Sam Cann
Killing For Your Love
Chapter 2
I push myself off my cold, musky bedroom floor and sprint upstairs to my kids’ bedrooms.
As I get to the door to Sophie’s bedroom, I look at the ‘Dora the Explorer’ sticker on her door above the ‘A princess lives here’ sticker. It releases my worry a little and makes it ooze out of my body. I knock on the door lightly and whisper: “Sophie? Morning, darling it’s Daddy.”
I push the door open to be left in dismay. I take a step onto the pink, bouncy carpet on which is scattered Sophie’s clothes and possessions. Her wardrobe and drawers have been opened and her clothes are all over the floor. As I study the room, I see that a photo frame with a picture of me and Sophie has smashed. I walk over to the frame and pick it up. I study our elated faces. I throw the frame into the wall and watch it smash into segments.
I leave her room and run to Danny’s room, his is in the same condition as Sophie’s; his stuff has been emptied and searched through.
I walk downstairs and pick up the phone. There’s only one thing I can do. Report them all missing. Once I’ve done that, I’m going to find them, and make whoever is responsible pay…
Chapter 3
… Here I am, sitting on my bed after answering the questions from the police, it felt like an interrogation.
I stare around the room and something stands out to me. Our room hasn’t been trashed or searched like the kids’ rooms. It’s very tidy and normal, as if Lizzie left with her consent.
I stand up and look in her empty underwear drawer. At a glance, it looks empty, but there is one thing left, a photo of me and Lizzie together on our wedding day. Not just any photo, it’s the one of our kiss on the big day.
My heart sinks. The feeling of dread fills my entire body. I overload with emotion - mostly distress and depression; I fill up so much that it seeps out from my eyes, creating tears which slide down my face. For a moment I feel as if my life has ended, until my fists clench. I feel myself change, my mind has adapted in some way. I feel angry and ready to get my family back at any cost, any cost…
I stand at the window for a few minutes wondering how I am going to meet this guy. I can’t just wander on in.
I might as well give up and just be patient. Oh, wait a moment.
The Cann’s’ front door opens and he steps out.
I open the door and quickly pick up the rubbish bag. I don’t even look over, Sandra will call me over.
I walk down the path towards the black bin at the end of the path. I lift the bin’s lid up and drop the rubbish into the bin and close the bin and make my way back up the path.
“Oh, Ryan! Mr Milligan,” Sandra shouts.
I smirk just before I turn around.
“Hi Sandy. How are you?”
“I’m great, thank you. Come here, I’ve got someone for you to meet.”
I walk towards their home and come face to face with a young lad. I can smell his aftershave halfway across the road from Sandy’s house. His tailored suit fits around his well-toned body. I look at his face; he looks like a male version of Sandra. He has her face, but his dad’s dark hair and eyes. I look at him as I stand in front of him and put my hand out towards him.
“Ryan, this is my son, Sam. Sam, this is our new neighbour, Ryan Milligan.”
“Nice to meet you Sam, I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Good to meet you, buddy. Likewise,” he nods.
“So Ryan, this is Sam, he’s a detective and at the moment he’s…”
“Mum stop, I can tell Ryan about myself if he wants to know,” Sam says, interrupting Sandra.
“So you’re a detective, are you?” I ask, even though I already know who he is and what he’s up to at the moment.
“Yeah, a senior constable; and I’m sure you’ve heard there have been murders around here lately, attacks on blonde women and I’m the detective working on the case. I also worked on the Myers case.”
“Don’t call it the ‘Myers case’. Andrew was a loyal friend and cared about us.” Sandra says stubbornly.
“Yes, he was, sorry mum.”
“So what’s the update on Andrew Myers and the latest investigation?” I ask.
“Well, with Andy, we had nothing to go on. We can’t find him or contact him. We thought that it must be because he doesn’t want to be found for whatever reason. Usually they come back in their own time, so it’s just a matter of waiting. The latest one however is an odd one. It’s been happening for a while now. In the last few weeks, women have been killed, for whatever reason. We have our suspects, we’ve just got to be patient and try to stop whoever is doing this.” Sam pauses as he stares at me. “You need to keep an eye on mum, especially as Dad is going away. They seem to trust you.”
“Oh Sam, I’ll be fine.” Sandra nervously laughs.
“Mum, this killer won’t let you off because you’re nice; he’s killing blonde women who have done nothing wrong. They’re all like you, they’re mums and wives.” He looks away from Sandra and looks at me. “Mum and Dad trust you and really like you, so can I trust you to look after Mum?” Sam pauses as he stares at me.
“Of course I’ll look after Sandra. I’m always looking around from the house so I can keep an eye on her.”
“Okay great, thanks Ryan. I’ve got to go.” Sam kisses his mum on the cheek and gives her a hug, then holds his hand out to me. “Thanks Ryan, I can relax a bit now I know that you’ll keep an eye out for her.”
I hold my hand out and Sam grips it tightly. I tighten mine and he then tightens his more, so I tighten to the hardest hand shake I’ve ever done.
“No problem Sam. It was good to meet you.”
“Good to meet you too, sir.” He nods to me and I return the nod. “Speak soon. Bye Mum.”
“Bye darling, I love you.” Sandra shouts.
Sam jogs to his Mercedes, opens the door and looks at his phone before getting into it. He shuts the door and switches on the growling engine. He does a U-turn and drives away at some speed.
I look at Sandra and smile.
“So where’s Simon going?”
“He has a business trip to America. He’s going to speak to insurance companies and to watch presentations and other stuff that I don’t really know about. It’s a trip for his boring job pretty much.” Sandra laughs as she finishes her sentence.
“Okay Sandy. Well, I’ll leave you to it. Have a good day.” I stroke her soft arm and turn around. As I begin to walk across the road Sandra shouts.
“Ryan? Can I talk to you about something?”
I turn around and walk back to Sandra.
“What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t want to tell Simon or Sam but I’m scared about these murders.” She looks at me and edges closer, she whispers: “Blonde women are being targeted and I was wondering whether you wanted to come round tonight? I can cook you whatever you like, you don’t even have to talk to me but I would just appreciate a man in the house.”
I smile. “Of course I can come round and I will talk to you. Do you really think that I wouldn’t talk to you?”
Sandra giggles and blushes. “Well no, but, you know, I don’t know.” She laughs and her neck flushes to match her cheeks.
“I’ll come round later. When do you want me?”
“Come round this evening let’s say, six o’clock?”
“Yeah, sure. Do you need anything? I’m going to the shops in a minute to get myself some stuff.”
“No, it’s fine, but thank you for asking.”
“Right you go inside, take care. I’ll see you later on.” I smile as I lightly squeeze her shoulder.
“Thanks Ryan. See you later.”
I walk across the road and turn to watch her go inside.
I walk into my house and look at the time. I have three hours.
I walk up to my room and lie down on the bed.
“Why am I feeling so drained?”
I get my phone out and set an alarm for 16:30. At least I’ll have an hour and a half to go to the shops and get some stuff and buy Sandra something.
I put the phone by my bedside and shut my eyes.
As I shut them, the thought of blonde women being targeted haunts me. What if that is something to do with Tanya? Yes it’s only been the last few weeks of murders in Surrey, but what if it has been planned a lot longer and Tanya was the first victim?
Maybe the kids got in the way and that’s why they were taken too?
I do hope that Sandra isn’t harmed. I need to look after her like I should have looked after Tanya.