Fracture by Adam Ryle

Author:Adam Ryle [Ryle, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, voyeurism, Crime, patricia highsmith, Suspense, ruth rendell, gay murder, thriller
Publisher: Mercurial Avenue
Published: 2013-08-23T22:00:00+00:00

34

Alek didn’t return from work until almost one o’clock in the morning. He most usually worked Saturday nights, though his hours seemed fairly flexible. There had been no problem with his going away last weekend, though Colin reminded himself that Alek must have set this up with his boss, as he was supposed to have been going away with Claire.

As he thought this, Colin felt a strange sense of vertigo, as though he was spinning forwards and down. He had forgotten all about Claire — as though she was a person who had never existed — and yet it had been little more than a week since her death, since she had fallen under the train.

He ate his breakfast on the terrace again, though it was early when he woke, closer to eight than nine, and he didn’t suppose Alek would be up, though he was definitely going to say something to Alek today — propose some sort of meeting or getting together — something in the way of a date.

At eleven thirty, Colin rang Alek’s doorbell. Alek opened the door dressed in a pair of shorts, though it wasn’t a pair that Colin could remember seeing previously. Alek’s chest was wet with perspiration.

“This heat!” Alek said.

Colin nodded.

“I say to you — my uncle — he can fix your air conditioner.”

Colin was pretty sure that he couldn’t, but he said, thinking as he spoke, “I’ve been thinking about it. I think I’ll put in a split system — one on your side and one on mine. A reverse cycle. It gets pretty cold here in the winter too.”

“Oh — you don’t have to do that. I am just angry.”

Colin frowned.

“My boss. He sack me last night. He tell me I am too slow. And this is after I stay back to clean the floors. Pshw!”

“What a bastard,” Colin said, wondering if that sounded appropriate.

“Yes. Indeed.”

They watched each other for a moment.

Colin began tentatively. “I wondered if you wanted to go to a movie.”

“A movie?”

“Yes. A film.”

“I can’t afford that. I can barely afford to eat.” Alek all but spat. He seemed to be angry with everything.

“I’ll pay for it — and it’ll get you out of the heat.”

Slowly, Alek nodded.

“And I’ll look into the split systems. Really.”

Alek nodded again, watching Colin closely. “You really are a nice man. You know what I have been thinking. I have been thinking, he was in the city, he was on a train, there is a photo that looks like him — maybe he pushes Claire.”

Colin swallowed heavily.

“But you couldn’t do that. You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

“No,” Colin said, and he shook his head slowly, trying to keep his eyes fixed on Alek’s. And then he saw it again — that look in Alek’s eyes — the dilation of his pupils.

Alek grinned. “Do you want to come in?”

Colin said sure, and walked into Alek’s living room, which was a bit of a mess, with a pizza box on the couch and a few unwashed glasses and plates sitting on side tables.

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