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The Sunbed and a Margarita

  Quite clearly the way forward was do as the boss said. There was no question. He was always right. Lucy Turnbull was not happy though. The system they were installing as far as she was concerned was defective. It left them vulnerable . They had significant value in client s’ funds that needed a very serious degree of protection. The system should have a built - in failsafe but didn’t . That surely was a mistake .            Lucy had worked at the solicitors for a good number of years. The office manager. Organising, arranging , dealing with the constant stream of contrary clients that fell through the door every day. The practice was large with around twenty - six legals , that’s how she referred to them, covering a vast array of fields. And all their support staff. They varied in competence. There were a few that were just simply a pain in the arse. The l egal side of their work was fine, after all, she did not get involved in that. T...
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ON BEING NORMAL

How far back was I? I counted - third in line and tapping my foot. Slowly though; I was relaxed. Thinking, what the hell , it would take as long as it took. All I was doing was beating the time of the latest fill I was trying to master on the drums. My Rolands, up in the loft, where, with headphones on, I drummed all my hard rock heroes. It’s what I did anywhere I was waiting, run the latest groove through my head tapping my foot and flicking my fingers. I was concentrating hard; this one had a complicated s hift through the toms and ride cymbal.   Still third in line. Why? The guy up front at the checkout held a scowl of despair as he packed his bags with the precision of an OCD. I looked at the steamy fella behind him - there was trouble coming for sure. The man turned, his eyes missed the lady behind him and locked onto me. Why me and not the lady I’m not sure. Perhaps he thought the words he was going to use wouldn’t suit a sweet old lady. That’s when he said, over the lad...
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They All Came Knocking

To continue to make most of my work free to read I have posted a thirty-five chapter book, THEY ALL CAME KNOCKING, that is available to read from today.  BRIEF SYNOPSIS Gloria Dubonnet runs THE SEA VIEW BOARDING HOUSE on the south coast of England but she is not all she appears to be. Who are her mysterious guests and what part in the chaos that ensues does her abused daughter play? How does gangster Jimmy Raynott fit into her life? Over the years she has accumulated a fortune but can she keep it? CLICK TO READ  
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THICK ICE

Any number of worn out cliches are capable of describing the silence that prevailed but this was different, this silence was encased in ice. Thick ice, the sort that stilled everything. So cold that even the atmosphere in the room was in danger of freezing. Thirty-four kids and not one moved, not even a twitch or a scratch. All except me that is. Why? Because I knew who had done it and that made me rapidly tap my left foot and run sweaty palms down my thighs.  
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ROT AND WOODWORM

Go down the side of my yard and you'd see a big old wooden barn covered with planks six inches wide and one inch thick with a clay tile roof. The lean? That was not due to the man slouching there, it was more to do with worm, rotten nails and weak, damp timber. He was a n older guy with a thinning grey top hanging out from beneath an old trilby and a suit that, unless his fortunes had changed during the intervening years, I suspected was his only possession.   I knew him, the man, just about the slackest guy you’d ever meet. The last time I’d seen him was way back working with the trench diggers. A guy whose idea of helping was to hold your coat and kick dust for an hour before saying his legs ached. That’s where I’d seen him, next to a trench, leaning on a shovel waiting for someone to pass him a coat to hold. His boots were already dusty. He saw me and smiled. I saw and ignored him.   Now here he was walking into my office where I knew he’d be asking for a job and ...
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JUST WHO IS ELLIOT SHALLOT

 GREAT NEWS My book JUST WHO IS ELLIOT SHALLOT is free to download from Friday 13th June until Wednesday 17th June Starting at 12am PDT CLICK LINK JUST WHO IS ELLIOT SHALLOT
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A Comedian in Texas (and the benefits of Bourbon Whiskey)

  The day a highly disheveled and ridiculous looking Henry Snook first thought he might be a comedian was the day he stood in the dock waiting to be sentenced. Those had been the judge’s words after all. Standing in a strangely lopsided way the pink six-inch stiletto, so pink it would send shocking spiraling into space, was so small it screwed up his right foot in a painful ball. Obviously on the wrong foot and pointing outwards, the right footed calf length, hand tooled leather, cowboy boot, with two-inch heel, on his left foot, was absurdly floppy being made for a giant that he hoped he would never meet again. Both were brand new. The four inch discrepancy between the height of his right and left feet was obviously the cause of his asymmetrical stance. All the evidence had been heard and the testimony of those involved including the blond salesgirl , the giant, the giant’s wife, the Car Lot owner, the patrolman , the custody sergeant and the owner of the steer had been noted...
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THE INVISIBLE MAN

I thought about it as I climbed the stairs to the smart guy’s office. In fact, I’d thought about it a lot during the last ten years and one word always came to mind: invisibility. There was no doubt about it, I was invisible . A word with the literal meaning - unable to be seen and that was me for sure because no one noticed me even though I was there all the time. I was there every single minute of every single day I was supposed to be there and without a break; I was never sick. Anyway, that’s what I told the man when he asked, that I felt invisible.
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