Agood session of Zumba was going to help Janice’s mindset no end.
Although there were no classes on a Sunday, one of her exercise pals, Gretchen, had messaged, proposing a pre-Christmas get-together at the community centre for Sunday night. The plan involved alcohol and maybe a few unhealthy snacks, as well as the dancing.
A night with some of her friends, lots of dancing and fun… It was exactly what Janice needed after the shock of Howard’s death.
Gretchen had apparently spoken with one of the Zumba instructors about using the hall. She hadn’t mentioned alcohol, of course. The community hall was quite strict on that, but Janice figured what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. There was only one camera at the hall, overlooking the car park at the front. Janice and her friends would just need to sneak the drinks inside hidden in bags.
Kissing Martin goodbye and leaving him with Sky Sports and a takeaway, she set off for the community centre, a plastic bag containing mince pies and some cans of gin and tonic swinging by her side. Beneath her coat she wore her favourite exercise outfit, a black T-shirt emblazoned with ‘Zumba Babe’ in big silver letters, and a pair of leopard print leggings. For a laugh she had stuck Rudolph earrings with flashing red noses in her ears and silver star deely boppers on her head. It was almost Christmas after all, and she knew it would make the girls smile.
The community centre was only a five-minute walk from her house, the roads well-lit, and as she walked she messaged Gretchen to say she was on her way. She wondered who else had been invited, had asked Gretchen the question in an earlier message, but her friend had simply replied with a smiley face, saying it was a surprise.
Janice assumed it would be the usual crew, maybe Charmaine, Kirsty, Helen and Sue.
Whoever was there, she was determined it was going to be a fun night. The last two weeks had been so stressful and, although she was aware the problems weren’t going to disappear, she just needed to switch off from the worry for one evening.
Fern didn’t seem to be coming up with any decent plan to catch their tormentor. Instead she was getting snippier, drinking heavily and nit-picking at Janice, trying to make everything her fault. Which was rich, given that Fern had been the instigator, the one who had hatched the plan to get back at Margaret. And yes, Janice had gone along with it which, she could admit now, had been a foolish thing to do, but Fern was the one who was mostly to blame. If anyone had a right to be mad, it was Janice.
Instead she felt like she was taking the brunt of everyone’s frustrations.
Even Martin had been furious when he had seen the words scratched into the car bonnet. Of course he had wanted to know what it meant and Janice had been forced to lie to him, saying that Fern was having trouble with an ex-boyfriend and that the message had probably been intended for her.
That had almost backfired because he had wanted to call the police, but luckily she had managed to talk him out of that.
She desperately wanted to tell Martin the truth, but Fern had warned her not to, and while the threat of Fern’s wrath wasn’t a complete deterrent, knowing that Martin might not forgive her if he learnt the truth, was. They had been together for so many years. How would he feel if he found out what she had done and also that she had never told him?
No, she had to keep this a secret. Martin could never find out.
In less than two weeks it would be Christmas and they were planning to go to North Yorkshire to stay with Martin’s sister over the festive period. For Janice the break couldn’t come soon enough and she wished she could bring it forward; anything to get away from this situation with the creepy notes and Gary and Howard’s murders. At least in Yorkshire she would be safe from whoever was stalking them.
As she wondered if they could get away earlier, and as she worked out Martin’s last day of work and how many spare holiday days he had left, the welcoming security lights of the community centre car park came into sight.
There were no cars outside, which suggested Gretchen had kept the invitation local. Unless of course any of the girls were getting a taxi. It was going to be a boozy night, after all. Janice realised she was the first one there. She glanced at her watch. Gretchen had said to meet at eight and Janice was right on time (she didn’t do tardy). Helen was a bit of a stickler for timekeeping, but Charmaine and Sue were often running into the Zumba class at the last moment.
She tried the door, guessed Gretchen was already there when it opened. The hallway light was on and the kitchenette at the end of the hall was also lit up. ‘Helloooo? It’s only me, mate. Am I the first here?’
She closed the door behind her, made her way down to the kitchenette, surprised when she peered in and found it empty. Frowning, she crossed to the double doors that led down to the main hall where they did Zumba, a smile on her face as she recognised Christmas music.
Gretchen must be setting things up.
Janice unzipped her coat, dumping it on one of the chairs in the corridor before pushing her way through the door, doing a silly dance as she wiggled her arse and her boobs, and shook her deely boppers. ‘Guess who’s here?’
It occurred to her as she jigged around in the middle of the room, doing a little twirl, that she was all alone. Gretchen wasn’t in the hall. It was just Janice and a portable record player set up on a table. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas echoing around the large room.
‘Gretchen? I’m here. Where are you?’
The lights were all on and the music playing. She had to be somewhere.
Wandering back through to the main hallway, Janice paused to put her mince pies and gin in the kitchenette, before poking her head into the different rooms of the community hall, calling for her friend.
All of the rooms were empty.
Wherever Gretchen was, she couldn’t have gone far, as she had left the building unlocked and the music playing. Back in the kitchenette, Janice helped herself to a mince pie and opened a can of gin.
No point in waiting to get the party started.
Cramming the mince pie into her mouth, she fished in her bag for her mobile phone. She decided she would send Gretchen a selfie of herself, kitted out with her reindeer earrings and deely boppers, with the caption Starting the party without you.
Back in the hall, she wiped crumbs from her mouth, took a couple of large sips of her gin, and raised the phone, clicking on to the camera and smiling in approval at her image. Not bad for thirty-one. The Cherry Crush dye covered her premature grey hairs and with the right filter none of the lines were visible around her eyes.
She angled the camera, trying to hold the phone far enough away from her so that she could get the deely boppers fully in.
In the background Perry Como sang, ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.’
She glanced back into the camera, scrunched up her lips, and froze, eyes widening as she took in the masked face behind her.
