by Lex Sinclair
‘Okay,’ Tom said, exasperated, ‘lets just say we cut the body down from up there - if we do that our fingerprints will be over it and the police won’t believe our story about finding a body up there. They will, however, think that we were the perpetrators, though. And that makes more sense than what you’re suggesting. So for that reason, and that reason alone, yes I can take the chance in getting hit by a bolt of lightening - because that’s fuckin’ absurd!
‘Even you told us last night that you had doubts that the story was made up in parts, and you were the goddamn storyteller. What I don’t want is to end up behind bars for fifteen to twenty years for a crime I didn’t commit, all because I listened to some old fart’s fantasy story, and how we would be killed by a lightening bolt. It sounds like an exaggerated biblical tale, anyway.’
Charles didn’t speak. He understood Tom’s feelings and respected them. He was only being rational. He didn’t mean any offence.
‘We don’t tell the police,’ Kate said. Then she turned around and faced them.
‘We cut the body down and we take it with us... where it’ll be safe.’
The cigarette fell out of Charles grasp into the thick snow, burning a hole.
‘Where would we hide it?’ Carlton said, breaking the eerie silence.
‘We don’t live here. We’re from Hereford.’ Tom said in haste. He made it clear he didn’t want to have anything to do with the body, and he didn’t want it anywhere near him, let alone on his property.
‘I would take it,’ Carlton said, although no one actually believed him. He wasn’t sure what he said. ‘But I’m with my mate. If the corpse comes with me, my mate will have to know about it. He might not understand and blab.’
‘What about you, Charles?’ Tom asked. ‘I mean it was your idea in the first place to cut him down.’
‘Actually,’ Kate interrupted. ‘I was the one who first suggested we cut it down, not Charles.’
‘I would take it,’ the old man said, ‘but when the snow clears, Derek is giving me a ride home. Like Carlton, I too would have to inform him that he would not only be giving me a lift home. I’m not sure he would tolerate it.’
Tom scowled at him, and then nodded. ‘Well, how convenient this has come about, huh? We should cut the body down, but only because my wife and I would be the ones who would have to get it back home, without being spotted.’
Neither Charles nor Carlton knew how to respond. They weren’t lying to Tom. They merely stated the obvious inconvenience they would have if they had to cart the corpse home with them.
‘How would we get it down?’ Kate asked Charles.
‘I got a flick knife in my pocket; if one of you could climb up the there and cut the thread loose, then we could all haul it back to the car park before dark, perhaps.’
‘What if we’re seen?’ Carlton said.
‘I could check there was no one outside the pub. If the coast is clear, I could head inside and distract the others while you three hide the body in the boot of Kate and Tom’s car.’
Tom shook his head, turning his back on them. ‘I don’t believe we’re even discussing this,’ he said. ‘I mean, what the fuck are we talking about here? It’s ridiculous. It’s fucking crazy! Kate you can’t be serious about going along with this, surely? If we’re caught, they’ll through the bloody key away for both of us.’
‘It sounds easier than it actually is,’ she said. ‘But if we all work together without complaining, with extreme caution can we do this.’
Tom gaped at her. He was shocked more now with his wife’s comments than he’d been when they stumbled upon their discovery. He couldn’t believe that this was the same woman he’d fallen in love and married. She seemed so serene and emotionless.
‘We’re not doing anything wrong,’ Charles said, hoping his soft voice and assurance would comfort Tom. ‘In fact we’re doing the person’s body a favour.
We can’t just leave the poor soul up there for the ice to melt and to be eaten by the crows; it’s not right. You wouldn’t like it if it was you up there and we left you, right?’
‘I don’t know,’ Tom said, stunned and confused.
‘I’ll tell you what,’ Charles said, getting to his feet. ‘If we do get caught, then we’ll say you had nothing to do with it; that you even tried to talk us out of it.
All right?’
Tom’s face was as an ashen hue. ‘I... I guess.’
Charles patted Tom on the back. Then he handed Carlton, who was the most agile, his switchblade. The young, black-skinned man wasted no time ascending the towering pine, carefully, with graceful ease, which would’ve impressed the others if there wasn’t a dead body in their presence. He reached the branch the thread of hair was wrapped around and began cutting away. After about five minutes of sawing at the strands, it finally came undone and fell to the ground in front of them with a tremendous thud.
4
Derek was seated behind the bar sipping his Scotch, constantly glimpsing the clock on the wall, growing more and more anxious as to the whereabouts of Charles and the other campers. The last of the daylight was rapidly fading. In the next half hour darkness would descend.
C’mon, hurry up. He considered lots of different, negative scenarios that could have befallen the group while they had been trekking through the forest to the log cabin. Perhaps one of them has had an accident, and they were seriously injured, he thought. He took another sip of his drink and told himself to stop looking at the clock. Worrying wasn’t going to solve anything. He would wait another hour, probably less before stepping outside with a torch to search for the group himself.
