lauren
Without Prejudice
That day began as any other day, Lauren was up early and came out in my Green velvet dressing gown, her long hair down, a waterfall of shining glints of red and brown. I alone sat at the dining table watching this sweet chubby morsel of a child of mine, the Otter, the baby Flossie or Miss Floss. She sat next to me as I nursed my first cup of coffee for the day. and i said
"and what are you doing up so early miss"
"It's pocket money day ", she said. It was Thursday, the 30th November 1989.
"And', I replied, teasing the moment out a little.
"Well," she began and I interrupted her.
"You're not buying something else for Yvette and the baby, are you "
Yvette my 2nd oldest daughter had just given birth to her first baby and my 1st grandchild
"No,Mum", she replied.
I studied her for a moment this sweet baby girl of mine, half child, not quite half woman at 12 and a half. (that oh, so important precious half year of maturity that kids so love )
She left to get dressed and so did i. Girding my loins for another long hot day at the office of the new factory Bob, my husband, and I had just finished getting built.
The office was new and hot and barely furnished as our money had started to run out when it came to the niceties. Our priorities were on the equipment and stock and all the practical things.
The day dragged on with quotes and paperwork and all the hundred other things that make up a day. 4pm rolled around and Lauren rang from home.
'Hi mum", she said. "Can i go to Tanya's house and sleep over>
My automatic response was no and said so,
"It's a school night". "No'
I had 4 girls, school nights were not for staying out.
Lauren had stayed at Tanya's before for a sleep over. Tanya lived with her Dad and brother. There was a Mum somewhere but I had never met her. i had met the Father and he seemed OK, a bit of a drinker but good enough to the kids.
Lauren had recently started hanging out with Tanya. Lauren's life long friend Kerrie was always a round at that time but for some perverse reason Lauren had been going to the pools with Tanya rather than Kerrie, that particular week. Melbourne had been achingly hot all week as only Melbourne can be some times and Alena my second youngest daughter and Lauren had been going to the Noble Park swimming Pool after school with friends most of the preceding week.
Lauren hung up and I resumed work.
Half an hour later Lauren rang back more persistent this time.
"Mum, if Tanya's Dad comes to pick me up can I go to Tanya's and stay please, please."
I hesitated, the word no on my lips.
She continued.
"You just think we are going to stay up late and not get up for school tomorrow"
I replied. "No, I trust you Lauren "
And I did.
Lauren being the baby had never given me a reason to doubt her in all of her twelve and a half years.
I asked her to put Yvette on and Yvette came to the phone, I spoke with her a while and then spoke to Lauren again and said If Tanya's Dad was prepared to pick her up, she could go.
Lauren gave me Tanya's home number and i wrote it down on the back of my hand.
Work picked up again and I ended up getting home about 8pm. Bob came with me this time. He had moved out earlier in the year to a unit not far away. We were separated but still running the business together. I hated him, didn't want to be around him, but I was terrified of a life without him. He came and ate tea and then asked me to go to the unit with him. i thought that was a good idea as I knew he was having an affair with a bar girl in the Phillipines and wanted to snoop around at his place and see what I could find.
he had lied in the June that he had to take a trip to buy wire in Korea and had actually flown to the Phillipnes to be with Anna Lyn. Deb was working in the business and let me know what was going on. he was spending a minimum of $12,000 of the business money going there. And when he returned he had Syphilis tablets in his suitcase which he said were for a "Friend", the packet open and tablets taken out. He told his workers he was in love with 2 women. Me and Anna Lynn and did not know what to do but he did suggest he bring her out as a housekeeper for the family.
Naturally our marriage was pretty tense around then and even though I didn't love him, hadn't for years, I wanted so desperately to keep the family together, no matter what. That was my fault.
The night Lauren died, Debbie our oldest child was 19 and out. Yvette 18 and a new mum had plans on going to the drive in, leaving Alena 14 with the baby. I questioned Yvette about Lauren and she said that yes tanya's dad had come to pick her up but that Yvette didn't like the look of him.
When I asked her why, she said he was sitting in the car drinking a can while Tanya had come to the door. Lauren had taken her school bag, her uniform, and had asked Yvette to tape "Days of our Lives" the next day. Yvette had watched the car drive away just a little uneasy.
