by A. P. Butler
Lance’s phone beeps loudly as another message arrives, again from Mike. “nEd hlp big man?” Maybe Mike’s starting to suspect something’s a rye. He needs to be punished for his crimes, so I set in motion his demise. “Cum round @ 6 pm 2nt M8, finishD d btch off w me,” my only reply. Within seconds I get a simple emoji explaining his delight. Now I have seven and a half hours to plan and orchestrate his execution. First I need to know more of him, find his weakness, his abyssal key.
It doesn’t take long to find my way in, upon the mantelpiece over the fireplace of living room is a collection of photos. Lance with Ray, Ray in fancy dress, and Mike with his daughter, I’d almost forgotten of her. I’m sure it’s just the two of them now, I remember Lance told me about Mike’s wife being a junky or something, how they’d got rid of her somehow. If I’m right, I even remember the school she goes to; Mike had dropped something off a few months ago; he was taking me home from a delivery I’d made and popped in on-route. She’d be about 6 or so now, hopefully still in the same school.
Sliding the photo from its frame, flipping it over and there in perfect handwriting is all I need. The back simply reads, ‘Me & Teagan, 2015, Sardinia.’ My mind runs through all the different scenarios how I could exploit her, to get to Mike. Never will I be able to bring myself to hurt her physically, so whatever I do it must be psychological. That’s when Ubel comes to my rescue.
“Chemically induce a horn in the rapist, strip little Teagan down and force her upon daddies delight my Elspeth dear, see how he handles raping his own.”
“Ubel, you worry me at times.”
“You sick little man-pig Ubel.”
“Yep right pair of fucking angels to two are, OK pretend to hurt her, let Mike think she’s been left with a pedo, see how loose his tongue is then. No greater motivator than the threat of child rape Elsbeth my dear.”
“Oh, excellent idea Ubel! That should work Elizabeth.”
“Even with chemical induction, I’d still need scaffolding to get one-up you Lilly.”
“Oh just fuck off Ubel!”
Ubel’s second idea was the only real way of using her without actually hurting her too much, I was going to kill her rapist father, so she was going to feel pain, but I couldn’t touch her like that. She would be better off without such a role model to look up to, and I needed to take revenge. Heading to the garage to see what transport Lance has I can borrow, hoping he has more than the Rolls, it’s way too big for me; I can hardly see over the dashboard, I wouldn’t feel comfortable driving it. The Rolls Royce is gone, but the white Evoque was there, keys on the rack as normal. Climbing into the car, the key fob slides effortlessly into the slot upon dash. She roars into controlled ferocity as I hold down the red engine start button. At the same time, the garage door slowly begins to open, as do the large iron gates beyond.
Emancipation of The Innocent
Smart yoga mum is the disguise for this little ruse, black yoga leggings with crisscross ties at the back of ankle, a tiny little blue designer hoodie, multicoloured running shoes, topped off with the ever-important narcissistically superior ‘fuck you’ attitude. Now I need to look mumsy if I’m going to Teagan’s school. Traffic’s starting to build as I race back across town towards Hampstead. Teagan goes to a highly respected school, so no chance of them letting me leave with her, they don’t know me, and I won’t be on their list of guardians. Lies the only keys here I’m going to have to lie as well as Lilly if I’m going to steal a few minutes alone with little Teagan, this is where Lilly comes into her own, my resident dame of dishonesty. Pulling up close to the school on some nameless street, I then walk the rest of the way, my performance growing stronger with each step.
Rubbing eyes as I go, I need to appear as if I’ve been crying. Phone in one hand, a cold half-empty Starbucks coffee cup found in the car in the other and of course, the obligatory designer sunglasses all yoga mums wear, even in winter. Dark enough not to be confused with regular glasses but light enough to see my distress. There she is, playing with her friends, a beautiful young black girl wearing a little grey pleated gym skirt with a tiny white polo top, jumping around like the cold doesn’t exist, as happy as every child should be. She’s playing hopscotch with what looks like her best friend, a little white girl with plumes of red hair bobbing about. “Wonder how long it’ll be Elspeth before some leftie twat destroy's that friendship, insisting one can use a word, the other can’t?”
