by Jaye Ford
She heard the main door open and the ping of the bell at reception. A minute later, a voice called out. ‘Anyone here?’
It was Ally from across the hall. She saw Liv and held up a plastic bag. ‘I was just at Lenny’s and grabbed your lunches.’
Liv met her in reception, wondering where Teagan and Kelly were.
‘You don’t look so good,’ Ally said as she handed over the bag.
Liv glanced inside – three sandwiches wrapped in white paper. Tee must have ordered for all of them this morning. ‘The last week is catching up with me.’
‘I heard the man who attacked you was arrested. That’s such good news. I’ve been catching the bus since it happened. I’ll be glad to bring the car in again.’
‘Yeah, it’s great.’ It was, she just couldn’t muster enthusiasm for it. ‘Did you see where Teagan went?’
‘I passed her heading for the post office about ten minutes ago.’
‘Right. Thanks.’
Liv left the lunches on the counter and went to the kitchenette for a glass of water. Kelly was at reception checking the lunch bag when Liv came back. She must have been to the ladies, her hair had been tidied and she’d reapplied her lipstick. Liv watched her from the door for a moment as something hard and lonely settled itself in her chest. She wanted to tell her about the guy with the balaclava and the new note, about Cameron coming home today and Daniel playing nurse while she was passed out on the sofa.
When Kelly had found her standard ham, cheese and tomato, she looked up. ‘Mariella just told me the police caught the man who attacked you.’
‘Not soon enough,’ Liv said and walked to her office.
Kelly tapped on Liv’s door, pushed it open enough to poke her head in. ‘Do you know where Teagan is?’
Without a computer, Liv had found hard copies of their contact lists but wasn’t seeing anything. ‘She went to the post office.’
‘When?’
Liv looked at her watch, raised her eyebrows. ‘About an hour ago.’
‘I need a file she’s got. Was she meeting someone for lunch?’
‘I don’t think so. She ordered sandwiches for all of us. Have you tried her mobile?’
‘It keeps going to message bank.’
A tick of apprehension brought Liv to her feet. ‘Have you checked her desk? Maybe she left a note.’ It didn’t make sense that she’d leave a message on her own desk but it was worth a try. On the work side of the counter, Liv started moving paper while Kelly checked on the other side of the keyboard.
‘I talked to her about this,’ Kelly said.
So had Liv. She hadn’t stopped off to shop for weeks. ‘You can’t answer the phones from a change room,’ Liv had told her. ‘Sorry, sorry, but I bought a watch. I won’t forget the time now,’ Teagan had returned.
Liv glanced at her own watch again and a shiver snaked its way up her spine. It was more than an hour since Teagan had left. A long time. Too long for a trip to the post office. Apprehension turned to disquiet as she pulled the drawer under the counter and found Tee’s bag with her purse still inside.
‘Maybe she’s with Ally.’ She hurried across the corridor, could see Teagan wasn’t there before she pushed the door open. ‘Have you seen Tee?’
‘Not since you asked before,’ Ally said.
Teagan wasn’t at the wigmaker’s, the travel agency, the mortgage brokers’ or the dietician’s either. ‘She’s not up there,’ Liv told Kelly back at the door to Prescott and Weeks.
‘She’s probably just lost track of time.’
‘No. I don’t know.’ The chances of her dropping in on Daniel or at Anthony’s legal office were next to nil. ‘I’ll check Lenny’s.’
‘Look, it’s fine. I’ll work on something else for a while. Don’t worry, Liv.’ Kelly laid a hand on her forearm, her brow puckered and concern in her eyes.
Christ, she was worried about her, not Teagan. Liv had a sudden impulse to hide her concern but anger and fear overrode it. ‘No, it’s not . . . I got another . . .’
‘God, Liv, you’re shaking.’
She snatched her arm out of Kelly’s hold, lifted her palms like she was stopping traffic – a silent, cheesed-off hear-me-out. But she couldn’t tell her, didn’t want to waste time explaining about the note and the stalker, didn’t want to vocalise the awful thought that had burrowed into her head. So she said nothing as she headed for Lenny’s.
