“Maybe, but it’s too late for that now. It’s done with. I don’t even know where he’s gone.”
One haircut later, and a couple of afternoon drinks in the pub wasn’t enough to distract Suzy. Her long dark waves were now in a long bob. It was cute.
Sam kept feeling her hair, now to her shoulders, it was so light, twelve inches lopped off in total. I was a lot of hair to lose. She felt amazing. Suzy updated Sam’s profile on her dating app, and took a new photo of her fabulous hair.
But that night when she went to her own bad, she was hollow and afraid. She looked up at the sex hook. She hated it.
Nathan went back to his parents for a few days, and thought. He was a widower, he had lost the woman he loved once, and now he had lost another, he hadn’t been enough for her to make a change. His career had stalled. He spoke to his office at length, again, and they discussed the cuts they were implementing, they informed him that this next job would be his last, and offered him a large redundancy package. He had expected it, he had known it was coming, but still, he felt like shit about it.
His father sat down with him, and they worked a few things out. His dad had been an accountant, and was good with money. He worked on a few ideas for the future. One that he could do anywhere. Though that idea was moot now, he wanted it so that he could be with Suzy, and Suzy didn’t want him.
Nathan had looked at what the market had open to him, and it wasn’t promising. His own business would be a risk, but maybe worth it in the end. He had a huge range of skills, contacts all over the country, and he knew how business worked. This was something he could do.
He flew up to Edinburgh, and went to work, but focused on his future, it meant that he didn’t focus on Suzy. Which was a good thing, though he mostly missed the news, if had been less focused on getting his business sorted out, he might have caught what happened, and he would have gone to Chadford.
Eleven. I told you so
Suzy was diligent, before Nathan she had been, even if she did take risks, it was a balance, and she worked hard at it. She worked hard at bravado and appearing confident. She was no victim, she was no longer a weak manipulated abused creature.
She was fierce. A fraud, but appearance was everything.
Perhaps if she didn’t work so hard on appearing to be strong, she could have worked on actual strength, not that she knew how to achieve that.
The Nathan sized hole was gaping, and it was keenly felt at work. Davis was forced to be in the office, and Malcolm had a seething anger towards Suzy.
She told herself off, she would have never said anything to him if not for Nathan, ‘see’, she told herself, ‘look what you went and did.’
Only now she didn’t have anyone in management on her side, there was the tit gawker, and Townslee wasn’t going to be around much.
Suzy wasn’t sleeping, she worked, she worked out, and that was about it. She drank too much wine, and looked increasingly shit.
At least where Malcolm was concerned, she had public opinion on her side. She was a good manager, everyone knew it, and Malcolm had humiliated Poppy, the sweetest girl. Most of the men lusted after her at first, then felt a strange protective thing for her, she brought it out in people, and for a beautiful young woman, she still managed to make all the other women like her.
Suzy had defended her and Malcolm looked like a dick. So if he did or said anything, it would be out of spite. Everyone knew it, but Malcolm watched her, he made a point of being in her personal space, following into the kitchen.
They were small things, but he rang alarm bells for Suzy. It almost made her forget about Zach. Exchanging one creepy man for another.
Two weeks, and January was freezing, dark and miserable, and Suzy was completely depressed. She wasn’t sure how she would manage.
Maybe a night out, and letting off some steam would do her good. She thought of Nathan. She should try to move on. She didn’t think she could make herself, not yet.
She text Bobby, and all was go. It was just a dance night, nothing special. She didn’t really dress up. Crop top and slim fit ankle grazers and she was a go.
She climbed in the taxi and chatted to the driver, a middle-aged man from Bangladesh who usually picked her up and dropped her off places, who chatted to her as if she was family. They often talked politics, and he always made her laugh. He dropped her at the club entrance, and said what he always did, “be careful,” he smiled as he teased her. She grinned.
“Always am.”
She cut the queue and the bouncer let her in. Craig was a good guy, and they spoke a little, as he checked her name off.
The club was loud, the familiar room held nothing for her, just emptiness and alcohol, it would have to do. She did a shot and held her bottle of water as she did a circuit. No faces she knew that night. She was getting old. Other people her age were getting married, having kids. She was nearly twenty-six. The people all around her looked young, and she felt past it. She wondered where all the familiar faces had gone, what they were doing now.
She wondered of anyone ever thought about her. Probably not. She tried to get into the night, tried to dance, but she just felt hollow, the Nathan sized wound was getting to her. She did another shot, but self-medication wasn’t working.
A few guys tried to pick her up, she politely declined, and left. She didn’t order a taxi or ask Bobby as she used to, she wasn’t really thinking, and she just walked out along Town Hill. The evening crowds were growing. A few drunken stag parties, a few huddled groups of women freezing their tits off in short skirts and no coats. A few police about. She ignored it all and wandered along to the edge of the Hill. It was quiet on the one end, where the taxi rank was. Later, the kebab shops and take-aways would be rammed, and crowds would be fighting for taxis but at ten, there was barely a soul about.
Save one.
Suzy crossed her arms and huddled against the wind, the taxi rank just ahead of her, and he stepped out in front of her, and she stepped to the side, but he stepped with her. She looked up, a cold dread prickled up her spine and into her cheeks.
