by Lee Shepherd
He couldn’t get away quickly enough as he cautiously made his way back to his car, pulled out of the lane and approached the main road, but once again he regained composure and dropped down to the speed limit — especially now as it was after 2am and there weren’t many cars on the road. Charles was on tenterhooks all the way back to Windermere, trying to avoid drawing any kind of suspicion to himself and couldn’t wait to get out of the car and into the safety and comfort of his hotel room. He let out a huge sigh of relief as he pulled into the hotel car park and exited the vehicle as he knew he had made it back safely, and immediately went to his room to get cleaned up.
***
Charles never really slept that night as his tormented mind was overwhelmed with different emotions. He was happy to have finally orchestrated the ultimate revenge on the main perpetrator of his sustained abuse, but it also made him think back to the reasons for him ending up in the care system in the first place, specifically the deaths of Victoria and William McMullen, the only mum and dad he had ever known. He contemplated the life he would’ve had, and the person he would’ve became if life hadn’t dealt him such a cruel blow.
This in turn led him to think of his birth mother: the figure of all his anger and frustrations, the reason for all his recent disgusting unlawful behaviours in his eyes. The reason that three young girls had lost their lives in the most horrific of circumstances. In the back of his mind he desperately wanted to find her and get answers to his many questions, but on the other hand he despised her for abandoning him to the life he had to endure.
He suddenly broke down in tears when the reality of his actions over the past few months came to the forefront of his mind. In that instance, he thought of the disgusting paedophile he had just humiliated and murdered and, although he had never thought about what he had done to the three girls in the same way before, it just suddenly dawned on him that he was no better than Jim was; life had gone full circle — he, the abused, innocent child, had now became the abuser. This in turn made him think of his loving wife, Rebecca, and adoring children, Molly and Fiona. The children, especially, would be absolutely disgusted and ashamed of their father if any of this was ever to emerge.
All he could do was sob as he thought to himself — how could he have been so stupid? He realised he would lose everything he held dear if he was to be caught. He contemplated taking his own life in his hotel room so none of his family members would be traumatised if they were to discover him. He did not know which way to turn, and just fell to his knees and prayed to God for forgiveness through tear-soaked eyes. His voice trembled as he swore he would never harm another young girl as he begged the Lord for forgiveness.
Chapter 12
As an exhausted Charles made his way to the practice the next morning, he wondered if Jim’s body was yet to be discovered. He did not feel any remorse for what he had done to him, he just started to panic in case he had left any evidence that would connect him to the crime and bring his life crashing down. He frantically scanned the local radio stations but heard nothing of it as he pulled up outside of work.
The seconds felt like minutes, and minutes like hours that day, as Charles set about his daily tasks, eventually telling Linda that he was yet again finishing early as he wasn’t feeling well. For the first time in a long time he just wanted to be home from work for his daughters arriving home from school; he desperately wanted to spend some time with them since last night’s revelations had made him contemplate a life without them.
Rebecca was taken aback and thought it odd as he surprised her by making his way into the family home just after 2pm in the afternoon. She was even more surprised as he scooped her up in his arms without saying a word, and proceeded to carry her to the bedroom and gently laid her on the bed.
‘Stop, what are you doing, mister?’ she said feebly, trying to understand where this behaviour was coming from.
Still silent, he planted his lips onto hers and passionately kissed her, in doing so, letting her know exactly what he had in mind. Rebecca looked at the clock and realised it would be a good hour or so before the girls were due to arrive home off the school bus, and decided to just go along with it and kissed him back ardently. There were to be no twisted delusions or any clasping of her neck this time though; no, this time he made love to his wife and upon finishing, held her in a loving embrace, one that he never wanted to end. He cursed himself again. How had he been so stupid to risk losing the woman and family he loved?
They lay there for a while in each other’s embrace, before eventually getting up and dressed just in time for the girls returning from school. Charles then spent the next few hours actively playing and engaging with his children as he used to. He even made extra efforts to communicate on a more adult level with his eldest daughter, Molly, whom he had recently lost a connection with, as he hated the thought of her turning into a young lady and possibly ending up like his birth mother. He put that thought to the back of his mind though, as he just wanted to enjoy spending time with his family, and decided in that instance to tell Rebecca and the children that he was going to be handing over more responsibilities to his colleagues as of now, therefore freeing up more time to be at home with them. The girls let out a ‘YAY’ in unison, and Rebecca smiled; she’d missed having her husband around more often.
***
Meanwhile, there was a hive of activity down on Haywood farm, as a concerned neighbour from a nearby farm thought it a bit odd at not seeing Jim out tending to his cattle this day, and had decided to go and give the man a knock and see if all was ok earlier that afternoon. As he approached he noticed that Jim’s Land Rover was parked around the side of the building near to the barn, and decided to check the back door as he started to become concerned for the old man. Once again there was no answer. He thought this very strange, and also wondered as to why the curtains in the front room were still closed so late in the day. The concerned farmer decided to try knocking one last time on the front door before trying to get a glimpse through the sitting room curtains. He was to get the shock of his life as he did so; through a thin crack in the curtains, he could clearly make out the naked, blood-soaked body of Jim, bound and gagged and slumped over the coffee table. He reeled in horror as the reality of what he had just seen registered in his mind. Through shock and terror he finally managed to remove his mobile phone from his pocket with trembling hands and dialled 999.
