by K Leitch
Carla drove Ted back to his car.
‘I would still like Maya Dronski watched if you can arrange it, I still can’t get it out of my head that she’s involved in all of this somehow,’ Carla said as Ted was leaving, he gave her a nod and a wave and Carla pulled away and headed back towards Redbank town centre. It wouldn’t hurt to cruise around here for an hour or so, the sooner they were able to speak to Susan Marshall the happier she would be.
CHAPTER 55 - TRACY
‘COOOEEE, TRACY,’ Tracy looked round to see who was calling her, and soon spotted Maggie’s huge Range Rover parked across the road from the doctor’s surgery. Maggie was waving excitedly at her, so instead of getting into her car she crossed the road to see what she wanted.
‘Oh my god darling, you are just the person I needed to see, have you got time for a coffee?’ said Maggie almost before Tracy had reached her.
‘Actually I have,’ replied Tracy with a smile. ‘I took the day off as I had a doctor’s appointment and now I am as free as a bird. Where do you want to go? You can come back to mine if you want, but Lisa is there…so we might not get much privacy,’ she finished hesitantly.
‘Let’s try that new café; you know the one next to that gorgeous little boutique. Then afterwards I might have a look in there…I feel like treating myself,’ said Maggie brimming over with suppressed excitement. So Tracy climbed up into the big car, huffing and puffing, really these huge cars were not designed for people under five foot tall, especially pregnant people, but finally she was settled and Maggie pulled away.
‘Well you certainly look pleased with yourself …are you going to tell me why?’ said Tracy. ‘Or maybe I should guess…um could it possibly have something to do with a certain gorgeous doctor that I have recently heard is an expert in all things sexual?’ Tracy looked at Maggie mischievously.
‘Actually, no,’ said Maggie in a self-righteous voice, ‘for once this has nothing to do with a man…or well I suppose there is a man involved, but not in the way you are thinking. Anyway I’ll tell you when we are sitting down with a lovely coffee, you’ll just have to be patient till then,’ she said firmly. She then turned the car stereo up; blasting out Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like a Wolf” which she sang along to at the top of her voice, obviously Maggie was in a retro frame of mind today, so Tracy gave up and enjoyed the ride.
The new little café was called ‘le petit maison’ and it certainly was ‘petite’. The owners had tried to fit in as many tables as they could into a tiny space; consequently they had chosen the smallest tables and chairs in the world. Tracy’s bum could only just fit on the delicate seat, and it felt like most of it was hanging off the edge. Obviously Maggie didn’t have this problem, sliding effortlessly in behind the tiny table when she came back carrying a tray of steaming coffees.
‘Oh why can’t I be as tall and slim as you,’ Tracy wailed as Maggie sat down. ‘Life is just so unfair, even if I starved myself for a thousand years, I could never have a gorgeous willowy figure like yours. And now I’m pregnant, even the acceptable shape that I have worked hard to maintain all these years is disappearing before my very eyes. Ooh yummy, carrot cake…I love carrot cake.’ Maggie laughed. ‘Stop wallowing Tracy…’ said Maggie unsympathetically, ‘you know you’re gorgeous; and pregnancy is just making you more so. Now shut up and listen to my exciting news,’ and apart from gasping with indignation at Maggie’s callous disregard for her very legitimate weight issues, Tracy waited politely for her to reveal all.
‘I’ve just bought The Bull,’ she said after a theatrical pause, Tracy looked bewildered.
‘Which bull, I didn’t know you were interested in farming?’
‘THE BULL…you know the pub, I’ve just bought it, well part of it anyway,’ she finished triumphantly.
Tracy looked gobsmacked, ‘Oh wow…that’s amazing Maggie. Although…are you sure you want to run a pub, I mean I’m sure you’d be great at it, after all you are perfect barmaid material but…’
‘Bloody hell Tracy,’ said Maggie laughing, ‘is it the pregnancy making you so thick? Of course I’m not running it myself, that’s the beauty of it…although I’d like to know what you mean by barmaid material, is that another way of saying I look like a tart?’
