(aka Bike) Part 1243 by Angharad Copyright © 2011 Angharad
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My mobile rang the next morning and it took me a moment to work out where I was and who was in bed with me. “Well answer the bloody thing then,” sighed a sleepy voice which I recognised as Stella.
I picked up my Blackberry and glanced at the number calling me, no guesses required for whom I knew it to be. “What d’you want?” I said with irritation. I heard Stella say, “Charming,” very quietly behind me.
“Cathy, where are you all, when you didn’t go to the hotel I was beside myself with worry.”
“I didn’t think you cared taking the side of that old crone against your wife.”
“Of course I care.”
“In which case you can buy us a house as quickly as you like because I’m not going back to Agnew’s.”
“Agnew’s? He’s your father for God’s sake, treat him with some respect, please.”
“Why, when the chips were down both of you abandoned me and the children.”
“No we didn’t, you just went off half-cocked again.”
“Has she told you what they’re after?”
“No, how d’you know that–it’s pure speculation on your part?”
“Is it now? You’ll see I’m right.”
“You might well be, but your actions are still questionable, upsetting people like that.”
I was so angry I nearly disconnected him–on a permanent basis. “How dare you speak to me like that, you stupid man? When my children are at risk because some lying old has-been won’t tell us the truth, I expect you to do your duty and stand by us–we know where we stand now. I’ll start divorce proceedings tomorrow.”
“On what grounds? You’re the one who did the abandoning.”
“On the grounds that the degree of trust necessary had broken down by my husband’s irrational behaviour.”
“Listen to yourself, woman, now tell me who’s irrational.”
“Simon, there were men firing real bullets outside our house the other night because she won’t give them what they seek. When they kill her husband, I’ll quite likely suggest to the boys in blue that she’s an accessory after the fact.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, how can she be that if they kill him in a different country? She has no control over what they do, has she?”
“She has something they want and they’re prepared to get rough to find it. I’m not prepared to play along this time.”
“Well they didn’t come last night, so maybe your hunch is wrong this time.”
“Is that old crone still there?”
“Yes, she and Tom are breakfasting as we speak.”
“So why aren’t you?”
“I’m missing my wife and children.”
“Whose fault is that?”
“Yours, you’re the one who ran off in the middle of the night. Come on back, I’ll protect you.”
“The last time you did that, it was against two thugs who shared my student accommodation–ever since then, the shoe’s been on the other foot.” I thought back to those days, when the most difficult thing I had to cope with was him finding out my secret before I was ready to tell him–now look at us. I felt my eyes moisten, but I wasn’t going back there until she coughed up and he and Tom apologised big time.
“Okay, so I’ve been a disappointment, it’s not my fault my wife is more hot tempered and violent than I am.”
“I care with passion, too bad you don’t. I’m going to start breakfast, goodbye.” I switched off my phone and almost threw it down, then realising that would be pointless, instead I picked up my whimpering and wet bottomed baby and hugged her. I changed her and clasped her to my breast and she hungrily sucked me dry. She was now having cereal and other solids as well as breast milk and she wasted no time in telling me she wanted part two of her breakfast. Down in the kitchen I listened to the heart-breaking appeal by the parents of the young woman who was murdered in Bristol at Christmas–a very odd case, like something out of Agatha Christie, it has to be someone she knew quite well and where was the booze and missing pizza she’d bought on the night of her disappearance?
Then my blood froze: ‘Police in Portsmouth are investigating the body of a man found in the garden of a property on the outskirts of the city owned by an academic. Details are very scarce but it’s been suggested that the man is of ethnic origin and he died of suspected gunshot wounds. No further information is forthcoming at this time. Now back to the furore about the News of the World and the phone tapping scandal.’
Surely if that was Tom’s house, Simon would have told me, wouldn’t he? Coincidence? There are plenty of other academics in Pompey, however it worried me enough to call Simon.
“I’m on my way to work, what d’ya want?”
“It wasn’t Tom’s place where they found the body then?”
“What body–I know nothing about any body?”
“Apparently one’s been found in someone’s garden–the someone being an academic, gunshot wounds were mentioned too.”
“Didn’t listen to the news, the way this lot are screwing up everything, I can wait until I get to work before acquainting myself with what they’ve cut today. Oh, the crew of Ark Royal are marching through the city centre some time next week.”
“They ought to sail that ship right up bloody Downing Street and bomb number bloody ten and Whitehall afterwards.”
“I think both are pretty well bomb proof, and you got upset when I mentioned you were more aggressive than I am?”
“Oh back to that are we–I called because I was worried about you both.”
“Worried or curious? I have to go, work approacheth, bye.” He rang off before I could say anymore.
