* * * * * * * *
Sam Porter’s car turns up into the drive, he has just come back to Farrington from a business trip in Ovalton, and he gets out of the car, pushes the key into the door and walks in.
“Hello, you’re back.” His wife says to him. And then “Oh, Wow, you’ve had your hair cut and shaved off your beard, you look so different. What a surprise.”
“Yeah, I know, I thought I would go for a new image”. He replied.
“Here let me take your bags and I’ll wash your clothes for work tomorrow”
“No, no, it’s alright” he said, with a guilty look on his face. “I’ll do it later. You go and sit down; I’ll make you a cup of coffee.”
“Oh,” Susan paused for a moment looking suspiciously at her husband, “thank you but I’ve been up all morning walking the dogs and I met Betty, I was just on my way out to have coffee with her”
“It’s fine, I was just going to have a shower anyway, you go, have fun.”
“Ok, see you later,” she kissed him on the cheek, “love you.”
“Love you,” he replied.
As soon as the door clicked shut Sam dashed into the kitchen, dragging his bag behind him. Falling to his knees in front of the washing machine, quickly undoing the suitcase and ramming the blood shod clothes into the machine. Pouring in too much washing powder, he closed the door and fell to the floor in relief. At last it was over, he would wash the clothes, have a shower and it would all be over and he could get on with his life. Little did he know that that night he would kill again.
* * * * * * * *
Little Emily was stunned by the bright lights and noise of the fair. It was the first time that she had ever been to anywhere like this before, it was like heaven. There were cuddly toys and people laughing and smiling everywhere she looked.
“Mummy, Mummy, can we go on that one please, please!” she begged to Charlotte. There were so many rides that Emily couldn’t wait to go on.
“No that ride’s for the big children, lets have a look around, I bet there’s an even better ride than this one, whoa! Look at that one, how about that Emily?” Charlotte was looking at a miniature Ferris wheel; it seemed much safer than ‘The vortex of terror!’ She turned to David, beside her,
“David can you take her on that ride, I’m just going to go and get some candy floss.”
“Yay, Yay, come on Uncle David!” And they both ran off to the mini Ferris wheel, while Charlotte made her way over to the candy floss stand.
“Three bags please,” she said to the woman on the stand.
“That’ll be £2.50, love, would you like anything else?” the woman replied.
“No thanks,” Charlotte said, with her hands deep in her handbag trying to find her purse. As she tried to get the coins from her purse she dropped them on the ground below her.
“Oh gosh!” she said with an embarrassed laugh, bending down to pick them up.
“Here let me help you,” said a mans voice next to her. He was picking up the dropped 10ps from under the candy floss stand.
As they both rose to their feet she met him directly in the eye. Looking back at her was a tall man, with dark hair and deep green eyes.
Charlotte opened her mouth to say thank you but nothing came out. She couldn’t talk; it was like all the air from her lungs had been taken away. All she could do was stare back at this man standing in front of her.
But he broke the silence, “Here,” he said putting the coins back in to Charlotte’s purse that she was still holding, “I think that’s all of them.”
Charlotte suddenly came to her senses, clipped her purse shut and put it back into her bag.
“Thank you very much,” she said to the man, “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“Lucky I was here then!” he said back, “Let me take these for you.” He took the three big candy floss bags from the counter and held them in front of him.
Charlotte couldn’t think of what to say.
“I’m Charlotte Britain, by the way,” this was the first thing that came out; she hoped she wasn’t embarrassing her self too much.
“Sam, Sam Porter,” He replied, holding out his hand through the bags of candy floss to shake hers.
“Nice to meet you, thanks again for you help, my daughter and brother are over here if you wouldn’t mind,” Charlotte said looking at the bags he had in his arms.
“No, course not, you have a daughter?” He said surprised.
“Yes, Emily, she’s four. Her father died just after she was born and my brother is helping me look after her.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Sam said quite fakely.
“No, don’t worry about it,” she said, “Let me introduce you.”
For the next few hours Sam got to know Charlotte and her family, they went on rides together and ate until they couldn’t eat anymore. But Sam got on especially well with Charlotte; she was fun and interesting, much more so than his wife. He could laugh and joke with her. He was comfortable.
“This is great,” Sam had to shout over the loud music of the fair.
“Yeah, it’s good,” Charlotte didn’t seem so happy; she was holding her forehead in her hands.
“Are you ok?” Sam said worryingly, “What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine, just a headache that’s all,” She said, her head still in her hands.
“No your not,” he said to Charlotte taking her hands away from her head and looking at her in the eyes.
“David!” he shouted over to David who was helping Emily onto the ‘Tea Cups’, “Charlotte’s not feeling well I’m going to take her home!”
Maybe if David was concentrating more he would have realised that this wasn’t a good idea. Leaving his only sister with a man he had know for barely 2 hours. But he was more concerned with Emily,
“Yeah, yeah, sure, see you later.” he called without even a look back.
Sam walked Charlotte down the street full of people with his arm around her waist helping her to walk.
“Here, wait, I have some aspirin in my bag, let me sit down.”
Charlotte sat down on the bench beside her and searched for the tablets in her handbag. Sam sat down beside her. She looked up at him and just smiled. Even though her head was throbbing with pain, Sam seemed to take it away. And even though the fair was only a few yards away and the music was still on at full blast, she couldn’t hear a thing. It was perfect.
It was perfect until a screaming woman broke the silence. They both looked around and saw a middle aged woman running down the middle of the street, tears streaming down her face, hands in the air, screaming something at the top of her lungs. As she got closer Sam stood up and Charlotte managed to make out what she was shouting, it was, “SAM! SAM! Where are you?!”
She immediately saw Sam, who was now making his way over to the mad woman. She made her way up to him, still screaming. She started thumping his chest with her fists, her tears now had taken over and her angry screams had turned into whimpering sobs.
“How could you Sam?” she was looking down into his chest, “How could you? I saw you on the television! That’s why you cut you hair, that’s why you look so different, you didn’t want anyone to recognise you. But I did Sam, I recognized you Sam Porter!”
Sam looked over at Charlotte as if to say that he didn’t know what the woman was on about. He looked back at the woman in a heap in his arms.
“Susan,” he said to his wife in a quite whisper, “Be quite! People are looking!” his tone now was much more harsh and threatening.
He took one last look at Charlotte, mouthed the word “sorry” and pulled the woman away, down another street and out of her view. Charlotte was worried about Sam and ran quietly down the other street after them, trying to make sure she couldn’t be heard.
She slowed down at a corner and peered around the wall. What she saw was awful. The woman that was with Sam was now on the ground in front of him. He was standing over her with a kitchen knife in his hand. She was looking up at him, her eyes said everything. She feared for life but was frozen with fear. Charlotte looked at Sam; he wasn’t the same, who was this animal? He knelt down beside the woman and raised his knife bearing hand above his head,
“Love you,” he said to her before he lowered the knife quickly down, slamming it into her chest. She juddered and twitched a bit. He pulled the knife back out and stabbed her again, right in the heart. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body went limp. Sam cried out and fell onto his dead wife’s body, tears covered his face. He slowly got up, kissed her on the forehead and covered her face with his jacket. He looked around, Charlotte had to dodge behind the wall so he didn’t see her and when she looked back, he had gone. All that was left was the body.
