Accidents Happen A Novel

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE



Magnus arrived back from Gabe’s garden at 10.30 p.m., took off his jacket, and sat on the bed, satisfied.

The woman was in London and wouldn’t be back till late.

The boy was on the trampoline for the night.

Lifting Kate’s laptop up from the floor, Magnus climbed into Jack’s bed, put the laptop on his knee, turned on the small reading lamp beside Jack’s bed that no one could see from outside, and stuffed into his mouth a flapjack that he’d taken from the kitchen.

This was his third. He’d also had a spoonful of half a lasagne he’d found in the fridge.

As he finished the flapjack he gave a loud burp, then settled back down.

Right, it was time.

Magnus pulled up a blank document and thought for a long time what to call it. It had to be something the woman wouldn’t notice, that could sit among the documents on her computer, unseen by her.

He thought of the perfect phrase in his own language, then translated it to the best word he could think of in English.

‘Brr brr, brr,’ he sang.

Then he carried on typing, carefully looking at each word, checking back on the handwritten note he’d brought from next door to make sure he had the English words right.

When he’d finished he sat back with a sigh, contented. He saved the document, and hid it among her folder called ‘accounts’. The last time she’d looked in there was when she did her tax return in January.

Magnus lay back, shut the laptop and closed his eyes for a moment on Jack’s bed.

He preferred Kate’s room. It smelt of that nice vanilla hand-cream.

But after the blonde woman had nearly caught him in the house last Saturday night, he was going to stay in the boy’s room, with the main lights off this evening, just in case she turned up again, sticking her little pointy noise into his business. It was nice and cosy here. He might just stay here for a while and think through whether there was anything else to do before he wrapped this up for good.

With a tinge of sadness he suddenly realized that tonight would be his last night in the woman’s house.

He’d nearly done what he came here to do.

Magnus shut his eyes, just for a moment, saving himself for the last.