Sorcerer (23 page)

‘Sweet Jesus’ said Alec as he read.

‘Yes, I thought you’d like it’.

‘You’ve left out the name of the son who was adopted?’

‘He’s a completely innocent party in all this and I don’t think it would be fair for him to hear about it all first in the press. But what is in the public interest is to expose the rest, particularly Griffins kidnapping of the son when he was a toddler and Hayward’s silence on the matter that’s been bought for the last twenty years by Griffins ill gotten gains through a Swiss bank account. I don’t care what happens to Hayward now. It’s time he got his just desserts’.   

‘So what’s next in the current investigation?’

‘You tell me’ said Jeff. ‘No witnesses are coming forward, no tangible leads. I’ve got a squad of officers working on it and we’re coming up with a big, fat zero’.

‘So there’s just your far-fetched theory?’

‘Yes but boys like you shouldn’t be greedy. I’ve already given you enough to pay for your dinner for the next few months’.

Gabby went into Cameron’s Place for some lunch with Owen and her Aunt Jocelyn.

‘We won’t have long’ said Jocelyn. ‘We’ll need to be at the hospital for when they release your Dad. We don’t want to be late’.

‘We won’t be, Aunt Jocelyn’ said Owen. ‘They’re not releasing him until two-thirty. That gives us plenty of time’.

‘Hey, Gabby!’ said Cameron as he walked up to Gabby with open arms.

Gabby and Cameron threw their arms round each other in a big hug. ‘Oh Cameron it’s so good to see you’.

‘It’s good to see you, babe, after what happened. Are you fair dinkum now?’

‘I think Ned Kelly here means are you alright’ said Owen, smiling wryly. ‘I work with a couple of nurses from Australia. I can translate’.

‘Well with the support of my wonderful family here I’m fine thanks, Cameron’ said Gabby. ‘Definitely fair dinkum. How’s the little bloke?’

‘Well if you look down there’ said Cameron as he pointed towards the back of the café and the yard outside. ‘Can you see him?’

‘Oh yeah’ said Gabby. Cameron’s little son was in his buggy fast asleep with his head to one side and his dummy sitting on his chest. ‘He looks so sweet’.

‘Well he is when he’s like that’ said Cameron. ‘He’s going through the terrible two’s a few months early I reckon. When he’s awake he’s really bad tempered but he’s been so sweet natured so far that we knew it had to come’.

‘They all go through it, Cameron’ said Jocelyn. ‘No parent is immune’.

‘No, I know’.

‘Where’s Angie?’ asked Owen.

‘She’s gone to the dentist so the little bloke came down to make sure his father was looking after the family business. After all, he’ll inherit it one day’.

‘Can I pick him up when he wakes up?’ asked Gabby.

‘Sure you can’ said Cameron. ‘And look, whatever you guys want you can have on the house’.

‘That’s very generous, Cameron’ said Jocelyn. ‘And very kind’

‘Yeah, well don’t spread it around or I’ll lose my big macho image. We were all really worried back there, Gabby’.

‘Well it’s not something I’d want to live through again’ said Gabby. ‘I just thank God for whoever it was who saved me’.

‘Yeah, that was a bit weird, wasn’t it?’

‘It was a bit but I’m no less grateful’.

‘Oh no, strike me bloody pink, he’s a hero’.

‘Thanks for all your help, Cameron, on the day Gabby disappeared’ said Owen. ‘I’d have fallen apart if it hadn’t have been for you’.

Cameron lowered his voice into a deep low baritone. ‘Yeah, well don’t read too much into it, mate. I only did it because of all that male bonding shit, nothing more. I don’t want to stand in for Gabby on your wedding day, Owen. Ooh sorry Aunt Jocelyn for saying the word shit. Oh shit, I said it again’.

They all laughed and Jocelyn said ‘I think I can forgive you, Cameron’.

‘Sweet! Well listen, I’ll go and get some menus and organize you folks some tucker’.

They sat down at a table in the window and Cameron brought the menus. ‘There was a really weird girl in here earlier. She left just before you guys came in’.

‘Weird how?’ asked Gabby.

‘Sort of spaced out and not quite all there’ Cameron explained. ‘She made a fuss of the little bloke though and that kept him quiet for a bit until he went to sleep’.

Cameron went back to the counter and before he did anything else he decided to check on the little bloke. He got the shock of his life when he saw he wasn’t there. He turned and called out anxiously to all his customers.

‘Has anybody seen my son? My son has gone! Somebody must’ve taken him!’  

SORCERER EIGHTEEN

As soon as Jack heard a child crying in the room next to his where he’d put Anne Griffin since her return to Manchester to testify against her father, he knew that she was holding the toddler that everyone was talking about. He bribed the housekeeping woman to give him a key to the room which, seeing as he was there because of his security fears about being at home whilst George Griffin was on the loose, disturbed him somewhat but he put that aside for the moment. For one thing he was planning to move back home later today, with Mick’s help, and for another this child needed to be reunited with his parents who’d appeared on the BBC Northwest tonight programme the previous evening in an understandably totally distraught state.

He unlocked the door with the key the housekeeper had given him but Anne had put the chain lock on it.

‘Anne!’ he called out.

‘Go away!’

‘Anne, let me in now, please’.

‘I said go away!’

‘Anne, if you don’t let me in I’ll simply call the police and then you really will have no choice’.

After a pause which seemed like the longest minute of his life, Jack heard activity on the other side of the door and a second later Anne let him in. He walked past her and into the room. The toddler was lying on the bed, halfway between crying and laughing as little ones of that age usually are.

‘Anne, you have to hand him back’.

‘He was just stuck outside that café like he didn’t matter’.

‘Anne, I’m sure that’s not true’.

