Fight For Your Life - Catherine Holland (crime books to read .txt) 📗

of pants and a deep blue silk blouse.
She picked out a pair of platform shoes to go with the outfit and then went into the bathroom when Sean emerged. Poppy took longer in the shower than was necessary but she wanted the dye out of her hair, when Poppy finally emerged from the bathroom she was dressed apart from her shoes; she put them on and added light make-up to her face. As she bent down to do up her shoes the realisation of what was to come hit her like a freight train.
She stood up and looked at Sean “Ready?” She asked him, Sean nodded and Poppy realised that the enormity of the coming event was centred in his mind as well. Poppy and Sean did last minute checks on their clothing and then stepped outside to the waiting taxi that Sean had ordered a few minutes before. They were driven out to Goddard Street and Poppy stared up at the house that she used to live in with her mom, before everything went to hell.
Poppy and Sean took a few deep breaths before paying the driver stepping out of the cab and adjusting their clothes, when they were ready they walked up to the house and knocked on the front door; Poppy held a bottle of champagne in her hand and when the door opened to reveal Tracey stood in the doorway she took a deep breath, smiled and handed over the champagne.
Tracey accepted the bottle and said “Hi, come on in; Paul’s running a little late but has told us to start the meal without him.” Poppy glanced at Sean and then stepped over the threshold and followed Tracey into the dining room where they were seated at the table. Sean said “Here Tracey, allow me to open the champagne; did Paul say how late he would be?”
Tracey handed the bottle back to Sean and said “He should be here in about ten minutes.” Poppy said “If he’s only going to be ten minutes I think it better if we wait before we eat, is that OK?” Tracey smiled and nodded, “Yes what a wonderful idea.” Tracey then motioned for them to sit in the lounge on a large leather sofa whilst Sean poured them all a glass of champagne.
Ten minutes later the front door opened and they could all hear the muffled footsteps in the hallway; a few moments before Paul entered the lounge Sean stood up and Poppy moved to the edge of the sofa, when Paul entered the lounge he took one look at Tracey and smiled then said “Sorry I’m late honey, work kept me late.” He then took a glance at Sean and Poppy and his smile faded.
“What are they doing here?” He demanded suddenly, his face twisted into a sneer; Tracey stood up and went to her husbands side “This is Poppy and Sean dear, remember? We invited them to dinner this evening.” Paul slapped Tracey across the face and she stumbled back, Poppy steadied her and Sean grabbed Paul by the front of his shirt and said “I think you’d best sit down Mr Cosby; you have a lot of explaining to do.” Tracey rubbed her sore cheek and said “Paul! What has gotten into you?”
Sean pushed him into a chair and Poppy settled Tracey into a chair and said “Tracey, I can explain that.” She then turned to Paul and said “Well do you want to tell her or shall I dad?” Tracey looked from Poppy to Paul and said “Poppy? Did you just call my husband dad?” Poppy glanced at her and said “Yes Tracey I did, I know I told you my parents were dead and in truth I wish that he was.”
She gestured at Paul who sat stone faced in the chair, Paul went to get up and Poppy moved forwards and punched him in the face, “That was for the slap you gave Tracey; she didn’t deserve that.” Paul settled back in the chair and wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hands then said; “I want you both out of my house now! Before I call the police.”
Poppy laughed without humour, “You’ll call the police? Fine go ahead, I’ll tell them everything you’ve done.” Paul froze then laughed “What I’ve done? And what would that be Poppy?” Poppy took out a small tape recorder from her bag and placed it on the coffee table, then looked at her dad “Do we really have to play this game? I just want to know why?”
Tracey looked from Poppy to Paul and said “I want to know what’s going on, and I want to know now!” Poppy looked Paul steadily in the eye, “Are you going to tell her or shall I?” Paul looked furious but said nothing, Poppy looked at Tracey and said “Tracey I’m sorry, I never meant to lie to you; but I needed to get close to you in order to get to him.”
Tracey looked confused and furious at the same time, “Fine, tell me everything; start from the beginning.” Sean glanced at Paul then Poppy and finally Tracey and said “Tracey? Where’s Sonya?” Tracey froze, “Why do you want to know where my daughter is?” Poppy replied “We need to make sure that she’s safe.” Tracey looked at their faces and realised that they were deadly serious.
“She’s upstairs asleep, why what’s going on?” Poppy sighed sadly and said “If I were you Tracey I’d go and get your daughter, pack what you need for her for a few days but do it now; when you come back in here I’ll tell you everything, I promise.” Tracey reluctantly nodded and left the room, when Sean nodded to say that she’d gone upstairs Poppy turned to her father.
