4. The Hoax

(Story begins after 'The Hoax' heading below)

Intro.
I know I shouldn't start a story by setting the scene for you, but I started writing some concept notes for one story and quickly found myself in full flow when I realised that a few pieces of another story just started melting together perfectly (at least in my head).

The concept idea was about a big brother style story where a wealthy couple with money talk about setting up CCTV cameras and a few fake scenarios, then hiring people to renovate a building and assess their trust, the neighbours get involved talking of treasures hidden in the building, so when some dodgy workmen get hired for the job, they meet up with the locals who fill their heads with rumours. One even suggests that the treasure's belonged to a banged up drug dealer.

The couple have a young teenage son and daughter and although they don't intend for it to happen, they also become embroiled in the story. The daughter falls in love with a young apprentice working for his Dad.
The workmen employed are a father and son team.
Eventually, one of the workmen uncovers a body which isn't part of the plan, but they don't want to tell anyone in case the police search the house and if there was any treasure they could take it instead, so the workmen stay silent and hide the body in the concrete base for the new conservatory.

I'll write a more detailed chapter at a later date, but for now this is where Susan's adventure begins;

The Hoax

When the hoax is played through and everyone is sat chatting in the conservatory, it comes to light that both fathers had known each other since childhood and that the whole setup was to fool the daughter, the tradesman's son and the girl’s mother. The two men having met up for the first time in years on a social network site.

They chat about it for ages watching clips on DVD. When it was over the tradesman said that was brilliant, but what happened to the bit with the body? That was a huge twist in the story!
What body?
"On the Thursday, must have been about 6 or 7pm, it well freaked my lad out. We even buried it"
"where?"
"under our feet! In the concrete base of the conservatory"
The man sits forward, as if to try and read the tradesman's body language. "there was nothing recorded on Thursday”.
The tradesman laughed as if it was another wind up, but then as if to humour the man he told him about a newspaper and a handbag that were with the body.
The man now intrigued, said "did you keep them?"
"yeah! Thought you might want them back"
"show me then" he said
So the tradesman sent his son out to the van.

Whilst he was gone, the tradesman said "you don't need to take it too far you know"
The man still not sure if the joke was being turned back on him replied "neither do you!"
For the time being, it appeared that they would both humour each other till one spilled the beans on another hoax.

The son returned holding a plastic bag from Tesco, inside was a newspaper folded open and a small bag with a gold clasp and a gold / blue material for it's body, it looked old yet not like it had been buried.
"Was this buried?" the man asked
"no, not exactly!" said the son
"them two things were under the floor, thought..." he stopped mid sentence and looked at his Dad.
"go on Son" he encouraged.
"thought there might have some treasure, so I dug deeper, it was a little further over than I needed to dig. That's when I found it, the body. I didn't know what to do at first, but.." he stopped again "well.. She thought it was her Mother so..."
"who did?" interrupted the man "you're losing me, who thought it was her Mother?"
"Susan, I sent her a text. Told her what we found, she wanted to see, so I emailed her some pictures I'd taken with my phone."
"there was a necklace and.." this time he stopped because he was interrupted.
"just show us the pictures son"
"I can't, she made me delete them"
"did you delete the email you sent"
"no, why?"
"give me the phone" "NOW!" shouted the man.
He did, and the man flicked through the outbox until he found it. The photos were of a face, necklace, bracelet, full body and a few photos of the other items. He took a moment to email them to himself before turning on his laptop to view them closer.

As all 3 were now staring at the images, he added
"these look real, I don't recognise the jewellery though"
"Susan's mother Julie left when Susan was young, I met David's mother Debbie not long afterwards"
"it makes no sense why she'd think that though, this house belongs to Debbie's uncle John, i didn't even know him until me and Deb's married, he owned a shop in the town"
After a pause for thought he said "Fuck it! You're gonna have to dig this floor up, and if there really is a body I don't know how we'll explain all this to the cops"
"erm! No we can't, well, there's no point I mean" said the young lad, who took a deep breath then finished "me n Susan buried her in the woods behind the house
"but we moved the body together, I saw it as we poured the cement" said the tradesman.
"Yes, i know we moved the body together, but Susan turned up while you mixed cement and that's when we moved the body in to the woods, then we wrapped some old clothes in it's place" she left not long afterwards, but she said she'd see me later at the MacArthur's house to babysit.
"But where is she know son?"
"Dunno!"
Both men sigh!