Chase The Ace by Clare London

Author:Clare London
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781611243581
Publisher: Amber Quill Press, LLC
Published: 2013-01-04T14:27:32+00:00

Chapter 4

Alec's address took us back to London, to a housing estate around the back of Bethnal Green. Again, I hadn't been able to phone ahead because Mark didn't offer me the number. We parked in a car park with supervisor services. Neither of us wanted to admit we weren't sure about the safety of the car, but I knew we were both thinking it. We sat there for a while, as if gathering our courage.

"I never thought..." I began. I was starting to feel I'd never thought accurately about anything.

"That Alec would live somewhere like this?" Nick looked at me sympathetically. "It's as if you thought Mark wouldn't end up as well off as he is, nor Alec..."

"As poorly?" I sighed. "You're right. I can't seem to get anything straight."

"Tell me about Alec," Nick said. It was the same way we'd approached the previous visits, but this time I felt strangely apprehensive.

"He was a bit of an outsider. Actually, I'm not sure how he joined up with us but he became part of the group and we just accepted it. He could be very witty and he always had the best ideas for jokes and scams. It's just...his humour had a harsh edge. He wasn't sympathetic to anyone who was slower or less bright."

"Sorry to say it, but he sounds spiteful to me."

Nick was right. I was seeing it through an outsider's eyes now. "Mark had a healthy dose of fear of him, because he was usually the butt of the jokes. That just made Alec stick closer to him, of course, or that's what I always assumed. Funny Alec should have chosen Mark to keep in touch with."

"He's a good-looking man," Nick said. "Must have been cute as a boy."

"Mark?" I thought about my friend's pale blond hair, his rather feminine features. "I suppose so."

"What about Gerry?"

I grimaced. "Gerry liked challenging Alec, even if he usually came off worse. But then, Gerry always had enough nerve to laugh it off."

"And you?"

I tried to remember details. "He used to try and pair up with me when we were playing sport. He always had his own ideas and usually scorned other people's, but sometimes he'd listen to mine. Not without a sneer for show, of course." I caught Nick's gaze on me. "What?"

"Sounds like there was someone else he liked, too," he said, mischief in his eyes.

I laughed that off at once as the nonsense it was. "Let's go and see what kind of happy ending Alec's found, shall we?"

* * * *

The address led us to a flat on the fourteenth floor of a block. The walls and staircase were concrete, and although there wasn't too much graffiti, there was that cold smell to it like all industrial buildings, a combination of stale urine, cooked chips, and sweat. The door of number 1407 was opened by a young woman. She was dressed in jeans and a smart tailored shirt, her pale blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She was pretty and slim, with an almost boyish figure.

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