Chapter 64: Elliot - The Foster Child

My head is pounding. I lie still for a moment trying to get my bearings. I went to the garage to check the fuse box, I recall. The breaker switch was down. I went to push it up then…

I open my eyes, it’s dark. I put my hand to my head and feel a wetness. I’m bleeding.

Then it all floods back to me. Someone was in the garage waiting for me. He was wearing a balaclava and attacked me.

A beam of light almost blinds me as a torch is shone in my face. My torch, I realise, remembering that I dropped it when we were fighting.

‘Still alive then?’ someone asks sardonically. ‘Good because I haven’t finished with you yet.’

I recognise that voice.

I manage to sit up. I shield my eyes and try to make out the features of the man standing in the shadows in front of me. He’s dressed in dark clothes and seems to be wearing a balaclava, so I can’t make out his features. Not that I need to. I know who it is.

‘Jacob. What the hell are you doing here?’ I demand. Has he come for Lori? Were our suspicions that he was knocking her about right, and now he’s come to get revenge because she left him? God, was it him who wrote the message on the mirror?

Anger floods through me and I glare up at him. ‘If you’ve come for Lori you can forget it. She isn’t having anything else to do with you. And if you lay another finger on her I won’t be responsible for my actions.’

He’s lowered the torch now but the balaclava is still in place.

‘You really haven’t joined the dots yet, have you? I haven’t come for Lori. I don’t give a damn about her, she was a means to an end.’ Acid drips from his voice. ‘You got my message, didn’t you? And my condolence card?’

Jacob sent them? I’m sure my jaw drops open. This doesn’t make any sense. What has this nutter got to do with Rocky? ‘I don’t understand. Who the hell are you?’

He pulls off the balaclava with black-gloved hands. ‘You really don’t know, do you?’

I stare at him and shake my head. I have no idea what the connection is. I want to keep him talking though, because while he’s in here Cora, Lori and Violet are safe. I’ve got to distract him and get to my phone. I must have dropped it when he knocked me out.

I look around me, it could have bounced anywhere.

‘Is this what you’re looking for?’ Jacob holds up my phone. ‘You’re not going to be calling for help anytime soon, Elliot.’

‘Cora will probably already have called the police,’ I tell him. ‘They’ll be here any minute.’

‘No, they won’t because I’ve got everyone’s phones. I’ve been preparing for this for a long time. By the time the police arrive you’ll be dead. Like my dad.’

He’s put the torch down now, propped up on something so the beam illuminates his face. I blink and try to focus. I can’t see any resemblance to anyone I know.

Could he be Rocky’s son? Rocky has been murdered. Does he blame me for that?

None of it makes sense.

‘You don’t recognise me, do you? Because you never took a good look at him. You just got back in the fucking car and left him lying there. Left him for dead.’

What?

‘Let me refresh your memory to Christmas Day 2001. You and your scummy mate stole a car, went for a joyride, crashed into my dad, left him for dead and ran away. Remember it now?’

My eyes shoot to his face. His eyes are sparking with anger and there’s a cruel edge to his voice. Is it true? Is he the son of the man we ran into all those years ago?

‘He wasn’t dead. And I wasn’t the one who was driving.’ I keep my voice hard, not to be trifled with, like I learnt to all those years ago when I was in Rocky’s gang. ‘And I didn’t just leave him. I ran to a phone box for help. We didn’t have mobile phones back then,’ I remind him. ‘And we both did time, we paid the price.’

‘He wasn’t dead, but he wished he was. You left him crippled. A lifetime of pain.’ He grits his teeth. ‘Have you any idea what it’s like to see your dad cry with pain and know that you can’t do anything to help? He finally died three months ago. All those years of relentless suffering, thanks to you.’

‘I told you, I wasn’t driving. And I phoned an ambulance,’ I repeat. I try to get to my feet but he pushes me back down and I hit my head again.

‘You’re going nowhere. It’s taken me a long time to find you but now I have I’m going to get revenge for my dad.’

‘Look, I’m sorry about the accident. Really I am.’

‘Oh you will be, mate. You will be.’

He pulls a gun out of his pocket and aims it at me.