The Mysterious Disappearance of Marsha Boden – Chapter 15

What did Alex have in mind for Lucy at Ashcroft’s?

Welcome or welcome back if you’re already a regular visitor to Rosy’s Ramblings - it’s great to have you here!

I am serialising a novel posting two instalments (or chapters) a week and your support and encouragement has been amazing; I am thrilled that so many of you are enjoying The Mysterious Disappearance of Marsha Boden.

Let’s find out what the developments are this week.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Billie had always been a wheeler-dealer and began by selling sweets and chocolate bars to the kids in the school playground that he had stolen from his parents’ shop.  Once he had a fair stash of cash, he graduated to cigarettes, which he acquired through various channels, one of which was through a mate’s dad’s friend, who worked in Saudi and would bring back hundreds of packs of branded cigarettes, which he bought for a song because there was no tax levied on them, and then sold them for a very healthy profit.  Before long, the pounds were rolling in and Billie’s ego inflated in line with the cost of his goods, and his cocky, arrogant persona swelled too with the rate of his success.

Never short of good-looking women who flocked around him, Billie loved life in the fast lane and as soon as he could, he escaped the claustrophobic enclave of the boring backwater he was brought up in and moved to the nearest city of Birmingham, where he could easily submerge himself into the underbelly of the criminal world and was absorbed into the sewer of lies, deceit and gang warfare.  It was a tough world, but one that Billie thrived in.

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Roy Tidmarsh was replenishing the fresh milk at Tiddy’s which had just been delivered from their local supplier, Delicious Dairy Products.  His heart was heavy and he couldn’t stop thinking about Marsha.  He often stopped for a chat while taking a rare break during the day or when out walking in the evening.  She was always so upbeat and ready to stop and chat.  There was something not right about the way she had just disappeared and he wondered whether he should have made more of an effort to talk to her the last time they had met, which he clearly remembered because it was such a beautiful sunny evening a few weeks ago. Marsha had been crossing the bridge on her way back into the village and was heading down to the beach, as the locals called it, which in fact was an area of shingle riverbed which became exposed when the river Dunne, a spate river, was low flowing.  Jasper had bounded on ahead hankering after a cool dip in the river after a searingly hot day and Marsha was following jauntily behind. 

Roy caught up with her and they had talked about the weather and then the conversation had turned to the new development of houses being built in the village.  It was on everybody’s minds and the villagers were in solidarity about not wanting it, but as with most things of that nature, the developers steamrollered their way through all the red tape, and because of a national shortage of houses, the Government had eased their path significantly and the locals had no say in the matter.