•.. The Captain and The Detective

10.

CHAPTER TEN
" Happy Death Day "

Today was a day like any other. Despite the fact that the death-day for Pat had arrived once again. Later that morning, builders were supposed to arrive to fix up the house. James woke up the same as any day, with a nightmare. Same nightmare as always. But soon, he was distracted by something downstairs. More specifically, the many men who had randomly appeared at the home. Alison had mentioned builders but... he didn't expect this. The detective stood staring out of the window as the group all spoke.

"Now, it's clear that this new enemy, these builders, are deep in our territory. It's an occupation." Captain looked toward them all. "We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight—"

"On the landing?" Julian interrupted — Seemingly bored with the speech.

"Yes, all right." Captain exhaled. "Don't be glib."

"But how do we fight?" Robin asked, "we have no rocks, no sticks, no bears."

"Yeah, and other then that, they can't see us, hear us, can't even touch us." James reminded as he looked from the window toward the rest of the group. "Technically, they've already won." A loud sigh echoed from behind him causing him to slowly turn around. Thomas was staring out the window with a look of sadness. "The fuck are you doing?"

"Oh, yes, very good, Thomas." Lady Fanny turned to look at him. "We'll just sigh at them."

"You don't understand, do you?" Thomas looked at them all, away from the window. A mumble was heard from the Captain, which James hadn't caught. "She does not comprehend the profundity of my feelings for her." James let out a groan with an eye roll as he walked away from Thomas to stand next to the Captain.

"Thomas in big love with Kim Wilde." Robin looked toward Julian.

"Kim wi—? Alison?" Julian pointed at Thomas. "He's got the hots for Alison!"

"Oh, it's far more complicated than that, damn your eyes!" Thomas shouted at him. "I am attempting to compose a poem of such intricate beauty to reflect the way I feel. I cannot be expected to plot with you halfwits and work on my art!" The man stomped away from the group like an angry toddler.

"Arsehole." James muttered slightly as he crossed his arms. "I'm not a halfwit..." he paused, thinking for a moment. "Am I?"

"No, that's just all them." Captain whispered to him, gesturing toward the rest of the group who were all talking about how to shove the builders out. James watched them for a moment but he slowly nodded at the same time. The Detective shrugged before walking out into the hallway and beginning to walk up the stairs.

"—were you and mike making a baby?" He heard Kitty ask Alison as they walked through the hallway.

"Woah! Sorry!" He held up his hands, plugging his ears as he rushed back down the stairs. "Didn't mean to hear that, I'm minding my business!" As he rushed down the stairs and into the room filled with a bunch of men, he paused. He found himself glancing around awkwardly as the Captain came to stand beside him.

" Are you quite all right, James?" He asked him, his hands behind his back as he stood up straight.

"Hm? What? Fine." He shrugged with a smile as he glanced around. "Oh, by the way, Alison is coming down the stairs."

"Ah, thank you." Captain smiled before the rest of the group appeared behind him as they all rushed toward Alison. James, being curious, followed. "Ah! There you are. Jolly good, Now, look here—" As Captain went on his little rant, The Detective continued to stare at the builders passing by — distracted by almost everything.

"Please, not now!" Alison groaned as she finally walked down the steps to come face to face with Terry — one of the builders working on the house.

"Oh. Sorry. I'll—" he muttered.

"No, not you, Terry." Alison smiled, thinking of an excuse. "I was just talking to... Mike. Not now, Mike!" She shouted upstairs only for the man to shout back with utter confusion. "Yes, terry. How are you? How's it going?"

"Yeah, good, good. We've finally managed to make the roof watertight in the, erm... the back bit." He smiled.

"The east wing." Both The Captain and Lady Button rolled their eyes.

"The east wing." Alison corrected. "Thank you... Terry."

"But we have found something else. The drainage from the east wing is cracked. I don't know when it was put in."

"1894." Lady button answered despite the fact the builder could not hear nor see her.

"1894." Alison looked at the woman before looking back at Terry. "Probably, between..."

"Not now, what?" Mike asked having walked down the stairs and stood next to his wife, completely confused by everything happening. James didn't know what to do. In all honesty, the man simply wanted to face-plant on his bed and sleep for weeks.

"Not now!" Alison scoffed. "Huh! What's he like, Terry?"

"Alison, sweetheart, you're confusing us all." James muttered, shoving his hands in his trouser pockets. Alison sent a small shrug of confusion herself before turning back to Terry.

"Right. Well, it needs a lot of work to make sure it doesn't breach. I can do you a quote on top of the old one, which has gone up a bit, I'm afraid." Terry looked at the two — Alison and Mike.

"We don't have anymore money—"

"Great!" Alison interrupted her husband. "Great! We'll probably just put our head together and run some numbers up the flagpole and just see if any of that makes any sense."

Suddenly, Terry's phone started to ring cutting through the small awkward silence. "Excuse me. Excuse me." He muttered before walking off to answer the phone call.

"Yeah, by all means."

Mike watched the man for a moment before turning right to his wife with disbelief. "What are you doing? We can't just agree to more work like that. We're burning through money quicker than actually burning money."

"Mike, it's fine. This is all part of being a project manager. It's a negotiation. You get them on side, do a bit of wheeling, dealing. You gotta be mates, if you want mate's rates. He's coming, he's coming, he's coming. Listen, Tel, lets chat numbers later, and in the meantime, how about a nice cup of old Rosie lee?"

"Oh, Yeah. No milk, four sugars." Terry nodded.

Alison smiled. "Okay— watch out!" She screamed at the top of her lungs as a metal pole swiped right through the heads of Pat and Robin. All eyes turned to her out of complete confusion. "...for the sugar, Terry! Come on, that's too many. Isn't it, Mike?"

"Yeah."

"Kill me now." James groaned with second-hand embarrassment, covering his face with his hands.

"James, you're already dead." Captain's voice spoke beside him.

———————