Nasty Bitch

by K Leitch

  ‘Or too much time sorting out my bloody kitchen more like,’ interrupted Tracy, ‘why didn’t you just say were feeling a bit tired love, I never would have asked you to help if…’

  ‘Oh for fucks sake Trace I’m fine…I’ve had a blast doing your kitchen if you must know…felt like the old times when Greg and I were doing up the barn…I…sometimes I just miss those days if you must know. Anyway enough of that, I will pick you up bright and early in the morning, so be prepared ok?’

  ‘Ok,’ giggled Tracy excitedly, ‘I can’t wait; I don’t think I’ll sleep a wink tonight.’

  ‘Well give that gorgeous man of yours a thorough seeing to,’ said Maggie, in typical Maggie fashion, ‘that’ll tire you out and believe me he deserves it!’

  Maggie was as good as her word the next morning, but Tracy was ready for her. Tilly had been fed and was dozing peacefully in her car seat. Buster had been walked and a well satisfied Simon had taken Zack to nursery. Tracy had in fact been pacing impatiently for the last half hour and had nearly exhausted herself already. She had every type of cleaning product on the market in a couple of buckets, which she had checked umpteen times and had been back and forth to the loo practically every ten minutes.

  Finally Maggie’s huge Range Rover pulled up in front of the house, and Maggie herself, looking fabulous even in her oldest jeans and a faded shirt Tracy couldn’t help noticing, came to the door. After a brief kerfuffle (a simple case of too many cooks) with Tilly’s car seat they were finally on their way. Maggie’s car seemed to be jammed to the roof with ‘stuff’ that she had found in her warehouse and thrown in just in case Tracy might like it. Tracy was already eyeing up a magnificent old birdcage and a beautifully distressed mirror which looked suspiciously like the ones on the walls in ‘The Bull’.

  It took them no more than about fifteen minutes to drive through the village and out towards the new house which was situated about three miles outside the village on the very edge of the Glory Woods. Maggie parked between the two overflowing skips that were taking up most of the drive and started to unload the car while Tracy unclipped Tilly’s car seat. The front of the house had been transformed since the day that Tracy had first seen it; they had spent a whole weekend just clearing the front garden and cutting back all the overgrown shrubs and cutting the grass…what a difference, Tracy stood and looked at it, her pride in her new home written all over her face.

  ‘Come on Tracy…open up this bloody door before I drop this lot will you,’ shouted Maggie jolting Tracy out of her daydreaming, she sent Maggie an apologetic glance and ran to open the front door.

  Inside, the house was in desperate need on a good clean, even more so since the work on the kitchen. There was evidence of multiple footprints trailing from the kitchen and down the hall to the skips outside…but that was what they were here to tackle today.

  Maggie bustled past Tracy before she had time to open the kitchen door.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said laughing as Tracy was about to go in passed her. ‘I promised Simon I would do a ‘big reveal’, so cover your eyes…no peeking Tracy I want you to get the full effect.’

  Tracy obediently covered her eyes with her hands and held Maggie’s hand as she guided her to the double doors that led to the kitchen…

  ‘And Voila!’ said Maggie triumphantly throwing both doors open in a very theatrical way only to gasp in horror and put her hand over her mouth.

  ‘Bloody hell Maggie what is that awful smell?’ said Tracy almost gagging, she opened her eyes and saw that Maggie was staring in horror at…a body of some sort that was hanging from the shiny new stainless steel cooker hood, it was in an awful state of decay and the smell was overpowering, Tracy put her hand over her mouth and nose as well, and hastily put the sleeping Tilly out into the hall.

  ‘Fucking hell…who…what the fuck?’ was all that Maggie could say. She went closer to try and make out what it was, from the colour of the fur it looked like a fox, but its head had been so badly smashed it was hard to tell, its stomach had been cut open and there were blood and guts falling from it onto the brand new state of the art cooker beneath, Maggie walked over to the back door which was wide open, obviously whoever had done this had forced the door open, the lock was hanging off.

  ‘Who the hell would do something like this?’ Tracy asked miserably, ‘and why? As far as I know I haven’t upset anybody. It’s just so horrible…wwwhhhy wwwould sssomeoone doo sssuuuch aaa tthing,’ she wailed dissolving into tears. Maggie pulled herself together; she needed to get Tracy and Tilly out of here now!

