Chapter 4: Murder Gone Viral by Stephen Simpson
The police arrive at the campus at lunchtime and when they approach Gareth where he is standing in a group of girls laughing and chatting, he is not surprised to see them.
The police officer flashes his badge at the group and then turns to Gareth. “Mr. Gareth van Rhijn?”
Gareth turns to the officer with a wide, accepting grin on his face. “That’s me.”
“Can I ask you a few questions?” He takes a notebook from his top shirt pocket and holds the pen ready. He looks back at Gareth questioningly.
“Yeah. What’s this about?” He asks friendly.
Seriously the police officer says, “You went out with Samantha Jones last night. We believe the two of you went to the movies.”
Gareth frowns perplexed. “Yes, we did. What’s wrong?”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“I dropped her off last night at about nine, but I cannot remember the exact time. She fell asleep before we even watched the movie, so I brought her home.” He shrugs and turns to the girl standing beside him. “Not the most exciting date, if I say so myself.”
The girl giggles.
The police officer frowns. “She just fell asleep?”
“Yeah. She did tell me when we were driving there that she is very tired. She only had a few hours’ sleep the night before because she was up all night cramming for her Business Economics exam yesterday morning.”
The police officer nods his head as he scribbles across the notepad.
Gareth knows where the security cameras are on the university grounds and he also knows that the one which monitors the entrance to Samantha’s dorm has not been working for the last two months. Nobody will ever know he drove past her dorm and that he did not drop her off where he was supposed to. Also, Samantha had a single dorm room. She needed the extra space for her wheelchair, so he would not have to explain why nobody heard his car when he supposedly dropped her off in front of the dorm.
“After you dropped Samantha off, where did you go?”
“She woke up just as we stopped in front of her dorm, and she did not want to invite me in.” He glances at the girl standing next to him again, with an amused grin on his face.
The police officer clears his throat irritated. “What did you do thereafter, Mr. van Rhijn?”
“I went to the library and I stayed there until eleven when they closed up shop. What’s going on anyway? Why are you asking me these questions, did something happen to Samantha?”
The police officer turns away from Gareth. “It is an ongoing investigation; so please remain available in case I have more questions for you.”
“Of course, Officer,” Gareth replies obligingly.
When the police officer walks away from their group, Gareth turns to the girls surrounding him. He asks nobody in particular, and there is a tone of concern in his voice. “I wonder what’s going on.”
That night Gareth gets dressed leisurely. He pulls on a charcoal coloured pair of designer jeans and he buttons up the mauve and white striped dress shirt.
He glances across the room at Richard, who is sitting in front of his desk pouring over his Advanced Engineering Manual. “Remember to come by Claire’s house at eleven.”
“I’ll be there,” Richard replies distractedly. Being an internet sensation is not going to give him a degree in Chemical Engineering, so even with the most exciting thing happening in his life, he still has to pass his exams.
Ten minutes later Gareth leaves their dorm room and with a confident swagger in his every step he walks to his car.
He drives away from the university grounds and out to the gated secure estate not far from the university. Claire invited him this morning to a house party at her house, which is a pure good coincidence. They have been monitoring her brother since they had decided to proceed with this venture of theirs. And now it seems providence is indeed on their side.
He arrives at the large, palatial house and he parks his car in the road behind another car. Walking up to the impressive house, he surveys the affluent neighbourhood, which he has been in many times before, interested. As part of Claire’s park like garden, there is an open field with large oak trees to the side, and he and Richard decided earlier this is where Gareth will leave Claire’s brother to be collected.
Gareth knocks the elegant brass knocker against the hand carved wooden door, and after a few minutes Claire opens the door. Her eyes light up excited when she sees him.
He leans into her and brushes his warm lips against her cheek softly, making her think he is romantically interested in her.
They walk into the house and into a room filled with young bodies. He stays close to her side and he keeps his arm draped across her shoulder, making her believe she is the only girl in the room he could ever be interested in.
An hour later, he asks her, “Is it okay if I use your house phone. I’ll only be two seconds.” He smiles down at her enchantingly. “I forgot to charge my phone this afternoon.”
