Kidnapped?

by Rebecca Alderson

  Chapter 12

  I woke up in the morning feeling more refreshed but still worried about everything. I got up and limped over to the window. As I drew the curtains back, I saw that lovely view of the bay. It was another fine late summer morning. I shivered slightly, remembering what had happened the previous day, and felt the need to use the toilet. After I finished, I had a quick shower, using a shower cap as I didn’t fancy drying wet hair. Once I had dried myself with a towel I felt a bit more with it. Putting on my dressing gown, I went out into the hall, nearly jumping six feet at the cheery, ‘hello,’ coming from behind me.

  I turned around and there was Amanda in a track suit, sweating slightly and a bit breathless but still looking like some sort of model.

  ‘I’ve just been for a run down to the beach. It’s a lovely morning.’

  ‘Yes, I love the beach.’

  ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Much better, thanks.’

  ‘You gave us all a bit of a turn yesterday.’

  ‘Sorry about that.’

  ‘Don’t apologise. It must have been really hard for you. If you ever want to talk, you know where I am.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘That’s okay, honey. I had better have a shower now before anyone else gets up. I smell a bit stinky!’

  We both laughed and I went back into my room. Sitting on the bed, I wondered what I should wear today. Sighing at all the decisions I had to make like dress, shorts or skirt and top; what colours would be nice and the thorny problem of shoes? Sighing again, thinking, ‘is it worth it;’ I got up, took off my dressing gown and walked over to the wardrobe.

  I opened the wardrobe doors and looked at my choices. I decided that as it looked like it would be a warm day, I’d wear white Capri’s and a lemon top.

  Finally, sitting on the bed, I put on some white strappy sandals with some difficulty as I had problems doing up the straps. I ran my hand over the scar on my leg, still a bit vivid and painful and I wondered if I would always have that as a reminder of the horrible night I spent in the cave.

  Going over to the mirror, I picked up my brush and tried to do something with my hair. It was a bit tangled from my sleep and it took some time to get my locks into some sort of order, but luckily it had been cut quite well and finally I managed to make my hair look quite pretty. I was pleased that I hadn’t got my hair wet in the shower as it would have taken ages to dry.

  I smiled ruefully at my reflection. It seemed like my tom-boy stage was near enough over as I actually liked looking and being a bit more girlie. All the things that had happened to me lately had changed me in more ways than I thought.

  I stood up, but yelped slightly as my leg stabbed with pain. Rubbing my leg, I realised that I still had a bit of healing to do before I could join Amanda on her beach runs!

  When I went downstairs, it was quiet, as no one except me and Amanda were up this early and she was in the shower or making herself look even more pretty, if that was possible. I vaguely remember Dad coming into my bedroom last night and I think he said that he had to go to London today. I was sad at that and hoped that he might be able to find a bit more time to be with me once this mess had been sorted out. I looked out of the kitchen window, wondering why the seagulls were being so noisy this morning, just in time to see a police car going off into the distance. They certainly were taking no chances. Mind you, I wasn’t that worried any more as the man who was after me was now abroad and I felt that I could relax a bit.

  I went outside and took in a deep breath. The sea air was lovely and helped me to wake up a bit more. Going over to the wall in front of the house, I looked around. There was Flic’s house, near the shore and her boat, beached safely up above the tide line. There was a man and his dog walking along the beach. Every so often, the man threw a ball and the dog chased madly after it. I wanted a dog, but I wasn’t allowed to have one as I was away at school a lot and Dad said it wasn’t fair to have a dog in those circumstances. Looking to the right, I saw the steep path leading up side of the hill and remembered my mad run up there to try to get a decent mobile signal on that horrible night that seemed ages ago now.

  I had been told by the physio at the hospital that I must try to exercise and walk every day so that my leg would get stronger and I intended to walk up that path every day until was strong again, if I could, that is.

  I heard a noise behind me and turned around.

  ‘Dad!’

  ‘Feeling better, love?’

  ‘Yes, heaps better thanks.’

  ‘That’s good. Now I have to have a quick breakfast and then Claire is taking me to the station. I should be back by this evening hopefully, if not early tomorrow. Will you be all right while I’m away?’

  ‘I’ll miss you.’

  ‘Come here.’ He opened his arms and I went for a cuddle.

  ‘Someone on the phone for you.’ I looked up, annoyed at being interrupted by Amanda holding a phone. Would I never have time to be with my dad without interruptions?

  ‘Sorry love, I’d better take that.’

  He walked back in followed by Amanda who mouthed, ‘sorry,’ as she went in.

  I turned back to the wall and leaned against it. I hoped that when Dad and Claire got married that he would be home bit more.

  A short while later, I said a said goodbye to Dad and he was driven off by Claire in her BMW to meet the next train to London. It was an hours’ drive away so I wouldn’t be seeing Claire until nearly lunchtime, I supposed.

