Run!: He's coming for you

by K Leitch

  The girls sat in silence for a couple of minutes, each one deep in thought.

  ‘Well I can spend the day with her tomorrow,’ Tracy said after a while, ‘in fact they can all come over to my house and have Sunday dinner.’

  ‘Yes and I’ve got Monday covered,’ Helen added, ‘I’m pretty free this week now that I’ve finished the Council commission.’ Helen was an artist and had recently been asked to do a huge canvas which would hang in the entrance of the town hall.

  ‘Ok well I’ll try and make myself free for Tuesday,’ Maggie said pulling a face. ‘We’ve got another girl coming to be interviewed for the nanny job. She seems very promising actually, she’s got a child of her own so that would be company for Juke and she sounded lovely on the phone. Unfortunately she’s coming at one thirty on Tuesday, so I might only be able to stay with Carla for a few hours in the morning…’

  Tracy burst out laughing, ‘Carla would be so mad if she could hear us dividing up our time to babysit her.’

  ‘Oh I know,’ Helen said with a smile, ‘but she’s just going to have to put up with us I’m afraid…just until we’re sure she’s over the worst.'

  CHAPTER 22

  Frank heaved a sigh and made his way downstairs to the front desk. He’d just had a somewhat fraught WPC Sheila White on the phone, asking him to come and deal with Jane and Herbert Twee who were at the front desk demanding to speak to someone in authority.

  The shouting and commotion were clearly audible from the stairs but Frank hadn’t been prepared for the sight that met his eyes as he entered the lobby.

  Jane Twee was perched on the edge of a chair rocking herself backwards and forwards and wailing into a dirty looking handkerchief, whilst Herbert agitatedly walked up and down ranting and shouting at poor Sheila who was doing her best to calm them both down.

  ‘Don’t bloody tell me to be calm,’ Twee was shouting at her, ‘how calm would you be eh, if your kids ‘ad disappeared…’

  He broke off when he saw Frank coming into the lobby, ‘About fucking time, do you know ‘ow long we’ve been sitting ‘ear? My kids have been gone all night… ‘oo knows what’s ‘appened to ‘em. Whatcha going to do abart it eh?’

  Frank held up his hand to calm him down. ‘Perhaps you’d like to fill me in Mr Twee, you’re saying Lola and Lewis didn’t come home last night, It’s now nearly,’ he paused and looked at his watch, ‘nearly 4.35…why did it take you so long to report the kids missing?’ he asked,

  ‘Yeh… well we didn’t fink nuffin of it did we, they do that sometime, you know stay at a mates or somat,’ Jane Twee snuffled before her husband could answer Frank.

  ‘So what makes you think somethings happened to them now?’ Frank said.

  ‘Cus I’ve checked wiv all their mates and they ‘aven’t seen them that’s why,’ Jane turned on Frank angrily. ‘Anyhows they were due to go shopping wiv me today,’ she went on, ‘they was looking forward to it see, I was going to get them some new games for their birthday. It’s on the same day you see, different years like…so I said I would take them into town and they could choose what they wanted.’

  Frank sighed, ‘Ok well you’d better come through to an interview room and let me take some details…’

  ‘No!’ Herbert Twee shouted, pounding his fist on the front desk, ‘we ain’t got no time for that…we need to be out there looking for them. You don’t need no details, you know what they look like. Just get a few men and find my kids will ya.’

  ‘Right, Mr Twee, Herbert, you need to calm down. I need you to tell me about when you last saw the kids and where they might have gone…’ he held up his hand again as Twee would have butted in, ‘once we have established that they are indeed missing we will get a search team together…’

  ‘Oh I see,’ Jane said scathingly, ‘you can’t be bovvered to take us seriously can you…what the fuck do you mean “established that they are indeed missing” we’re telling you they’re fucking missing ok. I know my kids and there must be something seriously wrong if they don’t turn up to go shopping for games…somefings ‘appened to ‘em I just know it…a muvver feels these fings…’

  ‘Mrs Twee,’ said Frank as calmly as he could, ‘of course we take the disappearance of a child…ANY CHILD… very seriously, but there is a process to be followed. So if you wouldn’t mind…’ he ushered her and her husband into the interview room, sharing a long suffering look with Sheila White before he followed them in.

