Chapter Eighteen

 

A couple of days later Sue was sitting on the seafront, having a cup of morning coffee. The promenade was a long one, with three beach front cafes with wooden decking going onto the shingle beach. Sue liked to sit at one of these, had her favourite, relaxing while she studied. She could easily spend a couple of hours, soaking up the sunshine while she read, not even aware of her surroundings very much as she intently looked at her books. Wind was a problem sometimes, blowing the papers away if she wasn’t sufficiently careful, but she often placed the saucer over vulnerable paperwork. Sue regarded these times as quite precious, not even allowing Roger to come and join her. Her attitude was that he had the gym for his own time, she had the beach front cafe. Let me keep my space, and you can have yours. She wasn’t too welcoming then when Barbara brought her coffee over, sat down on a vacant seat at the same table, and said ‘hello, mind if I join you.’ There was no question mark in her voice when she said this, just assuming that it was okay. Sue looked up from her studies.

‘Oh, hello, no, please sit down,’ the last bit said with no hint of irony, just implied. ‘Nice to take a break from studying, for a change. Isn’t it a lovely, sunny day. I’d better put some sun cream on, it’s so warm.’ Sue went into her bag that was by her side, took out the sun cream, and applied it to her bare shoulders. ‘Want some?’ she offered to Barbara.

‘No thanks, I won’t be staying that long. Thanks all the same though,’ replied Barbara. ‘Glad that I’ve bumped into you, though. I know that I’m only the new girl in the band, but I can’t help noticing that there’s something not quite right about what’s going on.’

Sue was immediately on her guard, as she didn’t know much about the other girl, how much she was aware of what was occurring, with her immediate thought being ‘Who is she really. What do I know about her, and how has she suddenly contrived to meet me where I quite often sit and study.

‘Not too sure where you’re coming from on this one, Barbara. I have only been with the band for a couple of years or so, being only a poor student, so keep my nose out of band politics. Have you anything specific in mind as to what you’re not happy about?’

‘Well,’ paused the blonde woman, ‘I’ve only been on the scene for a short while, as I said, but I can’t help overhearing some of the comments being made.’

‘For example?’

‘You’re not making this easy for me, are you? Okay, four or five of the lads could easily form a breakaway band. No bad thing in that, but it would be a really sad thing to do just because people are getting annoyed with Cedric. After all, he doesn’t seem like a really bad bloke to me. Okay, he likes his drink, and okay, he can’t play for toffee, but I’m sure that he’s got some good points.’

‘I’m struggling here,’ said Sue. ‘Good points. Bad points. Let’s add up each side, and see where we come to. Bad points, I can think of at least fifty, and that’s the number of bad notes he manages every time we play. Good points. I’m struggling here, please help me out. Oh yes, I know, the decent notes in tune that he plays. No, still struggling to get into double figures. Sorry, Barbara, I know that he’s a mate of Rick Thomas, but that’s not going to help him for much longer. You wanted my opinion? He’s literally a weight we can’t afford to be carrying. He’s a fat slob, rude, arrogant, drunk, and there’s a lot of us think that he’s got some kind of hold over Mr. Thomas to be able to continue. Now, I’ve been frank with you, because you asked me my opinion, what do you say. You are certainly no fool, there’s more to you than possibly meets the eye, be frank here.

‘Let me give you a bit of background, so you’ll appreciate where I’m coming from, and that I have no hidden agenda. I have all the money I will ever need, won’t say where it came from, but suffice to say that I worked very hard for it, and that I am no fool. I still don’t live in the town, coming here when the band require my services. I sometimes stay in any b&b that I can, but try to avoid this, driving home in the evening. I keep myself to myself, very private, not making friends at all easily. However, I feel that you and I can become friends, nothing too close, but good friends nonetheless, and my feeling is that there’s something   basically very wrong with this whole band set-up, and you need to be warned. Both you and Roger could become involved in something that you might not be aware of.’

‘Sounds like you know more than you’re letting on.’

‘No, please don’t think that. But I would like you to be warned that you and Roger might be letting yourselves in for more than you can handle.’

‘Come on Barbara, don’t be so mysterious. If you know something, come out with it.’

‘All right, I’ve said all I can at this stage. But be very careful, you might be in danger.’

‘Danger?’

‘I’ve said too much already. I just want you to be on your guard, and if you do see anything, I would appreciate a call. Here’s my mobile number.’ Barbara handed the younger woman a slip of paper with a phone number on it. ‘You can reach me any time. Best of luck. Enjoy the sunshine.’

Barbara walked off, leaving her coffee, untouched.