NO ONE IS SAFE AT NIGHT

No One Is Safe at Night

The lives of three friends

Ava, Ally, and Ivy have all been friends since high school, all living in the suburb of Lake Falls.

They dated guys from the same friend group growing up, and are now in there mid – 20’s. They all work together at an adult dance club in the city, working the night life.

On a beautiful summers day on February 3rd Ava organised a lunch so the girls could catch up at Café Luz on the beachside.

The sun was shining, and people passed by as they sat out on a street table waiting for their orders. The slight breeze which passed through was just enough to cool them all slightly.

Ava was telling Ally and Ivy that her boyfriend, Jax, proposed. She was so happy to tell her best friends the great news.

Ivy and Ally were so happy for Ava. They all started talking everything and anything to do with weddings.

Time passed and Ava, Ally and Ivy finished lunch. They decided to go home to have rest before they went to work at 7pm.

Arriving at their work “Dance for Me” they met in their dressing rooms, still excited from Ava’s good news. They put on their makeup, did their hair and got dressed to go out and perform in the hope they would make enough income for the night. All the while they were discussing their next catch up, deciding it should be a makeover the following week so that they could get their nails, hair, makeup and tanning booked. Ivy decided to book it all and pay for Ava as a gift to celebrate her good news.

7pm came around so the girls entered the main floor and began to work

The music was pumping and all the girls were dancing to attract attention so that they could dance for customers. It was a Friday night and extremely busy. Groups of men were booked in for buck’s nights and work celebrations, then there was groups just there to relax and have some fun.

Later during the night Ava’s fiancé Jax came in with friends to surprise Ava at work. She was busy with customers but made eye contact with her favourite man, Jax.

They grabbed a drink from the bar and sat to chill for the night.

Meanwhile, Ivy and Ally were doing a double act for a group of police officers that were on a buck’s night. There were eight policemen, off-duty of course, sitting there happy drinking, watching Ivy and Ally dance, and were paying large tips for the girls to continue for longer than they should.

At the end of the performance Ivy approached Ally and asked her if she felt weird about one of the guys, his persona and the way he watched them. Ally didn’t seem to take too much notice, so Ivy blew it off.

It was time for the three girls to have a break, so they sat with Jax and his friends. One of the friends was on his phone and a Breaking News appeared on his phone stating “another woman has been found murdered.”

Over the last six months women were going missing or had been found murdered and their bodies were disposed of throughout Mount Macedon ranges, although they are taken from the suburbs of Melbourne by a madman.

This sparked a conversation between the group and the girls were saying they need not panic but be alert and wary of those who they are with and try to stay together when they could. Jax and his friends waited for the girls to finish work for the night and they all said goodbye to each other and went home – a good night had by all.

Life went on as normal, the girls caught up for their makeover day and left feeling amazing – new, fresh and ready to hit work with a new sense of confidence.

A couple of days passed and the girls were wedding shopping at the mall. They passed a TV shop and noticed the news was on, it said the name of the woman found was Kia Hope. The coroner said that Kia’s fingertips and teeth were removed, but they had other DNA evidence. She was 23 years old and her mother reported her missing a month ago to the police, but they blew her off saying she probably left intentionally. Although they made a report suggesting Kia was missing, it was not followed through.

The girls stood in silence for a moment, processing what they had just heard. As they walked into the wedding shop all they could hear was passer-by’s whispering about Kia and how sad they were for the family.

**

On Jax’s buck’s night he and his friends all decided instead they wanted to go camping on the Murry River and just be boys.

But the girls wanted to take Ava to dinner and then dancing at a male adult venue.

With several drinks in hand, they were relaxed and happy. They enjoyed the male’s dressing up to perform their dances, and one of the dancers was dressed up in a fireman’s outfit.

Ivy asked Ally ‘look at that man, does he look familiar to you?’

Ally stared hard, she had had more than six drinks, but said ‘yes, but I do not know where from.’ Other performers came out and they soon forgot about the fireman dancer until there was an interval where all the dancers could mingle with the women. The fireman dancer saw Ava with her bride sash on and approached the group.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘My name is Rise, nice to meet you all.’

Ava smiled and returned the greeting, as did Ally and Ivy, but with suspicion on their face as they knew they had seen him somewhere but could not recall. Rise ordered the girls another round of drinks and conversation got started. Rise was saying he was a policeman during work hours and a performance dancer on weekends and since he is a policeman, he wanted to wear a fireman’s outfit for his

dance shows.

Ivy’s face dropped and she pulled Ally to the side. She said ‘that’s it! He’s one of the guys that came into work in that group of policemen that had the buck’s night. I asked you if you felt he was looking at us strange.’ Ally appeared to be remembering and said, ‘yes, I do remember his face now, what are the chances we see him again?’

