by M A Comley
“Bugger. Can you narrow it down? Maybe just search for female owners on the list?”
Charlie laughed. “I have.”
“In that case, double ouch. I’ve just had a thought.” Katy paused and ran a plausible scenario through her mind. “Anne Simmonds… Patrick, do me a favour and find out what type of car she drives, will you?” Katy glanced at Charlie who was shaking her head. “Something wrong?”
“I’m thinking back to when we met her at the house, the only vehicle I saw sitting on the drive was a Ford Ka, not a Mini.”
“Okay, that’s dashed my proposal. There’s still a possibility she might have borrowed someone’s car.”
“Maybe. I’ll check what her friend, Jenna Brown drives,” Charlie replied.
“Karen, what about the financial side of things? I appreciate it’s the weekend, but any luck there?”
“Not as such. I thought I’d try and find out if Jason Davis had a life insurance policy on the go, but I’m struggling, might have to leave that until Monday.”
“Fair enough. Okay, let’s go down a different route, perhaps run both victims’ names through the computer and see what that highlights.”
“On it now.” Karen turned in her seat and pounded on the keyboard.
Katy surveyed her team, all hard at it, and a sense of pride swelled in her chest. She was lucky to have such a diligent group of people surrounding her. There wasn’t a single person she wouldn’t trust with her life out in the field.
The searches continued until five when Katy decided it was time to call it a day. The team seemed both relieved and frustrated at the same time. Graham even volunteered to work late, but Katy turned down his request. “No, let’s all go home and get some rest and come back on Monday, refreshed, Graham. I’ll instruct the switchboard to contact me right away if anything suspicious arises. It’s been a long week for us already.”
Reluctantly, he agreed and said nothing further.
The team shut down their computers and left. Katy followed them out and locked the incident room, then she had a word with the desk sergeant on reception, told him not to hesitate to contact her should anything come to light over what was left of the weekend. She had her fingers crossed when she said it and hoped she wasn’t tempting fate by uttering the words.
6
Megan was sitting in her flat, flicking through the family photo albums of yesteryear. The year when her parents were still alive and their whole lives had been filled with an abundance of laughter and love. In the photos, Daniel had been a fully functioning child, running around the wild meadows, pretending to be an aeroplane and swooping low over their parents’ heads while their mother prepared the picnic. What a feast that had been. She salivated at the thought of all the scrumptious pastries, the mini quiches, sausage rolls and pork pies. Everything homemade apart from the pork pies. When her father asked her mother why she didn’t attempt to make them, her mother had laughed and announced life was too short to spend hours creating something that would be devoured within seconds. Marks and Spencer had done them proud there. For afters, they had mini swiss rolls and a plethora of different flavoured jam tarts. The simple pleasures in life that, upon reflection, she missed so much.
It’s their fault. All this heartbreak you’ve endured over the years. Look at what’s happened to your brother, you think that’s right? Get out there and avenge our deaths. Do it!
Her mother’s voice made her jump. How did her mother always manage to pop up when she least expected it? Her nerves in tatters, she rocked back and forth for a few minutes and then snapped, “You don’t realise the stress I’m under. Stop pushing me, Mum. You know how much I love you guys. I’ve already killed two of the bastards, please, don’t start hounding me. I’m doing my best.”
It’s not good enough. We’ve waited an eternity to see those no-marks suffer. Why should they be allowed to continue to live their lives in full when they’ve stripped us of ours? Why? None of this makes sense. They served a pitiful sentence behind bars, why? Her mother’s voice was fuelled by anger, becoming more high-pitched with every damning word, making Megan shudder.
Her mother wasn’t finished, not yet. Because of their bloody ages, that’s what the judge said when he handed out their sentences. Two people they killed that day, the same day they robbed a family of a mother and father. I miss you and your brother so much.
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she swiped at them, furious they had clouded the photo of her beautiful mother. “I miss you too, Mum, Dad. We’ll be together again soon. I have a plan…”
Her mother’s voice fell silent as if she was no longer around, except Megan knew differently; her parents were always around, gnawing away at her, chuntering on in her head. She had no peace. They emerged during her dreams, the nights she could sleep that was. She was tired, restless and exhausted, but, like she said, she had a plan that would deal with her tiredness once and for all when it came to fruition.
Megan nipped to the toilet. Gathered a few items she’d laid out on her bed and then pulled on her jacket. She left the house holding a carrier bag laden with equipment and drove to the destination. After parking in the car park of the wooded area, she took out her notebook and read through the notes she’d made a few weeks before when this whole scheme had begun to formulate.
With any luck, he should arrive soon.
She glanced around. The car park was empty just like it had been the other times she had recced the area, and a smile developed.
He came here three times a week, without fail. Jogged around the woodland, aware that it was safe to do so, except it wasn’t, not today. He was due within thirty minutes. You’d better get a move on and sort your shit out, girl!
