ALEX WAS ON THE PHONE SAYING NO TO A VERY IMPORTANT MAN. It was one of the directors of the company that he had hoped to sign a big deal with.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Alex. ‘There’s no way I can do that tonight. You see, it’s my son – he’s gone missing.’
The voice on the other end had little sympathy. ‘It would be advisable for you to make the dinner with the chairman, but if you think you really can’t, at the very least you need to be at our London office in the morning to go through the other issues in the contract.’
‘Can’t the contract be forwarded to me? Perhaps I could get it back to you in a day or two? In person if necessary.’
‘If necessary? I thought you understood the size and scale of what we were offering your business, Mr Holliday.’
‘It’s just my son-’
‘Yes, he’s missing, you said. And for how long? Less than a day? Eight hours or so? That’s hardly an emergency yet. This deal can’t wait.’
Alex tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible. ‘Then I’ll certainly do all I can to be there in the morning.’ After the call was finished, he through the handset across the room onto the armchair then rubbed at his eyes.
Charlotte brought him a cup of tea.
‘Where are they, Charlie?’
She sat by him. ‘I wish I knew. She wouldn’t hurt him, Alex, so until we know differently we’ve got to believe he’s safe.’
‘I don’t care what the experts said, someone had to be carrying him away from the home. If not my mum then someone with her. They couldn’t have been his footprints.’
‘Perhaps they carried him between them, and that’s why there wasn’t a lot of extra pressure in the prints. She was probably getting him away from danger. She’ll be looking out for him.’
‘She better be. Why hasn’t she rung?’
Charlotte didn’t have the answer. She sipped her tea. ‘That call just then didn’t seem to go too well.’
‘It’ll be fine. They wanted me to be at some dinner tonight but I told them no. They need me in London tomorrow morning though.’
‘You’ll have to go.’
YOU ARE READING
Until The Last Page
AdventureWritten by a father and his 11 year old son, 'Until The Last Page' is being created as a gift for a special someone's 60th birthday. It tells the tale of a family too caught up in the hectic pace of life to notice what really matters, until wheelcha...
