Dave Gibson had just dropped off his last fare of the day at Loughborough railway station. Sitting in his car he logged out of his Uber app, it had been a good day, his takings had more than covered the cost of fuel. He needed food, it was 20.30, his day had started at 07.30, there had been jobs coming in steadily. Other than a meal deal from Tesco he had eaten nothing. At 20.30 his options were limited, he didn’t want a pub meal. How the car arrived at MacDonalds he wasn’t sure, Avoiding the drive through he headed in through the door and up to the counter. Looking round, he saw that he was the oldest person there. The average age was about fifteen or sixteen, there must have been around twenty inside sitting, standing and larking about. A few stared at Dave, they saw someone in their early thirties, over six foot with dark hair, he was wearing a blue shirt and jeans. The shirt had a sweat line down the back, it was still warm for an August evening. With his order on a tray, he walked over to an area where there was no one else, the chairs and table were all one unit and he had to slide onto the seat. He ate oblivious to the noise around him. He flicked through messages that had been received during the day that hadn’t been answered. Most of the emails were junk, a couple needed replies which he did when he had finished his food. Leaving, a group of four lads blocked his way. “You need to pay to leave,” said one who appeared bigger and older than the others. Dave faced up to the lad, in a voice just loud enough for him to hear, “if you don’t get out my way, I will break both your legs.” He looked at Dave, “move.” There was now an impasse, “I warned you, which leg would you like me to break first?” This time the lad moved out the way. “Was only having a laugh mate.”
As he drove home, he mentally made a note to avoid that MacDonalds in the evening. Once parked, he peeled off the magnetic Uber signs from either side of his car and put them in the boot.
Inside, he went straight to the fridge and took out a can of lager, he drank it as he stood in the kitchen. “How was your day?” In the doorway was Sally, Dave was her lodger, he had come to Loughborough when he left the Army, after a few weeks in a hotel, he saw an advert for a room to rent, replied and moved in. She was a few years younger than him, her husband had been killed in a car accident several years ago. She wanted a lodger, more for company and security than for the money. The setup suited them both, Dave had a place to live, Sally had a man about the house and after a while, occasionally in her bed. “It was OK, plenty of fares, ended up in MacDonalds for my meal.” “Do you want anything else, I’m making coffee?” “Yes please,” he put the now empty can in the bin and moved into the living room, sitting on the sofa. Sally came in with two coffees, she sat on an easy chair facing Dave. The TV was on in the corner of the room, the news was just starting, neither of them were watching, Sally found the remote and switched it off. Dave finished his coffee saying he was going for a shower. She asked if he wanted another drink, “yes please, I will only be a few minutes.” He returned for his coffee with a towel wrapped round him. Sally always liked looking at Dave, the wasn’t any fat on him, he was attractive as well. She would like to have a relationship with him, but the memory of her husband and Dave’s reluctance, kept it as it was. Finishing his coffee, he washed the cup and went upstairs to bed. His room was at the back of the house, Sally had the master bedroom with en-suite at the front. Lying in bed reading he heard her on the landing. He switched off the light and having gone over the day, he fell asleep. He was vaguely aware of the door opening, Sally was across the bedroom and lying beside him as he was still waking up. He looked at the clock, it was just after midnight. He went to say something but Sally put her hand over his mouth. “I just want to lie next to you,” she whispered. He put his arm out, Sally moved closer, her body next to his.
The alarm went off at 07.00, Sally was still in Dave’s bed, he gently woke her, “do you want a coffee?” Wrapping a towel round himself he went to make the drinks. When he returned, she was sitting up in bed wearing a tee shirt. Drinking the coffee, she wanted to start a conversation. “Thank you for last night, I get lonely on my own.” There was more to come, but she couldn’t find the right words. Having second thoughts, she decided that bed wasn’t the right place to say what was on her mind. “Are you working today?” “I’m not sure, I will log on later and see if there is much happening. It’s Saturday and it will be mostly jobs going into town or back out again, nothing decent.” Sally kissed him on the cheek and left him in bed, the tee shirt stopped just below her waist and Dave watched her bum wiggle as she walked across the room.