  An hour later Frank was organising a search for Lola and Lewis Twee. From what he could gather from Herbert and Jane Twee, they had been visiting their friends Peter Drew and Josh Gump at Gump’s house on the Buttercup estate. Both of those boys were known to Frank, he had had dealings with them in the past so he decided to take Sam with him and go and have a word.

  The house seemed to be empty when Frank knocked on the door a while later, but just as they were about to walk away a head appeared out of the upstairs window.

  ‘Whatcha want?’ said the head (which was as yet unidentifiable because most of it was hidden behind a grubby net curtain).

  ‘Joshua Glump?’ Frank shouted up at the head, which promptly disappeared back into the room. Frank stood his ground and sure enough a couple of minutes later the front door opened a crack and a woman’s face peered out at them.

  ‘Whatcha want ‘im for?’ she asked.

  ‘Mrs Glump?’ Frank asked again, the woman nodded. ‘I’m Detective Sergeant Frank Hill and this is my colleague Detective Constable Sam Trenter. We need to speak to Joshua about his friends Lola and Lewis Twee, we believe they were here last night?’

  The door opened a bit wider revealing a slim, dark haired middle aged woman wearing a rather skimpy dressing gown and obviously not much else. She lit a cigarette and put it to her lips, taking in a long drag before she answered Frank’s question.

  ‘Yeh they was ‘ere, for a while anyways. Look I told Herbie all of this, I ‘ad ‘im banging on my door at the crack of bloody dawn this morning.’

  ‘Can you tell me what time they left Mrs Glump?’ Sam asked trying not to look at the expanse of cleavage on show.

  ‘Nah, I don’t know do I? I was at the bingo…they was still ‘ere when I left, that must ‘ave been about nine, nine thirty somat like that.’

  ‘Ok,’ Frank said making a note of that, ‘is Joshua around? Maybe he can tell us a bit more,’ he added.

  Maureen Glump smiled seductively at Sam before saying, ‘Yeh…I’ll just get ‘im, you’d better come in I suppose.’

  Frank and Sam (both still desperately not noticing that her dressing gown barley skimmed her bottom as she walked in front of them) followed her into the house which was surprisingly neat and tidy and left them sitting in the living room while she went to get her son who was apparently still in bed.

  Joshua Glump (a spotty fifteen year old, with a shaven head and a sleeve of tattoos) wasn’t a lot of help either. He said that Lola and Lewis had been hanging with him and Pete, just messing about listening to music etc., when out of the blue, Lewis had said they had to go. He didn’t know where, but he did know that they had headed off towards the park because he had needed to get some more cigarettes and had walked part of the way with them.

  ‘So they weren’t going home then?’ Frank asked.

  ‘Nah,’ Glump said running a hand over his shaven head, ‘that’s the opposite direction init? Lewis was really excited abart somat though, but he wouldn’t let on what it was like. Just kept laughing to ‘imself… ‘e’s like that though, always ‘as somefing on the go, know what I mean.’

  ‘Any idea what he had “on the go” last night Joshua?’ Sam asked, ‘didn’t Lola say anything about it?’

  ‘Nah…she just goes where ‘e says like. She don’t really have a say where Lewis is concerned…’

  ‘Is she scared of him would you say?’ Frank put in.

  Joshua laughed, ‘Too bloody right,’ he said, ‘if ‘e asked ‘er to jump off a fucking building she’d do it, stupid co
w. I don’t fink ‘e’d ever hurt her though…it’s just that ‘e can be a bit…what’s the word, intimidating…yeh that’s it, intimidating.’

  ‘Does he intimidate you Joshua?’

  Joshua gave Frank a disgusted look and shook his head. ‘Nah…not me mate. I’m just saying he can be a bit of a nutter at times that’s all. But ‘es ok, you just have to know ‘ow to handle ‘im.’

  ‘Ok Joshua, thanks for your help,’ Frank said, standing and heading for the door. ‘If you hear from either of them can you let us know straightaway please,’ he added, following Sam out into the hallway and almost colliding with Maureen Glump who was now wrapped in a teeny tiny towel after obviously coming from the shower. She gave them another sultry smile as she let them out, which caused Sam to flush bright red and run his finger round under his shirt collar. Frank laughed at him all the way back to the car.

