Chapter 3
Three days later things have started to become quiet that gives Ed a chance to grieve for his lost love. He's not heard from anybody apart from his boss, Doug Larry. Ed works for a car sales firm travelling round the UK training up the new starters, recruiting and providing continuous improvement techniques to existing sales teams.
Ed explained to Doug he's having a few family issues and won't be in work until next week. Doug’s easy going at times, as long as you’re not taking the piss, and easy to communicate with. Doug is an all round respectable person, treats his family well and has worked his way up from cleaning cars to now heading the European sales force for Ideal Cars.
Doug has been his boss now for the last ten years; he’s guided Ed through from the bottom and is teaching him everything he needs to know. They have an excellent working relationship, which has developed into a great friendship, but Ed knows he will need to get back to work soon or things may start to get messy.
It's now Wednesday morning, Ed’s woken by a knock on the door. Slowly plodding down the stairs in only his boxers he opens the door to be confronted by Sandy. Sandy is Toni's mum, a spitting image of Toni and of course 25 years older. Her eyes are red, with a look of pain behind them.
'What’s wrong Sandy?' letting out a big yawn and scratching his belly at the same time.
'Have I done something wrong?' she asks with a quiver in her voice.
'What, no, what do you ask?'
'It's Toni, we've not spoken in days; she's ignoring my calls and text messages.'
'Don't be silly.' Ed replies not really knowing what to say.
'Where is she then?'
'She's gone away for a bit with work, unfortunately where she is there isn't a very good phone signal, and she’s been emailing though.' He surprises himself with the witty lie.
'Oh right ok, well I guess that makes sense.'
'Do you want to come in?'
'No thank you Edward, I've got to get to work.'
'Ok, no worries, I'll ask Toni go email you, give you all the gossip on what she's up to at work.'
'Thanks dear, you’re such a sweet boy, see you soon.'
She walks off down the garden path, Ed can see she's happy by the way she's walking, she's such a sensitive woman and always fears the worst.
Shutting the door behind him, Ed can't help but feel the guilt that's slowly building up inside him and knowing all this will eventually come to a head. Sandy will be devastated when she finds out Toni was murdered.
Making himself a cup of sweet tea, he spots the bread knife used to chop up Toni in the knife rack. He shivers with remorse, regretting not going straight to the police the moment he discovered her body. Now he knows he will be the primary suspect for her murder, well, the boyfriends are always the first to be accused.
A letter drops through the door, Ed jumps slightly, his nerves are still not intact and he finds it difficult to leave the house. The envelope is large, brown and thick, picking it up with one hand, the other still holding his cup of tea; he tears it open with his teeth and pulls out the contents.
There's a note, with a handful of documents behind it. Ed cringes at the handwriting, knowing there's going to be more trouble, more illegal acts beyond Ed’s capabilities. The words detail a third task, this time threatening One of Doug’s kids, eleven year old James Larry, an innocent child who does not need to be dragged into this sick vile game. Ed knows that he will ensure he completes this task; he loves kids and it would destroy him if anything were to happen to James.
The document provides detailed information on a high-class working girl called "Angel". This Angel deals on a cash-only basis and stores obscene amounts of cash in her Bay apartment. Ed is to inveigle himself into her place through building her trust, break into her safe and steal an estimated two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in cash. The cash is then to be left at a drop off point that will be confirmed later. He only has four days to carry this out or James will disappear.
Ed screws up the paper, half way through he stops himself and thinks of little James. If he has to do this to keep him alive then he will, he has second thoughts on calling the police but then thinks of the ramifications. Flattening out the half screwed paper he makes a note of Angel’s mobile number and calls her up without hesitation.
Her phone goes straight to voicemail; Ed decides against leaving a message and hangs up. He then thinks of his mum and calls her.
'Edward hello, are you feeling better?'
'A bit better yes, how are you?'
'I've had better days but nothing for you to worry about. Well, Buster has ran away, I miss him.'
'Sorry to hear that, you know where I am if you ever want to talk.'
'Thank you Edward love you.' she then hangs up the phone. Ed still has a strange gut feeling in his stomach, he gets it when he's spoken to his mum.
Dialling the number for Angel again, Ed awaits anxiously whilst the phone is ringing. After four rings she answers, her voice is soft and seductive.
'Hello?'
'Hi, I've never done this before but seen your ad and would like to arrange to meet you?' there's a slight quiver in his voice.
'Ok, we'll normally I meet in a public place first but you can come straight to mine, what's your name?'
'Bruce'
'Ha ha, I take it that's not your real name, most men give me a fake name but I can assure you absolute discretion.'
'I’m sure you can, my name is Bruce, are you available today?' Ed is wasting no time at all.
'I'm sure I can slot you in, say two o'clock this afternoon?' Ed cringes at her words "slot you in" as this implies how many men she's been with today.
'Two is fine, what's your address?'
'82 The Wharf, you know the building?'
'Yes I've been there a few times, see you at two.'
'Bye Bruce.'
It's now midday. Ed begins to get ready to see Angel; he showers, shaves and pulls out a shirt he's not worn in a while. It's a semi formal double collar shirt, black, with white trims. He calls it his pulling shirt; he even met Toni wearing this and took her out on a date two nights later. Ed has no desire to sleep with Angel; he’s merely going through a process to keep a young boy alive.
Once ready he sits on the sofa with a bottle of beer in hand, thinking about Toni. He struggles with the images lodged in his head of her liquefied body and wonders how his life has done such a u-turn from perfect to fucking shite. This angers him; it's all down to that sadistic psycho on the other end of the phone playing life-destroying games. Ed grips the ice-cold bottle hard and launches it against the lounge wall, creating an eruption of shattered glass and beer spray.