Showered and dressed, he sat in the kitchen having breakfast, Sally was playing tennis that morning and was wearing a tracksuit, her sports bag with a tennis racket was sitting in the hall.
She sat opposite, eating toast, there was an unopened yoghurt and a cup of tea in front of her. “I forgot to tell you last night, there was a man at the door yesterday asking for a David Stretton, I said did they mean Gibson, but he said it was definitely Stretton.” In the blink of an eye, Dave’s expression changed from a happy one to concern. “What did he look like, what was he wearing?” Sally had seen his expression change, “I don’t know, he was ordinary. He was wearing a suit, short hair, not as tall as you. Why, do you know this David Stretton?”
There would be no work for him today or possibly for some time to come. He was going to have to tell Sally something but he wasn’t sure how much. “I have to explain some things to you, can you put off your tennis this morning?” “Why?” “I may have to go away for a time.” It was Sally’s turn to be concerned, she was used to Dave being around the house, she didn’t want him to leave. Again, she asked why. He said nothing, Sally phoned her friend Jackie to say she couldn’t make it this morning, she apologised saying she wasn’t feeling well.
Dave made himself another coffee, Sally left the yoghurt, with her cup of tea she joined Dave in the living room. They sat opposite each other.
“David Stretton is me,” he didn’t know how to explain the different names without saying too much.
“Bear with me Sally, I have to be careful in what I say,” he raised a hand to stop her from interrupting. “I joined the Army when I was seventeen, eventually I transferred to military intelligence working behind a desk and on operations. I had many different identities, Gibson being one of them. I retained that one when I left the Army and have been using it for the last eight months. Sally was sitting open-mouthed, she had never heard anything like this and wasn’t sure if it was a pack of lies. “I will have to make a phone call this morning, and depending on the conversation, I may have to leave for a short time.” This time Sally took the opportunity to speak, “this all sounds very far-fetched, a bit like James Bond.” Dave excused himself for a few minutes, he returned with a backpack, opened it and removed six brown A4 envelopes. He passed one to Sally, on the front was ‘David Gibson’, she opened it and flicked through the contents, birth certificate, National Insurance number and passport. “The driving licence and bank cards are in my wallet. The next envelope was marked ‘Henry Storey’, all the documents were inside. The others were ‘George Ross’, ‘Robert James’ and ‘Sam Morton’. The final one was marked ‘David Stretton’, “this is the real me. I used the alias to make it harder for them to find me, I wonder how long it took them?” Sally stared in disbelief, “who was it who called yesterday?” “Someone from the Army, they want me back.” “If you have left, then surely you don’t have to return if you don’t want to.” “It doesn’t work like that, you can be recalled at any time. They must want me for information I have, or something I have worked on.” He picked up his phone and scrolled through his contacts, he stopped at ‘S417’, pressing the dial button, he motioned to Sally to be quiet. The call was answered immediately, “S417 please,” this time it took a little longer to be answered. “David Stretton, I understand you are looking for me.” There was a long pause at the other end, Dave suspected that there was voice recognition checking his speech pattern. “Hello David, Major Cullen here, can you be here this afternoon?” “No sir, Monday morning is the earliest.” “Sorry David, you do not have a choice, we can send someone to collect you.” Dave knew what that meant, two military policemen and an uncomfortable journey to London. “Tomorrow morning then sir.” “I want you here this afternoon,” the Major’s voice was more insistent this time. “Sir, if I don’t want to come, you won’t find me for months and that will ruin whatever you want me for.” The major relented and a time of 11.30 on Sunday morning was agreed.
“I have to go to London tomorrow morning, I should be back in the evening, would you be up, to you take me to the station” “What was all that about?” “That was me being recalled to duty.” Sally wanted to know what he would be doing. “I have no idea, but it must be serious and it must be urgent.