Stopping momentarily to snap a few shots, I figure I may need them later as either a convincer or insurance should things go awry. The teacher and her assistant hang around, guarding their flock, so I’m going to have to be convincing. Lilly takes the reins of my emotions and words, weaving her web of deceit and misinformation. Confidently I walk into the school playground, as I do the teacher turns and walks directly towards me.
“Can I help you?” She asks in a typical authoritative manner.
“Hello, yes I’ve come to see little Teagan, her dad’s been in an accident.”
“Oh my!” Came the reply in a distressed voice, her face now wearing a ‘haven’t got a clue what to do’ expression. No doubt only months ago she was still enjoying the excesses of university life, now guardian of many a young innocent. If only the parents knew of her youth and inexperience would they still pay handsomely for the privilege of her private school ignorance?
“My name’s Laura; I’m a family friend. Can I just have a few moments with her to explain?”
“Well, err…. It’s most unusual; I really should get the headmistress.”
“No problem, it might be better for her to be away from the rest of the children anyway.”
With that the teacher ran over to the assistant, bending to whisper, assistant looks back to me with innocent eye, then runs off towards the entrance doors nearby. Trying to keep myself looking innocent and as upset as I can, Lilly’s weaving a web of pure dishonesty, her true nature flourishing. Our performance must have been on point, as they both swallowed our lies without question. Moments later the assistant comes scurrying out of the entrance, waving me over. Waving a flappy hand and blowing a simple kiss towards Teagan as I jog towards the assistant. As with all kids that age, Teagan and several other instinctively just wave back with big blissfully ignorant smiles, then continue to play hopscotch. The Teacher looks a little more at ease now as she’s starting to believe Teagan and I are indeed friends as I told her.
The headmistresses office is light and airy, her name Ms Tomlinson is painted in bold gold letters, upon the glass panel of the oak door. She’s a small, older lady; she greets me with a warm smile and a firm controlling handshake.
“Good morning Ms?” Her voice commanding much more authority than the teacher or assistants.
“Sorry yes, where are my manners? I’m Laura Olsen.” The only name I could think of was that of my Laura.
“Please come in Ms Olsen, take a seat.” Her mannerisms indicating she was much wiser and more suspicious than her lower-ranking colleagues, she wasn’t going to be as easy as the other two. Whispering to Lilly to raise her game, to lie like a politician unleashing her full conspiracy of lies.
“Jenny tells me you have some rather unfortunate news for young Teagan?”
“Yes, I’m afraid, I do. Her father Mike’s been in an accident at work, I need to let her know he’s okay but he’s going into surgery now and wanted me to let Teagan know.”
“Well, you’re not down as a parent or guardian, so I can’t let her go with you I’m afraid. She’s only permitted to leave with either her Auntie or father.”
“Oh no you misunderstand me, I’m not here to take her, just to let her know. Her auntie will call later to arrange collection.”
Her face lightens as she lets out a sigh of relief. “Do you think it’s a good idea to tell her now?”
“Mike asked me too, ever since her mum died, they tell each other everything.” Which was a complete lie, Teagan had no idea daddy was a rapist, murdering bastard, or that he was the
one who bumped mummy off.
“Would it be okay if she stayed in after school club just today?” Lilly added as I repeated, to offer more reassurance that I wasn’t about to abductor her.
“Well, I understand, and yes, of course, she can stay. If it’s OK with you I’ll get the school nurse; she can stay with her for the rest of the day. I’ll have Teagan brought here for you.”
“Thank you, Ms Tomlinson.”
That was it! That was all I had to do to get access to Teagan; I was shocked at how easy it was, God if Lilly and I had put a little more thought, we could have abducted Teagan no problem. “Lying fucking bitch, you are Lilly,” Ubel not impressed at Lilly’s deceit. Ms Tomlinson got up, leant her head out of the office door, instructing the secretary to get Teagan. My next hurdle approaching fast and I’d no idea what I was going to say to her to make her cry let alone scream the way I needed her too. Ubel suggested punching her in the face or head butting her, but Lilly rejected the idea, as did I. Apart from being the sort of thing a selfish baby boomer would do and just plain wrong, I couldn’t give them any reason to believe I was lying, let alone hurting her, and I defiantly couldn’t get caught assaulting a six-year-old with a right hook. A few minutes later little Teagan popped her sweet innocent little head around the door frame.