  ‘What do reckon?’ Frank asked Sam once they were in the car, ‘are they winding us up or what?’

  Sam looked bewildered, ‘What d’you mean winding us up? What you think this is just some elaborate scam of some sort, to stop us looking into the bag snatching thing maybe?’

  Frank smiled. ‘Actually I hadn’t thought of that, but now that you say it that might be exactly it. I mean it is a bit convenient that both the kids go missing just when we’re getting close to arresting that snivelling little bastard for his part in the thefts isn’t it?’

  Sam grimaced. ‘Yeh, I guess so… but that’s a bit sick even for them though isn’t it? And you have to admit they both looked really frantic earlier…’

  ‘Oh my God Sam, how many times do you see those people on the telly making their appeals for their kids…crying their eyes out, and then it turns out they’ve had them locked in the fucking cellar, or they’ve buried their bodies in the garden,’ Frank said shaking his head. ‘Nah…I mean of course we’ve got to follow it up and look for the little scrotes, but I bet you anything they’ll turn up right as rain in a day or two…just long enough for Herbert to get rid of any stolen goods or incriminating evidence.’

  ‘You’re turning into a right old cynical bastard Frank,’ Sam said with a grin.

  Frank pulled a face, ‘I might be a cynical bastard Samuel,’ he said, ‘but I bet I’m right.’

  CHAPTER 23

  Lola woke with a start!

  Gone was the warmth of the kitchen where in her dream she’d been sitting at the kitchen table eating chips out of the paper and laughing at her mum and brother as they danced around the kitchen singing along to the ‘Birdy Song’, flapping their elbows in time to the music as they went. In its place was the freezing cold of the earth packed floor beneath her.

  The stink of old piss and filth, the fiery pain on her thighs and back and the all- consuming terror that had been with her since she had been left in this place, all these were becoming familiar to her now.

  The screeching sound of metal on metal as the huge bolts were pulled back filled her with renewed terror though, as this heralded the arrival of her captors.

  Tears fell again from eyes already swollen and sore and Lola shuffled as far back against the wall as she could go, whimpering and shaking uncontrollably. Her teeth chattered noisily in her head, as she watched the door open and the first of her monstrous attackers made her way slowly into the small space, followed as always by her gigantic protector.

  Lola had long given up hope of any mercy from these cruel beasts and yet, once again she found herself grovelling and pleading…begging to be set free. She was sorry, she would scream over and over as the cane lashed her bruised and tender skin… so very, very, sorry… she wouldn’t tell… pleeeaaasse… she wanted her mum… she wanted her mum….

  CHAPTER 24

  Lucinda checked her hair and makeup yet again in her driver’s mirror before getting out of the car. Thankfully Katy was fast asleep in her car seat, so she took her time gently lifting her out and transferring her to her buggy without waking her. The little girl snuffled a bit but then popped her thumb back into her mouth and snuggled down into the blanket that Lucinda had wrapped around her.

  So after a deep breath, smoothing down her skirt one last time, pushing the buggy in front of her Lucinda went up to the beautiful polished wood front door and rang the bell.

  The door was opened almost immediately by a tall good looking man, with short dark hair and an extremely harassed expression on his face. He was also, weirdly, wearing a flour covered frilly apron over his T-shirt and jeans, as well as the flour on his apron he appeared to have quite a lot of it in his hair, he also seemed to have been expecting somebody completely different to be ringing his doorbell, Lucinda noticed.

  ‘Oh…oh hi,’ the man said after a moment holding out a hand and then drawing it back quickly, as he realised that that too was covered in flour. ‘I’m Dom Wendover, and you must be Lucinda…sorry I thought it might have been my mum back,’ he said with an apologetic smile, ‘come in come in…um sorry about the mess, I’ve been trying to make playdough with Jukie, I’m sure we followed the recipe but we just seem to have made a big mess…’ Dom went on as Lucinda followed on behind him manoeuvring the buggy and the sleeping Katy into the biggest kitchen she had ever seen.

  ‘Oh I know,’ Lucinda said smiling at him, ‘the flour just gets everywhere doesn’t it?’ She settled Katy into a corner and then turned back to Dom who had been watching her, he came and peered down at Katy.

  ‘She looks comfy,’ he said with another smile, ‘how old is she?’