***
A junior CID member was speaking to his senior officer, Detective Taylor, who was busy discussing potential motives as to the three girls’ disappearance with his temporary partner during this case, Miss Georgina Riley.
‘You’re not going to believe this, guv.’
‘What’s that?’ Taylor asked.
‘Well sir, it’s probably nothing to do with what you’re working on, but we’ve just received a call from a farmer near Wigton informing us that he has just discovered the body of his neighbour.’
‘And what the hell has that got to do with me?’ Taylor angrily snapped back at his colleague. ‘Can’t you see we are busy?’ He turned his back on his junior.
‘It’s just —’
‘IT’S JUST WHAT?’
‘Well sir,’ the junior detective said timidly, ‘from what I could gather through the man’s shaky voice, he thinks that his neighbour has been murdered. But more specifically, he said he could make out the deceased man’s hands were bound with cable ties, and it just made me think of the girl that was dragged from the river, Amber Thompson.’
This got Taylor’s attention. He turned and looked questioningly at Georgie.
‘It might be unrelated,’ she said, ‘but I think we should maybe go check it out, don’t you?’
Taylor agreed and sheepishly thanked his junior that he had just berated for the good work.
***
By the time they reached Haywood farm there was already a team of local police officers there, taping off entry to the crime scene. As the detective showed his badge, one of the
officers who was first at the scene spoke to Taylor.
‘Sir, I must warn you. In all my time on the force I have never seen anything like what you are about to witness in there.’
Taylor shrugged it off and proceeded past the officer, with Georgie following closely behind. The first thing they both noticed was the stench as it attacked their nostrils the moment they entered the property. Neither of them were prepared for what they were about to witness next as they made their way into the sitting room and laid their eyes over the gruesome image that confronted them, not before noticing the words daubed across the wall in thick, black lettered paint. Taylor did his best in offering comfort to Georgie who was clearly distressed at what she was seeing. But unbeknown to her, Taylor was also struggling to take in this crime scene, as it was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
He immediately spoke to the few other officers in the room and told them not to touch anything until the forensic team arrived, as he didn’t want the crime scene being contaminated. As Taylor inspected the dead man sprawled atop of the coffee table, he paid special attention to the cable ties the neighbour who had reported it had mentioned, and realised that they were bound together in the exact same fashion as the ones found on Amber’s wrists and ankles, with two placed around both the limbs, and one tied in between to draw them in even tighter and drastically reduce the chance of escape.
‘What do you make of that?’ he asked Georgie as he pointed to the man’s wrists.
‘It certainly looks the same as the ones found on Amber’s body, but something just doesn’t add up.’
‘In what way?’
‘Well for a start, without stating the obvious, why would our guy change tact and all of a sudden target old men, for example? And secondly, why would he start leaving us clues or signs, when he has been so careful to avoid detection thus far?’
‘Beats me!’ Taylor admitted. ‘But I know one thing, whoever it is that is capable of doing something like this is one seriously fucked up individual.’
Georgie left Taylor to continue to inspect the mess that was once Jim’s body, and fixed her eyes firmly on the wall beside him. As she read the passage over and over again, she desperately tried to make sense of the message. What was he trying to tell them? She racked her brain, trying to make sense of it all.
Taylor could see that she was clearly perplexed by the writing on the wall. ‘Do you think this could be a spurned gay lover’s act of revenge?’
Georgie rolled her eyes and looked at him as though he was an uneducated oaf. ‘Take a look around you and tell me what you see?’
Taylor was lost and asked her to be more specific.
‘Well I don’t know if you have noticed, but all around us are pictures of the victim and what I can only presume to be his wife. And judging by the fact that the pictures appear to span over a long time period, and the fact that she isn’t here right now, would suggest to me that maybe she is no longer with us.’
An embarrassed Taylor again did not have a response, but didn’t let her condescending tone faze him; he knew she was smarter than him and, if truth be told, this just added to his attraction to her. ‘So what is your theory on the message?’ he asked.
‘I’m not quite sure just yet, but I am pretty certain that we need to speak to somebody from the Christian church, as this is definitely a biblical quote, I’m just not one hundred per cent sure as to the motive.’
