I bought a long frankfurter hotdog with onions from a vendor who doubled up his tourist appeal by also selling baseball caps and postcards. He pointed out to me all of his various wares and I responded with a polite smile. The hotdog didn’t look that great, so I doused it well in ketchup. I ambled along the coastal path, trailing my bag of shopping in one hand, while trying not to squeeze ketchup over myself with the other. As I finished the last mouthfuls, a colder gust blew up off the shore. I shivered. I wiped my hands and face with the napkin, leaving a layer of grease remaining on my fingers. I looked back along the pier. There was a little alcove with large bins to the side and a few cafes beyond there. It all looked very similar to the pier beside the resort. I shivered again.
I had returned to my room, to have a few drinks and rollies. It was late afternoon and I lay back on the bed. I stretched out. The walk had done me good. The bed was comfortable, if a touch soft. It reminded me a bed I’d slept on a few months before. Come to think of it, the room was quite similar too. There had been a guy I’d met on Tinder. He was dead on and alright looking as well. We’d gone out a few times over a couple of weeks. One night we stayed up in Derry in this cheap B and B. We went around the bars in the afternoon and then to the cinema that night. We saw the new Blake movie. It’s a series about a thief and the troubled heists that he gets involved in. They’re okay movies. We had a nice time anyway and it had been nice to explore Derry a little. I couldn’t help myself afterwards back at the room, giving off about flaws in the story. It’s not like I’m exactly a crime expert – despite my own few dabblings and the shit storm that had now befallen me. Beyond the occasional Jo Nesbo on holiday, I rarely even read crime fiction.
I found a few channels that worked on the square television set that was mounted on a rusted V-bracket. None were in English. I left it on an old repeat of an episode of Columbo from the eighties. They were never quite as good as the seventies ones. This one was hard to judge, what with Columbo speaking in a thick overdubbed Spanish voice. I got myself comfortable, stubbed out my smoke and raised up my pillows. Columbo had found a clue. He was scratching at his head now. I smiled. I let Peter Falk and the wine in my stomach lull me gently off to sleep.
Awake!
I was instantly fully awake and my heart was thumping hard. I felt sweaty and bolted upright, peeling my clammy face from the pillow. I didn’t know what had woken me and I still don’t. Now I would guess it was simply instinct.
I stood by the bed, rocking on my heels – woozy. The floor creaked under me once and then I stood stock still. I couldn’t hear anything.
Nothing at all.
That seemed strange in itself. I crossed to the window, careful, hesitant. I crouched, so as not to be seen, feeling a little foolish. But when I looked out, I was stunned. There was a police car parked on the road out front and I clocked two officers standing near the entrance door of the hotel.
Shit! This is it! Fuck.
I felt an adrenaline rush hit and experienced the unpleasant sensation of my mind ticking over too rapidly for me to control. I ran to the other window at the side, where there was a fire escape beyond the ledge. I audibly gasped when I clocked another policeman at the bottom of it. He was looking out towards the side of the hotel and I ducked back before he could see me. I clenched handfuls of hair in my hands, twisting the strands as my mind raced.
They had come for me. This wouldn’t be just for a chat. They were covering the exits. I was fucked. ‘What am I going to do?’ I asked myself helplessly.
Then the hotel phone rang.
It was a series of long beeps. I glared at it, as if it might explode.
I thought I was about to vomit.
It stopped.
Then somehow, I just started to move. I reacted. That’s the only way I can describe it: a reaction. I scooped up the pink holdall and stuffed anything to hand back inside. I did the same with my handbag. One thing I did know was that I wasn’t going to sit and wait for them to come and get me. I tried to keep my breathing steady. I checked the first window, then the second. Nothing had changed. I crouched down by the back window, sweeping my eyes across the fire escape, the garden and beyond. I knew I couldn’t leave by the door of my room.
