Chapter Twenty-Seven

As the couple moved away from their table, Jay moved over and slid onto the seat of the booth where they had been sitting, watching them walk off. They seemed ill-matched. The woman on the left was much taller than her companion, and she was wearing a shimmering white trouser suit with spangly stars, and matching cowboy hat. She swung as she moved, confidently striding towards the exit. He, on the other hand, was plainly dressed in a grey suit, and moved slightly behind her, nervously, and almost unwillingly. as if being pulled along in her wake. They disppeared from view and Jay wrapped his fingers around the tall glass containing some kind of blueish cocktail. This, Jay reasoned, was what she had been drinking. Or rather had not been drinking, as it lay hardly touched on the table. There were two other glasses on the table, both of which were empty, and which had both probably contained beer. Because he was concentrating too much on the glasses and the couple, he didn’t notice the security guard come up behind him.


‘Why is it that you don’t register?’

Jay looked up to see the imposing figure of a black-suited man in a violet shirt, the right breast pocket of his suit emblazoned with the bar’s logo. His eyes were fixed steadily on Jay’s as if he were about to begin to suck them out of their sockets. Jay didn’t know what to say, and so he said nothing. The two of them stayed their in silent stalemate for what seemed like a long time, atlhough it could not have been more than thirty seconds before the man spoke.

‘I said why don’t you register on my scanner?’ repeated the security guard, and this time he waved what looked like a remote control at Jay. It had been a long time since Jay had seen anything like it. Of course, this machine would tell him who had the right to be in the bar, and who, like Jay, was freeloading.

‘There’s been a lot of scams going on recently,’ continued the man, ‘and it’s my job to see to it that only paying customers get to stay here. How did you get a drink?’

‘It...it was here already.’ answered Jay.

‘I think you should be going then, don’t you?’ The man indicated the island in the corner, ‘See that door? Make your way over there, go through it, and don’t come back again.’

Jay looked back to the island and saw the outline of a previously hidden door appear as it slid open.

‘We don’t want to cause a problem for the other guests, do we?’ said the man, and smiled at him.

Jay smiled back, stood up and walked towards the door. He should have realised it wasn’t going to be so easy.

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