The Skipping Rope

The Skipping Rope

  By Rena Romanov

  Tuesday 23 April 2013

  Copyright Rena Romanov

  Welcome to Robinsville Publishing

  The Skipping Rope

  Chapter 1

  Katie hated her job at the gym, her boss Christine was an absolute cow, she kept making her do the laundry every morning and wipe down the machines – jobs that Katie hated. The disinfectant reminded her of school dinners, and the chemicals from it made her hands shrivel up. The towels always smelt really sweaty as she put them in the washing machine, and the dressing gown robe things always had tissues in the pockets!.

  She was glad to get home at the end of the day and slump on the sofa to watch reruns of Vacation Inn on the TV.

  Katie had a degree in law and another degree in physics and was above this kind of work really. She was just doing it to get some extra money.

  Katie loved to study; she loved to read lots of books about all kinds of things, from psychology to learning to crochet. Crochet was one of her hobbies, she made wild, intricate black and white M C Escher designs, she especially liked to do this monochrome work, and she bought the wool from a lovely craft shop owned by a Swedish couple who lived in her village.

  She lived in the village of Bouldwell which was just down the road from Robinsville. It was quite an up market sort of village, and you had to have a convertible Mazda in the drive, and a liking for mail order high street clothes just is in with the in crowd.

  In her spare time she enjoyed painting, as well as crochet – sometimes she got fed up with studying and did these activities.

  She had to go to lectures every Thursday, which she found fairly boring, and preferred the end of lecture smoke with her friend Charlie who was studying to be a security specialist.

  Charlie had just become a father to Slick his new baby daughter who he had named after Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane, she was one of his heroes, and he was so overwhelmed by the birth of his daughter that he decided that was what her name should be. However, Trina his wife was not so enamoured, and plotted to sneak into the registration office and change her name to Amelia Jane after her favourite Enid Blyton book.

  So they decided that Amelia would be Slick’s second name. The look on the faces of the in-laws when they told them of Slick’s nomination was quite a picture.

  Trina came from a family of scientists and Charlie came from a family of gardeners and bakers.

  Chapter 2

  Katie was at college, she was in a class learning how to do patchwork. She was making a blanket that was red, white and blue, it was to celebrate the impending Jubilee celebration of that year – 2012.

  She had found a lovely shiny piece of material for the blue, which was satiny and had gold flecks in it. She cut it up into twenty equally tapes measured squares. She had found the material in a car boot sale last Saturday that she went to with her friend Mandy.

  For the white patchwork, she had cut up and old bridesmaids dress, that was already stained, she thought it would have been a shame to cut it up otherwise.

  For the red patchwork, she had an old velvet curtain that she was cutting up, this material was quite tough, and sometimes it had to be torn, this reminded her of the difficult people in her life – like her boss at the gym, who always left early and made her stay late, and never said thank you for anything, even when she made her a cup of tea. She just shrugged and did not look up from her desk in the office next to the dance studio of the gym where they both worked.

  She really enjoyed doing patchwork and found that it made her switch off and go into another world while she was doing it. It made her forget all her troubles – which were mainly self obsessive feelings of paranoia, insecurity and hypochondria. She was one of these people who always looked up what was wrong with her on the internet, and assumed the worst diagnosis.

  Mandy said to her that she was being stupid, and she needed to get a grip on herself and have some self confidence.

  She wrote her out a mantra and stuck it on her bathroom mirror “I am Katie, and I am the best” she said to her that she should say that to herself every morning before she went to work. Whether Katie did this or not was another matter.

  Chapter 3

  Christine unlocked the gym, she wanted to get there before Katie, so she could have a tidy up beforehand, then it would be easier to tell her what to clean. She filled up all the buckets with water and refilled the disinfectant containers, and then she put some brand new cleaning cloths in the cupboard.

  Trina was in her car listening to Duran and singing along on her way home from Tesco’s. She was just about to pick up Slick from her playgroup.

  She knew that as soon as she put Slick in the car she would say “Bikkit” which meant she wanted one of her custard creams, that were at home in the kitchen. At the age of three Slick did not understand that biscuits did not magically appear when you called for them. If she was at home she would go frantically opening cupboards looking for biscuits and cakes, and liked to jump angrily in the air and cry if she could not have one. Sometimes this looked quite funny, other times it was quite annoying, and she got sent to her bedroom where she would stamp her feet till she tired herself out and slept on the floor.

  Christine could smell wet rope, she looked in front of her and saw that someone was holding one in front of her neck, she felt a little faint, and then nothing.

  Katie opened the door of the gym and walked straight towards the cleaning cupboard, there was a strange smell of bleach and an ammonia smell. She frowned and wrinkled her nose.