  ‘She’s nearly two,’ Lucinda said looking down at her daughter proudly, ‘and I know she looks angelic at the moment but believe me she has her moments.’

  ‘Oh, don’t they all…would you like a coffee Lucinda…or a tea maybe?’ Dom said going over to an enormous state of the art coffee machine.

  ‘Oh please call me Lucy,’ Lucinda said taking off her coat, ‘a tea would be lovely thank you.’ She wandered over to the huge old wooden table that dominated one half of the kitchen and peered into the mixing bowl that was sitting on it. ‘I think maybe you’ve added too much water,’ she said poking the sloppy mixture with a wooden spoon, ‘it’s easily fixed…we just need to add more flour.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Dom bringing a cup of tea over to the other end of the table and indicating for Lucinda to sit down. ‘Well that’s the problem you see, we’ve run out of flour. My mum has taken Jukie down to the village to get some more, they’ll be back any minute…in fact…’ he broke off at the unmistakable sounds of Maggie and Juke arriving home, a couple of minutes later a gorgeous little boy with a mass of dark curls raced into the kitchen, carrying a bag of plain flour which he unceremoniously dumped on Dom’s lap. ‘We’re back,’ he shouted, ‘Maggie let me have one fizzy chew, only one,’ he held up one finger to illustrate, ‘but she said if I help clean up I can have another later…’ he broke off from his story and turned two enormous dark brown eyes towards Lucinda who smiled at him, making him hide his head shyly behind Dom.

  Just then a tall, glamorous woman with long dark hair, followed Juke into the kitchen. She dumped the heavy bags of shopping she’d been carrying on the side before turning to Dom.

  ‘Sorry it took me so long darling, I ran into Hester Binworthy and bloody hell that woman can talk…’ Maggie broke off as she too spotted Lucinda. ‘Oh God I’m sorry I wasn’t here to meet you Lucinda…we’ve had a bit of a playdough crisis…as you can see.’ She held out a hand to Lucinda, ‘I’m Maggie, Maggie Wendover, I spoke to you on the phone.’

  Lucinda stood and shook Maggie’s hand, ‘Call me Lucy,’ she said, ‘everyone does.’ She turned to Juke who was watching her guardedly, ‘And you must be Juke,’ she said crouching down to his level, ‘it’s a good thing you got some more flour for your playdough, it looks a bit runny to me.’

  Juke nodded seriously, ‘I know…Dom put too much water in it. I’m going to make dinosaurs, I’ve got some green colouring stuff and some brown…I haven’t got blue though, but Maggie said we can do wi
thout blue…’

  ‘Oh yes…I don’t know if there were any blue dinosaurs…’ Lucy began.

  ‘Is that your baby?’ Jukie interrupted, walking over to the sleeping Katy.

  Lucy followed him over, ‘Yes…she’s called Katy, maybe when she wakes up you could show her your playdough.’

  Jukie thought about this for a minute, ‘Yes…but she’s too little to make dinosaurs…she can have a little bit though if she likes…but not the colouring stuff, that’s not for babies is it Maggie…and she mustn’t eat it,’ he finished firmly.

  Once the playdough had been mixed to the correct consistency, and the colours had been added and then squished together so that all the mixture was a sort of dirty brown, Maggie and Dom left Jukie to his dinosaur making, and sat down to properly interview Lucy.

  Thank goodness for Emma, Lucinda thought again as she handed her fake references over to Maggie. She had continued to support her, despite coming under a lot of fire from Trevor, and no matter how much Lucinda protested that she didn’t want to get anyone else involved, she’d taken it upon herself to apply for a CRB check in Lucinda’s name and had also written her a glowing reference, suggesting that she had worked as a nursery nurse. Lucinda nervously waited while Maggie and Dom looked over her forged documents and as she did, she took stock of her surroundings.

  The huge state of the art kitchen had been impressive enough, but the living room with its beautiful open fireplace, double height ceiling and enormous windows that looked out onto fabulous gardens, was amazing.

  Eventually Maggie looked up at her and smiled. ‘Well you certainly seemed to impress your last employer Lucy, what made you leave Devon and come to our little village?’

  Lucinda swallowed nervously, ‘Um…well as I said on the phone, my marriage had broken down and I just felt that I needed to get right away…start a fresh…’ she said.