“Just proving to you that I can have private access to your sister whenever I like.”
Kylie rushed towards Dan, and punched him in the face.
Dan looked at her and smirked.
“So have you thought any more about what I asked you to do?”
“You are sick Daniel.” She replied.
“Will you do it, or do I need to hurt Alice?” Dan was determined.
“I don’t even know why you hate Mr Locke, he’s alright.”
“Mr Locke or Alice.” Dan continued.
“For fuck’s sake Dan” Kylie replied.
“I said, Mr Locke or Alice. It’s a simple choice.” Dan had a look in his eyes that scared Kylie. She knew he would go through with his threats as he smirked through his evil stare.
“Ok, Ok, I’ll do it. You can’t hurt my sister.” Kylie felt defeated.
“If you tell anyone the truth, I’ll hurt her anyway.” He said.
“I’ll lie for you, ok. I’ll do what you want.”
Daniel Cook’s smirk turned into a smile.
“That’s my girl.” He said. “Now, we need to make this realistic for the police.”
He got up, walked to the closed door and pushed the lock across it.
He turned to face her, he reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a condom, he could see the terror in her eyes. She knew what was coming and she was afraid.
11
Six weeks before – end of March
Jen rushed from the estate agent, keys in hand, and drove quickly to the house she had just bought. She pulled her car onto the drive, her drive, pulled up the handbrake and switched the engine off. She hadn’t even got out of the car when Gemma came running across the road.
“Oh my Jen, I can’t believe it’s actually yours.” She squealed.
“I know, and the sale has gone through so quickly.” Jen replied. “So, want to have a look inside?”
“Hell yeah!” Gemma answered.
They walked in through the front door.
Gemma looked at the stairs ahead of her, and the door to her right to the living room.
“Well, this is weird.” She said, “It’s like my house but the wrong way around.”
“That’s exactly what I said to Troy when we came to view it.” Jen replied with a grin.
She walked her friend through the living room, providing a commentary as she went.
“This hideous wallpaper has to go, and we are ripping the carpet up and getting wooden flooring.” She opened the door to the dining room. “And of course, we will be knocking through to make a large kitchen and dining room like in your house.” Jen continued.
“Copycat!” Gemma laughed.
Jen opened the door to the kitchen.
“They’ve built a utility room too, and just look out towards the garden. I can’t believe we back onto the woods.”
Gemma sighed, “Yep I’m a bit envious of you for that. As you well know, I back onto those awful kids who spend hours bouncing on the trampoline, nosing over my fence.”
“You’ll be even more envious in a minute. Just wait until you see the bathroom.”
They walked back through the house, and Jen led the way up the stairs. She paused before opening the bathroom door.
“Are you ready for this, Gemma?”
Gemma nodded in anticipation.
Jen opened the door, “Voila!”
Gemma burst out laughing.
“Oh my Jen, it’s worse than you described.”
The bathroom suite was a shocking pink colour, old, stained and very much of the bygone age of the 1970’s. If the suite wasn’t bad enough, the tiles that surrounded the bath were pink and white striped, and the walls were painted an almost neon colour pink.
“Needless to say, this is getting ripped out immediately.” Jen said.
Jen shut the bathroom door and continued the tour.
“Now I know this bedroom is smaller than the one in the front.” Jen said. “But we are making this the master bedroom so we can wake up to the trees.”
Jen continued walking.
“This little room, I’m turning into an office.” Jen opened the door, watching her friends nods of approval. “That will help me with my studies. And then finally.” She led Gemma into the large bedroom at the front of the house. “This will be our guest room.”
“I can’t believe it has the same built-in cupboards as my house.” Gemma exclaimed.
“We are getting all the work done before we move in. Troy still has a couple of months left on his lease, so we are going to get all the work done whilst it’s empty.”
“Good plan.” Gemma replied. “It’s good that you have the luxury to be able to do that.”
“I know most people wouldn’t have the money.” Jen said “But I’m using this as a chance to be me, to put my stamp on my own home and make it exactly how I want. I’m really lucky that Troy can see how important that is to me. Bless him, when we went looking for a new kitchen, he said that if I was happy, he was happy. He was the same with the bathroom.”
“He’s a good man, Jen.” Gemma said “How are things with him in work now?”
“Not good.” Jen answered. “He met with that dodgy matron last week. He said he can almost see the pound signs in her eyes as she talks through the plans she has, with his technology. He’s trying not to think about it. He’s trying to focus on the house, and once we’ve moved in, his mum is going to come over to stay for a couple of weeks, so that will be great for him.”
“Do you mind?” Gemma asked.
“What that Yolande is coming to stay? No, I can’t wait to meet her, we’ve been getting on really well when we chat on skype. I’m looking forward to meeting her in person, and it’s only for a couple of weeks.”
Jen headed back down the stairs.
“Right, I have no kettle, no teabags, so it’s over to yours for a cuppa.” She laughed.
“It’ll be like you never moved out.” Gemma said “Poor Marcus won’t know what’s hit him again.”