  My feelings for Claire had grown stronger and deeper in the short time that I had really got to know her. She was a very loving person and bit unsure of herself, like me, I suppose. She had lost her family in a freak car accident and had felt pain like Dad and I after we lost Mum. She was fun to be with and we sometimes acted like sisters, which was nice. She helped me with my hair, clothes and makeup and it was nice when we had girlie evenings, watching films and crying with the sad bits while we ate popcorn and chocolate! She wasn’t my mum, but I loved her and I was sure that my mum would have approved of her.

  That left just me and Amanda at the cottage. I helped her with the washing up as there wasn’t enough stuff to mess about using the dish washer. She kept chatting about this and that and to this day, I can’t remember what we talked about, but I do remember laughing as she told me a few slightly silly jokes.

  After the dishes, I went up to my room. Amanda said that she had a few phone calls to make.

  ‘Perhaps we can go for a walk up to the cliffs when I’m finished. Would you like that?’

  ‘Yes please. I was told that I needed to exercise my leg.’

  ‘Okay, give me twenty minutes and then we’ll go. You might want to put on some trainers.’

  ‘Okay.’ I said as I went up.

  I quickly texted Claire about me going for a walk with Amanda, just in case she wondered where I was when she got back from dropping Dad off at the station. Then I took some pain killers as I had a feeling that the walking might cause me a few problems and I was due to have two tablets anyway.

  When I got downstairs, Amanda was just getting off the phone. She looked up at me and smiled.

  ‘Ready? That’s good, let’s go then.’

  We left the cottage and Amanda picked up a rucksack then closed the door and locked it.

  ‘Okay Melissa are you strong enough to go up there?’

  She pointed towards the path leading up to the top of the cliffs. Not wanting to appear weak, I just smiled and nodded.

  ‘Good girl, come on then, onward and upward. If you feel bad though or you want to come back, you will promise to tell me won’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I promise.’

  We went up the winding path quite slowly. It wasn’t that steep, but a gradual climb. I stopped several times, but my leg was holding out okay and anyway, as far I was concerned, coming down would be a lot easier and I could cope with a little bit of discomfort for a little while. Anyway stubborn is my middle name and I wanted t
o impress Amanda and show her that I was nearly as strong as her!

  As we got higher and higher, I could see more and more of the countryside. Looking back at the bay, I could see our cottage, now small in the distance and slightly obscured by the heat haze. It was getting hotter now as the sun moved up in the sky. It was one of those days that didn’t have a cloud in the sky. Amanda kept up a constant stream of chatter, telling me about a horse that she once had and how she fell off it three times before she managed to hang on for dear life as the mad thing bucked about.

  Finally, we got to the top and stopped for a few minutes to have a breather. I rubbed my sore leg and was glad that I didn’t have to do any more uphill stuff. Then we walked along a grassy path that led away from the cove and to the cliffs that bordered it.

  There wasn’t anyone about and it was so nice and peaceful. I picked some flowers for Claire and they were yellow, pink and blue. There was a nice cooling breeze coming off the sea and it helped dry the sweat…sorry, girls don’t sweat…perspiration off me. We sat down on some grass about ten feet from the edge of the cliff, just to have a breather.

  Amanda fished out two bottles of water from her rucksack and gave me one of them. I drank the cool liquid and loved the way it quenched my thirst.

  It was nice up there on the grass, looking out to sea. I saw a couple of rabbits in the distance playing in the long grass.

  ‘Look Amanda, rabbits!’

  ‘Oh there’re nice. I love rabbit stew!’

  ‘Yuk!’ I said laughing.

  ‘Sorry, that’s just my weird sense of humour. Drink up and finish the bottle we don’t want you to get dehydrated in this heat.’

  ‘Yes, it is very hot,’ I said as I finished the bottle. For a few minutes, I looked at the seagulls circling above us, making their strange noises and squabbling amongst themselves.

  I lay back on the grass and relaxed. It felt good to be in this peaceful place, listening to the birds and the wind. The sun was on my face and it felt really nice. I didn’t really feel like moving and I wished that I could stay there forever. I noticed that someone was talking to me but felt too relaxed to really pay too much attention. Then I saw Amanda leaning over me, I concentrated really hard, trying to listen to what she said.

  ‘Emma, can you hear me?’

  ‘I’m Melissa for now, not Emma,’ I mumbled.

  ‘Whatever… Listen honey, I haven’t much time… Oh I can’t talk to you like this…’

  I felt myself being picked up and carried by Amanda. I saw her hair wave in the wind. She was so pretty and I so much wanted to look like her…

  I was put down and found myself leaning against a rocky outcrop. My legs seemed so long; just sitting there stretched out before me. I was glad that I was too young to have any hairs on my legs; when I got a bit older I would have to start shaving them, like mum used to do…Amanda was talking again. It was funny that I was finding it hard to pay attention. She had such a nice voice…

  I was slapped around the face and it jolted me out of my dreams a bit.

