She awkwardly lurched for her phone and dropped it on the floor. It stopped ringing as it nestled into the carpet.
Maria scooped the phone from the floor and checked to see who had called.
Her heart skipped a beat as she saw that it had been Campbell. She assumed that he would leave a message and patiently waited for her messaging service to bleep to tell her she had voicemail.
But there was no message.
Why didn’t he leave me a message? she thought.
Maria waited for him to call again, but he didn’t.
“Bollocks, this is the twenty first century, what am I doing?” she said to herself and called him back.
“Hi Maria!”
She smiled as she heard his voice.
“Hi Campbell, sorry I couldn’t pick up just now, where are you?”
“I’m back in Bristol, I landed yesterday afternoon.”
They exchanged small talk for several minutes until Campbell posed the question that Maria had been hoping for.
“So Maria, I was wondering, when would be good for us to meet up?”
Maria felt like a teenager, she wanted to speak but her lips seem to be separated from her face and were beyond her control.
Eventually she spurted out “when’s good for you?”
“I’m free this Friday, I was thinking we could get a bite to eat, I know a nice Italian restaurant, do you like Italian food?”
“Yes that sounds lovely, and Friday should be fine.”
“Great, well that’s a date, well not a date, but you know what I mean.”
Maria giggled. She knew he was as nervous and tongue-tied as she.
He said he would call over at eight on Friday to pick her up.
Maria got straight on the phone to Samreen who was over the moon and offered to babysit Christopher.
Maria had the rest of the night to relax. She poured a large glass of Sauvignon Blanc and opened her laptop.
It had been a busy weekend and she’d not had time to check Facebook since Friday. She opened the browser and logged into her account to see what had been going on in the world during the past two days.
As the distinctive blue and white social media site opened she saw that she’d had a friend request. Ignoring it, she scrolled through the various posts and status updates. It was the usual stuff.
‘Share if you love your daughter’
‘Share if you miss someone who was close to you’
She hated the gooey aspect of Facebook.
She scrolled through various pictures of her friends’ Sunday lunches and enough selfies to sink a ship.
Maria yawned as she was about to close the lid on her laptop before she remembered that she had received a friend request.
She clicked the little icon at the top of the screen and felt a chill run through her body when she saw who had sent it.
It was from Rob. The man who was the father of her son.
Frozen, she sat in front of her computer screen.
Chapter fifty three
Jarrett’s Builders Merchant
8.30am
Monday 10th October
Daniel Boyd returned to work for the first time since his sickness episode the previous Monday. He didn’t need to see a doctor as he knew very well what had made him ill.
He’d spent the last week moping around his flat and feeling sorry for himself.
At one point, the guilt which was eating into his soul almost pushed him into turning himself over to the police, but that notion didn’t last very long.
He’d spent the week alone. He’d had no visitors and, other than Stanley, he’d had no phone calls. Stanley was the only person who showed any concern for him. Boyd liked him. Although they were not friends in the true manner of the word, Stanley was the closest thing to a friend.
Boyd had resisted the urge to go out and score drugs and, other than a bottle of cheap wine he had at home, he’d not had a drink.
What occurred to him during that past week was that he was entirely on his own. He had no one to turn to and no one, other than Stanley, cared about him.
He’d spent the last six day’s wallowing in self-pity and considering the implications of what he’d done.
Coming face to face with Liz Mason’s father had been the catalyst which sparked the first embers of guilt that were slowly burning inside him.
Before now he’d never felt remorse for any of his actions.
All the people he’d fought, stolen from, abused, angered and ridiculed, had never left him with a pang of guilt. But now he was different, and he didn’t know whether he liked the new Daniel Boyd.
The guilt he was feeling was because of what had happened to Liz and not the death of Ben. This was peculiar as he had not laid a finger on the girl, she’d happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But with Ben, there had been a motive for his murder and he’d gone out of his way to end Ben’s life, and because of that he felt no remorse.
As he walked around the builders merchant that morning, no one asked him how he was feeling. Colin Jarrett nodded at him and handed him a clipboard of orders that needed to be packed for delivery. Stanley had the day off and Geoff hardly said a word to him.
He wandered around in auto pilot mode, packing orders and loading Lorries until it was time to go home for another lonely night in front of the television.
Chapter fifty four
Maria’s flat
7.15pm
Wednesday 12th October
Maria had taken a few days to consider Rob’s friend request on Facebook. She hadn’t yet responded and wasn’t sure why he wanted to befriend her.
She had written him out of her life and didn’t want him to have anything to do with Christopher. She’d done alright up until now without him and had been pretty certain she could continue without him in her life.
But since he’d sent her the request, and seeing the little thumbnail picture of him, it had made her think about him.
