Joss could hear the sound of footsteps and then security chain being taken off. The old man put his head around the door:
“Hello Joss. This is a surprise! Come in.” He opened the door further.
“No it’s ok. I’ve just come to give you your wages. Sorry the money wasn’t there earlier when you came round.” He handed over the money, anxious to get away before the lonely old man started talking him to death.
“Thanks. Tell Mum I’ll be over on Monday to prune the shrubs.”
“Will do. Bye for now.” Joss was already walking backwards down the path.
“All done.” He brushed past his parents and headed for the stairs.
“Don’t forget. You’re grounded.” He could feel his mother’s eyes staring into his retreating back.
“How can I forget? You’ll keep on reminding me!” He ran upstairs to his room and slammed the door.
He lay on his bed with the events of the day swimming around in his head. Was he a bad lot just like his real dad? He’d stolen his parents’ money and the man’s briefcase, but both crimes had been committed out of desperation. However, after seeing the disappointing reality that was his biological father, he now wished he’d listened to his mother and left well alone. If only he was able to turn back the clock!
‘I’m grounded for a month. Will explain at school on Monday. x’
He’d just finished sending the text to Tara when there was a soft tapping on the door. Joss knew it wasn’t his mother:
“Come in, Dad.” He pushed his rucksack under the bed out of sight and lay back down on the pillow.
The door opened and the familiar face of the man he’d always thought was his father came into the room.
“Not a good day son, eh?” His father smiled at him in his usual charming way and came to sit down beside him on the bed.
“The worst. I’m sorry I took the money. At least I didn’t spend it.” He hoped his father would fall for the lie.
“Next time ask me. If only you’d asked me I could have given you an advance on your pocket money. There’s no need to go stealing.”
“I know. I will ask you next time. I really like Tara. I wanted to buy her something but got caught up with Benny and forgot.”
“She’s a nice girl.”
“The best. I really like her, Dad.” The dad came easily. Suddenly he wanted this man to think well of him:
“I’m not bad like my real father am I?” He sat up, confused and anxious.
“Of course you’re not bad. You’ve just done something stupid today, and you’ll learn from it. Take your punishment like a man and after a month we’ll forget it ever happened.”
If only his real dad could have been as kind!
“Sorry, Dad.” Joss felt hot tears starting to fall. He wondered if he could live with himself for lying so glibly to his parents.
“Come here.” His father held out his arms and Joss crawled into them, feeling loved, wanted, and safe.
CHAPTER 55
“Why are you grounded?” Tara shared her apple with Joss as they sat on the wall outside the sixth form block.
“I wanted to see my dad, but didn’t have any money for the train fare. I took the cash that Mum was going to use to pay our gardener with.”
“You’re in the shit then!” Tara laughed and shuffled closer. “Never mind. It’s only for a month.” She kissed him on the cheek, and Joss felt a stirring in his loins at her nearness.
“Why didn’t you ask your parents for the money?” Tara thrummed her heels against the wall as she ate.
“They don’t want me to visit him.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a long story; one that I don’t really want to go into right now.” Joss sighed with the weight of the secret he was carrying.
“You can tell me. I won’t say anything.”
Joss desperately wanted to unburden himself. He decided to take a chance on this girl he was liking more and more:
“He’s a prisoner.”
“He’s in prison?” Tara looked at Joss, surprised.
“No, not the usual prison. It’s like a secure hospital and he can’t get out. He’s mentally ill.” He felt better straight away for telling her.
“Wow. No wonder they don’t want you going there. He might be dangerous.” Tara threw her apple core into a hedgerow and turned to look at Joss.
“He is dangerous, but I just wanted to meet him. I only found out about him recently. I never knew he existed.” He closed his eyes with the relief of sharing his burden.
The bell rang for the end of morning break.
“Got to go or I’ll be late for music theory. See you later.” Tara jumped down from the wall, and Joss felt her warm hand on his:
“Text me any time. I won’t tell a soul. Promise.”
“I love you, Tara.” His face felt hot with embarrassment.
“I love you too.” She smiled at him and then was gone, mingling with the students going off to their various classrooms.
Joss sat stupefied for a few more minutes, amazed at Tara’s revelation. Suddenly the world didn’t seem such a bad place after all. Levering himself off the top of the wall he ran to catch his next class with a smile upon his face that refused to budge for the rest of the day.
True to her promise his mother was waiting for him in the car just outside the school gates. There was no chance for him to have another word with Tara. Joss opened the passenger door and got in:
“We’re not going straight home.” His mother looked grim. “We’ve got to visit the police station first. Dad’s meeting us down there.”
“Why?” He had a sudden frightening thought that his mother might be mad enough to report him.
“I had a visit from the police today. It seems that the money you gave Bill yesterday was counterfeit. Poor Bill got arrested trying to spend some of it in town this afternoon.”