‘No of course not…not at all…no way…never in this lifetime…definitely not…,’ said Tracy with exaggerated drama.
Maggie giggled, ‘Ok, ok I believe you…no actually my partner will be taking care of all of that,’ she said mysteriously.
‘Oh so there’s a partner is there, and who might this partner be may I ask? I’m assuming it’s not fingering Fred from Fingerford, no matter how good he may be?’
‘Well as to that I can’t tell you…no it’s not for any nefarious reasons, it’s just that he hasn’t told his grandma yet and he doesn’t want it getting out before he has. So I promised that I wouldn’t tell anyone…but obviously I had to tell someone, so you must keep it quiet ok?’
‘My lips are sealed,’ said Tracy zipping up her lips, ‘but that is fab news Maggs, that means we’ll have our old pub back again. It hasn’t been the same meeting at the dog and duck…oooh I can’t wait. When will it be able to re-open do you think?’
‘Well actually it shouldn’t be too long. I’ve got the decorators going in next week, and we’ve spoken to all the old breweries to arrange re-stocking. The restaurant will take a little longer to get up and running Dun… um...my partner has got a chef in mind; and has been recruiting staff all this week, but the pub should be back in business quite soon I should think.’
Tracy nodded, and Maggie noticed that she had gone all quiet, she could guess why.
‘Is this going to be alright for you Tracy darling, after what happened in there I wouldn’t blame you if you never wanted to set foot inside the place again.’ Tracy had been the victim of a vicious assault in the flat above The Bull a few months back, which was one of the reasons Maggie had been so keen to speak to her first about her plans.
Tracy saw the concern in her friends face and smiled, ‘Oh I’ll be fine Maggs; I don’t know what it is but I seem to have been able to put all of that completely out of my head. Well if I didn’t then I would be letting that awful Vince have power over me, and I’m not prepared to do that. Anyway I’m sure that once your team of decorators have finished with the place, I won’t be able to recognise it as the same place anyway. She had very different taste to you our Vanessa did, didn’t she?’
‘Oh fucking hell darling, all that cream and steel just had to go! And you should have seen the bedrooms, my god talk about fussy…no not my style at all. Mind you that’s not going to be my area, my partner and his family are moving in there.’
‘Oh come on Maggs you can tell me, is it some gorgeous man you’re trying to keep to yourself. Come on out with it I won’t tell anyone I promise.’
‘No sorry you’ll just have to wait. But this I can tell you; it’s definitely not some gorgeous man… and I definitely don’t want him for myself!’
CHAPTER 56
Maya waited until Helen was busy with the baby, before she made her excuses, left the house and made her way over to her old flat. It wasn’t a flat, really just a room in a house, but it was clean and nicely furnished and she had felt safe there. Of course all that had changed now, Craig had found her, but worse than that, he had seen the baby. Mary had told her about Craig and his Grandma; how they stole babies and sold them to wealthy couples. She didn’t know whether he had been serious when he had made that veiled threat earlier, but she couldn’t take the chance. She had decided to keep an eye on him, watch him day and night, until he finally left. And if he did make a move to kidnap baby Abby, she would kill him. That was the only way she could be sure Helen and Abby would be safe.
She sat on a bench at the bus stop where she had a good view of the front of the house. All was quiet at the moment. She was pretty sure he was in there; she had seen a shadow pass by the little window a couple of times, so she settled down to wait
for him to make a move. He had said he had one more bit of business to finish before he left for Ireland, so Maya was sure she wouldn’t have to wait too long.
As she sat, she let her mind wander to the amazing events of the day. At last she had been able to let Helen know how she felt about her; it had been wonderful, all that she had imagined it would be. Helen had such a huge capacity for love; Maya had sensed that about her when she had first met her, and it had been lovely to see the sadness that she had carried around with her, start to fade away as the weeks had gone by. Maya giggled to herself when she remembered Helen’s hot faced blushes, as they had detangled themselves from under the kitchen table this afternoon. She had rushed off to see to the baby, but she had smiled shyly at Maya when she had come back downstairs, and they had spent a couple of wonderful hours just talking and playing with the baby. Maya didn’t think she had ever been so happy in her life.