Megan grabbed her carrier bag and headed into the dense forest. She located the designated area she’d chosen a few days earlier when she’d managed to run through her plan. He had been on his usual running schedule. She’d followed him there and set off after him to see which route he took through the forest. She’d been searching for an appropriate place to launch her attack and found it within a few hundred yards of the entrance. Now, all she had to do was secure her position before he arrived. He’d be here in twenty minutes.
With the dusk descending, she hid behind the huge oak tree and dived into her bag of goodies. She extracted the reel of nylon fishing wire and wound the raw end around the tree trunk, then crossed the path. Keeping the line low, just above the leaves, she placed the reel on the ground beside her. Then she unloaded the rest of the equipment from her bag in readiness and sat there, staring at the implements. Her mind running through what she intended to do with them once he arrived and fell into her trap. Adrenaline whooshed through her veins, adding to her excitement, or was that a bout of nerves?
She sat still for the next twenty minutes until finally she heard footfalls coming her way. She picked up the fishing line reel and held it in both hands. A twig snapped in the near distance. He’s almost here, am I ready for this?
Of course you are! Do it, we’re here, we’re right behind you. Give it to him. Make him pay for what he did to us. Rendering your brother a—
Just then her prey came into view. She closed her eyes for a split second, then chastised herself for being such a fool. She needed to concentrate, to devote every ounce of courage she had left within her to dealing with this man.
Another few yards and he’d be within range. He seemed as fresh as a daisy which caused her to pause. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe she should have delayed her attack and set the trap towards the end of the circuit, instead of at the beginning. It was too late to change her mind now. She peered around the tree and saw him, her heart rate immediately trebling. Her chest inflated and deflated rapidly. It’s now or never. She yanked on the wire and heard the man grunt and fall to the ground.
Megan revealed herself and pounced, not giving him the chance to get to his feet. In her plans, she’d assumed he would be less powerful lying on the ground. It was time to put that theory t
o the test. Armed with a cricket bat that belonged to her brother when he was able to run around and play, she ran at the man and started whacking him with the bat.
He cried out. “Stop it! What the fuck are you doing?”
She screamed and yelled profanities at him which increased her anger. A few bones snapped once the bat connected with its target properly. The man continued to yell at her, his tone a pathetic mix of fear and desperation. Then a foreign language emerged which caused her to pause for a moment.
“You fucker. You come to our shores and kill people. You’re all the same, you come from war-torn places where losing a loved one is to be expected. It means nothing, does it?” She didn’t have a clue what she was spouting, it just sounded feasible to her. The rage inside her bubbled to the surface, it guided her thoughts and her aggression. There was no holding back, not now that she had begun.
She bashed both of his legs, one after the other, with several hard blows. He howled in pain and tried to use his arms to defend himself, but she clattered his hands with the bat. A few of his fingers were now hanging at awkward angles. He placed his hands on the ground behind him and tried his hardest to crawl away, to escape her. But she was all over him, bashing him continuously with the bat.
Defeated, he pleaded with her to stop and then said one word, “Why?”
She paused mid-air and glared at him. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
He frowned and, after a few moments of thinking time, he shook his head. “No. I’m sorry. I think you have the wrong person. Tell me what I am supposed to have done,” he said, his accent thicker than before. Maybe that was the pain reflecting in his words.
“Don’t take me for a fool.” She battered his arm with several fierce blows.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, tell me.”
“Eighteen years ago, does it ring any bells?”
His eyes widened and he instantly bowed his head in shame. “I regret that incident. It wasn’t my fault. Anyway, I was punished for my part. How does it affect you anyway?”
“You killed my mother and father.”
He gasped. “You’re the little girl who survived.”
“Yes, I’m the little girl who survived and has lived a life of torture. Reliving the crash time and time again in my nightmares, but that doesn’t matter. This isn’t about me. You killed them and left him… incapacitated,” she screeched.
“Who? I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
His continuous denials made her blood scorch her veins. She sneered at him. “There were two children travelling in that car that night, not just me. Daniel was in a coma for months. When he woke up, he was no longer the boy I used to chase around the garden for stealing my notebook and crayons. He was rendered brain damaged. You have no idea the suffering he has endured since then. His life expectancy has been cut in half. All because of you and your friends.”
Fear widened his eyes. “No! It wasn’t me. I had no control over what happened that night.”
“Bollocks! You got in the car, didn’t you? Out for an illegal ride in a stolen vehicle, never considering what the consequences might be driving a strange car.”
“That’s true. We were idiots. I’m sorry for your loss, for how your brother is now. If you let me go, I’ll try to make amends. I have my own business, I can contribute financially to your brother’s care. Please, let me do it. I’m not a bad person, I swear I’m not. All that happened in my youth, had it occurred today, I would have offered you and your family support. Take it, I’m offering it now. I can make sure he has the best nursing staff available to him.”
Megan was seething inside, her lip curled and she spat at him, hitting him full in the face. “As if I’d ever take blood money from you. Daniel has the best care possible. We do everything for him, see to his needs, what’s left of my family and I would never desert him. He’s a part of us, no matter what state his body and mind are in now. We love him, he’s still Daniel to us, that will never change.”
