Wild Fiction

‘I know and I’m sorry I edited her out.’ Genevieve looked down at the ground. ‘I felt very threatened. His characters kept on becoming increasingly gorgeous. He would spend hours at the keyboard writing a character profile of a woman, describing her in minute detail, fantasising over her. Editing these women out of his stories was the only way I could get his attention. That’s how I ended up with Stephen. I needed the attention and Stephen was prepared to give it to me. Except now he’s turned out to be a complete bastard like all men.’
James looked hurt. ‘Cynical Stage,’ he muttered under his breath looking at Rebecca.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you. I’m sure you’re nothing like him.’ Genevieve tried to force a smile.
Conrad walked back over to them. ‘Tell us about the body Genevieve. Who died?’
Genevieve looked up at him and then at Rebecca. ‘You saved me didn’t you?’
‘Well sort of, I’m sure you would have woken up and saved yourself in time,’ Rebecca smiled at her.
Genevieve stuck out her hand, took Rebecca’s, and gave it a squeeze. ‘Thanks for everything,’ she said returning Rebecca’s smile before turning to Conrad. ‘I don’t know whose body it is. All I saw was the lower half of the it and I knew it wasn’t the author.’
‘How did you know that?’ Rebecca asked.
‘The author’s been circumcised and that corpse wasn’t.’
Rebecca blushed.
‘Okay, so we don’t know whose body it is and we don’t care. How do you know Hog and Corp?’ Conrad asked.
‘I’d never seen Hog before. That was the first time I’d seen him at the warehouse. Corp I met at Gunther’s house and that’s where we struck the deal,’ Genevieve said and then paused. ‘They must be the escaped convicts,’ she suddenly added with enthusiasm. ‘Two policemen came around to the house the other day and described them to me. I’ve only just realised that it was them. I think they’re from Belmarsh Prison.’
‘Unfortunately we know them,’ Conrad said and summarised their incident in the Caribbean. ‘We didn’t know that they were recently escaped convicts though.’
‘The photos,’ James said after listening to the stories. ‘I think I’ve worked out what they are and what they’re for. Have you ever heard of Lord Brockett?’
They shook their heads at him.
‘If it has anything to do with useless and inconsequential trivia, then James knows about it,’ Rebecca said turning to Genevieve.