by L. J. Fox
“Layne? “Are you ok?”
Suddenly, Layne rushed forward, almost knocking Amity out of the way. She pushed forward, manoeuvring herself between the people. A few people grunted and complained as she surged through them, shoulder first.
Amity stared after her, shocked, then followed. She could hardly keep sight of her as Layne was moving so fast. She could just see her blonde head bobbing through the crowd and then it was gone. It took Amity a few more minutes to get out into the foyer. Looking around she could not see Layne so she headed out the doors.
About fifty metres away, near a bus stop, she saw Layne standing and turning in circles as if searching. Amity was convinced her friend had just had some sort of seizure or panic attack. Maybe the horror film really had affected her more than first realised. Amity slowly walked toward her, trying to assess her and determine how she should approach. She put her hand out in front of her and approached cautiously.
“Layne?” She asked.
Layne spun around and looked at Amity. Amity could see the wild look in her eyes and her rapid breathing.
“He was here. He was here.” Layne repeated wildly. “He was in the movie. Now he is gone.”
“Who was in the movie?” asked Amity.
“The rapist.”
Chapter 41
Andy spent each spare minute rifling through the notebooks and scanning every word. The first notebooks were quickly turned aside as they were clearly from many years earlier and would not have any relevance. The notebooks had a musty, damp smell as many old documents often do, having been stored in a box for many years. He opened his window to air his room and scattered the notebooks all over his room in an attempt to remove the smell.
He had made the decision not to tell Layne about the trip he had made to Katunga, or the trip to Shepparton that Ross and he had made. She would be concerned about her grandparents getting involved, and Andy also felt she may be upset about the death of this Shepparton reporter, Ed Makin. Better for Andy to see if he could find anything relevant in the notebooks well before upsetting Layne with the information.
He had not seen Layne at all for a few days though there had been a few texts. He was pleased she was going to the movies with Amity. That should be a light-hearted afternoon. He had been sorting through the last six notebooks when his phone beeped as a text came in.
Must talk to you. Coming over now.
Shit!
He jumped up, looking around at the mess of old notebooks. There was no chance of cleaning this up in time. She couldn’t come in. He quickly texted her back.
Let’s go for a walk. Meet at my building.
Quickly he left the room and headed to the front entrance. Better to be early than for her to reach his room. She was there within a few minutes and he could immediately tell something was wrong. Her face looked pinched and her eyes darted from side to side.
Andy wrapped his arms around her enveloping her in a hug.
“Layne, what’s wrong?”
She held him tightly for a few minutes and then released him.
“Come on. Let’s walk”
They turned and started walking down the footpath toward the lake. The air had grown chilly and the light of the day was starting to fade.
“The rapist was at the cinema where Amity and I were.”
“WHAT?” Andy stopped and stared at her. “Did you see him?”
“No. I smelled him. It was definitely him, but he must have jumped on a bus before I managed to get outside and look for him.”
They kept walking. Andy rubbed his chin, deep in thought.
“Are you going to tell the police?”
“No. They would think I was crazy. They would probably say there are possibly lots of guys that wear Polo Blue aftershave. How can I tell them that I can smell the combination of his aftershave, deodorant, shampoo and so on, that make up a unique smell? Nope. I can’t go to the police.”
Andy nodded. “So we can assume he lives within a bus ride of town.”
Layne agreed. “True. If he caught a train he would have walked to the station. It is not much further than the bus stop, so we can estimate that he lives too far from town to walk, close enough to catch a bus ride, and probably doesn’t have a car. Oh, and he is a Stephen King fan.”
“What time was it that you were at the bus stop?” Andy asked.
“About 4.15.”
“I’ll look up what bus takes that route and where it goes.”
“Every bit helps.”
Night had fallen as they had been walking and both looked around suddenly realising. Andy put his arm around Layne rubbing her outer arm.
“Come on. I’m going to walk you back to your room.”
Layne lay in bed that night thinking. If only she had not turned off her sense of smell in the cinema. She would have detected the rapist quickly. What would she have done? She couldn’t confront him in public. She couldn’t call the police. They would laugh at her if she had told them to come and arrest this guy because he smells like he is a rapist. Most likely she would have followed him to see where he lived and to get a good look at his face so she could recognise him. It would have been hard to follow him with Amity in tow, but she would have found a way to make it work.
One thing was clear, she could no longer turn off her senses and miss the chance of finding the rapist.
Chapter 42
A black car picked Layne up at the campus entrance. Warren wished to see her and then there would be a dinner. The Brays had lots of dinner engagements with each other. Layne had time after class to shower and dress more appropriately. She chose black pants, a mauve cashmere jumper and a black woollen jacket. May as well look the part.
The driver opened the back door for her and she glanced at him, judging him to be a good looking guy possibly around thirty years old. As she sat back in the seat and the driver began the trip to Warren’s house. She wondered about the driver, what his powers were like and how he felt about the more powerful Brays. She noticed his hair was very dark brown, almost black and perfectly trimmed. She had never really looked at the drivers or security people before. She was determined to take more notice in the future.
