Scared Yet?

by Jaye Ford

  ‘Well, let’s hope you don’t have to run.’

  ‘Let’s hope.’

  She found a broom and surveyed the mess left by the kid in the courtyard. One smashed terracotta pot was nowhere near the destruction in her office but it was too close to home – literally. It wasn’t him, she told herself. Whatever issue that bastard had with her, it hadn’t brought him here. It was about work or the office or the car park, like Rachel said. It had to be, because Cameron was back with her on Monday.

  ‘That dog must drive you nuts at night,’ Sheridan said. She was standing in the courtyard with her coffee cup watching Liv sweep the dirt into a mound.

  Benny was quiet now, maybe sleeping the barking off. The racket had started up again in the middle of the night and had gone on for two hours. ‘He doesn’t usually carry on like that.’

  ‘You must have a possum. We’ve got one that sits in a tree at night and eats the seed pods when they’re out. The two dogs next door go bananas.’

  Liv squinted up at the tree in her neighbour’s yard. It was a young deciduous, its limbs still thin and smooth, not quite as tall as her townhouse. Newcastle was too far north to get a full, golden display of autumn leaves but it was turning a pretty red and the branches were decorated with tiny, pin-cushion pods. ‘Maybe. What are you doing tonight?’

  Sheridan made an apologetic face. ‘I’d ask you over but Ashley’s having a few friends around. I was planning to retire to the bedroom with a movie.’

  ‘No, come here. We could have takeaway and honeycomb ice-cream.’

  ‘Ah, like the old days. We definitely have to go for a run tomorrow, though. The ice-cream doesn’t vanish overnight like it used to.’

  ‘Mmm, I noticed last night you could do with some sprint training.’

  *

  Liv found a four-hour spot at the top of Park Street and walked the five blocks to the office with a wary eye on the pedestrians, wondering whose gaze was on her. Kelly was waiting for her outside Lenny’s as they’d agreed, her hair out today, a jacket for the cooler morning.

  ‘How are you doing? You look tired. Did you sleep?’

  ‘Not a lot. I’ll feel better when we get inside.’ Liv greeted her rush of questions with a grateful smile.

  ‘We should sort through the post before Teagan gets here.’

  ‘Good idea.’

  Kelly didn’t want her niece upset if there was another note. Liv had no problem with that – Tee was their junior, just a teenager, and their responsibility. No point freaking her out unnecessarily. Liv removed a wad of envelopes from their box in the bank of mail slots outside the street entrance.

  ‘Anything?’ Kelly asked.

  Liv glanced over her shoulder. ‘Let’s check inside.’

  There was new, unbroken glass in the street door and at their office today, although the Prescott and Weeks logo hadn’t been repainted yet. Maybe they should leave it that way for a while, Liv thought. Identifying herself didn’t feel like the way to go just now. She took the mail to her office then stopped in the doorway. Her small, familiar space didn’t exist anymore and the bare, battered room that had replaced it made her breath catch.

  ‘Can we do this in your office?’ she called.

  Kelly came from the kitchenette with a pair of washing-up gloves. ‘You should wear these.’

  The envelope was second from the top. Plain white, no postage, the now familiar handwriting on the front. Liv slipped it from the pile and dropped it on the desk. ‘Shit.’

  ‘It might not be as bad as you think.’

  ‘The fact that it’s on the damn desk is bad.’ It’s pen and paper, Liv. He can’t hurt you with that. ‘Right, okay, let’s see what the bastard has to say today.’

  She tore it open and laid it on the desk so they could both read the lines that were arranged down the centre like a poem.

  Liv’s teeth tightened as she read it. Kelly watched her with searching eyes as though she was waiting to throw out a hand and catch her when she crumbled.

  Was that what this guy expected, too? That she’d read his nasty little message and flutter to the floor like her corset was pulled too tight. Well, bad luck because it had just ticked off something fractious and stubborn inside her.

