Previously…

Number 17 had a bright red painted door and a small sign outside that announced ‘Dean Clump ~ Computer Doctor,’ on a small brass plate on the wall.

I knocked on the door and Dean opened it. ‘Hi, Dean, I’ve come for Abby’s laptop.’

‘Okay, erm, come in.’

‘You’re sweating, Dean, been out for a run?’

‘No, I’m just hot,’ he replied nervously, letting me go past him.

I heard the door close behind me, but my attention was somewhat grabbed by the person now standing in front of me with a gun in his hand. It was the same smoothie I met on the quay, seemingly a long time ago but in fact only a few weeks. Nigel Manning's ‘associate’ was looking rather smug and as he smiled at me, I noticed that the smile didn’t reach his steely grey eyes.

‘Hello Tom; you didn’t take my warnings seriously then. You really should have left the village, you know–when you had a chance.’

And now the story continues…

I looked at him and my legs turned to jelly. I wanted to sit down but I just stood there, staring at those hard eyes and then at the gun that was pointing with alarming stillness at my belly-button.

Dean was making some sort of noise over in the corner. ‘–I’m sorry, Samantha, I didn’t have a chance. He—he’s threatening to kill my Mum and she’s old and––’

‘–Shut up, Dean; talk again and I’ll do something interesting to your face. Now, Tom––’

‘–I’m Samantha.’

‘Now then–Tom; you and I are going for a little drive–move.’

He pointed the gun at the passageway that led to the back door and as I walked out with him following, the man said something to Dean.

‘Remember, I have someone watching your mother. One silly move on your part like talking to the police will mean that she won’t live to see another day.’

‘Oh God–’ I heard as I was pushed in the back and almost sent flying out of the back door.

Could I make a run for it?

‘Don’t even think of escape; this gun isn’t a fashion accessory–it works and I don’t make the habit of missing.’

All this was said in a calm polite voice as if he was discussing the weather or some other inconsequential matter. I would have almost felt better if he was screaming and shouting. It was the cold, calculated and urbane way he was speaking that sent shivers down my spine.

I went out of the garden gate. I realised that it led to a back lane that I had never seen before. I gasped as I saw Dolly, Abby’s little car standing about fifty yards from where I was standing!

Looking around, I could see that there wasn’t a soul around–typical–normally half the village would have been there craning their necks by now!

‘I don’t understand.’

‘I’ll do the thinking, Tom. Walk to the car, nice and slowly and then get in the driver’s seat–don’t worry, it’s not locked.’

I walked over and did as I was told, wincing slightly as my bum hit the rather hard seat. The man–I still didn’t know his name–got in using the other door and sat next to me. He handed me the keys.

‘Start the car and drive off. Don’t do anything silly unless you really want your girlfriend’s car to get splashed with blood. I’m using it because it’s well known around here and won’t attract any attention. Nice of your girlfriend to leave the keys on the tyre, like that. I just love these quaint villagers and their naive and trusting ways.’

I put on the safety belt and so did the man. Then I started Dolly up, hoping that she wouldn’t of course. I groaned inwardly that she started first time for once. I crunched the gears and started off down the lane.

‘Go left at the end and then carry on until I tell you to turn off.’

‘Why are––’

‘–Please keep quiet. While we are going, I’ll explain what is going to happen. If you do as I say, you will live; if you don’t, you will never be found. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ I squeaked.

As Dolly chugged along, I was paying less attention to the road than to the words the man was saying.

‘Your father-in-law was my partner in certain, shall we say, enterprises–’

‘–I thought you worked for him––’

‘That was the impression I wanted to convey. Now I advise you not to speak again because there will be consequences. Nigel and I had a number of deals going on; I won’t go into details, but they were extremely lucrative but not all of them were strictly legal. When I came to see you that time, it was as a favour to him. For some extraordinary reason, he wanted you to stay in his family–his daughter begged him to get you to change your mind, although how somebody like her could be attracted to the likes of you, I will never understand. Anyway, I was in the area, collecting a few, erm, outstanding debts–Dean has a large loan with us and was defaulting so we put certain things in place–anyway, we thought by sending you and others letters, it might persuade you to leave Penmarris and run back to Olivia. It didn’t work and things moved on. Turn left at the next junction.’

I did as he asked and we were going along a slightly wider and straighter road. While he had been talking, I was wondering if there was something, anything I could do to get myself out of this mess, but I couldn’t think of anything and anyway, I was distracted by his words and the fact that the gun was pointing unwaveringly at me.

‘Then Nigel tried to double-cross me by going behind my back and cutting a deal with a, erm, supplier. I discovered what he had done and had to punish him. I regret his death, he was a friend. After his untimely but necessary death and Olivia’s demise, you inherited the assets. There are certain documents that I need and I understand that you have access to his bank safe deposit box. We are going to go to London––’

‘–this car will never get there.’ I felt a stinging pain on my arm as he hit me with the barrel of the gun that nearly made me lose control of the steering wheel.

