Rough Cut (2 page)

   “It’s probably upstairs in his bedroom,” whispered one of them and they started to walk noiselessly towards the stairs.

   Suddenly, they heard a door close upstairs. The two figures glanced at each other and froze.

   “I thought you said no one would be in,” said the shorter, stockier of the two, the one wearing the combats.

   The two intruders looked towards the sound of Rob on the landing and tracked him with their eyes as he sauntered down the stairs, an empty plate in his hand. Rob first saw them as he reached the turn in the staircase, they were standing motionless, gawping at him, like a couple of barn owls unexpectedly caught in the blinding beam of a torch. The plate fell from Rob’s hand, bouncing down the stairs and rattling as it settled on the parquet floor, the harsh sound echoing off the walls. Rob turned away quickly and was about to run back up the stairs and call the police when he stopped himself. Slowly, he turned back to face the intruders, one of whom he thought he recognised.

   “Hello,” he said, taking a couple of steps towards the one he had recognised. “What on earth are
you
doing here?” There was more enquiry than fear in his tone. “Shouldn’t you be at the party? Mum said everyone was going to be there.”

   The taller figure, the one Rob had recognised, did not respond and Rob’s suspicions grew. His expression changed as he challenged them.

   “What’s going on?” he said, “Why are you here? I don’t understand.” As Rob spoke, the shorter, stockier of the two intruders moved quickly to place himself between his accomplice and Rob. He stared up at Rob intimidatingly but Rob, who was six inches taller, swept him aside with a single movement of his arm and looked at the taller one again. Not to be outdone, the shorter one angrily squeezed himself between them again and started to push Rob backwards, hitting him repeatedly in the chest with the palms of his hands. Rob brushed his arms away dismissively as he spoke. 

   “Bog off, will you!” he sneered, “I’m not talking to you.”

   The two of them stared at each other, each defying the other, as the one Rob had recognised whispered urgently between clenched teeth, “Carl! Just back off will you!”

   For all that he was shorter than his accomplice, Carl was powerfully built and his eyes were cold and brutal; he was not the sort of person to back away from a confrontation and Rob gasped as suddenly he felt a sharp pain sear through his chest. He looked down and saw Carl’s hand gripping the handle of a hunting knife. The blade was plunged deep inside him and when he opened his mouth to scream, the only sound that escaped was a dull, deep groan. Carl’s eyes stared up at him; they held no sign of any emotion, no guilt, no remorse, not even any pleasure. Carl pushed again with the knife, this time twisting it hard as he did. Rob gasped with the renewed sharpness and intensity of the pain and bent forward as the blade reached up behind his ribs. The seconds ticked by as Rob stared at Carl and Carl stared back at him, daring him to live. After a few moments, Carl wrenched the blade of the knife free and blood began to pump from the wound in Rob’s chest. Rob watched, almost detached, as it splattered onto the patterned rug beneath him, some of it hitting Carl’s trousers.

   “What the hell have you done!” shouted the one Rob had recognised as Rob collapsed onto to the floor.

   “Well what did you expect me to do? He saw us! And he recognised
you
.” The amazement in Carl’s voice emphasised the enormous gulf than existed between their differing moralities. “I had no choice. I had to do it.”

   Rob lay slumped on the floor, his hands clasped over his chest where the knife had pierced his solar plexus.

   “What are we going to do now?” There was panic in the taller figure’s voice but Carl remained calm.

   “We’re going to do what we came here to do.”

   “But what about him? What about Rob?”

   “In a few minutes, he’ll be dead.”

   “But we can’t just leave him here to die! He needs a doctor.”

   Carl’s patience snapped. “Are you thick or what? We’re not going to call a doctor. Or an ambulance. In fact, we’re not going to do anything that might get us caught. OK? There is no way I’m going back inside again.” 

   As Carl stared defiantly at his accomplice, Rob’s eyes slowly closed for the last time.

