The Family Man

by T. J. Lebbon

Every family memory seemed suddenly more important to Dom. It felt like remembering a deceased relative, as if those times were now lost to them, each memory precious.

  ‘We’ll be okay,’ Dom said. He was speaking to his wife and daughter, not caring that Andy and Rose also heard. They existed almost in another world to him.

  ‘I can’t see further ahead than this afternoon,’ Emma said.

  ‘He’s right,’ Rose said. ‘You’ll be okay. Let’s park up, then we can talk. There. That one looks fine.’

  The single gravelled track wound them through the trees, and Rose pulled up in front of a lodge that looked very much like several others they had passed. It was set a little further back from the road, but was made of the same dark red timber boarding, single storey, white windows and timber decking to the front and one side. The decking to the side was more extensive, containing seating, a hot tub and a barbecue area. It might once have been lovely. But the cladding needed a coat of paint, and shrubs planted along the borders had overgrown and swamped much of the raised decking.

  ‘I’ll get us inside,’ Andy said.

  ‘No, I’ll do it,’ Rose said. ‘Better if we don’t break the locks. I can pick them. Jump out, I’ll hide the car around the back. The trees are good cover.’

  Dom helped Daisy from the car. He felt dreadful. Maybe it was the prospect of getting inside the building and resting for the first time in what seemed like forever. His wounds were making a noise again, shouting to be heard. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion. Daisy ended up helping him towards the lodge, Emma following close behind.

  ‘You smell, Dad,’ Daisy said.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You’re welcome. It’s important we’re honest with each other. You’re really sweaty, too. I’ll keep my arm around you because you’re my dad and I love you, but really. Euch.’

  ‘Charming,’ Dom said, and he was happy to hear Emma laughing softly behind them. Such sweet music.

  Andy walked apart from them, and as they approached the lodge Dom became aware that he was looking across at them. Staring, trying to attract Dom’s attention.

  I’m just too damn tired, Dom thought, but he looked anyway.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Andy said.

  ‘What?’ Emma gasped.

  ‘Fuck off and leave my mum and dad alone,’ Daisy said. ‘Fuck off and leave us all alone.’ It was the first time Dom had ever heard Daisy use that word. He was glad that she was using it right.

  Andy looked away. Dom felt no pity for him. His betrayal had not only come as an emotional shock, but he’d also found it frightening. That someone could have used him in such a way, pulled the wool over his eyes, made him feel like a child again. Though it exposed him to hurt, he still liked this aspect of himself. The innocence, the vulnerability, the trust and assumption that people were essentially good. What he didn’t like was people taking advantage.

  ‘What Daisy said,’ Dom said.

  Rose came around the lodge then, jumped up on the decking and approached the front door. She drew something from her small rucksack and bustled at the door, and within a minute she had it open.

  ‘Home sweet home,’ she said. She looked at Daisy, and for a moment Dom saw a shadow of sadness cross her feature. She has a story to tell, he thought.

  ‘Come on,’ Rose said, smiling at Daisy. ‘Let’s see if we can find some food.’

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Option Three

  Every fibre of her body was urging Rose to run. She sat at the dining table and looked at the strangers around her, and all she could think of was Holt. He had bled so much. Perhaps he was already dead. But that idea sent her cold, spinning once more into the chasm. If Holt was gone, then so too was she.

  She closed her eyes and willed him to be alive.

  ‘Green tea,’ Andy said. ‘It’s all there was.’ He placed the steaming mug before her, then brought more over for Dom and Emma. Daisy had a glass of water. There was no food. The lodge hadn’t been used for a while, probably since last year’s holiday season. They’d found a bottle of congealed ketchup, a bowl of shrivelled dried fruit, and a half-empty bag of soft, mouldy crisps.

  Rose sipped. It burned her lip, but she didn’t mind.

  Daisy leaned into her father, grabbing his arm and hugging it tight.

  Molly leans against her, constantly fidgeting as always, never still, always moving towards the next exciting moment.

  Rose glanced to her left. There was no one there.

  ‘So, we sit and drink tea,’ Andy said.

  ‘Just shut it!’ Emma snapped. Andy sighed and sat at the table. He picked up a coaster between two fingers and turned it, tapped against the tabletop, turned and tapped again.

