“You should have a security system fitted,” said Danny, rubbing the goosebumps off his arms.
“CCTV camera’s would be better,” said Matt. “You’ll see exactly how it’s getting there.”
Riley nodded. “Yeah. That’s a good idea. A friend of mine fits those. I’ll give him a call.”
“Don’t stay in that house alone Lizzie,” said Molly, looking at me, her eyes huge with fear.
“There’s no need to worry about that,” I said.
“There has to be a logical explanation,” said Andrew.
Riley nodded. “Yeah, beats me what it is though.”
“I don’t care what it is. It creeps the hell out of me. The sooner I sell that house the better.”
* * *
Thankfully the conversation lightened with the more alcohol everyone consumed, and once we’d all eaten it felt like everything was back to normal. We were just cleaning up when Ed rang.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, his voice soft in my ear.
“Freaked out,” I answered honestly.
“I can see why. I’m just locking up now.”
“Really? It took that long?” I asked, checking my watch. It had been nearly two hours since I’d called him.
“No, not really. We took all the swabs we needed and I’m going to hurry the lab up with the results. Hopefully I’ll have the results of the first swabs by tomorrow morning.” Ed’s voice sounded weary. “Most of the time was spent cleaning.” I felt my breath catch.
“You cleaned?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want you to have to clean it tomorrow.” I didn’t know how to respond. I was sure cleaning did not come into his official police duties.
“Oh thank you,” I said lamely. “Umm ... what time does your shift finish tonight?” I asked, my mind spinning.
“It finished five hours ago.”
“What? That’s a lot of overtime.”
Ed chuckled. “I wish it was. No, I was at home when you rang.”
I felt horrified and guilty at his words. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think,” I said. “I saw the blood and panicked. I didn’t even think that you wouldn’t be at work.”
“It’s okay. I want to help you.” For a moment Ed’s voice felt intimate. “Lizzie, there’s something I want to tell you, but I can’t ...” My heart missed a beat as a different kind of panic took hold. I was standing in the kitchen, looking at Riley as he smiled at me over his beer bottle. With Ed’s voice in my ear, I felt like I was betraying him.
“Ed I really should go.”
“Oh ... umm ... okay.” He seemed taken aback with my abruptness.
“Thank you so much for your help tonight. I mean it Ed. I appreciate everything you’ve done.” I wanted him to understand that I really was grateful but at the same time I didn’t want to give him the wrong idea about my feelings for him. I heard his sigh.
“All part of the service Lizzie.”
After he hung up, I moved to the wine bottle and poured myself another glass.
* * *
Tonight we were playing Rummikub. It was a game Andrew introduced us to, and it involved two to four players. Tonight there were actually six of us, so we decided to play in teams. Andrew and Danny, Molly and Matt, and Riley and I. I wasn’t the best at the game, but thankfully Riley was. We played best of five. When we played single player, I always wanted to play best of twenty-seven. That way I may actually have a chance to win one! By our fifth game, we were in the lead. We were up two games thanks to Riley, Molly and Matt had one, and Danny and Andrew had one. If we won this game, we would win the match. If anybody else won, it would go to a tiebreaker.
Molly laid her tiles and called that she only had one tile left. I looked at our hand and excitement surged. I had it! I knew what I had to do to win.
I pushed my chair back and stood, leaning across the table to rearrange tiles into a winning combination.
“Oh here we go!” yelled Danny. “She’s standing! Lizzie’s about to win.” Everyone laughed good-naturedly.
“You don’t know that,” I commented, trying to hide my smile.
“Everyone knows that,” said Riley, rubbing my backside affectionately.
I looked around our group. All eyes were on me and they were all smiling.
“You stand up when you’re about to win,” said Molly, laughing.
“Lizzie has no poker face,” said Danny.
Humph. “Yes I do! You don’t know what tiles I’ve got.”
“Go on then. Finish your go,” challenged Danny.
I looked at the tiles in my hand. He was right of course, I was about to win, but now I had a dilemma. Did I want to win and let him know he was right, or should I sit back down and pretend he was wrong? I sighed and put the tiles on the table, declaring we had won. Everyone laughed as I sat back down.
“Told you so. Never play poker for real money.” Danny thought he was hilarious.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Riley, kissing me above my ear. “It’s one of the things I love about you.”
I gave a contented sigh and leaned into him, happiness filling me with a warm glow. Then again, that could have been the wine.
“Do you want another beer, Matt?” he asked, standing and walking towards the fridge. Matt nodded.
I watched as Riley moved, thinking how sexy he looked tonight in his new jeans, his black t-shirt molding his body to perfection. As he reached into the fridge ready to retrieve two beers, his phone rang. He stopped what he was doing and pulled it from his pocket.
As he looked at the screen, he opened the back door and stepped outside. I heard him say, “Hi, Allison.”
I looked to Molly. The atmosphere in the room changed as everyone looked to me.
“You’re handling this a lot better than I thought you would,” she said.
“What choice do I have?” I shrugged, clearing the plastic tiles off the table.
“Have you told him it bothers you?”
