Dead bodies weigh heavier than broken hearts - Part 6

Blackford wheezed in the back of the Black Taxi. Keeping low in the seat, he asked the driver to take him back to his flat. What he’d seen at Angel and Jen’s troubled him. It didn’t fit with the girl’s story. If Jen had done a runner she surely would have packed a few things. He also tried not to think of the presence of Jame’s phone number as anything other than a coincidence, but was having a hard time convincing himself.

The journey took him down Kelvin Way, the long tree lined avenue that separated the park and the grounds of the University. As the taxi passed the mid point of the Way, Blackford noticed a concentration of activity on one of the paths branching off towards the main University building. A police van was parked in the middle of the path and there were a lot of people milling around. He craned his neck to see what was happening but his view was blocked. It wasn’t unusual for there to be a police presence in the Park on hot days like this, but the scene nevertheless preyed on his already jangled nerves.

Arriving at his house Blackford paid the driver and darted into his building. Once safely inside the flat he lowered himself down on to the unmade bed and buried his face in the duvet, imagining himself sinking further into the bed and trying to suppress the urge to close his eyes and give up the day. Before he got too comfortable, however, Blackford managed to hoist himself up and turn on his laptop. As he waited for the computer to load up he walked around the flat. The two cold cups of tea sat where he left them in the kitchen, one practically untouched. The rest of the kitchen was a mess. Food had set like concrete on almost every plate and the floor was in need of a wash. He pushed open the door of James room. By contrast the room was spotless. Standing by the window, Blackford tried to phone James, again with no luck. He was getting an increasingly strong feeling that James held the key to this mess and the longer he couldn’t reach him the deeper the pit in his stomach grew.

When the computer finally loaded Blackford went straight to the BBC website, scouring the recent news section. He clicked through to the more localised Glasgow and West page and scanned it too. If whatever was happening over on KelvinWay was significant, it hadn’t made the news yet. He was about to log off when something else occurred to him. He logged into myspace.com and brought up Jens profile. As he’d expected, the update log showed that Jen hadn’t logged in since the day before. He was about to click away when something else drew his eye. The “friend updates” box in the middle of the screen was announcing that Colin had added photos to the “party” album. He hurriedly clicked through to Colin’s profile and located them.

They related to the previous nights party. The photos were all fairly similar, most of the same people pouting into the camera and looking like they were having too good a time, but two photos in particular sent a shiver down his spine. The first showed James and Jenny, smiling through tight lips at the photographer. They both looked deadly serious and the picture gave the impression that the camera was an unwanted intrusion. The second photo was of Blackford himself. He was lying against a wall outside the flat, his face was tilted up at the photographer and wearing a blank, vacant expression. Blackford shuddered as he looked into the unrecognisable eyes of the man in the photograph and felt pangs of self loathing. He noticed another aspect of the photograph. He was wearing his jumper, the one he thought he had left at the party. He had assumed that he’d taken off his jumper inside and left it there but the photo seemed to show differently. It was possible that he’d gone back inside and then taken it off but for some reason he knew this wasn’t the case. As he pondered this he received a text from Angel;

HAVE NEWS ABOUT JEN, MEET ME AT TUNNEL AND I’LL EXPLAIN. DON’T WORRY.