Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

The Gazette Office – Frinton-on-Sea

Barney heard the street door open and close again, followed by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. There was a pause as whoever it was stopped to read the sign at the top of the stairs.

Barney wasn’t expecting anyone. Not since Gabriel had left his employ two weeks ago. He very much missed having the lad about. He was a bright kid ... would have made a bloody good journalist. That story he developed, the one arising from the interview with the old guy at the care home... well, that was a cracker. Maybe one of the best that Barney had ever published. He had felt very proud of Gabriel. Maybe as proud as if Gabriel was his own son.

Barney rubbed the sleeve of his jumper over his eyes. They suddenly felt very scratchy.

The office door opened. Very slowly. Very cautiously. Obviously, whoever it was had never been to his office before.

“Hello ... can I help?” Barney said to the half-opened door, pushing himself up out of his chair.

As if a decision had suddenly been made, the office door was suddenly swung back. Swung back hard. It thumped against a cardboard box full of old copies of the Gazette. A woman, maybe fifty years old, entered the room almost at a run. Her eyes were darting around the room. She was obviously looking for something, someone.

“Is there ...?” Barney asked. Her entrance had seemed to almost physically push him back into his chair. He was feeling very nervous and somehow vulnerable. It wasn’t like she was a big woman. She was maybe five feet three inches tall, slim build, with long, very dark hair. It seemed to have an almost luminous black sheen to it. She was wearing a long beige gaberdine coat, with a white scarf. The scarf seemed to make her hair look even darker. Not a large, physically imposing presence, but her manner, the anger in her face. She was clearly furious about something.

Barney waited to see what happened next.

“Where is he, the little shit?” she snarled at Barney.

“Erm ...,” Barney said.

Barney normally prided himself on his capacity for quick-thinking. It was pretty much a necessity for someone in his line of work. But ... he had absolutely no idea what could have arisen to cause this confrontation. He guessed it was about Gabriel. He could imagine that, maybe, if this woman’s daughter had just come home and told her that she was pregnant ... but he couldn’t imagine it with Gabriel. Barney was pretty sure that the young girl, Ginny she was called, was Gabriel’s first girlfriend. And Gabriel had only known her for a few weeks. Not long enough to ...

The woman looked scathingly at Barney, then stamped over to the door to the toilet. She grabbed the handle and swung the door back with all her strength.

“Careful,” said Barney. “It’s got weak hinges.”

He heard the door squeal and sag. He winced. He didn’t think that he would have the money to get someone to re-fit the door. Maybe Gabriel could have done it, if he was still ...

“I know he works for you, you bastard” the woman said. “You’re probably all in it together. I’ve read about that. Grooming young girls.”

Barney looked at her, incredulous. He had initially wondered if it was Gabriel’s mother. Gabriel had said that his mum could be erratic ... prone to tantrums, but Barney really didn’t think that this woman could be her. Sadly, he didn’t think that Gabriel’s mum dressed as well as this lady who had stormed into his office.

“Then you make them too frightened to talk. Too frightened to tell their friends. Too scared to ...”

Barney made to get up out of his chair, but the woman started back, as if he was about to attack her. He sat back down. He held his hands out in front of him, palm upwards, the traditional sign of peace ... no weapons here.

“I really don’t know what this is about,” Barney said, striving to make his voice and manner exude a sense of calm.

The woman stood, watching Barney. She looked like she was waiting to see what he had to say.

“I’m guessing that you are here to see Gabriel,” he continued. “He works for me ... well, he used to anyway.”

“That’s the little bastard I’m looking for,” the woman said, as if she had been fully vindicated in her manner of entrance.

“I don’t know what the problem is,” Barney continued, “but I really don’t think that Gabriel would have caused trouble. He’s a gentle lad, and if it’s to do with Ginny...”

The woman seemed to recoil at the sound of the girl’s name.

“I would say ... I would say that he loves her dearly, and that he wouldn’t harm a hair on her head,” Barney said with feeling.

“Ok then ... so how do you explain ... she said he had frightened her.”

Barney couldn’t imagine how that could have happened.

“And I know how that feels,” the woman said.

Barney could see the anguish in her face, both from her own memories and, also, presumably, from her fear for Ginny, who she felt was facing the same situation.

