The Shared Grave: Three

Eric Abbs, Norfolk Builder, has murdered his wife in a fierce argument and buried her corpse in a recent grave. Shortly after this cime, he moved to Australia.

It is now twenty years later, and Abbs has prospered. Now the managing director of a successful construction company, he has a good house and is admired in the community. He's almost forgotten about Dora, although it took him a long term to be wholly satisfied about wielding a hammer.

Of course, he isn't Abbs any more, but Bryant. And, twenty years after that moment of murder, he has begun to think of marriage again.

Philippa is tanned, tall and beautiful, twenty years younger than Eric. She looks great in a bathing-suit and is quiet, except when Eric shows he wants to hear her. He wonders why he didn't go for that type the first time. For a little while, nothing can mar his joy.

Then the dreams come. He dreams of that time in the garage when he slew Dora. But this time, the skull that cracks before his ruthlessly wielded claw hammer is Phillipa's. Each time, he wakes in a cold sweat. As his wedding date comes close, so the nightmares increase. Soon, he has killed Phillipa a thousand times. Then ten thousand.

But he goes ahead with the wedding plans. He cancels his stag party, while Phillipa goes out with her pals. Eric is left behind on his own. To consider the future. But all he can think of is the past. He and Phillipa have been living together for a while, so, to remind himself she's still alive, he has a look through her clothes.


And that's when he finds it. A claw-hammer. His claw hammer from all those years ago. Suddenly it hits him. Somehow, Phillipa, his dumb, adoring Fiancée, knows!

He runs to the window and sees a Police car parked outside. A Policewoman approaching his door. Suddenly, Eric finds himself staring justice in the face. He runs to his underwear drawer and pulls a handgun from it. The gun he bought when the firm payroll was threatened. He applies it to his temple and, trembling, pulls the trigger.

His friends, waiting in the bushes outside, while the stripper rings the doorbell. After he doesn't answer, they begin to worry. The door is broken down, and they find his body. Phillipa is distraught. Everyone wonders why Eric Bryant killed himself the night before his marriage.

And, two years later, the gravediggers find Dora's body. They never discover her identity, and Eric has got away with murder. For all the good it did him.

So, beware before you step into the shadows... You do not know where your steps will lead.