by Kay Leitch
Helen was still smiling when she put down the phone, see there was a perfect example of why these nights were so important to her, Tracy could lighten anybody's mood and Helen really needed to snap out of this rut that she had gotten herself into.
She went into the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea, the sky look determinedly grey outside this morning, matching her mood perfectly, she went and curled up in her favourite chair and sipped her tea. 'Ok what have I got on for today,' she said out loud, Helen usually talked to herself, in fact she had been known to have full blown arguments with herself when she had done something she particularly didn't approve of, she found it quite helpful to put the other side across, but today she just needed to clear her head and plan her day.
'I need to get the flowers done for Lucy or she will have my head, I'll do that this morning then I can drop them off on my way to Tesco later. I wonder if Wills is going to be needing dinner tonight…' Helen's voice tailed off at this point and her face crumpled in misery, she took a deep breath trying to combat the pain that was almost too deep to bear…'come on you stupid woman, pull yourself together don't let him do this to you, keep busy… after Tesco you could finish that new canvas for the hall, oh god I really am losing the plot aren't I, thank goodness the others can't hear me prattling away to myself.'
Right onwards and upwards, thank goodness I'm seeing the girls tonight.
CHAPTER 5 - MAGGIE
Maggie stretched languidly beneath the cool sheets.
She felt cosy and sated, she reached out and ran her hands down the large expanse of tanned body that was lying next to her, Charles (or was it Dave, she couldn't quite remember) slept on, unaware.
Maggie tutted to herself, it had been a good night, and the sex had been exceptional but now she just wanted him to go.
'Things to do, places to be,' she muttered under her breath as she climbed out of bed and wrapped herself in her voluminous dressing gown. Downstairs in the vast state of the art kitchen there was all the evidence of her two sons getting breakfast in a hurry, half full coffee cups on the side, toast crumbs everywhere, the ironing board still up and, yes, the iron was still left on.
'How many times do I have to tell them, anyone would think they were still kids instead of grown men with jobs, it's about time they moved out and found out what it's like in the real world,' she fumed, even though she knew she would fight them with every breath in her body if they even suggested such a thing. She automatically started to clear the mess and put on fresh coffee.
Maybe the smell of coffee would wake up her unwanted guest upstairs, she'd rather he left without her having to ask him to leave; it obviously did the trick because sure enough she could hear movement from the bedroom.
She poured out two cups of coffee and put some toast in the toaster.
'Tell me that's coffee I can smell,' said Charles (or Dave) as he came up behind her a minute later and wrapped his arms around her.
'Mmm how do you manage to look so sexy even in this old thing,' he started nuzzling her neck and Maggie could feel the unmistakable signs of an enormous erection pressing into her back.
'Whoa there big boy, don't get any ideas, there's only toast and coffee on offer this morning I'm afraid.'
'Oh well it was worth a try, what about tonight we could find a little restaurant, and then carry on where we left off last night,' he gave Maggie a leery smile.
Oh god, this was the part that Maggie always dreaded, I mean he was a nice guy and as mentioned before the sex had been amazing… hmm… well maybe he was worth one more outing.
'I'm out tonight I'm afraid, but maybe one evening next week, I'll call you.'
The effect was immediate; his face took on a look of rejection or rather the fear of it. 'Yeh well whatever sweetheart, you give me a ring and if I'm free that will be great, right gotta go or I'm going to be late.'
He collected his things together in record time and was soon roaring out of Maggie's drive in his classy red sports car before she had finished her coffee.
Maggie sighed, she had hurt his feeling and she was sorry for it, but really, bloody men they slept with you once and then they thought they had the right to your time, well not this girl, Maggie had vowed to herself after the awful breakdown of her marriage that she would call the shots in any future relationships that she had and so far that had worked very well for her.
She made her way upstairs and took a shower, and let the hot water sooth away the stresses of the morning until she felt ready to face the day. Taking a fluffy towel from the radiator Maggie made her way through to her bedroom.
