Penny Black

By Brian Hibberd

Amazon Reviews - 5 Stars!
Gripping from beginning to end.
Fast paced.
Intricate plotting.
Well researched.
Unexpected twists.

Murder or Suicide? Rape or Infidelity? Justice or Injustice?

Following her return home after working the night shift at Royal Mail’s Cash Security Depot, Penny Black, suffers a brutal rape at the hands of her Manager, Alexander.
Penny’s husband, Tommy, struggles to come to terms with his wife’s disclosure, his angered rage agonising with her persuasion to follow the judicial system.
During the forthcoming Investigation, Alexander prevaricates, distorting the truth, convincing his friends and colleagues, he and Penny, were lovers and involved in an illicit affair. The prosecution’s case collapses, leaving Tommy an embittered and disillusioned man.
Whilst Tommy deliberates on how best to seek his own retribution, he returns to work at Royal Mails Cash Vaults, leaving his wife alone for the first time since her ordeal. When returning home from his night shift, Tommy discovers his dead wife’s body floating in the bath.
The inquest concluded a verdict of Suicide. Convinced that the evidence into the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death was manipulated, ex-army Intelligence Officer, Tommy, embarks on a life-changing journey to seek his own form of justice.
Following many months in the planning, Tommy devises an ingenious and elaborate plan to complete a daring robbery of thousands of pounds, collected from the ‘The Queen Elizabeth II’ Toll bridge.
The intrigue and deception involved leaves little room for error. He must remain one-step ahead of the Police Investigation at all times.
Tommy and his three closest friends, begin a voyage of discovery that takes them from a mundane existence of drudgery, to the heavenly blue seas of Belize, in the Caribbean, only to discover that shadows from their past follow in their wake.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Hibberd
• Release date: Apr 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311250766

Brian Hibberd

Amazon Reviews - 5 Stars.Gripping from beginning to end.Fast paced.Well researched.Intricate plotting.Unexpected twists.Born in London, the youngest to a family of six, social welfare was at its infancy, a difficult time in life where the family unit was the only benefit people could ultimately rely on.My Mother and Father worked hard, sharing whatever precious time they could between their four young children and the moralistic responsibilities of caring for their own elderly Mothers and Fathers.After leaving School, I started work in a London recording studio, where life’s unforeseen circumstance offered me a crossing of paths with a Private Investigator. Later, a formal working relationship developed into a good friendship, the experience of observing deception and falsehoods teaching me considerably more concerning life and human nature, than any formal education ever did.Settling into a family life of my own, regular social hours and a safer working environment was an inevitable transition. Working for Royal Mail, as Regional Revenue Protection Manager, I controlled several offices, dealing with company irregularities and fraudulent activities utilising my many years of experience to great effect.With an active imagination from an early age, I had always wanted to write a novel, but as is with the majority of normal, everyday people, responsibility, and circumstance would inevitably dictate such possibilities.I penned my first novel, ‘Penny Black, A Literary Crime Thriller, based on local knowledge and personal experiences. (Available on Amazon Kindle, Amazon Hard-copy www.amazon.co.uk/Penny-Black-Brian-J-Hibberd/dp/1508549508 )I am currently researching my latest work, a Historical, Crime Thriller, ‘Resurrectus. The first of a trilogy of novels, exposing answers to some of history’s most infamous unsolved crimes.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Last Stand

The morning sun broke through the slatted venetian blinds, spreading patterned shades of diffused light across Sofia’s naked curves, as she slept. The tips of Tommy’s fingers lightly caressed the contours of her soft, olive skin, before gently moving a solitary curl from her face. Still shocked with unexpected wonderment, Tommy gazed at the beautiful woman by his side, questioning his rekindled passion as delusory illusion, a fictitious desire from his recalcitrant mind.

Sofia opened her eyes, their sparkle as precious as cut diamonds, her gaze catching Tommy, smiling back at her. ‘Good morning, you,’ Sofia whispered, brushing her hair from her face.