I replied with a distracted air re the father.... it was a hot day and the Father was probably fairly cranky at having to have to pick Lauren up and wanted a cold beer, nothing sinister. Yvette just looked at me and looked away, and that was that. I felt very tired and really only wanted to crawl into bed but Bob insisted I go to the unit and I did. I ended up staying the night and finding nothing except for some photos that i had already seen of Bob's new paramour.
We were both in good moods the next day and decided to spend it together doing quotes. It was a strange day, that friday the 1st of December, brutally hot, crushing. For some reason every quote we went to that day (there were 3 ) was messed up in some way.The first was way down near Hastings and the man we needed to see was not there.And no one else knew anything about the fencing that needed to be done. Another was the same story and another.
bob and I ran a fencing company. Steel security fencing, big jobs small, we made our own mesh on a huge chain mesh machine that filled one side of the factory. We employed our own subbies, it all seemed a little surreal as we had started off in our own suburban back yard and just grew. We were certainly not happily married by any stretch of the imagination but we knew how to run a business.
Bob was the visionary and the entrepeneur, a workaholic, a hard working, hard partying, hard drinking man. he had come from a hard upbringing, working on his parents dairy farm until one day after having a particularly bitter row with his Dad, he had struck out for pastures new and an independent life at 18. He took off to QLD with a mate the mate turning back half way and Bob continuing on.
He made it to Gladstone in his old ford Zephyr and was found sleeping in his car by a young girl who took him home to her family. He stayed there for a few months until seasonal work started at the local sugar mill. He said the Mother of the family ended up with malnutrition eating the ice out of the freezer for food.
After the sugar Mill he got work as a surveyor in Normanton and went west, Fit, healthy, blackened by the sun he loved the outdoor work. He stayed up there 3 years, came back to Melbourne, found out the girl who had been writing to him the love of his life, he said was pregnant to another stormed out and returned to the farm for a while before getting a job in Melbourne.
I had just arrived back in Australia from the UK. My parents had emigrated to Australia when I was 2 and returned to the UK for 5 years, where I did all my secondary schooling at my Mother's very proper English Grammar School. I was 16 and seriously naive in the ways of life. My older brother Ian, had stayed in Australia while we were in England he was in the army and had married. We were desperate to meet his new wife and their baby, Andrew. We stayed in the army barracks with them for a while at Ingleburn in Sydney.
Merrilyn, Ian's wife made mention of her brother Bob. At that time I was going out with a mid shipman I had met on the boat coming to Australia. Ian said, this Bob was very handsome, but a real bad boy and I pricked up my ears as only a 16 year old girl can. Merrilyn said looking at my expression
"Don't worry about him he's a shit !"
Of course I had to ask why and was told many lurid and awful tales about this bad tempered Ned Kelly look alike and decided then and there I had to meet him.
Bob and my stories will come later,too long, too involved for now I just want to talk about Lauren.
So it was the next day and according to us her parents, Lauren was happily ensconced at school. Yvette was at home with her 2 week old baby, Kyle, Alena was at high school and Debbie had finished year 12 and was working for us in the office.
At lunch time on the 1st December, after our shitty day Bob decided we would call in at a big hotel in Mordialloc. When we went to cross the threshold I saw a fish not long dead laying on the step. It was beautiful and dead. I called out to Bob and he popped his back out the door. We were puzzled as to why it was there.
"Maybe it's some fishermans catch and he's dropped it there and gone for a beer"
WE had a very ordinary lunch and both us were unsettled after our waste of a morning, we decided to go home, check on Yvette and the baby and grab an ice cream from the freezer. Another hot afternoon at the office awaited us. So we called in at home and Yvette said after a while,
"Did you hear that a teenage girls body was found at Noble Park Pool they are looking for the parents."
"Some street kid", i thought, how sad.
We raced off back to the factory and Bob started up the chain mesh machine. he had been having trouble with it and he was determined to find out the problem. Debbie was in the factory office upstairs on the mezzanine floor. As I threw my bag down and grabbed hold of a phone debbie said,
"Mum, some of Lauren's schoolfriends have been calling, apparently she wasn't at school, today"
"What", I replied.
Debbie gazed at me steadily, calmly,
"Lauren, was not at school today", repeating herself slowly.
I grabbed the phone and checked the back of my hand for the number I dialled
A man answered,
" Is Lauren there" I asked
"Nuh" came the reply delivered in a hostile manner.
I said, "it's Laurens Mum Janette,"
"Oh yeah" Once again short sharp speech.
