Invisible Strings

by Aj Estelliam

  ‘Oh yes? What did she say?’

  ‘Well, we were discussing the death of James-the coroner. I’m desperately in need of a coroner to stand in temporarily after everything which has happened. After talking to Eve, I considered that I should ask you to apply for the post.’

  I stared at him blankly.

  ‘I know the man has just died and I’m really not trying to be insensitive,’ he continued, ‘but the role is hard to fill-and it’s as if you were there today for a reason.’

  I continued to stare at him, amazed. Was this man trying to offer me a job?

  ‘So, if you’re interested, I’ll talk to the powers that be and try to arrange an interview as soon as possible. We’ll have autopsies needed as of today and no-one to oversee them!’

  ‘I…I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘Don’t say anything-just think about it alright? I could send over the application pack and details once they come through. Leave me your number and email and I’ll call you,’ he said, handing me a pen and paper.

  I scribbled them down without thinking and then looked back up at him.

  ‘Promise me you’ll think about it?’ he requested, his brown earnest eyes wide and pleading.

  ‘I will,’ I nodded and stood. ‘It’s been nice to meet you today, Chief Taylor.’

  ‘Please-call me Garrett,’ he smiled.

  I got a flash of the little girl, lying on the floor with blood surrounding her small, frail body. I swallowed hard and forced a smile onto my face. ‘Garrett. Speak to you soon,’ I said as I left.

  As I walked down to meet Eve, I struggled to shake off the image of the young girl covered in blood which haunted the depths of his dreams. I found Eve by the doors, pacing up and down the corridor.

  ‘Hey,’ I said, approaching.

  ‘There you are! Everything alright?’

  ‘Yeah, fine…’ I said, and we left the building side by side.

  ‘What was that all about?’ she questioned.

  I turned to her and chuckled lightly. ‘As if you don’t know!’ I exclaimed.

  ‘What?’ she said, with a faint laugh, but I knew that she had engineered this.

  ‘You told the Chief about me, didn’t you?’

  ‘Told him what?’ she asked, continuing the charade.

  ‘Oh, come on, Eve!’

  ‘Well, I may have mentioned you’re a doctor.’

  ‘You mentioned way more than that, didn’t you?’ I murmured, glancing at her. ‘I’m not upset, by the way.’

  ‘You’re not?’

  ‘No. It sounds like a great opportunity.’

  ‘It does?’ she replied, sounding surprised.

  ‘Yeah, sure. I mean, chances like this don’t come up all the time and now I’m out of a job, I’ll be needing one.’

  ‘Out of a job? I thought you were suspended…’

  ‘I was. I heard from them this morning,’ I revealed as we walked.

  ‘Oh yeah? What did you find out?’

  ‘When I reached home this morning, I found my elderly patient Mary waiting for me. She told me the case against me had been dropped.’

  ‘It has? Why?’ she questioned.

  ‘Because she set up cameras in her home-they caught her son red-handed on tape, trying to poison her.’

  Eve gasped in surprise. ‘No!’

  I nodded sadly. ‘Isn’t it awful?’

  ‘So, you were proved right all along?’

  ‘Yes. I then got a phone call from work.’

  ‘What did they say?’

  ‘It was you’d expect…but I decided there and then that I didn’t want to return.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes. It’s not somewhere I want to work anymore-nor do I think I could work with patients hands-on anymore. It’s just too much for me.’

  ‘So, you really are in need of a new job!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘I absolutely am! And it looks like one might be falling into my lap just like that!’

  ‘Yeah…not an easy job, I’d imagine.’

  ‘Well, no. I mean, it’s not everyone’s idea of fun, I concede-but it seems like fate is stepping in to help me.’

  ‘You believe in fate?’ she asked, looking over at me. ‘I wouldn’t have thought you would-being a doctor.’

  ‘A psychic doctor!’ I said, laughing at myself. ‘I don’t think I’m the most traditional doctor in the world, Eve.’

  ‘I’d say that’s definitely true! You’re definitely one of a kind.’

  ‘I hope you mean that in a good way.’

  ‘Only the best,’ she chuckled.

