top of the door. Would it take flight then? The question for Phyllis was far more absorbing than anything big Brenda could offer.
Brenda Duncan knew fine that Phyllis had heard her. ‘Just can’t be bothered, I expect.’ She told herself, adding a whispered, ‘Poor soul.’
Time and again she’d tried to make a connection with the sick woman. Even a flicker of the eyelids would have been something. But, no.
Kirsty had had the knack, of course, Brenda thought. That one had been able to charm the birds off the trees and no mistake. They’d all been daft about young Kirsty. And she had even seen Phyllis nodding in response to the nurse’s questions. Nothing great, mind. Just that slight movement. But it was a dash sight more than she ever got. These thoughts were going through Brenda’s mind as she pulled her shopping bag out of her locker and dragged on her raincoat. Those other thoughts were suppressed now. She’d had counselling from that woman her GP had recommended. Hadn’t wanted it, but she’d had no choice in the end. It was that or trail about forever like a zombie, doped up to the eyeballs.
‘That you off, then, Brenda?’ Sister Pearson was looking pointedly at the clock at the end of the corridor. It was still four minutes to the hour but Brenda had to clip the minutes off if she were to catch her bus. Pearson knew that fine well, she thought crossly to herself. Mrs Baillie didn’t mind, so why should she?
‘Aye,’ she responded shortly and heaved open the front door, activating the bleeper as she did so. The glass door swung shut, stopping the alarm abruptly. Brenda quickened her stride. She didn’t want to be hanging about in this drizzle. There was no shelter at her stop and this was the kind of rain that soaked through everything. She visualised her umbrella, hanging from the coat hook in the hall. Fat lot of good it was doing there. So much for this morning’s forecast, she told herself, clenching her teeth against an easterly wind.
It was supposed to be nearly summer, for God’s sake. What bloody awful weather! Her glasses were streaming now and she had to keep her head down to avoid the worst onslaughts of the gusts. Her rubber-soled shoes made wet imprints on the pavements under the watery light from the street lamps. The dark sky had activated their photosensitive cells on an evening that was more like autumn than spring. Brenda’s stout legs quivered with the effort of increasing her pace. She had turned the bottom of the hill and now it was that climb up to Langside Monument. Determined not to miss her bus, the woman plunged on, bag over one arm, clutching at her collar to stop the raindrops seeping in. She felt a sharp pain in her chest as the incline steepened. Too much weight, her GP had scolded her when she’d complained about her aches and pains. Brenda was conscious of her glasses slipping down her nose now, but she tried to ignore them, fearful of loosening her grip on the coat collar.
Just as she made her way to the brow of the hill she saw the bus pulling away from her stop.
‘Damn!’ she uttered aloud. ‘Damn and blast!’ Her shoulders sagged and the shopping bag slipped from her grasp as she watched the bus sail past her, tyres swishing on the wet road. It was at least fifteen minutes until the next one, unless this was an earlier one running late. Brenda knew all about the erratic timetables. Bitter experience had taught her that it was no use taking a chance to go off to the cafe for a hot cuppa. You had to wait, just in case there was another bus coming.
She took her place at the head of the queue, tucking wet hands into the sleeves of her coat. She was oblivious to the other passengers forming a line behind her. The rain that was now coursing in runnels down the back of her neck had sapped all her energy and she stared moodily towards the direction from which her bus would come. She didn’t notice a figure half-obscured beneath a golf umbrella in the queue behind her. Nor was she aware, when the bus did eventually arrive with a harsh squeal of brakes, of the same figure leaving the queue and heading instead towards the taxi rank by the Victoria Infirmary.
Brenda slumped into the nearest seat and stared out past the streaming windows at absolutely nothing at all. Her mind was jumping ahead to the meal she’d cook for herself at home; her body was simply grateful to be seated at last. Behind her two women chattered. If Brenda had cared to listen in to their patter she might have heard all about that-one-in-the-next close and her fancy men. But the women’s voices were simply part of the overall noise of bus engine and the presence of humans around her, a comforting sound that made her eyelids droop. She paid only the briefest of attention to the outside world; a flicker of a glance outwards to make sure she didn’t pass her stop.
Here it was. She rose slowly from the seat with a creak of leather and shuffled forwards towards the platform. Her hands grasped the cold metal rail as the bus veered around a corner then shuddered to a halt.
Now she was walking, walking, forcing her legs to carry her up the familiar street. The red sandstone tenements looked warm and welcoming through the misty drizzle. Not far now.
The close mouth yawned open, the security door latched back on its metal hook. The stone corridor with its glazed wall tiles that led from the front steps to the backcourt was exposed for all to see. Yet it was only residents who were supposed to have keys for either entrance. She peered in, uncertain for an instant as to why this door was lying open. Then the smell reminded her. Of course. This was the day the painters were to be in. Brenda tiptoed past the Wet Paint sign chalked on the stone floor of the close.
Mustn’t get any of that on my raincoat, she thought, pulling its folds tighter around her rotund frame. It was a fair step to the second landing.
Puffing, she stopped from time to time, admiring the newly painted walls. The lower half was a bright sky blue, defined by a neat black stripe from the cream upper walls and ceiling.
Brenda gave a sigh of relief as she reached the top step then rummaged in her raincoat pocket for the keys. The sigh became a yawn and she took off her glasses to rub tiredly at her eyes, fitting the Yale in the lock with her free hand.
Just as the solid wooden door swung away from her, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Brenda turned around with a start, surprised and instantly puzzled that she’d heard nobody coming up behind her. Her face, which had been tensed in alarm, relaxed immediately.
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘it’s you.’ Then, cocking her head to one side, she added, ‘What on earth are you doing here?’
Brenda’s eyes widened in disbelief as the figure lunged towards her, hands suddenly grasping her throat. Her mouth opened in protest, then there was a gargling sound as she struggled against her attacker.
As Brenda jerked backwards onto the hall carpet, her glasses flew upwards into the air. They curved in a perfect arc then broke with a tinkle against the rows of brass hooks screwed into the wall. For a moment the landing held its breath. Then several small sounds interrupted the silence. Wood clunked on wood as the golf umbrella was propped carefully against the door frame. Feet in wet shoes brushed back and forth, back and forth on the doormat; the sound of coming home; familiar, nothing to alert the neighbours.
The front door banged shut against the newly painted close, echoes spiralling down the stairwell. These were the sounds that everybody listened to at the time, but afterwards nobody remembered that they’d heard them.
Within the house, behind the solid door, Brenda Duncan lay sprawled where she had fallen, ungainly even in death.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Cross cafe wasn’t the nicest place to have tea and a chat, but it was a safe haven from the deluge outside. The rain had not stopped all day and runnels of water were swirling down the slopes of the pavement out side. Angelica sipped the hot brew, sighing with a mixture of pleasure and relief. It would be OK, now, she told herself. It was all over. Trying to make Leigh see things that way might be tricky but she had hopes.
As if on cue, the Irishman staggered into the cafe, his hair plastered black against his head. He gazed around him, lost for a moment in the sea of tables and chairs until he spotted her at the window. She’d sat there deliberately so he could see her but the window had steamed up, foiling her strategy.
‘Angelica.’ Leigh’s eyes softened as he sat down opposite her. ‘I thought…for a minute…you’d not come.’
‘I said I’d be here, didn’t I?’
