by Ian Williams
Sneaking out of the Bed and Breakfast on a Sunday night at 2 a.m. was no easy feat. It was pitch black; Jane daren’t turn on any lights. It was deathly quiet, and all sounds, no matter how small seemed to be magnified a thousand times. Once she was at the front door she put down her boots, she had decided walking around in socks, although more slippy, was far quieter. Carefully unlocking the door, the bolts clicked, at what seemed like a thousand decibels, she turned the handle and opened the door. The un-oiled hinges gave out a whine which to Jane sounded like a hundred wailing banshees but in truth was no more than a squeak. Carefully picking up her boots she exited the building and shut the door behind her. Listening out for any noises and waiting for lights to be turned on, she heard and saw nothing. Letting out a sigh of relief she quickly fastened up her boots, zipped up her coat and walked up the high street. At 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning the place was deserted. No cars came through, all the shop-fronts were dark, and the street lights provided the only illumination as curtains were drawn in all the houses. The stars twinkled above in the night sky but it was a moonless night as the clouds gathered and expunged the starry night one star at a time as Olney slept.
And that included David Holmes. As usual he had set up his rods with the best of intentions. Having taken an hour to set up his rods, tent, folding chair, cool-box on the right hand side, sandwiches on the left, and settled down with his iPod playing some chill out music he had downloaded earlier in the day, he began to drink. However after six cans of Stella Artois, and not a single movement of his fishing rods, with Morcheeba’s latest track coming into his ears he began to nod off. Within ten minutes he was fast asleep.
Jane pounced. A needle was inserted straight into his neck and fifty milligrams of Sodium nitroprusside went straight into his bloodstream. David sprang out of his chair and held his neck. Turning incredulously he looked at Jane, who was standing still with the syringe in her left hand. David’s chair had fallen sideways and knocked over the cool-box, he had stood on his food bag, and just as the world went black he heard the splashing noise of his rods as he fell backwards, hitting his head on a half submerged rock with a dull thud. He was out cold, his submerged head and part submerged body lay shaking as his body made a number of reflex actions, as it ran out of oxygen before stopping, motionless. The only movement was the ripples in the water as they expanded out into the lake and the pool of blood which bloomed like a flower from the top of David’s head. The noise had died away quickly. The birds returning to their slumber the ripples on the water reducing as they spread. Jane stood stock still. Listening for any strange sounds or voices which would substantiate her need to just get out of there but there was nothing. After a couple of minutes when stillness and quiet had returned she knew she was okay.
Jane worked quickly. Opening her bag, she pulled out a head-torch which she turned on and placed on her head after removing her baseball cap. She pulled out a large surgical knife which effortlessly cut through David’s clothing. She exposed his stomach and managed to turn him onto his side. She picked up a smaller knife and made a careful incision across David’s side and then up his flank in an upside down ‘T’ shape. Jane then carefully moved the liver and cut away at the pancreas….’Nick’s Pancreas’. The whole operation took no more than thirty minutes. And fifty minutes later Jane was in her room, lying in the bath, all the clothes she had been wearing had been carefully removed and placed in the bin bag. David’s pancreas had been placed safely in a small cool-bag. After her bath she sat in the dark, in a high backed chair, just looking out of the window, up at the stars. As she dozed off about an hour later after running through the nights events in her head and offering a small prayer to God to keep her Nicholas safe, she thought to herself ‘One more, just one more piece and my Nick can rest in peace.’
Chapter 15 – ‘Hello police’