She logged onto Facebook and ignored the request that was still hanging at the top of the page.
There was a new notification. She’d received a message from someone. She clicked the link and gulped as her heart skipped a beat. It was from Rob. She read the message.
------------------------------------------------
Hi Maria, this is Rob. I hope you and our baby are OK and I hope you don’t mind me sending you this message.
I’ve been thinking about you recently and regret what I’ve done. I shouldn’t have left you and looking back, I don’t know what I was thinking. I hope you can forgive me.
I bumped into Sean from Westhouse last week and he said that you were looking good and that I should say hello, so here I am saying hello.
Could we meet up at some point as I would love to see the baby and catch up with you?
You never know, we may get things going again?
Look forward to hearing from you,
Love Rob
----------------------------------------------------
And that was his message.
Maria read it, and read it again.
She was confused and didn’t know what to do. She had made her mind up a long time ago to make her way in life without him and that was based upon the assumption that he wouldn’t resurface. But now he was back her mind was changing.
She needed time to think about what to do, and what she really needed was to talk it over with someone.
She copied the message and dropped it into an email and sent it to Samreen to see what she thought and then called her mother.
Claire’s response was exactly as Maria had expected.
“Don’t go anywhere near the pig,” was Claire’s reaction.
Maria knew her mother was right as she’d only end up with a broken heart, for a second time from the same man.
Samreen was quick to reply to Maria’s email and her response was much the same as her mother’s.
--------------------------------------------------
---
Maria,
Think with your head and not with your heart. The man’s a rat and he always will be.
Why don’t you reply and make out how rosy life isn’t now you have a child. Tell him about all the hard work you have to do, tell him about the end of your social life and mention Christopher’s head banging.
Then see how keen he is to be back in your life with the responsibility of looking after a young child.
Take care
Samreen
xxxx
----------------------------------------------------
Maria could always rely on her best friend for sound advice. She decided to reply to Rob’s email and spin a few white lies to test the man’s mettle.
She sat at her computer and composed a reply.
---------------------------------------------------
Rob,
I must admit I am surprised to hear from you after such a long time.
I’m a bit too busy to consider meeting up at the moment, but would not rule it out altogether.
The baby, my little boy doing OK(ish). My life has turned upside down since he was born and it is a struggle to balance everything to fit around him. Being a single ‘working’ mum is very demanding and I don’t get very much time for socialising.
He is currently seeing a paediatrician in London as he suffers badly from RMD, but I am hopeful he will be OK.
Anyway, enough about me, what have you been doing for the last two years?
Maria
-----------------------------------------------------
She hit send and closed her laptop.
Chapter fifty five
Bottelinos Italian Restaurant
Bristol
7.30pm
Friday 14th October
Campbell picked Maria up by taxi at seven thirty. He’d decided not to drive. He had been a little anxious about his evening with her and he knew he would need a wine or two to ease his nerves.
He was wearing jeans, an open necked shirt and a waist coat. This was the first time she had seen him wearing something other than the Coaster’s uniform and noticed how handsome he looked when casually dressed.
She wore a green flowing floral dress down to her knees and a small sage green cropped cardigan. Her tousled red hair fell over her shoulders. Campbell thought she looked stunning.
Campbell passed her the wine list and was surprised when her favourite wine was the same as his. He ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.
They enjoyed each other’s company and got on well. She helped him briefly forget the horrible few weeks he’d been through since the death of his father.
She asked him about his past. He’d recently finished a three year PhD in Computer Science and was working at Coaster’s temporarily until a job in software engineering came up.
He’d been in a long term relationship when he was a student, but unfortunately the intensity of his studies made the couple become distant, both by location and in love and their relationship had eventually fizzled out.
He asked about her. She told him about her childhood, her job, her ex Rob and why she was a single parent. She didn’t tell him that Rob had recently been back in touch.
He was a good listener and Maria felt at ease in his company. She found it hard to keep her eyes off him. There was a definite spark between them.
Campbell asked about Christopher, and Maria told him about his head banging and how it had got worse. She told him about Rhythmic Motion Disorder. He listened intently as she told him about her visit to the doctor and Esther Hall.
By the time they had finished their meal it was nine forty five and the evening had flown by. They enjoyed each other’s company.
Samreen was babysitting and Maria promised her that she would be home by ten. Samreen had to be up early for work the next day so didn’t want to stay up too late. This suited Maria as she had no idea how her evening would turn out, and if it had been a disaster then she had a good excuse for getting out of there. Fortunately the night had gone well, and Maria would’ve loved to have spent more time with Campbell.
Campbell called for a taxi as Maria finished the last of her wine. She hoped he had enjoyed the evening as much as she, as she would love spend more time with him. Who knows where it could lead?