“Yes, but that always ends in an argument. I’ve only shut up about it because I don’t want to drive him into her arms.”
“Maybe that’s her plan,” said Molly.
“Ed says there’s a possibility that the blood’s fake. He said it could just be someone trying to scare me. I thought of her.”
“Personally I think she’s trying to kill you,” said Danny.
I looked at him expecting to see a glint in his eye. Instead I saw he was perfectly serious. Riley chose that moment to walk back into our conversation. He looked stunned at Danny’s words.
“Lizzie, Allison is not trying to kill you!” said Riley, picking up his beer bottle.
I didn’t respond. Instead I looked at Danny, the events of the last few weeks racing through my mind. Everyone went quiet.
“Danny may have a point,” I finally said, breaking the silence.
Riley scoffed. “Are you serious?” he asked, staring at me. “Christ! You are aren’t you?”
“Think about it,” I said quietly.
“You know, if you gave her a chance, you might realize she’s quite a nice person,” said Riley, pulling the label off the bottle in his hand. “All she does is ask about you.”
Humph.
“You actually have a lot in common,” he continued. “She loves that stupid TV show you like, she wears the same perfume you do, and she’s always asking about your house.”
“She wears the same perfume?” asked Molly. “It’s time to change perfume, Lizzie,” she whispered, as Riley turned his back.
“Which perfume?” I asked, making a note to throw it out.
“The one I bought you for Christmas. What was it? Umm, A Dior one.”
“What does she ask about the house for?”
“She really likes the choices you made and was hoping to do something similar to her place. She especially likes the wallpaper.”
“How does she know what wallpaper I used?” I asked incredulously.
“She saw it last week when she droppe
d by.”
“What? Where was I?”
“You were at your mum’s.”
“Why did she drop around?” My skin crawled with suspicion.
“To make sure that you were okay after the whole allergy thing.”
“Sure.”
Riley sighed.
“I just think she’s trying to get me out of your life.”
“It is funny how she always seems to be around whenever your life is in danger,” added Danny quietly.
“I know!”
Riley scoffed. “Really, Lizzie. You’re being a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”
“I’ve nearly died twice in the last month and who was there on both occasions?” I looked to Riley. Emotion danced in his eyes. “Hmmm?”
“It was a coincidence.”
“Bullshit!”
“Why would she try to kill you?”
“Because she’s still in love with you and she wants you back!” Ha. There, I’d said it.
“Lizzie, there’s a flaw in that theory.”
There was?
“Let’s assume for a second that you’re right and Allison wants to get back with me, then why hasn’t she said anything to me?”
I sighed dramatically.
“Riley, you are such a man! She has been telling you.”
“Thank you for realizing the obvious. And yes I maybe a man, as you put it, but I clearly do not recall Allison saying she loves me ... at least, not in the last few years.”
My stomach churned at his words, but I lifted my chin and carried on.
“She flirts with you. That’s her way of saying it.”
“Rubbish. If it were me, I would just walk over to her, tell her how I felt and kiss her.”
“Women aren’t like men though, are they?”
“Seriously, Lizzie. You’re wrong. She’s a completely sane, rational person, and sane, rational people do not go around killing other people. Plus she has absolutely no reason to kill you.”
The room filled with silence, everyone to afraid to move. Personally, I was so caught up in my theory I’d forgotten they were all there.
“Lizzie has a good point though, Riley,” said Matt, the first to be brave and speak.
Riley turned to him, his expression quizzical.
Matt shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t believe in coincidence. Years of reporting has proven that. I can guarantee you that whenever I have reported on a crime, the guilty party is the one who is there at the time.”
“Well, of course they were there at the time of the crime,” scoffed Danny. “How could they have done it if they weren’t there?”
Molly looked to Danny and glared.
“Maybe you’re looking at this from the wrong angle,” Matt continued, undeterred by Danny mocking him.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, let’s say you’re right that Allison is trying to kill you. What other reason would she have?”
I sunk into a nearby chair and considered what Matt had said.
“She doesn’t have any reason,” said Riley heatedly. “Until Lizzie walked into her clinic, they’d never even met.”
Riley was right about that.
“Okay. What’s happened since then?”
“Nothing,” I said reluctantly.
“Harper found the bones in your garden,” said Molly.
“No, that was before I met her.”
We all sat in silence considering the events that had happened since I’d met Allison.
Eventually Danny looked up and said, “Maybe she’s not trying to kill you. Maybe she’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Maybe she’s in the right place at the right time,” snapped Riley. “What would have happened if she hadn’t been there the day you had the anaphylactic shock?”
“I wouldn’t have been in that café, and I wouldn’t have eaten the peanut oil,” I pointed out. “And, by the way, it was Allison that ordered that food. Did she really tell them about my allergy?”
Riley looked at me, his expression stony. “It’s a coincidence and you need to stop accusing people of something so horrible,” he said, his tone suggesting this was the end of it. He turned and walked from the room, slamming the door behind him.
We all sat in silence.
