by R. J. Parker
‘You and Christian were an item.’
‘Eight years ago.’
‘I thought you said you stayed in touch.’
Paulette looked guarded. ‘An e-card at Christmas. That’s it.’
But Lily suspected there was more to it than that. She’d been obsessed by Christian, which was probably why the relationship had broken down. Paulette could be very intense. So much so she’d started taking medication for it when she was seventeen. Ten years later she was still taking it. As far as Lily knew though, Paulette hadn’t found anyone significant since. There’d been a guy in 2016. A fireman, or had it been a policeman? But that had swiftly fizzled out. She didn’t have children, went out of her way to declare she’d made the right decision about that. But she did love Maisie, even though she insisted she was always so happy to hand her back to Lily after taking her out for the day.
‘So, any danger of a coffee?’ Paulette looked pointedly at the kettle.
Lily acknowledged that she’d been eager to change the subject. She filled it and switched it on. They hadn’t had the Christian conversation for some time but it was clear Paulette was still sensitive about it. They’d dated for about a year and Paulette had wanted to get serious. But Christian was a year younger than her and had been in no hurry. Lily had seen the crash coming. When the four of them had all gone out together it seemed a little too cosy, overpowering even. Two sisters out with two brothers. Paulette and Christian had met because of Lily seeing Ewan, but it almost seemed unnatural to Lily.
Paulette had initially joked about a double wedding. And then she kept on about it. That’s when Lily had realised how immature she was, even though she was only two years younger. She’d been relieved when it had finished between Paulette and Christian. But she felt guilty that she’d never warned her. Never told her to dial it back because she might scare Christian away. She’d done that on purpose. Lily had been selfish and had waited for things to come to a head. Back then she’d thought Paulette would easily find someone else. But the intervening years had been hard on her. Christian had become highly successful manufacturing surgical components, met and married someone else and quickly had three children with her. When they’d spoken, Paulette felt as though he was deliberately rubbing her face in his life.
A year after Paulette’s break-up both their parents had fallen ill, and Paulette had thrown all her energies into caring for them. Oesophageal cancer had claimed their mother first, and then their father had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Watching a doctor of psychology degenerate so quickly had been heart-rending. Paulette had been so brave. Braver than she’d been. Lily recalled her father trying to speak in her ear the day he died and how it had alienated Paulette. He could hardly form words at that point, had lost control of his muscles, so what he’d said was indecipherable. They were his last words and, despite how much she’d cared for him, Paulette had been excluded.
‘That’s so creepy.’ Paulette was watching the clip of the intruder on Lily’s phone again. ‘You haven’t been seeing anyone else recently?’
Lily spooned some coffee into the cafetière. ‘Someone I think would do that?’
Paulette raised a dark eyebrow. ‘So, you have been seeing somebody?’
Lily didn’t like to discuss her private life, what there was of it, and especially not with Paulette. ‘Not really.’
‘Not really?’ Paulette’s other eyebrow rose.
Lily knew she couldn’t clam up. She’d called Paulette. Wanted her help. She dreaded going to sleep that night, so she’d picked up the phone to her even though she was sure Paulette might slightly revel in her misery. Paulette always thought that Lily had been dealt a better hand. ‘One guy, Laurie, only for one date.’
‘Laurie?’ Paulette repeated as if the name were comical. ‘When?’
‘Few months ago. It was a mistake.’
‘Uh-huh. Maisie know about him?’
‘No. There was no point.’ Lily willed the kettle to finish boiling so she could busy herself with their drinks. ‘That’s definitely not him in the clip. He was a nice guy. Just not right for me.’ She picked up the kettle before it had clicked and filled the cafetière.
‘Is this him?’ Paulette was holding out Lily’s phone with Laurie Campbell’s face in the display.
‘Do you mind not going through my photos.’ Lily slammed the kettle down.
But she carried on scrolling through Lily’s images. ‘Why would you have a photo of him, if you only saw him once?’
