The Fenton Saga: Never Say Goodbye / There Was No Body.

by Colin Griffiths

  ‘I'm sorry. I was only doing a couple.’ He pleaded. Daniel could see Stephen was shaking.

  ‘This is Todd's round.’ he said, and took the shammy from his hand and rammed it into Stephen’s mouth until he was choking. Tears were running down his face, noises coming from a mouth full of shammy. It had only been in his mouth for a short while, but Stephen thought he was going to die. He gasped for breath. He began coughing. Daniel released the shammy, put his arm round the window cleaner’s shoulder. A plastic-handled wiper, lay on the floor beside them. Daniel pointed to it.

  ‘See that?’ he said.

  ‘Yes…yes,’ he stuttered, still with Daniel’s arm around his shoulders.

  ‘If I catch you again, I'm going to shove that up your arse,’

  ‘I promise.’ Stephen said, ‘I promise.’

  ***

  As Daniel drove on and approached his mum’s house Todd was up the ladder, cleaning his mum’s windows. Daniel parked the car outside his mum’s house, opened the gate, still grinning at the thought of Stephen Jenkins shaking up the ladder.

  ‘Hey, bruv!’ he shouted up to Todd.

  ‘Danny Boy!’ Daniel hated that, and Todd knew it. ‘Be down in a min, bro.’

  Daniel opened the front door. “Mum!’ he shouted.

  ‘In here.’ came her voice from the kitchen.

  Daniel walked into the kitchen, took hold off the petite lady who stood before him and hugged her.

  ‘Hi mum, anything up?’ he asked as he released her.

  She gathered her breath. She always loved it when Daniel did that.

  ‘Nothing up, as you would say.’ She smiled. Carol knew exactly what he meant. It meant, had she heard from his dad.

  ‘Good. Now, you got anything to eat?’ he asked as he opened the cupboard doors.

  ‘Doesn't that lady of yours ever feed you?’

  ‘She does, just not enough!’

  Todd came into the house and into the kitchen. His mum was making Daniel a sandwich. Daniel stood there with a box of Pringles, ramming half a dozen at a time in his mouth. Carol got more slices of bread for Todd.

  ‘Just caught that Jenkins kid cleaning windows.’

  ‘Not again.’ said Todd ‘I’d warned him once.’

  ‘Well, let’s just say he won't be cleaning anymore’ said Daniel and laughed.

  Todd laughed with him. Carol gave a disapproving look to the pair of them, but as she turned away she smiled to herself.

  Todd had been academically bright, just like his brother. He liked to write short stories and poems, and had a fascination with crosswords and quizzes, but he had chosen a window cleaning round on the estate where he lived. He loved the fact that you only worked when the sun was shining, and he met lots of people. He wouldn't do it forever, though it would do for a few years. Of course he still spent some time in his wardrobe. For an eighteen-year-old, he was big in build, though not as big as his brother. Daniel had his father’s build and the rugged looks that all the girls fell for. Daniel was always perfectly groomed, with a smart suit when in worked, but Todd always looked a bit unkempt, hair slightly too long, jeans a bit too frayed and a vast collection of T- shirts ranging from Disney characters, to the Walking Dead series. Yet he was handsome with it. He wasn't money orientated, nor did he wish for fast cars. He liked life just as it was.

  They sat at the kitchen table eating their sandwiches, while Carol loaded the washing machine, made herself a coffee, and sat with them. It was three pm.

  ‘What you doing?’ Daniel asked his brother.

  ‘Wendy’s working till eight. She’s on a break soon. I'm going to have tea with her.’ Todd said with his mouth full. ‘I've done enough windows for today.’ he had in fact only done his mother’s.

  ‘I’ll come with you. Have something more to eat.’

  They finished their sandwiches, and kissed their mum goodbye, but not before Todd got the £5 from his mum for doing the windows,

  ‘I pay my keep; she can pay for the windows.’ Todd had said, when Daniel questioned his mother paying.

  They were all laughing, and then the boys left the house. They entered the cafe on the estate, which was set out more like an American Diner with a long counter going the length of the room, stools beside it and some four-seater tables with chairs, running along the front of the diner. The diner had vast windows looking outside. Red and white table cloths adorned the tables, on each of which stood a little trestle full of sachets of sauces. A triple burger being their speciality.

