The Air You Breathe (HEARTFIRE Book 3)

by Jave Kavfi

  *

  "Leave it until tomorrow, Jonny. He's an old man. He's probably asleep. And we don't even know if it's his dog."

  "Nevertheless, I'm going over there. We can't have a rabid dog running around when we have young children here. And another thing – I can't believe you have someone living in one of our properties when you haven't charged him rent for over twenty years. It's preposterous." He rummages in a box and then another. "This will do." He has a large-bladed knife in his hand.

  "Jonny!"

  "You don't think I'm going to face a rabid dog without protection, do you? I can assure you that if any blood is spilled, it won't be mine."

  Chapter 16

  "Someone's been in here," Ana calls from her room.

  Caden is at the doorway. "No – you sure?" He's looking around. "It doesn't seem like the place has been ransacked."

  "Things have been moved. That drawer wasn't open. Oh, no..." She goes to where she put the notes she made about Ryden. Not there. They might be downstairs in the locked drawer. Is that where she left them?

  "They couldn't get in – the place was locked up," Caden says. "Stay here, I'm going to check."

  Has someone been in – or is it her paranoia? This weird feeling her things have been touched. She checks her window. Closed and secure. She picks up a sheet of paper from the floor. Just some notes she was making about ideas for the shop. That was in her notebook before, she's almost certain. Almost.

  Caden is back. "All clear, but Holly left my window open. I told her. Anything missing?"

  "I don't think so. Those notes I made about what Mavis told us ... I maybe left them downstairs. I don't know. In fact, it probably is my imagination. I'm tired..." She sits down on the bed.

  "How about we send out for food and you have an early night? Pizza? You're meant to be taking it easy."

  "No, we bought a ton of food – the fridge is packed. I'll cook something."

  "I'll do it. You know my 'culinary skills' are first class." He's laughing.

  "So, beans on toast again, is it? But thanks, Caden, I know you've had a long day. I am exhausted – think I'll change into my comfy jammies and slob out. You are good to me, you know that?"

  "No problem." He's out the door.

  She gets pyjamas, pulls her t-shirt over her head, peels off her jeans and catches sight of herself in the mirror. Turns to the side and puts her hand on her middle. Still not showing yet. She pushes her stomach out and back in again. Is there a small bump? Just a tiny difference. Her breasts are certainly bigger; she'll have to buy some new bras, or should she wait?

  "Whoa ... sorry about that." Caden has walked into the room and quickly back out. "I should have knocked," he says from the hallway. "Just to say I'm making a kickass stew – throwing everything in. You know, for the vitamins and all that. Carrots..."

  "I can hardly hear you." She pokes her head around the door. "Stew?"

  "Yeah." He's making a big deal out of averting his eyes. "I just threw it all in a pot."

  "That will take hours, you fool. Ah ... look at your disappointed face..." She pinches his cheeks and pulls on a robe. "Still good – we'll have that tomorrow. I'll give you a hand and we'll throw together a salad tonight."

  "Salad..." he's muttering. "It's like you're a sadist. You ... there's someone out there. Stay here." He bolts down the stairs.

  She looks out the stair window. On the shed in the courtyard. A figure scrambling over into the next garden. "Caden," she shouts. "Wait!"

  No – this can't happen – it's never happened before. He's never been caught. A man and he's after him. It's her fault – that little bitch parading about in her underwear. He'd be gone and safe if it wasn't for her flaunting herself and making him look. Too many garden fences to go over and his breath is going – the kid is fast and vaulting them at speed. What the ... jacket caught on ... leave it, needs to leave it ... he's nearly on him. This is ... oh, fuck no ... the weight of him. The weight of a man bringing him down. The arm tight around his throat and he's being dragged up and back. No air, no air. His screwdrivers, his Stanley knife in the jacket and it's gone. Skull banged hard ... a fist in his face. A knee to his guts. Pain shooting through his stomach, head, brain. World is swimming, spinning. The man raging – what the fuck was he doing? In their flat, in their home. He's a pervert. He's a fucking weirdo. He's... Lights going on and a woman and a man and shouting and they're getting the police. The man – the man who looks like one thing but is in fact something else is gone.

