Blood Red Daffodils

By M. P. Swinnerton

This is the story of 3 people who have been friends from childhood but jealousy creeps into the equation as they become adults both in their love lives and their businesses. The one female in the trio is the cause of the rifts in the friendship and one of the the men eventually becomes so obsessed with beating his rival that he turns to killing as his way of solving his problem. This is the way he sees he can combat his rival in business and that is by producing red daffodil flowers.
He starts murdering innocent people in order to obtain the fresh blood he requires to feed his plants and this then becomes his normal way of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781626751804

Book preview

9781626751804

Chapter 1

The two youths cycled swiftly and silently, without speaking a word, away from the housing estate where they lived until they reached the spot they had previously found when they had made a recce earlier.

Then they dismounted from their bicycles and hid them in the thick bushes that edged the road. They were both hyped up with the risk of their plans. The youngest boy in particular started to tremble uncontrollably with fear but managed to curb his shaking by the time they reached the undergrowth where he began to feel a modicum of safety.

The elder of the two youths, Sam, produced a torch and they then pushed their way through the undergrowth until they reached the perimeter fence that separated the Garden Centre from the main road and crept along this fence until they arrived at the far end of the Garden Centre where they found the gap that they were looking for. They had already discovered this small gap in the wire fence when they had explored the area on previous visits, so they knew exactly where they were going in order to attempt to enter the grounds without being disturbed.

When they had stopped at their destination, the younger boy let out a scared shriek as a cat brushed against his leg and his brother shook his arm vigorously telling him to be quiet. One of the youths was very tall and lanky and on arriving at their designated entry spot he broke the silence by telling his brother to crouch over so that he could stand on his back in order to be able to pull himself up on to the top of the wall. When he himself was perched safely on the top of the wall, he then leaned back down and grabbing his brother’s outstretched arms, he heaved the younger boy up to pull him also to the top of the wall, saying, ‘Come on Jack, we have to be quick or someone may walk up the path and catch us, so get a wriggle on.’

The smaller of the two youths hastily pushed himself on to the top of the wall and sniggered at his companion’s remark, retorting, ‘Okay, Sam, I’m going as fast as I can, keep your hair on, man.

‘Shush, Jack, we must not make a sound now,’ replied Sam.

Then they dropped to the ground on the inside of the Garden Centre.

Both of them were dressed in dark close fitting clothing and, before they had left home, the boys’ mother had queried what they were wearing, telling them that they looked like a couple of burglars. As it was getting dark their mother had questioned their motive for going out so late and the youths had explained that they had been invited to a late night 18th birthday party for one of the gang.

‘Oh mam, don’t you recognize the latest fashion when you see it. It’s Saturday night and we need to be cool,’ the eldest boy retaliated and the woman seemed to be satisfied with his explanation.

‘Who knows what they will be wearing next,’ she thought, ‘I understood the latest fad was to wear baggy trousers revealing underpants and perhaps much more but who am I to comprehend the whims of today’s youth?’

The youths were both unemployed and as it was their mother’s birthday the next day the oldest lad had come up with the idea of stealing a potted plant from the Garden Centre and then giving it to their mother as a present. She would never know how they had obtained it and would be only too delighted to receive a gift at all to even bother about querying its provenance.

As they were picking themselves up from the ground inside the Garden Centre both the youths froze with fear as they heard the muffled barking of dogs and they also became aware that there were lights on in a building at the far side of the premises. The oldest boy was about to tell his younger brother that their plan was too risky and they would have to abort their robbery attempt when they both suddenly stopped in their tracks. A blood-curdling scream had pierced the air, followed by a long drawn out moan.

Both the youths stood dead still, listening to hear if there were any further screams until finally Sam said, ‘I didn’t like the sound of that, Jack, let’s get out of here quick.’

With that they scrambled back up the wall and dropped down the other side without a backward glance.

Sam shouted, ‘Run, Jack, come on let’s get away from here as fast as we can.

The two terrified youths disappeared into the undergrowth as fast as their legs could carry them and headed for their bicycles and the safety of home. The youngest boy suddenly veered off the road and dropping his bicycle on the grass verge started to vomit convulsively.

‘What the frigging heck is wrong with you?’ his brother demanded.

The youngest lad managed to mutter through his spasms, ‘Sam, that must have been some young bird being raped and we should have gone in to help her, shouldn’t we?’

‘Don’t be daft, Jack, that was the scream of a rabbit or small animal being caught by a fox, nothing more. Just forget it now.’ But Jack was also feeling sick inside as he quite well knew that the sound they had heard was a bit more serious than an act of nature in the animal kingdom.

