Bad Things Happen: when a child goes missing
Page 1
Bad Things Happen
A Witches of Glory Woods Novel
By K. Leitch
Copyright ©Kay Leitch 2014
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the author.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First published 2014, updated January 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 - 2005
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3 - CAULDRON MEETING
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6 - CARLA
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8 - HELEN
CHAPTER 9 - MAGGIE
CHAPTER 10 - 2006
CHAPTER 11 - CARLA
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13 - CARLA
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15 - 2007
CHAPTER 16 - TRACY
CHAPTER 17 - CARLA
CHAPTER 18 - MAGGIE
CHAPTER 19 - HELEN
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21 - CARLA
CHAPTER 22 - TRACY
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24 - CARLA
CHAPTER 25 - 2008
CHAPTER 26 - HELEN
CHAPTER 27 - CARLA
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30 - MAGGIE
CHAPTER 31 - TRACY
CHAPTER 32 - CARLA
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34 - MAGGIE
CHAPTER 35 - HELEN
CHAPTER 36 - CARLA
CHAPTER 37 - TRACY
CHAPTER 38 - CARLA
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40 - MAGGIE
CHAPTER 41 - CARLA
CHAPTER 42 - HELEN
CHAPTER 43 - TRACY
CHAPTER 44 - CARLA
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46 - HELEN
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48 - CARLA
CHAPTER 49 - MAGGIE
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53 - HELEN
CHAPTER 54 - CARLA
CHAPTER 55 - TRACY
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59 - CARLA
CHAPTER 60 - HELEN
CHAPTER 61 - CARLA
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63 - CAULDRON MEETING
A NOTE FROM KAY
PREVIOUSLY...
NEXT TIME...
CHAPTER 1 - 2005
‘That bloody snotty bitch! Who the hell does she think she is? How dare she speak to me like that…well that’s the last time, I’m not putting up with it anymore.’ She fumbled with the front door keys her hands shaking with anger and, after trying for a couple of seconds, she let out a frustrated scream and threw the keys at him. They hit him in his face before falling to the floor.
Wordlessly he bent to picked up the keys, and opened the door. She pushed past him angrily still ranting as she went.
‘And you! You fucking poor excuse for a man, you just stand there like the gormless idiot you are and let her get away with it!’ She turned on him furiously, jabbing him in the stomach with her finger.
‘What’s the matter fat boy? Too scared to stand up to mummy are you? You should be fucking scared of upsetting me not her! Well that’s the last time we will be going over there unless I get an apology from her do you hear me?’ He nodded miserably; too intimidated by her to try and defend himself. He had learnt from years of dealing with her tempers that nothing he said made her calm down; in fact it usually made it worse…so he kept quiet. She stood back and looked at him, her lip curling in spite.
‘Look at you… you pathetic little shit, you disgust me do you know that? And they have the cheek to think that the problem lies with me, ha! Can’t they see what’s in front of them, a fucking mummy’s boy with a tiny dick.’ She started poking at his crutch trying to grab him; he pulled himself away from her reach, which seemed to fuel her anger even more. She lunged at him, her long nails curled into claws, flaying the skin on his face. He grabbed her arms in an attempt to stop her, so she brought her knee up hard between his legs making him double over in pain, sending him to the floor trying to catch his breath. A few hefty kicks in the kidneys for good measure and her anger dissipated. She stood breathing heavily from the exertion of it all, looking down at him as he curled in a ball at her feet.
‘Oh stop being such a drama queen…,’ she said impatiently. ‘I didn’t hurt you that much… come on get up. I’m sorry, she just makes me so mad, and I’m telling you I am going to think of a way to make her eat her bloody words if it’s the last thing I do.’
He slowly got to his feet and went to the sink to wash the scratches on his face. And to give himself time to calm down.
‘Well I don’t know how you’re going to manage that, you know what the doctor said, it can’t be done,’ he said at last, reaching for the kettle to make a cup of tea.
‘Oh I’ll think of something, you’ll see,’ she said determinedly.
CHAPTER 2
She always sat in the same place; there was a bench under a shady tree, on the bank of grass that rose above the small row of cottages. It gave her the best view of the front of the house.
From her elevated position, she was able to see straight through the large bay window and into the living and dining room.
Hour after hour she watched him. She watched him at play; she watched him as he left to go to school, she watched him as he came home from school. She watched him at night even when she couldn’t see him. She watched him.
Sometimes she could feel him next to her, his tiny hand in hers, his downy head resting on her shoulder, his warmth surrounding her as she sat there, watching him.
CHAPTER 3 - CAULDRON MEETING
AT TEMPORY VENUE, THE DOG AND DUCK IN FOXWOOD (BECAUSE OF CLOSURE OF THE BULL.)
‘So I said to him, “Look, this is my last attempt at becoming a millionaire, if this doesn’t work James says I have to go on the game,” and his text back to me was:
“Yes love, but don’t forget the last time you tried that you ended up losing money,” Carla chuckled as the girls fell about with laughter.