‘It was just off his Romanticlicks profile. I saved it …’ Lily weakly protested.
‘You’ve been doing online dating?’
‘Just once; give me my phone.’ She held out her hand.
Paulette pursed her lips, as if considering the request.
It was like when they’d shared a room at home. They’d always fought. Lily felt like a kid again. ‘Give.’
Paulette handed it over. ‘D’you think Laurie was stalker material?’
‘No. Just a lonely guy.’
‘I can see why.’ Paulette nodded at the phone. ‘And all stalkers are lonely guys.’
Lily briefly regarded Laurie’s slightly pained expression. His square features were plain but he had the sort of thick dark hair and ghostly stubble she liked. But he’d lost his wife. He’d told her that within minutes of them settling themselves at the bar. It had only been five months since she’d been killed in a road accident and Lily had thought it was a little too early for him to be back on the singles scene. She knew she was being judgemental, but it had made her uncomfortable. He clearly wasn’t over it. Had talked about ‘his Helen’ throughout the evening. When he’d asked to see Lily again, she’d politely declined. She closed the gallery.
‘Sure it couldn’t be him? You do have a knack.’
‘What’s that mean?’ Lily had been considering asking Paulette if she minded staying the night, but now regretted calling her.
‘Picking the high-maintenance ones.’ Paulette shook her head in faux sympathy.
Lily got a flashback to a hundred arguments they’d had in the past. She could recognise the overture. Fact was, Paulette had liked Ewan. Lily couldn’t blame her falling for his solid stubble jaw and the permanent mischief in his dark gaze. But Paulette had made a pass at him behind Lily’s back in the early days, before he let her know he wasn’t interested and hooked her up with Christian. Despite that, however, and even though it was difficult to endure the way Paulette occasionally sniped at her, Lily had got better at reminding herself that, bad times aside, she still had Maisie. ‘You still on sweeteners?’
Paulette eventually nodded. She knew Lily wasn’t going to rise to it.
Chapter 8
Lily woke and focussed on the ceiling. Had her phone just been ringing? It wasn’t now. She’d caved into Paulette’s advice and drank half a glass of red to help her sleep, and the room seemed brighter than usual. She waited a few seconds for the previous night’s events to reassemble. That’s right. She’d put a pizza in the oven for Maisie. Paulette had eaten most of it. Maisie hadn’t been hungry and nor had Lily. Her stomach had been on edge because of what had happened that afternoon, and she’d chatted to her younger sister about anything she wanted until she’d left just after nine.
But when she tensed her neck muscles they ached and so did her temples. The pounding quickened. Had it really been half a glass? She tried to open her mouth, but her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. What was the time?
The digital clock by her bedside said 06:06.
Thank God. An hour to collect herself before she had to rise and get Maisie ready for school. She closed her eyes again and listened to the percussion in her head. Maybe she was coming down with something. She often did in September. Hot days interspersed with wet and cold ones often kickstarted a cold. She listened for signs of rainfall on the window over the pulse in her eardrums but couldn’t hear any. That was one small mercy.
She tried to busy her mind with the forthc
oming audit they were expecting at work. The small strategy consulting company she worked for lived very hand-to-mouth and there were rumours of redundancies just before Christmas. Why was it always just before Christmas? If it was her how soon could she find an admin job that paid the same wage? Her savings wouldn’t keep a roof over their heads for more than a couple of months. Normally she would have tried to ignore these thoughts, but today she was glad of them, if they could distract her from the man who had stood in her garden …
She couldn’t fool herself that she wasn’t terrified. If it had been an opportunist intruder it would have been disturbing enough, but to have gone out of his way to find a recent photo of Maisie, blow it up and then wear it like that.
Lily recalled the way he had calmly stared at her through the security cam and the holes cut in her daughter’s eyes. Was Paulette right? Did she just not want to believe that Ewan could be capable of orchestrating something like that?
