Amanda walked through the corridors. She had forgotten how much she hated hospitals, the sickly smell of disinfectant. She took a deep breath and pushed open the double doors. She saw Adam at the end of the ward.
"Hi Adam!" Amanda smiled. Adam looked up. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel as if someone has used my head as a football." He groaned and tried to sit up. Amanda rushed forward and helped him, plumping up his pillows before placing them behind his back. "Thanks! You'd make a great Florence Nightingale. . ." Adam looked deeply into Amanda's eyes. "The police visited me yesterday."
"I tried to get in contact with you. To warn you perhaps." Amanda pulled up a chair.
"What's happened to Kate?" Adam looked back to Amanda, she noticed that he had tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "I know she didn't do this to me. The police tried to get me to say that she had hit me and run away. She wouldn't have done that to me. . ..-"
"I'm sorry Adam, I think that this is my fault." Amanda moved her chair closer to Adam's bed.
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember when I first bought the yard?" Amanda looked down at the floor.
"Yes. I remember it well. You wrote to me, that's why I came down here."
"Did I ever tell you how I could afford to buy a riding school?"
"No. . ."
"Didn't you ever wonder how I could have bought a yard when I had just been a stable hand? Didn't you ever think?" Amanda frowned.
"Of course I didn't think. In the circumstances it was the last thing on my mind. . ." Adam paused. "Where is this all leading anyway?"
"I've done a very stupid thing Adam. And I think that I am just about to pay the price." Amanda gulped. "You remember when I left the home, I went to a yard in London. It was not out of choice, I just wanted to work with horses. So I bought a copy of Horse And Hound and just picked the first job advert I saw. I can still remember it now, 'Girl Groom required, to live in at London yard.' I applied and went down for an interview, they said that they would take me on so I just started work. You were the only person who really knew where I was, I wrote to you from the yard. I had just run away, and that was just the start, I've been running every since.
The yard was right in the centre of London. We used to ride in Hyde Park. I was really excited at first, you have to remember that I had never been to a big city. London was so different to the country, the noise and the traffic and the people. There were always so many people. We were always busy, starting work early in the morning, we used to ride across the busy roads just to trot and canter down the sand tracks in the park. It was the same ride, time after time, hour after hour, day after day. I joined in the summer, I remember the heat and the smog, the yard was so small. We were packed into this courtyard, behind a whole row of garages, it was always hot, everyone was always on edge, no one was friendly at all. You know that I had no friends at that yard, working was hell, but it was worst at the end of the day. Oh so much worse. . .
I lived in a flat that was above the stables, it was really where the hay would have been stored once. There were ten of us in this flat, all the grooms and instructors. I used to sleep in the bottom bunk in a room no bigger than the office at our yard, shared with four other girls. We lived in such a small space, the kitchen was filthy and crawling with cockroaches. You just can't imagine the conditions. Because of this we never got on, the other girls all hated me. I was a country girl, I didn't know what I was doing. . . I was stupid, I was the one who could be the butt of everyone's jokes. I hated every minute. But I was trapped, I had signed a document when I had joined the yard. When I tried to leave the head-girl told me that I had signed a three year contract and that I couldn't leave the yard. I was stuck there, I hadn't read it, it had just been put down in front of me. They had said, 'Don't worry about that, its just a standard contract.' I didn't know any better than, I can't imagine how many people they tricked with that, it was no wonder that all the staff were so miserable. It was as if everyone blamed everyone else for the state they were in. If we had all got together we could have done something. . . Maybe we might have been able to get out, but no one there cared. They were all trapped and instead of fighting they just put up with it.
As I was the last in, I was at the very bottom of the chain. If there were ever dirty or dangerous jobs to be done it was me who had to do them, I prayed for someone else to join the yard. I know it sounds awful, but I just wanted to be left alone for a moment, you never got any time alone, no peace. You were always there working, eating and sleeping with these terrible people. The only freedom was when I got to take out a ride. They let me do that because I was supposedly someone who wanted to become an instructor, so why not get the practice in now? There I was, virtually untrained taking ten or fifteen horses and riders across those main roads and round the park, it was so frightening. I remember once someone fell off. It wasn't a very bad fall, just some bruises, but they told the head girl when they got back to the yard. . . She dragged me into the office and yelled at me. Threatening me with what she would do if it happened again. I was constantly living in fear of those threats. You have to remember I was younger then, vulnerable.
