Neil Robinson should have been a happy man. Release date
a week away, wife and family that had stood by him, a
home to go to and even the vague promise of a job,
working with his brother in law – though he had mixed
feelings about that. Neil and Paul had never really got
along and the idea of selling second hand cars really
wasn’t Neil’s idea of a proper job.
As it stood, though, happiness was a long way distant
from the way he felt. Scared was more like it.
The first postcard had arrived the week before and he had
presumed it had come from Freddie Gains, released the
previous month and promising to keep in touch. The powers
that be seemed to have reached the same conclusion; Neil
had been handed it along with a birthday card from his
sister. Counting down the days, she had said inside.
Too right, Neil had thought.
‘Wish you were here,’ the postcard told him. A photograph
of some sea side pier or other on the picture side. It
had been signed only with an F. F for Freddie, he had
assumed, though the rather neat print hadn’t looked like
Freddie’s scrawl.
Then another card a couple of days after, bearing only
the words ‘see you soon.’ Also signed with an F. The
picture this time looked familiar and Neil looked for the
little printed legend postcards normally bore which would
tell him where this view of a marina was situated. He was
puzzled to find that there was none.
He had gone back to look at the photograph of the pier;
no clue there either and it occurred to Neil, rather
belatedly, that these might not be commercially produced,
shop bought postcards after all, but something someone
had printed off themselves. On a rather good printer and
on some pretty fancy card stock.
Definitely not the sort of thing Freddy Gains would have
had the nouse to do.
It got Neil Robinson to thinking and that thinking
finally coalesced into an answer that woke him in the
night in a cold sweat.
He did know where the little marina was; in fact he could
guess the owner of the boat tied up alongside the dock.
And he could make a further guess as to the seaside
resort that was home to that particular pier.
And then that morning a third postcard had turned up.
‘Not long now’, was all it said, not even a signature of
any sort this time. He turned it over and looked at the
picture on the front. A woodland scene, with a family
picnicking in the shade of summer trees. They had their
backs to him but Neil didn’t need to see their faces to
recognize his sister and her kids
And Neil suddenly understood who the messages were from
and what they meant
