The Girl in the Rug (19 page)

Louisa Boulter sat in front of her computer answering her
emails with one eye on her husband. After their horrendous row the day before
they were still skirting around each other a bit, Louisa had ended up
apologising as she always did. Tim seemed to have the knack of making her feel
in the wrong even when she knew she wasn’t, becoming more and more indignant
and upset until she inevitably backed down and made peace, as had happened
yesterday.

The difference this time was that Louisa had absolutely no
intention of letting it go, she just needed Tim to think that she was so that
she could do some investigating of her own. She was not going to let another
scandal threaten her career as it had a few years before; she had told Tim at
the time that there would be no more chances and she intended to stick to her
word.

They had been in New York at the time, when she had been
approached by a rather nasty individual who had told her that he had proof that
Tim had been interfering with a thirteen year old girl. Louisa had dismissed
him as a chancer trying to get money out of her, but he had produced
photographs of Tim and the girl together. She had confronted Tim about it and,
after denying everything for the first hour and then blaming bad alcohol for
the next…he finally admitted that in a moment of madness he had slept with the
girl…still claiming though that she had come on to him.

Louisa could still remember what the girl looked like…she
was a baby, a baby with soft blond curls and sad scared eyes. She later found
out that the girl had been sold to the highest bidder at a corporate function…a
function where other children had been sold for sex to other men. Tim had
learnt his lesson he had said…he had been tempted and not been strong enough to
resist the encouragement from the other men. Louisa had paid the man $200,000
for his silence and the photos and they had returned to England to start
again…a clean slate Tim had said.

Not long after Louisa had fallen badly whilst on a climbing
holiday, her ropes hadn’t been secured properly and she landed awkwardly
breaking her spine and making her useless from the waist down. Tim had been
amazing almost moving into the hospital to be with her and making sure she
stuck rigorously to her physio routine; she didn’t know how she would have
coped without him. It was due to him that she was able to continue her singing
career, even though she could not perform live on stage anymore, he arranged
for her to meet with recording companies and since her accident she had sold
three times the number of CDs, making her one of the most sought after
classical artist in the world.

Until Tracy’s visit yesterday, Louisa had been able to fool
herself into thinking that Tim had kept his word and that the incident with the
young girl had indeed been a one off…a moment of madness. She had been a bit
nervous when Gordon and Freddy Robinson had started inviting Tim to their do’s,
but Tim had assured her that apart from a bit of gambling and some good food
and wine it was all very tame. The Robinson’s were just trying to smooth their
way towards some very lucrative council controlled building contracts, not very
ethical maybe but nothing for her to worry about…then Tracy had mentioned those
children and Louisa’s ears had immediately pricked up….

She was jolted out of her thoughts by the man himself who
came up behind her and gave her a kiss.

‘I’m just going to pop into Redbank darling, need some more
ink for the printer…can I get you anything before I go?’ he said.

‘No I’m fine thank you love…oh you could pop that little cow
toy of Tilly’s into Tracy’s for me as you pass by, I seem to remember her
saying that Tilly doesn’t sleep without it. Poor Tracy, don’t suppose she got
much sleep last night then,’ Louisa said getting ‘moomoo’ from the table and
passing it to Tim.

‘Well maybe she’ll be more careful about taking it with her
next time,’ Tim said rather acidly taking ‘moomoo’ from her and stuffing it
into the pocket of his coat. He kissed Louisa goodbye and was gone.

This was what Louisa had been waiting for all morning, as
soon as she was sure that Tim had gone she wheeled herself down the ramp that
led into Tim’s office and switched on his laptop…blast the thing, it wanted a
password.

Tim was a creature of habit and he always wrote everything
down…it had to be here somewhere. Louisa started looking through his desk and
through his papers but could find nothing. She sat back in her chair, ‘Think
Louisa…think,’ she muttered to herself, then she remembered his little Chinese
puzzle box. She had bought it for him one Christmas after a concert in Hong
Kong; it was a beautifully carved wooden box that had a secret mechanism which
opened it, luckily Louisa knew the secret. She scanned the room looking for the
box, at last she saw it, but it was on a bookshelf quite high up…would she be
able to reach it? ‘Well you’ll never know sitting here will you?’ she said to
herself, wheeling her chair over next to the bookshelf…she reached up as high
as she could go, she could just touch the edge of the box and began pushing it
with her finger tips, twisting it nearer to the edge. It was exhausting and
Louisa was bathed in sweat as she tried again and again…moving the box
centimetre by centimetre. After what seemed like an age it was at last
teetering on the edge of the shelf…one more go and it should fall into her lap.