_________________________

   Nicole and Eloise were chatting happily as they drove home from the party along the dark, unlit lanes. It was a warm and humid summer’s evening and Nicole had opened her window to let some air into the car. In the distance, she could hear the rumble of thunder and the trees beside the road rustled with the first stirrings of a wind.

   As Nicole drove up to Darrington Hall, Eloise suddenly stopped in mid-sentence and stared at the front of the house. Her tone changed and became tense.

   “Mum,” she said, touching her mother’s arm, “The front door’s wide open.”

   Nicole stopped the car and looked at the pool of light spilling out of the doorway onto the gravel drive. She didn’t say a word but got out of the car hurriedly and walked quickly towards the house, with Eloise following a few paces behind her. As soon as she entered the hall, Nicole saw Rob lying on the rug. She stopped and looked at him; he wasn’t moving. Her hand went to her mouth as she stood motionless, unable to comprehend what she was seeing but fearing the worst.

   Then, as the inescapable reality of what she saw forced itself upon her, she screamed Rob’s name and her whole body started shaking uncontrollably.

   Eloise heard Nicole’s scream as she came into the hall behind her. When she saw what had so shocked her mother, she gasped. She looked at Rob, then at her mother, and then back at Rob. With Nicole still unable to move, Eloise approached her brother slowly. She saw the pool of blood that had seeped from the wound in his chest and knelt down beside him. Despite finding it difficult to breathe, Eloise forced herself to take Rob’s wrist in her hand. She felt for a pulse but there was nothing, just the cold clamminess of death. Slowly, she got back to her feet and returned to her mother before gently guiding her across the hall and sitting her down in the seat next to the telephone table.

   Heavy driving rain was spattering against the hall windows as Eloise picked up the telephone and dialled 999.

_________________________

   The day after Rob Darrington’s murder was officially announced, Eloise decided to go back to work to try to take her mind off what had happened. She had been reluctant to leave her mother on her own but Nicole had insisted that she would be fine.

   That day, the
Yorkshire Post
carried the story of Rob’s death on the front page. A colour photograph had been provided at the request of the reporter, whose insistence on having it had brought him close to having the door slammed in his face.

   The telephone kept ringing as people read the story and called to extend their sympathy. There were also several calls from other newspapers wanting to pick up on the story and Nicole’s friend, Anna Baines, had come over early to see if she could do anything to help. Nicole had tried to answer the first few calls herself but she kept finding that she was unable to speak and had then asked Anna to deal with them.

   The doctor had given Nicole some strong sedatives, the effects of which had left her feeling a bit groggy. In the kitchen, she made herself a mug of coffee before going into the living room and sitting down on the sofa, her mind a jumble of thoughts and memories of Rob. Next to the sofa, was the box of mementos from which she had selected the picture of Rob for the paper. She took a small bundle of photographs from the box and started looking through them. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she looked at one of Rob and Eloise taken on holiday only a few weeks earlier. They had been playing beach tennis and Eloise had fallen on top of her brother; they looked so happy. There was also one of Rob proudly holding his new toy, an iPad; it had been a present from her, given to him only ten days before his death, on his nineteenth birthday. Through her tears she could see again how pleased he had been with it and she recalled the evening of the day following his birthday.

   She and Eloise had been entertaining Anna and her husband Jeremy. A couple of months earlier, it had been Jeremy who had offered Eloise a good job with his company, before she had even finished her course, not that there had been the slightest doubt about her passing her final exams and graduating.

   As the evening had drawn to a close and Jeremy and Anna had left, Eloise and Nicole had been clearing up in the lounge when Rob had come into the room, excitedly holding the iPad in his hands. They had both looked towards him as he had entered but it was Eloise who spoke to him, voicing the thoughts both she and her mother were having.

   “Nice of you to honour us with your presence,” she said sarcastically.

   “Hey, come on, Sis, admit it. If you’d just got an iPad, you’d be wanting to get it all set up too.”

   Rob looked up from his iPad, not really understanding why Eloise was annoyed with him.

   “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” she said in a bored tone before pushing past her brother and starting to collect the empty glasses. As she gathered them and put them on a tray, Rob continued walking round the room playing with his new toy.

