Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
He had wandered along the riverbank with the dog, had spent hours wondering about the body.
What stage of decomposition was it in? Would it have mummified with the dry air circulating around the inside of the tent?
The air was warm and humid outside of it so there was a good chance it had.
It would be so cool if he had unintentionally created his own mummy, and it had been so long with nobody finding her she could be the one.
He had monitored the news and scanned the local Facebook groups for mention of a body.
So, so many questions and no answers. It had been beyond tempting to go back and take a quick peek.
The restraint it had taken had been mammoth but up to now he hadn’t given in.
The fact that she lay there all alone, undisturbed, like some gruesome fairy-tale sleeping beauty was torture to his soul, but he knew if he got caught, he would be risking everything.
The dog was trotting alongside him, tail wagging, happy to be outside in the fresh air.
It was cute, even though he wasn’t a dog person, but obviously not very loyal.
It hadn’t even tried to protect its owner, who doted on it, too busy snaffling sausages to care that she’d taken her last breaths not too far above him whilst he was living his best life.
Thinking about the dog made him think about Beth – she had sacrificed everything to keep him safe.
He missed her, she had been fun, but then she’d spiralled and got out of his control.
He never imagined she would have had the strength to do what she did, but he was grateful to her.
She had been true to their cause – or was it his cause that she had got swept up in?
Beth had been so desperate for someone to hear her, she had hung on every word he’d said, thought that she was helping to do the right thing, which he hadn’t been able to get his head around, but she was clearly not well and he’d blatantly taken advantage of that.
The sound of the river rushing past brought him out of his own world and back into this one.
He picked up a stick and threw it for the dog.
It ran off, tail wagging, chasing it, happy as can be.
There was a huge boulder and he sat down on it, he needed time to think about where to go from here.
He had completed his original mission: all three Williams’ sisters were dead.
Erased from the planet as if they had never existed, just how it should have been in the first place.
That was the plan. How the three of them had lived their lives in a warm, loving family when their mother did nothing for him and everything for them; it had left him bitter, angry and feeling a rage so intense towards all three women it had consumed him entirely.
When their parents died, it was no loss either.
He had quite enjoyed that. He’d even attended the funeral although not to pay his respects because he had zero respect for any of them.
It had been morbid curiosity. There were so many people in attendance he’d stood outside of the crematorium and listened to the service on the speaker system, then before it ended, he’d slipped quietly away.
Hands in his pockets he’d wandered through the cemetery, away from the crowd of mourners, finding himself a memorial bench far enough way that he didn’t stand out, but close enough to watch until the bitter end.
When the last of the people had left and it was just the crematorium staff, he’d wandered back up to take a look at the flowers which had been placed outside the building.
Bending down he read the cards with a smile on his face.
It was nice, he supposed, how dearly loved Mr and Mrs Williams were.
It was such a shame these people hadn’t known the truth about them, how they didn’t light up a room, how they weren’t good people.
No matter, that was well and truly in the past now and he wondered if they had gone up to meet the good guys or been sent down to hell where they belonged.