PICTURES OF YOU: a gripping psychological suspense thriller

by Diane M Dickson

  The kitchen door was closed. Of course! The explanation for some of her alarm. The light in the hall was different from normal because she never closed the door to her kitchen and the borrowed light was enough to brighten the narrow space.

  She stopped. Instinct screamed run, turn and get out of the place, get into the car and leave. She beat it down, where was there to run to and from what? The past days had disrupted all her senses, maybe this was just another effect. Perhaps she had inadvertently closed the door. Why, after years of living in the place, would she suddenly do that? But, maybe. She took a few more steps, her hands shook, fear stalked alongside her on the carpet.

  She reached and grasped the handle. It felt strange, unusual to be opening this door. She pushed at the wood. The small draught stroked at her face and made her hair wisp and move in the disturbance of air. The light was on. Soft music played from the sound system, only now with the door open could she hear it.

  A vase of lilies was centrally placed on the table.

  Her knees wobbled as a gasp escaped her throat. She clutched at the door frame to hold herself upright. A couple more steps took her fully into the room. The outside door was closed but the curtain on the window shifted and billowed slightly. It was an old sash style and there was now no need for any further search. It was open just a few inches, enough to disturb the atmosphere, enough to tell her that someone had been here. It wasn’t wide enough to allow entry to whoever it had been, and surely she knew who it had been. He must have come through the window and then almost closed it behind him.

  She turned, she must go to the lounge. Her heart juddered and nausea threatened. At what point would he leap from his hiding place? Just when would he confront her and then what? She should run, while there was still time, run, run. She turned and flung back the lounge door expecting him to be there, waiting, just waiting but the room was empty and undisturbed.

  She heaved a great sigh, now what should she do? As time slid by, calm was winning the battle over panic. The flowers were evidence that he had been but perhaps that was all it was, a strange and terrifying gesture to be sure, but maybe that was all there was.

  The stairs stretched above her, the dimness of the landing taunting until she flicked the light switch. Squaring her shoulders she gripped the banister and planted her feet firmly on the first step, the second, third, onward and upward.

  The upstairs was undisturbed and the bathroom called her, fear had weakened her bladder, she ran in and relieved herself. As she sat on the little wooden seat she let go the tears of tension and terror and lowered her head into her hands allowing the sobbing to engulf her for a few moments. She gathered herself together, blew her nose on a piece of toilet paper and then dragged off her jacket. She rinsed her hands and strode along the landing to her bedroom.

  A beautiful thing isn’t always a beautiful thing and she had never really understood how it could become the antithesis of normal assumptions until now.

  Her room was dimly lit by golden light. Candles burned on the dresser and the bedside table. They were newly lit. The tiny flames guttered and flickered in the breeze from the half-opened window. The bed, carefully made as always was strewn with red rose petals and on the chest an ice bucket held a bottle with the top loosened and the cork pushed partway in. A solitary champagne flute stood beside it with a tiny card propped against the stem.

  The picture of a smiling teddy holding a bunch of daisies mocked her, and Jacob had scrawled inside with a red pen.

  Enjoy this on your own lovely lady, but maybe we can share the next one. I miss you. X

  The room spun as reality floated away. Mary felt herself succumbing to the horror and flopped onto the side of the bed and lowered her head to her knees. As her senses returned she became aware of the rattle and click of the gate as he left.

  Chapter 52

  She tore at the bedding. Scarlet petals flew around her legs and fluttered dejectedly to the floor. Everything was ripped from the bed; pillows, duvet, sheets and all were bundled onto the landing. She had extinguished the candles and now, as the wax cooled and hardened, she gathered them together and dumped them into the bin. Next, she turned to the sparkling wine in its bucket of rapidly melting ice. Grabbing it by the neck she headed for the door on her way to the kitchen bin. As the cold glass and a trickle of moisture cooled her hands she looked at the green bottle, “humph,” she dragged out the cork and for the first time in her life took a great slug from the neck of the bottle.

  It was good.

  She took another.

  The alcohol hit her immediately and a giggle burbled up from deep in her gut as she caught a glimpse of herself in the bedroom mirror. Clothes dishevelled, hair wild and clutching a bottle of what was in reality cheap plonk. She began to laugh. It veered to the edge of hysteria but still near enough to the right side of sanity to be cathartic. She flopped onto the floor, her back resting against the bedroom wall and raised the bottle again to her lips.

  What the hell was she going to do?

  There was the plan and with Judy to help her she still hoped that it would be enough to make life for Jacob untenable at the college and in his shared house. She had to believe in it otherwise the future was a hopeless shambles. The thought of leaving her home and moving away was painful and, if he didn’t go, there wasn’t going to be another option.

  Should she call the police? Of course she should, her home had been invaded and her safety threatened. She squeezed her eyes closed and spoke into the darkness, “Oh Mary, what the heck are you doing?” There was of course no answer and she was swept by a wave of loneliness and isolation.

