The Antagonist by Winthrop Murray

30 January 2022  { Crime/Thriller }


The Antagonist

 

 

The radio journalist pulled up in her mini convertible, she parked outside a detached but rather unkempt house on the outskirts of town. She sighed and seemed to be delaying going inside; she rearranged her glove compartment and sorted out her CDs. As she sat there she thought about her life, the struggle with her career and her journey to this present moment. She'd left University with grand ideas of giving ‘a voice to the voiceless’ and of supporting the underdog but over the years her feistiness had drained away; she was now just working for the money. She'd given up going to the boss with new ideas for programmes as he always said the same thing, 'The public don't want to listen to those sort of programmes. They want to hear about criminals, people being addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling and cosmetic surgery. They want to hear about sex workers and actresses discussing their necrotic breast enlargement wounds.'

 

Emily Steinbeck, for that is her name, desperately wanted to leave her current job but she was trapped due to money troubles. She'd bought a house with Dave, her life partner, but he'd left after 3 months because he 'couldn't put up with her snoring,' he was a real charmer. Emily was left with debts and a massive mortgage, so she had no choice but to keep working in a job she hated.

 

She'd originally joined the radio team hoping to do important news items on politics, child trafficking and women’s rights etc but her last assignment had been to interview a man who’d built up a hugely successful website. His massive social media presence was built around his obsession. You see, he liked to dress up his gerbils to look like minor celebrities. He'd started with gerbils dressed as Coronation Street and Eastenders characters but it wasn't until his recent photos of Liberace, Britney Spears and Robocop that he'd gone viral. He'd become an influencer, very high up in the rodent world and as such had earned thousands from advertising. The interview had been a boring and embarrassing disaster and Emily was still reeling from it.

 

Anyway, here she was outside the house of Sam Carrick whose claim to fame was that he was taking the government to court. He was objecting because they wouldn't let him record his job as ‘burglar’ on the official census record. He was going to court in order to make it a legal job name, not just on the census but also other government databases such as job seekers allowance and universal benefit scheme. He had complained in the local press about it and this had been picked up by a local charity who’d offered to pay for his court costs to bring a legal test case.

 

Emily got out of the car and rang the door bell, it was answered by Sam, a rather shifty looking individual wearing a 'Proud to be a Burglar' T-shirt. He was joined by his wife Chantelle who was wearing her own slogan T-shirt 'If you think I'm a b*tch, you should meet my mother'. Emily turned on her voice recorder and began her questions.

 

"Why is it that you want to put your job description as 'Burglar’ on official government records?" 

 

"Well it started with the Census, there was no option for a job name of burglar, I tried house breaker and various other words but they were all rejected. You see it's our family trade, I'm proud to come from a long line of burglars stretching back to the 1700s."

 

"But don't you think the fact that it's illegal means it shouldn't be accepted as a legitimate job?"

 

"Well you see it's the only job I know. My father and grandfather trained me; they had me breaking into houses when I was about seven. I was small for my age so I could easily get in through the smallest window. I don't think Mam was best pleased but they always managed to persuade her to let me go. She‘s proud of me now though and is 100% behind my campaign, she means everything to me and makes all the hard work worthwhile. We've always had a strict code of behaviour in our family business, there is to be no violence and we only rob the rich houses, my dad was always very keen on that. It is more of a vocation; I take great pride in my work and over the years I’ve become an expert in the house breaking world. I am confident that I've never hurt anyone and I've only robbed people who can afford it."

 

"But don't people get hurt emotionally knowing that strangers break into their house and steal their things?"

 

  "Well no actually I don‘t believe they do; I always leave a note apologising for any inconvenience. I take my job very seriously and work in a very professional way. Each evening I have a walk round my patch, I make notes of empty houses, unlocked cars, access points and I keep spreadsheets full of the information. I learned how to do this as part of a back to work scheme. I went on a free course learning about computers and data information and it's proved very useful in my career. In fact if you come out with me now I'll show you how it works.

 

Emily and Sam climbed into the mini convertible and drove a few miles to his 'patch.' Emily was a little concerned as he seemed to be eying up her car and asking lots of questions about mileage and petrol consumption, she couldn't wait for the interview to be over.

 

"So this is my beat" said Sam proudly “I know everyone who lives here and how to get easy access to each house. So for instance, this house” he pointed “ their wheelie bins are up against the wall, it's quite easy just to jump on one and you're over the wall before anyone notices you've gone. They don't have any lights at the back; they don't have a dog and always put on Facebook when they are going away. I know they've had a new computer delivered from the boxes in the blue bin, so I'll be paying them a visit when they’re next on holiday."

 

The interview continued on, Sam boasting and explaining that he regularly took on apprentices and trained them up, instilling the three virtues of no violence, rich homes only and apologise. Sam was very confident about his work and swaggered around sharing his knowledge obviously very much enjoying the attention.

 

As they talked Sam's mobile rang, he walked away to take the call. Emily could immediately tell something was wrong as he looked agitated and angry. He came running over, "There's something wrong at my Mam's house, can you drive me there? It's only 10 minutes up the road.”

 

Sam and Emily soon arrived at a large detached house surrounded by police cars, a blue and white tape had been draped across the driveway. A policeman stopped them at the door and explained what had happened.

 

"I’m sorry to say, it appears your Mother disturbed a burglar early this morning, I'm afraid the shock was too much for her and she died shortly afterwards. The doctor is here now, there will have to be a post mortem but he suspects it was a massive heart attack brought on by the shock." As they were speaking there was a commotion from the back of the house, there was a scuffle and a young lad was dragged into the house. He'd been hiding in the shed where a police dog had found him. Sam looked at him, their eyes met and he realised it was one of his apprentices.  Emily cleared her throat as if to speak but Sam said “Interview Over!”

 

 


Comments

We would be delighted to know if you enjoyed this story or not. Our authors crave feedback and will hang on your every word.  Your comments will only be visible to them.

 

© 2024 Stockport Storytellers
Credits   |   Sitemap