by Anita Waller
Phil felt almost a touch of panic when he realised he didn’t know which option to take. He lay on the bed, forcing his breathing to slow; he made the choice to set up the cooker with the gas canisters, light them to check that the cooker was in working order, and then switch it off and await the next-day delivery. It almost felt like a triumph over Captor, reaching a resolution. It was irrelevant whether it was the right decision or not, it was a decision made by him and not the unknown creep somewhere above.
Phil checked in the carrier bag before opening the flask. There was a small saucepan and a tin of soup. Heinz vegetable soup. With a ring-pull opening top. And a spoon. No bowl, but a spoon. He could eat from the saucepan. He felt tears begin to well in his eyes, tears of gratitude for warm food. He checked further, and found the customary two sandwiches and bottles of water.
He checked the flask – tea today. Again, the rush of gratitude. He drank the tea quickly, allowing himself two of the ginger biscuits.
There was no resentment; he had been enraged when he had first surfaced in his new accommodation, but with acceptance had come a change in attitude. Now it was all about survival.
And that depended on Captor.
14
Rosie felt a surge of anger. She had been going through the household accounts, and things were starting to get a little bit tight, financially. Since Melissa’s accident and subsequent issues, she hadn’t worked. She knew everything would be solved by paying in the huge cheque from Banton and Hardwick, but every day she hoped Phil would return home. They would need that money to finance a move to a different part of the country, somewhere a long way from Liz Chambers.
Rosie sighed, and placed the cheque in her bag. The following day, she would take it to the bank and deposit it into their joint current account, and then decide what to do with it, once it had cleared. If she didn’t, she would have Banton and Hardwick, in the form of Liz Chambers, on her back constantly.
Not for the first time, she wondered about Phil’s personal account. He would have drawn on it, he normally only carried around fifty pounds in his wallet.
There was a bang on the front door, and she heard her daughter’s voice through the letterbox.
‘Mummy, it’s me!’
‘Where?’ she responded. ‘I can’t see you.’
‘I’m outside the front door,’ Melissa shouted, rattling the letterbox at the same time.
‘No, that can’t be you. There’s a leprechaun outside the front door, not my Melissa!’
‘Mummy, it is, it’s me!’
Rosie headed for the door. ‘Let me check before I let you in. I don’t want any leprechauns in my house.’
She carefully opened the door, and Melissa barrelled in, followed more sedately by Rosie’s mother.
Rosie hugged Melissa, and whispered ‘welcome home’ into her ear.
She lifted her head. ‘Thank you for bringing her back, Mum. I was missing her.’
‘No problem,’ Angela Harmer smiled; the smile clearly aimed at building bridges with her daughter after their telephone argument. ‘I think she was ready to come home. It’s been lovely having her, thank you. I’m not going to stay, your father wants to go to the theatre, so we’re having a meal in town, and then on to the Crucible.’
‘Have a lovely evening, Mum.’ She escorted her mother down the path, and watched as she drove away, before returning to her daughter, rifling through the fridge to see what was to eat.
‘Is Daddy back?’
Rosie was stunned. ‘No, not yet.’
‘Is he coming back? Nanny Angela doesn’t think he is.’
‘We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we? I’m sure he’ll come home one day, when he’s tired of travelling.’
Melissa turned to her mother. ‘Is that what he’s doing? Travelling?’
‘I think so. He’ll be able to tell us all about it when he comes back to us.’
Rosie was aching inside. She hated lying to Melissa, and in that moment, she realised she had also been lying to herself. He wasn’t coming back. Had he had another woman apart from Liz Chambers? It seemed strange because there had only been a couple of weeks between him telling her about Liz, and his disappearance. He had clearly loved Liz; surely, he hadn’t found someone in two weeks with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life?
She stifled a sigh and moved on to the subject of food. They agreed on pizza, and Rosie took one out of the freezer.
‘Shall we eat off our knees, and watch a movie?’
Melissa nodded enthusiastically. ‘Mamma Mia.’
Rosie laughed. ‘We’ve watched that at least ten times.’
‘I know,’ Melissa responded. ‘Good, isn’t it?’
She bounced on to the sofa, leaving her mother to sort out food, DVD and drinks. She was glad to be home, even if Daddy hadn’t managed it yet.
Halfway through watching Mamma Mia, Rosie heard the distinctive sound from her mobile phone telling her she had an email. She pushed the fleecy blanket covering both of them to one side, and stood to get the phone from the dining table at the far end of the room.
Liz Chambers. Rosie wanted to smash the phone against the wall, and realised quickly that she probably would have done if Melissa hadn’t been there.
She opened the email and saw words that had been on her own mind for weeks.
Did you report Phil as a missing person? If you didn’t, maybe you should. It seems strange that there has been no contact from him for such a long time. I realise it is none of my business, but has he accessed his bank account since he went missing?
She pressed the home button and made the email disappear. She didn’t want Melissa catching sight of it. Moving back to the sofa, Rosie once more snuggled down beside her daughter. She saw nothing else of the film; her mind was on other things. It was all very well Liz saying report Phil’s disappearance to the police, but they would think it pretty strange that she had waited all this time before notifying them.
