A New Face At Number Five
Huffing and swearing softly to herself, Julie struggled with the last case.
So this was Rowland's Park. It was quite impressive and seemed to enjoy its
superior position ... managing to look down its nose on other nearby properties.
Julie's furniture had preceded her and she had struggled up a flight of
stairs with two cases of her belongings already. Luckily for her back and
shoulders, this was the last.
Soon, Julie was safely ensconced in her new home.
It wasn't huge, just the one bedroom, a sitting room and a bathroom. It had
to its credit though, a large and airy kitchen with plenty of room for a table
also. Julie hadn't had much cause to entertain recently. Certain events had put
paid to that...especially the hospital!
The story up until a year ago had been fairly conventional.
Julie Peacock had gone through university and had gained friends, experiences
and a first class degree.
She had come from a humble background and her family had revelled in their
daughter's new status.
Finding a job had been reasonably easy too. Julie was an attractive girl with
a caring and calm personality. Beyond that soft exterior though, lurked a person
with the strength of Hercules. Julie Peacock did not fail at anything.
Her career had begun well. Yeoman And Sons were a first class firm to work
for, indeed they were the leading recording company in the country and Julie was
the boss's assistant.
Life had been sweet. She had found a beautiful mews apartment to share with a
colleague and her social life had soared.
Julie and Frances, who shared the apartment, loved to entertain.
Their dinner parties were legendary and their guests obviously reciprocated.
It was at one of these functions that she met Dave.
He was suave, sophisticated and worldly wise...and Julie fell head over heels
in love.
Frances often remarked, during the first few weeks of their romance that
Julie was maybe traveling too fast too soon.
She liked Dave, but a slight doubt...she didn't know why, lurked in the back
of her mind.
The first time Dave hit Julie was on a warm June evening.
She had noticed before that he had black moods. They didn't last for long and
it was as if a black rain cloud had settled over his head.
Julie didn't know a lot about his past life. She was sensible enough not to
rake around in the dead embers of what was in the past and instead she looked to
the future.
She only knew that he was divorced with a little daughter.
This particular June evening Dave had invited Julie out with him for a social
event organised by his office.
They were seated along with twenty or so others in the beautiful courtyard
garden of a little sixteenth century inn.
It was a balmy night and the drink flowed freely along with miscellaneous
good dishes of food.
Julie looked a picture of beauty and her twenty-four years belied her.
It was perfectly obvious from the admiring glances being thrown her way that
she had indeed made a hit with Dave's work mates.
Jerry, the office Casanova seemed particularly smitten and at one point he
slipped his arm casually around Julie's bare shoulder.
Glancing towards Dave, Julie recognized the bleak and smouldering expression
on his face.
She moved away slightly from Jerry whilst still maintaining their
conversation.
Dave seemed quite satisfied with this and carried on entertaining the others
while Julie breathed a sigh of relief. It was once they were alone in Dave's car
that it happened.
He turned matter-of-factly to face her and struck her hard across the face.
Julie squealed in pain as she heard a click and knew instantly that her nose
was broken.
This pattern was to form a habit. Dave, on several occasions and for no
apparent reason would lash out at her. Four times she was hospitalized and on
the last time ...enough was enough!
Each time he hit her, Dave would cry and plead with her to continue their
relationship. The last time he had hit her was because she was attempting to
cease their relationship.
Why should she put up with this sadistic and barbaric behaviour? Her father
had never laid a finger on her mother and no way was any man going to hurt her
any more.
Julie had notified the local police who interestingly had had a complaint
about him before.
From there a court case had ensued and Julie had sat in court a looked
wistfully at the man who had promised her so much.
The court had ruled in her favour and as Dave wasn't short of money, she had
been awarded a hefty pay-off from him.
Her firm had been so supportive of her and welcomed Julie back in to the
'family' with open arms.
Although she had been happy living with Frances, there were too many ghosts
in the apartment.
The final assault from Dave had left her in an awful state both mentally and
physically. Frances had arrived home to find her friend cowering in a corner
with a face that resembled pulp and also sporting several broken ribs.
Julie was no fool, but she knew that that episode would haunt her...it was
time to move on.
With the money she had received from her ex- partner, Julie had put a large
deposit on number five Rowland's Park, had organized a mortgage and here she
was.
A knock on the door brought her back to the present. She answered it and was
surprised but happily so to see the lady from number two.
She introduced herself as Kay and welcomed her to her new home.
Behind Kay's legs clung a beautiful little girl who looked so very familiar
that Kay stared a little too harshly.
"Is anything wrong?" asked Kay worriedly
" No" Said Julie
"She just reminds me of someone...I can't put my finger on it
though"
"She's actually the image of her father, my ex-husband," explained
Kay.
"That was the one good thing to come out of this marriage...the rest was
terrible. It started well, he had money but he liked the sound of his fist
against my body a little too much"
She looked a bit sheepish suddenly and said in an apologetic voice that she
shouldn't burden Julie with all that. It was all in the past now anyway.
Julie's mind was spinning like a bicycle wheel and she felt a strong sense of
déjà vu.
The two girls sat down for a coffee and Kay, who could see that something was
troubling Julie, asked if all was all right.
"My partner beat me too," she said, a little unsteadily
"He was lovely in the beginning and I thought we really had something
...money, that's all he really had"
"That sounds just like David," said Kay
"He was a charmer, unfortunately for me he fancied himself as a prize
fighter too!"
"David...David who?" questioned Julie
"David...I called him David, everyone else called him Dave...Jury"
Of all the places that they could be, the two victims of David Jury, serial
woman beater were sitting together on a sofa drinking coffee.
It was so unbelievably weird that they started to laugh uncontrollably.
"My God" said Kay through her giggles
"Do you suppose he uses this place as a refuge for his victims?"
Julie shuddered and said that hopefully they would be the only two and
that... was two too many.
Secretly both the women were under the impression that he would never change.
But they were safe now...they were also destined to become great friends. That
was another thing that David Jury had caused.
The two women were pleased about that!
©2002 StoriesByEmail.com
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