PATSY

by Susan Shaw

Patsy’s walking home from school, kicking conkers. A man in a van pulls up besides Patsy having noticed her interest in conkers. He offers her a lift home. Charlie uses the persuasion of knowing where special conkers can be found to lure her into his van. It dawns on Patsy they’re going the wrong way. She begs to be taken back but Charlie continues on the journey, taking Patsy to a workshop where he parks the van inside. In the rear of the van he rapes and abuses her.
Patsy’s a feisty youngster and threatens Charlie that she’ll tell everybody about him. Charlie leaves her restrained in the rear of the van.
He realises he has to kill Patsy. Desperate to get home to her family, Patsy tries to climb out of the van and falls onto the floor. When Charlie comes back, he thinks she’s dead. He cleans her and removes her to a wood where he buries her under a pile of leaves.
A lady walking her dog, finds the body but realises there’s a pulse. Patsy’s rushed to hospital but is in a coma.
Roger hears this on the news and panics. He wants her finished off. The contract killer doesn’t like the thought of killing a child. As he waits in the corridor, she dies naturally. Jim doesn’t tell Roger this, so he’s paid his money.
The police arrest a man who’s been seen hanging around the school, with a white van. Jerry Brown, the suspect, is found guilty at his trial despite persisting he’s not guilty. Dan does have doubts about the conviction. Purely by chance, Roger’s the duty solicitor when Jerry’s charged, so agrees to act for him, all the while making sure he’s found guilty.
Roger appears to lead a respectable life and marries the daughter of a solicitor. Roger’s very ambitious. He balks at the thought of having children, but eventually he agrees. They’ve a son and daughter. Roger’s frightened how his feelings will grow for the girl.
By dubious means Roger satisfies his fetish for young girls by using ones illegally brought into the country.
Jim, the contract killer, gets greedy, as he’s kept an eye on Roger so starts to blackmail Roger. There’s not a lot Roger can do but agree, so he starts filtering money from the firm and getting involved in shady dealings.
When the daughter gets older, Roger’s feeling begin to frighten him, so he decides to take another girl, Ellie. This time he’s no fear of killing the girl, convinced he’s devised a fool proof method.
All goes to plan but Jim sees the news and puts two and two together. He contacts Roger to get more money. Roger decides to kill Jim, making it look like suicide. It works as Roger planned and the police accept it as it appears – a suicide.
Roger hadn’t reckoned with modern techniques of DNA. Dan is the DI on Ellie’s case. He’s determined to catch the culprit who he’s certain did both killings. Jerry Brown is dead so cannot be responsible for the second girl’s murder.
After sifting through the evidence, Dan’s DC remembers a talk he’d been on about forensics and is certain it’ll help. They dig out the old evidence on Patsy and find a piece of fabric they need. The items are sent to forensics and a match found on the DNA register for Roger Harrington. By a twist of fate he’d been charged with drink driving. DNA had been taken and put on the register.
Roger has a mole in the camp who tells him of the DNA find. He decides he’s not going to languish in prison. He goes home when Louise is out and tries to commit suicide. His wife’s been listening to the mumblings coming from Roger in his nightmares. She’s convinced he’s responsible for the atrocities that have taken place. She senses Roger will take the easy way out. She finds him in time. Dan makes the arrest.
During the investigations, Dan has renewed his acquaintance with Rachel, Patsy’s mother. As a young PC he admired her. Their love grows and once Dan has made final closure of the murder of her daughter, Dan proposes marriage.

291 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2016

About the author

I was born in a log cabin in Illinois - no that wasn't me!

I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, grew up outside of Philadelphia with two parents, along with a wild assortment of brothers and sisters and cats and dogs. I did things like take music lessons and play relievo or baseball in the sideyard with the neighborhood kids. Went to school, which I really hated, but somehow managed to get through anyway. I was smart, but, boy, you couldn't tell it by my grades.

Well, maybe I didn't do my homework, but I read. If it didn't move, I read it. Chances are, I wrote about it, too, in the diary I kept all through my childhood. I've heard that that's called taking notes.

Eventually, despite engaging in various activities called play that periodically involved knocking myself out, I grew up. This much amazed my grandmother who said I lived a charmed life.

After graduating from Radnor High School, I attended Temple University, graduating with a music education degree. During my college years, I met my husband, a young man named John with a cute smile and a wonderful sense of humor. I married him quick before he had a chance to get away. Ah, young love! Since that time, we've had one adventure after another together, raising children, one daughter and two sons, and our love is still young. Despite John's gray hair, he still looks twenty years old to me.

What do I do when I'm not writing? Visit friends, ride my bike, sometimes with John, sometimes not. Hiking. I love to attend plays, too. Some of my recent favorites: Doubt, The Drowsy Chaperone, Eggs.