The good news, however, was the power lines which had been blown down in the treacherous storm the previous night were now mended, and the power was back on. Rhian was in the kitchen working busily over a hot stove so that everyone would at least have one proper meal today, as opposed to living off packets of crisps, peanuts and bars of chocolate. The TV was on. The screen was fuzzy but the sound had been restored.
Derek ached from all the shovelling he’d done earlier. The last thing he needed now on top of everything else was to have to go out searching for his friends in the dark. He dreaded the thought, which by the minute became more and more likely.
***
They reached the opening of the forest at long last. Charles was wheezing like a kettle reaching boiling point. His anatomy wasn’t used to exercise, especially dragging a block of solid ice with a cadaver inside. Even Carlton panted, and he was young, fit and healthy.
‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do,’ Charles said, then took a breath. ‘I’ll go inside and say that you,’ he pointed to Carlton, ‘are taking a piss, and you two,’ he nodded to Tom and Kate, ‘are just going to the car to get some clean clothes. Does that sound all right to you?’
Kate and Carlton agreed that it was a good idea. Tom didn’t say a word. He just glared at the old man. Charles didn’t pretend not to notice this, and said calmly. ‘The road is clear, and so is the parking bay. Looks like Derek done some more work when we left.
‘I’ll keep them occupied - but you’ll have to act fast if we’re not to be seen.
It’s only from here to your car. It’s not far. I’ll just go and check there’s no one by the windows watching us. If I give you the thumbs up signal, it means it’s the coast is clear, otherwise don’t move. Okay?’
Kate and Carlton nodded. Tom simply stared at him with a blank expression and even though it upset Charles to see Tom like this, he knew it was the right thing to do. He made his way up the path leading to the pub, checked both windows, and then put his thumb up.
They wasted no time. They started to move the body again.
***
The door burst open. Charles entered and smiled at Derek, who had just finished the last of his drink. Seeing his old friend walkin
g into the pub removed the heavy load weighing down on him. Then he noticed Charles was alone. ‘Where are the others?’ he asked without any preamble.
Charles closed the door shut. The anxiety rushed back to surface with a far greater urgency than before. ‘Tom and Kate have gone to their car to get a change of clothes, and Carlton is doing what a bear does in the woods.’ Derek burst into laughter. It was the nervousness that made him laugh, more than Charles’s sense of humour. ‘You thought we’d been attacked by a werewolf or something did you?’ Charles said, approaching the bar.
Derek rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. He could hear Charles wheezing as he climbed onto the stool. ‘You got a tight chest,’ Derek said, looking concerned.
There was no way of avoiding this. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘It’s all the smoking I do when I’m with you. The doctor says I’m smoking so much it’s even in my urine.’
‘Then keep your dick out of my ashtray,’ Derek said.
They both laughed at that. Yet there was an underlying truth to it, as well.
Charles smoked the most when he was in the pub.
‘Man, I was just about to come outside looking for you guys.’
A bolt of terror ran through the old man hearing the landlord say that. They had only just made it. If Derek had stepped outside as Charles approached to the front door, he would have seen what the others were hiding from him. ‘The power is back on,’ Charles said, deliberately changing the topic, gazing at the TV and the soft blue lights.
‘Yeah. They repaired the lines. They also said on the radio about an hour or so ago that they would arrive here tomorrow morning to grit the roads. At least then the campers can get back home safely.’
‘I think Tom and Kate have to drive back to Hereford. They did mention they would come here again, though. But next time I think they plan on camping out in the summer.’
‘They’re nice people,’ Derek said. ‘I hope this weather hasn’t put them off.’
‘No. In fact, Kate commented on how scenic the forest was. That’s why we were so long. They knew it was far to cold for them to camp outside. They just wanted a good look around for next time.’
***
Back outside, Kate was opening the boot of the Vauxhall. They had carried the body across the road and reached her and Tom’s car. They were mere seconds away from one final lift, and then they could close the boot and head back inside where it was nice and warm.
Kate stepped aside. Carlton and Tom bent their knees and kept their backs as straight as possible under the heavy strain. On the count of three they picked the corpse up and heaved it into the vacant boot. Both men panted forcefully. Their backs were numb with soreness that would last for a few days after. But they had completed the task, finally. Kate slammed the boot shut and locked the car.
Tom winced as he stood up straight. He’d spent the morning bent over shovelling snow. Then he spent the best part of the afternoon hauling a corpse from the forest into the boot of his car against his constant protests.
Carlton patted Tom on the back, congratulating him on a job well done. Tom shrugged him off emphatically. Carlton stared at him, backed away, choosing not say anything. Kate walked alongside her husband, sensing that he was still in a bad mood. As if to clarify her thoughts, he shook his head at her in disapproval. She held out her hand for him. He refused her gesture. Today his wife had shown him a side of her he never knew existed. She’d bought some imprudent, make-believe story, and an old man’s ludicrous beliefs, which were entirely against his own.
Now, because of her, they had a dead body lying in the boot of their car. He couldn’t fathom the drastic alteration in Kate. She would have never have done something like this a year ago. Yet ever since being told by her gynaecologist she would never be able to have children of her own, she’d changed. He just didn’t realise it was drastic until today.