Just then the front door of the big house opened and Craig came out, he was carrying a large holdall and appeared to be in a bit of a hurry. He looked up and down the street; Maya put her head down in case he recognised her, but he was obviously too preoccupied to notice her, and he set off down the street at quite a pace.
Maya followed, trying desperately to keep him in sight and yet at the same time keep out of sight herself. He seemed very nervous, constantly looking around and keeping to the edge of the streets. It was a particularly dark night; the clouds were low and the moon was nowhere to be seen, so that when Craig turned off the main streets it was really hard for Maya to make him out. She had no idea where he was going; he seemed to be heading out of the village, the roads were very quiet and apart from a few houses dotted here and there, almost uninhabited. Suddenly he turned off the path and into a dark narrow alley that ran down the back of a small row of cottages, they were on the edge of woodland now, with just the fences and back gates of the houses on one side. Maya kept as far back as she could without losing him; halfway along the alley Craig stopped, he stood there for a couple of minutes, he seemed to be counting the gates. Once he was sure he had the right one he tried the gate in front of him…it opened without a struggle and, with one more look up and down the alley, he disappeared into the back garden.
Maya hadn’t got a clue what to do now…should she follow him, whose garden was it anyway, and what was Craig doing here?
After standing indecisively for a while, Maya crept up to the garden gate that she had seen him go through. She didn’t dare follow him inside, for all she knew he might be waiting there for her, so she tried to peer through the fence to see if she could spot him. She found a panel that had a break in it and looked through. Lights were on in the kitchen of the house, and she could see a woman sitting at the kitchen table, she appeared to be on her own. Maya scanned the garden trying desperately to get a sight of Craig, but he seemed to have disappeared. She slumped down next to the fence, what the hell was she going to do now. There was no way that Craig was in this garden for any legitimate reason, and that woman, little did she know was in grave danger. Maya realised that she had no choice…and so after swearing fluently in Polish for a few minutes, she carefully and quietly opened the gate and followed him into the garden. There was still no sign of him once inside the garden, and all seemed quiet. She hid herself behind some shrubbery, just in time as luck would have it because no sooner had she hidden herself than the back gate opened again and another shadowy figure started creeping into the garden. It definitely wasn’t Craig; this person was much shorter and quite stocky. He only went as far as the garden shed where he stopped and looked around himself nervously, before very quietly opening the shed door and going inside.
Maya was baffled, where the hell had Craig disappeared to and who the hell was that, and why were they all in this particular garden. She stayed where she was and waited for it all to become clear.
CHAPTER 57
Gordon left the house at seven thirty as planned; he was dropping the children off at Susan’s mothers where they were staying the night. He watched them in the rear view mirror, little Hannah was chatting away to herself, playing with Mr Fliperty the faded and worn old rabbit that went everywhere with her. Owen was sitting in his car seat silently watching his father watching him. It was as if he could sense Gordon’s nervous excitement. Gordon smiled at him.
‘Aren’t you lucky you two, a night at Granny’s and you get to have tomorrow off school, what a treat.’
‘Yessss! Granny’s,’ said Hannah excitedly, Owen of course didn’t say anything, but he smiled back at his father. ‘I’m doing this for you,’ Gordon thought to himself with renewed determination, ‘I am saving my family from the monster at the door…I won’t let them down.’
The drive to Fiona’s (Susan’s mum) took about half an hour; Gordon stayed for a while making sure that the kids had settled, and then he drove back the way he came. He didn’t need to be in the shed until much later but he needed to avoid being seen by anyone, so he drove a few miles further and stopped at a little pub that he came across, he had about two and a half hours to kill before he could go and wait for O’Bruin, he got himself a drink and settled down to wait.
