Looking for Walter Newhouse Chapter Two
Instead of catching the bus back into the city centre, I decided to walk. Seemed to me the stink of vomit and shit and piss was clinging to my clothes and hopefully a walk in the evening air would freshen me up a little. Of course, Derek pleaded with me to hang back and help him with Johnny, but I’d had enough by then. Derek had got himself into this mess, and if Frank wanted to hang around and help sort it out, well that was up to Frank.
Me? I was out of there.
I was about halfway back into the city when I saw a telephone box. I thought about calling Cora. She’d be back home by now and I had change in my pocket for the call, but still I hung back. What if Walter answered? What would I say?
I decided it was worth the risk. I could just hang up if need be.
I dialled her number and listened to the telephone ring on the other end. I was about ready to hang up when the phone was picked up and Cora’s breathy voice filtered down the line.
‘Hello? Ray, is that you?’
The pips started blaring in my ear, and I shoved a couple of coins in the box to make them stop.
‘Cora, how did you know it was me?’
‘Walter, he’s gone.’
‘Yeah? Gone where?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘How long for?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘When’s he coming back?’
‘I don’t know.’
This was getting me nowhere fast. For a moment there I was stuck for something else to say, but Cora rescued me from that dilemma by speaking first.
‘He never came back out from the back of the pub to meet me. He’s disappeared.’
I thought about asking where to, but caught myself in time and gave myself a mental kick.
‘Bill gave me a lift home, I thought Walter might be drunk, and he’d forgotten I was with him and had come home too.’
Cora was forgetting that she’d been with me, not her mousy husband, but right now didn’t seem to be the best time to remind her about that.
‘You want me to come over?’ I said.
‘Yes, yes, I do. Would you do that, Ray? For me?’
‘Of course I will.’
We said our goodbyes, and I hung up.
I scooted into town as fast as my feet could carry me and hoped that the faint smell of vomit was nothing more than my imagination.
