Happiest Days Chapter One – 4th Section

The meeting had taken place around him, he had only spoken when he was addressed directly, and if anyone had asked him he would have had no idea what tasks had been allocated him for Ofsted or any of the other decisions made by his faculty.
Now though he was in his own classroom, surrounded by familiar things, as he tried to come to grips with the shattering news he had heard in the staffroom. How could he have been so stupid? Well, if he was honest with himself he knew how. It wasn’t so easy when he was working all day to have time to spend out and about in the evenings. Soon there would be reports to write, lesson preparation, and liaison with other faculties to deal with. Add to that the fact that almost all departments had a new scheme of work in place this year, and last year’s plans weren’t worth squat.
That knowledge of time running away had spurred him on and he had gone out hunting ill prepared. He had stood in the shadows, watching, waiting, until he saw her, someone, anyone, who gave him those feelings, who fitted his image of perfection. They could be brunette, blonde, but each time there needed to be vulnerability, a little-girl quality, which drew him to them.
She had that in spades. Her hair had been auburn, shoulder length and moved in waves as she walked. When he heard the click of her car unlocking via remote he had known she was the one. Climbing in behind the passenger seat, while she emptied her trolley, had been a snap and everything had gone as planned after that. It had all been just as it should until he had gone to the staffroom before his faculty meeting and realised she had been a colleague’s wife.
He took a mouthful of coffee and then, leaning back in his chair, remembered for a moment. He could see her, the fear in her eyes that he caused, and the excitement stirred within him once again. She had begged, but then they always begged, did they really think, after he had gone to all the trouble to find them, he would just let them go?
He opened his desk drawer and looked down at his latest prize, which he couldn’t yet be parted from. The watch, dainty as she had been, gold and beautifully crafted, had engraving on the back of the solid band, ‘to Annie, together we have all the time in the world, Darren’ A laugh filled his classroom as he heard her begging again, but this time she was asking him to take anything else, not her watch, not her precious watch. He let his laughter continue; enjoying the moment enormously knowing it was he who had all the time.

Annie had explained how she had been made to turn the opposite way to her usual journey home, and how the road, tarmacked for a little way, soon turned to no more than a gravelled path.
“We … he made me keep driving, my headlights were picking up potholes in the road, but I just kept going in a straight line, I … I was too scared … and he wouldn’t let me look anywhere but right in front of me.
“I don’t know how far we went, I … I have no idea how long the entire thing took but it seemed like forever.” Annie’s voice was no more than a whisper now, but Joel knew the tape would pick up her words and wasn’t worried, just understanding of her situation and feelings as he noted down her body language, as well as an odd word here and there to repeat back at the end.
“Can I just ask a question?” Ryan had coughed lightly and, once again, put her own hand over Annie’s. The young woman seemed to look in her direction, the pads an ever present reminder to all in the room of the visible injuries she had suffered.
“Yes, I’m sorry; I’m trying to be accurate.”
“No, it’s not a problem, I just wanted to clarify something.” Ryan waited, watching the young woman as she listened intently.
“Ok, but I’m sorry if I left something out.”
Ryan gently tightened her own hand round that of the other woman in the room, just for a moment and then she spoke.
“When you said you had your headlights on, why was that? It was still light wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was, but not light enough, with the trees and everything around me, to see the track very clearly. I … I thought I might remember it later too, if I could see it, but I don’t, I don’t remember it at all.” Her voice faded off into the distance and for a moment all was quiet again as they waited for Annie to continue her tale.
“He told me to stop, he was still, so quiet, so … measured, but muffled. I could feel his presence behind me, and that was menacing, scary. So was his voice but in a different way, like he’d done it all before and knew where he was. Ryan nodded and realized, belatedly, Annie couldn’t see her do it.
“I did as I was told and climbed out of the car. When I’d locked it up he told me to give him the keys. I … I tried to look at him but he had a mask on.”
Both Joel and Ryan looked up sharply. This was something they hadn’t released to the press. Each rape so far, and there had been three of them that they knew about, had been carried out by a man wearing a mask.
Again Ryan made a noise before her hand covered Annie’s and she began to speak.
“Can you describe the mask? What type it was, colours, how it was fastened? Anything you can remember.”
“Oh, ok. Let me think for a moment.” Annie’s voice had taken on a singsong, almost automaton tone, which Ryan recognised as an attempt to distance the voice and the memories from the rest of her existence. So far it seemed to be working and Mrs Walden was coping well.
“It was …” She paused, and those watching could see she was thinking hard before giving her description. “You know when you see the two masks together for theatre, comedy and tragedy? Well, it was the comedy one of them. There was no colour, just white and it was held round the head by a strap, it seemed to disappear underneath the mask, there was no way to break it and pull the mask off, I thought of that, but I couldn’t do it.
“He pushed me along the track until we came to a little sort of walkway between two high gorse bushes. He wasn’t speaking now, not a word, he just kept shoving me in the back, making sure I went the way he wanted me to.” Again a pause, but Ryan expected it. They were at the main part of the statement, the actual rape, and she wondered whether Annie would want Darren to leave the room.
“We got to a … well, glade, I guess. There weren’t many trees or bushes; it was a flat piece of grassy land. He … he must have been there before, I mean, how would you know about it otherwise? I’ve lived here all my life and I didn’t know it existed.
“He … he made me stand in the middle of this glade place, and told me to strip. Slowly, he said, as if I was dancing for him.” The monotone voice was disconcerting now; Annie was speaking as if she was reciting from an extremely boring text, but she continued, and all those around her felt themselves being sucked into her nightmare.
“Slowly, I said, I want to see each piece come off.”
She had slowed then, her eyes darting around, trying in vain to see if anyone was walking a dog, maybe lying somewhere with a boyfriend or girlfriend, who would hear her if she screamed.
“If I have to take them off, I’ll use my knife, do you want that?” He was still a way away, ten maybe twelve strides but she knew, in an instant, he could be at her side.
“No, no, I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry what?” She had been puzzled, not understanding what he meant and so she had just stood there, the confusion written all over her face, mingling with the fear and dreaded anticipation.
“I’m sorry, SIR!” The final word had been screamed, but almost as if he had realised midway through not to draw attention to them it had petered out.
“Oh, Sir, I’m sorry, Sir.”
Slowly she had removed her t-shirt, peeling it up off her body, trying to stop the shaking and sweating her fear was causing. She was wearing no bra and had fought her natural reaction to cover herself with her hands, knowing it would only anger him more.
“Very nice, now, the skirt.”
Again she had done as she was told, slowly removing clothes until she stood naked before him, and then, as she thought her heart would stop in terror, he moved closer and closer to her.