All Comments on 'The Way Back Ch. 09'

Now we need to know who the tall dark fellow is, no doubt the agent for Ms. Fanshaw, and how the murder of Allen was supposed to find the two "lovers" guilty thereby killing two birds with one stone. Plausible? Starting to sound better than my other theory. Still, one hell of a yarn. Keep on truckin'!

Fuddpucker

you trying to project Derek innocent spoiled it for me... why would Ann still want to side with that cheater/adulterer in the first place.. if she believes derek is innocent then once allan was back why didn't she stop fukcing him?? if she truely wanted to make up with allan?? why is it Ann least concerned abt discovering who harmed Allan rather than trying to prove derek is innocent?? why did she do a striptease if she was letting go derek instead of a decent talk of stating what she truely feels abt him. why couldn't she tell him how she feels abt allan to derek even after finding the fact that allan didn't leave her. why kiss him in front of allan??? fucking pathetic to say you love somebody and display affections for someone else..... and now the dragging is going on with the story.. it would be truely brilliant if stephanie and derek had mastered this plan to kill allan and derek doing an oscar worthy performance of acting innocent!! i truely hate derek bcos of how naive he is to not understand what is happening in front of him and leave Ann and her family alone even after realising how she feels abt him. its like homelands where brody's wife doesn't giveup on brody's friend. fuck i hate this kind of emotional harassing of Allan by Ann. fuck her, get the simple uncomplicated trish to save Allan..

The last two chapters have been merely ok, to the point where I hope the endgame comes soon. Honestly still feels like its being dragged out way too long... The story should be told as the author likes, but there seem to be rather too many side plots. Why should we care about business sales meetings? Now he owns a health club that makes a profit but Ann had to resort to attempting to neuter his main business? How many businesses does he own that David can just 'forget' about one? If this somehow becomes relevant in a big way it will look fine in retrospect, but it's rather clumsy. There's also a rather lot of anecdotal or circumstantial 'evidence' that Alan takes as truth: that Derek just gave up his real mistress and copped to being a lousy lay is totally unquestioned, Claire's opinions don't really amount to a hill of beans, same with Ann's bridesmaids and Viv. It's a good story, nice ideas, but its a little frustrating, but not so much that a good twist or two wouldn't fix.

i still couldnt look at jen and peter without being pissed off.if peter was jealous of 1 day with allan then what happens if she sees an old friend he hasnt met.pack his bags and go to trish at least she left him without fucking him over to do it.

Stephanie claimed to be at that party, and was adamant she saw Allan and Ann. Allan's description of Stephanie at their meeting made her sound mannish. Just reaching here.... Is Stephanie a former man? And could she/he be the yet to be determined 'tall man'?

Just a thought.... Ideas?

if there is reconciliation then derek needs to be out of the picture totally and out of the mind of the loyal Ann, she still seems undecided to let go derek sensing her affection towards him every time allan mentions derek. it seems like for Allan what Ann did with derek has been much more important at the moment than finding out why it happenned in the first place. Investigation seems to be going on at snails pace. other three guys arrested will certainly have a clue abt the fourth person. Jenny is irritating at the best and undecided as to whether to pursue Peter or stick with allan. she doesn't seem to be bright to me as described earlier and thats not a sign of strong independent women. And Ann is toiling with emotions with both derek and Allan and also seems to be undecided. if only can Ann come to her senses and stay away from both Allan and derek till killer is found there might be something for Ann to salvage and Allan would be more willing to take a look at her. Derek not sure what he is whether guilty/innocent time only would tell. I am still wondering how Ann let derek close knowing he was disloyal to his ex wife and want to build a relationship with him. he could always cheat in future on her..!!! also doesn't it contradict her earlier behaviour that she would never give another chance to one who has those traits of cheating , else she would take her first boyfriend back. i only hope Ann comes to her senses to keep her legs closed from now on and cut off derek unless she wants to lose Allan..