  *

  Jonny puts the knife back in the block. "That's him told. You should have seen it – size of a small horse. Dangerous. No wonder Kenzie was frightened for her life. He had it chained up but we're not having that thing on our land. Told him to rehome it, or we'll make a report and have it put down. Best thing for it, in my opinion. Made it clear to him his days of living rent-free are over."

  "Jonny – you didn't. He's never paid rent, and the house will be very run-down. It's unlikely there have been repairs on the property since he's been in it."

  "That's not the point." He turns towards the sound of laughter coming from the living room. "What are the kids doing still up?"

  "Pip had one of his dreams again. Woke Kenzie up."

  "For goodness sake." He goes into the dining room.

  "Pip was being a baby and crying," Kenzie says. "Mum says I have to cheer him up. He's doing his freaky drawings again. I'm bored – why do I have to be stuck with him? I'm the one who should be crying. I'm the one attacked by a mad dog." She throws down her pencil. "He can clear up. I'll have to watch television now to get me back to sleep."

  "No television – do you hear me?" Jonny shouts at her back, as she goes out the door.

  Pip is attempting to get all the pencils back in a box and is pulling his drawing book on to his lap.

  "Let me see that," Jonny says, holding out his hand.

  Pip doesn't move. Jonny snaps his fingers. "Book."

  "It's just ... just my drawings."

  Jonny reaches down, picks up the book and flicks through the pages. He throws it across the room, leans both hands on the table and bends towards his son. "What were you told? What did I say would happen if you keep doing this? Why do you do it? I see this again and something very bad will happen – you understand?"

  The boy is nodding.

  "And the thing with the coat – why do you do that? Drawing attention to yourself, are you? Is that what you want?"

  Lucinda is in the doorway. "Jonny – where's that flyer for the fair? I'm thinking we might all go. You all right Pip? You're not crying, are you?"

  "Just him and Kenzie squabbling again. He's fine now." He ruffles his son's hair. "Off you go to bed. Daddy will be up soon to tuck you in."

  Chapter 17

  Caden holds up a pair of binoculars. "He was watching the house through these. I just caught the glint from them when we were going downstairs."

  Ana gasps and puts her hands over her mouth.

  "It gets worse." He throws a pile of papers on the table. "He's been in here – your notes were in his pocket. His jacket got stuck on a fence post." He's going through all the pockets.

  "Oh, my god..."

  "I had to let him go. Those people called the cops. Oh shit..." He pulls out two screwdrivers and a Stanley knife from an inside pocket.

  "He was in here ... in here with those? Caden..."

  "I know ... wishing I had held on to him now – or put him out of action for good. Hair brushes?" He clatters them down on the table.

  "Mine. The pink one is Holly's, I think. Why would he take our hairbrushes?"

  "God only knows how that kind of twisted mind works. I'm really regretting letting him go now – cops or not. It might have been worth it to get him put away."

  "You couldn't – how could you even start to explain who you are? But this is terrifying. A notebook – let me see." She flicks through it. "Blank, but there are pages torn out. This might be the same paper as the letter Mavis
got."

  Caden curses and throws the jacket down. "Nothing else – nothing to identify him."

  "Did you get a good look at him?"

  "Big but flabby. Maybe mid-thirties. Beard. Long hair tied back. A gutless bastard – didn't even put up a fight. We need to step up security. So much for a safe little town – the place is full of perverts and nuts."

  *

  "You nearly made me jump out of my skin, Pipsqueak. Get back to bed."

  He's still standing there. "I saw a lady."

  "Where?"

  "In my room."

  "It was probably a ghost come to take you away to hell. That's where little liars go. You wet the bed again?"

  "No. Can I come in beside you?"

  "No. You smell. I only let you that one time because I was in a good mood. Stop snivelling. You're such a baby. Oh, get in, but at the bottom and just for ten minutes. Don't put your horrible feet near my face."

