“I’ll be right back, baby.”
She went back up the stairs and peeked into the kitchen. Not seeing anyone she went into the lounge and looked out the front window. The car was gone.
“Phew,” she said, relieved.
She went back down to the basement to retrieve Heather and when she got to the draw she found it open and Heather missing.
“Heather? Where are you?”
Chapter 2
Benny left his trailer at ten in the morning, a bag of clothes over his back and a world of promise in his eyes. His neighbor, Ed, was sitting outside and he looked over to him.
“This is the earliest I’ve ever seen you up, Benny.”
Benny walked over to Ed, a big proud smile on his face.
“What you up to?”
“I’m going back home, Ed. Gotta go help my wife and little girl. They’re in trouble.”
“That why you had the police here the other day?”
“Yeah. Vanessa’s involved in some heavy shit. Gotta step up, be a man, take care of her.”
“Well, best of luck to ya, Benny.”
“Thanks Ed.”
Benny got into his car and skidded off. On the highway he dreamed of all the ways he’d get Vanessa back. It would start by saving her, getting her out of that world. Away from the porn, drugs and prostitution she’d fallen victim to. He was going to show her he could live like an honorable man. Maybe even join the sheriff’s department, work for old Detective Gill, fighting the evils of the world, one piece of scum at a time. It was all going to be so noble.
He slapped down on the steering wheel and shook his head. “Yeah!”
He arrived in Hopetown mid-afternoon, reminiscing about the old places as he passed them. He passed the old ice creamery where he took Vanessa on their first date. He passed his parent’s old house and flipped the bird at it.
“I’ll show you, Ma and Pa. Gonna go be a man. Get my family back. You said I was a loser and didn’t deserve them. I’ll show you.”
He pulled up outside Vanessa’s house and went straight for the garden stone where he kept a spare key underneath. It was still there and he smiled proudly.
“Never knew about my spare key, did you, Ness?”
He let himself into the house and put his bag down. He walked around the place expecting to find her there before remembering that she was missing; that he had to work to get her back. There was some serious detective work to be done before he could be reunited with his baby.
He went into the bathroom and washed away the black slime in the bath.
“I don’t know what this stuff is, but I guess it’s payback for not being around to change all those nappies.”
He went around the house collecting photos, bills and receipts, things he thought would make good clues to piecing together this puzzle. He placed them all on the kitchen counter. I need an office, he thought.
“The basement!”
He lifted the hatch to the basement and recoiled from the smell.
“Must’ve left something rotting down here,” he said, and went down the stairs.
He got to the bottom and stared at the floor before him with profound confusion at the sight of a dead baby half eating a strangely deformed dead woman who looked a little like Vanessa.
About the author
Andrew Gallacher was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1985. This is his first book.
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PUBLISHED BY
LegumeMan Books
Copyright © 2010 by Andrew Gallacher
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