The waiting business was so enthralling, both of them managed to fall asleep in their deckchairs. It had been a long night with no sleep and neither of them were spritely enough to stop themselves from nodding off.
‘Olive. Olive.’
The voice repeating her name was a dream at first. Familiar yet foreign all at once. It wasn’t until there was a hand on her shoulder that she properly woke with a fractured recollection of why she was here. ‘Randy,’ she said, hopeful this whole ordeal was over.
‘It’s Tony. Are you okay?’
Never in her life had she been so glad to see him. ‘Randy’s missing.’ She’d never got round to contacting him like she’d meant to, so it was both a surprise and delight to see him.
‘I know. Richard filled me in. He should be here very soon. He wanted someone to come and check you were both okay.’
‘Randy’s messaged,’ Veronica said, her hair sticking up like a proper case of bed head. It would seem deckchair hair was a far worse condition.
‘What does it say?’ Olive wasn’t awake enough to operate her phone yet.
‘He fell sleep, but fortunately his snoring didn’t attract any attention. He wants us to let him know when Richard arrives and what the police are up to.’
‘What are the police up to?’ Tony asked.
‘They didn’t seem very convinced there was a problem when I rang in the early hours. They said they’d send someone over this morning. Apparently Randy hasn’t been missing long enough for them to worry and, as he’s in contact, they seemed to think it was some kind of wind-up.’ Now sitting up, Veronica seemed more out of fettle than ever, her hair pointing in all directions and wearing Olive’s baggy clothes as they’d opted not to come here in their dressing gowns.
‘If the police go straight to Oakley West, won’t that cause problems for Randy?’ Tony said.
‘We have to hope not.’ The new male voice was a very welcome one and Olive jumped out of her deckchair to greet Richard with a hug.
They weren’t really a hugging pair. More often it was a kiss on the cheek, but today she definitely needed to cuddle her son. She’d never been gladder to have his level-headed personality about the place. If anyone could sort out what was happening, it was Richard.
‘What exactly do you know about where Randy is and why he’s stuck?’ Richard was straight down to business.
Veronica showed Richard the messages they’d been sending to each other and soon he was sending loads of additional questions Olive and Veronica hadn’t thought of.
Eager to keep up with what was going on, it was rather fun that Olive was able to watch what Richard was messaging from her own phone.
Hi Randy. It’s Richard. Whereabouts are you? How did you get there? Why aren’t you able to get out safely? What makes you think something illegal is happening?
The list of questions was long and Olive wondered why they hadn’t asked a few more. Perhaps they would have if it hadn’t been for the need to turn off Randy’s phone to save his battery. For all their kit packing, they’d not bothered with chargers. But then their outing was only supposed to take about half an hour max.
‘I’ll make us all a drink then?’ Tony said. It seemed like an excellent suggestion while they waited for Randy’s responses. It was way too early for any of them to be thinking very sensibly until they had a decent amount of caffeine flowing through their veins.
The three grey dots started to dance on the phone screen. At least that meant Randy was awake and answering Richard’s questions. If they fully understood what was happening, it would be easier to come up with a plan of action.
Before the dots had finished their merry dance, Tony had made drinks and was dishing them out to everyone.
Olive plonked into the deckchair again. The night had exhausted her and she had a feeling she needed to save her energy for the coming day.
‘Are those plants yours, Olive?’ Tony asked while passing her a mug of tea now she was comfortable.
‘Plants?’ It took her a moment to remember the pots she’d removed from her ottoman. Such a lot was happening, her brain was struggling to keep up. ‘Those were left inside my ottoman by some inconsiderate so-and-so. It must have been a gardening session for the Oakley West activities programme.’
‘Oh. Are you sure?’
‘I’ve no idea who put them inside, but that’s the only reason I can think of as to why they’re there. They obviously thought it was an ideal box to germinate some seeds. Why?’
‘Erm, well, I might be imagining things. Let me ask Richard. Rich, over here, mate.’ Tony waved Olive’s son over and relieved him of his grey-spot watching for a moment. ‘What do you make of these?’
‘I’m not much of a botanist. Mum, you’re more likely to know what these are.’
Olive was already on her way over. She’d not even paid much attention to what the pots contained yesterday, the early shoots barely pushing past the soil. She’d assumed they were pansies or some such in order to fill some hanging baskets or plant in the courtyard at Oakley West. Something suitably mundane like the rest of the usual activities calendar. Although, having said that, of late, it had been more than a little interesting.
There were now a couple of leaves starting to unfurl on the early shoots. The round leaves so indistinguishable in many plants were now joined by a couple of smaller serrated green leaves.
‘Bloody hell.’ Olive wasn’t often shocked, but this was enough to make her gasp. ‘It’s weed.’
‘What?’ Veronica had been on grey-spot watch, but was soon with the rest of them in the beach hut.
‘Thought it was. Olive has a small crop of marijuana growing in her beach hut.’ Tony helpfully filled Veronica in.
‘Hang on. The ottoman was full of gin when it was my beach hut. These latest changes have nothing to do with me.’
‘Maybe the police will listen to us more now,’ Veronica said.
‘But they might have planted these by mistake,’ Tony said.
‘What about the bottles I found? They definitely drank my gin. Does that count as theft if we’d handed the keys over for them to borrow the property?’ Olive’s son would know the technicalities of whether it would be considered a crime.
There was a crash as Veronica’s phone dropped onto the floor. ‘Call the police. Call the fire brigade. Call them now.’