Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 71

"I don't fail."

As soon as I heard a stranger answer the phone, I knew something was wrong.

He asked who was speaking.

'A friend of the family,' I said.

It was all I could think of.

Cheryl sounded tired. She began to cry almost as soon as she heard my voice.

She informed me that our daughter was missing.

'Oh Kirk what have you done? Where's Danny ? Why did you phone to see if she was alright?'

I stood helpless. I stood staring at trees on a deserted road in the middle of the Malaysian jungle with a bullet hole in my shoulder and dried blood on my shirt.

'Darling. I will fix this,' I said. 'I promise. I'll do everything I can to make this right.'

I then told her everything, as much as her body and mind could take.

'She lied to me my darling,' I said angrily. 'She deliberately pulled us apart. She made up stories. She coerced me into doing things, crazy things that I would never have thought of doing and now she has our daughter but I swear my darling; I swear on my life that I'll get her back.'

My wife was beside herself with grief.

'I just can't believe you did this to us. I can't believe you allowed this woman into our lives, our lives Kirk and now she has our our daughter. Our daughter!'

She then pleaded with me as only a mother could.

'You get her back. You find her and you put this right. You find her Kirk. Promise me. You find her and you put this right.'

More tears, more crying and then I heard the phone tumble to the floor. I heard muffled cries and then silence.

When the phone was picked up again I hoped it was to my wife. Instead I heard a man's voice on the other end of the line. It was curt and to the point.

'Mr Attwood?' The official tone meant only one thing - the police. 'Do you know where your daughter is being kept?'

I ended the call.

All at once my legs gave way and I fell to my knees. I lifted my head up into the sky and then I screamed for all it was worth.

I felt wretched, any defiance I had just had vanishing in an instance as I thought of only one thing.

I was a failure.

Not just as a husband but also as a father. 

Tears streamed down my face and in a flash of dread I saw my world falling apart.

I sat down and leant against a nearby tree.

Uri was right.

I didn't want to believe him at the time but where could I go? What could I do? I had no one to turn to and the only thought left was that I could simply sit here and accept my fate, let Peng and his men come, let them kill me where I sat.

Only no one came.

An hour passed and still nothing.

A tree opposite caught my imagination.

It was huge. It seemed so full of life and had probably stood where it was for decades growing steadily and happily. I took time as I studied its shape in every detail, how it had become bent in places as it had grown. How each branch was different. How tall it was, craning my neck skyward in a hope of seeing its top.