For some reason I asked this next question, not knowing where it came from
"Did she sleep there last night'
"Hang on a minute", said exasperatedly and the phone was clunked down.
Another mans voice came on the phone and introduced himself as a policeman from Springvale.
"Are you Mrs Hancock", he asked,
"Yes" I replied.
"Are you the Mother of Lauren Hancock"
"Yes, why is she in some sort of trouble"
"Mrs Hancock, i need you to get your husband and meet me at your home"
I looked out of the office window, gazing down at my hot and hot tempered husband he was throwing tools around and swearing his head off. He threw one of the spanners at the cockatoos aviary and she screeched and flew up to the furthest spot.
"OK", I lied,
if Lauren was in trouble there was no way i was letting on to Bob. I decided to go home on my own.
I told Deb what was going on, she replied,
"Ring Parkmore, Mum, she'll be at Parkmore, shopping centre, maybe wagging school with Tanya"
this was feasible, I had caught Lauren wagging once and she was grounded for two weeks. That 2 weeks limit had not long passed.
My middle two girls were major rebels but Lauren always did as she was told and I did reason to myself that i did not think she would wag again, that was Lauren, a trustworthy girl.
i dialled the number but then put the phone down,
" I, have to go home,i have to meet the police there in 20 minutes."
"Fine", she said a bit miffed,
"I'll ring Parkmore and have her paged"
I turned to leave and Debbie phone in hand said"
"Did you hear a girls body was found at Noble Park Pool"
"Yes", I replied desperate to get home, but I had paused, I looked back at Debbie
"When Lauren's schoolfriends rang one of them was crying" She said.
Puzzled I said, "Why were they crying"
Her call clicked through and she turned her attention away. i left for home thoughts tumbling through my mind.
I reached Ordish road and I knew,i knew. Things totalled up in my mind. Teenage girl ( not that we thought of Lauren as a teenager.... not at 12 ) she was a child.
The only thought that could get through to my whirling brain was one
"What parent in Noble Park, didn't know where their child was"
Us.
I parked the car half way up the drive and ran to the front door. Alena and Yvette were standing on the front step.
"Don't tell me its her I said.
DON"T FUCKING TELL ME IT"S HER" I screamed
Alena and Yvette were solemn but calm.
"Mum, it's not her" they said in unison.
"WELL, THEN WHERE IS SHE"
"Lauren would be home by now."
The girls had rung all her friends and she was no where.
The police arrived.
I was calm, it couldn't be Lauren. Not Lauren....., not my baby. but where was she, where was she, she had to be somewhere.
The police were very non commital, they said a girls body had been found in the olympic pool at Noble park By a pool worker at 6am that morning. The police just wanted to rule out Lauren was the girl. They asked for recent photos I fetched them from her messy messy room. the police were calm as they looked at them, they asked about her hair colour, what colour jewellery she wore silver or gold.
Deb arrived with Grace, they were both crying. Grace explained they had been to the pool and asked for a description of the girl.
'ITS NOT HER",I said through gritted teeth
but if not her, where was she.
Bob arrived and informed of the situation.
The police asked if Bob would go with them to the morgue to rule out it was not our daughter. I asked to come to and they said to me gently no, they would just take Bob.
People arrived, I know my Dad was there, he had lost a son, my older brother James. he had died as a child aged 11 in a tragic sand cave in at port Augusta, Jamie and his best friend Wayne. My dad knew what I was going through and held my hand. I didn't cry. i couldn't cry. I waited
I waited for the phone call that never came i knew Bob would ring me from the Morgue if it wasn't her. So we waited, Other people were in the kitchen neighbours and friends and I was numb. Remote. Switched on to auto pilot. This was not happening. But one nagging thought kept running through my brain.
"Where was she "
We drifted outside after a while, somehow instinctively knowing to wait for the police cars return. The night was hot and dark now,
The police car drove slowly into view and Debbie and alena and Yvette were standing closest to the road. They screamed. it was a sound I didn't want to hear and never want to hear again. One long drawn out scream of agony. The girls had seen Bob's face through the window of the back seat. A woman police officer ran towards me, and Bob ran towards me and I turned away,
all i could think of (And i know this is terrible ) was
"where the bloody hell were you while she was alive"
I ran towards the house , the police and Bob following me.
And all of a sudden it was like someone punched me in the stomach and I almost fell. Bob grabbed me and took me in the house. The nightmare had begun..........................
