The Web

LUCY
Lucy looked at her Mother-In Law and winced. She despised Cathy. Who could blame her, she had done everything in her power to ruin things for her and Tom since they day they met. First were the hidden notes in his highway code from an alleged lover. Next were the poison pen letters that arrived anonymously day after day causing Lucy to develop an anti depressant addiction. 

Of course Tom didn’t believe that his Mother was capable of these things. But Lucy knew. She even spotted the same notepaper sticking out of the half open bureau drawer in her Mother-in-laws spare room. Well, she was rummaging for it and the drawer just sort of opened. But there they were, not easy to find either as they must have been saved from the 1980s judging by the look of them. 

Lucy was smart, she knew that confronting her wouldn’t work. She would just bide her time and be alert.

Cathy might think she was clever but Lucy was smarter. 

CATHY
Cathy dreaded Mondays. The weekly visit from Tom and Lucy. Of course she adored seeing her beloved son but the presence of that woman was becoming unbearable. She had ruined all of her carefully executed plans.

Cathy had always dreamed of it being just her and Tom running the family business after her husband fell down the stairs. It was a tragic way to go and Cathy would never forget that day. But she had moved on, her son was the most precious person in her life, always had been. Don was always very high maintenance anyway and she only married him for his money. Tom was her pride and joy, her little boy had grown into a great businessman and she was rich beyond her wildest dreams.

The only fly in the ointment was Lucy. If she knew what the business really entailed their marriage would be over in a flash.

Maybe one day she would tell her. 

TOM
Tom watched his beautiful wife through the window as she left for her morning run. She had never missed a day in the seven years they had known each other. She was super fit and intelligent too, the perfect combination. He had loved her from the moment he first saw her jogging that fateful day in September.

There she was with her flaming red hair and athletic body. He liked to think she felt the same instant attraction. After all she flashed him the biggest smile. She was his Angel sent from heaven the day his Father died.

A series of coincidences that bought them together. He even secretly believed that his Father sent her to him from the afterlife although he would never tell another soul this. After all he had a reputation to hold up, in his line of work there was no room for emotion.

He prided himself on his ability to live a double life, playing the generous local millionaire who gave to so many good causes. Lucy never showed any interest in the business. She was happy to leave her past behind and start a new life of luxury with him. He was thankful that she had so much pain in her past, it made her more vulnerable and malleable. Sometimes he even felt she was a little naïve.

It didn’t matter that he knew nothing about her life before him. As long as he had her beside him now. She spent her days at home whilst he worked from his Mother’s office. She didn’t need to know about the dark web and the murky world of contract killing. He would let her carry on thinking that he ran a private detective agency. It wasn’t too far from the truth if you took away the murdering part. And he didn’t get his hands dirty, in fact he had never even met the actual killers. They were simply ‘numbers’ to him. 

She helped to heal the pain of losing his Father. He knew his Mother didn’t miss him. But he did.

Every day. 

SEVEN YEARS EARLIER

3rd September.
Today was the day. Agent 7 was ready.

The wife and son were at the local horticultural show for the day. The house was open. Agent 7 walked inside and waited for Don to wake up. According to Cathy it would at 9.45 on the dot that he would make the journey from his bedroom to the staircase. It took him at least twenty minutes she said, his MS was getting worse and his heart was weak. Cathy would keep Tom busy, she made sure agent 7 knew he had nothing to do with this.

Cathy was glad the agents were faceless numbers. It made it all much easier. One could almost pretend it wasn’t a contract killing. 

It was all so easy. Agent 7 hid in the second bedroom, waited for Tom to emerge and simply pushed a little.

What didn’t go according to plan was the arrival of Tom’s sports car in the driveway.

Ten seconds earlier and he would have seen a stranger vacating his parents property. Fortunately he just saw a jogger with bright red hair and a big smile.

Agent 7 never missed a jog, even with murder on her mind.