Intruder

by Christine Bongers

  ‘You want some of this? Well, you’ll have to work for it, big fella.’ I grinned, and cocked my thumb and forefinger into my favourite command.

  ‘BANG.’

  He obediently flipped over to play dead, and a thick rope of slobber arced into the air and whipped across my bare shins.

  ‘GEEZUZ, HERC!’

  He jolted up off the floor like it was electrified, while I freaked out looking for something to wipe off the drool. The pair of us skittered across the floorboards till I managed to remove the worst of it with a tea towel from the kitchen.

  ‘Damn it, dog, you’re a slobber hazard. I’m going to arm myself around you from now on.’

  I marched him into Jimmy’s room and grabbed a couple of handkerchiefs from the sock drawer. The evil witch had bought stacks of them years ago for me to practise my ironing on – man-sized hankies for Jimmy, and a dainty collection of embroidered squares for me. Mine were long gone, but Jimmy still had a neat stash sitting unused in his top drawer.

  I stuffed two into the back pockets of my cut-offs. ‘Okay, Herc, now we’re prepared for the worst –’

  He jerked to his feet, trembling and alert. A split second later I registered the rusty squawk of the front gate.

  The rumbling that came from deep in his chest made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Then he bounded out of Jimmy’s bedroom and threw himself in a slavering, barking rush at the front entrance.

  I peeked through the window and figured it was safe to crack open the door.

  ‘Sounds like that new security system is doing its job.’ It was Bill, back in uniform, his ride idling outside our gate. ‘Your dad home?’

  Herc pulled me half through the doorway, snuffling at Bill’s hand. ‘He’s popped out,’ I said, yanking at Herc’s collar. ‘Want me to tell him anything when he gets back?’

  Bill scratched Herc’s head. ‘Just let him know that I’ve asked Mobile Patrols to swing past when they’re in the area. To keep an eye on things. You’ll probably be on your own for New Year’s, though.’

  He paused at my guilty flinch, but being a cop, he probably got a lot of that. A faint hum buzzed in the back of his throat, but he gave me the benefit of the doubt and continued.

  ‘It’s the biggest night of the year for thieves. Mobile Patrol will be like the rest of us – up to their nose hairs in burglaries and drunks – so I doubt they’ll get a chance to come by here.’

  ‘Uh, we’ll be extra sure to lock up tight then,’ I said. ‘Anything else?’

  I didn’t want to sound rude, but I needed to get rid of him before he asked any more awkward questions about Jimmy. To make matters worse, Herc had gone all skittish, capering like a crazy thing on the old pine floorboards, and I was having trouble holding onto him.

  Bill bent down and scrubbed at his jowls. ‘My little fella gets like that whenever someone comes to the door. Doesn’t matter what time of day or night it is. I usually take him for a walk to calm him down. Maybe you can do that when your dad gets home.’ He straightened. ‘I’m on late shifts this week, so Napoleon and I might wander this way for our nightly constitutional. We’ll make sure there are no undesirables hanging round.’

  My eyes shot up to his face, but I couldn’t see anything more than friendly concern. It occurred to me then that Bill wasn’t just here as a policeman. Since meeting up with me and Herc at the dog park, he’d taken a more personal interest in my wellbeing. I was a dog park person now, part of his local ‘neighbourhood watch’. Given how much I was hiding from him, there were risks in that. But then again, maybe he could help . . .

  ‘There was a bloke outside the dog park this afternoon.’ I stopped, unsure about sharing my gut feeling. ‘He was wearing a black hoodie and had a blue cattle dog with him. I couldn’t see his hands, but he was acting really weird and he took off when he saw me coming.’

  Bill nodded slowly. ‘I’ve seen him and his dog around. Leave it with me and I’ll look into it.’ He reached into his pocket and handed me a card. ‘Put that number on speed dial. It’ll get me any time of the day or night.’

  The unexpected kindness nearly undid me. I dropped my eyes, feeling guilty about deceiving him, and stammered out some sort of thanks. But he didn’t say anything; just bent down and gave Herc a final pat before striding off down the front path.

