Free The Barbershop Seven by Douglas Lindsay

as the tears began to stream down her face.
The Accidental Barber Surgeon
    ––––––––
    I t came sooner than Holdall had feared. Every morning he'd sit in his office waiting for the phone to ring, the angry herald of more news of stray body parts popping through someone's letter box. Every time the phone rang he'd assume the worst, and given what he'd told the press the evening before, he was even more fearful this particular morning.
    However, fate did not even bother to tease him. There came no endless stream of calls concerning more mundane matters, leading to the dramatic one confirming his worst fears. The dreaded call arrived first, and within three minutes of him sitting at his desk.
    A woman in Newton Mearns, a woman with a missing daughter, had received what appeared to be two breasts, neatly packed into a small wooden box, that morning. So she had turned up on the doorstep of her local police station, hysterical, and who could deny her that, demanding to speak to the bloody idiot who'd been on television the previous night implying that the police had as good as got their man.
    The policeman on duty had done his best to calm her down, and had then put the call through to Holdall to tell him the grim news. And to ask him what the hell he'd meant when he'd talked to the press the previous evening.
    When the call had come down from McMenemy's office, Holdall had not been the least surprised. Ill became those who were summoned up there two days running.
    ***
    T he rain was falling in a relentless drizzle against the window of the shop, the skies grey overhead, the clouds low. Every now and again someone bustled past the shop front, their collar pulled up against the cold wind, a dour expression welded to the face.
    The shop was near deserted, as it had been most of the day. Wednesdays were usually slow, and with the cold and miserable weather, this day had been even worse. Barney had had to do only two haircuts all day, both of which had been ropey; one indeed, so bad that he thought it might lead to retribution. He hadn't liked the way the man had asked Wullie for Barney's address on his way out, and had been surprised that Wullie had claimed ignorance on the matter. Nevertheless, it was a day for keeping his head down.
    At three o'clock Wullie had offered Chris the chance to go home early, telling Barney that on the next quiet day he could take his turn of an early departure. After that there were only three more customers, all of whom had wanted Wullie to cut their hair. Barney had sat and read a variety of newspapers then had finally given in to the boredom and had fallen asleep, his dreams a web of exotica.
    He awoke with a start to slightly raised voices, dragged from a screaming drop down a black, bottomless shaft. Barney stretched, yawned, squinted at the clock. Two minutes past five. Time to go. Thank God for that.
    He stood and stretched again, busying himself with clearing up, not something that would take very long. Took his time, however, doing as many unnecessary things as possible, not wishing to leave before Wullie. He listened to the idle chatter from the end of the shop and was not impressed.
    'Now 16th century Italian art,' said Wullie, as he put the finishing touches to a dramatic taper at the back of the neck, 'there's the thing. Full of big fat birds getting their kit off. It doesn't matter what the painting's about, in every one there's always about five or six huge birds with enormous tits.'
    The customer nodded his own appreciation of 16th century Italian art as much as he could, given that there was a man with a razor at the back of his neck.
    'I mean,' Wullie continued, after pausing to pull off some intricate piece of barbery, 'you've got some painting of a big battle scene or something, or a nativity scene for Christ's sake, and they'd still manage to get in some great lump of lard, bollock naked, legs all over the place, dangling a couple of grapes into the gob of another