Their mother was watching the television and was startled to hear them return so early.

‘What’s up Sam?’ she called out. ‘You’re back early.’

‘Oh the party was called off as Darren’s mum wouldn’t let him have it at their house in the end.’

‘Don’t blame her!’ retorted their mother. ‘Frightened they would be inundated with yobs ‘doing’ drugs and getting drunk, I expect.’

Both the youths grunted in acknowledgement and told their mother they were going to Sam’s room to play on his Wii console.

As soon as they were safely ensconced in their bedroom, Sam closed the door tightly so as to ensure that their mother could not hear their conversation. He then turned to Jack and said, ‘Do not mention what happened tonight to anyone ever. Do you understand? We will just have to find another present for mother somehow tomorrow.’ The younger boy replied, ‘But Sam, don’t you think we should report what we heard to the police? Someone may have been murdered or taken prisoner. Something definitely not right was going on in there, wasn’t it?’ ‘No, Jack, do what I say, otherwise we will be in trouble for being in the Garden Centre, just forget all about it

. No more was said between the two youths about the incident and they both eventually managed to put the episode to the back of their minds

Chapter 2

The three of them were born and brought up in a very pretty village in North Dorset and attended the same primary school; they had played together and did all the usual things that children normally did when living near to one another and naturally they were constantly visiting one another’s houses for snacks and play times.

Their parents were all connected with the farming sector and consequently met quite frequently in one another’s homes. Often they would meet up just for a chat about the current problems with agriculture and pass on ideas as to how to improve one another’s businesses.

Mark’s father was not actually a farmer, although he had been brought up on his father’s farm but he himself had decided to go into horticulture as a business and he had been fortunate enough to purchase a large Garden Centre when it had come onto the market at a very tempting price.

As their parents were such good friends, it was only natural that their children, by growing up in such a close-knit community, had also become great pals.

Melissa Parker, Sebastian Green and Mark Blake were almost like little peas in a pod; the three of them went riding on their own ponies but always together; they went swimming together and as they grew older each one of them bought the same brand and model of mobile phone; had the same model of laptop computer; had identical iPods and iPads and used the same ISP. When one of them came home with a new ‘gizmo’, the others had to follow suit and persuade their own parents to let them have the same desirable bounty. They could have been mistaken for siblings in the way they were almost joined at the hips. There was only one obvious difference between them and that was in their complexions. The boys were of fairish skin tone whereas Melissa quite obviously had some exotic blood running through her veins. She had a fantastic skin colour, almost almond, and her hair was thick, dark and very curly. Her eyes were dark brown, nearly black and very striking. .Sometimes, after enduring snide comments by classmates, Melissa would query her parents as to why she was so dark and yet they were both fair skinned. She was annoyed when taunted by some of the other children who often called her rude and racist names and she wanted to be able to fight back with some clever explanation re her origins, but her parents were unbending in their attitude to this anomaly

.‘Hush, Melissa, perhaps sometime in our far distant ancestry there may have been a dark skinned relation to us, but honestly I am not aware of it. It is just a fluke of nature. You should be grateful that you are so beautiful. Many a girl would give anything to have your looks and colouring,’ her mother would chide her.

Each one of them being the only child of comfortably well off parents was subsequently quite a little spoilt and used to getting their own way. Melissa was always the ‘leader of the pack’ amongst the three of them but the boys were quite content with that. Whether it was because she was so pretty and a girl - after all the boys coming from decent families had been taught that boys should always be polite and protective to all females - or the fact that Melissa definitely had a much stronger character than the other two, was not entirely clear. The three of them very rarely fell out and if they did it was never for long and they enjoyed a really harmonious relationship with one another that is until it was time to leave senior school and go on to higher education. At this point they all went their separate ways. Mark went to a local Agricultural College and studied botanical history whereas the other two both plumped for University degrees; Melissa went to Bath and Sebastian went to Bristol. As their Universities were fairly near to one another in distance, Melissa and Sebastian would often meet up on their free days and weekends and it was only a natural progression that the two of them soon become much closer friends. The three of them still met up on the occasions when they happened to be at home, at the same time, but somehow they had lost that special rapport between them. They were all grown up now and had diverse interests and different friends particularly Mark who had entered a completely different ambience than Melissa and Sebastian.

Eventually after obtaining their qualifications and returning back to their village, although they still did bump into each other on occasions, this was now becoming a very rare event as their lives had become separated into such different channels.

Mark’s father who owned a large Garden Centre, understandably expected that this business would be passed on down to Mark when he, himself, became of retirement age and in fact it was precisely what Mark was to become involved in when he