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now that I had possessions. I put my small
acquisitions inside the cigarette box, and was almost cheerful as I walked
along the unknown streets. At ten o’clock I stopped in an alley to empty my
bowels. I wiped myself clean on dead leaves that had collected against the
wall. As I said, I am a fastidious woman.
    The
rain had left puddles in the cracked pavements, and I dabbled my fingers in
them and licked the stony moisture as I journeyed on without a destination.

 
     
     
     
     
    10 The Local
Paper
     
    Bread Knife stared at the
front page of the local evening paper. Her daughter’s photograph stared back. ‘It’s
in,’ she said. And handed the paper to her little round husband.
    ‘Well,
I’m disgusted with the whole business,’ he said, after silently reading the whole
of the front page.
    ‘It’s
bad blood coming out,’ said Bread Knife. This was a reference to her husband’s
mother, Ruby, a woman now dead but who was known to have frequented violent
public houses and had mothered many children. One, a half-caste, now living in
Cardiff. Ruby had never married.
    So
Tennis Ball was illegitimate. He had no idea who his father was and he didn’t want to know, thank you very much. When Ruby was on her way out, soon to die,
she had sent for him, but he hadn’t gone, fearing deathbed confessions and
sloppy physical contact.
    ‘They
say it misses a generation, don’t they?’ he said.
    ‘Well,
it has in this case, hasn’t it?’ said Bread Knife.
    Tennis
Ball got up from the sofa and went into the kitchen and placed the newspaper
inside the waste-bin under the sink.
    Out of
sight, out of mind.
     
    KILLER HOUSEWIFE
    ‘COULD STRIKE AGAIN’
WARNING
    Today residents of the
Grey Paths Council Estate were recovering from the shock-revelation that one of
their neighbours, Coventry Dakin, was wanted for the murder of Gerald Fox, who
was battered to death yesterday. Her husband, Derek Dakin, interviewed by our
reporter, Sandra Topping, said, ‘My wife has always been a gentle, timid
person. I can only think that she is mentally ill.’ Asked if he knew of an
alleged love tangle between his wife and the murdered man, Mr Dakin commented, ‘I
don’t know what to believe. Coventry has never shown any interest in other men
before.’
    Balding,
bespectacled, neatly dressed Mr Dakin, a supervisor at Hopcroft Shoes Ltd,
broke down and wept. ‘She would literally not kill a fly; I had to shoo them
out of the window with a rolled up newspaper.’
    The
children of the blonde killer, John, 17, and Mary, 16, are staying with their
grandmother, Mrs Edna Dakin, in her pensioner’s bungalow. ‘She was a dark
horse,’ said Mrs Dakin. ‘Nobody ever knew what she was thinking.’
    Asked
if Mrs Dakin was surprised that her daughter-in-law was wanted for murder, Mrs
Dakin replied, ‘Not really.’
    The
wife of the murdered man, Mrs Carole Fox, was today under deep sedation in
hospital. Her children, who witnessed the horrific slaying, are being cared for
by friends. Mr D. J. Broadway, headmaster of John Kennedy Primary School, where
the children are pupils, said: ‘I expect they will be off school for a few days.’
Asked to comment on the murder he said: ‘Grey Paths Estate has no community
centre; people have nothing to do in the evening.’
    The
County Police Force have issued the following description of Coventry Dakin: ‘She
is 5 ‘8” tall, of slim build, with blonde hair and brown eyes. When last seen
she was wearing blue bell-bottom trousers and a grey sweatshirt printed with a
tortoise design.’
    A
police spokesman added: ‘One theory for the murder motive is that Coventry
Dakin struck out in anger after Gerald Fox told her that their affair was over.
Another is that Coventry Dakin is a member of a fanatical feminist undercover
group who are pledged to eradicate men.’ When asked what evidence he had to
sustain such a startling theory, the spokesman said, ‘Several informants have
come forward and Dakin was