The Lottery Ticket

by Michael D Goodman

  The Lottery Ticket

  by

  Michael D Goodman

  The Lottery Ticket

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2012 Michael D Goodman

  This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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  ISBN: 978-14689-0020-0 (ebook)

  Contents

  Chapter 1 The Holiday begins

  Chapter 2 The break-ins

  Chapter 3 A Change of Plan

  Chapter 4 The Fence

  Chapter 5 Returning Home

  Chapter 6 The Missing Lottery Tickets

  Chapter 7 The Warehouse Job

  Chapter 8 The Arrest

  Chapter 9 A New Beginning

  Chapter 10 The plan moves on

  Chapter 11 Finding new evidence

  Chapter 12 The Net Tightens

  Chapter 13 A Tested Friendship

  Chapter 14 The Arrest

  Chapter 1

  The Holiday begins

  The Campbell family had planned their holiday with meticulous precision. Nothing had been overlooked. The hotel they were to stay at in the Algarve had been confirmed. Their bookings and their flight tickets had been received from the travel agents. The hotel near to the airport was reserved for their overnight stay. The car would be looked after by the hotel during their two week stay in Portugal.

  All that remained was for the family to pack their bags for the holiday and the overnight bags they would need for the nights stay in the hotel. They had only one more week to wait before their long awaited dream holiday.

  Up until now the Campbell’s could only afford to holiday in England. This change in fortune was due to a small win of a couple of thousand pounds on the lottery by marking off five drawn numbers. Because of this win they decided to expand their horizons and venture abroad.

  The family was made up of Mr David Campbell, his wife Jennifer and their two children, Mandy who was the oldest at twelve years of age, but liked to think she was already a teenager and Christopher who had just turned nine and spent most of his time playing with James, the boy from across the road or on his ‘Play Station’ which he was given by his parents for his birthday.

  David worked as a health and safety manager for The Royal Mail and worked at the Pederston Mail Centre. It was his job to make sure that all aspects of the work place were safe for all who worked there.

  Months before their departure and soon after the cash from their winnings was deposited into their bank account, they had visited the travel agents to find out about some of the special offers they were advertising. Once they had decided on the Hotel Fiora and chose to go all inclusive it was just a matter of paying the deposit and later, when the time came to pay the outstanding amount.

  A month before they were due to leave they paid for the holiday in full. Just one thing remained to be done. Max, the pet Labrador needed to be kennelled. Although Jennifer’s parent volunteered to look after the dog it was considered that this would be too much to ask, as they were getting on in years and as a young dog he would need the kind of exercise they would find hard to give.

  The kennels that Max was to stay at were only a mile from the Campbell’s home. They had been there before and were impressed by the cleanliness of the accommodation offered to all intakes. All the necessary injections had been given by their vet, to the satisfaction of the kennel’s owners.

  Although they still had a week to get everything packed they were keen to start laying some of the clothes out that would be needed. Swim suits, shorts, tee-shirts and the like were scattered about each of the bedrooms. There seemed no order to the packing at this stage but Jennifer was the organiser in the home and she would have this chaos sorted out before the day of departure.

  Jennifer not only had a list of things to take but also a list of things that needed to be taken care of before they left. This followed the pattern she needed in her job as a personal assistant to a senior partner of a solicitors office.

  First on the list of jobs to be done was the cancelling of the daily papers.

  “David, will you cancel the papers when you go to the newsagents to buy the lottery tickets”, she asked. “Oh, and while you’re there just remind Mrs Parker that Mandy will not be available to deliver the papers for the two weeks we are away will you”, she added as she scanned her ‘to do list’.

  “Sure, said David. And while I’m in town I’ll call in at the sorting office and ask them to hold our mail until we come back”, he retorted.

  The errands done and the lottery tickets bought David returned home. He put the tickets in date order on the coffee table in the lounge, with to-night’s ticket on the top, ready for the draw this evening. The tickets he had bought for the weeks they were to be away he would check on his return. Because of their recent win they bought the lottery tickets with renewed interest.

  On Jennifer’s list of things to pack and things to do was the purchase of items from the chemists such as sun tan lotion, after sun and toiletries. A trip was needed to the shoe shop to get beach shoes for them all. This meant that an outing to town by all of them would be needed.

  James hated going to town for anything. Even at his young age he disliked shoe shops the most. The waiting while your number was called was so annoying. To this Jennifer had to agree. As for Mandy she could spend all day looking and trying on shoes.

  When the time came to go in to town on the Saturday before they were due to go on holiday James decided to make himself scarce. He hid at the blind side of his bed in the hope that he wouldn’t be discovered by either of the grownups.

