Then Charlotte got a surprise. Frank came home. He was upset and out of sorts, and no wonder. He had all the worries of the landslide, all those people dead, and an Inspector giving him a hard time.
As Charlotte prepared the evening meal and then put Alec in the bath and then into bed she was frantically going over and over what she should do. Louise would return home, make a meal then read by candle light or lantern before going to bed. No doubt she would take some of her pills to help her relax. Then she would fall into a deep sleep that would let Charlotte administer the heroin. So, by ten o’clock, it should be possible for Charlotte to return and check the scene. If there were no lights from candles or a lantern Charlotte would be able to sneak into the house with any noise she made covered by the drumming of the rain on the iron roof. Then she could listen to hear if the Valium had done its work. It certainly sent horses to sleep very quickly so Louise should be deeply asleep..
Frank read Alexander a story about a dog until the child fell asleep. Then he went back to sit with Charlotte in the lounge.
“Frank, I want to go and check on an old friend, a girl from school,” said Charlotte. “I’ll take my car because it’s lighter and had four wheel drive.”
Charlotte changed vehicles because she wanted to disguise the fact that this was her second visit to the quiet neighbourhood. She arrived at Louise’s house in Allnatt Street on foot at nine thirty, having left her car on the roadside around the corner. The night was pitch black, with steady rain falling in uneven curtains. There were no street lamps and no house lights except for the glow of a candles or the radiance of portable lamps. Nobody in this area was using a portable generator.
As she walked up the street she noticed that Louise’s car was back in the carport. There was nobody around at ten o’clock; the rain was still far too heavy for people to visit other houses or to go to a restaurant. Restaurants would be shut anyway because the whole town had closed down.
In the driving rain, Charlotte walked past the gate until she arrived at the neighbour’s house. She slipped into their garden in the dark. She had replaced the torch batteries but now the beam was a little too bright and might bring unwanted attention.
Charlotte crept down the fence line then climbed over the fence into Louise’s property. The rail on the fence was slippery so she had to be very careful. With her soaking wet hoodie making her long black wig cling wetly to her scalp, Charlotte made her way across to where the key was hidden. She retrieved the key and put it in the lock. She pushed the door with her bare hand before stepping back in annoyance. She needed to leave no traces of her presence. She pulled gloves out of her pocket, put them on and then wiped the whole area with her gloved hand to remove any handprint her carelessness might have left.
‘Carelessness will see you in prison,’ she said to herself.
Louise was in her bedroom alone while the other side of the bed was empty. Louise had been knocked out by the Valium Charlotte had left in place of Louise’s Alprazolam. Her breathing was light and slow. Louise was not going to wake when Charlotte injected her.
Charlotte balanced the torch on the dresser with the beam of light directed at Louise. She used her phone to take a selfie of her lying beside Louise. Nobody but she would see the photo which would make a wonderful souvenir.
After she had taken the photo, Charlotte removed from her shirt pocket the hypodermic syringe she had taken, along with Valium tablets, from the surgery at her father’s stables. The hypodermic needle was not yet prepared. It needed to be assembled then filled from the phial of heroin that she had bought from that sleaze bag Jason in the Adult Supply Store.
When Charlotte was a child and through her teenage years she had helped her father and mother run a stables and a stud. She had learned about what drugs were used for what purposes, and how to inject the horses and the smaller animals that Tom Hoar was licensed to treat. Louise was no different from a horse, just a lot smaller. Not having to worry about overdosing, it Charlotte took just a few seconds to fill the cylinder. Charlotte prepped the syringe. Louise had no chance.
Ultor. This was it. This was ‘end game’, the end of Charlotte’s long trail of unhappy events caused by Louise. She took hold of Louise’s arm and gently stretched it out. She positioned the arm carefully because it had to look as if Louise had killed herself. Charlotte slowly pushed the plunger. Louise did not stir.
