Billy nodded, still chewing. ‘So you found this one? Do you like it better?’
‘In many ways I do. It’s very interesting. And I get to have dinner with some very nice families.’ Billy said, ‘Is it a well-paid job working for the Jockey Club?’
‘Billy!’ Maggie said. ‘It is very bad manners to ask questions like that! Especially of guests!’
Billy looked slightly hurt and embarrassed. He looked down at his plate and said, ‘Sorry.’
Frankie said, ‘No problem. And to answer your question, it’s not that well paid and I’m sure you’re bright enough to get a job that will pay an awful lot more. But then again, money’s not everything.’
‘Well said,’ Graham put in.
Billy said, ‘It is when you haven’t got any.’
Smiles all round again. Frankie noticed that Graham had almost finished his meal and the others were well ahead of Frankie too, as he’d been doing most of the talking. Billy had done his fair share but hadn’t let it interrupt his chewing and forking rhythm. Jane finished and wiped her mouth with her napkin. Frankie saw her glance slightly nervously at her mother then turn to him and he sensed, he knew, that a particularly awkward question was coming. As he steeled himself, the phone rang.
As Graham spoke to the kidnapper, none of the family, except Graham, could stay seated. They gathered around him, Maggie behind with her hand on his shoulder, Jane and Billy flanking him, their heads forward and tilting to hear what was being said by the kidnapper. Frankie stood further away, toward the opposite end of the table.
Graham said, ‘That depends.’
‘On what? It’s a simple enough question,’ said the voice on the other end. ‘How much is he worth to you?’
‘He’s worth quite a bit.’
‘Put a price on it.’
Graham kept calm. ‘If we put him up for sale, we might get as much as two hundred thousand pounds.’
‘But you wouldn’t put him up for sale, would you?’
‘No, we wouldn’t.’
‘So he’s priceless.’
Graham disliked the smugness. He said, ‘He is priceless. But we could have lost him in a fall. He could have broken a leg at exercise.’
‘Are you saying that if you don’t get him back, it’ll be just one of those things?’
Graham hesitated, uncertain about the psychological game he was getting into. ‘I’m saying that we care for that horse more than you could know, but things happen in racing. We’ve got over setbacks before.’
The pause was at the kidnapper’s end now. The family knew there was a slight break in proceedings, as Graham looked at each of them in turn and smiled reassuringly. Maggie reached for her husband’s free hand and squeezed it.
The kidnapper spoke. ‘You seem quite a cold person, Mister Cassidy. How does the rest of the family feel? How does Mrs Cassidy feel?’
‘They feel the same as I do.’
‘Cold? They don’t care?’
‘I’ve told you how much we care. Please tell me what the ransom fee is.’
‘Straight to the point, Mister Cassidy, I like that.’
Graham Cassidy didn’t answer.
The kidnapper said, ‘You’ll be glad to hear that the ransom fee, as you put it, will not affect your standard of living in any way and that, unlike you, I am a very caring person. I care for how you people live and so I don’t want a single penny of what you have now.’ He paused. Graham waited, finding himself inadvertently holding his breath. The voice continued, ‘I’ll settle for the cheque your wife gets for her big book advance. Half a million pounds is the price.’
‘No,’ Graham said immediately, deliberately avoiding the eyes of the family. Jane was looking particularly anxious and frustrated.
‘You’re a very decisive man for a trainer, Mister Cassidy. Most of them are bullshitters who wouldn’t know a straight answer if they fell over one. But I think that either you’re in shock or maybe the police are there advising you to play the cool guy. You tell them that I’m the only really cool guy in this setup, because I’m holding all the cards. Ask them how cool I was last time with Ulysses. I don’t mess around. I don’t get panicked. I just get impatient. And I do what I say I’m going to do, so listen. I’m going to be very, very generous here and give you what is left of this year to think about this and make up your mind. I’m going to call you again on New Year’s Eve to tell you where to collect your horse. If you decide to pay the money, I want it on New Year’s Day, in cash, used fifty- pound notes. I am not going to be messed around with excuses about banks being closed over the holidays and so on, that’s the reason I’m giving you almost a week. Half a million on New Year’s Day and you get your horse back alive. Otherwise, bring the knacker’s lorry for the carcass. And to help you make up your mind, ask the police what state Ulysses was in when they found him. I like to kill them nice and slowly.’
