The Gate in the Fence

By Bob Menzies

The book is about two neighbours who live in houses separated by a fence with a gate in it. It was there before either of them moved in. The gate provides easy access between the two properties. One of the neighbours is an ex-war vet who lives alone and is struggling with life and relationships after his combat experiences. The other property houses a family: a bank manager and his wife. The husband, Michael moves in first to take up his new role at the bank, while his wife stays on to sell the old house. In his new role he inherits a PA who sees her new boss as a bit of challenge, in more ways than one. Katie, Michael’s wife finally settles in to life at the new home, until one morning there is an unexpected knock at the front door. Who is it, and what do they want? What happens next will change all of their lives forever. The twists and turns in the storyline will have you wanting to know what happens next. Love, deception, deceit, planning, scheming, strength, courage, murder, revenge – the story has it all. Where will it all end and where will they all end up? Or will it end at all?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781398429895

Book preview

About the Author

Bob Menzies

Bob has always fancied himself as a bit of a storyteller, an entertainer and a lover of a good party. A song, a joke, an embellished truth but always a good dose of humour. An innovator and a thinker outside the square, prepared to go where others may fear to tread.

Family (whanau) have always been most important for Bob and he has a very wide, extended family. Immediate family include a grown-up boy and girl, five grandsons, a great granddaughter and a great grandson on the way.

He has always been a dreamer, sometimes to his detriment, but when knocked down, he has never failed to get up. During the twelve years it took to write this book, much changed in his life. An aggressive B cell lymphoma cancer threatened to take him, before the book was even a short story. Then a business collapse took all of the immediate family assets. Depression attacked and took over. Family stuck by him.

He didn’t write through all of this time. There were long periods of nothing. Spurts of creativity and writing and lots of periods of doubt, about whether it was good enough or whether anyone would want to read it.

Writing this book and making up this story, because that is all it is, a story, has definitely helped Bob come through his challenges. But the love and support of family is the greatest love anyone can have. Bob dedicates this book to his family, and those he loves. If it sells, it sells, if it doesn’t, it wasn’t good enough but it has already served its purpose.

Kia Kaha (Stay strong), love and help one another.

Bob looks forward to meeting you.

Dedication

To love and family.

Copyright Information ©

Bob Menzies 2021

The right of Bob Menzies to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398429864 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398429871 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781398429895 (ePub e-book)

ISBN 9781398429888 (Audiobook)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2021

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

R18

Warning

This is a fiction novel; an erotic thriller which contains descriptive sex, violence, murder and intrigue. All characters, situations, places and events are fictional and are not related to any real-life persons, places or events. However, some descriptions may be upsetting to some people. If you think you may be one of these people, please do not read this book.

Events like the ones described in this book, happen far too often in today’s society and the author does not want to glorify, condone or accept that any events described in this book are acceptable in any circumstances. It is simply a story. The book in its entirety is written to entertain, nothing more, nothing less.

Chapter One

David moved quickly down the wooden steps on the veranda, silently making his way the fifteen-odd metres down the driveway to his front gate.

His footsteps are silent; he has nothing on his feet.

It’s 9am and the street is quiet after the rush of workers and school children heading off for the day.

Poor old Mrs Stone, who lives across the road from David, would have still been at home.

At 87 she rarely went out, but despite her failing sight and hearing, she still lived on her own.

At the end of the driveway, he slips through his open gate, turns left down the street, and immediately left again, into his neighbour’s driveway. Their gates are closed so David opens one gate, steps through and closes it again behind him.

He could have slipped through the ‘Gate in the Fence’ between their properties, but he doesn’t want to alarm his neighbour by suddenly appearing in her backyard.

The neighbours had only moved in about six months ago, and David had not had a lot of contact with them.

Michael, the husband, had come over to David’s house to introduce himself and discuss ‘The Gate in the Fence’.

David had only moved in a couple of months before the neighbours himself and the gate was already there when he shifted in.

He understood there had been an extended family living in the two houses and the gate provided easy access between the two properties, while still protecting each other’s privacy.

Michael and David agreed to keep the gate as it was and to see how they got on.

Michael had introduced David to his wife Katie one day when they were on their way out for a walk while David was collecting his paper from the box at the gate.

Apart from this, David had hardly spoken to Katie.

Katie didn’t work but enjoyed pottering around outside.

She had acknowledged him twice when working in her well-manicured garden and when she was painting the white picket fence and gates across the front of the property.

He would often see the couple heading off for their regular walks and thought to himself how similar they appeared and well suited they were to one another.

Michael was tall and slim with dark hair. He seemed to like nice clothes, but nothing too outrageous. He drove a near new sedan and seemed to work office hours, although a few nights a week he didn’t arrive home until late, David imagined him working in a bank or something similar.

