The Teacher: A shocking and compelling new crime thriller – NOT for the faint-hearted! (4 page)

‘We basically operate on something similar to the Dewey decimal system, so the first two numbers correspond to a continent, then the next three numbers the species, followed by—’

‘Yes, I know how it works.’

‘OK, sorry.’

‘No, I didn’t mean to be rude, please, just ignore my … personality, sometimes I can be a bit … I’m sorry. Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me. Carry on.’ He fumbled for words, this time she couldn’t help but smile a little.

‘You need to mark the animals down against the numbers on this register and then you need to mark whether they are to be kept or not. Anything that can be restored needs a yellow sticker and put a red one on the ones that are beyond saving.’ She handed him the stickers.

‘Nothing is beyond saving,’ he said thoughtfully as he stared at the coloured sheets in his hand, his eyes looking through the paper and beyond. She studied his face for a moment, unable to look away. His skin was so pale and his hair so black against it. The gentle curls undermining his angular bone structure. He looked up quickly, drawing in his breath, as though for a moment he forgot he was not alone.

Abbey watched Parker working. Once he had begun to work he had not uttered a single word to her. She occasionally heard him mumbling to himself but essentially it was no different than working alone. The silence was not strained or awkward, it was just silence, something they were obviously both comfortable with. From time to time he would pull out a well-worn leather pocket book and scrawl something inside it, then put it back in his inside pocket. She wondered what he was writing, what was his paper about?

The day was drawing to a close, the natural light from the high-set windows changing to an orange glow as the sunset drew closer.

‘Parker!’ Abbey called for the fourth time, trying to snatch his attention as he scribbled furiously in his notepad, engrossed. He looked up, startled, almost scared, then his face softened into a smile as if he’d just awoken from a nightmare and pulled back into reality.

‘What time is it?’ He looked up at the windows, almost surprised at the warm dusk light that had crept up on them.

‘It’s seven p.m. now, I don’t normally work this late but we did make a lot of progress, you have been a great help.’

‘Yikes! Seven! I should get home.’

‘Sorry, I should have thought, your wife must be worried.’

‘Yes, Sally will be worried … and she will probably want feeding and some exercise.’ He smirked at Abbey’s confused and slightly embarrassed face. ‘She’s my dog.’

Abbey blushed, hoping to God he didn’t think she was fishing for information, she wasn’t, she wouldn’t. Somehow she knew the thought never crossed his mind.

After Parker’s departure, the museum was desolate. Abbey was just leaving when she walked past the front desk. The samurai was standing ever poised in his glass case by the entrance. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end as she allowed herself to properly look at him in this light. He was still, he couldn’t hurt her or anybody else, but still she felt him staring, his hand on his katana.

‘Still here?’

She spun round to see Shane right behind her, he was just wearing a white vest, the anthology of his life exposed in the form of tattoos. The ink consisted of tribal markings and thorny roses, a clichéd assortment. He flexed his muscles as he pulled his shirt on, she was unsure what he was trying to achieve, was he trying to frighten her? Even though she was alone she didn’t feel scared of him.

‘I’m just leaving now.’ She moved towards the door.

‘I saw you with that weird guy, the new one.’ Shane smiled and moved in closer as he did up the buttons on his shirt. ‘He’s too good for you. You know that, don’t you?’

Abbey put her hand on her bag; it wouldn’t take much to just glide her fingers inside it. Her tools were in there along with her trusty scalpel. He wouldn’t even feel the blade sink into his skin, the steel was so sharp it would only occur to him when he saw the blood and clutched at his throat, desperate to stop his life from ebbing away. She knew where to cut him so it would be quick, she knew her way around a scalpel. She wondered if the arterial spray would even show up on these hideous red walls. She moved her hand away and placed it on the handle to the external door.

‘Don’t forget to lock up,’ she said as she slipped outside, her heart thumping. She looked down the museum steps to see Parker standing there, waiting. ‘I thought you went home?’

‘It occurred to me you were on your own in the museum with Shane, and I can see you don’t care for him much.’

‘How do you know that?’ Abbey said as she walked down the steps towards him. She didn’t like the idea that anyone knew what she might be thinking or feeling, that those things might be obvious in any way made her feel exposed.

‘I just notice things like that,’ he said quietly, before taking a deep breath. ‘I thought maybe I could walk you home, it’s almost dark.’ He shuffled uncomfortably.

‘What about your dog?’ Abbey looked back up at the museum and saw Shane coming outside hurriedly, she saw his eyes searching until they met hers and brightened a little, before his gaze shifted a little and he saw Parker standing next to her. Shane’s disappointment was evident as his lopsided sneer turned into a scowl.

‘She will get over it, we have an understanding.’ He smiled and followed Abbey, she turned to see Shane walk in the other direction as Parker remained oblivious to his presence.

For the next few weeks Abbey and Parker worked in silence. His enthusiasm for the task was unrelenting, every day he would be there early, ready and raring to go, working through lunch and at the end of the day he would wait for her outside and walk her home. He never bothered her with silly questions or idle small talk, for most of the time Parker was lost in his own world. At work he would often pull out his little black pocket book. Sometimes she would watch him and smile as he struggled to get the words on to the page fast enough in his excitement.

