Page 62 of A Face in the Crowd
‘Did you poison our dogs?’ Nick says.
‘What are you on about?’
Nick huffs out in annoyance and jabs his finger towards Mark, who slaps it away. Nick steps forward, chest puffed out, but Mark is a good six inches taller and it is clearly the wrong move. Mark shoves Nick hard in the shoulder and, possibly because Nick is off balance – but likely because of the difference in size – Nick stumbles backwards, clipping his heels together and faltering into the wall. I reach for his arm to help him up, but his pride’s been hurt more than his body and he shrugs me away.
Mark laughs. ‘Whatever you’ve got your thong in a twist for is nothing to do with me,’ he says.
Nick pulls himself up and straightens his top. His fists are balled.
‘Don’t,’ I say.
‘Yeah,don’t,’ Mark taunts.
I put myself in the middle of the two men and, though Nick only has eyes for Mark, he takes a small step backwards.
‘Listen to your little girlfriend,’ Mark adds, still laughing.
‘We don’t know it was him,’ I say quietly to Nick. He glances to me, but there’s something dangerous in his eyes. He’s always been the quiet bloke down the hall and I’ve never seen this side of him.
‘Run along,’ Mark says, shooing us away with his hand.
There’s a moment in which I think Nick is going to jump around me. His arms are tensed and there’s a vein in his neck that’s bulging.
‘Can we go?’ I say quietly.
It feels like an age, but slowly, almost imperceptibly, Nick’s shoulders drop. He steps backwards towards the stairs, which only makes Mark laugh more.
‘Is that it?’ he sneers.
Nick mercifully continues to move away, but it’s only when we’re a floor up that the sound of Mark’s door slamming echoes through the hall and I breathe a little more easily. When we get back to Nick’s apartment, the embarrassment has started to set in. He mumbles something about keeping an eye on Judge and then heads inside and closes the door.
I’m in the hallway by myself, not quite sure what to do. Perhaps it was Mark who left the meat down for the dogs? Perhaps the meat isn’t poisonous at all and there’s a misunderstanding? I don’t know any longer. Mark did tell me to ‘watch yourself’ after I asked him to turn the music down. He’s not a fan of dogs, plus, generally speaking, he’s a bit of an arsehole. There is a difference between being an arsehole and deliberately setting out to harm another creature, though.
I move back towards my own door, but as soon as I start to push it open, Elton John starts singing ‘Rocket Man’ from Jade’s old apartment. I stop and turn. It can’t be a coincidence. Not this time.
It’s only a step across the corridor and then I knock loudly on the door. I’m not certain, but it feels as if the music is turned up a little after I knock. I try to peer through the eyehole, but get no more luck than I did the last time. Pressing my ear to the door gives no clues as to who’s inside, so I knock again; harder this time.
Nothing.
‘Melanie?’
The volume nudges up a little more.
‘Harry?’
I wait, but there’s no reply. There’s nothing else to do, so I stomp into my apartment and slam the door. Poor Billy scuttles off to the corner and watches me sideways in case I start throwing things. I fumble with my phone, almost dropping it twice, before finding Lauren’s name. She answers on the second ring with a cheery, ‘Hi!’
I tell her who I am and then add: ‘I need you to tell me about our new neighbour.’
There’s a gap of a second or two and I wonder if the call has dropped. Lauren is one of those people who is constantly softly-spoken, even when telling a person to get stuffed.
‘Is there a problem?’ she asks.
‘It’s their music.’
‘They’re playing loud music?’
‘Yes. Well, no. Sort of…’