“What!” Joss could feel his heart start to race.
“Yes. When he was asked where he got the money from, Bill naturally told them we’d given it to him.”
“Who’s given it to us then? We don’t know!” He began to panic.
“I withdrew the money from the bank on Friday. The money you gave Bill did not come from the bank. It had no watermarks. Where did it come from, Joss?” His mother started up the car and pulled away from the kerb, her lips set in a tight line.
Joss felt sick to his stomach. He had a sudden terrible thought of ending up a prisoner just like his real dad; rotten to the core. The bad genes had already been transferred from father to son; he would never be able to shake the legacy:
“It must have come from the bank! Where else would it have come from?” He tried one last time to absolve himself of any blame.
“We will get to the bottom of this at the police station. That’s all I’m going to say just now.”
The silence in the car was almost palpable. As they approached the station his mother found a space and parked the car. Joss looked out of the window and saw his father waiting for them at the main entrance, looking equally as grim.
But no, the man waiting for them was not his father; in fact he was not a blood relation at all. His real father was a kidnapper, rapist, and God knows what else!
CHAPTER 56
“Joss, I’m Detective Inspector Mike Farnes. I expect you know why you’re here with your parents today?”
Joss looked across the table to the burly dark-haired man sitting opposite, sipping coffee nonchalantly from a cracked mug.
“Yes. Mum told me.” He tried to keep his voice from shaking with nervousness.
“What have you got to say about it all then?” The tone was even, and seemed to have a calming effect on his young interviewee.
“When I changed one of the twenty pound notes in a cafe I must have been given a dodgy tenner, that’s all I can think of.” Joss held his breath and prayed:
“It’s a bit more than a dodgy tenner, son. When Mr Robertson gave us the rest of the money, t
he entire amount was counterfeit.” Farnes put his cup down, and stared across the table.
Backed up into a corner like a trapped fox, Joss’s heart started to race again. He looked at his parents sitting to his left but they were gazing at him incomprehensibly, waiting for an answer.
“I found it on a train.”
“What train? Why were you on a train?” His mother sighed with exasperation.
“I didn’t want to tell you. I went to see my dad.”
“Good God!” His mother’s face blanched under the fluorescent lighting.
“I knew you wouldn’t like it, but I just had to see him. Now I wish I hadn’t though.” He bowed his head and looked at the floor.
“So this money was just sitting on a seat next to you, was it?” Skipping over the domestic issues, Farnes tried to keep the discussion on track.
“There was this rich-looking bloke opposite with a briefcase. When he fell asleep I took the briefcase to another carriage on the train and opened it. I was hoping there might be enough money in it to pay Mum and Dad back. That’s all I wanted to do.”
Joss felt relieved at the confession. He turned to his parents; his mother, sitting furthest away from him, briefly covered her face with her hands. He noticed his father placing an arm around his mother’s shoulders:
“Joss, we’ve brought you up to know that stealing is wrong!”
“I know it is, Dad, but when Mum phoned to say the money was missing I knew I had to find a way to replace it!” To see his father so angry was upsetting Joss more than the police interview. He started to cry with the sure and certain knowledge that he’d let his parents down very badly.
Farnes rose from his chair:
“I’ll organise some tea for you all and I’ll be back in a moment.” He turned and walked towards the door, closing it quietly behind him.
Joss let the tears fall freely:
“I’m bad like him! I’m no good! I’m going to be locked up!” He bent forward and sobbed loudly, unable to control his emotions.
His father shifted around in his seat and Joss felt an arm go across his back.
“You’re not bad. Don’t ever think that, eh? You’ve just not acted in the right way. We didn’t realise how badly you needed to see your real dad. In a way some of this might possibly be our fault for not listening to you.”
“He’s mad! He frightened me!” Joss sobbed and wiped his eyes.
“I told you he was mad, you stupid boy!” His mother almost spat out the words. He had never seen her so angry.
“I-I’m s-so sorry!” Hiccupping, he took some deep breaths to try and regain his equilibrium. He felt his father’s hand rubbing his back:
“Let this be a warning to you. You’ll probably have a caution, but it’s your first offence so it’s highly unlikely you’ll be locked up. Think hard and see if there’s anything else you can help the police with, eh? It might stand you in good stead.” His father’s hands came back to rest in his lap.
When Farnes came back in the room with three cups of tea on a tray, Joss took the hot liquid gratefully.
“There’s some sort of diary or address book in the envelope with the rest of the money.” His voice was clear and concise, and Farnes pricked up his ears:
“Where’s the envelope?”
“Under my bed.”
“Was there anything else in the briefcase?”
“No.”
“I’ll send a constable round and he can bring it back.”
Joss nodded, eager to make amends.
“Where were you travelling to?” Farnes chewed on some gum.
“I was coming home to Norwich. I’d been to Ardlington to see my dad.” Joss made a point of not looking at his mother.
