Route 15 For Murder - Short Story

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Route 15 for Murder:

By Lisa J Gordon

     Emily held on to the fluffy hood of her dark teal anorak as she exited Balham Tube Station and strode into the bitter November wind, positively affirming that the bus would be on time.  The newly switched on Christmas lights did little to diminish the dankness of a very dark late afternoon; and the only light Emily really wanted to see was the bright yellow ‘15’ on a bright red bus which would indicate that her ride home had arrived.  The bus was indeed there and Emily along with a battery of harassed commuters filed onto it.  Emily sat down on the first seat she came to, plonked her handbag on her lap, ripped out her iPhone Touch, flipped her hood off and seconds later was sitting eyes closed and earphones in, anticipating some relaxation.

     “Dammed thing,” she suddenly exclaimed with an expression of frustration on her face, “I want Radio 1, not LBC!”   Suddenly cognisant of the fact she had blurted her thoughts out loud she looked about to offer a hand of apology, but no one appeared to have noticed; her fellow passengers were either immersed in The Sun, a phone conversation about dinner or an iPhone app.  She fiddled with her phone, fumbling with frozen fingers unable to get it off LBC.  Something the reporter was saying however; caught her attention.

     “This is LBC for London and the time is five past six.  The Metropolitan Police are reporting that a body believed to be that off missing woman Tessa Dowling has been found in a river in Sunbury.  Tessa went missing in Balham last Tuesday, the cause of death has yet to be determined, but foul play is suspected.”   

      Emily trembled as an icy feeling enveloped her; she had followed the story with interest.  She did not know the ill fated Tessa, but she had lived only three blocks from Emily’s flat and like Emily had caught a bus home from Balham Station each day.  According to the news Tessa had disappeared on her way home the previous week on a similarly grim and shadowy evening.  It had been speculated that she had simply fallen out with her partner and had upped and offed to the Mediterranean.

“.....PC Jerling revealed that Miss Dowling’s partner had been taken in for questioning, but had been released without charge.  Police are again appealing for witnesses who may have seen Tessa that evening.”

      Emily removed her earphones and sat very still.  Last week on an identical London bus, leaving from Balham Station but on a slightly different route, a young woman called Tessa had sat, just as she was sat on her way home and now she was dead.  Murdered.  Emily looked about to regard her fellow passengers who were still engrossed as they had been before in Sudoko, Dan Brown and iPhone apps; they seemed impervious to the news which had broken.  Somehow to Emily it felt very personal, very close to home.  She glanced out at the streetlights which reflected eerily in the slick, wet, jet black tarmac.  She immediately thought of the route from the bus stop to her flat: the lonely walk past the deserted dentist’s surgery car park; past the back of the butchers and past the overgrown garden of no. 28 which was bordered up.    Emily reached for her iPhone and rang her fiancé Sean: a warm feeling of relief welled up within her. 

      No answer.

     “Sean hun, be at the bus stop in five mins.  Please can you pick me up.  Love you. Kiss!”

     Emily replaced the phone in her bag dismayed; it was unlikely Sean would get the message in time.  She knew that should he pick up the message he would be there right away; he was such an attentive, caring man with a heart of 24 carat gold.   Emily steeled herself and made a decision there and then to cast all negativity aside and focus on something uplifting.  It was simple for her to transfer her thoughts to an altogether heartening matter: that of her wedding which was only a month away.  She and Sean would be jetting off to the sunny Cayman Islands for a pre Christmas wedding, it had been immaculately planned and Emily was touched by Sean’s overwhelming enthusiasm and support over all the finicky details which seemed to annoy many other Grooms to be.  Sean was different however, a family man through and through, he