Most days he was his normal self. Nothing seemed to worry him, and if anyone got in his way, he simply took care of them.
For the first time in years he argued with his wife Sadie, and was aware his intake of alcohol had increased considerably, but he had always been able to handle it in the past and was sure once the pressure was off things would go back to normal.
Most of the time he was a laid-back sort of character but not a man to cross if you knew what was good for you.
Chapter Five
JULIE MAYNARD - SATURDAY 7 JULY
As she woke up and opened her bright blue eyes, Julie Maynard knew this was going to be a day to remember. For once she was sober on a Saturday morning. She held back the previous night because this was the special day she had been looking forward to for weeks. She was saving the hangover for after that night. When she went to sleep the previous night, she was twenty years old. That morning she was twenty-one, and the main reason for her smile was at seven o’clock that night the place to be in Trentbridge was going to be 36 Fieldview Lane in Cherrywood.
Her lovely wonderful daddy had spared no expense for his princess. It had taken a lot of planning. But now everything was ready. Invitations had gone out to sixty guests inviting them to an outrageous and over the top fancy dress party. The caterers and entertainment had been booked. The local wine merchants thought it was Christmas and New Year all wrapped into one.
Julie was certain none of her friends would forget Saturday the seventh of July.
She yawned as she stretched her arms above her head. She walked over to the large south-facing window and flung open the curtains, letting the bright rays of sunshine burst into her room.
It was her dad’s house. Since he and Julie’s mum Francis had separated he lived alone, apart from his only spoilt daughter.
Six years earlier, her mum had got tired of him working long hours and had found refuge in the arms of another man. At first, it was because someone had noticed her, but as time had gone on, they had fallen in love, and she had made the decision to move out. Now Julie’s mum lived a few streets away on Welham Park with her long-term boyfriend.
It affected Julie at the time and she had gone a little off the rails. However, her dad had cut down on his work and spent more time with her. Thankfully all of that mess was behind her. Now she had her whole life ahead of her.
As she stepped into the shower, the party was all she could think about. It would be a night of pure celebration. All of Julie’s family and friends would be there. Dad had hinted he’d bought her something special. For the past week at breakfast, he had teased her, showing her two gift-wrapped boxes. One was about six inches by four inches. The other was flat and slightly larger than the size of an A4 sheet of paper. Julie had an idea the small box contained the keys to the bright red Audi TT car she hinted she wanted when they had visited the car showroom a few weeks earlier. And she was her daddy’s girl and usually got her way.
She had no idea what the other gift was. Dad was beaming about it but giving her no hints or clues. She would just have to wait and see.
Two years earlier, Julie started working for her father in his engineering business. She was the office junior, learning the trade from Wendy Northgate who had worked for Julie’s dad for the past eleven years.
Although Wendy was thirty-nine, she remembered what it was like to be twenty and cut Julie a fair amount of slack, especially when she arrived at work late, after a night of excess alcohol and clubbing. But she didn’t take any crap, even if Julie was the boss’s daughter.
The two women got on well. Wendy was extremely good at her job and ran the office like a well-oiled machine. Julie, on the days she wasn’t suffering from a hangover, was learning a lot from her. But she lived for her free time when she could let her hair down.
Young free and single and with blonde hair, five feet six, a slim body, a good figure and long legs meant Julie was extremely popular with the opposite sex. And she liked to party – hard. A typical night would be having her best friend Sarah come round at about seven o’clock, listening to music, opening a bottle of wine, followed by a glass or three of Baileys. Then taking a taxi into the town centre and hitting their favourite bar. Then walking across town from club to club in short skirts and high heels whatever the weather or temperature. It was what all the girls did.
She hadn’t had a long-term regular boyfriend since Craig Dawson. He was from a council estate on the other side of Trentbridge. They met when she was fifteen and she was rebelling against everything. He was eighteen. He had taken her virginity two days after she turned sixteen. Over the next two years, they had been an item. She thought she loved him, even though he treated her like shit. She couldn’t imagine a time when they wouldn’t be together. She could forgive him everything even the occasional slap or punch when he was drunk or angry. After all, the next day he would be full of remorse.
Then one night as they had fallen asleep in his bed,
