by Kay Leitch
'Hot date?' he said with a smirk, 'I think you've scored, he was looking like all his Christmases had come at once, be gentle with him though Tracy, you could eat him whole and spit out the bones.'
'Not that it's any of your business Mr Burton, but he happens to be a very high executive in the banking world, and we are just friends out having a friendly drink.'
'Well the way he was looking down your top was extremely friendly, and I don't know what he's told you, but that's Ben, assistant manager at my local bank,' he said with a mocking laugh as he walked back to his seat, Tracy made a rude hand signal at his retreating back, which was not lost on Giles who had been watching this interchange from behind the bar and spat out half his drink with a laugh.
The evening went from bad to worse, Ben encouraged by Tracy's smiles and flirting moved his chair very close to her and kept stroking her arms and hands. She realised she had definitely gone too far with the flirting when he started hinting about coming back to hers, just to check out her little cottage, oh god she had now created an excruciatingly embarrassing situation which she somehow had to get out of, just then her phone rang.
'Oh excuse me,' said Tracy grabbing at her phone like a life line, 'Hello?'
'This is your rescue call,' said a deep voice in her ear, she looked over to where Simon was sitting with his phone at his ear, he gave her a wink, 'I'll meet you outside in 5,' he said and rang off.
'Oh goodness,' said Tracy into an empty phone, 'what down a whole flight of stairs? She's calling for me is she? No, no of course I'll come, thank you for phoning me.'
She looked at Ben apologetically, 'I am so sorry, my Auntie Miriam has had a fall; that was her neighbour calling I'm going to have to go.' She was already grabbing her coat as she was talking.
'Oh no of course…if you think it's necessary…I mean yes of course don't worry, these things happen, I'll give you a call if that's ok, I really would love to see you again.'
Tracy just couldn't do it to him. 'Listen Ben,' she said squeezing his hand, 'you are a great guy, but I just don't think it would work, thanks for the drink though, bye.'
And without a backward glance Tracy almost ran out of the pub… freedom!
Simon was waiting in the car park near her car, smoking a cigarette.
'What made you think I needed a rescue call?' said Tracy indignantly grabbing the cigarette from him and taking a drag.
'Oh come on, anyone with half a brain could see you were bored out of yours, why on earth did you agree to date him in the first place? Surely you're not that desperate, pretty girl like you?'
Although Simon's compliment warmed her to her toes, Tracy wasn't about to let him off that easily.
'As it happens he looked nothing like his photo and we had chatted vey easily on-line…' she stopped as she realised what she had given away, Simon turned on her angrily, 'What kind of fool are you?' he yelled, 'some girl has just been murdered in the woods and you're meeting someone you've only chatted to on-line, you need your head tested Tracy my girl, what, are you so hard up for a shag that you have to advertise yourself…well if that's the case maybe I'll do, at least we've been introduced.'
'Now look here Mr Burton or whatever you call yourself, I don't know who you think you are…'
Tracy got no further, Simon had grabbed her by the shoulders and was now kissing her, Tracy started pushing against him but he just tightened his grip and soon she relaxed into the kiss. As soon as he felt her relax Simon groaned and deepened the kiss making Tracy shudder from her lips to her toes and touching everywhere in between…mmm she thought it had been a long time since she'd had a kiss like this, but all too soon it was over and Simon was pushing her away.
'I'm sorry I got a bit carried away,' he mumbled awkwardly after a moment, lighting himself another cigarette with slightly shaky fingers.
Tracy immediately pulled herself together, 'Oh think nothing of it, I won't, I promise you.'
The shutters came down on Simon's face, 'Good, well we both know where we stand then don't we?'
'Yes we do,' said Tracy tonelessly, 'Goodnight Mr Burton, see you in school tomorrow.'
'Goodnight,' said Simon as he threw down his cigarette angrily, got into his car and screeched out of the car park leaving a trail of dust in his wake.