She wanted to look at the clip again. For the umpteenth time. She’d emailed it to the address that Constable Michaels had given her. Had they watched it or was it still sitting in someone’s inbox? And had a patrol car come by to check on her last night or had she just been told that to make her feel more secure?
It was obvious Officer Michaels thought she was a victim of her ex and probably had more pressing incidents to deal with. The neighbourhood crime rate had risen rapidly since she and Ewan had moved into the property. More stabbings and drug-related incidents were what had made up her mind to get the security system installed now Ewan wasn’t there. She hadn’t even started to pay for that. But what she’d seen through her app was the last thing she’d expected. She reached over and grabbed her phone from the table and the action felt like a major exertion. Perhaps it was flu. All her limbs felt strained and her chest like somebody had been sitting on it.
Exposing her arms made her shiver. It was never usually cold in her bedroom, so it looked like she was definitely getting sick. She put her hand to her forehead but didn’t have a temperature. She had no time to be ill. She had one of the best attendance records at work and hoped that would put her in good stead if they did decide to lay some people off. But it was more likely they’d keep on the new intern, Bridget Holby. She’d been shadowing Lily since July. Was that because they wanted Bridget to take on Lily’s job? It wasn’t a great place to work. Martin Pickton regularly hit on Lily but she always had fun with Julie Medlocke. Julie understood what it was like to be a working single mother.
One ‘Missed Call’
Lily squinted at the number in the display. It wasn’t one she recognised. Was that what had woken her up? Yes, it said 06:05. Bit early for the usual cold calls. She cursed herself for not turning off the ringer. She usually did, and if she had she’d still be fast asleep. That surprised her. After yesterday she hadn’t expected to get a wink. She was about to call out to Maisie, as she often did. But it was still too early. She decided to slip across the hallway and look in. There was no window in Maisie’s room, as it was between the front lounge and the kitchen. She’d locked the door to the kitchen the night before. She’d also locked the lounge, so the only way anyone could get in the hallway was through the double front doors and they were both solid wood.
Lily sat up but her head spun. She swung her legs out of bed and paused for a few moments on the edge of the mattress while the room came to a standstill. Her pyjamas felt damp against her skin. Check on Maisie and then grab some painkillers. She gingerly stood and her ribcage and legs felt tender as she crossed the tan carpet to the door, took her aquamarine robe from the hook and slipped it on. No sign of her slippers.
Her teeth chattered and she pulled the robe tight around herself and opened the door. Maisie’s was sealed shut, so she crossed the dingy hallway and listened at the panel. No sound. She pulled down slowly on the handle. It usually creaked when it was fully depressed, but she managed to get it open without making any noise. She peered inside.
Her daughter’s globe lamp was still on beside the bed and she watched Maisie’s oblivious face, mouth open and eyebrows slightly frowning, and listened to her tiny snores for a few moments before pushing the door shut again.
But as she felt the cold wrap around her legs Lily came over faint and had to lean on the wall for support. What was wrong with her? Her sense of smell seemed to be heightened and an aroma of damp cement filled her nostrils. She staggered back to her room and flopped onto the mattress, quickly pulling the duvet over her as her frame trembled. She felt nauseous and her stomach gurgled loudly.
Let it pass and then fetch the painkillers.
Lily closed her eyes tight. Was this because she hadn’t eaten and then drank the wine?
The phone rang and she realised it was still in her hand. It was the same number from earlier. Should she ignore it? But maybe it was Ewan on a new number.
‘Hello?’
‘Lily?’ A small, unfamiliar male voice asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Are you secure?’
Lily pushed the duvet away and sat up. ‘What? Who is this?’ Her circulation beat against the earpiece. Was this the stranger from the garden?
‘Do you feel safe?’
‘Who is this?’ Aggression in her voice now.
‘You might want to check your app.’
The line clicked. He’d rung off.
For a few seconds, Lily remained motionless, staring at the display of her phone. Then she hit the security app icon.