I suppose a case could be made for Stephanie's involvement if she truly thought Ann was diddling Derek... Ann took her husband and so she takes Ann's permanently (the Chicago Way). She also lied about meeting him and she had access to his accounts--although if he was such a lousy businessman, could she be certain he'd have 43,000 pounds on hand?

But it's thin motivation when you consider who benefits. Get rid of Allan just to make Ann suffer? Not much of a benefit in the long run and Ann ends up the merry and very rich widow.

It's the mystery man I think who benefits the most and I think the mystery man is not so mysterious to Allan.

Now that was an annoying little chapter full of smokescreens and stalling, wasn't it?

So much interesting information about trainrides, businessdeals and a stupidly named spa.

Well at least the next (last) chapter will have to put out.

I must be a masochist but I love a twisty road. If I were the judge here in the sense of an Italian investigative judge and working in the skin of our hero I would continue looking for evidence. As he says there is something missing, I hope that the solution is convincing...

Martin Sharrocks

Nice story..can't help wondering if it will still be raining at the end.

Both Ann and Allan are loyal to a fault. The both are people that stay committed to whomever they are in a relationship at the time. So I can see why Ann was hesitant with leaving Derek. She helped him during his marriage problems and Derek was there for her during hers.

Allan had no problem with flaunting his two lovers in front of Ann, his kids and friends so I don't understand why he gets all mad because Ann has sex with Derek. He stated on many occasions he wasn't giving up his lovers for Ann. It seems as though Allan wanted Ann to not be with anybody and work on getting him back even though he claim he didn't want her back. That is confusing, I don't understand how he didn't see that.

Some of the evidence against Derek is weak. He would have something to gain if Allan is dead and he married Ann but there is no one that has said that Derek did all these things. From what evidence he friends dug up, his ex-wife or somebody else could've planted them. Stephanie is a scorned ex bent on getting back at Derek and Ann with much to gain. Allan would be collateral damage if Stephanie is the mastermind. Allan need to find out what PI Stephanie used. If it was the same PI as the one that contacted Derek then that would be something else fishy.

The last 3 chapters could easily have been condensed into 1 and its making reading this story more of a slog than a joy. I did like the spat between Peter and Jenny tho. After all, when you hook up with a woman who is cheating on her boyfriend how much can you really trust her.

The evidence Derek's ex-wife had was pretty fucking weak to warrant the settlement she received. Derek would have to a fucking saint to accept such a beating in court, just to spare his fuckbuddy from being outed to her husband but someone that wholesome wouldn't cheat on his wife or with another married woman.

Ann still never explained her out and out refusal to meet with Allan when he returned and not talking about the alleged affair that night just wouldn't happen. Her being innocent of cheating with Derek is the cornerstone of them ever getting back together again, so no way in hell would the explanation of her activities be pushed to the back burner.

Steven Spielberg said that while making Jaws, you need to respect the audience and be mindful of hitting them with two many red herrings. Your a good writer Alwaysraining, but I think your dragging out of this story and the sheer amount of twists and turns is going to hurt the story in the long run. Far to many characters are just acting in a unrealistic manner.

you are expecting a memoryless Allan to be loyal to Ann who didn't even come to see Allan when he first approached her, if i remember correctly in this chapter she told alan that she knew derek has forged the letter to get a closure on alan while trying to help her for her loss and also that she was willing to forgive allan if he came back right...? so why was there no apology from her when she came to allan knowing the facts that he didn't cheat? if she was so willing to forgive him why didn't she immediately go to allan for answers??? she was selfish and only thought Allan was lieing to stop her marriage and thought he was jealous for her being with derek inspite of knowing that her children disliked the guy and he has previously cheated on his wife!! what was Allan suppose to do while Ann was shagging derek even after professing love to Allan after her first meeting knowing what happened? yes Allan should not have hooked up with jenny i agree with you on that part of his loyalty because he was foolish to consider jenny as a replacement for trish for the time being. but ann is full of derek in her mind and heart and i don't think she will able to let go him, so then why get back to Allan?? loyal - bullshit!! and to why Allan is mad because his wife had previously help the asshole derek to commit adultery behind her husband's back (fine it became clear later but still she was in contact with her and told her abt his visits to his house and what happenend is still not clear) and she is hooked up with the same asshole who she knows cheated on his wife and also is a suspect in her husbands murder attempt but still defending him and shagging him.

that this is taking the long way around. The plot is starting to strain a bit under its own weight. It is a pretty good example of why "innocent until proven guilty" is a thing, though.

