A Dog's Life by Alp Mortal

Author:Alp Mortal [Mortal, Alp]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Carter Seagrove Project LLC
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five – Actions and reactions

I hadn’t had a call or a text from Martin by the time I got back to the flat and assumed it meant that he either didn’t know yet or was contemplating his reaction. Whilst matters were still fresh in my mind, I wrote them all down and put the two handwritten foolscap pages in an envelope to lodge with my solicitor; should it be necessary to recall the details at a later date.

By ten on Sunday I had a text from Stephen.

“I declined; Freddy got ugly. Need a bolthole whilst he calms down ...”

“Text me your flight details and I’ll have you picked up.”

“Thank you; details to follow. I’m en route to the airport now.”

Ominous silence from Martin but perhaps not unexpected; did I really think he would apologise?

I waited for Stephen to text me the details of his flight and ordered a car to pick him up. Sleep was the furthest thing from my mind despite not having had any for over twenty-four hours so I unpacked and made up the guest room. Two hours later Stephen arrived.

“Thank you so much,” he said as he literally threw himself in the flat.

“Relax; crash if you need to; I certainly will be soon.”

“Your text came just in the nick of time.”

“I still can’t believe it. Martin knew and chose to say nothing; Jonathan was incredibly blasé about it ...”

“Freddy spun me the yarn so I confronted him and then he got very angry. I couldn’t fly back to the States on a whim; I’m so grateful ...”

“Don’t mention it. Take a shower; I’ve made you up the guest bed in there,” gesturing to the second bedroom.

“Is this going to be ... inconvenient?”

Meaning, are there clients due?

“Not at all. If anything, it’s making me think very hard about the future and if it isn’t time for me to retire to the Cape Verde islands.”

“Please don’t vanish ...”

“I won’t; in any case, your pension is sorted ... no?”

“A bit tricky ... I was working exclusively for Freddy. He actually owes me a lot of money.”

“Well, don’t worry about that now; sleep. There’ll be time enough to address these issues later.”

“Thanks.”

He advanced for an embrace, a brotherly hug; which I didn’t mind as I needed one too. Who do you turn to when life deals you that card? We kissed very sweetly and I ushered him to the guest room.

“I’m going to bed; wake me if you need to but otherwise I’ll see you later.”

“Okay; thanks.”

I found it remarkably easy to sleep, dreaming for the first time in years; of picking ripe fruits in an orchard of all things.

I woke at around five and found the guest room door shut and assumed that Stephen was ‘sparko’. Martin was theoretically still in Nice and going to Argentina the following day. Freddy was already on his way to Grand Cayman, so our enemies were soon to be safely on the other side of the pond. Well, Martin wasn’t the enemy exactly but Freddy sounded like he could be.

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