Katie was a little shorter than Michael but tall for a woman. She had long legs, a small waist and what David would describe, if he had to, as having a slightly larger than an average bust. Her very light brown hair was always pulled back off her face and tied in a ponytail. The thick, black-rimmed glasses she wore seemed to be a few years out of fashion. David imagined her being a librarian prior to becoming a ‘kept’ woman.

Her preferred attire around the house was a small pair of shorts and a tee-shirt. They had moved in during the spring and it was important to her to be comfortable around the house during the long sultry summer days. Katie was oblivious of how stunning she looked.

At times she felt like her body and her mind were of two unfamiliar people. Her body wanted her to be more adventurous and daring, to try new things, initiate things with Michael, especially in the bedroom, because he was just as conservative there as he was in all other aspects of life.

Her mind, however, would not allow this, and her mind always won. Her mind told her they had taught her not to flaunt herself. She could best please her husband by doing what he wanted, not what her body wanted.

He held a high-profile position in the community and it was part of her responsibility to present herself as a demur, respectable part of that community.

The tension between her body and her mind led her to question some of her morality from time to time, but so far, her mind had maintained supremacy.

David wasn’t very good at guessing ages but thought them to be about ten years younger than himself, making them in their early thirties.

Michael had told him they had been married seven years, and that they had no children.

He didn’t elaborate on whether that was by choice.

After securing the white picket gate, David turned to head down the drive toward the house.

He wore blue bibbed overalls, and the shoulder straps straddled his muscular chest and shoulders. He never wore a shirt under the overalls and his strong tanned arms protruded like branches from a well-proportioned tree. Although not a tall man compared to say, Michael, his bulky torso made him appear even shorter than he was. His shaved head was glistening in the early morning sunshine. His appearance and his attire gave him a rough and aggressive demeanour, and the tattoos on the upper part of each arm did nothing to dispel this impression.

David didn’t mind this at all, and in fact, worked hard at maintaining his physical persona.

He couldn’t have been more opposite to his conservative neighbour.

He quickly covered the fifteen metres from the gate to the front steps, strode up the four steps onto the veranda two at a time, rang the front doorbell, and waited. Katie was still in her favourite pink silk pyjamas as she had been talking to her friend De De on the phone ever since Michael had left for work.

Katie hadn’t made many friends since she and Michael had shifted to town. Michael had shifted three months earlier to start his job while she stayed at the old house to tidy up all the loose ends and supervised the movers. She didn’t mind as Michael had received a promotion to Branch Manager at the bank which meant that he received a considerable pay increase.

Michael didn’t want her to go back to work, but she thought she may try to get a few days a week in the local library, but for now, she was content to knock the house into shape and keep Michael happy.

Michael had introduced Katie to his personal assistant, De De one day when she called into Michael’s office to get a lift home with him after spending the afternoon in town shopping.

While Katie had her licence, she had not needed a car at their last place as they had lived in an apartment in the centre of the city. She planned to get herself a compact car or scooter once she got a job. She didn’t want to bother Michael while he was busy getting himself settled in his new job. She could wait.

De De had gone out of her way to make Katie feel welcome. She was not the normal sort of friend Katie would have chosen, being very brash and ostentatious, but Katie knew nobody here and even found De De entertaining. Michael also seemed to like her, so Katie was prepared to make an effort.

It startled Katie when the doorbell rang. She was talking to De De on the phone, Michael was at work and she didn’t know anyone else. She excused herself to De De, explaining that someone was at the door, promised to call her back, and hung up. She didn’t even think about her attire as she approached the front door. Nobody visited her since they had moved in apart from De De, and she felt a little excitement that she may meet a ‘new’ person. She swung the door open wide and gasped when she saw David standing there, seeming to her, to fill most of the doorway. While she recognised him as the man from next door, she suddenly felt intimidated by his unexpected appearance. She felt exposed and wished she had dressed before she called De De.

Can I help you? she blurted, trying to regain some composure after her audible gasp on opening the door.

Michael just called me, he started, he has had an accident on the way to work and asked me to come and pick you up to collect him.

Oh, my God! she exclaimed.

Is he OK?

He is fine, but I think we should go quickly as he is probably in shock and he sounded eager for you to be with him.

Of course…come in and have a seat. I will quickly change and be right with you.

As Katie ran down the hallway to the bedroom, her head was in a spin. Why didn’t Michael call her? Of course, she was on the phone to De De so he wouldn’t have been able to get through. She had heard no beeps of a call waiting, though.

How did he get the neighbour?

As far as she knew he didn’t even have his number.

Michael left for work ages ago. Why has it taken so long for him to try to contact me?

Why didn’t he get someone from work to bring him home or take him to the hospital?

Michael had never had an accident before, he was always very careful.

What had gone wrong?