“Had you done this journey before?”
“No. It was the first time I’d ever seen my dad.”
“You’ve got to sixteen and never met your dad?” Farnes momentarily stopped chewing in surprise.
“He’s in a secure hospital. Holmleas. Have you heard of it? My dad’s Edwin Evans.”
“Ah yeah, I know that place.” Farnes seemed uncomfortable.
A silence settled over the room. Joss twisted his hands together backwards and forwards. He wanted to clear the slate once and for all:
“He said he’d be getting out. He said he’d be coming for my stepfather.” Joss looked at his parents. His mother’s face had frozen in terror.
“Idle threats. He won’t be getting out of there in a hurry.” Farnes made a mental note to look back in the archives for anything relating to Edwin Evans, but first he had to put the teenager in front of him out of his misery:
“You’re going to receive a caution this time Joss, as you’ve admitted your guilt and it’s your first offence. The caution will stay on your record and you may have to disclose it if you apply for certain types of jobs later on in life. I expect you know quite well that you can’t go around stealing money from your parents and stealing items that do not belong to you. Now we know of course why the owner of the briefcase did not report it stolen. Printing and distributing counterfeit money is a crime in itself, but hopefully we’ll be able to see if there’s anything in the address book that might help us catch the criminals. You’ll need to give your details to the sergeant on the desk and be fingerprinted, but after that you’re free to go.”
As they made their way out of the station a short while later, Joss stayed close to his father:
“Can I ride back with you? I’m not Mum’s favourite person at the moment.”
“Yeah. Hop in.”
Joss waved to his mother as she opened the driver door and sat down. There was no response.
“Be thankful you only got off with a caution, eh?”
“Perhaps the address book will be useful to them.” Joss nodded to his father and gave a rueful smile. “I’m such a twat.”
“No, you were entitled to see your real dad. You just went about it in the wrong way. If you want to see him again I’ll drive you down there.”
“You’d do that for me?” Joss looked up in surprise.
“Of course. Mum will have to get used to it. We can’t stop you from seeing him.”
Joss looked over as his father started up the engine:
“You’re my real dad. I don’t want to see Evans again. There’s something about him that gave me the creeps.”
“I can’t say I’m disappointed to hear that, because I’m not.” Liam reached over and ruffled the top of his son’s head.
“He wants Mum, and he wants you out of the way. As far as he’s concerned I shouldn’t have been born at all.”
“He’s a sick man. Hopefully he won’t be getting out of there. Don’t worry. You just think about your nice girlfriend. We’ve also got Easter coming up, and Amy and Toby will be here.” Liam put the car in gear and pulled out of the car park.
“I think he’ll get out. I think he’ll be able to fool them that he’s sane. You didn’t see him, Dad. He’s…..evil.” Joss shivered, remembering the burning black eyes so much like his own. He wondered whether to tell his father that Evans now knew of their whereabouts, but at the last moment he decided to keep the information to himself.
“Don’t worry Mum with any of this. She doesn’t need to start thinking about Evans again. If you have any more concerns tell me, and we’ll talk it over.”
“Ok, Dad.”
“Have a word with your mum when we get home. She’s got a long list of jobs lined up for you to do to start paying off your debt.”
Joss sighed as they joined the main road. An evening spent talking on the video phone to Tara and Benny now seemed rather less likely.
CHAPTER 57
Peering unobtrusively through the net curtains covering the large bay window in the main living room, Joss looked on with envy as he saw his father and Toby step out of the Range Rover. His stepbrother was obviously his father’s son, with the same soft Canadian accent and the same gentle laid-back air about him. After gathering copious am
ounts of luggage from the boot they made their way up the driveway to the front door, laughing and joking.
“Hey little brother! Good to see you!”
Joss stepped forward to receive a hug from the red-haired livewire whom he realised with a pang of regret was actually not his stepbrother at all.
“Hi Toby. Good flight?”
“Bearable. I spent 7 hours listening to some of Francois’ new ideas for Kick & Scream songs. Some of them are awesome, but the majority suck!”
Although he was only 18 months older, Toby seemed so grown up. For the first time Joss felt a little in awe of the confident, strapping young man who stood in front of him:
“Hi Beth!” Toby gave his stepmother a bear-hug as she came out into the hallway to greet him.
“Toby, I swear you’ve grown another two inches! You’re taller than your father now!” Beth extricated herself from Toby’s vice-like grip, and held him at arm’s length to look him over.
“You bet! I’m six feet four inches and ready to rock!”
Joss could see he only came up as far as Toby’s shoulders. He reasoned with some dismay that he would probably have to spend his entire life looking up at his erstwhile stepbrother.
“You’ve got your usual room, Toby. I’ve put some towels in the en-suite for you.” Beth smiled at her stepson’s exuberance.
“Awesome. I’ll have a shower now if that’s ok? I could certainly do with one.”