‘It is now, ‘Tommy said, his light touch tracing the contours of her thin waist with the tips of his fingers. ‘Sleep well?’

‘Mm… best night I’ve had in a long-time,’ Sofia said, turning onto her side to face Tommy. She leaned forward, brushing her lips over his stubbled cheeks. ‘Tommy… there’s something I need to tell you…’ Tommy’s passion grew stronger with every taste of Sofia’s lips. ‘Tommy… I meant to tell you last night...’ Sofia murmured, fighting her own excitement. ‘Tommy…’

‘What?’ His mouth sensually caressing Sofia’s neck.

‘Stop… before you... I must tell you...’

A knock at the hotel room’s door abruptly interrupted Sofia’s confession. ‘Room service!’ a muffled voice said.

‘Agh… What timing!’ Tommy groaned. The waiter’s words were equivalent to a cold shower, dousing his burgeoning eagerness to explore Sofia’s inner splendour.

‘Hadn’t you better answer it?’ Sofia said, covering her naked elegance with a white bed sheet.

‘I’ll be right back. Don’t you move!’

Jumping from the bed, Tommy threw on his white towelling robe and opened his door. ‘Just put it over there, thanks,’ Tommy said, directing the waiter to the table beneath the window.

‘Will dat be all, sir?’

Tommy looked longingly at Sofia, ‘Yes! I think I have everything I need, now.’

A thunderous crack exploded inside Tommy’s ears. A cold, numbing sensation travelled across his skull. His legs buckled beneath him as though swiped from under him. Crashing to his knees, Tommy’s eyes rolled inside his head. Blood streaked down his forehead, seeping into his eyes and blurring his vision. Tommy watched helplessly as Sofia screamed and struggled with her attacker before he dragged her from the room.

The light in Tommy’s eyes dimmed.

‘Agh...’ Tommy groaned. A throbbing at the back of his head pained his re-awakening into the sunlight shining through the window. Vanilla fragrance filled the air. He blinked. Appearing in front of the light, a blurred vision loomed over him.

‘Yous need a doctor!’ exclaimed the housekeeper as she wiped the blood from Tommy’s face.

Tommy eased himself up onto his elbows. The pulsating ache at the back of his head stopped him from moving. ‘Ugh… Sofia… where’s Sofia?’ Tommy dragged himself from the floor, his legs feeling as heavy as lead. ‘Where is she? The woman who was here, with me?’

The housekeeper shook her head. ‘Don’t knows, sir. Yous was de only one ere when I walked past.’

Tommy’s eyes scanned the room, looking for clues. ‘How long have I been like this?’

The housekeeper looked at her watch, ‘Tis ten-twenty in de morning, sir, and I have only just found yous like dis.’

Tommy moved his neck. A cramping agony streaked across his head.

‘Yous must go to de hospital, sir!’

‘No! I’ll be fine… I just…’

Tommy’s eyes caught sight of a piece of paper resting on top of one of the pillows. His shaking hands grabbed at it, his fingers, roughly unfolding its secrets.

‘If you want to see her alive, come alone, with £5 million in cash. Turtle Cove Beach Bar. Tonight 18.00hrs.’

Tommy jumped to his feet. The room swayed. He threw out his arms, using the wall to help him regain his composure.

‘Yous need a doctor, sir.’

‘NO! I said… I’m fine! Say nothing about this, d’you hear me?! Nothing!’ Tommy looked at his watch. Time was against him yet again. ‘Just over seven hours to raise £5 million,’ Tommy mumbled to himself. He needed his friends if he was ever going to see Sofia alive.

With his heart hammering inside his chest, Tommy rushed out of his room and along the corridor as a cold sweat dripped down the crease of his spine. Splaying open his palms, he placed them across Slippery’s door and balanced himself as he pounded against the polished timber,

‘Slippery! I need ya! Open up!’

Within seconds, Slippery stood in the doorway, rubbing his eyes, ‘What’s so fuckin urgent? You know I aint had much sleep.’

