EASYGOING BOY

 

Chapter 8

EASYGOING BOY

 

He was so fat that in order to get out of his car, he had to turn his body round. He walked like Humpty Dumpty. He worked on a television programme for children, where his rotund body was not a problem. He owed his immense popularity to his weight. He was called the ‘Easygoing Boy’. His wildest dream was to be an actor, but his physique was against that, so he went in for comedy shows. It didn’t take long for him to attract attention, and when he was contracted by a television company he had fun exaggerating his size. On television he dressed like a naughty boy: his trousers were of loud checks that didn’t reach his ankles, a jacket two sizes too small and a shirt to match - and the children just loved him, but their parents were indifferent. He got up to all kinds of naughtiness, typical of a boy between four and eleven years old. He spoke in the same kind of voice as his audience. He wasn’t happy, because he still wanted to be an actor, but the television company had tied him to a contract, and besides, being an actor he was forbidden to marry.

 

A few days later after their arrival back in the town, Briony and Alden were sitting in her car outside 14, Tower Street, where Jasper and Zoë had lived. Briony was convinced that the person that they saw leaving a luxury car, was the children’s television idol. They had gone there to see if Jasper’s name was still on the letter box. Briony went up to the doorman and asked if the famous Easygoing Boy was the one who had just gone up in the lift. Alden watched the lift indicator. Easygoing Boy had been living there since the previous summer. Alden asked about Jasper still living there, and they were told he had come for his things, left his keys at reception, and gone.

The telephone rang, and the doorman had to answer. Alden remembered that Hermione Yabra lived in the building, and her fur coat had been found in ‘Madame Antoinette’, where Zoë had got hers from. There had to be a connection somewhere. Briony and Alden were going up the staircase when they heard a door open and close. They stood still, and from where they were standing, they saw Easygoing Boy leave a flat and get into the lift. Alden insisted on paying a visit to Easygoing Boy’s flat as it was directly above Jasper and Zoë’s.

Easygoing’s flat was expensively furnished and smelled of money. Briony went into the bedroom and opened the cupboards, she called to Alden and he joined her. They discovered that Easygoing Boy was a woman - and not a man. The cupboards and drawers were full of expensive women’s clothes. The bathroom contained beauty products that were meant for women who had a sensitive skin.

They hadn’t heard the flat door open, and suddenly saw that Easygoing’s face no longer had its innocent and infantile gaze, and had adopted one of fear and desperation. In her right hand she held a gun pointing at Briony. Hermione told them that she hadn’t worked so hard to get fame and fortune to let two nosey-parkers destroy it. Briony asked her why she had sold the coat, and she answered that the shop assistant had said the labels would be removed. Briony told her how she had found the medal in the pocket.ermione Yabra    Hermione Yabra     

 Briony didn’t take her eyes off the gun, and Hermione knew she was trapped, and she reacted. As soon as her right hand moved, Briony jumped on her to get the gun. Hermione grabbed Briony by the hair and knocked her to the floor. Alden punched Hermione on the chin, and she fell back onto the floor. She said to Alden, “You’re no gentleman.”

Alden replied, “Neither are you!”

Briony picked up the gun and put it into her coat pocket.

Hermione pleaded with them to return the gun to her, but they refused. Briony asked Hermione if anyone at Rivermount had recognized her, and she said it was Doctor Star who had threatened her with going to the press, and telling them that she was really a woman, and not a man. Hermione had gone to Rivermount to help cure her psoriasis. She also told them that she had never seen the couple who had rented the flat below hers, and that Doctor Star had gone to the flat and removed the suitcases. Doctor Star had driven a maroon coloured car.

 

Briony and Alden left quickly, and got into her car, and drove back to the town.

 

Hermione wrote a letter to her fans. She then bathed, and dressed in a nightgown of silk and lace. She made up her face as her fans had never seen her, swallowed down all her sleeping pills, and then got into her bed for her final sleep.

 

In spite of everything that had taken place at 14, Tower Street, Alden and Briony were still far from solving the mystery about Jasper and Zoë. They weren’t quite sure who to look for. They both believed Jasper and Zoë were dead, and went to the building where Jasper had worked, just at the last moment before it closed. Jasper’s name was no longer on his office door, the name now read ‘Nathaniel Aspas’. The office was empty, and Alden went round opening and closing drawers and cupboards. There was no sign that Jasper had ever been there. Briony and Alden agreed that the search for Jasper would continue.

