To Live and Die - Chapter 5 / Time to Kill (1 of 2)

Bond crept in and waited for the door to swing shut behind him. With a smile spread across his cheeks he toed the heel of his oxfords off eagerly. He would catch Miss Trench unaware and make passionate love to her, he had little time to kill. He envisioned the beautiful dark creature twisting and turning beneath the thin blue sheets half asleep. She was a light sleeper like he and could understand especially so that evening with their rude interruption. And so when he emerged into the smallish bedroom he wasn’t particularly surprised to see her missing from his bed. He was met with the sight of his white and gold striped wallpaper and blood red curtains instead.

            ‘Sylvia?’ he called out.

He hoped she hadn’t kept to her promise and backed out along the hallway, removing and tossing his jacket over the telephone, narrowly missing a vase of near dead lilies and made his way into the living room. The horrific aroma of tea could be detected lingering in the air.

            ‘Darling, be a good girl and make us both some coffee. None of that watery rubbish.’

            There came no reply. Where is the devil is she, thought Bond. Her strong ribbon blue dress lay mismatched over the back of the couch from the evening before and her open-toed stilettos lay not a great deal further from the mess of expensive material. Spotting a deserted cup of tea on the kitchen counter he tipped the rest of its lukewarm contents down the sink.

            James Bond paused for a moment and turned from the combined kitchen and living room and strode back into the bedroom. Perhaps she’s taking a shower or long bath, he thought. The edge of his elbow clipped the lilies as he passed them once again and in one swift motion, Bond turned and caught the vase in his hands. He made a mental note to dispose of them once he returned from his assignment in Berlin. The early morning sun began to penetrate the room through the perimeter of the bedroom curtains. He didn’t have long before his flight. Bond crossed the room deftly and removed his passport from his sock drawer. He could hear the faint sound of running water from the bathroom. All at once he knew something to be amiss and produced his resting gun from its holster.

Bond toed open the cream door, the Walther went in first and the rest of him followed suit. The white-tiled bathroom was incredibly large, just as large as the master bedroom itself. It was fitted with a simple but elegant glass shower cabinet and shower head. It was in the bath bobbing up and down that he spotted her.

            Sylvia was naked, faced down, spread-eagled and battered. She looked as though she had wrestled a gorilla and lost. Huge hands the size of footballs could be seen in prints at the nape of her neck and down at the wrists. The girl had put up a heck of a fight that was clearly evident. He noticed a crack in the bathroom mirror laced with congealed blood and the basin below was overflowing with cold water.

            Bond shuddered, he reached back with his hand and fell onto the toilet seat. His oxford drowning in the water. He lit a stale cigarette, drinking in its smoke deeply into his lungs and expelling it slowly through his nostrils. He caressed her outstretched ankle in his sweaty palms. His grey blue eyes looked mean as they scoured the empty shell that bobbed before him. He’d rather it be him in the bath. As he looked on her, the passionate, spirited girl he had known for so long, he noticed something dark almost spreading across her back.        

It stretched out from her spine and across her thin shoulder blades. It looked as though it was consuming her perfect corpse in its long tentacles. It  was the tattoo of an octopus. Bond licked his lips and swallowed. He felt light headed at the sight of it. Finding his feet, steadying himself on the basin, he got ready to telephone Headquarters. Instead he turned to face the toilet, tore its lid open and vomited into it wretchedly. A single drop of water attempted  to emerge from his tear duct, it choked itself back in.