They were kissing deeply, and as I watched I saw him movehis hand to her breast. As he did so, she firmly moved it away. He tried again,more forcefully, and this time she broke the kiss, and clearly said, “No.”
He had been all charm and humour up to that point, but thiswas the trigger point for his Jekyll and Hyde moment. “Come on, you know youwant it,” he said loudly, pushing her back against the wall of the pavilion andforcing his mouth upon hers once more.
“No I don’t,” she proclaimed gutsily. Good for her, Ithought, at least she’s standing up for herself.
“That’s not what I came out here for,” she added.
“Well what did you think we came out here for?” he shoutedangrily. “To kiss and hold hands? This is the 21st century, not DowntonAbbey. Now stop fucking me around and get your knickers off.” And with thathe grabbed hold of her again, and roughly tried to shove his hand up her dressand between her legs.
“Get off me,” she screamed, as he pushed her to the groundand forced himself on top of her.
“Shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch, and just enjoy it. Yourmate Sophie did,” he shouted. He tore at her dress which gave way with anaudible rip. She screamed. I had let things go far enough. It was time tointervene.
I leapt up from behind the water tank, and sprinted over tothem, shouting “Get the fuck off of her.” Startled by my unexpected apparition,he attempted to get up but I had already reached them.
I cannoned straight into him, sending him sprawlingbackwards towards the river bank. As I watched him topple backwards almost inslow motion, Stacey was screaming hysterically behind me.
It hadn’t been my intention to push him into the river. WhatI had planned to do was to kick the living shit out of him, but now, as Iwatched, things took an unexpected turn. He fell directly backwards into thewater with a huge splash, right into a dense patch of reeds.
I had expected him to climb straight back out, but hedidn’t. The shock of hitting the water must have taken his breath away, andhe’d gone completely under. The reeds were very thick, and he appeared to havebeen caught up in them. He was almost completely immersed, his hands graspingdesperately above the water as he thrashed about, but it was all over veryquickly.
Suddenly he was very silent and very still. I had heardstories of people drowning in a few inches of water, but I really hadn’texpected him to succumb this easily. Perhaps he’d hit his head when he’d fallenin.
I certainly wasn’t going to any effort to fish him out. Thebastard had got what he’d deserved as far as I was concerned. All these monthsI’d been fantasising about ways to do him in, and now I’d accomplished itwithout even intending to. Now I had a situation to deal with.
My first thought was for Stacey, distraught and hysterical.I turned back towards her, dress torn, make-up running with tears, and hair adishevelled mess.
Quickly, I gathered her up in my arms as she sobbed herheart out. After what seemed an age, but was in fact probably only aboutfifteen seconds, she spoke.
“Is he dead?” she asked.
“I think so,” I replied.
“Oh my God,” she said, and began crying again.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” I said. “You have to believeme, Stacey. He was going to rape you. I was just trying to get him off you.”
“I know,” she said. “It was horrible. I had no idea he wouldbe like that. But how did you know? How did you come to be here?”
I had been prepared for these questions.
“I found out tonight,” I said. “I went out for a drink witha couple of the guys I play golf with and I told them about the prom. One ofthem told me he knew Liam, and that he’d tried to force himself upon hisdaughter last year. He suggested I come down here and check you were OK. So, Ihurried here as quickly as I could. When I got to the gates, I saw you walkingdown here and followed. Looks like I got here just in time.”
It was complete bullshit, but she bought it.
“I’m glad you did. I’m sorry, Dad, I shouldn’t have let himtalk me into coming down here,” she said, and burst into tears again.
“It’s what we do now, that’s important,” I said. I needed tocome up with a revised plan to take into account the new circumstances. Therewas a world of difference between a beaten-up body and a dead one face-down inthe water.
Stacey was still sobbing, but I needed her to be strong as Ibegan to outline my plan to her.
“The first thing you need to do is to ring my mobile, and weneed to have a conversation. You tell me you’ve been attacked, where you are,and that he’s fallen into the river. You are panicking and you don’t know whatto do. I will tell you to ring the police and that I will be right there. It’svital we do this, as when the police investigate they will check our mobilephone records. I’ve turned all the GPS and other tracking stuff off from myphone, so they won’t exactly know where I was when you made the call.”
Stacey nodded her understanding. I continued.
“Then give it five minutes and call the police. Don’t leaveit any longer than that or they will question why it took so long for you tocall after you had spoken to me. When they get here, I’ll claim to have gothere a couple of minutes before them. All you need to do then is tell them heattacked you and that you fought him off and he fell into the river. It’s vitalwe make sure this looks like an accident. Neither of us wants to be
