Mummy's Little Girl

by Kay Leitch

  Mummy's Little Girl

  A Witches of Glory Woods Novel

  By K. Leitch

  Copyright 2013 Kay Leitch

  All Rights Reserved

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Smashwords Edition

  CHAPTER 1 - PRELUDE - LOUISE

  The first blow knocked her sideways although it didn't slow her down. She felt the warm trickle of blood on the back of her neck, more blood to mix with the gashes on her bare feet as the woodland floor cut and bruised the tender skin. She barely noticed either in her desperation to get away, she knew her attacker was closing in on her, could almost feel the warm breath on her shoulders.

  The next blow caught her completely off guard, smashing against the top of her skull, making her bite down through her tongue. Vomit and blood filled her mouth and her eyes watered at the pain. She was lurching from tree to tree like a drunken man, clutching on to their solid structures as if they could somehow protect her from the monster on her tail.

  The monster was circling round her, playing with her, she tried to speak…beg for her life but she couldn't form the words they just sounded like animal cries of pain and fear, another blow knocking her to her knees and then another, the muddy earth came rushing up towards her and she landed heavily amongst tree roots and bracken.

  I should never have come.

  Everyone had told me not to come.

  'You're asking for trouble Lou, no good will come of it, why can't you leave well enough alone?'

  But I ask you what would you do? If you had found out that your whole life had been built on lies and deception, wouldn't you want to get some answers, too fucking right you would especially when you'd at last found the name of the one person who could tell you who you really were.

  Well anyway I didn't listen to them, I knew best.

  Oh yeh really clever Louise that's why you're lying in the middle of a woods while your life blood drains into the peaty soil beneath, alone, silent, apart from the occasional shriek of a tawny owl, or the rustle of a badger ...and something else... creeping among the bloody shadows.

  'Help me, please someone...help me.'

  'You stupid girl, you just couldn't leave it could you, now look what you've made me do, why did you have to come?' A desperate rasping whisper, I can only just hear it over the rushing of blood in my ears. I feel boneless, no pain anymore just heaviness.

  My eyes are dimming... I know it's coming... one more blow, the death blow... I am leaving now, the woods and my bloody smashed in skull are far beneath me...now I can see you clearly… standing over me weeping, weeping like a mother who just lost her child...your tears mingling with the mess of blood and bone on the woodland floor.

  CHAPTER 2 - August 26th 1991

  The rhythmic breathing coming from the other side of the bedroom tells me that Faye has finally dropped off. I try very hard to do the same, but my mind won't switch off. I can hear the faint sounds of the TV from downstairs; every so often I hear my Mum's laughter.

  Sleep...sleep...sleep… the harder I try the more awake I feel.

  Think about something else...Miss Webster was really pleased with my story today, it was called what we did in the holidays, she said she was going to pin it up in the corridor, I told Mum, she gave me a hug and said 'well done sweetheart' then we had a lovely tea, I love crumpets and butter they're my...

  A noise from downstairs, the lounge door, for a moment the TV is loud then quiet again as the door is shut.

  Footsteps on the stairs...Mum maybe going to the bathroom...my door opens almost silently...

  It's not Mum.

  I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep, I can feel him kneeling next to the bed...keep your eyes closed he might go away.

  A hand beneath the blankets...sliding up under my nightie.

  'Are you asleep? I don't think so. Keep quiet I'll only take a moment, give me your hand...'

  I'm not opening my eyes.

  CHAPTER 3 - CARLA

  'Why do these things always happen when it is so bloody cold?' Carla thought as she trudged through woods covered with a thick layer of frost. The ground was white and frigid beneath her feet and her breath was coming out in puffs of mist before her. The trees were very dense here, and far from the beaten track, so that she had to push her way through the thick undergrowth, bending the frozen branches back, and as if in retaliation, being smacked in the face by the odd icy bramble, she tried to keep her cool. Up ahead she could see what seemed like crowds of people milling around, she swore under her breath. 'How are we supposed to keep the scene uncontaminated with Joe public and all his family stamping around in their fucking size 10's?'

