The Valley of Longing 4

‘I am well aware of my daughter’s history, more so than you, I imagine. That is irrelevant on this occasion, however,’ Theresa said firmly. ‘No matter what she might have done in the past, or how she may have acted, I can assure you, Lily is missing on this occasion.’ ‘Can you tell me what makes you so certain the circumstances are different this time?’ Brown asked, curious to know why Theresa, who had never been concerned about her daughter before, was concerned now. The look on Theresa’s face suggested she thought the question rude in the extreme, nonetheless she answered him. ‘I am certain that Lily is missing on this occasion because she was supposed to meet her father, myself, and her great - uncle, Raymond, at ‘Die Geel Kombuis’ Restaurant for dinner. She was supposed to be there early to greet Raymond, he comes to stay every couple of months, when his work permits - The Balmoral was his first hotel and he has always been especially fond of it, and when he visits, he expects to be met by Lily. She wasn’t there, however, nor did she show up for dinner.’ ‘Perhaps, on this occasion, Lily decided she didn’t want to have dinner with her great - uncle,’ Brown suggested. ‘Maybe there was something she preferred to do, and that is where she is now.’ He braced himself for an explosion that didn’t come. ‘Under other circumstances, Lily might well have decided not to do what her father and I wished; she’s a different person to the girl you know when it comes to her great - uncle, however. She is polite, punctual, respectful, considerate, everything you could want of a daughter.’ Michael tried to reconcile that description with the Lily Potgieter he knew, and found it difficult. ‘Okay, so you have reason for concern,’ he conceded. ‘But there could be any number of reasons why Lily wasn’t at the hotel to greet Raymond, or at the family dinner. She could have gotten involved in something and lost track of the time; she could have missed the bus or been unable to get a lift back to Town.’ ‘If that had been the case, she would have called either myself of her father, or Anna. Raymond is a stickler for punctuality, Lily would have called if she was going to be late, so we could give her apologies. I was put in the most uncomfortable position of having to lie to Raymond and tell him that Lily was at home, ill. I can only HOPE he never discovers I lied to him, he hates liars, even more than he hates people who aren’t punctual;‘ Her unhappiness was clear. ‘Something has happened to Lily, that is the only possible answer, and I want you and your colleagues to find her, without your usual bungling and bumbling.’ Brown ignored that comment and chose instead to act as though Theresa Potgieter had a case to be dealt with and take the appropriate action. ‘When and where did you last see Lily?’ he asked, pen poised. ‘What on earth difference does that make?’ Theresa wanted to know. ‘She isn’t a set of keys, to be found in the vicinity of wherever she was last seen.’ ‘Of course not, Mrs Potgieter, I’m sorry if that’s how it sounded, but to find Lily I need to know where and when she was last seen, what she was wearing, who she was with, and, if possible, where she was heading.’ Theresa scowled at the constable before finally sighing. ‘I last saw Lily this morning before she left for school, Anna will be able to tell you what time that was; she was wearing her uniform, so I assume she was intending to go to school. That’s as much as I can tell you,’ she said. ‘Anna may be able to tell you something more.’ ‘And she hasn’t been seen since then?’ ‘Since lunchtime.’ ‘Who saw her then?’ After taking all the details Theresa could provide, Brown promised to look around the Dorpie, and to make sure that both the inspector and the officer on duty in the morning knew Lily was believed to be missing. As soon as she was gone, slamming the door to make it clear how dissatisfied she was, he locked up the station and completed the end of shift chores he had been in the middle of when Theresa arrived. He left the station when he was done, and was about to get into his car so he could do as promised and drive around the village looking for Lily when he thought better of it. Instead of getting into his car, he wandered down the road, stopping at a house a short distance from the station, a house rented by a trio of troublemakers, one of whom was the person Lily Potgieter was supposedly dating. If Lily was in the Dorpie, he thought it most likely that she would be there with Ollie Hendricks, Lynne’s brother. The house being quiet and dark, he doubted anyone was home, let alone Lily, but he thought it best to knock before making a tour of the Dorpie, just in case. He didn’t want Theresa to be able to say he hadn’t done everything he could to find her daughter. Lily Potgieter stirred at the sound of an approaching vehicle. Her chin lifted from her chest so she could search the darkness that surrounded her; the movement was minimal, but enough to reawaken the pain in her shoulders caused by her arms being tied above her head, so that she was suspended from something, she didn’t know what. The pain that had earlier made her decide it best to stay as still as possible. She wanted to scream but didn’t, she knew it would be pointless, not only was her jaw broken, a gag had been stuffed into her mouth while she was unconscious. It was a couple of minutes after she first heard the approaching vehicle before it came to a stop, and the sound of a door opening and then slamming reached her. A few moments later a door was opened across from her and light flooded in, revealing her prison; she had been hung, naked - she had no idea where her clothes were - from a beam in an old barn. She had suspected she was in an abandoned building of some kind from the smells, which she now knew was that of rotting straw, but had no idea where. There was no time for her to look around and see any more than that, her attention was caught by the figure that entered the barn. For a moment, there was nothing but a black silhouette, then he moved closer and she was able to see Him more clearly. She couldn’t believe who had attacked her; she was so astonished that He reached her naked figure before she could recover from the surprise. ‘Let me go.’ ‘What was that, I couldn’t make it out. You’re mumbling.’ He reached out to remove the gag. ‘Let me go,’ she said again, trying to make something more than a barely audible, unintelligible noise. He cocked His head to one side, as though he was trying to listen more closely, and then he shook it. ‘Nope, can’t make out a thing, you’re still mumbling.’ He reached a hand up, as though to caress her cheek, instead he grabbed her jaw, sending fresh pain shooting through her as he waggled it back and forth. ‘You need to move your lips if you want people to understand what you’re saying.’ The comment obviously amused him for he laughed at his own wit. His laughter died quickly when Lily reacted by lashing out with her feet. Her left foot struck him in the arm, which he ignored, but her right caught him in the groin; his eyes widened, and his face went white with pained shock, as he doubled up. She was pleased that she had hurt him, but couldn’t help wishing she had hurt him more seriously. ‘Think that was funny, do you?’ He demanded when he recovered. ‘Clearly you’ve learned nothing about behaving. I guess you need a lesson.’ The pleasure Lily felt at having hurt Him disappeared when she saw him undo his belt, pull it off, and fold it in half. She felt a cold shiver of fear run up and down her spine. Try though she did, she couldn’t take her eyes off him as he smacked the belt emphatically into the palm of his other hand; the sound it made spoke eloquently of pain. ‘My dad used to take a belt to me when I did something wrong, or he thought I had,’ he said, staring up into her face in a way that made her wish he would pay more attention to her naked body. ‘Let’s see if it’s as good at making you behave as it was me.’ Lily anticipated what was to come, and prepared herself as best she could, but the pain that came with the first lash of the belt was still a shock. Repeatedly, he whipped her with the belt, making her body jerk and twitch. If she could have screamed, she would have; not only did the blows hurt, but the way her body moved in response to them made pain radiate out from her shoulders, which were suffering the results of her being suspended by her hands for so long. How long the assault continued for, she had no idea. All she was sure of was that by the time it ended she couldn’t tell where the pain was coming from, it seemed to be coming from every nerve in her body. ‘That’s the lesson out of the way.’ He said, his voice ragged from the exertion of whipping Lily, as he tossed the belt aside. ‘I hope you’ve learned to behave, because it’s time for playtime.’ He took a large lock - knife from his pocket so he could cut her down, letting her simply fall to the floor, then he began to strip the clothes from his sweat-soaked body. Even before he unbuttoned his jeans to reveal his arousal, Lily knew what he had in mind for her, and what he must have done with Lynne. She hoped Lynne had fought him, she didn’t like to think that Lynne had simply given up and let him do what he wanted; there was no way she was going to do that. She hurt, worse than she would have believed possible, but she still intended fighting with every last ounce of energy she possessed. Rose Venter stirred at the ‘Mitchell’, he said groggily when his groping hand found the ringing phone and brought it to his ear. ‘Sorry to wake you, sergeant.’ Mitchell recognized the voice of his subordinate and became more awake. ‘What’s up?’ He asked of Constable Heath. ‘Has something happened?’ He could think of no other reason for him to be called before 7am on a Saturday, as the clock on the bedside cabinet told him the time was. ‘Yes, sergeant,’ Heath said. ‘There’s been a report that a body’s been found.’ Mitchell became wide awake the instant he heard that, though it was a moment or two before he could speak. ‘Did you say a body’s been found?’ he asked when he found his voice, he was sure he must have misheard. ‘That’s right. The call came in just a few moments ago; that new guy, Wild, said he’s found the body of a young lady along the river near the old Watchtower. He said she’s dead - been murdered.’ ‘Murdered!’ The word escaped his lips before Mitchell could stop it; he looked quickly over at his wife, who was still asleep. ‘Are you sure about that?’ he asked as he slipped from the bed. ‘I’ve not seen the body, so I can only go on what Mr Wild said on the phone, but he sounded pretty definite about it,’ Heath told his superior. ‘I can’t imagine why he’d lie about something like that.’ ‘Me neither, you can never tell with some people, though, and it’s not like we know Mr Wild well enough to tell what he might do.’ ‘Do you think it could be Lynne Hendricks?’ Heath asked. Mitchell went cold at that. The notion that the lady, he and his officers had spent the week looking for, was dead, was not one he liked - the possibility that she had been murdered was worse - but he couldn’t think who else the body could be, the Dorpie had only the one missing person as far as he was aware. ‘Unless you know of any other “Doring Draad” girls that have gone missing, I think it has to be Lynne,’ he said, feeling no satisfaction at the thought of her having been found. Heath hesitated for a moment and then said, ‘I wasn’t going to mention it ‘til you came in, I didn’t think it was important, I mean, she’s never home…’ ‘Are you going to get to the point?’ Mitchell asked, pressing the phone to his ear with his shoulder while he struggled into his uniform. ‘Mike left a note, apparently, Theresa Potgieter came in last night to report Lily missing.’ ‘Damn,’ Mitchell swore, abandoning his efforts at getting dressed. As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, he now had to consider the possibility that the girl reported dead, was not the one they had spent a week looking for. ‘ Okay, here’s what I want you to do,’ he said, ‘Call Doc Kelvin and Mel, tell them both I’ll be by shortly to pick them up, then call the inspector; chances are Wild’s wrong about the girl being dead, but just in case, the inspector is going to want to know what’s going on.’ ‘Wouldn’t it be better to call Mike?” Heath asked. ‘Mel’s never dealt with a dead body before, perhaps now isn’t the best time for her first.’ ‘No, I want Mel, she’s got to deal with this kind of thing sooner or later. Besides, if I have to go and see the Hendricks afterwards, Melissa will be more help than Mike.’ He didn’t fancy the work that would result if the report from Wild proved to be accurate. ‘You’d better make those calls, Paulie, I’ll be at Doc Kelvin’s in a few minutes, tell him he’ll need his bag.’ *********** Melissa James looked down the bank at the rapidly moving river, and then over at her superior. It made her shudder just to think about what he wanted her to do. ‘Wouldn’t we be better off going back and crossing at the bridge?’ she asked. She couldn’t believe he already had one boot off, and was working on the lace of the other. ‘That water looks bloody freezing. I don’t fancy going in there, and I’m sure it’s not a good idea for Doc Kelvin.’ ‘Don’t you worry about me on that Score, girl,’ Kelvin said. He settled to the ground and began rolling up his trouser legs before removing his shoes and socks. ‘I’ve never been bothered by a bit of cold water. It’s that far bank I’m concerned about; it looks a little steep for someone of my stature.’ Mitchell looked across the river at the far bank and then at the doctor, before finally down at himself. He wasn’t as large at the waist as the doctor, but he was still far from slim. Climbing the far bank was likely to be as much of a challenge for him as the doctor, but there was nowhere better. ‘It’ll be a struggle,’ he admitted. ‘But we’ll manage. If we go back it’ll cost us three quarters of an hour, maybe more, and there’s a deadfall on that side, near the bridge, that’s been threatening to drop for a year. I’d rather not take a chance on us being under it, if it finally decides to go.’ Melissa thought that a bit of a weak argument - if the tree hadn’t fallen in a year, it was unlikely to fall while they passed it. She suspected about crossing the river after parking at the Bar, and was reluctant to correct his mistake. ‘I’ll go first,’ Mitchell said. ‘Doc, you come second, Mel, you bring up the rear. Once I’ve got to the top, I can pull you up, Doc, while Mel gives you a shove from behind.’ The river at he chosen spot was only about twenty meters wide, but it still took the three of them almost five minutes to make it to the top of the far bank. Most of that time was spent climbing the bank on the other side, which Melissa had no difficulty with, but which proved a struggle for her companions struggled. ‘Is that Mr Wild?’ Melissa asked when they had gone another half a kilometer or so, and were almost at the bend in the river, around which was supposed to be the Dorpies newest resident, and the body he claimed to have found. ‘I can’t imagine we’re going to find two people this far out from the Dorpie so early on a Saturday. Thinking about it, you’re not likely to find someone out here on any day of the week, regardless of the time. I wonder what he was doing out here,’ Mitchell remarked suspiciously before striding ahead, so he could reach the man who had disturbed his Saturday morning lie - in. ‘Mr Wild, Sergeant Mitchell.’ ‘Hello, sergeant.’ Jack held out his hand, ‘I know who you, Doctor.’ He shook the elderly doctor’s hand when the other two had caught up. ‘My neighbour, Louise Hawkins, pointed you out to me, in case I should have need of your services. I can’t say that I’ve seen you before, constable, and I’m sure I’d remember; I can’t remember the last time I saw a uniform worn so flatteringly.’ Melissa flushed as she shook his hand, having been taken by surprised by the compliment. ‘Mel, Melissa,’ she stammered before taking a deep breath to calm herself. ‘Constable James I mean.’ She couldn’t believe how she was reacting to the compliment, and to the way he looked - in shorts and a t-shirt, it was clear that he kept himself in better shape than just about anyone else in the Dorpie - and to the touch of his hand against hers. ‘Nice to meet you.’ ‘If you’re quite finished,’ Mitchell said sharply. ‘You told Constable Heath, when you called the station, that you found a body; what can you tell me about it, the person you found, I mean.’ ‘Female, mid - twenties at a guess, but it’s hard to say for sure,’ Jack said as he led the two police officers and the doctor around the bend in the river on his way to where he had made his discovery. ‘One thing I can tell you for sure, she was murdered, and she’s been out here for at least a couple of days perhaps as long as a week….’