“Don’t talk to my mum like that!” Seven-year-old Matt defends his mother, Heather, from a rude waiter. The next day, when she discovers that her young son has mysteriously disappeared from home and finds a chilling note in his bedroom, Heather’s world comes crashing down.
“Thanks for meeting me here, Heather!” Mr Murphy, 35-year-old Heather’s family solicitor, greeted her as she and her 7-year-old son, Matt, occupied the table in the busy café on this pleasant afternoon. “I’ve got some amazing news for you!”
“What is it, Mr Murphy?” Heather leaned forward excitedly in her chair, while Matt, oblivious to the discussion, was busy playing Bubble Shoot on his mother’s mobile phone.
“Your grandmother left you $400,000!” Mr Murphy explained. “This is a copy of the will. We’ll talk more in my office, and you can sign all the paperwork when you’re ready to claim the money.”
Heather’s happiness knew no bounds when she saw the six-figure inheritance that could help her start a better life with her young son.
She needed the money, especially after going through a tumultuous divorce and the death of her ex-husband David last year.
“Oh my goodness! Really? That’s… incredible!” Heather exclaimed.
But before she could absorb any more of the exciting news, Matt found himself in an unexpected situation with Kyle, a young waiter who was wiping down their table.
“Hey, watch it, kid!” Kyle frowned and jumped back in disgust as Matt accidentally dropped the glass he was holding, splashing Coke all over the waiter’s shirt and shoes.
“Oops! I’m so sorry, sir,” Matt apologised immediately.
“Oh really?” Kyle barked. “Look what you’ve done! Is your apology going to wash the Coke off my shirt?”
Kyle scoffed and continued talking to himself. “These entitled kids! Can’t they see straight? They act blind and disrespectful!”
“I’m neither blind nor disrespectful, sir!” Matt argued, having overheard Kyle’s words. “Accidents happen, sir. You don’t have to bark at me for something as simple as that.”
“What did you say?” Kyle tried to control himself. “You better watch your mouth, boy!”
Heather and Mr Murphy were quite taken aback by what was happening. So Heather calmed her son down before turning to the waiter.
“Excuse me, my son did it by mistake,” Heather looked up at Kyle. “I apologise on his behalf.”
But Kyle was in no mood to accept an apology.
“Can’t you control your bloody child? Is that how you taught him to talk to people older than him?” Kyle barked at Heather before making another bold remark. “That’s Grade A parenting!” Kyle clapped slowly and sarcastically. “What a lovely mum!”
The waiter’s words filled little Matt with anger. He may have only been seven, but he was not one to sit back and watch some random guy insult his mother.
“Don’t you dare talk to my mum like that!” Matt rose from his chair and glared at Kyle as he slammed the table down hard. In a fit of rage, Matt’s hands grabbed the small ceramic vase sitting in the centre of the table and hurled it at the man.
“What the hell? Your kid is out of control!” Kyle roared as he blocked the flying vase with his hand, sending it shattering on the floor.
“I’LL MAKE SURE HE LEARNS SOME MANNERS!”
“Matt, what are you doing? Stop!” Heather quickly grabbed her son. “This is not how you talk to your elders. Apologize to him right now.”
“But Mom, I already apologized. He was still rude,” Matt argued.
“That’s enough, Kyle! You will not speak to our customers like that,” the café manager intervened as the waiter clenched his fist and glared at the boy before storming off.
“Hey, Kyle! Get back here and apologise to them. Kyle?” the manager yelled at the waiter. But Kyle disappeared into the kitchen in a huff.
The manager apologised to Heather and her son and even offered them free drinks to make up for the mishap.
After discussing the will with Mr Murphy, Heather took her son home after a hearty lunch, assuming she would never have to deal with the arrogant waiter again.
The next morning, Heather sat up in bed and snoozed off the bedside alarm. She hurried downstairs to the kitchen and started to prepare breakfast.
She was halfway through setting the table when she noticed that her son hadn’t come into the kitchen yet. This was unusual. Matt was always on time.
“Matt, breakfast is ready, honey! Hurry up and grab a plate, sweetie!” Five minutes passed and there was still no sign of the boy, which made Heather a little worried.
“Matt? Can you come down, please? We’re going to be late for school…” she called again, and there was still dead silence upstairs.
A wave of fear ran through Heather as she sensed something was wrong. She ran to Matt’s room, hoping she was worrying for nothing and that her boy was just asleep.
