Bring Him Back Read Free Page B

seemed to be. He had everything. Successful career, beautiful home. I thought we were a happy family, you know? Thought everything was fine. But obviously he was feeling restless and dissatisfied, deep down. It was about three years ago when he started drinking, and it got quickly worse from there. He’d always been so fit and active, but then he just seemed to let himself go. He stopped exercising, started not caring about the way he looked, or what he ate. He became moody and prone to outbursts of anger. Said what he was doing was bullshit. Said he’d trade it all – the money, the glamorous clients and friends, the cars, toys, all of it – to do what he really wanted to do.’
    ‘Which was?’
    ‘Wildlife photography,’ Jessica said. ‘That became his passion. Sneaking up on animals and getting pictures of them.’ She snorted, her anger returning. ‘He didn’t give a damn that there was no money in it, that nobody was going to pay for a long-distance shot of some rare bird or other, even if he could stay sober long enough to snap the bloody thing. Didn’t care that we might end up having to sell this house and live like a couple of paupers for the sake of his dream. He didn’t even care about Carl’s education. He was becoming more and more despondent and spending more and more time drunk, and I mean drunk . I couldn’t take it any more. It simply tore us apart.’
    Ben had already noticed the gold Datejust peeking out from under the sleeve of her silk blouse, and the diamond earrings that glittered through her hair. He wondered to himself how much it was the prospect of being married to a much poorer guy that had swung Jessica Hunter’s decision to end it.
    ‘What do you do, Mike?’ he asked.
    ‘I’m a development consultant for a specialist optics firm in Europe,’ Mike replied. ‘Custom applications for science and industry. I work mostly from home. But at the moment I’m taking time off to devote myself totally to supporting Jessica.’ He squeezed her hand tenderly.
    Ben nodded, and turned back to Jessica. ‘Tell me more about your relationship between you, Carl, and Drew since the marriage ended.’
    ‘He used to have Carl every second weekend,’ she said, ‘while things were still reasonably amicable between us and before the drinking got completely out of control. But then it did, and the arrangement couldn’t go on. He’d turn up here reeking of booze, slurring his words – expecting me to hand Carl over to him in that state?’ Jessica sighed. ‘He was going more and more downhill. Living like a total slob. Carl said his place was a pigsty and all there was to eat there was frozen pizza and takeaway curry. Bottles everywhere, gin, whisky, vodka. He hadn’t had a job in months and all he did was drink. The last straw was when he crashed the car with Carl in it. He’d tricked me, somehow managing to turn up relatively sober to collect him, and then getting plastered the moment he was away from here. When the police arrived at the scene of the accident they found Drew four times over the drink-drive limit and a half-empty bottle of spirits in the car.’
    ‘Were they hurt?’
    ‘Carl had minor bruising, nothing more serious, thank Christ. Drew dislocated his shoulder. That’s when he was banned from driving and I had the restraining order put on him. Of course, I felt bad that it meant taking away his access to Carl completely. But I had no choice. It was the only thing I could do for my son’s safety.’
    ‘You said Drew had become prone to outbursts. While you were married, did you ever have reason to think that he could harm Carl?’
    Jessica shook her head firmly. ‘Never. Despite everything, I always thought he loved him as deeply as I do.’
    ‘The night of the abduction, did it seem as if he’d been drinking?’
    Jessica and Mike both shook their heads. ‘That was the strange bit,’ she said. ‘He seemed completely sober. There was no smell of alcohol on him. He