that he'd show his face again after I'd caught him sperming in Jackie's mouth. He didn't care where he stuck his cock. Any girl's mouth would do. Or pussy.
“You're better off without him,” I said, placing the coffee cups on the table.
“He's such a liar,” she sighed as I sat opposite her. “He told me that you'd been screwing around. He said that you were ...” her words tailed off as she caught my gaze.
“What?” I asked. “What did he say about me?”
“He said that you were nothing but a tart.”
“ Me ? Good God, he's a lying sod,” I returned. “A tart? I was faithful to the end, Angela. That's more than he can say. Where is he now?”
“At work. He said that you'd seen me with another man.”
“He told me that you two had split up. I didn't believe him, that’s why I said I'd seen you with someone else. He wanted sex and ... I was testing him. Anyway, it doesn't matter who said what to whom. What are you going to do now?”
94
“It's my flat, so he can get out. Who's that?” she asked, looking through the open backdoor.
“Where?” I frowned, following her gaze.
“There was a girl in the bushes down the garden. She's gone now.”
“Er ... Next door's kids,” I lied, wondering who on earth the child was.
We chatted about Alan and men in general as we drank our coffee, and I felt that we were getting on pretty well. We might even rekindle our friendship, I mused when she said that Alan would be out on the street that night. I couldn't blame her for being taken in by his lies and suggested she came round for coffee again. I couldn't wait to see Alan homeless, and decided to play games with him. Perhaps I'd invite him round and pull his dick out, tease him and send him on his way with his balls full.
“She looks upset,” Angela said, gazing down the garden again.
“Who?”
I
asked.
“The girl. Oh, she's gone again.”
“She's ... she's always crying,” I smiled. “She'll be all right.”
“Well, I'd better get home. I have Alan's things to pack.”
“And throw out into the street?” I giggled.
“And throw out into the street,” she laughed. “It's been nice seeing you again, Jade. We'll definitely get together again.”
“Anytime. I work from home so ring me.”
“I will. And, thanks for everything.”
For sucking your man's cock and swallowing his sperm? “Don't forget to call me.”
95
“I
won't.”
When she'd gone, I raced down the garden in search of the illusive child.
There was no way anyone could get into the garden, I again observed, gazing at the high fence behind the bushes. Jackie might have been mistaken, but not Angela as well. Spending an hour or so on the patio, I saw nothing. It was only when I finally went into my den and slipped into fiction mode that I put two and two together. If Crystal Marshall had died ... My Crystal was becoming frighteningly real to me, a mysterious young girl's face had emerged from the bushes ... And Crystal Marshall was dead.
“A ghost?” I breathed. “Don't be so silly.” Shaking my head as I switched the computer on, I decided to bring a ghost into my story. I had no idea how to do it, or whether David would like the idea, but the notion gripped me and I spent several hours hammering the keyboard.
After dinner, I printed the chapter I'd written that afternoon and wandered out onto the patio with a bottle of wine. The evening sun sinking below the trees, I began to read the chapter. “This isn't right,” I breathed, flicking through the sheets of A4.
“Crystal grimaced as the young man forced his fist into her inflamed anal canal. A girl's teeth sinking into her hairless vulval lips, a solid knob rammed to the back of her throat, she shook violently as the leather whip flailed her naked breasts.”
Reading through the pages, I shook my head in disbelief. I hadn't written one word of the sexual torture. This wasn't my work. Lifting my head, I looked down the 96
garden,
Janet Gurtler
Ron Burgundy
Natalie Barnes
Atiq Rahimi
Donna Leon
Rosemary Sutcliff
Candace Robb
T.L. Gray
Sarah Maine
Nina Croft