Dead Man's Gift 01 - Yesterday Read Online Free

rules, and put our operation in jeopardy, your son will die. And he will die painfully. Just like the nanny.’ He paused to let his words sink in. ‘And remember this. We’re watching you. Always.’
    The line went dead, and Tim put down the receiver. He didn’t sit down.
    ‘What are you going to do, Tim?’ Diane asked.
    You
. The choice of word was deliberate. What are
you
going to do? Tim knew then that he was on his own. However much his wife loved him – and he wasn’t at all sure how much that was these days – her priority was always going to be Max, and if Tim had to die to secure his release, then she wasn’t going to do anything to stop that. He was suddenly intensely jealous of her. She just had to sit tight for twenty-four hours. He wasn’t even going to be alive then. He wanted to scream. To smash up the whole room to pieces. To scream at his fucking wife until he was blue in the face… …
    No. That wasn’t what he wanted. What he wanted was to live. To see his son grow up; , to enjoy the world; , to be happy. He looked at his watch. 5.30 p.m. If all went according to the kidnappers’ plans, he had less than eighteen hours left on earth. The thought tore him to shreds.
    ‘Tim? What are you going to do?’
    The mirror on the opposite wall showed perfectly the defeat that was written all over his face. ‘I don’t know,’ he said.
    ‘You’ve got to do what it takes to free Max. You will, won’t you?’ She paused. ‘We can’t let him die.’
    Tim sighed, the sound filling the room. ‘I won’t let our son down, okay?’
    Diane ran a hand roughly over her face. ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’
    ‘Neither can I. But it is.’
    The room fell silent. The only sound was the ticking of the antique railway station clock on the wall.
    Ticking away the seconds until his death sentence was carried out.
    And then an idea struck Tim. A possible way out. Slim at best. But surely better than walking, lemming-like, to his death?
    He shook his head wearily. ‘I need to go to the toilet.’ He looked round the room, wondering where they’d hidden the camera. ‘I said I need to go to the toilet, okay?’ he said more loudly, so anyone watching remotely could hear him.
    ‘You’re not going to call the police, are you?’ said Diane, frowning at him.
    ‘Of course I’m not. I just need to go, that’s all.’
    There was something in Diane’s expression that made it clear she didn’t trust him entirely, and he wondered if whoever was watching could see it as well. He wanted to yell at her to stop looking at him like that, but resisted the urge. In the end, she was an innocent party too, and it was essential that he kept calm and used his time to work on the plan already formulating in his head.
    He left the room without another word and walked through the hallway to the downstairs toilet, the silence ringing harshly in his ears. Even before he stepped inside, locking the door behind him, he had doubts about what he was going to do. It was all well and good trying to save his own life, but if he messed up, his son would die, and he’d have to live with that for the rest of his life. He tried to think what it would be like without Max. He’d never wanted children. It had been Diane who’d pushed for them, shortly after her thirty-third birthday, when her biological clock began ticking in earnest. He’d always feared that a child would get between them, and his fears had been confirmed when Max had finally been born three years later after two miscarriages. Emotionally exhausted by the whole process, he and Diane had grown further and further apart, and now they were little more than strangers living under the same roof. But even after all that, Tim loved his son more than life itself. He couldn’t let him die. He wouldn’t.
    He looked round, wondering if they’d planted a camera in here. If they had, then he was taking a huge risk with Max’s life. But he was fairly certain they hadn’t.