‘I’ll explain in a minute but first get Woody on the phone. Now.’
TWENTY-ONE
This was the golden hour for more reasons than one, Symes thought as he pulled into the car park. During his period of supposed rehabilitation while married to Gloria, he’d attended a prison photography course. He’d learned that the golden hour occurred before sunset when the daylight is redder and softer than when the sun is higher in the sky.
It was also the time that parents were squeezing the last few moments out of the local park before the sun disappeared completely. It had been a mild, pleasant March day and there were two cars left in the car park. Two women and two children. One woman stood and called out. The little boy came running, took his mother’s hand and headed to the car. Within minutes he was buckled in and the car was pulling away.
One woman and one child. A girl.
Perfect.
He got out of the car right before the woman called over to her child. He dangled the piece of rope with a loop on the end.
‘Bruno,’ he called out, looking around and paying no attention to the woman approaching her car.
‘Bruno,’ he called more urgently.
The woman eyed him suspiciously but continued towards her vehicle.
‘You haven’t seen a poodle on your travels, have you?’ he called out.
She shook her head as he moved a bit closer, looking beyond her all the time. His eyes searching for Bruno.
‘Wife got to choose the dog; I got to choose the name,’ he said, rolling his eyes.
The wariness hadn’t quite left her eyes but there was the hint of a smile. The mention of a wife and type of dog had lessened the perceived threat.
‘Little bugger slipped his lead. I thought he’d come back to the car but…’ His words trailed away. He had kept her attention long enough that he was now just six feet away.
‘I’m sorry, I haven’t seen him,’ she said, fumbling in her bag for her car keys. The kid had the sense to eye him suspiciously from beneath her tawny fringe.
‘Oh well, I suppose you’ll have to do then,’ he said, moving forward quickly, widening the noose and slipping it over her head.
The shock rendered her numb for just a second, which gave him the chance to start pulling her towards the car. He grabbed the child and put a hand over her mouth as the mother tried to make noises.
‘If you scream I’m going to kill your mummy, understand?’ he said to the little girl. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched her mother struggling for breath and trying to claw at the rope.
The woman’s legs buckled as she tried to fight him. He lowered his arm and continued to drag her across the ground, prompting retching and coughing noises to come out of her mouth. Her heels were gathering gravel as he pulled her along.
He opened the back door of the car and pulled the woman to her feet.
‘Keep quiet and I’ll let you go. Make a sound and you’re both dead.’
He could see from the fight in her eyes the second he let go of the rope, she was going to scream for all she was worth.
He gave her a left hook to the side of the head. Her eyes rolled, and he folded her into the back seat.
‘Mummy…Mummy!’ the girl cried.
He pushed the child in after her mother and slammed the door shut. The priority was to get away from here and get onto the back lanes like he’d planned.
He threw himself into the car, started it up and tore out the car park at speed. The park had been chosen because it lay at the outer edge of a small estate in Wollaston. Right opposite was a lane that wound past a couple of properties and then disappeared into a maze of single-track roads that ran along the east side of the Bridgnorth road. He crossed the main road onto the first winding lane and let out a sigh of relief. They were now out of view.
The child was still crying for her mother to wake up. She sat up and tried to grab at him through the gap in the seats.
Looks like he had a spirited one.
He backhanded her, and she fell back onto the crumpled heap of her mother.