Grave Doubts by Elizabeth Corley

given up and moved on to someone else, but she was not a random victim. Sergeant Louise Nightingale needed to pay for her temerity. She had outsmarted Griffiths, persuaded a jury of his guilt and in so doing destroyed a perfect partnership. For that she would die but he’d decided that he wanted her terrified first. It was an unusual twist and would be a test of his creativity as well as his self-discipline, but the thought of destroying her confidence and of filling her life with fear was sufficient compensation, so far.
    It was very important to him that she became dead scared before she was dead. His game had been subtle to match her style but he thought now that he was being too delicate. She showed no signs of being concerned and hadn’t even bothered to report his stalking of her – at least no police had arrived at her flat or impounded her PC. Matters would have to escalate but first he needed to make poor Wayne’s life a little easier. Another trip north to prison-town was called for then he could concentrate all his attention on her without further distraction.

CHAPTER SIX
    Wednesday evenings at the Bird in Hand were normally enlivened by the appearance of an exotic dancer. Sasha was Saunders’ favourite. He excused the wobble on her thighs because of her pendulous tits and the fact that she had once let him grope them when they had both of them been worse for wear. The idea that such a delight might happen again and lead on to more, kept him returning to the pub-cum-club when he wasn’t on nights at the prison.
    Unfortunately for Saunders, on his first visit in June he found the tiny stage unlit with no sign of a dancer.
    ‘What’s up?’
    ‘We were raided.’ The landlord disliked Saunders but his money was good and he could be relied upon to spend until he was so pissed that he needed help to find the door; even better he had no sense that his drinks were costing him more as the night wore on.
    ‘Where you been anyway?’
    ‘Shift work. Needed the money and they’re short handed. But I was hoping to see some action tonight.’
    He looked around as if contemplating leaving. A beer and whisky chaser appeared on the bar in a flash.
    ‘A round on me. Don’t worry, next week we’ll be back to normal.’
    The landlord looked over his shoulder and spotted the new ‘hostess’ he had hired to pull pints and keep the customers happy until the stripper could return. He didn’t advertise for barmaids anymore. It was better that the girls knew what was expected of them.
    ‘Milly! Get your pert little arse over here and meet Mr Saunders, one of our most valued customers.’ He turned to the guard suggestively. ‘She’s new – you never know your luck.’
    After four pints and as many whiskies, Saunders knew that his luck was out, although there was a hint of promise in Milly’s eyes that meant he would be back the following day. He had chain-smoked fifteen cigarettes whilst he had verbally abused her in the mistaken idea that he was chatting her up, and that his lewd innuendo was a certain turn on. He wet his shoes by mistake in the Gents and was ‘helped to the door’ when he decided that Milly should provide the striptease the evening was lacking. As he left the bar with some velocity, the landlord murmured, ‘fucking pig’ under his breath and patted Milly’s bum in thanks for keeping Saunders amused. She had expected something more rewarding and flounced off to the end of the bar and a more likely looking customer.
    There was an Indian takeaway en-route from The Bird to Saunders’ house. He threw up in the gutter outside, felt better and went in and bought a beef vindaloo, rice, onion bhajees, spicy poppadums and two lamb Samosas.
    He peeled the lids off in the kitchen at home and took the containers into the sitting room. Saunders subscribed to The Adult Channel for evenings such as this, and watched the screen fantasising about what he would do with the snooty barmaid next time, as he