  The bottle was now a third empty and with a shrug she filled the glass which still sat on the table. Perched on the bedroom chair she laid back her head and sipped at the cool liquid. The wine had worked its magic to an extent and her heart felt lighter, though she knew it was a myth and the influence of alcohol was no answer at all. She stood and began to tidy up the mess. She remade her bed with clean linen, all of it. She couldn’t tell if he’d lain across her covers, or whether his traitorous fingers had caressed and held her pillows, her nightwear. It all had to go, there must be no trace of him.

  When all was clean and tidy she made her way back to the kitchen. It was sad to discard the blameless blooms but the flowers had to go, and she tore the little card into tiny pieces and tossed it in the bin. Sensible Mary knew that she should make tea, but the Mary of this night, with her tumultuous emotions and shredded nerves, needed oblivion and she poured more of the wine and glugged it back. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” she muttered quietly and then, “All things must pass.” It was the wine muttering she knew, but the aphorisms helped, though in real terms they were empty words against a full on threat.

  As she slipped between the clean bedcovers and lowered her reeling head onto the pillow the tears began and she let them flow. They followed so many others she had shed recently and in a slew of self-pity she railed at the fates who had first taken her husband and then offered her excitement and the chance of love only to dash it all against the rocks of a reality that she never would have believed she would face.

  Tomorrow Judy was coming and they would begin the work to drive him away but for tonight she simply gave herself up to misery and ignored the feelings of guilt that such weakness inevitably threw in her path.

  Chapter 53

  Her head pounded, her mouth felt as if she had licked out the wheelie bin and when she tried to open her eyes the happy morning light screamed onto her retinas like lashings of molten mercury. It was years and years since Mary had suffered from a hangover and now, gulping back the nausea and trying to drag herself from bed, she was reminded in full measure of nights at Uni. And mornings in bed sits with groaning friends and deep regrets.

  The pounding was getting heavier and was joined by a shrill ringing in her ears. There was an urgent need to make it to the bathroom, her bladder was complaining and her stomach threatened at any moment to
erupt.

  “Oh God. You stupid woman.” She muttered to herself in disgust. The ringing was louder now and she realised with a thud of horror that it was the front doorbell. Judy, Judy was coming over first thing. She pulled open the door.

  “Morning, oh Mary, whatever is the matter, you look ghastly?”

  “Come in, go into the kitchen. Can you put the kettle on? I’ll explain in a minute but – I need to go…” She pointed back up the stairs, and before the confused Judy had a chance to respond, made a dash for the bathroom…

  “Sorry about that. Look Judy, I have been really stupid but will you stay? Just make a cup of coffee or whatever, I really, really need a shower and then when I come back down I’ll tell you what has happened. It was horrible. Just horrible. Do you mind?”

  “No, no it’s fine. You carry on, I’ll make some tea shall I?”

  “Oh yes, please.”

  Feeling a little better after a quick shower Mary joined Judy who was waiting at the kitchen table, sipping at a mug of tea and nibbling a piece of toast. “Okay, truth time. I’ve got a thundering hangover. I am so sorry Judy. I was really silly; I drank a whole bottle of fizzy wine and went to bed completely drunk. I can’t imagine what you must think of me but I can explain.”

  “Hey, you don’t need to explain to me, what you do is your concern. Really, don’t stress.”

  “Well, that’s lovely of you but the thing is that when I got back last night he’d been here. Actually there is a good chance that when I came in he was still here. It really freaked me out and I reacted stupidly and now I’m paying for it.” She gave a rueful grin.

  Judy had walked around the table and was now kneeling beside Mary where she slumped on the little dining chair. “You poor thing. He’s a real weirdo, he really is. Look, let’s get this thing started, I’ve been planning it out. You said that you have a VPN set up here don’t you?”

  Mary nodded, she had set up the Virtual Private Network a while ago when she had been worried about a chat room she had used briefly.

  “Right, well we can use that and I will get everything set up now. Then I’ll go to the house and see if I can get access to his stuff. I’m worried about that bit Mary, I mean I’ve never done anything like it before.”

  “I know, and it’s a lot to ask, and if you don’t want to do it I understand I really do.”

  “No, when I look at you, your poor face and now the state that you’re in today, well – he just can’t do this. I’ll see what I can do, if I can get access to his computer and find where his stuff is I’ll copy what I can. What we really need though is the stuff that he’s got for his Degree Show. That’s the work that he will have worked most on and it can’t be published before the exhibition or it’s disallowed. That’s the stuff we need. It’s only about three weeks now until it has to be presented, so he should have it nearly ready. I asked Brian about it all. He’s on the same course and so I know what I’m looking for.

  “Chloe sent me copies of her pictures. I blanked out her eyes and sent copies back and she has said yes, go ahead and use them. So, when we get yours and providing I can get to Jacob’s machine today then we have all we need. The pictures of Chloe are ghastly, she was right when she said nobody would recognise her, but I did a bit of Photoshop on her eyes and hair and so on just to be sure. I also made a statement saying that we had done that. We don’t want anyone coming back later saying the stuff has been doctored, so I thought it best to be up front about it. Is that all okay?”

  “Oh Judy it’s more than okay, it’s fantastic. How can I thank you?”

  “Oh, come on. We can’t let him get away with this. I mean, who could be next eh? We have to stop him.”