She made coffees. When she brought them through, she asked if what he was going to do was dangerous, Dave replied that he wasn’t sure, he knew that it probably was and that the Army wanted someone who they could say was not a serving soldier, if it all went wrong.
She followed Dave as he went to his room, he swapped the drivers licence and bank card in his wallet, he now had the correct ones in place. He put the backpack at the back of the wardrobe and took out another bag which he gave to Sally. “Take this, if you need to contact me at any time, call me on any one of these phones. You will need to charge them up or plug them in, there is a charger in the bag. Don’t leave a message and don’t use the same phone twice.” Sally was now worried. “Dave, this is all very serious, will you be OK?” He smiled, “I’ll be fine.” Sally took the bag and put it in her bedroom. “Dave said he was going for a walk to gather his thoughts. He also wanted to see if he was being followed. Walking down the road, he turned off the pavement down an alley which led onto football pitches, Saturday morning games were ending and the few spectators were drifting away. He mingled in with them, this gave him the opportunity to check behind. There was no one following, to make sure, he carried on to a small copse about a hundred yards away. Once in amongst the trees, he could see anyone approaching, after fifteen minutes, with no one coming near, he left the shelter of the trees and returned home. Dave looked in each car as he walked down the street, he carried on past the house and then crossed over and repeated the process on the other side. Sally was waiting for him when he returned, she too had been thinking, now changed out of her sports clothes, she was wearing her dressing gown. As he came into the kitchen, before he could say anything, she asked him if he wanted lunch. “Not just now, maybe later.” “I need to talk to you, some of the things you said this morning have put me on edge.” Dave tried to reassure her that there was nothing to worry about. He walked towards the living room to sit and talk, “upstairs, it concerns things up there.” Dave followed her upstairs and into her bedroom, she closed the door, the room was dark, the curtains weren’t open. “Sit on the bed,” Dave sat on the bed leaning against the headboard. Sally sat at the bottom of the bed looking at him. “This is hard for me, I’m not sure what I am going to say, so I will just say what comes into my head. Since you moved in as my lodger, you have become my friend, my companion and on occasions my lover.” Dave sat there saying nothing. “I don’t want you to go tomorrow, I lost one person I loved,” she didn’t say anything else. There was a silence in the room. “I know you will go, but please take care and come back. Dave thought about Sally, he liked her, they got on well, they laughed together, both liked the same things. He wasn’t sure if she was ready to move on from the death of her husband and he had never pushed for a relationship. Now it felt like she was doing the pushing. She stood up, looking at Dave she said for him to get undressed. Sally took off the dressing gown to reveal her naked body, he had only ever seen her in the dark or semi dark. He liked what he saw. She slipped into bed and waited for him. At 19.00 they were both hungry, there had been no lunch. Sally put on her dressing gown, downstairs she rang the local Indian takeaway and ordered a meal for delivery. Dave was in the shower, when he came out, he put on a pair of shorts and joined Sally downstairs. They swapped over, up in her bedroom she went through the clothes in the wardrobe for something to wear. She hung the dressing gown up and selected a thin white cotton dress which she pulled over her naked body.
At 07.00 Dave was up, he left Sally in bed while he returned to his room to get ready. The plan had been for her to drive him to the station, but he decided to walk instead. It was dry outside, the walk would only be around thirty minutes. He took up a coffee for Sally, she was sitting up in bed, “I need to get up to take you to the station.” “Change of plan, I will go on foot, if everything goes well, I will be back this evening. I will call you later.” He kissed her on the top of the head, and left her to make sure he had everything. He was wearing jeans and a white tee shirt. In the backpack he used for work, he put a light bomber jacket and a spare tee shirt in case he needed to change. Sally had come down the stairs, with a dressing gown wrapped round her, she watched him get ready, as he made to leave, she stood up and hugged him. “Take care, hopefully you will be back tonight.”
© 10210ken 2024
