Slur: The Riverhill Trilogy: Book 1 (10 page)

Despite her
efforts to cheer herself up, however, Julie failed and she ended the evening extremely
drunk and downhearted. She couldn’t remember how she got home but recalled
falling into bed in a drunken stupor. She slept for the next ten hours. It was
the best night’s sleep she had had for the last week. However, she did not wake
up feeling refreshed. She woke up with a dry throat, a blinding headache, and feeling
both physically sick and sick at heart.

Her
thoughts were troubling her. She was amazed at Rita’s resilience and couldn’t
help but think that if Rita had recovered so well from such a traumatic week,
then maybe she could have recovered just as well from the guilt of being
Amanda’s killer. Instead of feeling upset, worried and ashamed as Julie did, Rita
was reacting with indifference interspersed with periods of anger and
aggression. Were those the reactions of a guilty person perhaps? Or, worse
still, a murderer? Could Rita have slipped something else into Amanda’s drink
without anyone knowing about it? But how would Rita get hold of drugs? Her
sister, of course; she did go around with some pretty dodgy characters. But why
would Rita want to do it? Bitterness? Resentment?

Apart from
that there was the way that Rita was so quick to blame Jacqueline. It seemed
that every time they discussed Amanda’s death, Rita tried to point the finger
of suspicion at Jacqueline. Did she genuinely suspect Jacqueline or was she
trying to divert attention?

Then Julie mentally
chided herself for thinking in such a way. The events of the last week must have
taken their toll if she was beginning to suspect her best friend who she had
known for years.

Saturday 28
^th
June 1986

Vinny was pleased to see Julie on Saturday night. When he
opened his front door, he had a beaming smile on his face. As she stepped
inside he showered her with compliments. ‘You look gorgeous tonight love. I
like your blouse, is it a new one?’

Julie
guessed that this was Vinny’s way of cheering her up and trying to make up for
their argument of a few days ago. She returned his smile, attempting to appear
relaxed.

He offered
her a drink. Julie had only just recovered from her hangover from the previous
night’s overindulgence, and now had a very dry throat. The thought of sharing
one or two bottles of wine with Vinny didn’t appeal. What she would have
preferred was a long, cool, refreshing glass of water. However, she didn’t want
to spoil Vinny’s plans for this evening, so she accepted the proffered glass of
wine.

‘Well,
where did you get to last night?’ she asked.

‘Pete met
this bird he fancied and we ended up going to another club so that he could be
with her. He was like a little lamb following her everywhere. I left them to it
in the end and came back here. I think I was a bit in the way. From what he
told me today he’ll be seeing her again.’

‘He sounds
keen.’

‘Yeah, he
is.’

Then Vinny
changed the subject. ‘It was a good match today. We won 3 –1.’

The subject
of football had never appealed to Julie but she feigned interest. ‘Oh that’s good.’

Julie
downed her glass of wine, which made her thirstier. ‘Vinny, would you mind if I
had a glass of water?’ she asked. ‘I’m a bit dehydrated from last night.’

Vinny
obliged. ‘Good night then, was it?’ he asked.

Julie was
unable to disguise her shock at such a question and it was now impossible to
retain her polite, relaxed façade. ‘You haven’t got a fuckin’ clue have you?’ she
asked vehemently.

Vinny, in
his ignorance, was stunned. He couldn’t understand what he had done to provoke
such an attack but he didn’t wish to get into yet another argument. Vinny had
planned a lovely evening for them both, an evening of relaxation, drinking,
chatting and ultimately, seduction.

He replied cautiously.
‘What’s the matter love, what have I said?’

‘We were
drowning our bleedin’ sorrows,’ Julie snapped back. ‘A friend of ours has just
died, remember, and we’ve had the bad luck to have been accused of killing
her!’

Vinny raised
his hands in mock surrender, ‘OK, I’m sorry, I didn’t think.’

Then he
paused for a moment, giving further thought to the situation before continuing.
‘Look Julie, I know you’ve had a hard time of it, and in my own way I’m trying
to cheer you up and take your mind off things, that’s all.’

Julie
replied, stonily, ‘Some things just won’t go away.’