  ‘Right we are going up to my place while I find someone to come and get rid of this poor unfortunate creature. I think I’m going to phone Carla as well though, it might be a good idea to tell the police about this.’ She saw that Tracy was getting more and more worked up so she didn’t say any more; she put her arm around Tracy and guided her back outside to the car, grabbing Tilly on the way.

  Maggie’s beautiful converted barn was literally five minutes away, so in no time at all they were sitting in her kitchen with cups of tea.

  Maggie was on the phone to Duncan, ‘Oh my god it was such a shock, and poor Tracy is in bits…oh would you sweetie that would be so good of you, could you see if Gabe can fit a new lock to the back door as well…thank you so much Duncan…yes thanks…see you soon.’

  ‘Duncan is going to come with Gabe and they’re going to get rid of it honey, although I am still going to phone Carla and get her to have a look, if I get my hands on the spiteful bastard that did this…’ she left the sentence unfinished as Tracy face crumpled again.

  ‘I’m just scared now Maggs, I mean what if someone has really got it in for us…what if this is just the start?’ I feel as if I don’t want to move in now…but we have to we have nowhere else to go now that the cottage has been sold. Oh god what have I done?’ Tracy’s voice rose in panic.

  Maggie put her arms round her, ‘Come on love, this is just kids…that house has been empty for such a long time, it’s probably got a reputation as a spooky house or something and some kids have got it into their heads to give the new owners a scare.’ Tracy looked at Maggie in horror, ‘I know, I know little bastards. Actually Carla did mention something about some nasty little oiks that she had to have a word with…don’t you remember at the last meeting, said they’d been terrorising Mrs Binworthy…yes and something to do with her cat too, they’d killed one of her cats and left it on her doorstep. That’s what this is Tracy, bloody nasty little kids, trying to scare the shit out of you.’

  Just then there was a knocking on the back door and Duncan and Gabe came in.

  ‘Bloody hell Tracy love what an awful thing to happen, are you ok?’ said Duncan giving her a hug, ‘Have you called the police?’

  ‘Not yet,’ said Maggie ‘I’m going to phone Carla now though, I was just saying to Tracy about those kids, you know the ones that Carla was talking about…Mrs Binworthy’s cat…’

  ‘God yes!’ said Duncan, ‘I bet it’s the same little gobshites…right Gabe and I will deal with this. You just have a nice cup of tea and I’ll let you know when it’s all clear ok?’

  Tracy nodded tearfully, ‘Thank you so much…Duncan…Gabe, sorry…’

  Gabe looked at the floor awkwardly; he never knew what to say around these women…he left it to Duncan to do the talking.

  After the two men had gone Maggie phoned Carla, who was horrified. Yes she had said there had been some really nasty pranks being played on various people in the village, and she had a feeling she knew which boys were responsible, she would get on to it immediately.

  Maggie then phoned Helen and Lena asking them to come to hers instead of the house, but Helen said that they would go and help Duncan and Gabe clean up, then come and pick Tilly up as planned.

  So Maggie made Tracy some lunch and they waited for the men to come back. They didn’t have long to wait, Duncan phoned after an hour or so and said that it was all clear and so the girls bundled back into
the car again and headed back down the road.

  Tracy wasn’t at all surprised to see Simon’s car in the drive when they arrived back. She had phoned him from Maggie’s house and he had been furious. Tracy found him in the kitchen with the others still in a rage, pacing back and forth. He stopped when he saw Tracy and came over and folded her into his arms.

  ‘You poor sweetheart, what a shock for you,’ he looked up and saw Maggie then, ‘and for you too Maggs…thank you for taking care of things.’

  Maggie looked shamefaced, ‘Well it was more Duncan and Gabe that did that actually, but it was fucking awful. Thank god the smell has gone…that was the worst. What have you done with it Duncan?’

  ‘I’ve left it behind the shed; I thought the police might need to see it so…’

  ‘Yeh that’s great…thank you so much,’ said Maggie giving his arm a squeeze.

