STRANGER
It’s time to be honest with Amanda so she knows exactly how precarious a position she’s in. I told her that I’m an accountant, but she knows now that I was lying. What she doesn’t know yet is what I really am.
‘I know you’ve been working hard on your goals,’ I say to the woman across the table. ‘But so have I. I spent five years in prison deliberating on my own ambitions, and I learnt a lot of things in that time to make sure I never end up in there again.’
Just the thought of those endless nights inside staring up at the ceiling in my cell is enough to make me shiver, so I take a moment to look outside at the brilliant blue sky to remind myself that I am a long way from there now.
‘You’re a criminal,’ Amanda says scornfully.
‘No,’ I reply, holding up my hand to correct her. ‘I was a criminal. But not anymore. Now I’m a businessman.’
‘What are you talking about?’
I place my hands together and rest them on the table between us, aware that appearing calm and in control will be my best way of frightening Amanda into giving me what I want. I must be cool on the outside because I’m feeling nervous on the inside, but I can’t let her see that.
‘The reason I ended up in prison was because I let my emotions control my actions. I got too invested in the idea of the prize. Money. Success. I wanted it too much. Much like how you are with your writing, I imagine.’
I know she’ll hate the fact that I am assuming things about her.
‘You don’t know anything about me,’ she quickly replies. ‘You say you do, but you have no idea.’
‘Trust me. I know everything I need to know,’ I state. ‘I know that you will do almost anything to make your dream come true, but there is one thing that you would give it all up for. That thing is your daughter’s life.’
‘You’re crazy.’
‘No, I’m not. I’m clever. You are going to give me the code to that safe so my partner can take the money out, or you are never going to see your daughter alive again.’
I wave my mobile phone in front of Amanda again.
‘All you have to do is give it to me, and I can send him a message. We’ll take the money and be on our way. Nobody has to get hurt. You and your daughter can carry on as you were before.’
I study Amanda carefully to see what her next move will be. I am confident she will give me the code at some point, but I’m expecting she’ll put up a fight before she does. I know I would if someone were trying to take everything I owned. And I’m not wrong.
‘I don’t believe you,’ she says. ‘You’re not a killer.’
‘You’re right. I’m not,’ I reply without missing a beat. ‘I’m a con man. It’s my partner James who is the killer.’
Amanda’s face falls a little, and I press on to hammer home my point.
‘I went to prison for fraud. I was young. I was overeager. I made mistakes, but they were harmless. Nobody got hurt. Everyone got their money back in the end. But James was inside for something else. Something much worse than stealing money. And you’d best believe that people got hurt where he was involved.’
I’m hamming it up a little, but I’m not lying. James is a dangerous man. I might be the brains behind this operation, but he is the brawn, and that is what I need to get across to Amanda so she realises how much danger her daughter is in.
‘We were cellmates on the inside,’ I tell her. ‘Spending all day every day cooped up together, it’s only natural that we became friendly. I told him what I was in for, and he told me what he had done. James was in for assault with a deadly weapon. He’d got three years. But he’d have got a lot more than that if the neighbours hadn’t called the police when they had. He’d be serving a stretch for murder if they hadn’t got there in time.’
Amanda is completely still as I speak to her, probably trying to process all of this information whilst trying to figure out if there is any way out of this that doesn’t involve her daughter getting hurt and her savings being taken.
But there isn’t.
‘How did he find Louise?’ she asks me.
‘It was actually her who found him,’ I reply with a chuckle. ‘On a dating app. It’s the way of the world these days. Of course, like most people who meet on a dating app, it didn’t take them long to end up being intimate. James was just looking for a little fun after so long inside, but then Louise told him all about her mum and how she keeps her money in a safe. James passed that information on to me, we hatched a plan, and here we are. All that’s left to find out now is how it is going to end. With the code or with your daughter in a body bag?’
Amanda looks through the window at the houses passing us by, but she won’t find any answers out there. I click my fingers to get her attention back onto me.
‘It’s quite simple, really. Your daughter made a mistake, and now you are being punished for it. But don’t make this situation any worse for yourself than it has to be. Just give me what I want right now, and nobody has to get hurt.’
Amanda remains silent for a moment, and the only sound around us is the rumbling of the train’s wheels on the tracks below.
‘How do I know you’re telling me the truth?’ Amanda eventually asks. ‘How do I know Louise is with that man?’
‘I just showed you the photo, didn’t I?’
‘That could have been taken any time.’
I shake my head. ‘It was taken