She hadn’t really looked at him when he came for her in her car. But she looked at him then, in the yellow streetlight, on a bitter night at the end of January.
She knew then she wouldn’t see twenty-six. Every fear she had was about to be real. She had been preparing herself for it for years. It had always been the only outcome.
It was a strange realisation. It was why she had sent Nathan packing, it was why she always held herself back. This monster before her had decided her fate long ago, even if he was just now realising it.
When she had done kickboxing, she had planned her attack. Eyes, neck, groin, in-step, stomach, a range of defence blows to escape. Only then, she couldn’t remember a single one. She couldn’t have said her own name.
Zach looked heavier, older. He looked ugly to her, where she had once found his dark looks attractive, she now found them repulsive. Perhaps that was why Nathan was so attractive with his fair hair and good tan.
“Hello Suzy. We should talk.”
She shook her head and tried to side step him, but he blocked her. She looked around. No one to help her.
He stepped closer, and took her elbow. He took her little bag from her hand and took out her phone, he threw it down over the wall into the park.
Town Hill was at the top of the old part of the city. Years ago, it was the market and ran along a steep hill that was a park. Through it was a set of steps, imaginatively called Town Steps, and cut through to the sixties infrastructure of the new town development of Chadford.
Zach tried to pull her, but she dug in.
“No.” She said it clearly, but he only smiled, and wrapped his arm round her.
“You know, I know all about you. I know all about your friends, the man you’ve been fucking, the bullshit you spread about me. I kind of like your little Asian friend, what’s her name? Sam is it?”
Suzy thought her legs might give out.
&n
bsp; “Do what I fucking say you little whore, you are mine, I’ve let you play about, but enough is enough.”
Suzy couldn’t think, she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t do anything. He dragged her along into the park, and the reality of what was happening sliced through her.
The park was deserted, and he pulled her along the steps to the small carpark just off. It was permit only, and for work, Zach had a permit, she didn’t see anyone else about. She thought she might have a heart attack as he forced her into his car.
He did her seatbelt up for her, as she desperately tried to think. No thoughts came to mind. Maybe if she couldn’t feel or think it would be best.
He drove calmly. He had placed her little bag on the dashboard. Her rape alarm would do no good to her now.
Her keys might. She couldn’t get them. His car was immaculate, so there was nothing to grab.
They drove in silence, she knew there was no arguing with him. There never was. He was a narcissist, and to his thinking, he was always right, people were there solely for him, and they were little more than things to use as a means to an end.
He lived in the same house, a small two-bed semi in a newish housing estate on the edge of Chadford.
He parked on the drive and went round to open her door. She slowly pulled the seatbelt round her fist, and braced herself. Her only hope was to make as much noise as she could and attract the attention of a neighbour.
The door opened and he leant over to undo her belt, she took her free hand and used the heel of her hand to catch the bridge of his nose. His head hit the windscreen with the force of the blow, and he went to pull the belt from her, and yanked her forward, but she was caught in it. He wrenched it as hard as he could, pulled her forward, but she turned her back as she fought, and thrust her elbow back, she caught his ribs, the blow was too high. He caught round her waist, as she still held the seatbelt, and she screamed, finding her voice from somewhere, and the belt jolted to a halt, he couldn’t pull her out of the car as she screamed, her leg kicked out and she caught the horn.
He wrestled with her, and dug his fingers into her fist, he pried her fingers apart and spun her round and out of the car. He kicked her in the face. She went limp, the world shifted, and she struggled to keep her eyes open, fear and adrenaline fought against the shock of the blow.
She pushed up onto all fours, but he picked her up and carried her inside under his arm.
Mr Griffin yawned and unhooked his bedroom curtains from the tiebacks. He peered out into the quiet cul-de-sac. Such a quiet street, or it used to be. He had just heard a scuffle and a car horn, and he went to see if someone’s car was being stolen. He saw number four’s car, and a man and a women looking like they were fighting.
The loudmouth man from number four was not the kind of person he wanted in their street. He neglected his garden, and it always looked shabby. He was obnoxious and rude, he came and went at all hours. It was only nine eighteen, so it was early for him to come back on a Saturday night.
Mr Griffin, in his immaculately ironed pyjamas, and perfectly neat dressing gown, stood perfectly still. His equally perfect wife came out of the bathroom as Mr Griffin watched in increasing horror.
His wife, Dot, in her perfectly pressed nightie and matching robe stood nearby.
“Dot, call the police.”
Suzy was moving, but upside down. Zach took her to his bedroom. She hated that room. He’d never let her go to the loo after sex, he would pull her back down to the bed, time after time, even when she’d beg, and fight him.
He’d laugh, while she tried not to piss herself.
She felt sick, her vision spun, and she felt so tired.
He dropped her on the bed and looked in the mirror. His nose was red, but she had only stunned him.
“You’re lucky you haven’t bruised me.” She swallowed as she turned round. He sat next to her. “I’ve missed you, even if you cause so much trouble. Playing me isn’t doing you any favours. Getting the police involved was a mistake. And the man you’ve been fucking about with,” he shook his head, “well he’s gone now, you were too much of a handful for him weren’t you. I know how to handle you. Don’t I?”
