But it was only one of many options. Another of which brought a knot of fear into Jeff’s stomach. What if the paintings were being done for his benefit? What if someone knew about the special time he’d spent with her? What if they planned on making Jeff’s secret public, pressuring him into making a slip.
That wouldn’t do… not at all.
He had to know for sure.
Jeff drove faster than he usually did, impatient whenever he hit traffic and glancing at his watch every other minute. If the wrecking crew were as punctual as usual then he didn’t have much time if he was to see what he needed to see. Once done, they could level the old warehouse and destroy the pictorial evidence it held.
Jeff fumbled around on the passenger seat and found the mobile phone, depressing the speed dial and lifting the phone to his ear whilst steering the car with his free hand. He listened to the electronic ring sound over and over.
Answer the fucking phone, Mark.
Without hanging up Jeff threw the phone into the rear foot well and returned all his frustration onto reaching his destination.
Upon arrival at the site Jeff drove passed the billboard announcing the urban renewal without feeling the usual pride in his latest project. He had other, more important things on his mind. With the engine still running he could already hear the sound of heavy machinery on the far side of the warehouse and his heart sank into his gut.
Too late…
Can’t be.
Jeff jumped out of the car, leaving the engine running and the door wide open and took off on foot around the edge of the warehouse.
Mark saw Jeff first and ran to meet him, a huge smile on his face. “You come to see the start of something great,” he said, the smile slipping as Jeff’s expression became clear.
“Do you ever answer your fucking calls?” Jeff yelled in Mark’s face.
“Only when it rings,” Mark answered aggressively, shrugging away from Jeff. “What’s your fucking problem?”
Jeff ignored the question and stormed away from Mark, heading straight for the front of the warehouse and sighed with relief.
Still there…
Jeff looked up once again at the painted face and frowned.
Its changed…
It was still her face, but she’d changed overnight. The smile was gone, replaced with a mouth shaped to form a silent scream. The front top teeth were missing and a trickle of red paint ran over her bottom lip. The eyes no longer held the same innocent beauty Jeff remembered so well. The left one was hidden behind a swollen eye lid, the flesh tone recreated with purples and blacks. The right eye stared out over the world blindly, the upper half flooded by ruptured blood vessels.
This can’t be happening…
Jeff could have been looking at a photograph, each and every wound clearer than memory could have ever served. This was the way she’d looked as Jeff had shovelled soil over her face, filling in the unmarked grave that no relative would ever visit.
Someone knows…
All Jeff needed was a name and he searched the area of wall around the face, knowing it would be there. It had to be. They always tagged their work, but Jeff couldn’t find it.
If not around the picture then within it.
Jeff let his gaze move slowly over her face, tracing every spray painted line, looking deeply into every area of shaded colour. It was a puzzle meant for Jeff only and he would solve it. He worked his way down, from the top of her head to her chin and then began the journey back yet still he found no name… no tag… nothing to go on.
Jeff finally turned away from the building and marched away, not looking back as the wrecking ball began its swing, but taking satisfaction of the sound as it crumbled bricks and mortar. He marched straight passed Mark and headed back to the car, he had to get away and release the tension. Maybe find someone new to spend some special time with.
Its been a while…
I deserve it.
The tiniest of smiles cracked Jeff’s face, the prospect of going in search of a perfect beauty almost cheering him up. The mood was quickly shattered as he rounded the rear end of the huge warehouse and was confronted with the empty waste ground.
Where’s my fucking car?
Ruth was worried about Jeff. The previous night had been a surprise, a pleasant one and everything had been going so well until they’d reached the tube. His entire mood had changed just like that and he’d been quiet ever since. Having the car stolen had done little to improve his state of mind and he sat in his office drinking all afternoon. It was now early evening and the bottle was down to the last quarter when the phone rang.
“Jeff, its for you,” Ruth shouted up to the office.
“Who is it?” Jeff asked gruffly as he stumbled down the stairs.
“The Police.”
“About fucking time,” Jeff snapped and snatched the phone from Ruth, waving her way as he raised it to his ear.
“This is Jeff Reardon,” he grumbled. “You found it yet?” He listened for a moment. “I understand.” He gripped the phone until his knuckles turned white. “No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll arrange to have it collected.” Jeff hung up the phone and immediately reached for his jacket.
“You going to be alright, dear?” Ruth asked from the kitchen doorway.
“Going out.”
“Where?”
“None of your business.” Jeff walked out the front door and slammed it behind himself.
The officer had given Jeff the address of where the car had been dumped. He’d had no need to write it down. He knew it well. His company had put in a tender for the design work on the new Olympic site and he’d scouted the area whilst researching the project. They hadn’t got the contract but Jeff knew the area like the back of his hand.
Taking the tube would have saved time, but Jeff needed to think so he walked. Things were getting out of hand and he had to bring it to an end sooner rather than later. When he found the person responsible he’d teach them not to fuck with Jeff Reardon.
The car had been left where Jeff would see it upon his approach, displayed like a work of art in a gallery… a gallery that was intended for Jeff alone. The car was stood in the centre of a concrete desert and surround by three walls. The scene was lit by cracked street lamps, a dirty orange glow that gave it a sense of the unreal.
The walls featured the faces and more of each stranger he’d ever spent his special time with. It was a mural history of each life he’d taken when the need had become too much to deny.
So many…
Jeff had never kept count of his conquests… never taken a souvenir. He liked to think that each one night stand was just that, a few hours with that special person and then back to normal life. He wanted no reminders of how it had felt to be with each beauty. Reminders tended to dilute the experience.
Now he was reminded from every angle and they all looked down at him with accusations and hatred for what he’d reduced them to.
But the car that was the coup de grace. She’d been rendered as if sprawled across the body of the vehicle. Her head was on the hood, her hair draped lusciously over the wing and across the wheels. Her pert breasts covered the windscreen, the nipples seeming standing proud of the glass. Her flat stomach arched across the roof and her legs dangled wide down the rear of the car, revealing her damp sex.