There were more questions than she could summon answers for.

She slipped out of her pyjama pants and tossed them onto the unmade bed. Suddenly, for some unexplained reason, she sensed someone else’s presence. She turned toward the door and let out a piercing scream. Standing only three feet from her was the neighbour from next door. In his right hand was a knife she instantly recognised as the largest one from the knife block in her own kitchen.

Make one more sound like that and I will ensure you never ever utter another.

If Katie was confused before, now she was beside herself.

Was this some sick joke?

Is Michael OK?

David deftly passed the knife from his right hand to his left and reached out and grabbed the front of Katie’s pyjama jacket with his right hand. In one swift downward motion, he ripped the jacket open. The jacket’s large white buttons were flying off around the room.

Katie screamed at him.

What do you think you are doing? Get out of my bedroom; I need to help my husband!

David could feel the situation quickly getting out of his control and instinctively knew he had to regain control now or he would lose his opportunity.

His eyes opened wide, his mouth tightened; he took one large step forward, so he was now only inches away from Katie’s nose, and raised his left hand with the knife in it high above his head. He then brought it down in a vicious stabbing motion but passed it over Katie’s shoulder and behind her back. She was certain he would stab her. Katie wanted to scream again, but her survival instincts took over. She now believed that this animal in her bedroom could stab her and possibly even kill her.

Why was he here?

What did he want from her?

Did he want money? He could have it.

Katie felt herself starting to cry. She knew she was crying, but there was no sound coming out, even though the tears were streaming down her cheeks.

Instantly, trembling and shaking while trying to cover herself with her arms, she was now too petrified to make a sound.

David now spun her around with his right arm. The knife was still firmly held in his left hand. Katie was facing the side of the bed and David was behind her with his right arm firmly around her waist. He reached out and placed the knife on the table beside the bed. Katie couldn’t see him now, so was unsure of what he was doing. He grabbed both her wrists and pulled her arms behind her. Grabbing the sleeves of her silk pyjama top, he yanked it off her shoulders and then her arms in one movement and let it fall to the ground.

Katie was now completely naked.

Grabbing her around the waist again with his right arm, David pulled her to him. He whispered in her ear,

That’s better. If you are an obedient girl and stay nice and quiet, I won’t have to hurt you.

Katie could feel the power in his arms as he squeezed her tighter. She was sure he could break her in two if he wanted to.

David reached up with his left hand and slipped it under the strap of his overall. The strap fell over his arm.

He then put his left arm around Katie, ensuring she wasn’t going anywhere while he slipped his right hand under the other strap and let that one fall as well.

He then loosened his grip a little on Katie, creating a gap between them, and wriggled until the overalls fell off him in a heap at his feet and he stepped out of them.

David was now naked.

Reaching up with his right hand, he gently placed his right palm under Katie’s chin and firmly pushed her head back over his left shoulder.

This had the effect of arching her back slightly and he could then reach his head over her right shoulder to see right down the front of her.

Katie had large, but not huge, firm breasts that sat up on their own, without support. She didn’t like wearing a bra but usually did because her breasts were so prominent under just a tee-shirt.

As David looked down over her right shoulder, he grabbed both of her breasts at once. One in each hand, his large brown hands clasped as much of each milky white breast as he could get. He then began kneading them as a baker would knead his dough. The tears were still streaming down Katie’s cheeks. She wanted to scream, to call for help. She couldn’t raise a squeak.

Why can’t I yell?

Is Michael OK?

How far is this animal going to go?

Should I bite him?

Where is the knife?

What will he do with me when he has finished with me?

Katie was terrified and the more questions she came up with, the further she seemed to get from any answers.

Nice tits, David whispered in her ear as he continued to massage her breasts.

He was very firm but he wasn’t hurting her right now. He then cupped one hand under each breast, as if to support them, and reached up and took each nipple between his thumb and forefinger. He then rolled her nipples along his forefinger with his thumb. Katie gasped as the short, sharp pain shot from her nipples into her body. As if she had shock treatment, she suddenly felt her voice returning. She knew it would be pointless to try to gain any physical control. This animal was not only a man; he was a powerful man. Screaming could only speed her ultimate demise. He had already assured her of that. Maybe reason would work. With all the strength and courage Katie could muster, she turned her head to the right and whispered directly into David’s left ear.

What do you want? she stammered out.

Instantly, she realised how stupid that must have sounded.

David ignored her as he continued with what he was doing.

Katie took strength from the fact that he hadn’t reacted and continued.

I can get you money, jewellery, as much as you want, whatever you want, just please don’t hurt me.

Shut up bitch, he hissed between his teeth.

All this talk was distracting him.

While his left hand continued to massage her left breast, his right hand slid down over her tight stomach and down to her crotch. His fingers went searching between her legs and quickly found