She stood naked in front of the enormous Louis XIV mirror that leant up against the wall opposite her bed, and critically looked herself over.
A tall and slim brunette, her body had coped well with carrying and giving birth to her two sons, it was still smooth without the ravages of stretch marks, and she had worked bloody hard to keep her figure, her face too showed little signs of ageing as yet, a few tiny wrinkles around her wide dark eyes maybe, and if her lips weren't quite as plump as they used to be, Maggie knew a fab little beauty parlour that would sort that problem when the time came.
'Not bad for an old girl,' she said to herself with satisfaction and set about getting dressed for a day in the office.
Maggie ran her own, rather successful, interior design company. It was something she had dabbled with when the kids had been little. She had completely refurbished the big old barn which was situated about 5 miles outside the village. It had been a complete wreck when she and Greg, her now ex-husband, had first looked it over, but Maggie had seen its potential and had thrown herself into bringing it back to its former glory. Working closely with the architect and project managing the building, and then filing it with the most wonderful furniture and curios that she had hunted down, either in tiny villages or magnificent French chateaus until the results had been a truly spectacular home, so much so that one by one her friends had started commissioning her to do the same for them and then their friends, until it had become a full time job. Soon word had got around that Maggie was the woman to go to if you needed a new interior and so with the help of a large marriage settlement Maggie set up Glory Interiors and the company had gone from strength to strength.
She now employed ten people and had contracts with two of the country's largest property developers.
She realised how lucky she had been.
On the face of it life seemed to have given her a pretty good hand, she had always been beautiful, she had met and married Greg, a very successful hedge fund manager, she had given birth (relatively easily) to her wonderful sons Dom and Jed, she lived in her beloved barn conversion which she had managed to hang on to despite the best efforts of her ex-husband.
The only time that life had dumped on her was 5 years previously when she had discovered that her beloved Greg had been having an affair with his secretary.
Maggie had been completely devastated by the whole thing, she had thought that the relationship was fine, she had naively believed all the lies that she had been told, so that when the whole truth came out, as it inevitably does, she felt betrayed and humiliated on a huge scale.
The affair had been going on for a couple of years and he had even fathered a child with the slut.
Maggie was a woman scorned.
And she used the full powers of the law to make him pay; she not only got the house but an enormous 7 figure settlement, which would keep her wealthy for the rest of her life.
But although there was great satisfaction in making him squirm, Maggie had been dealt a blow that she was finding it hard to recover from. He had been the love of her life; she had put all her trust in him, things would never be the same again.
So she took some pills that helped take the edge off, and she took some more to help her sleep, and she dated men just for the sex and the ego boost.
As she pulled out of her drive half an hour later in her top of the range four by four, her phone bleeped, it wa
s Carla.
HI HUN HOPE YOU ARE OK
DON'T FORGET 7.30 TONIGHT AT THE BULL
I CAN PICK YOU UP ON ROUTE IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A DRINK X
Yay! Life wasn't so bad; in fact it was bloody good!
CHAPTER 6 - TRACY
Tracy sat back and re-read what she had written.
BUBBLY BLOND 33 IS LOOKING FOR COMPANIONSHIP, FUN AND HOPEFULLY LOVE.
MY HOBBIES ARE SWIMMING, WALKING MY DOG AND EVENINGS OUT WITH MY GIRLFRIENDS.
I WOULD DESCRIBE MYSELF AS PETITE AND CURVEY.
'Good grief! Petite and curvy, what kind of crap is that, they'll just read short and fat! Which, let's face it Buster, is no more than the truth!'
Buster, a rather rotund west highland terrier, not really knowing how he was meant to respond to this outburst, just raised his eyebrows and tried to look supportive, he was rewarded with a kiss.
'Oh at least I have you, little boy, we can be short and fat together,' this seemed like a good plan to Buster so he settled down to continue his nap.
Tracy turned her attention back to the dating web site questionnaire that she was trying to fill in as honestly as she could, but at the same time trying to make herself sound like a sex goddess.