   Then, suddenly, he stopped and stared intently at the iPad before exclaiming, “What the fuck!” Eloise looked round and smiled but his mother was less amused by his language. She frowned as Eloise walked towards Rob, a mischievous smile lighting up her face.

   “Ah, what’s the matter, little brother? Is it broken already?” she teased as she wandered round behind him.

   “This is weird,” said Rob, continuing to stare at the screen of his iPad, oblivious to the fact that Eloise was now peering over his shoulder trying to see what all the fuss was about. Unable to see anything, she gave up and came round to Rob’s side before reaching out and snatching the iPad out of his hands.

   “Here, let’s see,” she said as she drew it towards herself and looked at it, noting that the screen of the iPad was covered with row after row of numbers in groups of six.

   “Looks like spam to me,” she said.

   “That’s because it’s in code,” said Rob, holding out his hand expectantly and waiting for Eloise to return the iPad to him.

   Instead, she just rolled her eyes before responding, as many an older sister would, in a way that emphasised how stupid she considered her little brother to be.

   “Oh yeah, course it is,” she said, as she laughed at him mockingly, “How silly of me not to realise.”

   Rob angrily snatched the iPad back from Eloise and she turned away from him. Still smiling to herself, she picked up the tray of glasses and left the room as he gave her a drop dead look.

   Reluctantly, Nicole put the picture back with the others, each of which recalled other happy times, and replaced the bundle in the box beside her. She was wiping her eyes with a handkerchief when Anna glided silently into the room. Anna was tall for a woman and slim and she carried herself with a natural ease and poise learned from many hours of walking up and down with a large book balanced on her head. Her hair was always carefully coiffed and her make-up perfect. She was every inch the society wife and had been married to Jeremy for more than twelve years.

   Although Anna was considerably younger than Nicole, she was one of Nicole’s best friends and the two had got to know each other quite well over the years. Nicole’s husband’s printing business, which was still functioning despite his demise three years earlier, did a lot of work for Jeremy’s company and Nicole had been grateful to Jeremy for his support following Andrew’s death. She was also grateful to him for giving Eloise a job, one which Eloise had told her she was enjoying very much.

   “Would you like some more coffee?” asked Anna.

   “No, I’ve still got some, thanks,” said Nicole, picking up the mug from the coffee table and smiling weakly.

   Anna sat on the sofa, close to Nicole, and looked at her sympathetically. “Are you all right?” she asked.

   “I was just looking at some photographs of Rob. They made me start crying again.”

   Anna took her hand. “I am so sorry this has happened,” she said, “He was such a lovely young man, so full of life, and fun. I still can’t quite believe it.” Anna paused. She looked at Nicole and then looked away. “I do wish sometimes that we could, you know, just go back in time and change what happens, don’t you?”

   Nicole looked at Anna uncomprehendingly and the two women sat in silence for a while, neither knowing what to say to the other. Although they had become good friends, always ready to help each other out, they were quite different. Nicole had never reached the point where she could honestly say that she understood Anna and their friendship had always operated on a slightly detached level. Theirs was not the closeness of bosom buddies who could empathise with each other and share their innermost secrets but Nicole valued their friendship for what it was, a source of unquestioning practical support whenever it was needed.

   “Have the police any idea what happened?” asked Anna, breaking the silence.

   “Not really. They seem to be completely baffled by the whole business. Apart from Rob’s iPad, nothing was stolen. The only explanation they can come up with is that Rob surprised a burglar before he had a chance to take anything else and that the burglar fled in panic after he…” Nicole choked, unable to bring herself to say the words as she relived the moment when she and Eloise had found Rob’s body slumped, lifeless, in the hall.

_________________________

   The next morning, as he walked along Madison Avenue in New York, Carter was blissfully unaware of the devastating events which had taken place in Yorkshire a couple of nights before.

   At number 270 on that famous street stands the Education Center of the Gemological Institute of America and on that cloudless day in June, the sun shone brightly as Carter approached the building and went inside.