It Started With A House: Lizzie. Book 1 (The Westport Mysteries)

by Beth Prentice

  “Can you believe the nerve of her? She actually asked me if I was running a business selling my body!”

  “Maybe I should have a chat with her. See if she got the license plate number.” He was obviously more concerned about the sedan than my reputation.

  About twenty minutes later he was back. “Helen seems like a nice lady,” he smiled. “She invited me in, gave me a coffee and cake.”

  “Maybe she wouldn’t be so upset if it was you showering on the back deck,” I snarled.

  “Lizzie, Lizzie. There’s no need to be jealous. She’s not my type,” he laughed.

  “Did her snooping come to any good?” I asked, referring to the license plate.

  “No. She thought it was just another of your boyfriends. She was a bit concerned that I didn’t know about the others.” He started to chuckle. I have to say it is a particularly sexy chuckle, all deep and throaty.

  “God, I should be so lucky,” I said, more to myself than Riley.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Seriously though, this guy worries me. Too many things have been happening for all this to be coincidental. I’m going to talk with Jared again. Keep your doors and windows locked when you’re alone and don’t shower unless I’m here.”

  “Do you think this guy wants to hurt me?” I asked suddenly scared, real fear creeping in.

  “No, I think he’s just watching you for some reason. As for the shower, from what your neighbor tells me, it’s a pretty good show.”

  * * * *

  The rest of the weekend went pretty quickly and uneventfully, and before I knew it, Monday morning had arrived. Stupid me had organized with Molly to go shopping in the city for a new bag, wallet and phone to replace the ones which were stolen. Don’t get me wrong, it could be fun shopping with Molly, just as long as she was the one spending the money and not me. But it could also be a bit stressful. Sometimes I felt like her bag lady, my only purpose in life being someone to hold and carry everything she bought, while I followed her around like a lost puppy.

  Like now for instance. Here we were, standing in a camera shop, looking at a new camera bag for Molly. This was about the tenth shop we’d looked in and she’d bought something in every single one.

  Stupid me had offered—only once I might add—to hold her bags whilst she had a better look at something, and had been left with them ever since. My feet were killing me, my back was aching and I had a serious tension headache brewing behind my eyes. Please, please let her make up her mind soon.

  “That one looks great, Mol. You should buy it!” I said with fake optimism. Seriously, the bag really wasn’t that nice, but I honestly didn’t care.

  “I don’t know. What do you think?” she asked, turning to me, the new bag hanging from her shoulder as she spun it around, trying to see it from every angle.

  “Molly, you’ve already asked me that question ten times in every shop we’ve been into and you haven’t listened to what I think once. So just pick one and let’s get the hell out of here!”

  “Well, I just don’t want to get the wrong one.”

  “What does it matter what color your camera bag is anyway?” I asked impatiently.

  “Well, I’m sorry I care about my appearance Lizzie!”

  “What the hell does that mean?” I looked down at myself. Sure I wasn’t as dressed up as Molly in her short little white Guess dress and leather jacket, but I thought my Levi’s and sweater looked okay.

  “Hello there,” said a salesman, approaching me from behind.

  I turned to look at him and noticed his crooked smile and gold chains glittering from his inappropriately buttoned shirt. The words sleazy may as well have been tattooed on his forehead.

  “What can I do for you?” he asked, innuendo dripping off his every word, completely ignoring me and focusing solely on Molly’s chest. Okay, maybe she did dress better than I did. I will admit I felt a totally invisible when I was around her.

  “Oh, I was just looking for a new bag,” answered Molly, completely unaware of the way he was leering at her.

  “That one is a beautiful bag. It’s one of our best sellers and, I hope you don’t mind me saying, it looks even better on you,” he smiled, pulling himself up to his full height of approximately five foot three.

  “Hmm, I’m not sure,” said Molly, still turning from side to side, looking at the bag.

  “Well, there’s a way you could make it look better,” he said, leaning in closer to Molly. I looked at him, wondering what he meant by that, when he continued. “You know, I was recently overseas at a camera expo.” He looked, finally noticing me standing there. “The hotel was amazing, offering many services you would not usually find at an establishment here,” he winked. “A single man like me has needs you know, and the ladies over there really know how to look after their patrons. I think a lot of girls in this country could learn from them, if you know what I mean?” he laughed.

  I stared at him, my mouth hanging open. I couldn’t believe a man, no matter how sleazy, could open a conversation with that!

  Molly finally stopped looking at herself in the reflective glass and turned her attention to him. I could see the frown form between her eyes. Looking him up and down, she folded her arms across her chest and said, “No. What do you mean?” She knew exactly what he meant.

  The man started to squirm under her gaze as he realized he had probably said too much and sweat had started to bead on his top lip. I knew what was going to happen next, I had witnessed it many times before. Molly was about to tear shreds off of him. This was so fun to watch. I never had the confidence to deal with creeps the way Molly did.

