Fast Fiction: In The Frame
"You must come round for a drink,'' said the woman while buying wine. And the owner of the off-licence decided to take her up on the offer. But what was the woman really after. Read Richard Mallinson's intriguing short story.
‘You must come round for a drink,’ the woman said while buying wine in my off-license and I said yes, I would like to do that.
She smiled and gave me her card.
‘I think she’s got her eye on you,’ said Amy, my assistant.
‘Of course she hasn’t.’
‘Oh yes she has.’
As there was no cause for undue delay I rang the woman a few evenings later and she said, ‘Come round now and you can meet my brother.’
I told Amy that she would be in charge for a few hours.
‘Do you think I’ll be able to cope?’ she asked.
‘Of course you will,’ I said, ‘you’re a very capable young woman.’
I was more of a father to her than her own had ever been, whoever he was.
The woman’s flat was minimally furnished. There were modern pictures on the walls and art books on a table. The lighting was discreet, faintly pink.
Soon we were sipping the above-average wine she’d bought from me. The brother was large, swarthy and shifty. He wanted to know about my off-license and the shops next to it and I told him because my mind was on the woman.
Then he left and she archly asked, ‘What do you think of my brother?’ and I said, ‘I’m not sure that he is your brother.’
We drank more wine and then went down on the carpet and afterwards she said, ‘I suppose you’ll be wanting more of this’ and she didn’t mean the wine.
Later at home I received a call from the police saying there had been a break-in at the jeweller’s next to my off-license and could I come round.
They showed me a photograph of a man and a woman and asked if I knew them and I said no I didn’t where was my assistant and could I go now and they said it’s prats like you that let criminals get away with murder.
‘Murder?’ I yelled, ‘what murder?’
Calm down, they said, it’s only a manner of speaking.
