Chapter Two
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Hitting an all time low
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Alex had put on her pyjamas and was shoving her feet into her favourite thick soft socks. She sat back on the sofa and reached for the remote control. She held it towards the telly but changed her mind about switching it on. It was ridiculous to be scared of a telly, but she was half afraid that the picture would roll and the white noise would start and there would be her father, aka scary Bowie clown. She looked around the flat, silent except for the muted hum coming up from Luigi's.
She suddenly thought of the makeshift calendar in the kitchen, rose from the sofa, and went to remove it from the kitchen wall. Time to move on. They were dead and she had failed them. She stared at the calendar before crumpling it into a ball and whispered, 'Sorry' Tears splattered onto the ball of paper and her hands. Wiping her face with her hand she chucked the calendar in the bin and went back to the sitting room, wondering how Evan was getting on with her younger self. She remembered he'd taken her to France after her parents had died, but couldn't remember how long they'd stayed there. She was sure they'd been back for Christmas because she remembered hating his impersonal flat and wanting her room at home. Realising that the Price family home was standing empty, she decided to pay it a visit the following day. She knew she was ripping open wounds, but needed the comfort of familiarity. Maybe she could only move on when she had been there and seen for herself that her parents had really gone forever.
Gene had been standing outside the door of Alex's flat for several minutes, trying to work himself up to knocking, but if he knocked and she answered what would he say? Some bullshit about the case? She'd think he was crazy. They'd stare at each other awkwardly until he was forced to start insulting her in some way. He lifted one hand to the door and as he did so heard a strangled sob. He leaned forward quietly and listened; Oh bollocks, she was crying. He stepped backwards, knowing he couldn't cope with it, and crept away.
He didn't sleep well which was almost unheard of for him. His mind working overtime. William Braxton looked and acted as though he was completely sane, yet there he was sprouting off rubbish about coppers getting sent back in time, and this is what had apparently happened to Alex Drake. Gene hadn't believed him and had to restrain himself, making do with a verbal thrashing instead of the physical one he was sorely tempted to give. He had told Braxton to keep away from Alex, and from him, and never to darken the door of Luigi's again. But amidst all his outrage something niggled, some persistent little voice wouldn't stay silent. Alex and her outlandish behaviour a few weeks before; arresting the Prices, investigating a murder that hadn't happened, showing him up in front of Scarman, not to mention ranting on about leaving and inviting him to dinner, 'a last supper' and declaring she was going to miss him. By the time dawn crept reluctantly through the blinds in his flat, his brain was a fogged muddle that matched the day. There always had been something about Bolls that didn't add up. He showered, shaved and dressed hurriedly, frowning as he pulled on his boots, slamming the door as he left, leaving an untidy flat and charred toast in the toaster.
Alex hadn't slept well either, and her face was swollen due to the tears that had punctuated the long night, and when she did sleep she dreamed of Gene telling her that this world was all about timing, before he turned into her father trying to kill her in a variety of ways. She dragged a comb through her hair as she stood in front of the bathroom mirror and grimaced at the amount of make up she had trowelled on. She just looked like a woman who had been crying all night with a load of gunk on her face, she took some tissue and began wiping it off again. She wasn't going to the station anyway, she was going home.
Gene spent most of the morning shouting for Alex. 'Where the bloody hell is she?'
'Dunno Guv' Shaz darted in with a mug of coffee and placed it on his desk, stepping back hurriedly as soon as she had put it down, like a zoo keeper bringing food to a ferocious beast. 'Maybe she got lost in the fog.'
Gene had Drake's number on redial, he stabbed at the button again and listened to the sound of her phone ringing in an empty flat. After about a dozen rings he gave up and sat back in his chair. Ray appeared in the doorway, 'We've brought Kiki Woods in for questioning, where's Drake?'
'In my jacket pocket' Gene replied, 'How the fuck should I know? No-one bothers to tell me anything around here, funny because I thought I was a DCI.'
'You going to interview her then Guv?' Ray looked uncomfortable
'No Raymondo, I'll leave that pleasure entirely to you.' Gene said, he had no wish to be screeched at by Hutch's tart. Her vocabulary consisted mostly of the words 'pig' 'bastard' and 'bastard pig'.
'Thanks for that.' Ray said, turning and gesturing to Chris to back him up.
Gene sat at his desk pondering over his missing DI. Where would she go? That Evan bloke, maybe he'd seen her. He went through his tatty version of a rolodex, found Evan's phone number and got through to a recorded message informing him that Evan was out of the country. Silly boy, thought Gene, announcing it to all and sundry, then he would wonder why he came home to a ransacked flat, or even worse, to squatters, still some people just wouldn't be told. His eyes narrowed as he had an idea, and his fingers rifled through the rolodex again.
Alex wandered around the house with a sense of despair, the executer obviously hadn't wasted much time in clearing it out. She tried to remember who the executer was and couldn't. She only knew it hadn't been Evan, her father had made sure of that. The walls had lighter patches where pictures had been removed, and the carpet was the same, with less worn looking areas where the furniture had stood. Her room was just an empty room, at least she knew that most of the contents had been moved to Evan's flat.
She sank to the floor in the sitting room, fixated on the cobwebs gathering around the lampshade, 'I want to go home' she wailed, 'there's nothing for me here.'
'What the hell are you doing?'
Alex almost jumped out of her skin as Gene appeared in the sitting room doorway. 'How did you get in?'
'You left the front door open.' he said.
'How did you know I'd be here?' she asked.
'I didn't, just a hunch.' he shrugged.
'Oh right, that faithful old gut instinct of yours.' she tried to hide the fact that she'd been crying yet again.
'So…' he crossed the room and stood in front of her, holding his hand down, 'what the hell are you doing here? Breaking and entering?'
