guard made his way over to Lou. He leaned over and pressed the call button, which lit up immediately and the lift door opened.
He looked at Lou oddly.
‘Oh. Never mind. Thanks.’ Lou got back in the lift and made his way up to the fourteenth floor. He leaned his head against the mirror and closed his eyes and dreamed of being at home in bed with Ruth, cosied up beside him, wrapping her arm and leg around him as she always did – or used to do – as she slept.
When the elevator pinged on the fourteenth floor and the doors opened, Lou opened his eyes and jumped and screamed with fright.
Gabe stood directly before him in the hall – looking solemn – his nose almost touching the doors as they slid open. He rattled the container of pills in Lou’s face.
‘SHIT! GABE!’
‘You forgot these.’
‘I didn’t forget them.’
‘They’ll get rid of that headache for you.’
Lou snatched the container of pills from Gabe’s hand and stuffed them deep into his trouser pocket.
‘Enjoy.’ Gabe smiled with satisfaction.
‘I told you, I don’t do drugs.’ Lou kept his voice low, even though he knew he was alone on the floor.
‘And I told you they’re not drugs. Think of them as a herbal remedy.’
‘A remedy for what, exactly?’
‘For your problems, of which there are many. I believe I listed them out to you already.’
‘Says you, who’s sleeping on the floor of a bloody basement stock room,’ Lou hissed. ‘How’s about you take a pill and go about fixing your own life? Or is that what got you in this mess in the first place? You know, I’m getting tired of you judging me, Gabe, when I’m up here and you’re the one down there.’
Gabe’s expression was curious at that statement, which made Lou feel guilty. ‘Sorry,’ he sighed.
Gabe simply nodded.
Lou examined the pills as his head pounded, heavier now. ‘Why should I trust you?’
‘Think of it as a gift.’ Gabe repeated the words Lou had spoken only days before.
Along with it, Gabe’s gift brought chills down Lou Suffern’s spine.
Alone in his office, Lou took the pills from his pocket and placed them on his desk. He laid his head down and finally closed his eyes.
‘Christ, you’re a mess,’ he heard a voice say close to his ear and he jumped up.
‘Alfred,’ he rubbed his eyes, ‘what time is it?’
‘Seven twenty-five. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed your meeting. Thanks to me,’ he smirked, running his chubby, nicotine-stained, nail-bitten fingers along Lou’s desk, his one touch enough to tarnish everything and leave his dirty mark, which annoyed Lou. The term ‘grubby little mitts’ applied here.
‘Hey, what are these?’ Alfred picked up the pills and popped open the lid.
‘Give them to me.’ Lou reached out for them but Alfred pulled away. He emptied a few into his open clammy palm.
‘Alfred, give them to me,’ Lou said sternly, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice as Alfred moved about the room waving the container in the air, teasing him with the same air and issues of a school bully.
‘Naughty, naughty, Lou, what are you up to?’ Alfred asked in an accusing sing-song tone that chilled Lou to the core.
Knowing that Alfred was most likely to try to use these against him, Lou thought fast.
‘Looks like you’re concocting a story,’ Alfred smiled. ‘I know it when you’re bluffing, I’ve seen you in every meeting, remember? Don’t you trust me with the truth?’
Lou smiled and kept his tone easy, almost joking, but both were deadly serious. ‘Honestly? Lately, no. I wouldn’t be surprised if you hatched a plan to use that little container against me.’
Alfred laughed. ‘Now, really. Is that any way to treat an old friend?’
Lou’s smile faded. ‘I don’t know, Alfred, you tell me.’
They had a moment’s staring match. Alfred broke it.
‘Something on your mind, Lou?’
‘What do you think?’
‘Look,’ Alfred’s shoulders dropped, the bravado act over with and the new humble Alfred act begun, ‘if this is about the meeting tonight, be rest assured that I did not meddle with your appointments in any way. Talk to Louise. With Tracey leaving and Alison taking over, a lot of stuff got lost in the mix,’ he shrugged, ‘though between you and me, Alison seems a little flakey.’
‘Don’t blame it on Alison.’ Lou folded his arms.
‘Indeed,’ Alfred smiled and nodded slowly to himself, ‘I forgot that you two have a thing.’
‘We have no thing. For Christ’s sake, Alfred.’
‘Right, sorry.’ Alfred zipped his lips closed. ‘Ruth will never know, I promise.’
The very fact that he’d mentioned that unnerved Lou. ‘What’s gotten into you?’ Lou asked him, serious now. ‘What’s up with you? Is it stress? Is it the crap you’re putting up your nose? What the hell is up? Are you worried about the changes –’
‘The changes,’ Alfred snorted. ‘You make me sound like a menopausal woman.’
Lou stared at him.
‘I’m fine, Lou,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m the same as I’ve always been. It’s you that’s acting a little funny around here. Everyone’s talking about it, even Mr Patterson. Maybe it’s these.’ He shook the pills in Lou’s face, just as Gabe had done.
‘They’re headache pills.’
‘I don’t see a label.’
‘The kids scratched it off, now can you please stop mauling them and give them back?’ Lou held an open hand out towards Alfred.
‘Oh, headache pills. I see.’ Alfred studied the container again. ‘Is that what they are? Because I thought I heard the homeless guy saying that they were herbal?’
Lou