‘We’ll swap the car shortly. I told you not to speak–I shall not be so nice next time. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, you will go into the bank, do the usual security checks and we shall go into the bank vaults together, I will take what is mine and that will be the end of the matter.’

I didn’t say a single word as I remembered–a few weeks earlier–when Katie had gone through a number of things with me, that one of them was about the safe deposit box. Nigel’s solicitor had sent her all the details that had been lodged with them and I knew that the bank was the same one that Olivia and I used.

‘You might be wondering why I continued with the poison pen letters and the daubs on your car? Well, Penmarris is the sort of place where everyone knows who you are and what you are doing. I wanted to get you away from there and to a place where you were not so well known or quite so popular. I thought that the pressure might force you out. Dean Clump had his uses and he managed to do most of that for me. Stupid man–he really thought that I would kill his mother–that would have been unprofessional and anyway, the threat was enough…take the right hand fork, signposted London.’

I did as he asked and I found that we were on the long straight road I recognised as leading up to the moor. At the moment we were in some woods and the moor was about ten minutes away. We were in shade here and I was getting goose bumps on my bare arms as he continued to talk.

‘So there you have it. We are going to the bank and then–if you behave–I’ll let you go. Unless you do exactly what I tell you, I shall have to kill you.’

We continued on in silence. I now knew who killed Nigel and who was behind the poison pen letters and the vandalism on my beautiful Beemer. My heart was racing and I could feel the sweat trickling down my back. I didn’t trust the man one iota. He had said that he would let me go, but how could he after confessing to the murder of Nigel and to other dodgy deals? I had to do something!

‘I need to go to the toilet,’ I said desperately.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him consider.

‘We certainly have a long way to go and the less time spent at services the better, pull over here and get out. I shall be covering you, so don’t do anything stupid.’

I pulled over, switched off and got out of the car.

I stared at the surrounding woods. What chances did I have to make a run for it? I was wearing heels so that didn’t––

He was standing next to me.

‘Go on then,’ he instructed, indicating a tree about twenty yards away.

‘I can’t go with you here.’

‘Yes you can. Go over to that tree and water it. You have a dick so use it like a man would for once.’

I felt tears in my eyes as I went over and pulled down my panties and squatted down. Realising that I just couldn’t do it like that without making a mess, I stood up with my back to him and with tears streaming down my face I did what I had to do.

As I stood there, I wondered if I would ever see Abby and Heather again. I had been through so much, was this the end? I shook my head, ridding myself of these totally negative thoughts. I had to try to get out of this, if not for myself, then for those that I held so dear.

A few minutes later, after adjusting my dress, we were back in the car and continuing our journey. He said nothing to me as I drove little Dolly along the near deserted road to an eventual certain death, as I knew that he would not let me live with the information I now had. He was a killer and I was positive that he had done this before, more than once. They say after the first one, inhibitions drop and it’s easier to kill again and again if you are that type of individual and I believed that he was.

Dolly was running almost flat out, at about fifty miles an hour–certainly faster than she normally went–and up ahead I could see that it was somewhat brighter as we were emerging from the wood and very soon we would be out of the trees and up on the moor.

Dolly wasn’t used to such long journeys, especially at this giddy speed. Let’s face it, a few miles normally knackered the poor old lady. I could sense that her two-cylinder engine was labouring somewhat, and I knew exactly what was going to happen as I had driven her several times when it had happened previously. It gave me an idea. I had just one chance to do this and I prayed that it would all work out all right. I gripped the steering wheel hard and put my foot down on the accelerator…

‘BANG!’

Dolly misfired–the man jumped and looked behind–I pressed his seatbelt button, releasing it and then I aimed for the nearest tree.

We crashed head on, the man went halfway through the windshield with a scream and I was jolted forward, wrenching my neck and shoulders badly. Without thinking, I unclipped my seatbelt and pushed the car door open. It was miraculous that it could still open as it creaked badly as I pushed, but it did open and I stumbled out and ran for cover.

From behind a tree I could see that the car was smoking from the back. The man, who was halfway on the bonnet, looked a terrible mess but was still moving. His face was badly lacerated and rivulets of his blood were running down Dolly’s bonnet. Then he looked at me. I would never forget those cold eyes. What was left of his face was a bloody mask, with no expression that I could see and then…the petrol tank exploded and poor old Dolly was engulfed in flames.

I could feel the hot pressure of the explosion knocking me off my feet and the last thing I remembered was my back hitting a tree––

Please leave comments…thanks! ~Sue

My thanks go to the brilliant and lovely Gabi for editing, help with the plot-lines and pulling the story into shape.