“Good, I’m glad he has you to fend for him. Please, I want to help financially, to ease your burden a little. Won’t you let me?”
“To ease your guilt, you mean. We’ve done all right without you up until now, what makes you think supplying us with money will do any good in the future?”
“It can help. Take it, take all I have. I can start over. I’m successful, I have the knowhow to create another business. Please, listen to me. If you love your brother, you’ll accept what I’ve just put on the table for you, without question.”
“How dare you! If I love my brother… what a thing to say after what I’ve already done for him.”
“What’s that? You care for him, yes?”
She leaned in, looked him in the eye and sneered, “I’ve killed for him and I’ll gladly do it again, until I have avenged our parents’ death, and how you and your friends left him.”
The man shrank back, horrified by the impact of her words. “Isn’t there anything I can say or do to make you reconsider?”
She shook her head, the anger building to a crescendo now. With the bat extended, hovering over his shins, she extracted a knife from the back of her trousers and raised it high above her head.
He held up his hand. Tears poured onto his cheeks. His lips trembled and his head shook. He pitifully pleaded for his life. “No, don’t do this. Let me make it up to you. I have the money to give you everything you want in this life.”
She’d heard enough. Megan screamed and plunged the knife into his chest, over and over again. She had no concept of time as she stepped back from the bloody mess. Surprisingly, there was no great sense of pleasure. She picked up her belongings, leaving the wire in situ, and ran out of the forest.
A couple rounded the corner and wished her a good evening. They got closer and stared at her and then glanced at each other with unspoken questions in their eyes.
Why would anyone come out here when the light was fading? Shit! Do I have blood on my face? She hadn’t anticipated that. She hurried to her car and peered anxiously over her shoulder. They were heading in the direction of the corpse. She needed to get out of there, fast.
Throwing the carrier bag in the boot, she hopped back in the car and started up the engine. Suddenly, in her rear-view mirror, she saw the man and woman emerge from the trees. He was waving his arms frantically. Megan reversed the car, the red mist descended, and she drove at the couple. The man managed to jump out of her path, but the woman stood still, frozen to the spot. Megan yanked on the steering wheel, doing her best to swerve around the woman. There was a thud. She continued to drive, but glanced in her mirror once again to see the man run to the woman’s aid. He lifted the woman’s limp body onto his lap and rocked back and forth.
Megan burst into tears. What could she have done differently? Nothing, the couple shouldn’t have been there. Now, instead of one corpse, the police would be called out to attend two murder scenes, each completely different.
You bloody idiot! Why run her over?
“Stop it! It wasn’t intentional. I tried my hardest not to hit her.”
You failed, didn’t you? That woman was an innocent bystander. Your carelessness will lead the police to your door now. You’ve fucked up! Well and truly fucked up this time.
“I haven’t, I’ll get the final one sorted. Up my game. I’ll go without sleep tonight if I have to. I have it all worked out. I have a plan that I’m sticking to rigidly, you’ll see. I’ll make you proud of me once more, I swear I will.”
Ha, we doubt it. You’ve screwed up this time. The police will be on the hunt for you. Did you have to spit on him? Didn’t you consider the impact of leaving the DNA evidence behind? Now, not only that, you’ve left a witness at the scene as well.
“I know. I’m such an idiot. What should I do?”
I would turn the car around, go back and finish the fucker off, but then, you’re not me, are you?
Her mother’s taunting added to her confusion. “No,
I’m not. I won’t do it. I refuse to kill another innocent person. She was a mistake that will live with me for the rest of my life.”
Yadda, yadda. Innocent or not, they shouldn’t have stuck their noses in. Turn around, go on, finish off the job properly. Or the police will hunt you down in no time at all.
Megan slammed her foot on the brake so hard she hurtled forward and bashed her forehead into the steering wheel. “Ouch! I will not have you calling me a coward, after all I’ve done already. How can you throw that one at me? How dare you?”
If the cap fits, daughter dearest!
Megan shifted into reverse gear and drove back to the scene to find the man still cradling his wife. He glanced up at her, fresh tears evident in his eyes. “Why? Why kill her?”
Megan was lost for words. She raised the blood-smeared cricket bat high and struck him in the head several times until she saw the light die in his eyes in the glow of the nearby streetlamp.
She trudged back to her car. With an exceedingly heavy heart, she left the crime scene.
7
Katy was in her car, heading home for the evening when her phone rang. She hit the button and the woman on control said, “So sorry to disturb you, ma’am.”
“It’s okay. What’s up?”
“We’ve received a call from someone saying they found a body in the woods.”
“Okay, isn’t there anyone else who could attend?”
“That’s a negative, believe me, I’ve tried, but they’re all busy on other cases.”
“And I’m not? I’m on my sodding way home, for fuck’s sake.” She grumbled and then offered an apology. “Sorry, you didn’t deserve that. So, a body was found in the woods you say, where?” She searched ahead of her, indicated into a road on the left and pulled into the kerb to continue the conversation.
“Hawthorn Forest, do you know it? If not, I can send you the postcode for your satnav.”