meaningfully.
“So what was all that about back-up, my wee cabbage?” said Senga to Ben. “Was that just a made-up story to make your Mum feel better?”
Ben didn’t speak. He couldn’t.
“Because you’re very fond of your Mum, aren’t you, Ben? You’d do anything to protect her from her own stupidity.”
“Stop it, Senga,” said Linda. “None of this is Ben’s fault. Leave him alone!”
Senga swung round suddenly and pointed the gun straight at Linda. “I’ve been waiting for a long time to do this.”
Logan and his accomplice came in with more boxes, apparently oblivious to anything else that was going on. Their path to the kitchen took them past Ben, and, worried that Senga might be about to pull the trigger, he pushed Logan, tipping up the boxes. They fell sideways and knocked Senga off her feet. The other man was thrown off balance at the same time and fell on the floor.
Linda made a dive for the gun, which had fallen out of Senga’s hand, and grabbed it, just as Tim Fitzgerald and a group of uniformed policemen entered the café from the street.
“Better give that to me,” said Tim to Linda, nodding towards the gun. She surrendered it without a struggle.
The uniformed policemen headed for the three on the floor – Senga, Logan and the other man – and pulled them to their feet.
“Hey!” squealed Senga. “Be careful of my dodgy hip!”
Logan groaned. “I think I’ve damaged my coccyx.”
“Have you got the recording?” Tim asked Ben.
Ben chuckled as he handed over the voice recorder Tim had given him earlier when they met at the police station. “Yes, and it’s great! He confessed to everything.”
“Take them outside,” Tim told the policemen. “I’ll be with you in a couple of minutes.”
“It wasn’t me – I wasn’t even there,” said Senga.
“Give it a rest,” said Tim. “We all know you’re lying through your teeth – what’s left of them. And when we get down to the station I’ll be asking you about this as well.”
He took a mobile phone out of his pocket and showed them all.
A woman’s voice started to speak at once. “It’s the truck! It’s coming straight at me! He-e-e-elp me!”
There was a harrowing scream, then silence.
“Get them out of my sight,” said Tim.
As Logan, Senga and the stranger were taken away, Ben said, “What’s the matter with that phone?”
Tim stared at it. He still seemed a bit puzzled. “It keeps playing variations on the last call my wife made – this was her phone. It’s almost as if… But I don’t believe in that kind of thing.”
“As if it’s haunted?” said Ben.
Tim nodded. “I know it’s silly. I hope once they’re safely locked up, it will stop. Otherwise I’ll have to throw it away, but I’d rather not do that.”
“Maybe if you take it to a phone shop they’ll be able to do something,” Linda suggested helpfully.
“They caused the accident, you know,” said Tim. “Senga and Logan, I mean.”
“The accident?” said Linda.
“My wife was killed when her car collided with a truck near our house. They’d tried to bribe me to turn a blind eye to their cigarette smuggling, and I wouldn’t. Somehow they got hold of her phone number and Senga used it to ring her and distract her from driving while Logan drove the truck at her. They went off afterwards without waiting for the police or ambulance. And yet they found time to steal the phone. They were really getting at me, through her.”
“That’s terrible,” said Linda. “I’m so sorry.”
“There’s no need for you to be sorry. It wasn’t your fault. And thanks for your help anyway.”
“My help?”
“Ben told me you’d managed to lure Logan here tonight by pretending to agree to store the boxes of cigarettes. Catching Senga McTavish as well was an extra bonus. We’ve got all the evidence we need now.”
“But...” Linda began to speak, then Ben edged closer to his mother and nudged her unobtrusively. “Um, yes,” she continued, catching on at last. “Well, I knew he was up to something.”
“And Ben knew the phone they gave him was stolen property. So we put two and two together.”
“And made twenty-two!” said Linda. “That was clever of you.”
“Clever of you and Ben too,” said Tim. There was an admiring tone in his voice that made Ben think. He knew his mother was too old for anything like that, but all the same...
“Would you like a cup of tea?” said Linda to Tim. “Or do you have to rush off?”
“Another ten minutes won’t hurt. I’ll let the boys know to take those two round to the station and get them booked in.”
Linda went off to fetch the tea.
“Don’t say anything to your mother about what I’m just about to say,” said Tim to Ben. “I don’t want to get her hopes up but she could be in line for a reward over this.”
“A reward?”
“From the cigarette companies,” Tim explained. “They don’t like smuggling – it interferes with their legitimate trade.”
A reward! Ben grinned, knowing what a weight would be lifted from his mother’s shoulders by some extra money. “How much?” he asked.
“A few thousand or thereabouts,” said Tim.
“That’s great. Mum can pay off her debts and that man won’t come round here again.”
“A debt collector?”
“I think so.”
Tim frowned. “Hmm. I think I can do something about that, reward or no reward.”
Linda pushed open the kitchen door again and came towards them with a tray.
“I’d better go upstairs and – um – check my email,” said Ben.
“You might find a message from Erin,” said Tim unexpectedly. “She said she was going to get in touch. I think you’ll be seeing quite a bit more of her from now on.”
As Ben started slowly up the stairs to the flat he overheard Tim saying to Linda, “You’re not too shaken up by what’s happened? Not everyone would be so calm. You were amazing. Do you believe in fate?”
Fate, Ben thought happily a few moments later, having opened his email. It was meant to happen. He didn’t really believe in all that supernatural nonsense, but whether the phone had been haunted or not, it had certainly given reality a push in the right direction.
###
About the author
Cecilia Peartree is the mystery writing pen-name of a writer from Edinburgh. She works as a database manager and lives in a leafy suburb, where she writes in the conservatory. Best-known for her Pitkirtly mystery series, she has also embarked on the Adventurous Quests, set in the early 1950s.
The Pitkirtly Mysteries:
Crime in the Community
Reunited in Death
A Reformed Character
Death at the Happiness Club
Frozen in Crime
The Queen of Scots Mystery
Coming soon in this series:
A Tasteful Crime
Adventurous Quests:
The Lion and Unicorn Quest
The Four Seasons Quest
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