So it went on. I was there for three months before the accident happened. The head-girl used to drink, I see now that she was in just a bad a state as the rest of us, probably worse. She used to go out at lunch times and often come back slurring and breathing pure alcohol over anyone in the way, she was in a terrible state that day. It was something that had been waiting to happen. No one really knows what actually happened to her. She had gone in to see one of the horses, and. . . She was very rough when she had been drinking. Perhaps that was what had happened, she was rough on people and even worse with the horses. . . They didn't find her until it was too late. I suppose no one had see her go into the stable, perhaps those that had conveniently forgotten that she hadn't come out. She often would sleep off a particularly bad lunch before emerging again to hit the town and the local pub. But someone went into the box, saw her lying there. . . She had stood no chance. The horse had kicked her in the head. . . We were told it was painless, but in the state she was in she wouldn't have felt anything. . .. They put the horse down you know.
That shook things up on the yard. Suddenly everyone started to panic, we had the police in, they just put it down to an accident. None of us went to her funeral. I had never liked her. I didn't think that I could go to her funeral and feel anything different.
One of the other instructors became head girl. So we all had to take on her clients, I had a couple myself, on top of the other work. . . But it was okay, because that was when I met James. James made everything all right.
He was James Simpson. He had been riding at the yard for quite a while, I'd seen him before, but only in passing, I saw him arrive and leave in his bright red Porsche. But now I was riding with him. He was so handsome. No you can't imagine, he was tall and slim, with a lithe muscular body and straight blond hair. He used to arrive with his tailored shirts and jodhpurs. I must admit that I really liked him, I would have given anything to know more about him. But I had resigned myself to the fact that I was just a stable girl, I was so far out of his league, all I could do was to admire him from a distance. I was shocked and delighted when he asked if I would like to have a drink with him.
We were to go out the next day, I was in a world of my own. It was only at lunch time I realised that I had nothing to wear, I only had the clothes I stood up in and a pair of ripped jeans. I went into the office and called him on the number he had given me, I told him that I couldn't make it, that I didn't have anything to wear. He sounded a little upset. I thought that that was my chance gone, the next time I saw him, if there was a next time, it would just be back to normal, just back to the cold, harsh reality.
So I just threw myself into my work. I must admit that I cried as I groomed my horses, crying for what could have been, but it was stupid, impossible. So you can imagine my surprise when he arrived on the yard at about four o'clock. He came over to me and said that we were going shopping. I just didn't know what to say. He took me in his Porsche to Harrods, I'd never been inside there before, it was just amazing, all these wonderful things. He took me to a boutique, I had a bath in a wonderful bath with gold taps and rich bath oil and then I had a complete facial and had my hair done. When it was finished I was given a whole wardrobe of expensive clothes, dresses, I never wore dresses, but these were so beautiful, flowing silk. I told James that he couldn't do this for me, but he just smiled and paid the bill!
We left the store and went down the road. It was only a short trip to the Blue Moon wine bar. I was really impressed by this place, it was so beautiful. I was even more impressed when James told me he owned it! We wined and dined the evening away. I don't remember all of it, quite frankly I had never really had wine before. I woke up the next morning in a beautiful room, it was certainly a world apart from my bunk at the stables. Breakfast was waiting, and there was a letter from James. He had to go on a brief business trip, he would be back soon, so he would see me in a few days. He had thrown away my old clothes, there was a really expensive pair of jodhpurs and a wonderful shirt lying at the end of my bed.
I went into work, I was a bit late, and the reception I got was certainly very frosty. The other girls hated me even more because of James, they were all so jealous. One of the girls took it particularly badly, and gave me a black eye. I told James about her, it was quite strange, she had a nasty accident a few days later, she walked into a door and broke her nose. Living in the flat was hell, everyone hated me even more. When James came back he said that I could live with him for a while.
Well, to cut a long story short, I lived with James. He drove me to work every day in a posh car, wearing tailored clothes. It was like being in heaven! James insisted that I open a bank account. I'd never had a bank account before, so James set one up for me. I never really did anything with it, I didn't actually have any money to put into the bank. Anyway, everything was perfect.