‘It is true!’ she insisted, tearfully. ‘I would never have left my little boy like that. These women don’t deserve to be mothers. They just don’t deserve it!’

‘Anne, please calm down’.

‘Oh go away! You don’t care about me or the child’.

‘Yes I do, I care about you both’.

‘You’re a liar! You only wanted me back here so I could back up your story to the police about my father’.

‘Oh so that’s why I put you up in a place like this, is it? Because I was just using you for my own purposes? Anne, you have to calm down and start thinking more rationally’.

‘They’re going to charge me, you know? The police are going to charge me but they’re not going to charge you. How is that, eh? How come I get charged but you get off scot free?’

Maybe because I didn’t witness a murder or commit one, thought Jack but he didn’t think it would be appropriate to say that just now. ‘I don’t know, Anne’.

‘It’s because I killed my own kid, my own little boy, but I couldn’t help it, Uncle Jack. I didn’t do it on purpose. After all I went through the bastard police are still going to bloody charge me! It’s not fair, Uncle Jack. It’s not fair’. She fell to the floor and began crying loudly and uncontrollably. Jack sat down beside her and pulled her to him.

‘So much about all of this isn’t fair, Anne’ he said, gently. She felt like a little girl in his arms. A little girl who was upset and needed her Daddy to make all the monsters go away and never come back. But poor Anne’s Daddy had brought all the monsters with him and Jack didn’t know how Anne would ever be able to chase them away.

‘I only went down to Chorlton because it was where I used to go with Leroy. We found this burger bar place one night and went there time and time again. I think we must’ve gone through the whole menu we were there so often. I went looking for it which is why I was in the café because it was in the same row of shops and … ‘. She was sobbing her heart out.

‘Oh Anne, you poor, poor girl’ said Jack as he held her close.

‘All I’ve ever had in my life were those few moments of happiness’ she cried. ‘Leroy loved me and we were going to be together and we were going to be a family, a proper family where everybody was loved and nobody went without or was hurt or suffered in any way. We were going to protect each other from anyone who ever wanted to do us any harm. We were going to live our own life where my father couldn’t hurt me anymore. We were going to watch Ben and Nathan grow up to be decent, kind, loving men who protected their families like we’d protected them. Why was it all taken away from me, Jack? If somebody could tell me why I never got to be a proper little girl who didn’t have to take beating after beating off my father or why I didn’t deserve a chance of lasting happiness with Leroy then I might be able to understand. But I can’t understand. I can’t understand, Jack and now they’re going to charge me and I’ll have to go through it all again in court. I can’t do it, Jack. I just can’t do it’.

‘You can do it, sweetheart’.

‘No Jack, I can’t, I can’t do it’.

‘I’ll make sure you have the best lawyer and no court in the land is going to send you down when you tell them your story’.

‘They’ll want to make an example of me’.

‘No they won’t’.

‘I’ll get some judge who doesn’t believe in mitigating circumstances’.

‘Oh Anne, look, you’ve got to stop looking at the negative all the time’ said Jack. ‘I know it’s tough for you, Anne, believe me, I do know that it’s more than just tough. But I’m not going to be able to help you whilst you’re in this state’.

‘Are you trying to tell me to pull myself together?’

‘I wouldn’t be as crass as that, Anne. But you’re going to come back to my place and live with me until you can start to put the pieces of your life back together again’.

‘I don’t want to get in the way of your life’.

‘You won’t’ said Jack. ‘I’ll be glad to have you around. But there’s one thing we need to do first’.

‘Take the baby back?’

‘Yes’ said Jack. ‘His parents must be going out of their minds and none of this is their fault’.

Anne looked up at the little boy. He’d been crying so much he’d actually cried himself to sleep. ‘He must be hungry’.

‘I’d have thought so’ said Jack. ‘Even from my limited experience of these things I do know that at that age they like their food’.

‘I just wanted to know what it felt like to be a Mum again’ said Anne. ‘I just wanted to remember’.

‘I know but why don’t you rest up here and I’ll take him into the police?’

‘Would you?’

‘Of course’ said Jack who was silently cursing George and Mary Griffin, his own sister for God’s sake, for their evil crimes that were still leading to so much suffering. ‘Leave it with me. I don’t know what they’ll want to do but we’ll face it together, Anne. Okay?’

‘Okay’ said Anne who could barely see through her tear stained eyes. ‘Tell them I’m so, so sorry’.

‘I will’ said Jack who then scooped up the sleeping child in his arms. ‘Now you get some rest and I’ll see you later’.

Jack took the child back to his room, grabbed a coat and then went downstairs where he called for a taxi. Once at the police station he handed over the child and asked to speak to Detective superintendent Barton.

‘Well done, Jack’ said Jeff when she caught up with him in the interview room. ‘Half the city have been looking for that child and his parents are going crazy. You’d better tell me the story’.

Jack told Jeff that it was Anne Griffin who’d taken the child and all the reasons why.

‘Detective, he’s only been missing a few hours’.

‘Jack, it’s a crime and I have to deal with it in that way regardless of how long he was missing for. Five minutes or five days makes no difference’.

‘But didn’t you hear what I just said?’

‘I heard you loud and clear, Jack, but I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do’.

‘Anne is distraught too, detective. She can’t bear the idea of having to relive all the traumas in front of a court room. She’s panicking at the very thought that she may go to prison’.

‘I don’t think it will come to that given the circumstances’ said Jeff.

‘But can you guarantee that she won’t?’

‘No of course I can’t but I’m going on my personal experience of all these years in the force’ said Jeff. ‘And I don’t believe she’ll be sent to prison’.

‘Would you put money on it?’

‘I don’t gamble. Look Jack, I’m up to my neck in it trying to find your sister and her husband. I assume you’ve heard nothing from them?’

‘No, not a thing’ said Jack. ‘And do you still have no leads?’