After several unsuccessful attempts she gave up, 'I'll get the girls to help me tonight, Maggie's sure to know just the right words to use to make me irresistible.'
The web site was Tracy's latest attempt at getting a man, despite having had a few long term partners she was yet to meet 'the one' and she was beginning to think he didn't exist. They were all either commitment phobes or ego driven or so wrapped up in their careers, that they could barely focus on anything else, like having a family for instance, and that was the crux of the matter, Tracy wanted children, and she wanted them desperately, and she wanted them soon.
But she needed to find a man first, and then she needed to make him love her enough to settle down and start a family with her. The more she thought about it the more impossible it seemed, it was keeping her awake at night, she could almost hear the ticking of her body clock if she listened hard enough.
The trouble was that despite being a nice person (and she was sure she was) and being good at her job (she worked in the busy office of the local primary school) and being generally bubbly (she hadn't lied about that) she didn't seem to have what most men were looking for these days.
She was quite short (only 5'1) and she wasn't a size zero by any stretch of the imagination, she'd always been on the dumpy side with quite a large bust, which certainly got the men interested, but only in one thing apparently. Most of the men she'd met had dropped her for much taller slimmer girls, even if they didn't have such pretty eyes or such a ready smile. The taller slimmer girls were apparently marriage material whereas she was just good for a laugh and a quick shag.
It was depressing but Tracy wasn't about to give up yet, she just knew that there must be someone out there who needed the love that she had in abundance to give, so roll on tonight, so that she could pick the brains of the most successful serial dater she knew, Maggie.
After letting Buster out for a run in her tiny garden and settling him down for the day Tracy started up her ancient mini and drove the short journey to work.
She just loved her job, St. Jude's primary school stood on the edge of the village green. The building was the same that had been there in the early 19th century, it had been extended a bit and there were a few porta cabins in the playground but it had still maintained its village school look, and Tracy loved it.
The children were filing in by the time she had parked the mini in the overcrowded car park, so she had to rush to the office without having her usual cup of coffee in the staff room, Juno, the headmaster’s secretary, was already in there and gave Tracy a smile of greeting.
'Assembly's going to be a bit later today, we've got those magazine people coming in remember, Oh and bloody Richard’s just phoned to say he's not in today. I've got to reorganise all his classes, what a nightmare.'
'Oh you poor thing, sorry I'm a bit late,' said Tracy with a smile, 'took me ages to park the car, someone has parked a bloody great van in my space, I had to go right round the back, don't know how I'm going to get out later.'
'Don't get me started Trace,' said Juno, 'the number of times I've mentioned about reorganising the car parking, but no, he knows best,' she walked out with a big pile of books under her arms and a long suffering look on her face.
Tracy started to go through her 'in tray', there was nothing urgent so she logged on to her computer and started looking through the absentee emails.
'Joey Gough off again I see,' she said to herself, 'that's 4 times in as many weeks.' She made a note of it and carried on reading her emails making notes here and there she was so distracted that she didn't notice that there was someone standing just inside the door of the office until they cleared their throat noisily, Tracy nearly jumped out of her skin.
A very tall, dark haired man was leaning against the door frame.
Tracy jumped up in surprise, and managed to knock over a cold cup of coffee that had been sitting on the edge of her desk for at least 3 days. The dark liquid spread all over the pile of parents questionnaires that Tracy had left on the desk yesterday. She scrabbled about trying to save as many as she could, meanwhile the man just stood there watching with a bewildered look on his face, as she made a complete mess of everything.
'Well you could at least help, instead of just standing there,' Tracy said crossly. 'It was your fault for startling me in the first place and just who are you anyway and how did you get in, I didn't hear the buzzer?
With an irritated tut the stranger ignored her questions and took control of the situation, sweeping the papers off the desk and then magically producing a cloth which he used to wipe down the desk, the computer and finally Tracy herself, she shook him off angrily,' how bloody humiliating and why the hell do these things always happen to me', she fumed.
'Simon Burton at your service,' Mr Smuggo said, 'the door was open, delivery I think, so I didn't buzz.'
