Chapter 4
It’s now the weekend, for the remainder of the week all Ed has done is mope around the house, missing Toni and racking his brains trying to work out what to do. He’s had a text informing him to drop the bag of cash off at a busy local park and it needs to be done at midday tomorrow. Ed hasn’t even counted the money, he has no interest in it; all he wants is to rebuild what life he has left.
Whilst Ed is sitting in his pants watching Saturday morning TV, there’s a knock at the door. He slowly moves towards it without any sense of urgency. Through the glass in the door he can see it’s Sandy. He opens the door and once again her face is all red and blotchy as though she’s been crying for a week.
‘Sandy, what’s wrong?’
‘I’ve now not spoken to Toni in ages, her phone is off and I have a terrible feeling something bad has happened to her.’ Her bottom lip quivers with emotion.
‘Would you like to come in?’ She nods and Ed moves aside letting her past. She automatically goes straight into the lounge and sits down. Ed shouts in to her,
‘I’ll make you a cup of tea in a second, just going to put some clothes on.’ He rushes upstairs and throws on any clothes he can find.
He walks into the lounge; Sandy is sat there hunched into the couch. Guilt batters Ed as he watches Toni’s mothers heart ache with grief for her missing daughter.
‘I’m sure she’s fine Sandy.’
‘Have you heard from her?’ Ed pauses and then lets the lies spill off his tongue like venom from a viper.
‘She rang me yesterday; her signal was bad so we didn’t get a chance to talk properly.’ Sandy looks at Ed in the eyes.
‘You’re lying.’
‘What, why on earth would I lie about this?’
‘I can tell you’re keeping something from me.’ Her whole face changes from a sad grieving mother to a defensive soldier ready on the front line.
‘Tell me Edward, where’s my daughter?’ Ed panics, his palms begin to sweat and his fingertips shake.
‘I don’t know, I’m finding this hard too, I miss her.’ Ed finally breaks, head in hands and a wave of emotion, and tears, flow out like a volcanic eruption.
Several minutes later, Sandy places a hand on the back of Ed’s head and rubs gently. She whispers in his ear, with a soft but stern tone.
‘If I ever find out you’ve kept anything from me, you’ll have me to answer to. Getting in the way of a grieving mother will be the least of your worries.’ Ed jerks up and looks her in the eye.
‘How dare you! How fucking dare you? I miss Toni, I have no idea where she is and I’m worried about her more so than anyone else. Keep your threats to yourself, do you hear?’
She stands up straight with determination in her eyes, ‘I knew you were keeping it from me, how long has she been missing for?’
‘A few days, I can’t get hold of her or anything.’
‘Have you called the police?’ this time, hands on hips.
‘No, I thought she’d be home by now.’
She pushes him in the chest.
‘You stupid boy.’ Then pulls out her mobile, Ed can hear the keys being pressed and then she speaks. ‘Police please!’ there’s silence for a few seconds. ‘Yes, I would like to report a missing person.’
Ed not thinking straight snatches the phone from her hand and launches it at the wall with intense force smashing it into pieces.
‘What are you doing!’ she screams, pointing her index finger straight in his face.
In a moment of madness, he grabs her finger and snaps it right at the knuckle, followed by a sharp snap. Sandy screams loud and falls to her knees.
Minutes later, Ed has gagged her with gaffer tape, cable tied her ankles and then her hands behind her back. He then drags her from the lounge where they were sitting and into the kitchen. Lying on the floor she looks up at Ed standing over her, with a slight sneer appearing in the corner of his mouth. She frantically squirms in fear, fighting to get away, but the ties are too strong for her.
Ed grabs her by the throat hard, spits in her face and then shouts,
‘Do you think I want it all to come to this? Someone I don’t know has forced me into this situation. They took Toni, they killed her and made me hide the body and threatened my mum’s life. What was I supposed to do? Now you’ve come round here pushing for answers and now I have no option but to kill you!’
Her eyes fill with tears as Ed pulls a hammer from the kitchen drawer; he toys with her for a bit as though he’s enjoying it. He presses the cold metal of the hammerhead on her nose, then her cheek and then gently rubbing her forehead with it. Once again she fights, pulling at the ties around her wrists, twitching with all her might, but she’s stuck and can’t break free. He presses the hammer firmly on her nose; Sandy simultaneously squeezes her eyes shut. Ed raises the hammer in the air and brings it down hard, straight into her face. Her body spasms, then suddenly goes limp.
Ed stares, looking down at Sandy’s dead body. Once again his kitchen looks like an abattoir. A wave of regret washes through his veins; he drops the hammer and looks at his bloodied hands. He then asks himself, ‘who am I? What am I doing?’ He feels as though the devil had taken over his soul, these people playing him have very quickly turned him into an anxious mess, killing everything that’s a threat to him.
Whilst standing there his phone rings,
‘Got something for you to do for me!’
‘Look, I’ve done everything you asked, all I want now is to be left alone so I can patch up what’s left of my disgusting life!’
‘Have the money ready, I’m coming to get it!’
Ed freezes, thinks, ‘what? I can’t have them here.’ Feeling unsettled he paces the kitchen, looking at Sandy’s dead body every thirty seconds.
There’s a loud knock at the door, the knock is hard and causes Ed to jump. He picks up the hammer and slowly walks towards the front door. He can make out three dark shadows through the frosted glass in the door. He slowly moves his hand, unlocks the Yale lock and pulls open the door.
A large black bloke, about 6’4”, pushes through and throws Ed against the wall, creating a hole in the plasterboard. He then grabs Ed by the throat whilst another guy walks in. The bloke holding Ed stinks of aftershave, he is sporting a shaved head and is built like a brick shithouse. The next guy walks up to Ed puts his face up close to his,
‘Ten seconds to tell me where the money is or Tyrone breaks your neck!’ His voice is deep and well spoken and he is also dressed in a smart black suit.
‘It’s in the lounge, I have no problem giving you the money, tell monkey boy to let me go!’ Ed feeling brave, not really bothered what happens to him, these guys could kill him now and Ed wouldn’t care. Tyrone presses his forehead against Ed’s hard, so hard in fact it makes his head go cold.
‘Call me that again and I will pull your fucking head off!’
Ed pushes back against Tyrone’s head, ‘Do you think I give a flying fuck what you do to me, ha, you bunch of wankers, kill me and you’ll be doing me a favour, trust me!’
‘Let him go!’ shouts the other guy. Tyrone lets go instantly.
‘This isn’t over!’ pointing his finger right into Ed’s face and then backing off, Ed smirks at him without a care in the world.
Seconds later he returns with the bag of money, winks at Tyrone and exits the house shutting the door behind him, leaving Ed and Tyrone alone. Ed guesses what’s next,
‘Do what you have to do monkey boy, I’m tired of all this.’ There’s defeat in his tone, Tyrone, then punches Ed full pelt in his stomach with the sound of a thud crushing his bowels and liver, sending him down to the floor, holding his stomach in pure agony.
‘That’s for calling me monkey boy, bitch!’ Ed struggles but looks up at Tyrone and says,
‘Fuck you monkey boy.’ Aggravating Tyrone further, he kicks Ed in the head about twenty times in rapid succession.
Ed’s now lying there out cold, Tyrone laughs at him and walks into th
e kitchen spotting the dead body.
‘Fuck!’ he shouts ‘Toni’s going to be devastated.’ He turns and walks back towards Ed, still unconscious but breathing, he kneels down and whispers in his ear.
‘Toni’s not dead, bitch!’ and drives a knee down onto his jaw, cracking it under the weight like a snapping twig.
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