  “If you are referring to us giving you some sort of sexual favor, then you are so far from reality that maybe you should pull your head out of your ass and take a good look at yourself, because there is no way on Gods earth that any part of you will be touching any part of me. So when I purchase this bag and hand you my credit card, you had better make sure that not a single millimeter of your skin touches mine. Because if it does I will scream so loud your Boss will be all over you before I could say Sexual Harassment.” The salesman went white and dabbed his top lip with the handkerchief he pulled from his pocket.

  “Please, don’t...don’t do that,” he begged, shiftily looking around the room. “I’ve already got one harassment charge against me, I can’t afford another one.”

  “Well then, I suggest you get me this bag in red and give me a very good discount,” said Molly, glaring up at the man.

  She may be small, but don’t mess with her. The man hurried off and when he came back with the red bag, he gave Molly such a good discount I thought he might be adding his own money to it just to make up the price. Walking out the store Molly turned to me, her handbag out in front.

  “Could you hold this for a minute please, while I throw up.”

  Personally, I thought it was extremely funny. “You are truly amazing, Molly. I could never have handled him the way you did.”

  “Yeah, well, I just get sick and tired of men judging me by my bra size.”

  That I could understand.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The traffic was really busy on the drive home. It felt like everybody was trying to get out of the city, but I didn’t care. Sitting bumper to bumper with the bus in front of me, I let out a contented sigh. We were finally on our way home. I had survived another shopping day with Molly.

  “How’s the hunt going for the owner of the ring?” asked Molly, closing her phone and turning towards me. She’d been on that thing all day. I actually don’t know how she stands it, she can’t even go for two minutes without someone either ringing her or texting her.

  “Not great,” I admitted. “Riley gave the ring and letters to his brother Jared to see if he could dig anything up and I lost the only photo I had when my bag got stolen. We did take the ring to Brian Hogan for a valuation, though. Do you remember him, Molly? Mum used to go in there when w
e were kids. He still remembered who I was and I haven’t been in there since Billy bought me that friendship ring when I was fourteen.”

  “God, I remember that ring. It was seriously ugly,” scoffed Molly. I laughed.

  “Yeah, I know. At the time I thought it was so romantic and beautiful, though.”

  “Whatever happened to Billy?”

  “He broke my heart and moved to Canada with his family about a month after giving me that ring. He was the first in a long list of men who broke my heart, but he was the only one who bought me jewelry.” I shrugged, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel, getting a little bit impatient, as I’d been stuck behind a bus for the last ten minutes. “I’ve still got it, you know.” I laughed, indicating and changing lanes, hoping to get around the bus before he stopped at the next bus stop. Looking in my mirror, I noticed about two cars back was a black sedan that looked awfully like the one that had been stalking me. I felt my heart skip a beat.

  “It’s funny how we hang onto those things, isn’t it. I’ve still got my first piece of jewelry a boy ever bought me as well,” said Molly, completely unaware of my erratic heartbeat.

  We were in the city, so surely it couldn’t be the same black car, I thought. There must be hundreds of them driving around. And how would he have found me? Even though, my car was pretty easy to spot. Driving around the bus, I pulled back into the lane and watched my rear vision mirror to see what happened. Sure enough, it followed me, all the time keeping at least one car between us, meaning I couldn’t get a look at the driver.

  Hmm. I could hear Molly chatting away about one of her ex-boyfriends, but I wasn’t exactly listening. My mind was on full alert to see what the black car would do.

  A few minutes later, he had done nothing. He was still there. Okay, stop being so ridiculous, Lizzie. How the hell would the driver of that black sedan have followed me? Molly and I had been in loads of shops today, there was no way we’d been followed. Even I had trouble following Molly around and I was right next to her!

  Taking the next left turn, I checked my mirror just in case. Two seconds later, I noticed the black sedan make the turn. There were no other cars between us now but it was still too far behind me to see the driver. So I slowed up a bit to allow him to get a bit closer. But he just kept the same distance back.

  Now that alone made the alarm bells in my head start to clang. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in the city was always in a hurry to get somewhere. There was no such thing as a slow driver.

  Taking a deep breath, I thought, okay, let’s see if it is him. I’d been living and working here for the last ten years and I knew these streets pretty well, so at the last minute, I pulled into a small one-way street on the right. Just as I was turning, I looked in my mirror and saw the black car pull across two lanes of traffic, cutting off anybody in his path. Okay, it was him. Shit! What the hell was I supposed to do now!

  Molly was still chattering away about some ex-boyfriend, but I had absolutely no idea who she was talking about. First of all, my mind was solely on the black car following me and second of all, Molly has that many ex-boyfriends I couldn’t keep up.

  Reaching the T section at the end of the street, I made a quick decision and turned left, earning me the blast of someone’s horn as I cut them off. Once around the corner, I started darting between cars at every chance I got, hoping I would lose the car tailing me. Sure enough, the black car followed.

  “What the hell are you doing?” asked Molly, holding on to the door handle on one particularly sharp turn.

  “I’m being followed by that black sedan again,” I replied, my heart racing. “I’m trying to lose him.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Lizzie. Why would anybody be following you?” asked Molly, trying to look over her shoulder, but I was changing lanes and turning corners so quickly it was hard for her to turn around.