  Now that Tracy had calmed down, she started to look round her new kitchen in amazement. The last time she had seen this room it had been a shell. Now it was filled with beautiful blonde wooden cabinets topped with granite. There was an enormous old wooden table and six chairs to one side of the room, (a donation from Maggie) and on one of the newly painted walls hung the most beautiful painting of Kenley green, surrounded as it was by the church, pub, school and of course Tracy’s little old cottage, (obviously a gift from Helen). The peeling and shabby back door had been replaced with a beautiful old wooden one, half filled with amazing stained glass, so that when the sun shined through it, as it was at the moment, it sent shards of amazing colours into the kitchen. And the old torn and filthy lino flooring had been replaced by gorgeous pale quarry tiles that complimented the beautiful wooden cabinets perfectly.

  Tracy’s eyes filled up again, but with happiness this time. ‘What an amazing job you have all done, oh my god it is perfect…thank you so much.’

  Helen and Lena came in then, they had finished the living rooms and were both covered in dust and so Maggie thought it an appropriate moment to open the bottle of champagne that she had brought with her for the occasion, and they all toasted the new house.

  ‘Right,’ Tracy said determinedly, ‘Gabe, stop doing that for a moment.’ Gabe had been fitting a new dead bolt to the back door, he smiled as he put down his tools and took a glass of champagne from Tracy. ‘This is a new start…’ Tracy went on, ‘I am going to wipe this morning from my mind. Our adventure in our beautiful new home starts now.’

  ‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Simon as they all raised their glasses, but later he pulled Duncan to one side.

  ‘I need to find out who did this Duncan; can you and Gabe keep your ears to the ground for me? I know the police are going to investigate, but frankly I think you two stand a better chance of hearing something.’

  ‘No worries,’ said Duncan nodding, ‘I’ll let you know if I hear anything, and I’ll ask around as well, someone’s got to know who did this surely.’

  CHAPTER 23 – CARLA

  I’m sorry Frank, but you can’t tell me that this isn’t more than just a coincidence now…bloody Keith Mowbray, Giles Poole…both murdered, both shot in the head…it has to be Vanessa. It just has to be.’

  Carla had been arguing with Frank and Jay for a while now; to her it all made perfect sense, Vanessa Poole had somehow come back to England and she was taking revenge on all the people in her life that she felt had in some way hurt her. Vanessa’s abusive father had effectively kicked her out when she was a mere teenager, and she had found herself at the mercy of vicious drug dealer and pimp, Keith Mowbray. She had managed to escape from him by tipping off the police about a huge drug deal that he had been involved in, for which he served time in jail. Vanessa had been long gone by the time he was released and as far as Carla knew their path’s hadn’t crossed again, but who knew with Vanessa, she was certainly deranged enough to harbour a grudge against Keith for all this time. As for Giles, well he had sold The Bull, Vanessa’s pride and joy a few years earlier, maybe that was reason enough to kill him in Vanessa’s mind.

  ‘Yeh I can see that this Vanessa broad is one fucked up chick Carla,’ said Jay after she had filled him in on Vanessa’s criminal history, ‘but I’m with Frank on this one…no hear me out. Firstly if she killed Mowbray then she almost certainly killed the other guys…what’s her motive? Secondly Giles Poole was probably not killed by our nut job, completely different M.O. and I’m guessing that when we find the bullet it will not have come from the same gun. And thirdly, this would mean that Vanessa had to have been in Florida for a few months and then…what, she comes back here and wham! She starts killing over here…straightaway…it doesn’t hold up Carla I’m sorry.’

  ‘Ok ok I know I seem a bit obsessive about it,’ said Carla defensively, ‘but I can just feel her…yes I know that sounds mad, but whether she killed these men or not, I know she’s back…and this time I am not going to let her get away.’

  ‘Riiight,’ said Jay smiling, ‘no that doesn’t sound obsessive at all does it Frank?’

  ‘Okay shut up you sarcastic bastard…what else have we got?’ laughed Carla.

  ‘Well,’ Frank turned to his screen, ‘there are a few similarities that all these men share…they are all between the ages of fifty and sixty, they all lived alone, even the one’s with kids, the kids lived with their ex-wives, they are all financially stable…quite well to do actually…’

  ‘Yeh sure, this is all very interesting man, but is there any definite connection between any of these men? Like for instance did they all go to the same bar? Or church anything like that…the way I see it our killer had to meet all of them somewhere.’

