Dark of Mind

by Robin Roughley

  'How long was he gone for?' Odette enquired.

  Samuel checked the clock again, before turning and placing his hands on the polished wooden bar top. 'Must have been around twenty minutes, I mean, normally I wouldn't have noticed but like I said it was quiet, I kept checking to see where he was and then I figured I must have missed him leaving, that's why I went to collect his drink.'

  'And then he reappeared?'

  'Mm, he said he'd been feeling unwell, he thought it could have been something he ate or spending too long in the sun.'

  Odette felt Lasser stiffen by her side. 'Did he look ill?' he asked.

  'Well, he looked hot in the face, he was sweating quite a lot, and then he said he was going to head home, and he left.'

  Seconds later they were back outside, the gravel car park crammed with gleaming cars, Jaguars, Range Rovers, Mercedes – all new and top of the range – and even a vintage Rolls Royce parked to their left.

  Beyond the car park, the golf course swept away into the distance, small groups of people moving from one green to the next in the late afternoon sunshine. By the time they made it back to their cars Lasser had a cigarette on the go.

  Odette leaned against the side of the Audi; her face thoughtful. 'So, at the time Frank was attacked Robbins was in the gents.'

  'Pretending to be ill,' Lasser added darkly as he blew smoke out on an angry sigh.

  'The truth is his alibi still stands,' she paused, 'if it is Robbins then we have to assume he's been using an untraceable phone to contact Foster and the guy who picked him up.'

  'It could be a woman,' Lasser reminded her.

  Odette glanced at him. 'What does your instinct tell you?'

  'My gut tells me it's a guy, but I've been wrong before,' he admitted.

  Odette shielded her eyes with a raised hand as she looked back at Hindley Hall bathed in the late afternoon sunshine. 'OK, any idea what our next move should be?'

  Lasser thought for a moment, his eyes narrowed as an elderly man sent the white ball arcing into the sky, he pictured Robbins playing golf the night before, strolling around and waving to all and sundry, making sure he was seen by as many people as possible before heading into the clubhouse. It had all been a façade to make sure he had an alibi whilst Foster attacked Frank, and then Robbins had sent his new plaything to collect the injured man from the side of the road.

  'Beth Robbins,' he suddenly whispered.

  Odette looked at him, seeing the concern in his dark eyes. 'What about her?'

  'If Robbins is behind all this then he could be doing it for revenge, I know we can't prove it, but he was the one who brainwashed Pamela Fitzsimmons, he sent her to kill his brother and his ex-wife.'

  'But what about Marshall and Banks? If he was after revenge it would have made more sense to target his ex from the start.'

  'Come on, Odette, Robbins doesn't give a toss about anyone else, he wanted us running around chasing our arses and what better way to do it than have as many victims as possible in the mix.'

  Odette turned slightly to avoid the glare of the sun. 'You're saying the victims are just a smoke screen?'

  'Well, by rights, Frank should be dead right now, meaning we would be investigating another murder, leaving Robbins to get on with the real reason for all this.'

  'To kill his ex-wife?' Odette asked as she picked up on his train of thought.

  Lasser nodded. 'All this started when Beth Robbins slept with the brother and moved him into the family home.'

  'It started way before that,' Odette pointed out.

  Lasser tilted his head questioningly.

  'We know Robbins grew up in an environment where he was constantly abused by his brother and ignored by his parents, yet despite all that he managed to forge a life for himself. He knew on a physical level he was unable to stop his brother's bullying ways, so he concentrated on trying to remove himself from the situation, as soon as he was old enough, he went away to university, he broke the cycle of violence.'

  'And found himself in a place where being smart was seen as a good thing rather than something to be sneered at,' Lasser offered.

  Odette nodded in agreement. 'For the first time ever, he would have felt special, felt safe.'

  Lasser rubbed a hand over his chin, feeling the bristles there. 'I just don't get why he came back to Wigan; he could have stayed away, left his shit family behind and started a new life.'

  'Perhaps he did it to rub his brother's nose in it. Jake Robbins was your typical thug, no job, no prospects and then his brother reappears, only this time with a degree and a career with a good salary. Suddenly, Bradley was the one with the future, the one riding around town in the new car, the one with his own house and a purpose in life.'

  Lasser thought about Robbins, the permanent look of superiority in his eyes, the smile that was almost a sneer on his thin lips. 'I can imagine him doing that, after all those years of putting up with Jake's shit, he wanted to prove to his brother that he was the one going places, while Jake would have carried on signing on jobseekers and probably selling bits of weed on the side.'

  Odette shifted her feet slightly. 'And the icing on the cake would have been finding a woman to marry. I can't imagine that Robbins ever thought of being in any sort of relationship, he would have concentrated on his career knowing that they offered the best way to make something of his life.'

  'You almost sound sorry for the guy,' Lasser suggested as he took another pull on the cigarette.

  Odette shook her head before sliding her fair hair behind her ear. 'I can understand why he wanted to lord it over his brother, but ultimately his sense of superiority blew up in his face.'

  'Because Jake started the affair with Beth Robbins?'

