‘Samuel, if you don’t get up now I’m going to cancel your birthday party and I’m not kidding. You’ve got thirty seconds.’ Leah Martin stood at her son’s bedroom door and projected her voice to an annoying level that she knew would work. It worked most mornings and today was no different, although having the added bonus of using an empty yet at the same time fully loaded threat like cancelling his birthday helped even more.
‘Right,’ Samuel groaned, throwing the covers off himself and getting up. He stamped across the bedroom floor in his batman pyjamas and Leah ruffled his hair.
‘Good lad. Your breakfast is waiting for you in the kitchen. You’ve got fifteen minutes before we need to be ready to leave. The threat of me cancelling your party still stands if you’re not by the front door, dressed and ready by half past eight.’
Samuel didn’t reply as he made his way downstairs and Leah began to make the bed.
Busy, she thought. Just keep busy. That was the key to keeping the images of what was coming at bay. She hadn’t mustered up enough courage on Saturday evening to tell Tom about the envelope. She’d lied that it was something to do with the end of term school fair and Tom had accepted her lie so easily. Sunday came and went and she couldn’t bring herself to talk about it with him then either, especially when Samuel had arrived home from his sleepover.
Glancing up at the clock, she saw that it read eight twenty. Leah dressed herself quickly and made herself look presentable enough with minimal makeup, a little bronzer, lip gloss and some mascara. That would have to do until she could get home and sort herself properly.
Ten minutes later, Samuel was at the front door waiting for her with his school bag on his back and that look of defiance and frustration ten-year-old boys tend to have when they don’t get their own way.
‘What’s up with you this morning?’ Leah asked him, reaching across and unbolting the door.
‘Nothing. I tried to shout on you but you didn’t hear me. You just missed the man at the door. He said he was a friend of yours and that he left you a message at the weekend and that he would be back later to pick up the thing you borrowed from him.’
It took Leah every muscle in her body to keep herself upright. This was bound to happen; she hadn’t fooled herself into thinking that it wouldn’t come up behind her one day, but she hadn’t expected it to happen like this, with her son in the middle of it.
‘Did he say anything else?’
‘No. I said that he could come in and wait for you but he said that he could see that I was just about to go to school and he would come back later.’
The terror and fear of the words coming from Samuel began to claw their way up from the pit of her stomach, threatening to escape her lips. Leah saw her own horror in the eyes of her son. Calm, she thought. Stay calm.
Leah looked down to see that her son was holding a small, red jewellery box. ‘He also said that I was to give you this.’
Leah took the box from Samuel and stared at it before peering out of the window again. The street was beginning to fill up with parents walking their children along the road to school. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The man she was hiding from wasn’t going to come after her in broad daylight. He would be waiting in the shadows for her. The best thing she could do right now was get Samuel to school. He’d be safe there, away from her.
‘Thanks honey,’ she said, slipping the box into the pocket of her jeans. Whatever it was that was in there, she didn’t want to open it in front of Samuel. ‘Right, time for school.’
Leah opened the door and looked out into the street before merging with the crowds of parents and children walking in the same direction. It took less than five minutes before they arrived at the school gates, where Samuel took off in the direction of his friends who were already kicking a football around the playground.
‘Hey you,’ Charlotte called from across the road.
Leah watched until Samuel was safely through the gate before she headed towards her friend. The rest of the girls were there too, all smiling and waving at her. She wanted so desperately to run away from here. She wanted to make herself safe. But he’d found her and if she disappeared now then she would be putting her entire family and potentially all of her friends in danger. She had to face what she’d done.
‘You okay? You look like you’ve not slept off the hangover,’ Charlotte smiled while waving off her two kids to school.
It was at that point that Leah realised she wanted to blurt everything out there and then; she couldn’t hold it in.
‘Charlotte, I’m in trouble.’
Charlotte turned to face Leah and that was when the tears that had been threatening since she and Samuel had left the house began to spill over. Her hands trembled as she felt for the red box she’d shoved into her pocket.
‘Hey Leah, I’ve got some ideas for the summer fair that I want to run by you,’ Kim said, suddenly standing by Leah’s side. Upon seeing tears in her eyes, Kim said, ‘Oh shit. What’s up?’
Leah quickly wiped at her eyes and shook her head. She didn’t want to talk about this with everyone. She didn’t want anyone to know, but she’d opened her big mouth when she was drunk and Charlotte might be the only one she could talk to about what was going on.
‘Nothing,’ Leah said and plastered on her best smile. ‘Just chuck your ideas on a bit of paper and stick it through the door. I’ve got loads to do in the run up to the fair as it is and I’ve got a few jewellery orders still to get through.’
‘Okay great,’ Kim replied, concern plastered across her face. It quickly faded and turned to a beaming smile. ‘Right ladies, I’ll catch you all later. Simon is taking me for a fancy day at a spa while the kids are in school.’
Leah watched as Kim climbed into the car and drove off before the school bell had even rung. That was Kim all over; as soon as she could get rid of her kids, she was off living a life of luxury until she absolutely had to be a mum again.
Debs smiled at Leah and Charlotte but kept her distance. It was as if she knew there was something going on that Leah didn’t want to talk about. Good, Leah thought to herself. She really didn’t.