“I suggest you get comfortable dad, it’s going to be a long night.” Paul settled back in his chair and Poppy took out another tape player and clipped it to her side, a few minutes later Tracey returned with a sleeping toddler in her arms, she then settled into the sofa and said “Now, tell me everything.” Poppy and Sean looked at each other and nodded.
Poppy sighed and pressed record on the tape player at her hip and then started talking, “Three years ago, when myself, Sean and some friends were at a birthday party and my mom was entertaining all of our friends’ parents, my dad had unbeknownst to us hired a man; this man was supposed to kill me an my mom to end the divorce he and my mom were going through, as well as claim all of the money from the insurance and my trust fund.
“But because our friends’ parents were all here that night, the man killed them all and then set fire to this house; I know that because I used to live here, my friends and I were put into protective custody. A few months later we were all taken on a camping trip where the killer found us after kidnapping a Detective’s wife and daughter. The Detective sold us all out including his partner to get his family back.
“The killer made his move on the third night we were there, the Detective’s partner, three cops and two of our friends were killed that night; but we survived and escaped, a tape was handed to the police station the next morning and it contained the conversation between the Detective and the killer; the Detective was arrested and demoted to a regular police officer.
“Myself and my remaining friends buried our parents before moving to New Mexico, we were meant to have been met at the Airport by some federal agents but they were killed en-route to the Airport; we stayed in a local motel that first night and waited until morning when I turned sixteen to get my inheritance. We bought a ranch and everything was fine for a while.
“Nearly a year had passed when the killer struck again, this time he killed two more of our friends; we cornered the killer on our property and he told us everything, how my dad had been the one to set this all up because of the money and the divorce, I have the tape here.” Poppy paused for a breath and pressed play on the tape, listening as her own voice and the killers voice floated through the room.
When the conversation was ended Poppy spoke again, “We caught a flight back here and got in touch with the Detective who’d betrayed us, he got us the information we needed on my dad, and that information also included you and Sonya; we knew who you were before we’d ever met. The reason we’re now is because of two things.
“The first is that my dad underestimated our survival skills and our will to live, the second is that he made a grave mistake when he tried to have us killed and failed. We now want to know why; if he’d just let the divorce proceed he’d be a very wealthy man by now, which of course is why he married you, but why he wants to adopt Sonya I’ll never know. He didn’t want me for a daughter.”
Poppy paused for a few moments and looked at Sean, a muscle was fluttering in his jaw and he was struggling to hold back the tears the same as Poppy was; Tracey however had silent tears rolling down her face and finally said “I’m so sorry Poppy, Sean I had no idea; but one thing I do know is this, Paul I want a divorce.” She then took off her wedding ring and placed it on the coffee table, picked up her daughter and the bag she’d packed then left the house.
Paul started laughing the second Tracey left the house with her daughter, “You thought I’d hire someone to kill them?” Poppy raised an eyebrow, “Yes, we thought that you’d resort back to your old tricks and have them killed, the only problem with that plan is this; the man you hired to have us killed? He’s dead and buried in a clearing out in New Mexico. Now we want to know why you’ve done this, we deserve to know.”
Paul laughed harder, “Why? You want to know why? For the money of course; and I’d gladly do it again, yes you heard me correctly; I’d kill Tracey, Sonya, you and Sean is it? To get what I want, and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop me.” Poppy felt like being sick, but she had what she wanted and pressed stop on the tape recorder, she nodded to Sean and he pulled out a cell phone from his pocket.
A few minutes later he said “The police are on their way.” Paul was still laughing like a lunatic in the chair, Poppy was keeping an eye out for the police cruiser and Sean was watching Paul; Poppy wondered where Tracey and Sonya had gone, and what Tracey would do once she’d divorced Paul.


Epilogue


The police arrived a few minutes later and Poppy opened the door to allow them entry, she was shocked to see that John Saunders was one of the officers to arrive. He spoke before she could “Poppy? What’s going on?” The other officer looked at him sharply, “You know these kids?”
John nodded, “Yes I do, now tell me what’s going on.” Poppy looked at Sean, then her dad and said “He’s admitted to it officer, he admitted to having our friends and