  “You show me where your machine is, get it all booted up and then while you get dressed I’ll get started. Do you want another cup of tea?”

  “Oh yes please.” And so it began.

  Chapter 54

  While Judy’s fingers dabbed and flexed over the keys, Mary sat on the settee nursing a cup of tea, a thumping head and a churning stomach. Although it was great to have the plan on its way she felt absolutely dreadful. It seemed such a short time since her world had been calm and, though it was relatively unexciting, she had been in control and there had been many pleasant days. Her job was fulfilling and this little home was a haven, her friends and family were precious and now it had all crumbled, and in a frighteningly short period of time.

  Half asleep in the warm room she relived that first day when the fall at the bus stop had brought all of this into her life and she marvelled at the fickleness of fate. Closing her eyes allowed the thoughts and remembrances to drift. He had been so lovely, such a considerate and careful lover; as the memory flipped through her mind she felt a tiny quiver of warmth deep inside. How could it be, this beautiful, gentle young man had thrown her into such turmoil and fear? Greyness filled her lids, tiny flashes of muted colour drifted in the void and she felt her body becoming heavy. She allowed herself to go with the peace and when Bill came and stood before her she wasn’t surprised. He was tall and strong, unmarked by the long illness and his eyes shone with love. He reached for her and with no hesitation she leaned to him.

  “Mary, hey Mary, sorry but I need your input. Sorry to wake you.” Judy was shaking her shoulder very gently and with regret she left the warmth of Bill’s love and dragged herself back to reality.

  “Oh sorry, I drifted off there. I feel so bad about this I really do, I’m being no help at all. What do you need me to do?”

  “I need the photographs of you, the ones of your face. I have put Chloe’s up there and I have it all ready for the things I’m hoping to get from Jacob, and I need your pictures now. Then I want to show you what I’ve done. How are you feeling?”

  “Actually a bit better to be honest. I think I’ll make something to eat. Do you want to have some soup with me and some toast?”

  “Yeah, that sounds nice.

  “Mary, don’t let all this get you down. You look really sad now. If you don’t want to carry on we can stop, though I think that now I feel obliged to do something anyway, or we can just carry on.”

  “Oh yes, I want to carry on. I admit I’m feeling a bit low right now but it’s my own fault isn’t it? It’s just the hangover, and a bit of shame. I feel very stupid.”

  “Hey come on, don’t beat yourself up, you’ve been through a lot.”

  Mary stood and threw her arms around the younger woman. “You know, you really are a lovely person. If nothing else comes out of this but that I have met you, that’s good.”

  “Oh, stop it. Come on, come and look at the programme and then I think you mentioned soup?”

  Mary dragged a straight chair over to the desk and the two women sat side by side peering at the screen.

  “Right, so what I’ve done is a little video. It starts, well it will if I get the images I want, with a picture of him. We want to make absolutely sure there is no doubt who we are talking about.

  Then some of his shots, I don’t know maybe about six or seven, and then this text: This is the work of Jacob Chadwick. Then some more images. These will flip up automatically and then the text again: This is the work of Jacob Chadwick. I’m hoping that by then people will be hooked and when we have them POW. The pictures of you and Chloe, side by side with the text: And this is the work of Jacob Chadwick. Is this a man you want to call friend?

  “So, what do you think?”

  “Absolutely brilliant. It’s perfect, exactly what I had in mind.”

  “The images I want to get will be the ones from his final show and that will effectively knock his chances of a degree on the head unless he can get do another in a couple of weeks and apparently they normally take at least a couple of months. Anyway, I hope that the furore this causes will get him thrown out anyway. It was a great idea Mary, I am impressed that you came up with it, I really am.

  “Now, about this soup. I have to get back to the house in an hour and I want to call at the shops so that I
have a legitimate excuse for going. I do the shopping for me and Steve. If luck is with us and Jacob is at the college I should be able to get his stuff. They all just leave their laptops in the living room normally so fingers crossed.”

  “But what about passwords and stuff like that?”

  “Yeah, it could be a problem but all I can do is have a go. This is my world though Mary and it’s best if I don’t tell you too much about what we get up to.” Judy gave a cheeky grin and a wink as they made their way to the kitchen.

  Chapter 55

  “Right I think I need to be getting on. Thanks so much for lunch.”

  “Oh you’re welcome; it was nice to have company. To be honest I’ve been feeling a bit isolated. Actually that brings me to something I was meaning to ask you Judy.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I had to turn off my mobile phone, he was texting. Anyway I want to check now of course and see if there is anything on there that I need to know about. I know my mum would have used the land line but…” Mary shook her head, “Well the thing is, would you mind, if I turn it on you just have a whizz through it and delete all the messages from him…?

  “I know I’m being a wimp but to be honest I feel so worn out with it all, after last night you know…”

  “Oh yeah, sure, no probs. Give it to me.”

  Mary passed over the slim grey plastic box and pressed the power button. It paraded through the boot sequence, beeping and chiming and the little screen brightened as if happy to be back.

  Judy pursed her lips, “Well, there’re over sixty messages and from the look of it a load of them are from him. What do you want me to do, just delete them?”