Oh hell, now I am really confused. The story is so filled with misleading information and false pathways that all my ideas are rubbish. One last chapter and now I wonder how it can all get wrapped up that quickly.

I only read the last page cause I am curious to see how it ends, if you actually stop dragging it out and give it an ending of course.

this is kind of like the Midsummer murder mysteries, always just a little more info each scene

But I feel that you have drug it out a bit, like others. However some of the other comments about people not behaving in sensible ways makes me laugh. Love and trust are strong needs, Allan and Ann both have the same problems with the trust issue. Love is even thornier and people do not behave in a rational fashion!

The hint of a few other players in the mix is there and I wait see what happens next.

Ann's explanation why she succumbed to Derick in bed doesn't explain why after learning her husband was alive she wanted to wreck the company. Also curious how Derrick's employees could have been bought to commit the attack without Derrick's involvement. I like the Peter theory being the tall man, but don't see his motive either.

Allan has at no point in this story said he wants any relationship with Ann apart from having joint custody of the children. He has been more than fair in his dealings with her first with the divorce settlement, child support and even allowing her to live in his house with the kids. A house she alone has profited from the sale of!

For me, Allan's anger at Ann is more due to her saying one thing to him then acting in a completely opposite way, rather than her just having sex with Derek. She claims that after hearing his story in the pub from Trish and him, she want's to have him back in her life and is finished with Derek sexually yet then goes back to his bed multiple times even after conspiring to break up his relationship with Jenny. She knows his memory is screwed up yet continues to play mind games with him.

Ann still hasn't given a good reason for her refusal to meet with him upon his return and why she wanted to destroy his company. She claims Derek was just trying to help her out and then fell for her, yet he made zero effort to get on with her children and made Greta very uncomfortable in how he looked at her.

Her claims of not giving up on Allan's return don't match up with how the search for him was carried out. She is so desperate to find her husband but leaves the search to Derek, a casual friend at best instead of her siblings or the longtime family lawyer or their longtime high ranking police friend? For a woman who claims to have loved her husband so much, a man nobody could believe would run off with another woman, she never wonders why he didn't just divorce her?

Not once does it seemed to have entered Ann's head that Allan could of just divorced her ass to be with his new woman, stay in his kids lives and keep his money and 80% share of a multi million dollar company? But 4 pictures of him speaking to a woman and kissing her on the cheek in public overrule all logic and their marriage history!

Stephanie being the mastermind behind what happened to Allan would turn this story into a farce. Derek had cheated on his wife more than once so why just revenge on him and Ann not to mention Stephanie got all she wanted in the divorce. There is also the 2+ years gap with nothing happening to Derek and Ann after Allan's disappearance so when and how was this revenge ment to happen? Why no mysterious tip to the police putting them under scrutiny? Also seeing as Allan was beaten so badly he couldn't be identified when he was found, even if he had of died, how could it be linked back to Derek and Ann.

The police giving up on trying to track down a missing multi-millionaire, even if just to close the missing person file, is a major flaw in this story. No way would any cop just accept the evidence of those 4 photos without speaking to the alleged victim first.

Think about Allan's beating and ask yourself why it occurred as it did. This mugging had an agenda. His attackers went to great pains to stomp on and obliterate his face and stripped him of anything that might help ID the body. If Derek and/or Ann were involved, they would want Allan to be declared dead to inherit his money without a long drawn out legal procedure (assuming a rough equivalence in Brit/Yank laws in this area). If Stephanie was trying to get revenge on Derek and his presumed , wouldn't she also want Allan's body to be identified? The question isn't who wanted Allan dead; the question is, who needed Allan to disappear?'