  The two brothers took a table by the window, Todd giving Wendy a wave and blowing her a kiss when he saw her behind the counter. His heart melted a little. It always did when he saw Wendy, especially wearing her uniform. Oh how he loved that uniform. Wendy blew one back and made a gesture that she would be two minutes.

  Todd was eighteen and Wendy seventeen. They had been together less than a year. Todd had once described her as having a face ready to live a life.

  ‘A life of adventure and fun.’ he had said, ‘with the softest lips I will ever kiss.’

  Wendy was never sure how to take that, but she knew he meant it well. Today she wore her uniform, the American style pink baseball cap, with Ashbourne Cafe printed on the front. Her long hair pony-tailed at the back, a blue top and trousers and a pink apron. She wore no make-up. She very rarely did. She had a natural beauty. She lived in the next street to Todd, just past the chip shop. His mum knew her mum, that kind of thing. She was in the year below Todd in school and they had never really got to know each other in the early years, and the day Todd cleaned Wendy’s mother’s window was the first time he really noticed her.

  Todd was washing the upstairs windows of the house, which he later found out to be Wendy’s bedroom. Wendy had just taken a shower, and walked into her bedroom. Although her dignity was covered with a towel, the shock at seeing the window cleaner’s face at the window, caused her to jump, and for a split second the towel dropped. At that moment Todd stood on the ladder in a trance, motionless, his hand in the air, still holding the shammy, his mouth wide open in total amazement at what he had just seen. Not the fleeting sight of her naked body, it was just a brief second, before Wendy had managed to “re-towel” herself. It was her beauty that he noticed. Her wet hair, all scuffed up as she had been drying it, her unmade-up face, showing more beauty then any make-up kits from the world’s top models, he had thought. He was in such awe of her beauty that he fell off the ladder, just hearing Wendy shriek as he went past the window. One minute he was there, the next he was gone.

  Todd had landed in hedge running alongside the path below the windows. He had been scratched and shocked, but his pride and dignity was hurt more than himself. Wendy had come running down the stairs, still in her towel, and out through the front door. Her mother, Helen, heard the commotion and followed. Todd was still dangling half in and half out of the hedge as the mother and daughter came outside. He got himself free, struggling to stand. He looked at Wendy standing there, a raven-haired beauty, with just a towel around her.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she asked. ‘You frightened me to death!’

  Her mother went back into the house. Neighbours looked from across the street. Todd wasn’t sure if they were looking at him or the beautiful image of this admirable girl, wearing only a towel.

  ‘I'm fine. I'm sorry I didn't recognise you without your clothes on.’

  Wendy blushed, but smirked. Todd checked again that he hadn't been cut.

  ‘I think a thorn has pierced my heart.’ he said. ‘You know, in order to thank me, you can take me out tonight.’ he added.

  ‘Thank you?’ came the reply. ‘Thank you? I ought to bloody well slap you, for peering at me like that. I should report you!’

  ‘Okay then.’ Todd replied.

  Wendy looked a bit shocked. ‘Okay, I’ll phone the police now.’

  ‘No, I don't mean that. I mean I’ll take you out.’

  ‘What makes you think I want to go out with a peeping tom?’
<
br />   ‘You don't. You want to go out with me.’

  Wendy smiled, smitten by his charm. Todd smiled too. How beautiful this girl is? Don't blow it now. He said to himself.

  ‘I’m Todd. I live in the next street.’

  ‘I know. I'm Wendy. I live here.’

  ‘I know. Pick you up at seven?’ he asked.

  ‘I'm washing my hair.’

  ‘You just washed it.’

  ‘Seven?’

  ‘Seven.’

  ‘Okay.’

  Todd’s face beamed. Wendy’s face glowed. Todd gathered his cleaning stuff, lowered the ladder, placed it on his shoulders, smiled at Wendy and said, ‘Tell your mum there’s no charge.’