Above the roar of the rain on the iron roof of the single story house Charlotte heard someone at the front door. There was a rattle and a clatter, movements of a man stumping through the house. His clothing rustled and creaked as if it was one of the old farm waterproofs her father had worn years ago. In panic Charlotte dropped the syringe beside Louise’s inert body. It would be assumed that she had taken her own life. With footsteps approaching Charlotte did what she had seen a hundred times on television and in films; she slipped into the walk-in wardrobe and pulled the door shut.
CHAPTER 86.
“Dad, where’s Mum?” asked Alexander as he came into the master bedroom.
“Go back to bed, little fellow,” said Frank. Charlotte was not in the bed. She had slipped out in her black sports gear, together with her black wig so that she would be hard to see. The weather was still foul and large areas of the town were still flooded. Frank could not see why Charlotte would need to go out in such a storm but he guessed it was good to go and see if a friend was alright. It never occurred to Frank that Charlotte was talking about Louise. Trudi Reeves had long since gone. Frank’s new house sitter, June Libold, had gone home to spend the long weekend with her grown up children so he and Alexander were on their own for an hour or so.
“Come on Alec,” said Frank. “I’ll tuck you in to bed. Do you want me to lie down with you?”
Alexander nodded vigorously. He got into bed while Frank lay on the covers. The bed was too narrow so Frank had to lie on his side at the very edge of the bed.
“Dad, is Mr Larcombe going to you-then-eyes Mum?”,” said Alexander. “I don’t want that.”
He began to cry. Frank was shocked.
“What do you know about euthenise?” he asked sharply. He felt fingers of fear close over his heart.
“Will she play with Tess?” asked Alexander. “And meet Grandma?”
Frank had no idea what the seven year old knew or had overheard. He was certainly old enough to have read text messages and emails, except there were none. Frank had received and sent nothing.
“Alec, listen. This is important,” he said. “Where did you hear about euthenising Mum?” asked Frank.
Alexander shrugged. “Don’t know,” he said.
“Alec, I can’t leave you on your own. June has gone home and Charlotte isn’t home yet. Can we wait another half hour?” asked Frank, hoping that Alexander would be asleep by then.
But it did not work. Alexander began to cry dry little sobs. Frank had been sitting in front of the log burner thinking that his best bet was to save Louise being attacked by Larcombe’s goons. He was shocked that Alexander had somehow heard of the plan. That worried him more than the thought of prison, which made his stomach cringe in fear.
Alexander would blame Frank forever more if Louise were to die. He would lose the little boy, his only child. Suddenly Frank felt he was standing on the edge of the Huatere housing development about to be swallowed up by a landslide.
To have Louise killed would be to throw the spotlight on him; Larcombe could all too easily complain that Frank had ordered her to be killed. That bit was true. He had. But in Australia when they watched the television news about Wahanui Frank had seen Larcombe in a fresh light, one that was not very flattering. Larcombe was a survivor who would not hesitate to sell out his friends or lie so they took the blame. In this case, Larcombe would not hesitate to blame Frank for the murder of the guy mistaken for Jones, and for Louise’s death. There was no honour in Larcombe.
The thought of Louise stayed in his mind. It was she who had kept him on the straight and narrow. It was
Louise who had been guarantor for loans using her settlement with Ricciardello. It was Louise who stood by him through thick and thin. It was Frank who was stupid, who had swapped a beautiful milk producer for a handful of pretty beans.
But over-riding all of these thoughts was that Alexander knew about the plan and would blame him. Ten minutes after saying wait half an hour, he said, “Alec, put some warm clothes on. We’ll go and find Mum.”
CHAPTER 87.
The teeming rain gave no respite. Frank was dressed in waterproof clothes; his trousers which scrunched as he moved, and his jacket and an old-fashioned sou-wester hat that kept falling over his eyes. Arriving at his old house in Allnatt Street, Frank got out of the car.
“You stay here like a good boy,” said Frank. “If you need me, toot the horn.”
