The Holly Man

The Past Is Never Dead

Very few people emerged for breakfast the morning after the party, and Jon and Fern’s embarrassment at their indiscretions diverted any suspicions that may have otherwise arisen from Will’s unusual dancefloor activities with Amy. The Sunday was the day before Christmas Eve, and on a whim, they bought a much-reduced Christmas tree from a local garden centre when they were grabbing breakfast, infected by the excitement of the children queuing to meet Father Christmas. Amy chose tiny golden lights and baubles in rich greens, reds, and gold. They took it home and spent the afternoon decorating it while they sipped mulled wine in the darkening light of December. They sat back on the sofa surrounded by the smell of fresh pine and cinnamon, bathed in pure contentment.
Amy had turned down invitations for Christmas Day to Fern’s family and to Sally’s, telling a white lie about a relative back in Evesham. On the day itself, they exchanged presents. Amy had bought Will nine caret gold holly cufflinks in honour of the history between them, and he gifted her a dainty bracelet. They cooked a turkey dinner and talked about the future. Will revealed plans to take her to Paris in March, and they discussed quietly letting it be known they were a couple before they went, since taking the same holidays would inevitably cause gossip.
In the new year, they returned to work rested and replenished by the time away together. There were some small pieces of work on-going, but everyone was back in the office falling into a routine. Will had instructed Richard to start recruiting despite the lull in client work, shrugging off his operations director’s concern about adding costs when client revenue was trending down. He watched Raj like a hawk, making sure he had plenty of work to do and documenting any errors or failure to deliver on time in case he needed evidence for the future. Raj had adopted a strategy of completely ignoring Amy from a work perspective. Will’s heart burned with indignation at his rudeness when he pointedly excluded her in meetings, but Amy soothed him by her indifference to his slights.
On the day he would later remember as the moment it all started to unravel, Will was in the kitchen with Jon, Fern, and Amy making drinks mid-morning. He wouldn’t have admitted it, but he enjoyed listening to the office prattle, picking over the banter with Amy at home in front of the log burner. Fern was telling Amy about a fight she’d had with her boyfriend on Saturday night which had resulted in her having to make her own way home, sitting freezing outside a deserted bus stop, waiting for a rail replacement service. As he stirred his coffee, he listened as Amy wrinkled her forehead, “Fern you should be more careful. Haven’t you heard about those murders in Liverpool? They were all girls travelling alone late at night.” Fern rolled her eyes,
“Yeah, and some of them were on the game. And it's hundreds of miles away.”
“Even so,” Amy shook her head, “It doesn’t matter who they were, it’s still awful. Don’t put yourself in danger. You should have called a taxi and waited somewhere busy.”
“Yes Mum,” Fern retorted, and Amy rolled her eyes, passing Will the milk.
Later in the day, Amy was sitting at Will’s meeting table while they made their way through some of the current report they were writing. She periodically made notes in her notebook, and Will was enjoying the excuse to spend time in her easy company. Sally knocked and entered, flashing a smile at the girl at the laptop before approaching Will’s desk.
“Will, there’s a lady at the front desk asking if she can come through and see you. She said she’s an old friend, Frances Moore. Will’s body tensed, and he swallowed. Before he could answer, his head jerked towards Amy as she gathered the notebook on the keyboard of the open laptop.
“I’ll go and start making those amendments.” she said, “Just give me a shout when you want to carry on.” He wanted to tell her not to go, but he was grateful to put a distance between her and Frances. Before she could get up to leave, he realised it was too late, Frances was behind Sally, having brazenly made her way in without an invitation. His assistant jumped in surprise, and Frances let out a peal of laughter, her eyes landing on Amy,
“Oh, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to make you jump. I was just so eager to see this one. I just couldn’t wait.” She leaned across the desk as Sally left and dropped a kiss on Will’s cheek. “And who’s this?” Amy was almost at the door. Will came around the desk and held it open for her, “This is Amy. Amy, this is Frances, an old friend of mine.” He gave her a small smile, “We can catch up on the rest later if that’s okay.” With a nod, she was gone.
