Missing - Dead or Alive

by Peter Martin

  ‘You know, the ironic thing about all this,’ he laughed. ‘Is that the whole time you were out looking for me, I was only two or three miles away.’

  So stunned, Maria lay back against the headboard in shock, and began to cry. ‘But this woman, she’s older than you.’

  ‘Yes, ten years older, but that makes no difference whatsoever. We love each other, and that’s all that matters.’

  ‘You must have been under sixteen when your son was born. Which means you were under age when you… If the police learn about this, she’ll be in big trouble.’

  ‘But they won’t ever find out, will they mother? While we were living together I changed my name.’ Maria caught her breath and gasped. As he continued, ‘I was in the library researching Roman history when I caught sight of her sitting at a table crying her eyes out. I asked if she was all right, and it suddenly struck me how beautiful she was. She said she was fine, but I sat down opposite her anyway and eventually she told me. Her husband had died of cancer and left her destitute. She’d inherited a mountain of debts and had started taking drugs to help her cope with it all. What little money they had was gone, and now she was as desperate as me. You see I hated school, and the pressure you and dad put on me. And I had to get away before I went mad…’

  Maria was having trouble believing him, but in a funny sort of way she knew it was the truth as everything seemed to fit. For a start it would explain where the missing money had gone from her bank account all those years ago. But wanting to hear the full extent of his story she nodded, ‘Go on.’

  ‘The guy supplying her drugs, said he’d let her have some on condition she did a few jobs for him. Just fetching and carrying - delivering the stuff to other people. That’s where I came in. I suggested doing this for her, and it became a regular thing. He used to pay me less Libby’s drugs.

  ‘Once she’d kicked the habit she even got a job, and by the skin of our teeth, the bank allowed us to keep the house. When we started to get close, she got pregnant and had to leave work, which meant I had to do more couriering jobs to make ends meet.

  ‘Everything was fine until a few months ago when I got mugged. A package I was about to deliver along with money I’d already taken, was stolen. It amounted to a tidy sum. But this guy I worked for didn’t buy my explanation. He wanted his money back and threatened to kill Libby and Carl if I didn’t pay up. I had to do something, and the only thing that came to mind was to come home to you.’

  ‘But you’ve been living with us for months – surely he wouldn’t wait that long.’

  Tim smiled. ‘Are you really that dim? What do you think I’ve been doing with the allowance you’ve been giving me? And whatever else I needed I stole. Fortunately for me, nan and granddad were too old to notice anything missing.’

  ‘Oh my God, how could you?’

  ‘I had no choice. But now it’s not enough. The man won’t wait much longer. That’s one of the reasons why I need you and dad to get back together. And then when his house is sold and also when we get the insurance money from Nan’s house, I might just get away with my life.’

  ‘But how can you get your Nan’s insurance money?’

  Tim chuckled. ‘There are ways and means.’

  The enormity of his words were so shocking to her. Tears seeped through her eyelids as she took in what he’d openly admitted. But that didn’t explain why he was so desperate to get his parents together again? And how did he plan to get the money from them?

  He brought her back to reality by continuing, ‘We have to make sure he comes down as soon as possible and that’s why the situation here has to get worse… One word of warning - don’t even think about telling dad what’s going on, or else Nan might suffer a sudden relapse. I’ll be watching your every move, and I have eyes and ears everywhere. If you value Nan’s life, you’ll do as I say, keep up the act of the besotted mother and see no wrong in me. Do I make myself clear?’

  She could hardly draw breath as she replied, ‘How can you be like this, after what we did for you when you were young?’

  ‘You did nothing for me. Everything was for you, so you could brag to everyone about your clever son. It used to make me sick. Now get back into bed. And remember when dad gets down here behave like I told you. Don’t think you’ll be able to talk to him without me knowing.’

  Now left alone in the bedroom she slipped beneath the bedcovers again and thought back to when Tim had been absent from their lives. Never once did she imagine there’d be a time when she didn’t want him in her life – but that time had now arrived.

  Had he rigged the room with a hidden camera and microphone? And why had her mobile mysteriously vanished? Perhaps she could gain access to the house phone – but then that too could have been tampered with.

  The days that followed were a complete nightmare. Tim seemed to be aware of her every move, forever watching everything apart from when she used the bathroom. She tried hard not to eat much, judging it had been laced with a drug.

