“I could tell…” She laughed. “I was saying that as you know, Sean is pretty good with technology and thinks that he might have been able to trace him online.”
I fumbled and dropped the body brush I was holding. “What? Really?”
“Well, Sean looked into various online records. Please, don’t ask me how he does it, but he was able to find some details about the area he was fostered in and from there links to a local riding club and specifically some local shows where he thinks he was mentioned and then…” She pulled out her phone, flicking to a photo. “Well, you tell me. Sean sent me this.”
My heart stopped for a moment as I stared at the photo. A young man on a skewbald horse jumping a log fence, people lined the course. I stared at the face, he was older, he had become a handsome man but it was Adam. I gulped, tears pricking my eyes.
“There’s more.” Annie flicked the screen again and there he was a clear photo of him receiving a rosette and trophy. I recognised my young brother, despite the years that had past he was him.
“It’s Adam…” I lept at Annie, pulling her off her feet in a warm embrace. Then a cold feeling passed through my body. “But…” I stopped. “What if he doesn’t want to see me. I left him alone. I abandoned him. Oh God Annie, he might hate me.”
“He won’t…” Annie smiled. “Look, why don’t you write to him.”
“You’ve got an address for him?”
“Not quite. Sean gave me the details for a riding club secretary where these photos were taken. If we write to her, she should have his contact details. We can put your letter in a stamped envelope and hopefully, she can pass it on.”
“Okay…”
“Look, I know it’s a long shot, but it’s the only one you have…”
***
Annie was sitting on the sofa sipping wine while I started to write the letter. “Haven’t you got to be somewhere with Sean tonight?”
“No…” She smiled. “Besides I like drinking your wine and, of course, your company.”
“Why do I think, as we spend most of the day together that it’s the wine you’re after and not my scintillating conversation.” I glanced over as she was pouring herself another large glass. “I rest my case!”
Annie became bored and fidgety, I let her wander around aimlessly picking up my few books and photos I had on the bookshelves and mantlepiece. I left her to it, trying to concentrate on capturing so many years of my life in a simple letter. I was struggling, what do you say? How do you even open a letter to your long lost brother? ‘Hi Adam, remember me?’ I had a collection of screwed up balls of paper where I had tried and failed. However, eventually, the words came to me, I started to write from my heart and, after another two hours, I had a collection of pages which I folded and sealed into the blank envelope.
“Right there we are then…” I held up the envelope. “I’ll walk to the village tomorrow and post it and wait and see.” Annie smiled and hiccupped. “Come on, off to bed for you…” I made sure she staggered safely down the stairs and watched as she crossed to the back door of the house. May gave me a wave from the kitchen window and I was alone. What would happen? Adam might not even receive the letter. I would have to wait, but at least I had done something positive.
***
Annie was more clear-headed when she got into the car with Sean the next morning, as she sat down a small black box fell from her jeans pocket, bouncing off the gear stick. “What’s that?” He reached down and picked up the small item.
“Oh goodness, I found that in Amanda’s flat, I was sort of playing with it. I must have put it in my pocket. I haven’t a clue what it is.”
Sean smiled. “I have an idea what it might be, let me keep it for a little bit and we can do a little investigation.”
“Oh Sean, I don’t know…”
“I’ll have it back before she even realises it’s gone.”
***
The village of Avebury was a short walk from the stables and, on a lovely day like today, it was a pleasant break to get away for an hour to enjoy the sunshine. In the summer the village would be packed with tourists looking to walk around the standing stones, however, this early in the year it was peaceful, only the locals were around. I nodded greetings to those I met before stepping into the tiny post office stores, handing my envelope over for posting.
While I was there I stocked up on mints, a favourite treat for Tiny who, since I had rescued him during Christmas had become somewhat clingy, calling to me from the paddock if he saw me and whinnied every time I passed his stable. A handful of extra strong mints would usually pacify him for a while. I glanced down and saw Edwin’s face on the front of one of the newspapers, it made my blood run cold, the headline stating that he had been sent to prison for twenty-five years. I grabbed the paper dropping some money on the counter and quickly made my way back to the yard.
In the tack room, I unfurled the paper and read that he had been charged and, by all accounts would be away from me for the foreseeable future. I should have been happy, but there was a brooding dread in my mind which I tried to push aside.
I busied myself with work, grooming and exercising the final few horses before filling hay nets and settling the horses for the night. I was finally upstairs, having slid off my heavy boots and slumped on the sofa when there was a knock on the door. I groaned, standing up and opening the door for Sean and Annie. “Come in… Make yourself at home, I’m knackered so, please don’t expect too much.”
“Oh sorry, I should have helped you this afternoon.” She shot a glance to Sean who shrugged and laughed. “I’m sorry, I took something from you last night. I didn’t mean to, I sort of slipped it in my pocket.” When I looked up, my eyebrows raised. “It was the wine… Sorry!”
“What was it, there isn’t anything of value here…” I smiled.