“Matt…honey?” Heather exclaimed as she opened Matt’s bedroom door and froze. Little Matt was not in his bedroom.
Her heart pounding, Heather checked the bathroom and the small balcony outside. But Matt was nowhere to be seen.
His duvet was crumpled and pillows were tossed around. Heather continued to search the room in a state of panic. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she spotted a strange note on the bed.
A knot tightened in Heather’s stomach as she unfolded the paper and began to read the chilling words:
“We have your son. Remember we promised to teach him some manners? I think it’s time to straighten the little goblin’s tail and show him his place.
If you want to see your son again, leave $400,000 in the yellow bin outside the gates of City Park at 5pm tomorrow.
Don’t even think about going to the police. Or you won’t see your son again!
Heather’s hands shook uncontrollably as she clutched the anonymous note, realising that her little boy had been kidnapped.
“No…God! No, please! This can’t be happening,” Heather cried. She remembered the waiter’s exact words to her and Matt during the heated exchange in the cafe the day before.
“There is no way he can do this to my son and get away with it,” Heather’s mind raced with a mixture of terror as she grabbed her handbag and ran out of the house to her car. The terrified mother knew she had to call the police, despite the threat in the anonymous letter.
Shaken to the core, Heather gathered her courage and drove to the local police station to report her son as missing and abducted.
Arriving there, she was hurrying to the main entrance of the station when her phone suddenly buzzed with a message from an unknown number flashing on the screen.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the message said as Heather stopped in her tracks.
“We warned you not to go to the police. We are watching your every move.
This is your last chance. One more mistake and it’s bye-bye, Matty.”
Heather’s hands shook. The station was swarming with police, but she could do nothing to ask for help when she realised she was being watched.
Fear driving her to the edge, Heather nervously scanned her surroundings. Her eyes darted from person to person, but she could not make out who was watching her.
Paranoid and unable to shake the chilling feeling, Heather turned and ran to her car. Behind the wheel, she dialled the number of the person who had apparently kidnapped her son and sent her these threatening messages.
But to Heather’s dismay, the number was a masked virtual phone number, and neither calls nor messages could go through.
“Please, I want my son back…” Heather broke down. Desperate to find Matt, she decided to confront the waiter and drove straight to the cafe.
A feeling of unease crept into Heather’s stomach as she entered the cafe and scanned the place for the waiter. When she did not see him, she approached the manager.
“Excuse me, sir. I was here yesterday afternoon… with my son, remember?”
“Oh, yes, ma’am. I do remember. Please tell me,” the manager replied.
“I came to apologise to the waiter for yesterday’s conflict. Could I please meet him…?” Heather added, her tone full of concern and urgency.
“Oh, but he’s not here anymore…” The manager looked into Heather’s eyes. “He was fired after yesterday’s incident. Our restaurant policy does not tolerate this kind of behaviour. So he was dismissed immediately, ma’am.”
Heather was more than disappointed, but she composed herself so that the manager would not doubt her sudden interest in meeting Kyle in person.
“I… I completely agree with you. He was rude. But I think even I was wrong not to stop my son. He’s just a little boy, you know… so I’d like to apologise to the waiter,” Heather explained.
“Could you please give me his address? Maybe you have it in your staff register?”
“Yes, we do! One sec…”
Moments later, Heather rushed back to her car and drove to Kyle’s address, which she had obtained from the café manager.
Half an hour later, as Heather approached the waiter’s house, she was overcome by an eerie feeling.
The front porch was littered with debris and the lawn was unkempt. Crunching dry leaves under her boots, Heather approached the front door and knocked. But 30 seconds later there was no answer.
“Hello… anyone home?” Heather called as she knocked harder on the door. Still no answer.
Determined to find Kyle somehow, Heather reached for the doorknob and to her surprise, the door wasn’t locked and swung open. Plucking up courage, Heather entered Kyle’s house.
“Anyone home?” Heather asked nervously as she stepped inside and scanned the interior.
An eerie feeling crawled through her nerves as she saw a broken ceramic vase shattered in the doorway. Heather marched slowly into the kitchen and discovered an overturned table, broken plates strewn about and a shiny knife on the floor.
Despite a thorough search of every nook and cranny, including Kyle’s bedroom, Heather found nothing that could be considered a clue.
Frustrated and worried, she hurried out of the house, and as she stepped out into the fading light of day, she spotted a neighbouring house and decided to investigate.