He pulled at her top, and she held it to her body, he struggled with her, turning onto her stomach, he straddled her legs, pinning her in place. She dragged in a breath, but her throat closed, she went into shock. She didn’t see a way out. He fisted her top with her arms underneath her, and he pulled it over her back, his hands ran over her.
He leant forward and whispered everything he had planned for her, all the things he would do with her as he kept her in his bed. She would only leave when he let her.
He whispered all the punishment that she deserved as he lay on her back, erection pressing into her arse, his mouth close to her ear. The horror that would happen to her, the cruel violence that waited for her pulsed in her mind, it made her cold.
She went completely still. Tears fell down her face, wetting the top that she clung to. Zach crawled under her skin, he crawled inside her mind, and she was that vulnerable nineteen year old again.
She closed her eyes, and closed her mind. He sat back, his fingers lazed down her back to her bra and he undid it. He flipped her over, and pulled her top and bra away from her. He wiped her silent tears with his knuckles, as she covered herself with her arms.
He undid her jeans and struggled to pull them down, he pulled off her ankle boots, and looked at her as he pulled his top off.
“First thing’s first, you need to apologise. You’ve messed me about, got me arrested, and bitch, you’ve made me look like a dick, you’ve twisted the truth so much, and I’m sick of your bullshit.”
He caged her as he spoke. There was no getting away from what was going to happen, but fuck it, she wouldn’t make it easy.
“I hate you, you fat, vicious pig. Ugly, repulsive, spiteful, hateful, vain, rude, stupid, piece of shit.”
He sneered and slapped her.
Then something happened, it made her stomach dip. The doorbell rang. “What did you do?”
“You abducted me, you’re the rapist shitforbrains, not me, you’ve done this.”
He reared back and she tried to brace. The doorbell went again, the letterbox tapped, an unfamiliar voice echoed up.
“Police! Open the door.”
Zach stood and Suzy scooted away, covering herself. Zach reached a drawer, and pulled out a long hunting knife, and a gun. Her eyes widened and she stopped breathing.
“Say a word, I’ll cut your fucking tongue out or put this in your cunt. Do you understand me?”
The door banged again. Her body was leaden, she never realised how heavy her arms and legs were.
He turned away, went out to the landing, and looked over the banister. She made herself move, she wrenched over the curtains, and opened the window, and screamed for help. Zach was on her in a second, and pulled her back.
His voice was a snarl of things she didn’t hear, because at that moment there was a bang, and he used her as a shield, as police came up the stairs. She didn’t hear what was being said, only that there was a knife at her neck, and a gun resting on her shoulder pointing at the officers.
The Greater Chadford police received a number of calls from Mr Griffin, and most of them were time wasters. But the one they received that night, the one dispatched to PC Wilkes and the other sergeant she was assigned to that night to deal with domestic disturbances. They were passed the call only because the address in question was that of Zach Rodin.
Two previous arrests for harassment, among other things. Wilkes remembered the name, and the woman that he was stalking.
She matched the description that Griffin had given when he had described the fight and Rodin carrying the women inside the house. Wilkes had a bad feeling when they arrived. The bedroom light was on and the curtains closed.
Griffin was out of his door watching before they had stepped out the patrol car.
There was no answer, and Wilkes kept tellin
g Griffin to step back. In the shadow of the light above, she saw a man stand. She saw the curtains open and the nearly naked woman scream. It was her. Sargeant Peters kicked the door in, and they both went in, calling for further assistance as they did.
Ms Martin was terrified, her face was bruised, as she tried to cover herself. Rodin looked cornered, crazed, unsure how to get himself out of the mess he was suddenly in, and he was armed.
Peters was calm, talking the whole time, Wilkes and he tried to contain the situation until others arrived.
Suzy looked like she was going to pass out. The sirens of the police van were in the distance, and it made Rodin sneer.
He knew it was up, he knew it, but he couldn’t let her win, he wouldn’t. After all the shit she caused him, he couldn’t let her get away with it. They were unarmed police, they didn’t even have a taser.
He kissed her cheek, and in a second whipped his hand down, and plunged the knife into her belly twice and then fired his gun.
Suzy didn’t feel it, but the last thing she saw as she looked down, was her belly part, and blood, so much blood.
Suzy had some weird trippy dreams, she didn’t know what they were, but they hummed round her head, all at once, indistinct and heavy.
She tried to open her eyes but couldn’t, she wanted to swallow, but her throat was so dry, she couldn’t do that either. She tried to make a noise, and she rasped.
There was something in her arm, pain in the back of her hand.
A noise.
A beeping irritating as fuck noise.
She tried to open her eyes again and managed, it was too bloody bright. She tried to say shut the curtains but only a slur came out of her mouth. She went back to sleep.
Who knew how long later she actually woke up.
Hospital.
Amy was sat next to her bed. Suzy frowned. The room, other than the beeping was quiet. She wasn’t sure what had happened, and the blissful few moments of non-remembrance evaporated as the whole thing came back.
Saving Suzy (New city Series Book 2) Page 13