Vinny’s
response was to take Julie in his arms and stroke her hair, ‘It’s OK. Things
will get better, I promise you.’

‘Well,
that’s you and Rita that seem to think so. I just wish I could feel that
confident about it.’

‘Don’t
mention Rita to me! You should have heard the stick I got from my mates about
the way she was carrying on last night. Rita the Man Eater they call her. How
do you put up with a friend like her?’

‘She’s all
right really. It’s all just a big laugh to Rita, her way of taking her mind off
things. Pete’s just got a downer on her because she dumped him.’

‘It’s not
just Pete, Julie; all the lads think she’s a tart.’

‘Oh yeah,
and where do you think they’ve got that idea from? Pete, of course! Leave Rita
alone. From what she tells me she’s been through a lot. That’s probably why
she’s like she is.’

‘Well I’d
watch her if I were you!’

‘Why, is
she a threat?’

‘Not with
me she isn’t; I wouldn’t touch her with a barge pole! Besides, I’m happy with
what I’ve got,’ he said, as he planted a kiss on her cheek.

After a few
minutes of comforting Julie and feeling her become more relaxed in his arms,
Vinny placed his hand under her chin and turned her face up towards his. He
then kissed her passionately on the lips and she responded. He ventured
further, undoing the buttons on her blouse.

Julie could
feel Vinny becoming aroused but she was unable to respond. Usually the touch of
his hand on her breast would send shivers down her spine and a tickling
sensation in her stomach, but now all she felt was irritation. She tried to
persuade herself that she would enjoy it once she got in the mood, but it was hopeless.
The dark thoughts that tormented her mind also negated her bodily sensations. She
felt cold, indifferent and unresponsive. Eventually she decided that there was no
point going further and she struggled free of Vinny. ‘It’s no good Vinny, I
can’t.’

‘Why not, I
thought you were up for it?’

‘Well I’m
not. I can’t explain it Vinny, I just don’t feel in the mood tonight.’

‘Well,’ he
replied, becoming angered at her rejection. ‘There’s nowt like leading me on
and then dropping me, is there?’

‘I wasn’t
trying to lead you on Vinny! I thought that if we carried on I might come round
to it, but I can’t. I’m not in the mood tonight, that’s all. What’s wrong with
that?’

Vinny was
reduced to silent contemplation. Julie, his Julie, had changed during the last
week and he was finding it very difficult to come to terms with her alter ego.
He didn’t attempt to make further conversation, fearful of upsetting her again.
Instead he sat drinking his wine and flicking through a newspaper that had been
lying on the coffee table.

Julie was
also in a state of contemplation. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be
on her own, moping and miserable. Vinny’s behaviour was annoying her and she
knew that it was unfair to take her feelings out on him.

She decided
that it would be better for them both if she left. ‘Vinny, can you order me a
taxi please? I want to go home.’

‘I don’t
want you to go home Julie. You don’t need to go home!’ Vinny pleaded. ‘It’s OK,
we don’t have to have sex if you don’t want. We can just watch a film or
something. I just want you to be with me Julie.’

Hearing
Vinny plead in this way almost reduced Julie to tears of guilt and frustration,
and she couldn’t hide the emotion in her voice. ‘I’m sorry Vinny, but the way I
feel at the moment, I’m just making both of us miserable and it isn’t fair to
you.’

Vinny conceded
and ordered her a taxi. As she left his home, he kissed her on the cheek and
said, ‘Bye love, hope you’re feeling better soon.’

Julie
managed a reticent smile as she walked to the taxi. ‘I’ll ring you when I am,’
she assured.

Vinny
watched as the taxi took Julie away. When he thought about their shambles of an
evening, he felt anger and disappointment at himself. Why did he always have to
botch things up? He knew what she had been going through and had been
determined to make the evening good for her. He had hoped to take her mind off
her troubles while she was with him, but he hadn’t succeeded.

Vinny
thought about her parting words. ‘I’ll ring you when I’m feeling better’ was
what she had meant. He understood that this was her way of telling him not to
bother ringing her while she was in this frame of mind; his only choice was to
wait for her call.