Will closed the door and turned back. Somehow, he always expected Frances to have her hair up as she did when he first met her, but her rich dark brown curls were hanging loose beyond her shoulders, framing her small face with its slightly angular chin. He inhaled, “Please, take a seat. Can I get you a drink? It’s been a while. What brings you my way Frances?” She gave him a dazzling smile,
“I know, my sweet boy; I’ve left it way too long. Why don’t we go out for lunch? It’s almost twelve.” Will winced at the long-forgotten term of endearment but nodded. He glanced out through the office’s glass walls, and looking back, he knew her sharp eyes had caught the direction of his gaze.
“Yes, of course, let me just grab my phone.”
They left the office, and he led them to a small cafe he knew a few streets away where he was pretty sure no one else would go. Few words had passed between them, but once they were settled and had ordered, Frances sat back with a satisfied air, “You look good Bill.” he cleared his throat,
“Thank you, but it’s Will, Bill died a long time ago.”
“Silly,” she said witj an indulgent smile, “you’ll always be Bill to me.”
“Why are you here Frances?” he huffed in irritation. The waitress arrived with tea and once she’d left, Frances swirled the spoon around the pot.
“Alright.” she said, her face losing its humour, “I have a little temporary situation, and I wondered if I could stay with you, just for a couple of nights until it’s resolved.”
“What sort of situation?” Will said.
“Well,” she sipped some tea, “I’ve been back in Birkenhead. By the way, your old house has been turned into flats.” Will shrugged, and she continued, “I left a little quickly, so I just need somewhere to stay, a little peace and quiet while I sort my next location out.” Will tried to school his face into neutrality to hide his inner dilemma over how to deal with her request. He took a calculated risk on Amy’s reaction.
“There’s a small flat I can offer you for a few days.”
“A flat?” Frances wrinkled her nose, “You have that big place! I can just stay with you, and we can catch up properly. It must have been what, almost twenty-five years.” Will narrowed his eyes,
“How do you know where I live?”
“Ahhh,” Frances said with a laugh, “all this modern technology has its benefits, Bi-sorry Will. I ran a search and then checked on the land registry.” Will was transported back over a hundred years and reminded of her sharp intelligence before supressing a shudder at how easily she used it to manipulate him back then. He decided he had no real option and sighed, “Fine, if you come back when the office closes at five, I’ll take you over there, but just a couple of days Frances, yes?”
“Of course. It’ll be so much fun catching up.” she squealed.
Will reached the lift, rubbing his forehead. As soon as he got into his office, he stopped by Amy’s desk, stung by a look in her eyes he’d never seen before.
“Amy, could you come through so we can carry on with the report?” She merely nodded, and Liz didn’t even lift her head up from the article she was reading while she ate her lunch. Will closed the glass door behind her, and Amy put the laptop on the desk so they could appear to be engrossed in a document while they talked.
“Amy, I’m sure you know who that is,” he said in a tone loaded with urgency. Amy didn’t answer, so he continued, “I haven’t seen her for more than twenty years, she’s had some kind of problem and needs somewhere to stay for a couple of days.” Amy nodded and he brushed her hand, careful not to let anyone but the two of them see, “She’s the person who turned me and I have a duty to help, as I’d hope she’d help me in a similar situation, but” he paused and looked into Amy’s blue green eyes, “Amy, I don’t trust her and I want to keep you away from her. Can you stay at the flat for a couple of days until she’s gone?” Amy nodded sadly,
“Yeah, I can do that.” Seeing her face, Will wanted to kiss her to hold her and tell her she had nothing to worry about, but conscious he couldn’t he whispered,
“Listen to me Amy. There are no romantic feelings or am attraction between us. I offered her the flat, but she wouldn’t consider it, and I didn’t want her to know anything about us because she’d cause mischief, maybe hang around longer, so I said she could stay at the house.”
“Okay,” Amy sighed, “I trust you Will, but I’ll need to grab some things from the house to take with me.”
“Go now.” he nodded, “I’ll say I’ve sent you home to work on the document. Try and hide everything in our room so she doesn’t find anything. I told her she couldn’t come over until I’ve finished here tonight.” She gave him a small smile, and he exhaled, “I’m sorry darling, I really am.”