  Then there were the tablets he religiously gave her. Were they street drugs he’d procured, or the one’s Tim said the doctor had prescribed, if indeed he had prescribed any. In time she began to feel worse, and she sensed it must be from either the food she ate or the pills – both given to her by Tim.

  When the news came that Bob was to pay them a visit she half imagined she was dreaming. Tim had mentioned something about Debra being unfaithful and telling lies. But she hadn’t taken it all in, her head seemed full of a hundred different things, and none of it seemed to make sense. She longed to see Bob again, maybe the only person capable of getting her out of this mess.

  Chapter 38

  Fully aware of her predicament, Maria pretended to be asleep. Bob had suffered at the hands of their son and was almost certainly paralysed and incapable of helping her.

  If they were to get out of this situation it would be down to her. But what could she do? Even with the element of surprise she didn’t have the strength to stop her son. Her only chance was to find a way of raising the alarm without him knowing. If she tried to use the telephone, he’d know straightaway, and she had no idea what had happened to her mobile.

  Slowly she opened her eyes to confirm Tim was no longer in the room watching over them. Bob lay across the bed looking at her but was unable to move.

  Thinking any action was better than nothing, she sat up putting her finger to her lips to indicate that Bob should be quiet. And moving across to him she started to search through his pockets for his mobile phone. She was frantic as Tim might come back at any time.

  Her efforts were fruitless, so she turned him over onto his side to look in his back pockets, but again drew a blank. Oh no, tears began to well in her eyes, this seemed so hopeless, but looking at Bob she saw his eyes were turned towards the window. And following his gaze noticed his coat on the back of a chair. In her haste she fell off the bed with a bump and stood still frightened to death in case she’d been heard downstairs. After a few seconds with much relief she found the phone in his inside jacket pocket. She pulled it out, went over to the door and pulled on her dressing gown which was hanging there. So far so good, she thought, slipping the phone into a pocket. Next came the long trek to the bathroom. But as she crossed the landing she saw Tim at the bottom of the stairs. She gasped silently, trying to keep calm.

  ‘You’ve recovered I see. So what are you doing now mum?’ he asked.

  ‘I need the toilet,’ she said hurriedly stepping inside the bathroom.

  But to her dismay he rushed up the stairs, two at a time, saying, ‘All right, I’ll wait outside.’ Luckily he failed to catch her as she locked the door behind her.

  She was all fingers and thumbs, and dropped the phone on the carpet but quickly picked it up again. It was a little different from her own, so she wasted precious seconds trying to find out how the damn thing worked. At last the number rang out. Quickly she turned on the taps in the bath in the hope of drowning out the noise.

  ‘Hallo
, police – this is an emergency. There’s a man in my house – and he’s trying to kill me and my husband. Please help me…’

  ‘Mum, are you all right in there, only you’re running water into the bath. You said you were only going to the toilet?’

  ‘I’m fine, but I need a bath too.’

  Then she spoke into the phone again. ‘My address is…’

  ‘I’m coming in.’ Suddenly there was a bang and the door literally shook.

  ‘Oh no,’ She dropped the phone down the toilet and flushed it. Just managing to push the lid down as his second kick had the desired effect. The door flew open banging back against the wall. He ran in, as she tied up her dressing gown.

  ‘I’ve told you not to leave the bedroom without telling me.’

  He moved across to turn off the taps. ‘Come on I’ll help you back to bed.’

  He took hold of her arm not too gently. Reluctantly she went back to the bedroom, stopping every few seconds to gain her breath – but it was a charade to delay getting back to the bedroom in the hope the police would come to save them. Thank God she’d had time to give the police the address.

  He helped her get back into bed, and under the covers.

  ‘You are so silly, giving me all this stress. And now dad seems to have got this virus too. This is too much for me.’

  Maria didn’t comment but watched in horror as he took out a strip of tablets, and removed two.

  What did he intend doing now?

  ‘He has to take his medicine, or he’ll end up in hospital.’ He placed a pillow under his father’s neck letting his head fall back, then held Bob’s nose and swiftly placed the tablets in his mouth.

  Maria screamed ‘No, No!’ as Bob began to gurgle and with every bit of strength she could muster, she leaned over and tried to pull Tim off her husband.

  ‘Stop it, woman, I’m only trying to make him better.’

  ‘No, you’re trying to kill him…’

  He pushed his mother aside, then gave her a tremendous whack in the face with the back of his hand causing her to fall off the bed and onto the floor. She felt warm blood streaming down her nose and lips. But Tim looked oblivious to what he’d done and was relentless in his efforts to force his father to swallow the tablets.

