LUCIFER'S ANGEL

by Mike S Martin

  “Were you good for Clare last night” asked Hugh trying to find his boxer shorts under the duvet.

  “Yes daddy I am always good”

  “Did you miss us last night?” asked Sarah getting ready to tickle Ava depending on her answer.

  Ava rambled on like five year olds do and answered the question as only a five year old could.

  “I did colouring with Clare then I watched some television and played with Milly Molly and then we read the mouse and the kitten then Peter rabbit then I saw the man” They both smiled as she regaled the previous night to them but could not help question her last comment that had them both bemused.

  “You read Peter rabbit then saw the man, don’t you mean Richard, Clare’s boyfriend” asked Hugh.

  “Yes we know you see Richard last night because he was here when we left to go out” smiled Sarah.

  Ava frowned and shook her head.

  “Not Richard Mummy the other man”

  Hugh sat up in bed and looked at Sarah with a concerned expression on his face but Sarah pulled a face like she had no idea who Ava was talking about.

  “There was no other man Ava he must have been in your dream” said Sarah tickling her for playing tricks on them.

  “No mummy he wasn’t in my dream he was in my room watching me...... so I pretended to be asleep” said Ava playing with one of the flowers she had brought in from the garden.

  Sarah also now took on a more concerned attitude as both her and Hugh searched each other for an explanation. A shrug of the shoulders was as far as they both prepared to take it until they had spoken to Clare.

  “Right come on then let’s get up and get some breakfast” said Sarah as both her and Hugh jumped out of bed and grabbed some clothes off the floor.

  “Good Morning Sarah, good morning Hugh I’ve made some coffee, it’s on the side”

  “Thank you Clare. Before you go, can I have a quick word with you?”

  Clare finished folding the towel hung next to the sink in the kitchen and listened to what Sarah had to say.

  “Yes sure is anything wrong?”

  “Oh no I just wanted to ask you something”

  Sarah stood close to Clare so Ava would not hear them talking even though she was busy running from the Kitchen to the lounge and back again pretending to fly a kite.

  “Ava was telling Hugh and I what you did last night and again thank you for staying over at short notice”

  “That’s ok”

  “Now Ava is under the impression there was a man in her room last night watching her. I’m sure it was just one of her imaginary friends or possibly Richard popped in to check her but she seemed pretty confident it wasn’t Richard and that there was a man in the room.........why are you looking at me like that Clare?”

  Clare was frowning at Sarah with a deep thoughtful expression on her face, then shaking her head brushed aside the idea.

  “No it’s ok Sarah it’s nothing.........”

  “What’s nothing?” asked Sarah feeling slightly anxious.

  “Well you see I don’t let Richard go into Ava’s room because although she knows him I don’t want her to wake up and see him stood there in case he scares her, so I definitely know Richard wasn’t in her room last night”

  “Yes.....and”

  “It seems a coincidence that last night that we heard what we thought was someone upstairs over the monitor but when we looked there was no one there. We checked every room although it was obvious there was no one else in the house.....I mean all the doors were locked so nobody could get in anyway”

  As Clare said this Hugh walked in with Ava and immediately stopped in his tracks with a questioning look on his face.

  “Is everything ok?”

  Sarah looked at Ava, picked her up and sat her on the breakfast bar.

  “Now Ava you listen to mummy. Do you really think you saw a man in your room last night or do you think you were dreaming?”

  Hugh waited almost holding his breath.

  “It wasn’t a dream mummy” said Ava slowly shaking her head.

  “Wait a minute” said Hugh interrupting Sarah’s interrogation “Are you saying there was someone in the house last night”

  “I’m sorry Clare do you mind” said Sarah giving Ava back to her to take her out of the room.

  As soon as they both left Sarah told Hugh what Clare had told her leaving him bemused.

  “So let’s get this straight. Clare and Richard were downstairs watching a film and Ava is saying there was someone in her room which means like me you are thinking somebody entered the house whilst the babysitters were downstairs and went into Ava’s room”

  There was silence as both of them stood and tried to make sense of the situation.

  “Yes but Clare said the doors were locked and if I remember rightly they were locked when we arrived back home”

  Sarah nodded in agreement but still looked confused.

  “Firstly how did they get in and why would someone come in, walk around the house without taking anything, leave then lock the door behind them?”

  “The safe in our room” they both said in unison as they made their way back upstairs to the bedroom still not believing it was possible somebody had entered the house. Clare looked on as they passed her on the landing making her feel more nervous than before. Hugh unlocked the safe and opened it half expecting it to be empty or least ransacked. Hugh flicked through some of the papers and documents eventually shaking his head.