  'That's what I think, it would have been Jake's way to stick the knife in, Bradley might have had the brains, but Jake had the bad boy attitude and he used that to get at Beth and then delighted in rubbing salt into the wound.'

  The more he listened to Odette the more Lasser became convinced that she was right. It had been Bradley's need to prove to Jake that he was the one with the brains and that in the end physical power would get you nowhere in life, it was brain power that counted. Yet all that belief would have been shattered when Jake stole Beth from under his nose and revelled in the fact that his brother had continued to pay the bills and the mortgage, rubbing even more salt into the savage wound. Lasser remembered the doctor at the unit telling him all about it, in a fit of despair Robbins had set fire to the house and been locked up in the psychiatric unit. On more than one occasion Beth had come to visit her husband – her swollen stomach holding Jake's child, begging for forgiveness – but Robbins had sent her packing. Even Jake had appeared and hammered on the door of the unit trying to get at Bradley so he could beat the shit out of him for ruining his ''good thing''.

  Two brothers each trying to ruin the other, each with a burning hatred inside.

  'As far as Robbins is concerned, the best thing that happened to him was being locked up in the unit,' Odette said. 'It gave him the time and the opportunity to plan his revenge.'

  'And he found the perfect weapon in Pamela Fitzsimmons.'

  'But ultimately she failed to kill Beth Robbins,' Odette finished

  Lasser dropped the cigarette to the floor and ground it out with his shoe. 'So, when Pamela was caught Robbins started again looking for someone to take her place and he found Foster and now he has another zombie willing to do anything he demands of them.'

  They looked at one another and then Odette pulled out her phone. 'We need to find out where the ex-wife is staying.'

  'Before it's too late,' Lasser added with a heavy sigh.

  'Fore!' someone shouted from the golf course.

  86

  Faith sat behind the wheel of the car, tears of anguish leaking from her eyes as she tried to think of a way out of the mess that was now her life. After putting petrol into the car, she had headed into the garage to pay only to have her card declined, the young man be
hind the counter had looked apologetic as he tried it again only to shake his head.

  'I'm sorry but it's not having any of it.'

  Faith had started to panic then she realised what must have happened, her father had put a block on the card, she had heard someone behind her sigh as she dug the purse from her pocket, thankfully she'd had just enough cash to pay for the petrol and then she had hurried from the forecourt, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

  Now, she sat in the lay-by and cried as the reality of her situation came crashing down.

  Her father had made it perfectly clear what would happen if she failed to do as he demanded and blocking the credit card was just the start. She tried to imagine what would happen if she defied him and the thought made the tears flow even more. She would be homeless and destitute, and the child inside would continue to grow, a constant reminder of how stupid she had been, but it wouldn't stop there, eventually she would give birth and the truth was she had no idea how to be a mother.

  Her mind seemed to delight in showing her images of her future self – living in some hostel, sitting on a single bed with the newborn baby in her arms, a baby that never stopped crying as if the child already blamed her for being born into an uncaring world. The image snapped her upright, a gasp catching in her parched throat as she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked out over the golden fields bathed in fading sunlight, though to Faith Hinton the landscape looked barren, devoid of any hope.

  Her phone started to trill again, and she lifted it from the holder and glanced at the number, knowing it was Kelly trying to contact her. Muting the sound, she dropped the phone into her pocket, the Bannister family had been so good to her but ultimately, they would be powerless to help in the long term.

  Faith knew that her father would deny her any help and he would also do his best to ensure that no one else was there to pick up the pieces.

  Tears filled her eyes again as she tried to think of a single moment when he had shown her any real affection and found that she couldn't manage it. All her life she had tried so hard to please him, forsaking friends and hobbies, concentrating instead on revision, her bedroom shrinking as she spent year after year studying – her bed littered with text books – in the vain hope that she would be able to live up to what her father demanded.

  She pictured his face and how he would shake his head, his face smeared with disgust when she fell short of the one hundred percent mark.

  'Pathetic, and after all I've done for you,' had been one of his snarled stock responses.

  So, Faith had continued to hit the books with more determination than ever until her brain was full of information, crammed with knowledge and yet still it was never enough.

  Then the strangest of thoughts floated into her faltering brain and for the first time ever she questioned how her father had done in his exams. Had he always got top marks, had he always got one hundred percent in everything?

  Suddenly, the idea seemed preposterous, no one was perfect, everyone made mistakes and yet he always gave the impression that he had never failed at anything.

  She frowned as another image crashed into her mind, she could remember her mother shouting angrily a few months before she had been killed in the car accident, Faith had been in her bedroom trying to block out the shouting voices.

  'But I told you not to risk so much!' her mother's voice had raced up the stairs and into her bedroom, a voice full of angry disbelief.

  Faith had slipped from her bed and headed over to the door on tiptoes, her fluffy slippers whispering over the plush carpet, her favourite teddy bear held tight to her chest.

  'You said it was a certainty, you said you would double your money within six months and now you're standing there and telling me that you've lost it all?'

  Faith had heard her father mumble a reply, but at eight years of age she had been unable to fathom the words, unable to grasp their meaning.

