Transgressions by Ian Rankin (ed)

Author:Ian Rankin (ed) [Rankin, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: crime, mystery, suspense
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

YOU WILL BE WEARING GREEN by Daniel Bennett

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* * * *

Daniel Bennett was born in 1974. He studied at the University of East Anglia and the University of Colorado and now lives in South London with his wife and daughter. He has stories forthcoming in Black Static and his first novel, All the Dogs, will be published in 2007 by Tindal Street Press.

* * * *

A gang of teenagers sat laughing around a mobile phone on the 18:17 out of Victoria, but Derek tried to ignore them. He concentrated on his paper, reading the front page story about a body found in woodland on the outskirts of the city, a young female student who had been missing for over a week. Beyond the train window, the interior of the station drained away, soon replaced by the steel-crossed view over the Thames.

At Balham, the seat beside him was vacated, and a young woman sat down, brushing against Derek's leg as she moved past him. She was in her late twenties, a plain, ordinary looking woman with a narrow face, and a thin pointed nose turned up at the end. She sniffed constantly, and the nostril nearest to Derek was pink; she had a light cold. As she looked hopelessly through the contents of her bag for something to wipe her nose, Derek retrieved the pack of tissues he kept in his suit jacket pocket. He acted quickly, to ignore the growing feeling of doubt.

"Excuse me..."

The woman lifted her eyes. As Derek was about to continue, a man's sex cries cut into the quiet of the carriage. The teenagers cackled, turning up the volume on the mobile phone. For a second Derek and the woman stared at one another as the noise intensified, mixing commands and profanities. The woman looked away, and shifted slightly in her seat. Derek stared back down at the newspaper. The woman left at Streatham Hill. Derek carried on to West Norwood. The teenagers were still laughing when he left the train.

Recently, Derek's life had reached a state of crisis. A quiet, stolid man, he tended to occupy himself with whatever was placed in front of him, as long as what was placed in front of him was not human. Most of his relationships had been started by desperation or drunkenness; usually it was both. “We're moving in different directions,” his last girlfriend, Carol, had explained to him, a year before. “You want things ... I want things. They aren't the same things. I'll always think of you fondly.” It was clear that she had found someone else. Although the relationship had never been happy, the regular sex had been a welcome distraction. Now that it had gone ... it was a very frustrating time. There were ways of dealing with his situation—he had the internet, and full cable access—but these outlets seemed to make things worse. Eventually, he mentioned it to Sneddon.

They worked together in the complaints centre of a travel agents. It was a Friday afternoon.

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