  I slipped his card into my pocket, caught between relief and a confused wistfulness. I didn’t want Bill to hang around but, then again, I didn’t really want him to leave either.

  Herc took advantage of my distraction and pulled free, racing down the steps to piddle on one of the gardenia bushes beside the house. As I was about to call him back, a shadowy figure lurched past across the road. Even without the dog slinking along at his heels, I recognised the odd stiff-bodied gait, and the way his head swung from side to side, as though he was scanning the path in front of him.

  I grabbed Herc and yanked him inside the house, then slammed the door and pulled out Bill’s card. He answered after the first ring.

  ‘That hoodie guy I told you about – he just walked past the front of my house with his dog.’ I peered out the window at Bill’s next question. ‘No, he’s gone now. I just thought if you wanted to talk to him, he’s heading your way, down towards the lights on Kelvin Grove Road.’

  Bill told me to stay inside and make sure all the doors and windows were locked till my dad got home. Then he hung up.

  I leaned back against the door, heart racing, not sure if I should feel relieved or anxious that the locals were taking such a personal interest in my case. First Al, now Bill; both of them strangers before today. Both of them doing more to keep me safe than my own dad.

  I slid onto the floor, the aftermath of adrenalin leaving me empty and depressed. Herc rested his chin on my knee, his eyes full of sympathy.

  At school everyone thought I was a brainiac who spent all her time studying and in the library. The truth was I spent most afternoons hanging out with my dad like I was still ten years old, and night after night on my own.

  I cupped Herc’s face in my hands. ‘Do you ever get lonely, big guy?’

  Herc sighed, but wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  ‘It’s okay, you don’t want to talk about it, right? I understand.’ I pulled him into my lap. Herc was like one of those giant soft toys from Sideshow Alley at the Ekka, except for the rancid breath and ropes of saliva bracketing his dopey grin.

  Thankfully, this time I was prepared. He stared trustingly into my eyes as I fished a hankie out of my back pocket and dabbed at his flubbery lips.

  ‘You need a bib, you big baby –’

  The squawk of the front gate cut me off.

  Herc shot to his feet, claws digging into my thighs, his full-throated bark deafening in my ear. I shoved him aside, wondering if Bill had something new to report about Hoodie Guy. But this time there was no police car out front, just a familiar voice yelling above the racket.

  ‘Can you get that vicious dog on a chain please? I’m trying to enter at my own risk here!’

  Al had brought ice-cream. Mango sorbet for me and a rich ultra-choc for himself.

  I turned the spoon upside down and loosened a big dollop with the tip of my tongue. ‘You’ve found my weakness, so you can choose the DVD.’

  He did good, fishing Zoolander out of the rack. We’d both seen it a million times, so I could bring him up to speed without missing a beat of the movie.

  ‘Bill will be all over that hoodie guy like stink on feet,’ he said when I finished. ‘So let’s enjoy our ice-cream and forget about prowlers for a while.’

  I let the mango magic melt onto my tongue and studied Al surreptitiously. He’d been quick to befriend me, and to help me out with my problems, and now he was bringing round treats. I couldn’t help but wonder why he wasn’t chilling with family or catching one of the Boxing Day movie blockbusters with his mates
.

  ‘Okay, you’ve heard my life story,’ I said, scooping another spoonful. ‘Now, let’s hear yours.’

  He glanced sideways at me and raised an eyebrow. ‘What, all of it? Starting with the star that prophesised a child being born?’

  ‘Very funny.’ I settled back into the couch with my ice-cream. ‘How about fast-forwarding ten years from when you were four and going from there?’

  His grin faded. ‘Kat, last year was crap. I told you that.’

  ‘You also told me you could do with a friend.’ I eyed him speculatively. ‘You seem like a nice guy. You must have heaps of them.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ He coloured and looked away. ‘Pity I lost my mobile and all my numbers when we moved here.’

  I wondered if that was just an excuse. Down at the dog park, he said there’d been ‘other stuff’ going on that had prompted his move.

  ‘You could always Facebook them,’ I suggested, figuring that’s what most normal people did when they lost a number.

