Changes~62

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I looked at him and my legs turned to jelly. I wanted to sit down but I just stood there, staring at those hard eyes and then at the gun that was pointing with alarming stillness at my belly-button...

Changes

Chapter 62

By Susan Brown

Copyright © 2009 Susan Brown

 
 

Previously…

Number 17 had a bright red painted door and a small sign outside that announced ‘Dean Clump ~ Computer Doctor,’ on a small brass plate on the wall.

I knocked on the door and Dean opened it. ‘Hi, Dean, I’ve come for Abby’s laptop.’

‘Okay, erm, come in.’

‘You’re sweating, Dean, been out for a run?’

‘No, I’m just hot,’ he replied nervously, letting me go past him.

I heard the door close behind me, but my attention was somewhat grabbed by the person now standing in front of me with a gun in his hand. It was the same smoothie I met on the quay, seemingly a long time ago but in fact only a few weeks. Nigel Manning's ‘associate’ was looking rather smug and as he smiled at me, I noticed that the smile didn’t reach his steely grey eyes.

‘Hello Tom; you didn’t take my warnings seriously then. You really should have left the village, you know–when you had a chance.’

And now the story continues…

I looked at him and my legs turned to jelly. I wanted to sit down but I just stood there, staring at those hard eyes and then at the gun that was pointing with alarming stillness at my belly-button.

Dean was making some sort of noise over in the corner. ‘–I’m sorry, Samantha, I didn’t have a chance. He—he’s threatening to kill my Mum and she’s old and––’

‘–Shut up, Dean; talk again and I’ll do something interesting to your face. Now, Tom––’

‘–I’m Samantha.’

‘Now then–Tom; you and I are going for a little drive–move.’

He pointed the gun at the passageway that led to the back door and as I walked out with him following, the man said something to Dean.

‘Remember, I have someone watching your mother. One silly move on your part like talking to the police will mean that she won’t live to see another day.’

‘Oh God–’ I heard as I was pushed in the back and almost sent flying out of the back door.

Could I make a run for it?

‘Don’t even think of escape; this gun isn’t a fashion accessory–it works and I don’t make the habit of missing.’

All this was said in a calm polite voice as if he was discussing the weather or some other inconsequential matter. I would have almost felt better if he was screaming and shouting. It was the cold, calculated and urbane way he was speaking that sent shivers down my spine.

I went out of the garden gate. I realised that it led to a back lane that I had never seen before. I gasped as I saw Dolly, Abby’s little car standing about fifty yards from where I was standing!

Looking around, I could see that there wasn’t a soul around–typical–normally half the village would have been there craning their necks by now!

‘I don’t understand.’

‘I’ll do the thinking, Tom. Walk to the car, nice and slowly and then get in the driver’s seat–don’t worry, it’s not locked.’

I walked over and did as I was told, wincing slightly as my bum hit the rather hard seat. The man–I still didn’t know his name–got in using the other door and sat next to me. He handed me the keys.

‘Start the car and drive off. Don’t do anything silly unless you really want your girlfriend’s car to get splashed with blood. I’m using it because it’s well known around here and won’t attract any attention. Nice of your girlfriend to leave the keys on the tyre, like that. I just love these quaint villagers and their naive and trusting ways.’

I put on the safety belt and so did the man. Then I started Dolly up, hoping that she wouldn’t of course. I groaned inwardly that she started first time for once. I crunched the gears and started off down the lane.

‘Go left at the end and then carry on until I tell you to turn off.’

‘Why are––’

‘–Please keep quiet. While we are going, I’ll explain what is going to happen. If you do as I say, you will live; if you don’t, you will never be found. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ I squeaked.

As Dolly chugged along, I was paying less attention to the road than to the words the man was saying.

‘Your father-in-law was my partner in certain, shall we say, enterprises–’

‘–I thought you worked for him––’

‘That was the impression I wanted to convey. Now I advise you not to speak again because there will be consequences. Nigel and I had a number of deals going on; I won’t go into details, but they were extremely lucrative but not all of them were strictly legal. When I came to see you that time, it was as a favour to him. For some extraordinary reason, he wanted you to stay in his family–his daughter begged him to get you to change your mind, although how somebody like her could be attracted to the likes of you, I will never understand. Anyway, I was in the area, collecting a few, erm, outstanding debts–Dean has a large loan with us and was defaulting so we put certain things in place–anyway, we thought by sending you and others letters, it might persuade you to leave Penmarris and run back to Olivia. It didn’t work and things moved on. Turn left at the next junction.’

I did as he asked and we were going along a slightly wider and straighter road. While he had been talking, I was wondering if there was something, anything I could do to get myself out of this mess, but I couldn’t think of anything and anyway, I was distracted by his words and the fact that the gun was pointing unwaveringly at me.

