by W W Walker
Drake had dragged Tyrone the rest of the way to No.3, the empty house on the left of the eight. He’d already been there to check out the place with the intention of lying low until an opportunity presented itself to get that Roger Lang.
He’d taken Tyrone inside, and laid him out on the kitchen floor. There was no furniture in the house, but he’d found some blue nylon rope. Without a chair to tie him to, after tying his hands and feet, he’d taken the ends of the rope and tied them to anything he could find. One side, he’d wrapped it around the cupboard door handles and the other, around the stove on the opposite side of the kitchen.
Drake had to laugh when he saw Tyrone’s body lying flat out on the floor looking like Jesus on the cross, with his arms straight out and one bloodied knee bent. But Jesus or not, he’d be hard pressed to get out of those cryptic knots. And even if he did, his legs were probably broken. Poor guy!
Chapter Twenty-one
Rhianna knocked on the door and Eva let her in. “I’m sorry to bother you,” she said, “Uncle Rolf said I could call on you if I had a problem. It seems that we’re out of milk. I was just wondering if you knew what time the milkman was coming.”
“He’s already been. Didn’t he leave you any?”
“No, but I think he took away the empties.”
“That’s odd.”
Rhianna shuffled her feet as a notion came to her. “You know what? I think I know what’s happened. Uncle Rolf knew he wasn’t going to be here this weekend, so he probably cancelled the milk.”
“But he knew you’d be there, didn’t he?”
“Uhm, yes, I suppose so, but maybe he forgot.”
“Well, I’ve got some I can spare. Come in.”
Rhianna stepped inside. “I can always go to the shop.”
“I wouldn’t. It’s fivepence more in there,” said Eva. “Come through.”
Rhianna followed her into the kitchen. “This is a nice house.”
“Thank you.”
In the kitchen, sitting at the table next to the terrace doors, was a woman with dark hair, looking exotic in a sparkly coloured top over brown slacks. “Hi,” Rhianna said.
Eva introduced them “This is my friend, Jade.” She looked at Jade without any affection in her eyes. “Jade, this is Rolf’s niece from next door.”
“Rhianna,” she said. She guessed Eva had forgotten her name.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?”
“Coffee? Yes, I would. Uncle Rolf doesn’t keep it in.”
Eva chuckled. “We’re all big tea drinkers around here, but I like coffee. I just think it’s more continental.”
“We drink a lot of tea in our house too. My mother wouldn’t be able to get through the day without twenty cups at least.”
The two women laughed. “Sit down,” Eva said.
Rhianna watched her pour black coffee from a silver pot. “I’ve always wanted a percolator,” Rhianna said.
“It’s so convenient.” Eva set a mug down on the table in front of her. “Put in your own milk and sugar.”
“Thanks.”
“Your uncle tells me you’re going to be a journalist.”
“Yes, I love writing.”
“You must be very clever.”
Rhianna leaned forward. “Do you know the people next door?”
“At No.4? Yes. He’s in a wheelchair. you know.”
“Yes, my uncle mentioned it.”
“That poor wife of his. We hardly see them out and about, but they have family visit once in a while.”
“I was thinking of asking him if I could do a piece on him. Do you know how he became confined to the home? Magazines and journals pay a lot for stuff like that. They call them real-life stories.”
“Oh, it was a tragic accident by all accounts,” Eva said.
Rhianna’s ears perked up. “Really!?”
“His name is Tom. I don’t know all the details. He used to drive a lorry, you know one of those tankers that transport oil…Well, he was on the M1 one day and a car almost crashed in the side of him. A woman it was…fussing over her baby while she was driving. Anyway, Tom swerved his lorry and the tanker went over the verge and headfirst into a bridge. He injured his spine on impact, and they had to cut him out. He’s been in a wheelchair ever since.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Yes. It was the woman’s fault, but she got away with cuts and bruises.” As an afterthought, Eva said, “I think everyone should wear seatbelts, don’t you agree?”