He waited until by the light of the dashboard he saw Alexander nod. Holding his coat over his head, he ran first to the car port, where he paused to put on his coat, and then to the front door. His key still opened the door, Louise had not changed the lock, but the light switch failed to turn on the lights. The power was still off in Finisterre.
Frank’s shoes and socks were soaking wet because his yellow waterproof trousers funneled stream of water into them. His footsteps splashed as he went through the blackness to Louise’s bedroom. The door to the walk-in wardrobe was slightly ajar and reflected his torch light back at him. He swung the beam and saw Louise asleep on the bed.
She was barely breathing. Her arm lay across the bed covers and an evil looking syringe lay in the crook of her arm. Frank leaned over her to place his cheek by her mouth and nose. He could not feel her breath. He placed his fingers on her neck to feel the carotid artery. There was a very weak pulse.
“Oh My God! Why?” he thought.
He scooped Louise up in his arms, holding her like a new bride being carried across the threshold. The yellow waterproof jacket protested with loud creaks and noises. He gathered up his torch with the clothing under Louise’s thighs and carried her out of the house through the drenching rain to his car at the kerb.
He set her on her feet but her legs simply folded under her. He managed to hold Louise up while he opened the back door of the Chrysler Jeep. The seating was high, her body was floppy, lolling from side to side as he tried to push her into the car and up on to the seat. Louise slipped out of his grasp and slid to the wet ground.
Alexander screamed and screamed.
“It’s all right Alec,” said Frank. He was a big man. He squatted and gripped Louise from behind, putting his arms around her chest in a bear hug. When he straightened his legs she rose with him as if in some ritual dance involving a being with two heads and four legs. The rain seemed to refresh her and she moaned. When Frank had Louise high enough he was able to ease her legs and then her bottom into the car, with him facing inward and her curled in the curve of his body. A quick shove and her body joined her legs inside the car.
Panting, Nigel got into the driver’s seat on the right hand side.
“Get in the back, son and keep Mum warm,” he yelled. Alexander scrambled through the space between the seats and cuddled his mother. The motor started immediately and he drove through the rain and across stretches of water and broken road surfaces toward the hospital.
“Oi!” yelled a man in uniform as Frank drove into the ambulance bay at the Emergency Department. “You can’t park here. It’s for emergencies only.”
“Give me a hand, man,” ordered Frank. “This is an emergency. Drug overdose by the look of her.”
“Dad, are they going to you-then-eyes Mum?’ asked the frightened little boy.
CHAPTER 88.
While Nigel Jones was driving towards Wahanui and Frank was taking Louise to the hospital Charlotte was sitting in an easy chair in Louise’s bedroom trying to figure out what to do next. She had been behind the closed door of the walk-in wardrobe, standing in the dark. She heard the man come into the room. A short time later she saw the flickering light under the wardrobe door as he left.
Charlotte waited for what seemed a very long time before checking on Louise. She had expected some sort of reaction from the man but had heard none.
‘If he has gone for help, I’d better get out of here,’ she told herself as her brain unfroze and she began to think. It had never occurred to Charlotte that she might be caught. In her mind she had visualised Louise drifting off in a happy haze of heroin. She tried to come to terms with the reality of someone else finding Louise dying. What would she do?
‘I’d go for help,’ thought Charlotte. ‘No power, no phones, so I’d drive to a clinic or the hospital to get help.’
She knew that rescue services were still trying to find people under the wreckage of the new shopping mall and rationalised that would buy her some time. Leaving the safety of the dressing room, Charlotte turned on her torch to check on Louise.
She was not there. Louise had disappeared.
For one instant Charlotte recalled her childhood concept of dying; when someone died they floated upwards into the air, passing through the ceiling and the roof and the clouds to heaven. But their body stayed on Earth.
