The Frighteners by Stephen Laws

Author:Stephen Laws [Laws, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BluA
Publisher: Bloodshot Books
Published: 2016-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The House on Lime Street breathed with a new life.

The drawing room where Eddie and Rennie had drunk wine and laughed about the old days, the place where they slept and where Rennie had come to believe at last that his friend was not, after all, turning into some kind of monster with monstrous powers . . . this was refitted first. Carpets were laid, the walls painted and papered, the ceilings cleaned, the bay window torched, stripped and revarnished. New paint, new life and new warmth. They continued to eat and sleep there — this time on deep and comfortable sofas. Lister, the old man, still slept wherever it was that he slept. And in the meantime, the craftsmen continued to refurbish the House.

Rennie watched the men work and fought down the urge to chat with them, simply to talk to them, to find out who they were and where they came from; which firms they represented. He felt an affinity with them, a sense of belonging that he’d not experienced for a long time. He was a garage mechanic, after all. He was a man who worked with his hands. Those hands, his skill — they had earned him a living before Eddie had foolishly become involved with the small wheels of Sheraton’s business empire. He longed to connect, longed to hear them talking about their jobs, their wives, their lovers, their kids. He longed to be a part of that machine again, longed to be part of that system. But of course, he could not talk to them; was forced to remain aloof and distant. Too much of a risk, too much chance of giving things away when he talked. Despite Eddie’s reassurances on the ability of the Frighteners to keep mouths shut, he was still wary of what he might say in an unguarded moment. So . . . he continued to watch them at work through windows and from safe distances. When one of the workmen’s cars broke down in the drive and he called several men to help fix it, that was the biggest trial of all for Rennie. Without thinking, he was almost out of the door and down the drive towards the car. He resisted, opened another bottle of Lister’s expensive plonk — a seemingly endless supply — and drank again.

Eddie was in control. Of that, Rennie had no doubt. But he was a quieter man now. “Things on my mind,” he once said to Rennie, when he commented on it. “Things to work out. Plans to make. Sometimes . . . my mind’s somewhere else. “

“In the city?” Rennie asked.

“Yeah. In the city. Like I said, Rennie. I don’t tell these things what to do . . .but I can be there somehow. I point them in the right direction. Eddie took a drink from Rennie, smiled, and said, “I’m getting bigger, Rennie. They’re getting more powerful as we get closer to wiping Sheraton out — and I’m getting Bigger.

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