That day began as any other day, Lauren was up early and came out in my Green velvet dressing gown, her long hair down, a waterfall of shining glints of red and brown. I alone sat at the dining table watching this sweet chubby morsel of a child of mine, the Otter, the baby Flossie or Miss Floss. She sat next to me as I nursed my first cup of coffee for the day. and i said
"and what are you doing up so early miss"
"It's pocket money day ", she said. It was Thursday, the 30th November 1989.
"And', I replied, teasing the moment out a little.
"Well," she began and I interrupted her.
"You're not buying something else for Yvette and the baby, are you "
Yvette my 2nd oldest daughter had just given birth to her first baby and my 1st grandchild
"No,Mum", she replied.
I studied her for a moment this sweet baby girl of mine, half child, not quite half woman at 12 and a half. (that oh, so important precious half year of maturity that kids so love )
She left to get dressed and so did i. Girding my loins for another long hot day at the office of the new factory Bob, my husband, and I had just finished getting built.
The office was new and hot and barely furnished as our money had started to run out when it came to the niceties. Our priorities were on the equipment and stock and all the practical things.
The day dragged on with quotes and paperwork and all the hundred other things that make up a day. 4pm rolled around and Lauren rang from home.
'Hi mum", she said. "Can i go to Tanya's house and sleep over>
My automatic response was no and said so,
"It's a school night". "No'
I had 4 girls, school nights were not for staying out.
Lauren had stayed at Tanya's before for a sleep over. Tanya lived with her Dad and brother. There was a Mum somewhere but I had never met her. i had met the Father and he seemed OK, a bit of a drinker but good enough to the kids.
Lauren had recently started hanging out with Tanya. Lauren's life long friend Kerrie was always a round at that time but for some perverse reason Lauren had been going to the pools with Tanya rather than Kerrie, that particular week. Melbourne had been achingly hot all week as only Melbourne can be some times and Alena my second youngest daughter and Lauren had been going to the Noble Park swimming Pool after school with friends most of the preceding week.
Lauren hung up and I resumed work.
Half an hour later Lauren rang back more persistent this time.
"Mum, if Tanya's Dad comes to pick me up can I go to Tanya's and stay please, please."
I hesitated, the word no on my lips.
She continued.
"You just think we are going to stay up late and not get up for school tomorrow"
I replied. "No, I trust you Lauren "
And I did.
Lauren being the baby had never given me a reason to doubt her in all of her twelve and a half years.
I asked her to put Yvette on and Yvette came to the phone, I spoke with her a while and then spoke to Lauren again and said If Tanya's Dad was prepared to pick her up, she could go.
Lauren gave me Tanya's home number and i wrote it down on the back of my hand.
Work picked up again and I ended up getting home about 8pm. Bob came with me this time. He had moved out earlier in the year to a unit not far away. We were separated but still running the business together. I hated him, didn't want to be around him, but I was terrified of a life without him. He came and ate tea and then asked me to go to the unit with him. i thought that was a good idea as I knew he was having an affair with a bar girl in the Phillipines and wanted to snoop around at his place and see what I could find.
he had lied in the June that he had to take a trip to buy wire in Korea and had actually flown to the Phillipnes to be with Anna Lyn. Deb was working in the business and let me know what was going on. he was spending a minimum of $12,000 of the business money going there. And when he returned he had Syphilis tablets in his suitcase which he said were for a "Friend", the packet open and tablets taken out. He told his workers he was in love with 2 women. Me and Anna Lynn and did not know what to do but he did suggest he bring her out as a housekeeper for the family.
Naturally our marriage was pretty tense around then and even though I didn't love him, hadn't for years, I wanted so desperately to keep the family together, no matter what. That was my fault.
The night Lauren died, Debbie our oldest child was 19 and out. Yvette 18 and a new mum had plans on going to the drive in, leaving Alena 14 with the baby. I questioned Yvette about Lauren and she said that yes tanya's dad had come to pick her up but that Yvette didn't like the look of him.
When I asked her why, she said he was sitting in the car drinking a can while Tanya had come to the door. Lauren had taken her school bag, her uniform, and had asked Yvette to tape "Days of our Lives" the next day. Yvette had watched the car drive away just a little uneasy.
