Read The Lottery Ticket Online
Authors: Michael D Goodman
The Lottery Ticket
The Lottery Ticket
by
Michael D Goodman
The Lottery Ticket
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2012 Michael D Goodman
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
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ISBN: 978-14689-0020-0 (ebook)
Contents
Chapter 6
The Missing Lottery Tickets
Chapter 11
Finding new evidence
Chapter 13
A Tested Friendship
The Campbell family had planned their holiday with meticulous precision. Nothing had been overlooked. The hotel they were to stay at in the Algarve had been confirmed. Their bookings and their flight tickets had been received from the travel agents. The hotel near to the airport was reserved for their overnight stay. The car would be looked after by the hotel during their two week stay in Portugal.
All that remained was for the family to pack their bags for the holiday and the overnight bags they would need for the nights stay in the hotel. They had only one more week to wait before their long awaited dream holiday.
Up until now the Campbell’s could only afford to holiday in England. This change in fortune was due to a small win of a couple of thousand pounds on the lottery by marking off five drawn numbers. Because of this win they decided to expand their horizons and venture abroad.
The family was made up of Mr David Campbell, his wife Jennifer and their two children, Mandy who was the oldest at twelve years of age, but liked to think she was already a teenager and Christopher who had just turned nine and spent most of his time playing with James, the boy from across the road or on his ‘Play Station’ which he was given by his parents for his birthday.
David worked as a health and safety manager for The Royal Mail and worked at the Pederston Mail Centre. It was his job to make sure that all aspects of the work place were safe for all who worked there.
Months before their departure and soon after the cash from their winnings was deposited into their bank account, they had visited the travel agents to find out about some of the special offers they were advertising. Once they had decided on the Hotel Fiora and chose to go all inclusive it was just a matter of paying the deposit and later, when the time came to pay the outstanding amount.
A month before they were due to leave they paid for the holiday in full. Just one thing remained to be done. Max, the pet Labrador needed to be kennelled. Although Jennifer’s parent volunteered to look after the dog it was considered that this would be too much to ask, as they were getting on in years and as a young dog he would need the kind of exercise they would find hard to give.
The kennels that Max was to stay at were only a mile from the Campbell’s home. They had been there before and were impressed by the cleanliness of the accommodation offered to all intakes. All the necessary injections had been given by their vet, to the satisfaction of the kennel’s owners.
Although they still had a week to get everything packed they were keen to start laying some of the clothes out that would be needed. Swim suits, shorts, tee-shirts and the like were scattered about each of the bedrooms. There seemed no order to the packing at this stage but Jennifer was the organiser in the home and she would have this chaos sorted out before the day of departure.
Jennifer not only had a list of things to take but also a list of things that needed to be taken care of before they left. This followed the pattern she needed in her job as a personal assistant to a senior partner of a solicitors office.
First on the list of jobs to be done was the cancelling of the daily papers.
“David, will you cancel the papers when you go to the newsagents to buy the lottery tickets”, she asked. “Oh, and while you’re there just remind Mrs Parker that Mandy will not be available to deliver the papers for the two weeks we are away will you”, she added as she scanned her ‘to do list’.
“Sure, said David. And while I’m in town I’ll call in at the sorting office and ask them to hold our mail until we come back”, he retorted.
The errands done and the lottery tickets bought David returned home. He put the tickets in date order on the coffee table in the lounge, with to-night’s ticket on the top, ready for the draw this evening. The tickets he had bought for the weeks they were to be away he would check on his return. Because of their recent win they bought the lottery tickets with renewed interest.
On Jennifer’s list of things to pack and things to do was the purchase of items from the chemists such as sun tan lotion, after sun and toiletries. A trip was needed to the shoe shop to get beach shoes for them all. This meant that an outing to town by all of them would be needed.
James hated going to town for anything. Even at his young age he disliked shoe shops the most. The waiting while your number was called was so annoying. To this Jennifer had to agree. As for Mandy she could spend all day looking and trying on shoes.
When the time came to go in to town on the Saturday before they were due to go on holiday James decided to make himself scarce. He hid at the blind side of his bed in the hope that he wouldn’t be discovered by either of the grownups.
“James, come down here at once”, his mother called.
James didn’t answer in the hope that she might think he was outside already. The call came again. This time it was louder and sounded much more impatient.
“James, I won’t tell you again, come down here this minute”, came the demand from his mother.
Now he knew that the game was up and that if she shouted up to him again it would mean a penalty would have to be paid, such as the loss of pocket money or the confiscation of his toys for a period of time. Slowly he clambered down the dog leg stairs with its open banister.
