Slur: The Riverhill Trilogy: Book 1

by Heather Burnside

  He ripped her blouse open, and began laughing again. ‘I’ll teach you not to try and stitch me up, you cheeky bitch!’

  ‘No!’ Julie screamed. ‘Leave me alone.’

  He covered her mouth with his right hand while he writhed on top of her, pulling her skirt up with his other hand. She put up a tremendous struggle, and he howled in pain as she sank her teeth into his hand. Before he had a chance to recover, she swiftly brought her knee up to his groin. While he gripped his genitals and doubled over in agony, she pushed her way past him and tried to make her escape.

  Vinny met her in the hallway and was enraged when he saw the state she was in; her face red and swollen, blood pouring from her nose, her shoes missing and her blouse torn apart.

  ‘Where is the bastard? I’ll fuckin’ kill him!’ he shouted.

  Julie watched in despair as Vinny set about Les, raining blows to his head and body.

  ‘That’s enough Vinny!’ she shouted. ‘He’s not worth it!’

  Vinny carried on and didn’t stop until he had spent his last ounce of energy. Then he grabbed Les by the lapels, hoisting him up as he threatened him. ‘If I ever catch you near Julie again, I swear I’ll be back to finish the job!’

  He released Les who slumped back onto the bed with blood pouring from his face.

  ‘Julie, call the police while I keep an eye on him!’ Vinny ordered.

  ‘And just what do you think you’ll tell them?’ Les sniggered. ‘How will you explain what you’re doing here, especially when I tell them that you’ve come to buy drugs?’

  ‘You bastard!’ shouted Vinny and he went to hit him once more.

  ‘Stop it!’ cried Julie. ‘He’s had enough and this won’t get us anywhere.’

  ‘All right, call the police then,’ Vinny replied.

  ‘It’s no good Vinny; he’s got us by the short and curlies. How are we going to prove anything? If they find his drugs, they’ll link us to them. I’m already a bloody murder suspect as it is!’

  Les gave a satisfied smirk on hearing her words.

  ‘That’s right,’ he mocked. ‘Looks like you’ll have to go down for Mandy’s murder after all.’

  ‘Oh no!’ said Julie. ‘This isn’t over yet. We know that you killed Amanda and I’m gonna make sure you go down for it if it’s the last thing I do! Come on Vinny, let’s go,’ she sighed.

  ‘Good luck,’ Les uttered sarcastically as Julie left the room with Vinny following.

  Vinny returned and gave Les one last thrashing. He managed to knock him back down and change his smirk to a grimace before Julie led him away to the sound of Les shouting, ‘I haven’t finished with you yet, bitch. I’ll fuckin’ have you!’

  --------------------

  ‘Shit!’ said Rita. ‘What the hell have you two been up to? You look as if you’ve gone a few rounds.’

  ‘The bastard was there waiting for me,’ Julie replied, attempting to wipe the blood from her nose with the back of her hand.

  ‘You’re joking!’ Then, as Rita noticed Julie’s torn clothing, realisation hit her. ‘Oh, Julie, he didn’t did he?’

  ‘No, fortunately Vinny got there in time but he gave me a few slaps and frightened the bloody life out of me. We’re gonna have to get away from here quick. Vinny gave him a good hiding. I think he would have killed him if I hadn’t stopped him, and if the neighbours overheard all the racket, the police will be here in a flash.’

  ‘That’s what we want, isn’t it?’

  ‘No, it’s no good Rita. The crafty bastard’s got it all sussed. He threatened that if we called the police he’d tell them that we’d come here to buy drugs from him and we’d end up in just as much trouble as him.’

  ‘He wouldn’t do that, though,’ said Rita. ‘He knows he’s got too much to lose.’

  ‘Can we afford to take that chance?’

  Rita and Vinny remained silent.

  ‘Yeah, but don’t worry,’ said Julie. ‘We’ll get him; I’m gonna make sure of it, if it’s the last thing I do.’

  On hearing these words Rita and Vinny looked at each other with an air of foreboding.

