, the happy expression on his face replaced with one of sorrow. Bree’s tongue rolled around inside her cheek and she bit the corner of her lip. She wanted to say something to him but instead chose to ignore his remark.

  As he guzzled a little more of his drink, Jamie made a comment which he knew would not go down well with his companion, but it was something that he felt he needed to get off his chest. ‘He came to the gym again yesterday, he came there when I wasn’t on shift. He left a business card this time with his mobile number written on the back of it.’

  Bree knew exactly who he was talking about. She did her best to change the subject. ‘Kayleigh is here with her new boyfriend, well, I say boyfriend, I thought he was her grandad.’

  Her comment passed him by. Jamie was anxious to continue with his conversation. ‘Do you never think that it all could be true? You know, that he really could be…’

  Bree let out a fake howl of laughter as she interrupted him again. ‘She says he is thirty-six. They are going down the Shallows club later. She really needs to get her brains tested, that one.’

  Jamie sat up in his chair. He was determined to make Bree listen to him. ‘I may call him tomorrow, I may meet up with him. You might not care, but I need to know, I don’t want to leave without knowing the truth.’

  The tone of Bree’s voice suddenly rose a few notches and she stared sternly in his direction. ‘Stop it, Jay! Stop it now! We only have a couple of days left together, don’t spoil it for me, please, don’t spoil it for me.’

  Jamie sat back in his chair. He knew that look of hers only too well. She was not going to listen to him. ‘I am not going to the moon,’ he argued. ‘We can still keep in touch – Skype and FaceTime.’

  Bree screwed up her face and folded her arms like a petulant child. ‘No, not the moon!’ she snapped. ‘Just the other side of the bloody world! It is not the same for me, Jay, you know that, it is not the same for me. When you go, I have nothing, nothing here at all.’

  Jamie shook his head and put his hand on her knee. ‘You are twenty-two years old, Bree, you really need to get on with your life without me now. I can’t do this anymore, I need to get away from things, you have to understand that. You really need to sort yourself out now.’

  Jamie had hit a nerve. She didn’t want to pursue this conversation anymore. She couldn’t bear to look at him at that moment and moved her head to see how her friend’s date was developing with her older love interest. Bree knew deep down, however, that Jamie was right, that she was in the prime of her life, but that she had no life. She rarely ventured out these days, preferring solitude to the company of others. The world seemed to be passing her by and she had become a sorry spectator. She had few friends, but, despite her sullen demeanour, had no shortage of admirers, having inherited her mother’s stunning Scandinavian looks and silky blonde hair. But Bree never seemed interested in the attention of men and made it clear to those around her that she was not looking for a relationship. She used the passion she had for her developing career as a fashion photographer as an excuse for her choice to be alone, but those around her thought that there was more to it than that.

  Thunder broke across the roof of the public house as the storm began to show its anger. Heavy rain could be heard, pounding harder than ever on the skylight window above the bar. Suddenly, a flash of lightning lit up the sky, causing a stir amongst several patrons near the side door. Kayleigh had now left the dark corner seat and headed towards Bree’s table with her new man in tow.

  ‘And here comes the lovely Kayleigh,’ observed Jamie, waving his arms around again, his words more slurred and slightly less coherent.

  ‘This is Tom,’ she said, introducing her new companion, who seemed to be ageing by the minute in the brighter lights.

  Jamie shook his hand. ‘Good to meet you, fella. I am Jamie and the stone-faced cow over here is my sister Brianna. But you had better call her ‘Bree’ or she will get the hump.’

  Bree said nothing, simply aiming a small sneer in Tom’s direction and a nod of acknowledgement. ‘They are twins,’ Kayleigh declared. ‘Bree is twelve minutes older than Jamie.’ Her comment met with a b
lank stare from her best friend.

  Tom seemed a little nervous as he addressed the seated couple. ‘We are heading down the Shallows club. Kayleigh thought you might want to join us.’ Bree gave her friend one of her ‘looks’, an obvious indication that she was not happy with this intrusion. ‘If you want to come with us,’ Tom continued, ‘I could drop you home later. It will be a nightmare getting a taxi in this weather.’

  Jamie was up for it. ‘Yes!’ he shouted at the top of his voice. ‘Come on, old girl, let your hair down tonight, let’s go and have some fun.’

  Tom had obviously been briefed by Kayleigh to persuade them to join the couple on their late-night excursion. She mimed a few words at him to keep him working on her friend. ‘It’s half-price entry before eleven o’clock,’ he pointed out. ‘And the first hour is two drinks for the price of one.’

  Bree suddenly came to life. ‘Oh!’ she remarked aiming her comment firmly at Kayleigh. ‘What a catch! Your new friend has one foot in the grave and he is a fucking skinflint! What a great combination!’ Kayleigh screwed up her face in an attempt not to laugh. She knew her best friend never held back with her thoughts. She could be a master of put-downs when she wanted to be. Jamie started to put on his ‘sad face’ again, but his plea did not get him very far this time. ‘No, Jay! You have had enough!’ Bree barked.

  Feeling slightly awkward, Tom nudged Kayleigh and the two of them said their goodbyes before heading out to brave the dreadful weather outside. Bree couldn’t resist one further jibe at the man departing. ‘I hope you didn’t leave your zimmer frame out in the rain, Tom, it will be rusty by now!’

  This clearly amused Kayleigh, who struggled to hide her laughter from her new man. ‘I will call you tomorrow, babe,’ Kayleigh shouted, as Tom opened the side door to face the deepening puddles outside. Jamie simply slumped back into his chair with a look of resignation on his face. He had accepted now that his evening was almost over.