‘Yeh but wait,’ she went on, ‘so I texted him, “yes but this time I’m targeting the old and infirm even blind maybe” quick as a flash he came back with, “I suppose if you took out personal insurance cover against damage to wheelchairs, Zimmer frames etc. it could work.”
‘Oh he is so bloody funny your brother Carla, it’s such a shame he lives so far away,’ interrupted Tracy laughing.
‘Hang on, hang on, I haven’t got to the punch line yet,’ said Carla over the noise. ‘So I said, “I think so, as long as they don’t find out about the unfortunate incident with the guide dog and the banana, I should be fine,” and it took him ages to reply after that but then he comes back with:
“But If I remember rightly, that was the only time you ever made a profit, oh hang on you had to buy the banana, so no.”
'Oh my god I nearly wet myself he always makes me laugh so much,’ said Carla wiping her eyes.
‘Oh I miss having him around babes,’ said Maggie getting her breath back, ‘any idea when he might be coming back?’
‘No I don’t know,’ Carla replied sadly, ‘until he’s worked out access to the kids etc, he’ll be over there, I hope it’s not for much longer I do miss him terribly.’
They were talking about Carla�
��s younger brother David, who was in Australia sorting out a rather messy divorce and trying to solve the tricky problem of how to keep in contact with his two boys even though he now lived back in the UK.
It was getting close to midnight; and the meeting had progressed in the same manner as a hundred meetings before.
To summarise in the style of the wonderful Helen Fielding:
Alcohol units consumed…17 shared between Maggie who wears it well, and Carla who quite frankly should know better.
Cigarettes smoked…10 plus…all Maggie, by herself outside the pub. Except for one time when Lenny Longard snuck outside after her, and spent 15 minutes trying to impress her by telling her about his (quite frankly) dubious relationship with his personal trainer at the local gym.
Times Tracy said “My Simon is sooo gorgeous.” …14.
Times Maggie said “Greg the fucking bastard.”…12
Times Carla said “That barman is well lush…if I wasn’t a happily married woman.”…4
Times Tracy said “Don’t let me have another bag of cheesy wotsitts.”…5
Times Helen joined in the conversations…0
So another evening of hilarity was winding down; and Maggie, who always kept a watchful eye over Helen these days, could see that she was flagging and proposed that they call it a night.
‘Oh no,’ protested Carla, who had drunk more than all of them, ‘I’m just getting warmed up…I haven’t told you about what Ted said when I told him about how Rosie found my vibrator and tried to use it as a rolling pin. Oh my god I didn’t know a face could actually go that red…ha ha it was so funny.’ Carla fell about laughing, but she soon realised that although the girls were laughing with her, they were also getting their things together ready to go home.
‘Ok ok I suppose it is getting late…but you are all a bunch of lightweights,’ she grumbled and followed them outside to Helen's car, Helen having volunteered herself as the designated driver for the evening. The journey home was a subdued one; all the witches lost in their own thoughts. As she dropped them off one by one, Helen came round and gave each one of them a big hug. She didn’t know how she would have survived the last year without the love and support of these women. She knew that they were all worried about her, the fact that she didn’t talk much now, or join in with the gossip and joking around. But she had her reasons for not talking, and they would find out soon enough. So for now she just hugged them and let them know she loved them, and watched them stumble drunkenly to their front doors. Or in Carla’s case, drop their keys and crawl around on their hands and knees to find them, setting off the sprinkler alarms on the front lawn thereby giving James an early birthday present in the form of a wet ‘T shirt’ parade, all along the hall as far as the downstairs loo where she promptly threw up.
CHAPTER 4
1.45 am…somewhere on the edge of
Kenley Common
It was pitch black as Duncan slowly led the little procession of assorted cars and caravans towards Kenley common. Huge trees kept looming up in front of him forcing him to slam on the brakes. He was not helped by the fact that it was a particularly foggy night. Duncan could barely see two yards in front of his big 4x4, and had slowed down to a crawl. He was trying to spot Terry and Gabe who had said that they had cleared a path earlier in the day. But he felt like he had been driving round in circles for the last half hour, every tree looked the same.
‘Shit,’ he swore as he bounced over a large log and hit his head on the roof of the car, ‘this is bloody ridiculous, where the hell are they? Fuck me... what the… fucking hell was that!’ He shouted to himself two minutes later, as he swerved the car over to the left, only just slamming on the brakes in time to avoid going straight into a tree.
He stopped the car and sat there for a moment his hands sweating, his heart pounding; something...a figure had just run out in front of the car. It had looked like a young woman or maybe a small man; but whoever it was had been as shocked to see him as he had been to see them. Terrified eyes had met his, for just a second and then they had simply disappeared into the trees. Duncan swore to himself again; it had all happened so quickly and he was so damn tired, that it could have been his imagination, or maybe even a deer caught in his headlights as it crossed the track. One of the cars behind him tooted his horn wondering what the delay was; Duncan shook his head at himself and started moving slowly through the woods again.
