Amnesia: An Alexander Gregory Thriller (The Alexander Gregory Thrillers Book 6) by LJ Ross

Author:LJ Ross [Ross, LJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

The next morning

“Anita!”

Jonathan Smythe called out to his wife, who was sitting in the kitchen with Theo. Hearing the urgent tone, they both sprang up and hurried towards his study at the other end of the house.

“What is it, Jon? Is it Rory? Have they found him?”

One look at her husband’s face told her that wasn’t the case.

“It’s another ransom e-mail,” he said. “Theo, you don’t need to hear this, go into the other room—”

“Dad, I’m seventeen,” he protested.

His father passed a hand over his weary face. “Alright,” he said. “This time, they’re giving us twelve hours to pay, or we won’t see Rory again.”

Anita began to cry.

“I’m sorry, darling,” Jonathan said. “I’m so sorry this has happened.”

He crossed the room and put his arms around his wife, while his elder soon looked on. After a moment, he held out an arm to him, too.

“Come here,” he murmured.

His son hurried over, and buried his face in his father’s chest.

“I’m sorry I haven’t spent more time with Rory,” he mumbled. “I feel so bad about it. Maybe if we’d been closer, he’d have told me what was happening.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Jonathan said and, in an extraordinary display of affection, gave his son a kiss on top of his head. “If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. My work has brought this to our door.”

“Rory,” Anita wept. “He must be so frightened.”

Jonathan gave them both one last squeeze, and then stepped away. “I have to put a call through to the Chief Constable and DCI Verrill,” he said. “I’ll let Gregory and Douglas know, as well.”

As he moved off, Theo and Anita looked at one another.

“If you want, I can go back to my mum’s house,” he offered, not knowing what else to say.

Anita shook her head.

“We’re happy you’re with us, Theo, and your father needs you. We both do.”

He fiddled with the hem of his t-shirt. “I could…get you a cup of tea?”

She didn’t particularly like tea, but appreciated the gesture. “That would be lovely.”

* * *

Gregory and Douglas had been awake for hours when the call came through.

“Another ransom note,” Alex said to his friend. “This time, imposing a twelve-hour deadline.”

Bill folded his hands across his paunch, and frowned. “I still can’t understand why they would delay,” he said. “Why not impose a deadline from the beginning? What are they waiting for?”

“The family are nearing the end of their rope,” Alex replied. “Perhaps the objective was to cause as much heartache as possible.”

“Now, that’s interesting,” Bill said. “If it was an experienced criminal gang, or something of that kind, there wouldn’t be any particular malice towards the Smythe family. They’d see it as ‘purely business’ and would have been far more likely to set a deadline.”

“Agreed,” Alex said. “Which means our gut feeling about this being personal could prove to be correct. Unfortunately, all of the current suspects have a personal relationship with the Smythe family, and any one of them might have a motive to hurt them in this way.

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