by K Leitch
‘Phaww,’ she thought, ‘now that is what I call a bit of alright.’ Mr James was a 6ft hunk with short dark hair and the bluest eyes that crinkled when he smiled. She looked at his companion with a bit of a sneer; although she was smartly dressed, Tina thought the woman looked as common as muck…too much makeup, too much perfume…too much on display, her boobs were falling out of the low cut blouse she was wearing. ‘Mutton,’ thought Tina as she took in the long brightly painted nails with another sneer, ‘the woman’s old enough to be his mother.’ She plastered a smile on her face and carried their drinks over.
She gave Mr James a seductive smile as she handed him his drink and she flirted playfully with him as she told him about today’s specials, enjoying the fact that it was winding up his lady friend no end. She was giving Tina daggers every time her boyfriend wasn’t looking, which unfortunately for her just egged Tina on even more. She took pleasure in leaning across him accidentally rubbing his arm with her boobs as she placed his new cutlery in front of him, she joked with him about the wine choices and then praised him like mad when he had finally made a decision. She couldn’t have made it more obvious that she fancied him…and to be fair he seemed to be enjoying the attention even though he was a little embarrassed by it.
The girlfriend got her revenge later, however, sending back her meal for being too cold and finding a long blond hair in her desert (Tina just happened to have long blond hair).
‘Oh I’m sure in was an honest accident,’ she had said in a sugary sweet voice to the manager after he had been called, ‘I would hate to be responsible for getting anyone into trouble.’
The manager, Tony, had been mortified and insisted that she wouldn’t be charged for her meal and ordered complimentary drinks for them as an apology. Tina ground her teeth, she knew Tony would take the money for the meal out of her wages…fucking hell…it was all her own fault why did she always have to push it. Now she would have to put up with that smug bitch smirking at her for the rest of the evening and she would be short this month!
She avoided their table for the rest of her shift, swapping with Mario and helping in the kitchen until finally the clock said ten thirty and she knew she could go home. She packed away her apron and changed her shoes, grabbing her coat from the little staff room behind the kitchen, calling her goodbyes as she went out through the back door. Once outside she paused to light a cigarette and then walked out into the little alley that ran down behind the shops and restaurants.
Suddenly she heard running footsteps behind her but before she could turn and see who it was, something hit her on the side of the head with such force that she fell to her knees, an arm went round her neck and started squeezing the life out of her. Gasping for breath Tina tried with all her might to fight off her attacker scratching and gouging with her finger nails and finally wriggling enough that she was able to bite down hard on the fleshy arm that was holding her. Her assailant screamed with pain and the arm was pulled away just long enough for Tina to try and make a dash back to the restaurant. She was half crawling and half running all the time being held back by this maniac who seemed to want her dead.
‘Help... help me please!’ she tried to shout, but her voice just came out in a hoarse whisper. Strong hands grabbed her again round the waist this time, she could feel hot breath against the back of her neck…she could smell the strong perfume mixed in with the stale smell of sweat as her attacker fought desperately to keep hold of her. Tina summoned up all her strength and half turned scratching and punching at her assailant, who surprisingly seemed to be a woman, trying to cause enough damage to force her to release her, at last she felt the woman losing her grip. Tina tried to take advantage of the moment and pulled away, only to feel something cold and hard pierce her ribcage. She fell to the ground gasping for breath and in terrible pain, she put her hands to her side they came away covered in blood; she felt the world spinning away as she lay groaning in the dirt.
Her attacker stood over her, she could make her out quite clearly now…it was a woman…she looked familiar…but she couldn’t think…her head was spinning she couldn’t make sense of anything. The woman had a wild mad look on her face, Tina waited for the next blow to come…it never did. The woman just laughed down at her, ‘Not so pretty now are you…you little slut, maybe that’ll teach you to keep your hands to yourself.’ And with that she turned and calmly walked away, leaving Tina barely conscious and covered in blood.