The anger rose in Graham’s eyes. His face reddened. ‘Don’t harm the horse,’ he said, swallowing the lump in his throat, surprised at his hoarseness. Jane guessed that her father had been listening to threats and she leaned into the mouthpiece and yelled, ‘Don’t you dare hurt Gabby! Don’t you dare! I’ll kill you if you hurt him! ‘
Graham’s instinct was to cover the mouthpiece but he overcame it. He was proud of his daughter, although her yell caught Billy by surprise and he recoiled, grunting with fright as the tension was broken. The kidnapper said, ‘That’s what I like to hear, some proper emotion. This is an emotional time, Mister Cassidy; don’t be embarrassed about joining in. It is Christmas after all.’
The line went dead.
Calmly, Graham held the receiver out toward Frankie who took it and unclipped the small microphone from the earpiece. Unplugging the cable from the grey Dictaphone, he rewound the tape. ‘Is it OK to play back now?’ he asked Graham. The trainer nodded as he hugged his daughter. They all sat down and watched the Dictaphone as it played out the conversation. When the half a million figure was mentioned, everyone except Graham looked at Maggie. Some colour left her cheeks; otherwise, she showed no reaction.
When the tape finished Jane, her pretty face still very agitated, looked at her mother. ‘Mum?’
It was a challenge. The shortest and most clearly expressed question Frankie had ever heard. He was aware of the already tense atmosphere at the table beginning, almost, to crackle. Around the room, lights glowed; two lamps, the concealed bulbs below the rows of kitchen units, the Christmas tree, but as Jane posed the question, Frankie felt that everything else was fading, that the only place that that was really lit was this table, the only place that mattered in the world, never mind the house. And the faces; the anxiety, the troubles, the sense that all except Frankie had been involved in a long-running, high-stakes poker game and now just Jane, fourteen going on forty, and Maggie remained in the running for the pot.
Maggie said, ‘We need to take advice from the police.’ Frankie could hear the tiny breaks in her voice.
Jane said, ‘Mum, what can the police do? What can they say? We need to pay the money! ‘
Maggie looked at her daughter. Frankie could see turmoil behind Maggie’s eyes and he felt himself shift uncomfortably. He felt he shouldn’t be there. Maggie said to Jane, ‘Let’s see what the police say. We have a week.’
‘But I’m supposed to be going to Ireland tomorrow! I can’t go knowing that Gabby might get killed by that man!’
‘The police might catch him before the week’s up,’ Maggie said. ‘We’ve got a recording of his voice.’
Jane stood up suddenly, and crossed her arms. ‘They won’t catch him! How can they catch him with just a recording of his voice? They don’t keep voices like fingerprints or anything, do they, Frankie?’ She turned to him and for the first time he saw the full power of her personality. It burned in her eyes, pulsed in the clenched jaw muscles, glowed in the reddening cheeks and he saw her mother in her then, very clearly, and he saw something of Kathy. She’d said his name as a woman would,
not a child. It had been a command to back her up.
He said, ‘They might have some voice tapes, but not many, although that doesn’t mean that this won’t help them. They have experts who advise on things like accents and sometimes they can pin accents down to almost the street someone lives in, certainly to the village.’
‘But how much time does that take?’ Jane asked.
‘Well, let me go down to the station now with this tape and get an opinion from them. There are other factors too. The way he talked about trainers makes it sound like he could be in the racing industry, or possibly worked in it and lost his job or something. This could be a kind of revenge thing, and if he was sacked, it might have been for some sort of offence. There’s every possibility he already has a criminal record. If he has a record, it would greatly increase the chances of the police catching him.’
‘In six days?’ Jane asked, not at all comforted or convinced.
Frankie said, ‘We need to report this anyway, so let’s see what the police say when we do.’