Teagan wasn’t there. No one behind the counter had seen her since she’d grabbed a coffee on her way in this morning. Scott from the mortgage brokers’ had spotted her on the pedestrian crossing heading towards the office a while ago. He didn’t remember when exactly, didn’t see where she went once she got to the kerb.
Liv stood on the footpath outside the office suite, her heart racing. Okay, don’t panic. She’s probably trying on clothes somewhere. She traced her eyes beyond Lenny’s, let them run along the other side of the street and felt suddenly alone and exposed. Was someone watching? Was this what they were waiting for? A chance to catch her on her own?
She backed through the door. No one was watching from a car. No one was standing in a doorway looking her way. No faces were in the windows above the businesses opposite. On the way down the corridor, she peered into each office, checked the reception counter at Prescott and Weeks again. It was pointless to keep looking. Teagan could be anywhere but she kept walking, anyway.
She wasn’t in Anthony’s office and the lights were out in Daniel’s so she pushed the security door open, raising a hand to her forehead to block the midday glare as she stepped out. There were four storeys of car park above her. Even more pointless to look in there. She could search the levels for an hour and still miss her.
A noise made her look to the right along the laneway. Two men in suits were crossing the strip of bitumen, heading for the far end of the parking station. They were moving fast but not like they were late and making a dash to the car. They were looking straight ahead, focused on something in front of them. Something out of Liv’s sight.
She took a couple of steps into the lane, saw the backs of two more people, a man and a woman, at the far corner of the car park. Standing, watching.
She didn’t have time for a detour, Liv told herself. But her feet were already heading down there, fear and uncertainty and denial making her pace halting and tentative. Until she passed the pedestrian ramp and saw around the corner. Then she broke into a run.
30
A dozen people were gathered in the middle of the lane, around the bend, about five metres down where it followed the outside of the parking station. Their faces were turned to a vehicle at the kerb. Liv couldn’t see it properly. It was on the other side of a concrete support column, partially blocked by other cars. It was big. Light blue. Not a four-wheel drive. A people-mover, maybe. Oh, Christ, had someone been hit? Had Tee . . . ? Where was Tee?
She scanned the group, didn’t see her. It didn’t stop her running. Her high heels clacking on the tarmac, her breath uneven and jerky as her brain ran through scenarios. Had Tee come out here? She didn’t have a car. There were no shops in this direction. It had to be someone else. Or something else. Because the people were looking up, not down at the ground. Not where they’d be looking if something had been hit by a car. Not up at the first floor, either. Not that high. Somewhere above the car.
She cut the corner, headed into the middle of the lane and stopped.
It was a van and Daniel Beck was on top of it. His broad back and stubbled head unmistakable as he crouched on knees over the caved-in centre of the blue top. Her first thought was that he’d leapt down from above like some kind of cartoon superhero, was about to spring from the roof and bound away. She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it but dread gathered in her chest like a bird spreading its wings, preparing to take flight.
She kept her eyes on him and the vehicle as she took a wide, fearful path towards the group of onlookers. He was leaning forward as though about to crawl, toes tucked under showing the dark, rippled soles of his shoes, a hand curled around the edge of the roof supporting his weight. The road beneath him glinted with shattered glass, myriad twinkling pebbles that looked like they’d been flung from each window of the van. Something dark and rope-like hung over the edge of the roof.
As Liv came around the side, Daniel shifted his position, lifting a knee off the metal, sitting back. She saw then there was something up there with him. Something green and still.
Her breath shortened to hard gasps. She knew that green. Teagan had a coat in that green. A short trench with a turn-up collar and belt. She’d bought it on sale a couple of weeks ago, paraded it around the office. Last year’s stock at seventy per cent off. Had she worn it today? It wasn’t cold enough for a coat today. It wasn’t Tee up there with Daniel. It wasn’t . . . oh, Christ. The dark rope was hair. A long strand of dark hair hanging over the edge of the van.