  She opened the door and screamed as she saw Christine lying there in cyanosis. Her face was blue and her eyes were wide and she was dead.

  Katie immediately dialled 999 on her phone and then sat down on one of the sofas in the gym reception.

  The police arrived fairly quickly, it was two young male policemen with south London accents. They had a squad car that was really a Mercedes, and one of them had dyed blonde hair that was really ginger.

  “Hello love, are you ok?” said the tall one, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Let me put the kettle on.”

  There was a kitchen next to the cleaning cupboard, it looked just the same, whereas the cleaning cupboard was in a right mess, bleach spilled out and brooms all on the floor.

  Chapter 4

  Charlie was pushing Slick around IKEA, he was looking for containers to put her toys in. He had just fed her in the restaurant, she had enjoyed her spaghetti Bolognese baby food, and some of it was still on her pink dress, she had enjoyed it some much that she had waved her arms through the whole meal and tried to say babbit with or without a spoonful of baby food in her mouth.

  He saw a woman looking at the skipping ropes in the childrens section, she looked familiar, but he could not think where from. The woman looked angry and was wearing bunches and tight black jeans with red stilettos and a low cut top, a little too tarty for Charlies’ taste.

  He turned round to look at Slick, as she was gurgling, when he turned back to the direction of the woman however, she was gone.

  This niggled at him all the way round IKEA, it nearly niggled at him as much as the fact that the stupid shop did not have the drawer units he wanted, and he had spent hours stuck in traffic trying to get here.

  He shrugged and walked back to the car and drove home.

  Katie was driving home, she was crying, she did not know where she was, she was just crying and driving, and she felt punch drunk.

  She had just bought a pair of long black boots from Freemark and she had drunk a chocolate milkshake from McDonalds.

  She got home and went to bed.

  The killer was still out there, the police had not caught him or her yet, they were d
oing door to door questioning of the locality, and eating crème eggs and drinking diet coke in the squad car in their breaks. It was the beginning of the football season, so everyone was getting the results on their phone and bragging about who had got them first.

  Chapter 5

  The undertakers took Christine away in a body bag. Katie sobbed as she sat in the gym foyer with a cappuccino from the machine. The whole event did not seem real, it was like she was looking down on herself and playing a part in a play.

  The police drove her home, and she immediately went to the lounge and watched an episode of “Only Joking” a practical joke tv programme that caught people out when they were happily shopping in town!.

  She was seeing her boyfriend tonight, and they were going out for dinner at a chinese restaurant and then to the cinema to see a science fiction movie. Katie had bought a pretty royal blue t shirt for the occasion.

  As she was watching the film, Katie had a sudden flashback of the incident early and screamed and put her hand to her mouth. The whole cinema said “SHhhh”.

  Chapter 6

  Charlie got home from Ikea with Slick and Trina made him a cup of tea, he said to her that he had seen a strange girl, and he described her. Trina said

  “Yes, that’s Zena - Katies friend, I wonder why she was looking angry”.

  Charlie shrugged and went into the lounge to watch the latest Swedish detective drama. Trina went upstairs to read her latest romance novel.

  Meanwhile Katie was driving to a sports centre, she was going to her yoga class.

  She did the cat position

  She did the tree position

  She did yogic breathes

  She did relaxation.

  She put cyanide in the yoga teachers coffee, then she went home.

  The next day it was all over the local news.

  FAMOUS YOGA TEACHER IS DEAD

  People were crying outside the gym and laying flowers there. Children put their teddies there. Katie watched from behind a tree.

  The cleaners had found the yoga teacher lying in the middle of her yoga studio stuck in the tree position but lying down. She had a look of horror on her made up face. She particularly favoured the bronzing powder of Estee Lauder and the lipstick of Chanel, which today was a dark brown rusty colour, which did not go well with the rigour mortis that had set in.

  One of the cleaners phoned the police, the other one ran out of the building. Luckily the building had CCTV, so they might be able to see who the murderer was.

  The cleaners were asked to go to the police station for questioning. Their names were Joan and Rita.

  Rita was shaking and could not answer any questions, she just stared and drank her coffee. She was already annoyed because she had left her teenage son at home and she was worried he would eat all the crisps in the larder, that she was saving for her Dominoes night that she was having with her friends next Tuesday.

  Joan on the other hand told the police how angry the situation made her, and how had somebody got in there when there was supposed to be nobody in the building!.

  Rita was wearing her favourite long cardigan from Jeffery and Jackson, just in case she appeared on the local news. Joan was wearing her usual weekend tracksuit, and was dying for a cigarette and kept coughing rather loudly.

