The moon appeared from behind blackberry colored cloud and transformed the rain slick footpath into a river of quicksilver. She pulled her scarf tighter and lengthened her stride. It was time to be home in front of the fire with a big cup of tea. Perhaps dunking a digestive and forgetting about yet another day as a cleaner in the Accident and Emergency department of The Royal Victoria Hospital.
She turned off the Falls Road into Beechview Park, past the dark shuttered windows of Macy’s cafe. “Not far now Mary!” she thought, “, another five minutes and I can get out of this fucking rain! I wonder if Micky did the shopping? I will have his guts for garters if he hasn’t got a loaf. I could kill a cheese toastie, a cheese toastie with a wee drop of Tabasco on the top!”
Cold dirty water squished between her toes with every step. The deep wet cold of a Belfast Autumn forced her deeper into her own thoughts in the vain hope that thinking of hot food would fool her body into thinking it was warmer than it was. She gave no more than a passing thought to the three men standing at the park gates ahead. If they wanted to stand around in the rain getting soaked, that was their affair. She has a pot of tea and a cheese toastie with her name on it behind the door of number ten, just one hundred yards away.
As the woman approached the gates, the shortest of the men nodded and his two companions crossed the road and fell in behind the woman . The leader pressed a button on his key fob, unlocking the doors of the Toyota parked further up the road. He jogged to it, got in, started the engine and drove slowly down the hill. When he drew level with the woman he stopped, one of his accomplices opened the back door and the other slipped a black cloth bag over the woman’s head and bundled her into the back seat of the car. Then he and the door opener got in and the Toyota moved away from the kerb and off into the night as if nothing extraordinary had happened.
The abduction was silent, took no longer than 6 seconds and was seen by no one. No one, that is, except a large black crow perched on fence that ran around the park. The crow watched the red tail lights of the Toyota glow brighter as it braked for the turn on to The Falls Road. As the car disappeared it spread its wings and flew off into the glowering city sky.