It was worth their while staying, purely for the entertainmentvalue of seeing Andy’s botched attempt at resurrecting his rockstar past. Hewas actually doing quite well with his rendition of “Born to be Wild” until hegot to the second chorus, tripped over the microphone stand and fell flat onhis face, bringing an inevitable cheer from the crowd.
“Look out for that one on YouTube tomorrow!” announced theDJ. “It’s not the first time he’s done that and it won’t be the last. AndyGreen – we salute you – what a star!”
Kay downed the remainder of her drink and got ready toleave. She went home feeling full of the joys of the season, looking forward tothe challenge that lay ahead the next day.
Chapter Thirteen
February 2018
By the time the angel appeared in the mirror the followingmorning, Kay was all prepared with the exact date she needed to go back to.
Compared to her previous trips, this would be just a shorthop in temporal terms. Her destination was February 14th 2018, a day sheremembered well.
It had been a Wednesday and she had been looking forward togoing out for a meal with Alan, something they had done every Valentine’s Daysince they had got together.
Date nights such as these had become increasingly rare inrecent years. Other than Valentine’s Day, about the only other time they wentout for a meal was for their wedding anniversary. It was all a far cry from thewining and dining he had done to impress her in the early days.
This year, the meal had not happened at all. A couple ofdays beforehand, he had announced that some major problem had come up with awine supplier at work and he was going to have to fly to Paris the followingday to sort it out.
When she had suggested going with him, Alan had not lookedhappy. He had said that he would love to have her accompany him, but thecompany was having financial difficulties and he wouldn’t be able to justify aticket for her on expenses. Besides, he would be spending all day in crisismeetings trying to resolve the problems, followed by dinner with the suppliersin the evenings. He wouldn’t be able to spend any time with her, so there wasno point in her going.
This had unsurprisingly turned out to be complete bullshit.By this time, Kay had already suspected him of having an affair, sodisappearing off on Valentine’s Day set all sorts of alarm bells ringing in herhead.
A few weeks later he had told her he didn’t think themarriage was working out and had ordered her to move out. She was barely out ofthe door before he installed the hated Lucy in her place. It didn’t take agenius to work out it was her that he had been with in Paris that week.
As for Kay, she stayed at home and spent Valentine’s Daywatching old Bridget Jones movies on DVD. She didn’t hear a peep from Alan allday, and as for any sort of Valentine’s present, that was a joke. She didn’teven get a card.
His absence that day was just what she needed to carry outher detective work. He would be nicely out of the way in Paris with thatred-headed tart, enabling her to snoop at her leisure.
As for Maddie, she would also be out of the way, spendinghalf-term visiting some friends in London. At eighteen, she had inherited Kay’sadventurous streak, also expressing a desire to go travelling after her Alevels. Kay just hoped she wouldn’t fall prey to another Glen, or even worse,another Alan.
With the house to herself she could take her time and leaveno stone unturned. It wasn’t going to be one of the most exciting days of herlife, but this time she was putting business before pleasure. This was aboutlooking to the future, not reliving the past. If she found what she was lookingfor, then her unsuspecting victim would have his revenge served up cold just intime for Christmas.
Kay didn’t bother with any preamble with the angel, tellingher where she wanted to go straightaway. She soon found herself waking up inthe past for the third time, in a third different bed. She was exactly whereshe had expected to be – in the house that had been her home until just a fewmonths ago.
How she missed this room. She hadn’t seen the inside of itsince the day she had left. Her former home was a four-bedroom town house onone of the town’s new estates. Compared to the flat above McVie’s, it was amansion. They had bought it three years before as a new build. After reservingthe plot, they had the opportunity to have a say in all of the finalspecifications. That had allowed her to really put her stamp on it.
Her bedroom, which on the plans had been described as themaster bedroom, was an impressive size by modern standards, a spacious roomwhere there was plenty of floor space, even with the king-size bed against theback wall.
Every bit of furnishing in the room had been chosen andbought by her. Alan was not interested in those sorts of cosmetic details andhad left her to get on with it. She had decorated and furnished it to what shefelt was perfection. All of the furniture was made of pine, from the bed frameto the bedside tables. It was good, solid stuff, not like the cheap, flimsyrubbish they sold in some stores.
The walls of the room were a pale lemon colour, withcurtains to match. It was a similar shade to the dress she had recently worn in1994. Yellow had always been her favourite colour.
The massive windows along the left-hand side of the roommade it wonderfully light, even on this winter morning. The whole of theopposite side of the room was taken up by a large, walk-in wardrobe, full ofclothes. Most of these she hadn’t been able to take with her when she left.Alan had allowed her to pack just one suitcase
