Chapter 8. Free
"A bomb wrecked a car on the road between Canewdon and Raleigh in the early
hours of this morning. The remains of the occupants, believed to be two known
drug dealers were found dead at the scene. It is suspected the bomb was intended
for others and went off accidentally........" Kathy had kept quiet about the
events of the previous evening. Now as the newsreader read the 9 o'clock news,
she started shaking with the after shock of what she had done. Doric held her.
"That was intended for you. It was put in the locker. I should be in a crate on
the way to Stockholm." Sobs wracked Kathy for a while as she recalled the events
of only hours earlier. Gradually they got the story from her.
Reggie, now as generous with his apologies as he was with his punishments spoke
with some feeling, "Kathy, your debt is paid in full. In fact I owe you much
more that you ever owed me."
The police of course visited them but Reggie worked out a story that was very
nearly the truth.
"Tell them exactly what happened. The two men took you with them, gave you to
captain Johansen and Ove took you to his cabin. How you escaped. Tell it exactly
as it happened then you won't get it wrong. Just stretch the time scale a little
because you didn't come back to the boat. You went to the marina to check if the
men had gone. You were worried in case the men would go to the boat and do what
they said, 'feed us to the fishes.' You saw them leave in the car. Then there
were the two drunks who saw you. Again you can say what happened because they
saw you and would undoubtedly have given some story to the wife. Then you came
back here and released us."
The police believed them although there were details than might not have seemed
quite right had it been a murder investigation. But with two main drug dealers
who they had been trying to nail for some years, dead, they weren't overly
concerned.
*****
A fortnight later they were all once again on the 'Golden Dragon' this time with
Phyllis included. Kathy had spent most of the time at home. At first she wanted
to get away from the boat and all it stood for but found her life as a 'free'
woman at home with a drunken mother boring and unfulfilled. Reggie had given her
enough money so she had no need to steal. Her erstwhile friends now seemed
childish and she knew she missed Doric. She phoned him and found he missed her
too and when she heard Reggie was taking a trip with the boat for a weekend she
asked if he needed a crew. Thus they all sat in the cabin.
"You never told us what you did to make those men tie them up, Reggie." It was
Kathy that spoke.
"Well I suppose I can tell you now. I import timber and with it come cases of
spirits and cigarettes. It helped to boost the profits in the shops. Those two
men as you know from the reports were big drug dealers and they wanted me to add
drugs and immigrants to my imports. I do have some principles and refused.
That's when they got nasty and tied us up but I didn't think they were going to
kill us. I thought we were just being left until they came back or someone else
came. Phyllis I knew would phone when I didn't get back."
"I did but the phone was turned off!"
"I know Phyl. I didn't want to be interrupted at the meeting and never had a
chance to turn it back on. Well I've stopped the smuggling now and changed
shipping lines so I don't have to deal with Johansen again."
For the first time that morning Fiona spoke up. "You realise, all of you, if
Kathy hadn't tried to take my dinner money we wouldn't have met. I would
probably be sitting at home, shy and reading pulp fiction. You three might be
dead and Kathy you might still be robbing shops or in prison. Since then so much
has happened to us in the last few weeks. Now I have a boyfriend, so does Kathy.
All because of ?5 dinner money!"
Finis
