Mummy's Little Girl

by Kay Leitch

  Tracy let her thoughts drift as she walked, thinking about the previous night and laughing again as she remembered some of the banter. She counted herself very lucky to have met her three friends.

  Tracy had lived all her life in and around the village of Kenley, she had gone to the school that she now worked in until she was eleven and then had made the half hour long bus journey every day to the high school in Redbank. Helen had gone to the same school but at a completely different time, she was already in college when Tracy was just starting, and the two had never even spoken to each other until Carla, who had got friendly with Tracy through the school P.T.A, invited Tracy along to a cauldron meeting one week, much to the horror of the other two girls. Tracy couldn't help laughing as she remembered the look on Maggie and Helen's face when Carla dragged her over to meet them, they couldn't have made it any clearer that she wasn't welcome, but Tracy had a natural way with people and it didn't take too long for them to be chatting as naturally with her as if she had known them all her life.

  'And now I can't imagine life without them, it's almost as good as having a boyfriend…almost but not quite,' thought Tracy with a grimace.

  She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that Tracy hadn't noticed that it had got darker than she would normally feel comfortable with. She was also shocked to discover that she had very nearly intruded onto the site where that poor girl had been murdered. Tracy had been as shocked as everyone else in the village when news of the vicious attack had got out, it had been the main topic of conversation in the staff room at school today and she knew she must be very near the spot now. The blue police tape was still there fluttering in the wind and a little white tent had been erected obviously to preserve any evidence. She caught sight of a few people in white suits combing the area. Tracy shivered, called to Buster and started back towards the edge of the common, when she was taken completely by surprise by someone shoving past her on the narrow path, whoever it was, was running as if the hounds of hell were after them, out of the woods just ahead of her, smashing through branches seemingly oblivious to them, such was their desperation to get out.

  It looked like a woman but Tracy couldn't be sure as the fleeing figure was wearing a big quilted jacket with a hood, but something in the way they were running seemed quite feminine, it was also obvious from the very loud sobs that she or he, was in real distress.

  Tracy was a kind soul and hated the thought of anyone else in trouble so she sped up and tried to catch up with the mystery woman.

  'Excuse me,' she called. 'Are you ok, can I help you in any way?' The figure ahead seemed to jump in fright and started to turn round, before thinking better of it, and then literally sprinting away.

  Tracy slowed down, she had no choice really it was either that or keel over. 'Oh I am sooo unfit,' she thought as Buster came tearing up beside her eager to join in this new game.

  'Sorry mate, fun's over,' panted Tracy and she leaned up against a tree to get her breath back, 'well that was weird,' she thought. 'I wonder who she was?' The funny thing was that just as she had started to turn round Tracy had thought she recognized her, she was blond, that was for sure and she had a definite look of familiarity. Oh well she obviously didn't want to talk about whatever was bothering her, it was bound to be a man, in her experience it was always a man, why she continued trying to attract one she couldn't fathom.

  'It's a mystery,' she said out loud startling Buster who had found a very promising smell at the foot of a tree. Tracy sighed and started for home, but even the sight of her beloved village with lights from the cottages twinkling in the half light of dusk over the green, didn't take away Tracy's feeling of unease that had stayed with her since her encounter with the mystery woman, she hadn't just seemed distressed, something in those woods had terrified her.

  CHAPTER 10 - June 5th 1992

  The key has gone from the bathroom door; it was there earlier, I know because I checked.

  Mum's told me to have a bath…I haven't had one for a long time…I try and wait till he's out but now Mum's cross. I need to wash my hair she says and I'm getting smelly she's not telling me any more if I don't have a bath and wash my hair she's going to bath me like I was a baby.

  I will have to be quick, I scrub as hard as I can, and lather up my hair, the shampoo gets in my eyes, I dunk my head beneath the water … when I resurface he is there.