  One of the 'crowd' spotted her and came forward, Ted, her sergeant, a craggy 59 year old who was looking forward to his retirement, never known for his light hearted nature, Ted looked particularly grim this morning as he filled Carla in on the details of the case.

  'It's a nasty one ma’am, the body must have been here a couple of weeks at least, the cold has stopped it from decaying too much, but the animals have had a go. Young girl by the looks of it although there's not much left of her to be sure.'

  'Ted, who are all these people?' Carla said without preamble. 'We need to get them back and try and preserve the area, has the Coroner's office been called?'

  Ted raised bushy eyebrows.

  'Yeh, but there's been a pile up on the main road causing major delays, these are the people that found the body, a group of walkers, one of the dogs found it, they phoned it in to the station, though what the bloody hell they were doing out at bloody 5 in the morning walking I will never know.'

  Carla shook her head.

  'No, me neither, can't say it's my idea of a good start to the day, but then neither is this; get names and addresses will you? And we'll deal with them at the station, oh hang on, who was it that actually discovered the body, I'll speak to them while we're in situ.'

  Ted opened up his scruffy notebook and flipped through the pages.

  'Gloria Hunt, she's sitting over there, it was actually her dog, I'll call her over.' He trudged off in the direction of a grey haired woman that Carla noticed sitting on a log a few yards away, with a very hyperactive spaniel at her heels.

  Carla scrambled up the bank to where the body lay, half buried beneath the detritus of the woodland floor, between the huge roots of two old beech trees, it was so well hidden by the rotting leaves that she almost tripped over it. She braced herself for what she would see.

  Blond hair was still attached to the skull of what appeared to be a young woman, but as Ted had said, not much remained of her features, although decay hadn't been too bad because of the cold, but it was obvious that someone had been intent on smashing her skull in, her face was all but obliterated. Carla looked around to see if she could see anything obvious that could have been used to cause such devastation, but to be honest there were so many large logs and chunks of wood lying about, the murderer would have been spoilt for choice.

  Carla stood for a minute and just looked down at the body, trying to get a sense of what had happened here. It was hard to tell if there had been a struggle, the woods themselves had covered whatever evidence there would have been for that, although there seemed to be a place near the edge of the rise, could be she had been dragged at some point. 'Who are you?' she thought. 'And what are you doing in the middle of these woods in the middle of winter, were you running from someone, meeting someone…no…no not meeting…running from someone, that's more likely, but why? Who?'

  She appeared to be wearing clothes that would have been totally unsuitable for walking in th
e woods at this time of year, actually any time of the year, a strappy dress and some quite startlingly high heels, which she seemed to have dropped when she fell or maybe she had taken them off to run. There didn't immediately seem to be anything to identify her, there was no sign of a bag of any kind, nothing in fact that could give a clue as to who she was. Carla had seen enough so she edged cautiously back down the steep hill which was made even more slippery by the recent rain.

  'Ma’am this is Gloria Hunt, Mrs Hunt was the one that found the body and called it in.' Ted came over with the grey haired woman in tow, she looked shell shocked and scared, she was bundled up in an enormous parka, but was shivering uncontrollably as she came forward and raised her eyes to Carla's, they were red rimmed as if she had been crying, Carla put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

  'Hi Gloria, I'm Detective Inspector Carla Right, I'm leading the investigation here, it would be really helpful if you could let me know how you found her.'

  'Well it was Patrick that found her,' she said indicating the spaniel. 'He suddenly ran off and I couldn't get him back no matter how much I called. So Richard, he was leading the walk this morning, said he would come with me and find him, because I was getting a bit panicky he is such good obedient dog usually, so we tried to follow his barks which eventually led us to this...' Gloria's face crumpled as she remembered.

