Happiest Days Chapter One – 3rd Section
Ryan and Joel only needed two or three strides apiece to reach their goal. The bell, rung once, was answered almost immediately although the door was opened just a crack.
“Mr. Walden? Mr Darren Walden?” Ryan had her ID in her hand and she held it up so the man in front of her could see she was who she said she was. “I’m Detective Inspector Ryan Forrester, Midshires CID.”
“Oh yes, please, won’t you come in?” The door was opened fully and the two officers made their way into an extremely tiny hall. Darren, his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion, stepped into the lounge so Joel could close the front door behind him, and a faint female voice was heard.
“Darren, is that the police?”
“Yes, they’re coming into the lounge now.” Darren’s tone, tired as he had spoken to them on the doorstep, was suddenly tender, loving, and, both officers knew, just a little bit forced.
Ryan moved over so she was standing in front of Annie Walden and crouched down.
“Mrs Walden, my name is Detective Inspector Ryan Forrester from Midshires CID. Thank you for agreeing to speak with us.”
“I … I don’t know how much use I’ll be, but I will try.” Annie Walden seemed to be almost surrounded by the chair she sat in. The arms, large and overstuffed reached around her protectively, and the soft velour back grasped her body like memory foam, while her legs were curled up underneath her and lost from view.
“My partner, Detective Matheson, will be taping this as well as taking some notes while we talk. When we’re done he’ll read them back to you, to give you an idea of what was actually said, is that ok?”
The young woman, who, Ryan knew was only twenty-six, nodded her head causing auburn hair to swing over her shoulders, catching the light from the warm September sun shining in through the windows. She seemed almost too fragile, as if any movement from anyone nearby would cause her to shatter into a thousand pieces.
“I … I thought you were going to be a man, I’m so glad I can talk to a woman.”
“A lot of people make that mistake, but we wouldn’t send a male officer if we could possibly avoid it.” Ryan smiled, her name had caused her to be both amused and embarrassed in the past, and she knew it wasn’t something that would change anytime soon.
“Mrs Walden, just so you know, you don’t need to slow down your speech, I use shorthand, so talk normally and it’ll be fine.” Joel’s voice broke into the conversation for the first time, and Ryan saw the pain in his eyes as he looked towards the woman they had come to see.
“I’m going to pull a dining chair up, and then we’ll begin.” The young woman nodded again, and waited. Ryan sat down, looking more closely at the face of the third victim of a man who had become known, to Ryan at least, as ‘the educated rapist’ because of the little trinkets he left behind.
He was getting bolder, cleverer and far more dangerous with each attack, and Ryan knew it was only a matter of time before he killed one of his victims.
Annie Walden was lucky, she may not feel it right now, but she had survived, not intact, but she had survived. The rapist had gouged at her eyes so viciously the hospital wasn’t sure if she would ever see again.
“Let’s go through the formalities first, you know the boring bits.”
“Ok.” Annie sounded a little confused, but seemed to relax just slightly.
“You are Anne Walden, but most people call you Annie, yes?”
“Yes, that’s right. I can’t remember the last time anyone called me Anne, well except people like doctors at the hospital, or the bank manager.”
“He calls you by your first name? Wow!” Ryan was pleased to see a slight smile cross the face of her companion, and she carried on talking. “Most of this is just for the information at the beginning of the tape; you’re twenty-six years of age, married to Darren, you live at number twenty-eight, Redding Drive and have no children.”
“Yes, all of that is right.” Annie’s voice, although still quiet, was a little more confident now, and Ryan carried on talking, watching her all the while.
“It’s two minutes past ten on 1st September, ---- those present are Detective Inspector Ryan Forrester, Detective Sergeant Joel Matheson, Mrs Anne Walden and her husband Mr Darren Walden.”
Ryan paused for a moment, observing her partner as he watched the tape going round, saw him stop and restart it, before they all listened to her voice float out across the room repeating back to them who was present, and then, following a couple more clicks of the tape recorder’s buttons, silence resumed.
“Ok, Gov, it’s working fine.” Joel’s voice, calm and reassuring, let her know she should continue, and so taking a breath she did just that.
“What I think will be the best way to handle this is if you tell me what happened first, in your own words, and we’ll just listen. The only time I will interrupt is if we need to change the tape, or if I need clarification on something I think can’t wait until you are done, ok?”
“Yes, I understand. Will … will you clear your throat and touch my hand if you want me to stop, only voices tend to make me jump at the moment?”
“Of course, that’s fine, like this?” Ryan did as she had been asked and was amazed at the coldness of Annie’s hand.
“Yes, yes, just like that.” The silence descended once more and, for a moment or two, Ryan was happy to let it continue.
“Where do you want me to start?” It was a common question; Ryan had been waiting for it.
“Before the attack, not days before, but when everything was still fine, when you didn’t realise there was any danger, and go on until you are ready to stop. I know the attack took place on Friday and you spent the weekend in the hospital. So it’s up to you where you begin and end. Like I said, at this point, I want to listen not ask questions.” Ryan knew this could take a long while, and she had told her office not to call her or expect her back until the afternoon. Joel’s phone was on vibrate and he would leave the room to take any messages her subordinates considered urgent enough for them to receive. She didn’t anticipate hearing from anyone.
“Yes, it was Friday, Darren was due back to school on … today, it would have been today, and so I was going to go to Tesco’s to get some stuff to barbeque. His friend Aaron, who he used to work with, was coming over, his wife too, on the Saturday and we were just gonna chill, have some nice food, good wine and enjoy ourselves.