  ‘Listen to me Emma. Can you hear me?’

  I nodded, as tears started going down my face. She had hit me!

  ‘Good, I have your attention. I’m only going to say this once. I want you to know that it’s nothing personal. Mr Evans has paid me two hundred thousand pounds to do this job and if I don’t finish it, others will get to know and I will lose my credibility. It’s only fair that you know what is going to happen. I promise that it will be quick. One quick push and then you won’t feel a thing. As I say it’s not personal. I think that you are a very nice girl. But, if I don’t finish the job that I have been paid to do, then I won’t get any more jobs. Call it professional pride if you like. The water I gave you was drugged. I also mixed in a few more things which help with the speed and effectiveness of the drug and also numbs you a bit so you shouldn’t feel any pain, well not much anyway. As a matter of interest, the police were called off surveillance on my instructions, so they wouldn’t have helped you much or come to your rescue. Claire and your father about now are probably history. I put a timed device, that is a small amount of explosives, under the bonnet and it was due to go off long before they reach town. You see, I don’t like loose ends. Very soon, I will be well away from here and will disappear as if I never existed. Which is true really as Amanda isn’t my real name. Now, honey, I’m sorry but it’s time to end all this.’

  She picked me up and walked towards the cliff edge. I was like a rag doll, completely relaxed and not able to do anything about it. My limbs felt like rubber and I couldn’t even lift a finger. I wasn’t really worried though as I was in Amanda’s strong arms…She had gorgeous hazel eyes. I wondered if I could get some of the eye shadow she used, it was lovely…

  We got closer and closer to the edge. My thoughts were jumbled. I kept thinking about how lucky I was to have Amanda look after me and looking forward to Dad and Claire’s wedding; where I would be a bridesmaid...

  I heard a shout from far off; I think the voice said ‘Stop’ or something. It was very confusing and then I saw a funny thing. Amanda grew another eye in the middle of her forehead. Her mouth opened and she dropped me on the grass. She just sort of collapsed in a heap and a few seconds later, I felt a little prick in my arm and I wondered why someone would do that to me, as I hate needles…

  ‘Emma...Emma, can you hear me?’

  The voice was coming from a distance…it was Dad, was it time to get up?

  ‘Emma, wake up, please…’

  I opened my eyes and saw that Dad was there, his worried face just inches from mine.

  ‘Hello Dad, is Amanda okay?’

  ‘Erm…yes, we’ll talk about that later. Are you all right?’

  Then I remembered and started to cry. Dad hugged me and I felt safe again…

  Things were a bit confusing for a little while. My doctor has told me that I should write down everything as I remembered it and I’ll try my hardest to do that.

  I recall that Dad picked me up and I was carried to a helicopter. As we moved away from the cliff edge, I saw a white sheet with a long lump under it, lying on the ground. The sheet had blood on it and I wondered vaguely if someone had cut themselves or something. Claire was with us and I could see that she was crying for some reason. When we were in the helicopter, she held one of my hands and Dad held the other. I wished that I was more with it, as I really wanted to enjoy a helicopter ride…Anyway I fell asleep and then after a while, I woke up and I was in hospital…again! I had a slight headache but not much else. Dad was there and so was Claire. They were sitting on a sofa, holding hands and whispering to each other.

  The hospital room was nice, much nicer than last one I had and the bed didn’t have lumps in it. Anyway, I looked at Dad and Claire and I thought that they might be interested in me being awake.

  ‘Hello,’ I said.

  They both jumped at that and I thought that Dad might have a heart attack…

  ‘Emma!’ shouted Dad as he rushed towards me, with Claire following closely behind.

  ‘Are you all right Dad?’ I said, worried that he might need an emergency bed; the way he looked, he needed one more than me!

  ‘I’m fine love, how are you?’

  ‘I’m okay…’

  Then it all came flooding back. Pieces of a puzzle clicked into place. In a moment I remembered what happened.

  ‘Oh, Dad….Amanda….she said…she said…’

  I was in his arms and I cried quite a bit. I didn’t know that a person could have so many tears. Claire was hugging us both and I felt, even while I was sobbing, that I couldn’t be closer to these people as long as I lived, as I was now.

  After several minutes, we all settled down and blew our noses.

  ‘What can you remember?’ Claire asked as I sat up drinking some bottled orange juice through a straw while they had coffee. The nurse had been in a few minutes ago and had sorted the drinks out. She had extracted a promise from Dad and Claire not to u
pset or excite me too much.

  I told them all that I could remember. I broke down a bit when I recounted what Amanda had said about the bomb in Claire’s car and the fact that I vaguely realised that Amanda wanted to kill me and then the final moments when she fell down on the ground.