‘Oh my God.’
Liv didn’t recognise her own voice but Daniel must have. He looked over at her, released his hand from the edge of the roof, held his arm out taut and straight. ‘Stay there, Livia.’
She stopped where she was, a hand at her throat. ‘Is it . . . is it . . . ?’
‘It’s Teagan.’ He said it firmly. There was no mistake. ‘An ambulance is on its way.’ As she took a step, he shook his head. ‘She’s unconscious, Liv. You can’t do anything here.’
It wasn’t an order, it was a plea, his eyes willing her not to come closer. And it frightened her more than anything she’d seen already. It must be bad. It must be . . .
‘Did she jump?’ someone asked from behind.
Liv squinted upwards. There were faces leaning out from the levels above.
‘I thought she fell,’ a woman answered. ‘From the second storey.’
Liv looked from the faces on the second level to the van – and it hit her like a roundhouse punch to the gut. Teagan had fallen. Six or so metres. From the second storey of the car park onto the roof of the people-mover.
What was she doing in the parking lot? Why was she anywhere near the edge?
Oh jeez. Oh fuck. Oh no.
Her knees buckled. She stumbled against someone and saw the number of onlookers had grown. Had Kelly followed her out? She couldn’t see her but recognised a face.
‘Pat, can you get Kelly? She’s Teagan’s aunty.’
The woman gathered a cardigan around her and took off, running awkwardly in high heels. On the van, Daniel pushed hair from Tee’s face, put fingers to her throat, bent his head close and talked to her. ‘Teagan, can you hear me? Teagan, it’s Daniel Beck. Can you wake up for me?’
The van rocked and Ray’s head appeared from the front end. He’d climbed onto the bonnet, hauled a backpack onto the roof. ‘This it?’
Daniel glanced up, took the pack, lifted his voice. ‘Is anyone a doctor?’ He unzipped the bag, called again as he reached in, a fraught edge to his voice. ‘This girl needs a doctor.’
Liv eyed the crowd. There was a medical centre at the other end of the shopping strip and a pharmacy on the main road but she didn’t see anyone she knew from either. All she saw were necks craning for a better view, no one willing to get any closer.
‘The ambulance is five minutes away,’ a voice yelled from above.
Ray glanced up to where the voice had come from. Daniel didn’t respond, just stayed focused on his task, pulling gloves from the pack, a stethoscope, hooking it around his neck as he kept talking to Tee. There was no panic in the way he did it. His movements were decided, controlled. He’d called for a doctor but he knew what to do.
Liv walked to the van. ‘I want to help. Let me do something.’
He made a searching assessment of her face. Whatever he saw must have changed his mind about keeping her away. ‘Support her back. Make sure she doesn’t roll.’
With her hands on the curve of Teagan’s spine, Daniel used Ray as an assistant while he put the stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff to use. Up close, his face was taut. A muscle at the side of his jaw pulsed in and out, and there was something steely and angry in his eyes. Liv remembered what he’d said. That he’d gone four rescues too many, that he was past his use-by date. She wanted to shout that it didn’t work like that, it wasn’t already decided. He could keep her alive. He had to because it was Teagan.
Daniel pressed a gauze bandage to Tee’s face. Liv could only see her back but she could feel her laboured breathing, smell the metallic tang of blood and tried not to think about the damage to the other side that Daniel hadn’t wanted her to see.
What the hell had happened? How do you fall from a car park? It had a waist-high, concrete barrier all the way around. You’d have to lean out a long way to topple over. She must have been . . . She had to have been . . .
I’ll show you AGAIN!
Oh God. Teagan was pushed.
Someone had forced her to the edge, pinned her against the barrier, hoisted her up and over.
Not someone. Not just anyone.
Liv’s crazy, fucked-up stalker.
Was he still here? Was she watching?
