Lonie 64

Lonie put his arm around her waist as they walked back to his house. They stopped to kiss, open-mouthed, at the bottom of Apsley Street, unable to wait for the next moment, the next jolting touch of an arm, or straying hand. In Lonie’s hall, he bit his lips, like a teenager watching her, wanting her. He nibbled on her plum- soft lips, standing up in the kitchen, which had his double bed in it. He sucked on her nipples and flinched at the taste of her tits in his mouth, before adjusting his head and diving down, down, to eat out her cunt. The beat of naked skin against naked skin slopped them together in sweat and made a river of their bodies, the bed and blankets an adult sandbox they slipped about and writhed in. He was on top of her, inside her, one hand on the soft orb of her left breast.

Audrey's moans filled the high ceiling of the room and soaked into the walls. Her vaginal canal sopped into the mattress. Her auburn hair twisting and turning, eyes closed, biting at swollen lips, tried to find a space where he hadn’t stopped the beating of her heart. She felt like her life began and ended with his cock threshing, springing into life inside her, each hip thrust demanding to be born anew. He tweaked cruelly at her pinky-sized nipples, but his clumsiness, his shuffling gait, brought the pain of pleasure and dropped down a tone in her body and gave birth to a doubt that it would ever end. She could feel it building up inside her, all that backed up need for touching and feeling, dissolving into the slap of skin. Her need grew arms and legs. She threshed and bucked against his cock, willing him on. The release when it came was fireworks that shot up through body, which made her convulse and scream into silence. She wanted more, could feel him slow and weaken inside her. His far-away eyes were that of a mariner, studying the contours of the shifting sand of her body, the slick of sweat on her skin, the puddle between her breasts. His cock slicked out of her. Then he had his hand on his cock, guiding it back into her cunt, but she jerked her hips backwards, retreating into the sprawl of the bed. His eyes were glazed with a crazed need, but she did not want him to splash his seed yet. Her right hand felt the girth and wanked his cock, the tiller of a steady rhythm between them.

‘Tell me when you’re going to come.’ Audrey took his cock in her mouth.

‘Ah’m cumming.’

There was no need for words. His cock grew harder in her mouth and he came with a long drawn out grunt.

Lonie kissed her one last time. ‘Ah love you.’ He looked into her half-shut eyes. She simply smiled and turned the other way. He snuggled into her back. They fell asleep tangled together.

Audrey’s eyes were the first to open. For a few seconds she was disorientated, taking in the Anaglyptic wallpaper and the stale smell of fag smoke. The smell of the soap she used and her sweat, and his, was joined at the hip. A hand, flung possessively across her breast, and a cock pressed up against her back, alerted her that the taste of sex was their breakfast. They made love with less urgency than the night before.

About an hour later they sat fully clothed facing each other in the living room. Lonie was smoking. Audrey was fiddling with the ball in the back of her earring, which wouldn’t settle and wondering what her mother would say.

‘Ah don’t want you to leave.’ There was a plangent tone in Lonie’s voice.

Audrey couldn’t decide whether he was joking or not. ‘I could stay.’ She looked across at him. ‘But you’d have to support me and my son…and the other baby.’ She wasn’t sure if she herself was joking now either. She tried the ball in the earring again and it seemed settled and to hold steady on the lobe of her ear.

‘Whit about the abortion?’ Lonie squinted at her through fag smoke, the bar on the electric fire heating his legs and ankles. He thought she sounded undecided.

Audrey looked over his shoulder, where he’d shelves with an old broken down record player and other junk. ‘You said you’d arranged it.’ There was urgency in her voice.

‘Ah have.’ Lonie got up and pulled open the curtains. He stood behind her chair, looking out. It was still dark and the streetlights were on. ‘Ah’ve just to get it settled.’

Audrey picked up the cup of tea. It had gone cold at her feet. She carried it through the hall and into the kitchen. She rinsed the cup with cold water and left it in the sink. Her bag and coat were sitting on the bed, in preparation for her to leave. The room retained the lingering smell of sex.

Lonie followed her through to the kitchen. He was carrying the other mug. ‘It’ll be in the next couple of weeks.’ He put his mug in the smaller sink and pulled her in close, his head on her shoulder. He kissed her, a gentle peck on the mouth, his eyes grey with sadness.

‘What will I do about the fatman?’ Audrey pulled away from him, her back up against the bigger of the sinks.

‘Nothin.’’Lonie’s head swayed back and forth as if he couldn’t decide. ‘When are you goin’ back to work anyway?’

‘I’m not sure.’ But being with him and going back to her mother helped Audrey realise how claustrophobic her home life had become. ‘Soon.’ She decided; her tongue running ahead of her thoughts. ‘Next week.’

‘Is that wise?’ Lonie burst out laughing. He didn’t think he’d done anything wise in his life. He moved in closer for a cuddle, but she skirted away from him, and round to where her bag and coat was.

‘Probably not.’ She reached for her coat and slapped at it, brushing the hair and dust off the coat tails.

‘Well, there’s something Ah need for you to do for me then.’ Lonie filled the kettle, put it on the gas ring and lit it. He took a deep breath. ‘Ah know you’ll no’ like it, but Ah need you to go and see Carol Peters.’

‘What for?’ Audrey ran her fingers through her hair to get the tugs out.

‘Well, Ah’d like you to find out how she knows that bastard Bisset.’

‘He raped her in the cells.’ Audrey put her bag on the bed, and opened it to check she hadn’t left anything and had her purse. ‘I wasn’t sure when I first read it, but from what you’ve told me I’ve no doubt it was true.’

‘Ah’ve no doubt either.’ The kettle began to boil and Lonie turned the ring down so it didn’t spill over. ‘But whit Ah need to find out is how he knew her before that and how he got her to admit to all those murders.’

‘You don’t think she did it.’ Audrey sat on the bed as the kettle whistled on the ring. Up until now work had been something of a game, but now it seemed too dangerous and she wasn’t sure she wanted to play. ‘What do you want me to do - ask her who killed those young boys?’

‘You want more tea?’ Lonie shifted the kettle sideways and turned the gas down to a peep of blue flickering light. He reached up for the tea-caddy, poured a little water into the pot and rolled it about before splashing it into the sink. He looked across at her.

Audrey nodded that she didn’t want tea.

‘Ah’m no sure.’ Lonie flung in some loose- leaf tea and filled the teapot with boiling water. He bit at his thumb nail as he stood thinking. ‘Just ask her what Chief Inspector Bisset had on her.’ He nudged the teapot onto the ring.

Audrey picked up her bag and stood up. ‘What makes you think she’d talk to me, or tell me that? I hardly know the woman.’

‘Ah don’t, but we’ve got to try.’ He pushed off from the work top stand and stood beside her, grabbing at her hand as if he expected her to pull away, opening her fingers out and kissing the palm of her hand, the smell of stewing tea percolating through the kitchen. ‘Ah love you. You’re my only hope.’

‘Ok.’ She pulled away from him. The key was in the front door. She made a dash for it, fumbling the key in the lock. He stood rooted, watching her. ‘Phone me.’ She smiled back at him from the open door.

‘Ah’ve no’ got your number.’

Audrey quickly shouted it out, catching him flat-footed, watching him scramble for a pen or something to write it down with. She slammed the door shut and running down the stairs felt she deserved a hot bath.