They wouldn’t understand that she had a firm belief that he wanted time out from their marriage; she felt deep inside that he would come home, if not for her, then for Melissa.
The closing credits of the film pierced her brain, and she stood. ‘Time for bed, sweetheart. Go get ready, and I’ll come and tuck you in.’
Melissa looked a little disgruntled, but knew her mother wasn’t as easy to manipulate as Nan Angela; she decided not to try.
‘Read to me?’
‘Not on your life, young lady. You do your own reading now.’
Melissa attempted a frown, and kissed her mother before going upstairs.
‘Five minutes,’ Rosie called. ‘So, don’t mess about.’
She carried the plates and leftover pizza through to the kitchen, scraped the food into the bin, and took out a bottle of wine.
She needed it.
15
Liz received no reply from Rosie; she hadn’t really imagined that she would. If the roles had been reversed, she would have ignored such an interfering message.
She returned to work on the Tuesday morning with no further contact on either phone from anybody.
Oliver was waiting in her office; the surprise must have shown on her face.
‘Did you want me?’
‘No, you’re fine. I needed to put some paperwork in the pending drawer. And I wanted to check that everything is working out for you. That it’s not too much with Jacob being so young.’
‘No, I’m fine.’ She smiled. ‘Jake’s childminder is really good with him, so that fact alone stops the worry. Do you want a coffee?’
‘Please. Shall I do them? There’s only the two of us; Tom had an early court job.’
She laughed. ‘He hates anything before eleven, says he doesn’t wake up till ten at least. And thank you, I don’t take sugar.’
‘I know.’
‘Oh, sorry, I say it automatically. I forget how long we’ve known each other.’
‘Twelve years,’ he said as he turned away to use the c
offee machine. ‘You came to me, to us, when Daniel was really young.’
She looked at him, sensing a change in the tone of Oliver’s voice, but he said nothing further.
She sat down and switched on her computer. While she was waiting, Oliver finished making the coffee and placed hers carefully on her desk.
To her surprise, he touched her shoulder. She savoured the subtle fragrance of Creed as he leaned towards her. ‘Enjoy. I need to go through the Farnsworth case with you later. I’ll ring when I get to that point. And is the Latimer money sorted now?’
‘Yes,’ she said, suddenly uncomfortable. This was a different Oliver. She decided to cover herself.
‘I organised getting them to sign a form saying they had received the second cheque, because they hadn’t paid the first one in quickly enough. I thought it would cover the practice, just in case. I also thought it might make them get it paid in, and close the file off properly. It’s ridiculous having that amount of money and not paying it in. I’ve no idea if it’s been deposited yet, but that form explains what’s happened. Was that okay?’
‘Yes, of course. Good thinking, as always.’ He hesitated as he went through to his own office. ‘Did they both sign it?’
‘No, only Mrs Latimer. Mr Latimer wasn’t there.’
He gave a slight nod, then closed the door.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She had been uncomfortable with the cobbled together paperwork; having brought it into the open, she felt much better. It also covered her for the second taxi journey out to the Latimer home. She opened the pending drawer. It was empty.
That rattled her even more, and for a moment she wondered if Oliver and Tom suspected she had been seeing Phil; she couldn’t imagine that being the case, really, they had been so careful.
She opened her emails, and went to work.
The morning flew by and she was surprised by the buzz on her phone indicating Tom needed her.
‘You’re back? I thought it would be a full day.’
‘So did I. All done for today. Back there tomorrow, and then it should be over. I’m letting you know I’m here. Any problems?’
‘No, the practice doesn’t fall apart because you’re in court,’ she laughed.
‘And here’s me thinking it did. I might go home then. And you’re okay? Coping with being back here?’
She stiffened. What was it with these two men today? Or was it her guilty conscience reading more into their words than she should be doing? ‘I’m absolutely fine,’ she emphasised.
‘Oops, sorry I asked.’ Tom’s laughter echoed down the phone as he replaced his receiver.
She stared at her own handset, and frowned. Get a grip, Liz, get a grip.
She felt relieved as the clock reached 5pm. The tram was reasonably empty, and she read all the way home. Her reading was interrupted by a text from Gareth saying he had collected Jake, and she said a silent thank you in her head; it was bitterly cold, and it meant she would be in the warmth much quicker.
She managed to check the love phone later, but there had been no activity. She didn’t know whether that was good or bad, and the pall of worry continued to hang over her, grey and heavy.
16
Captor watched the screen as Phil moved around, a little sluggishly. The amount of sleeping tablets used the previous day had been enough to knock him out for around five hours, and that was sufficient.
Everything could be moved down in the basement room with time to spare. The decision to do all the goods transference on Tuesday was set, and Captor smiled. Everything was going to plan. Liz’s punishment would become so much worse.
Phil picked up a sandwich and stared at it. He felt as if he didn’t really have the energy to open his mouth and eat it. He was so tired, and yet he knew he had been asleep.
He sipped at some water, hoping it would revive him. It didn’t, so he put the sandwich to one side, and went back to sleep.
