OK, you have my attention! Who has sentthis text? George? But how would he have my number and how would he know aboutmy mother and the incident at the care home? No, that makes no sense. No-one inthe Borders could possibly know about mother and what happened today other thanfather and the staff at the care home. That had to be it, someone at the carehome. They had my number and there is no way that father could have my number.Still extremely odd that someone at the care home would make contact at thistime of night unless there was an issue with the mobile phone network and thetext has only just filtered through.
That’s it, no need to panic, it’s someonefrom the care home, it’s an innocent text. I resolve to answer in the morningand place the phone down then try to clear my mind for sleep. As I drift backdown into that comfortable slummy state, another bleep sounds on my phone. Ireach over and look at the screen; open the text and I see, ‘Thomas really, isshe OK?’
This is clearly not someone from the carehome. Whoever this is, they are playing games with me. If I don’t answer, evenif no further text appears, I know there’s no chance of any sleep coming.
I am curious. I am curious and more thanslightly alarmed as to your identity. However, there is always another option –to deflect and play it cool in the hope that whoever this is, they loseinterest and make no further contact. Let’s try this tactic first. I reply,‘Sorry you must have the wrong number.’ There. It’s sent. I switch the tone tovibrate and turn the sound down so Janey isn’t disturbed. I’ll wait for tenminutes or so and, if there’s no reply, I’ll switch the phone off and go tosleep.
Five minutes pass and nothing. Thenanother five minutes pass and still nothing. OK you leave me no choice. ‘Who isthis?!’ Another buzz, much quicker this time. ‘It’s your friend here, George.Your assistant Susie was kind enough to pass your phone number onto me earliertoday when I told her I had tried to reach you at the office and was unable toget through to you. She was happy to release your number when I told her it wasrather urgent and that I had a large sum of money to invest. Very obliging ofher I must say!’ Fabulous. I can’t even be angry with Susie; I’ve always toldher it’s OK to hand my personal mobile number out to clients if it’s urgent.
So, George knowswhere I live, he knows where I work, and he has both my work and mobile phonenumbers. He is not going anywhere anytime soon by the looks of it. But how onearth could he possibly have known about what happened with mother today? Irack my brains and come up with no plausible answer. He is forcing me to quizhim, and I imagine he is revelling in the power game he is playing.
I type, ‘What do you mean by how ismother doing? What do you know about my mother?’
He replies, ‘I had a chat with an oldacquaintance of hers recently. I just wanted to know if she was doing OK. I wasconcerned for her welfare but all in good time, Thomas. I will be in touchtomorrow. I think you and I should meet up and we can discuss arrangementsabout your forthcoming trip up north.’
Myforthcoming trip up north?! I will not be railroaded into taking a trip withsome random person from my past who is clearly more than slightly unhinged.(Having said that, I am only too aware that what he is saying is correct, I do haveunfinished business up there.) I cannot think of any worthwhile response as hehasn’t listened to any of my recent protests, so I turn the phone off and liedown and once again wonder if there’s any hope of sleep coming tonight.
CHAPTER 4
Bert
L
ife had suddenly become more interesting. I must say I wassurprised when I answered the phone earlier in the week and heard George on theother end of the line. Well, there’s a ghost from the past! It had been quite anumber of years since we’d last had any contact, I forget how long but then Iforget quite a lot of things these days.
“I need to make youaware of my plans, Bert,” he declares. A pause.
“Well spit it out, man!”
“I plan to bring Thomas back to Skye. Heneeds to know the full story about his past and I thought it was only right youshould know. So, if you wanted to reach out to him whilst he’s here …”
OK George, I am listening! However, hedoesn’t stop there.
“I will take him to see Mary too. Hehasn’t seen her since he was a boy.”
Now he has my full attention. I had tointercept this and get to Mary before those two did. There is no way thatuseless bitch is going to implicate me. She needs told to keep that mouth ofhers sealed shut. I am sure that won’t be a problem. Lord knows what planet sheis living on these days; probably doesn’t even know what day of the week it is.
I need to play it cool though, actnonchalant so he doesn’t realise he has ruffled my feathers.
“What are you hoping to achieve bybringing him back here?”
“Not so fast, Bert, that’s for me to worryabout. It is of no concern to you. Let’s be honest, when have you ever shownconcern for the lad before? So let’s not pretend you’re suddenly interestednow. However, that being said, you have a chance to make amends with him,should you so choose – hence the reason for my call.”
He had a point. I never could be botheredwith Thomas. He was a useless snivelling boy, not much use around the croft andalways in the way when I was trying to give Mary a good seeing to. ‘Makeamends.’