  I smiled to myself, enjoying the comradery as we walked and laughed together.

  ‘Where do you live?’ she asked after a while.

  ‘It’s about ten minutes from here,’ I revealed. ‘A little way out of town in a road called Chestnut Avenue.’

  ‘Do you mind living alone?’ she asked softly.

  ‘Mind? I’ve never really thought about it at length. I mean, there hasn’t been another option.’

  ‘You must have been lonely at times,’ she murmured.

  ‘I guess, yes,’ I said, looking off into the distance thoughtfully, ‘but I think I’m somewhat of a loner anyway. There’s often a reason why people haven’t remained in long-term relationships.’

  ‘Or perhaps you just hadn’t met someone right yet…’ she suggested.

  I glanced at her, curiously. ‘I don’t know,’ I replied.

  ‘Why do you think you don’t stay in long-term relationships?’

  ‘They just don’t work out for me,’ I told her. ‘I guess if I psycho-analysed my own life I’d say it had something to do with my background.’

  ‘You mean being adopted?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said quietly.

  ‘I was thinking the same thing…perhaps you don’t feel like someone would want you or love you. You’ve also lost both your natural parents and your adoptive parents-that’s a lot of grief to be dealing with.’

  ‘I try not to think about it that way.’

  ‘No…I suppose I wouldn’t too,’ she agreed.

  ‘You’re very lucky with your family, Eve,’ I commented.

  ‘I know,’ she replied.

  ‘You’re such a normal, happy group. There seems to be no massive dramas, no sadness and contentedness surrounding you.’

  ‘What can I say? We’re a pretty lucky little, average family group. I know I’m fortunate though, Annie. Meeting you makes me realise just how fortunate.’

  I glanced at her, wondering about what I had seen earlier. Was she really as fortunate as she believed? Somehow I thought not. I decided to say nothing for now though. Until I understood what I saw completely, I would stay silent. We walked on, both deep in thought.

  Chapter 13

  I led Eve down the tree-lined avenues to my well-kept house. When we arrived, she looked at the large, brick house and let out a low whistle.

  ‘This is some place…’ she commented.

  ‘It’s a nice house,’ I said, walking up the drive.

  ‘I’ll say! Wow! You really must earn well on a doctors’ salary!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘That combined with inheritance meant I could buy myself a nice house, yes,’ I told her, unlocking the door. ‘Come on in.’

  ‘Thanks,’ she replied, smiling.

  ‘Can I get you a drink?’ I asked, heading through to the kitchen and dropping my bag on the side.

  ‘Yes, please. Whatever you’re having thanks.’

  ‘Okay…I’ll put the kettle on,’ I said, sinking down to a chair at the kitchen table.

  ‘Are you alright?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah…just tired. It’s been an eventful day and it’s not even over yet!’

  ‘Very true…I wonder what it was all about.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

  ‘With the shooting-and the accident. It clearly was a deliberate attack-I imagine I’ll be working non-stop over the next few days to try and g
et to the bottom of who is involved.’

  I watched her carefully. As I had been so distracted, I hadn’t even thought about that. She was right. A dead body had been found and that event had led to this catastrophe. I realised that someone probably wanted the dead body to be burned beyond recognition.

  ‘You know-they’ll want to autopsy the man found on the beach…I mean, this was deliberate. Maybe someone was trying to cover up the murder of the man killed. It seems targeted.’

  ‘I know, that’s exactly what I was thinking,’ Eve replied. ‘I also think that the coroner was shot in order to make things even more complicated. I think they wanted him dead so that his expertise was eliminated. With no coroner, it stalls proceedings. Whatever is going on, it’s complicated.’

  ‘It sure is,’ I agreed. ‘What a mess!’

  Eve sighed.

  As she met my eyes, I felt like she was about to say something. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, her phone rang, startling us both.

  ‘Sorry…’ she apologised.

  ‘It’s fine,’ I said, turning to head over to the kettle and prepare some drinks for us.

  ‘Hello?’ Eve said into the phone.

