Across town, Ted watched a couple taking their dog across Hope Park for the honour of his last toilet stop of the evening. They were about the same age as him and he felt nostalgic as he recalled the two loves of his life. His wife, Mary, was a fine woman before the drink took her mind. Then Wendy, the woman he should have been with all his life, was taken too soon from him. He missed companionship.
Their daughter, Kelly, had been conceived not far from here, on the shore of Lake Ullswater, under a moon like this one, as the guests of the Earl of Lowesdale partied the night away at Wasdale Hall.
Wendy had been married to John Porter.
She hadn’t told him about the baby until Kelly was forty years old.
Better late than never.
He stared at the couple and wondered if they were late to love or they’d been together forever.
His relationship with Wendy, rediscovered again just recently, until her untimely death, felt like a lifetime, it was that precious. But now she was gone, and he lived for Kelly and Lizzie. He’d be with them now, but he knew that Johnny was here for the weekend, and he secretly hoped they’d get back together. They were a great couple, but modern life was harder than in his day. They had so many decisions to make and it was too easy to give up. He liked Johnny and treated him like a son-in-law. He stayed out of the way not because he wanted to but because he thought they needed time, that was all. In time, they’d realise their relationship was a good one, and not one to be thrown away.
He smiled as he made his way home, with a takeaway Chinese in a plastic bag. He shouldn’t eat so late because it gave him indigestion, but he was ravenous after a busy couple of days. Two autopsies – and such detailed ones – which were terribly important to Kelly, had taken the puff out of him. Tonight, he’d eat and open a bottle of fabulous red and then have a good night’s sleep.
Then tomorrow he’d see Johnny, Kelly and Lizzie all together.
Life was good.
He was almost home and about to cross the road at the traffic lights when a jogger came towards him pretty fast and ran straight into his path. Ted tried to move but they smashed together, and his Chinese food went all over the pavement. Ted tried to put out his hand to break his fall, but he couldn’t get it out of the bag’s handle in time and his head hit the concrete of the pavement hard. He heard a din in his ears and thought his brains were rattling. He rolled close to the side of the road and lost his vision.
For a second, he thought he was about to be run over as a car screeched to a halt three inches away from his head.
He peered up. The street was deadly quiet.
The runner leant over him but instead of asking how he was, or trying to help, he just grinned. His hood was pulled tight over his head so Ted couldn’t make out his face.
‘You need to be more careful, old man.’
Ted stared at him and then the pain hit. His head pounded and his wrist felt on fire as an electric bolt shot through it. He reckoned it was broken.
Another pair of feet came to a stop next to him and Ted reckoned it was the driver of the car.
‘Tell that daughter of yours to stop nosing around, or she might find herself without a father to babysit.’
The voice was low but powerful and it took Ted a little while to make sense of the words. But when he did, he realised exactly what had happened to him. It was no accident. It was planned. These two fellas had ambushed him and knocked him over on purpose.
And Kelly was in danger.
Then the driver and the runner climbed into the car, and it sped off before Ted could even see what make it was. He wasn’t even sure of the colour.
He peered around the street wondering if CCTV covered it, but he saw no cameras. Perhaps one of the shops over the road might have footage of the street. He was thinking like Kelly. Panic gripped him as he thought about her alone with Lizzie in her home. No, he recalled, Johnny would be there by now.
An aroma of Chinese food wafted over to him, and he looked forlornly at the mess on the road, which could have been his body, if he’d gone under the wheels. He wasn’t stupid. He knew that if they’d meant to kill him tonight, they would have, and it would be considered a terrible accident.
He went to fish his phone out of his pocket but the pain in his wrist made him howl.
Then the couple with the dog rushed to his side and helped him up.
‘Are you OK, fella? Jesus, he ran straight at you. I thought the car was going to hit you.’
‘You saw it?’
‘We did; he was aiming straight at you!’
‘Please, go into my pocket and take out my phone,’ he pleaded with them.
The woman did so and handed him his mobile and he called Kelly. They fussed over him as the call connected.
