Walking along and giggling, the two girls stepped up to the crossing. The white car approaching from their right slowed to let them cross. The lorry driver, as he approached from the opposite direction, also slowed.
Before stepping out, they checked both ways, and then started walking, still chatting and giggling about the costumes and the party.
As the driver of the 4x4 behind the white car saw it slow down, he decided he couldn’t wait and drove round it, picking up speed as he did. The girls chatted away and failed to notice as the big black vehicle swung out from behind the now-stationary white car onto the wrong side of the road.
Talking on his mobile, Kevin O’Connor was holding in his left hand and being a little worse for the six pints and whisky chasers consumed at the pub he had just left, he failed to notice the two girls.
He also failed to see the delivery truck approaching the crossing from the other way.
At thirty-nine miles an hour, hard metal meeting human flesh and bones is no contest. The 4x4 came off best. Hitting a large truck is more of an equal match, and the journey of Kevin’s vehicle ended with its bonnet embedded in the front of the truck.
The driver of the 4x4 was saved by the air bag as it was deployed. The two girls didn’t fair so well. The impact threw them into the vehicle windscreen and then across the road. The pair were dead before their blood-soaked bodies came to rest on the pavement.
Kevin O’Connor might have been drunk but his instinct clicked in, and he took out the handkerchief he kept in his trousers pocket and wiped the air bag where his face had landed, in an attempt to remove any DNA. He then proceeded to wipe the steering wheel, turned the ignition off and removed the key. He had the foresight to retrieve the mobile he’d dropped on the moment of impact. It had fallen into the footwell. He opened the driver door, stepped out and walked round to the back of the vehicle.
Most of the people who witnessed the incident were looking at the two girls as they lay on the pavement, lifeless and covered in blood. They were being attended to by a man in a white tunic with the words Lloyds Chemists. Bernard Lloyd dashed out after seeing one of the girls flung against the window of his pharmacy.
Kevin O’Connor walked past all the onlookers and kept walking. No one challenged him, and within a minute, he turned the corner into Lonsdale Road. He briefly looked around to see if anyone was following but didn’t notice anyone.
As he walked away, he dialled a number from his mobile.
It took the ambulance four minutes to arrive. Bernard Lloyd had already covered both girls in blankets. The medics put the girls into the ambulance. It was obvious nothing could be done.
As the paramedics closed the rear doors, a police car turned up. PC Frank Edwards spoke to the medics and then got on his radio. He then went to the boot of his vehicle and got out a roll of police ‘Do Not Cross’ tape and proceeded to place it around the areas where the girls had fallen.
The other officer, PC Pauline Underwood, after checking inside the Ford Kuga 4x4, walked over to the truck. The driver seemed to be okay other than confused by what had happened.
“Where’s the driver of the 4x4?” PC Edwards asked.
“I don’t know,” the truck driver replied. “He went round the back of his vehicle. I haven’t seen him since.”
PC Edwards walked over to his colleague. “I think the driver has done a runner. Let’s try to get a description and get it out and see if anyone can locate him. He can’t have gone too far.”
PC Underwood had already requested a PNC check on the vehicle, giving its registration to the control room. It came back as having been stolen in Birmingham two weeks previously.
Pauline went to all the witnesses, asking if anyone had seen the driver of the 4x4.
One person recalled a lot of detail. He told the police officer the man he saw getting out of the 4x4 was about fifty, five feet eight with greasy black hair, wearing blue jeans, white Nike trainers, a Manchester United t-shirt, and had a small scar under his left eye.
Will Gleeson always remembered detail. The training courses he had attended as part of his job as a security guard had taught him to be observant – to remember the small details – which was how he’d noticed the scar. Things like that came in handy, especially to pick out the troublemakers when he was on duty for his second job as a part-time security man at local football matches.
He added, “I remember him because he pushed past me after I saw him getting out of the vehicle. He had almost hit me when he swerved before hitting the two girls. I won’t forget him in a hurry.”
Pauline thanked Will Gleeson for his detailed description and got on her radio and gave the information so the details could be circulated.
Chapter Eight
BAD NEWS
In the ambulance, the phone in her purse rang and went to voicemail.
“Julie darling, it’s dad. Where are you? Everyone’s waiting to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl. See you soon. Love you.”
It was 7.10 p.m., and the bright sunshine that had been out all day was continuing to shine.
The large lounge of 36 Fieldview Lane in Cherrywood was full of helium balloons, all set in bunches of pink and red and complimented by an abundance of signs saying ‘Happy 21st Birthday’.
In the centre of the room was a large table heaped with buffet food. A unit on the main wall displayed a massive selection of horse jumping trophies Julie had won. They