It was dark by the time that he parked his car a few streets away from his house. He walked round to the back and along the alley that ran along between the houses and the woods at the rear of his garden. Letting himself in through the unlocked gate, he made his way to the old shed. The door was old and creaky; and Gordon started feeling a few twinges of uneasiness. The shed seemed so much darker once he was inside it; and there was a sinister atmosphere about the place that he hadn’t noticed before. Familiar things took on a new creepiness, and every noise he made seemed to echo round the tiny space. Gordon tried to pull himself together; he needed to focus on the grim task ahead of him. Despite his bravado in front of Susan, Gordon had no idea whether he would be brave enough to actually pull the trigger and kill a man, and the more he thought about it the more terrified he became. His hands were sweating and his heart was beating so loudly he was sure that O’Bruin would hear it the minute he entered the shed.
Suddenly he heard a noise…a scraping noise, very close to him. He stopped breathing and kept very still, ears on stalks trying to hear it again…nothing, he relaxed and held the gun more firmly in his hands. He could just about see the back of the house from here; Susan was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee as if she hadn’t a care in the world. Stupid bitch! That was something that was going to have to be dealt with once this was over…he could barely stand to be near her these days. Yes once this was all sorted he was taking the children and getting as far away from that nasty sadistic bitch as he could, he had been planning it for a while now and…what was that! Something, a scraping sound…there it was again. Gordon stood up and started edging around the shed, trying to identify the sound…he could find nothing…he sat back down again, he was shaking now and the sweat was running down the back of his neck…he could sense a presence…he wasn’t alone in the shed!
‘You forgot to look behind you Gordon!’ said a terrifying voice in his ear and at the same time Gordon felt the cold sharp edge of a blade at his throat.
He didn’t even have time to call out... the blade sliced through flesh and artery and the warm blood poured down his chest. He heard strange gurgling sounds and realised that they were coming from him.
‘Fecking cheating bastard,’ he heard his killer say just before he lost consciousness, ‘now I’m going to beat the fecking shit out of your fecking bitch of a wife.’
Craig O’Bruin left Gordon’s body where it fell, bent down, retrieved the gun and silently left the shed. Susan Marshall was sitting in the kitchen, probably waiting for her husband to bring her the news that he was dead and their troubles were over. Craig hadn’t known what to expect when he had gone through the back gate earlier this evening, but he was wise enough to know that Susan was up to something, so he had come a bit early and had decided to wait in the shed and watch. He admitted to being a bit surprised w
hen it was Gordon that had crept into the shed later, and with a gun too. He hadn’t thought the man had the balls, he had always thought of him as a sort of non-entity. Susan was the conniving one, the cold-blooded one, she was the one that had tracked him down all those years ago. He had recognised in her a person as ruthless and single minded as himself, when he had first met her. She hadn’t wanted to know the whys and wherefores; she had absolutely no empathy with the plight of the mother of the child. In fact she had no interest in where it came from…she just wanted a child, a baby to be precise…and she had paid well for it. None of that had bothered Craig…it was just business after all, and he’d been happy to pocket his share of the money. But she had crossed a line…the fecking stupid bitch, and she needed to be taught a lesson; bad things happened if you messed with Craig O’Bruin.
CHAPTER 58
Susan had been getting steadily more and more nervous as the hour approached midnight. Gordon had left for his ‘meeting’ a few hours ago, and was now she was sure, hiding in the shed with his gun ready for action. He had been driving her mad, going over and over what she had to say, where he would be and how they would get rid of the body, for all the world like it was some sort of crime drama from the TV rather than a real live person…they would be killing a real live person. Susan felt the panic rising in her chest; she forced herself to calm down. She looked at the clock, 11.15, plenty of time yet; she made herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table with it.
The house seemed far too big and quiet tonight, and she found herself jumping at every creak, she had nearly spilt coffee down her chest when her phone had bleeped with a text message earlier. It had been her Mum; Owen had said ‘Granny’, he had actually spoken! Susan felt her eyes welling up, he was getting better little bit by little bit, and once this nightmare was over they would take him away on holiday…Disneyland maybe, he’d love that. That’s what they all needed a good holiday to help them forget this awful year…she looked at the clock again 11.55…oh god… he would be here any minute. She found herself praying, please god let it be ok…he is a terrible man, he doesn’t deserve to live…you must see that god, please just let this all be over soon.
