To Kill a Grey Man by D C Stansfield Read Free Book Online Page B

is where my private and
personal stuff is.   The only people who
go up there are those I say can go up there and you can’t!   So get on with your jobs and when I think you
can have a break, Eli will make the tea.   Do you understand?”

 
    Jonathan thought she was now going too far and was being bloody ridiculous.   He vowed to talk to his dad.   This was his shop.   She was just the bloody manager.

 
    Later that night, when he told his dad all about it, he was surprisingly
uninterested.
    “Look son.   She is doing a
great job.   You are just back for the summer.   You don’t even have to work there.   I will give you the same money and you can
stay at home.   What do you say?”
    “That’s not necessary.   No
worries Dad.   I will find a way to get on
with her.”

 
    So over the next few days Jonathan kept his mouth shut at the shop and
Olivia bossed him around far more than she did Eli and far more than she needed
to.   Eventually the game got stale as Jonathan
put up with whatever she asked him to do and the shop started to function
properly, each person knowing their specific job and whilst there was always an
atmosphere, it all settled down.

 
    Little Tom slept in the mornings and Olivia nursed him in the
afternoon and at breaks.   Little Ben had
the run of the shop and spent a lot of time with Jonathan.   Children seem to instinctively know who has a
gentle soul and soon they were good friends.   At 3.00 pm on the days he worked, Jonathan would tell Ben a short story
and Olivia would take him upstairs for a nap.

 
    Jonathan also got on great with Eli who he had known all his life
and they happily chatted away as they worked.   Only Jonathan and Olivia did not talk.   The animosity appeared mutual and neither made any effort to break the
tension.

 
    The little shop was in the middle of a rough housing estate and all
sorts came in.   Olivia had grown up there
and knew the more difficult customers and handled the rowdier ones.   She was one of them and was not messed around.   Occasionally boys would come in and try to chat her up but she gave them short shrift.

 
    On around the third week of Jonathan joining, he was stacking
shelves and as usual Little Ben was helping, or hindering depending how you
looked at it, when in came a couple of tough looking teenagers with a dog, half
bulldog, half bull mastiff, a powerful and mean looking thing with an old piece
of string wrapped around its neck as a lead which the smaller of the two teenagers
kept tugging.

 
    Olivia knew them both and they chatted easily.   Little Ben wandered away from Jonathan and
went to see the dog who reacted nastily snapping and biting.   Little Ben, shocked, stood still and
started to cry.   The noise infuriated the
dog who lunged and the lead broke.   The
dog pounced towards Little Ben but not before Jonathan had dived full length
smashing the dog in the side and knocking him down.   The dog went crazy biting Jonathan in a frenzy as they rolled round the floor, knocking tins and
boxes from the bottom shelves.   Blood was
pouring from Jonathan’s arm and chest.   Olivia
grabbed a heavy cast iron pot from the display, rushed over and with all her
might slammed it down on the dog’s head who keeled over stunned.   She put her fingers in the dog’s mouth and prized
his jaw open which was clamped on Jonathan’s arm.   She then dragged the dog to the door, opened
it and kicked it onto the pavement.   She picked
up the pot again and advanced on the two teenagers, “Fuck off.   And don’t ever come here again.”

 
    They moved around her outstretched arms and ran out the door.   They grabbed their dog, who by now had partially recovered and ran off laughing.

 
    Jonathan sat up a bit dazed.   He checked himself over.   A few
bites but none too deep.   The blood flow
looked spectacular but he knew no real damage had been done. Little Ben ran to
him and threw his arms around his neck