Incinerator by Niall Leonard Page B

just closed my eyes. The morning sunlight wasbursting through my flimsy orange curtains, but although I hit snooze and tried to grab another few minutes of shuteye, it was no good. I lay there staring at the slope of the peeling ceiling instead. I had hoped the run and a good night’s sleep would straighten out my thoughts, but they seemed to have curved back on themselves and melted together in a mess like overheated plastic. Had Nicky really been planning all along to rip me off, or was it just a spur-of-the-moment thing? I didn’t want to listen to her sister, but then Susan wasn’t the one who’d cleaned out my account.
    Lost in a dark maze of contradictions I showered, shaved and ate breakfast in something like a trance before mopping the gym floor, wiping down the equipment and stomping downstairs to open the doors. Delroy showed up at his usual time, grunting and panting as he reached the top of the stairs, and I brought him a cup of tea without him having to ask.
    “If this is your apology for disappearing last night,” he said, “I accept.”
    “I did call the office,” I said. “But no one answered the phone.”
    “Then why didn’t you try my mobile?”protested Delroy. “Or text me?” Dammit. My dad had been so crap with his mobile phone I’d expected Delroy to be too, but he always kept his charged up and ready, though nobody ever called him except me.
    “Sorry,” I said.
    “So what was you up to anyway?”
    “I had some business in town.”
    “With that Nicky?”
    “No, I didn’t see Nicky.”
    He seemed relieved. If only he knew.
    Half an hour later the gym was throbbing with activity, and I was busy extracting a bent pin from the bottom of a massive pile of weights some macho twerp had dropped while showing off. I caught the acrid smell of cheap tobacco and looked round.
    Sherwood’s greasy gopher Elvis was swaggering down the aisle between the running machines like he owned the place, or soon would, a lit roll-up glued to the corner of his mouth. I looked over at the front desk. Daisy was staring at me, her face pale with fear. I didn’t like to think what Elvis had said to her when she’d tried to stop him entering.
    Elvis paused in front of a treadmill wherePam, one of our regulars, was running. He smirked as he watched her breasts bounce, tapping ash from his roll-up onto the floor.
    I walked up behind him and plucked the stub from his fingers, and when he turned I screwed it out on the lapel of his leather jacket. “No smoking,” I said, and offered him the crumpled stub. He ignored it.
    “Nice place you have here,” he said, glancing back at Pam, whose face was now bright red, and not from exertion. “Is it insured?” Subtle he wasn’t.
    “Members only,” I said, “and I don’t think you’d pass the physical.”
    Delroy emerged from the changing room, and when he saw me talking to Elvis he stopped and braced himself, as if I was going to send Elvis over to him.
    “Mr. Sherwood says hello.” Elvis smiled at me, as if I might have forgotten who he worked for. His teeth were the same sickly shade of yellow as his fingers.
    “Tell him he can send a postcard next time,” I said. “I’ll see him tomorrow, like we arranged.”
    “Today,” he said. I might have blinked.Surely Sherwood hadn’t heard already about Nicky stealing my money? “Like, now,” said Elvis.
    “I’m busy,” I said. I needed time to go to the Law Society offices and sort out my compensation claim. I didn’t want to turn up in Sherwood’s joint clutching an IOU. Also I didn’t want him to think I would jump whenever he clicked his fingers. Then again, I didn’t want it to look like I was avoiding him, either. “I’ll see him at four,” I said.
    Elvis shrugged like he didn’t give a damn, coughed, cleared his throat and spat on the floor. Then he turned on his heel and walked out. As he passed Delroy he gave a cheery nod like they were old mates, but kept walking. I went to fetch the