Daryl Bodle had a
mission to fulfil, but it was a clandestine affair that could only be
undertaken in the early hours of the morning.
This in itself was not
an issue for him as he was a nurse, so he was used to late night activity.
He arrived home from
work just after 9 o’clock, showered and changed and then ate supper of cheese
and biscuits following which he fell asleep during Match of the Day.
The alarm on his phone woke him up at 2.45am, so he stretched and got up
from his chair, went for a pee and set off.
His destination was
the Funny Bones comedy club in Childean and his target was Sarah Hanratty, who
was also a night owl as she was the owner and manager.
Sarah was a very stern
looking young woman with short brown hair with gold framed spectacle’s which she
liked to peer over the top of and because she rarely smiled she was considered
to be a joyless person, and as her habit was to dress in black she was known as
the
“The Wicked Witch of
the West”.
Some people considered
it a little ironic that a sour faced old spinster should own and manage a
comedy club.
But it was only the
people who didn’t really know her who called her derogatory names and thought
her sour faced and joyless.
He drove into the car
park and walked round the back of the
building to Ms. Hanratty’s office and he looked through the barred window and saw
her sitting at her desk with her back to the glass.
She was counting the night’s takings and he smiled to himself as he
thought how much she looked like Scrooge in his counting house.
It would have been a good night, being Saturday night and Christmas Eve.
On previous visits he had let himself in the staff entrance however since
they had a break in at Halloween they had tightened up on security and now
employed a biometric system requiring the staff member’s thumbprint so on that
occasion as he was expected he just tapped on her barred office window.
Despite the fact that his visit was not a surprise he nonetheless
startled her because she almost jumped out of her chair, which she then swung
around so she could check out the source of the tapping.
When she saw it was him her stern face relaxed into a smile and she began
to fuss with her hair.
Daryl pointed in the direction of the staff entrance and she nodded her
understanding.
As he stood outside the door he looked through the small glass panel as Sarah
appeared in the corridor and she clearly wasn’t aware he could see her, because
she began straightening her clothes and when she was about ten yards from the
door she hitched up her skirt and adjusted her stocking tops.
He stepped away from the door as she opened it and once inside he said
“Happy Christmas Miss Hanratty, how are you?”
“All the better now that you’re here” she said and stood on tiptoe to
kiss him
“Are you done?” he asked
“I am, I just need to put the cash in the safe” she replied “and then we
can go home”
“I like the sound of that” he said and kissed her
Ten minutes later after locking the takings in the safe and setting the alarm they drove to Shallowfield and spent their first Christmas together.
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