  Chapter 28

  Sunday 31st August 1986

  Julie’s parents weren’t aware of her injuries until the following morning as she had arrived home late on the Saturday night and disposed of her torn blouse. She made the excuse of tripping over a rug at Vinny’s house and banging her face on the edge of the dining table. Despite her mother’s comment about bad luck following her around, Julie could tell that her father wasn’t convinced. However, they seemed to have accepted her deceit and fortunately didn’t pursue the matter. Nevertheless, Betty insisted on fussing and applying Witch Hazel every few hours to ease the swelling.

  As the day rolled by Julie tried to find solace by absorbing herself in her familiar family routine. She had spent the day indoors and just finished one of her mother’s scrumptious Sunday roasts. It was while she was helping her mother with the washing-up that they heard her father’s shouts of astonishment. They dashed in the direction of his yelling and found him in the living room transfixed to the television screen. Their eyes followed his, and they watched and listened as a reporter described the grisly scene where a savage murder had taken place. It was the killing of a young woman just a few streets from her home. She had worked at the Belmont Insurance Company. Her name was Jacqueline Bartlett, and she had been on her way to her grandmother’s home when the killer had struck.

  Julie felt herself heave and thought she was going to vomit. Her mother led her to the sofa and beckoned her to sit down.

  ‘Is that one of Amanda’s friends?’ asked Bill, but Betty motioned him to keep quiet.

  ‘I need to get out Mam, it’s stifling in here!’ said Julie.

  Before either of her parents could stop her she had her coat and shoes on and was out of the door. She pounded the streets for a good half hour trying to make sense of it all. She experienced a series of emotions: confusion, despair, fear.

  Eventually her feet led her instinctively in the direction of Rita’s house. She knew as soon as she saw Rita that she too had heard the news; she looked pale and drawn.

  ‘I can’t believe it Julie!’ Rita kept saying.

  ‘I’m still in shock myself Rita. There’s one thing for sure; it was no accident, but what I can’t understand is, why? Were Les and Jackie in it together?’

  ‘Maybe Les found out she killed Amanda and it was his way of getting revenge,’ Rita suggested.

  ‘Unless she found out too much so he had to get rid of her.’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe in his warped mind he blames us all for Amanda dying. Jesus Julie, he might be after the bloody lot of us, one by one!’

  Julie stayed for coffee at Rita’s house in the hope that it might calm them both down a little. It didn’t. While she was there she rang Vinny who, surprisingly, hadn’t heard the news, but once she put him in the picture he was just as shocked as her and Rita.

  He suggested that she get a taxi back home just to be on the safe side, which she complied with, realising what a risk she had placed herself under while she had been pounding the streets. Les might even be out there now, watching them and waiting for the chance to dispose of another one of them.

  When she arrived home, she wasn’t surprised to find Inspector Bowden and Sergeant Drummond there.

  ‘I wondered how long it would take,’ she commented cynically.

  They didn’t take her down to the station; they didn’t have much to go on. Instead they interviewed her at home. This time the questioning was brief. Inspector Bowden seemed flummoxed at the fact that she had a good alibi for the night of Jacqueline’s murder. Her parents backed her up as she had been watching TV with them on the night of Jacqueline’s death. While they were there they also questioned her about the marks on her face but she stuck to her story about tripping over a carpet at Vinny’s house knowing that he would back her. She had already discussed it with him and Rita on the previous night in case her par
ents might raise the subject at some point.

  Within less than a half hour the police were gone. Julie could not help but notice that their approach seemed to have changed towards her. It wasn’t that they held her in any higher regard; Inspector Bowden still spoke to her as though she was the scum of the earth. The difference was, she concluded, that although he thought her capable of killing Amanda as part of a foolish, irresponsible prank that had gone wrong, he didn’t, she felt, find her capable of cold blooded murder.

  The person that had done this was sick, a person for whom violence was a way of life. She thought about Les’s anger on the night that her and Rita had taken Amanda home, and his maniac behaviour when he had her at his mercy in his flat. She could picture the madness in his eyes and the thought made her tremble. He was fearsome. She could understand why Amanda had always been so compliant towards him. If anything, Julie was more certain now that it was Les who had killed both Amanda and Jacqueline. Despite her fear she remained determined to prove him guilty and see him behind bars.

