The Grey Man (quick reads) Read online

  'Linda? Wasn't she the zitty one with greasy hair and Mr Magoo glasses?'

  Debs's friend was giggling now. Debs nudged her. Kevin did what he normally did at times like this. He just smiled. He didn't want to make a scene. 'Dunno… Anyway, she doesn't have spots or glasses or greasy hair now.'

  'I remember Linda.' Debs turned to her mate who was now munching a Mars bar. 'They were the school geeks, yeah? Ah. That's love for you.'

  Her mate swallowed and let out a high-pitched giggle.

  Debs liked that and carried on taking the piss. 'Hey, Kev. You should do something about your hair. That side-parting just isn't on. Come and see me and I'll bring you into the nineteen nineties at least.' They stood up for their stop. The Mars bar wrapper and crisps packet were stuffed down the back of the seat. 'See ya, Kev. Listen, maybe don't bother with the cut. I'm sure the lovely Linda likes you just as you are, but what about some gel?'

  Kevin heard more giggles as they disappeared down the stairs. No doubt Debs had made another joke about him. He should have said something back to her. But he hadn't been able to think of anything smart or witty. He was thirty this year, but it had been just like school. Some things never changed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Tesco was round the corner from Specsavers where Linda worked. She liked to meet him off the bus each night but as it was so cold and wet, Kevin had called her at lunchtime and said they would meet in the supermarket. They did their weekly shop on Friday nights.

  Linda took the car to work as Specsavers had free staff parking round the back. Since Kevin finished work an hour earlier than she did, he took the bus to her so they could drive home together. He could have taken the bus all the way, but their ten-year-old Fiesta was on its last legs. Sometimes he had to get under the bonnet before it would start. Anyway, he liked to chat to Linda as they drove home together or went round the supermarket.

  The next stop was his. As he got up, he spotted Linda in the doorway of the dry cleaner's. She looked lovely in her black coat, with her shoulder-length dark brown hair blowing across her face. So what if they had been geeks at school? They weren't now. Or, at least, Linda wasn't. He loved her, and always had, even at school. But he had been twenty before he had plucked up the courage to ask her out.

  Linda looked up and saw him. She waved and smiled, her cheeks pink with cold. Kevin felt so lucky to have her. He ran down the stairs, jumped off the bus and was in the doorway with her. They kissed and Linda opened her umbrella. The wind turned it inside out. Kevin helped her to put it right.

  'Why didn't you wait in Tesco's? Look at you, you're all wet.'

  They walked off arm in arm towards the supermarket.

  'I wanted to make sure you didn't get too wet. I thought I'd come to the rescue with what's left of my umbrella,' Linda told him. Like Kevin, she always made every effort to spend a few extra minutes with her other half. Kevin felt a surge of love for her. Neither of them had ever been out with anyone else. So what if other people thought they were geeks? So long as they had each other, it didn't matter. Occasionally, Kevin would lie in bed in the middle of the night and worry about what life would be like if she wasn't there. What if she left him? Or got ill and died? 'Come on. Let's get the shopping done and go home,' he said.

  As they walked up to Tesco, Kevin said, 'I just met Debs on the bus. From school, remember?'

  Of course Linda remembered. Debs had been the really pretty punk that all the boys fancied and all the girls had wanted to look like. 'You fancied her, didn't you?'

  'Nah, not really. Well, OK. Everyone did. Not that she would have looked at me.'

  'How is she? I never liked her.'

  Kevin kept it brief. He didn't say Debs had been taking the piss out of his haircut. And his wife. 'She seemed OK, I suppose. Now, what shall we get for tea?'

  CHAPTER SIX

  The rain bounced off the windows of Kevin and Linda's house. It was a two-up, two-down Victorian terrace, nicely decorated in B&Q paints and nicely furnished by Ikea. They liked their home. It was warm and safe.

  Kevin knew more about celebrity diets, liposuction and Oscar-night outfits than the average man should. Linda read gossip magazines. She always felt the need to share what she learned, so Kevin always knew what was hot and what was not. They finished off their microwave chicken dinner for two and cuddled up on the settee. Linda flicked through her latest magazine and Kevin picked up a holiday brochure. How could he tell her he still hadn't asked for the day off?