  I made the tea as she spoke and slowly stirred the tea bags as it became clear that she would soon be leaving. Whoever was on the other end of the phone was being very insistent and she was struggling to say no to them.

  ‘Okay, okay,’ she eventually conceded. ‘I’ll be in in about twenty minutes…’

  She hung up and looked up at me with apology. ‘Sorry, Annie…’

  ‘You have to go. It’s fine,’ I said blankly.

  ‘No, it’s not! I promised I would stay with you. I meant it.’

  ‘I know you did, but I’m releasing you from any kind of feeling of being tied to me. Go, Eve. You have to-it’s your job. I would if it were me.’

  ‘I feel bad though. I don’t want to leave you.’

  ‘I don’t want you to leave either, but I know when something is important you have to drop everything and go at times.’

  She looked torn. ‘Annie…’

  ‘Eve, go! I’ll be fine!’

  ‘You’ve been through a lot this morning…’

  ‘I’m a doctor-I’m used to that sort of thing.’

  ‘I don’t know that I would ever get used to ‘that sort of thing,’ she told me.

  I met her eyes. ‘Go…you don’t want to lose your job or your professionalism. I’m absolutely fine and don’t need babysitting. Besides, I have things to do.’

  ‘You do?’ she asked, standing.

  ‘I do, yes.’

  ‘Well, I suppose I’ll head in then. Sorry about the tea,’ she said, indicating the stewing cups.

  ‘It’s fine,’ I repeated, trying to convince her it was okay. ‘You should go.’

  She stepped towards me, looking torn. ‘I’ll call you later, okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ I nodded.

  She lifted a hand to my arm and touched me lightly. ‘I’m sorry to run out on you like this…’

  ‘Eve-it’s fine,’ I said once again.

  She stepped closer still. ‘You call me if you need anything and I’ll come back, okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ I nodded.

  She bent and kissed me very gently on my cheek. I felt a shiver run through my system in response to her touch. I felt heat instantly fill my cheeks and it burned where her lips had pressed. ‘Talk to you later,’ she said softly.

  I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. Eve paused and met my gaze, looking intense as the invisible strings pulled at me once again.

  ‘You know, it’s okay to lean on someone every so often,’ she told me. ‘I’m here for you, Annie-whenever you need me.’

  With that, she left and I was left rooted to the spot, stunned and speechless. At the sound of the front door closing behind her, I moved soundlessly to a chair and sunk down into it, feeling bewildered.

  Lean on her? It was something I didn’t do. If there was one word which summed me up it would have been ‘independent.’ I was fine on my own. I lived, worked and survived quite well and happily independently. I had learned from an early age that if I didn’t depend on someone then they couldn’t hurt me. I therefore didn’t allow people that close.

  Being an adopted child had made me feel different. I had no doubt that my adoptive parents had loved me and wanted me but I still felt that I was second best in some way-I was only there in their lives because they were unable to have a child in the traditional way.

  It had been the same with friends and partners. As soon as they came too close, I would step back. I didn’t want to put my trust in someone in case they broke it and hurt me. Rejection would be too much to bear.

  I thought of Eve’s parting words to me. She had told me I could lean on her; allow her to take a bit of the strain. It was so tempting. I yearned for that closeness that trust and what leaning on someone would bring. I yearned for it and yet at the same time was afraid of it. I sighed to myself and rested my chin on my hands. What had I got myself into? It was amazing to me that my life was seemingly changing dramatically in the space of twenty-four hours.

  I sat in the kitchen mulling over everything for longer than I planned to. When I finally got up, I felt unsettled and restless. Suddenly home didn’t feel like a place of respite, it felt like a prison. I wanted freedom and to be outside. Here, I felt reminded of my lonely, insular life and it hurt.

  I got to my feet and headed out of the kitchen. I needed some air and the kitchen wasn’t quite cutting it. I headed up the stairs at fast pace and quickly took a hot shower. After re-dressing in clean clothes, I hurried back down the stairs to grab my bag. I locked the door and ran for the car.

  As I drove, I thought of Eve. For some reason, I was worried. I couldn’t quite put my finger on the concern I felt, but I knew now to trust my feelings. They were telling me something important, and I shouldn’t ignore them.