  That evening they went bowling, and then to Nando's for Wendy’s favourite chicken. They never stopped talking or laughing, and fell in love with each other that night, and have been inseparable ever since. They both realised there was something different about each other, not sinister, just a sense of being someone special.

  Wendy loved song writing and she played an acoustic guitar. Todd had shown Wendy his poems, and she loved them, putting a few of them to music. Many a night was spent sitting together, singing the songs that they composed. They were only six weeks into the relationship when Todd told her about his wardrobe.

  ‘It’s where I see things, and find answers.’ he had told her.

  ‘That’s cool.’ was all that Wendy said, thinking that it was the most natural thing in the world.

  Wendy sat down opposite Todd and beside Daniel. The table next to them was occupied by a couple in their twenties. The red-haired man was wearing a seventies style suede jacket which looked as if it was about to fall off him. The girl had her hair tied back, acne round her nose, she wore jeans and a T-shirt with ‘my parents still love me’ written across the front. In front of them were two coffees that had been standing there for an hour.

  Although there were only occasional strangers that came to the cafe, Ashbourne had grown over the years. A motorway link had been built nearby, with new private houses springing up around the estate, it had become a regular stop-off for motorway drivers on their way to Cardiff or maybe travelling over the bridge to England. They were used to strangers as the cafe became more popular and far cheaper than the motorway services, but mostly the customers were from the estate. Wendy took no notice of them at first, but the length of time they had been there made her feel suspicious.

  She leaned over to Todd. ‘Don't look now,’ she said, ‘but the couple behind you have been there for what seems like hours and have only ordered two coffees.’

  Todd looked behind him.

  Wendy frowned. ‘What did I tell you?’ she said.

  ‘Sorry, it’s instinct. As soon as someone says, ‘Don't look now’ you have just got to look.’

  Wendy and Daniel laughed. Daniel was facing the couple and could see what they were doing. The boy had his back to him, but the girl was in full view.

  ‘Want me to ask them to leave?’ He said.

  ‘No, it’s okay.’ Said Wendy.

  The couple, Katy and Mickey, got up and left the cafe. Once outside the girl turned to Mickey saying,

  ‘The waitress, that’s Daniel’s wife,’

  ‘Yep!’ said the red-haired man.

  Chapter 9

  Carol is panic-stricken. Kevin will be here in a minute. The baby-sitter’s late and she can't find her earring, one of her favourite pair. They were on the table by the window and now there’s only one.

  Ten year old Daniel and five year old Todd were playing computer games on games console.

  ‘You two, please help me look for my earring.’ Carol said.

  ‘Okay mum.’ said Daniel.

  Daniel started looking behind the cushions on the sofa. Todd left the room and they could hear his footsteps running up the stairs.

  ‘Where’s he gone now?’ Carol asked, impatiently.

  ‘It’s okay, mum,’ Daniel replied,

  The babysitter walked in, a scruffy-looking girl with clothes that didn't match, but she was reliable and the boys liked her. She was munching on a Mars bar.

  ‘Hello Mrs. Fenton.’ she said,

  ‘I can't find my earring.’ Moaned Carol.

  As she spoke there was a toot from a car horn outside. Kevin had arrived.

  ‘Shit!’ Carol exclaimed, then put her hand over her mouth having realised what she had said.

  Daniel laughed. He had stopped looking for the earring knowing there was no need. He began showing the baby-sitter his new game.

  Todd was in his bedroom, his single bed adorned with superhero figures, his Spiderman quilt cover, and posters of Wolverine, Thor and Iron Man covered the lilac walls. Wolverine, being his favourite superhero. Next to the Spiderman quilt cover, there was a triple chest of drawers with a Spiderman lamp on it. The room was quite tidy for a five year old. On the main wall was his wardrobe, a piece of furniture that used to be his mother’s, and her mother’s before that. Old in age, but sturdy in construction, it stood tall and wide, almost touching the ceiling and with double doors on the front. The old oak-looking wardrobe looked out of place in the superhero bedroom and seemed to fill the whole room. Todd stood before the wardrobe, its big double doors waiting to be opened. He opened the doors, and stared a while.