12
Six weeks later – May
Jason walked down the road until he reached a bus stop. He didn’t need to catch a bus, however, it made sitting down on a bench while he thought look less conspicuous. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone, thankful that the police had at least returned this to him.
He turned it on. It sprang into life, beeping furiously with notifications. He’d had nineteen missed calls from Penny, nineteen! He felt annoyance, she knew he was in police custody, why would she have kept calling? He could see that answer machine messages were also waiting, he chose to ignore them, at least for now.
He scrolled through his text messages. Two initially stood out.
Dad, what the hell is going on? Mum has been going mental at me for having porn in the attic. What the fuck is she on about? She said you’ve been arrested and it’s my fault?
He thought about typing back a message to Andrew, but thought better of it when he read the second message, from Matt, the Head of Geography.
Mate, we’ve been told today that you’ve been suspended. Said you’d raped a girl in year 10. The school has been nuts, reporters everywhere. Saga has been mouthing off that you are a sex pest, loving her five minutes of fame. Call me. I know you are innocent.
Fucking Saga! The blonde Swedish bombshell of a drama teacher was always going to seek out any cameras. He could just imagine her now, striding across the sports field in her long flowing skirts. Her long hair cascading down her back, and across her face obscuring the strawberry birth mark on the left-hand side of her forehead. The bitch had it in for him.
“Fucking whore” he muttered to himself.
He set aside his anger, scrolled through his phone contacts and hit Matt’s number. He got up of the bus stop bench and continued down the road whilst he waited for the call to connect.
13
Four weeks before – April
“I’m nipping around to see the neighbo
urs.” Jen called out to Troy, who waved his paint brush in acknowledgment.
Jen grabbed the box of chocolates she had bought earlier, and headed out of the front door, she walked up her drive, across the pavement in front of the two houses, and down the path of her neighbour’s front garden. She paused for a moment admiring what they had done with the front of the house. But stopped herself from thinking about any more renovations, they had enough to be getting on with getting the inside of the house ready.
Before she knocked, she looked around the cul-de-sac and wondered if she should have bought chocolates for all the neighbours. The little road was filled with vans. The builders had brought two, the carpenters had just called up to take final measurements for the new kitchen, and the plumbers who were completing the bathroom also had a van. By rights, she should have staggered the work, but she just wanted to move in. Tomorrow the carpet fitters would also be coming to do the bedroom carpets and to start the wooden floor in the lounge. She hoped that the builders would be finished with the last bits of work with the knock through today as promised. And she knew that her and Troy needed to finish the painting in the living room. It was organised chaos.
She turned back around, and knocked the front door.
She could hear a dog barking from inside. She knew her neighbours had a dog, she had seen him in the garden, and had seen the husband take him out through their back gate.
The front door opened, and a woman stood in front of her. She was older than Jen, probably around late forties, she looked at Jen semi suspiciously, like she was a sales person or a Jehovah’s witness.
Jen held out the chocolates and smiled.
“Hi, I’m Jen, my partner, Troy, and I have just moved in next door. I wanted to come and introduce myself, give you these and apologise for all the noise at the moment.”
The woman’s face instantly brightened and a smile spread across her face.
“I’m Penny.” She said. She looked closer at Jen, recognition now spreading curiously across her face. “Didn’t you used to live across the road? I’m sure I recognise you?”
Jen laughed, “Yes, I lived with Gemma and Marcus for a while. Long story.” She paused, not wanting to elaborate. “But now we’ve bought next door. We are getting the renovations done before we move in. I promise, normally we are really quiet!”
“Ah don’t worry.” Penny replied “I can put earplugs in when I’m on night shift. Fancy a cuppa? You can come and meet my husband Jason too.”
“Thanks” Jen replied “But I’d better get back to it, got to keep supervising the workers.”
Penny laughed “Nice to meet you Jen, I’m sure you’ll love living here. Oh, and thanks for these.” She held the box of chocolates up, and smiled.
14
Four weeks later – May
Craig Johnson hit the publish button on his Facebook post, put his phone down and picked up his pint.
“I’ve shared the story from WalesOnline. Fucking nonce.” He said to his drinking companion.
“The bastard taught my son Dan, history I think it was. Well, he’s fucking history now, mate.” Timothy Cook replied.
The two men were thoroughly proud of themselves, as they downed their pints in the Bear and Hunter, the pub that had become their unofficial headquarters. They had been running their page ‘PH Cardiff and South Wales for the last two years. They’d originally tried to set it up as ‘Paedo hunters’ but that had been blocked by the Facebook algorithms, so PH it became. In those two years they had built up more than ten thousand followers to their page, outing paedophiles and sexual predators across South Wales.
Their biggest triumph had come the year before. A high-profile kidnapping of a local Cardiff girl, Nadia Jenkins, who had been forced into life as a sex slave abroad. When the perpetrator had been caught and sent back to Park Prison, it was a PH member, Derek, that was currently serving time for drink driving that ensured that justice was served. The man felt no guilt for killing him in his cell, and as nobody was going to ‘rat’ on someone giving a nonce what they deserved, he had got away with it too.