‘So, why here? There are plenty of other museums that have big archives like this one, bigger even,’ she finally broke the silence one day during what was supposed to be the lunch hour. She had taken to bringing her sandwiches into the dusty old store room, feeling guilty that he would be sitting in there alone if she went to the cafeteria.

‘When I was a boy my parents brought me to this museum. I spent a lot of time in this place. I loved all the reconstructions of the Roman occupation and the artefacts and relics that were found in the local area, but they don’t make you think like the animals do. I would sit and stare at the dioramas and feel completely lost in them. There used to be a bench opposite the African desert display where a lion had sunk its teeth into a buffalo. I would just imagine I was either the hunter or the prey, how it would feel to be one or the other, if it was even possible to understand being both.’ He swallowed and closed his eyes, a thought he couldn’t shake. He took a deep breath before starting again, a forced smile on his face. ‘This is where it all started for me, this is where I decided what I wanted to do with my life, it was a bit of a eureka moment, so this place has always held a special place in my heart.’ He spoke with a wistful tone to his voice. She could almost see his memories and his pleasure in revisiting them, then something else, fleeting sadness, a less pleasant memory, perhaps.

‘I always wanted to be a vet, but I dropped out of uni and here I am.’ She took a bite of her sandwich, unwilling to continue talking in case she said something she regretted.

His simplicity was magnetic to her, it had been years since anyone had fascinated her so much, he was almost like a child in his animated way of moving and speaking and yet, just like at that moment, occasionally she would see a melancholy about him, something she couldn’t identify but something so precious that she just wanted to tell him it would all be OK. A lie, for sure, but she knew he needed comfort from something, she just didn’t know what. He put her at ease and she trusted him, despite not knowing him for long. He was nothing like anyone she had ever met, although it had been a long time since she had met anyone new.

‘What is it?’ he asked, she realised she had been staring at him, she blushed and looked away.

‘I’m sorry, I’m not used to working with people, I’m usually up here alone, and I didn’t mean to stare.’

He didn’t say anything, just smiled, a consoling smile. He didn’t push the issue but it was too late, she felt her cheeks burning red.

The rest of the day passed without any conversation, without any incident, and Parker walked out at five o’clock exactly. She wondered if she offended him with her question, if his past was somewhere he didn’t want to revisit. She really wasn’t used to dealing with people, or, in particular, men. When she finally came to leave, Parker was there, leaning against the street lamp, brows furrowed, concentrating on the notebook in his hands. When he looked up and saw her, the tension left his face, melted away and was replaced with the most genuine smile. She felt special for a moment. It had been a long time since she felt that way. If she had to put a number on it she would say it had been five years. It was five years since she had left college, five years since she had to restart her life all over again.

The Fresher

Then

The radio hummed softly, barely audible but just loud enough to quash any fear Abbey might have of being alone.

The street light shone through the window and lit up the room making it impossible to relax. Abbey wasn’t much of a sleeper anyway, which was a shame because she had no social life.

She looked across the room at her roommate Dani’s bed, it was empty and made; the curse of the pretty girl. Dani’s bed was a deep purple and gold with saris draped from the ceiling. Even Danielle’s vibrant posters were framed and hung in a precise manner, not like the dogeared gig posters that hung on Abbey’s side of the room.

Dani swung open the door and flopped on the bed, a grin plastered across her face as she kicked off her heels.

‘I’ve met the man I’m going to marry.’

Abbey sat up. When Abbey had first laid eyes on Danielle she had subconsciously tugged at her sweater, making sure it covered as much of her as possible. It was at that point that Abbey realised her role for the rest of the academic year – the weird one who bunked with the hot girl. What made things even worse was that Dani was just about the nicest person Abbey had ever met, probably because she had no insecurities and no reason to feel threatened by anyone really. They became good friends in no time.

‘His name’s Christian, he’s just such a babe, I just met him over at Bar 42.’

‘Christian Taylor?’ Abbey knew who he was, of course she did, every girl on campus knew who he was.

‘Mhm, he gave me his number, we’re going out this week sometime,’ Danielle squealed.

Christian was the boy at uni, THE boy, the one they all wanted, the trophy, the prize. He was the reason to wear a short skirt and the incentive to wear your hair up all pretty. He got in free to all the cool bars, the waitresses would slide him free drinks and the managers would turn a blind eye, knowing that where he went, the rest followed. Abbey was almost certain that Danielle had positioned herself in such a way that Christian could not help but notice her, she made sure they accidentally bumped into each other. Dani had just climbed up a few rungs on the social-status ladder.

When Abbey awoke the next morning Danielle was in the shower. Abbey looked at the clock, she was late. She jumped out of bed and threw yesterday’s clothes on, still in a pile at her bedside. Abbey was scrambling around the room that she shared with Danielle frantically searching for her left army boot.

‘Hello.’ Abbey spun around to see Christian in the doorway. She froze, and her heart was thumping. She had never seen a man quite as handsome as him before, he was twenty years old and his dark blond curls fell to his shoulders like a frame for his perfect face, he invoked a feeling of sexuality in Abbey that she hadn’t felt before – pure desire. Her mouth watered just looking at him. His friend Jamie hovered behind him nervously, well aware that he paled in comparison, obviously torn between jealousy and hero worship.