  The floor of the wardrobe was clear, as it always appeared to be. His clothes hung high, so there was plenty of room for a five year old to hide. Even an adult could hide in there easily, Todd had always thought. He got into the wardrobe, sat sideways on the floor, pulled his knees to his chest even though he needn't have done, as there was plenty of room. He pulled the one door shut and heard it click. He pulled the other door halfway shut, hesitated, then pulled it again. He heard it click shut. Now he was in complete darkness.

  Kevin beeped again, as Todd came running down the stairs into the living room. He went straight over to the table where the earring was; he bent down and lifted the bottom of the curtain behind the table. Stuck in the hem of the curtain was the missing earring, which had fallen off the table as the boys had played.

  ‘Here it is, mum’ Todd said.

  Chapter 10

  It all happened very quickly. Daniel and Todd had left the Cafe and gone back to their mum’s. As Becky, Daniel’s fiancée was still at work, Wendy had remained at the diner until 5.30.

  Now, as she lay on the back seat of a car, still semi-conscious from what she thought must have been chloroform. She vaguely recalled who her attackers were, the red-haired guy and the girl who had been in the cafe earlier. She had left by the staff entrance at the back, which was not overlooked by houses and there was no more than a dirt track beyond it. It had at one time been the access road to the church.

  As she left work, with a bag of rubbish to bin on her way out, all she could remember was a hand going over her mouth. She recalled the smell of body odour. She had no memory of screaming or fighting back, just that awful smell of disinfectant that made her feel drowsy. She barely remembered being bundled into the car that she thought must have been parked on the lane behind the Cafe. She didn't hurt in any way, as she lay on the back seat of the car. She could hear the driver and passenger talking, but could not make out the words. She realised that her hands were tied, and she was gagged. Maybe I'm dreaming. Her mind confused as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

  Bill Fenton sat on the plastic two-seater sofa, the air filled with smoke fumes as he sat waiting. He had been chain-smoking and drinking cans of Fosters. It was still daylight, barely 6.30. He had received a call from Mickey saying he and Katy had got her. Bill knew his dad would have been proud of him. The voices in his head would be good ones.

  He had been out of prison for six months. He did not have a parole officer as he wasn't on parole, having served his full term plus two years more for various episodes of bad behaviour. He was, however, assigned to an assistance officer, whose job it was to introduce him back into society and to help come to terms with the changes that h
ad taken place in the last seventeen years.

  It was a three month assignment, and the officer had found him a council flat on the tenth floor of a block of council flats, where the lifts never worked and the stairs always stank of shit and piss. It was in the St. Paul's area of Bristol a run-down council area, mainly inhabited by West Indians and illegal immigrants. There were frequent knifings in the area. Every night, at one time or another, you would hear sirens from police cars or ambulances. There was very rarely a day went past without something untoward happening in the area.

  His time in prison had been hard. It was a category A prison, but he soon became recognised as an inmate who could look after himself and was very rarely bothered with in prison. Other than when he was jumped by two Jamaican guys who put him in the hospital wing for a week. Within two days of him being back in the wing one Jamaican guy had suffered both legs broken, and the other had lost an eye. Bill was never bothered after that nor did he choose to bother anyone. He didn't serve any extra time for that. He was never charged. The two he injured were refusing to co-operate.

  The worst part of it was, the amount of time he was actually locked away.

  For the first three years he shared a cell with a convict who had committed armed robbery on a post office. As time went by, he earned his privileges. He was given a cell of his own, only three paces wide and four paces long, with a bed, sink, toilet and a cabinet with a shelf and a door. He was allowed a telly in his cell. He was locked up for nineteen hours a day, only being allowed out to collect his meals, forty five minutes in the yard a day, and an hour a week in the prison gym, but he was prepared to wait. He had never seen his sons since he committed murder. Carol had got a divorce and he had only seen her once, in that seventeen years.

  Seventeen years was a long time. A long time to wait for revenge. He would hurt the only girl he ever loved, by hurting the things that she loved. His flat was in a run-down complex and the views through the dirty windows were of similar buildings all in a similar state. The walls were thin and the rooms were cold. It didn’t remind Bill of prison. In prison it had been warm, he was well fed and he felt safe. Here was worse than prison.