Daryl Bodle had a mission to fulfill 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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