بوی مرگ

CHAPTER FIVER

The smell of death

Driving back to the house I began to think and hope that Linda was waiting for me. I could see the house when I turned into the road. The lights must still be on but now that it was daytime I couldn’t tell. I could see the empty space where I usually parked my car. I felt pleased that nobody else was there.

When I opened the door I called out Linda’s name. She wasn’t there, but there was a terrible smell. I thought the food that Linda had left in the fridge must be bad. I put it all into plastic bags and threw it outside. I poured the rest of the milk down the sink. Then I opened all the downstairs windows. The smell was less but it was still there.

The village policeman arrived a few minutes later. I was pleased to see him.

‘Come in. You must be PC Grant. I can’t give you a cup of coffee, I’m afraid. Unless you take it black. The milk’s gone bad.’ He looked at me and smiled.

‘That’s all right, I’ve just had one. I thought I could smell something.’

‘Oh dear. I’ll have to clean the fridge,’ I said. PC Grant sat down on the sofa and I sat on a chair. There was a photograph of Linda and me on a small table beside the sofa. It was taken soon after we were married. We both looked so happy. Now it made me want to cry.

But I wasn’t going to do that in front of a policeman. He picked the photograph up.

‘So this is Mrs Anderson,’ PC Grant said.

‘Yes. It was taken about five years ago. She’s very beautiful, isn’t she?’

‘Yes, sir. She’s a very pretty woman. Now what makes you think she may be in some kind of trouble?’

I told him everything that had happened and I showed him the shoes. The shoe that had been in the sea was dry now, but it looked darker than the other one. He seemed quite interested in the shoes.

‘This one smells a bit like fish. It’s been in the sea, you say?’ He put the shoes down again. ‘And you say they are your wife’s shoes?’

‘They could be,’ I said. ‘They’re her size. She takes a size four shoe. That’s quite small.’

‘And you’re sure these are Mrs Anderson’s shoes,’ the policeman asked.

‘Um, no, but she wears shoes like this,’ I said. I could see he was losing interest.

‘Well, Mr Anderson. You say your wife was going to a party in London last night and you’ve phoned her and she’s not at home. I think she may be on her way then, don’t you?’ He smiled kindly at me.

‘And as for young Tom Parker. I’ve known him for a long time. He may not live like the rest of us but I’m sure he wouldn’t hurt anybody. He lost his father, you know. He thinks his father will come back if he waits long enough. Very sad.’ PC Grant stood up to leave.

‘I know about that,’ I said, ‘but I’m sure he’s been in this house. Last night he was outside in his car when I got back from the pub. And all the lights were on inside the house.’ I hoped this would make him do something.

‘Ah, now that’s not right,’ said the policeman. ‘It was Tom’s house a few years back, but he mustn’t do things like that. I’ll speak to him. Make sure you keep the house locked, sir. All right? Now I must go.’ He walked to the door. ‘I’ll take this photograph of your wife, if that’s all right with you.’

I agreed and he put the photograph in his pocket. I knew it was no good trying to make him understand. I watched PC Grant get on his bicycle and go down the road.

I sat down and thought about what I could do. I could phone Linda’s parents and see if they knew anything. If Linda had decided to do something different, go away with Melissa, they would probably know. I didn’t want to call them, however, because then they would know there was a problem between Linda and me. Perhaps the policeman was right and Linda was on her way here.

I could go to the station again and phone Melissa from there, I thought. If she wasn’t there I’d then call her parents. I decided to do that, but first I needed a bath and clean clothes - I had been wearing the same clothes since leaving London.

I went into the kitchen and cleaned the fridge and the floor. The floor was very dirty. That wasn’t like Linda. She hated dirt. I went upstairs to start the bath. The smell seemed stronger upstairs. I went in the bathroom and turned on the taps. I looked in the mirror. I looked tired. The smell was stronger than ever. I opened the bathroom window.

Then I went into our bedroom. The terrible smell of death hit me in the face. I looked at the bed. The blankets were pulled up over the pillow. There was blood on the blankets. There was somebody in the bed! It didn’t move or even breathe. It must be dead, I thought. I felt my heart beating hard. I couldn’t breathe properly. For a few moments I stood by the door. I could not move. I was very scared. Then, slowly, I walked over to the bed. I knew I had to pull back the blankets and look at what was there.

In my head I saw the beautiful, white body of my wife lying there. Her eyes were open and there was a sad, sweet smile on her lips. But she was dead. She’d left me and I would never know why…

I had to do it. I had to look. I pulled back the blankets quickly with my eyes closed. The smell was terrible. I opened them and looked down. For a second I thought I was looking at the bloody body of my wife. Then I saw it was the grey and bloody head of a very big fish. I felt sick and happy at the same time. Then I started to cry. The whole thing was too much for me. I threw the blankets over the fish head and ran down the stairs. I ran into the garden and was sick.

‘This isn’t real,’ I thought. I was going mad. I was shaking and crying, but I got in my car and drove to the pub. The door of the pub was open and Mary came out. I got out of the car and walked towards her.

‘What is it? What’s wrong,’ she asked. She got to me as I fell to the ground. The next thing I knew some men were carrying me into the pub. They laid me down on the sofa. Mary was standing looking at me and telling the men to call a doctor. She looked very worried.

‘No,’ I said, ‘Don’t call a doctor. There’s something in my bed. Someone has put a fish head in my bed. I thought it was Linda!’ I put my head in my hands. ‘How could they, how could they?’ My whole body was shaking and I began to laugh and cry at the same time. What a terrible, terrible joke, I thought.

Mary went over to the phone. I heard her calling for a doctor. Then she phoned the police.