She reached up again and sure enough the box fell, landing
perfectly in her lap. Louisa did a high five to herself and wheeled her chair
and the box back over to Tim’s desk. With a few clicks and twists the box
popped open and sure enough inside there were a few folded pieces of paper,
each with either numbers or numbers and letters on them.

She tried them one by one; the second one opened the
computer. Louisa felt elated at her success but soon realised that she hadn’t a
clue what she was looking for. She went into Tim’s recent activity file; there
were travel sites…which made sense because she had another recording session in
the US planned for next month, he had been keeping an eye on twitter and had
posted some advertising for her latest albums. What was this…Tim had been
looking at a cosmetic surgery site, bloody hell what did he think needed
doing…stupid man?

Her heart sank though, as she read the name of the next site
he had visited recently, ‘Oh no...oh no Tim…bloody hell,’ she whispered in a
faltering voice. Once opened (via another password) her worst fears were
confirmed. Images of young girls…very young girls, most of them naked…some of
them performing sexual acts, suddenly flooded the screen.

Louisa flicked through the site barely seeing the screen for
the tears that were streaming down her face…he had promised…promised on her
life, and she had believed him. She felt physically sick as she looked at the
evidence of his betrayal, putting her head in her hands and groaning at the
pain of it. It took a few minutes for her to compose herself enough to carry
on; she came out of the website and went into his email account. Yet another
password was needed for that, but Louisa was on a roll and found that first
time round.

Lots of work related emails, but also some from a company
called ‘young and sweet’ with offers of private and confidential viewings at a
price of course…then an email from Freddy Robinson caught her eye.

It was an invitation to an up and coming event at the big
house…Gordon and Freddy would be delighted to invite Tim to the event with a
promise of good food and wine and the company of like minded men. There was a
post script at the bottom from Freddy personally…‘We’ve picked out some
particularly young and juicy cherries for this evening so I hope you can make
it.’

Louisa had read enough, ‘Bastard,’ she muttered angrily as
her tears flowed faster, ‘that utter, utter bastard.’ She was really sobbing
now and searched the desk until she found a tissue with which to blow her nose,
accidentally knocking over a picture of the two of them smiling into each
other’s eyes which just brought on a fresh wave of sorrow.

Once her sobs had subsided a bit Louisa sat for a while,
exhausted and defeated she thought about the ramifications of what she had just
discovered. Her marriage was over that much was certain, she would make sure
Tim was ok financially but there was no way she could live with him anymore
after this. Also she had to tell someone what was going on, there were
children’s lives at stake here, it couldn’t be allowed to continue…even if that
meant implicating Tim, she would phone the police and tell them what she knew.
She reached over and switched off the computer, watching it as the screen
turned black…the blood in her veins turned to ice and she let out a scream of
horror!

Tim was standing right behind her…reflected in the
screen…watching her. Her eyes met his and she could see his face filled with
rage and fear as he stood silently staring at her. In one hand he held aloft
the large bronze statue that stood on a cabinet just inside the door way of the
study. Shaking her head in terror Louisa’s eyes pleaded with his seconds before
he let out a roar of anger, and he smashed the statue down hard against the
side of her head. She felt an explosion of pain…and then everything went black.

Tim looked down at his unconscious wife for a second or two
as if he couldn’t believe what he had just done and then the enormity of it hit
home. ‘Fuck!!!’ he swore as he saw the blood oozing out of the wound in her
head, ‘fuck fuck fuck…what the fuck am I going to do now…you stupid fucking…’
he ranted holding his head in his hands as he went into full blown
panic…marching round the room moaning and groaning, kicking out at anything
that got in his way. Picture frames and china vases went flying as his emotions
went into frenzy, ‘Oh god oh god oh god…’ he moaned over and over finally slumping
down on the sofa to try and control himself.