  ‘What about prison?’ said Frank, ‘both Mowbray and Poole were at one time in Maidstone prison, but I’m not sure the timings right, I think Mowbray would have been out a few years before Poole was sentenced…so…’

  ‘Well that’s a start,’ said Carla eagerly, ‘you never know they both might have met and befriended someone at Maidstone, someone who was serving a long sentence that encompassed both their times at the prison. Frank, get on to the prison can you, see if anyone there would be able to remember if there was any particular person that both these men might have been friendly with? Mind you that doesn’t link up with any of the other murders does it? We need something that is international…what were all these men doing that put them in the path of this monster?’

  ‘Shit!’ said Jay sitting up in his chair, ‘maybe the answer has been staring us in the face…Jesus, what was it you just said Frank…they all live alone, well maybe they have all been trying to get some pussy.’ Carla and Frank just looked at him blankly. ‘Oh shit man it’s obvious…a fucking dating website, it’s international, it’s anonymous …you were the ones that wanted it to be a woman, well may be for once you have got it right…she’s using a fucking dating website!’

  CHAPTER 24

  Duncan turned the car stereo up, Kings of Leon were blasting out ‘Sex on Fire’, the sun was shining and the roads were clear. He was travelling into Sussex to pick up the tickets for the pubs sharabang outing to Goodwood. They could have posted them to him but Duncan fancied a drive out and he was enjoying every moment of it.

  It wasn’t often these days that he got the chance to be by himself like this, the pub took up most of his time and what was left belonged to his grandma, Martha. Duncan smiled as he remembered something she’d said in the bar last evening, he must remember to tell Maggie next time he saw her. Martha had been talking to a couple of chaps that had been passing through the village and had decided to stop at The Bull for a drink.

  They were obviously gay and had had Martha shrieking with laughter at their very risqué humour, the drinks had been flowing and Martha was beginning to get a bit loud. Now usually Duncan would have picked up on this and taken her up to bed before she became too outrageous, but she seemed to be having such a good time that he left her to it. Marius and Derek kept telling him how wonderful his granny was every time he came back to the bar, they were obviou
sly pretty drunk themselves, so much so that Marius’s rather obvious toupee had definitely shifted to one side. He hadn’t noticed and Duncan found himself trying not to stare at it…not so Martha, once she had clocked it, she let out a high pitched cackle and started pointing at it laughing so hard she was nearly wetting herself (actually she almost certainly was, thank goodness for super absorbent Tenna Lady). Marius and Derek were oblivious as to the reason for her laughter until she said, ‘Fecking hell me darling that’s not so much a toupee as a threepee with that gorgeous curl at the front and all’. Marius, realising then what she had been laughing about had turned a dark angry shade of red, hastily shifted the offending toupee back to central, and flounced (albeit rather unsteadily) out of the pub followed by a scuttling and equally outraged Derek and loud unrepentant cackles coming from Martha. Duncan couldn’t help but chuckle as he thought about it again.

  He hissed with irritation a moment later though, as the cars ahead of him began to slow down in an ominous way until eventually they all came to a grinding halt. Bloody hell he’d forgotten about these road works that went right through the centre of the little village of Copborne, there was no way round them and the trail of cars ahead of him seemed to go on for about a mile. Duncan resigned himself to a long wait as the queue moved slowly forwards a few yards and then stopped again.

  Ten minutes later and he’d finally made it to the front of the queue sitting as he was in the middle of the village. To his left were a couple of sleepy shops with a couple of equally sleepy dogs sitting outside them, on his right however, was the rather trendy new gastro pub ‘The Pink Pig’ that Duncan had heard such good things about and had long intended to check out.

  It certainly looked the part; lovely old building, pretty gardens with tables set out for lunching alfresco. Duncan’s eyes were drawn to a couple sitting at one of the tables; they seemed completely absorbed in each other; holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes. Eventually the man smiled seductively and lowered his head, their lips met and…a loud honking behind him made Duncan jump, obviously the lights had changed. The man he’d been watching turned round at the noise and stared straight at him, for a second Duncan looked back at him and then, after another angry honk from the car behind, he pulled away and drove on out of the village. Fucking hell! What was he supposed to do now, of all the places to get stuck? Duncan pulled over and tried to get himself together…fuck fuck fuck…the man in the pub garden kissing his companion so passionately was Dr Thomas Fellows, his best friend’s fiancé…and he didn’t know what the hell he was going to do about it!