  Rose so wanted to run, but she couldn’t. Not when these people were in such danger. She would never forgive herself if the family suffered a grisly fate.

  ‘Okay. I’m going to lay out your options as I see them,’ Rose said. All eyes were on her. ‘I’ve got to warn you, though, none of them are good.’

  ‘Tell us something we don’t know,’ Emma said.

  ‘There are three ways to go from here,’ Rose said. ‘First, we call the police. Tell them everything. Dom, you throw yourself at the mercy of the law.’

  ‘Screw that!’ Andy said.

  ‘And you disappear,’ Rose said to Andy. ‘This time, without my help. Good luck with that.’

  ‘I’ve killed someone,’ Dom said. He stared at his hands, fingers splayed on the table before him. His fingernails and knuckles were dark with grime. Maybe it was dried blood.

  ‘It was self defence,’ Rose said. ‘You were protecting your loved ones. You’re a respectable family, a decent guy, they’ll see that.’ She shrugged. ‘But then, you did rob a post office.’

  ‘People died,’ Emma said. ‘Respectable or not, Dom would go to prison.’

  ‘For a long time,’ Rose agreed. She nodded at Daisy. ‘She’d grow up without a dad.’

  ‘If we call the law, Sonja and the others will melt away,’ Andy said. ‘That’s what they do. That’s how they survive.’

  ‘Scared they’ll creep up behind you one night?’ Dom asked.

  ‘Sure, and so should you be. They’re animals.’

  ‘Even worse than you?’ Emma asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Andy said. His eyes clouded and he leaned back in his chair. ‘What I did wasn’t only for self-preservation. I didn’t fit in with the new version of my family. Lip and I didn’t get on from the first time we met, and they would have killed me in the end, so I tried to leave. They threatened the woman I loved. The only woman I’ve ever loved.’

  Rose knew the look in his eyes. She saw it in her own each time she looked in a mirror.

  ‘They killed her,’ she said.

  Shock seemed to silence their surroundings. The creaks of moving chairs, rustle of clothing, the sighs of tiredness and pain, all gave silent audience to what Andy said next.

  ‘I stole money and ran away with Rachel, and I thought that would be enough. But she left me soon after. I was stupid enough to tell her the truth about them, about me, and she grew scared and left one night without even saying goodbye. I wanted to protect her. But I couldn’t. I tried to find her, but they found her first. She had an accident. Fell down some stairs in a car park, broke her neck.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Emma said after a brief pause. ‘I’m not sure I even believe you, not after all the lies. I don’t think any of us can believe you. Even if it is true, it doesn’t excuse what you’ve done. And I don’t care.’

  Andy looked at her but said nothing.

  ‘In answer to your question, Emma, yes,’ Rose said. ‘They’re even worse than Andy. Although I’m not saying he’s not a lying murdering scumbag.’

  ‘Oh, thanks,’ Andy muttered.

  ‘If Dom does go to prison, when things have quietened down there’s no saying they won’t come after you and Daisy. Just to make a point.’

  ‘And because Lip likes it,’ E
mma said.

  Rose nodded. She thought of the dead guy in the car on the hillside, a branch shoved into his eye socket. The blood in the back of Lip’s Jeep.

  ‘They’ll get to Dom in prison,’ Andy said. ‘Doesn’t matter what sentence you get. You won’t be coming out.’

  ‘So I guess we rule out option one,’ Dom said. ‘What’s number two?’

  ‘I make you disappear.’ Rose waited while Dom and Emma looked at each other, having a full conversation in silence. A married couple, people in love, could do that. She remembered communicating with Adam in that way. A smile or frown meant a thousand words.

  ‘It’s what I do,’ Rose continued. ‘I’m sure Andy will give you a reference.’

  ‘So what does that mean, exactly?’ Dom asked.

  ‘It means today is your birthday. All three of you. Dom, what’s your job?’

  ‘I’ve got an electrical firm.’

