{"id":1372,"date":"2022-09-28T12:40:16","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T12:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1372"},"modified":"2022-09-28T13:14:30","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T13:14:30","slug":"fishing-for-trout-in-unfamiliar-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/fishing-for-trout-in-unfamiliar-waters\/1372\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishing for Trout in Unfamiliar Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The knock was singular, but loud and resonant. The knock employed by people familiar with visiting the unsuspecting. Craig put down the London Literary Review and padded barefoot to the door of his SA1 apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho is it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMister Hutchens? Police. Can I have a word?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craig slid the door chain into place and opened the door. A large man in a short-sleeve shirt showing thick muscular arms and a tooth to tattoo ratio of one-to-one stood in the hallway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man held up a photograph of Clarissa Jenkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you know this woman?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he said, \u201cshe\u2019s a friend, Clarissa Jenkins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid I have some bad news,\u201d the man said. \u201cMay I come in?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craig undid the chain and opened the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man followed Craig to the living room and put the picture on the coffee table next to the Review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happened?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ignoring Craig\u2019s question, the man asked, \u201cHow well do you know her, Mr Hutchens? I\u2019d advise you to be completely truthful at this stage, as it may affect the course of my investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot very well,\u201d Craig answered. \u201cWe met at a club \u2013 the Highball \u2013 on Saturday. I went back to her place and stayed the night. I don\u2019t really know anything about her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou had sex with her?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWas it good, Mr Hutchens?\u201d The man leaned forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook, what\u2019s this about? And why is that any of your business?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man drew a stubby black object from his trouser pocket. Craig stared at the leather blackjack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not the police, are you?\u201d Craig glanced at the door and gauged the possibility of making a dash for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWas it good, Mr Hutchens?\u201d The man\u2019s voice was a low growl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what this is all about, but I think you ought to leave now before I call the real police.\u201d He picked up his phone and dialled. The man\u2019s arm snaked out and snatched the phone from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to do that, Mr Hutchens,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd don\u2019t think about running. I don\u2019t want to hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craig sat back heavily in his armchair; defeat written on his face. \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you familiar with the phrase, \u2018Groping for trouts in a peculiar river\u2019<\/em>, Mr Hutchens?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I can\u2019t say I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s disappointing. I thought you might be a man of letters,” he said glancing at the Review. “It\u2019s a quote from Shakespeare\u2019s \u2018Measure for Measure\u2019. It means taking part in marital infidelity. That\u2019s what you\u2019ve been doing, Mr Hutchens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClarissa is MARRIED?\u201d Craig\u2019s surprise was clear on his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t know?\u201d The man also looked surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen our business is done, Mr Hutchens. I won\u2019t bother you again.\u201d He sighed, rose to his feet, and walked to the door, turning to look at Craig, who was still cowering in the chair. \u201cBut if you do it again, I will return. And we won\u2019t be discussing the bard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The knock was singular, but loud and resonant. The knock employed by people familiar with visiting the unsuspecting. Craig put down the London Literary Review and padded barefoot to the door of his SA1 apartment. \u201cWho is it?\u201d \u201cMister Hutchens? Police. Can I have a word?\u201d Craig slid the door chain into place and opened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[597,676],"tags":[677],"class_list":["post-1372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-597","category-oct-2022-the-visitor","tag-infidelity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-m8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1375,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions\/1375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}