Page 78 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
‘Thanks for everything you’ve done, Ed,’ said Oliver, giving him a brief man-hug. ‘You’ve gone above and beyond for us. I could do with having a chat sometime about whether you and Hayley would be up for training some projectionists for us?’
‘Sure, be happy to.’
Oliver ushered him out, with Ed explaining about how he’d arranged for a courier to collect the film they’d shown that night, before he said goodbye.
‘Okay, the door’s locked. Let’s finish up and get out of here.’
Later on, Patsy was sat on the sofa at Oliver’s, poring over the laptop to see if she could work out what Dan was after. Oliver had called the police and explained what had happened. They were going to look into the terms of Dan’s release from prison but it was too soon for Matt to be considered a missing person, even in the circumstances, so that was as much as they could do for now.
‘If we haven’t heard back from the police tomorrow, perhaps you could call the probation service or something. They’ll have to tell you what the situation is, won’t they?’
‘I think so.’ It was something she should have done weeks ago when Dan had first appeared. Perhaps then none of this would have happened. She might have been able to stop him.
Oliver handed her a glass. ‘It’s brandy.’
‘Thanks. Should we go to Matt’s house? See if he’s there?’
‘I think he’d have come back to the cinema, Pats. Don’t you? He definitely wouldn’t have told Dan where he lived, or gone home without coming back to let you know everything was okay.’
Oliver was right. After what had happened between them, she knew that Matt would have come to her. If he could.
Some hours later, Patsy was still searching the computer for anything that might give her a clue as to what Dan was up to, interspersing it with some bug hunting to break the monotony. The bug hunting wasn’t going as well as she’d hoped. She had managed to find a vulnerability in one website but it turned out someone else had beaten her to it and had got the reward instead, not that it would have been enough to have made any difference. Amy’s deadline was fast approaching and they were no closer to being able to pay across the money. After tonight, Patsy was starting to feel hopeless.
Oliver had fallen asleep on the sofa beside her. She’d pulled a blanket on top of him, grateful that he’d wanted to keep her company. At about four in the morning, his phone which he’d left on the coffee table began buzzing.
‘Ollie,’ she shook him to wake him. ‘Ollie, someone’s ringing you.’He shot upright, grabbing his phone with one hand and rubbing his eyes into focus with the other.
‘Oh, thank god,’ he said, after he’d listened for a few seconds. ‘Okay.’ A few more okays and thank yous later, he hung up.
‘That was Matt’s ex-wife. He’s been found.’
Patsy threw her arms around Oliver, feeling elated before she realised that his ex-wife was calling because he couldn’t.
‘Is he okay?’ She didn’t want to hear the answer but at the same time, she did.
‘He’s in hospital. The police found him on the Worcester Road and his ex-wife is still the emergency contact in his phone apparently. He’s awake though, and asked her to call me to let us know he’s okay.’
‘Can we go?’
Oliver shook his head. ‘He’s resting and we’ve had a drink. We’ll go tomorrow, Pats. I’ll ask Jack to work and we’ll both go.’
‘Did Dan do this?’
‘I don’t know anything, except that he was unconscious and it does look like he was beaten up. I don’t think he’s said anything about what happened, from what she said.’
Patsy started crying. ‘It’s all my fault. I did this. If I’d faced up to the situation and sorted things out with Dan straight away, this wouldn’t have happened.’
‘Come on, you can’t know that. If he’s willing to dupe one of your friends into going out with him just so that he can get close to you, god knows what he’s capable of. Did he ever do anything like that before? You know, get violent?’
‘Not with me but I always thought he was capable of it. He threatened it enough times… I was sure he was going to one day. That’s why I had to leave because that’s what happens, isn’t it? People want to believe it’ll never happen to them but I knew he was taking everything from me. I wasn’t myself anymore and as soon as he started being investigated for fraud, he was like a caged lion. Angry all the time, and it was only a matter of time before he got to the point where all of the threats would turn into something else.’
Oliver hugged her. ‘It’s so hard to imagine anyone being able to make you, of all people, feel like that. It tells me just how evil he was.’ He took the laptop from her and closed the lid. ‘Come on, now you know he’s okay, try and get some sleep.’ He insisted she take the bed and she slipped into a deep sleep as soon as she pulled the duvet over herself.
Patsy was awoken the following morning by Oliver tapping on the door and delivering coffee and a pain au chocolat to her bedside.
‘Jack’s already here. I called the hospital and we can visit this morning.’
Patsy leapt out of bed into the shower, leaving the coffee and pastry until she came out. She wound her damp hair into a bun and was ready to go in less than ten minutes but then ended up waiting impatiently for Oliver to finish in the bathroom.
