John Baker’s Blog

‘That guy you used to be married to? What was his name?’
‘Carl?’ Sheila said.
‘Carl. Yeah. There’s a new woman at school; cleaner, used to know his sister. What happened to him?’
‘He’s in Warsaw. Dunno what he’s doing, whether he’s still with whatsherface.’
‘Warsaw. In Poland?’
‘Last I heard, yeah. He always did go in the wrong direction.’
Sheila [...]

Studs was seventeen. He wore a checked jacket and designer blue-jeans and a black silk shirt with a button-down-collar. He was skinny with a mop of blond hair and full lips. He wore a little mascara and a single ring in his right ear.
His brother, Shelly, a year older, was taller by several inches. Shelly [...]

It wasn’t an everyday event. Bodies weren’t. Altogether, not in this part of the country. You could be a serving officer for your whole life and not come into contact with a body. Maybe in London, Manchester, Birmingham, big cities. In those places you would have to deal with bodies, still not every day, but [...]

The Gents consisted of a row of cubicles on one wall and a row of wash basins on the other. There was a mirror over the wash basins and shared access to liquid soap. Three urinals stood like soldiers on the wall opposite the entrance. The chemicals used to soften the stench of waste matter [...]