  She’d grown up in Tony Wallace’s class of Never Give In, Never Back Down and words like damaged and fragile and alone were motivation to dig deep. She was scared, she had plenty of reason to be. No damn reason to cower.

  ‘I don’t know what the hell he thinks scared looks like.’ She paced across the width of the small room, yanking off the rubber gloves as she reached the wall. At the door, Teagan raised a hand, looking like she wasn’t sure whether to interrupt or keep out of the firing line.

  ‘What is it, Tee?’ Kelly asked.

  ‘Have you seen the mail? Our box was empty.’

  Kelly carried the remaining envelopes across the room to her. As Teagan took them, she lowered her voice. ‘Did she get another . . . ?’

  ‘It’s okay, Tee. You can say it out loud.’ Liv had meant to reassure her, let her know she could talk about it if she needed to but it came out wrong, sounded impatient and condescending.

  ‘Liv,’ Kelly cautioned.

  Teagan pulled a nervous face. ‘Sorry, I’ll, um . . .’ She pointed at reception, backed out quickly.

  ‘Shit.’ Liv paced across the room again.

  ‘Why don’t you sit down, Liv?’ Kelly pulled the visitor’s chair out from under her desk.

  ‘I don’t want to sit down.’

  ‘Problems?’ It was Daniel Beck in the doorway, standing like he always did – arms folded over his chest, resting but ready for whatever came next.

  ‘Yes, sorry, Daniel.’ Kelly put a hand on the door as though she was going to usher him out. ‘Now’s probably not a good time.’

  Kelly was wrong. Daniel was the perfect person for the moment – and not because he represented a large and muscular presence. Something about him made her feel . . . what? Like an old version of herself, the stronger, tougher, more capable model that had existed before marriage and motherhood and deceit and loss had reshaped her. ‘No, it’s fine, Kell. I got another note, Daniel. He’s pissed off that I’m not scared.’

  Daniel ran his eyes over her then Kelly then the rest of the room. Some kind of assessment of the mood or maybe planning how to get the hell out if he needed to. ‘Can I see it?’

  Liv pointed at the desk.

  As he read it, Kelly dragged a chair over. ‘Sit down, Liv.’

  ‘No, I’m fine.’

  ‘Were the others like this?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘Written like that but different words.’

  ‘Have you spoken to Rachel Quest yet?’

  ‘We just found it,’ Kelly told him.

  ‘It says you don’t look scared. Which means he must have seen you. Did you go shopping somewhere for the nice things?’ Daniel asked.

  He hadn’t bothered with a reaction, had moved straight to deciphering the message. It reined in Liv’s anger and refocused her thoughts. ‘I stopped at the butcher and grocer on Park Street yesterday afternoon and I bought curtains at the homewares store. It wasn’t exactly a shopping spree.’

  ‘Did you go anywhere else?’

  ‘No.’ She raised her eyebrows at him, realising what he was getting at. ‘Which means he must have seen me out there.’

  Daniel nodded. ‘And unless he spent all day waiting out there for you to leave, he must live or work around here, somewhere he could either watch for you or see you going past.’

  Liv glanced in the direction of the main street. Teagan had moved the car for her while she’d been sorting out the mess from the break-in. ‘I walked five blocks to the four-hour parking zone. He could be anywhere between here and there.’ She remembered being buoye
d after Kelly’s news about Toby Wright and she’d stepped it out fast and with purpose, wanting to get the drapes and food before it got dark. She’d been anxious after the break-in but she could have appeared determined, maybe even a tad cheerful.

  ‘He might work in one of the stores.’ Kelly sat in the visitor’s chair, looked up at Liv with a gasp. ‘God, we might know him.’

  Uneasiness stirred in her stomach. She shopped here all the time. Her dentist was in Park Street and so was her bank. Had she said something he didn’t like? Had she ignored him? Got in his way, interrupted, given the wrong money?

  ‘Or he might live above one of the stores,’ Daniel said. ‘There are first-floor flats on both sides of the street.’