Rise said to the girls, ‘If you wait till after the show, I will be happy to walk you all to the car with what is going on around Melbourne. With women missing and being murdered and all.’ The girls all agreed to wait as they thought it was a nice gesture coming from a real police officer. It was nearly 1am and Ava had had an awesome night. Rise came over to them and they left the venue, as he walked them to the car he was asking, ‘where do you girls need to drive to? Where’s home?’

‘Lake Falls,’ they replied.

He said, ‘oh, that is not too far. Best get going.’ Unbeknownst to the girls, Rise memorised their number plate.

**

March the 7th came, the grand wedding day for Ava and Jax. Ivy and Ally stayed with Ava the night before the wedding, as Ivy was the Matron of Honour and Ally was a bridesmaid. The sun was shining, there was no wind, no rain, the birds were singing. The girls had a champagne breakfast with chicken while waiting for the hairdresser and makeup artist.

The doorbell rang but they didn’t hear it due to the music being too loud. They opened the door and it was a florist. Ava’s was surprised with joy, but she was wondering who they were from. Reading the little note, it said “to my wife to be can’t wait to see your smiling face next to mine. Love Jax.”

Ava’s face was glowing, Ivy and Ally were so happy for her and hoped that one day they would have the same fairy-tale.

The doorbell rang again 30 minutes later, Ava looked at the girls’ puzzled expression as Ava opened the door it was more flowers not handed to her, but placed on the doorstep. Ava looked down at the flowers and then looked around to try to see if anybody was there but couldn’t see anyone. Ava brought them inside and they were beautiful. The girls were all making a fuss, asking, ‘who were they from? Read the note!’

But there was no note, and Ava did not know who they were from.

Ava kept on getting ready for her big day. She looked gorgeous in her white wedding dress with a halter neck, low back, and scattered sequence to highlight the dress in the light. Ivy and Ally came out from the other rooms dressed to impress in their silver, formal, low-cleavage, off-the-shoulder, fitted long dresses with a high split up to the thigh. Looking sexy but elegant, their long curls draping their neckline.

The ceremony proceeded without a hitch. Ava and Jax are now married and more in love than ever.

They went off to get their photos taken at the botanic gardens for an hour. People in the gardens were all staring at them and admiring how great they looked, and people were taking their own photos of the happy couple. They then moved onto the reception venue, called Wedding Bliss. It was stunning, with table centre pieces made of wildflowers, white chair covers, and chandeliers sparkling from the roof. The theme of silver was throughout the venue and everything sparkled.

Food and drinks came out, music played, and the wedding couple had their wedding dance to Adele’s Make You Feel My Love. Speeches were made, laughs were had, and a sensational night had by all.

All the family and guests headed to their cars to go home for the night, but not before they had to pass a breath test. Ally and Ivy got a lift home from Jax’s friends Tate and Blade. It was their turn to have the test, both Ally and Ivy sat in the back seat. They looked out the window at the officer who was producing the test and they looked at each other in disbelief as they realised it was Rise, from the Hen’s night they met at the club.

As Rise looked in the car at the passengers, he saw the girls in the back and said hi to them. They froze, thinking how could this be? It was the third time they had seen this man, in a soft spoken voice they said, ‘hello.’

Blade drove off as he passed the test and they all went home.

Ava and Jax had taken time off work so they went away, just for a week to the Maldives for a little honeymoon, then they were going to go back to work when they got back.

Meanwhile, Ivy and Ally returned to work and continued on with life while waiting for their friend to return.

It was a Wednesday night and Ivy was not feeling well, so she stayed home, didn’t go to work, and rang Ally to tell her. Ally said that she would check in with her tomorrow.

Ally went to work and it was not too busy, but busy enough with the businesspeople coming in for a mid-week wind down. The end of Ally’s shift came, so she said goodbye to security at the entry door and they said, ‘Good night, Ally, be safe and drive carefully. See you tomorrow.’

It was 2 am, and Ally was walking to her car in the dark, alone, holding her breath while being aware of what is on the news about missing women. Ally tried to walk fast without running and heard crackling behind her. She sped up and couldn’t resist looking back but didn’t see anyone. Catching her breath, she slowed down. She was 5 metres from her car when she heard a car beep in the carpark she was in. Ally saw the lights flash on a car a row over, but saw no one there. Ally felt scared and ran to her car, locked it, and drove home.

The next day Ally checked in with Ivy who was feeling better. Ivy said, ‘I only had a 24hr bug, and I will be back at work tonight.’

Ally told Ivy of her experience in the carpark last night and they both thought it was scary. Ivy said, ‘We will ask security to walk us to the car from now on.’

