Jim Dunkerly's daughter-in-law was what most of the community agreed was one of the prettiest brides the town had ever seen. She had looked, as one of the congregation at St Mary's had put it, 'like a million dollars', or, as one of the drunken rabble at the reception later had put it, with a leer, 'Good enough to screw a million ways!' In truth, Tracy Dunkerly was both. At twenty-one she had the glow and pretty innocence of youth -- angelic and pure as driven snow-- but her shape, and how she moved her shapely parts, made men think of other things. Earthier things. Dirtier things, I suppose.
There were few men in town who didn't fuck her in their dreams. Strip off whichever pretty dress she happened to be wearing at the time and release the animal within her -- the animal all men in the town BELIEVED lived inside someone as voluptuous-looking as she. (Me included, truth be told.) She was certainly too good for the Dunkerlys. Fucking waste, excuse the pun.
Jim Dunkerly, whose daughter-in-law Tracy Dunkerly was, was big as a barn and a bully to boot. His son, Dicky-boy as he'd always been called and who now had the honour and privilege of Tracy as his wife, wasn't so big, nor was he such a bully, but he had a murderous temper. Some said that's why Tracy married him. It was either that or get a fat lip! But they had money, the Dunkerlys. Which helped. It came from Dunkerly's roofings. Five offices throughout the county. Turnover in the millions. Jim and Dicky-boy were roofers made good. I was their accountant. Call me Fred.
"It's true, Fred, without a word of a lie," said Jim, voice low, heavy arm thrown across my shoulder. He had a snooker cue in his hand, a half chewed cigar still smouldering bleakly between thick-lips. His face was one of those rugged faces. Like the Himalayas when the sun sets. Big man. Fiftieth birthday last year.
"Getaway," I replied, looking at the table, working out my shot. We were in the Dunkerly's Games Room. Ground floor of the Dunkerly Mansion. Plum in the middle of the Dunkerly estate -- half grouse moor, half deer forest. Dicky-boy (the younger) was passed out in one of the button leather couches that bordered the room. A bottle of claret, empty, on its side, lay at his feet. It was Latour, though not a great year. He had one shoe off, one on. We had dined in town. Celebrating a victory for one of Jim's horses. It had gone on longer than planned. The dinner. Then we'd come back here to The Grange, as Jim called it, for a night-cap. I'd have to stay the night, he'd insisted. Too far to drive back. Too late. Much too much to drink, in any case. It sometimes happened.
"Loves it," Jim chuckled, casting a glance at his son. It was difficult to say how the two of them got on. I still had to make up my mind on that. Secretly I think he despised the little runt. I certainly did. Dicky-boy might have pulled himself a honey of a wife, but he was one lazy sonofabitch.
"Loves it?" I repeated vaguely, wondering if Jim had the inclination, or even the strength, to continue the game. Jim was an heroic drinker. I didn't even try to keep up. I told him I needed my wits about me to do his company accounts, so merely drank one drink for every three of his. He didn't seem to mind. Not any more. Dicky-boy, on the other hand, tried to keep up with his Dad. Which is why he was unconscious now.
"Sure," said Jim, and winked.
I looked at him closely. His eyes were red and bleary, but the customary cunning remained. "How do you know?" I asked.
"What?" He frowned.
I took a deep breath. "Jim. You have just spent the last ten minutes listing for me the various parts of Tracy," and here I glanced at the snoring form of Dicky-boy, "your son's wife, your daughter-in-law," I looked back at Dad, "which she most likes having caressed." I stopped. Then, "How do you know this?"
I was serious here. I'd known Jim a long time and the guy didn't normally lie about stuff. Too stupid to lie was the way he put it himself. So how did he know? Did Dicky-boy share with his father the intimate secrets of his sexual excitement strategies with his newly-wed bride? They'd been married less than a year.
"Ah jist knows," said Jim, looking smug.
I shook my head. Disengaged myself from his arm. Played my shot. Potted red. Blue. Red. Purple. Red ... missed the black.
"Furghuguck," or something, said Dicky boy, nodding awake with a start, staggering to his feet, pushing himself towards the door, belching, staggering on towards the thick wooden door, then somehow getting out of the room.
"Bloody hell," whispered Jim as the door closed behind his departing next of kin like a closing animal trap. Then he added, with contempt it seemed, "Little tosser."
I glanced at my employer, then said lightly, "You are just jealous because he has someone as delicious as little Tracy warming his bed"' I left it there.
"Pfaw!" he snorted. "Little Tracy. Little Tracy. You wouldn't call her little with her titties in your hand. Like melons they are! Great big powerful ..." Both his hands were out in front of him as if a canon ball nestled in each.
"Your shot," I said, thinking balls.
"You have no idea," he whispered, hands coming down to his side, cue in one hand, cigar in the other, awe in his eyes. "She has the plumpest, warmest, softest ..." he shook his head, "... most exciting fucking tits I have ever had my hands on."
"Set your eyes on, you mean," I corrected him. Jim was apt to exaggerate.
"Had my HANDS on," he insisted, making for the table.