  He might have watched her from above, Liv thought. He might have picked the tall blonde out of the crowd and decided she needed to be taught a lesson.

  She flexed her taped hand, remembered the crack of her knuckle on his cheek and the faces of pedestrians she’d watched. ‘I’ve been looking for him on the street but maybe that’s the wrong place.’

  ‘What do you mean you’ve been looking for him?’ Kelly snapped.

  ‘Well, looking for someone with bruising on their face.’

  ‘You’ve been out there trying to find him?’ Kelly’s voice was incredulous.

  ‘Not conducting a search, just keeping an eye out. But maybe it’s worth checking the shops to see if anyone’s got a black eye.’

  Daniel said nothing, and if he was working up to something, Kelly didn’t give him a chance.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Liv.’ She said it loud enough for Teagan to lift her head at reception and take a curious peek. ‘You are not going to go looking for him. That guy’s a nutcase. He’s already beaten you up once. This is a police matter.’ She pointed at the phone on her desk, her arm straight with insistence. ‘You should ring that detective now and let her know you’ve got another note. Let her handle it.’

  Kelly was right. It was stupid to try to find him herself. What the hell would she do if she found him? Make a citizen’s arrest? Tell him to stay right there while she called the police? Besides, she’d watched enough TV to know the cops would need more evidence than appropriate bruising to make an arrest. ‘Yes, you’re right.’

  ‘And tell her to send someone out here to pick the note up this time,’ Kelly said. ‘You shouldn’t have to go to the police station while there’s a violent man out there watching you.’

  ‘The cops won’t come and get it,’ Daniel said flatly.

  Liv and Kelly both turned to him.

  ‘What do you mean? It’s evidence,’ Kelly insisted.

  ‘It makes no direct or immediate threat and they’re busy. If you want them on it, you put it in front of them.’ He spoke to Liv then. ‘I’m free for the next few hours. If you don’t want to be seen, I can get you there and back without going out on Park Street.’

  19

  Liv waited inside the security exit while Daniel went to get his car. As the door rattled on the outside, she stepped forward, prepared for a quick dash to his four-wheel drive but it was Scott who appeared. He grinned as she jolted backwards in surprise.

  ‘Oh, hey, Liv. Did I scare you?’

  Her eyes shot to his face. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  His grin faltered. ‘Nothing. I . . . you jumped. I thought . . .’

  She took a second. He was tall but he had no bruises. The choice of word was a coincidence. ‘Yeah, sorry. I’m a bit, well, jumpy.’

  ‘I’m not surprised after the week you’ve had.’ He stepped into the corridor and as the door swung closed behind him, he glanced at the plastic sleeve with the note in her hand and the way she backed up against the wall.

  Then the exit was open again and Daniel was there. He eyed Scott as though he was assessing the significance of his presence before directing his words at Liv. ‘Are you ready?’

  She checked up and down the laneway as he walked her to the car, saw him do the same beside her. There was a lone woman at the far end, two men walking side by side from the parking lot. Neither had a bruise. No one looked their way. She wished she could see up to the flats above.

  The most direct route to the police station was down the lane and across Park Street but Daniel drove in the opposite direction, headed away for a couple of blocks, then turned left and left again, crossing the main road well past the shopping strip. When they stopped at traffic lights, he looked over at her. ‘You still walking and talking, Slugger?’

  She smiled, more than happy to deal with code words. ‘Yes, but it’s possible walking and talking is my limit at the moment. Do I look scared to you?’

  ‘He’ll see what he wants to see, Liv.’

  ‘Maybe if I tried to look scared . . .’ She shrugged.

  One side of his mouth turned up a tad. ‘I’d be surprised if you could pull it off.’

  ‘How do you figure that? You’ve only known me since Monday and I’ve spent most of the time crying and panicking.’

  ‘It might feel like that but it’s not how it looks.’

  ‘You should see it from the inside.’