‘Hi,’ Abbey finally managed to utter. ‘Dani’s in the shower.’

‘And you must be Abbey.’ He leaned forward and shook her hand, beaming a smile that made her knees weak. Even the people she considered her closest friends struggled to remember Abbey’s name.

At that moment, Dani walked in with her perfectly tanned skin still glistening from the hot shower, her hair wet.

‘Oh, hi, I didn’t expect to see you so soon,’ she giggled. Abbey was unfamiliar with this side of Danielle, she usually liked to dominate a situation but this time she was letting him be the man while she played at the ditsy blonde.

Jamie completely refused to even acknowledge Abbey’s existence. Instead he stared at Danielle as though she were an untouchable goddess. Abbey was all too familiar with the type of boy Jamie was, he was ordinary looking, not ugly, but no one ever looked twice at him and he seemed crippled with insecurity and anger. He wanted the Danielles of this world not the Abbeys and he resented the idea that he was doomed to spend the rest of his life settling for, well, himself. To him the girl you had on your arm was a statement about who you were as a person, it didn’t matter what they thought or did, it mattered what they looked like. He wanted other men to be jealous like he was jealous of Christian. It’s a hard life being the best friend of an Adonis. Abbey knew this all too well, she was the Jamie in her friendship with Dani and she wanted nothing to do with him. She didn’t want to be told that she couldn’t have the Danis and the Christians if that’s what she wanted.

The summer term was upon them and exam fever had hit hard. House parties were everywhere, it was the only way to get through the stress for the people who took their subjects seriously, for the slackers it was a perfect excuse to get wasted, everyone’s a winner. Summer was a time of unity at the University – ‘we are all in this together’ – everyone sympathetic to everyone else’s pressures and self-imposed expectations. It was a short semester and the campus was often deserted during that time. Abbey was dressed ridiculously inappropriately for such a warm day, stonewashed skinny jeans and a white crochet jumper, not a pretty white either, a white that’s gone slightly grey in the wash. Her outfit did nothing for her rosy cheeks or her mousy hair, under all the clothes she had a better-than-average body, but you would never know it to look at her, her attire was more suited to a WI meeting.

‘Abbey, wait up.’ Christian was rushing towards her as she walked away from her room and she became aware of how ridiculous she must have looked, she wished there was a phone booth nearby so she could run in and out like a superhero, so that when he reached her she would be standing there in something pretty, something fashionable or attractive, but it wasn’t going to happen.

‘Hi,’ she muttered, unsure what else to say,
I think I love you
seemed a little extreme given the circumstances.

‘There’s a party tonight at my place, Dani’s coming, you should come too.’ A personal invitation, she couldn’t say no, she wanted to but she knew she wouldn’t allow herself to, so better just to accept it now.

‘Cool.’ She struggled to get out anything meaningful, one-word sentences were as much as she could muster.

Abbey stared at herself in the mirror, she could be dressed in nothing but a bikini, her presence would still be dwarfed by the supernova that is Danielle. She hated herself for being jealous but just once she wanted to know how it felt to be desired, to be special.

‘Wear this.’ Dani flung a purple dress at Abbey. ‘Trust me, it’s my lucky dress.’ Abbey felt the fine silk between her fingers and wondered how it would feel against her chunky thighs. She was the same dress size as Danielle but there is something about confidence that makes everything fit better. The purple dress was backless and shorter than anything Abbey would usually dare to wear.

‘You don’t think it will make me look like …’

‘Like what?’ Dani looked at her. Abbey was aware she should choose her next words carefully.

‘I don’t know, like I’m trying to be you? Single white female and all that.’

‘Do you honestly give a shit what any of those people think?’ Abbey loved how Dani referred to her friends as ‘those people’, it was part of what made Dani friends with everyone, she knew how to make you feel like you mattered, even if you really didn’t. Abbey first saw Dani as one of those seemingly transparent people who were exactly the same on the inside as the outside, but the more time they spent together the more she realised Dani was a shrewd politician who liked to keep her options open, never upsetting anyone, never taking sides. It was probably a characteristic Abbey should pay attention to as she was always tipping her hand, showing all her cards and leaving herself open to attack.

Abbey slid the dress over her head conscious of the fact that this particular style of dress didn’t allow for a bra, she felt her nipples press against the fabric, aware that with movement and friction she would not only be buoyant and full but leaving very little to the imagination.

‘Jamie is totally going to lose his shit over you.’ Dani beamed.

Jamie. Great. There’s one thing Abbey knew for sure and that was that Jamie would never see her as anything more than a consolation prize. She was trying to ignore the hypocrisy of the fact that she wasn’t interested in Jamie because he wasn’t good enough, wasn’t Christian. Abbey still felt pangs of guilt as his name popped into her head. She wondered if Dani would still lend her the dress if she knew what Abbey was thinking, and she reckoned she would. Dani didn’t worry about anyone stealing her man, least of all Abbey.