It always made Craig smile when he thought about the number of likes, shares and comments they had when they shared the story of Gary, otherwise known as Biscuit, and his demise in prison. They’d gained over two thousand followers in the next day or two alone. Of course, they’d shared it as a human-interest story, as a warning to other paedophiles, rather than taking the credit that is was one of their group that had done the deed.
“The police had better take him back into custody soon, or we know that our followers will deal with it.” Craig replied.
“Doesn’t deserve to live, mate. They haven’t named the girl, but it’s that lass that Dan has been hanging around with, Kylie something or other.” Tim said.
“Fuck Tim, your lad is eighteen now, isn’t he? He’d better be fucking careful himself, hanging around with a fourteen-year-old.” Craig replied.
“He’s still just a kid, Craig. It’s not the same as a middle-aged man. Turns my stomach.” Tim replied.
“Sick mate, fucking sick.”
Both men returned to their pints, drinking for a moment in silence, until both men’s phones lit up.
“New comment.” Tim said, gleefully.
They opened the app.
“Some bird has shared his address.” Craig said. “Should we delete the comment?”
“Fuck it.” Tim replied. “Let him get what’s coming to him.”
15
Two weeks earlier
Jen closed the door after she had waved goodbye to the removal van. She walked back into the lounge and flopped onto the sofa next to Troy. He put his arm around her shoulder, and she snuggled into him.
“You are a miracle worker.” He said, laughing. “I can’t believe that it’s only been four weeks and the house has been transformed and we can now move in.”
Jen sighed “I can’t quite believe we were able to co-ordinate everyone and get it all done either.”
“You look exhausted.” Troy said. “How about I run you a nice bath, and order us a takeaway?”
“And that is why I love you.” Jen replied. “But first, let’s Skype your Mum and tell her she can book the flights.”
“Are you sure?” Troy asked. “You don’t want us to enjoy it for a while?”
“The sooner she books, the sooner we know when to prepare. She’s only coming for a couple of weeks, it’s not like she’s moving in.” Jen replied. “It’s about lunchtime there, now is a good time to catch her.”
Jen grabbed her iPad from the coffee table, opened up the Skype app and pressed Yolande’s name. It began to ring.
“Hello?” Yolande answered, her camera instantly came on. However, instead of seeing a smiling face, they had an extreme close up of a big ketchup stain on a cream blouse, whilst Yolande started fiddling to get the camera angle to her face.
“Ah that’s better can you see me, can you hear me?” Yolande asked.
“Hi Mom.” Troy said, he gave a little wave to the camera and placed his arm around Jen.
“That is a different background.” Yolande said, proving she was still sharp as a whip. “You’ve moved in, haven’t y’all?”
“That’s why we are calling.” Jen replied. “Get your flights booked, you are coming to Wales.”
The shriek was deafening.
“Really?” Yolande said “You’re really ready for me to come on vacation?”
“We can’t wait to see you, Mom.” Troy grinned. Jen grinned too. She knew the new house and the visit from his mother was exactly what he needed to bring him some relief from the stress he was receiving in work.
16
Two weeks later
Matt answered the phone to his friend and colleague, Jason.
“Mate, this is a nightmare. Some paedo hunter group on Facebook have posted up about you getting arrested. Saga has posted your address on the post.”
“She’s done what?” Jason replied, his respons
e was shocked. He couldn’t actually comprehend what his colleague was telling him. Saga had shared his address?
“Mate, she’s posted saying ‘Here is the pervert’s address’ and she has posted your address.”
“Fucking hell.” Jason let the words sink in. “What the hell am I going to do?” he paused a moment whilst he let the ramifications sink in.
“Oh my God, Penny. I need to warn her.” The panic became evident in Jason’s voice.
“Let me know if I can do anything, mate.” Matt replied. “I’ll leave you go.”
Matt hung up, and Jason stood there just staring at his phone. He jumped as it began to vibrate. The screen said ‘Home’, he answered.
“Jason?” Penny sounded terrified.
“Are you ok, Pen?” Jason tentatively asked.
She began to sob down the phone.
“You have to come home now. Please Jason. Someone has just thrown a brick through our front window.”
17
Brian spoke in hushed tones to his wife.
“I don’t understand it, Elaine.” He said. “Kylie was fine when she got home.”
Elaine rolled her eyes. Whilst she spoke in a whisper, her anger was evident in the staccato way she enunciated her words.
“How could you not tell that she was in pain? How did you think that everything was OK? How blind are you to our children?”
Brian replied, calmly and quietly. “I’m telling you Elaine, she was absolutely fine. She came home, she was smiling. I told her I was going for my run and told her that her friend Dan was here and he was upstairs.”
Elaine paused for a moment.
“What? Dan was here? She didn’t tell me that.”
“Yes” Brian replied. “He arrived about five minutes before she did, so I sent him up to her room.”
Elaine looked at her husband for a moment.
Mob Justice (Sinister Minds Quick Reads Book 3) Page 3