  --------------------

  Tuesday 2nd September 1986

  It started the following Tuesday. Julie had been back at work for a few weeks and was finding it easier to cope. She had become accustomed to the blank stares and people ignoring her. The scowls and insinuating comments had ceased except for Jacqueline’s friends. It was as though the majority of people realised there may be a connection between Amanda and Jacqueline’s deaths and that, as Julie had an alibi for the night of Jacqueline’s murder, it was possible that she wasn’t responsible for Amanda’s death either. Some people had begun to say hello to Julie in the mornings. The odd one had even ventured to say a few words to her, although the whole office was still reeling from the shock of the second killing and the vicious way in which it was committed.

  ‘It’s nice to see you getting back to normal,’ Norma commented. ‘I was beginning to think you’d never smile again.’

  Then, noticing the wry expression on Julie’s face, she checked herself. ‘Oh I know you’ve not had a lot to smile about lately Julie. It can’t have been easy for you, but it is a relief to see that you’re starting to get over things. I was getting worried about you.’

  Julie chose not to reply. How could she disappoint Norma by confessing that she still thought about Amanda each and every day, still had to fight back the tears sometimes, and still felt determined that she would prove Les Stevens guilty and clear her own name?

  Julie had still not ventured to the canteen, and she doubted that she ever would. For her that place symbolised the way she had felt in those first few painful weeks when Amanda’s death was fresh in her mind. It was a time when even the mention of Amanda’s name could reduce her to tears, and she had been overwhelmed by guilt. She did not need reminding of how she had felt and she didn’t need the animosity of Jacqueline’s friends to remind everybody what had happened.

  She had had a busy morning, even managing to have a laugh with a few of the customers, when she picked up the call. For a moment she couldn’t hear anything, then a distorted voice came on the line. Although the caller had disguised his speech, she could hear the next word loud and clear. ‘Murderer!’ the voice shouted. Then, after waiting a few seconds to gauge her reaction, the caller hung up. Julie yanked off her headset and hurled it across the desk as though it was contaminated.

  ‘What the hell’s the matter Julie?’ asked Norma.

  Julie had to compose herself before replying. ‘It was a malicious caller, Norma. Someone’s trying to torment me. Why don’t they leave me alone?’

  ‘What did they say?’

  Julie looked at Norma, her face bearing a pained expression as she uttered the word, ‘Murderer.’

  ‘The bloody swines! Who was it? What did they sound like? I bet it was one of Jacqueline’s cronies, wasn’t it?’

  ‘No Norma. It was an external caller, and I couldn’t tell who it was. I think it was a man, but he was using something to disguise his voice.’

  ‘Right, let’s ring the police then. I bet it was that Les.’

  ‘I can’t do that Norma.’

  ‘Why not, for God’s sake?’

  ‘Because I agree with you, I think it was Les. The police won’t believe me, and even if they do, they’ll find out about us breaking in his flat. We’ll end up in more trouble.’

  Julie spoke in a flurry hoping to bypass the mention of the break-in, but Norma soon picked up on that. ‘You didn’t go ahead with it, did you?’ she asked, disgusted.

  Julie look shamefaced, but knew that she would have to admit to Norma that she had gone against her advice and initiated the break-ins at Les’s flat. She hung her head as she related the whole sorry tale to Norma. ‘So you see, I can’t go to the police,’ she added.

  Julie had hardly had a chance to recover from this latest ordeal when a package arrived at reception for her. The courier was dressed from head to toe in motorcycle gear, including a helmet. He left the package in such a hurry that it was difficult to notice what he looked like, except that he was tall and well-built.

  Julie stared after him in astonishment as she began to open the package. It was similar to a shoe box in shape and size, but it was bright red and the lid was sealed by sticky tape. Julie tore the sticky tape excitedly, half thinking that Vinny had decided to surprise her.