‘No, we will be fine. It was probably my imagination.’ Ally replied.

Ally and Ivy both went to work. All was well, a bit quiet, so they left work early and decided to go to a café and have a coffee before heading home. When they arrived at the café, they sat in a booth facing the tv in the corner of the café to see what had happened in the news that day. Breaking News came across the screen again.

‘Hell,’ Ivy said. ‘I cannot believe what I am watching.’

‘Neither can I,’ Ally agreed.

Another body had been found at Mount Macedon. The girl was in her early 20’s, same as the other girl, Kia. Fingertips cut off, no teeth, raped and found with no clothes.

Ally said, ‘Obviously, a serial killer is out there and no woman is safe.’ The police were warning women to lock their homes up at night and not to be in the streets alone at night.

Ally and Ivy’s food and coffee came, and the waitress asked if they wanted some magazines to look at while chatting. They both said yes, and the waitress picked some up from the other table and placed them on theirs.

Ally lifted the top magazine and gave it to Ivy, before looking down at the next magazine. It happened to be a wedding book. Ally started to snicker and flicked through the book, about 10 pages in ally saw a picture of Ava and Jax taken in the gardens on their wedding day.

‘Ivy look at this. It’s is Ava and Jax in a wedding magazine! Why wouldn’t she have told us about this, I wonder?’ Ally asked. Ivy and Ally where baffled and wondered if they should contact Ava about this but decided to leave it till they got home in a days’ time.

Saturday came and Ava and Jax came home from their honeymoon. They invited Ally, Ivy, Blade and Tate over for dinner and to look at their photos. Ava’s doorbell rang and it was all her guests arriving at the same time for dinner. They were talking and laughing, sitting with wine and beers looking at pictures from the honeymoon. It was was delightful for all to see. Out of nowhere Ava asked if any more women had been murdered.

‘Yes,’ Ivy replied. ‘It was on the news a day ago. She was found raped with no fingertips or teeth in the same area.’

Ava went white as a ghost! ‘Why is this happening? Why hasn’t the police caught the killer?’ she asked.

No one had answers. During the night Ally asked Ava, ‘Why didn’t you tell us you were going to put your picture in a wedding magazine?’

‘Pardon?’ Ava said in disbelief.

‘One of your wedding pictures is in a wedding magazine. Why didn’t you tell us?’ Ally repeated.

‘I have no idea what you are talking about, are you sure it is us?’ Ava demanded.

‘Yes!’ Ivy said, deciding to quickly go to the corner store to go buy the book and bring it back. They all had a look and sure enough it was one of their wedding photos.

They couldn’t believe what they were seeing, not sure how this happened and who sent it to the magazine. The following Monday Ava rang the magazine and they had no answers other then that someone had it sent to them and liked the picture, so they put it to print in the edition. Sitting dumbfounded there was nothing Ava felt she could do about it.

A City in Fear

Months and weeks went by, more women went missing and more women were found murdered. The women of the city of Melbourne were living in fear. Single mums, shift workers, people out on the town,

Even women that were married, homeless women, all types of women were concerned now. They watched where they went, when, who with; and looked behind them carrying pepper spray or whatever they could get their hands on just to feel some sort of security.

The police over the next few months kept receiving missing persons reports and were under pressure from the public to catch the killer.

One victim was found tied to a tree with ties around her neck and waist, raped and her feet were cut off, another found hanging from a tree with her tongue cut out, another found in a ditch covered in leaves with her breasts cut off. No evidence was found at any of the crime scenes. A professional killer was on the loose and he was trophy collecting from his victims. People knew about it, the police knew about it and soon the world knew about it.

It was sickening, disturbing and surreal all at the same time.

Ava and Jax arrived home from a day out, and she started cooking dinner straight away. The doorbell rang so Jax went to the door. He found flowers placed there with no one in sight, he looked around walked to the end of his driveway but found no one.

He brought the flowers inside and showed Ava, ‘there was no note, who would they be from?’

‘No, not again,’ she complained.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

‘I received a bunch on our wedding day other than yours and there was no note, but I forgot to tell you. I forgot until now.’

The next day Jax rang the florist using their business name on the packaging and asked who sent flowers to their address.

The florist said, ‘I don’t know

but I remember the person was in a suit with the initials RB on the chest of his suit. Whether that means anything or not I don’t know. He was tall, short back and sides, clean shaven, well-groomed and smelt good. That’s all I remember, sorry.’

Jax explained all this to Ava and together they both could not work out who this person may be. They went to the police to report it as it had happened twice now, but they said there was nothing they could do.

**

11

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 24.10.2020
ISBN: 978-3-7487-6199-0

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