Tommy pushed Slippery back inside his room. ‘Sofia! That woman I told you about last night… she’s been taken!’

‘Sofia! Your Sofia? But, I thought…’

Tommy shook his head. ‘Long story! Just get dressed. I don’t have time to explain! I need you to trust me.’

Slippery pulled on his trousers. ‘I do, son… but what can I do?’

Tommy tightly grabbed hold of Slippery’s arms. ‘I’ve got until six, tonight, to give some bastard £5 million quid or they’re gonna top her.’

‘Ok… Ok… Then let’s meet this guy and sort him ourselves.’

‘NO! If anyone else turns up, she’s dead! I can’t risk it!’ Tommy threw Slippery his shirt.

‘Ok. Calm down. Just tell me what ya want me to do.’

‘You get the others, and we’ll meet at the bank. I’ll explain more then.’

Two Years Previously

In the wondrous mysteries of a universe, where one second merges into infinite insignificance within your own diminutive part of space and time, a series of events click into actuality, altering the fabric of the future, hitting you smack in the face, as if to say, it’s your turn, Mr Thomas Black, it’s now time to fuck with your life.

Tommy Black, by his own observance, was an ordinary man, cast by centuries of common belief and society’s social bounds. He was a friend, husband, and colleague with unexceptional aspirations. He was a person of integrity, honesty, and loyalty. When, on one cold winter’s night, something happened that would change his life forever. With many experiences in dangerous regions of the world etched in his memories, the Army had prepared Tommy for many things that could be; however, chance, fate, luck, whatever divine will, predestination, or prophetic declaration, a decreed course of events would ultimately determine who would survive another day in hell and who would die.

The unpredictable was everyone’s nemesis in such hostile lands. From the moment Tommy closed his eyes last thing at night, until the first break of daylight, fate’s uncontrollable inevitability plagued his thoughts. His unseen enemy waited patiently in the shadows, discrete, diligent, silently observing its prey before striking its mortal blow.

Waking to a new day was a reward that not everyone had the good fortune to experience. In the end, it would all come down to chance. Why them and not me? Chance balances precariously between a reality of what you have come to recognise as your everyday life, and a variable of other nightmarish realities.

Chance had decided that on this day, the equilibrium to Tommy’s own existence would falter, tipping his future into an abyss of unfathomable depths, sending his life spiralling uncontrollably into an existence of disjointed manifestations. Its result would turn Tommy’s whole continuance, tumbling into an aggregate of profound perceptions, his normally reinforced facade, fractured, broken, into little more than crumbling relics of the past.

That pivotal life changing second clicked into actuality one, dark, winter’s night. By the time the mantel clock chimed midnight, a new order ruled over Tommy’s continuance. His nemesis had returned and this time, payment was due, in full.

Royal Mail Cash Security Depot

Her night began as normal as any. Penny’s watch flashed 02.30hrs. Blinking her eyes repeatedly only provided brief respite from the fleeting burning welling beneath her eyelids. That long awaited sound of the siren indicated the end of the night shift, its high-pitched tone always invigorating the weary into rejoining humanity once again. The customary muffled cheers echoed along the walkways as workers jumped to their feet, abandoning their workstations in droves, each joining the mass exodus towards the exits. One followed the other, like waves ebbing relentlessly onto the shore.

Hurrying along the corridor to the lockers sparked the usual competition. Shoulder bumping and jostling for position to be the first out of the main door was naturally inherent in everyone. No one wanted to stay a moment longer than necessary and tonight, especially, was no exception.

Burdensome snow clouds hovered with threatening intent over the sleeping residents of Kent. The tempest beyond the office walls had grown into chaotic spirals of snowy pillars, each gusting across frozen roads before crashing into steadfast buildings.

Normally, Penny loved that short walk home in the early hours of the morning. It was only a five-minute stroll to her home, and the streets were always deserted. Just Penny, alone, with a million eyes twinkling down from the endless blackness above watching over her, ensuring her course along the desolate streets remained secure until Tommy resumed her welfare once more.