“Hello, Ms Tomlinson.” Her sweet innocent voice danced its merry way across the room, as proudly as if she had just learnt it, all was happy in her world. She smiled with the innocents of all that are still young, no comprehension of her reality, her fate.
“Hello Teagan, come in. This is your father’s friend Ms Olsen she needs to talk to you.” Ms Tomlinson announced with a soft and caring tone, as she got up and left the room. On her exit, she quietly mouthed while pointing she’d be outside as she walked behind Teagan. Little Teagan sat next to me upon the oversized blue plastic chair, looking directly into my eyes with all the inquisitiveness and purity of a child. Her eyes hid no lies just pure innocents, no hate, no pain, nothing but a readiness to learn, all from behind beautiful big brown eyes and a huge tooth filled smile. Pressing record on my phone, as I leant over to stroked her thick afro hair. Today worn with joyful abandonment, pulled tightly into two huge fluffy bunches either side of her head, which she made bobble about as she grinned beneath.
Her giggle more infectious than any virus, her happiness abundant. She was a real cutie-pie too, which made the next few minutes as difficult for me as it would be traumatic for her. Quietly I leant in to whisper Lilly’s words of Machiavellian hate and destruction. Lies of her daddies death at the wheels of a lorry, how he’d died a torturous and painfully death, I threw in a few gruesome details of last words just to help coax out the pain. Before the opportunity arose to embellish my tale further, her big brown eyes turned from orbs of open love to discs of deepest despair, welling up with a torrent of tears, only a child could produce. She seemed only to breathe in for a while as the tears and mucus came, till she let out a spine-chilling scream as her pain erupted from within. Forcing me to scrunch my eyes, turning away as the ferocity of her scream bombarded my senses with its blood-curdling pitch.
“Please daddy no!” She screamed, loud and through snuffling gasps of air. She cried rivers of pain for what seemed like a million revolutions of a small hand, before her tears dried up, leaving a broken little girl. Her world devastated by a weapon of words, Mike’s method of death may differ, but his death was assured. Christ, I felt awful, but Ubel kept reminding me of her father, what he had done, how it was our duty to restore some sort of justice. Suddenly awash with maternal instinct I pulled Teagan into my protective arms, as I had Hannah all those years ago. She sobbed as I told her how much I loved her, how she had to stay in school and be brave, how I would be back later for her. My distress signalling the headmistresses head to peep through the now growing gap between door and frame, beckoning her in, behind an old friendly looking face followed.
“Ms Stevens, our nurse, will take care of Teagan now Ms Olsen.”
“Of course, now little Teagan my love, I’ll be back later after school OK?”
Little Teagan only nodded her little head, eyes puffy and red from all the crying. She was still sobbing as she walked away, her little hand clutching the nurses tightly. Taking a deep breath I let the tears run free, I needed to offer a convincer to Ms Tomlinson, but these tears came too easily. Almost forgetting my phone was still recording, sitting upon her desk, thankfully the screen had dissolved, no evidence of my little ruse had been set free.
“Did you say you would come back later Ms Olsen?”
“Oh yes sorry, I didn’t know what else to say.”
“Take your time Ms Olsen, that must have been awful.” Her face now a compassionate and loving one. Her sympathy exploited, I now needed to execute an exit strategy, Lilly again provided a compelling performance. No doubt phone calls would be made; I just had to hope my plan wasn’t revealed to Mike before his appointment with fate this evening.
“Yes, it was, if you don’t mind I think I need some air.”
“Of course Ms Olsen.”
Jumping up to open the door for me as I scurried out with head down, Lilly whispering pains of Hannah, my little sister, of what I’d seen earlier. The tears this time were real, cascading down my cheeks, over my chin and falling freely to the floor. The secretary tried her hardest to fight back her emotions, but she couldn’t help but cry. Running down the hallway my phone, sunglasses and coffee in one hand, the other covering mouth and nose, an estuary of tears flowed faster than I could run. The cold morning's air hit me as I pushed open the heavy entrance door. Stumbling into the playground as Ubel sarcastically said. “Nice fucking Oscar performance Elspeth, crying like a first timer in a prison shower.”