‘Right think…think,’ he said out loud after a while…his face
crumpled again, ‘no no no don’t start again…’ he took another deep breath,
‘right fucking get a hold of yourself you stupid wanker.’ He forced himself to
go over and check if he had killed Louisa, by looking for a pulse…there was
one, it was faint, but she was alive…shit shit shit…he would have to finish her
off…fuuucckkk!

Shaking from head to toe, Tim took a cushion from the sofa
in the living room, he turned Louisa’s face towards him…she began to stir, so
quickly before she could open her eyes he pushed the cushion into her face
holding it hard against her. She began to struggle, it was amazing how hard she
struggled but he held firm, shouting at her all the time, letting his anger
take over.

‘You stupid cow…why did you have to meddle…look what you’ve
made me do, why Louisa…fucking hell…why did you do this…’ he was crying hard as
he felt her body go limp. He kept on though, pressing hard until he was sure
his wife was dead. Then he held her in his arms and sobbed.

Tim didn’t know how long he stayed beside his dead wife, but
eventually reality returned and he knew he had to get rid of her body. He knew
a place that he could put her, where she wouldn’t be found until he could
figure out what the hell he was going to do with her, but he would have to wait
till after dark to move her. Until then he would wrap her up…he couldn’t bear
to have her so near, and was horribly aware of her eyes which seemed to be
staring accusingly at him. He took a colourful old throw from the back of one
of the sofas, carefully lifted his wife out of her chair and wrapped her in it,
placing her gently on the sofa and closing the living room door. He was just
about to begin collapsing her wheelchair, when the doorbell rang making him
jump guiltily.

He ignored it, but it rang again longer this time. Tim went
back into the living room and peeked out of the window…Tracy, with Tilly in the
buggy was on the step, she had moved round to try and peer in through the
living room window and had seen him, she waved. Swearing under his breath Tim
waved back and making sure the living room door was shut he answered the front
door.

‘Oh I am so relieved I caught you…I thought for a minute you
were out,’ Tracy said before Tim could say a word. ‘It’s just ‘moomoo’…only she
can’t sleep without it you see and I can’t go through another night like last
night so I thought I’d walk round and see if you’d found it.’

Tim looked at her as if she was mad, ‘Sorry…what?’ He said
shaking his head.

‘Oh god I’m babbling again aren’t I,’ said Tracy giggling,
‘is Louisa around, she’ll know what I’m talking about.’

‘No sorry,’ Tim said shortly, ‘um…she’s gone away for a few
days…weeks actually…um a concert, in Amsterdam…’

‘Oh blimey…she didn’t say…’ began Tracy.

‘No…last minute thing, just heard last night actually, all a
bit rushed so…’

‘Oh god sorry Tim, I expect I’m the last person you want to
see aren’t I?’ Tim didn’t answer just stood there looking awkward.

‘It’s ‘moomoo’ Tilly’s little cow…I left it here yesterday,
I wondered…’

‘Oh bloody hell yes, I meant to drop it off to you earlier
only I had to come back home for something.’ Tim started riffling through his
jacket which was hanging just beside the door, until he finally produced
‘moomoo’ and handed it over to Tracy.

‘Thank you so much…what a relief, might get some sleep now,’
Tracy babbled, ‘Oh tell Louisa I hope it all goes well won’t you, are you
joining her later?’

‘What?’ Tim snapped, ‘oh I see what you mean, yes I expect
so…sorry so much to do…’

‘Um I meant to apologise…for yesterday…’ Tracy began
awkwardly, stalling Tim who had started to close the door.

‘Sorry,’ he said impatiently shaking his head, ‘what about
yesterday?’

‘Well I think I may have said something out of turn…about
the children I mean, I just found it odd you know…but I’m sure there’s a
perfectly good explanation.’ Tracy pulled a face, ‘I was thinking though that I
might mention it to my friend Carla…she’s with the local CID you know…because
when all’s said and done those kids should not have been out so late and if the
parents are doing that then who knows what else…I mean bloody hell the stories
you hear…’