Angel Of The Morning

Chapter 4 - The Fire

It had been six months since their last convesation. A text or two had only entailed in the time since. Anna's hair was peroxide blonde, and fell in lavish shining streaks across the front and sides of the collar of her smart tweed jacket.

'I tried to call a couple of times, is your phone on silent?'

Ava voguely remembered seeing the missed calls of a random number, and remembered she had not saved Anna's number to her latest device. All she could manage was the kip movement of an apology, and a distorted, awkward moment of unsteady eye contact.

Anna looked exhausted, as though the journey through York traffic had suddenly caught up to her. She unbuttoned her coat and hooked it against the back of the door. Flicking
her light hair from her jumper collar. It was long, and she had kept well groomed since their last meeting many months ago.

'Its only been a few days.' Ava assured her, but her voice was a low struggle of a convincement. 'Come and have a cup of tea.'

'Lets make it a wobbly one.' Anna laughed, following Ava into the kitchen. 'I went to your work place, its nice!' She exlaimed with widened impressed eyes,  'Peter told me you might be here, I hope you don't mind the sudden in burst.'

Ava hesitated, offering her friend a witty side stare as she filled the kettle. 'Please. Burst in all you want. Im just glad its you and not - ' Ava hesitated, her back and throat stiffening. There was a quick memory of the man who had operated on her, who had spoken to her briefly after offering a pleasant smile from accross the hospital room as her parents bickered loudly in the hallway.

Annas lips waveded open unsteadily as she took the tea, as though the words would fall fast from her lips, her eyes unfocused. 'I know, I fucking hate this story. I told you he was a weirdo at the time. The police are watching your back, right?'

'Yes of course they did.' They sat down in the kitchen at the bar. Avas hand shakily clasped a coffee as Anna threw the contents of her flask down her throat. 'There was CCTV footage of him going home with you. Have they shown you yet? It took us all ages to find it.'

Ava shook her head, feeling unnerved by the thought, yet entirely curious. 'I can't stop feeling paranoid. I even had a vivid dream that he was in bed with me last night. Then this morning -' she shook her head, staring at the spot where she had thought he'd put his hands on her and clasped her against the kitchen bar. 'I'm jumping at shadows. Now the police are saying he -'
But she couldn't pronounce the words from her lips. It was asthough her muscles wouldnt allow her to materialize them into truth. Nothing was a worse truth than knowing he had been operating on the very body part he'd obsessed over years later in the throws of naked intimacy.

'Ava, please, don't. This person has a track record for getting into the heads of his victims. He enjoys fear mongering. I'm sure it's the guy you went home with. Do you remember me telling you I thought he was weird, off?'

'He was.' Ava concurred, stroking Violets hair. Her daughter had just joined them and was wrapping her arms round Avas waist whilst she sat on the spinning stool. 'Strange, quiet men have always been my type. Especially when it comes in someone who looked the way he did. Everything about him was insane, off balance, and it worked.'

'Who's strange?' Violet asked, pulling her mother's cami top.

'An old friend of Anna's, who we don't speak to now. At least I hope not.'

'The tall man?' Violet asked, pointing to the TV in the other room where the cartoons had turned to the BBC news. There Manderlay was on the screen in his surgical uniform. The BBC broadcaster was clearly narrating a description of his profession and suspected crimes as CCTV footage was displayed on the screen.