Slowly and in agony she managed to crawl her way back to the restaurant, causing a major drama as she fell through the kitchen door and passed out on the floor. The police and ambulance were called and Tina was taken to hospital and later examined by a police medical examiner. She had been able to give the police a description of the woman that had attacked her but without a name it was going to be difficult to track her down, but the medical examiner had found some skin under Tina’s fingernails, she had managed to scratch the mad bitch and that meant that they had her DNA.
CHAPTER 28
She put her hands on her knees and tried to get her breath back; she was covered in blood, anger had fuelled her task tonight accelerating her need for her victim’s terror and agony.
‘Stupid, stupid cow,’ she said out loud, furious at herself for her earlier loss of temper. She fingered the scratches on the side of her neck…she should have finished the bitch…‘stupid,’ she said again, ‘stupid and careless, this is what happens when you lose control.’ Bloody hell you’d think she would have learnt that lesson, the number of times father had beaten it into her.
She looked over at the bloody, almost headless, mess that had once been Warren James her date for the evening, and waited for the usual feelings of exhilaration, and sexual satisfaction that always filled her after a successful kill, but nothing came. This whole night’s work had been a waste of time; all because she allowed some stupid little slut get under her skin. Now she would have to start the whole process all over again which was time consuming and a bloody nuisance. She went over and kicked the inert body a few times in her frustration and then started the lengthy process of removing any evidence from the area. Eventually satisfied that she had wiped every trace of herself from the building she wearily looked at her watch…it was just after four, good she would be able to get home before he woke…maybe even manage a couple of hours sleep herself. She hastily piled everything into her large holdall and carried it out to the car, completely unaware of the wallet that dropped out of the bag as she wearily swung it over her shoulder.
CHAPTER 29 – CARLA
Slowly but surely they were beginning to see some sort of pattern emerging around the murders of the six men. The team in Florida had looked into all the computer activity that they had managed to access and it seemed that Glen Rogers had been using a dating site for a few months, so too had Frazier Hinds, and the icing on the cake, it was the same website, ‘getmeawoman.com’. Unfortunately trying to get information from the dating site wasn’t going to be easy and would probably need a court order, but at last they were beginning to find some links between these men.
Today though, Carla had left Jay and Frank to it so that she could investigate the several acts of cruelty and senseless vandalism that were continuing to happen in and around Kenley, not least the decapitated fox left hanging in Tracy’s kitchen.
Her first interview with Daniel Rushton and Larry Pincher had resulted in the boys being cautioned and sent home with their tails between their legs, but if they had been responsible for what had happened to Tracy then they were looking at a much more serious offence, that of breaking and entering. Carla had decided to speak to the boys individually at their homes, starting with Larry Pincher, who seemed to be the instigator of the vandalism towards Mrs Binworthy.
The Pincher residence was situated on the outskirts of the ‘Buttercup’ estate; a rundown terraced house, with an old mattress in the front garden and numerous ‘beware of the dog’ stickers on the grimy front window.
Carla made her wa
y cautiously to the front door, trying to avoid the dogs muck and litter that dotted the path, she rang the bell.
Loud barking could be heard from the rear of the house, followed by ‘Shut the fuck up Bruno’ and other mutterings before the door was opened a crack and a wrinkled old face topped by an unlikely mop of red hair, peered round it at Carla, taking in her warrant card with a curl of her lip.
‘What now?’ said the woman with a baleful sneer.
‘Mrs Pincher?’ asked Carla, the woman just grunted.
‘What’s the little bastard done this time?’ she asked again opening the door a bit wider.
‘I’m Detective Inspector Right; I would like to speak to Larry…’
‘LARRY!’ Mrs Pincher bellowed into the house, ‘Get down ‘ere you little shit…what’ve you done now?’ She walked back into the house leaving the door wide open; Carla followed her inside wrinkling her nose at the stale smell, a mixture of dog and rotting food. The house was disgusting; Carla’s feet were sticking to the carpet as she walked through into an equally filthy living room. Larry came down the stairs pulling on a pair of jogging bottoms and a shirt as he did so; he scowled when he saw Carla.