Jane sucked in a breath and folded her arms firmly again. Her father said, ‘Jane, do you really want to see this man getting half a million pounds for walking in here and stealing Gabby? Wouldn’t you like to see him caught?’
Billy nodded. ‘Yeah, you’re the one who’s always banging on about fairness and justice and all that other stuff for everybody in the world. It’s not fair just to hand over loads of money to this bloke for stealing, is it?’
Jane said, ‘Shut up, you! What do you know about fairness?’
Maggie said, ‘Who’s not being fair now? It’s not fair to take out your frustrations on your brother. Especially when it’s me that you’re upset at.’
‘Well, it just so obvious to me what the right thing to do is! You’ve got half a million pounds coming in soon, and it’s money that you weren’t really expecting to get so it will make absolutely no difference whatever if you hand it over to pay for Gabby! To get him back! ‘ She put her hands on the table and leaned across, her eyes filling now. ‘Mum, I’ve been with Gabby since I was four years old! I grew up with him’
Billy said quietly, but in a point-scoring sort of way, ‘I’ve been with him since I was two. I’ve grown up even more with him.’ Jane ignored him and kept her eyes pleadingly on her mother.
Frankie watched as Maggie returned her gaze and he saw a change in Maggie’s eyes; it was her turn to challenge. She said, ‘So when my cheque comes in, Jane, do I give it all to the kidnapper? How many cataract operations would half a million pounds buy?’
Frankie glanced at Graham and saw him flinch slightly. The smile on Billy’s face told Frankie that the boy considered it a masterstroke. Jane finally burst into tears. ‘Oh Mum, that was a horrible thing to say! ‘ and she turned and ran out of the room.
Maggie looked defiant, defensive, prepared for criticism. Graham smiled at Frankie. ‘Sorry, tension’s a bit high.’
‘Don’t apologize. It’s understandable.’ Frankie got up. ‘Probably a good time for me to go and try and get some time with the CID.’ He picked up the Dictaphone. ‘I’ll call back if you like, or I can come in the morning and give you an update.’
Maggie, gathering herself, trying to regain her composure, looked at him. ‘Won’t you stay with us tonight?’
Frankie smiled. ‘It’s very kind of you to offer me a bed on Christmas night. More than the innkeeper did for a certain couple two thousand years ago. I think it’s time to -’
‘To get away from this mad family?’ Maggie asked wearily, smiling.
‘To let you have some time on your own, maybe.’
Maggie said, ‘It’s after five. It’s Christmas Day. By the time you get away from the police station you’re not going to find it easy to get into a hotel.’
‘I’ll make a few calls on my mobile on the way to the station and whatever happens, I’ll call later and tell you what the police have said.’
Graham stood up and said, ‘If you don’t find anywhere, please come back. You’re more than welcome to stay with us as long as you want. We’re very, very grateful for your patience and for all your help.’
Frankie put the Dictaphone in his pocket and buttoned his jacket. ‘For all my helplessness, more like. I wish I could do more.’
Graham said, ‘Not at all. We realize it’s an almost impossible task.’
‘Don’t resign yourself to losing him just yet. We’ve got a week.’ Graham nodded, smiling gently. Maggie got up and so did Billy. Frankie said, ‘I’ll give you a call.’
As Frankie went out the door he heard Billy saying, ‘Dad, wasn’t it Christmas Eve when the innkeeper said no to Mary and Joseph?’
Frankie discovered that Maggie had been right, there were no rooms to be had within a fifty-mile radius, and he knew he was going to have to stay close by the Cassidys for the next few days. They welcomed him back warmly and he guessed that they had appreciated his effort to try and let them return to some form of private life. The children were in bed when he returned. Maggie showed Frankie to his room and offered supper. Frankie politely declined. She said, ‘Will you have a drink, then and tell us what the police had to say?’ Frankie asked for a whiskey.
All three sat around the dying embers of the log fire. The Cassidys didn’t expect much from the police who had been straight with them from the outset, saying that wiretaps and call-tracing equipment and all the other stuff you saw on TV was expensive and time-consuming to set up, and very seldom produced results. Off the record, they’d said that the only realistic prospect of catching the kidnapper was to agree to pay the ransom then try to arrest him as he came to collect.
