The Girl in the Rug by K Leitch Read Free Book Online Page A

fleshy part of Nellie’s arm. He
howled with pain and back handed Lucy with all his strength…she flew across the
room cracking her head on the edge of the coffee table before landing with a
thump on the floor.
    Time seemed to stand still for a moment.
    ‘LUCYYYY,’ screamed Andy, ‘LLLUUUCCCYYY …NOOO!’ Andy rushed
over to where the lifeless body of his sister lay, her eyes wide open and
staring up at him.
    ‘No no…oh no,’ Andy cried over and over hugging Lucy to him,
as if he could somehow squeeze the life back into her.
    Kathy was groaning on the floor near the sofa, seemingly
completely unaware that her daughter lay dead a few yards away from her. Turk
and Nellie were just standing there in shock, they hadn’t anticipated any of
this when they had decided to put the frighteners on Kathy and her children
earlier this evening. Neither of them said anything, it was like they didn’t
know what to do or say.
    Andy felt an awful rage building up inside him, wailing with
grief, he threw himself at Nellie punching and kicking.
    ‘You killed her…you fucking killed her…you fucking
bastard…I’m going to kill you!’ he screamed.
    Nellie finally came to his senses and grabbed Andy by the
hands pushing him away from him.
    ‘It were an accident weren’t it…you saw, she stabbed me…I
only pushed her…it were an accident.’ Nellie, big hard Nellie scourge of
‘Buttercup’, seemed to be completely staggered by the death of the little girl.
    ‘Fuck it Nellie, let’s get out of ‘ear,’ said Turk already
heading for the door, ‘fucking police get hold of this they’ll throw away the
key. I ain’t going down for killing no kid…come on what’s up with you, let’s
move…’
    ‘Nah,’ interrupted Nellie, who was still holding the
struggling Andy in front of him, ‘we need to sort this…’
    ‘Whatcha mean sort this…she’s dead ain’t she…we can’t sort
nuffin…let’s go…’
    Nellie let go of Andy and grabbed Turk by the throat, ‘I
said we need to sort this, you follow? We need to get rid of the body, clean
this place up…’
    ‘NOOO you leave her alone,’ shouted Andy when he realised what
Nellie was suggesting. ‘Don’t you touch her, I will tell the police
everything…I’ll tell them you killed her…’
    No you fucking won’t boy, ‘Nellie turned on Andy furiously.
‘You fink about it, everybody on the estate knows your mum ‘ere knocks you kids
about…looks like she got a bit too heavy handed with the girl…pushed her too
hard didn’t she.’ Nellie brought his face close to Andy’s, ‘Na the best fing
would be if she just disappeared, gone to stay wiv her auntie…somat like that.
That way no one asks any dodgy questions do they? Turk, find me somat we can
wrap her in, and stop that slag from making that noise will ya.’
    Kathy had been groaning and whimpering on the floor, her
face was covered in blood, she was  barely conscious. Turk kicked her, ‘Shut
the fuck up will ya,’ he said as he stood and looked around for something with
which to wrap Lucy’s body. Out in the hallway lay a once colourful rag rug, a
reminder of better times, before Kathy had taken to the bottle to block out the
disappointments and betrayals in her life. She had picked it up at a craft fair
in Brighton, thinking it would be perfect to brighten up the rather dark
hallway of the new flat she’d just been given by the council. Turk’s eyes fell
on the now filthy old rag rug; he grabbed it and lay it down next to Lucy.
    Andy, defeated and sobbing, watched helplessly as the two
men removed as much physical evidence of their presence in the flat as they
could, and then proceeded to carefully wrap Lucy’s tiny body in the old rug. He
made one last grab for his sister before they carried her to the door; but was
pushed back by Nellie who held on to his arm painfully. All his earlier remorse
a distant memory, only his self preservation mattered now as he hissed his
threats once again to