Page 48 of The Boathouse By the Loch

‘Down on your luck, lad? Heard you quit the Ross Corporation.’

‘I am not down on my luck, thank you very much.’ He looked at the wad of cash in his hands and suddenly realised what it looked like. They thought he was there to gamble at cards. ‘I have a very lovely job training to be a teacher. Faye is my teaching mentor.’ Jake had no idea why he was telling Faye’s father all this.

Patrick said, ‘More than that, I heard.’

Jake actually blushed. ‘Really?’ Had Faye said something to him? He’d thought they weren’t on speaking terms.

‘You babysit my granddaughter.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘WhatsApp. I asked her if she needed any babysitting. I know she’s attending courses training for a headship.’

‘She told you about me?’

‘Not specifically, but I’ve seen you with Natty in the park.’

Jake wasn’t surprised he was keeping an eye on his granddaughter from afar.

‘WhatsApp?’ said Virgil, turning in his chair to look at his friend.

‘Yeah. I message her.’ He frowned. ‘She still won’t engage with me much, though, apart from the odd photo of Natty and little titbits here and there. I’m just relieved she hasn’t blocked me.’

The old guy with the cigar said, ‘I haven’t a clue what you’re on about, Paddy, with the WhatsApp malarkey. Will you come and rejoin the game?’

Paddy stood by his chair, about to sit. He looked Jake up and down. ‘What are you doing here?’

Jake was just about to answer that question when Patrick’s eyes suddenly went wide. He clutched his chest, looking as though he was having a heart attack. Patrick exclaimed, ‘Oh god! What’s happened? Has something happened to Faye? Tell me she’s okay.’

Jake fixed him with a cold stare. ‘Don’t mess with me. You know perfectly well nothing has happened to Faye!’ Jake threw the money at his feet. ‘Where is she?’ Jake opened a door to his right and poked his head into the lounge. It was empty. ‘Is she in here?’ He pointed at another door which he discovered led into a bedroom.

‘I don’t know what you’re on about.’

‘Here?’ Jake shoved passed him to look in the bathroom.

‘What’s he looking for?’ Virgil asked.

‘Beats the hell out of me,’ said Patrick, and Jake thought he might just do that. ‘Right where did you take her?’ demanded Jake as he emerged from the second bedroom, realising he had exhausted the possibilities of the small apartment.

‘Are you hiding a woman in here, Paddy?’ said Virgil, raising another collective chuckle.

Jake rounded on the men at the table. ‘This is not a joke!’ He wanted to tell the lot of them to go home, but he knew they were liable to call the police. Instead, he shoved Patrick into the corner of the room. ‘Look, I am deadly serious.’ As if to prove the point Jake drew the gun.

Chapter 19

Jake was intending to play it cool. He was going to stay calm, but coming up against five men – even if they were all well into retirement – was making Jake nervous. He held up the gun.

‘Patrick!’ one of the men exclaimed. ‘What the hell have you got yourself into?’ Inexplicably, they were all still sitting at the table, holding their cards as if at any moment the game would resume, and Jake would just go away.

‘On the floor, all of you.’ Jake waved the gun at them as if to say he meant business.

No one moved.

‘Now, look here son,’ Virgil began.

‘NOW!’ Jake tipped the table over for effect to show them he was serious. He’d seen it countless times in the movies; make a bit of noise, do some violence to an inanimate object – it soon got people going.

Slowly, with much complaining about arthritis and ailments Jake had never even heard of, they got on their knees.

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