They sat in silence for a while and then Will said in a low gruelling manner
“Has the post come yet?”
“Yeah, only junk mail,” replied Peter in an equally monotone voice.
This was a very good news, bad news situation. It was bad news because it meant no one had written to hire them and good news because there were no more bills.
They sat in silence for half an hour deep in thought and taking the occasional sip of the cheap muddy coffee, they had every morning.
Will was thinking about his life as a youngster. He remembered when he had just left school at the age of 18. He had a head full of ideas and a pocket full of dreams, the world was his oyster. When he left home for the last time, he received a substantial cheque from his parents to give him a good start in life. He had several job offers from many large companies as he had spectacular qualifications including ten A-level passes. He however decided to turn them all down and follow his dream to become a private detective. He bought a small office, in a large block, with the money from his parents, and he rented a flat, with his best friend, and soon to be partner, Peter.
They had a great life for the first two months even though Will’s parents were repeatedly calling to tell him to get a proper job. They deeply disapproved of his chosen career path as they both came from high-class households.
They solved their first case after seven weeks in the business. Things were going great. They stayed this way for several years. The pair had a small fortune sitting in several high interest bank accounts and had moved to a much bigger flat in central London, overlooking the river. They got a brand new office and had several highly respected clients.
Then one day a case went horribly pear shaped. A wealthy woman’s husband had been kidnapped. She went to them because she did not want the police to know as they may leak it to the papers. She refused to pay the ransom as she was very careful with money and was a bit of a penny grasper despite her fabulous wealth. Anyway Will was sent to leave a fake pay-off and retrieve her husband. However the kidnapper realised the payment was counterfeit and shot the husband, leaving their client devastated.
Following this she ran a huge smear campaign, which ruined their company.
For the past year Will and Peter had been trying to scrape by. The money evaporated with all the bills for both the flat and the office. They were then forced to sell up and move their business to Coventry in the hope of new clients. There was no help from Will’s parents because they were so annoyed he had not listened to their advice, and with Peter’s parents dead, there was no way out unless they could get more business.
Suddenly they awoke from their semi conscious trance of depression and gloom. They decided it was time to head down to the office. They sat sorting though some old papers for a few hours and Peter decided to go and get some lunch. He asked what Will wanted and went down to the sandwich shop.
After a few minutes there was a knock on the door. Will jumped with surprise and with a slightly shaky voice said
“Err… come in?”
He sounded puzzled as he thought it was Peter and he wondered why he bothered to knock. The old frosted glass door creaked open and a young blonde lady entered.
“Err…what can I do for you?” asked Will shocked that they may have a client. She walked in and sat down and began to tell her story.
“I need your help.” she exclaimed, “A group of loan sharks are after my husband. He owes them a lot of money and they say if he does not pay them back they are going to kill him!” She let out a few sobs of desperation.
“I don’t know what to do! I don’t know who to turn to!” She released a few more sobs and dabbed her eyes with a tissue. She then looked up and stared deep into Will’s eyes and said, “Can you help me?”
“What do you want me to do?” he said, puzzled as to how he could help.
“Make my husband disappear!” she cried. “Change his name, change my name, do what ever it takes!”
“I don’t have the power to do that, I’m sorry.” he said, “I’m very sorry I just can’t do that.”
“Tell it to my husband when he’s laying in a wooden box six feet under” she said through tears of despair. With that she ran out of the office nearly bowling Peter off his feet. He had just returned with the sandwiches.
In despair that he could not help and that meant that he could not get any money Will dropped his head onto the table and let out a huge sigh of disappointment.
Peter shut the door behind him as he entered and said simply “Who the hell was that?”
Will explained to Peter everything that had happened during the conversation with the young woman.
He sat in a stunned silence for a while and started trying to ask questions but not being able to get the words out properly due to his pure state of shock.
“What?”
“Who?”
“Why?”
“When?” These were the only words he could splutter.
Will explained to Peter why he did not take the case.
“What?!” Peter roared with anger.
“We could have done something!”
“We need every penny we can get and now your turning away clients!” he screamed, launching the tuna sandwiches at considerable speed towards Will’s head.
“I don’t believe this, how stupid can you possibly be?!”
“Calm down Peter” Will shouted “Be realistic, what could we have done, ay!”
There was a short pause followed by Peter shouting “Anything other than turning a money paying client away and losing all hope of earning any money!”
He sat in the chair opposite Will, slammed his fists on the table and bowed his head in disbelief. He let out a huge sigh. He suddenly bolted up to his feet as if he had sat on a red hot poker, and he began the string of questions as before.
“What?”
“Why?”
“How?” He paced the floor of the office and in a final breath of disgust he said simply. “I need some fresh air!” Saying this he stormed out of the office and slammed the door so hard the frosted glass nearly fell out of its old wooden frame.