“And I told her,” the woman continued, “I told her, don’t worry love. I told her. Look, I’ll be there for you. Night or day. Night or day.”

Barney nodded understandingly.

“And then she just texted the care home, saying she had to go away for a bit. No real explanation. She said sorry, but it was urgent, and she apologised for the short notice. And then nothing. And I wasn’t there for her. I said I would be, but I wasn’t there for her.”

The woman started to sob. She pulled a handkerchief from her coat pocket and began dabbing at her eyes. Her anger had seemed to have been replaced by a deep grief at her own incapacity to help her young friend.

Barney stood up. Very slowly. He turned and walked over to the little sink.

“I think I’ll just make a cup of tea,” he said. “I don’t make tea as well as Gabriel did. He made a very fine cup of tea. Just right it was.”

The woman watched Barney pick up the kettle and fill it. He switched it on. She heard it click.

“Why don’t you sit down over there?” Barney said, pointing at what had been Gabriel’s office chair.

The woman looked over in the direction that Barney was pointing.

“I’m Barney,” Barney said. “And you are …?”

“Monica,” the woman said, walking towards the chair. “I’m Monica. I worked with Ginny. I was ... I am her friend.”

Barney pulled two mugs off the shelf next to the sink. He could feel Monica’s eyes following his every move. He guessed she was looking for further evidence of his and Gabriel’s nefarious dealings.

“You said that Ginny was frightened about something?”

“She definitely said something had frightened her,” Monica affirmed, “but it was something about a watch. I don’t know what.”

She watched Barney making the tea. After some thought he had put one of the two mugs back onto the shelf. He selected a cup and saucer instead. He put the mug and the cup and saucer on an old tin tray. She could see that the tray had a picture of Clacton pier on it, probably dating back to the 50s.

He pulled open a desk drawer and leaned in, pulling out a packet of Digestive biscuits. There seemed to be maybe a half packet left. He put the half packet of biscuits onto the tin tray, standing it upright. Then, changing his mind, he took a small olive-green plate off the mug-shelf, and placed that on the tin tray. Then he lifted the plate up again and held it to the light. He carefully gave it a wipe with the sleeve of his jumper. Putting the plate back down, he shook a few biscuits onto the plate. He put the biscuit packet back into the drawer, closing the drawer slowly and quietly. She thought he was trying not to alarm her by any sudden movements or noises.

Monica watched the old guy as he tried his best to present her with a cup of tea. Some-how she couldn’t imagine him grooming young girls. She had seen (first-hand) malicious and manipulative guys ... guys who had wanted to control and hurt young women. She had been there. She had been hurt. She knew that those guys could charm the birds from the trees, but she reckoned she could identify that greasy veneer of charm these days. If you looked carefully enough, it always stood out. There was always that look, that sideways glance that they had. They were always checking to make sure that the appearance was being kept up. Kept up for everybody; not just the young girls, but for their parents, their teachers, for everybody. So always the slight sideway glance, just checking, too much at stake to let it slip.

But this guy, Barney, quietly making the tea, he just didn’t come across in that way.

He seemed ... well ... very sweet, really, in a very old-fashioned sort of way.

Barney dropped a tea bag into the mug, and then one into the cup. He poured in some boiling water, then swished the tea bags around a bit. Barney usually counted to 30. It wasn’t a science, but he thought that 30 seconds seemed about right for a nice strong cup of tea. He fished out the tea bags and popped them into the little bin next to the sink. Then he pulled the milk out from his little fridge and splashed some in each cup. Then he carried the tray over to where Monica was sitting and placed it on the desk. He carefully picked up the cup and saucer and placed it on the desk in front of her. Then he placed the small green plate within her reach.

“I hope that’s ok,” he said, but suddenly he looked alarmed.

“We ... I mean ... I ... I don’t have any sugar. It’s because, well, I’m trying to ... and Gabriel didn’t take sugar, and ...”

Monica found herself smiling.

“It’s ok, Barney,” she said. “Don’t worry. It looks a fine cup of tea. And a biscuit will be just nice with it.”

Barney looked up at her, looking very relieved. He saw her smiling at him. He thought she looked very pretty. Well, when she wasn’t being really really cross.