Skullenia by Tony Lewis

Author:Tony Lewis [Lewis, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Creativia
Published: 2014-11-09T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

Jekyll was at a dead end. In fact the end that he was at was not only dead, it was in a wooden box six feet under the ground and starting to smell a bit funky.

He had spent the best part of a day and a half wandering the streets and back alleys of Fibula, trying to gather any information he could about Flange and his mysterious disappearance, but with no luck. Fed up and bored, he was currently sitting in a small café called The Open Wound, on the High Street, nursing his third cup of double strength espresso. The thick, muddy brown liquid was the only thing keeping him awake at the moment.

“Excuse me,” came a voice from behind him.

He turned in his seat and was confronted by a woman dressed in a grey suit. She looked to be in her early forties, had long blonde hair, dangly silver earrings and was wearing an understated amount of makeup. She was extremely attractive.

“Can I help you?” asked Jekyll as he stood up to offer her the chair opposite him.

She sat down and rested her hands, fingers interlocked, on the table.

“I think,” she said in a quiet voice, “that I may be able to help you. My name is Scorpio Bytheway.”

Jekyll held out a hand, which was accepted. Her skin was warm and soft and she smelled of long, country walks in the morning mist.

“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Bytheway. So, how are you going to help me?”

“I gather you’ve been asking around town about Mr. Flange.”

“Have I?”

“Yes. And you’re interested in why he seems to have gone missing.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. And part of the reason why you’re spending so much time in Fibula is that you don’t want any bother with a certain lady’s father.”

Jekyll sat up straight in his chair and pushed his back into it, as if trying to distance himself from this stranger without her realising that that was what he was doing.

“Alright. Exactly who are you and how do you know so much about me?”

She smiled serenely, but there was no threat there. It was what it was. A genuine smile. She seemed to on the level and, if he was honest with himself, he wasn’t getting any bad vibes from her despite his initial reservations.

“I work in the local library,” she said, “but in my spare time I practice fortune telling. Every now and again I get flashes on people. I was coming to see you anyway, but when we shook hands I got a hit on you.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve got next week’s lottery numbers to hand, have you, or know exactly which farming implement is going to do me in?”

She chuckled softly and indicated to the waitress that she wanted a cup of tea.

“No, I’m afraid not. I can’t control the flashes and they can be quite intermittent. But that’s not why I came to see you. Thank you.”

She spooned two mounds of sugar into her tea and gave it a vigorous stir before taking a sip.

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