Londonderry-4

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Londonderry-4

North Ireland in the late seventies

Because the night belongs to the IRA!

Melanie Buzz

 

After she has calmed down again, she thinks about the case. “It wasn’t the IRA,” she murmurs. “I beg your pardon?”

“It wasn’t the IRA!” “How do you figure that out?”

“The IRA is not laughing!” Silence in the car.

“So my questioning worked,” Hugh triumphs.

Lynn just hums.

She can have files of similar cases from the past few years brought to the station. The filing room pulls up an entire car.

“We need support.”

A short time later, Maureen is assigned to them because Mary is on vacation.

Lynn divides the files and they start reading, with Maureen repeatedly trying to talk to Hugh. She literally adores him.

Maureen opens the next file and suddenly she stops speaking. Everyone looks over at her and Maureen stares at Lynn:

“Is that you?” She says, shaken. She has Maureen’s file from back then and stands up. “I’m sorry.” She takes Lynn in her arms.

 

After two hours, they find that the files actually don’t give anything.

Except that there has been a gap of six months recently, in which nothing has happened in this regard.

“We should ask the ladies a little more detail,” says Hugh.

Lynn just nods. “I ask and you listen carefully and observe,” he sets the rules. Lynn nods resignedly.

It must be that way if she wants her suspicions confirmed.

After talking to the chief, they are allowed to investigate the entire district and are not limited to their area.

The next day they start. Hugh’s questions require women to describe the events in detail. He even wants to know the hairstyle and the length of the hair they had before. You might think Hugh is enjoying these accounts. In the bathroom, in the kitchen or in the living room.

Whether with scissors, a razor or a machine.

Some had their hair cut off very briefly, but most were shaved bald. And they keep getting names of fellow sufferers who were ashamed and didn’t file a complaint with the police.

On the second evening, Lynn is mentally exhausted. She calls Dave.

“We’re going to eat and I’ll pick you up,” he decides spontaneously.

You feel good about his proximity. After lunch they stroll through the streets.

Dave stops and hugs her. She willingly hugs him.

Her gaze falls into the shop window in front of which you are standing.

A brown long curly bush! It lies tied up and fanned out there.

A price tag: £ 70

Lynn’s gaze wanders to the door:

O’Brady`s since 1948 Hairdresser + master wig maker

Then she’s back with Dave.

They interviewed the women for two weeks. The number of files has doubled.

Two piles: 5 files, that was the IRA and 26 files, that were free riders.

“But what are they for?” Asks Lynn.

“They do it for fun,” muses Hugh.

“I can imagine that with some men,” her hard look hits Hugh, “but there is almost always a woman there too.”

Lynn Think!

“Give me the Sue McConnor file,” says Lynn.

She is leafing through. “That was the one with the waist-length blonde hair,” Hugh recalls. “It says:” That’s a worthwhile part, “the woman said.”

“What did she mean by that?”

Lynn thinks, pictures are coming back, the evening with Dave, long brown curls, 70 pounds. A voice from back then: a colleague came back from the patrol.

“Today I saw two braids in an old barber shop, the same hair color as you have. If they weren’t so expensive, I would have brought them to you. ”

“What is it?” Asks Hugh

“Oh nothing. False alarm in the head. It can’t be, ”she answers him.

Inadvertently she says:

“O`Brady`s since 1948; Hairdresser + Master Wig Maker ”

“What?” “Nothing, we have to file the case for the next two weeks anyway.” “Why that?” “Because I’m on vacation!”

Lynn meets Maureen in the washroom. The thick blond hair lies openly spread over her shoulders, a brush in front of her on the shelf.

She holds a strand of hair, the end of which sticks out between her fingers, in front of her face. “Should be cut again,” she says smiling when she sees Lynn in the mirror. “Do you know a hairdresser I could trust my hair with? I don’t want her to be as short as you are, but your hair is always cut so perfectly. ”

” No problem, you just go to Dave. He’s not just a perfect hairdresser. ”

“What do you mean?” She holds her hair up on one side, “I would like to have her cut as long as the chin as Mary wears it. I think it’s as great as her hair swinging with her every time she moves. “” Maureen, such magnificent thick hair shouldn’t be cut short. “Maureen immediately thinks of Lynn’s file:

” I’m sorry, I didn’t want that. ” “It’s okay girl, that was a long time ago.”

“Hugh doesn’t want me to have my hair cut either.”

“You love him?” Maureen just nods.

 

After Lynn is actually on vacation, Maureen and Hugh are constantly whispering to each other. The second evening, Lynn’s phone rings.