  He puts the key in the lock and turns it, I try and sink down beneath the water but his hands are everywhere, touching squeezing…pulling my legs apart.

  He doesn't speak, just concentrates on his filthy business.

  He pulls my hand to him urgently as he touches me, I try and pull back, he slaps me hard on my face then pulls my hand towards his thing again, forcing my fingers open so that I am holding it. I am sobbing and gulping with the humiliation of it but he seems unaware of my misery. His head is pulled back, his eyes closed as he forces me to bring him to a conclusion.

  A loud grunt and he is finished, he washes his hands in the water.

  'Don't forget to wash your cunt you filthy girl,' he says as he walks out.

  CHAPTER 11 - HELEN

  As soon as Helen heard Wills’ car pulling out of the drive she grabbed her laptop and settled down to check the progress of her profile page on getmeaman.com.

  So far she had been astonished by the response she had received. Admittedly she had not bothered to reply to any of them yet but that was mainly because she was so nervous of actually meeting anyone. It was all very well Maggie telling her to get out there and find a man, but Helen had to think of the actual ramifications of meeting someone. Like, what if rather than making Wills mad with jealousy he just walked away from her, or what if she met someone and they really got on how would she feel if she then had to choose between the two of them. It was all making Helen feel very edgy about the whole thing. On the other hand she couldn't help feeling pretty good that so many people seemed to find her attractive and that in itself was beginning to have an effect.

  She started taking a bit more time over her appearance, she'd had her hair coloured and cut into a much more youthful style. She'd started applying a touch more make-up, Maggie had given her a lovely smoky grey shadow for her eyes which seemed to make them appear bigger and sexier. She had even splashed out rather a lot of Wills’ cash on some gorgeous new clothes, clothes that made the most of her curves rather than hiding them. Helen had always considered herself to be just 'ok' on the looks front, she knew she wasn't a raving beauty. Her face was too angular for that, but she had often heard herself described as a handsome woman by other people, and she had always tried to have her own unique sense of style…she wore large pieces of jewellery, and quite natural lose fitting clothes which hid the fact that she had quite a voluptuous figure. It would take some getting used to, exposing herself in this way but she had actually got a wolf whistle from a builder that was working on the church roof just this morning, that hadn't happened for such a long time and it felt good!

  Tracy had text her the other day asking how the website was going, apparently she had already got a date for next week.

  'That's fab honey,' she had replied and she really meant it, but she was going to be a little bit more careful she thought as she put the laptop away.

  Wills didn't arrive home till well after ten again that evening. Helen waited up for him.

  'Sorry sweetie,' he said as he kissed her hello. 'Work is an absolute bitch at the moment, David called a meeting just as we were about to leave, I couldn't get out of it.'

  Helen quietly prepared to heat up the lasagne that she had cooked earlier.

  'Oh don't worry about food Hels,' Wills called from the living room, 'we ordered some in, it was the least David could do after making us work so hard.'

  Helen listened to him waffle on, heard the lies in every word.

  David had phoned trying to get hold of Wills only a couple of hours earlier, he was calling to see if he was any better after his apparent nasty bout of flu whic
h had kept him from the office for the last two days. Helen had covered for her man, it would help no one if he lost his job as well as his wife.

  She left him downstairs to watch the news and crept into the little spare room where her laptop was kept and started looking at all her admirers with renewed interest. She'd had enough.

  CHAPTER 12 - CARLA

  Three days had past and they were no nearer to finding out the identity of the girl in the woods. She had obviously never been in trouble with the police because her prints were not on record; the only thing that they had to go on at the moment was a small tattoo that had been found on her right thigh. It was quite unusual in that it had the gruesome face of an ghoulish old hag with the words 'mummy's little girl' written underneath, it obviously had meant something to the poor girl, it just made Carla sad and even more determined to find her killer.

