Chapter 19
Saturday, April 24th. 10:48 pm.
Having left Alf’s flat as quickly as she could, Nicole drove the twenty five minute journey back home as fast as possible. Making sure she didn’t break any limits. The last thing she wanted was to get pulled up for speeding, especially as her husband still believed that she was actually already at home.
No sooner had she closed the front door, than the landline started to ring.
Nicole glanced at the caller display.
It was Hartley again.
‘Hello, is everything alright?’
‘Where the hell have you been,’ he didn’t sound too happy, ‘I’ve been trying to ring you, again.’ Placing extra emphasis on his last word. ‘In fact, I’ve actually rung four times in the last fifteen minutes.’
‘What’s the problem with you tonight,’ she went straight on the defensive, ‘just because I can’t hear the phone from the bathroom, you jump down my throat. Plus, I’ve just had to go out to my car; I couldn’t find my purse, it’d dropped out of my bag.’
‘Could you just come and pick me up?’ he asked. His voice suddenly changed and he was sounding angry.
‘I thought you’d booked a cab?’
‘I’ve cancelled it.’
‘Why, what’s wrong?’
‘I’ve had a bit more than I should to drink, and didn’t want to show myself up.’
‘But the taxi company know who you are, don’t they.’ Nicole didn’t really fancy driving over to Potters Bar again. Especially as she’d only just arrived back home from Alf’s flat, which was only minutes away from where her husband was phoning from. ‘They’ll not think anything ill of you; they pick up drunks every night of the week.’
‘It’s not just that,’ he didn’t sound like his usual self, ‘I’ve just had a bust up with one of the other members, and I’ve got a couple of graze marks on my face. So could you please just come and get me. I’ll tell you all about it when you get here.’
‘I’m on my way. It’ll take me about twenty - twenty five minutes. You be outside when I get there. Because if you’ve been fighting, like you say you have, then I’m not venturing inside, just in case something kicks off again.’
Nicole hung up, and headed straight for her car.
As she pulled up in the golf club car park, she could see her husband stood on the front porch holding his left cheek.
‘What the fuckin’ hell have you been up to?’ she said unsympathetically, as he plonked himself onto the passenger seat. ‘You look like a ruffian who’s just been released from a jail cell, having been banged up for being drunk and disorderly.’
‘Just bloody drive, will you.’
For the first five minutes, total quiet filled the car. Then Nicole broke the silence.
‘Go on then, what was the scuffle about?’
‘One of the other members overheard me and Cliff talking about the robbery, and must have read the report in the paper.’
‘So what,’ remarked Nicole, ‘everybody in London will have seen that?’
‘He must have realised that it was you, my wife, who the police had taken into custody on suspicion, and even though you were released without charge, he just wanted to have some fun at my expense.’
‘What did he say that caused you to flip?’
‘He was talking to another bloke at the bar, not directly to me, but deliberately loud enough so that I could hear every word. He said that it must be a total embarrassment for a man to be married to a common criminal, and even though she had been released. There’s never any smoke without fire.’
‘So you clonked him one I presume.’
‘Worse than that, I picked his drink up and poured it over his head.’
Nicole couldn’t refrain from laughing.
‘Good on you.’
‘Then he smacked me in the face, and what a bloody good right hook he has.’
‘I plummeted down like a tree that’s just had the chainsaw treatment. On my way to the floor I banged my face of one of the tables. Hence the graze marks.’
‘What then?’ questioned Nicole whilst still trying not to laugh too loud?
‘I jumped up, gave him one straight in the guts, and as he doubled over with the force, I brought my knee up and made full contact with his face. And if I must say so myself I also pack a good punch. I can handle myself when I have to.’
‘Then.’ questioned Nicole.
‘The club steward intervened. He came and stood in-between us.’ Hartley was stroking his cheek, and moving his jaw around as he was speaking. ‘He ordered us both to leave, and said that we were suspended for a month. He also said that if anything like this happened again, even if it involved different club members, then we would be barred for life.’
‘I’ll get some cream for that scrape when we get in,’ remarked Nicole, not really knowing what else she could say, without cracking off laughing again, ‘and then I think it’d be best if we went straight to bed. Fortunately its Sunday tomorrow so we can have a lie in.’
‘Yes, thank goodness for that.’ replied Hartley not exactly filled with enthusiasm.
‘Hopefully by the time Monday comes round, these marks might have faded somewhat.’
‘I think it’ll take more than a couple of days for them to clear up,’ confirmed Nicole, ‘but at least you can stay in the office, and let Becky and Victoria deal with the customers.’