17
The weekend passed slowly, and Liz knew she was being unfair. She hardly said anything to Gareth, and Daniel simply took himself off to his bedroom and kept out of the way.
They didn’t argue, didn’t speak. At one point, Gareth decided to go for a walk and didn’t return for some time. Liz said bye as he went, but didn’t even notice how long he was away. She felt a sense of relief when Monday came around and Gareth went to work, Daniel to school.
She pottered around, did some laundry, ignored some ironing, read her book; when Jake went to bed she took out the love phone.
Where are you? she quickly typed, and pressed send. She didn’t expect a reply, simply had a nagging feeling that she couldn’t carry on ignoring the fact that Phil was missing.
---
She dropped Jake off and hurried down to catch the tram. He’d been quite fractious since waking at 6am, and she knew Sadie wouldn’t have an easy day. She checked her phone diary and saw that Tom and Oliver would be in, but both had to go out before lunch.
Karen greeted her with her usual cheerful smile.
‘Good morning, Mrs Chambers. Mr Banton and Mr Hardwick are in, but they have told me they’re going out later. Are you in all day?’
‘I am.’ Liz handed over a £5 note. ‘When Sarah does the lunchtime sandwich run, can you ask her to get me a ham sandwich and something nice to follow that’s full of calories.’
Karen wrote the instructions on a list.
‘And anything that comes through for either of them once they’ve gone out, put through to me. I can either deal with their problems, or fob them off until tomorrow.’
Karen mouthed I will, as she answered a call.
Liz’s desk had a small pile of paperwork on it that was new to her. She glanced through the bundle, then took off her coat. It looked as though it was going to be a long and busy day.
She pulled the pile of papers towards her and went through them more carefully. She was surprised to see a conveyancing file with a yellow post-it note attached to the front, asking her to file, no further action required.
She opened it and saw it related to the purchase of a property at Mosborough, in the south east of the city. She was glancing through it when Tom popped his head around her door to say he was going. ‘Have we bought a house?’
‘Yes,’ he replied, gravely. ‘It’s for Oliver and I to take our mistresses to, when we’ve wined and dined them.’
‘Yeah, right. I’m sure Chloe will let you do that.’
He acknowledged she might be right. ‘It’s our second practice, or will be when we’ve had the builders in. They start in April and gut it. Should be up and running by August.’
Liz stared at him. ‘You’ve certainly kept that quiet.’
‘It’s because there’s nothing really to tell anyone yet. We’ve been wanting to expand for a while, get out into the suburbs, and this house came up. It’s old, and the right price. There will be a lot of discussions that are going to involve you, but as yet there’s nothing to talk about. All we’ve done is buy it.’
She nodded, slowly. ‘Thank you for sharing that. I’m not really surprised. I thought you’d be bringing in another partner, way before I left to go on maternity leave. I could see the way this business was building. Congratulations, Tom. I’m really quite proud to be part of this.’
‘Good, because the plan is for you to be a much bigger part. But that’s enough for now. Mum’s the word.’
He closed the door and she stared once more at the file, before taking it to the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet. She would leave it in there until everything was up and running, in case it was needed at any point.
Oliver left half an hour later, and she glanced up as he called out to tell her he was going. Once he’d left she leaned her chin on her hands, deep in thought. Her mind was fixated on the strong relationship she had thought Oliver and Julia had shared; what had happened to break it? Another man? Another woman? Julia had been firm in her denial, saying they could no longer live together, simply incompatible.
; She pushed the thoughts to one side, and picked up the paperwork that was her own case. She had to file some papers with the court, and she began.
---
Sadie heard the gentle knock on the back door, and a smile lit up her face. She picked up Jake and popped him in the playpen, before going to the door. She opened it, happy at the unusual afternoon visit.
‘Come in,’ she said quietly. ‘This is an unexpected pleasure.’ She smiled at him, and he pulled her into his arms.
‘It certainly is,’ Gareth whispered. ‘Where’s Jake?’
‘In the lounge, in the playpen. He’ll be going for his nap in a minute.’
Gareth walked through and picked up his son, giving him a kiss. ‘Hi, Jakey. You being a good boy for Sadie?’
The little boy blew a raspberry at his daddy.
‘That’s not polite, young man,’ Gareth said. ‘You might have to be put to bed early because of that.’
Sadie laughed. ‘He can go anytime now. I suppose you need a nap as well?’
Gareth had one arm holding his son, and one arm holding Sadie. ‘Not necessarily a nap, but a little rest on the bed might be good.’
She took Jake from his daddy, laid him on the changing table and quickly replaced his nappy. ‘There we are, young man, nice and fresh again.’ She lifted him up and kissed him, then headed for the stairs. Gareth followed her.
18
Captor checked the screen in the room above the cellar, and saw that Phil was sleeping, warmly wrapped in the extra blankets. There were bundles of items stored in the room, and Captor knew they had to go down into the cellar quickly.
The opening of the metal door, for the first time in months, caused it to grate loudly. Captor moved quickly back towards the screen and watched Phil with some concern. His form was still inert on the camp bed.