‘What do you want?’ he whined, ‘I told you everything last time…we didn’t do nuffing, I told you.’
Carla asked about his whereabouts on the Wednesday night before Tracy moved.
‘I was at Danny’s, ‘is mum was out so we ‘ad the place to ourselves,’ he said, ‘you can ask ‘im ‘e’ll tell you I’m not lying.’
‘So what were you doing at his house Larry? And when did you leave?’ Carla asked.
‘Ow am I supposed to know that, it was ages ago?’ shouted Larry getting agitated. ‘We was just messing around…you know on the computer an’ stuff…I don’t remember when I left ‘im, but I didn’t do nuffin to no one. Why can’t you lot leave me alone, I’m going to make a complaint…this is…what’s it called…’arrasment that’s what…’
Carla ignored him, ‘So if I go and ask Danny’s mum she’ll confirm you were at his house that evening will she?’
Larry’s mum butted in poking her finger in Carla’s direction. ‘Look ‘ere Detective or whatever you call yourself, if my Larry say’s ‘e was at Danny’s that’s where ‘e was ok and if you want to question ‘im anymore you better arrest him, or get out now!’
Carla sighed in defeat, she didn’t have any reason to arrest Larry yet, so she turned and made her way out of the house pausing on the doorstep to say.
‘Larry, someone is terrorising people in their own homes and your name keeps cropping up. If it’s not you doing these awful things can you think of anyone else who might have a grudge against these people?’
Larry shook his head, ‘Na…sorry I can’t ‘elp you…all I know is it wasn’t me.’
‘Well if you do think of anything please get in touch ok,’ said Carla but she was talking to herself as the front door closed with a bang.
Carla sighed to herself, she was getting nowhere, and she still had her DCI on her back needing a result on this one. She started up the car and headed further into the estate to Daniel Rushton’s address.
The Rushton’s house couldn’t have been more different from the Pincher’s. A neat semi sat in a beautifully kept garden, with an immaculate patch of lawn surrounded by spring bedding plants and a path that led up to a newly painted front door. Snowy white nets hung at the front windows, one of which was pulled to one side in response to her ringing of the door bell and Danny’s face appeared, Carla smiled at him and he was gone.
The door was answered by a tired looking woman with short dark curls and a rounded face who looked at Carla’s warrant card with a concerned face.
‘Can I help you detective?’ she asked looking at Carla intently. She had obviously just come in from the garden as she was wearing gardening gloves and she smelt of bonfire. She seemed to suddenly notice her gloves.
‘Oh please excuse the way I look I’ve been clearing rubbish in the garden,’ she said as she hastily removed her gloves, Carla couldn’t help noticing that her arms were covered in scratches. She seemed to follow Carla’s glance.
‘I’ve been scratched to bits,’ she said nervously, ‘flippin’ brambles I just can’t get rid of them.’
Carla nodded at her smiling, she had the feeling that she had met Mrs Rushton somewhere before but she couldn’t place it.
‘Um…Mrs Rushton I was wondering if I might have a word with Daniel?’ she began.
‘Oh my god, what has he done now? It’s that Pincher boy isn’t it getting him into trouble again, I’ve told him so many times but…’
‘Actually I just need him to confirm something for me, if I could just have a word with him please,’ interrupted Carla.
Mrs Rushton nodded and led Carla through to the living room, which was just as spotless as the rest of the house and just as sterile. Carla shivered, there was nothing wrong with the room as such, it had been painted in very neutral colours and the furniture was a pale cream colour as was the carpet, but there was not a thing on any of the surfaces, no photos, no paintings on the walls nothing to brighten the place up a bit. The lounge-diner looked out through French windows onto the long thin garden behind, as immaculate as the front garden with a strip of lawn and a gravel path on one side and shrubs that looked like they had been pruned to within an inch of their lives on the other, at the end of the garden Carla could see a brick built shed of some sort.
Daniel had stood up when they came in, looking apprehensively from his mother to Carla, Mrs Rushton put her arm round him and drew him over to stand next to her. Carla noticed that he seemed to shrink away from his mother, she smiled reassuringly at him.