“I hate shopping” he sulkily retorted on reaching the hall.
“Don’t make this any more difficult than it has to be”, admonished his father.
“The sooner we go, the sooner we can get back”, he continued.
James couldn’t work this out.
“Surely whatever time we go it will take the same amount of time, won’t it”? , he thought logically to himself.
Mandy was already sitting in the car excitedly counting the money she had in her purse as the others climbed in. She was looking forward to the prospect of shopping in town. She had counted her money twice while she waited. With £22 she could replenish her make up bag. Mandy couldn’t wait to get to town unlike James. They were going to visit at least two of her favourite shops. She would take her time in the chemists looking at all the make up counters and trying on some of the products that they had on offer.
Jennifer pre-empted Mandy’s thoughts. She, herself, would not be in the chemists long as she knew from her list what she was going for.
“Mandy, we will go to the shoe shop first and then to the chemists so that James doesn’t get too bored”, Jennifer decided.
“But mum, I need lot of things from the chemist”, whined Mandy with attitude.
“Yes, we know and you can spend as much time as you like there, then come and meet us at Ronald’s tea shop when you have finished” commanded David.
Once they arrived in town it was straight to the shoe shop. Jennifer in her usual organised way had inquired by phone the day before to make sure the shop had a stock of the beach shoes she was looking for. Fortunately for James the shop wasn’t too busy. Soon the shoes were chosen and the next stop was to the chemists.
All the toiletries were purchased and while they were there they bought the extra films they would need for the camera. Mandy by this time was still trying on different perfumes at the counters of the different manufacturers stands.
By now she had bumped into one of her school friends who had no intention of buying anything. She had come just to get a free sample of the perfumes.
Mandy excitedly told her friend of the forthcoming holiday. Unfortunately her friend was going nowhere during the holiday as her family weren’t that well off. Julie, for that was Mandy’s friends name, had a father who was out of work and spent most of his time out with his mates in the evening and would come home sometimes long after she had gone to bed. Her mother did her best to make ends meet with the ‘home help’ job she had.
“Don’t take too long in here”, Mandy’s mum called over to her. “We want to go home soon to do the packing”, she continued.
“OK mum, I’ll come over to the tea shop soon” was Mandy’s reply.
With eye shadow, lipstick, a bottle of cheap perfume and one or two other things Mandy finished her shopping.
“I have to go Julie, mum and dad will be waiting” she said hurriedly.
“Have a nice holiday Mandy, I’ll see you when you get back” replied Julie.
After spoiling themselves on a light lunch at Ronald’s and having done all the last minute shopping they drove home to start the packing. David climbed into the loft to bring down the cases. Some of them had gathered dust in the time they had been up there. This was going to be the longest they had been away and so more cases would be needed than they had used on previous holidays.
David took his instructions on what to pack from Jennifer as he had on all their previous trips. Before each case was packed the items were placed on the beds in each of the three bedrooms upstairs. It just remained for him to pack the cases and to leave them open for any last minute items.
The Campbell’s lived on the main road leading into the small town approximately five miles from the city where they both worked. The house was a three bed semi-detached of the pre-war variety and was pebble dashed at the front and painted white with the front door set in a recess to the left of a large bay window. The upstairs had a large window above the bay and a smaller frosted window above the door which was the natural light to the bathroom.
The layout inside was a large lounge to the front and a dining room with patio doors to the rear. The kitchen door faced the front door down the hallway and the kitchen was of a galley type with work tops to both sides. The back door was to the left side of the kitchen with a window next to it and another window at the end.
Mandy as the first-born had always had the double bedroom to the back of the house and the small bedroom which had been the study until James was born was now his bedroom. To accommodate the office equipment the space under the stairs was adapted as a small and cramped study.
In the lounge was the cabinet filled with ornaments that Jennifer had collected over the years and some she had inherited from her Grandmother. She liked nice things and would only allow her treasured and expensive items a space in this cabinet. The other items dotted about the room such as those on the mantel piece and the windowsill, were some of the gifts she had been given by her children and some were her birthday and Christmas presents. In this room stood the large three piece suite that was bought for a wedding present by Jennifer’s parents thirteen years before and was still as good as new.
The television was David’s pride and joy. It was state of the art and he had not long had Sky added to the repertoire of channels he was able to watch. The fire place was original and had remained an open grate. During the winter it was cosy just to sit in front of the open fire even though they had had central heating put in some years previous.