French Life - Mr Allen 6

05/07/2007 by Uncle.

I sipped my Earl Grey (No Russian EG I am afraid) and chomped on a rather tasty fig roll. I stopped eating fig rolls some time ago and I couldn’t for the life of me remember why.  Very moreish indeed.
“Well would somebody like to explain your side of the story?” I asked hopefully.

Mr Allen let out a big sigh and nodded

“Look” He said ” About the gun, I really am awfully sorry I was frightened, can you forgive me?”

“Of course I can you were frightened and felt you needed to defend yourself.  Better to be safe than sorry, no harm done” I said through gritted teeth.

“Well it is not a very complicated story really” continued Mr Allen

Hmmm we will see I thought

“My sister who you met in Egham has a personality disorder. Of course back when she was younger it was not diagnosed she was just considered a delinquent. Anyway she was very promiscuous and in fact was little more than a prostitute. In fact I think she probably was at one stage. It was sex, drink and violent behaviour. The long and the short of it was she got pregnant. Of course she had no idea who the father was. No abortions back then, well there were back street abortions of course but people in our circles didn’t know how to get them. The worst thing was the shame for our parents. My mother had stroke and stayed in a coma for some time before she died and my father had a heart attack and died before Amy was born.  She killed them”

He took a sip of his tea and ate a bit of biscuit.

“Well after the birth, my sister got worse. Post natal depression I suppose. She really hit the bottle and I had to do something for the baby.  So I moved us to Egham where nobody knew us. I just had to get away from where we were known. We had quite a bit of money because we sold our parents house so I was able to buy that bloody barn of a house. When we moved in everyone just assumed we were man and wife and that Amy was my daughter. Indeed I raised Amy like she was my daughter, except she wasn’t my daughter, but oh my God she was her mothers daughter sure enough”

“But surely people must have noticed and what about your friends and people in your social group” I asked

“Huh friends. I didn’t have any. When I moved from Muswell Hill I severed all ties with everyone I ever knew told them we were going to Australia. Then my sister was really bad and was committed to the mental hospital. She was a real danger to herself and others. She would start drinking at 10 in the morning and then would go out looking for sex with anyone. I came home one day and found her naked and doing all sorts of unnatural things with some Irish workmen. Thats when I split the house in two and moved up stairs and locked all my rooms.  Meanwhile her baby was abandoned in her bedroom all day, never fed dirty and scared. I don’t know why I hadn’t got a nanny sooner.  I was stupid, just didn’t think.  Then one day she went into London and she was arrested in Soho and as a result she was committed to the mental hospital for 3 years on and off”

He stopped talking for a while as if to get his strength back.

“Well when she got out it wasn’t out long before she was back to her old ways. Only this time she would just disappear for weeks sometimes months on end. Obviously I had engaged a nanny for Amy and gave her as normal a life as we could.”

“But how did you explain the disappearances of your sister?” I butted in.

“Ah yes well that was a bit of an accident. You see there were a number of government establishments in that part of the world at the time. All very hush hush, cold war and all that and people just assumed she was a working for the government. Nobody ever asked directly because people didn’t. Then one day one of our neighbours asked her where she had been and she told him C5 meaning ward C5 but he thought she meant sector C5 which apparently was East Berlin. It transpired he was with MI5 or some such department. Nobody and I mean nobody asked any more questions after that” He smiled and nodded to himself.

By this stage I was thinking that although Mr Allen had said it was not a complicated story he hadn’t said anything about it being short either.

“Then she was picked up for prostitution in Liverpool” he continued “She was committed again and this time they did the old electric shock therapy. It scrambled what brains she had left. The trouble was she was still an alcoholic and sex maniac but she didn’t have the normal functions left either. That was the beginning of the end for her”

“Ok so why would Amy want to kill you. You have raised her as your own daughter and done a lot for her she should be grateful.” I asked

“Ah well yes, I see your point. The thing is I never told Any she wasn’t my daughter and didn’t tell her that her mother was my sister. Amy went to boarding school when she was old enough and so she was not at home a lot of the times. She would often spend holidays with friends, you know the usual sort of stuff.  I explained long absences as illness and when her mother came back doolallie, I said she had had a car accident which had left her brain damaged. Somehow I never got round to telling Amy the truth about not being her father. Then I met Jenny and we fell in love. If I had been married it would have been an affair but I wasn’t married so did not try to conceal my relationship at work or whatever.  As I said Amy was away at school, so it didn’t matter to her. But one day she was on a school trip in the Cotswolds and she saw me with Jenny. She assumed I was cheating on her mother, my wife and that was apparently what made her personality disorder come to the surface. She is the same as her mother but worse, much much worse.”