The previous night he thought Charles was a gentle soul. A genuinely kind, considerate person. Not any more, though. On the contrary. As far as Tom was concerned, Charles could eat a bucket-load of shit.
They stepped into the heated pub.
Tom said a quick hello to Derek, and then announced that he needed to use the toilet. He locked himself into the cubicle and sobbed quietly. He gagged, and desperately wanted to regurgitate, although no solids came rushing to the surface. His hands still trembled, but not from the cold outside. They shook from absolute, blood-curdling fear.
When his steak and chips was put in front of him, Tom could feel the wave of nausea rushing to the surface again, and this time thought he would vomit.
Instead he got a hold of himself, thanked Rhian for the meal and managed to eat it all. If he hadn’t it would’ve created suspicion amongst the others who were oblivious to what he, Carlton, Charles, and his beloved wife had accomplished before dusk.
Not being able to generate life to a son or daughter they could call their own (biologically, at least) was one thing. And although it was heartbreaking, at least you could still live the rest of your life with a clear conscience. Stashing a stranger’s corpse into your car, driving all the way home - like they were going to do - and then hiding it, was another matter, entirely.
Tom didn’t know who Kate was any more. He didn’t know about her, but he couldn’t convince himself that everything would be fine. It was never going to be fine until they got rid of the dead body and behaved like rational human beings again. He couldn’t continue with his life as if nothing had happened.
Kate apparently could.
Later that night when the TV had been switched off and it was time to get some sleep, Tom lay in his sleeping bag on his side next to Kate, wide awake.
He kept telling himself not to think about it. But how the hell could you not think about a dead body lying in the boot of your car? All it would take was for someone to pry it open and they would get a very nasty shock, they weren’t expecting. Then he would be locked away for ten to fifteen years - a lifetime.
The more he thought about the worst case scenarios, the harder his heart drummed.
It was a bad idea coming up here for a weekend break with his wife. They should’ve stayed at home, maybe even considered adopting or doing something else. There would be no way they could do that now, or have a pet.
Cats and dogs sense of smell was far greater than a human’s. Soon the block of ice would begin to melt. The rotting corpse would then stink. It wouldn’t take an animal long to discover the source.
On the way back through the deep forest, Kate had the impudence to mention to Charles where they were going to place the corpse: the loft in their garage. It was perfect she said. She’d already worked it all out. Perfect! Christ! What the hell is wrong with the woman? She’s insane. He really needed to stop going over this awful predicament otherwise he would be discussing it with a psychiatrist in an asylum one day soon.
He couldn’t fathom how Kate, Charles and Carlton (who was snoring for the second night in row) could sleep at all, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Nevertheless, before long, Tom’s weariness overwhelmed him, and he too fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
5
At 11:32a.m. Tom and Kate crossed the road to their car. There had been not a single drop of snow the previous night, only frost which had melted under the sun’s bright rays.
Derek had learned from the ham radio and the local news that the roads had been cleared of snow and covered with grit, but warned any road users to drive with caution.
All of a sudden Tom wanted to leave, get into his car and get home sooner rather than later. The longer they stayed in the mountains, the more chance there was of the corpse being discovered in their boot. No one would understand. The others would assume they were a murdering husband and wife, like Rose and Fred West. Hell, he didn’t understand, either.
Charles, Carlton, Rhian and Derek
followed them outside to the lay-by. Derek was slightly disappointed that Tom and his wife decided to leave so abruptly.
He’d grown fond of Tom, especially. Yesterday when they shovelling snow together they had a good chat and seemed to get along great with each other.
They both loved football, and supported the same team - Liverpool. However, he understood that with more snow forecasted for the evening, they had to make their journey now, while it was safe to do so, and with plenty daylight for them to reach their home in Herefordshire.
Derek, along with Carlton and Charles, gave him his phone number, so they could keep in touch. But apart from Derek, Tom didn’t particularly want to see anyone of those people he met this weekend ever again; not after what they’d done.
Kate stood by the passenger door, still holding Charles’s hand, which Tom did his utmost to ignore, whispering something important and inaudible. Rosy red spots flushed his cheeks. Tom was well aware that his wife thought the world of the old man, who he believed had betrayed them. His foolish, fictional story blinded Kate from the truth and reality. Thanks to Charles, Kate did something she wouldn’t ordinarily do... something unspeakable.
Tom shook Derek’s hand firmly. Then he wrote his home phone number on the landlord’s hand. He didn’t mind Derek contacting him; he was a decent, down-to-earth, kind, generous guy, who - in spite of what occurred yesterday in the forest - had helped him and Kate when they were lost and needed a place to stay. Once their goodbyes had been said and done, Kate and Tom got in the car, and managed to start the engine on the third attempt. For a moment, Tom believed the car wouldn’t start. He breathed a huge sigh of relief when the engine roared to life.
As they were about to drive out of the lay-by, Derek patted the boot with the palm of his hand in a cordial manner and then waved. Tom saw this in the rear view mirror. His heart jolted. ‘Jesus! Does Derek know about the body, too?’