‘Then Nigel tried to double-cross me by going behind my back and cutting a deal with a, erm, supplier. I discovered what he had done and had to punish him. I regret his death, he was a friend. After his untimely but necessary death and Olivia’s demise, you inherited the assets. There are certain documents that I need and I understand that you have access to his bank safe deposit box. We are going to go to London––’

‘–this car will never get there.’ I felt a stinging pain on my arm as he hit me with the barrel of the gun that nearly made me lose control of the steering wheel.

‘We’ll swap the car shortly. I told you not to speak–I shall not be so nice next time. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, you will go into the bank, do the usual security checks and we shall go into the bank vaults together, I will take what is mine and that will be the end of the matter.’

I didn’t say a single word as I remembered–a few weeks earlier–when Katie had gone through a number of things with me, that one of them was about the safe deposit box. Nigel’s solicitor had sent her all the details that had been lodged with them and I knew that the bank was the same one that Olivia and I used.

‘You might be wondering why I continued with the poison pen letters and the daubs on your car? Well, Penmarris is the sort of place where everyone knows who you are and what you are doing. I wanted to get you away from there and to a place where you were not so well known or quite so popular. I thought that the pressure might force you out. Dean Clump had his uses and he managed to do most of that for me. Stupid man–he really thought that I would kill his mother–that would have been unprofessional and anyway, the threat was enough…take the right hand fork, signposted London.’

I did as he asked and I found that we were on the long straight road I recognised as leading up to the moor. At the moment we were in some woods and the moor was about ten minutes away. We were in shade here and I was getting goose bumps on my bare arms as he continued to talk.

‘So there you have it. We are going to the bank and then–if you behave–I’ll let you go. Unless you do exactly what I tell you, I shall have to kill you.’

We continued on in silence. I now knew who killed Nigel and who was behind the poison pen letters and the vandalism on my beautiful Beemer. My heart was racing and I could feel the sweat trickling down my back. I didn’t trust the man one iota. He had said that he would let me go, but how could he after confessing to the murder of Nigel and to other dodgy deals? I had to do something!

‘I need to go to the toilet,’ I said desperately.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him consider.

‘We certainly have a long way to go and the less time spent at services the better, pull over here and get out. I shall be covering you, so don’t do anything stupid.’

I pulled over, switched off and got out of the car.

I stared at the surrounding woods. What chances did I have to make a run for it? I was wearing heels so that didn’t––

He was standing next to me.

‘Go on then,’ he instructed, indicating a tree about twenty yards away.

‘I can’t go with you here.’

‘Yes you can. Go over to that tree and water it. You have a dick so use it like a man would for once.’

I felt tears in my eyes as I went over and pulled down my panties and squatted down. Realising that I just couldn’t do it like that without making a mess, I stood up with my back to him and with tears streaming down my face I did what I had to do.

As I stood there, I wondered if I would ever see Abby and Heather again. I had been through so much, was this the end? I shook my head, ridding myself of these totally negative thoughts. I had to try to get out of this, if not for myself, then for those that I held so dear.

A few minutes later, after adjusting my dress, we were back in the car and continuing our journey. He said nothing to me as I drove little Dolly along the near deserted road to an eventual certain death, as I knew that he would not let me live with the information I now had. He was a killer and I was positive that he had done this before, more than once. They say after the first one, inhibitions drop and it’s easier to kill again and again if you are that type of individual and I believed that he was.

Dolly was running almost flat out, at about fifty miles an hour–certainly faster than she normally went–and up ahead I could see that it was somewhat brighter as we were emerging from the wood and very soon we would be out of the trees and up on the moor.

Dolly wasn’t used to such long journeys, especially at this giddy speed. Let’s face it, a few miles normally knackered the poor old lady. I could sense that her two-cylinder engine was labouring somewhat, and I knew exactly what was going to happen as I had driven her several times when it had happened previously. It gave me an idea. I had just one chance to do this and I prayed that it would all work out all right. I gripped the steering wheel hard and put my foot down on the accelerator…

‘BANG!’

Dolly misfired–the man jumped and looked behind–I pressed his seatbelt button, releasing it and then I aimed for the nearest tree.

We crashed head on, the man went halfway through the windshield with a scream and I was jolted forward, wrenching my neck and shoulders badly. Without thinking, I unclipped my seatbelt and pushed the car door open. It was miraculous that it could still open as it creaked badly as I pushed, but it did open and I stumbled out and ran for cover.

