A Holiday For Hyman - Part 1

A  Holiday For Hyman - Part 1

By Paul McCann

The work of a private detective is very demanding . It drains mentally and physically making you dreary and dangerous .  It can be stressful and very challenging and you must be equal to any given situation that may present itself . Whenyou are in the business of private investigations you must be ready to grab tightly with both arms when an opportunities knocks .

A private detective will never know when that may happen and at any given time you may be asked to put your life on the line to tackle any job whatever and wherever the case may be .

Sadly though for Hyman it had been a long drink between times when he had been called to put his life on the line .   In fact it had been three years since he had laid down life and limb on a case .

At one time in his life Hyman had to chase work and spent many hours listening to police scanners and paying off local identities for inside information . Once Hyman was the man with his finger on the pulse .

Hyman was the man with the knowledge . Street wise and in the know . He was on the ball and in touch . His network of people came to him and after a while he didn’t have to look for work because there was more than enough to keep him going . Maybe that success made him lazy . He began to sit back and enjoy some of the fruits of his labour . Maybe he hadn’t noticed how much he was drinking . Eventually Hyman himself became his own mystery case .

As yet he hadn’t been able to solve it . The years went by and he couldn’t quite get a grip on himself . He had made lots of excuses why he had pushed away clients in the past . His desk was littered with letters unanswered and pleas for assistance from people . Somehow Hyman had vanished inside a liquefied agenda that was filed in the out tray for future reference .

Until the day Hyman was able to confront his demons that wasn’t able to happen . Apart from the drink there was no future reference happening in his life .

 

One cold and rainy morning as he lay there on a three legged sofa of his dingy upstairs office in East London Hyman drained the last few drops out of an empty bottles of whisky .

After convincing himself that it was the last drop from the last bottle he had Hyman tossed it across the room . The bottle landed upon his desk before rolling gently on to an empty chair were it  just lay there taunting him .  He got up from the sofa and the bottle fell off the chair and  rolled across the wooden floorboards to his feet .

 

Hyman gave a grunt and a groan and said .

“ Another crazy day stuck in this tomb. I wish the phone would ring or a knock  would come upon the door . There is nothing to do and nowhere to go . All I   can do is wait . ”

So he scratched his chin and the course sound of unshaven bristles ran through his head like a freight train going through a tunnel . He had never even realized that he grown a beard . He slowly shuffled across the floor past the desk and into the bathroom . Standing in front of the mirror he took a deep breath and blew some of the dust off . The he had a real close look .

He shook his head and lifted the octagonal shaped mirror from its hook .

He turned the mirror around and placed it back on the hook . Again he had another look into the mirror . He slithered away out of the bathroom and made his way over to the desk . He sat down and stood up again and made his way back to the bathroom where he had another look at himself in the mirror .

The face that gazed back at him was not one that he recognized . He bent over the sink and wiped his face with water and then said to himself . 

“Hyman you need a holiday .”

He looked at the reflection of himself in the mirror and was amazed at the change in his appearance . He hadn’t been looking after himself very well and it showed . He began to talk out loud ,

“ What are you doing stuck in a dirty old place like this ? Just look at yourself . You are an old man wasting away in here .”

He poked his tongue out at himself and laughed . He fingered his nose and ran his hand through his blonde curly hair and continued to talk with the man in  the mirror .

“You should be dancing . You could even be sunning yourself on some tropical island or sailing on the open sea . You could have a pretty woman hanging off your arm walking on a beach . But look at you Hyman . Those aren’t laughter lines under your eyes . They’re more like black holes in a distant galaxy where no one has ever gone before . Hyman you need to get a life . You’re slowly dying and if you don’t act quick you’ll be buried in some lonely plot with sheep shitting on your headstone . Hyman I refuse to look at you anymore until you clean yourself up ”.

 

Hyman turned the mirror back around again to face the wall and returned to his desk .

He sat down on his chair and stared up at the ceiling . It was damp in patches and stained with nicotine . The plaster on the walls was peeling off . The carpet had holes and the office was cluttered with rubbish . The place was  a disaster . As he started to sort through the litter on his desk things began to take shape . He found a pen and a telephone . Next he discovered note books and unopened letters . Suddenly the phone rang . Hyman was shocked .

He hadn’t heard the phone ring for quite some time . He was nervous and hesitant about picking up the receiver . He was almost ready to answer the phone when it stopped ringing .

He hurriedly tried to plug in the answering machine but the recorded message went into playback mode  .

