The Hunter by Nathan Burrows

Author:Nathan Burrows [Burrows, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-13T23:00:00+00:00

57

“Busy shift, Jennifer?” Naomi asked her sister as she walked into the lounge, easing her shoes off her feet as she did so.

“Bloody nightmare,” Jennifer replied. She sat down heavily in one of the armchairs before taking a deep breath through her nose. “Wow, something smells good.”

“Yeah, I just threw something together for us.” Naomi tried her best to look nonchalant. She wasn’t known for her culinary abilities. “Just need to throw some pasta in a pot. You want me to plate up when it’s ready?”

“Give us a minute. Glass of wine first, I think.”

“Coming up.”

Naomi got to her feet and padded into the kitchen, where a large iron dish full of beef bolognese in a ragu sauce was simmering on the stove. She walked past the stove, opened the fridge, and pulled out half a bottle of white wine, which she decanted into two glasses. Then she crossed to the recycling bin after rinsing the bottle and put the bottle into it, using it to bury the bag that the Deliveroo driver had brought the bolognese in. The aluminum tray that the actual food was in was already buried in Jennifer’s wheelie bin in front of the apartment.

“Here you go, mate,” Naomi said as she walked back into the lounge and handed Jennifer her glass. She sat down and folded her legs under her, waiting as Jennifer fiddled with the remote control to turn the television on.

“Mmm, cheers,” Jennifer murmured, sipping her drink.

“So, why was it a nightmare at work?”

“Just really busy.”

“Anything interesting.”

“Usual stuff. A selection of Norfolk’s finest parading through the door. There was a smash on the A47 but nothing serious, and a bloke found wandering around the countryside with a stab wound.”

“Really?” Naomi said, leaning forward. Although Norfolk wasn’t the sleepy backwater some people thought it was, things like that were rare. “What happened to him?”

“No idea,” Jennifer replied, navigating to the news channel. “Doesn’t speak a word of English. I did meet that copper friend of yours, though. Derek, is it?”

Naomi glanced at Jennifer over the top of her glass.

“You mean Dave? Big guy?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. He was trying to find an interpreter for the bloke, but he couldn’t even work out what language the man was speaking. Dopey git.”

“He’s not dopey,” Naomi said with a smile. “Did you talk to him?”

“Not really,” Jennifer replied. “I was getting an old boy ready for theater. He had a foreign object stuck.”

“Stuck where?”

“You don’t want to know.” Naomi could see the corners of Jennifer’s mouth twitching.

“What sort of foreign object?”

“Potato.”

“Stuck?”

“Very.” Jennifer started laughing. “Apparently, he was walking round the kitchen naked and slipped over. The Maris Piper was on the floor, and well, just went pop right in there.”

Naomi, who was about to take a sip of wine, burst out laughing and spilled some on her hand.

“Jennifer, that’s awful,” she said as she licked her fingers. “That so did not happen.”

“That so did happen,” Jennifer replied with a grin. “Okay, it wasn’t today, but that sort of thing happens more often than you think.

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