  “James, come down here at once”, his mother called.

  James didn’t answer in the hope that she might think he was outside already. The call came again. This time it was louder and sounded much more impatient.

  “James, I won’t tell you again, come down here this minute”, came the demand from his mother.

  Now he knew that the game was up and that if she shouted up to him again it would mean a penalty would have to be paid, such as the loss of pocket money or the confiscation of his toys for a period of time. Slowly he clambered down the dog leg stairs with its open banister.

  “I hate shopping” he sulkily retorted on reaching the hall.

  “Don’t make this any more difficult than it has to be”, admonished his father.

  “The sooner we go, the sooner we can get back”, he continued.

  James couldn’t work this out.

  “Surely whatever time we go it will take the same amount of time, won’t it”? , he thought logically to himself.

  Mandy was already sitting in the car excitedly counting the money she had in her purse as the others climbed in. She was looking forward to the prospect of shopping in town. She had counted her money twice while she waited. With £22 she could replenish her make up bag. Mandy couldn’t wait to get to town unlike James. They were going to visit at least two of her favourite shops. She would take her time in the chemists looking at all the make up counters and trying on some of the products that they had on offer.

  Jennifer pre-empted Mandy’s thoughts. She, herself, would not be in t
he chemists long as she knew from her list what she was going for.

  “Mandy, we will go to the shoe shop first and then to the chemists so that James doesn’t get too bored”, Jennifer decided.

  “But mum, I need lot of things from the chemist”, whined Mandy with attitude.

  “Yes, we know and you can spend as much time as you like there, then come and meet us at Ronald’s tea shop when you have finished” commanded David.

  Once they arrived in town it was straight to the shoe shop. Jennifer in her usual organised way had inquired by phone the day before to make sure the shop had a stock of the beach shoes she was looking for. Fortunately for James the shop wasn’t too busy. Soon the shoes were chosen and the next stop was to the chemists.

  All the toiletries were purchased and while they were there they bought the extra films they would need for the camera. Mandy by this time was still trying on different perfumes at the counters of the different manufacturers stands.

  By now she had bumped into one of her school friends who had no intention of buying anything. She had come just to get a free sample of the perfumes.

  Mandy excitedly told her friend of the forthcoming holiday. Unfortunately her friend was going nowhere during the holiday as her family weren’t that well off. Julie, for that was Mandy’s friends name, had a father who was out of work and spent most of his time out with his mates in the evening and would come home sometimes long after she had gone to bed. Her mother did her best to make ends meet with the ‘home help’ job she had.

  “Don’t take too long in here”, Mandy’s mum called over to her. “We want to go home soon to do the packing”, she continued.

  “OK mum, I’ll come over to the tea shop soon” was Mandy’s reply.

  With eye shadow, lipstick, a bottle of cheap perfume and one or two other things Mandy finished her shopping.

  “I have to go Julie, mum and dad will be waiting” she said hurriedly.

  “Have a nice holiday Mandy, I’ll see you when you get back” replied Julie.

  After spoiling themselves on a light lunch at Ronald’s and having done all the last minute shopping they drove home to start the packing. David climbed into the loft to bring down the cases. Some of them had gathered dust in the time they had been up there. This was going to be the longest they had been away and so more cases would be needed than they had used on previous holidays.

  David took his instructions on what to pack from Jennifer as he had on all their previous trips. Before each case was packed the items were placed on the beds in each of the three bedrooms upstairs. It just remained for him to pack the cases and to leave them open for any last minute items.

  The Campbell’s lived on the main road leading into the small town approximately five miles from the city where they both worked. The house was a three bed semi-detached of the pre-war variety and was pebble dashed at the front and painted white with the front door set in a recess to the left of a large bay window. The upstairs had a large window above the bay and a smaller frosted window above the door which was the natural light to the bathroom.

  The layout inside was a large lounge to the front and a dining room with patio doors to the rear. The kitchen door faced the front door down the hallway and the kitchen was of a galley type with work tops to both sides. The back door was to the left side of the kitchen with a window next to it and another window at the end.

  Mandy as the first-born had always had the double bedroom to the back of the house and the small bedroom which had been the study until James was born was now his bedroom. To accommodate the office equipment the space under the stairs was adapted as a small and cramped study.

  In the lounge was the cabinet filled with ornaments that Jennifer had collected over the years and some she had inherited from her Grandmother. She liked nice things and would only allow her treasured and expensive items a space in this cabinet. The other items dotted about the room such as those on the mantel piece and the windowsill, were some of the gifts she had been given by her children and some were her birthday and Christmas presents. In this room stood the large three piece suite that was bought for a wedding present by Jennifer’s parents thirteen years before and was still as good as new.