Hoping to find a clue – any clue – that might lead to her missing son, Heather knocked on the neighbour’s door. Moments later, Doris, Kyle’s elderly neighbour, answered.
“Hey, sorry to bother you. I was just wondering… do you know anything about the guy who lives in that house? Kyle?” Heather asked the woman, pointing to Kyle’s house.
“Are you his girlfriend?” Doris asked.
“Yes, that’s right!” Heather lied to the woman. “I just wanted to meet Kyle. But he’s not home. Do you know where he is? He won’t answer my calls.”
“Oh, hi! I have to say, I’m glad the boy has finally found a girlfriend!” Doris chuckled. “He’s a bit of an arrogant lad…but a good boy! He’s always helped me when I’ve had trouble mowing the lawn or fixing the roof.”
“Oh, lovely! So when was the last time you saw him?” Heather interrupted, pressing Doris for more information.
“I saw him this morning, dear. I looked out my window after hearing strange noises coming from Kyle’s house. Not unusual, you know how he likes to have friends over now and then, and the group can be a bit noisy,” Doris recounted. “Come to think of it, I had a feeling something was wrong. I saw someone else with him. A man. I think Kyle was drunk because the man practically had to lift him up and put him in his car. And then they drove off.”
“Drove off?” Heather became suspicious. “Do you remember what the man with Kyle looked like? Do you remember anything about the car?”
Doris thought for a while. “No, dear. I couldn’t see his face clearly because it was dark outside. But I saw his car,” Doris said.
“It was a big black car, dear…an SUV maybe,” Doris added. “Is something wrong? Should I have written down the number? Oh, I wish I had! Who am I kidding? With my eyesight, I couldn’t have seen the licence plate clearly even if I tried. But it was a black SUV, dear.”
“Thank you so much!” Heather thanked Doris and hurried back to her car.
The elderly neighbour’s words replayed in her mind and nothing seemed to make sense to Heather.
With time ticking away and her young son in the hands of his kidnappers, Heather gave up playing detective. She decided to fulfil the kidnappers’ demand and immediately drove to her lawyer’s office to complete the paperwork to claim the $400,000.
“Miss Heather! I’m so glad to see you! How can I help you?” Mr Murphy was surprised to see Heather enter his office.
With the 24-hour deadline set by her son’s kidnappers fast approaching, Heather got straight to the point about the inheritance.
“I want to sign all the papers now, Mr Murphy. And I want the money… all of it… wired into my account as soon as the formalities are over,” Heather said, her voice choking with despair.
“Oh, Mr Murphy…what happened to your lip?” She was distracted and worried when she saw a small bruise at the corner of the lawyer’s lip. “Are you all right? How did you hurt yourself?”
“Nothing serious, Miss Heather,” said Mr Murphy. “Some hooligans cornered me outside the grocery store last night and tried to rob me.”
“Oh my God…did you file a report at the police station?” Heather became tense.
“Don’t worry! I fought them off and managed to get away,” Mr Murphy said. “I’ll have the papers ready for you to sign right away!”
Heather nodded. After signing the papers, she thanked Mr Murphy and picked up her handbag. Just as she was about to leave, a black SUV pulled up outside the lawyer’s office.
As soon as Heather saw the black car, she stopped, remembering Kyle’s elderly neighbour, Mrs Doris’s descriptions of a similar black car in which Kyle had been driven away by a mysterious man earlier that morning.
“Mr Murphy, the tank is full!” Mr Murphy’s assistant said as he tossed the keys into the lawyer’s hands. “I’m going to lunch. I’ll be back in half an hour!”
The scar on Mr Murphy’s lip looks like he’d been in a fight… like someone had punched him. And now this black car that belongs to him. Something doesn’t add up. Is it just a coincidence or…? Heather was lost in deep thought when Mr Murphy suddenly spoke from behind her, startling her.
“Miss Heather…are you all right?” the lawyer asked Heather.
“I…er…yes. Yes, I’m fine, Mr Murphy,” Heather stuttered. “Can I have some water, please?”
“Sure! One sec…” Mr Murphy turned to get the pitcher from his table.
Meanwhile, Heather began to piece together the puzzle.
Mr Murphy is the only one who knows me personally… he was there when Matt had that argument with the waiter at the cafe, she thought.
Heather acted quickly and tossed her fitness band, activated by the GPS tracker, into the inside pocket of Mr Murphy’s coat, which was hanging on the coat rack.
“Miss Heather… here’s your water,” the lawyer approached her with a glass a few moments later.