“Hows that then, what does she do?”

“Well she is very good looking for a start and very very intelligent and well educated to boot. Plus she is well connected because of the school friends she made. Mind you half of them are as mad as March hares so they wouldn’t twig she was odd.” He snorted ” She made allegations that I beat her and mistreated her. Thank god it was before all this abuse and paedophile hysteria or she would have really gone to town on me. I was able to disprove her allegations but she became more and more aggressive and her promiscuous side became more and more developed. But not content with having sex with any Tom, Dick or Harry she went after Wealthy people. As a point of interest she would not have sex with any man who drove anything less than and Audi BMW or Volvo. Then she blackmailed them. As far as I am aware at least two men killed themselves because of her.”

“So how long have you been together then” I asked trying to get the dates and everything straight in my head.

“Jenny and I have been married 25 years and I love her more every day” They touched hands.  She looked good on it.  I would never have put her down as his wife.
“So where did you live?” I was bloody confused at the web of unnecessary deceit and lies but hey ho its not my life.

“Jenny lived in our house in Sunninghill, not too far from Egham and not too close either” I sort of commuted between the two. When I took over the engineering business I would travel a lot with work, but in reality I would go to our house in Sunninghill. We have two daughters. Our son was diagnosed with cancer and that’s when I got involved in Lourdes. We are not catholic but Graham got such comfort, support and strength from going that after he died I …….coul n” his words caught in his throat and he choked back his loss.

“I understand Mr Allen”

“How could you?” he sneered “Don’t patronise me…us”

“I’m not. My wife and two daughters were killed in a road accident her in France” I said as bluntly as I could.

“Oh…I see…I am sorry….I didn’t….” He stuttered

“Right” I said in a very firm and direct voice “So you were living this double life, which cannot have been easy, but why do you think Amy wants to kill you”.

“Well she has been weaselling money out of my sister, her mother, for years, but that source has dried up. She married that idiot of a husband and has been running him ragged, but that’s his problem.”

“He is a cuckold” Interjected Jenny “He found out that Amy was having sex with strangers and he watches”

“You’re having a laugh” I exclaimed. I had read about this sort of thing but good grief!
“Oh I wish we were” Mr Allen continued “But he is involved in the blackmailing bit as well”

“OK but that doesn’t answer the question as to why you think Amy would kill you or have you killed” I repeated

“Well she tried blackmailing me, but it didn’t work because there was nothing to blackmail me over. Then she broke into my office and found a letter from the oncologist addressed to me but was really for Graham. I hadn’t realised she has got keys to my rooms in the Egham house. Anyway , obviously she thought it was me that had cancer and so started badgering me about making a will and all that sort of stuff. I did make a will but obviously made provisions for my wife and family which did not include her. She then really quite weird and told me she would kill me and my family. She really went off the rails. I had an old car I used for my Egham life and she or someone disabled the brakes and I crashed one night on the way home. The police came and the Traffice sergeant found the brakes had been interfered with. Well at that point I thought I had better do something so we bought this place as a hideaway. Its in Jennys name so we would be hard to find and also for the French inheritance laws.” He sighed “Obviously we weren’t that hard to find were we? Anyway the reason I just left was she demanded money from me and threatened me with allegations of rape and sexual abuse, but when she knew that was ni not going to work she said she knew of a mercenary who would be able to find us and kill us and she and my sister would inherit what I left”
“Well I did have a couple of strokes of luck, but there are things you can do to conceal yourselves a little better” I said

“So what now?” Jenny asked

“I go back to the UK and say I didn’t find you and she pays me off it’s as simple as that” I said “One last question though Mr Allen. What’s with the bloody elephant gun rifle”

“Oh that” He smiled sheepishly “”ell I am part of the local hunt here. I did it to integrate. I didn’t think I would enjoy it but it gets me out and I have quite few friends here now. I shot a sanglier this winter.”

A Sanglier is a wild boar by the way.

“Impressive, but I suggest you don’t point it at people because accidents happen, as you know”

He nodded and looked ashamed.

“Mr Norman, Would you do a job for me?”

“It depends what it is” I replied.

“Hide us as well as you can and maybe push the police in Amy’s direction.” He said hesitantly. “You know expose what she is doing”

“I cannot say yes at the moment because I am under contract to Amy” I said

“Oh yes of course I see”

“What about next week” asked Jenny

“A different kettle of poison altogether”

What a bloody dogs dinner.We said our good byes and I went out to my car. The sky was really black and it was starting to rain.

The fig rolls had given me terrible indigestion.  I remembered now why I had stopped eating them.

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