‘Hi Daniel, remember me?’ Daniel nodded, so she went on, ‘I need you to tell me what you were doing last Wednesday evening…can you remember?’
His mother interrupted, ‘Well I can tell you where he was…he was here. I had to go to work that night; I work at the Tall Trees care home and every now and then I have to do a late shift, it’s a bloody nuisance but what can you do…so Daniel was here alone, and he knows if I’m out that he’s not allowed to leave the house, don’t you Daniel?’
Daniel nodded looking at the floor.
‘Did you have anyone here Daniel…any of your friends maybe?’ asked Carla.
Daniel looked in terror at his mother for a second then back down at the floor again, ‘No…I’m not allowed friends if Mum’s out…no one came round…no one,’ he said in a timid voice.
‘That’s right Detective,’ said Mrs Rushton quickly, ‘I’m pretty strict about who comes here if I’m out. You know what kids are like I’m sure, left to their own devices they make such a mess…and I can’t be doing with that. Daniel knows not to have friends over…I would be very unhappy if I found out that he had, wouldn’t I Daniel?’ Daniel continued to stare at the floor.
‘Have you heard anybody talking about killing animals Daniel…any of your school friends maybe, you know bragging about catching foxes or anything like that?’
Daniel was shaking his head vehemently, ‘I haven’t heard anything about anything like that,’ he said
‘Have you been up near the Redbank Road anytime recently…you know where the old barns are? You haven’t heard anything about a break in at one of the houses up there?’
‘NO!’ shouted Daniel, once again his eyes flashed nervously to his mother, ‘I haven’t heard anything I told you I…’
‘Of course Daniel doesn’t know about anything like that,’ Mrs Rushton butted in, ’he has learnt his lesson Detective Inspector…haven’t you Daniel?’ She looked at him sternly, Daniel’s eyes were on the floor again as he nodded.
Carla decided that she had seen enough, obviously Pincher had been here but the Rushton boy was too scared to admit it in front of his mother. She’d do better to try and get the boys on their own without their mothers interrupting all the time. She started for the front door.
‘Oh well thank you for your tim
e Mrs…’ then it suddenly struck Carla who Mrs Rushton was. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘I don’t mean to be rude but I think we’ve met before…at the pub, The Bull I mean, you were there the other week with Duncan…the landlord. I’m a friend of his,’ Mrs Rushton was looking at her as if she was mad. ‘He introduced us to you remember…Maggie and Tracy and Helen…you’re Dulcie aren’t you?’
Dulcie had by this time had turned bright red with embarrassment, but she managed to smile although Carla could see that she was seething.
‘Yes I do remember now,’ she said tightly, looking anxiously over her shoulder at Daniel who was still in the living room, she lowered her voice to a whisper, ‘Look I’m sorry but Daniel doesn’t know I’ve been seeing someone, I didn’t want to tell him until I was sure it was going somewhere…you know how it is, he’s pretty protective of me…I didn’t want him to worry.’ She gave Carla a brilliant smile, ‘Actually I don’t suppose you could keep this to yourself could you…it’s just that I haven’t told Duncan about Daniel either so…’ she looked pleadingly at Carla.
‘Oh of course,’ said Carla hastily, ‘although I have to say I don’t think you need to worry about Duncan. He’s such a big softy; and he loves kids.’
Dulcie just looked relieved, she smiled again and held out her hand. ‘Thank you Carla, maybe I’ll see you again sometime.’
Carla shook her hand and walked thoughtfully back to her car. What a strange morning, it was no wonder she hadn’t remember Dulcie at first, she had looked completely different when they had first met…much younger. And poor little Daniel…the boy didn’t say boo to a goose, what was he so scared of…Dulcie maybe? He certainly didn’t dare tell her that Larry had been at his house when she was out, but Carla was pretty certain that he had been. Just the look of sheer terror on Daniel’s face had been enough to corroborate Larry’s alibi…poor kid, he was a victim if ever she’d seen one.