  “Ok ladies” said the older policeman of the two, you can go home now, but please don’t leave the area, as we may need your assistance at a later date.

  Katie was in Asda, she was buying cup a soup, she bought twenty boxes of chicken, twenty boxes of tomato, and twenty boxes of oxtail. The shop assistants smiled at her kindly as she went past, then whispered to each other laughing, her trolley did look a bit ridiculous. However, Katie just stared at them and walked on.

  She got to the checkout and was surprised how much the receipt came to, and needed about five carrier bags to put her shopping in – she had bought other things beside soup, such as bread, milk, kitchen roll, toilet roll and soap – of which she bought about ten bars,

  She did not really understand her sudden obsessive behaviour, but carried on, as if it would pass.

  Chapter 7

  Joan and Rita disliked each other, Joan used to work with a lady called Dorothy who she used to clean large houses with, and then they branched out into office cleaning.

  Dorothy ran the business, and took it very seriously, then Rita took over and did everything differently and was very controlling, with tick lists and appraisals and everything.

  When Dorothy was alive, they used to make their own cleaning fluid out of bleach and bicarbonate of soda, and have their own cleaning stuff. However, the COSSH rules came in, and they had to change the way that they worked and this caused friction, as they did not like to be told what to do, and work was not fun anymore.

  Rita thrived in the new regimented system, and kept picking on Joan because she did not feel the same way, she often sent emails to Dorothy complaining about Joan behind her back. Dorothy did not take any notice, and never really read them anyway. Joan knew about Rita’s emails and luckily had thick skin, but tutted to herself when she was sweeping the kitchen in the office canteen where they cleaned.

  Christine was Dorothy’s daughter, she took over the cleaning business when Dorothy became ill and had to give up work.

  “I’ve worked my fingers to the bone for that company” she had said to Christine, “don’t let me down, and try to keep things as I have kept them, I don’t want some posh person in UGG boots coming along and messing things up, I’d rather have you!!!.

  They had recently had an incident where an employee of the offices they were cleaning had been working late and had accidently put her UGG booted foot in a bucket of floor cleaner, and then tried to sue them for damages unsuccessfully. It had been a difficult time, and they had got quite a few dirty looks from other UGG booted women leaving to go home when they were just coming in to clean.

  However, as time went on, Christine enjoyed running the cleaning company and made a good job of it. She got the ladies lovely smart navy tabards to wear, and gave them an allowance towards sensible shoes and marigold rubber gloves.

  She enjoyed working with Rita and Joan, and often took them out for pub lunches, which Rita and Joan enjoyed.

  Meanwhile Katie was thinking about the Yoga teacher she had just murdered. It was a French lady called Simone, and she was very beautiful, with long blonde hair that was always tied up in a bun. It annoyed Katie that this woman always looked so perfect, and she resented her intently.

  Simone was very popular, and did a lot of charity runs and held jumble sales in the garage of her large house that was opposite the park. They were always heaving, and there were lots of bargains to be had. Simone always got her teenage children to serve cups of tea and cake to the customers, and she put deckchairs out on the driveway so that people could rest with their shopping.

  Simones’ house was mock tudor, and had a beautiful galleried staircase, and Persian rugs on woodblock floors. Her husband was once a songwriter for a seventies rock group, and was a bit older than her.

  However he was a spiritual and loquacious man who could hush a whole room with his presence. He had a liking for Superdry T shirts and always teamed them with a vintage paisley shirt.

  Their garden had a huge vegetable patch, and a large summer house.

  Chapter 8

  The police were doing door to door questioning by the yoga teachers house, her name was Simone Hudson and she lived in a town house near the park.

  Neighbours said that they did not know her very well, she generally kept herself to herself, but could often be seen gardening in the front – pruning hedges, putting in bedding plants – that sort of thing. There was quite a crowd of “neighbours” outsider her house, some with the audacity to be taking pictures on their Iphones.

  In the afternoon, a tanned man who was dressed in a white collarless shirt and skin tight jeans came up to the house. He was carrying a huge bunch
of gladioli flowers.

  The neighbourhood women who were still standing in the street stopped and gasped at his magnificence, and almost forgot about being nosy.

  “These are Simones favourite flowers” he said and laid them down on the paving stones by her front gate.

  The police all congregated in the café that was a the bottom of Simone’s road, it was an old petrol station that was converted. The waitresses wore gingham aprons and served milkshakes and doughnuts.

  Two of the police women had fun choosing sixties melodies from the juke box, and dancing rock and roll style to the music. It turned a few heads and raised a few eyebrows, but the manager of the café thought it was funny and blushed as they served coke and coffee to the customers.