Page 96 of Not That Impossible

It wasn’t all that interesting. It was probably more exciting inside the house. Out here, it was mostly vehicles and random people milling about.

I got a few shots of the ambulance, some of the police cars cluttering up Ray’s drive, the police tape, a couple of some officers, and a few of Liam. One of those showed him looking my way very suspiciously, but he didn’t come over.

Once I had plenty of photos to choose from, I opened up my notes app. Typing slowly, I began to jot down an outline.

My preference, obviously, was to work on my MacBook, but I was determined to stay on scene as long as I could stand to type on my phone, in case something happened. Another body. A wild confession from Ray. The discovery of a secret cellar with a human-sized dehydrator and a multi-pack of storage tubs ready and waiting. Who knew?

After a few minutes, Mrs Hughes came out. She told me to get off the ground or I’d get haemorrhoids, and brought me one of her lawn chairs to sit in. I was comfortably reclining in her drive with Dougal on my lap and a good number of bullet points and paragraph fragments written when there was some activity at Ray’s front door.

It was Ray again, being escorted by Liam.

Ray paused on the doorstep and looked up at Liam. He wasn’t as pale and shaken as earlier. In fact, he seemed downright irritated. He was arguing with Liam the whole time Liam walked him firmly down the drive and to Liam’s car.

I swiped out of my notes app and toggled to the camera.

“Stay cool, Dougal,” I said. “Don’t draw any attention.”

I angled the camera until I had Ray in frame and, feeling oddly guilty, snapped a few shots. Ooh. That last one was gold. Liam had popped open the back door of his car, set his hand on top of Ray’s head, and guided him in. It looked like he was being arrested. Perhaps he was! I got a full burst of that little sequence.

I got a few more of Ray fuming out the side window while Liam talked to DS Patel and another officer before getting in the car himself and driving off.

I decided to head out as well. I lifted Dougal up off my lap, tucked him under my arm, and carted him to the front door.

“Thanks for the chair, Mrs Hughes,” I said when she answered my knock. I handed Dougal over. He was a solid boy, and she sagged at his weight. “Shall I run it around to the back for you?”

“If you would, Jasper,” she said. “Get anything good for your article?”

“Oh, yes.” I waved my phone at her. “I’ve got lots of material.” It was mostly speculation, but therewaslots of it.

“I look forward to reading it in the paper tomorrow.”

For some reason that made me break out in a light sweat. “Thanks!” I said brightly. “Speaking of, I’d better be off to write it.”

“If this happens again, you have blanket permission to hop the fence.”

If it happens again? I carried the chair back to her patio, crossed the lawn and jumped the back fence. I paused on the other side to make a quick note on my phone—are there more bodies???—before jogging to my car.

The traffic gods smiled upon me. I made it through town without hitting a single red light, dumped the car, ran into the house, and was at my desk within fifteen minutes of leaving the scene.

My notes app was synced and it was all there waiting for me.

I copied and pasted it into Word.

It was now two o’clock. Great. I hadsomuch time. Two whole hours. I bet it would only take me half an hour to get it written. I’d choose a couple of photos, run a spellcheck, and send it over well before the deadline.

* * *

Two hours later,I was sweating and breathing hard, folded at the waist with my forehead on the desk.

So.

Didn’t take me half an hour.

I rolled my head sideways and checked my watch. It was twenty minutes past three.

My crisis of confidence had kicked in at three o’clock, when the outline that had seemed clear and strong back at Ray’s had failed to coalesce into anything coherent.

This was worse than the first article. I wasn’t even starting from a blank page!

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