  'What do you think of this, Kev?' Linda flapped the page under his nose.

  'It's a woman in a long green dress.'

  'It's Halle Berry. I'd love to look like her. Isn't her dress beautiful?'

  'It's fine.'

  'It's a bit better than that, Kev.'

  'It's lovely, then.'

  'You'll never make a fashion reporter.'

  'And you'll never make a TV holiday presenter if you don't pick one out.' He bopped her on the head gently with the brochure. 'I'm wondering if we should look at your mum's caravan again. I know we really want Greece, but Southwold would be much cheaper. What do you think?'

  Linda turned a few pages of blue skies and sea. 'Greece looks fantastic. Do you really fancy the caravan?'

  'Not really. But there's the mortgage to pay, and that new car we keep talking about. Maybe we're pushing it this year.'

  'OK. I'll ask her on Friday.' She put down the brochure. 'Hey, you know what, Kev? Maybe you should rob a bank instead of working in one.'

  Kevin gave her a look that said, 'We never do bank-robbery jokes.'

  'I know, I know! Only joking. But I was thinking about old George Rowland and all that cash he's got tucked away.'

  'Don't you dare tell anyone I told you!' Kevin cut in. 'I'd lose my job!'

  'But if your bank got robbed and all those safe-deposit boxes were opened, he wouldn't be able to tell anyone he'd had all that cash stolen, would he? Serve him right.'

  She giggled.

  'Just think if we had his money, Kev. We could pay off the mortgage, buy the car and a place in the sun, pay for my mum's treatment. I could even buy Halle Berry's green dress.'

  'Yeah, yeah. Green dresses and tropical islands all round, eh?'

  'Can't really see you in a green dress, Kev, but, yep, you get the idea.'

  Kevin made a grab for her and started to tickle. She shrieked and tried to wriggle away. It turned into a hug.

  'Hey, Kev, you get Friday off?'

  'Not yet.'

  Linda sat up and looked disappointed.

  'I just didn't get the chance to ask him. I'll do it on Monday, first thing. Promise.'

  Linda sighed. She'd been through this one before. 'Kev, please talk to him. It would be great to have a long weekend. It is our anniversary, darling. You've got to stand up for yourself a bit. You're practically running that bank. The least Symington can do is give you a day off. Besides, you're entitled to it. You haven't had any holiday yet.'

  'I'll do it on Monday. I'm just not good at this sort of thing. He always reacts badly when people take single days off.'

  'I know. But that's his problem, not yours. Please, Kevin.'

  A silence followed and Kevin picked up the TV remote control. 'Come on,' he said. 'Give us a cuddle.'

  Linda curled up beside him and rested her head on his shoulder as Look East, the BBC local news sparked up on the screen. A perky TV presenter announced that the actress Jessica Drake had arrived in Ipswich today. She was in town for a week to play a cameo role in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan.

  Kevin and Linda watched Jessica step out of her car as two men held umbrellas over her. The theatre was just down the road from the bank. He must have missed all the fuss this afternoon, he thought. She was very tall, very blonde, and very beautiful. She towered above the theatre director as they posed for photographers. Her necklace glittered in the camera's flash.

  Kevin had never heard of Jessica Drake, but Linda had. 'Look! Isn't she stunning? And her nec
klace is amazing. You know all about the Augusta necklace, right?'

  Clearly, he had missed a few pages of gossip. He shook his head, and waited to be filled in.

  As Linda spoke her eyes never left the screen. 'The Augusta necklace is that string of pearls, with a sapphire and diamond clasp. See?' She pointed at the TV. 'You wear the clasp at the front. It's worth two million. I'd love to look like her.'

  'You wanted to look like Halle Berry a minute ago. Make your mind up.' But Kevin could see that Jessica was indeed stunning. Shoulder-length hair, blue eyes, bee-stung lips.

  'She's always so elegant. Imagine being able to wear a necklace like that. It was a present from her husband, Greg Drake, the film director.'

  Kevin had never heard of Greg Drake either, but Linda was now in full flow. 'They only found out the necklace was worth a fortune when they were getting divorced.' She paused for breath, and the TV report took over the story.