  Pip runs to the bed and jumps in.

  "You know you're going to get bullied at the new school, don't you?" she says.

  "I won't." He sits up and hugs his knees.

  "You will. Your hair's like a girl, you cry all the time and you always wear that stupid jacket. My mother says you look like a little angel and all the old women make a fuss of you in the street, just because you've got blond hair and big blue eyes and you're the size of a baby. You get spoiled because you were ill and in hospital, but anyone can get ill, so it's not like it's a big deal. I bet if I got ill they wouldn't even care one bit. They don't even like me."

  "I like you, Kenzie."

  "Don't be such a suck-up. Suck-ups make me sick. You'll get bullied and I'll have to stick up for you and then I'll get bullied too. You're not even my real brother. I've had you ... inflicted on me. Because your father and my mother are selfish. You can't take that thing to school – you know that? They see that and they'll beat you up right away. No-one has 'blankies' at school. You're an embarrassment."

  "Mitty's not a blankie – he's a superhero." He cuddles the soft toy.

  "It's a stupid rabbit dressed as a superhero. A toy with a stupid name. There's no real superheros. It's made up."

  "There is too. They save people."

  "They do not. No-one gets saved. And it is a blankie. You use its cape as a blankie. You're weird. Go back to your own bed now – I'm bored with you."

  "The lady..." He starts to cry.

  "Stop it. There's no lady. Your brain is messed up because you had that bug. The brain bug. That's why you do the weird drawings and have bad dreams and see things. Stop bubbling. You'll get snot all over my cover. If I give you some chocolate, will you stop?"

  He hiccups a 'maybe'.

  She jumps out of bed and goes to a bag on the dresser. "Your daddy is weird too. He's doing it again. Burning something." She pulls away from the curtains and peers from the side. "Two times today. Only weird people stand in the garden at night burning stuff."

  Pip gets out of bed and comes to her side.

  "Don't let him see you, you dope. He'll only start telling us off again. He has no right – he's not my father. That's a book or something. The other time it was a letter. Get back to bed. I'll let you have another five minutes. You better not give me your brain bug. If you do I'm going to kill you. You know what it's like to be killed? Horrible – that's what it's like. Stop crying – I'm joking. You're such a dweeb."

  "Mummy was killed."

  "No she wasn't. She died. They are two different things. Don't you even know the difference, you retard?"

  "I do. I saw it on films."

  "Don't you tell them I let you watch them. They'll say I caused your bad dreams. Did you like the one about the zombies with chainsaws? That's my favourite one." She breaks a chocolate bar in two and gives him half. "I'll probably have to go on a diet soon, but I'm waiting until I'm ten." She picks up a book and gets under the covers. "I wish I had a pony. If I had a pony, I'd be in heaven."

  "If you take someone's air away then that's killed."

  "Shut up and eat your chocolate. And don't think this means you're my brother, because you're not."

  Chapter 18

  "If this gets you into trouble with Cribber, I'll take them straight out. And give him a piece of my mind, I will – that boss of yours is a miserable sod," Maggie is saying to Ana as she places a vintage necklace in the cabinet.

  "He's away. France, I think. Won't be back for ages. Anyway, having your items here adds to the shop – the customers will love them. The necklace and ring are gorgeous."

  "Yeah, no junk goes in here – only my best pieces. No point putting these on the stall – they'd want them for peanuts. And Cribber gets a good few bob in commission, so he's got nothing to moan about. I think I'll have a quick coffee when you've got a minute. One of those cakes as well, my belly thinks my throat's been cut."

  "Will do," Ana says with a smile, as she reaches for a cup. "How did the doll do? Caden said your son found one. You get it cleaned up and sold?"

  "Well, that's a thing," Maggie says, as she settles on a chair. "You know Ruby? She's married to Doctor Blake."

  "Not really, I've met her once."