Tracy snatched the cloth away from him ungraciously, 'What can I do for you Mr Buford?'
'It's Burton, I'm here because your Head arranged for me to do a two week workshop with the children. I produce a children's magazine, the kids are going to contribute to the content and learn a little about publishing. You should have been told I was coming, I'm meant to be meeting with a …Tracy Dawlish?' he said producing a piece of paper which Tracy realised was the letter that she had sent him a couple of weeks earlier inviting him to come and do his workshop at the school.
'Shit!' thought Tracy, 'I'd forgotten all about that,' she was meant to be liaising with this man and helping him with the kids.
'Shit, shit, shit,' she thought again, she pinned on her best smile.
'Er that's me I'm afraid, if you'd just give me a moment Mr Burbage, I'll take you through to the hall, I believe you'll be talking to the school in this morning's assembly.'
'Yes that's what I've been told too, and the names BURTON, SIMON BURTON but you can call me Simon, Tracy isn't it?' he said with a wide grin.
Tracy gritted her teeth. 'That's right Simon, I'll just direct you to the assembly hall and then you can get yourself set up, do you need the projector? If so I'll get Sam to show you how it works,' and with that Tracy squeezed passed Simon (who made no attempt at all to get out of the way) but just followed appreciatively watching Tracy's neat little bum all the way to the hall.
CHAPTER 7 - CARLA
The small police station in Kenly village seemed to be bursting with people when Carla finally got there. Obviously Ted had decided to press on with interviewing the walking party.
Carla grabbed a coffee from the machine in the hall outside her office and made her way precariously through to her desk.
There were some photos of the murdered girl already on her desk and she sat down to study them. Ted put his head round her door.
'I've got statements
from this lot so I can send them on their way unless you'd like to talk to them ma’am.'
'Not at the moment Ted, thanks, oh Ted, has her phone been found yet anything to give us a clue as to who she is?'
No, nothing yet ma’am, no matches on the missing persons files and no coat either and Mr Richard Frampton hasn't deigned to show up yet, you know the one who found the body with Gloria? I'm sending someone round to his address, he seems less than co-operative, might be worth checking him out a bit.'
'Yeh get Mandy on to it, what did you say his second name was?'
'Frampton; Richard Frampton, he's a teacher at St Jude's.'
'Oh I know him I think,' said Carla absently while she looked through the gruesome photos, 'Although he doesn't teach my lot, small man, dodgy beard.'
'Well I wouldn't know about that,' said Ted stoking his own rather impressive beard, 'when you're ready ma’am I'll get everyone together in the main office.'
'Give me about 5 minutes Ted will you, I just need to get up to speed.'
Ted gave her the thumbs up and disappeared down the corridor.
Carla went through the images that had already been put up onto her computer screen, according to the coroner she had probably been killed about 2-3 weeks ago, and as far as he could tell, without further examination, death was caused by a severe trauma to the head…looked like the killer could have used a fallen log as a weapon as there were very noticeable bits of wood and bark stuck to the wound in her head…he reckoned she was about sixteen years old.
Preliminary examinations seemed to indicate that there had been no sexual interference, but she had extensive cuts and grazes to her hands, feet and knees. There was also bruising round her ankles as if she had been held or tied by them, no chance of identifying the victim through her dental records because of the damage done to her face and jaw, but she did have a small unusual tattoo on her thigh.
There were a few plastic evidence bags on the desk, obviously they had been sent over by the coroner as well. One caught Carla's attention, a small gold earring with a large green stone, looked like an emerald, it was for a pierced ear and it looked quite old, expensive, something her mum would have worn. A bit outdated for a young teenager, but the reason it caught her eye was that it looked strangely familiar, she was sure she had seen this somewhere before but she couldn't quite place it. Carla stared at it for a few moments trying to grab hold of a fleeting memory, she'd seen that earring on a woman she was sure of it, a woman with blond hair, she put it to one side irritably, oh well it would come to her.