  ‘Not any more. Emma, your career ends here, too. Your families don’t know what happened to you. You never see them or your friends again.’ She glanced at Daisy. ‘None of you. You’ll go to live overseas, possibly Europe, more likely further afield. You’ve got debts? Good, they’re written off. Savings? They’re gone too. There’ll be nothing to link you back to your life that’s now ended.’

  Emma was wide-eyed, trying to take in the implications. But Rose knew there were too many, and that they were too extensive. No one could really imagine everything they knew, all that they were, everything they had built themselves up to be coming to an end. It was like dying.

  ‘Andy managed it,’ Dom said.

  ‘Andy wanted to do it,’ Rose said. ‘He was easy. He wanted to hide from his family, friends, associates, and he had the money.’

  ‘But our families?’ Dom asked. ‘Really?’

  ‘Once you’re gone, you’re gone,’ Rose said. ‘If this is the way we agree to do things, I push the reset button on your lives. It won’t be quick, and for a while you’ll have to retreat, lie low somewhere and not reveal yourselves at all. There are a few places I know. It’ll take me some time to set things up for you. But for that period of time you’re all as good as dead. Dom, Emma, Daisy, you’ll be gone. When we’re ready, you’ll be born again as new people.’

  ‘We don’t have the money,’ Dom said.

  ‘Yeah, that is a problem,’ Rose sighed.

  ‘The money’s in the Mazda back at the Helmsman car park,’ Emma said. ‘Could we …?’

  ‘Don’t be stupid,’ Rose said. ‘It’ll be crawling with the law by now. How much was there?’

  Dom blinked in surprise. ‘We never actually counted it. We thought maybe forty grand.’

  ‘Was it worth it?’ Rose asked.

  No one replied.

  ‘There are ways and means,’ Rose said. ‘But it will take a good lump of money. If we go this route, for a lot of what is required I’m an enabler, not a doer. We’ll need to pay for your new identities.’

  ‘You mean passports, driving licences?’

  ‘Not just that,’ Rose said. ‘It’s not like the old days any more, Dom. Everything is recorded now, and anyone in the world, with the right know-how, can access everything about you on their phone. You’ll each need a whole history constructed, from birth to present. Traceable, reliable. That means employment and health records, bank accounts, social security details for whichever country you’ll settle in, travel histories. It’s a long, detailed, expensive process.’

  ‘I’ll pay,’ Andy said.

  ‘We don’t want your—’ Dom began, but Andy cut in.

  ‘How much cash are you carrying, Dom? Cos that’s all you have left.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Emma said. ‘We can’t do that. Not to her.’ She looked down at Daisy leaning against her arm. The girl was asleep, for which Rose was grateful. This wasn’t the sort of thing a little kid should hear.

  Though compared to what this child had seen, hearing things was nothing.

  ‘I’d rather take the fall,’ Dom said. ‘Go to prison, ask for police protection from the Scotts. But leaving everything behind, no. I can’t do that to Emma and Daisy.’ Dom looked helpless, hopeless, and his love for his family was a physical thing. It warmed the room.

  ‘So it’s option three,’ Emma said.

  ‘You don’t even know what it is yet.’

  ‘I think I can guess.’ Emma was glaring at Andy. He continued to turn the coaster, tap, tap, staring at it simply to avoid everyone’s gaze. ‘It’s what he’s wanted all along. The reason he lied to me and my husband, and drew my daughter into danger.’

  ‘I didn’t mean it to go this far,’ Andy said.

  ‘Really?’ Emma was aghast. ‘Is that meant to be some sort of apology?’

  ‘No,’ Andy said. ‘Simple fact.’

  ‘He wanted them all dead long before now,’ Rose said.

  Andy glanced up at her. She didn’t look away.

  ‘He doesn’t realise that nothing like this ever goes to plan. There’s always a wild card, and the closer to the beginning it’s played, the more chaotic things become.’

  ‘The wild card was getting his dates wrong,’ Dom said.

  ‘Yes,’ Rose said. ‘Meeting the Scotts at the post office instead of taunting them afterwards, drawing them after him, maybe picking them off one by one. From that moment on, everything he’d planned went wrong. That’s why he called me to do his dirty work.’

  ‘Not quite everything,’ Andy said.

  ‘No,’ Dom said. ‘Right. You threw Frank from the top of a windmill.’