  'Take your time Gloria, you're bound to be feeling a bit shaky,' said Carla as she waited for the older woman to get herself together.

  'I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing at first, Patrick was digging at it, and Richard and me...well we were just staring at it, until we both realised what it was and then we just panicked, I mean you never know how you're going to react do you, Richard threw up, and I grabbed Patrick desperately trying to pull him off and for a few moments it was just pandemonium, then I realised I should call 999,' her face crumpled and her eyes welled up again, 'I mean that poor child, who would do that, and to just leave her there in the cold, it's inhuman that's what it is.'

  Carla let her ramble for a couple of minutes, and then steered her back to the matter in hand.

  'So apart from Patrick, nobody touched the body, you mentioned Richard, he didn't touch it as far as you can remember?'

  'Oh no no I pulled Patrick off straight away and we moved over there,' she pointed to where Carla had first spotted her, 'I've seen enough of these police dramas to know that you mustn't touch anything.' Carla just nodded.

  'I don't suppose either of you recognised her did you, or have any idea of who she is?' Gloria shrugged her shoulders and then shook her head. 'Ok thank you Gloria, you did exactly the right thing, I may be needing to speak to you again so if you can let my sergeant have all your details, oh and by the way is Richard still here?'

  'He was earlier, but I haven't seen him for a while, sorry.'

  'No matter, I'm sure my sergeant will have got his details if we need to speak to him, thanks again Gloria for your help.'

  Most of the crowd had dispersed by the time Carla made her way back to the spot where Ted was standing near to the body.

  'Still no sign of the Coroner,' she muttered irritably. 'Where the hell has he got to? We need to get her moved as quickly as possible, before the press get wind of this. Have your team search the surrounding area Ted, there must be something around to tell us who she is, like a mobile, a young girl like this wouldn't leave the house without her mobile I'm sure, maybe she dropped it in the struggle…um… and where is her coat, she must have been wearing one it has been freezing these last few weeks, maybe the killer took it with him but if he did, why?'

  'Maybe there was something about it that could incriminate him,' said Ted as he strolled round the body. 'Maybe it was his coat, you know he takes a young girl into the woods after a bit of fun, she gets cold so he puts his coat round her shoulders, then she decides she doesn't want to do it so he gets angry and bashes her head in, takes back his coat so we can't trace it to him.'

  'Seems a bit of a bleak place to bring someone for sex, especially in the middle of winter, I mean you'd have to be desperate right?' said Carla not at all convinced by Ted's simplified version of events.

  'Maybe he was…looked like whoever did this was pretty desperate about something,' mumbled Ted.

  'Or maybe panicking, people do desperate things when they are frightened of something… oh at last!' Carla could see the forensic team making their way towards them, she pointed them in the right direction and then had a word with the coroner. 'Can you let me know the minute you find the murder weapon, and it seems to me that she was dragged along the floor at one point, you see over there where the slope joins the path, see if anything's been dropped over there can you, mobile phone, for instance, Ted, you take a couple of guys with you and see if anyone in the village has any idea who she is…or indeed if anyone saw or heard anything, an argument or maybe a couple that had had too much to drink…you know the sort of thing…I'll hang on here and see what the coroner turns up.'

  'Right Ma'am I'll get onto it straightaway.' Ted bustled off and Carla could see him rounding up a few uniformed police officers, she heaved a sigh, no matter how many times she asked him to, Ted would never call her Carla, it was like his own private protest at being overlooked at the last promotions, he could never get over that Carla had made Detective Inspector, while he remained a sergeant, stubborn old fool, maybe she should have him over for dinner some time, she knew he had lost his wife a year or so ago so he could probably do with a home cooked meal.

  Once the coroner had finished examining the victim in situ, and was able to give Carla her preliminary findings, i.e. when he thought she had died and how (about two to three weeks ago, and trauma to the head). Carla made her way back to her car, it was still only 6.30, the kids would still be asleep tucked up warm in their beds, but James would be up by now, she pulled out her mobile and pressed his number.