“The car park was packed, I guess most families were thinking the same way we were, although the children round here have another few days before their holidays finish. Anyway, I parked in the first gap I saw, and I … I just know I locked it. I grabbed a small trolley, I didn’t want much, but knew, even though it should fit into a basket, I was bound to see stuff I hadn’t planned on buying, I always do!”
Ryan knew some of what Annie was saying wasn’t really necessary, but she had no intention of interrupting her flow. It was far better to have too much information and spend time sifting through it, than not enough and need to return over and over, continually distressing everyone involved.
“My few bits of shopping cost me almost forty-five pounds, and I definitely needed the trolley. I made my way back to the car, I was a bit disoriented to start with, I usually park right near the entrance, and there seemed to be no end of cars which looked like mine … yes?” Annie had heard a sound and felt Ryan’s hand on hers and so she stopped speaking.
“I’m sorry, I realise I should already know this, but what car do you drive?”
“Oh, it’s a silver Vauxhall Astra, every other car you see seems to be silver, and most are about that size and shape. I had to check number plates to find it in the end. It’s W6 DAW; it was a joint Christmas present last year, our own personalized number plate. When I saw it I … oh!” Annie stopped. Ryan knew she had remembered something, something which had slipped her mind up until that moment, and held her breath. Maybe the overlooked fact would be important, maybe not. Right now she would take it, whatever it was.
“I know how he got in. It was me … I did it.” Annie struggled to contain her emotions and Ryan watched Darren, willing him to stay where he was. Gradually her breathing levelled out and Annie continued, “I opened the car with the remote as I was walking towards it. It’s a habit, I guess, and I put the bags in the boot, the trolley in the nearest park and climbed into the driver’s seat.”
The last few words had come out at speed, and Ryan knew the young woman was getting to the hard part. She had said nothing when Annie had realised her own culpability in what had happened, but she would, later, when it was her turn to speak.
“I started up the car, reversed out of the space, and made my way onto the slip road which leads back to the dual carriageway. When … when I paused at the junction … I heard a voice…”
The room became heavy with emotion and Ryan, seeing Darren Walden begin to move out of the corner of her eye, looked at him and shook her head. He sat heavily back into his own chair, but she knew he wanted to be next to Annie, comforting her and telling her it was ok.
“Sorry.” Annie gulped back a sob and then, with her hands now clenched into tight fists began to speak again.
“I … I didn’t recognize it, it was quiet, sort of muffled. I’ve thought about it a lot. He was sort of reading, reciting maybe, from a script … does that make sense?”
“Yes it does, but I’ll talk about it later, you carry on, you’re doing a great job.” Ryan wasn’t sure yet what all of her witness’s statement would contain and didn’t want to lose momentum by interrupting. She didn’t want to be accused of putting words into Annie’s mouth either, but knew a little encouragement could go along way.
“Really? Oh good, I’m so glad. I was scared I’d mess up or something.” Again the small smile; the reassurance had been just enough to set her back off on her horrific journey into the recent past.
“He said to me ‘you are going to do exactly as I say, do you understand?’ and I nodded. I don’t know why I didn’t scream, maybe I was too scared, but I just nodded, and he said it again. ‘Say it, do you understand?’ I … I told him I did and then I said I didn’t have much money on me but he could take what I had.” Her hand went to her eyes for the first time, and Ryan realised she had forgotten about the pads, which were covering them. The bottom of the dressings looked a little wet, as if a few tears had been soaked up by it and, as Annie’s shoulders heaved, it became apparent she was crying.
Joel took the opportunity to check the tape and, seeing they still had plenty left, relaxed a little. It was almost impossible to gauge the passing of time in situations like the one they found themselves in and it wasn’t unheard of for a cassette to run out with a resounding ‘click’ right in the middle of vital testimony. It hadn’t happened to him yet, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
“I’m sorry. Darren, are you still here?” This time reassurance was needed from her husband, and Ryan knew the young man would move across towards his wife. She couldn’t, and wouldn’t, stop him, but she hoped he would return to his own seat when he had the chance.
It took over ten minutes before Annie could carry on, and during that time Ryan had made a ‘drinking’ motion with her hand in front of Darren. When he nodded she had gone out to the kitchen and returned with a glass of water for her interviewee. Once that had been done though she sat quietly, trying to imagine the scene described to her so far. She knew the Tesco store Annie meant, but could only see it clearly in her mind because she had driven past it the previous evening to re-familiarize herself with the scene. Joel, she could see, had paused the tape and finished checking his notes, and so they sat, listening to Darren patiently and quietly speaking to Annie, calming her, reassuring her she was doing a great job, and explaining to her how, once this was done, they were one step closer to regaining the life they’d had before.
Finally, with a deep breath, Annie turned toward her husband and smiled.
“Thank you, sweetheart, I’m ok again now. You … you go sit back over there, otherwise I’ll be wondering what you’re doing all the time, instead of knowing you’re sitting, listening.”
“Are you sure? I can stay, move the chair, anything.” His voice was heartbreaking to hear, the emotions inside him causing words to catch in his throat and sound almost pleading. Ryan felt so for him and what he too would be going through as he tried to protect his wife when, in reality, it was too late for that.
“I’m sure, and if you move the furniture I’ll fall over it, so go, I can picture you sitting in your chair, and if I’m not fine I know you’ll come back.”
Darren kissed his wife tenderly on the cheek and, hesitantly, obviously not convinced it was the right thing to do; returned to his seat and sat down.
“I’m sorry, somehow the anticipation of what I have to tell you is scarier than actually saying the words, but I’m ready now.”
“Ok, well, just carry on as you were before, Mr Walden is right, you really are doing a great job.” Again the reassurance lifted the young woman’s spirits and Ryan saw her square her shoulders, take a deep breath, and try to relax before continuing.