“Well, I don’t think the bus is coming,” said Debbie Snell pushing another stick of Juicy Fruit into her mouth.
“If we hadn’t been mucking about in maths we wouldn’t have got detention and we wouldn’t have missed the bloody bus would we?” Colette Hill told her irritably.
“Well we were mucking about and we did get detention,” Debbie said, leaning against the bus stop.
“Why don’t you ring your precious Tony up,” Belinda Vernon told her. “If you hadn’t been going on about him we wouldn’t have got told off in the beginning.”
“Oh piss off,” Debbie said, defiantly. “Anyway, if the bus isn’t here soon I might just do that.”
All three girls were from Exham Comprehensive School, the largest of the town’s three schools and they wore its distinctive maroon blazer. Which, in Debbie’s case refused to do up because of her mountainous breasts. All three girls were fifteen but Debbie was a taller, more mature-looking youngster than her two companions. They stood forlornly at the stop glancing agitatedly at their watches or periodically glancing up the road in the hope that a bus would appear from around the corner. The bus stop itself, complete with its glass shelter, backed onto a thick outcrop of trees which, in turn, masked some of the rolling fields that formed Exham’s boundaries.
It was from these trees that Paul Harvey watched the three girls.
As a teenager he had always found girls impossible to cope with. Their jokes, their jibes, their little tricks. He had not known how to react and, on one occasion, when one of them had made exaggerated advances towards him, he had been left humiliated – standing alone amidst the jeers and laughter trying to hide an uncontrollable erection. The memory, as did so many of the others, still hurt.
Now he watched the girls from the shelter of the trees, close enough to hear what they were saying. The sickle was gripped tightly in his hand.
Debbie took one more look at her watch.
“Well, I’m not waiting around any longer,” she proclaimed. “I’m going to phone Tony.”
She rummaged through her pocket for a coin and, with a haughty “Goodbye” set off down the hill towards the phone box. The other girls watched her go until finally she turned a corner and disappeared from view.
Harvey moved swiftly but stealthily through the trees, tracing a parallel path with the lone girl. The dusk was deepening into darkness now, further adding to his concealment and he was content to remain within the confines of the woods, his eyes constantly on Debbie.
She reached the phone box and pulled open the door.
Harvey watched as she dialled. He could see her speaking into the mouthpiece and, a few minutes later, she put the receiver down and stepped back outside.
He watched her for a full five minutes as she paced back and forth then, slowly, he rose to his full height and moved through the trees towards her.
Debbie had her back to him and the growing wind masked the sound of breaking twigs and the big man emerged from the woods.
He was within ten yards of her now, almost clear of the trees.
She looked at her watch, oblivious to his approach.
The black Capri came speeding round the corner, headlamps blazing. Debbie ran across the road to meet it, jumping in happily. The driver a young man in his early twenties, spun the wheel and the vehicle turned full circle, heading back to Exham.
Harvey melted back into the woods, merging with the darkness as if he were a shadow.