Killer Women by Wensley Clarkson Page A

satisfying as the sex she had contemplated with that corpse just a few minutes earlier.
    But now there was the matter of the body. It had to be removed.
    No one gave Barbara and Karen so much as a second glance as they pushed the wheelbarrow along the crowded streets. They had only covered 200 yards from their house so far, but it felt more like 200 miles to the aunt and her niece.
    None of the boys they passed coming home from school that evening could have guessed that underneath a potato sack in the barrow was the randy housewife who had seduced so many of their pals. Vivienne would not be inviting any more of them around again.
    As Barbara and Karen reached the corner of Heathway, they turned the barrow slightly to the right to avoid an old lady and the unmentionable almost happened. Vivienne nearly ended up on the pavement. It was a close thing. They felt the corpse shift position as they turned the corner and suddenly the barrow began to wobble. They envisaged scenes of utter horror as the body fell on to the street.
    But it never happened. Barbara managed toregain control over the barrow and avoid it turning over. Then Karen noticed Vivienne’s hand dragging alongside the barrow. She turned to see if anyone had noticed. There was not a sign of recognition from anyone. They were all in too much of a hurry to get home from school and work to notice two women pushing a corpse through a suburban street.
    Karen carefully and discreetly pushed the hand back under the potato sack and they continued their journey. She had not questioned the sense in Barbara’s plan to dump the body. It was the right thing to do. What she did not realise was where Barbara was intending to leave it.
    ‘You must be fucking mad, Babs.’
    Karen Miller was astounded. She could not believe that Barbara would be this stupid. Of all the places in all the towns in all the world, this was the one venue that would bring the police running to their front door within hours if not minutes.
    For Barbara had decided to dump the strangled body of Vivienne Elliot in the woman’s very own front garden. ‘Just fucking do it!’
    This was an order not a request from Barbara to her niece. Karen obeyed. Together the two women heaved Vivienne’s stiffening body along towards the side entrance of the house. One of them struggled to open the side gate, while the other kept the body slumped upright. With one last shove theythrew it on to the ground between the two detached houses. It was still late afternoon. There were lots of people everywhere, but no one saw Barbara and Karen, Vivienne’s body or even the wheelbarrow they hurriedly raced back home with.
     
    George and Gladys Miller were in fine spirits when they arrived back at their home in Heathway just half an hour later. They had been visiting another daughter in Norwich and it had turned into a happy family reunion. And, since Barbara had not been invited, it was a peaceful occasion not marred by the usual squabbles that always seemed to follow their wayward daughter wherever she went.
    But on their return home even George had to admit he was pleasantly surprised by Barbara that afternoon. She was giving the house a well-deserved spring clean.
    There was, of course, an ulterior motive. Their little home had seen quite a lot of life, sex and death that day. First, there was the love-making with Jackie, then there was the plotting with niece Karen to kill Vivienne – and that was followed by the murder itself. Barbara would have to do a hell of a lot of scrubbing to clean out that house!
    George and Gladys were blissfully unaware of all the horrors that had occurred just a few hours earlier. They were so relieved to see Barbara doingsomething to help around the house. Usually, she did absolutely nothing.
    ‘Hi, Mum. Hi, Dad.’
    She seemed like a different person. So cheery. So full of life. So vibrant. This was not the Barbara they knew. But her elderly parents never stopped to ask why she was so happy.