by Edie Baylis
Noticing Alan flinch, Seth hid a smile. “You don’t mind if I take a quick snap do you? Identification purposes.”
Alan shook his head and swallowed down the large brick stuck somewhere down his gullet. Identification purposes? What for? His body?
Mentally kicking himself for allowing his mind to run away with itself, inflaming his already fragile state of mind, he pulled his brain back to reality. He was being silly. He was being asked a perfectly acceptable question for God’s sake! Wasn’t he...?
Never being a very good liar, Alan tried to look normal and not like a recently released lunatic who hadn’t been taking his tablets and stared down the lens of the camera.
“Thanks Alan,” Seth smiled, placing the camera back in the drawer.
“N-No problem,” Alan murmured, hoping he wouldn’t let himself down by toppling off the chair in fear. If he got out of here – no, when he got out of here – think positive Alan, stop being so melo-bloody-dramatic – then he was going for a drink. He was already late for his shift at the Limelight, so a bit more time wouldn’t matter.
Maybe Aiden was about? They said they’d catch up for a drink, but that was weeks ago and... Hang on... Aiden came to that party. It couldn’t have been him could it? People said they looked similar...
Aiden had been present at that party, but the only person he’d seen him talking to was that hideous cougar who’d jumped on the pair of them when they’d arrived. Admittedly he hadn’t taken that much notice of what his brother had been doing the rest of the night, but surely he’d have mentioned it if something important had happened?
They told each other everything. It had been the same since they were little. Having only eighteen months between them ensured they’d always been close. It was only since leaving school they’d inevitably drifted apart as they’d both got on with their lives and they didn’t see each other as much as they’d have liked.
Seth was studying the expressions running across Alan’s face. “Has something come back to you?” he barked.
Alan jumped in his seat. He’d allowed himself to get side-tracked. Shit. He’d never been much good at hiding things. “No, sorry. I was worrying about being late for work that’s all.” Oh God. Now he’d lied. He’d lied to Seth Wright...
There was no way he’d bring Aiden into this by mentioning his name. What was the point? There was no chance Aiden would have done anything untoward. Besides, he was his younger brother and he’d always looked out for him and that hadn’t changed.
Seth leant casually against the front of his desk close to Alan. “Just one last question... Has Miller found out who disfigured that poor girl yet?”
Alan was taken aback by the question. He hadn’t expected it. He couldn’t say anything against Miller, even if he had thought along the same lines himself. For all he knew this could be a set up.
“My understanding is that he’s still looking into it Sir,” Alan replied steadily. Well, it was probably true.
“Ok,” Seth said breezily, pushing himself up to his full height. “Thanks for your time Alan. Remember to get in touch straight away if anything comes back to you.”
Alan stood up, praying his jelly-like legs wouldn’t let him down. He forced himself to meet Seth’s eyes which were drilling into his.
“Or of course if you hear of anything which rings alarm bells that might also be of interest to me.” Seth smiled coldly. “Dan, take Alan wherever he needs to go.”
Dan quickly ushered Alan out of Seth’s office and down the stairs. As they walked to the car in silence, Alan recalled Aiden had been in the Limelight the night Billie-Jo was attacked.
He shook his head to remove the ridiculous suspicion which had begun to form.
ANNA RAISED HER HAND to her face when Tina delivered another stinging slap to her cheek.
“It’s all your fault, you stuck up bitch!” Tina screamed, spittle spraying into Anna’s hair. “If you hadn’t broadcast your involvement with the Wrights, then none of this would have happened.”
Oh she was loving this. Loving EVERY minute. She’d have descended on Anna before now, but knew she’d needed at least a couple of days to tone down the joy and relief that their mother was no longer around. She could hardly deliver a genuine-looking angry bashing with a big smile on her face could she?
Tina had literally danced with glee when Aiden had returned, telling her the job had been successfully carried out. It was like a grand piano had been lifted off her shoulders – one that had sat there crushing her from the outside all her bloody life and now it was gone.
Never again would she have to listen to bitchy comments about what a dreadful daughter she was or what an embarrassment she’d been all her life. No more would she have to pretend her mother’s words didn’t bother her, when really they cut her to the bone and neither would she have to hear ever again how much of a failure she was in comparison to her sister. The perfect Anna...
“If only you’d bothered to get me more information,” Tina raged, lurching towards her sister who had now dropped to her knees. “You had the perfect opportunity to get all the dirt in the world on the most dangerous couples in town, but you didn’t. I could have paid my debt off, but you didn’t want that did you? Oh no, you’d rather make it a dead fucking cert someone would cop it and you were hoping it would be me, but it wasn’t. It was Mum. YOU’VE done all of this Anna. YOU!”
Tina hid her smile. All that mattered was if Anna believed she was to blame for their mother’s death, that would be her downfall. It couldn’t have turned out more perfect. God, it was almost orgasmic.
Anna could barely formulate any words her sobbing was so intense. She’d been surprised to learn her sister was in the living room and she’d dreaded going downstairs as she knew what was going to happen, so she’d quickly ushered Tina out of the house and down the road to the small park and there she’d let rip. But everything she’d said was true. Everything!
