The sun streamed in through the bombastic bedroom window of the versant apartment. It was n't huge but it was big enough and the views out over the Atlantic Ocean were stunning. It triggered memory board … too many really.

Sitting up in bed I brushed my hands back over my head, taking my hair with them. Twisting my head to the side I smiled down at the beautiful face next to me. short circuit, morose curls splayed out over the pillow, the duvet pulled down far adequate to expose her bare shoulders and the top of her slender back, the scratch healed but still there taunting me ... teasing me … turning me on.

She turned, her back now monotone to the mattress and she smiled up at me. Reaching out with my hand I made as if to stroke her cheek, but all I felt was the cool cotton of the pillow in the empty place next me.

There was no one there. There never was anyone there.

She was gone.

lifespan was different now, since that day. I still had my job, my profession if not quite the Saami level of income. After Red and I had returned from our time in Gran Canaria it had taken me so long to move forward in my psyche, that over sentence I had wound down my common soldier practice. I now performed procedures on the NHS alone, that way I felt I was giving something back, for some rationality I felt the need.

I coughed the choke away from my throat as once again, my persuasion trailed away, before a flicker from the early morning sun reflecting off the unmortgaged blue water took me away from my reverie. Here on the mint sides surrounding San Agustin was where I wanted to be, especially at this time.

My phone buzzed. I picked it up and glanced at the message. It was daughter act 2. She was getting married in a couple of months and she was double up checking that I would be going, and prepared to give her away.

"Yes, and yes, very much so on both numeration, xx"I replied to the schoolbook. Number 2 was still talking to me, unlike her elder baby who had battened down the hatches very much on the side of her mum after everything came out.

When I say ‘ everything'I mean that my wife knew about my family relationship with a young student. She never asked what her name was, which was a good job because I didn't know, but she saw message on my phone. She called me sick, perverted and so many other things … she only knew what the substance told her, good thing she didn't known what had really happened.

My 36-year marriage was over and maybe that's how I wanted it. The four scant month that my footling little girl and I were together changed my life history forever. I missed her still … I pined for her. There was no way that I could just go back to domestic harmony.

My wife found her backbone and kicked me out with quick effect and then went to townspeople on the divorce. She was harsh with her vitriol, and took half of everything I had, which I didn't conflict … I was still well enough off to live a full life.

That had all happened in the by twelve months, to the day, since we had played out the final act, here on this very mountainside.

******

I sat gazing out to sea. The wooden butt looking out over the Ocean was baked in sunshine.

I smiled wistfully as I recalled the very day. My groin still stiffened a little at the thought. What a scene it had been ! And then afterwards, as we took her down from the tree and rolled her torn trunk, wound round with her own entrails, into the tabloid. I closed my eyes and shuddered as I recalled the terror that had begun to set in.

But we had pulled it off. Just like we planned. Body into the sea to be washed away, weighted so it would sink. Naked swimming to wash away the blood and the pecker we had used disposed of into the Same salty grave that was taking my Little Girl to a in effect place.

I was too wrapped up in my matrimonial upheaval upon arriving back in the UK to even think about the Police stuff. But it turned out that the forensic interrogation at Bridewell turned up zip of bill, and the mobile phone soon opened again to visitors. I never went back.

"Hi mister,"I looked up and smiled. It was the first time I had seen her since we parted at Manchester airdrome. We texted occasionally … she knew about my divorce … we both needed to have intercourse that the other was there. We had a bloody, slaughterous bond to tie us together.

"Red,"I stood to greet her."You look stunning,"and it was true, she did.

I retook my seat and, with a grinning to acknowledge my compliment, she sat down next to me.

"You okay ?"

"Yeah, I guess,"she replied. I turned to smile a weak smile at her, I understood her melancholy. It was a year today since we killed the slovenly woman … an improbable passage of time that somehow made the whole thing seem surreal. It was why Red and I needed to meet here, today … so that we could commend, together.

"How's the wife ?"She grinned.

"Still taking me to the dry cleaners,"I laughed.

"And so she should. You deserved it you bastard !"I turned to see her smile broaden as she said this.

We paused in comfortable silence.

"I still miss her,"Red said after a while.

"Me too."I added.

"She was the lone person I ever loved, you know, like that. She was …"

"… something else,"I finished off her sentence, knowing that we felt exactly the same about the slovenly woman, my lilliputian Girl, Red's lover.

"There's been no one else since,"the flame-haired girl added pensively.

"There will be, in metre,"I offered agnate words of wisdom.

"Did you ever hear from her kinfolk ?"I asked.

She slowly shook her head."I never made link. Why would I. What was the point ?"

She was right of course, just as she had been right at the time about there being no recriminations, because the slut would just go down as a ‘ missing grownup'who had chosen to originate a new life sentence somewhere else and had no intention of being found.

I felt sorry for them though, her ma and pa, and kin. They had not just lost a daughter but they had no closure either. Maybe someday I would …

No, of grade I wouldn't. I couldn't … never.

"She wanted it … the death."I said, as if trying for some reason to vindicate what we did.

"No Mister, she didn't …"

"Huh,"I was taken aback by Red's words, until she added.

"She more than wanted it, she needed it … lived for it. She really would never had been happier than when you nailed her to that tree."

Red's Bible pacified me. Relaxed me.

"Can you stay over ?"

Red chuckled."I've flown all the way to Gran Canaria, Mister, it's not a day misstep. My finals don't start for another calendar month, and getting away now for a rupture, is a well thing."

I chuckled too.

"Tonight, you need to hurt me mister, use me …"The words fluttered in as if transported by the sea breeze.

I turned to reckon at Red, who returned my gaze with a quizzical face on her face.

"What ?"I said.

She shook her mind,"I didn't say anything mister."

I smiled a knowing smile. Red smiled back at me and let her fingers creep into the space between us and interlace with mine.

We were not alone, the threesome bounce in blood was still together … which is the way it would be, forever .