  Greg Drake had paid a thousand dollars for the necklace when he bought it from a jeweller in India. But during the messy divorce, it was valued at over two million pounds. Greg had wanted it back. He said it was an old family piece. But Jessica proved that he had given it to her when she turned thirty, and won.

  Linda couldn't take her eyes off the TV. 'You'd feel like a princess in it.'

  Kevin could see that the blue of the sapphire matched Jessica's eyes. Now, that's the kind of woman I should star with in my action movies, he thought. Pulp Fiction starring Jessica Drake and Kevin Dodds. He repeated it a couple of times in his head, but it didn't seem right. His name only worked with Linda's. Pulp Fiction starring Linda and Kevin Dodds. That was better.

  Anyway, he'd rather be with Linda than Jessica. You could have a laugh with Linda, and Jessica didn't look like she'd let her hair down in a hurry. Besides, he wasn't cut out to be a movie star. He was the kind of man nobody noticed much. He didn't know why Linda wanted him. He was a grey man.

  Kevin held Linda tighter as they lay on the settee and watched Jessica tell Look East how thrilled she was to be in Ipswich. 'Thought I'd finally put up those shelves for you tomorrow,' he said. 'Then I'll go into town and pick up a DVD.'

  Linda's eyes were still on Jessica. 'I've got Legs, Bums and Turns at eleven. Then I've got to pick up Mum's dry-cleaning, and drop it round hers. See you about one?'

  'You don't need to do that Bums and Turns thing.'

  'I do if I'm going to look like Halle Berry for our holiday.'

  'I like you looking like you do now.' He pulled her closer.

  'You're such a smoothie. I love you.'

  'Me too.'

  'You can say it, you know, it doesn't bite.'

  He smiled, but he didn't say it. He had no idea why he found it so hard to say those three words out loud. To him it sounded corny in the movies, and just as corny in real life. Anyway, Linda knew he loved her. He was just no good at love talk. He was better at showing it through his actions. Like putting up shelves.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Saturday, 4 February, 10.17 a.m.

  The rain had stopped overnight so at least Saturday shoppers didn't get wet as they went about the city centre. Kevin bit into a bacon sandwich, fresh from Bobby's Snacks on the market, and wiped a blob of tomato ketchup off his chin. Those shelves had looked dead easy to put up but it had taken him a couple of hours to get them level. Now, with Linda out of the way, he had a chance to buy her an anniversary present. He ate the rest of his sandwich and headed for the only jeweller he knew, Hearts on the high street. It was where he had bought Linda's wedding ring.

  He had a quick look in the window but nothing grabbed him, apart from his reflection. Was the hair gel he had slipped into the shopping trolley last night making him look cool or not? Today his hair had a seriously spiky thing going on.

  He went inside the shop, unsure of himself, and tried to avoid eye-contact with the two women behind the counter. He pretended to be interested in a display of men's watches with giant faces. Nothing for Linda there. He moved to a glass cabinet and couldn't believe his eyes. There, centre stage, was a beautiful pearl necklace. With a sapphire and diamond clasp.

  'The Augusta,' a voice said, so close to his ear that he jumped. 'Wonderful, isn't it?' The sales woman had come round to the front of the counter.

  'It's lovely.' Kevin pointed at it. 'Are they real?'

  'The pearls are cultured ones, which makes them cheaper. The jewels are glass, but good quality, as you can see. The actress Jessica Drake got her mitts on the real thing. Did you know she's in Ipswich for a play?'

  'I saw her on the news last night.'

  'Well, after everyone saw her wearing it for the first time, these necklaces became all the rage. It was a few years ago now, but the design is timeless.'

  It was stunning. Not that Kevin was a jewel expert, but he knew Linda would love it. He squinted at the tiny price tag. Five hundred and seventy pounds. He'd only saved two hundred and fifty. His hand shook a little as he reached for his wallet. He knew it was a dumb thing to do, but he'd put the rest on his card. It was just too good to miss. He imagined Linda beaming as she opened it.

  Common sense flew out of the window. 'I'll take it,' he whispered.