At this point, it's pretty clear the reconciliation is going full steam ahead, but we have a lot of loose ends left to tie up. The sudden appearance of this successful spa business is problematic, it definitely should have come up in the discussion of Allan's business affairs when Ann & Derek were pushing for money. Why didn't David mention it then? (Could Viv be the master manipulator?) Alwaysraining has adroitly handled all the plot twists to this point, I'm confident he's got something in mind for the last chapter. I'm just not very good about waiting for it to get here. Great story, thanks for sharing.

as of Stephanie being behind the murder of allan, it makes no sense. she hates Derek and probable ann who she believesare and were having an affair. she wanted to and did destroy Derek financially, by having allan murdered it would of cleared the way for Derek to have access to allans fortune by marrying ann .she would have had left him identifiable to cast suspicion on Derek and ann,instead of stripping him and leaving him miles from where he was ,and unidentifiable.

You know, the kind where all the parties have presented their evidence, the judge is about to rule and the PI Perry uses comes into the courtroom at the very last minute with new evidence we have never seen or heard, that proves his client, the accused, to be innocent.

Why the description of Stephanie as a tall, mannish woman? Why the Private club? Why the access to Derek's accounts? All at the last minute? And where is Colin?

Regarding the "evidence" file provided by Stephanie: It must have been provided by the same PI used in York (remember? the one who contacted them?) who discovered only the 4 innocuous photos of Allan and his cousin, but not the whole "picture", to only discover the activity between Derek and Ann, again with no compromising photos. If the PI was truly following Derek to track his movements and involvements where is the file on the other, other woman with whom Derek professes to have been having an affair?

And yes, I too am puzzled by the need for Allan to disappear with out recognition leaving his whereabouts and fate unresolved. The only person who benefits by this scenario is David who keeps reminding us that Allan was paying him very well for his services. Don't forget one short paragraph in Ch 01 that keeps niggling away as this all plays out:

"David called in while we were eating dinner with some documents for me to sign and I signed at the table without reading any of it. He gave me a folder with bank details, a debit card, its PIN and other things with which I would need to deal, and left hurriedly, assuring me he would phone if he needed anything else from me."

This casual behaviour by a man who has some natural acuity for contracts that protect the business.

and

""Geoff was concerned about your safety in some of the countries you visited, you know, kidnappings, hostage taking and the like. You all wanted the company protected to keep the employees' jobs intact. You wanted to leave the company to Ann, but she didn't like that idea at all. She asked about Powers of Attorney, where a person signs over the handling of his affairs to another person, usually in case of illness. You obviously had a will, but this was to cover the eventuality you would not be here while still alive somewhere else.

"The upshot was that you and Ann signed an agreement that I would be responsible for the company to you alone, Allan. When you were absent I would have power of attorney over your business and financial affairs, obviously coordinating with Geoff who would actually run the place.

"I was obliged under the terms of the arrangement to protect the integrity of the company at all costs, to ensure that Ann and the children were well looked after and to be your representative.

The only way I would be relieved of that responsibility would be upon your death or if you and Ann both revoked it in person."

Who benefits?

oh well, only one more to go, no more long drawn out chapters of rambling speculation with no answers.

Really? This late into the story suddenly there are new characters that bear investigating? And his lawyer/friend 'forgets' to tell him he owns another business while explaining his financials to him? That would make him a poor lawyer and worse friend, at the very least.

And his so called friends? All of them have an agenda for him that doesn't really relate to what he may or may not want. Does he really need friends like this?

In my opinion he should just say the hell with it, sell out, and move to New Zealand to be with Trish, taking his children along.

