Dying to Tell by Val Collins

Author:Val Collins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: VCB Publishing
Published: 2023-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FIVE

Once every week since his accident, Aoife had phoned Mr Gallagher’s golf club. It was three weeks before she was told he was on the golf course. Aoife drove straight there. When Matt’s father saw her leaning against her car, he just sighed wearily. His face was bruised and the spring had gone from his step. He now had a golf cart, which he dragged behind him. When he opened the car boot to stow away his golf clubs, Aoife rushed to help him.

‘I can do it,’ he snapped.

‘You don’t look well. I was sorry to hear about your accident.’

‘Who said it was an accident?’ Some of the energy had returned to his voice. ‘A young hooligan tried to kill me and the police haven’t done a dammed thing about it.’

‘What exactly happened, Mr Gallagher?’

‘I was driving home from the golf club when this car appeared out of nowhere. It drove right up behind me and hit my bumper.’ He shut the boot and leaned heavily against it. ‘I couldn’t believe it. It was like something out of a movie.’

‘It sounds terrible.’

‘He kept hitting the bumper and pushing me forward and then we came to a corner and he bumped me right off the road. Another mile down the road and I might have gone over a cliff.’

‘What did the man look like?’

‘Young. He wore a baseball cap, so I couldn’t see his face.’

‘What did the police say?’

‘They said it was a miracle I wasn’t seriously injured, and wasn’t it bad luck that I was attacked on one of the few stretches of road in the area that isn’t covered by CCTV?’

‘That was unfortunate.’

‘Unfortunate my eye! That hooligan knew exactly what he was doing.’

‘You think he deliberately targeted you?’

‘Me, any elderly person. It doesn’t matter to that type. They go looking for vulnerable people who can’t fight back. Bloody cowards, the lot of them. I tell you if I was twenty years younger…’ He paused. ‘Why are you here, Aoife? Are you planning to write about my accident? “Bereaved father attacked by hooligans”?’ A flush rose to his cheeks. ‘For the love of God, would you leave us the hell alone?’ He got into the driver’s seat, banged the door and drove at breakneck speed from the car park. Then, as if remembering his ordeal, he slammed on the brake and barely crawled out the long driveway.

*

As she was in the golf club anyway, Aoife decided it would be a good time to speak to the golfers she had met on her first visit there. She checked her notebook for their phone numbers. Neither was in the golf club at the time, but one, Clement Smyth, offered to meet her in a local coffee shop.

Clement was middle-aged, with thinning brown hair. He sat very erect, hands resting in his lap when he wasn’t drinking his coffee. It came as a surprise when he wanted to discuss golf membership. Aoife had completely forgotten she’d used that as an excuse to speak to them.

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