***
As the pair of them prepared to leave the farm in the hands of the arriving forensic team, Taylor can’t help but notice that the dead man he now knows as Mr James Beattie appeared to have bulging cheeks — and not just from the gag which was pushed to the front of his mouth. He leant down to take a closer look and took out a pen from his jacket pocket with his gloved hand. Slowly, carefully, he placed the pen in the man’s mouth to try to prise open his jaw and gain an insight as to what it may contain. As the mouth opened, the detective reeled back in horror as the man’s once-attached genitalia flopped out and dropped onto the floor in front of him. All he could do is cover his mouth with his hand; this was unlike anything he had ever witnessed before. He swiftly stood upright and passed over this information to the forensic experts before he and Georgie made their way out of the house, towards their waiting car. Taylor spoke only to tell one of the police officers outside to get a full, detailed statement from the neighbour who had made the call, and also instructed them to knock on all the surrounding properties and find out if anybody had witnessed anything.
***
As they pulled away from the farm and made their way back towards Carlisle, Taylor turned to Georgie.
‘I sure could do with a drink after seeing that! Care to join me?’
She too needed a drink and somewhere to sit and ponder over what had just occurred, at least to try and figure out what it all meant and, more importantly, what led to Mr Beattie’s gruesome end.
She nodded. ‘Sure, it might do us both some good.’
Taylor then took his colleague back to the hotel where she was staying and parked the car, and both headed inside and towards the bar area.
Georgie asked Taylor, ‘What will it be? I’ll get these in’.
Taylor liked her more and more by the minute. ‘I’ll have a brandy please Georgie, and make it a large one would you?’
‘Coming right up,’ she informed him.
She casually strolled towards the bar, leaving Taylor to find somewhere for them to sit. He couldn’t help but cast his eyes over her slender frame and pert behind as he watched her approach the bar.
He pulled out his phone and proceeded to send his wife a text message informing her that he might not be home till late this evening, as a new lead had come up at work. All lies, of course. He had always fancied himself as a bit of a womaniser, and had already indulged in a number of pre-marital affairs behind his wife’s back; he was hoping tonight may lead to something happening between him and the beautiful new colleague assigned to him, as he was convinced he had sensed a chemistry between them.
He quickly put the phone away as she made her return from the bar with their drinks. She lounged back into her chair with a sigh, mentally drained after such an intense day, her head spinning.
The pair of them sat for the next couple of hours drinking and engaging in general conversation, anything to try and get their minds off the day’s events, and spoke about trivial and mundane things instead. The later it became, and the more the drink flowed, the conversation inevitably became more relaxed and now relatively loosened due to the alcohol consumption, the topic of sex came up when Georgie asked about his wife. Taylor palmed her off with some half-arsed story about him and his wife drifting apart and only staying together out of habit, and that it was a loveless marriage.
‘I’m more interested as to why such an intelligent, beautiful, young woman like you is still single…?’
Georgie blushed at his flattery and thanked him for his kind words, placing her hand on his as she did so. Her touch lingered just that little bit too long, deliberately giving him the green light to continue, as she too had started to develop an attraction to him. Even though she knew it was wrong as he was a married man, and it went against her morals, she had a weakness for men in authority; even though she sometimes didn’t like his arrogance, she could not help but find his commitment and drive a turn on.
Taylor didn’t need any further encouragement and thought it was time to flirtatiously test the water. ‘Well, I suppose I’d better be making my way home and let you get your beauty sleep — not that you need it, I might add.’
He pulled his car keys out of his pocket.
‘You aren’t in any fit state to be driving anywhere tonight, mister!’ she fired back at him, then playfully snatched the keys from his hand.
By this point he knew his cunning plan had worked and was just waiting for her to offer her bed for the night. ‘Well, what else do you suggest?’ he asked coyly.
‘Well,’ she says, ‘there is optio
n A, where you could call a cab and I will bring your car into work tomorrow, which could potentially pose some questions and suspicious looks. Or, there is option B.’
‘Which is?’ he asked her before she even had chance to finish what she was saying.
‘We could stay down here and have another couple of drinks and put the world to rights, but seeing as it looks as though the bar staff are gearing up to close for the night, we could grab a bottle of wine or two, and maybe head up to my room for a night cap before you book into one of the other rooms for the night. What do you reckon?’
He thought about this for a few seconds, trying to figure out how he would explain it to his wife, then decided to take her up on her offer. Excusing himself, he left for the bathroom and rang his wife to inform her that he won’t be home at all now, as he and his team would be working through the night to try and solve the case. She knew this case was the biggest of his career so decided not to question him, even though she knew he was probably lying; she had just kind of accepted her husband for the man that he was, choosing to live in blissful ignorance rather than face the truth.
Upon his return, Georgie flashed him a smile as she raised her hands, showing him she had already got the wine, then led him to her room. They both knew what was going to happen as they staggered and swayed along the corridor and up the stairs towards where she was staying, but in an alcohol fuelled state they couldn’t see past their lust and think how it may affect their professional relationship. They had barely finished their first glass of wine in the room before they were tearing off each other’s clothes and making passionate love to one another, totally lost in the euphoria of the moment. Taylor never did book into another room that night, as by the time they had finished they had both fell asleep in her bed in a sweaty mess, totally exhausted.