Charlotte slipped her arm through Leah’s as her hand rested on her hip, and stood silently. A moment later, the school bell rang and all of the children disappeared inside the school building. The silence rang out louder than the bell itself. The parents in their fancy cars dissipated and Leah felt the tears begin to roll down her cheeks.
‘Right. Why don’t we go back to yours and you can tell me what’s going on?’ Charlotte suggested.
Taking a deep breath, Leah tried to compose herself. ‘No. We can’t go back to mine. I mean, you can’t come to my house. It’s not safe.’
Charlotte turned, and a look of confusion swept across her face. ‘What do you mean it’s not safe? What kind of trouble are you in, Leah?’
‘Not here. Can we go somewhere busy?’
‘Okay,’ Charlotte’s eyes widened. ‘Now you’re scaring me. Is this about what you said on the phone the other day about the message that came through the door?’
‘Yes, and believe me, you’re not the only one who’s scared.’
Leah and Charlotte got into Charlotte’s car and they drove out of the village, around four miles south towards the small shopping complex on the Loch side. When they arrived, Charlotte parked the car and they went into the Oak Tree café. Leah ordered a strong black coffee and prepared herself to open up. But she couldn’t tell Charlotte everything. Not before she told Tom. She just needed to offload first. And she couldn’t go home, not after the picture and the note. Not after Samuel said the man had come to the house. Then she remembered the box in her pocket.
Charlotte stood by the counter, waiting for the coffees. Leah was alone at the table. Standing up, she took the red jewellery box out of her pocket and sat back down. Closing her eyes, Leah opened the lid and took a breath before looking down.
‘Oh my god, Leah,’ Charlotte said. Leah’s eyes snapped open as she looked up at her friend. She’d appeared at the table with the coffees without Leah noticing. ‘Is that what I think it is?’
Leah followed her friend’s wide open gaze down to the box in her hand. What was inside chilled her to the very core.
‘It’s a bullet,’ Leah whispered, her voice caught up in the fear of what was happening. Lifting it carefully between her finger and thumb, she took a closer look at it.
It was engraved with a name. Her own name.
Clutching the bullet in the palm of her hand, Leah sat back in the car as Charlotte drove them back to Balness.
‘You have to go to the police, Leah.’
Leah hadn’t given Charlotte the full details of the person behind the bullet, or of her involvement with them. The fact that she’d told her about the money was dangerous enough in itself. She couldn’t put Charlotte at risk by telling her anything else.
‘I’ve already told you, Charlotte. I can’t do that. It’s just too complicated. And how would that look at the school for Samuel? You know what this village is like, full of little gossip groups who would love nothing more than to hear a bit of drama, especially from me. You know what some of the mums are like, the ones who wanted to head up PTA and didn’t get picked. They behave as though I pissed on their kids, for Christ’s sake.’
‘Don’t try to make me laugh Leah,’ Charlotte said with a light smile perched on her lips. ‘And it’s not drama. What you’re holding in your hand there is a death threat. This person wants you to know that he’s still around. How could you not have told Tom about this?’
Leah shook her head. This was all far too messed up. The lies had gone on long enough, Charlotte was right.
‘If you’re not going to go to the police, at least promise me you’ll tell Tom. He’ll want to protect you. This lunatic showed up at your house, Leah. You’ve got Samuel to think about.’
‘I know. But I know what this guy’s capable of. He won’t do anything that will risk him going to prison. I know this sounds silly but I don’t feel unsafe.’
Charlotte let out a sarcastic laugh. ‘You’re holding a bullet with your name on it, Leah. What are you going to do, wear it on a chain around your neck.’
An involuntary smile crept across Leah’s face then. She couldn’t help but laugh at the image. But the situation wasn’t funny at all. The bullet was a stark warning that he was coming for her.
Charlotte pulled up outside Leah and Tom’s house and as Leah was about to get out of the car, she grabbed hold of Leah’s hand.
‘Leah, I’m worried about you.’
‘Och don’t, I’ll be fine,’ Leah feigned confidence. ‘I promise I’ll sort this. But thank you for this morning. I appreciate your support.’
Leah got out the car, bullet in hand and keys in the other. Opening the door, she waved Charlotte off before closing herself inside and putting on the bolt. The named bullet glared up at her from the palm of her hand and she felt herself sliding down the door, her chest constricting as she tried to suck air into her lungs.
Then her phone rang. Pulling it from her pocket, she looked down at the screen to see a number withheld notification. She knew it would be him. Who else?
‘Hello?’
A breathy silence hung on the other end of the line. Then came the words she’d been dreading.
‘You’ve got a week to get my money, or there’ll be another bullet with your name on it.’
The sound of the voice took her back to the last time she’d heard it and nausea crept in.
‘Only this time it’ll go into the back of your skull. But not before I make you watch your family suffer. And don’t think I won’t do it. Your boy will be first, then that husband of yours. I know where you live, where your son goes to school. I know that you run your own business from home and that you’re having a birthday party for that kid of yours. Don’t underestimate me. I mean it. One week and if I don’t have my money and a fucking explanation, you’re done. You’re all done.’
The line went dead and Leah dropped the phone before everything went black.