I replied with a distracted air re the father.... it was a hot day and the Father was probably fairly cranky at having to have to pick Lauren up and wanted a cold beer, nothing sinister. Yvette just looked at me and looked away, and that was that. I felt very tired and really only wanted to crawl into bed but Bob insisted I go to the unit and I did. I ended up staying the night and finding nothing except for some photos that i had already seen of Bob's new paramour.
We were both in good moods the next day and decided to spend it together doing quotes. It was a strange day, that friday the 1st of December, brutally hot, crushing. For some reason every quote we went to that day (there were 3 ) was messed up in some way.The first was way down near Hastings and the man we needed to see was not there.And no one else knew anything about the fencing that needed to be done. Another was the same story and another.
bob and I ran a fencing company. Steel security fencing, big jobs small, we made our own mesh on a huge chain mesh machine that filled one side of the factory. We employed our own subbies, it all seemed a little surreal as we had started off in our own suburban back yard and just grew. We were certainly not happily married by any stretch of the imagination but we knew how to run a business.
Bob was the visionary and the entrepeneur, a workaholic, a hard working, hard partying, hard drinking man. he had come from a hard upbringing, working on his parents dairy farm until one day after having a particularly bitter row with his Dad, he had struck out for pastures new and an independent life at 18. He took off to QLD with a mate the mate turning back half way and Bob continuing on.
He made it to Gladstone in his old ford Zephyr and was found sleeping in his car by a young girl who took him home to her family. He stayed there for a few months until seasonal work started at the local sugar mill. He said the Mother of the family ended up with malnutrition eating the ice out of the freezer for food.
After the sugar Mill he got work as a surveyor in Normanton and went west, Fit, healthy, blackened by the sun he loved the outdoor work. He stayed up there 3 years, came back to Melbourne, found out the girl who had been writing to him the love of his life, he said was pregnant to another stormed out and returned to the farm for a while before getting a job in Melbourne.
I had just arrived back in Australia from the UK. My parents had emigrated to Australia when I was 2 and returned to the UK for 5 years, where I did all my secondary schooling at my Mother's very proper English Grammar School. I was 16 and seriously naive in the ways of life. My older brother Ian, had stayed in Australia while we were in England he was in the army and had married. We were desperate to meet his new wife and their baby, Andrew. We stayed in the army barracks with them for a while at Ingleburn in Sydney.
Merrilyn, Ian's wife made mention of her brother Bob. At that time I was going out with a mid shipman I had met on the boat coming to Australia. Ian said, this Bob was very handsome, but a real bad boy and I pricked up my ears as only a 16 year old girl can. Merrilyn said looking at my expression
"Don't worry about him he's a shit !"
Of course I had to ask why and was told many lurid and awful tales about this bad tempered Ned Kelly look alike and decided then and there I had to meet him.
Bob and my stories will come later,too long, too involved for now I just want to talk about Lauren.
So it was the next day and according to us her parents, Lauren was happily ensconced at school. Yvette was at home with her 2 week old baby, Kyle, Alena was at high school and Debbie had finished year 12 and was working for us in the office.
At lunch time on the 1st December, after our shitty day Bob decided we would call in at a big hotel in Mordialloc. When we went to cross the threshold I saw a fish not long dead laying on the step. It was beautiful and dead. I called out to Bob and he popped his back out the door. We were puzzled as to why it was there.
"Maybe it's some fishermans catch and he's dropped it there and gone for a beer"
WE had a very ordinary lunch and both us were unsettled after our waste of a morning, we decided to go home, check on Yvette and the baby and grab an ice cream from the freezer. Another hot afternoon at the office awaited us. So we called in at home and Yvette said after a while,
"Did you hear that a teenage girls body was found at Noble Park Pool they are looking for the parents."
"Some street kid", i thought, how sad.
We raced off back to the factory and Bob started up the chain mesh machine. he had been having trouble with it and he was determined to find out the problem. Debbie was in the factory office upstairs on the mezzanine floor. As I threw my bag down and grabbed hold of a phone debbie said,
"Mum, some of Lauren's schoolfriends have been calling, apparently she wasn't at school, today"
"What", I replied.
Debbie gazed at me steadily, calmly,
"Lauren, was not at school today", repeating herself slowly.
I grabbed the phone and checked the back of my hand for the number I dialled
A man answered,
" Is Lauren there" I asked
"Nuh" came the reply delivered in a hostile manner.
I said, "it's Laurens Mum Janette,"
"Oh yeah" Once again short sharp speech.