“Thank you, Mr Murphy,” Heather gulped down the water and left his office immediately.
Heather drove past Mr Murphy’s office, haunted by strange thoughts, and headed home. The next morning, she awoke to a message on her phone saying that the money had been transferred to her bank account.
With only nine hours to meet the kidnappers’ demand, Heather was racing against time to bring her son home safe from his captors.
At 4.45pm that evening, Heather arrived at the entrance to City Park and spotted a lone yellow bin at the entrance where she was supposed to leave the bag of money.
She approached the bin and when no one was around, Heather tossed the duffel bag containing the $400,000.
Desperate to see who would come to collect the money, she hurried to a bench a few metres from the bin and sat quietly, pretending to fiddle with her phone. Suddenly, her phone vibrated with a new message from an unknown number:
“I know you are wearing a red jacket and blue jeans. Get in your car and leave the park immediately. That is if you want to see your son alive”.
Panicked and forced to obey the orders, Heather got up and ran back to her car. She knew she was being watched again. Steeling herself, Heather hit the accelerator and sped out of the park.
No sooner had she crossed the nearby road than she turned on the GPS tracking app on her phone to check Mr Murphy’s whereabouts. To her shock, Heather noticed that the lawyer’s car was heading for the entrance to the park at the same time.
“Jesus, was it my lawyer who kidnapped my son for the money?” Heather became suspicious as she turned around. When she saw Mr Murphy’s car driving away from the park, she discreetly followed it to find out where it was going.
With every turn of the steering wheel, Heather knew she was getting closer to finding her son Matt.
… and hoping he was safe… and alive.
Eventually, Heather realised she was driving down a deserted road through the woods on the outskirts of town.
With her eyes glued to Mr Murphy’s car ahead, Heather followed it, only to stop abruptly when she saw Mr Murphy take a sudden detour onto the isolated road leading into the dense forest.
“I can’t go any further,” Heather thought as she stopped on the motorway. She got out of the car and discreetly followed Mr Murphy on foot. Suddenly she lost sight of him. Even the GPS tracker on her phone stopped showing Mr Murphy’s movements.
“He’s got to be here somewhere…” Heather began to worry as she trudged through the vines and thickets, freezing as she came to an abandoned cabin in the woods.
Heather approached the cabin and peered through the broken glass windows, searching the dark corners with her desperate eyes.
She slowly opened the door and crept quietly inside, her breath heavy with fear and anxiety. Shards of glass and debris crackled beneath her feet as she made her way inside.
Suddenly Heather stopped. Cold shivers ran down her spine as she realised she was not alone in the cabin.
“ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SOMEONE?” a cold, menacing voice that sounded all too familiar came from behind her.
Eyes wide with terror, Heather turned round. “Oh my God… it’s you?” she screamed.
But before Heather could run for her life, she felt a sharp blow to her head and collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
“Why… why did you do this to me…” she cried out before passing out. Unbeknownst to her, she was being dragged into the cellar of the hut.
“Mum? Mum, wake up…” Heather could hear Matt’s voice calling to her. “Mummy…over here…help me…Mummy…get up…”
Heather felt her head hurt terribly as she slowly opened her eyes, regaining consciousness an hour after the attack. The first thing she saw was little Matt and Kyle tied to a wooden pillar across from her. A sudden rush of adrenaline shot through Heather, awakening her senses.
“MATT? Oh my God…sweetie…are you okay?” She cried, trying to free her son, only to find that she was handcuffed and tied to a chair.
“What an idiot you are, Heather!” Mr Murphy emerged from the basement with a gun in his hand and a sinister grin on his face. “Did you think I didn’t know you were following me?”
“I was just going to finish them off after I got the money… and frame a ‘missing’ Kyle for Matt’s murder… and now you’re making me waste another bullet! Who should I send up first? Ummm, let me start with you, Heather!” the lawyer chuckled as he pointed the gun at Heather.
“The money in that duffel bag you took from the City Park dumpster is counterfeit!” Heather cried.
“What?!” Mr Murphy’s eyes bulged with shock as he pulled the gun back. “Na-Na-Na-Na! Don’t try and trick me, Heather…”
Mr Murphy checked the duffel bag just to be sure and realised that Heather had indeed cheated him with counterfeit money. The sight of it, coupled with the betrayal, drove Mr Murphy to the brink of madness.
“How dare you cheat me, Heather,” Mr Murphy roared. “Tell me… where’s the real money?”