  There was yet another round of hugs and it took a while before any of us wanted to continue. Dad wanted to stop there, promising to talk tomorrow, but I had to know what had happened or there was no way that I would be able to sleep, so he told me what happened to them.

  ‘After we left you, we drove towards town. After about 40 minutes, Claire was complaining that the car felt a bit funny and the steering was stiff so we pulled over. I opened the bonnet and saw what looked like explosives and some sort of timer towards the back of the engine. I screamed at Claire to get out of the car. She got out and I grabbed her hand and we just ran as fast as we could away from the car. A few seconds later the car went up in flames, the blast knocking us over. Then my mobile rang; it was Henry calling from Brazil. He had, with the help of the authorities and a few well positioned bribes, been able to track down the man he was looking for. To cut a long story short, the man confessed that he had been paid by a woman to take the flight and his reward was twenty thousand pounds. Henry managed to get a sketch of the woman he had spoken to and it was quite accurate. He recognised straight away that it was Amanda and he rang first the police, and then me. He was distraught that he had chosen her to protect you and immediately said he wanted to resign. I refused to accept it. You don’t know this Emma, but he has saved my life twice. I’ll tell you about that some day and I know that he would never knowingly let something like that happen again.’

  ‘Wow!’ I said.

  ‘Yes, wow. Anyway it was obvious that you were in great danger and we wondered what to do. Then Claire got your text and we knew that Amanda was going to do something nasty and soon. I phoned the police and they picked us up on the way and we rushed back to the cove. I nearly had a heart attack at the speed we were doing through the bendy lanes. There’s a road leading up to the top of the cliff and we managed to get up there in time to see you sitting there with Amanda bending over you. A helicopter had been scrambled and had landed in the next cove with a police SWAT team on board. They managed to get there before us. Police marksmen had been deployed and the marksmen are highly trained and had quickly circled around where you and Amanda were. Amanda’s mistake was that she took too long to get going and that gave the police enough time to get into position.’

  ‘Then they shot her.’ I said with tears in my eyes.

  ‘Yes mate, I’m sorry, they had to. It was her or you. They did warn her but she didn’t listen.’

  Things went quiet for a minute. My headache was going away now and I felt a bit more alive and not too fuzzy.

  ‘So it’s over.’

  ‘Yes love. You are safe now. You can go back to being normal again.’

  I looked at Dad and Claire and was so pleased that they were both okay.

  ‘Are you feeling a bit better now?’ said Claire.

  ‘Yes thanks.’

  ‘That’s good.’

  ‘So,’ said Dad smiling. ‘At least you won’t have to be Melissa any more. Isn’t that great?’

  I looked at Dad and then Claire. They were smiling.

  I was once again Emma and that was great, no more pretending.

  Epilogue

  I suppose that’s near enough the end of my story, but a few things changed for the better.

  The news of Amanda’s death and the swindling of the company funds by Evans was headline news for a few days. Many of the details were withheld from the media because of little me, but Dad was exonerated from any wrongdoing and a lot of the funds stolen by Evans were recovered by the fraud squad and the company auditors and the shortfall paid for by Dad.

  Evans was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his various crimes and I hoped sincerely that he has a bad time in there. I was disappointed to find out that prisoners don’t spend their time breaking rocks or sewing mail bags any more.

  Amanda was a bit of a mystery, as no one could find out who she really was. It appeared that she had taken on the name and identity of a child who had died in infancy. I didn’t understand the details, but the police told Dad that it wasn't uncommon. So we will never know who she really was and I was strangely sad about that. She was nice to me until she tried to kill me and my family. Weird or what?

  Dad and Claire got married in the local church in Porthhadden, a fishing village close to where Claire cottage was. It was a small wedding and things were kept fairly quiet as the last thing anyone wanted was publicity.

  The bride wore a lovely long cream dress and looked beautiful. For those interested, I wore ripped jeans and a t-shirt....Nah, only kidding. I was the only bridesmaid and I looked cool wearing a sky blue calf length lacy dress. Dad scrubbed up okay, wearing a white suit of all things!

  I stayed with Flic and her mum while the newlyweds went on holiday to some exotic island that Dad happened to own, but I knew nothing about. I will speak to him about that when he gets back!

  I would be seeing more of Dad as he is going to take more of a back seat in running his companies and he will be around when I’m back from my new school. I would be transferring to Flic’s school after the summer holidays and I was looking forward to that as I was never really happy with the old one.

  We would be spending a lot of time in Cornwall in the holidays as Dad and Claire are to keep the cottage and it’s a long way away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s nice being part of a family again, now I had a new mum, Claire. I still miss my real mum and always will, but I consider myself very lucky to have Claire and I love her to bits, apart from the times she tells me off, of course, when I hate her. Being thirteen now I have to do the teenage thing and throw a stop sometimes. Well it’s my job, isn’t it?

  THE END