We had breakfast and I suggested we could take a trip to Weston-Super-Mare if the weather held. However, things were put on hold when a police car pulled up outside. It transpired it was Chief Inspector Cowan.
“You’re a difficult lady to speak with?” was his opening remark.
“I’d always prided myself on my approachability.”
“I’m sure you’re right, however, I expected you to be at the house in Portsmouth not absent without leave.”
“I wasn’t aware I needed yours or anyone else’s permission to visit my own house?” I said snottily.
“I’m sorry, I knew my facetiousness would get me into trouble one day–looks like it’s arrived. I thought we had agreed that I would interview you after the events of the other night. Whatever you did to that police dog has caused the handler to go on sick leave ever since. He’s claiming he had hallucinations and so did others, they thought the dog had been shot and was dying and a little later you answer the door to the vet and the dog trots out with you–didn’t something similar happen in a fire-fight at a farmhouse near Portsmouth a little while back?”
“How would I know?” I shrugged my shoulders.
“You were there and stole a tractor afterwards by all accounts.”
“Would I do things like that?” I protested my innocence.
“Apparently. Anyway, I’d like your take on what happened and how the shooter got away.”
So I told him that there were two, one impersonating a police officer enabled the other to get away.
“So that’s how they did it?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s what I saw.”
“With your little device?”
“Before the battery failed, yes.”
“Okay, will you be staying here for any length of time?”
“Until it’s safe to go home, yes.”
“Can’t say I blame you, but what if you were the target?”
“Why should I be–it wasn’t my house that was ransacked the same day as the attack?”
“True.”
“I think a certain old lady holds the answers to all that, so I’d speak to her if I were you.”
“I would if we could find her.”
“What d’you mean–she's staying at Professor Agnew’s home–isn’t she?”
“She left after breakfast, went home to collect some more clothes and was due to see someone at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office about her husband’s predicament–no one’s seen her since and a body was discovered in her garden.”
“Yes, I heard something on the news about that, so it was her house?”
“Yes–I’ve probably told you more than I should, but I think I can trust you.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Yeah, well don’t let it go to your head, I can still arrest people if they piss me off.”
“I wouldn’t dream of doing so, Chief Inspector.”
“That isn’t what your reputation tends to suggest, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
“Oh. I’m sure it’s greatly exaggerated, like the deficit this bunch of clowns is pretending to cut.”
“Sorry, Lady Cameron, I don’t do politics–but shouldn’t you be supporting him, same clan and all that?”
“Apparently not–he comes from a different sept which reassures me somewhat.”
He laughed at my discomfort, which I’d asked for and he left after drinking a second cup of coffee, so where was the old bat and was Tom with her, I picked up the phone to find out.
Comments
Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 1243
Me thinks that Tom will be apologizing to Cathy before this is over. Wonder if Diana has connections to the Russian Mafia?
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Working on the basis that what goes around comes around
you could be right, Stan. Like rabbits, the various Mafias keep muliplying.
Now, if the Chief Inspector could find Cathy, could the ungodly?
YKW,IKR (You keep writing, I'll keep reading).
S.
Given the record of the
Police so far in Bike, I would have to agree with you Susan , So lets hope that given that scenario, That Cathy is duly prepared if and when it happens... And given that she is protecting her children, I think that's something we can take as read ...
Kirri
The plot thickens...
So the old bat has breakfast with Tom, goes home to collect some more clothes, then was supposed to be meeting someone from the FCO - but it sounds as though she hasn't arrived yet. Meanwhile a bloke is discovered shot dead in her garden.
Is Tom with her? Good point - he gave her a lift to his house, so has she borrowed Tom's Freelander or Cathy's A Class (which may have been destined to be inherited by Julie), or is he transporting her?
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
a bloke shot dead in her garfen?
Something is wrong here...something is wrong here....
The news report said a body was found on property owned by an academic. The policeman says the body was found in Lady Di's Garden. Is Lady Di an academic? and where was the body really found, and who was it?
Don't let someone else talk you out of your dreams. How can we have dreams come true, if we have no dreams?
Katrina Gayle "Stormy" Storm
Gee, Cathy ... drama queen much?
Apparently the idea of being either diplomatic (or acting like an adult) seldom enters her head. Tom disagrees with her, she pushes it, they come to words and and she's throwing a hissy and packing up the children. Simon thinks she's overreacting, and she starts contemplating divorce proceedings. You know, Cathy, human interaction is possible in the gray areas between domestic bliss and DEFCON-1. Did you ever stop to think that maybe Tom was keeping a confidence? That he couldn't tell you, and maybe his friend couldn't either? You know, just because you want to know something, the universe is not obliged to roll over and grant you your heart's desire.
Finally, maybe taking the whole clan out of the house just after a minor siege wasn't the most strategically sound move -- after all, the one place they wouldn't likely attack again would be the place that was crawling with cops.