After a few deep breaths Ed begins to form a plan in his head, a way to track down this nutter and end this nightmare for good.
Well-groomed ready to meet a hooker, Ed locks the door and walks towards the Bay. Paranoia strikes like a bat to the head, every person who glances at him, he assumes know what he's done.
Without hesitation he stops at a cash point to withdraw five hundred pounds for Angel; the going rate for a five star service. He places the money into his wallet and proceeds towards the Bay thinking the plan over and over in his mind.
Arriving on time after a long but quick walk, Ed dials 82 on the intercom system at the Wharf. The same seductive voice answers.
'Yes?'
'It’s me Ed … erm … I mean Bruce.' Ed punches his forehead for making himself look stupid.
'Come right up... Bruce.' The door buzzes and the mechanism clicks, releasing the lock. Ed pushes the door leading into a large hallway with four lifts and a staircase. There's a sign on the wall guiding the direction of flat numbers; 82 is on the ninth floor, the top, so he uses the lift.
One knock on the door and it's opened by a woman you'd only expect to see in a magazine. His jaw drops to the floor, he stutters.
'Hello.' Holding out his hand, she gently shakes.
'Come in Bruce.' Ed follows with delight, look
ing at her from behind. She's dressed in a white skintight tube dress showing everything she has to offer. Her arse is tight, her breasts are the size of his head and her skin is nicely bronzed. This woman knows how to take care of her appearance and she knows how good she looks.
She sits herself down on the white leather sofa in her open plan apartment.
'I don't bite.' She says in seductive tone. Ed places himself on the couch, leaving an obvious gap between them, trying to work out how he's not going to have sex with this beauty and do the job he's here to do.
'Why don't we take care of business first?' Which brings this whole event back to reality. Ed always been against prostitutes and strippers, the whole thing is an act and these women are after only one thing - money.
With that in mind he still needs to play the punter’s role in order to build Angels trust and steal her money. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of £20's adding up to the going rate of £500. There's a slight seriousness to this as she grabs the money with greed. She then stands and leaves the room. Ed assuming she's taking the money to her safe quietly tiptoes in her direction peering through the gap in the door. He sees her place the money in a drawer next to her bed and briskly walks back towards the lounge. Ed rushes back to the couch, sitting himself in the same position as before literally a split second before she enters the room.
Standing in the doorway way she begins to slow dance, gently running her hands up and down her sides. She slips off her tube dress, making Ed feel excited like a schoolboy watching porn for the first time. He keeps reminding himself why he's here and needs to remain headstrong. She continues to slow dance, her naked body infront Ed and the uses her index finger to beckon him over.
Slowly standing Ed tries to cover his excitement by pulling his shirt down and walks over to Angel. He's now a foot in front of her and stops. She steps forward, reaches out and slowly rubs him. Ed throws his head back with delight and closes his eyes. Images of Toni flash in his mind, shes only been dead a few days and he already has another woman rubbing him off.
Coming to his senses he jerks his head straight glaring at her in the eyes. She stops and steps back.
'Whats wrong?' She asks, trying to remain in character but seeing something isn't right. Without a word Ed lunges forward grabbing her by the head, she screams and he pushes her head into the doorframe with all his might. She flops to the floor with a thud, out cold, and Ed stands over her. Feeling upset from what he's just done he whispers the words.
I'm sorry, this is nothing personal.' then steps into her bedroom.
The bedroom is huge, with a king size bed dressed in dark purple satin sheets, an en suite and walk-in wardrobe. He quickly walks over to the drawer by her bed and slowly opens it. There's rolls and rolls of cash, Ed grabs away at them filling his pockets, pants and jacket. He finds there's still more so runs into the kitchen area in search for a bag. Finding a gym bag Ed empties the contents over the kitchen floor and walks back towards the bedroom.
Angel, still lying on the floor, lets out a grown and begins to move. As Ed walks past her he raises his left foot then drives it down full force onto her head. Angel lets out a groan and her body begins to twitch. Not sure what's happening Ed freaks out and begins to stamp on her head some more. He stops, steps back looking at the limp hot body lying there. He notices blood trickling from one of her ears and realises he may have killed her.
Panicking, Ed realises that this is the second person he's killed this week. What’s happening? Without another thought he runs back into the bedroom, fills the bag with all of the money he can find and sits on the edge of the bed, head in hands.
After a minute of two the intercom buzzer goes causing Ed to jump; he runs over to a window to see if be can see who it is. Looking down to the main entrance door he spots two men, they look like doormen from a night club, dressed in black, shaved heads and look as though they've been injecting steroids from birth.
The buzzer goes again and then the sound of a mobile phone is heard. Ed spots the mobile on a dining table and looks at the name, Stan. The phone stops ringing quickly followed by a voice mail alert. Ed taps into the voice message, 'Annabelle its Stan, just popping round for a routine check-up. Guessing you’re with a client?' Panicking Ed wipes round the flat in an attempt to remove any evidence that he was there, then picks up the bag and leaves.
The lift opens on the ground; the two shifty looking men are still at the block, this time in the lobby and Ed walks between them avoiding eye contact. As soon as he steps outside sniffing the fresh air he legs it as fast as his legs will carry him.
Finally reaching his front door and gasping for breath Ed feels anxious about killing that woman. She was beautiful, he killed her in cold blood and basically stomped her to death. Regret fills up inside him; he’s constantly confused how he has turned from being the happiest man alive to a stone cold killer.
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