I really, really enjoyed this saga right up to this segment. Then I feel like the wheels ran off. Up until now it was a solid five, bit this section gets a generous three.

i got it fingered out.its geoff behind the assault.think about it with allan gone whether dead or just really really fucked up in a coma some where he gets the company.he knows about derek goes the ex and says you help me i help you.we also have a math problem here. 43k-the 3k for the tail on allan and then the 30k for the beating right. that leaves 10k unaccounted for.i am thinking it went the private DICK that called derek to set this all up. all though i wish it was peter i just dont like him, he knew jen was with allan and still made a play for her and she was a bitch to go for it. BRING BACK TRISH and leave ann to derek and jen to peter and slap the holy fuck out of vivian.

Stephanie, with a disguise as a tall man, and using Derek's money.

She has been living on Derek's money all along.

Now that it is running low, time to get a new source.

What better way than to ruin his mistress Ann's life.

She cares nothing for anyone else.

Allan would never tumble to her.

Hence the elaborate plan.

Oh, I cannot wait until tomorrow.

Tiger

Bugger me this just got a whole hell of a lot more complicated..... Stephanie being solely behind the attack doesn't hell, but I think she has to be involved some how due to her showing the photos of Ann and Derek and alleging that that was from before her divorce.

Is it possible that someone else is the mastermind behind it and used setting Derek up as the fall guy to lure her to be in on it?

David

.

machine

Sherman and Mr Peabody

of course

; D

going down hill fast

Let's see Ann is the mastermind...along with David and Viv...with Geoff breaking into Derek's accounts to pay for it...somehow Stephanie, Ann, and Viv got together to hatch this plot...Stephanie to get rid of Derek for her humiliation...Ann, she's fucking everybody...Viv being dragged along in Ann's vortex...It was Stephanie as the tall person paying off the three amigos...I wonder why Allan never checked the company books?...maybe Peter called that other PI...why did it take Ann a half hour to talk to Peter in this last chapter?...Ann's continued disrespect of Allan's rule of calling to set up a time to talk...Derek being brought to the last one...maybe screwing Derek is what Ann was doing up to Allan's beating...there is no way that Derek was coming over twice a week during the midday and they were not screwing...since he was a lousy lover according to Greta, maybe that's why Ann made Derek the fall guy...why was/is Viv so keen on getting Allan and Ann back together?...why does the idea of Allan and Derek hanging out together sounds like so much Bull Shit?...Was Stephanie at the party when Derek was introduced?...David didn't say she was...did he omit it on purpose or was she not there as she claims...after two years she is still that pissed off at Derek?..really?..was the breakup of Jenny and Allan another calculation to isolate Allan so he could be killed?..someone outside of their group would be able to help put the clues together...is that why Peter went apeshit?..he thought that Jenny would help Allan put it all together with pillow talk?..is that why Ann talked to him for a half hour to deflect Jenny from helping Allan put together clues?..was there something else that Keith found out about Ann that Allan has forgotten about that would tie it all together?...hmmm...we'll see...rotflmao...

five stars. You are tying up a lot of loose ends and I can't wait for the big finish. One bit of nitpicking. The whole relationship with Jenny just seemed like an unnecessary complication. You could eliminate that and the storyline would be essentially the same. Yes, you would have had to extend the Trish character, but changing girlfriends mid story seemed a bit odd. What did it net the story? What did the Jenny character bring to the table that the Trish character couldn't?

Been enjoying the tale. However after all his espousing about jumping to conclusions the confrontation with Ann where he laid out the evidence and concluded your having an affair was out of character. His character was more likely to say here is what I have found; can you explain. Not what he did.

Ann says she is glad Derek lied to her about her "true" love cheating on her and leaving her so she could fuck him?

She still loves Derek after he lied about the love of her life so he could fuck her???!!?

Her husband was near death, she never investigated or searched for him, believing falsified evidence and forgeries so she could get fucked by Derek and, even now, fully knowing the truth, still loves Derek for stabbing her husband in the back and is glad she fucked the piece of shit for over a year???