“Hello I can’t get to the phone . I’m at a meeting but your call is important so if you want to leave your number after the tone do so after the beep .”

Hyman spat on the floor . Then he bent down a lifted up one of the floorboards and from the hold he took out a small metal cashbox . He took some clothes from a filing cabinet and went to his desk and wrote a message on a scrap of paper . The words were written boldly and in a large case .

“Back In A Week Or Two ”

 

 

He hammed the message with a few thumb tacks in the door of the office  and grabbed a few more things and threw his belongings in an overnight bag and walked out of the office . He closed the door behind him and headed off down the stairs . The staircase groaned and creaked under his feet . At he walked out on the pavement the bright sunlight blinded him . He squinted and made his way through the pedestrians on the footpath .  Somehow he kept upright and made his way along Kingsland Road where he finally boarded a bus to Liverpool Street station .    He went upstairs and took a seat at the back of the bus . Sitting there with clouded thoughts running through his mind Hyman  drifted back to the times when things were much different . He could recall his eagerness as a young private detective . His perception used to be so sharp and he this supreme confidence that personified everything he did . Those were golden days indeed . As he saw all that he also remembered what brought him down blind man bluff street . It was when he had found fame that drink came .

He was enjoying the game of life too much . Weekend parties with lots of  drinking that led to daily parties with more drink and eventually the parties stopped and years of hard drinking ensued . Heavy handed treatment and hard hearted ways put a hardened edge on his weary wrinkled face . Hyman was out of the game now and on the skids . His reputation was shot and so was  the respect he had earned with colleagues at Scotland Yard . His contacts on the street wrote him off and in the eyes of people who mattered Hyman was just a lost cause . Hyman realized that he was never going recapture the way things used to be but somehow he if he could change where he was and what he had become maybe there was a chance he could redirect and achieve new goals towards building a better future . Hyman knew that if he could lay off the drink things would go better for him . He needed to make that decision himself . Hyman wanted to get back to doing what he did best . He wanted his business to boom again . At this  moment the bus pulled up near the old Petticoat Lane market and Hyman got out of his seat and made his way downstairs and jumped off the bus . He was lucky to have kept on his feet . He made his way to the underground and got a tube to Piccadilly . He made an exit from the Western gate at Piccadilly to the street where he walked into Nat West bank and drew out about  fifteen hundred Euro . Enough to last him for a week or two . After a shave and a haircut at a barber he stopped at a café in Bond Street for a coffee and some space to clear his head .  For most of the morning he noticed signs on buses and advertisements that said Discover Ireland . 

It seemed everywhere he had been there were travel agencies with posters that promoted holidays in Ireland . Hyman was almost hypnotized and on an impulse he decided that he would do it . He checked out some options and with nothing else on the agenda he did a little shopping , bought some more clothes and booked a flight . That evening he was on a tube heading for Heathrow airport . Bound for the wild west of Ireland Hyman had decided his discovery of Ireland would begin in Cork .

The plane was no sooner up and it was landing again . Hyman had landed in the Irish republic . He stood there as a little taxi pulled up beside him . The driver of the taxi got out and leaned over and said .

“Welcome to our country .”

As the driver took his bag and Hyman said ,

 “How do you know I’m not from here ?”

“Sure don’t I know just about everybody in these parts and I can’t say I’ve ever seen you around here .”

Hyman got into the front of the taxi .The driver closed the door and got in and drove away . He looked over and said ,

“Right then . By the look of it you’re here for a holiday . Am I right ?”

Hyman replied ,

“ Yea you’re right . Tell me . Have you ever thought about becoming a private detective ? ”

The driver laughed and replied ,

 “If I could make a living out of it I would . ”

Hyman  said ,

“Is there much money to be made driving taxis then ?”

The driver replied ,

“Oh just enough to get by . Now tell me sir , where are you headed ?”

“Do you know any good hotels ?”

“Well now there the Jury’s hotel . They say that’s the best ?”

Hyman replied ,

“Ok then can you take there ?” The driver continued ,“Now for a small fee there’s also my personal guided tour of Cork with a detailed description of every bed and breakfast hotel, motel, boarding house and squat known in existence . Would you rather that instead ?”

 

Hyman looked over at the driver and said ,

“  I want to discover Ireland ”?

The driver said ,

“Right then say no more .  I know the exact place to bring you .”

Twilight had fallen as the driver made his way through the streets of Cork .

“Is it near here ?”

Hyman asked .