  “What’s missing?” asked Sarah leaning over Hugh with her hands over her mouth.

  Hugh looked at her, his hand also covering his mouth.

  “Nothing......there’s nothing missing”

  “What do you think?” asked Sarah her hands clutched on her chest.

  “I’m not sure..........I’m beginning to think Ava perhaps imagined it or maybe it was Clare in the room and Ava was dreaming”

  They both nodded and decided not to pursue it any longer.

  “Right I need to get ready and see father”

  “Ok I will let Clare go now and take Ava into town and get some things for the party next week”

  Both Sarah and Hugh made preparations to go their own separate ways for the day and in no time at all Hugh was driving the Aston Martin out of the garage and down the drive to visit his father.

  Chapter 11

  As Hugh drove through the Herefordshire countryside in his beloved car, his mind wondered to the phone call he had received from his father. He had seemed agitated and angry about the Inland Revenue which was unusual for Philip Newton. Hugh knew his father had friends in high places who always looked after both of them and when anyone came poking their noses into their business a quick growl and a bark was all that was needed. Hugh turned into the long drive that led to the large manor house his stepmother mother and father lived in and surveyed the large amount of land that one day would be his.

  Parking his car next to his fathers’ Bentley, Hugh climbed the large stone ornate stairs to the entrance hall to the house. It was there he paused for a couple of seconds to take some deep breaths before opening the door and entering. Hugh’s relationship with his parents had never been a normal one, even more so after Hugh decided to sell the company. An outside observer would even dispute whether they were actual friends, let alone father and son. Philip Newton had never been a father figure to Hugh and not much of a husband either. His first wife had left him and managed to take a decent share of his bank account. As much as Hugh got on with Anne, his father’s second wife, she was treated more like a friend of the family rather than a second mother. Newton meanwhile remained the same as always, his sole passion being money and making lots of it. Apart from greed this is one of the reasons why Hugh had decided to sell the company when his father had decided to pass it on to him. Hugh was sure that whatever he did it would never be good enough so instead of having his father glaring over his shoulder at him Hugh decided to get his own back in his own stubborn way. Even thoug
h Hugh vowed to himself he would try and stray away from being a selfish, arrogant bully like his father the gene was too strong. He had certainly strayed away from being a greedy workaholic but the selfish, bully gene was all too evident.

  The sound of the door opening brought one of the two butlers to the entrance hall to greet Hugh but he knew better than to wish Hugh well. Experience told him he would not get a response. Hugh was keen to find out what his father had to say then leave as soon as possible, so hurried to where he knew his father would be, in his large office in the right wing of the house.

  “Now listen to me Malcolm I pay you to make sure things like this do not happen, especially to me. Do me a favour would you.......cut the crap and sort it out”

  Hugh could hear a voice on the other end of the phone shouting obscenities at his father which in turn was making him more irate, which did not bode well for Hugh when it would be eventually his turn. At this, Philip Newton turned to look at his son but Hugh could see that his father had looked straight through him as though he wasn’t even there.

  “Right........well you know as well as I do that this affects you as much as it affects me so I recommend you get off the phone and do the fucking job I pay you to do”

  At that Philip Newton slammed the phone back onto the desk and swigged back the remaining dregs of whisky in his glass and poured himself a fresh one. Hugh knew better than to speak and just sat there defiantly staring out of the window.

  “Bloody accountants” mumbled Newton as he passed Hugh a letter that had been sent from her majesty’s government.

  Hugh read it, occasionally glancing at his father trying not to seem bemused in case the old dog snapped his head off. On finishing the letter Hugh could not hide his questioning face on why his father was so wound up and agitated. The letter seemed the bog standard approach from the Inland revenue when they wanted to check a tax return or check a persons or business’s accounts to see if it tallied up with what they had on their records.

  “Good god Hugh read the date” barked Newton.

  Hugh read the date and realised the letter was received 3 months ago. Before he could speak Hugh had another letter thrust into his hand and noticed straight away it was dated only a few days ago. This letter had red ink in various paragraphs and as Hugh read the letter in his mind he realised it was in a very different tone, almost every sentence threatening. Hugh placed his hand across his mouth then stroked his chin with concern.

  “And there is no way out of this. They are definitely going to do what it says in this letter”

  “Not if Malcolm fucking Stewart pulls his bloody socks up and sorts it out” growled Newton.

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  Just then the phone rang, startling Hugh out of his daydream that was beginning to spiral down into a cloud of depression. He watched his father intently, thinking it might be Malcolm Stewart returning the call but it wasn’t.

  “Yes this is Philip Newton developments......................yes we are how can we help you sir?”