  ‘So option three is to kill them all,’ Emma said. ‘Sonja, Lip and Mary. Remove the problem.’

  Rose was impressed at the steadiness of her voice. But then Emma had impressed her from the start and was continuing to do so, more and more.

  ‘It’s a different way of moving on,’ Rose said. ‘I have my own issue with the Scotts, now, and that might mean the same result. But for your sake, it’s frankly the most likely way you can get out of this mess with anything like your old life left standing.’

  ‘Really?’ Emma asked. ‘You think so? Anything like it?’

  ‘There’ll be a chance,’ Rose said. ‘We can make sure they’re linked to the post office heist. Maybe the law will see what came after – the college, the chase across South Wales – as a beef within the gang.’

  ‘That’s exactly what it is!’ Dom said. ‘Maybe they should get him, too.’ He nodded at Andy.

  Andy froze in turning the placemat and stared at Dom. Rose saw something in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before, and it was a look she knew all too well. Holt had it, she’d seen it in the Trail, and when she looked in the mirror it was also there. He had the eyes of a killer.

  ‘You threatening me?’ Andy asked.

  ‘Stating a fact,’ Dom said. ‘They’re your sort. Not us.’

  Rose felt her senses calming and sharpening. Events slowed.

  ‘Let me make this an easy decision,’ Andy said. As he twirled the placemat to distract their attention, he reached into his shorts pocket with his other hand.

  Rose had her pistol out and held across the table in a heartbeat.

  Andy paused, still smiling. ‘Quick on the draw, Rose.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid.’

  ‘I’m far from that. But I’m about to speed things up.’ He nodded down at his hand still in his pocket. ‘Slow and easy, all right?’

  ‘Slow and easy,’ Rose said. She already had an inkling of what she might see.

  He withdrew his hand and placed his phone on the table.

  Rose lifted the pistol and pointed it at Andy’s face. She could pull the trigger now and rid herself and this family of a constant wild card.

  ‘How long?’ she asked.

  ‘I texted them about ten minutes ago.’

  ‘Then they’ll be here soon.’ Rose hesitated for a moment more, then lowered the gun. An urgency prickled at her, the idea that the more time passed, the less likely it was that she’d
see Holt alive again. She’d been wrestling with her conscience – go and attempt to save Holt; stay and help this family. Andy might just have settled her inner dispute for her.

  ‘They won’t come,’ Emma said. ‘They’ll be expecting a trap.’

  ‘They’ll come,’ Andy said.

  ‘So what do we do?’ Dom asked.

  ‘We get ready.’ Rose stood and pocketed her gun. ‘Now listen to me, all of you. Here’s what I want you to do.’

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Stacked Odds

  It was hot, still and sunny, the holiday park was deserted, and Dom was sure that they’d hear and see the Scotts coming. Rose had taken a few items from a box in her car and put together a sensor for the gate, which she said would tell her when it was opened. But he was still more afraid than he ever had been before. Scared for himself, and terrified for his family.

  He had wanted Emma and Daisy to leave. There were other lodges, and they could hide in one and wait for everything to be over. But Emma had vehemently objected, and Rose had sided with her. They had two pistols and Holt’s shotgun between them. Although Emma admitted that she was probably capable of handling a weapon – her father was a member of a shooting club, and her grandfather had been a farmer – it made no sense to split their defensive capabilities. To make this a success they needed to stay together.

  Daisy had had the final say. ‘I want to stay with you, Daddy.’ That tugged at Dom’s heart. He wasn’t sure he could watch them walking away, knowing he might never see them again.

  So they were together, and he was ready to protect them all against whatever was to come.

  ‘It’s so damn hot,’ Emma said.

  ‘Wish I was on a beach,’ Dom replied.

  ‘One far away from here.’

  ‘Parasol.’

  ‘Ice cream,’ Daisy said.

  ‘Good book.’

  ‘Jug of Sangria,’ Dom said. ‘Watch the sunset, air- conditioned room with—

  ‘Ice cream!’ Daisy insisted. ‘Chocolate flavour with—’

  ‘What’s that?’ Emma leaned forward, closer to the bedroom window. Dom held her shoulder and eased her back.