Penny waved her goodbyes to her colleagues, who had already donned their coats and were leaving by the main gates. Bed beckoned them all, like the ringing of church bells calling its congregation from afar.

As Penny closed her locker door, she felt one hand rest on her shoulder. Hot breath burned onto the back of her neck a millisecond later.

‘Well, what about it then, Juggsy? Do you want a lift or not?’

‘Shit! Alexander, you scared the-!’

‘Fear not, Juggsy,’ Alexander interrupted with his well-versed sarcasm. ‘I’ll save you from that peril out yonder!’ he said, pointing dramatically to the snow-splattered window above. ‘Juggsy’ was Alexander’s nickname for Penny, due to her being more overly endowed, than the average female, as though it afforded her some form of clandestine compliment. Nevertheless, she dared not share her true feelings of utter distaste for such comments, especially as Alexander was her manager.

Alexander didn’t care if you were married or single. So convincing was his own autolatry, there was little opportunity for indulging another’s considerations.

Average in few areas, but below in most, Alexander relished his flirtatious sparring. Most women at the office laughed off his vulgarities and innuendos as harmless fun. However, this did little to suppress such undesirable behaviour, although Penny’s notion to his candour was more a show of bravado than confidence.

‘Thanks, but no, Alexander, I’m only five minutes away.’

‘I know where you live, Juggsy, and I’m going past yours, anyway.’ Alexander said, stepping a little closer to Penny.

Alexander possessed a tongue sharp as a scalpel, it could lacerate with a single word, but tonight, his over-exaggerated actions were unusual, his demeanour desperate, and his normally crass responses, absent.

Alexander’s advances towards Penny, during the six years she had worked in his department, were as plentiful as the flakes of snow falling from the sky. Until now, she managed to avoid them with cool rebukes, and sarcastic wit.

‘No, honestly, Alexander. You should share your high intellect and charming personality with someone else tonight who hasn’t had the pleasure of working with you for the last eight hours straight; it’s only fair, isn’t it?’

‘Overwhelming, am I? Too much for ya then, am I, Juggsy?’ Alexander replied, smirking at his innuendo.

‘You’re too much for any woman,’ Penny said, smiling as she closed and locked the door to her locker.

Unamused by her negative response, Alexander raised his voice in an aggressive response. ‘That’s it, is it? Not even good enough to give you a lift home!’

‘It’s not that. You know that.’

Alexander moved a little closer as Penny pulled her coat around her shoulders. ‘Here, at least let me help you with your jacket.’

Before Penny could answer, Alexander snatched the jacket from her grasp, held it with out-stretched arms, and beckoned her to turn around. Realising it was easier to concede to Alexander’s offer, rather than to begin a tug of war in the middle of an empty locker room, Penny moved forwards, allowing Alexander inside her personal space.

Alexander pressed his body closer to Penny, lightly brushing her lapels with his fingers, and discretely feeling the contours of her body beneath the coat’s silky, satin exterior. A shudder of unease scurried up Penny’s spine. She stepped back, breaking Alexander’s touch, re-establishing her boundary. Penny loathed confrontation, and tonight was no exception; she didn’t have the strength, or inclination to argue. All she desired was her bed, and the warmth of her husband at her side.

‘There. Wasn’t that bad, was it?’ Alexander said, placing his open palm on Penny’s forearm, stroking it as though trying to coax her into accepting his offer. Penny raised a painful smile of awkward embarrassment and fumbled with the buttons on her coat. ‘What is it with me, ‘Juggsy? I only wanna be friends.’

‘I don’t want to be THAT kind of a friend!’ Penny promptly replied, reinforcing her words with a sharp glare.

Alexander feigned a smile. ‘Of course, Mrs Black.’