'And good riddance,' said Tracy to herself as she walked slowly back into the pub, she rubbed at her lips which still felt swollen from Simon's bruising kiss, she only just stopped herself from bursting straight through the pub doors when she realised that Ben might still be in there, so she opened the door slowly and poked her head round…ahh all clear.
'Don't worry love,' said Giles with a chuckle, 'he left shortly after you did, looked like a broken man too poor chap, you really know how to drop a man from a great height don't you?'
Tracy pulled a face, 'Oh he'll get over it, next week he'll meet someone who is genuinely impressed with his knowledge of all things banking…oh I'm such a cow, poor man there was nothing wrong with him really, maybe I'm just looking for perfection, in which case, since you are already taken, I am doomed to failure. Get me a large vodka Giles darling I intend to get drunk…well not too drunk one does have to get up and go to work in the morning, but at least squiffy…yes squiffy will have to do.'
'How does one meet Mr Right Giles?' said a rather worse for wear Tracy an hour later. 'How did you meet Vanessa?'
'Oh I just got lucky I guess,' said Giles with a silly grin on his face, 'before I realised my life's dream and came to own this place I was a partner in a firm of solicitors, and Vanessa came to work for me as my … um P.A., she was so beautiful, and such a proper little lady how could I help falling head over heels. It took me ages to persuade her though, we went out for a long time, but she was always so worried about what my partners might think, me Mr. big shot solicitor marrying a humble P.A., she only finally agreed when I promised we would move away from Ashford, and find a little village pub to run, and she was so right we were both made for this, or at least I used to think so …'
'Giles! When you've finished telling Tracy our life story do you think you could give me a hand…we do have other customers you know?' snapped Vanessa coming up behind Giles, and giving Tracy a filthy look, 'I'm sure Tracy will understand, won't you Tracy?'
'Oh.. er.. of course, sorry Vanessa I didn't mean to keep him… my fault, I'd better go home now anyway…night Giles,' she called to his retreating back as he hurried away, 'Night Vanessa,' she said to Vanessa's stony face, and then (she didn't know what prompted her it must have been the drink) 'been walking through the woods lately?' Vanessa's face turned to stone and for a minute Tracy thought she was going to faint, but then she pulled herself together and said, 'God no, I leave all of that sort of stuff to you…' she looked Tracy up and down slowly, '…doggy types…night Tracy, be careful walking home there's some nasty people out there.'
CHAPTER 22 - HELEN
'Oh no that just sounds too needy,' thought Helen as she deleted her message for the third time. She had sat down in front of her computer over an hour ago determined to reply to one of her many admirers but she wasn't getting anywhere, who would have thought this dating stuff would be so difficult.
She had chosen Mike (he of the lovely dark eyes and wicked smile) to reply to, despite being a little bit put off by the fact that he was still technically married, but as Maggie had pointed out, so was she and he certainly was easy on the eyes. He seemed very keen too, he had emailed her and they had chatted about various things. He didn't have any children which was a good thing and he had been single for about 2 years, and would Helen like to meet up for a drink and a chat? So all Helen had to do was to answer with a big fat yes… but that was what Helen had been grappling with for the past hour. Once she agreed to meet this man she would be setting out in a direction that could potentially end her marriage…despite all that had happened recently Helen knew that she still loved Wills and she was scared of losing him…but he had been such a slime ball just lately. Only yes
terday she had found a receipt from an expensive restaurant in Redbank that she had been wanting to go to, not to mention the number of times he hadn't come in till past midnight just lately. He didn't even bother to give her an excuse now…'Oh bugger it, what the hell,' said Helen to herself and she sent a simple message expressing her wish to meet Mike. She thought it best that they met somewhere away from the village, and chose a small pub that she had been to before in Godstone which was a good few miles away.
Once the message had been sent Helen started feeling excited at the prospect of her date, thank goodness it wasn't until after the next cauldron meeting so she could pick her friends brains about what to wear etc.
