Chapter 2

Mike Cooper was angry. No, fuck that shit! Mike Cooper was, what was that expression? Yeah, he was ‘incandescent with rage’.

There was absolutely no fucking need for what had happened.

Yeah, okay, so his wife was, shit, had been, a cheating, duplicitous, conniving bitch, but there had been absolutely no need for what had happened to her.

Her lover? Douglas Williams had arguably deserved all he had received, but ... Nicki? She hadn’t deserved that. Not that. He felt tears. He grabbed a tissue from the box.

Sally reached out to him and hugged him to her. “Yeah, it’s horrible, isn’t it? Although I know he cheated on me, I still expect Dougie to walk in, pick up the boys, give me a kiss and ... and ... I can’t believe he’s gone! What a stupid, stupid, wasteful way for his life to end.

“I know I was divorcing him and you were divorcing Sally, but ... fuck! After what happened to them, I don’t know what to feel, how to react.”

Mike nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I know. It’s a pity we didn’t have some foreknowledge of how it would play out.

“All the detective knew was that he was having an affair with Nicki and that other woman up in Doncaster, in Yorkshire, but he hadn’t got any details on the husband of the woman he was having a fling with up there, so there was nothing he or we could have done to stop what happened. It’s not our fault...”

Sally finished his sentence: “I know that’s it’s not our fault. So why do we feel guilty?” She then burst into tears, taking a tissue and holding it to her eyes.

Mike shrugged and chose his words carefully. “It’s possibly because as we were the innocent dupes; we were the good guys in our marriages and they were the bad guys. Even so, I don’t feel they deserved what happened to them.”

Mike’s mind drifted back to the evening of the confrontation. After Nicki had left their, or rather what had been their apartment, he had phoned Sally and she had come over to be with him.

He had poured them a cup of tea each, and they sat on the sofa, drinking their tea. It was funny, but after months of having a torrid and hot revenge affair in retribution for the actions of their cheating spouses, all they both felt like doing was sitting and relaxing, just enjoying each other’s company, even though he had changed the sheets on the bed in preparation for her arrival.

“I can’t believe that it’s over” Sally had said.

“I know what you mean,” Mike had replied. “It’s happened, they have both left us to live in their love nest. I don’t know about you, but I’ll still miss my cheating slut of a wife.”

“And I’ll still miss my lying cheating conniving ex-husband to be,” replied Sally.

“God knows how the boys will take it. They are having a sleep-over for a couple of days with a very good friend of mine. Simon and Vincent love her and her two kids to pieces, so they’ll be quite happy there for a while.”

It had been at that point when the intercom for the flat had buzzed. Mike had glanced at Sally, saying, “Who the hell could that be?”

On the screen he saw two uniformed police officers. “Hello, Mr Cooper?”

“Yes, I’m he.”

“Can we come up, please? We have some news for you regarding your wife, Nicola Cooper.”

Mike felt his guts go liquid. “It’s the police! About Nicki!” he said to Sally. “God! She must have had a car crash!”

He buzzed the officers in and they walked into the apartment, looking as sombre as possible when wearing a modern British police uniform with the garish and brilliant reflective jackets.

“What happened? Where did she have the accident? Is she okay?”