--------------------

Sunday
29
^th
June 1986

It was Sunday
evening and Julie sat alone yet again in her bedroom. She had finally gained
the solitude that she had craved all weekend, but it brought no comfort.
Instead she was tormented once more by her own thoughts; the atmosphere of
Friday night, the way she had upset Vinny, how much she missed Amanda and
worries about what was to become of her and Rita. “
And if all that wasn’t
bad enough,
” she thought, “
I’ve still got work to face tomorrow!
”

She got
changed into her nightshirt and as she lay in her bed she tried to prepare
herself for yet another night of troubled sleep.

Monday 30
^th
June 1986

When Julie arrived at work on Monday she wasn’t feeling at
her best. Apart from not getting much sleep during the night, thoughts of such
a terrible weekend were still fresh in her mind. Norma, perceptive as ever,
picked up on how she was feeling straightaway.

‘Bad weekend
again was it?’

‘You bet!’

‘I expected
it,’ said Norma to Julie’s surprise. ‘Well, I know you Julie and you’re not the
sort of girl to go out and have a whale of a time after what’s happened.’

Norma’s
sensitivity touched Julie as she replied. ‘It’s everywhere I go Norma. When I go
out with the girls they’re trying their best not to mention it, which only
makes it worse. The people in our local were ready to hang us on Friday night.
Rita totally lost it and attacked this silly cow who was giving us grief. And to
make matters worse, I’ve fell out with Vinny.’

‘Oh you
haven’t, have you?’

‘Well not
so much fell out as I just can’t be bothered at the moment. He doesn’t seem to
understand what I’m going through. Nobody does. This weekend was nearly as bad
as the previous one. In fact, I think the only good part of last week was
Thursday night.’

Despite her
stresses, Julie began to look all dreamy eyed again as she thought about her date
with Mike.

‘Talk of
the devil,’ said Norma and before Mike was within earshot, she added, ‘I bet
he’s come to ask you for another date.’

Julie
followed Norma’s line of vision and watched in amazement as Mike flew past, completely
blanking her.

‘It’s
because of Amanda, isn’t it?’ she asked Norma, the disappointment evident in
her voice.

‘Perhaps
not, it might have nothing to do with that. He’s maybe just late for an
appointment, that’s all.’

‘No, I’m
not stupid Norma. I know what it is. He doesn’t want to know me ’cos he thinks
I killed Amanda.’

As Julie’s
face adopted a pained expression, Norma didn’t contradict her or offer any
further assurances about Mike.

Later that
day when Norma returned from a late lunch break she brought some news with her.
She broached the subject with Julie, ‘It’s the funeral on Thursday. There are
rumours that the company will be operating with a skeleton staff and we’ve to
tell all callers that someone will get back to them the following day due to
special circumstances.’

‘Oh,’ was
Julie’s initial response. Then she followed it with, ‘Are you going?’

‘Not if you
want to. There’ll have to be at least one of us here to man the switch.’

‘Oh yeah,
they’ll welcome me with open arms, won’t they?’

‘I see your
point Julie, but it doesn’t seem fair. You were Amanda’s friend and you’ve just
as much right to be there as anyone.’

‘It’s not
worth it Norma. It was bad enough in the pub on Friday, and they didn’t even
know Amanda. Imagine what the reaction of Jacqueline and her cronies will be,
not to mention that bloody Les and Amanda’s family? They’ll all think I’m
guilty.’

‘Are you
sure you’ll be all right here if I go?’

‘Yeah, I’ve
no choice have I?

Norma
remained silent for a few moments, at a loss as to how to respond. Finally she
said, ‘You look all in love. Have you not been sleeping either?’

‘Not much.’

‘Well we’re
not very busy at the moment so why don’t you go and have a coffee? There’ll be
no-one in the canteen at this time so you won’t have that to worry about.’

‘Are you
sure Norma?’