For some reason I asked this next question, not knowing where it came from
"Did she sleep there last night'
"Hang on a minute", said exasperatedly and the phone was clunked down.
Another mans voice came on the phone and introduced himself as a policeman from Springvale.
"Are you Mrs Hancock", he asked,
"Yes" I replied.
"Are you the Mother of Lauren Hancock"
"Yes, why is she in some sort of trouble"
"Mrs Hancock, i need you to get your husband and meet me at your home"
I looked out of the office window, gazing down at my hot and hot tempered husband he was throwing tools around and swearing his head off. He threw one of the spanners at the cockatoos aviary and she screeched and flew up to the furthest spot.
"OK", I lied,
if Lauren was in trouble there was no way i was letting on to Bob. I decided to go home on my own.
I told Deb what was going on, she replied,
"Ring Parkmore, Mum, she'll be at Parkmore, shopping centre, maybe wagging school with Tanya"
this was feasible, I had caught Lauren wagging once and she was grounded for two weeks. That 2 weeks limit had not long passed.
My middle two girls were major rebels but Lauren always did as she was told and I did reason to myself that i did not think she would wag again, that was Lauren, a trustworthy girl.
i dialled the number but then put the phone down,
" I, have to go home,i have to meet the police there in 20 minutes."
"Fine", she said a bit miffed,
"I'll ring Parkmore and have her paged"
I turned to leave and Debbie phone in hand said"
"Did you hear a girls body was found at Noble Park Pool"
"Yes", I replied desperate to get home, but I had paused, I looked back at Debbie
"When Lauren's schoolfriends rang one of them was crying" She said.
Puzzled I said, "Why were they crying"
Her call clicked through and she turned her attention away. i left for home thoughts tumbling through my mind.
I reached Ordish road and I knew,i knew. Things totalled up in my mind. Teenage girl ( not that we thought of Lauren as a teenager.... not at 12 ) she was a child.
The only thought that could get through to my whirling brain was one
"What parent in Noble Park, didn't know where their child was"
Us.
I parked the car half way up the drive and ran to the front door. Alena and Yvette were standing on the front step.
"Don't tell me its her I said.
DON"T FUCKING TELL ME IT"S HER" I screamed
Alena and Yvette were solemn but calm.
"Mum, it's not her" they said in unison.
"WELL, THEN WHERE IS SHE"
"Lauren would be home by now."
The girls had rung all her friends and she was no where.
The police arrived.
I was calm, it couldn't be Lauren. Not Lauren....., not my baby. but where was she, where was she, she had to be somewhere.
The police were very non commital, they said a girls body had been found in the olympic pool at Noble park By a pool worker at 6am that morning. The police just wanted to rule out Lauren was the girl. They asked for recent photos I fetched them from her messy messy room. the police were calm as they looked at them, they asked about her hair colour, what colour jewellery she wore silver or gold.
Deb arrived with Grace, they were both crying. Grace explained they had been to the pool and asked for a description of the girl.
'ITS NOT HER",I said through gritted teeth
but if not her, where was she.
Bob arrived and informed of the situation.
The police asked if Bob would go with them to the morgue to rule out it was not our daughter. I asked to come to and they said to me gently no, they would just take Bob.
People arrived, I know my Dad was there, he had lost a son, my older brother James. he had died as a child aged 11 in a tragic sand cave in at port Augusta, Jamie and his best friend Wayne. My dad knew what I was going through and held my hand. I didn't cry. i couldn't cry. I waited
I waited for the phone call that never came i knew Bob would ring me from the Morgue if it wasn't her. So we waited, Other people were in the kitchen neighbours and friends and I was numb. Remote. Switched on to auto pilot. This was not happening. But one nagging thought kept running through my brain.
"Where was she "
We drifted outside after a while, somehow instinctively knowing to wait for the police cars return. The night was hot and dark now,
The police car drove slowly into view and Debbie and alena and Yvette were standing closest to the road. They screamed. it was a sound I didn't want to hear and never want to hear again. One long drawn out scream of agony. The girls had seen Bob's face through the window of the back seat. A woman police officer ran towards me, and Bob ran towards me and I turned away,
all i could think of (And i know this is terrible ) was
"where the bloody hell were you while she was alive"
I ran towards the house , the police and Bob following me.
And all of a sudden it was like someone punched me in the stomach and I almost fell. Bob grabbed me and took me in the house. The nightmare had begun..........................