There had been hostility between Alexander and Penny’s husband, Tommy, ever since their serving together in the same regiment, many years earlier. Anytime Penny would broach the subject with her husband, Tommy would immediately deflect her questioning, conspicuous in his reluctance to discuss it. Realising her husband’s sensitivity towards the subject, she never pressed him. Penny understood he had his own ways to deal with his past. Nevertheless, a soft caress of his cheek with her hand would reassure Tommy that she would always be there for him.

Penny narrowed her eyes. ‘Mrs Black? What’s with the Mrs Black?’

‘Well it’s me, being understanding and courteous. I promise I’ll only drop you home. There’s no hidden agenda. I just want this stupidity between us all to stop.’

Penny pondered his claim. Was Alexander offering a gesture to finally begin the healing between him and her husband? Many of the girls working at the cash centre had all, at some point, accepted a lift home by Alexander without incident.

Alexander smiled, raising his bushy eyebrows in a questioning manner. The locker room door slammed shut, its echo reverberating across the painted walls.

Penny jumped.

Alexander looked at his watch. ‘Ok then. Thank you, Mr Bates. I would very much like to accept your kind offer of a lift home.’

On hearing Penny’s acceptance, Alexander immediately turned on his heels, barked his orders and walked with a hastened pace towards the exit door.

‘Come on then, girl. Get those jugs into gear. Keep up, we ain’t got all night!’

‘So much for being courteous,’ Penny mumbled under her breath whilst trying to keep up with Alexander’s hurried gait.

Running across the empty car park, trying desperately to keep up with Alexander’s long striding paces, the hostile, raw wind stung at Penny’s face. Small chaotic whirlwinds sent leaves flurrying in all directions. Penny’s eyes watered. Her nose stung. Then she saw her refuge, standing alone, beneath the glow of a single orange street lamp. Alexander’s car was barely recognisable. Sprayed with a thick coating of snow, which clung to its original dark coloured paintwork, the irregular shaped snowball merged into the background as though morphed into its surroundings.

Alexander didn’t utter a single word. His eyes squinting from the biting wind, he fixed his gaze ahead.

‘A cold one tonight, eh, Alexander? The weathermen got it right tonight.’

No response left his thin lips. Alexander fumbled with the keys in his pocket, then the thumping of the central locking mechanism crashed loudly, impressing on Penny to grab for the door.

Struggling to free the hinges from the strong-force wind acting against it, Penny finally pulled her door open, throwing herself onto the front seat. Expelling a satisfactory breath of appreciation for the relative shelter offered from a small box, Penny’s numbed fingers fumbled with her seat belt.

‘It’s getting worse!’ Penny gasped, wiping a mass of damp, wind-swept hair from her face.

Alexander fiddled with his keys in the ignition, cussing under his breath an amalgamate mix of incoherent expletives as the engine spluttered into life. The automatic defrost fans whirled their magic, slowly dispersing the thin layer of ice crystals forming on the inside of the screen. The windscreen wipers fought against the build up of snow restricting its movement.

Alexander repeatedly depressed the accelerator pedal, racing the engine into life. Clouds of grey smoke ejected from the exhaust before the sound of the engine settled into a recognisable humming. The deserted world beyond the glass gradually materialised before their eyes.

‘Soon be home and out of this… hope it stops by morning,’ Penny said, turning her head towards Alexander, hoping for a response.

With a transfixed stare looking beyond the windscreen, Alexander’s silence only acted to confuse Penny even further.

‘I could’ve been home by now,’ Penny mumbled, ‘Are you going to take me home, or am I going to walk?’

The weather outside was getting worse with every passing minute. Penny reached for the door handle. The central locking mechanism slammed into place.

‘At last,’ Penny mumbled with a sigh of relief. Alexander’s reticent demeanour continued as before as he slowly drove around the deserted one-way system for a second time. Penny felt uneasy as she watched the same shops pass by her window for the third time. ‘What’s the matter with you tonight, Alexander? You do remember where I live. Tommy will worry if I’m not back soon.’

Alexander turned his head to the right and looked at Penny sitting by his side. His continued silence and featureless expression frightened her. Finally, Alexander exited the one-way system.