The taxi pulled up outside Maria’s flat followed by an awkward moment. Campbell was shy and wasn’t sure whether he should kiss her goodnight, whilst she sat in silence waiting for something to happen. She couldn’t stand waiting any longer and punctuated the uncomfortable moment by asking him in for coffee.
She hadn’t planned on it, it just happened. However well the evening had gone her intention was to have the meal, go home and decide whether she would like to see him again. She didn’t expect to ask him back to her flat.
“If you don’t mind, I would love to.”
Maria caught the eye of the taxi driver in the rear view mirror and he quickly looked the other way. Even though she couldn’t see his face, she could tell that he was smiling.
Campbell paid the fare and the taxi pulled away.
Maria fumbled for her keys and dropped her purse spilling loose change onto the pavement. Her nervous excitement was getting the better of her.
He knelt down and helped her pick up the coins. Her hair brushed against his face and he could smell her shampoo. She smiled at him and he smiled back.
And then he kissed her.
It wasn’t a long embracing kiss, not like in the movies, it was more of a clumsy peck, which ended up half on her lips and half on the side of her face.
It didn’t matter, Maria’s heart fluttered, no matter how awkward his attempt to kiss her had been.
She stood up and opened the door. Samreen was standing in the hall waiting for Maria. She had heard the sound of the door opening and was desperate to find out how the evening had gone. She was surprised to see Campbell, as Maria had told Samreen that no matter how well the evening went she wouldn’t be bringing him home for the night.
The night must have gone very well thought Samreen.
“Would you like me to make coffee?” offered Campbell. He knew the girls would want a few minutes to chat together.
“That would be great,” said Maria. She asked Samreen if she would like to join them for a drink.
Samreen shook her head with a cheeky grin.
“No thanks, I’ll leave you guys to it. I need to be up early in the morning.”
Campbell brought two mugs of coffee into the lounge. He had made two cappuccinos.
“How did you know I’d like a cappuccino?” said Maria.
“Duh,” said Samreen, “he does work in your favourite coffee shop.”
Maria walked with Samreen to the front door. They stood on the step and chatted for a few minutes before Samreen kissed her on the cheek and whispered in her ear “You dirty hussy.” Maria gave her a look as if she was offended, then giggled.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“You’d better do,” said Samreen as she walked to her car.
Maria closed the door and nervously turned and walked to the lounge where she found Campbell perched on the edge of the settee.
It had been a long time since she’d been on her own with a man and she’d never invited someone back to her house after a first date. She had no idea what should happen next. As much as she liked him, she wasn’t going to start rolling around on the floor with him like a desperate teenager. Their conversation had flowed in the restaurant but now things were different and neither of them knew what to say.
“Nice cappuccino,” she said.
“Thanks, I’ve had a bit of practice.”
Maria had a little cappuccino making device in her kitchen and he had struggled with it as it was very different to the one he used at Coaster’s.
As the conversation began to flow, they both felt more comfortable. They sat back on the settee and her arm brushed against his.
They were talking about ‘things’ whe
n a familiar sound returned over Christopher’s baby monitor.
“Ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh,” and then a pause.
“Ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh,” and then another pause.
“Ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh ughh,” and then a pause.
Christopher had started again. It had been a few weeks since he’d banged his head and he sure chose a bad night to start up again.
Campbell looked at Maria awkwardly as he listened to Christopher chant and bang his head.
“Would you like me to stay, or would you rather be on your own?”
Maria hardly knew him but she didn’t want to be on her own right now. She knew how bad Christopher could get and would appreciate someone being with her, and Campbell was that someone.
“I’ll go and see him, you wait here for a minute and hopefully I can get him to stop.”
But she couldn’t. He was fast asleep and totally unaware of what he was doing. Banging and crashing around in his cot, chanting and grunting.
But this time his chanting sounded different.
Chapter fifty six
The Awareness
The Awareness stirred after several weeks of inactivity. It had been building its strength after its last awakening which had drained it.
Still having no concept of time, it carried on from where it had left off.
It had learnt so much. It knew its name, it knew when it was alive it had been male, he even knew he had been a policeman and the important thing he knew was that he’d been murdered.
But where was he now? Was he in some kind of limbo? If it was heaven or hell it was certainly a let down.
Memories were all he had. He concentrated on his memories of Liz and remembered how much he’d loved her when he was alive and how he still loved her now.
Every time he remembered their kiss, the memory segued seamlessly to when he had been killed. The memory intrigued and saddened him. He had recalled the memory of the boy holding the rock many times before, but he was unable to work out who he was.
The Hill - Ben’s Story (Book One).: A Paranormal Murder Mystery Thriller. (Book One). Page 21
