Jo wandered through Norwich while late night shopping by herself. She still felt dazed by Gary’s will. Not only had she instantly become twenty thousand pounds richer, but she now had a large portfolio of shares. None of them even realised that Gary was into shares. Or that he had any savings, he certainly didn’t live that way.

 

‘Excuse me!’ Someone shouted as Jo bumped into them. She got to the bus stop on St Stephen’s Street for Alborford and spotted Laura Lucas.

 

‘Hi Laura,’ Laura looked up, suddenly startled.

 

‘Oh, hello, how are you?’

 

‘Yeah, fine,’ Jo was trying to be polite, but still felt quite hostile towards her, out of loyalty to Kris.

 

‘How are things at Number Six? I heard something about the will,’ Laura added.

 

‘Yeah, bit of a shock. Things aren’t too bad I guess. We’re getting back to normal...well, as normal as it can ever be again. Apparently the landlord is sending someone round for Gary’s old room this week.’

 

‘A bit soon, isn’t it?’ Laura was shocked.

 

‘Property game, eh? Ruthless!’ Jo half-laughed.

 

‘Can’t you buy the house between you?’ Laura asked.

 

Well, we probably could, but it’d be complicated….and I think we’d rather do what we want with it individually…’

 

 

***

 

 

Rhys came back from another trip to the Job Centre.

 

‘Anything good?’ Val asked.

 

‘Nah, not a lot,’ he went straight to the sofa after switching the TV on.

 

Val could feel her blood beginning to boil.

 

‘Well, you needn’t think that you’ll be sitting there for weeks, make sure you keep trying!’

 

He scowled ‘OK! OK! No need to nag!’

 

 

***

 

 

Rachel had allowed Richard to start sleeping at Number Four again, on a sofa bed, and she was treating him like a lodger.

 

‘I’m going back to work today,’ the Magnolia Salon had called her to ask if she could come back earlier than planned.

 

‘You never said anything!’ Richard protested.

 

‘Well, I’m telling you now, aren’t I?! You’ve got nothing else on have you? You can look after Harry…’

 

As she left, Richard sat with his son in his arms and started to cry. It seemed that his marriage was over, and he couldn’t think of a thing to do about it.

 

***

 

 

The next day was Ray’s forty-seventh birthday, and he’d taken a day off to spend it with Val. They were lying in bed, when Laura and Rhys brought them breakfast.

 

‘Well! This is a treat!’ Ray laughed.

 

‘We thought an old man like you shouldn’t be allowed to fend for himself!’ Rhys laughed, handing him a coffee.

 

‘Haven’t you got an interview today?’ Val asked Rhys, with a tone that broke the morning bliss.

 

‘Er, yeah, plenty of time before that,’ Rhys snapped.

 

‘Just don’t be disheartened if you don’t get the first one, it’s not easy these days,’ Ray added.

 

‘If only I’d just come into money like that lot next door, life would be a lot easier!’ Rhys laughed.

 

Val winced ‘Don’t say that! It’s not as if they’ve won the lottery! They’ve lost their friend.’

 

 

***

 

 

However, Kris was flicking through holiday brochures, obviously starting to get back to her old self, and trying to persuade Jo to go on a holiday.

 

Hmmm, I’m not too sure at the moment,’ Jo muttered.

 

‘Aw, c’mon! It’s just what we need isn’t it?’ Kris cried. ‘If we get away from it all for a bit, we can come back refreshed and get back down to some proper studying?!’

 

‘Maybe, what have you seen?’

 

‘Look at this, a trip to Barbados! Not a bad price either…’ As Kris spoke, there was a loud knock at the door.

 

‘The landlord said he was coming round today, didn’t he?’ Jo wondered.

 

It was indeed their landlord. He’d brought round a potential new tenant.

 

‘Hello girls,’ he always spoke to them in a lecherous tone, ’this is Lisa Hudson.’

 

They introduced themselves and showed her round.  Jo felt quite intimidated, as she seemed to be much more attractive than either of them. Slim, quite tall, with striking looks and long black hair, she could have walked straight off the catwalk.

 

‘So, how long have you been at Alborford College?’ Jo asked, as Kris eyed her up and down with suspicion.

 

‘I’m in my final year now, of a French degree, hopefully I’ll go into translation and interpreting after that,’ she replied confidently. Kris rolled her eyes at Jo and then turned back to Lisa.

 

Where are you from, not round here with that accent?’

 

‘Kent, my family moved to Norwich a few years back…’

 

‘Well ladies, I think you and Lisa are going to get along famously,’ the landlord drooled.

 

As usual, Kris wasn’t so sure.

 

 

***

 

 

Richard headed into Norwich, he’d had a call from his old boss at the PR firm, he’d now set up his own company and was thinking of offering Richard a job.

 

Once he arrived, James seemed overjoyed to see him.

 

‘Rich! How are you? This is like old times! How are Rachel and Harry?’

 

‘Oh, they’re fine,’ he lied.

 

‘Well, let’s cut to the chase, I can offer you your old job back—but working for me instead of the old place!’

 

Richard laughed ‘Would be a bit difficult to work for them when they went bankrupt!’

 

James roared ‘Ha! Yes! So this is an exciting new beginning, are you interested?’

 

Richard thought about what Rachel has said to him about getting himself a decent job again...maybe this could be the start of things, accept this job and maybe she’d start to see him in a different light again.

 

‘You bet! I accept here and now!’

 

 

***

 

 

At Number Two, the Reynolds settled now to their evening meal, when there was a knock at the door. It was the police.

 

‘Samuel Reynolds?’

 

‘Yes?’

 

‘We’d like to ask you a few questions, about an attack that occurred, a young woman was raped…’

© 2010 Danny Alborough / DJA Publications
All characters, names and situations are fictitious.
Any similarities to places or people, living or dead, are purely coincidental.