One morning while we were sleeping there was a crash, suddenly a load of police officers rushed into the room, they took James away. I was devastated. I didn't know what to do. He was taken to prison, they wouldn't give him any bail. He had been arrested for drug trafficking and money laundering. I saw him in prison. He said that he hadn't done it, I believed him for a while. He told me to wait for him. . . He got eight years. . . Eight years that finished a few months ago. . ."
"Where is this all leading?" Adam frowned.
"I haven't told you everything yet. . ." Amanda sat back. "After he had been arrested I went to the bank. I thought that I had better close down the bank account, I didn't know why James had set it up, and I certainly wasn't going to use it. Anyway I went to the bank and told them that I wanted to close the account, they asked me to wait and the manager came out to see me. He asked how I wished to take my money. Of course I asked what money? He said that there had been a transfer of ten million pounds made to my account. I didn't know what to do. . . I mean what would you do? I just asked them to give it to me in cash. They said that to do that would be impossible, so they gave me a bankers draft, one single piece of paper that was all that money. I just took it and ran, I didn't go back to the yard."
"What did you do?"
"I did nothing for a while, I had the keys to James's flat so I stayed there for a while. Then I just happened to read an advert for a yard near Dartmoor. I thought that if I could just buy a small place, it was only a small amount of money compared to the full ten million. I was so sure that James wouldn't mind if I used a little of the money, after all if I was going to wait eight years. Anyway I bought it. I must admit that I made some mistakes in my first year before I got myself a solicitor and an accountant. . ."
"So did you spend all the money?"
"Oh no! I could never do that. . .. I sort of lost it. . ."
"What?" -
"My accountant told me that I should invest such an amount. I just left it all to him. It all seemed to be going well for a while. He kept giving me reports and charts and things, and then it stopped. I went to see him, but I found that he had moved out of his office, there was no forwarding address and no money."
"Oh Amanda!"
"How could I tell James that I had lost all his money. That was when I changed my name, I thought that if they couldn't find me I would be safe."
"Safe?"
"I found out about James and his organisation, they thought nothing of wiping out someone who got in their way. I never believed it when I was younger. My goodness I was so stupid, I never saw it happening. Adam I thought that he loved me. He had just used me as a dupe, I was an innocent fool used to hold onto the money. I was just a stable girl who wouldn't mess up his plans, the police wouldn't be able to get hold of his money. That was until the point when I lost it all. What do you think he would do to me if he found me?"
"But what about what happened to Kate?"
"Consider the situation. . . If they found out that I was working at some yard in the West Country. Now if they just happened to be waiting round a dark corner..."
"But they took Kate?"
"Perhaps they have made a mistake. I don't know. I only know we have to try and get Kate back." She sighed. "Before it is too late."
"But do you know that it was them?"
"I found this in the office, just after I had taken you to hospital." Amanda handed Adam a small match book.
"What's this?"
"Turn it over and read what it says."
"What? Oh my. . . The Blue Moon Wine Bar."
"Then I saw this in the local paper the day after Kate had been taken." Amanda took the newspaper out of her bag and handed it to Adam he read down the obituary column. "You see they think that they have me. I asked the newspaper, I was told that the advert had been phoned through to the offices."
"What are they going to do to Kate?" Adam wiped a tear from his cheek.
"I'm sorry Adam."
"There's nothing you could have done about this. It could have been me. It could have been you."
"But if I hadn't been so stupid in the first place."
"It's all done now." Adam sat up and swung his legs out of bed.
"What are you doing?" Amanda stood up.
"Pull the curtains closed please. There's nothing I can do while I'm lying here."
"But Adam!"
"No! I need to help Kate. . . And you."
"Thank you Adam. I really don't know what I would do without you."
"Can you get my clothes out of the bedside cabinet."
A few minutes later Adam and Amanda were walking out of the hospital. They got into Amanda's car.
"So what do we do now?" Amanda started the engine.
"I think we go down to London and face the staff of The Blue Moon wine bar."
"What will that achieve?" Amanda frowned.
"It will let us see if they are really behind this. Perhaps you can sort this all out, perhaps James will let you pay the money back in instalments."
"Oh don't be stupid, ten million pounds in instalments, I'd be dead well before I got there."
"Kate might be dead if we do nothing. Can you think of anything better to do?"
Kate was resting. It was the first time she had been left alone in hours, constantly being shouted at, they were still talking about the money. What money..? And why did they keep calling her Miss Bishop? She wished she could be anywhere else.
~~~