  She pulled back the lid and found to her horror that there was a dead rat inside, with a cut down its abdomen and its insides hanging out. Fresh blood from the rat stained the piece of paper that was underneath it. Julie screamed and launched the box across the floor.

  Norma didn’t speak at first; she got up from her chair and took a look inside the box to see what had alarmed Julie so much. On spotting the dead rat she fled from the building trying to catch up with the courier. A few seconds later she returned out of breath.

  ‘It’s too late, the bugger’s gone,’ she said.

  ‘Get rid of it!’ said Julie.

  ‘No, you must keep it; it’s evidence.’

  ‘I can’t keep it, I can’t go to the police; I’ve told you!’

  ‘Julie, if this carries on, you’ll have to go to the police love. You can’t let them get away with that.’

  Julie decided not to argue any further. Instead she remained quiet for the rest of the day, retreating into herself as she had done once before.

  The day dragged by and Julie couldn’t wait until it was home time. Finally it reached five o’clock. She set off for the ten-minute walk to the bus stop, but as she rounded the first bend, she had an eerie sensation that someone was following her.

  She took a swift glance behind her, but the street was crowded with office workers making their way home and it was difficult to spot if anyone in particular was tailing her. Julie continued to walk purposefully telling herself not to be silly, that no-one would try to harm her on such a busy street, and that she would soon be on the bus home. “I’m just a bit freaked out by what’s happened today,” she tried to convince herself.

  She couldn’t shake off the creepy feeling, however, especially as she could hear heavy footsteps in close proximity and they seemed to be gaining ground. As she approached the end of a row of offices, she couldn’t resist the urge to take another quick peak as she made an exaggerated turn around the corner while glancing to the side.

  It was then that she spotted him. She couldn’t have given an accurate description, the glimpse had been so fleeting, but she got the overall impression of a young man, tall, thickset and dark; dark hair, dark eyes, dark clothing. “Could it have been the courier?” she thought.

  Her thoughts gave rise to panic and she began to quicken her step, trying to increase the gap of seven or eight feet between her and the man. He responded by speeding up as well. She wanted to run, but thought that to do so would let him know that she had seen him. Perhaps if she could try to pretend that she hadn’t noticed, maybe she could trick him and make her escape. She was approaching another corner and, as soon as she had rounded it,
she sprinted a few yards, then continued walking at a brisk pace when she felt he was in view, hoping that he wouldn’t notice the increased distance between them. However, he soon narrowed the gap.

  Julie was becoming increasingly frightened. She searched around for a means of escape. She noticed the many people making their way home from work and began to weave in between them trying to hide from view of the man. After a few seconds of dodging, another quick glance backwards told her that she had not succeeded; he was even closer. Her ploy of refusing to acknowledge his pursuit had not worked either.

  There was only one thing left to do; she began to sprint, barging into people as she tried to pass them as fast as possible. She could still sense his presence, hear his heavy footsteps, and imagined the feel of his quickened breathing on the back of her neck.

  Julie had become so flustered that she could no longer think rationally, and in her haste to be rid of him, she took a turning into an unknown street. It was not one she would normally use, but she was desperate to shake him off.

  As soon as she ran into the street she knew she had made a mistake. It was deserted. There was just her and the man, and he was gaining ground. She continued to sprint. Then she found the reason why the street was so empty in the rush hour. It was a dead end.

  She carried on running. Hoping for an answer. Searching for a means of escape. But the only doors were those leading out from stores. Fire exits, she thought. The type that lead out of the store, but don’t allow anyone to go in. She tried one anyway. She gasped in horror as the door refused to budge, and she felt the man moving in on her. Her sweaty palms began to hammer frenziedly against the glass. Within seconds she had caught the attention of a lady who approached the door from inside the store.

  ‘Help me! Open the door!’ Julie cried.

  The lady rushed to open the door, her curiosity aroused by Julie’s frantic state. It was then that the man stepped into view, and Julie felt him brush against her arm as she fled into the store, leaving them behind. She could hear words being exchanged between him and the lady, and made the most of the few seconds of respite.