 

The newspapers and magazines had a field day with Easygoing Boy’s death and the letter. At the studios there was a meeting of the directors and in the future, anyone who was accepted to appear on television would have to pass through a medical examination. It was decided that Hermione’s remains should be incinerated quietly, and at the same time a replacement had to be found.

 

The next day the weather was good, but what cheered everyone up most were the patches of bright blue sky. The vicar was carrying Hermione’s ashes in an urn, and that was when the clouds began to cover the sky. Some mourners had taken a rose tree to plant. The vicar opened the urn to scatter the ashes around the base of the rose tree, when a strong gust of wind blew the ashes into the eyes of those present - even the vicar. They all had to clean their eyes with tissues. The wind didn’t stop blowing, and the ashes were flying in the air.

The small group didn’t hang about, and went back to town to a cocktail bar in order to warm themselves up, and drank to the memory of the deceased.

 

Briony was sitting on her sofa alone. Her sons were in their rooms studying, and she was trying to get on with a rug she had been making since before the visit of the police. Her telephone rang, and an unknown voice told her, if she wanted to know what had happened to Jasper Tello, she should meet him on the corner opposite her flat. Alden, who was at the dining table sorting out some papers, said they both ought to go.

 

The nocturnal wind was icy. Briony and Alden crossed over to the corner. Nobody was there except them. A voice from inside a dark car, asked Briony why she had Alden with her. She explained, and the voice said that if they wished to have more information then they should ask Doctor Landers, who worked with Doctor Quinn. Alden asked why they couldn’t see their informant’s face. The man removed the scarf that covered the lower part of his face. Alden felt embarrassed on seeing the mutilated face, and asked who had done it. The man said nothing, started up his car and drove off.

 

Back at the flat, Briony said to Alden that the man’s disfigured face had reminded her of Doctor Star’s.  Nora had told them that Doctor Landers had no outstanding features. It was then that Briony revealed she had seen an accident on the opposite side of the road just before picking up Alden, who didn’t think that it had anything to do with what they were involved in.

At lunchtime Briony was strolling round a department store when her neck was gripped. A voice said, “Don’t scream. It’s me.” It was the man in the car. “Tell your friend to go directly to Landers.” Briony tried to argue her way out, but the man insisted that she and Alden had to see Landers.

 

Briony was back at work, and John got her a coffee as soon as he saw how pale she looked. He told Briony she looked as if she had seen a ghost. John tried to get out of her, what her problem was, but she blamed it on the weather. Briony worked hard all that afternoon without taking any time off. She didn’t want to arouse John’s curiosity. Her work was enough to distract her from the scene in the department store. Briony had no wish to travel up north again in such a short time.

John offered to take her home and she was annoyed by his offer. Briony was going to meet up with Alden, and so far nobody at work knew anything about him. She preferred to keep her personal life under wraps for the moment. John said goodbye at the door to the office building, and then she crossed the street and walked the rest of the way home. She saw John’s face reflected in a shop window behind her, but why should he follow her?

Alden was waiting for her in a bookshop, so Briony made a sign to show him she was being followed. Alden left the bookshop and walked away in the opposite direction.

John caught up with Briony and got her into a taxi, telling the driver to take her home.

Alden was at her house when she arrived, and she told him John was a work-mate, and although he was a good person he was rather tiresome. She then went on to tell him about her encounter with the man from the car, beside the department store. Briony told Alden she didn’t fancy going up north again, and that Doctor Star’s accident might be a warning to them.

 

The very next day all the local newspapers carried on their front pages how a flat at 14, Tower Street had been burgled. Easygoing Boy’s flat and the one below it had also been cleaned out. The doorman said it must have happened when he was away from his desk, others thought it might have been done by Easygoing’s fans.

 

They were in Alden’s car, starting out on another journey to the north. Briony was wrapped up in her dark coat, while Alden was wearing two thick sweaters to make driving easier for him. One of Alden’s aunts was staying with James and Michael. Both Alden and Briony felt excitement and fear at the same time. Grandfather said he would help them on the road to the motel. Briony’s sons rang the office to say she had been called away.

 

Everything was in place, and there were still no connections between Hermione, Star, Jasper, Donald, and Zoë.

 

Or were there?