Helen had met Maggie and Carla completely by accident. She had been doing the rounds of local galleries to see if she could find anyone willing to show her work, so far the day had been an unmitigated disaster, and it looked as if this particular gallery was going to be no different. She had listened with growing irritation to the rather patronising comments from the pompous twit who owned the rather exclusive 'Christian Lafette' gallery based in the chic shopper's paradise that was Redbank high street. She was just getting ready for another rejection, when she noticed a couple of women who had just come into the gallery, and were looking at the canvases on display discussing their merits (or not) in a very loud giggly way.
The gallery owner had also noticed them and his face took on a completely different demeanour as he noticed one of his best customers. Dismissing Helen, he smarmed his way over to the couple and began prosing on about the beautiful brush work in an enormous canvas featuring an equally huge naked woman reclining on a sofa apparently being fed grapes by what looked like a dolphin.
'You see in this way the artist is depicting the fruits of the sea…waffle waffle…the woman is representing all women…creep creep…,' it was embarrassing to watch and Helen decided to start packing her canvases away and try and leave without being noticed when the taller of the two women suddenly said:
'Yes, yes… whatever Christian… to be honest I don't care whether a whole shoal of dolphins come in riding bikes, it's bloody awful and I wouldn't hang it in my downstairs loo,' and with that crushing comment she dismissed Christian with a wave of her hand and began to walk round the gallery again. Helen could only admire the woman's complete confidence in herself. 'Mind you,' she thought, 'if I looked as good as she did I might be able to stand up for myself a bit better.' She was stunning, tall, slim with long dark hair that could have been used on a TV commercial it was so sleek and shiny, and her eyes were an amazing aquamarine that looked almost translucent against her olive skin. Her companion was very pretty too, blond and petite with a girl next door kind of look, and funnily enough Helen was sure she recognised her, she had seen her around the village. Just then Helen noticed Christian coming back over to her with a sneering look on his face, obviously he needed to take his humiliation out on someone and Helen was the perfect candidate so she braced herself for more snide comments. He was beaten to her, however, by the gorgeous woman, who smiled at Helen and asked if she could look at her canvases, the little gallery owner nearly threw himself in front of the canvases as if to hide such amateur rubbish from so distinguished a customer's eyes.
'Oh but Mrs Wendover these are not at all what you are after I'm sure…they're nothing, we have some much more interesting works in our storeroom if you would…' began Christian, the woman turned on him gave him a look that would have stopped stampeding elephants and he stammered into silence, then she held out a hand to Helen.
'Hi I'm Maggie, and this is my friend Carla, and I really would like to look at your canvases, but maybe not here, fancy grabbing a coffee, I know a great little place not two minutes away.'
Helen readily agreed and much to the disgust of the spluttering Christian, the three women left the gallery, Maggie and Carla helped her carry the canvases the 100yds to the coffee shop round the corner and by the time they got there they were all giggling like school girls.
'Oh my god did you see his face, if looks could kill you'd be dead now Maggie,' said Carla.
'Stupid twat, trying to tell me what I should like or dislike, well he lost out on his commission and it serves him right,' laughed Maggie.
'Oh I felt quite sorry for him really,' said Helen quietly, she was feeling a bit overwhelmed by her two new friends, 'I suppose he was just doing his job.'
'Not very well if you want my opinion,' said Maggie, 'he was about to show you and your gorgeous canvases the door wasn't he? As I said stupid twat…these are wonderful Helen, I just love the colours and the simple way you've painted them.' Helen could feel her face burning with pleasure. Maggie went on to buy three of Helen's canvases, and put her in touch with a friend of hers that showcased new talent in a gallery in Brighton. Once the business was out of the way the girls had a brilliant chin wag, and enjoyed each other's company so much that they organised a girls night at the local pub for the following week (they had soon discovered that they all lived in the same village…how mad was that!) and that was how the Witches came into being. Helen relied on the advice and support of her friends even more these days, especially when it came to helping her decide what to wear for her big date!
Thinking about how she had met Maggie and Carla reminded Helen that she had work to do.