  He shook his head, avoiding my eyes. ‘They’re on the other side of town, a bus and a train ride away. I’m sure they’ll cope fine without me.’ He pointed at Herc. ‘Hey, check out your dog. I think he wants ice-cream.’

  Herc sat like a statue on the rug in front of us, his eyes locked onto my bowl, drool dangling from his mouth. I carved a scoop and his slobber grew longer, a translucent stalactite, dripping in slow motion, towards the floor.

  ‘Kat, stop torturing the poor fella. Give him some of your sorbet.’

  I paused, the spoon millimetres from my lips. ‘Me? Why don’t you give him some of your ultra-choc?’

  ‘Dogs can’t eat chocolate.’ A smooth brown slick churned through his mouth as he spoke. ‘It gives them pancreatitis.’

  ‘Bull.’ I lowered my spoon, and Herc moaned a soft wistful sound. ‘You’re just making that up so you don’t have to share your ice-cream with the dog.’

  ‘No, seriously.’ He pointed his spoon at my face. ‘You can kill them with chocolate. And onions too. Besides, just look at him.’ Herc hadn’t taken his eyes from my bowl. ‘He wants the mango sorbet.’

  Twin drool strings now yo-yoed on both sides of Herc’s face. But other than that he hadn’t moved a muscle. The hope in his eyes confused me – he seemed to think he had a chance. That I was the sort of person who’d share ice-cream with a dog. I carved off another spoonful to prove just how wrong he was.

  He moaned, his drool now anchoring him to the floor.

  ‘Oh for heaven’s sake.’

  It was worse than the tic at the corner of Jimmy’s eye. I mopped up Herc’s drool and gave him my most disapproving scowl, then tapped a dollop of mango sorbet onto the wooden floor. I barely had time to get my spoon out of the way before he inhaled it.

  ‘Forensic vacuuming skills, Herc,’ Al noted. ‘Not so much as a smear to show where you’ve been.’ He scraped another spoonful out of his bowl and deposited it into his mouth. ‘Well done, Kat. You just taught him that if he stares at you long enough, eventually you’ll give him what he wants.’

  I stared hard at Al, wondering how he could talk with that much chocolate slurry in his mouth. He swallowed, glanced down at the remnants in his bowl, sighed and wordlessly offered me his scrapings.

  I waved it away, struck by a sudden insight. ‘That’s what Jimmy does. I never realised it before. He just stares at me, looking pathetic, until he gets his own way.’

  Al snorted. ‘Your fault for being such an easy touch.’

  Herc rested his jaw on my knee, fresh stirrups of drool already trickling down his face. I eased the hankie out of my back pocket again, getting to the dribble before it got to me.

  ‘I can’t believe I keep falling for it.’

  Herc’s eyebrows shot skywards as I tidied him up. Without thinking, I spooned a scoop of sorbet into his mouth.

  ‘Jimmy even did it over Herc’s poo. He put on such a pathetic act that I ended up having to do everything.’ I scraped the bottom of the bowl, and spooned the last of the sorbet into Herc like I was scraping it into a bin.

  Al turned sideways on the couch and faced me. ‘So why do you let him get away with it?’

  I placed the empty bowl on the floor. Herc nose-dived into it, trying to lick the pattern off the plate, pushing it round and round with his tongue.

  ‘Dunno.’ I sat back. The prowler had brought my simmering problems with Jimmy to the boil. But I didn’t want to deal with that right now. ‘Let’s watch the movie.’

  ‘Are you scared that if you push him too far he’ll crack again?’

  ‘Can we just watch this, please?’

  Al didn’t answer, but I could feel his eyes on me.

  ‘What?’

  He put up his hands in surrender. ‘I didn’t say anything.’

  I settled back into the couch.

  ‘It’s just that he’s the one who’s supposed to be the grown-up –’

  I turned fiercely on him. ‘Stop it, okay. You have no right to say anything about my dad. You don’t know him. You don’t know anything about us.’

  He bridled and bit back. ‘You’re right. I only know what you told me. That he cracked once and that you’ve been walking on eggshells around him ever since –’

  ‘I did not say that. You’re twisting my words –’

  The ring of our home phone cut in. The caller ID showed a private number. It had to be Jimmy on one of the hotel phones, calling between sets. I was mad enough after what Al had said to let Jimmy have it with both barrels.

