Scene Twenty-Six

In the last week, Karen had taken the steps to move to humbler dwellings, and that alone had forced her to become more active and energetic. She'd said a sad goodbye to her nice luxury flat and packaged her belongings to find a home in a humbler Victorian terraced flat, which could be afforded now thatshe was down to state benefits. Her smart suits were hung up in her wardrobe and now she dressed in more functional jeans and trainers. When she had come down in the world, the financial crash wasn't as hard as she feared. The problem she now faced as each day crawled slowly and painfully by was the forthcoming trial. It had got to the point that all her energies were focused on the promise that Shirley had made on the phone to be ready for an exciting discovery. She jumped out of her skin when the knock on the door took place. As soon as she opened the stout, blue painted wooden door, she glanced anxiously at the expression on the other woman's face.

"You really have good news. I mean, come on, what is it? Do you want a cup of tea or whatever," gabbled Karen at express speed.

"This is good news, Karen. I think things are looking up but tea first. My throat's as dry as I don't know what."

Nervously, she clattered around in the cramped kitchen, which was beginning to make her feel that she had to keep her elbows in all the time. She produced a tea tray and sat it down on the coffee table

"I'm glad you've got a video player 'cos this is what it's all about," said the other woman smirking." Mind if I work it?"

"Be my guest," Karen offered, putting not only her life, her hopes but also her remote control in the other woman's hands.

She leaned back in her settee while the other woman slid the videotape into the slot and clicked it on. Instantly, the static nighttime view of an anonymous roadside came into view and the same drab image remained in front of their eyes. Karen became restless with nothing to show for the promise of the news that could change her life.

"Wait," the other woman sharply commanded.

An instant later, the familiar shape of her car rounded the corner and Shirley froze the image, mid turn.

"You look at that and check out the driver. You see that the person has long hair and the features don't look a million miles different from yours."

"She's even got my favourite blue coat, the one that went missing that night. This is weird."

This conveyed a surreal impression in Karen's mind as she could see the similarity. It was no wonder that the witnesses at the scene had picked her out. It had a confusing effect on her as if she'd been stalked by her Doppelganger.

"You just wait and see. Here's the good news coming up," answered Shirley in a gleeful tone of voice as she clicked on the pause button again.

The car whizzed past under the field of view of the camera and only the road remained in view. Suddenly, a shape scampered into view from bottom right, twisting himself round in full view before running away to the top left of the screen.

"Fenner," exclaimed Karen with a feeling of exaltation inside her.

"I thought I'd test you out, like a video identity parade. Just how sure are you that it's him?"

"Totally bloody sure. I lived with him for a while. I know him. It's even the way he bloody walks. So what do we do next?"

"There's the problem, Karen. In a court of law, it could be argued that you think it's him because you've got every motive to want it to be him. A barrister could tear this to shreds. It's not definite enough. That man could be anyone from Jim Fenner to Tony Blair."

"Didn't think the Prime Minister would be capable of murder. He was on TV once saying he's a pretty straight sort of guy," Karen found herself laughing.

"Let's keep to the point. This is okay for our point of view but we need more than this."

"Is there any way we could get this shot cleaned up enough to make it more positive and get some sort of analysis done to prove a match?"

"Have you got an old photo of him?"

"I've always found him camera shy. He didn't mind taking sort of candid shots of me when we took a foreign holiday together. If I had any photos of him, I'd have ripped them up anyway," came the gloomy response.

"It looks as if my particular skills are called for. We need bang up to date snaps and this is my meat and potatoes.

Suddenly, a charge of electricity had shot through Karen's system. She knew what she had to do. She owed it to herself.

"Shirley, I want to do this one myself. I'll take a camera and photograph him on his lunch break. He's a creature of habit, same break every time. It's this way. Ever since I was railroaded out of Larkhall, I've been sitting around, doing sod all while you, Nikki, Helen and everyone else have been running around after me. I'm drinking too much, slobbing around the flat and getting stir crazy with nothing to do. This job will psych me up nicely for the trial coming up. It will do me good and I can give positive evidence that it was me, myself, who took the photos which puts this bastard in the frame for murdering that poor man whose only 'offence' was being at the wrong place at the wrong time. You see that I simply have to do it."

Shirley looked at the other woman for a long time. A completely different woman to the one she was used to was appearing before her eyes, sharp witted and decisive. She could relate to the idea of doing this as therapy. Her experience of the women relating to the trial was that they were reliable. Slowly, she nodded agreement.

"Okay, I'll leave it up to you. You get the photos and turn them over to me. I'd better let George know."