  The very fact that the tattoo was unusual was something that they could follow up on though, and Carla set about calling all the local tattoo parlours, so far with no luck, it seemed the girl came from farther afield. So Carla widened her search and at last had her first piece of luck, a tattooist from Maidstone in Kent recognised the picture that Carla had emailed him as his own work, which he had done only a few months earlier, he even had a record of the recipient, her name was Louise, Louise Miller.

  Carla felt elated at last she had a name, she was Louise, and somewhere she had a family, people who knew her. As a matter of course Carla had searched the missing persons data base but with no luck. Now with a name and recent sighting to go on Carla felt as if she was getting somewhere, and maybe soon she would be able to piece together some sort of picture of the events leading up to this poor girl's violent end.

  The pathologist report had said that most of the damage done to her had been inflicted post mortem, a classic case of over kill. Someone started hitting and just couldn't stop like they were trying to obliterate her. 'Which must mean that there is a story to uncover here,' Carla thought to herself. For some reason this particular case had got to her, it wasn't just that murders were very far and few between in the little village of Kenley, Carla had previously worked in Birmingham and had seen enough killings in her time in the force, no, it was just such a sad thing that no one had seemed to notice that she was missing, no one knew who she was. But of course that wasn't true, she had obviously come here to meet with someone, and that person was her killer.

  Carla looked at her watch, 'Shit, shit, shit,' she had promised the kids she would pick them up from school tonight and she was going to be late. She switched off her computer and grabbed her coat.

  The police station was situated on the far side of the green so it was an easy walk to the school opposite. Most of the mums had been and gone and she could see Rosie and Harry standing just inside the porch looking fed up, she started waving way before she got there just so that they would see her on her way.

  'Hello my darlings,' she called breathlessly as she arrived giving them both a hug.

  'You're late Mum,' said Harry grumpily. 'If we don't go now all the copies of Robob will have sold out.'

  'I'm going to be the littlest pig in the school play,' said Rosie jumping up and down. 'You have to make me a piggy nose and a curly tail Miss Barry says, and it's got to be by Wednesday because that the 'ess rehearsal. Daniel Finch is going to be the wolf because he's big, and Glennis is going to be the straw house.' Rosie finally took a breath by which time they had walked to the small shop by the side of the green, Rosie wandered off to choose her after school treat.

  'Yay,' said Harry as he spotted a pile of his favourite Robob comics, he grabbed one and gave Carla a pleading look.

  'It's the latest one Mum, can I have it? I promise I will clean my room for a week.'

  'What did I say last month Harry, if you want these things you have to save a bit out of your pocket money, you knew it was out today didn't you?'

  'I did save a bit,' he said holding out a sticky 20p piece. 'Oh please Mum, Mr Burton has been at school all week and we've been writing our own stories to put into the comic, it's school work really, pleeeease.'

  'Oh all right, but just this once, next time you save up to buy it ok?' She fished some change out of her purse and gave it to him.

  'Yeh yeh ok,' said Harry distractedly taking the money, he was already flicking through the pages as he went up to the counter to pay.

  Once Rosie had decided what to choose (which took ages), Carla and the children started the long walk home.

  If she was going to be at the station all day Carla never bothered with her car, it was a bit of a walk to the newish estate where she lived, but sometimes it was more hassle to bring the car and have to squeeze into the tiny station car park. The kids were walking ahead, Harry taking his life in his hands by reading whilst walking and Rosie happily sucking on a sweet and trying to talk at the same time when suddenly a car beeped loudly beside them. Carla turned and saw that it was Tracy waving at her.

  'Fancy a lift?' she shouted.

  Carla started to say that they were happy walking, but the kids were already jumping into the tiny back seat, they both loved Tracy who they saw every day at school.

  'What luck running into you,' said Tracy breathlessly. 'I was going to phone you later anyway.'

  'Auntie Tracy, why were you shouting at Mr Burton?' interrupted Rosie. 'Glennis says you fancy him, but you can't if you're shouting at him can you?'

