Chapter Sixty-Eight
Two days after being admitted to hospital, Daniel Zugravescu passed away from the horrific injuries he had endured in an attempt to get him to reveal the location of where he was holding Erica and Leona Mitten.
He had been beaten, stabbed fourteen times and tortured. They cut off two of his fingers and stabbed him in one ear with a screwdriver.
The police interviewed his boss and work colleagues at the security company who confirmed Daniel had come to the UK seeking a better future after the deaths of his parents, and as an only child, had no relatives still living.
Slowly, with the help of the journal he left behind at the old phone exchange, the police have managed to build up a picture of Daniel’s life since he moved to Trentbridge.
Detective Inspector Eden Gold and Detective Sergeant Tracy Archer visited Erica and Leona after they had been re-united with their family, before the girls left for London.
The girls were eager to know about Daniel and sat down as the two detectives laid out what they knew.
They told the twins about their stalker and how it seems he became obsessed with them. The detectives told them about his journal discovered in the place where he watched over the kidnapper’s hideout.
“I know Daniel Zugravescu was a stalker. However, from everything we have seen, he was harmless. He was simply infatuated by you both. He had no intentions of harming you. In fact quite the opposite.
“I think on this occasion I would go as far as to say you can thank your lucky stars he was watching over you. There is no doubt he saved your lives and lost his own in the process. That’s not down to you, in any way. He kept a journal with daily updates. It reveals he was following you home and he even planted an electronic listening device here at your parents’ home to find out what you were up to and gain more information about you. Such things are not unusual in cases of stalking. At the old phone exchange, the place Daniel used to keep an eye on you, we discovered a box containing a range of covert listening devices and spy equipment. It seems Daniel purchased each item off the Internet.
“The journal goes on to reveal how he went to the airport to watch you returning from holiday and how he hoped to talk to you but instead stumbled across the kidnap and managed to attach a GPS tracking device to one of the vehicles and follow the kidnappers to the hideout, and then how he had watched over you both almost day and night to make sure you were safe. Then he bought a gun. We’re not entirely sure why.
“It describes the instant he saw you were in trouble from the kidnapper trying to sexually assault one of you, he went in and killed the man and took you to the basement flat behind the old furniture shop at Mitcham’s Corner. Unfortunately, the two kidnappers traced him to his bedsit and set about torturing him.
“The coroner has said in his report the injuries on Daniel’s body were horrific. Probably the worst he has ever seen. He said the pain must have been unbearable and he really doesn’t know how anyone could endure all of that and not give out any information. But in doing so he saved you from being killed.
“It was an act of extraordinary strength and courage. I think it was because he loved you, and no amount of pain he had to endure was too much. It seems no matter what they did to him, he was never going to tell them where you were.”
Three weeks later the funeral of Daniel Zugravescu took place at Trentbridge Crematorium.
Two people in particular who attended went over to his coffin to pay their respects.
“Goodbye, Daniel. It’s such a shame we never got to know you. Thank you for looking after us. We will be eternally grateful. And I think I speak for my sister as well as myself when I say had circumstances been different, either one of us would have been proud to become your girlfriend and, who knows, even your wife. We love you, Daniel.”
Erica Mitten stepped back and her sister moved forward.
“Yes, thank you for watching over us and making sure we were safe. I wish we had been given the chance to meet you. Farewell, Daniel.”
The Roman Catholic priest gave his sermon to the nine people in attendance. All seven members of the Mitten family attended, plus Eden and Tracy.
Although he had no family, the coffin was the finest model the undertakers offered.
The twins had insisted on paying for everything, with no expense spared.
He may have come into the world as a poor boy from Romania but the twins made sure Daniel Zugravescu left it in style.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
It was a beautiful July day.
Two months since the kidnapping of the twins and in the Mitten household things had returned to normal.
Diane was in the kitchen. Earlier, she had been down to the fruit garden and picked some strawberries. She had just finished baking a flan and was in the middle of cutting it into sections.
As she wiped a small amount of excess plain flour from the worktop using the front of her kitchen apron, she heard the doorbell ring.
Wondering who it might be, she walked through to the hallway and opened the door. Standing close was a man in his mid-thirties. He had a short beard, dark hair, almost black and deep-set eyes and looked vaguely familiar but with a detail she couldn’t quite place.
“Hello, Mrs Mitten. I’ve come to deliver a message to you.”
“A message. What sort of message?”
“Take heed of my words, Mrs Mitten. It’s not over. You didn’t think I would
