Lost Property - Part 2

11:25

The train finally starts to slowly glide out of the station. 10 minutes late.

“Oh late again I see”, she says looking at her watch. “I do this route often and I don’t think that we have ever left on time”.

“Working or going home?” Tom asks nervously, looking at his watch again, whilst not wanting to sound too noisy.

“No no, I’m just going to see some friends. I’m getting off at Watford Junction”.

“Right. Sound.”, he says.

“And you, what about you Tom? Work or pleasure?”

“Me? Nah. I’m going home. I’ve got a small flat down there, in London. Had it for a few years now. It’s been a busy couple of days up here. I run a small business, so I’m looking for a bit of time out. You know”.

The train starts to gather up speed. Its first stop will be Stockport, in about 8 minutes. The rain is almost horizontal against the window as the train picks up speed.


11:35

The train is late as it arrives at Stockport station finally juddering to a halt at platform 2. The rain has eased slightly, but the sky is still heavy, grey and full of rain. People waiting on the platform to board the London train look as miserable and as grey as the day. The narrow train corridor soon fills up with people jostling and squeezing to find their seats. Three men, who are travelling together, appear at the end of the carriage talking and joking loudly in a foreign accent. Despite the age differences between the three men, they all look fit, in good shape and very well-dressed. The elder looking of the three wrestles with a large black holdall bag between his seat and the person behind him. It’s heavy and full, requiring the man to push it into the gap between the seats with his foot. Eventually, all three men settle down on the opposite side of the aisle from Tom and Elena, who have stopped their conversation, while watching the group of men getting settled into their seats.

The men begin to eagerly open plastic carrier bags that they brought with them. The table is soon filled with tins of beer and packets of crisps. One of the men, the younger-looking of the three, looks towards Elena and Tom and gives them both a nod and a smile, directing a longer gaze at Elena. She smiles back at him.

“We promise we won’t make too much noise”, he laughs.

His two colleagues look at him. They say something to the younger man and all three laugh together loudly. Elena recognises their accent and in English, she asks.

“You are from Lithuania?”

The men stop laughing and look at Elena as if they had been caught doing something they shouldn’t.

“Ah, so you understand us?”, says the younger of the three. “Oh no, no. We didn’t mean to be rude. I’m sorry. We’re sorry”, he says gesturing to his two companions. “We’ve maybe had a little too much to drink already, and it’s so early. Sorry”.

Elena replies to them in their native tongue just as the train begins to crawl out of Stockport station.

Wanting desperately to avoid any more conversation, Tom averts any gaze from the group of men and starts to look at his phone. There are many text messages, 20 or so filling his screen. He frowns, then looks at his watch, drawing his lips in with anger at some of the messages, and shaking his head. His Anger is starting to show to the others across the aisle.

“Tom. Please hello. Tom”, interrupts Elena. “Can I introduce you to three of my fellow countrymen?”

She points towards the younger man first, who is next to the window.

“This is Lukas.” Lukas smiles at Tom and gives him a sharp military style salute.

“Opposite Lukas is Jonas, and next to him is Kamile.”

The two men lean forward make eye contact with Tom and give him a half hearted smile and a wave.

“Alright lads”, says Tom, with a limp wave in return. “Where are you all off to then, London?”

Lukas was the first to reply.

“No. Watford Junction. We are all in the same line of business and we are meeting some of our colleagues for dinner tonight and maybe some fun later. Please, the two of you must join us. We have fun together, yes?”

The other two men laughed along with Lukas, but it was not altogether sincere. Tom noticed the insincerity straight away and politely declined.

“Sure”, says Elena. “Please Tom, you come along it will be fun”.

Tom dismisses the unwanted attention with another limp wave while forcing a smile from his angry lips.

“No really. It’s fine lads. Thanks and all that, but I’ve got a bit of a day ahead of me. Yer alright. Big night out in Watford tonight then? Nice.”

The three men look at each other, shrug and carry on drinking and chatting while noisily eating from the now fast depleting packets of crisps. They talk and laugh loudly with Elena, who has now moved across the aisle, to join the group at the remaining seat next to Jonas. Tom is relieved.

“Thank fuck for that”, he thinks to himself. “Get some peace at last.”

Text messages continued to come into Tom’s mobile phone, and as time went on his replies became more animated as he started stabbing sharply at the cracked screen, muttering under his breath with each reply. Again, Tom’s behaviour didn’t go unnoticed.

“Tom. Is everything ok?”, Elena asks, making Tom almost jump out of his skin.

“Yeah. All good ta. It’s just work stuff. I have to put up with so much crap these days. Everyone around me is just useless. Better doing it all myself these days”.

“You know what they say, Tom, All working and no playing makes Jack a dull guy.” Laughs Elena.

“Work,” said Tom. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, with a heavy emphasis on the word Jack.

“Or rather Tom,” said Elena laughing, waving a finger at him.

Tom is becoming restless. His phone constantly vibrates as messages are still coming in, and the fucking noisy Lithuanian chimp tea party next to him making a racket…, and, oh for Christ's sake… He throws the phone down on the table.


13:05

The train slows down as it starts to enter a long tunnel just outside of Watford Junction. The three men and Elena begin to pack up their things quickly in preparation to disembark the train.

“Nice to meet you, Tom. Are you sure you won’t join us? Drinks and dinner in the Marriott and who knows what else later? Come. Please Tom.” says Lukas, who by now had consumed quite a lot of warm tinned beer.

Elena smiles at Tom, which quickly dissolves as she looks at Jonas.

“Nice to meet you Tom and sorry for the coffee accident”.

“Yer alright Elena. No problem. Have a great night tonight, but be careful with these rascals.”

“Rascals. What are these rascals?”, said the elder-looking man of the three.

Elena translates and they all laugh together looking at Tom weaving a finger at him as if he is being chastised like a naughty schoolboy. In turn, they all say goodbye to Tom and shuffle their way down the corridor towards the exit.

Tom throws the full weight of his body into his seat with a deep long sigh.

“Jesus Christ”, he mutters to himself. “Jesus fucking Christ”, he says with more anger through gritted teeth. He hits his phone with the side of his fist. The crack on his phone screen has now grown.

The train starts gently moving along the platform. He lays his head back into the seat and stares at the ceiling. The next and final stop is London Euston.


13:40

After several short stops and starts, the train finally comes to a halt at Euston station. 14 minutes late. Tom gets up from his seat aching and tired and starts to gather his things. He pulls his rucksack from behind his seat, turning his body around to put it on his back. As he does so he sees a large black hold-all bag in the space between the seats across the aisle from his. The bag that was put there by his noisy, drunken Lithuanian travel companions. He looks in front of him, then cautiously behind. He then looks out of the windows on both sides of the carriage.

“Dozy twats”, he mumbles to himself.

He starts to pull the bag from between the seats, but it’s stuck fast. He has to use all his strength to get it free. He almost falls backwards as the bag is suddenly released from between the seats. It’s heavy.

“What the bloody hell…”, as he takes a second glance around the now empty train, and again outside.

He picks up the heavy bag, shakes the bag by the handles to get a good grip and places it on the table. Again he looks down the train aisle and out of the windows on both sides and begins to slowly unzip the bag. He opens the bag wider with both hands to get a better look inside. It appears to be full of brand new clothes, designer clothes all neatly folded and packed with boxes of brand new underwear just under a top layer of trendy shirts and tops. Smiling Tom closes the bag, looks around him again and starts to gently whistle as he exits the train, and out of the station for an Uber cab and home.

STATIC

Lost Property - Part 3  (18+) Part 3 - A chance meeting on a train that leads to a double cross and death #2324958 by Bill Whyte