  'You're a stupid fool, you see yourself as this wheeler dealer, but you always lose more than you win and that's because you're not as smart as you like to think you are and to make matters worse you're full of greed!'

  More urgent mumbling from her father had followed and then the front door had slammed, and Faith had hurried across the room to look down as her father jumped into the car, slamming the door hard as he drove away.

  The memory burned into Faith's brain, stripping away the veneer, she had always seen her father as this successful businessman who was smart and sharp and demanded the same exacting standards from his daughter.

  'Hypocrite,' she said in a voice that was suddenly clogged with disgust.

  Then she thought of his girlfriend, saw behind the false smile to the barely concealed hatred.

  She pictured them both standing side by side, two people who only ever thought of themselves, completely heartless, selfish individuals. Faith had no doubt that Livy Sharp would know about the pregnancy and yet she had not tried to contact her, offered no support or advice. In fact, the more she thought about it the more she realised that this would be exactly what she wanted, a perfect excuse to encourage her father to disown his daughter, so she would have even more money to spend on worthless tat. Faith pictured her bedroom being turned into a gym or perhaps a sauna and the two of them enjoying the space that had once been Faith's sanctuary.

  As she sat behind the wheel, the fear she had always felt started to gradually turn to something else, anger bubbled up through the heart of her, yes she had made a mistake, the pregnancy was a disaster but now she knew that her father and the bitch were using it as an excuse to get rid of her.

  Faith Hinton's hands grasped the steering wheel, her grip tightening until her knuckles stood out white with fury.

  87

  Lasser followed Odette as she drove back towards the town centre, after the conversation at the golf club they had both felt a sense of urgency build inside, both convinced that Bradley Robbins was responsible for the mayhem and that his ex-wife would die unless they found her in time. The urge to simply go to his house and beat the truth out of him raged inside and yet he knew it was a hopeless notion and one that he would never act upon. Robbins thought of himself as a smart man and no doubt he had covered most angles, Lasser also knew that eventually he would slip up, but the fear was that others would die before he made the fatal mistake.

  The traffic lights in front changed to red and he brought the car to a stop behind Odette, his fingers tapping on the wheel as the frustration grew, Robbins was laughing at them, taking the piss and there was also a chance that once again he could get away with all of it.

  He pictured Benny Foster, a man who had obviously been a tortured soul, his world shrinking until all he had left was his overweight, overbearing mother to look after, spending his days feeding and cleaning her and then locking himself away in his blank bedroom, the despair taking over as he sliced his flesh with the knife.

  He imagined Robbins whispering poisonous lies into Foster's brain, promising a kind of redemption from the day to day grind of his tortuous life and all the time he would be programming Foster to act on his twisted demands, safe in the knowledge that the police would be unable to touch him.

  The lights changed, and Lasser moved forward knowing that someone else was out there, another drone used by Robbins, another broken individual who had been manipulated into believing that their life was worthless unless they were acting out his demands.

  He imagined a scenario where Robbins was allowed to carry on, searching his way through the suicide sites, cherry-picking the ones he could use, a never-ending supply of disposable people who had nothing to live for and finding a saviour in Bradley Robbins, unaware that he cared less than nothing for them.

  Lasser felt the anger soar, it was the worst kind of manipulation, full of deceit and loathing.

  'Bastard,' he hissed as he continued to follow Odette back to the station.

  88

  The cashier looked at Kelly and Belle, a slight hint of colour in his young chee
ks. 'Yeah, yeah I remember her, she was in here about an hour ago,' he said as he straightened a couple of Mars bars on the display.

  'Did she seem OK to you?' Kelly asked.

  'Well, to be honest no, she tried to pay with a credit card, but the machine knocked her back.'

  Belle and Kelly exchanged a quick glance fraught with concern.

  'So, how did she manage to pay?'

  'Cash,' he replied as he looked at Kelly, more heat rising in his face. 'I tried her card three times, I could see she was getting upset, and there was a queue of people waiting to be served, but thankfully she had enough money to pay for the fuel and then she kind of hurried out with her head down,' he paused, 'to be honest I think she was crying. I would have gone after her to make sure she was OK, but I had to stay and serve the people who were waiting to pay.'

  Kelly smiled and nodded and then Belle tapped her arm and they turned away and headed for the door.

  The young man watched them leave before turning to the fan at his back, letting the cool air waft over his burning face.

  Back in the car, Belle clicked her seat belt into place and lifted the phone from her pocket as Kelly slid the key into the ignition.

  'We were right, her father must have put a stop on her credit card,' Belle said as she tried to ring Faith again yet knowing that she wouldn't answer.

  'The question is where will she go?' Kelly pondered as she adjusted the interior mirror slightly.

  Ending the call, Belle tapped at the screen again. 'I'll ring your mum and let her know what's happened.'

  Kelly nodded and tried to think what they should do next.

  Seconds later, Suzanne answered, and Belle explained about the credit card being refused.

  'Right, you two have done all you can so head back home, and we'll try and get this sorted.'

  'We're both worried about her, Mum,' Kelly said.

  'I know you are, sweetheart, but your dad will find her, so all we can do for now is hope that Faith turns back up here.'