It opened and Lily quickly scrolled through the black and white images to get to the view of the garden. But before she could she noticed something alarming in one of the others. It was the camera in the kitchen.
The hooded intruder was standing by the table.
Chapter 9
Lily’s legs curled tight into her as she sat bolt upright and her exclamation caught in her chest.
He was wearing the Maisie mask and was standing motionless, his left hand by his side, the right clutching a phone to his chest.
Lily’s first thought was for Maisie’s safety. She’d locked the kitchen door. Hadn’t she? She was on her feet, heart pounding as she stumbled dizzily into the hallway again. She pulled open her daughter’s door and crossed the carpet to her bed. ‘Maisie,’ she said sharply and frantically squeezed her shoulder.
Maisie didn’t wake.
‘Maisie!’ Lily glanced quickly back to the door behind her then shook her daughter harder.
Maisie remained impassive.
‘Maisie!’ Lily whisper-screamed at her and dragged her up the pillows.
Her eyes fluttered and cracked open and she frowned at her mother.
‘Get up.’
‘What is it?’ she slurred.
Lily jammed her hands underneath her and levered her off the mattress. ‘We’re going.’
‘Where? What’s … happening?’ But Maisie still seemed half asleep.
Lily carried her to the door and paused there, listening for sounds in the darkened hallway. She was positive she’d locked the doors. After what had happened the previous afternoon, she knew she’d double-checked. Kitchen door, then lounge and both front doors. The keys were in her bedroom.
She swung Maisie to the side and peered around the jamb. The kitchen door was still sealed. She held her breath. No sounds coming from behind it.
‘I’m scared.’ Maisie rubbed her eyes.
Should she call the police? Her phone was on the bed. No, she should grab the keys, get them out the front way first. Lily darted across the hallway and back into her room, lowered Maisie slightly so she could pick up her phone from the bed and then turned to the table beside it.
No sign of the keys.
Lily’s gut froze. They weren’t in their usual place. She always dumped them there after she’d locked up every night. She opened the drawer but knew she hadn’t put them in there. Her eyes scanned the tan carpet. No trace. They couldn’t leave without finding them.
‘I want to get down.’ Maisie sta
rted wriggling.
Lily gripped her tighter. ‘Don’t move.’
‘You’re hurting me …’
‘Do as I say.’ Lily quickly surveyed the dresser. Not there either. She struggled her hand up from under Maisie and shifted her weight so she could look at the app.
The intruder was still standing in the same position by the kitchen table.
‘Who’s that?’ Maisie whispered drily.
‘Take this.’ She gave the phone to Maisie. ‘The moment he moves, you tell me. Understand?’
Maisie nodded.
Lily swung Maisie around as she tried to locate the keys. They’d vanished. How could she have locked the doors without the keys?
‘Why is he in our kitchen?’ Maisie’s voice quavered.
They had to be here somewhere. She shouldn’t have had the wine. Her mind felt foggy. She had locked the doors.
Lily had to be sure. She carried Maisie out into the hallway again, glanced at the still closed kitchen door and headed in the opposite direction to the front and lounge doors. She hefted Maisie and delicately depressed the handle of the lounge. Locked. That was a relief. It meant she wasn’t going mad. The kitchen would be sealed as well. But it also meant …
She tried the handle of the inner front door, but it was locked too. They couldn’t get out.
Her bedroom window, it was over the back garden. It opened at the top and she could at least feed Maisie through it.
Lily stumbled back to it. The bottle green blind was lowered, and she’d need to raise it before she could open the window and get Maisie out. ‘You’re going to climb out this way,’ she told her.
Maisie shook her head.
‘Listen. Climb out, get over the back wall and then go straight across the road to Mrs Unwin. I’ll call the police.’ And Lily would scream for help from the window if necessary.
‘You have to come with me.’ Maisie sounded terrified.
‘I can’t. I won’t fit through the top window.’ Lily reached for the tie that secured the blinds to the hook in the wall.
‘No.’ Maisie squirmed.