She nods her head and then she walks with him to the phone installed against the wall in the kitchen. “There you go. I am going to powder my nose.”
He leans closer into her and then he says softly, charmingly, “I’ll miss you.”
She walks away smiling across her shoulder at him alluringly and he picks up the receiver. When he sees Claire leave the room, he turns his back on the people gathered in the kitchen.
He phones the security office at the entrance gates to the secure estate.
When they answer, he says in a gruff voice, “Hi. I am phoning from the Peterson residence.”
“Yes, sir. May I help you?”
“We forgot to add a name to our list of guests. Can I give it to you now?”
Uncertainly the guard says, “Okay.”
Gareth hears a ruffle of papers, and then the guard asks, “The name of your guest?”
“Richard Smith. He should be arriving at about eleven-ish.”
“Okay, Mr. Peterson.”
“Sorry for only phoning you with an extra name now, I know it goes against the rules, but I will be grateful for this one lapse.”
The guard laughs nervously. He is new, but he has been told Mr. Peterson is not an easy man to please and he often yells and screams at the guards when they are not fast enough to let him in or out of the estate. The guard only assumes he is talking to Mr. Peterson because the music in the background is loud, and the voice is muffled.
Gareth says, “Thank you, George.” He read the name from his name tag earlier in the evening when he came in.
Before George can say anything, Gareth ends the call.
As he puts the phone back in the cradle, he hears Claire’s voice as she comes walking into the kitchen.
She looks up at him infatuated. “All done?”
He walks to her and kisses her lightly on the cheek. “Thank you so much. I owe you one.”
They dance a few dances, and it is getting late. Gareth is starting to feel panicked because he cannot see Alex, Claire’s brother, anywhere in the room.
He leans into Claire. “Let’s go outside to get some fresh air.”
She smiles up at him without saying a word and then leading him by the hand, she guides him through the throng of people out to the back-patio doors.
Alex is sitting sprawled on a deckchair next to the swimming pool. There is a bored expression on his face.
Gareth greets him friendly. “Hey. Claire tells me you had a very good game again last weekend.”
Alex perks up and sitting up straight on the deckchair, he smiles brightly.
Alex and Gareth start to talk about football and a few minutes later, Claire exclaims, “A good party for me, means no football talk. I am going inside.”
Gareth slides his arm around her waist and pulls her into him. He brings his head down to her and he whispers suggestively in her ear. “I’ll come and find you soon.” He pulls away from her slowly and smiles down at her as he captures her gaze with his.
She smiles up at him. If it was not that he had more important things to consider, he could have gotten lucky tonight. He considers though that after he disposes of his immediate and most important task of the evening, he could always go and find her. He could imagine a few things he would want to do with her, and she looked as if she was more than willing to oblige him his every whim.
After Claire disappears into the house, Gareth turns to Alex. “You want something to drink?”
“Unless you are offering me a beer, then no.”
Gareth smiles, friendly. “And if I said, I could offer you something stronger than beer, what would you say?”
“I’d say bring it on.”
Gareth sits down on the deck chair next to Alex. He puts his legs up and leans his back against the inclined backrest, as he pulls the bottle from his jacket pocket, and he twists off the silver lid. He pretends to have a drink from the open bottle and then he hands it over to Alex.
Alex takes a deep swallow and then hands the bottle back.
They start talking about football again and obviously the young man loves his sport. He is a jock, full of his high school self-importance and he does not mind talking about himself.
Without taking a sip, Gareth passes the bottle back to Alex.
Soon Alex starts to laugh at nothing, and his eyes start to glaze over. He stands up and he wobbles on his feet for a moment.
Gareth jumps up and holds onto him to steady him. “Whoa, Alex.”
Alex slurs, “My mom is going to kill me when she sees me like this. How much of that bottle did we drink?”
Gareth lifts the bottle to eye-level and sees Alex has drunk a little more than half the large bottle of Vodka all by himself.
“Do you want to sleep it off in my car? I am only leaving after everybody is gone.”
Alex nods his head and gags. For a moment Gareth fears Alex is going to puke on him and smelling of puke will ruin his alibi.