It is her colleague Mary: “What is the loafers doing?” She greets Lynn.

“Dave and I lie on the sofa and watch TV. We want to go to the zoo tomorrow. ”That’s great. But why I’m calling, ”Mary’s voice grows serious.

“I saw Maureen and Hugh in a pub tonight. They might have smooched. ”

” They’re just in love. “” But why was Hugh wearing a military police uniform? And Maureen is Catholic!

Doesn’t he know that Maureen can cause problems? ”

Lynn is suddenly wide awake! “Thank you for your call.”

Lynn can’t sleep that night.

The next morning after Dave has gone to his shop, Lynn grabs the phone:

“Police Department Glasgow, what can I do for you?”

“This is Lynn Carter, Londonderry Police Department. I have a couple of questions about an officer named Hugh O’Grant. ”

After a quarter of an hour she hangs up thoughtfully.

The next number: “Military Police Department Londonderry, what can I do for you?”

The next number: “Londonderry Residents’ Registration Office, what can I do for you?”

She calls Mary in the office: “No, nothing unusual. Just that … ”

“What!” Hugh talked to Maureen strikingly long and hard, but no idea what it was about. ”

 

Night falls in Londonderry.

 

Someone knocks on Maureen’s door. She gets scared! No nothing can happen. She arranged everything with Hugh and he is close.

Three masked and armed people enter their apartment, from under the stocking mask of the smaller spring blond curls.

“In here!” Orders the woman and pushes her into the bedroom.

“Sit down!” She points to the stool in front of her dressing table.

“We are the IRA’s Feme Court! You are a Catholic and got involved with a British soldier! And one with the Military Police! You will get your punishment for that now! Open your hair! ”

Shivering, Maureen pulls off the hair tie and shakes her loose hair out.

Her hand gropes for the emergency button hidden on her body that Hugh gave her.

“Don’t push him too early!” He told her.

One of the men takes the brush off the shelf. With strong features, he works on her thick hair. He pulls the now too long full bangs over her eyes forward.

She hears how a plug is inserted into a socket. She hears the click of a switch and immediately the humming of an engine. Your hand gropes for the emergency button again. Not too soon!

Two hands reach into her hair and hold her head. In front of her she sees the flashing knives of the clipper. Then she feels it, at the very top of the hairline, soft hair trickles over her face. Panicked, she presses the button as hard as she can. The knives plunge again. She sees herself in the mirror, sees her full bangs falling over her face. It presses harder. Hugh where are you?

Someone pulls her hair together and lifts it up. At the top of her head, she sees her long hair gushing out of a fist. Her head is pulled forward and she feels this terrible machine on her neck.

The knives eat through her hair up to her ears and Hugh doesn’t come.

The back of your head, the sides ….

 

Lynn dials Chief O`Conners private number!

 

A deafening noise as Maureen’s apartment door flies off its hinges.

Hugh is coming!

But Lynn appears behind the first officer in the Special Command.

One of the masked people raises his hand with the revolver.

The single bang and the burst from the rapid-fire weapon coincide. As if struck by a fist, Lynn hits the wall behind her and slides to the floor. The rest goes extremely fast.

“Hugh! Are you finally there! ”Maureen screams from the stool.

Lynn is standing again, leaning on Chief O`Conner and blood running from her shoulder wound.

“He was there all the time,” Lynn says quietly. With the uninjured side she pulls off the mask of the one lying on the floor. Ice-blue dead eyes stare at her.

 

epilogue

 

They’re all in Chief O’Conner’s office.

Hugh worked here in the military prison, and there were always strange hairy problems with the female prisoners. He was also up to mischief in the city,

as you can see from the files. To avoid a scandal, the military put him in Glasgow to the normal police. But after half a year he was transferred back to Derry.

His family connections helped him, he is a nephew of the O’Brady`s, who turned his booty into money for him. It didn’t do much, but it did help. It was his instinct that didn’t stop him.

He also had connections to the IRA and took over, of course for a fee, some “orders” that he and his cronies probably completed to the full satisfaction of his clients.

Maureen grasps her open long hair and unconsciously lifts it up so that the shaved parts can be seen: (probably the first undercut)

“And I fell for him,” she sobs.

“But you shouldn’t wear an updo anytime soon,” says Lynn. Maureen looks at her questioningly and the next moment she realizes Lynn’s words. Her long hair falls back over her shoulders and jokingly takes her in her arms. She strokes her short brown hair.

 

now finally done

THE END

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