Hello all, a little bit of fiction from me today. I thought i'd share with you a little snippet of the book I am attempting to write. I've kind of got two on the go at the moment and I am notorious for starting and then changing my mind, so I haven't got very far with this one yet. It's very rough and I've barely proof read it but feel free to let me know what you think of it.
Steven rolled over onto his back and stared up at the
ceiling, his eyes blinking blurrily in the darkness. He exhaled deeply and watched
the glowing, red numbers on the alarm clock flick forward. 4:00. The muffled
vibration of a car whizzing by on the street outside buzzed momentarily through
his eardrums and he turned his head gently to the sleeping woman lying next to
him. He watched the slow, easy rise and fall of her chest, her blonde hair fanned
out on the pillow like feathers on a majestic bird. He listened to the quiet
whistling of her deep breathing,
her shoulders drooping with the weight of each breath. She looked
so peaceful.
As an insomniac, sleepless nights such as this one were far
from isolated incidents for Steven. He had become accustomed to surviving on
little sleep and bedtimes felt somewhat of an inconvenience. He glanced again at
the clock, 4:53. The sun would be coming up soon. Steven contemplated getting
up and getting ready for work already but decided against it. “This is a big case.
I can feel it in my bones.” He thought.
His thoughts were interrupted by the motion of Laura stirring
in the bed beside him. She rolled over onto her side and turned away from him,
tucking her legs up into a ball and snuggling deeper into the pillow. Ten years
they had been married. A whole decade. Steven sighed again. He couldn’t bear to
see her unhappy. Watching her, he could envision her screaming at him, tears
streaming like rain gushing off a slate roof. The pain and anger he saw in her
eyes burned like daggers being stabbed into his heart.
His ears were filled with the muffled sound of music. The
alarm clicked and Bruno Mars ‘Treasure’ played through the speakers, perky pop
music first thing in the morning always irritated him and he kept reminding himself
to change it. He let the song play for a few seconds before stretching over and
hitting the snooze button on the top. Laura always liked to lay in bed longer.
Feeling exhaustion and apprehension Steven’s muscles felt like lead as he hauled
himself out of bed. He quickly dressed and prepared his usual breakfast; black
coffee and an aspirin, and sat down at the kitchen table to prepare himself for
the morning meeting.
“Morning.”
Laura walked into the kitchen, greeting him with a tired-looking half-smile,
her hair stuck up on one side.
“Alright?”
Steven said not really looking up.
“Did
you sleep at all last night?” she asked.
“Mmm,
drifted in and out.” He shrugged. “You?”
“Yeah
fine.” She glanced at the papers spread out on the table. “Busy day then?”
“Very
busy.” He looked at her and pursed his lips, “it’s a big case.”
Steven wondered if Laura ever expected a different answer to
the one that he always gave; that perhaps his insomnia had been cured overnight,
or that for once the case he was working on was insignificant or minor. It was
phatic talk really, friendly conversation just so they didn’t sit silently
staring each out other at the breakfast table. He was surprised by his wife’s
apparent cheeriness that she had greeted him with. He expected the cold
shoulder from her this morning after last night. Steven shook his head. He
didn’t understand his wife sometimes, it was like living with a 15 year old
hormonal teenager; she’d only talk to you when she wanted attention or
interaction, the rest of the time she would be either screaming abuse or ignoring
you altogether.
Steven found himself harping back to the mornings they had
when they first got together. The days he used to wake up and look at her
sleeping softly beside him, still like a pool of open water. He felt like the luckiest man alive to be
married to such a beautiful, loving woman. They’d cuddle and canoodle for a
bit, her soft skin warm against his, her hot breath sweet and sticky on his
ear. Sometimes they’d make love those mornings, pure lust consuming and
suffocating like the thick misty air on a winters morning , caressing her
hips, thighs, breasts. It was these times that Steven forgot for a while,
allowing himself to be sucked in, caught up in the moment as it were, not
caring so much about getting into work on time if it meant he could just revel
in it for a moment.
He looked over at Laura. She was flicking through the gossip
section of the paper, starting intently and sipping her coffee. The corners of
his mouth twitched upwards into a smile. These memories that
every so often dwindled in his brain strengthened the fondness he had for her
but also the guilt he felt that they spent more time at each other’s throats
than they did getting along.
Steven stood up from his chair, gathering his papers and
stuffing them into his bag.
“Got
to go, see you later” he said to Laura.
“What
time will you be home?” she asked with a cheerless expression.
Steven
looked at her apologetically. “As soon as I can okay.” He kissed her lightly on
the cheek and headed for the door.
Steven
pushed the image of Laura’s disappointment out of his mind. Sometimes he
preferred them to be fighting than to watch her retreat into herself like that,
the look of despondency like a grieving woman. He knew there would come a day
when she would leave him, and he would take the majority of the blame for that.
That day was perhaps the day he feared most.
Chapter 2
“Madson,
I need to speak with you.” Steven looked up to find his boss, superintendent,
Nic Williams, staring down at him with a purposeful expression. Steven had to
stop himself from groaning. This surely wasn’t good news. After the night he
had with Laura and running on about 20 minutes sleep, this is the last thing he
needed.
The
argument last night, was particularly lengthy. He had admittedly returned home
late, around 10pm to find Laura dozing on the sofa. He poured himself a whiskey
and sat down to read when she came storming in ranting and raving about missing
dinner, and a whole number of things that now just merged into a
fuzzy, scattered blur. It had got quite heated and they had gone to bed bitter.
He rubbed his fingertips into his throbbing temple, “This better be a
promotion” he thought.
“I
want you to take the lead on the missing girl case. You've got experience with
forensics now so you should be able to handle it no problem.” His boss said.
“Me?”
Steven said incredulously. He cleared his throat “What about
Patterson doesn’t he normally take the lead on murder investigations?”
Steven had only
received DCI status 3 months ago. He had led a number of minor investigations,
fraud cases, robbery, but never something as high profile as this case. The
mere thought sent waves of excitement rushing through him.
“DSI
Patterson is out of district for the month. I want you to lead it.” Nic raised
an eyebrow “Unless you don’t think it’s something you can handle Madson…”
“No
no sir I can definitely handle it.” Steven said confidently. “In fact I’ve had
some thoughts about the evidence we’ve received already.”
“Great.
Well let’s hope you put them to good use. Madson this is an important case and it's likely to attract a lot of attention, make sure
the press get no word of anything until we have concrete evidence. You understand? The last
thing we want is to lose control of this case because we are deemed incapable.
Don’t let me down.” He said sternly.
“I
won’t Sir, you can count on me.” Steven replied.
“I’m
glad. I’m giving you Campbell to assist you.” Nic stated. “He’ll be good to
have along especially when you’re interviewing witnesses or suspects.”
“Thank
you Sir, I’ll get right on it” said Steven.
“Excellent.”
He smiled. “Best of luck Madson.”
Steven
couldn’t believe his luck. The opportunity to lead a case such as this one
didn’t come around all too often, certainly not for people like him anyway.
Again,
it is not budget shopping but it is much more current in its trends. I simply
love these tunic dresses at the moment and it would be refreshing to have a
dress that I don’t have to team with leggings, as it modestly falls just
above the knee. 