Anna looked up at Tina with her tear-stained face. “I’m so sorry Tina. I tried my best but what can I do?”
Tina scowled. “What can you do? That’s the problem. You didn’t do enough and certainly didn’t do your best!”
Anna grasped at her sister’s grubby tracksuit. “Please. You’ve got to listen to me. What if they come for you next?”
Tina raised her eyebrows in mock thoughtfulness. “Has it ever crossed your mind that this may have had nothing to do with my debt, but everything to do with your beloved Mr Wright? Do you think he was happy discovering the source leaking his dirty washing to the press was none other than you?”
Anna’s sobs quietened to soft hiccups. “That’s not possible...” Could that have been it? She’d certainly seen a different side to Seth lately...
Tina smiled watching the cogs whirring in Anna’s head. “Yep, it’s sinking in isn’t it? The people I owe money to wouldn’t have got much by knocking off an old woman would they? What would they do? Pawn her shitty furniture?” she laughed loudly.
Dropping down onto her haunches, Tina squatted in front of Anna. “They were still getting info from me via you which they could use, so although your efforts have been feeble, it was still something. No Anna, I think you need to look closer to home for the culprit.” Oh and how true was that!
Anna felt thoroughly sick. It was feasible.
“Furthermore,” Tina drawled, loving seeing Anna squirm like the worm she was. “I heard the story you enabled the papers to print has fundamentally damaged the chance of the Wrights ever getting their daughter back. Know that did you? Not that they stood a chance of finding her, but that’s not the point.”
Anna looked at Tina. “How do you know about their daughter?” As far as she knew no one knew about that. She only knew because she’d overheard yet another of their arguments. She paled further. If that was true then there was definitely a motive for hurting her through her mother.
“Although it could equally be my debtors,” Tina continued glibly. “I guess we’ll never know. It�
��s not like I’m going to fucking ask them if they killed my mother is it?” she sneered. “And if it’s them, then yes – they’ll be coming for me next.” Oh she’d got her. Look at her face. She’d got her well and truly. “Either way Anna, it’s on you isn’t it!”
Anna looked up. “Tina please. I’m still in a position where I can do what you need. Just tell me what you want me to do.”
Tina scowled. She didn’t want to look too eager. “How can I trust you now?”
“Tina! You need to let me put this right. I need to do this,” Anna begged, grabbing her sister’s arm.
“You need? You need? It’s always about you isn’t it?” Tina snapped, shaking Anna’s grip from her sleeve.
“I’ll do whatever you want,” Anna insisted.
Tina pulled some paper out of her pocket and shoved it in Anna’s hands. “In that case, the first thing you can do is put this on Jane’s desk in her office. Secondly, get me Seth’s hairbrush and thirdly – I want the kid.”
She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of this before. Eliza would love it if she could get her hands on that baby – she knew how much her boss wanted revenge on the Wrights and if she could surprise her with that on top of everything else, then she was sure she’d be handsomely rewarded.
THIRTY EIGHT
JANE TRIED NOT TO FIDGET whilst she waited for Carl Mulligan to get to the point. She knew it must be important for the man to have called so late last night asking for an urgent meeting as soon as possible, especially as he had been reluctant to discuss details over the phone.
Even though Seth had tried to get her to remain at home, Jane had insisted on being present at the meeting. If this man knew something about Grace, then she wanted to be there to hear it.
Carl Mulligan shuffled some paperwork in his hands and looked between Seth and Jane in turn. “As I said, I’m sorry to have asked you to drop everything at such short notice but I felt th...”
“It’s fine Carl,” Seth interrupted. “There isn’t anything that’s more important than news of our daughter, so with all due respect, cut the waffle and just tell us the score.”
Jane glanced at Seth, watching the nerve twitch in his neck. He was clearly as pent up as she was about this and personally thought that if this man felt the need to procrastinate, then it looked like whatever he had found they weren’t going to like.
“Very well...” Mulligan took a deep breath. “I’ve located your daughter an...”
Seth stood up, knocking a jar of paperclips over in his haste. “Great! Where is she? Can we have the details? I wa...”
Mulligan raised his hand. “It’s not quite as simple as that I’m afraid.”
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean it’s not simple? You’ve either found her or you haven’t! Which fucking one is it?”
“Seth!” Jane hissed. Having a go at this bloke wasn’t going to get them their information.
“Well,” Mulligan continued, “I’ve located your daughter’s records. She’s been renamed twice and the birthdate was entered incorrectly on one set of official paperwork, which is what has most likely flummoxed previous investigators.” He laid a sheet of paper on the desk, swivelling it around so it faced Seth and Jane.
“What’s this?” Jane asked, scanning the list.
“These are the temporary foster placements and children’s homes your daughter has been placed in over the last few years.”
Jane looked down the list of names. There were at least thirty all over the country that she could see at first glance. Hot tears burnt at the back of her eyes. “Are you telling me our daughter has been constantly moved from one place to another all this time?” she snapped angrily.
Mulligan nodded sadly. “I’m afraid so.”
“Look Seth,” Jane stabbed at the paper. “In that month alone she was moved three times!”