From behind a tree I could see that the car was smoking from the back. The man, who was halfway on the bonnet, looked a terrible mess but was still moving. His face was badly lacerated and rivulets of his blood were running down Dolly’s bonnet. Then he looked at me. I would never forget those cold eyes. What was left of his face was a bloody mask, with no expression that I could see and then…the petrol tank exploded and poor old Dolly was engulfed in flames.

I could feel the hot pressure of the explosion knocking me off my feet and the last thing I remembered was my back hitting a tree––


To Be Continued…

Angel

The Cove By Liz Wright

Please leave comments…thanks! ~Sue

My thanks go to the brilliant and lovely Gabi for editing, help with the plot-lines and pulling the story into shape.

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Comments

Poison pen letter writer

persephone's picture

Sue

At last we find out who was behind all the poison pen letters. But where did the medical smell come from that caused the scene in the Surgery?

Another wonderful chapter, thank you.

Persephone

Persephone

Non sum qualis eram

Medical smell

Glad you liked it!

Dean worked on a computer in the surgery.

Hugs

Sue

And...

Dean also did work for the mansion on the hill. Yay! Okay, it's good that Dean was coerced into it, so Penmarris' residents are still uniformly nice people, but I was RIGHT by gum!

And...and...

Dean was an utter fool to have helped out.

I understand about the pressure if one's loved ones are threatened, but this little drama has been playing out over quite a bit of time. Plenty of time to think things through and do something that wouldn't have tipped off the bad guy but could have brought help. I'm sorry to say that his failure to do so over such a long span of time does not say much for his character. Dean may be nice in the soft sense that he wouldn't actively hurt another person without being threatened, but is not nice in the sense that he failed to look out for other people's welfare.

In the USA, Dean would be guilty of several crimes--and though minor, up until the abduction--would probably have had to plea bargain for his testimony against said bad man. Since the thug did not survive, Dean would be sweating pretty heavily while police and district attorneys decided his fate. In the UK? Especially in a small town and Samantha not seeming the vindictive type...I suppose his punishment could be of an informal nature. A LOT of community service, probably help out Samantha at her shop, etc.

SuZie

SuZie

Right you are!

I mean, he was writing poison pen letters, wasn't he?
And I seriously doubt that anyone was watching him writing the letters, because, you know, the mobster had to stay below radar and I doubt he had some minions trail Dean. So, what could have been easier than using the opportunity to write a plea for help instead of a poison pen letter?
Also, I don't think Dean is such a nice guy. After all, he did take a loan from the sharks and not from the bank. So he is morally grey in my book.

Faraway

On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

Faraway


On rights of free advertisement:
Big Closet Top Shelf

Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!

Thriller

terrynaut's picture

Cool! What a cool turn of events. Quick thinking, Samantha, and good going. I'm sure Abby will accept the sacrifice of her beloved Dolly.

Thanks very much for the thrilling chapter.

- Terry

A bit of real action

That was a refreshing change Sue, a bit of action for our girl Samantha.
She was on the ball and acted well under pressure!
A deserved ending for Mr What's his name?

It will be interesting to see what the contents of the safe deposit box hold?
There's a story in itself.

LoL
Rita

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
(Mark Twain)

LoL
Rita

Ouch... call fall down, go

Ouch... call fall down, go boom!

Heather

We are the change that will save the world.

Heather

We are the change that will save the world.

Changes~62

Samantha did the only thing that she could do. Ad Dolly gave it her all, Can the Penmarris magic save her?

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Talk about edge of the seat!!

It was a good job Samantha kept her head, Because i know if it had been me in that position, I would have panicked BIG-TIME!!! .... But our Samantha is nothing if not resourceful and was able to plan her escape ( that is unless Nigels associate is like the guy in the film Halloween who refused to die!!!) and hopefully get back to her beloved Abby.

Great episode Sue, What with this and Football Girl, You spoil us!!

Kirri

Oh WOW!

That was a surprising turn of events! I was really worried about Samantha until she sacrificed poor Dolly and nearly herself!
Surely, someone must have noticed Sam and the Creep in Abby's car.
Well! That solves one mystery. Now, just what will be found in the box at the Bank?

Diane

Hollywood, Look Out!

joannebarbarella's picture

Here comes Samantha Smart!

Mind you, I think Abbie is going to be awfully miffed at the sacrifice of dear Dolly. Sam will have to buy her a new one.

Also, I'm getting worried that the end of this story might be approaching. Too many loose ends got tied up in this one chapter.

Maybe Sam will get amnesia from the explosion and wander away and be picked up by someone who transports her to a mysterious castle where a mad scientist performs unspeakable experiments on her or she gets abducted by aliens or gets taken to a Melchester United game....Anything!.....Think of something, you fans. Anything at all,

Joanne

Poor DOLLY

The English Teacher's picture

The Horror of it all

The English Teacher

So much to read, so little time and only one of me :)

The English Teacher

It's terrible, the crash, explosion and fire

And it's hell to get the smell of burning flesh out of the upholstery.