So she went downstairs to get on with her latest piece; she had always loved painting and had a natural talent for mixing colours and textures. The painting she was working on at the moment was one of her few commissioned pieces, the Reverend at the local church had asked her to do something that would brighten up the small community hall adjoining the church, it was absolutely huge, the biggest one that she had ever done and she was really excited about it.
She had chosen as her subject an area of the Glory Woods that she particularly loved and had often walked through. So a few weeks before, when the leaves had turned to their autumnal golds and reds she had taken as many pictures as she could and had decided on one in particular to paint. It was a part of the woods where two steep banks sloped down towards the winding path below. The beech trees standing tall and straight on either side had been really splendid here and the sun shining through the gilded branches had added another dimension to the colours, not just on the trees, but on the path where the fallen leaves were nearly knee deep. The painting was all but finished and Helen had told Reverend Sinclair that it would be ready for his inspection this evening. There was going to be a little ceremony of sorts when the painting was hung, because the money to pay for it had been raised by the local W.I. by holding various events like cake sales, tombola's etc. Apparently some local big wig was going to unveil it, Helen couldn't wait and had told the other witches that they had to be there on pain of death.
'Wouldn't miss it for the world Helen darling,' Maggie had said. 'Can I tell everyone that I'm friends with the artist?'
They may have all teased her but Helen knew they were all really proud of her…and that was the one thing that kept her going at the moment.
CHAPTER 23 - August 14th 1994
I am sharing a big double bed with Faye…he won't come in; surely he won't, not while Faye's sleeping next to me.
We are on holiday, in Cornwall…he hasn't been near me since we arrived, I can't sleep…I don't think he will come in but I'm worried he might, even though Faye is here…he gave me extra pocket money for an inflatable whale to take to the beach, then he squeezed my hand and gave me wink…he won't come in, it might wake Faye.
I wake up with a start; he is fumbling under my covers trying to pull up my nightdress…I start to wriggle away he puts a hand over my mouth and gives me a look of warning.
I keep quiet as he pushes my legs apart…at least he can't climb on top of me this time, he fiddles with me between my legs, pushing into me until it hurts, I cry out and he puts his hand over my mouth again.
Then he takes my hand and puts it inside his pyjama bottoms, holding my hand tightly round him he starts to move it up and down�
�
Faye didn't wake up.
CHAPTER 24 - CARLA
'Vanessa,' spluttered Carla, 'are you sure?' She couldn't believe that Vanessa's name was coming up once again.
'Yes…at least I think that's what it was, Lucy will know but I'm pretty sure,' said Shirley vaguely.
'You said she was on the internet all the time,' went on Carla, 'how would she do that? I mean did she have a laptop or is there a communal computer?'
'Oh she had her own laptop, Mr Staff, that's one of our support workers, had an old one that his daughter was getting rid of so he gave it to Louise, it was her pride and joy,' Shirley smiled sadly.
'Is it in her room? We will need to take it, there may be something on there to lead us to her killer.'
'Oh goodness…yes of course, I assume it's still in her room, I hadn't thought…oh poor, poor Louise, how anyone could do this to her…' Sheila started crying in earnest now so Carla thought it best to give her some space; she asked the way to the kitchen.
'It's just past the stairs on the right,' said Sheila. 'Lucy knows you're here, but Inspector please be patient with her, she was one of the few people that really loved Louise, this has knocked her for six.'
Carla nodded and found the kitchen easily by just following her nose, obviously lunch was being prepared.
Lucy turned out to be a giant of a woman with tightly curled grey hair that reminded Carla of a brillo pad and the kindest eyes Carla had ever seen.
She eased herself down into an enormous chair that seemed to have moulded itself around her girth, and that was at the end of a huge pine table that went nearly from one end of the room to the other; she gave Carla a watery smile.
'Anything I can do to help you find this monster I will do it. She was so happy when she left here, so full of hope…she had said that she would see her you see, her mum that is, at last and she was sure she was going to see her mum, she lived for that you see.'