“It… it’s in the bank,” Heather revealed in fear. “I deposited it all into my account before I went to the park with the counterfeit money.”
“You think you can fool me, Heather?” Mr Murphy sneered. “Your son’s fate is now in my hands.”
The lawyer approached a terrified Matt and untied him.
“Please, let my son go. Please, I’ll do anything. Just please let Matt go. He doesn’t deserve this,” Heather begged Mr Murphy.
“You ruined my plans. And now you’re going to pay the price for betraying me,” the lawyer said as he dragged Matt up the wooden stairs to the basement.
“Please… where are you taking my son? Leave him alone. Please… have mercy. He’s just a child. Please…” Heather cried.
Mr Murphy turned and glared at Heather. “I’ll be back with the papers. I need you to sign a power of attorney giving me sole custody of your inheritance,” he said.
“I’m taking your son with me, Heather. So don’t try and get clever again and provoke me into doing something bad to your little boy…
… something you will regret for the rest of your life!”
Mr Murphy locked Heather and Kyle in the basement and immediately left with Matt.
As soon as the coast was clear, Kyle turned to Heather and broke her silence. “Hey, have you got a hairpin?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do!” Heather replied.
“Good. Try and get closer and let me grab it. I have a plan,” Kyle urged.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Heather began to pull herself and the chair in Kyle’s direction. She had no choice but to trust the stranger.
“You thought I was the bad guy, didn’t you?” Kyle said in the meantime. “In a way, you were right! I am a bad guy, but not bad enough to kidnap children! I used to pick locks for a living before I became a waiter. And when I had that outburst with your kid, I was already having the worst day of my life. Until this, of course. Anyway, I have a plan. Look away and try to be quiet…”
“Great! That should do it!” Kyle grabbed the hairpin out of Heather’s hair with his mouth. After an exhausting attempt, he used it to open his handcuffs and then freed Heather.
They looked at each other and the reality of the situation sank in. Although Heather and Kyle were now free to escape, they couldn’t because Mr Murphy was still out there, holding little Matt. When every other idea seemed too risky, they decided to stay back and deal with the kidnapper first hand.
“If that scoundrel comes back and opens the door, I’ll go first, OK?” Kyle devised a plan. “You’ll only have a few seconds to attack him before we can take your son and escape.”
Heather nodded. But her biggest fear was the fully loaded gun Mr Murphy had. If the plan backfired, things could go wrong for Heather, Kyle and Matt and they would meet a gruesome end at his hands.
However, knowing this was their last resort, Heather and Kyle joined forces and waited for Mr Murphy to return. An hour later, they heard his car pull up outside the cabin and took their places, ready to attack him.
As Mr Murphy climbed down, Kyle lunged at him and pinned his hands from behind. “Come on quick…do it…do it!” he shouted loudly.
As chaos ensued, a loud bang startled Heather. Mr Murphy pulled the trigger and shot Kyle in the leg. Too scared to hold the metal pipe, Heather struck a hard blow to Mr Murphy’s head with all the strength she could muster, sending him to the floor groaning.
“He’s out…hurry…we have to leave this place,” Kyle shouted.
“Oh no…you’re losing a lot of blood,” Heather panicked as she saw Kyle’s injured leg. She ripped her scarf and tied it over the wound to stop the bleeding, then turned to Mr Murphy.
“Rot in hell!” Heather swore under her breath as she handcuffed Mr Murphy to the banister and called 911.
“Let’s go find your son!” Kyle turned to Heather. Panic coursing through her veins, Heather ran upstairs, slowing as she approached Mr Murphy’s car outside the cabin.
“Mummy!” Matt ran in her direction and threw himself into her arms.
Heather was relieved to see her little boy alive and burst into tears as she embraced him. About half an hour later, a squad of police surrounded the cabin and arrested Mr Murphy, who was taken into custody after charges were laid against him.
The next day, Heather visited Kyle in hospital, where he was being treated for the gunshot wound to his leg. Carrying a bouquet of white lilies, she entered his ward and he was pleasantly surprised to see her.
“Our first meeting in the café didn’t go well. Our second meeting was even worse!” Kyle said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. “I want to fix that! I know this might sound crazy, but when I get out of here, can we meet again for the first time? Have you been to that new restaurant on the beach…?”
Kyle was nervous about how Heather would react. But to his surprise, she responded with a hug! “It’s a date!” Heather chuckled. “If you hadn’t suggested it, I would have mentioned it myself! And hey… thank you. For saving us!”
