16.7.2006
Forget me not
http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/Untitled.mp3 It was a cold, wet and windy night and Jane had been driving for over nine hours. She was going to spend a week in the Lake District with Susan, a friend she hadn't seen for seven years. They grew up together but went their separate ways soon after leaving university. Ever since then Susan had been writing to Jane begging her to come and visit. Jane had finally decided to surprise her. It was after midnight by the time Jane reached the village of Oakwood which was just a mile or so from Torny Cottage where Susan lived. Driving on near empty motorways had been bliss compared with negotiating her way out of this small village, she was thinking. With visibility in the heavy rain down to a few yards, Jane mistook a garage forecourt for a turning. She braked and then, as she was starting to drive round, she was startled by a knock on her window. When she wound down her window a woman's head appeared. Without so much as a "hello", the woman said her name was Mary and that she was the owner of the garage. Jane might have expected the woman to say "Are you lost?" or "Can I help you?" Instead the woman asked her what she wanted in a kind, enquiring way that suggested anything was possible. Jane was still a bit shocked by the woman's sudden appearance and took a few seconds to answer. "I wonder if you could tell me where I could get something to eat", Jane blurted out without thinking. "Yes", said Mary, pointing to a shop with dim lighting a short way from the garage. "Jeff will knock up something for you. Just say Mary sent you." Jane thanked her. Then Mary said to leave the car with her and she would check the oil and clean the windscreen. Jane was a bit surprised but reluctantly agreed. As she ran towards the shop she murmured to herself, "What the bloody hell am I doing here? Why didn't I drive on to Torny Cottage?" As she opened the door to the shop she was struck by how bright, warm and comfortable it looked despite appearing so dim from outside. It was a combination of caf, bar and grocery store with a little bit of everything. The owner, Jeff, smiled at Jane. She said hello and explained that Mary had directed her here. Jeff invited her to take a seat and asked what she would like to eat. In her nervousness Jane jokingly replied, "I'll have a steak, well done, with green peas, small potatoes and mushrooms - oh and some coffee too, please." To her amazement, Jeff just said OK and went into the kitchen. Jane suddenly felt very uneasy. She couldn't believe he had taken her seriously. She got off her stool and started walking around, disturbed by the thought that she might have upset him. She decided she had better leave and was heading for the door when Jeff's voice rang out. "Jane, your meal is ready". She turned and couldn't believe what she saw: everything she had asked for was on a plate, steaming hot and ready to eat. She was so busy asking herself how he could have cooked it all so quickly that she didn't even wonder how he knew her name. Jane suddenly felt very uneasy. She couldn't believe he had taken her seriously. She got off her stool and started walking around, disturbed by the thought that she might have upset him. She decided she had better leave and was heading for the door when Jeff's voice rang out. "Jane, your meal is ready". She turned and couldn't believe what she saw: everything she had asked for was on a plate, steaming hot and ready to eat. She was so busy asking herself how he could have cooked it all so quickly that she didn't even wonder how he knew her name. Jeff gestured to her to eat up before it got cold. Suddenly aware that she was ravenous, Jane sat down and tucked in. She wanted to tell Jeff how great the food tasted but he had completely disappeared. She waited for a while after finishing the meal, but there was no sign of her host. So she put ten pounds on the counter and left. It had stopped raining. She walked back to the garage. Mary was nowhere to be seen so she checked her car. It had been given a valet clean, the oil and the windscreen wash had been topped up, even the plugs wiped. This is unbelievable, thought Jane. She called Mary's name several times but to no avail. So she pushed a note with some money under the garage door and drove away, feeling sad at not having thanked Jeff and Mary in person. Not many people would have helped a complete stranger to that degree, especially in the middle of the night. Jane was soon having trouble following the map that Susan had sent her. She had to keep stopping to check where she was. The third time she stopped to look at the map a police car with flashing lights pulled up behind her but then drove past, slowly enough for Jane to see the policeman driving and a man in the back holding up his handcuffed wrists. To Jane's relief the car accelerated and drove off into the distance. Returning to the map, Jane finally worked out where she was in relation to Fox Lane, the track that lead up to Susan's cottage. She resumed her journey but had only gone fifty metres when a police car suddenly appeared alongside her. The shock was doubled when she recognised it as the same police car as before. This time the policeman signalled to Jane to pull over and then parked in front of her. Jane waited and waited but the policeman didn't get out of his car. Jane blew her horn but still nothing happened. Exasperated, she got out herself and walked towards the car. Just before she reached the driver's side, the car suddenly took off, tyres screeching. Jane ran back to her own car, feeling desperate now to reach her friend. She drove slowly, not wanting to catch up with the mysterious police car. It shouldn't have taken more than a few minutes to reach Fox Lane but there were no turnings and it was getting later and later. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang that sounded like a car crash. She saw a flash of fire from up ahead. As she speeded up towards the fire she was muttering under her breath, "I hope it's not that bloody police car". It was. The police car was lodged against a tree. The front end was on fire and black smoke billowed out from the inside. The doors were open but there was no sign of the policeman or his prisoner, only a trail of blood leading into the woods. There was no way that Jane was going to follow that by herself. She had to get help and realised that she must be closer now to Susan's cottage than to the village. This time she found Fox Lane easily. The moment she pulled up outside the cottage the front door swung open and Susan ran out. As the women greeted each other Jane told Susan what she had seen in the woods. Susan told Jane to pour herself a drink and make herself comfortable while she called the police. When Susan returned to the living room she said the police had thanked her and would call them for a statement. Both women felt wide awake and were soon happily chatting, catching up with each other's lives. But within a few minutes they were interrupted by a knock on the front door. Susan went to see who it was. There was a scuffle then Susan screamed. As Jane jumped up from her seat the living room door burst open. Susan came flying through followed by a man who grabbed her and wrapped his hands around her neck. Jane immediately recognised him as the prisoner in the back of the police car. Jane tried to move but found that she couldn't. Her feet seemed to be stuck hard to the floor. She looked on helplessly as Susan battled to break free from this mad man. Suddenly, as if he'd appeared out of nowhere, there was a policeman in the room, the same one that had been driving the prisoner. He had a deep gash in his forehead that bled profusely yet he managed to take out his baton and start striking the prisoner across his neck. As Jane watched the prisoner's face contort she was shouting, "Kill him! Kill him!" There was a loud crack as the prisoner's neck was finally broken. The policeman stood up; Jane shouted a resounding "Yes!"; the policeman staggered and collapsed. He was dead. Only now did Jane find herself free to move again. She rushed over to Susan and knelt by her head hoping for signs of life. There were none. Jane started screaming, louder and louder, as if to wake herself up from a nightmare. But it was no good. Every time she opened her eyes the bodies were still there. Somehow she got out of the cottage, into her car and back down the track. As she entered the village she started blowing her horn but the village seemed dead to the world. So she got out of her car and started banging on doors. After a minute or so an old man answered. Jane was so animated and incoherent that he nearly shut the door on her. But he said if she wanted any help she should call on Constable Toomei. He pointed out the house and abruptly retreated, locking his door firmly behind him. It took a while to rouse the constable but he let Jane in and she related her dreadful story. Constable Toomei looked unmoved, even a bit puzzled. So Jane asked him what was wrong. "It's your story," he replied. "It doesn't make sense." "Why?" said Jane. "Because Torny Cottage is where a young woman was murdered seven years ago", he replied. "No!" Jane shouted. "She was murdered tonight. I was there. I saw it happen." Constable Toomei didn't know what to make of Jane's allegations but because she was so adamant he suggested that they retrace her steps from the moment she'd first entered the village. As he drove, Constable Toomei tried to explain why he found her story so hard to believe. He said he was given the job as village constable after his predecessor, Peter Collins, died trying to catch a killer. The killer was an escaped mental patient called Paul Whittaker. Collins had captured him and was taking him back to the asylum when they had the accident. Collins and Whittaker were the only people in the car. The police found a burnt-out car with no bodies inside. They instigated a manhunt and searched the village where they found two bodies: Jeff Tucker who worked in the caf and Mary Hick, the garage owner. It was an enormous shock to the whole community. But worse was to come. Three days later they widened their search to include Torny Cottage. There they found three bodies: Susan Clifford, the woman who lived there, Paul Whittaker and Constable Collins. Before Toomei could finish the story, they had pulled up outside the caf. "It's been closed since the murders", said Toomei. Jane got out of the car and tried forcing the caf door handle. Meanwhile Constable Toomei shone his torch through the window. "Look!" Jane shouted. "The money I paid for the food is still on the counter". But it was too dark and far from the window for Toomei to be convinced. "OK, but what about the note I left under the garage door?" Jane insisted they checked and sure enough, there was the note. Constable Toomei read it and scratched his head. "This can't be right", he said. "She died seven years ago." "How can dead people serve food and pump petrol?" Jane demanded. Or write me letters over seven years, she suddenly thought. "OK", said Constable Toomei. "Let's go up to Torny Cottage and settle this mystery once and for all." As they drove up Fox Lane they passed a "Cottage To Let" sign which Jane was sure hadn't been there before. The cottage itself was dark even though Jane had left all the lights on when she had fled. The door was locked. Toomei broke a window with his torch, climbed in and opened the door for Jane. "Mind your step," he warned, "there's no electricity." As Toomei flashed his torch around Jane could not believe it was the same place she had sat down in with Susan hardly an hour ago. Toomei told Jane that nobody would buy or rent the cottage because of Susan's murder. That's why it was in such a dilapidated state. Jane wanted to look around for a bit longer but Toomei said there was nothing much they could do in the dark. As they left, with the constable shining his torch to guide their way, the light caught something that glittered. Jane bent to pick it up. It was a bracelet. Jane asked if she could take it. "I suppose so", said Toomei. "All Miss Clifford's possessions were disposed of long ago." On their way back to the village Jane examined the bracelet closely. There were miniature figures hanging from it and some engraved letters. They spelt out "Susan", "Jane" and the name of the town where they had grown up. Jane struggled to read the rest. She could make out "f", "g", "m" and "n". She asked Toomei what he thought it meant. "It's a forget-me-not bracelet", he said immediately. "It's the kind of thing you give to somebody you love or care about." "Maybe Susan wanted me to find the bracelet and that's why she wanted me to come up to the cottage", Jane speculated. "This is all a bit too deep for me", was the constable's reply. "Hey, I wonder where they're going", he said suddenly. Toomei had spotted a police car in the distance, coming towards them. He picked up his receiver but all he could hear was static so he flashed his lights to get the other car to slow down. But as the police car came parallel to them it dawned on Toomei that he was looking at Constable Collins and the killer Paul Whittaker. In stunned disbelief, Toomei watched the police car over his shoulder as it picked up speed. His own car would have veered off the road if Jane hadn't grabbed the steering wheel and pulled on the hand brake. Dazed, Constable Toomei looked at Jane. "It can't be them, can it?" Jane smiled and said, "Now do you believe me?" the end
Forget me not