 

“Well for a man of your station I’d say it’s near enough ?”

The driver looked over a smiled .

It remained very quiet for a while and just when Hyman thought the driver was giving him a discovery tour of Ireland the taxi slowed down and came to a stop . The driver got out and pointed at this well established two story  guest house . He seemed happy to sell this particular place to Hyman and said .

 

“The food here is as good as you’ll ever taste . There is a room service with pretty girl maids and for what its worth you’ll not get better value for your money this side of the Blarney Stone .”

It was now getting dark and Hyman didn’t like the idea of traveling all over town he said ,

“Ok . I’ll give it a go . How much do I owe you . ”

The driver looked at his watch and said ,

“Well time is the thing you see . I suppose we’ve been on the road for a while and with the cost of petrol the way it is I suppose Twenty Euro would fix up the damage sir .”

 

“No problem .”

Said Hyman, who grabbed his bag and opened the passenger door of the taxi and went over to the drivers side of the car . He took his wallet from his inside pocket and the driver had a birds eye view of a large wad of notes that Hyman was holding . The driver pretended not to notice all the money and as he took the fare he said  .

 

“So then you’re off to discover Ireland ?”

“I am .”

Hyman replied.

“Good luck then .”

The driver took off up the road and Hyman walked up the path to the front door of the guest house . Hyman never saw the driver stop up at corner .

The driver got out and went over to talk to this young red haired girl who was standing there . He whispered something into her ear and pointed in the direction of the guest house . The young red head quickly walked off I that direction and the taxi driver got back into his car and drove away at speed .

The red head pushed her way through the front door and into a room on the ground floor . Hyman never saw the young girl come through as he was busy signing in at the reception area . The owner of the guest house was getting keys organized and never saw the red hair either . The young girl peeked out from the slightly opened door and watched to see what room Hyman was given .

The owner of the hotel handed Hyman a key and said

“Here you are Mr Cohen . Your key to room twenty . It has a double bed , a bath and shower . A flat screen digital TV and DVD player . I’m sure you will be very happy there . Enjoy your stay with us .”

Hyman took the key and the owner called for some staff to assist Hyman to the room . Two very pretty girls in green dresses almost overpowered Hyman with assistance . They fired questions and begged him to sit down .

Hymans head was going around with their constant pleas  .

“Can I get you a drink ?”

“Can I take your bag ?”

“Can I get you today’s newspaper?”

“Would you like something to eat ?”

“What about a nice bath sir ?”

Hyman was stunned with the welcome and replied .

“Well thank you I would like to see the paper .  I can carry my own bag thank you and I think a light supper would be nice . Maybe a sandwich a some tea or  perhaps a toasted scone with jam or something like that . If you could run me a hot bath I’d be very grateful . If I need anything else I’ll let you know .”

No sooner had he spoken and it was being seen to . The staff went off in different directions . Before Hyman made the staircase he was handed a newspaper and some magazines . He took them and then climbed the stairs to his room . Sneaking out from the shadows came the red haired girl who made her way into the staff laundry where she dressed in one of the  green uniform dresses . She went upstairs to room twenty and knocked on the door . Hyman open the door and the red head pushed her way inside . She opened a few drawers and checked the wardrobe , Then she lifting the phone that she had already unplugged and said .

“ Hello reception this is Molly in room twenty . The room seems to be clean and I’m just going to run the bath and fix the bed for Mr Cohen .”

She hung up the phone and Hyman never blinked .

Looking at her he said  .

“Right then Molly . Thank you . I’ll just unpack and get myself settled .

Its been a long day and I’m looking forward to soaking a hot bath . ”

The maid put the stopper in the bath and ran the water taps . With her eye on  Hyman the whole time . Hyman took off his coat and hung it in the wardrobe .

The wardrobe had a selection of coat hangers . On one of the hangers there was a white bathrobe . On some of the other hangers there were complimentary pajamas , a rain coat and a business shirt  . On a shelf in the wardrobe there were some spare pillows and blankets .

 Hyman took of his shoes and socks and placed them inside  the wardrobe .

He half undressed to the waist . The maid in the bathroom began to hum a sweet melody . Then she placed the shaving mirror in a perfect position where she could see Hyman’s movements  from the seclusion of the bathroom .

Hyman took his wallet from his pocket and stashed it under the rug near his bed . After a few moments he sat down on a chair beside the bed .                      End Of Part 1

 

 

 

 

part 2  link

https://www.abctales.com/story/mcscraic/holiday-hyman-part-2