She says she won't fuck him anymore but goes to his bed another 3 times??

Ann is a self centered and arrogant cheating cunt. She does not come off as sympathetic at all.

This story is a winner in so many aspects. Believe havementioned most of them in comments on previous chapters. Plot. Characters. Dialogue. This has them all in spades.

I don't want this story to end. Ever.

This guy is such a pansy I want to take a swing at him myself. Jeeze, grow a pair dude. He lets his wife continually change the "rules" of their meetings, she gets all up in his face making demands and he admires her aggression? Thinks it proves she's innocent? Everybody shoves this guy around and all he does is grumble to himself.

His wife lies constantly about everything. She screws Derrick after promising that she wouldn't do it anymore. She ambushes Allan by having Derrick show up to swear that he and Ann never had an affair. Really? She brought her boyfriend over to "prove" what she was saying is true??? So he was lying before in the office, uh, but not now? And she promises no more sex with Derrick now? This time, she really means it? LOL. Right.

Obviously everything is going to be the fault of Derrick's ex-wife, the one with the man-hands. No boobs or butt, she's the "tall man" everyone is talking about. She had access to stupid Derrick's account, a man so stupid he doesn't know passwords can be changed (of course, in this story ALL the men are that stupid) so she set everything up just to send him to prison. She mentioned the photos of the woman in York and she couldn't know about those unless she hired the PI to track Allan.

Poor Derrick will be proven innocent, no doubt Allan will apologize to everybody - again and again, like he has been - for thinking he had anything to do with it. Allan will probably take Ann back and let her screw Derrick a couple of times a week for the rest of their lives to make up for it. Or maybe Ann will buy a strap-on and do Derrick and Allan instead? Let's face it: She wears the pants in that family.

My goodness, what a pansy Allan is. He deserves her.

I kinda have to agree with you. When dealing with Ex's that constantly break rules, if you don't set down clear boundaries and stick to them, they will walk all over you. I know this has a happy ending and all, but to blindly trust, over and over, only to have it repeatedly broken, I would not be nearly as forgiving. Blah Blah, it's for the kids, He's rich, buy a house within walking distance. The kids are welcome any time. Viv would be on my shit list, Ann would be on a no contact list and paying rent for the house she's in. I'd be suing for majority custody and giving copies of all my recordings to a lawyer who i'm not "Friends" with. Some relationships should be kept business. A lawyer who apparently can't keep secrets from his wife about his client's personal business and seems to have his own agenda would be fired in a heartbeat.

I'm not saying don't seek the truth, but good god, if you let people just walk all over the boundaries you set, you're going to spend the rest of your life getting walked all over.

Yes this is fiction. I've read the story twice, once a while ago, and again over the last week. It does have a happy-sappy overcoming struggle vibe, but after my divorce a few years ago, there are lessons that REALLY need to be applied to how one acts during, and post divorce.

Ann is still a piece of shit.

Holy hell this is dragging a lot

Martin Sharrocks is the tall, unidentified man and also the one who hired the PI in York and was having an affair with Derek's wife?

But…she kept fucking Fanshaw

Viv is still a meddlesome bitch, and Ann loves fucking Derek.

LOL yes it makes sense Anne has total faith against the seeming evidence on Dereks behalf and very little on her husbands behalf.

Her husband coming back form death kind of makes him the total underdog.

Faking that letter made it so she didn't search for him any longer.

I mean the total mindboggling thinking in this good prose but flawed premise is "I don't want to ruin another marriage."

Dereks fling had a husband that she couldn't remain faithful to but was good enough to go back to while keeping him the unaware chump thinking his wife is trustworthy.

The guys wife is livng a lie with her husband.

If her husband found out by however it would be her who put the last nail in the coffin.

This is the twisted reasoning throughout.

He is the only one to keep searching and to keep looking for more in the face of overwhelming circumstantial evidence .

She wouldn't even see him without being forced because of one picture.

MC is a saint for not throwing up his hands and saying enough by this point.