‘Sue and June, I know there in there ‘he cried, ‘I’ve just been drinking with them’

By now neighbours had come out onto the street and were walking towards the fracas,

‘You all right Jamie’ one shouted as he stood at the top of the path, by now six others had joined him’

‘Some idiot looking for some Sue and June’ said the man in the doorway,

‘Do you want him gone’ said the guy who was now walking down the path along with the others,

‘I do’ he replied,

Peter stood up, his legs were hurting from where he had been kicked, and he put his hands up in the air as if to surrender,

‘I’m looking for two old ladies who may have information about my missing family’ he told them,

That soothed the crowd a bit and the mood changed,

‘Why would they be here’ said Jamie the man in the door way,

Peter who still had his hands in the air lowered them, everyone noticed the look of despair on his face,

‘I just, he paused searching for the words, ‘I got the wrong place’ he said with a look of defeat,

He walked to his car, watched by all in the street until he had drove out of sight, when they went back to their own homes.

Peter pulled up when he was out of site, he rubbed his legs and his neck ached where the man had part choked him, he lit a cigarette and opened the car window, ignoring the no smoking sign stuck on the dashboard.

‘I should have known they weren’t there’ he thought, he looked at the piece of paper, he smiled at the words on it,

‘Thankyou girls’ he said out loud and threw his cigarette out of the window.

As he drove he wondered what world he was actually in, he drove out of Underwood, without any problem, and that’s what was bothering him.

Chapter 18

The following days were warm and sunny and the people of Underwood went about their normal business, the shops were still fairly well stocked, the pump in the social club still pulled the finest homebrew, and the fields by the centre were still being reaped of the finest cannabis, the body of Steve Duce was bagged and left in the field as some residents built the stage he would be burned on the following Sunday, there would be a big turnout, the story was out that Steve Duce died of natural causes, an unusual way to die in Underwood and for a small moment his death brought a bit of normality back to the town.

Andy Thomas the vicar still went around the town blessing as many people he could, wishing them full life and healthy daughters, knowing that in the coming weeks a new breeding machine can be started by the pretty girl in number 13 Hawthorne, it would soon be his job to select suitable fathers.

Philip Lenan spent most of the days trying to think of new laws, disappointed that the death of the bus driver was natural causes, he wanted a murder charge brought, people were far too well behaved for his liking, he was working on a law to introduce a fighting pit, where those who offer no benefit to the town would fight to the death, the victor choosing the woman of his choice to spend their last days with, it was going to be a spectacle beyond anything he could have imagined, the body’s would be slung in the woods, to feed the devil.

The sheriff Allan Herapath was doing an itinerary of the residents of the town, every home had been searched for the missing Perter Ford, but neither he or a body was found, so it was put down that he was deceased, that the woods had taken him, the sheriff was of course disappointed with this as he had shown great potential, he was just pleased that he had not taken his beautiful daughter with him, it had been arranged the keep a special eye on her, the population of Underwood stood at 243.

Tony griffiths drank a lot of beer, drove the odd person around in his bus and made sure Delyn brown had everything he could possible give her, he spent a lot of the time studying the weather, looking for a storm, cursing the sunshine, he visited Eileen and Lily and their neighbours whenever he could without being suspicious, the two girls had also visited Delyn again, where more promises to each other were made.

With Nathan next door at No.13, Eileen and Lily sat at the kitchen table with a cold drink, it had been a hot day, and they had all come in from the garden as they felt their skin burning, life had taken on a different meaning for Eileen, she had no man in her life now to depend on, she had to put her trust in somebody else, a complete stranger, for all she knew he could have been responsible for Peter going missing, the more she thought about it the more likely it seemed that he had perished, her and Rebecca were growing close and she was valuing her friendship, as were their sons and daughters, but they knew it wouldn’t last long, not with Ivy’s 16th birthday coming very soon.

The back door was open letting in what little breeze there was as both girls sipped their cool drinks.

Stuart Hillman the bony toothless faced odd job man had to take on a bit more responsibility since the disappearance of Peter Ford and for that reason alone would have been enough to take what rightly he could claim his own, “no woman belongs to any man” was one rule of this town, so the lady in No.12 was his by rights and as he climbed over the wall of No.12 Hawthorne into the back garden, and with Peter Ford out of the way he only had one thought in his mind,

‘I’m going to take what is rightly mine to take’ and he thought of all the nice things he could do to her, and maybe the not so nice.

‘What the fuck do you want’ asked Lily at the man who stood by the back door, Eileen got of her chair closely followed by Lily, and Stuart Hillman was stood there in the doorway grinning.

‘I’ve come to give your mother a good servicing’ he laughed as he took hold of Lily by the waist and upended her carrying her up the stairs,

‘I’ll kill her if you stop me ‘ he told Eileen as she followed him, Lily kicked and punched and screamed as much as she could but the man was stronger than he looked and try as she might she could not get free.

Stuart Hillman dropped her into the bath and took the key out of the door and locked it just before Eileen jumped on his back, punching and screaming she pulled at his hair and felt pieces of it come away in her hand, with Eileen still on his back he slammed her into the wall Eileen catching the back of her head on the door frame, momentarily it took the fight from her as she literally fell off his back onto the floor, then the fight all went out of her as she felt a boot into her ribs and as she lay on the landing floor she felt her jeans being pulled from around her waist, she clawed at him with her hands but the fist in her face saw to that as her jeans were off and Stuart Hillman started to take off Eileen’s panties.

‘You’re so going to enjoy this’ he told her.

Lily lowered her legs out of the bathroom window, until she felt the plastic pipe running under the window, she slowly put her weight on it praying that it would hold, but she had to act fast she knew that, she shimmied across the pipe to the down pipe and hurriedly climbed down, straight into the kitchen, with sheer panic in her young confused mind she opened the kitchen drawer and for reasons that she will never really know why, as quiet as a mouse she went up the stairs.

Stuart looked down at the beautiful lady naked from the waist down in front of him, it had been a long time since he had someone so fine, he wanted to hurry it up or it would be over before he started, he let his trousers drop to the floor.

For a millisecond he thought it was a cramping in his neck, until he could feel his neck leaking and his throat fill up with blood and it was still pumping out as he collapsed on top of the beaten Eileen soaking her with his blood as Lily repeatedly stabbed him in the neck, until all her energy had been sapped away from her as she screamed at the carnage that she had just caused, she was now looking at the knife in her own hands as if someone else had put it there, her hands red with blood, her face and clothes splattered with it, Eileen managed to slide herself out from underneath the dead body, her legs and torso saturated in blood as the mother and daughter looked at each other.