She searched the faces leaning over the car park barriers. Four tiers of spectators. A crowd on the first floor, elbows and heads jutting out, ten or more. Half a dozen on the second level. Two couples above that. Just one at the top. A man. Was it him? How would she know? Would he throw Teagan from the second storey and run to the top? She scanned the faces below him then the ones on the other levels. She heard a siren wail out on the street, turned to the crowd in the lane behind her and studied their faces, wanting one to click into place, make her brain say, You, you arsehole. It’s you! But there was no smug smile or satisfied grin. Come on, you fuck. Surely I look scared enough for you now.
Then her own fear didn’t matter. Kelly rounded the corner at a run, breathless, pale-faced. She stopped short of the van, covered her mouth with her hands.
‘Ray, take over from Liv,’ Daniel said then looked at her. ‘I need you to keep Kelly away. Can you do that?’ Maybe it was standard practice – keep the stressed relatives at a distance so the professionals could do their job – but she saw the ‘please’ in his eyes, knew it was more than that. He needed Kelly to stay back. She hoped it was because of his own issues, not because he was losing Teagan.
Liv stepped from the van as Kelly found her feet and started running again. Liv caught her halfway and fought her to a standstill. ‘Daniel knows what he’s doing.’
‘I should be with her. I can talk to her. Let her know I’m here,’ Kelly cried.
‘She’s unconscious, Kell.’
Kelly pushed out of her arms, paced about, sucking in gasps of air. Liv followed her back and forth, ready to catch her again if she took off. Down the lane, an ambulance appeared at the corner of their building. The siren cut off mid-wail, lights flashing silently as it manoeuvred its way slowly into the narrow access lane. Kelly stopped suddenly.
‘How did you know something was wrong?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘You knew something.’
‘She’d been gone so long.’
‘No, that’s not it.’
Liv glanced away from her, guilt a wedge at the back of her throat. ‘I didn’t know. I suspected.’
Kelly raised her voice. ‘What? That she was going to jump off the car park? Why would she do that? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me? We could have found her. We could have stopped her.’
‘No, I didn’t think that. There was nothing wrong. She was fine. She didn’t . . . Oh, Christ, Kell. She didn’t jump.’
Kelly opened her mouth but didn’t speak, just lifted her eyes to the car park, dropped them down to the van
. Behind her, the ambulance rolled past then began reversing around the bend towards them.
‘She fell? How could she fall?’ Kelly asked.
Liv’s heart slammed against her ribs. She shouldn’t have to tell her this. ‘She didn’t fall. Someone pushed her. I think someone hurt her to get at me.’
Kelly reacted like she’d been zapped with an electric current. She shoved Liv in the shoulder with the flat of her palm. ‘Stop it! Just stop!’
Force and surprise made her stumble back. She took a second to process the moment, let Kelly have some space as the ambulance pulled up beside them. ‘I don’t want to believe it, either. But I got another note this . . .’
‘For God’s sake, Liv. Teagan is hurt. It’s not all about you this time.’ Kelly swung away, her long hair flipping up like a curtain as she made for the rear of the ambulance.
Liv watched her go, rocked by her words. Was it shock or was that what Kelly thought? That Liv had used her screwed-up life for attention?
Daniel knew the ambulance crew, called out medical information, helped them fit a neck support and move Teagan to a spinal board. Liv watched from beside the van, out of the way, helpless and horrified. As Tee was lowered to a stretcher, she saw the thick gauze bandage Daniel had applied. It covered one side of her face. There were two bright red stains where it was soaked through with blood. Liv followed the stretcher to the door of the ambulance, saw Teagan’s one visible eyelid flutter.
Maybe it was a good sign, maybe it meant she was waking up, that she was going to be okay. It should have been hope that Liv felt but it wasn’t. The anger that had been pacing at the edges of her shock crashed like a boulder in still water. Waves of heat locked her teeth together and curled her fingers into fists.
Kelly held Tee’s hand as she was transferred to the ambulance, climbed in after her and called hurried instructions out to Liv. ‘Call Nina and tell her I’ll meet her at the hospital. My phone and bag are in the office. I didn’t lock the office or switch the phones over. Tell Jason . . .’