‘Come on Terry,’ he muttered, ‘show yourself… how much further can it be?’ Just as he was saying that, he spotted a glimmering light just up ahead and then saw the skinny figure of Terry grinning toothlessly at him, as he guided him off the path and through the makeshift opening on to the common. Duncan smiled back at him, and rolled down his window so that he could wave to the other vehicles that had been following him. He drove over the uneven terrain until he found a good spot just before the trees. Then he manoeuvred the big car and the caravan that followed it into position, and watched as his family and friends did the same, directing them where necessary. Terry and Gabe came sauntering over. Terry looked very pleased with himself; he had suggested this place as a good campsite after visiting relatives in the area. Duncan hadn’t been too sure, he had wanted to stay down nearer to the last place, but they ran a democratic camp and he had been out voted.
‘As good a spot as any I suppose,’ he grumbled to his two friends when they came up beside him, ‘although it won’t be long before we have the police out here…locals aren’t going to like it …better not get too comfortable.’
Terry waved away his concerns. ‘Shit we always have the police on our backs and the locals never like it…fuck the lot of them, this place is home for now…let ‘em come, we won’t go quietly,’ he said almost with relish. Terry loved a good fight and he went off whistling through the gap in his teeth very contented with this nights work. ‘Yeh fuck ‘em,’ said Gabe never one to waste words as he threw down his cigarette butt and with a wave of his hand followed Terry back into the camp.
Within a surprisingly short time the cluster of cars and caravans had organised itself into a proper camp and soon everybody was settling down for the night. They were all tired; the day had started just after three this morning when they had packed up all their belongings and it had been a long drive up from their last camp in the south west to this little common in Surrey, but they were so used to having to move on in a hurry that they had got it down to a fine art. They could rest now…for a while anyway until inevitably they would be moved on again.
CHAPTER 5
6.00 am
Susan Marshal slowly opened her eyes and stared belligerently at the alarm clock that was buzzing away on the bedside table. She reached over and switched it off and then with a groan slid out of the warmth of her duvet and ran shivering over to grab her dressing gown and slippers, it was still cold in the mornings despite it being spring!
Gordon, her husband made some snuffling noises and turned over in bed. Susan wondered when she had started being irritated by him even when he was sleeping. They had married fifteen years earlier, full of hope for a happy and contented future. Gordon worked in his father’s accountancy firm. Learning the business from the ground up as her father-in–law was fond of saying, in reality he was just a form of cheap labour. But Gordon had every expectation of taking over the thriving business one day, so was happy to work the long hours that his dad seemed to require.
Susan had worked in the sandwich bar across the road; and nothing could have suited her vivacious character better. She loved chatting to all the office workers that regularly came in for their lunchtime sandwiches, and because she was a pretty girl with a ready smile she attracted a lot of attention, which she thrived on. She had noticed Gordon in particular because he was so shy with her, barely looking her in the eye and turning beetroot red when she spoke to him. But she would feel his eyes on her, watching her every move, so she knew he fancied her.
Every now and then he would come in with his father, a rather loud m
an who was very pleased with himself and used to make crude suggestions to her and then laugh loudly at his own jokes. Gordon always looked mortified and she could see that he was embarrassed by his father. He would give her an apologetic smile and Susan found it endearing that he felt so protective of her.
Soon she had started looking out for him, missing him when he didn’t show for some reason. Until one day Gordon found the courage to ask her out properly. Susan had found the whole thing terribly romantic despite the fact that Gordon wasn’t her type at all. He reminded her a bit of an overgrown schoolboy with his plump cheeks and cherubic fine curls. But he was the key to a better life and her knight in shining armour. Especially when he stood up to his father; who was devastated that his son had fallen head over heels for the little piece of totty that worked in the greasy spoon where he got his lunch.
All the relationship had needed was opposition to turn it into the love story of the century. And so despite all his father’s blustering and shouting and his mother’s bitchy remarks, the two love birds had married in the biggest wedding that Kenley had seen for a long time; and were soon settled into a lovely cottage just outside the village. Gordon’s dad suffered a nasty stroke a couple of years later and subsequently Gordon had taken over the running of his company.
A few years later, just when they had almost given up hope they were blessed with a son, Owen. Who did a lot to reconcile Gordon’s demanding parents to their unsuitable daughter-in-law. And when a beautiful baby girl, Hannah, arrived two years later their little family was complete. Gordon had grown in girth, but also in confidence, becoming more like his father every day. He had run for, and been elected onto, the local council and was involved in a lot of parish committees. Susan and the children saw less and less of him which Susan was quite happy about. The romantic image that she had had of her husband when they had first married had long gone; and now she saw him as he was; a short fat spoilt man with a false sense of his own importance. Everything he did annoyed her these days, the way he laughed, the way he slurped his tea, his oh so smug smile, bloody hell even the way he breathed!