Sometimes Cathy behaves more like a petulant child than like a grown woman. And I often I wonder why everyone is always so pro-Cathy, even when she's behaving badly?
Randa
Cathy...
On the one hand, you could say Cathy's behaving like a petulant child.
However, she does appear to have a sixth 'danger' sense - most recently, it's come into play for Julie (on numerous occasions) and the Drummonds. Just because nothing's happened yet at either the farmhouse or the hotel, it doesn't necessarily mean that nothing will happen at either location (or both)...
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
You got it in one
For long time 'Bike' readers it is understood that Cathy now has a nose for danger above and beyond her healing abilities. In the last chapter, the author clearly states that she has been 'nudged' and trusting that 'nudge' she opted to remove her children to safety. The old biddy was not going to spill what she knows. Just because Cathy disagrees with the boys does not make her wrong in this situation as she is as close to an 'oracle' as you can imagine in this story universe and she should have been given the benefit of the doubt, NO QUESTIONS ASKED, by those two overgrown little boys in her life. At no point did those two boys even asked if Cathy was absolutely sure about her intuitive feelings about the old biddy and they know Cathy far better than Di.
Diplomacy works in both directions.
Kim
"Nose for danger" notwithstanding ...
... she needs to grow up and think about what she's doing and saying before she does or says it. Tom wouldn't react the way he did unless he had a good reason to push Cathy back from asking. He loves Cathy -- why say what he did unless she pushed him too hard? And she supposedly loves him, so why treat him like she did? He opened his house and his heart to her, loved her as his daughter, and shared many warm loving moments with her. And yet she throws it all away instantly with a whopper of a tantrum that I wouldn't have put up with from either of my children.
Oh, and if her nose for danger were so accurate, why were Tom and Simon still alive after spending the rest of the night in the house with the targeted woman? Obviously the situation wasn't so dire that Cathy had to abandon ship with a hissy fit. And even if her being able to sense danger was 100% accurate, it in no way justifies the assertion everyone around her has to snap to and obey her every whim, without having opinions of their own.
Cathy may have some wonderful qualities, but she still acts like a two-year-old on a tear. Considering how good she is with weapons, the ease with which she embraces the tantrum as a tactical choice is frightening.
Randa
Giving Tom too much credit
He definitely pushed her away first. Sorry. He never even asked her why she had this problem with his love interest. Sorry, remember he had all duded himself up, all smelly nicey to be around her, he just went about surprising Cathy with this whole situation to begin with. Cathy had to dig around before getting the news on what he was sneaking around about. I smell ulterior motives from his directions, beguiled by this charming snake in the grass and he went ahead and took Di's position and demanded Cathy give an apology without even asking why Cathy has a problem with her.
And sorry, the nose for danger thing still stands as a relevant point even if you want to discount it.
And keep in mind in Cathy's mind she has been nudged to feel that she is in imminent danger and err on the side of caution. So I disagree on the 'hissy fit' thing.
Now if you were to feel your children were in imminent danger, would you be all calm and collected and say - 'hey, let's stay here and find out if I will be attacked and let the keystone cops protect me' - remember she has already witness first hand their incompetence when she healed their dog not to mention their incompetency all of the other times in the series. On top of all this, your husband discounts your fears and starts coming on to you and wants to fuck you because he loves it when your blood is up?
In your mind, it would be more palatable to you if it was more imminent. That is not practicable as she has a small herd of kids to deal with, a last minute decamp would not work very well. At this point, like the poster was responding to says, the problem Cathy is in, is still evolving, and whether your point makes sense, or mine does, will hinge on the next few chapters or so. I propose we wait and see.
Finally, even Jesus's family did not have Harrod's minions nipping at their heels either when they decamped to Egypt. Supposedly the family were warned well enough ahead of time I understand.
Kim
All I'm saying is ...
...it doesn't always have to be "her way or the highway" all the time. Yes, both Tom and Simon behaved badly, but if she'd stayed and used her intellect to convince Tom and Simon that her argument made sense, she might actually have gotten the answers she wanted.
Also, her "nose" was completely wrong. There was no danger the rest of that night, and the proof of that is that NOTHING HAPPENED after she left. Since Cathy and the kids were NEVER the target, and Tom's lady friend was, if there was going to be a second attack, it would have come whether Cathy and the children were there or not. Since nothing happened at Tom's house after the initial incident, there was no immediate danger. Nothing happened until Lady Diana left the next day, Cathy's "nose" was wrong.
And If I were in a similar situation and felt my children were in imminent danger, I sure wouldn't take them all out in a car where they could be easily ambushed on the road. If the bad guys were still around, that would be a terrific way to deliver a carload of hostages right into their hands, don't you think?