  His dark eyes moved briefly over her as though he was taking a moment to reassess his judgement. ‘I saw you in the car park the other night. You’ve got plenty of the tough stuff in there.’

  She’d been shaken and terrified, howling in his arms and sobbing like a child in the back of her car. She wished she had his confidence.

  The light turned green and he faced forward again, a hint of self-consciousness in his tone as he accelerated. ‘Yeah, I know. You’re probably thinking I’m full of shit but I spent twelve years pulling people out of holes and I know what to look for. In a job like that, you need to know what a victim’s got going for them.’ He glanced at her but when she met his eyes, he turned away. ‘Sometimes what’s on the inside is all you’ve got to work with.’

  As he guided the car to the kerb outside the police station, Liv watched the muscle pulsing in and out at the hinge of his jaw and the way his hands were clamped around the steering wheel. Did he care what she thought or was he uncomfortable with his memories? How did it feel, she wondered, to be strong and capable and well trained and have only a victim’s strength of will to keep them alive? What did that kind of experience do to a person?

  He walked her in and she sat beside Rachel Quest’s desk for a third time, answering another long list of questions that seemed to lead nowhere.

  ‘You should try to alter your routines and make sure there’s always someone who knows what your plans are,’ Rachel said as she closed the file on her desk. ‘And it might be wise at this point not to take your time when you walk along Park Street.’

  Frustration made Liv snap back. ‘Great. I get beaten up and I’m the one who has to hide.’

  The flash of emotion didn’t seem to register with the detective. She just continued in the same neutral tone she’d used for the cycle of questions. ‘I know. It’s around the wrong way but I’m trying to do something about that.’

  I’m gonna get the bastard, was what Liv wanted to hear from her. Some kind of strident assertion that there was more being done than asking questions and filing the evidence. Because so far, it wasn’t getting her anywhere.

  Rachel led her out to the foyer, walked all the way to Daniel and stopped in front of him. ‘Are you here to see me?’

  He matched her for unsurprised response. ‘No, I’m taking Liv back to the office.’

  The detective looked back and forth between them. ‘You drove her here?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘This is a police matter, Daniel.’

  ‘And I brought her right to you.’

  Rachel said nothing for about three seconds then turned to Liv. ‘I’ll have my mobile on all weekend but call triple-0 if you’re worrie
d about safety. Okay, Livia?’ She raised her eyebrows, making sure Liv understood.

  In the car, Liv clipped her seatbelt in and said, ‘What was that about?’

  ‘With Rachel?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  He turned his face away as he answered. ‘Ancient history.’

  Kelly’s head snapped up as Liv pushed the door to her office. She was on the phone and her lips had parted in a silent, surprised ‘ooh’.

  Liv’s hand tightened on the doorknob. ‘What?’ What else?

  Kelly held up a finger. ‘Gotta go,’ she murmured into the phone before hanging up. ‘Nothing. What did the police say?’

  She’d seemed startled and secretive but now Liv wasn’t sure she hadn’t misinterpreted it. Maybe expecting the worst had become her instinctive first thought. She sat in the visitor’s chair and replayed the interview with Rachel.

  ‘Maybe you should think about working from home for a while,’ Kelly said.

  ‘No.’ Getting up in the morning and coming here had kept her on her feet this last year. She wasn’t going to quit now.

  ‘He might stop sending the notes if you don’t come in.’ It was a suggestion but the look on her face made it seem like an appeal.

  Kelly was worried about her, Liv could see that. It didn’t change the way she felt. ‘He’s not going to kick me out of my office. He can have the car park and the street but I’m keeping my office, battered as it is.’

  ‘It wouldn’t be like that. You could give it a go next week and see what happens. It would be your decision. You wouldn’t be giving anything up.’

  Like she had with Thomas, was the rest of that thought. Liv clenched her teeth. ‘No, I’m staying. What’s the latest with Toby Wright? Have you heard from him?’