Annie held out the small black box. “It’s this. I saw it and was playing with it as it lights up when you press the button.”
“Oh, you magpie!” I glanced at the item, a chill flooding my body
“Do you know what it is?” Annie turned the item in her hand.
“No…” I replied flatly. “It was from Edwin, he asked me to look after it.”
“It’s a hardware wallet…” Sean spoke softly.
“A what?” Both of us turned to him.
“It’s like a normal wallet, but a hardware wallet is for cryptocurrency, rather than physical money.”
“Okay Sean, I understood about three of the words in that sentence.” Annie snorted.
“It’s Bitcoin, you know, an internet currency. You can send and receive money over the web anonymously. This is a way in which you can keep a quantity of currency safe offline. It’s like a small digital safe.”
“Oh…” Annie paused. “Are you okay?”
“Sure…” I picked up the newspaper. “Edwin was sent to prison today for twenty-five years.”
“Wow!”
“So, he won’t need this for a while…” Sean smiled. He pressed a few buttons and a message scrolled across the tiny in-built screen. ‘The Key to my heart’ “Strange message, but you can’t open it without the password so unless you know that it’s useless.”
I looked as both of them started at me expectantly. “Don’t get your hopes up. He never told me anything like a password.”
Annie looked disappointed. “Anyway, it’s not mine. I’ll send it to him in prison.”
“Wow no! It would be confiscated or lost. Just keep it safe.”
They soon lost interest in the small black box once they knew I didn’t have the passcode and so we chatted about the day and horses which was always our ‘go-to’ subject.
***
I was fast asleep, dreaming of galloping across the downs with a famous, rather attractive event rider, and, as is the case in dreams he was wearing no shirt and I was sat behind him on his horse, clutching his firm, muscular chest when I felt a necklace around his neck. Strangely the thought of this stuck with me, so
, when I woke I started to dig through my belongings until I found the gold necklace Edwin had given me months before.
I’d taken it off as I could not bear to wear it, but also couldn’t find it in my heart to sell it or throw it away. What had he said when he gave me the small gold key and heart pendant, it was the key to my heart. I looked closely at them but there was no passcode engraved in the gold. I dropped it back in its box and placed it on the dining table.
***
Of course, Sean and Annie would not let the matter drop and kept pestering me about possible passcodes. Sean did say that there was a risk that entering the wrong code could lock the unit out permanently. I mentioned the necklace and so, that lunchtime we all gathered around my dining room table. Sean had looked at the pendant like I had and agreed that there was nothing on it. Annie was looking somewhat sulky turning the tiny gold key in her fingers until she suddenly started squealing. I looked up and saw that she was twisting the head of the key, after a moment it popped open and there was a tiny slip of paper inside.
“Oh, God!” She pulled out the tiny fragment of paper which had a long, seemingly random series of numbers and letters printed on it. “Could this be it?”
Sean pulled out his laptop and plugged the small black box in using a short cable, on-screen a dialogue popped up asking for the passcode. Annie read out the long string of numbers and letters as Sean typed it into the passcode box. There was a momentary silence before the screen changed and there was a list of numbers. He gasped.
“Oh my God, there’s almost twenty thousand Bitcoin in here.”
“Wow! Twenty thousand pounds…” Annie squealed. “You’re rich.”
“No…” Sean spoke slowly.
“No?” She frowned. “Ah well, easy come, easy go…”
“No, it’s more than that…” Sean brought up a screen and typed in numbers. He turned around the laptop and showed us.
“That is a hell of a lot of zeros.” I shook my head. “What does it mean?”
“Amanda, this device is holding almost one hundred, million pounds of Bitcoin.”
I laughed. It was all I could do, this was insane. “Yeah… Very funny.”
“No… Just think, if Edwin had kept money from his activities in a bank account it could be seized, under the proceeds of crime act. However, this is invisible, anonymous, untraceable.”
“And, it’s one more thing… It’s not ours!”
“But Amanda… Your life, our lives could change forever.”
“Annie. He was a dangerous man. We can’t just spend his money without retribution.”
“He will be locked away for at least twenty-five years. You could be anywhere, anyone before he came out.”
I grabbed the device and the piece of paper and pushed them into my pocket. “No… Please.” I shooed them both out the door and we returned to work.
***
The afternoon was tense, however, I invited them both over later for dinner and got back to chatting and drinking wine without referring to money. We all relaxed and eventually I saw them out and slipped, exhausted into bed.
***
Annie seemed to be distracted the next day, I left her in her own world, it seemed that she and Sean had argued. I felt responsible but didn’t want to get involved in their personal matters.
After everything, I hankered for some form of normality, so we went about our daily tasks together, everything seemed to have returned to as close to normal as was possible. It was only at the end of the week when Annie had woke me banging on my door that things seemed to become more complicated. The night before they had both come over for drinks and everything had seemed to the same, however, by the looks of Annie’s face, it was anything but.