  Maria could only watch in horror, so tense and afraid that soon her turn would come. Her head seemed to spin, and she suddenly realised lights were flashing on the walls around the room. Streaming in from outside. There was a sudden loud bang downstairs at the front door, not once but several times.

  ‘Police, open the door!’ This was like a voice from heaven.

  Tim froze and rage appeared to emanate from every pore of his body. Maria looked silently on praying this would free them from their nightmare. When the banging started again, he moved away from Bob, saying, ‘You’d better keep quiet, nan’s life depends on it.’ And after composing himself for a few seconds he left the room, and went bounding down the stairs.

  Knowing her son’s true colours Maria hoped to God, whatever story he concocted, wouldn’t be believed by the police. From the sound of raised voices downstairs, Tim’s conversation appeared to have turned into an argument.

  What followed next were several bumps and bangs as if the argument had turned into a fight. Then came the sound of thudding feet up the stairs.

  Oh please God, let it not be Tim, she thought.

  When the door opened, for a split second her heart stopped, before seeing with relief, three uniformed officers, one saying, ‘It’s all right love, you’re safe now, no need to worry. We’ll have you out of here in a few minutes.’

  ‘Bob…’ She pointed a wavering finger to her husband lying on the bed.

  Another police officer, bending over Bob confirmed, ‘He’s alive madam, barely – but he’ll be in good hands once the ambulance arrives.’

  ‘Did my son get away?’

  ‘No, we have him in custody. There’s no chance of him harming you any further. We’ve had our eye on him for a while, one of our officers recognised him from a while ago, as a drug dealer.’

  Maria shook her head in shame, that a son of hers could be such an unscrupulous man. She’d always thought supplying drugs to young people was a despicable crime involving the lowest of the low.

  It was obvious to her now that the fire hadn’t been an accident and somehow or other Tim had started it, covering his actions later by wallowing in the pretence of trying to save his grandparents. His ultimate goal, however, was to kill his parents and inherit their money.

  Yet for all that, Tim was her own flesh and blood, and although she still loved him, it would be a long time before she’d want to see him again, if ever. They’d tried to bring him up decently, but had failed. Where had they gone wrong?

  Maria sat beside Bob’s bed having kept an all-night vigil on his progress. She’d been examined when they first arrived at the hospital and hadn’t wanted to go home.

  Bob now lay motionless in bed. Lots of tubes were attached to him, in an effort to flush out the poisons from his system. The paralysis he’d suffered was slowly being reversed, and when he finally opened his eyes, he could just about turn his head towards his wife.

  ‘Maria, are you all right – after what he did to you?’ he whispered in a low voice.

  She took his hand and smiled at him. ‘Yes, bruises and cuts will heal… but you… I feared I’d lost you.'

  ‘If our son had had his way, you probably would have. I knew he was up to something but I couldn’t put my finger on what. It looks like that’s two mistakes I’ve made in my life.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter Bob, it’s all turned out all right in the end. I’m to blame really, for being so obsessed, and never seeing any wrong in him. I had an excuse for whatever he did.

  ‘All the while you were here, I knew what he was up to but was powerless to do anything about it because he threatened to kill mom.’ After a few seconds she added, ‘Thankfully he didn’t manage to get to her. She’s due to leave hospital within the next few days.’

  Tears came into Bob’s eyes. ‘How could we bring up a son like that?’

  ‘Well perhaps it was nature and not nurture.’ Not wanting to upset Bob unduly she decided not to reveal everything she’d learnt about their son but instead said, ‘By the way I have some news for you, we have a grandson. Maybe out of all this misery something good has emerged.’

  For the first time Bob managed to move his fingers, and squeeze Maria’s hand. She wondered if after all that had happened, there might yet be a chance for them.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Born and bred in the West Midlands UK. Martin writes under the pen name of Peter Martin. Missing – Dead or Alive is his second novel, following Against Her Will, his debut novel, the story of one young woman's fight to lead a normal life after a horrific attack.

  His current novel is about a teenager who goes missing for no apparent reason. It is the story of how this affects the lives of his family.

  Martin's interests lie mainly in crime, suspense and thrillers. His favourite authors are diverse, including Robert Goddard, R J Ellory, Kate Mosse, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Diane Chamberlain, Harper Lee,Wilbur Smith.

  For more info martinperks.weebly.com