All I'm saying is that Cathy loses her temper more often than a clothes dryer loses a sock. She's smart most of the time -- why can't she take a step back once in a while and use her head when it comes to interacting with people she supposedly loves?
Randa
So how does one convince somebody of a 'feeling'?
That's the problem here. I mean, really, Tom lays right into Cathy as soon as she even questions the veracity of his 'guest' whom it is obvious he is smitten with who I suspect it will bear out that she was manipulating him the whole time. He literally calls her a 'wee hussy' for merely questioning her guest. And Tom's the one who suggests that Cathy leaves if she feels her kids are in danger, which she clearly does instead of acting the proper father figure and try to reassure her that she is safe here. Instead, he basically calls her an unwelcome guest and suggests she leave at a less than drastic provocation.
Cathy is afraid her kids get caught in the crossfire and even if it did not happen immediately and you have totally ignored my point about timing, again and keep harping on the point that nothing happened. I say that we shall see what we shall see in the next chapters and maybe her leaving actually threw the scent off by making any watchers (bad guys) think that Lady Di actually left the house. It would be a reasonable thing to do if you think you have been tracked down.
Finally - How does one explain a feeling? Especially if there is a stranger among them who seemingly knows a lot about Cathy being TS and stuff, why did she need to know and why would she be even 'in the know' anyway? It is next to impossible to explain to people that one has an extra sense and that she feels the wrongness in the force so to speak. She is almost a Jedi Knight in a world without them in a sense. She tried to explain to Simon that she 'feels it in the water' and needs to leave and Simon still will not believe her.
So she erred on caution. I don't think it is outlandish in any sense.
Kim
Agree with Cathy's danger sense but
I also think she needs to engage brain before mouth sometimes.
Hoping that the body isn't Tom. Cathy will feel terrible if it is.
Sure
I agree with you that on some every day matters that would be true. She has been given to misunderstandings with her husband which can be better handled if she thought some more instead of knee jerk fears and stuff. However, like my reply to Randa, she feels imminent danger so I am cutting her some slack here.
Kim
Feel Terrible
No, she'd blame herself forever. That woman has more judeo-christian guilt trips than the church lady.
Ethnic origins?
I have to confess that I found this phraseology strange. Surely everyone has an ethnic origin? Maybe this expression is something from the UK that doesn't really travel well. It would have made more sense to me if it had been suggested that the man was of Asian, European, Indian or Middle-Eastern origin.
Thanks A+B: I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but I really to enjoy the dialogue that you write, and today's Bikesode was no exception.
The present impasse between Cathy, Simon and Tom doesn't look like it's going to be easily resolved. I thought that one of the benefits in belonging to their growing family was that Cathy and Simon provided a stable and loving environment for a number of children who hadn't really had that experience, formerly. It's going to be doubly difficult for the children this time around unless the adults start behaving accordingly.
Parting Strife
Bike Resources
Bike Resources
Ethnic Origins
In the UK media this usually means a furriner as opposed to white Anglo-Saxon. The term is absurd, but until a few years ago they'd have used far more insulting ones.
Angharad
Angharad
a what?
what's a furriner ?
furriner
I think that in Angharad's dialect, that's foreigner.
Patois Simplified
Bike Resources
Bike Resources
Ethnic
It is applied incorrectly to everything. We even have ethnic reataurants.
It's a bit like
Organic - when I was in school it referred to the (most boring) branch of chemistry ie those involving carbon compounds - benzene rings etc. Now it relates to anything and everything which matures in well rotted shit. I suppose that must mean it includes the current UK government.
Angharad
Angharad
Organic
One of the drawbacks of having a decent education is wincing all the time. Stop reading my mind, woman! :-)
Organic Chemistry
Organic - when I was in school it referred to the (most boring) branch of chemistry
When I was a chemistry teacher, organic chemistry was the part I enjoyed teaching the most.
There's a systematicity and logic not always found in inorganic chemistry. I think one's attitude to organic chemistry depends largely on your teacher and how you're taught. I never had any problems enthusing the students with the chemistry of life, and always tried to enlighten people about the reasons why things were the way they were, rather than just focusing on the latter.
Pungent Science
Bike Resources
Bike Resources
Mind you...
...I prefers me orgasmic carrots an' thin's
Angharad ;)
Angharad
I wonder if Tom will snap out of it,
or will events have to rub it in his face? Fact is, he know Cathy and her gifts, so he is not being reasonable himself.
I'll swap you an Obama for your Cameron,straight up !
I suspect then we'll both be happy Bonzi .
How kind of the Chief Inspector to come to see Cathy, rather than send some kack handed constable like once before.
Well, at least at the top, they're wising up.
Karen