She wished she didn’t have to go to see Warren or the dinner. The pressure would be on her to move more into the Bray’s way of life. She still had no idea what to do, or how to resolve the problem. There seemed to be no resolution. Could she face a life of being a Bray?
She looked out the window and sighed. She was not ready. She was not ready for this meeting. She was not ready for dinner with the Brays. She was not ready to be a Bray. She was not ready to reach the mansion in Toorak. She felt a little emotional.
All of a sudden, she realised that the driver had just indicated and pulled over to the side of the road. Layne looked out the window but could see nothing except some residential houses on a quiet street with some lovely shade trees. Perhaps they were picking someone up. She glanced at the driver and then back outside at the houses. The driver made no attempt to get out of the car. He was just sitting in the driver’s seat looking straight ahead.
Layne waited. Minutes ticked by. Eventually she turned to the driver.
“Excuse me. Are we waiting for someone, or picking someone up?” She asked.
“No” He replied.
“Oh. What are we doing here?” Layne asked, confused.
“Waiting for you to be ready.” He said quietly.
Layne stared at the back of his head, really confused now.
“I’m ready.” She said hesitantly.
The driver indicated and pulled back on to the road, continuing the journey.
Layne stared out the window trying to gather her thoughts. What just happened? It was a bit too coincidental that she had just been thinking that she was not ready, and then the driver had stopped and used those words. Was he a mind reader? Was that his power? She imagined that a mind reader would be a strong power, not a power that a driver would have. Was it possible that all the B
rays were mind readers except her, as she was only half Bray? That was a terrifying thought.
The episode really threw her and she felt completely lost and afraid. Did they all know what she was thinking? If that was the case, then they knew that she wanted out, that she did not wish to be a Bray. She would have to be very guarded at the dinner that night, and also when she met with Warren.
Chapter 43
Andy thumbed through the notebooks for days whenever he had a spare moment. As he turned those well-worn pages and became accustomed to the journalist’s style of writing and shorthand, he began to understand the order, the mess and the scribbles.
The notes written down the side of the page vertically were phone calls, and it appeared that he noted every phone call he ever received. Every page was dated and every phone call also recorded a time. The circled phone notes he guessed were items that he needed to action in some way, perhaps to call back, or investigate further.
Ed’s wife, Sandra, had been kind enough to leave Ed’s diary in the box as well. Andy was able to cross-reference phone calls with the diary dates. That way he was able to confirm which phone calls resulted in meetings or appointments.
He found the first reference to Layne’s family three months before Ed’s death and the disappearance of Layne’s parents. It was 10 February 2002 at 9.23am. It was a large vertical note that covered the length of the page. The top words were capitalised and read BRAD HARRISON with a number of lines under the name. From there on, for lines and lines there were just single words, all crammed up together in a small space. Andy struggled to read some of the words.
BEV 3 LANE F HILL van der linde brays
WV au BJ YS MT SP VI TD ? Exec pnl
DUSTIN MEYER YR conf powers dom
PUB PR AFRAID ?????
The word ‘afraid’ was written strongly as if the writer had pushed down hard on the pen as he was writing. There was a large asterisk to the right of the written words, perhaps to act as a bookmark when Ed needed to find this note again in a hurry.
Andy studied the words. Some were obvious, such as BEV had to be Beverley which was Layne’s mother’s name. The next was 3 LANE. Andy surmised that Brad would have been telling Ed that he had a three year old daughter named Layne. He wasn’t sure what F HILL meant or if it were separate words or a name. Van der Linde was obviously Beverley’s family name. The rest didn’t really make any sense to Andy. He thought Layne might be able to decipher some of it.
He was still not ready to show her the notebooks or tell her about them just yet. He needed to keep looking and keep reading for now and see if there would be any more information. When he was confident that he had everything, he would talk to Layne and see if there was anything that could be helpful.
A knock on his door jolted him out of his far away state. He glanced at his watch to check the time. It was 6.30pm. It couldn’t be Layne. She was having dinner with the Brays tonight and would not be finished until late. Andy opened the door to find a classmate, Scott standing there. Scott’s face was animated and he was fidgeting.
“Have you heard?” Scott asked.
“Heard what?” asked Andy frowning at the restlessness of Scott.
“That friend of Layne’s. She got attacked. You know … the dark girl.”
Andy was suddenly wide awake and alert.
“WHAT? You mean Amity?” He asked, grabbing Scott by the arm.
“Yeah. That’s her. Amity.” He nodded.
“Shit! Is she ok? How do you know?”
Andy asked, growing more alarmed with each second. Scott shrugged his shoulders.
“I just came from Steve’s and there are cops everywhere near Building B, out the back. There was an ambulance just pulling out, lights going and all. I asked and one of the girls told me.”