The recent discovery had a revitalizing effect on Karen. She was awake early the next day without the alarm clock and was soon out of bed. Humming to herself, she took a leisurely shower and put on a clean pair of denim jeans, crisp shirt and a smart brown leather jacket. She thought to herself ruefully that Grayling was right about keeping fit without a car. She'd learned to bus it around London on the occasions she went out and she'd done more walking than she'd done for years. She took her place upstairs and looked down on the streets of London with satisfaction, feeling an Olympian perspective that she'd not felt for months, either feeling a totally useless member of society or else ground down by the rigours of her job. Soon, the bus took her to the destination she'd carefully worked out and skipped daintily off the bus with a smile at the driver for free.

She paced the way, she had once driven every day and walked up the narrow approach road and the forbidding vision of the grey stones came into sight. It struck her that she's seen the place so often that familiarity had bred dullness of perception, if not contempt. It was utterly fresh to her eyes. With a pang, she looked at the rows of cars parked and the place where she had parked her car was occupied by Di Barker's green saloon. It had no right to be there, she thought but realized sadly that she'd passed on. She kept out of sight from the officer at the gate, as she did not want him to either recognize her or pretend that he hadn't.

The gentle autumn breeze blew gently at her hair and the time she was spending reminded her just how not having a job had affected her lifestyle. In former times, she'd have driven up to the place like clockwork and handed in her keys. This time, she took out her camera and held it at the ready. This was her job.

She checked her watch and it was only now she realized that Fenner might not be coming out but could easily be swilling back beer in the social club. This was a crazy expedition, she thought to herself and was starting to have second thoughts as she leant against a wall while minutes past. She ought to have left this sort of thing to Shirley. A comforting thought struck her and she smiled ironically to herself. She realized that she was counting on Di Barker's obsessive, possessive nature to want to drag him out at lunchtime. Suddenly, two familiar figures appeared and Karen at once had Fenner in her sights, aimed the viewfinder at him and started clicking away even though he and Di Barker were some distance away.

"Karen," Fenner called out in pretended puzzlement.

"Never know when you're on camera, Jim. They're all over the place, even down by the canal where you dumped my car," Karen retorted, feeling all the confidence in the world as she saw a mixed expression of anger and fear spread across his face.

"What's going on?" demanded Di querulously.

"What's happened to your face?"

"I suppose those two bitches, Stewart and Wade have got you to harass me. You want to watch what you're doing."

"I'm here on my own account." Karen threw back as Fenner stalked closer to him and his facial expression was clear to see. She hadn't the faintest idea what the man was blathering about, but made a mental note to check this out with her two friends.

"That's a good one. Really shows the panic in your eyes. You never know if your past is going to catch up with you."

Fenner gave one last glare, turned on his heel and stalked back to the car while Di Barker hustled him into the car. Karen turned around, feeling an enormous sense of satisfaction with herself and she made off in the opposite direction. She was slightly puzzled by the angry grazes on the man's face and hoped that they wouldn't spoil the photo match.

"Jim, get in the car. She's gone," Di Barker commanded.

"What the hell was she doing back again?" he answered, feeling for his diazepam tablets that Dr Nicholson had prescribed him.

"I don't know. Causing trouble again," grumbled Di. She drove the pair of them away from this disturbing situation.

********

Helen and Nikki had only just got home when the phone rang. Automatically, Helen prepared herself to deal with the usual cold caller with the latest sales hype and so she answered in a very businesslike tone, indicating that she would be no pushover.

"Karen, how nice to hear from you," she exclaimed in a much warmer tone of voice.

"This may sound a peculiar question, Helen, but have you had any contact with, dare I say it, Fenner recently. I recently took a load of photos of him to do with the court case and, besides the usual unfriendly greeting, he looked as if he'd been in a fight recently and accused you two of setting me on him."

"That's easily explained, Karen. Somehow, he'd been tipped off that we were on his case so he broke into our flat late one night only he picked the one night we'd been putting up a very dear friend of us, a high court judge. He very gallantly came to our rescue, seeing as we were only dressed in nighties and Fenner easily came out worst. The grazes must have come about after John threw the bastard out onto the pavement. I suppose in his usual paranoid way, Fenner thought we'd been conspiring together."

"Thank heavens you were both unharmed," Karen said with deep feeling. The last thing she wanted was that they'd come to harm over her troubles. "What you said explains his weird behaviour today. High court judge, eh? It sounds like you're going up in the world, with the company you keep. I'd better tell Claire about all this," Karen continued, feeling good in herself that she was taking everything in her stride. Her day's activity had given her a taste of the normality that she'd once known

"Not forgetting Claire and a couple of barristers," Helen retorted teasingly while Karen smiled with warm appreciation of their friendship. Today was one of her better days, she reflected, as she cheerily carried on the conversation.