  ‘What do you want?’ I snapped into the handset. ‘I told you I’d call triple 0 if I needed any help.’

  There was a faint pause. Then a breathy laugh that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

  ‘Poor baby . . . Daddy’s left you home alone again, hasn’t he?’

  Fifteen

  I caught my breath and screamed right into the mouthpiece of the cordless phone. ‘LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU FREAK –’

  Bass baritone barking cut me off in mid-sentence. Herc had gone completely psycho, leaping up on the couch and drowning out both me and my unwanted caller. I held the phone in front of his slavering jaws for as long as it took for my hands to stop shaking. Then I hung up, but Herc didn’t quieten down until I tucked the handset out of sight, under a pile of cushions on the couch. Then I walked over and pulled the phone connection out of the wall to make sure he couldn’t phone back.

  ‘Shizenhousen,’ breathed Al. ‘Was that him?’

  I nodded wordlessly.

  ‘He called your home number, Kat. That means he knows your name.’

  Al didn’t have to say the rest. It wasn’t random. He was stalking me.

  My gut went into freefall and I grabbed the nearest available anchor to steady myself. Herc. Rock-solid but warm. A rush of gratitude shot through me, not just for his spirited defence when I screamed, but for simply being there when I needed him.

  ‘At least the creep knows that I have a dog.’ I ruffled Herc’s floppy chops until his hackles settled and his worried expression dissolved into his usual idiot grin. ‘A very scary dog. With a very scary bark.’

  My mobile phone rang on the coffee table, making us both jump. Al looked at me, then reached over and grabbed it. ‘Here, let me answer.’

  ‘No, it might be Jimmy.’ I took it off him, frowning at the display screen. It had been a long time, but I still recognised that number. I pushed up off the couch and walked on shaky legs towards the kitchen window. Took a deep breath and answered the call.

  ‘Kat, what’s going on over there? Is everything all right?’

  It felt weird hearing her voice down the phone line as she stared back at me through the window next door.

  ‘It’s fine,’ I lied, doing my best to keep my voice and face under control. ‘Just watching a scary movie and Herc
got a bit overexcited when I screamed.’

  She peered over my shoulder. ‘Who’s that with you?’

  Uh-oh, she’d spotted Al. ‘This is, uh, a friend of Bill’s, the watch sergeant who –’

  ‘I know who Bill is,’ she interrupted. ‘He was a regular down at the dog park back when I had Marco, when his wife Jean was still alive.’

  ‘Oh. Well, Bill just popped in before . . . and Al’s keeping me company till Jimmy gets home.’

  Dropping Bill’s name seemed to satisfy her. Al raised a hand in greeting, and she actually waved back.

  ‘Okay, I’ve got another call coming in. If you’re sure everything’s all right, I’ll leave you both to your movie.’

  I assured her it was, and hung up.

  Al followed me back into the lounge room, jaw set, more intent than I’d seen him. ‘Why didn’t you tell her the truth, Kat? That guy could be a psycho. We have to tell the police. We should ring Bill right now and tell him what happened.’

  I shook my head, dropping onto the couch next to Herc and massaging his jowls vigorously.

  ‘No. If it’s that Hoodie Guy, he already knows I have a dog. And now he knows that Herc’s bark could wake the dead. He’s not going to risk coming here again. And even if he does, the house is locked up tight. I have Bill’s number on autodial and a nosy next-door neighbour with a softball bat. I’m fine.’

  ‘No, you’re not. You’re just pig-headed.’ He slumped back into the couch, frustrated. ‘You want me to stay the night?’

  I snorted. ‘Yeah, right. Then you won’t have to worry about any prowler, because my dad will kill you. He’s already said that he doesn’t want you here when he’s not home.’

  Al sat forward, intrigued. ‘Seriously? Why not?’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘Who knows? The last time I had a boy round was in primary school, and Jimmy didn’t mind back then. Maybe he thinks you’re the prowler.’

  He examined the backs of his hands. ‘But I have no knuckle hair – surely that counts in my favour?’