‘Of course,
go on! I’ll manage’

Julie
arrived at the canteen without encountering anybody. She felt relief at being
able to go somewhere without facing everybody’s anger and accusations. She sat
there for a while staring out of the window, just her and her cup of coffee.
Becoming pensive, she couldn’t help but recall the dismal events of the last
two weekends. When she realised how such thoughts were controlling her mind,
she tried to break free of them but they wouldn’t disappear. She shook her head
vigorously from side to side in an attempt to banish those thoughts. Still they
would not go away.

Julie
realised that spending time on her own was a mistake. She needed to keep busy!
That was the only way to take her mind off things. She left her cup of coffee
half empty and shoved her chair back under the table, her irritation showing.

On the way
back to the switchboard she stopped off at the ladies. Jacqueline was the last
person she expected to see there, and Julie felt a surge of fear pulse through
her body as Jacqueline and her friend halted their conversation and scrutinised
her. Instead of the verbal onslaught that Julie was expecting, however,
Jacqueline merely grasped her bag from the sink surround and breezed past her,
saying to her friend, ‘Come on, we don’t want to be seen with a murderer, do
we?’ 

Julie was
dumbstruck. For some reason they had seemed anxious to get away. This was
uncharacteristic of Jacqueline; Julie had expected another confrontation. She
shrugged and turned towards the mirror. Shocked at the sight of her pale
reflection, she spent a few moments applying make-up before entering a cubicle,
where she shut the door.

And there
it was! Staring back at her. Forgetting what she had come into the ladies for,
she dashed out, screaming in horror.

It took
Norma several minutes to calm her down, and even then, the only coherent words
she could get out of her were, ‘in the toilets… a cloth.’

Eventually,
when Julie had calmed down enough to carry out her duties on the switchboard,
Norma decided to go to the toilets to find out for herself what great terror was
lurking there.

Norma was
unable to spot the cause of Julie’s disturbance at first and thought that maybe
Julie had had another encounter with Jacqueline. It wasn’t until she went
inside a cubicle that she spotted the words, ‘JULIE QUINLEY IS A MURDERER’
emblazoned on the back of the door, in huge letters, which covered its entire
length and breadth.

Norma
decided to play it down. ‘Honestly Julie, I thought somebody had been attacked
or something. It’s just some silly bugger up to a prank, that’s all! Here’s a
cloth and some cleaner. Go and scrub it off if it makes you feel any better.’
Then, realising the harshness of her words, she added, ‘Those that want to believe
it will believe it anyway, and those of us that don’t, still don’t, so try not
to let it worry you!’

Despite
brisk scrubbing, Julie was unable to get rid of any of the writing. Whoever put
it there had used a permanent marker. She cried tears of frustration as she
continued to rub futilely at the toilet door until she realised that, just like
her anguished thoughts, no matter how hard she tried, it was never going to go
away!

--------------------

Monday
30
^th
June 1986

After
another difficult day Julie was relieved to arrive home. She was even more relieved
when she received a phone call from Rita to say that she was calling round to
see her. In her naivety, Julie believed that she was coming to cheer her up.
Rita’s news surprised her.

‘I’ve been
made redundant.’

‘Oh Rita,
I’m so sorry to hear that! As if you haven’t got enough on your plate!’

‘It’s no
big deal Julie. Factory jobs are ten a penny. Anyway, I’ve decided to have a
well-earned rest. I’m going on holiday to Greece with Debby.’

Julie, normally
so selfless, could not help but feel betrayed and her first thought was that
she would be left to cope alone while Rita was away sunning herself.

‘Well,
aren’t you going to wish me a nice time?’ asked Rita.

Julie
snapped to her senses. ‘Yes, of course I hope you have a nice time Rita. I’m
just a bit surprised, that’s all. It seems so sudden!’

‘Well,
I didn’t get a bad payoff having been there for five years, so I thought, why
not?’

‘What
about Debby, she’s only been there a year or so; how’s she going to afford it?’

‘She’s
got savings, believe it or not, always has had from being a kid. I mean, when
you think about it she doesn’t spend much. She only goes out once or twice a
week with the girls. We share taxis, she pays for a couple of drinks and her
entrance to a club. Then, she cops off with someone the minute we get inside
and lets them pay, not that I blame her.’

‘How
will you go on if she does her disappearing act and you get left on your own
when you’re abroad?’