                                ***
When she got to the house Amy went from room to room moving coats, shoes, anything that might give her presence in the house away and grabbed some essentials into the holdall she used to use to go back to the house in Evesham. When she pulled it from under the bed, she allowed a few tears to slide down her face. She’d smelt this woman as soon as she entered the office, a different scent to Will, but unlike anything you could buy in a shop. Even though it was true that she trusted Will, her logical mind told her that she was a secret to everyone in his life, and the fact that this now extended to his ex-girlfriend, who was actually staying in his home, suggested he had no intention of changing her status. She left as quickly as possible and returned to her former home, which was cold and slightly musty through lack of occupation.
***
It wasn’t quite five when Frances returned to the office. This time, Sally recognised her and insisted she wait in reception whilst she alerted Will to her arrival. Will could sense Sally was wary of this sharply featured woman from his past, and he tried to placate her by giving her a sheepish smile. By ten past five, he felt he couldn’t put it off any longer, and he left to find Frances in animated conversation with Raj. “There you are Will.” she exclaimed.
“Hey boss,” Raj said with a smirk, “Frances here was telling me how she’s known you for years. I never knew you were a closet scouser!” Will gave him a scowl,
“Yes,” he growled, “well that was a very brief moment in my life. Are you ready Frances?” He didn’t wait for an answer but moved to press the lift button, furious at his own folly, by leaving her free to access his staff. They entered through the sliding doors in silence, and once Raj had turned left to get to the station, Will pointed to the street ahead, “My car’s parked down there.What the hell did you tell him?”
“Relax,” she said, shaking her head, “I was only passing time because you were late. I didn’t tell him anything except you and I were housemates in Birkenhead.”
“Don’t tell anyone anything.” he grumbled.
The rest of the journey passed in silence, and when they reached the house, Will opened the door and showed her through to the hall. “This is quite lovely.” Frances said, looking around. Will nodded and led her through to the lounge.
“I’ll show to the guest room later, but first, tell me what this temporary situation is all about.” He sank onto one of the chairs and indicated the sofa.
“Oh, yes, that.” Frances said dismissively. Will narrowed his eyes, and she exhaled, “I’ve made a sort of miscalculation. You see, I met a man two years ago, Josh. I found him in the gym.” She grinned at the memory. ”He was my personal trainer.”
“And?” Will snorted
“It got to the point where we needed to take it to the next level, you know how it is.” She gave a sigh, “Anyway, when I turned him, let’s just say he wasn’t quite such a good student as you, didn’t seem to want to follow the rules. I struggled to get him to stop the first time I took him to feed, but I thought it was just the hunger and he’d learn.”
“What did he do?” Will asked, his hand gripping the edge of the cushion.
“I swear,” she said, leaning forwards, “I didn’t know until the night of the third murder. He was lurking around James Street station after his gym closed at ten. The first one was a girl walking back after meeting friends, but the next two were ladies of the night.”
Will put his head in his hands, “What did you do? Did you call the Herskers?”
“Sort of,” her voice rose an octave, “I was responsible for him, they’d probably have killed me as well as him, so I sent a message to the latest number from his phone, so they wouldn’t know it was me, and I ran.”
“He’ll tell them!” Will exclaimed, clutching his hair, “And the first place they’ll come looking is here. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Calm down” She came and sat on the arm next to him, “They must have dealt with Josh because after number four and five, it stopped. They won’t know I turned him. There’s plenty of others in the area. I just need a few days to sort out my new details, and I’ll be out of your hair.” Will shook off the hand she placed on his arm,
“You said two!” he snapped, “How could you be so stupid? You must have known some steroid filled thug was likely to have an issue with self-control?”
“Well,” she spat out, “turning boring men who try and live like an ordinary human wasn’t working out very well for me was it!”
“And yet here you are.” he said, jumping up. “I’m going to bed. The kitchen’s through there. Help yourself. My door is first along the landing. Take any other room except there. Two nights Frances, then I want you gone.”