She stared at his outstretched hand. He was always there to catch her. What would happen if she wouldn't be caught? I was needed and I was there. that's what he'd told her when she asked a few weeks ago, and now here he was again, offering his hand, except it was different this time. She was a big girl now, she didn't need him. If she took his hand what would happen? Would he pull her into his arms, lift her up and carry her to safety? Maybe he would kiss her. Maybe she should take his hand and let him pull her up into his arms and let him kiss her, or even kiss him, before he had a chance to push her away. Take him by surprise. Why was she even thinking about kissing him? The very thought should turn her stomach, why didn't it?
'Pissing me off now Drake.' he said, pulling the hand away, perplexed by her lack of reaction, the way she was just crumpled there on the floor like she had given up.
'No-one asked you to come.' she said, ' I don't need you, I've never needed you.'
'Fine.' he sounded hurt, 'But I need you, you're a bloody copper, and supposed to be interviewing Kiki Sewer Gob, in case you'd forgotten.'
'Why do you even bother?' she asked him scornfully, 'Who made you some sort of pathetic guardian angel?'
'Dunno' he replied tiredly, 'especially with you, hell knows why I bother with a snobby bint like you.'
'You're not even real' she said, 'I'm stuck here with you and you're not even real. Do you think I don't know that my stupid messed up mind has made you like you are, you- the you that Sam Tyler described to me was nothing like the you my brain has concocted.'
'Whatever you say Bolls.' he turned away.
'Maybe I should have fun with you' she called as he reached the hall, 'Maybe all those ridiculous fantasies I have with you as the leading man…' she stopped and her eyes widened as she realised what she was saying.
He turned back quickly and looked at her, 'Go on.'
'Forget it.' her cheeks burned, oh god, her bloody big mouth.
'Fantasies eh?' he smiled. 'nice to know it's a two way street. So you don't want a lift back to the station? You want to sit and fantasise a little longer?'
'Bastard' she whispered, he was never going to let her forget this. 'I'm taking the day off, so what are you going to do about it?'
'Not much I can do is there?' he looked highly amused, 'apart from forcibly dragging you into the station. I'll just file a report that women officers, however highly ranked, let themselves be ruled by hormones and er.. fantasies.'
'You could take the day off too.' she issued a dare.
He stood still, thinking it over.
'You won't though' she carried on peevishly, 'How could Fenchurch ever function without you Gene?'
He shrugged and walked back into the sitting room, sitting down on the floor beside her, his back against the wall, legs outstretched.
Alex, shocked and slightly disturbed by his closeness, compared their leg lengths, they were about the same, she stared at her high heeled shoes and his boots, side by side on the carpet, and giggled.
'So, what have you got planned?' he asked.
'Nothing' she whispered.
'You want me to take a day off but you've nothing to tempt me with.' he mocked, 'Oh Bolls -disappointed.'
'Well' she thought for a second or two, 'You could whisk me off to Paris for lunch if you like, make me forget I'm here in la la land.'
'I'll take you to L'escargot in Mile End if you want although I have to warn you the food poisoning rate from there is pretty damn shocking, but Paris is a bit of a stretch.' he waggled his boots.
'You'd take me out to lunch?' she waggled her shoes in time with his boots.
He nodded, 'Who's William Braxton?'
'William Braxton?' she frowned, 'haven't a clue.'
'He was in Luigi's the other night, dark hair, poncey looking, you smiled at him.' Gene jogged her memory.
'Was that his name? I've never seen him before, don't know him.' she was studying Gene's fingers, he had nice hands, well manicured, but she'd never seen him attending to them.
'He knows you' Gene said, looking across at her, his eyes doing the strip search thing, 'says he was a friend of Caroline Price, bit of a nutter really, he said Caroline Price was your mother.'
Alex gasped, 'Did you believe him?' she noticed she was shaking and tried to stop.
'Of course I didn't bloody believe him.' Gene replied astringently, 'he's a raving loony, going on about coppers going back in time, I sent him packing before he got to you with his crazy ranting.'
'Thanks.' Alex muttered, her mind whirring, she was glad she was sitting down because she felt dizzy, her hand reached out and landed on Gene's arm.
'Steady Bolls' he laughed.
'I am steady' she lied, wondering who the hell William Braxton was and how he knew her mother was Caroline Price. She sighed in frustration, an opportunity too good to pass up had been right there, she could have told Gene the truth. Instead she had panicked and chickened out. What did she have to lose after all? He already thought she was crazy. There was still time, she could tell him that Caroline was her mother, that she had come back in time….
'So' Gene broke through her thoughts, 'What's it to be? L'escargot or the Wimpy Bar or Luigi's, you choose.'
She ignored the question, 'We're one all you know.'
'Are we?' he hadn't a clue what she was talking about.
'If we carried on working together for years, how many times do you think we would knock each other back?' Alex said 'You rejected me and I ended up with that chinless yuppie banker. I turned you down a few weeks ago and you went home to cry in front of Gary Cooper.'
'Don't flatter yourself love, I do not weep over women.' Gene said.
Alex rolled her eyes, 'Look Gene, we both know how we feel. All I'm saying is let's get it out in the open instead of stepping around each other like feckless teenagers- it's just lust for heaven's sake! A couple of bunk ups and we'll get it right out of our systems.' she was quite pleased with herself when she saw the amazed expression on his face. She knew she had to tell him the truth one day, but she had a great sense of foreboding about it and didn't want it to be before they'd had a liaison. If only she could know what he was like in bed things would be easier, she was sure she'd be disappointed, and then she'd have no scruples about telling him, shoving the unbelievable truth right in his face. Walking away from him and knowing she was missing nothing
