Chapter 12

Freddie continued running until he no longer had the energy to do so, by now he found himself in a nearby park thinking he had outrun Finn. Freddie tried catching his breath as all that running had knocked hell out of his lungs, he sat himself down on a bench and finally began to breathe normally. "So not only do you try and bury me alive but now you've also tried fleeing the scene again" Finn retorted as he joined Freddie on the bench his casualness startling Freddie, Freddie was not scared of the boy what so ever and had to refrain himself from knocking hell out of the obnoxious teen. "You would have only done the same, just go home and forget that any of this happened" Freddie said as sternly as possible in hope that Finn would do as he was told and get on with his life. "You really expect me to do that after the night I've just had, we're talking attempted murder here" he announced, Freddie knew what was coming he was wrong in thinking that Finn would ever let this incident go.

"It's a shame that I didn't do the job properly then isn't it" Freddie smirked, Finn tensed up and a huge smug smile took over his face, Freddie wondered what made him look so pleased with himself. "If you want me to keep quiet then I want paying £12,000 by midnight tonight" Finn said in a serious tone. Freddie panicked as he looked at his watch, the time being 11:30pm giving him half an hour to somehow find that lump sum of money. Where would he ever find that amount of cash? "Where the hell am I going to get that amount of money from in less than half an hour" Freddie spat. "That's your problem not mine, you either pay me or you, Lindsey and Joe will be taking a nice trip to the police station with me, They'll love to know about our little encounter" Finn said with satisfaction in his voice.

Freddie didn't hesitate, he quickly arranged a meeting time with Finn. He didn't care about himself he just wanted to keep Lindsey's name clean. He rushed to a nearby cash point and drew out the said amount, Freddie sighed with despair as his bank balance said £10.55 he had just drew out most of his life savings, money which he would only want to spend on his family. Freddie had stood at the cash point for around 20 minuets he knew he must have cleared the machine out he thanked his lucky stars when he had the right amount of notes in his hand. He stuffed them in his pockets being careful not to drop any on the way.

Freddie handed Finn the cash now in a large brown envelope he had snuck home and taken one of Sandy's many envelope's which she uses for work, one wouldn't go a miss Freddie thought. Finn counted the money which took him about 10 minuets to do, once done he nodded and said. "I'm impressed, same amount next week please. I've got my mum's birthday coming up, I think she's going to be spoilt this year with all this extra cash lying around in my bank" Finn looked at Freddie with pleasure. Freddie looked at him in horror, surely the 12,000 was enough? "I ain't giving you no more money" he spat gritting his teeth in the process. "If I don't receive another £1,000 by the same time next week then Robbie will be sorry he was ever born" Finn was enjoying this, he couldn't believe how weak Freddie was being Robbie has always bragged how hard his older brother was.

Once Freddie and Finn had gone their separate ways Freddie quickly made his way home, He quietly opened the front door and took of his shoes and left them in the usual place. He switched on the living room light to find Joe sat on the sofa drinking a tot of whiskey looking pretty intoxicated. "Joe, what are you doing up so late mate" Freddie asked, he walked over to him and sat down. "I thought that side of me was dead Fred" Joe said as tears formed in his big brown eyes. Freddie knew immediately what he was talking about, Joe had done 5 years prison for attempted murder and he knew if a murder charge was given, then he would be inside again but for the rest of his life. "You were only protecting Rob, god knows what would have happened if you hadn't of been there" Freddie said in hope of making him feel slightly better. Joe downed more of the whiskey. "I killed him, tell me that was the right thing to do" Joe retorted, Freddie couldn't bring himself to tell him the real truth so he carried on with the lies. Freddie had one person on his mind right there and then and her name begins with the letter L and ends with a letter Y.

"You're right it wasn't right, you shouldn't have killed him" Freddie said feeling utterly awful. "I need to get out of here now, start a new life somewhere" Joe announced shocking Freddie. "Where would you go" Freddie asked, he wanted to tell him the truth now so more than ever. "Somewhere only you would know, not even Linds can find out where" Joe said very sincerely. "You'd break her heart if you left without a goodbye" Freddie said thinking about her. "I'll sort that, she'll move on and get on with her life it won't take her long" Joe said with regret. "You expect me to pick up the pieces, what about mum and the others then?" Freddie asked. "I can't bare the shame they would have if I went back to prison, I'll be gone by the morning" Joe got up off of the sofa and retreated to his and Lindsey's bedroom.

Freddie took a long hard thought about what he had just caused, he knew how much Joe and Lindsey loved one another and he would have to sit back and view the damage that his lies will eventually cause his family, He couldn't bare to see any of them upset but he knew that would be on its way in the immediate future. How on earth would Freddie be able to hide this? Would he crack under the pressure? He was soon to find the answers to those questions.