  "She comes to my stall with that smile plastered all over her face. Smiles a bit too much for my liking, that one – doesn't always reach her eyes, if you get what I mean. So, she's having a good old rummage and then she goes white and for a minute I thought she was about to do a flaky. She points to the doll and asks where I got it. I'm not about to tell her it was found at Ryden, am I? I say I picked it up at a market somewhere. She asks how much and I push my luck with the price, thinking she'll haggle. But no – pays the full amount and she's away from the stall like a bat out of hell. Clutching the doll like it's made out of gold. What do you think of that, then?"

  "You think it might have been hers when she was a little girl? She lived at Ryden for a while, I heard."

  "Aye, her mother was the housekeeper there for a time, so it might have been that. But still, that was some state she got into over a doll. Looked like she went into shock, she did."

  "Was her mother the housekeeper around the time Evangeline drowned?"

  "Ah, that cousin of yours got you into all that, has he? Yeah, I think she was, not sure – didn't take much to do with that lot, as I said. That boy's psychic, your cousin, you know that?"

  "You think?" She hands Maggie her coffee and cake while trying to look nonchalant.

  "I'm never wrong. That boy has the gift."

  Ana serves a couple of customers and hopes Maggie will change the subject.

  "Curtis Mortimer was having a fling with Ruby's mother, if I remember correctly," Maggie says when the customers leave. "But he dipped his wick were he liked and wasn't particular. I notice their old nanny is back in town – Miss Patterson. You see her?"

  Ana shakes her head.

  "Odd looking old biddy – can't imagine many kids would want her tucking them in of a night. Sacked from her last job when they got one of them au pairs. Poor old sod. And walking with a stick now, I noticed. Heard she was after a job at Ryden, but didn't get it – they've taken on a local girl. She'll be gutted – devoted to that family, she was. Wouldn't like to get on her wrong side, though. Oh, here comes trouble..."

  The door has crashed open and Holly drops a pile of carrier bags on the floor. "Ana – make me a double expresso fast. I'm practically dying from caffeine deprivation. Maggie! Haven't seen you in ages. I love your hair – you look like that celebrity, don't know her name but she's famous for all that burlesque stuff. But you look much older and have a bigger nose."

  Maggie rolls her eyes at Ana, who is in the middle of slamming her palms over her face. "Ah, you don't change, Holly. Still as pretty as a picture. I'll have to love you and leave you, doll. Need to get the show on the road."

  "I should have let her know her roots need done – back in a minute," Holly says, making a lunge for the door.

  "Don't you dare," Ana shouts. "I mean it. Don't keep doing that
– it hurts people's feelings. Honestly, you have the tact of ... of this counter." She gives it a rap with her knuckles. "What have you been buying? Let me have a look."

  "No clothes – there's nothing decent to buy in Dashbury. It's all for upstairs. Look." She pulls out several pink cushions shaped like cupcakes. "Cute or what? You can get rid of the boring old ones you have up there. Oh, and this – isn't it too sweet?" She holds up a large picture of a pug wearing a monocle and smoking a pipe. "Where's Boris? I got him the sweetest little polka dot coat – he'll look like a teensy Dalmatian."

  "Holly, I'm not–"

  "Where's Caden? I phoned him about ten times and he said he was on his way back from Ryden."

  "He won't be long. How was the cinema, by the way?"

  "Horrendous. I kept getting shushed when I was trying to tell Dean about this movie I saw last month. People have no manners or consideration."

  "Talking about consideration – do you think you could phone or at least answer your phone if you're going to be back late? We were worried last night and–"

  "I was making Caden suffer so he would miss me. And don't be such a misery. You're not even nineteen yet and you act like you're ninety sometimes. Caden's getting as bad as you. It's like you two are my parents."

  "It's just that something happened last night and we wanted to warn you to be–"

  "And why does Caden stick by your side all the time? You'd think he was your boyfriend and not mine. You sure you two don't have some kind of weird cousin thing going on?"

  "No – we do not. I told you. That's him now. Don't you dare say anything like that in front of him. I'd be mortified."

  "Holly, you think you could let us know when you'll be staying out all night?" Caden says as soon as he comes in the door. "I was just about to go look for you when you finally answered your phone."