“Yes, I do.”
“And of course, his poor wife, Tammy, has to nurse him. But I’m sure he must have had a good pension.”
“I’d love to do a story on him. Do you think he’d agree?”
“Perhaps. You’d have to ask. You can just go around. Walk straight around the back. It’s easier for him…rather than opening the front door.”
“All right, I will.” Rhianna was happy with the information. She wondered if she could get the story written up that weekend. It would be a good one to take with her on Monday when she started her new job. Maybe they’d publish it. She wondered if anyone at Seaview had a typewriter she could borrow. Yes, this was turning out to be quite a productive morning, she thought.
“Have you tried the steps yet?” Eva asked.
“The steps?”
“The cliff steps. They’re quite a challenge. I don’t go down there much.”
“Uncle Rolf said I shouldn’t attempt them until after eleven.”
“Yes, that’s a good idea. They can be treacherous.”
“I thought I saw someone swimming out there this morning.”
“That was probably Eddie from No.7. He always has a swim in the mornings.”
“He braves the Atlantic, this time of year?”
“He wears a wet suit.”
“Not this morning. He looked as if he was naked.”
Eva shrugged. She clearly wasn’t interested in her neighbour from No.7. Rhianna decided to change the subject to something more interesting. “So how do you two know each other?” she asked.
Then the reporter in her noticed two things:
One: so far Jade hadn’t said much, only observing and listening to Eva relay her intel on the neighbourhood. And two: when she asked about their friendship, Eva had blushed. Her neck had turned red, and Rhianna had to wonder if she had an illness of some kind that had caused a spontaneous redness of the skin.
Eva had so far enjoyed the visit with Rolf’s niece, but now the subject had changed, and it wasn’t a topic she relished.
She put her hand up to her neck and hoped Rhianna and Jade hadn’t noticed her skin turning red. She tugged at her sweater and adjusted the collar. Rhianna had just asked how she and Jade were friends, but as far as Eva was concerned, they’d never been that. “Well, Jade’s husband is my husband’s best friend,” she said, putting Rhianna in the picture.
“Not right now they’re not,” said Jade.
“What?” Eva looked stricken. Honestly, the woman had hardly said a word the whole morning and now she was bringing up an issue that didn’t need bringing up.
“They seem to have been battling a lot lately. Haven’t you noticed?”
“Well, they’ve been friends for a long time. They wouldn’t be normal if they didn’t have a falling out once in a while,” Eva tittered. She couldn’t manage a laugh, forced or otherwise.
Rhianna made the awkward moment worse when she asked, “Why have they had a falling out?”
Eva decided that Rhianna would indeed make a good reporter. She seemed to be sticking her nose in a lot of people’s business. “We don’t know.”
Jade butted in. “Well, actually, we do.”
“What?” Eva’s neck was ablaze.
“I think they’re fighting over me.”
Rhianna and Eva looked at Jade as if she’d lost her mind. Rhianna’s eyes had lit up, but Eva decided there was only one thing left to do. She decided to change the subject.
“You know,
Rhianna, I don’t know if your uncle mentioned it, but I’m having a bit of a get-together later on this evening.”
Rhianna gazed at her in the most discerning way. She’d obviously noticed that Eva had changed the discussion from something quite meaty to something quite ordinary.
“It’s just the girls…Since the men have decided to leave us to our own devices,” she chuckled.
In exchange, Rhianna offered her a smile.
“Just Cocktails. And a few nibbles…sausage rolls, crisps…that sort of thing…You’d be very welcome. Six o’clock then?”
“Six o’clock.”
At noon, Rhianna went down to the beach.
The wind was up, lashing her hair about her face and stinging her eyes. She’d tied her hair into a ponytail, but still, the wind managed to pull it out in strands. The sun shone brilliantly over the bay, which was a blessing, making the whole experience a lot more pleasant. She wore a navy blue anorak with a hood, just in case it turned to rain. On her feet she ordinary white daps. She’d had them for years, even using them for PE when she was at school. They were kept clean using canvas whitener. She called them her old faithfuls.