  The television was David’s pride and joy. It was state of the art and he had not long had Sky added to the repertoire of channels he was able to watch. The fire place was original and had remained an open grate. During the winter it was cosy just to sit in front of the open fire even though they had had central heating put in some years previous.

  The dining room also had a fire place but this was seldom used and would have a fire screen in front of it decorated with a hunting scene surrounded by a wooden frame. Jennifer found this in an antique shop on a visit to Oxford. The downstairs had the same colour of pastel green carpet throughout with the exception of the kitchen that David had tiled himself. This betrayed the ordered lives of its occupants. The dining room suite was of oak and oval in design. No expense had been spared in this room either. This was another wedding gift, this time given by David’s now deceased parents. The side board was of the same wood but a different design. Inside was the best crockery and cutlery only used on special occasions.

  The kitchen was the hub of the house. Most of the time the family sat at the table that was placed under the window at the back of the kitchen. Not only was James’s homework done on it but it would be used for painting which was one of Mandy’s hobbies. All meals except the special ones would be eaten on this table. Because the house was west facing the sun would shine through the window above the table and you could see the neatly kept garden.

  From the patio there was a step down to the immaculate lawn bordered by flower beds. Behind the lawn was the vegetable garden which the whole family had input. The wire fence at the bottom of the garden separated their property from the field locally known as ‘The Rec’.

  The master bedroom was furnished in pine. In the room was a set of drawers and a wardrobe with a pine headboard and a full length stand alone dress mirror. The dressing table was also pine with a walnut chair. In the small drawers above the base either side of the mirror was where Jennifer kept her jewellery. David kept his treasured possessions in his matching bedside cabinet also made of pine.

  One of the main reasons for the family not having expensive holidays was their endeavour to make their home as comfortable as possible. This meant that the money spent on new things would be to purchase the best they could afford. Both David and Jennifer believed that you only get what you pay for.

  With this philosophy they waited to buy the best. The children had the same quality of furniture in their bedrooms. Mandy had one more item in her bedroom than James, which was a computer desk with a top of the range computer sitting on it. James had been promised a computer for his tenth birthday.

  The family were due to fly out from Gatwick Airport at 7.30am on the Thursday morning which meant travelling down to the hotel on the Wednesday. They intended to take a leisurely trip and stop several times on the way as James was not the best of travellers.

  With every thing now packed with the exception of toiletries which they intended to pack on the morning of departure the cases were carried down stairs. For the next couple of days they would have to squeeze passed the cases as they sat in the hall.

  Not only were the children finding it hard to sleep through the next two nights because of their excitement, so were David and Jennifer. To all of them this was the holiday of a lifetime and the first time they had ever flown.

  Along with the excitement Jennifer felt her concern for James and how he would manage the three hour flight. On any long journeys they had taken before they had always given him travel sickness tablets which did the trick.

  David was kept awake making sure in his mind that the house would be protected whilst they were away. He had asked the Simpson’s from next door to ke
ep an eye on the place and to make sure that no one had left anything poking through the letterbox such as circulars or charity bags for old clothing.

  Wednesday morning arrived and each of the family used the bathroom. Once each of them had finished they took their toilet bags down to pack them in the suit cases. As Jennifer and Mandy made breakfast for them all, David, with the help of James, loaded up the car.

  With the breakfast pots washed up and put away they were ready to leave. David took his role at work very seriously and so too at home. So, a last minute check by David and James that all internal doors were closed in case of fire, all windows secured and that the back and front doors were locked they were finally ready to leave.

  All that remained was for David to pop next door to his neighbours to let Mr Simpson, know they were leaving and when they would return. The Simpson’s had looked after the house whenever they had gone on holiday in the past and they felt confident that as before they would return to a safe house.

  “John, I meant to ask if you wouldn’t mind just watering the garden while we are away if we get a dry spell”, David asked.

  “Sure I will” John assured him, “I’ll do it with the hose from over the fence, now you go and enjoy yourselves”, he commanded.

  John and his wife stood waving at the front door as the Campbell’s car pulled out of the drive. They had begun their holiday of a lifetime.

  Chapter 2

  The break-ins

  With wire cutters the thieves cut through the wire fence at the back of the property which divided the houses from ‘The Rec’. Three of them squeezed through and into the garden whilst the fourth that had cut the wire stayed on watch. Following the line of the bushes that edged the garden the thieves made there way to the back of the house. All was dark inside. They had been watching the houses on this street before and knew who was away and who wasn’t. They also knew which ones had alarms fitted.