Waving an awkward and a tearful goodbye to both teacher and assistant, who looked full of emotion as I left the school gates. Dropping my cold coffee in the bin as I passed, I tried to keep myself together until I turned the corner onto another nameless north London Street. Years ago I’d read somewhere they had taken down the road signs during the war, so invading Germans wouldn’t know where to go, for some unknown reason they just hadn’t bothered to put the bloody things back up again. The leather seats of the Range Rover engulfed me with comforting softness as I sat for what must have been ten minutes as the pain crashed over me. Crying this time to myself, not for what I’d done too little Teagan, but for what had been done to me, to Hannah and the others.
“Sorry, Elspeth I thought you were acting.”
“Really Ubel, you truly are an obnoxious little man-pig, I wish you would just leave us alone, we don’t want you anymore do you not understand?”
Ubel didn’t reply, his silence becoming his guilt. In all the years they’ve been with me, I’ve never felt so alone as I did sitting in that car. Surrounded by eight and a half million people, in one of the most vibrant and densely inhabited cities in the world, but I still felt like the loneliest most isolated woman on the planet. Everything I’d had taken from me as a child, I was now going to take from Teagan, except her innocents of course. There was no other way, I knew this, but it didn’t make it any easier. The drive back to Lance’s slow and emotional, my sunglasses hiding the majority of my sorrow.
The iron gates opened as I pulled up at Lances, it was 1:18 pm, I didn’t have long to get prepared for Mike’s arrival. The house was warm and still as I walked in, through the garage. Not taking Lance’s phone with me just in case it rang, or I pulled the wrong one out, it now sat flashing away on the worktop in the kitchen. Five new text messages, two from Mike, the other three a set of disgusting photos from Ray doing things to a young boy. Clicking open Mike’s last message which only read “snd us a Foto of d btch m8.” No mood was I to oblige his request, I simply text back “tAk a naughty pill m8, U gna luv fkn DIS btch.”
-1-
Lance and Ray have built a very lucrative business selling body parts, as well as other things. Now I needed to know how the operation works. Without the f
unds from this activity, I was going to run out of money fast, especially if I was going to clean house. “Check his bank account Elizabeth.” The thought of stealing his money hadn’t crossed my mind until Lilly mentioned it. Since I now required the aid of a computer to edit my audio of Teagan anyway, I may as well do some liberating as well.
The chair stank, the same smell I’d endured on the train back from Paris, this was most definitely Ray’s office. His computer was huge, the keyboard disgusting, originally white but now a dirty shade of grey with mustard yellow surrounding most of the keys. As the screen came alive I was hit by a password; I tried Lance, then Raymond, but again I failed to absolve this little riddle of enlightenment. If it was anything like my computer, I only had one more shot at it before it locked me out. Stumped, I didn’t know Ray like I thought I’d known Lance, maybe it was never meant to be.
Maybe I was never supposed to tame my captors. Sitting bemused, dumbfounded I looking around for some sort of clue as to what it could be, that’s when I saw it, as plain as day, right in front of me, an old tatty copy of the Bible. Of course, Ray was a Catholic priest, a man of faith; it must be a holy name, there were a few good choices, God, Jesus, maybe even Trinity. For a moment I thought until Lilly whispered Elohim, it somehow seemed right, typing it in I took a deep breath then pressed return.
“Religious types like him always believe that they're clever when they regurgitate bits from their silly fantasy books Elizabeth.”
God, I hoped Lilly was right about Ray, that he was a man of theological knowledge and his reference would be obscure. Elohim, as Lilly then pointed out was the fist reference to God in Genesis 1:1, Elohim, the God of all Gods. The screen went blank, then with a jubilant ovation of Gregorian chant it flicked into life, accompanied by an exhale of long and relieved breath through tight lips and puffy cheeks. Ray’s computer was as disgusting as the laptop from upstairs, a multitude of images and video’s, a contact list and other useful information about their offensive operation flashed before me. Ray was obviously the mastermind behind this organisation; he dealt with the money, the deals, everything. The information on here was vital, an empire toppling array of information now at my fingertips.