  'Hi babe,' James's sleepy voice came down the phone line. 'What time is it? Fuck!! I should have been up ages ago, this is what happens when I haven't got you here to keep me on the straight and narrow.' Carla could hear the unmistakable sounds of sleepy man banging around the bedroom.

  'Believe me honey I wish I was there, it is bloody freezing out here, I just wanted to check that you'd remembered I'm out tonight, got a cauldron meeting at The Bull, so you'll have to cook I'm afraid darling. There's plenty of mince in the freezer so you could do a spag bol or something...' Carla's voice trailed off as she heard James's sharp intake of breath.

  'Oh my god not tonight! I've got Jimmy Hatcher coming down from Manchester...I'm sure I told you, can't you meet the witches another night?'

  'NO I'm not putting it off again, I had to cancel last week James, and you knew it was tonight...you'll just have to sort something out...maybe your mum could, just this once,' she could almost see him making a face down the phone, James's mum disapproved of Carla and her job and was very reluctant to babysit at the best of times.

  'Yer right like that's going to happen, ok don't worry babe I'll sort it. What was it this morning by the way, lost dog? Someone littering the village green?'

  'I wish it had been, no some walkers found a body in the Glory Woods, a young girl by the looks of it, I'll tell you about it later. Have a good day darling and kiss the kids for me...oh and don't forget Rosie's got to take her history project in today will you? Listen babe I've got to go Ted's making weird hand signals to me, sorry hun.'

  'No way…oh god, sorry love, right stop worrying, it's all under control, see you later, hope it's not too bloody awful.'

  No sooner had Carla put down the phone, when the trilling noise of a text message came through, it was Helen.

  HOPE THE MEETING STILL ON FOR TONIGHT...I NEED TO TALK!!!

  CHAPTER 4 - HELEN

  Helen's phone bleeped.

  YEP ALL OK FOR TONIGHT EXCEPT TRACY CAN'T GET HOLD OF HER, WILL YOU TRY.

  OTHERWISE 7.30 AT THE BULL CARLA X

  Thank goodness, the only
thing keeping her sane at the moment was her weekly meeting with her friends, Carla, Maggie and Tracy.

  They called themselves the Witches Of Glory Woods, as there had originally only been the 3 of them, they had felt like the 3 witches in Macbeth, you know 'by the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes' what with all their plotting and gossiping, and then of course Tracy had come along so now there were 4, which didn't make any sense at all, and if Helen really thought about it they were more like the Witches of Eastwick, with Maggie of course making a wonderfully sultry Susan Sarandon, mmm… who would I be, thought Helen distractedly, not Cher that's for sure but maybe the dotty, accident prone Michelle Pfeiffer. Helen pondered on this for a moment…oh whatever, the witches thing had stuck, and Helen for one couldn't manage without their regular cauldron meetings.

  She pressed Tracy's number in her phone and after a few rings...

  'Hi Helen, you ok?' said Tracy sounding far too bright for this time of the morning, 'Hi Trace,' said Helen, 'just checking you're up for the cauldron tonight, 7.30 at The Bull.'

  'Ooh yes, can't wait, I really fancy a chin wag. It was really weird this morning right, I was taking Buster out for his run and we went up to the common, but there were police all over the place and we weren't allowed through the woods, what do you suppose has happened? It was a right nuisance I had to go all round the new estate instead, Buster was well fed up.'

  'Oh I expect they're on another litter campaign or doggy doo doo incentive, you should ask Carla tonight she'll know.'

  'Yeh well as long as they're not going to close it for too long, Buster just lives for his walks on the common, and I've been reading lately that it's a really good place to meet men, so I'm going to make a special effort next time, you know put on my new flowery wellies, and my most flattering parka, oh you may laugh Helen but apparently it works!'

  'Ok ok I'm not mocking you love, anyway I've got to go, I'll see you later ok.'