  I drove past the sea and down the lanes until I reached main roads. I then headed into town, unknowingly headed to a destination I hadn’t planned.

  When I parked in front of the towering building, I knew why I had driven to this location. It was Eve. I needed to check on her-immediately. I reached for my mobile and dialled the number she had given me. It rang and rang while I gnawed my lip anxiously. Giving into my impatience, I pulled up in an empty parking space and ran for the steps outside the imposing building before me.

  As I approached, my name was called by a male voice.

  ‘Annie?’

  I turned, frowning. ‘Jack?’

  ‘Yes. Eve’s dad,’ he said, smiling warmly.

  ‘It’s nice to see you again,’ I said, politely.

  ‘And same to you! Are you here to see Eve?’ he questioned.

  ‘Yes, I am. I guess you are too,’ I said with a slightly embarrassed laugh.

  ‘Yes, that’s right-but she’s not here. I’ve been in already. I think she headed out to follow a lead. That’s what the guy in there seemed to think,’ he said, smiling at me merrily.

  I got a good feeling from him. He seemed like a warm, nice man. A good father, I decided. ‘I, uh…I hadn’t heard from Eve for a little while. I thought I’d come on over to check on her,’ I revealed.

  ‘Like her, huh?’ he said with an amused chuckle.

  I cleared my throat, nervously. ‘I, uh…’

  ‘I’m just joking with you, Annie. Relax!’ he laughed and laid a friendly hand on my arm. As his hand connected with my skin, a frisson of energy ignited in my system and I felt my mind shift with a vision.

  ‘You’re safe, sweetheart. You’re safe now,’ he whispered.

  The baby stared up at the large man adoringly.

  ‘I’m never going to let anything or anyone harm you,’ he added, his voice low and soothing as the tiny baby’s eyes grew heavier.

  A sniff from the doorway indicated he wasn’t alone anymore. Looking up, the man looked at the woman who stood crying in the door.
r />   ‘Don’t cry, honey. It’s okay now,’ he told her.

  ‘How will it ever be okay?’ she asked, sounding desperate.

  ‘It will. I promise. I’m going to protect you,’ he told her. ‘I’m going to protect you both now. You don’t need to worry anymore. Come here,’ he encouraged.

  The woman walked over to him and sat beside him. With his free arm, he cuddled her close. Wrapped in the protection of his strong embrace, the woman felt safe.

  I came too with a jolt.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Jack asked with a frown of alarm. ‘I thought you were going to faint, you swayed so violently!’

  ‘I, uh…I was just feeling a little unwell,’ I told him, looking up into his concerned blue eyes. They were the same eyes as the man in my vision.

  ‘Oh dear; well let me get you home.’

  ‘No, really I’m fine,’ I told him, stepping back and away from him.

  ‘No, I insist.’

  Just as I was considering how to leave without him coming with me, I was shocked into sudden action when a loud blast exploded all around us and suddenly there were screams and shriek of alarm.

  Jack fell against me and I looked up, confused by the glassiness in his eyes as he looked at me blankly. I felt hot, sticky and wet and as I looked down, I was horrified to see the hole in his stomach, with blood gushing out violently.

  My doctoring immediately took over. Professionalism began and I eased Jack’s heavy body onto the pavement and worked to stem the bleeding. I located the wound and realised quickly he had been shot. Screaming for someone to call the emergency services, I stemmed the blood flow. Panic didn’t register; I was in control and trained for this.

  ‘Stay with me, Jack. You need to stay with me,’ I ordered, staring down into his glassy eyes and meeting them, dead-on. ‘Fight. Fight for your wife and Annie. They need you,’ I told him, unblinking.

  Jack groaned in agony but kept his eyes no mine. ‘I’m not going anywhere, Jack. Come on, stay with me,’ I murmured, as police sirens filled my ears.

  Despite my resolve, I felt incredible relief at the sound of the ambulance and police pulling up. I knew I couldn’t save him alone, and more help was needed. The quicker he was taken to hospital, the better.