“Annie… It’s four in the morning.”
“Sean’s gone. I woke up to go to the toilet and he wasn’t there.”
“Well, he’s not here either, if that is what you are asking.” I opened the door wide showing the empty room. “Hell Annie, Is that what you’re asking?”
“No…” She paused. Oh goodness no… I didn’t mean that” She coughed. “It’s just unusual.”
“Annie, he no doubt had to get somewhere early and didn’t want to wake you. Please, go back to bed, please let me get just an hour or so’s more sleep.”
“We had an argument…”
I sighed. “Or, as I am up already, come in and I’ll make you a brew.”
Annie wanted to tell me how Sean had become distant and how she was worried he may have found someone else. I told her that, as he was in his final year of agricultural college with some pretty major exams coming up and, most importantly, he was totally in love with her, he was highly unlikely to leave her. Annie had cried, I hugged her, stroking her back while all the time not trying to see the clock and bemoan the sleep I was missing.
She eventually left, but as it was light and almost time to feed I resigned myself to another tiring day.
***
Annie was distracted all day, in the end, I begged May to take her out for an hour or so to give me a break so she dragged her to town for a coffee and shopping trip. She was back that evening saying Sean hadn’t been back and his college friends hadn’t seen him either. I consoled her and said he would be back soon.
Sadly I was wrong, after first one and then two weeks of him not appearing Annie was beside herself, it was all May could do not to get her to call the police to report him as missing but we had called his parents who said he had done this before and not to worry as he would no doubt be back.
It was almost three weeks later that we had any news. I saw the postman park up his van by the main gate and bring me a pile of envelopes, mostly bills but there was one fat envelope addressed to Annie with Sean’s distinctive handwriting. I placed the pile on the dining room table and skulked away just in case the letter was bringing news of a breakup he couldn’t face to do in person.
I was just returning from ponying a couple of horses for exercise when Annie tore onto the yard, she had been crying and grabbed hold of my boot before I could even dismount.
“Oh, God Amanda!”
“What’s up.” I pushed her aside so that I could dismount without landing on her, choosing to let the horses go free in the sand school so I could attend to Annie as she was clearly distraught. She handed me a letter addressed to me. I tore open the envelope and grabbed the sheet of paper.
Amanda
You were always amazing to me and I am sorry that I have done this to you, but you were going to let the money go to waste and that was a crying shame.
By the time you read this I will be long gone, let’s face it £98 million is enough to make a man live his dreams, I am sorry that they won’t include the beautiful Annie, but I can’t be tied down.
I haven’t left you totally out of pocket, there is a sum for you in your bank account. I know you won’t have checked, money means nothing to you, however, you will want for nothing. I have done the same for Annie.
I can’t tell you where I am, I don’t want your ex-boyfriend to come after me now, that will be your problem in a few years. However, it is warm and beautiful and I will think of you now and then.
With love
Sean
I stood silently reading and rereading the letter. This must be some sort of joke, I had the wallet thing, it was upstairs. But I realised, he had the passcode and the skills, he must have emptied the coffers and run away. “Shit! The total bastard!”
I stared at Annie, what could I say, she had lost her boyfriend, I was very much likely to lose my life. Maybe not now, but Edwin would come for his money, he would find me and… Oh, God…
Annie was snivelling, I shuddered. “I have to go…”
“What?” She gulped.
“That was Edwin’s money. I’ve lost his money.”
“He’s in prison.” She sniffed.
“Have you not seen anything in the papers about him. He kills for pleasure, people disappear. I have to go, I have to
protect you and May.”
“You’re making no sense.”
“No, maybe not.” I shuddered. “Shit! One of his henchmen could appear at any moment wanting that money. If they find me, they will find you and your mum. What do I do Annie, just say ‘sorry, I’ve lost your millions of pounds, but we’re all good?’ I would not make it to the end of the sentence before he killed us. Someone like him is not going to just let this go. Oh shit, shit… Oh God, I’ve put you and May in danger.”
“Amanda please…” Annie grabbed hold of me, pleading.
20
Goodbye
The look of hatred from Annie was palpable.
She couldn’t understand me running away. I had sat down with May and explained what had happened and more importantly the risks it posed. She half-heartedly told me to stay but I told her I had to keep them safe. If I had known what that wallet thing had been I would have returned it to them.
I hoped one day Annie would understand like May clearly did. Right now, all she thought was that I was being selfish. I was hateful and stupid in her words. I should go as she hated me. She had stormed off, slamming the door to her room. It had hurt, I’d tried to keep calm and not show it but May could see it in my eyes.
“I’ll talk with her, make her understand. She’s only young.” May paused. “I know you are too… Where are you going?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed. I wasn’t sure what to do. Sean had placed just over one million pounds in both mine and Annie’s bank accounts. All I could think was, that as long as there was no obvious link between me and her, she would be safe. She would have money and would be protected.
County Lines Rider Page 11