Realising she was nearing her home, Penny’s anxiousness eased. ‘Thanks Alexander, I do appreciate this, it would have-’

Before Penny could finish her sentence, Alexander carefully manoeuvred his car into Duckets Passage, a narrow, dead-end alleyway in an isolated part of town barely wide enough for a single car. A bad sense of foreboding washed over Penny. Her heart pounded against her ribcage. The pulse in her neck throbbed with each increasing heartbeat. All of Penny’s senses were screaming at her at once to get out of the car.

‘Please stop the car Alexander. I’ll walk the rest of the way,’ Penny said, her words nervously falling from her mouth.

The car’s headlights reflected against the old Victorian brickwork, their brilliance increasing the nearer the end wall. With no change in Alexander’s demeanour, Penny’s reservations of her quandary manifested itself into an uncharacteristic holler.

‘WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?’

Penny had decided that when the car stopped, she would jump out and run the rest of the way home without once looking back. The humming of the engine purred as they slowed. Penny shuffled in her seat and prepared herself by folding her fingers around the door handle, waiting for the right time to push. Alexander turned the keys in the ignition. The vibration of the engine stopped. The lights from the headlamps momentarily rebounded off the far wall, filling the interior with an eerie luminescence before fading to complete darkness. Silence stifled the interior, except for the deafening sound of Penny’s shallow breathing pulsating inside her head.

Trembling with unabated fear, Penny blindly folded her fingers tightly around the door handle and took a deep breath before pulling at it. The sound of the locking mechanism echoed with a thud. Penny pushed hard at the door. The sound of the locking mechanism thudded again, sealing her inside. Penny screamed as the interior lights flickered, briefly illuminating Alexander’s face, barely inches away from her own.

An intense panic manifested inside every sinew of her being. Penny’s hands trembled as she sensed Alexander’s eyes roaming across her body. The leather seat beside her creaked. Penny moved closer to her window, its vision of liberty from her confinement beyond the thin glass, tempting her. Her repeated hysterical tugging at the door handle resulted in the same frustrating conclusion. Penny was trapped.

Alexander laughed. An eerie revelry of satisfaction chortled from his throat. A single street lamp’s glow, diffused from the snow falling in large flakes outside, offered a little luminescence on the interior of Penny’s prison. Adjusting her eyes, Penny recoiled as Alexander’s soulless stare calmly directed her attention to a flashing, illuminated light on the dashboard. A warning beacon of red blinked, shouting its message with intermittent exclamations that escape from her fortified prison was inconceivable without Alexander’s sanction.

Penny had to remain calm if she was going to survive her ordeal. Perhaps he’s only just trying to frighten me, she thought. Taking a deep breath, Penny summoned up a most unnatural assertiveness before releasing her anger.

‘I don’t like this Alexander… you’re scaring me! Now let me out!’

Alexander’s expressionless features returned. His eyes vacant. His mouth open. The icy cold from the outside had penetrated the interior, but Penny’s internal thermostat had already surpassed its safety level. Her body was burning with heated adrenalin surging through her veins. The windows misted inside, obscuring Penny’s vision of her salvation. Her eyes scanned the interior, searching desperately for a way out. But with her passenger door so cleverly manoeuvred only inches away from the alley wall, even if she could open it, it would prove an impossible escape. Dread filled Penny’s enclosed world. She realised her options were limited if not exhausted. The haunting clicking from the automatic flashing lights on the dashboard of the car toyed with the frozen silence.

An unnatural shrieking laugh caused Penny to scream. Alexander’s face flashed orange, his piercing silhouette looming over her. She felt his roving eyes burning inside her clothing, mentally undressing her where she sat. Then, an echoing silence slowly returned. Alexander’s laughter stopped, his face resuming an inexpressive, vacant stare. Questions and scenarios collided inside Penny’s head. Her fingers and toes twitched as the heat drained from the interior, the little warmth remaining overpowered by the falling temperatures outside. Vapour from her nervous, rapid breathing merged with the icy windows, causing a moist film to spread across the glass, blocking out the outside world.