  “Yeah? Well watch in the side mirror and see what happens when I do this.” I jerked the wheel to the left and jumped into another bus lane. At the first opportunity, the black car did the same. I took a few more left turns, pretty much driving in one big circle and watched as he stayed behind me the whole way.

  Molly had gone pretty quiet. I think she was just hanging on and maybe saying the odd prayer when finally, the driver of the car had enough. Stopping at a red light, the black car pulled up alongside me. I watched as the passenger window rolled down and I looked in to see that the driver was the same bald man who had been involved in the minor car accident. The same one who I thought was my neighbor. Only this time, hanging on his rear vision mirror, was a very expensive pair of pink Victoria’s Secrets panties. The same ones that had gone missing from my house at the time of the break in.

  Feeling the blood drain from my face, I looked back at the man to see him smiling. Reaching over, he unhooked them from the mirror and pulled them towards his him, caressing the fabric as he did so. I felt like the world had slowed down and everything was moving in slow motion as I watched him pull the fabric towards him and inhale deeply, all the while keeping the self-satisfied smile plastered to his face. As the light turned green, he dropped them in his lap, blew me a kiss and sped away.

  I took a few deep, shuddering breaths and tried to relax my fingers which were now white-knuckled on the wheel. The cars behind me honked their horns for me to move, but my brain wasn’t sending the right signals to my feet. In fact, my brain wasn’t really doing very much. I just sat and stared after the car as he drove away, trying desperately to control my breathing. Molly, who’d been sitting very quietly, reached over and grabbed my hand.

  “Lizzie, we have to move. You can’t stay in the middle of the road.”

  Cars were pulling around me and a few people were giving me impolite hand gestures. Finally the brain started to function once again and I managed to move my little car out of the way. Pulling over to the side of the road, I placed my head on my hands and tried to control the shaking.

  “What the hell was that about?” yelled Molly.

  I quickly explained the situation with the black sedan and how it had been stalking me for a while. “I don’t suppose you got his license plate number?” I asked.

  “No. Why didn’t you tell me about this before now?” said Molly, her voice going up a few octaves.

  “Because I didn’t really believe it. Why would someone break in to my house and follow me?”

  “When did all this start happening?”

  “Not long after I moved into the house.”

  “Do you think this has something to do with the house or do you just have an admirer?”

  “Well, if he’s an admirer he has a strange way of showing it!” I hadn’t told her about the panties being mine. That was freaking me out more than anything else. Putting the car back into gear, I started the drive to Molly’s house, checking for the black sedan the whole way there.

  * * * *

  It was dark by the time I dropped Molly home and drove into my street and tonight, the moon was hiding behind the clouds. It was actually one of those beautiful nights when the nearly full moon backlights the sky behind the dark black clouds so that the edge of the cloud is illuminated and casting an eerie glow. I would have liked to have sat there a while enjoying the effect, but the anxious feeling sitting in the pit of my stomach was totally ruining it for me.

  It was darker in my driveway than normal, adding to my anxiety, as the streetlight was out and, as I turned off my headlights and sat looking at my house, I thought how dark and uninviting it looked. Just the idea of leaving the safety of my car didn’t hold a great appeal but I knew I couldn’t sit there forever. However, just as I was contemplating the walk to my front door, the clouds miraculously parted and lit up the sky, giving me just enough light to notice the black sedan pulling into the street behind me. It had no headlights on and was almost silent. If it hadn’t been for the unexpected moonlight, I would never have seen it until it was too late.

  Shit! What the hell is wrong with me? I had spent so muc
h energy trying to lose him this afternoon, I had actually forgotten he knew where I lived. Of course he was going to turn up here eventually.

  Watching my rear view mirror, I saw the car door open and the bald-headed man start his walk across the street. okay, if I was ever going to panic, now was the time. Quickly locking my doors and using two hands to put my key back in the ignition, I started the engine and put the car in reverse. It was as my heart was drumming a beat even Led Zeppelin would be proud of, that I planted my foot on the accelerator and squealed my way out of the drive, nearly running over the rubbish bins sitting at the curb in the process. Bald man realized what was happening and ran back toward his car, but my little Mini was too quick. Rapidly changing through the gears and barely slowing for the corners, I sped away from my house as quickly as humanly possible, not stopping until I was completely sure I’d lost him.

  “What am I going to do?” I asked out loud, nearly crying. I’ll be honest and tell you that there was that much adrenalin pumping through me, I was barely able to slow down. My mind was racing at a million miles an hour. In the past I’d never had to choose between the fight or flight thing, but I now knew I was excellent at the flight part.

  Okay, like Mum always told me, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. I practiced this for a few minutes and tried to think clearly. If he’d been following me long enough he knew where my parents lived and would probably go there, looking for me. The same with Danny and Molly’s and I didn’t want to anyone to get hurt in any of this, which left me really unsure of my next move.

  Arghh! Where the hell am I going to go? I am so not good at fear! There should be some sort of iPhone App a girl could use when she was being chased by some bald-headed lunatic and didn’t know what to do. Taking some more deep breaths, I tried to think this through. I started to run through a list of all my relatives who may be able to put me up for the night.