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Chapter 7: On the Club Valcros Operation
A non-descript, mud-streaked Land Rover Defender pulls a horse box trailer away from the stables at Club Sporting Valcros. Inside the trailer, a piebald pony munches absent mindedly at the hay in his net, seemingly unconcerned by the grunts and thumps coming from inside the trailer’s tack box.
Karen Freeling is driving the Land Rover. Her elder sister, Trudy, is sitting beside her. Karen, fresh from practising her dressage, peers through her sunglasses at the lane ahead and slows down for the speed bumps at the Country Club’s gates. She waves to the gate keeper and blows him a kiss as the Land Rover and trailer drive through. The grunts and thumps are still coming from a helpless figure, locked inside the box, struggling beneath a blanket. The figure groans as the trailer bumps along. The sound isn’t loud but it’s enough to disturb the pony. He looks up, puzzled, not used to sharing his trailer, but soon returns to his hay.
They turn on to the road down towards Le Val.
Trudy Freeling pulls her golfing sun visor from her forehead and shakes her long, blonde hair loose. She tosses the pink visor onto the dashboard in front of her. The visor matches exactly the pink of her polo shirt and her short, divided skirt. "You’re a dreadful flirt," she says to her sister. "You’ll give that poor boy all sorts of expectations."
"What makes you think I’ve only given him expectations?" Karen replies with a giggle as she swings the Land Rover on to the Le Val ring road and on towards Brignoles and the cross-country route south.
Two bags of golf clubs are lying across the back seat of the Land Rover. One bag is bright pink, matching Trudy’s shirt and skirt. The other is lemon yellow. The club head cover is missing from the three wood in the lemon yellow bag. All of the other woods are neatly capped with matching lemon yellow covers.
The lemon yellow, number three wood, club head cover is the reason why there is relatively little noise coming from the figure in the trailer’s tack box. It is currently jammed into the mouth of the woman to whom it belongs. She would rather it were not there, to say the least. However, the fact that the lower half of her face has been wrapped with tape means that she can’t push the mouth-stuffing cloth out with her tongue.
The woman in the tack box is Denise Tallis, women’s captain at the Club Sporting Valcros and previously Denise St John-Ferris. She always attracts attention when she turns up at the club: the men want to flirt with her; the women want to gossip with her. She’s not beyond using her charms to get where she wants to be and, until right now, she’s happy with what she’s been able to get. She’s 32, but looks a good 6 years younger. She keeps herself fit; being out on the course three or four times a week has given her a glowing tan that you couldn’t get under any lamp. She’s always immaculately turned out. She thinks that it’s important to look the part as captain. Today, she’s wearing a lemon yellow outfit;: short sleeved polo shirt, shorts, white socks and yellow shoes. It was a sunny day when she got up that morning and she wanted to look as bright as the day.
Not half an hour before, she was enjoying a round with Trudy. She always likes to try to play with the new lady members soon after they join, and it’s especially nice when youngsters are coming into the club. They’d had a good game. Denise thinks Trudy showed some real talent and she’d told her so. The girl had seemed flattered. Of course, when Trudy suggests they stop by the stables to meet her sister on the way to the club house, she is only too happy to accept.
Trudy introduces Denise to her sister. Karen is keen to show Denise and Trudy her new pony and they step into the stables. And then they attack her, Karen grabbing her arms, Trudy pushing the top of the club head cover into her mouth, almost choking her, and winding the tape round and round her head. She’s pushed to the floor, Trudy kneeling astride her. She is rolled over, face down. Her lemon yellow outfit is now streaked with mud from the floor. More tape is wound around her wrists and her arms and chest. She’s trying to call out, but she’s gagging on the club head cover. More tape around her ankles. And not one word spoken by her assailants. Karen grabs her by the shoulders, Trudy by the feet. They lift her up. She is trying to kick out with her legs but her attackers ignore her efforts. They carry her to the tack box in the horse box trailer standing just outside the stable entrance. Blankets are piled on top of her. They are heavy. They stop her kicking against the sides of the box as they are packed down around her legs. The lid of the box is dropped with a clang. There’s the sound of a padlock closing with a click. She panics and tries to kick out again, shaking her head to try to dislodge the gag. It has no effect. She hears the clop of hooves as the pony is led into the trailer.
Then she is moving. The trailer is being towed. Out of the yard, she assumes, but where to and why?
Trudy picks up her mobile and sends Harry a text. He always likes to know if things have gone according to plan.
© Freddie Clegg 2011
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