Penny dredged the most inaccessible regions of her mind to try to somehow alter the inevitable. She was desperate. Without warning, Penny’s seat shot backwards. Her upper body crashed against the cold leather, her skull striking the headrest. Penny screamed. An excruciating pain ignited behind her eyes as Alexander pounced, grabbing at her breasts with a possessed savagery.

Penny threw out her arms, begging Alexander to stop. Screaming and struggling to free herself from his vice-like grip proved hopeless. The more she fought back, the further it encouraged his dominance. Alexander jumped from his seat and straddled Penny’s body, forcing her arms down by her sides with his knees.

Penny’s waking nightmare had begun and there was no escape.

A panicked perception of helplessness engulfed her as the realisation of what Alexander would do next shocked her into momentary paralysis.

‘Stop it! Please Alexander stop it, you’re hurting me!’

Once again, her sociopathic attacker ignored her feeble petitions. Alexander ripped at Penny’s shirt, popping each button from its fastening, exposing her flesh beneath. The sight of Penny’s lingerie encouraged Alexander even further. Pressing both hands onto her breasts, Alexander squeezed hard, folding his fingers beneath the lacy material and tugging ferociously at its seams. Penny struggled valiantly beneath Alexander’s weight, trying desperately to free herself from his clutches. A stinging pain tore across Penny’s skin as Alexander’s fingernails ripped at her shirt, exposing her breasts.

‘NO! PLEASE! NO!’ she begged.

The sight of Penny’s nakedness instantly stopped Alexander’s manic clawing. He sat motionless, just staring at Penny’s body. With shaking hands, Penny tried to cover her breasts with her hands.

Numbed with fear, Penny closed her eyes. The deafening sound of her panted breathing filled her head. Fearful of catching Alexander’s gaze, Penny lay motionless, her eyes tracing the interior of the car from her reclined position. The wall in the alley obstructed the door along Penny’s side of the car. Thinking quickly, Penny turned her attention to the rear door, directly behind Alexander.

Moving only her head, she looked to her left. Alexander sat in a trance-like state, his head bowed, his sinister glare fixated on Penny’s partially exposed breasts. His demeanour offered no sign of his future intentions.

Penny realised her respite would soon end. She had to act decisively and act fast. Without moving her upper body, Penny fumbled beneath her seat, her fingers moving independently as they frantically searched for the release mechanism. Grasping the small arm beneath her seat with a tight grip, Penny gently pulled it towards her. It clicked once. The leather seat beneath her shaking body creaked. Penny held her breath. She eased her seat slowly backwards, levering herself upwards with her arms. Coldness ran from behind her nose. Blood dripped onto her chest. Wiping her sleeve across her face, two dark red lines streaked her pale blue sleeve. Blood collected in her palate, pooling at the back of her throat. Fighting against her gag reflex, Penny moved quickly. Pushing her feet down into the foot- well, she raised herself up, dragging her upper body onto the rear seat. Turning her head to the side, she spat out the blood from the back of her throat and inhaled deeply. The night’s cold air wafted its liberty through the small gaps around the doorframe. Penny reached out her hand, feeling the coldness of the door handle in her palm. She was nearly free.

The musical sound of the automatic locking system rang out its melodic tune as she yanked hard on the handle.

Without warning, a huge force bore down on Penny’s shoulders, dragging her back into the car. Alexander pounced, striking two blows across Penny’s face, his lustful urges more pornographic than before.

Penny screamed. Alexander’s chilling hands thrust deep inside the material of Penny’s skirt, pawing at her flesh, wrenching at her lingerie. Penny fought to push him off. Two further blows rained down on Penny’s struggling body. The realisation of Alexander’s lascivious intentions left Penny pleading for help. Begging was all she had left.

Alexander’s nails dug deep into her thighs as he tore at her underwear, ripping them from her body.

‘Oh my god, no… Please no…’ she whimpered. ‘He’s actually going to do it!’ she realized with unrestrained horror.