For Samantha and co the murderer's quick death is best though the bastard deserves Dolly to be low on fuel so the fire goes out fast and he lingers in hospital a few months as a disfigured quadraplegic before dying from a massive infection from his 2nd and 3rd degree burns.

Me vindictive? Nah!

I was so worried Samantha and the cops were taking the notes and vandalism too lightly. I mean Nigel's killer was at large but no she had to pretend she was Sherlock Holmes. Poor Abby should give her a tongue lashing for being so foolish . And where were the lawyer's detectives. having a pint in the pub?

Terrific chapter. I agree, the end seems in sight, at last for book one.

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

Oh . . .

I suspect Abby will give Sam a very sound and effective tongue-lashing.

Lucky Girl!!! ;-)

KJT

"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather


"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin

I have restraint, Karen ...

*I* did not go for that obvious *oral* se..., um, you know, reference.

Not that I didn't THINK about it ... a lot.

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

Flying Finish

laika's picture

Wow, that was like the conclusion of a Dick Francis mystery. Suspenseful, exciting
& with a clever last-ditch solution. You do this sort of thing well Sue...
~~hugs, Laika

.
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.

Not Out Of The Woods

Poor Samantha, oold-conked by a sneaky tree that jumped her from behind! I suppose it might be some sort of retribution for the tree she smashed into with the car.

Poor Dolly... No, wait, it's just an inanimate object. Well... slightly animate, at least sometimes, being a 2CV.

Alas, Samantha isn't out of the woods yet.

1) Someone needs to find and collect her and tend to a nasty bump and concussion.

2) There will be a coroner's inquest. The corpse in question better still be holding that gun, although the feckless and insipid Mr. Clump might be able to offer some exculpatory evidence, if he's so inclined. Elsewise, the very real possibility exists of Samantha being charged with vehicular/negligent homicide, a serious offense in Britain.

3) Should she blab that she undid his seatbelt and actually aimed for the tree, the deceased had very, very much be found with a gun in his hand, and even then the prospect of the even more serious premeditated murder charge is extant. I hope she remembers to just keep her mouth shut until she can talk to Katie.

4) As for driving straight into a tree in a 2CV at 50 MPH, I'm not sure a seatbelt would have helped that much. Let's all just assume it was a glancing blow and not square on, or a very small tree.

Explosive Ending

I was wondering if Samantha had something like that in mind. (The author Larry Niven observed, in an endnote to his non-SF short story "The Deadlier Weapon", that a car outranks a hitchhiker's knife to one's chest in the lethal device category, though that was on a U.S. freeway where there were overpass structures into which one could crash the non-driver side of the car.)

I suspect that Colin wasn't telling the truth about his partnership status with Nigel -- it's not as though there was anyone around who'd know one way or the other, and I would have thought that Colin would have better insurance against betrayal by Nigel than we saw if they were really partners. (And if Nigel really wanted that knighthood, turning Colin in to the authorities and claiming the whole thing was a sting operation might have gone some way toward making it happen.)

Speaking of contingencies, if Samantha had been murdered, it seems to me that Colin would have had a fun time trying to get access to that box. If Tom had a will, it'd be superseded or voided when his child was born, and someone -- is there still a Lord Chancellor's office? -- would have to determine who Heather's guardian(s) should be and what kind of trust arrangement would be needed to handle the estate until Heather was of legal age. It'd probably be months at best and more than a decade at worst before Colin would know who he'd have to threaten next.

Eric

Some answers!!

Pamreed's picture

Well that was a quick ending to Samantha's problems!! But I wonder how many more of Nigel's old partners may want a peek at the bank box!!! I think Samantha needs to look at it and turn over any interesting info to the police. That would remove her from the bad folks interest!! I hope someone drives by soon to get help for Samantha!!! This does approach the ending of this story, perhaps a few more chapters!! The rest of the story would be a good second book in Samantha adventures!!

Fare thee well,
Pamela

"how many cares one loses when one decides not to be
something, but someone" Coco Chanel

Paths

Traveler, there is no path
Paths are made by walking

Caminante, no hay camino
Se hace camino al andar

- Antonio Machado (a Spanish poet)

The dotty old woman (seer?) in chapter 27 reminded of a few lines of a Spanish poet I copied down some time ago. I liked his thoughts. I go out of town and away from the net for 4-5 weeks at a time and am only reading 27 now. This is a great story.

I actually haven't read this chapter (62) but I'm catching up.

Aechel

Aechel

Gee,

Hypatia Littlewings's picture

And I thought that Penmarris was a nice quiet place to move to.