  Hugh realised it was obviously a potential client and before he could think about standing up his father was already pointing and indicating that he leave the room like a scolded dog.

  Philip Newton watched and frowned as his son made his way down the drive in his Aston Martin like he was racing at Le Mans, quickly disappearing in a cloud of dust and gravel. Hugh’s drive back home to Hereford would be one filled with concern and worry as to the contents of both letters his father had received. Not only did they want to check his fathers’ accounts and earnings but the whole family’s including his and it would be for the last ten years. Although concerned, Hugh also knew Malcolm Stewart was a force to be reckoned with and was as cold as they came and would do his best to avoid prying eyes into his business let alone his clients. What Hugh was oblivious to was how bad the situation actually was for his father. It wasn’t his fault he knew nothing, but what Philip Newton had hidden away from his son he could not hide away from the authorities.

  As Hugh tore down the drive of his fathers’ home the clock on the dashboard struck half past midday. Connor had already been awake for hours staring at the walls inside his apartment running through his mind various thoughts and plans. Making sure no stone had been left unturned was now occupying his mind more than anything, especially as Hugh and Sarah’s party was getting ever nearer. After this, things could never go back to the way they were and he only had days to wait.

  As Connor made himself a coffee and sat in the window overlooking the street his mind once again drifted back to a few years ago, when he received the second phone call from the anonymous person who seemed adamant they knew what Connor was up to. He was sat exactly where he was now when his mobile phone came alive, the words “private number” flashing up on the screen once again.

  *

  Connor became tempted to ignore it as the ringtone nearly reached the cut- off point. He could not be sure it would be the same person but his gut feeling told him otherwise.

  “Hello........... Connor Rogers speaking”

  “Are you still using that same name Chevaal?” said the voice on the other end.

  Connor paused for a few seconds to try and listen for any clues as to where the caller might be but could hear nothing.

  “You seem so confident you know what you are talking about and yet you have given me no proof. It has been a long time since we spoke last so let’s say I give you a chance now to prove you are not just full of shit”

  This time there was silence on the other end of the phone as Connor listened intently once again. The voice spoke, only this time a lot less threatening than before and for the first time Connor realised it sounded like an older voice, much older than his.

  “Look Connor I understand why you are doing this but you have to believe me when I say it has to stop now. I am sure you will regret it all as soon as you have completed what you are planning........I know you will”

  “You have no idea how I feel now or how I will feel after and more importantly you have no idea how I have been feeling over the past twenty or so years so let me put this to you. Meet me and only then will I listen to what now sounds like a plea and not a threat form yourself. Do I believe you can stop what has started........no because it has gone beyond that”

  At that Connor ended the call and placed the phone back onto the table.

  *

  Once again a few years had gone by and Connor had not heard anything from the mystery caller but as he sat in the same spot sipping his coffee the sound of the post dropping through the letter box awoke him from his daydreaming. From where he was sitting he could see that most of it was bills and advertisements but there was an item of post that immediately caught his eye. A postcard could be seen poking out from between two brown envelopes and Connor became intrigued. Nobody he knew was on holiday or anywhere of interest as he sat staring at it wondering who it might have come from. Scooping up all the post in his one hand he pulled out the postcard with the other and started reading it on his way back to the table at the window.

  His first reaction like everyone’s who receive a postcard was to turn it over to view the picture to get an idea of where it was sent from and who had sent it. Connor’s reaction was to screw his face up in a confused manner as the picture on it was of the church in the village where he spent the first few years of his life, Much Marcle. Feeling the hairs stand up on the back of his neck he turned the card over to view what had been written. He stroked his chin thoughtfully as he read the words.

  “Albert park, Hereford 11am this Thursday”

  No sooner had Connor read the line he suddenly realised there was no address and no stamp. Standing up quickly but remaining behind the curtain he peered out of the window onto the street and cursed under his breath, not even wanting himself to hear his own words.

  “The bastard posted it himself. He knows where I live”

  Connor had been that focused on his objective he suddenly felt that his guard ha
d been breached. Up until now it had been a voice on the other end of the phone but now this person had suddenly become more threatening. With a determined but still calm approach Connor threw on his lightweight jacket and opened the door, turned locked it and quickly descended the stairs to the ground floor. Everyone now seemed suspicious to Connor as he peered out through the security door at the bottom and onto the street.

  A young lad could be seen climbing into his car and glancing back towards the building, a middle aged man walked past with a purposeful stride, his hands stuffed in his pockets and spotted Connor behind the glass door and stared back at him. A young girl stood on the corner of the street on the opposite side of the road looking around nervously.