“Is there a back way out of here?” Gareth asks as he glances around the back garden purposefully.
Wildly Alex points to the side of the house.
Gareth squints his eyes, trying to see through the dark shadows in the direction of Alex’s wavering, pointing finger.
Relieved Gareth sees the side gate and is also immediately thankful it is on the same side as the open park-like field. He most certainly does not want to risk anybody seeing him helping the drunken Alex across the brightly lit lawn in front of the house.
With Alex hanging from him, Gareth carries, drags him out the side gate. He stops to look if the way is clear, and he sees the shrubs are high. This side of the house is shrouded in darkness. Slowly he helps Alex to the side of the house and then into the field.
Alex asks garbled, “Where we going?”
Patiently Gareth explains, “To my car. Almost there.”
When they reach an oak tree, Gareth lets Alex sit, propped up by the trunk of the oak tree. “Sit here for a bit, I’ll bring my car closer.”
As Gareth steps away, he lifts his forearm and looks at the time on his watch. Excellent timing. He walks away from the tree and as he walks unnoticed through the side gate into Claire’s back garden, he looks back and sees Richard’s Jeep pull up next to the sidewalk.
They decided it would be better for Richard to bring his own car, rather than the panel van. People will remember seeing a panel van in this upper-class suburban area, but every second youngster has a Jeep, so nobody will remember it as something out of place.
Quietly Gareth walks around the house and then goes back inside through the patio doors, looking for Claire.
Richard lifts the drunken boy from the ground easily. Alex mumbles a few incoherent words, but Richard ignores him as he lays him down onto the back seat of his Jeep. He throws a pile of blankets over him while Alex complains incoherently.
He drives out through the open gate, smiling friendly at the security guard and then he drives out to the cabin in the woods.
After an hour, he reaches the dark structure. It is almost invisible in the dark, with the shadows of the trees surrounding it.
He leaves his headlights on so he can see what he is doing. He opens the back door and pulls Alex by his legs until he can grip him around his waist.
Alex is passed out and a dead weight. With a heave, Richard manages to get Alex over his shoulder and then he carries him into the cabin.
He pushes his shoulder against the light switch just inside the door, and the fluorescent light flickers on brightly.
The light shines halfway down the stairs, and the rest of the way Richard feels his way, stepping carefully so he does not lose his footing and stumble, headfirst, down the stairs.
He follows his instincts in the dark room and then he puts Alex in an empty cubicle. Quickly he cuffs Alex to the metal ring in the floor. Alex gives a long, loud snore and amused Richard considers that tomorrow the boy will wake up with a terrible thirst and an immense headache.
Feeling his way to the laundry area, he switches on the soft, amber light. He walks back to the other two cubicles to fetch the food and water bowls.
They are both fast asleep. Gareth suggested they grind sleeping pills and add it to their water. It won’t do if they hurt themselves—who would vote for them then?
When Richard looks down at the pretty sleeping face of Sarah, he notices the blotches of blood on her cheeks. He scrutinizes her a little more carefully and he sees her nails on the unshackled hand are broken down into her flesh, and her fingers are covered in dried blood. He shakes his head sadly as he backs away from her, and once again he cannot believe how selfish and ungrateful, she is.
In the cubicle next door, he notices Samantha has hauled herself upright against the drywall. Her legs are spread out on the floor at an odd angle and her head rests uncomfortably on her shoulder. He smirks as he considers her to be an idiot. Honestly, why would a person sleep in such an uncomfortable position? In the yellow glow of the faint low wattage bulb, he sees shadows of tear tracks down her cheeks.
Without any emotion, he gets the dog bowls and then he fills them. His first stepfather slapped the crap and emotion out of him years ago, and frankly, Richard had none left to share.
He places a water bowl and a food bowl, filled with dog food, in each cubicle.
Methodically, he retraces his steps, as he switches off the light before he takes the stairs to the top floor.
As he drives away from the blackened cottage back to the dorm, he worries about the test he must write in the morning. Maybe he can study for another hour or two before he hits the sack.
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