Andy raced for the entrance and out into the night. He had to find out if Amity was ok. Then he had to let Layne know.
Chapter 44
Warren greeted Layne in his office again. He reached for her hands and gave them a squeeze. There was still no warmth or grandfatherly affection in his greeting and Layne couldn’t imagine that he could be warm or grandfatherly. He had other grandchildren. She had met the school girl which was Carmel’s daughter. Layne wondered how Warren was with her but she imagined he was no different. There seemed to be a curiosity about her and she often caught him peeking at her as if trying to see something. She knew she looked like her mother and wondered how that affected him. Did he look for the normal human side of her – her father?
“Come and sit Layne.”
He gestured to the large chairs in front of a blazing fireplace. Layne removed her coat and sat, rubbing her hands in front of the fire to warm them.
“Narelle tells me you have done extremely well and have quite exceptional powers.” He said admirably.
Layne smiled. He only knew what Layne let Narelle see.
“The women tell me that you have a familiarity with animals, that the animals come to you.” His voice was questioning.
“Yes. I guess you could say that. I have always had an affinity with the animals on the farm, or people’s dogs. Perhaps I was supposed to be an animal trainer.”
“Layne – are you aware that some Brays, particularly the strong ones, have extra abilities?”
“Narelle mentioned it, but I don’t know much about it.”
She paused, thinking of her recent episode with the driver.
“Is mind reading one of the extra powers?” She looked around to see his face.
“No. I don’t know anyone who can do that. But a bond with animals is certainly one of the extra abilities that some Brays have. It is actually a sign that someone is powerful.”
“Really?”
She asked, thinking more of the incident in the car. If the driver was not reading her mind, then what the heck happened.
“Did my mother have an affinity with animals?” She asked.
Warren shook his head. “No. That was not one of her powers.”
He looked toward the fire. Layne was not going to let him off that easily.
“What were her extra powers? I would like to know more about her.”
She used a firm voice and looked directly at him, daring him to refuse her. He sighed and looked back at Layne. He clearly did not wish to discuss Layne’s mother.
“More than one.”
He looked back at Layne and changed the subject.
“It looks like you may fall into a higher bracket than what we originally thought. I don’t know if you are aware, but we classify powers. Usually people are tested when they are young.”
Layne nodded. “Yes. Narelle explained that the more powerful ones have extra training.”
“Correct. You have missed out on this but we would like to assess you so we can determine what category you fall into.”
“I see. Who tests me?” She didn’t see at all.
“Narelle is only one of our trainers. We have several good trainers in other states. I’ll get John Springer. I believe he is in Sydney at the moment. He is very experienced and will be able to sort this out.”
Sort this out? It sounded like she was a shelf product that was out of order and needed to be classified and placed back in the correct supermarket aisle. She couldn’t let Warren see her dismay at this suggestion.
“Fine.”
“I think it is time for you to graduate from your degree.” It was a command not a suggestion.
“I’ll set it up.” She agreed.
She knew she could fast track her education within a few weeks once she had read the information required, but this went against everything she had grown up to believe in and wanted. Leave university, leave Andy behind, and who knows what the Brays would have in mind for her. This pending assessment would identify where they were likely to place her in the future.
She fought off the threatening tears at the injustice of it all. She couldn’t let Warren see any distress or anger at the proposal. Time was running out and she
didn’t have a resolution.
“Would you like to freshen up before dinner?” asked Warren politely, standing up from the chair.
Layne suddenly jumped up from her chair, startling Warren. Her eyes were wide and she had an alarmed look on her face. Frantically she rummaged through her handbag moments before the sound of her mobile phone ringing reached them.
“Andy. What’s wrong?” She desperately said into the phone.
“Sorry Layne. It’s Amity. She has been hurt. I am at the hospital but they are not letting anyone in to see her.”
“I’m coming.” She ended the call and quickly placing it back in her handbag and grabbed her coat.
She turned to apologise to Warren for not being able to attend dinner, and saw the strange, calculating look on his face. She had known the phone was about to ring, and that Andy was trying to reach her, and that something was wrong, before the call. She had reached for the phone before it rang.
Warren had seen it firsthand, and she had not been able to hide it.
Chapter 45
Layne gazed around her childhood bedroom. It still looked the same, it still smelled the same, and yet everything was so different now. It looked so small. The last time she had stayed in this room, although only six months earlier, felt like years ago. So much had changed in a short six months. Six months ago, she had been a naïve child looking forward to a new life. Now she felt like a trapped animal, caught in the headlights of a car with no choice but to be run over. She wished she could go back to that happy and pleasant time. That time of smelling molasses and lucerne hay, of bottle-feeding calves and collecting eggs. She felt nostalgic as she wiped a sneaky tear from her cheek.
She needed this week back at the farm, back to her roots and back to her grandparents. She needed a week to rest and relax and build the enthusiasm and hope she had once had.