Fear Of Darkness
A serial novel by Joe Lake.
(So far: Julie Jones and her husband have come from Sydney to park their Winnebago at Cooee beach. They have an encounter with a woman in Burnie Park. Later her husband has an accident. The ambulance and police come and a shot gun goes off. The husband is taken to hospital and when Julie visits him she finds he has disappeared; so has the van when she returns to Cooee. When she goes to the police station, they don’t believe her.)
“I’m going to stay at this hotel.” Julie gives the policewoman a piece of paper with a telephone number.
In her room, she lies down on the double bed and stares at the ceiling when the phone rings.
“Hello?”
“It’s us.”
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb. We know you’ve got five million hidden somewhere and further, you know where it is.”
She kept silent.
“You there?”
“How did you get this number? I’ve only been here five minutes.”
“We know you, we know everything about you. We’ve got a contract on you: Five million or your life. We prefer the money but we get paid either way, so don’t screw with us.”
“All right, but I don’t have five million. I don’t manage the money. My husband does - always.”
“Maybe, maybe not, but I’m sure that you’ll be able to find it. We’ve taken the van apart. There must be a bank deposit somewhere. By the way, we’ve cut his left ear off but he still wouldn’t tell us.”
“He hasn’t got that much money.”
“You know he does. He’s been fixing races on the Gold Coast for five years.”
“Why don’t you leave him alone.”
“We’ll leave him alone all right, six feet under.”
”Can I talk to him?”
“No. He’s sealed up in the Winnebago. He won’t get any food or water until he tells us where the five million dollars are.”
“He’ll die!”
“That’s up to him. Have I told you that his ear is in the post? You can pickle it.”
“I have no way of knowing about the money.”
“He’s hidden some of it somewhere and you’ll find it.”
“I can’t.”
“We’ll give you a week, then you’ll get his other ear and other body parts.”
“Let me talk to him!”
“No.”
“Please, please,” she said.
“He may have buried the money. We can’t find an investment. Be ingenious, I mean, how much is he worth to you? Find the money!”
Then there was a click on the line and it went dead.
(To be continued next month.)
No comments:
Post a Comment