The top of the cliff where the steps went down was a worn patch of grass, covered in sand. From a giant rock, a sign protruded, warning of the dangers of the steps and the cove below. Descend at your own peril, it read. With a great sense of adventure and a constant desire to conquer the world, Rhianna saw it as a challenge.
The steps were about four feet wide. They were man-made, but that was a long time ago. Now they were well worn, which added to their charm. Down one side, a natural handrail had been carved into the rock. It went diagonally down, but it wasn’t straight. It simply followed the contour of the stone as if someone had hollowed it out and had some difficulty along the way. Still, it was a terrific handhold, despite the sand and dirt and the odd root bunging it up
On the other side of the steps was absolutely nothing. It was like a floating staircase with nothing to prevent her falling to her death. She wondered why someone hadn’t added a handrail or something.
The first few steps were easy since they were embedded into the top of the cliff like they were cutting down through. Rhianna took a good hold of the hollowed out crevice and began her descent.
The breeze was biting her cheeks and her fingers as she went down. The steps were slippery in parts, where little puddles of seawater settled upon them. In one a small crab lingered, making Rhianna smile as she thought about never seeing any crabs on the streets of London. She reached the bottom and looked up, seeing the steps in all their glory, reaching to heaven… to Seaview!
She saw the cave under the cliff and remembered Uncle Rolf’s word of warning not to be inside when the tide turned. She’d check it out after her run.
Further out, as the sea crashed its waves over the beach, Rhianna walked idly over the wet sand revelling in the atmosphere of a wildness she’d never known. She had been on beach holidays when she was growing up, but never had she been alone like that, on a lone beach, in the bleak of winter. It was strangely invigorating. The breeze stung her cheeks and her lips felt dry, but it was the smell of sea salt and wet sand that satisfied her most, in the same way freshly mowed grass sparked a memory of summer.
Toward the middle of the cove, she noticed something strange. A circle of sand with mounds either side, like a freshly filled in grave not yet sunken. Someone had dug a hole and the remnants had been left. She bent down and picked up a small garden spade. It had a red handle and it looked quite new. She smiled and dug it into the earth, leaving it protruding from the sand next to the round patch.
Taking a long deep breath, she kicked up her heels and took off, running the width of the bay in careless abandon.
Constance could hardly believe her bad luck. She was standing inside the cave near the steps watching a girl with a ponytail looking down at the circle in the sand. What rotten luck, she thought.
Earlier, Gladys had said that the perfect murder was all about timing, but now Constance realised her timing sucked. They’d decided that the best place to bury the wetsuit was on the beach. Their decision process was based on the tide coming back in later on, disguising the remnants of the hole. They’d agreed they were taking a risk, but they couldn’t think of a place they could hide the wetsuit, nor could they bury it in their own back garden, not if the police sniffed around.
Gladys was positive the police would set up an investigation into Eddie’s death. After they discovered the body, and if they suspected foul play, then the first place they’d look was on Constance’s property.
‘How do you know all this? Constance had asked just before they’d left the house.
Gladys had simply replied ‘Columbo’.
At eleven o’clock, hiding the wetsuit inside a co-op carrier bag, the two women had gone to the place where the steps led down to the beach. “I haven’t been down here for a long time,” said Constance.
Gladys had hesitated at the top. She’d leaned against the big rock where the sign read, Descend at your own peril.
Constance realised just in time that her mother-in-law was too old to manage those steps. “Stay here, mum,” she’d said. “Or better still, go back to the house, while I take care of it.”
“I can’t leave you to do it on your own.” She was already panting at that point. She was exhausted after the crazy events of the night.
“Yes, you can. Honestly, I don’t think you’ll manage these steps.”
Gladys nodded and Constance was glad. She’d realised her limitations just in time. She squeezed Constance’s arm and gave her the garden spade with the red handle. “Be careful.”
“I will.”