“Well, if I was you Lizzie, I’d be careful around her,” said Matt. “Like I said, there’s no such thing as a coincidence.”
Riley’s car door slammed and the motor turned over.
I felt the tears sting my eyes and emotion clog my throat.
Why didn’t I just shut up?
Molly came to me and pulled me in for a hug. “He’s just gone to let off some steam.”
“What if I’ve pushed him into her arms?”
“Riley loves you. Have faith in that.”
“Yeah well, I though Scott loved me and remember what he did to me?”
I’ll never forget the night I walked into Scott’s bedroom and found him doing the nasty with his secretary.
“Riley’s not Scott. He wouldn’t do that to you.”
“I hope not,” I whispered, as Molly pulled me in tighter.
Conversation slowed after that and by the time the clock struck midnight, I woke Danny and Andrew up from the lounge and sent them home. Matt had left about an hour before after he’d got a call from his cameraman Sam, saying there was a big accident on the Highway and they needed to be there for coverage.
“Molly, go home please. I’ll be fine,” I said, exhausted.
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” she said, yawning.
“Honestly. I’m fine,” I lied. Riley still hadn’t come home. He’d sent me a message about an hour ago saying he’d gone to visit Jared and would spend the night there. “Please, Molly. I just want to be alone.” What I really wanted was to sit in the shower and sob, but I didn’t want Molly to know that.
Molly debated what to do. “Okay, but ring me if you need me. It doesn’t matter what time it is. I’ll be straight over. And if Riley comes back, slap him senseless for me.”
I smiled in spite of myself. “I will. Right after I’ve slapped him for Danny, which will be right after I’ve slapped him for myself.”
“Good. Maybe that will make him see sense.”
I locked the door behind her and made my way upstairs. I was too tired for the shower, so I splashed my face with water and climbed into bed.
It felt cold and lonely without Riley. Only after I’d emptied the box of tissues drying my eyes, did I manage to fall into an exhausted sleep.
I woke as a weight shifted on the mattress. I knew it was Riley. I could smell his delicious aftershave that still held even after all these hours.
The sheet pulled back and he slid in behind me. As his arm came around my waist and pulled me close, he whispered in my ear.
“I’m sorry, Lizzie.”
I felt goosebumps break out where his breath touched my skin and instantly forgave him.
“Me too,” I said, snuggling my bottom closer to him, enjoying his warmth. The world was safe once again.
Chapter Fifteen
Saturday night was Mal’s birthday, and the family was having dinner to celebrate. With Allison in my life so much lately, I felt I needed a wardrobe revamp in order to make myself feel a little bit more confident, and Molly was just the person to help me.
Westport isn’t the largest town on the east coast. The last census said it had a population of thirty thousand. It has one large hospital, one cemetery and one shopping centre. Pretty much all everyone needed really.
Molly and I were, at present, in the ladies section of the one and only department store, and I was trying on a grey dress Molly had picked out for me. Molly stood outside the fitting room door, bringing me up to date on Matt, and judging by her dreamy tone, I figured things were going better than planned. I will admit he seemed to fit with us pretty well, and he’d stayed strong throughout last Sunday’s family dinner, not once looking for the exits�
�which is more than I could say for myself. I usually looked for the exits at least twice during dinner.
“How’s things with Riley?” she asked, as I lifted the dress over my head.
I pulled it down and reached backwards to pull up the zip. “Yeah, okay,” I said, cursing quietly as the zip caught in my hair. “He came home last night and we had a good talk. I just need to keep my opinion about Allison to myself from now on. Molly, I’m stuck,” I cried.
“Well, open the door and I’ll help you.”
I turned to the door, my head on a weird angle leaning backwards, and opened the lock.
Molly laughed and stepped inside to help me. “Seriously, Lizzie. How do you get out of the house in the morning?”
I sighed. “Just help me, will you.”
“Turn around.”
I did as asked and felt my hair being pulled from the follicle as Molly pulled the zipper back down. Pushing my hair over my shoulder, she pulled the zip up effortlessly.
Smoothing the dress into place, I stood back and looked in the mirror, Molly’s reflection beaming back at me.
“It’s gorgeous!” she trilled.
Really? The dress was made of a dark grey material I think Mum had once used to cover her couch. It had an unflattering round neckline, fell straight and fitted to my waist, and then puffed out with a very large skirt, complete with tulle underskirt.
“Umm ... it’s not really me, is it?” I screwed up my nose.
“The problem with you, Lizzie is you have no taste. This dress is a designer brand and believe me ... it’s gorgeous.”
I looked back at myself in the mirror. “Maybe it needs shoes?” I said, unenthusiastically.
“Here,” said Molly slipping out of hers. She kicked them towards me. I bent to straighten them and as I did the back of the skirt flipped up, showing Molly my underwear. I jumped up and pulled it back down.
“Hmmm, maybe this one isn’t such a good idea,” said Molly frowning. “You’ve already got a talent for embarrassing yourself. You definitely don’t need any assistance.”
Give Murder A Hand: Lizzie. Book 2 (The Westport Mysteries) Page 16