Charlotte was perplexed, staring up at the ceiling and looking in the corners for an angel. There was none. When you died you did not float up to the ceiling and watch people below. She looked at the bed. It was empty. But there must be a body. There was no body. It was all too much for Charlotte, who felt incredibly weary. She knew she was suffering a reaction to killing Louise and almost getting caught. She lay on the bed for a few seconds to recover.
As she put her torch on the bedside cabinet, Charlotte felt the Valium pills she had put out for Louise. One pill might settle her down; she was a bundle of nerves. She took a pill, splashing the glass of water she had earlier put out for Louise. This time she did not wipe off her fingerprints.
She waited a little time but was still upset. The pill seemed to have had no effect so she took another. That seemed to help. When Louise came home, Charlotte would be calm enough to deal with her.
CHAPTER 89.
The Valium took effect quite quickly. In a few minutes Charlotte Hoar was dreaming, happily floating on a cloud of happiness. The rain drumming on the roof lulled her senses so she heard no sound as he came into the room but she recognised his familiar soothing voice.
“Charlotte my darling. Fancy finding you here.”
Suddenly she was back in the gym store at school, lying on the tumbling mats, her lover restored to her now that Louise the Thief had gone forever. This made everything worthwhile. With David Bannister at her side her dream had come true.
Bannister felt that circumstances were closing in around him. He had always been able to turn adversity into advantage. What could he do here? How could he turn this situation around.
By killing Charlotte, who could then not testify against him should Louise bring charges and turn to Charlotte for support.
Better still, kill Charlotte then find Louise, who could not be far away from home by this time. She might even be in one of the other bedrooms. Find Louise then kill her. Hit her on the head with something. A heavy rolling pin from the kitchen would do. Then put the something in Charlotte’s hands so the weapon would bear her fingerprints.
With both women dead, one killed by the other, who had then committed suicide, his problems were resolved. To the authorities it would look as if Charlotte had killed Louise then committed suicide using Louise’s pills. All he would need to find was a rolling pin or something similar. But first he had to kill Charlotte.
By the light of his lamp Bannister saw the Valium scattered on the counter. He was not sure how many tablets Charlotte might have taken but he fed her some more.
“Here you are lovely Charlotte. Open wide. Here’s a lovely sweetie for you.”
He pulled her chin down and fed her the tablets. In a semi-conscious state she sipped the water. She liked sweeties. It was so kind of David. He really was a nice man and she loved him so much, missed him s
o much... He kept feeding her tablets until she could neither sip not swallow.
Bannister saw Charlotte’s breathing was shallow and she appeared to be unconscious.
He remembered Charlotte as she had been, a nubile young girl greedy for sex with him. He had not found anyone quite like her since. And now she was dying and he would not have the pleasure of her body again.
He could take her now. Dead, she would never remember. His thoughts of finding a rolling pin or something else to use as a weapon with which to kill Louise flew away, a distant thought to be dealt with later, when his desire had been satisfied.
He felt himself engorge. His legs began to tremble and his groin was on fire. There was no protest as he removed her shirt. He tilted her forward and unclasped her bra, pulling the straps off her shoulders. There was no reaction as her breasts fell loose. He pulled off her sports shoes and socks. Her legs were limp. He undid the button that held her waistband then pulled down the short zipper. He waited for her reaction. When there was none he lifted her hips with an arm under the small of her back. Her eased her underwear and her wet pants over her hips, dropped her body back on the bed and pulled her clothing clear.
Charlotte lay before him totally exposed, her legs apart, ready for him just as he remembered from when she had been at school and he took her on the tumbling mats in the store. He trembled with anticipation, his legs and lower body shaking with desire as they did each time he started having sex with a new pupil. He eased himself on to Charlotte and began to prod.
It did not work. Her private place remained closed to him because her rubbery skin would not yield. Charlotte’s labia were dry and he feared the condom might tear. There was no love juice from her vagina. He moved himself backwards between her legs until his face fell between her thighs.
The Stalking of Louise Copperfield Page 30