The steps had been treacherous, but as soon as she got down to the beach, she immediately started digging. The tide had only just started going out so the sand was still wet, making it easier to dig.
She dug down about three-feet and placed the wetsuit deep into the hole. She’d had no qualms when shovelling the sand back in and burying the remnants of Eddie’s possession forever.
She’d asked Glady’s if it might have been better to leave the wetsuit on the beach, making it look like Eddie had stripped it off himself before he dived into the freezing water. “But why would he do that?” Gladys said, and Constance couldn’t think of a good enough answer.
Just as she threw down the spade after she’d flatten over the hole, she looked up to see a stranger, the girl with the ponytail, arrive at the top of the cliff steps. No one ever went down to the beach in extreme weather. Except for Eddie! but now, as luck would have it, someone was braving the cold to explore the cove. Damn it.
As the girl watched her step as she descended, Constance rushed to the cliffside to hide inside the cave. From the darkness, Constance wondered if she had seen her burying the wetsuit, but with luck on her side for the first time that day, the stranger seemed more interested in exploring the cove and pacing along the sand.
Constance waited.
Then the girl noticed the hole.
Constance’s heart pumped so hard she thought it would explode in her chest. She watched as the girl picked up the spade and examined it. Then, digging it back into the sand she took off to sprint across the beach.
After her wonderfully invigorating run, when Rhianna turned to go back, she looked out across the sea and the waves crashing against the tip of the headland. The frenzy of the Atlantic was something to admire. It could never be controlled or destroyed no matter what man threw at it.
She reached the cave below the steps and saw footprints in the sand. They looked fresh, but they weren’t hers.
Regardless, she began her ascent up the old worn steps, looking out to sea as she went and enjoying the splendour of the unrivalled views.
Fortunately, she hadn’t noticed the body of a man on the sand, washed up by the tide, lying in the surf naked as the day he was born
Chapter Tweny-two
Eva Lang was getting ready for the
cocktail party. It was four o’clock and already the daylight was fading. Despite the day starting out badly, the hours had passed relatively peacefully. In fact, if Jade hadn’t been there, she’d have enjoyed it even more. The woman was a pain. She’d hung around all day waiting for Eva to entertain her, to wait on her, to cater to her every whim. Earlier, she’d made them a quick lunch of egg mayonnaise sandwiches and Jade had said, “Won’t there be anything hot tonight? I’m not sure I can go a day without a proper meal.”
Eva scowled. “If you want something else, you can make it yourself.”
“I couldn’t possibly cook in someone else’s kitchen.”
“Looks like you’ll have to manage with a sandwich then, doesn’t it?” she said offering a sarcastic grin.
They sat at the table, occasionally looking up at each other as they ate. Eva liked to do open sandwiches. She had seen them once when she went to someone else’s house. She thought they were elegant as could be and looked forward to going home to make some herself. The appeal was in the garnish. Smoked salmon with thin slices of cucumber, egg with caviar, creamed cheese and prawns. They looked simply delightful on a plate, colourful and appetising, so the fact that Jade wasn’t impressed by them, just confirmed to Eva what a low birth, low taste bitch she was.
“This is about Jack isn’t it?” Jade said out of the blue.
Eva spluttered and almost choked. She dug her fingernail into a gap between two teeth and gouged out a piece of bread. It gave her a moment. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re being mean to me because of what Jack said at your dinner party last summer.”
Eva screwed up her face. “Oh, that’s ridiculous. It was the drink talking. Roger would never cheat on me. We’re too close.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really!” What a bitch! Eva thought, bringing up that whole matter. No wonder her husband strayed, and no wonder he suspects her sleeping with every man she met. That sparkly top made her look like a slut, with her long dark hair and tinted skin, and so many silver bangles on her wrist, she positively chimed. Eva often wondered if she was a Romany. What with the hoops dangling from her ears and the musky odour that seemed to follow her around. Yes, Eva decided, she was definitely the sort of girl who would have run away with the gypsies.