  'I wasn't really shouting Rosie, we were just having a discussion.' Tracy had gone bright red in the face, Carla raised her eyebrows at her questioningly.

  'No nothing like that...I'm just having to work with him at the moment, you would not believe how irritating that man can be…good with the kids though...anyhow that's not what I wanted to talk to you about,' she turned and looked intently at Carla seriously putting all their lives in danger.

  'Tracy! Eyes on the road you almost just mowed down old Mrs Willoby on her disability scooter look, why not come in for a coffee and we can talk about it properly?' Carla suggested.

  'Oops sorry…yes I will if you don't mind Carla, although I can't stay long, Buster will be crossing his legs if I don't get home and walk him soon.'

  'Aaaahh I love Buster he's my favourite dog,' said Rosie dreamily, 'he's nicer than Brandy, do you know Brandy has had his willy chopped off Mum, you didn't get Buster's willy chopped off did you Auntie Tracy?'

  'Ha ha ha you are sooo stupid Rosie it's not his willy it's his balls isn't it Mum?' teased Harry.

  'That's enough you two!' said Carla trying not to look at Tracy who was crying with laughter, 'no more talk about willys or balls ok.'

  That was enough the whole car burst into uncontrollable laughter, for the rest of the short journey.

  Once home the kids separated like the red sea into their own bedrooms and Carla put the kettle on. They both sat at Carla's battered old pine table which was covered with the kids drawings and opened mail, there were more drawings held onto the fridge with magnets along with reminders and one note obviously from James to Carla 'see you tonight lovely girl', it was all so cosy and domestic it made Tracy's life seem even emptier.

  'What's on your mind love?' said Carla once they both had a cup of tea.

  'Something very strange happened yesterday when I was walking Buster in the Glory Woods.' At Carla's gasp she said, 'Yes I know you don't like me walking there and yes of course I've heard about the body that was found in the woods! I ended up near there yesterday, completely by accident and as soon as I realised where I was I started for home. But anyway that's why I thought I should tell you about what happened. I don't know if this has anything to do with anything, but just as I was heading back to the common this person (but I'm …yes I'm sure it was a woman even though I didn't get a close look at her). Anyway she barged past me and she was running, really running you know as if her life depended on it, or as though she had to get away from something that had scared her. I called to her, I could see she was really upset and I thought maybe
I could help and for a minute I thought she was going to turn round but then she just ran off even faster. Just for a second Carla I thought I recognized her…I can't get her out of my head, you know she was just so terrified and upset…I mean what could have spooked her so badly? '

  'Well maybe she had heard about the body and had just scared herself shitless by going into the woods,' suggested Carla.

  'Yes maybe, but then why would she be sobbing…I'm telling you Carla it was really weird.'

  'Where did this happen, I mean where exactly?'

  'Well that's just it; I had wandered further than I intended, I had walked into the thickest part of the woods near the slopes and dips, I came away as soon as I realized where I was, but she had obviously been in the same place.'

  'You said she seemed familiar who did she remind you of?'

  'I wish I could tell you, but I didn't ever see her face, it was the way she stood the way she moved I just felt that I knew her…aarrgh…maybe it will get clearer after a while, she was a blond if that helps.'

  Carla's head shot up. 'A blond, how do you know that?'

  'Because when she started to turn round I saw a bit of blond hair, why is that helpful?'

  'Oh I don't know, maybe, maybe not it just fits in with something else that's all. There was an earring found near the scene and I was sure that I had seen it before, you know I had seen someone wearing that earring, and in my mind whoever was wearing it had blond hair…spooky ay?'

  Tracy's eyes lit up with excitement, Carla held up her hand.

  'Now Trace don't get all detective on me please, this is all probably nothing more than someone that's lost their dog or had a bit of a scare, but whatever it is you are not to get involved, there really is someone very dangerous out there, let us deal with it. But thank you for telling me, you never know it may be important.'