Seth’s teeth clenched as a myriad of emotions ran through his mind. It looked like Jane’s sixth sense had been right after all.
“Who’s that?” Jane asked, pointing to a name at the top of the list.
Mulligan peered at the sheet. “That’s what your daughter is called now. Emily. Emily Benson.”
“Emily Benson?” Seth muttered almost to himself. “So how do we move forward? What’s the next stage? As you know there’s quite a few things going on here and so we need to get this wrapped up sooner rather than later.”
Jane watched Carl Mulligan absentmindedly scratch his chin and she felt a rush of foreboding creep up on her. He was stalling. They weren’t going to like his answer were they?
Mulligan cleared his throat. “That’s where there’s a slight issue...”
“Well spit it out then man!” Seth growled. “You don’t need to sugar-coat it. We need to know the crack.”
“I heard back from the authorities last night. They’ve confirmed there’s an adoption in process.”
Jane felt like she might pass out. “My daughter’s being adopted?”
“It hasn’t been finalised yet,” Mulligan said hastily. “It’s about to be though. Everything else has been completed and they’re at the last stage - the formality of the court’s signing of the papers. Although I can’t get the date for this.”
“You’ve got to stop it!” Seth raged. He snatched up the telephone. “I’ll call the solicitor now.”
“The notice for adoption was listed some time ago. No one came forward with any objections...” Mulligan said quietly.
“It has to be stopped!” Jane cried. “She’s our daughter! Tell us where she is.”
“Well that’s just it. I can’t. They won’t release that information at this stage unless we have a legal warrant, so we need to apply for it.”
“How long will that take?” Seth snapped. He was fast losing his temper. If anyone thought he would stand by and let his flesh and blood be adopted from under his nose they’d got rocks in their head.
“It depends. It could be months.”
“When’s this adoption set to go through?” Jane asked, her voice barely audible. She felt like she was sinking and could hardly bear to ask the question.
“The final granting usually goes through a month or two after everything else has been completed,” Mulligan answered, seeing deep emotion flood the faces of the couple in front of him. “And it was filed over a month ago...”
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re saying it could be any time now?”
“What can we do?” Jane cried in desperation.
Mulligan sighed. “We need to get on top of this as soon as possible. At this stage, there’s not a lot anyone can do once it’s happened.”
Seth’s mouth set in a hard line. Tomorrow he’d be back on the case finding out who was sending those threatening letters. Thankfully none had arrived today, but he suspected it was only a matter of time before the next one arrived. He would get to the bottom of this and finish it before the threats moved past mere letters and he was fairly certain that whoever was sending those letters had something to do with this adoption. What did they say again? ‘We’ve got your daughter...’
Standing up suddenly, he swiped the entire contents of his desk to the floor and stormed from the room, leaving Jane staring at Carl Mulligan in abject shellshock.
ALAN RUSHED DOWN THE road towards the car lot. He glanced at his watch and didn’t dare run the risk of being late back. He’d only got a two hour slot between shifts today and it had taken him the best part of three-quarters of an hour to get over the other side of the city.
He’d got grief for being late the other night after his run in with Seth Wright, but had instinctively felt it wouldn’t have been a wise decision to explain why he’d been so late. He was uncomfortable enough about all of this as it was and certainly didn’t want anyone else – like Jason Miller – on his back as well.
He’d been hoping to catch up with Aiden before now, but there had been no gaps in his schedule which corresponded with when he knew Aiden would be at work. Being as he didn’
t even have an address for his brother these days, he had no choice but to do it this way.
Thankful to see the bright red signage of the car sales forecourt ahead of him, Alan crossed the tarmac, impatiently waving away an approaching salesman who had hastily moved in his direction clearly about to embark on a sales pitch. He wasn’t here to buy a fucking car!
Alan pulled open the heavy door to the plush interior of the sales office, the strong air conditioning blasting him fully in the face.
He glanced around the desks positioned at widely spaced intervals around the large expanse of the room. Where was Aiden? Maybe he’d finally been promoted and moved up to one of the sales offices upstairs?
Alan looked up at the high galleried level of fishbowl glass-fronted offices and realised there was no way of knowing who was in any of them without being up there. He sighed, hoping after all of this Aiden wasn’t out to lunch.
“Good afternoon Sir,” a suited man approached from behind, his hand already poised to shove a sheaf of shiny brochures in his hand. “Any particular model you’re interested in? Diesel? Petrol? An automatic perhaps?”
Alan glared at the man in irritation. “I’m actually looking for someone. My brother – Aiden Barber. He works here. Do you know where I can find him?”
The salesman frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t know anyone of that name, but I’ve only recently joined the company. Let me go and ask my colleague.”
Alan impatiently watched the man lope over to the nearest desk and converse with another man. He saw the seated man glance up and look in his direction before getting up and making his way over.
Alan forced a smile. Finally. Perhaps now he could get on with it? He hadn’t got much time.
“Hello Sir. I understand you’re looking for Aiden?” the man said, extending his hand.
Alan nodded and shook the proffered hand. “That’s right. I need to speak to him. It’s quite urgent.” Get the hint. And I don’t want to buy a car!