Penny writhed beneath Alexander’s weight, frantically kicking out her legs in a terror-stricken frenzy. She stretched for the handle once more, her fingernails scratching the leather interior, scarring its surface, before Alexander pulled her back while biting hard on Penny’s breast. Agonising pain raged inside her.

Penny screamed for help.

‘No one can hear you down here, bitch! No one!’ Alexander garbled, his mouth dribbling saliva whilst suckling on Penny’s nakedness.

Overwhelmed by repugnance, Penny turned her head to the side, her thoughts surrendering to the inevitable. Penny’s lungs strained under Alexander’s weight. Every cell in her body shrieked out for oxygen, her craving now a priority following her failed efforts to escape.

‘I can’t… breathe…’ Penny pleaded, gulping mouthfuls of air as Alexander, like an animal, went in for his kill. His gorging mouth enveloped Penny’s petite lips, restricting her already limited ability to take in air.

‘You know you want me!’ Alexander spluttered. Light-headedness surrounded Penny. Weaker and quieter her beseeching drifted. Her consciousness ebbed away, her eyes rolled inside her head.

‘Tommy… help me… please… Tommy…’

Penny’s legs jerked intermittently as Alexander forced them apart.

‘Please… no…’

Penny felt the flow of life steadily trickle from her body, her physical agonies fading, when the smallest glimmer of light remaining, yielded into complete darkness. Penny was gone.

03.00hrs – At home in Kent

The outside temperature had plummeted to below freezing. Old exposed Victorian brickwork reflected flames of glowing warmth from the open fire, fluttering effortlessly across the ceiling in shades of light and dark, as though dancing to the sounds from the crackling embers sizzling in the grate. The predicted arctic chill, with bitter easterly winds rattled the old sash windows in their frames. The peal of the pendulum mantel clock broke the silence of the late hour, ringing out three solitary chimes.

Happily married for eighteen years and childhood sweethearts, Tommy and Penny were inseparable from the first day they met at primary school. Penny’s inspirational kindness and unbiased generosity were only two of her many virtuous qualities. With dark auburn hair and ringlets that fell gently over her shoulders, her beauty shone through for everyone to see.

03:05hrs

It was a night as normal as countless others, Tommy sat waiting for Penny, to return from the nightshift at the Royal Mail’s cash security depot. A night where circumstance and a kind act would alter the perception of his own existence forever. Settling down with his nightly glass of Covenegra, in front of the open fire, Tommy listened to the crackling and spitting of charred wood hissing in the grate.

Glowing embers softly stroked his face. His eyes grew heavy as they watched the hypnotic revelry of flames frolicking in the hearth. Seduced by the whispers of smoke, funnelling higher up the chimney, piggybacking the last before beginning their journey once again, Tommy sighed. The nocturnal barking of a fox pricked Tommy’s natural curiosity. Hoping to catch a glimpse of one of nature’s wonders, he moved to the window, pressing his nose hard against the harsh coldness of the glass.

The hot, moist air coming from his mouth instantly frosted its surface. Tommy swiped his hand across the glass, peering out through a mist of condensation at a dramatic sweep of reddish hued snow clouds nestling above the rooftops. A howling wind raced through the canopies of bending snow encrusted cypress trees. Lighting from a single street lamp reflected a soft orange glow against icy crystal granules creeping like ivy across the road. Not a living soul dared venture out on such a cold night.

Returning to his warm place by the fire, Tommy sipped at his glass, savouring the delicate black grape and fruity vanilla flavours encircling his palette. Tommy’s eyelids faltered, their weight fighting against the late hour, finally yielding to the warmth from the hypnotic flames spiralling up the chimney. Within seconds, Tommy found himself immersed in a surreal, dissociate reverie as if having overstepped into an imaginary world without sound or actuality.

Suddenly, a thundering inside his head dragged him from his quiet darkness, and back into a harsh awakening. Tommy’s heart lurched inside his