Go Out With A Bang! Read Online Free Page A

Poppy.
    'Come
on. Oh, you poor girl. You must be frantic. I'll get the kettle
on.'
    'Thanks,
Debbie. I'll put my things in my old room.'
    They
settled down for the evening meal and Poppy tried to do more than
push the food around on her plate.
    Bernie
said, 'You have to keep your strength up, Poppy. You need to
eat.'
    To
oblige her well meaning uncle, Poppy ate a few more mouthfuls. 'I'm
full. That was great, Debbie. Thanks.'
    Debbie
said, 'Poppy. Fred will be back. You'll see. I don't pretend to
know what's happened to him, but I can tell you this. Fred loves
you more than anything. Anybody can see that.'
    'I don't
doubt that,' said Poppy. 'And in a way, that's what scares me the
most. We love each other. He hasn't left me for another woman. I
never thought that for a minute. So what is so terrible he has felt
the need to leave the woman he loves so much behind, terrified out
of her wits?'
    Bernie
sighed. 'You've mirrored my own thoughts. Him not even contacting
you...' He was interrupted by the phone ringing and he got up from
the table to take the call. The women stared at him, hoping it was
Ducket. It wasn't.
    'Dale.
Oh? But I thought...?' He turned to look at Debbie and Poppy. 'Yes,
Dale. Rope in Morris and Crowe. Right. I'll see you first thing.
Goodnight.'
    'Uncle
Bernie?'
    'Sorry.
Nothing to do with Fred. There's been another extortion demand for
another building.'
    Debbie
said,' But I thought those people were all dead?'
    'So did
I,' said Bernie. 'So did I.'
     

Chapter 9
    The
chaos was barely controlled. The daylight had gone half an hour
before the demands had been made. Hancock had his Tactical
Enforcers in place surrounding the Queensway Hotel. It was prime
real estate having had a facelift worth millions. Cleverly
targeted, as was the Petrolex building, it was out of the city
centre, close to the airport, with a private recreational lake
offering unique ways to relax and unwind that other large hotels
could only be envious of.
    The two
hundred room hotel had been purchased and the new owners had wanted
it completely upgraded. It was as prime as it got and the new
owners realised that. It was one week away from being reopened.
Huge lights lit up the huge hotel from all four sides including the
rear which backed onto a lake.
    Two
police launches patrolled the lake, their searchlights covering the
rear and the manicured lawns, tennis courts and putting green. Liam
Goldstein wasn't prepared to see his beautiful hotel destroyed and
he was telling D I Andersen just that.
    'Inspector. We all know what happened to the Petrolex
building. This has been nearly two years in the planning. I say we
negotiate.'
    Andersen
said, 'Mr Goldstein. We are not ruling that out. Normally I would
advise against dealing, but considering what happened last time, we
have to be open to anything giving us a positive result. We have to
find a way to deal with them. Have they contacted you since the
first call?'
    'No.
Twenty million is their demand. My brother and I have already
called our insurance company and got nothing but waffle and back
peddling. They class it as an act of terrorism. They say they want
to see the police handle things and it's our choice to pay up or
not. I do not want to be in the position of seeing my lovely hotel
die and have the insurance company wash their hands of things.
Either you police get our hotel back in one piece, or we pay the
money and get on with our business.'
    'I
understand, Mr Goldstein,' said Andersen. 'Believe me. We want the
gang behind bars and your hotel in one piece. How are you supposed
to contact them?'
    'No
instructions on how the money is to paid have yet been given. Once
we agree, they say they will contact my brother and I. David is at
home waiting for their call. We have been given midnight tonight as
the deadline and they have threatened to destroy it if we refuse to
pay. And I think we know what happened to the last building they
took over.'
    'This is
our dilemma Mr Goldstein. We are