National novel writing month (chapters 7 and 8 - unedited)

Chapter 7

Joe, on the defence.

Joe was curious about the favour Lance was asking about, but forgot
about it as he entered the office the next day. Peter was pacing around
his office as joe sat at his desk and fired up his PC. Peter beckoned
to him from behind his office window and Joe got up and went into see
him.

"close the door" Peter ordered, with very little authority, Joe
shrugged and pushed the door closed.

"We've had a complaint"

"from Ms Carpenter?" joe countered

"You know about all this then"

"I know she fucked up"

"she said that you taped her illegally"

"because?"

"because you didn't ask her permission"

"fair enough, but we could argue that I was taping the sounds of the
pub with the landlord's permission" Joe knew the landlord very well,
that wouldn't be a problem.

"and anyway, I can make a statement, verifying what I heard, and it can
be backed up with a statement from Barry"

"barry was there?"

"it was his dictaphone, and he filmed the incident when she threatened
me"

"she didn't mention that"

"quelle surprise"

"play the tape"

They sat in slience as first, the tape played, then barry came in and
played the mobile phone footage. Peter was visibly pissed off as her
points were rammed home, also visibly pissed off as it seemed that Joe
was the only person who seemed to be aware of her game, visibly
embarassed as he realised that Joe had told him several times and he
had not believed him.

"I think we should call her bluff" joe announced, with me and barry
prepared to sign witness statements detailing what she said and the
threat she made, at the very least it might shut her up for a while.
Which would be a brucie bonus for evetone in the office. Peter seemed
doubtful, but also was reluctant to do any work on this, preferring his
graphs and flow charts.

"can you draft a response?" Joe nodded.

He would do it after lunch, even though it was only 10 in the morning,
he really couldn't be arsed thinking about the woman until at least
2pm. He sat at his desk and absentmindedly picked up the ringing
telephone

"you think you're fucking clever don'tt you"

"I'm sorry, who is this?"

"you know who the fuck i am, don't take the fucking piss"

"i don't take the piss, is there something you want to discuss as i am
very busy"

"I want to know why you taped me"

" i wasn't taping you, we were trying out barry's new toy, you just
happened to be there at the same time, and once you started it seem a
pity to stop you mid flow"

"you can't use it you know, you should have got my permission"

"we'll let the lawyers decide that shall we, we'll also let them decide
whether they can accept two sworn statements from myself and from barry
detailing what you said in the pub, I'm pretty sure they would be
admissable in court"

"Why are you doing this"

"I wasn't doing anything, you decided to go to a pub and yell out what
you were doing and why"

"I didn't know you'd be there"

"that was unlucky"

There was a long pause, the kind of pause that made you think that the
caller had hung up, but couldn't have as the call was still live. He
let her think, let her stew, he was enjoying this.

"listen, I know you probably think i'm an awful complaining old witch"

"I don't think you're old"

For the first time he heard Ms Carpenter really laugh, and it wasn't an
unpleasant laugh, it wasn't the laugh of unpleasant old witch (he'd
heard that laugh in the pub) it was a genuine, bubbly laugh, he didn't
like the fact that he liked it.

"I'd like to meet up to discuss this of the record"

"I don't think that's a good idea"

"look , if you meet, i'm willing to drop everything"

Joe was desperate to make a joke about that line, but refrained.

"you're not in a good position anyway"

But he was intrigued, he couldn't help it, all of the sudden, he was
intrigued about her, and intirgued about Lance's favour.

"i know" she continued, "but there are things i'd like to tell you, off
the record"

"I know i'm going to regret this, but ok, where and when?"

"She named a pub in upper street"

He agreed.

He was still going to draft the letter though.

Chapter 8

Ms Carpenter's post mortem

Ms Carpenter hadn't stayed at her friends and got stoned, she had left
the pub said goodbye quickly and headed home. She hadn't slammed the
door when she entered the house, hadn't whacked the stereo up the the
max, instead she lit a joss stick, lit a joint, and sat in the near
darkness, the only light from the street lamp outside. She had even
entered the house as quietly as possible, she didn't want anyone to
know she was at home. She knew she had fucked up, and she began to
question how the hell she had got herself to the place she was in. She
couldn't answer the questions she was asking herself, why have I made
their lives a misery?, she said of her neighbours, why can't they enjoy
the garden? to both questions she didn't have an answer, the joint
wasn't helping, it made her feel sad. She had spent 2 years carefully
collecting her so-called evidence, spent a fortune on stamps , phone
calls as she took a series of complaints as far as they could go. She
hadn't had sex for 2 years, she had become consumed by this case, and
what would she get out of it?

And what was she doing meeting Joe, he was hardly going to listen to
anything she said, well he had agreed to meet , so that was a start.
She didn't have anything to tell him, anything that would get her out
of the shit anyway. She knew she had to think positively, the tape, was
damaging, but they wouldn't be able to use it, Joe and his mate could
make statements though and they were damaging. She didn't know if the
association would try to evict her, but it remained a possibility. She
faced the fact that she might have to withdraw her complaints against
the association and make peace with them, and try and make peace with
her neighbours, that would be difficult, they did fucking annoy her.
But strangely, not as much as before.

Maybe it was the lack of sex, maybe she needed to get laid she thought,
she did miss it, but the last guy was such a knob, she'd found it
difficult to think of any man as not being a knob. Maybe she needed a
full-time job, if she worked , she wouldn't be able to spend all this
time on her campaign, filling her level arch files and her computer
files with all my evidence, she could also afford to get drunk more,
get stoned more, working was suddenly looking more attractive. She
would have to explain away 3 years of not working, she could use the
old standby, travelling, but then she would have to make up stories
about where she'd been, and she was bound to run into someone who would
find her out. She could claim depression, she wasn't depressed, she was
angry, was that a medical condition?.

She looked at her watch and realised she had been sitting in the dark
for nearly 2 hours, she realised she liked the quiet, some of the time.
She needed to sleep now, she would think about her strategy after a
nights kip.

This did refresh her, and she felt angry again, angry at that dick head
of a housing officer taping her in the pub, she was on the phone to his
manager as soon as thje clock struck 9, she'd fuck him up, it was the
only way. She ranted at the manager, he promise to investigate, he
assured her that he would be speaking to joe as soon as he got off the
phone to her (which she thought was his way of telling her to fuck off)
She put the phone down and felt guilty, did she really want to fuck joe
around?, get him into trouble? Gawd, what was wrong with her? why did
she suddenly care, she needed to speak to this man, and she found
herself almost in a trance, ringing him up, and putting the phone down
after asking him to meet her for a drink and a private chat. why the
fuck had she done that. what was she going to say to him, meet him in a
pub. It was like a fucking date, suddenly she wandered what she was
going to wear. Snap out of it girl, she shouted at herself, wear what
the fuck you like, it isn't a fucking date, but part of her thought it
was, and part of her was suddenly looking forward to it.