‘Oh,
you know me Julie, not exactly a wallflower am I? And if there’s plenty of
talent up for grabs, I’ll be doing plenty of grabbing.’

‘Oh
you dirty sod’, laughed Julie, momentarily forgetting her troubles.

‘Anyway,
what’s to stop you coming with us Julie? We’ll have a right laugh!’

‘There’s
not much to laugh about at the moment Rita. Besides, how would it look at work
if I took a couple of weeks off? They’d think that I can’t face them!’

‘Don’t be
daft! What does it matter what they think? A holiday will do you good!’

‘No Rita, I
can’t go. I have to stay here and see this through. If I go away, I’ll still
have to face it when I come back. Anyway, what about the police; will they let you
go out of the country while you’re under suspicion?’

‘Stuff the police!
They’ve already questioned us twice and they’ve got nothing on us. I won’t even
let them know I’m going away. If they want to speak to me again, they’ll just
have to ring the bloody hotel!’

‘When do you
go?’

‘Friday
night.’

‘Bloody hell!
You don’t waste time, do you?’

‘Well, they
laid us off there and then, so there was no point hanging around. Me and Debby
went straight to the travel agents to cheer ourselves up. It’s going to be a
mad rush. I’m going out to buy some new gear tomorrow, then I’ll have to get
some sun lotions and all that. I can’t wait!’

Julie
didn’t bother mentioning that Amanda’s funeral had been arranged. Neither did
she bother asking Rita how she was feeling after Friday night. Rita seemed so
happy at the moment that she didn’t want to spoil it for her. Besides, there
didn’t seem any need to ask as Rita appeared to be all right, and Julie was
once again surprised at her strength of character.

After Rita
had droned on for a while about her holiday preparations, Julie decided to
change the subject.

‘There was
some graffiti about me on the loo walls at work today.’

‘Oh yeah,
what did it say?’

Julie’s
voice trembled as she uttered the words, ‘Julie Quinley is a murderer.’

‘Oh take no
notice! It’ll be that bitch Jacqueline and her cronies.’

‘It’s hard
to ignore it Rita. I couldn’t get it off the wall. I’ll see it every time I go
in there and so will everyone-else.’

‘That Jacqueline’s
trying to cover up her own guilt by pinning it on you. The cow! I wish I could
get my hands on her!’

Julie
noticed that once again Rita was quick to point the finger of blame on
Jacqueline, but maybe Rita was right; perhaps Jacqueline was the guilty one. It
was certainly a better alternative than Rita.

‘I’ve been
thinking about that, Rita,’ she said. ‘Can you remember if there was any time
when she was alone with Amanda?’

‘That’s a point!
Let me think. God, it’s difficult to remember now; we were all a bit pissed but
she was with her before we got there, don’t forget.’

‘I know,
but Amanda was all right then. What about later on, in the Boardrooms? I can remember
us two going to the loos together when we got gabbing for ages. Did we leave
Amanda on her own then or was Debby with her?’

‘She was on
her own as far as I remember. Debby was being chatted up by some bloke but
Jackie had already gone for a meal by then.’

‘What if
Jacqueline hadn’t gone for a meal though? She could have been hanging around,
then come over and given drugs to Amanda as soon as she knew she was on her
own. Then she could have disappeared before we got back, couldn’t she?’

‘Well I
suppose so, but what would be the point of that?’

‘I don’t
know, but someone’s done it! They must have a reason, and Jacqueline is a
spiteful bitch! Maybe she was jealous of Amanda, or maybe she was trying to
frame us for whatever reason.’

‘I suppose
it’s possible, but the problem is proving that she did it Julie. Don’t forget,
the police will have interviewed loads of witnesses from the pubs, and if
anybody had seen Jacqueline go over they’d have had her in for questioning.’

‘It’s just
so bloody annoying! I know that we didn’t do it, but everybody thinks we did
and there’s no way I can prove otherwise. I just can’t make any sense out of
any of it. As if it’s not bad enough that Amanda’s dead, without all this other
hassle.’

‘Julie,
you’re letting it get to you too much. Just ignore the bastards, or tell them
to fuck off!’