Finders Keepers by Edie Baylis (8 ebook reader .TXT) 📗

A Goldfinch landed on one of the bird feeders and a smile spread across his face. Finishing things had been easier than expected, both physically and mentally. Although there had been a lot of things he’d wanted to say before she’d taken her final breath, when it came to it, he couldn’t be bothered. It changed nothing. She’d never have accepted responsibility. She’d have continued making excuses. There was no point.

Robert took a deep breath, then turned around to face his mother’s lifeless body, her unseeing eyes staring silently at the ceiling with a look of panicked terror. He’d have to sort that out, but didn’t want to touch her in case she transferred more of her curse to him than she had already.

Sighing, he dragged his finger over both his mother’s eyelids, suppressing the urge to poke her eyes out as a parting shot.

Heart thudding, even though he had nothing to fear, short of Heath Pointer returning thirty minutes too soon, Robert pulled the kitchen tongs from his inside pocket, gently feeding them into his mother’s mouth. He hadn’t pushed the stocking too far down – just enough to block the airways, so... ah! Got it!

Grasping the tong handles, he pulled the stocking slowly from Dulcie’s throat and closed her gape with his gloved fingers. Now it looked like she was sleeping peacefully. But that wouldn’t fool the police. And he’d be making sure they weren’t fooled.

As the Grandfather clock struck the hour, Robert knew it was time to leave. He positioned the kitchen tongs, still clasping the saliva-soaked stocking, on the floor and carefully rearranged it at an angle to make it look like they had been tossed down.

Backing out of the room, Robert made his way down the stairs. He didn’t look back as he left Footlights for the final time.

WATCHING HIS TRACKER like a prize possession, each ten-second refresh feeling like ten years, Robert, wiped his hand across his sweaty brow.

Come on, come on – the window of opportunity was narrowing.

A-ha...!

The dot appeared in the radial distance he’d set for Footlights. There he was.

Getting out of the car, Robert hastily walked to the phone box and put in the call. It had to be done around the time Heath stepped across the threshold.

‘Hello?’ he said, as the line connected. ‘Police, please.’

Robert waited, tapping his fingers together on the metal case of the public phone. ‘There’s been a disturbance... No, I’m not there. I’ve just walked past and I could hear shouting and a woman screaming.’

A smile broke across his face. ‘I called as soon as I could. An old woman lives there, but there’s been a young man hanging around the last couple of days – a stranger... Yes, I walk past every day to go to work... It’s Frogmore Road... No... All I know is that it’s a big house with a red front door. The place looks a bit dilapidated. No... No, I don’t.’

Replacing the handset before any more questions could be asked, Robert returned to his car and fired the engine.

His job was done and now nature could take its course.

Fifty Seven

HUMMING ALONG TO RADIO ONE, Heath grinned. Now his father couldn’t say he hadn’t been brought up to speed or accuse him of disappearing off the face of the earth without a word. Yeah, he may think this was a pointless exercise and that it might well be too late to save the business from the quagmire of debt, but that was neither here nor there anymore.

Heath stabbed at the radio volume button, increasing the noise. If his father had been honest about the trouble the business was in from the start, then perhaps there may have been more that could have been done. The same could be said if the original plan with Helen hadn’t gone pear-shaped, but that was life, wasn’t it?

His dad’s general consensus of accepting defeat far from impressed him, it only made Heath more determined. Except this time around, he was doing it for himself – not anyone or anything else. He’d never aspired to be in car sales in the first place. He felt bad for his mother, but he couldn’t spend the rest of his life wiping his parents’ backsides – especially when they, or at least his father, had little faith in his ability.

No, he’d pull this off and then he’d be nicely fixed for the future.

Flicking his indicator on, Heath weaved through Maidenhead. Again, he’d made good time. Lady Luck was on his side again and he took that as a general sign of the good fortune ahead.

He glanced at the bag on the back seat of the Lexus. Laptop. Chargers. Clothes. Yep – all sorted.

And that was the next thing. He’d go back to the Feathers tomorrow and see if he could catch that Lena Taylor to cancel that event he’d booked when it had seemed like a good idea – that was if the meathead bouncer let him through the door this time.

From this point all he’d be concentrating on was Dulcie Adams. Oh sure, he’d be making a special effort to locate Robert, but only to make sure he stayed the hell away. He wasn’t letting Robert wheedle his way back into Dulcie’s good books once he realised that ship had sailed.

Turning into Frogmore Road, Heath smiled. The food he’d picked up from M&S would go down a treat in impressing the old goat. Duck Parfait was one of her favourites and these pre-prepared things with all the sides were perfect. Even he could manage to lob this lot in a bloody oven!

Yeah, Dulcie would be well impressed and when he’d told her he’d take her out somewhere for lunch tomorrow to make up for not doing so today she’d be even happier. As much as it grated on his tits, it was vital to show his supposed loyalty, family values and willingness to put