For The Love Of Dad
Jane Scoggins
He looked like he had had too much to drink. He was slumped against a tree when Jim and Tony walked by on their way to the fishing lake one Saturday morning. The brothers had grown up going fishing with their Dad. Now in their forties and Dad recently passed away, they liked to continue the tradition. They hadn't seen each other for a couple of weeks so were engrossed in chat when they passed the man. They'd been young men themselves who had often drank too much on a Friday night. They had not paused their conversation but had glanced and made their own similar assumptions. A young man nicely dressed and wearing good shoes sleeping off a heavy evening’s drinking propped up against a leafy tree, head down, on a warm Saturday morning. Jim and Tony set up their camping chairs and propped up their rods ready to prepare the bait. They were the only two fishing that morning and soon settled into almost silent companionship. It was a couple of hours before Jim said he was hungry. He’d left his sandwiches in the car so headed off to get them. He passed the young man still sleeping. On the way back he decided to check if he was OK.
‘You OK mate?’ No reply. He tried again a bit louder. ‘You OK mate?’
Still no reply or movement, so he bent nearer and touched his shoulder. The young man’s head remained bent forward into his chest. Jim gave him a gentle shake and the man slid sideways and the movement turned his head. His eyes remained closed. His face was pale and Jim wondered if he was breathing. He felt a sense of anxiety about what he might have discovered. He ran halfway around the lake to where Tony was sitting quietly and still, his eyes intently on the water and the end of his rod where he thought a perch was about to bite. Jim’s noisy arrival put a stop to that and Tony looked up annoyed. Jim breathless and afraid told his brother he thought the man they had seen was dead. Hardly believing this could be true he nonetheless jumped up and ran back with Jim. Tony agreed that he thought the man was actually dead, and fumbling for his mobile phone phoned 999 for an ambulance, and the police.
The ambulance arrived within 20 mins and very quickly established that the young man was indeed dead, and had probably been so for quite a few hours. Jim and Tony felt sick with guilt but were reassured by the paramedic that the man would have been dead before they arrived that morning. The police took their statements and seeing how upset they were suggested they pack up their fishing gear and head off home before forensics arrived.
When Julia heard on the news about the unidentified young man that had been found dead near the fishing lake she thought about a family that would be grieving. She had lost her father in a car accident and knew what terrible grief from an unexpected death felt like. It was only recently that she had allowed herself to start having fun again. One of her friends had persuaded her to go with a group of girls on a Hen weekend in
‘I would have been happy for you to give him a bit of a kiss and a cuddle. I don't mind sharing you’ Julia didn’t much like the sound of that but thought she was being a prude, and taking it too seriously. Men had come on to her before, but now she was with Mark she didn't want to deal with that anymore. It took her some time to realise the truth, and she was shocked. At first, she cried but then decided she was strong enough to deal with it. She met with Mark a couple more times before telling him it was over between them. He had become quite possessive and didn't like the idea of losing her. Julia knew that he would want to see her again and wouldn't be happy to let her go. He told her he would come and see her and ask her to explain why.
He came, she made a meal and they drank wine. When he went into the bathroom she knew he was taking cocaine. It had taken her some time to realise the extent of his drug use. And that he was a supplier and a controller of underage vulnerable girls and boys for prostitution and as county lines carriers of drugs across the country. He was trying to involve her in carrying drugs and share her with other men. He had spiked her drinks, and later realised she had been raped. She knew she could not easily if at all extricate herself from this man without danger to herself. So she had stolen some of his drugs over the last few meetings. She added them in high doses to his food and drink when he was already under the influence of cocaine. Later in the evening, she suggested they take a walk down by the fishing lake. It was getting dark and there was no one about. The drug cocktail was taking effect. When Mark became unsteady he sat down under a tree. Julia watched as he convulsed. She withdrew and watched until she thought he was unconscious. With gloves on, she searched his pockets and removed everything that could connect her to him. She put his roll of banknotes in his inside jacket pocket and bag of cocaine and amphetamines in another inside pocket. She waited in the bushes trembling until she heard him vomit and then the sound of choking. When all was quiet she checked his pulse with a gloved hand and went home under cover of darkness. Nobody came forward and the verdict was misadventure from a drug overdose of a habitual user. Case closed. Julia’s Dad had been mowed down by a drink and drug fuelled driver who had smiled in court. He had been given a three year sentence. If she was ever found out, she reckoned on two years for good behaviour. That was a price she would readily pay for Dad.
Copyright Jane Scoggins