Frankie told them that the CID had pretty much confirmed this to him after hearing the tape. ‘They said it would be a nice piece of evidence to help with the conviction if they did manage to arrest him at the pick-up point, but they stressed that it’s against procedure for them to advise anyone to pay a ransom.’
Graham cradled a tiny amount of brandy in a large glass. ‘Nothing more?’ he asked.
Frankie shook his head. ‘Sorry.’
‘So the police would have us pay the ransom so they get a crack at this man?’ asked Graham.
‘Unofficially only. Pay it or arrange to pay it. They’re not that concerned about the money. The pick-up is the key for them. If you decide to pay then whatever you agree with the kidnapper needs to be convincing enough for him to believe that when he turns up, every penny he asked for is going to be there.’
‘Even if the suitcase, or whatever it is he wants it in, is empty or full of paper or something?’ Graham asked.
‘That’s right. But if the cash isn’t in it and the police fail to catch him - I mean if he escapes with an empty suitcase, then you’re probably not going to get your horse back.’
Maggie sipped whiskey. She said, ‘Or if he gets away with the full half-million but the police have chased him halfway across the country first, do you think we will still get Gabby back?’
‘I kind of doubt it,’ Frankie said.
‘So do I,’ Maggie said.
They were quiet for a while, then Maggie finally asked the question they all knew had been hanging in the air. ‘Frankie, what do you advise? What’s the Jockey Club line, should we pay the ransom?’
‘The official line is that paying a ransom only means misery for someone else in the future. If it becomes known that people will pay up, then it won’t be just this guy who’ll be back for more. There’ll be some proper criminals queuing round the block.’
‘So you don’t think this creep is a “proper” criminal?’ Maggie asked.
Frankie swilled his drink and the ice tinkled. ‘I think this guy is in the industry somewhere or has been. He’s obviously used to handling thoroughbreds, familiar with the running of a racing stable. That reference he made to bullshitting trainers - I just think he’s been in the business and somebody has done him down big-time. I get the feeling he’s not just doing this for the money. He’s got a major chip o
n his shoulder.’
Graham nodded in agreement. Frankie said, ‘I’ll start making a few calls tomorrow morning, digging around. Let’s see what we come up with.’ He sounded positive.
Maggie smiled and swallowed the rest of her drink. ‘I suppose six days is quite a long time really.’ Frankie nodded. ‘God made the world in six days.’
Maggie’s smile widened and she looked warmly at Frankie. ‘A final plug for your last employer.’
‘Final?’ Frankie asked.
‘Before bed, I meant,’ she said, covering her mouth as she yawned. ‘We can always try praying, I suppose.’
Frankie nodded slowly, almost regretfully and Maggie said, ‘I’m sorry. That was thoughtless of me.’
Frankie smiled wearily. ‘Ahh forget it. No offence taken.’ He stood up. ‘If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go to bed.’
Maggie got up. ‘Not at all, it’s been a long day.’ She walked with him to the door leading into the hall. ‘I put some clean towels on your bed.’
Lying in the darkness, Maggie and Graham spoke in low voices about the day’s events and about Jane’s planned trip to Ireland. It had been hurriedly arranged when they’d learned that Jane’s cousin, Poppy, had broken her arm in a fall from her pony a week before Christmas. Jane was going to spend the remainder of the holidays with her to help her, cheer her up, although Maggie doubted she’d be cheering anyone up in her current state of mind. Maggie sensed that Graham had thought she’d been wrong to confront Jane with the theoretical option of what to do with the money. But he’d said nothing. It annoyed her that he would raise it when he thought it apt rather when she was ready to discuss it. In the final few minutes of silence before they drifted off to sleep she thought he might just bring it up and when he said, ‘Maggie…’ she became alert again.
‘Uh-uh,’ she said, feigning drowsiness to mask the tension rising once again.
‘He’s a very nice fellow, isn’t he, Frankie Houlihan?’
‘Yes. He is. Very helpful.’
‘He has plenty of troubles of his own, I think.’
For Your Sins: previously published as Joseph's Mansions Page 13