  Kevin's next stop was Marco's. 'Hi, Mark. I just want to confirm you've still got my table for next Saturday at—'

  Mark smiled and held up his hand. He didn't need to double-check his book. He had made the booking for Kevin last week when he had popped in, just as he had last year and all the years before that. Lovely couple. 'Anniversary time again, is it, Mr Dodds?'

  'Yes.'

  'You have a new hairstyle, I see.' Kevin waited to hear what Mark thought of it.

  'We'll look forward to seeing you both on Saturday, Mr Dodds.'

  'Me too.' Kevin turned to the door, then stopped. 'Maybe you could help me do something a little special this time, Mark…'

  Almost home. Just one last stop — Blockbuster — and then he was done for the day. Like some people can lose track of time reading, gardening or playing football, Kevin could spend all day in Blockbuster. Films were his passion. He liked to scan the shelves for hidden treasure. Something he might not have seen before, maybe an old black-and-white, an Italian thriller, or a cops-and-robbers B movie.

  Linda always went to bingo on a Saturday night to keep her mum company, and Kevin stayed in to watch DVDs. Apart from next week, of course, when Linda was going to bingo on Friday.

  Kevin looked along the shelves for old favourites, like they were long-lost friends. His finger hovered over Blackhawk Down. He must have seen it twenty times, but it was worth watching another twenty. He had learned quite a lot about life from watching films. The way he dealt with Symington came from an old black-and-white prison film. The prisoner had just smiled and taken whatever the guard threw at him so that the older men got beaten less often.

  He limited himself to one DVD a week, and choosing just one was part of the fun. You had to think about what mood you were in, what would satisfy you most on that particular night. Narrowing the choice gave the game an edge. Usually he plumped for an action film and today was no exception. His finger traced along the shelves. Maybe Pulp Fiction. Maybe The Bourne Identity. Or maybe Training Day. Or what about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Just the movie for when you were in the mood for a western, except he wasn't. No, let's save that. Hang on. Here was an old favourite. The Score, a bank-robbery film starring Robert de Niro.

  As he unlocked the front door, Linda came out of the kitchen. Her hair was freshly washed after her gym class and she looked good in jeans and a black polo-neck.

  'What's with the hair?'

  'Er, I gelled it.'

  'I can see that.'

  'Like it?'

  'Yeah, it's… well… it's fine.' They burst out laughing. 'Nah.' They shook their heads and laughed even more.

  Kevin leaped up the stairs. 'I'll go and wash it.'

  He laughed all the way to the bedroom, then pulled out a long black box from under
his jacket. Before he hid it behind the wardrobe, he couldn't resist taking a peep.

  The Augusta pearls gleamed up at him against the blue velvet lining. He snapped the box shut in case he gave it to her there and then. He buried the thought of next month's credit-card bill.

  'Be down in a minute!' he called.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Monday, 6 February, 10.24 a.m.

  Kevin gazed out of the bank's window at tall grey buildings with thick grey clouds pressing down on them. Not much going on out there. He looked back to the computer screen — also grey — and wondered how he would get through the next six hours.

  Symington had given him the cleaning bill for his suit and stuck him on the counter as Margaret was sick, but he'd been there for an hour and so far only two customers had come in. It wasn't his job to cover now that he'd been promoted. Gary and Alice were supposed to do that, but Symington put Kevin back at the counter whenever he could. It was one of his ways of keeping Kevin in his place. As always, Kevin smiled and got on with the job.

  Gary and Alice were behind him now, sitting at the main desk checking paperwork. They occasionally looked up from their print-outs to share a joke. Kevin tapped his pencil on the counter as if to magic a queue of people into the bank, but still no one came.

  Kevin could see Symington by the fax machine. A piece of paper was jammed in it — his boss was hopping from one foot to the other, opening and closing the lid.

  Now was Kevin's chance. He leaped up and dashed over. 'Something jammed, Mr Symington? Need a hand?'

  'Stupid machine isn't working. Every time I press start, three red lights flash on but nothing happens.'

  'Let's have a look.' Kevin lifted the lid and wiggled the piece of paper that was trapped inside. It came out easily. He reset the start button, inserted the fax and hit send. The machine started to dial.

  'Glad to see you've got a talent for something.'

  It was now or never. He'd promised Linda. 'Mr Symington, could I ask you something if you have a moment?'