Wicked Little Lies- Molly

by Beth Prentice

  “We’re great detectives.”

  “Since when?”

  “We went looking for Matt and we found him, didn’t we?”

  “Ummm, Matt was in his own home. There wasn’t much detecting to do.”

  “Sure, but we learned there was a woman in his room, and we learned he was already investigating Carol.”

  “We didn’t learn a thing, Danny. We still don’t know who the woman was or what she was doing there.”

  “Okay, fine, but it’s just another reason we should follow that green car.”

  “That car is long gone,” said Andrew, looking out the window to the street.

  Danny released a frustrated breath. “Then let’s go and find it!”

  I bit my lip as I looked around the group.

  “Until you get to the bottom of this, will you be able to sleep tonight?” Lizzie asked.

  “Probably not.”

  “I didn’t think so,” stated Danny, smiling triumphantly. Personally, I think he just wanted an adventure.

  “Do we believe the driver of that car is the same person who is sending the photos?” asked Andrew.

  “Possibly. Like I said earlier, I haven’t had a good look at them.”

  “Do you think they’re a fan of Matt’s and are trying to break you up?” asked Lizzie.

  That sounded plausible. “I can’t think of any other reason this would be happening.”

  “Then maybe Danny’s right. Maybe we should go out there and see if we can find her. If she’s a fan slash stalker then she’ll be hanging around him for sure.”

  “Yes! That’s the spirit,” sang Danny, standing. “Now come on let’s go.”

  “Really?” questioned Andrew.

  “Strike while the iron is hot!”

  “But we won’t approach unless we know it’s safe,” warned Lizzie.

  “Sure.”

  “How do we know where Matt’ll be?” Andrew was always the practical one.

  “He said he was going to an accident on the highway,” stated Danny.

  “Which part of the highway? It’s a long road.”

  Danny rolled his eyes but whipped out his phone before pulling up Google. “A truck’s rolled over near the racecourse. Facebook says no one’s hurt but twenty ton of horse manure has closed the road. Eeeew.”

  “Still want to go?” Lizzie asked him.

  He looked to me and then at the photo that was still on my screen. “Yes. We need to know what’s really going on.”

  I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but once Danny had it in his head, there was no convincing him otherwise.

  “Alright, but if Matt gets annoyed at us, then I’m blaming you Danny and saying you just wanted to steal some manure for your petunias.”

  Danny wrinkled his nose. After a second he nodded. “I’m good with that. And that cute policeman might even arrest me for being a nuisance.”

  There was a flurry of bags as we all grabbed our belongings and headed outside, stepping into the cool night air. The storm had passed leaving the ground wet, as the lightening flashed in the distance, the thunder no longer audible. Harper trotted ahead of us on the footpath, hesitating when he was unsure which car to get in to.

  We all stopped considering the same thing.

  Danny drove a two-seater BMW, Andrew drove like an old woman, and the driver of the green wagon would recognize my Lexus. Which meant we agreed on Lizzie’s and piled into her bright yellow Suzuki Swift.

  Danny called shot gun and Andrew and I shared the backseat with Harper.

  “Do you really think this car is incognito?” I asked, clicking Harper’s seat belt into the clip.

  “I only picked it up today so that driver haven’t seen you in it,” she explained.

  “It’s almost fluorescent though,” I acknowledged.

  “It’s cute Lizzie. So much nicer than that VW you had.”

  “There was nothing wrong with the Beetle,” added Andrew.

  “Yes, there was,” she agreed. “Riley was having a hard time running a construction business from the back seat of it.”

  “Riley owns a truck.”

  “Yes, but after an entire cluster of spiders crawled out of the dashboard, I was not driving it again. So, we swapped cars.” Lizzie pushed the gear into first, released the handbrake and pulled away from the kerb.

  “Riley’s a good man,” I added, thinking I’d give up this child before I’d have swapped with her. I wouldn’t really, but it would take something huge for me to drive it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  We followed Nelson Road out of town towards Nelson Park, Westport’s one and only racetrack, and stopped before it merged on to the highway leading the way to the city. Highway One travelled all the way along the east coastline with two lanes heading north and two heading south. The traffic was always busy and fast, but at times of accidents the highway became a car park.

  The truck rollover had happened on the slip road coming out of the racetrack. Police vehicles had closed the road, so Lizzie chose to find a parking spot at Nelson Park. It wasn’t easy as tonight was night racing and the car park was almost full.

  The floodlights from the track lit the surrounding areas effortlessly as the sound of the race caller’s voice boomed through the night air. I clipped Harpers lead on to his collar and we walked the short distance to the accident, each of us scanning for the green wagon.

  A crowd of onlookers had already built along the perimeter the police had forced. Emergency workers were bustling about as the red and blue flashing lights from their vehicles cast an eerie glow in the night sky. News crews were reporting updates, and bystanders were taking snapshots of the carnage. I walked around the edge of the group and stopped where I had a better view, the stench of horse manure almost taking my breath away. Harper didn’t seem fazed by the smell. In fact, he looked like he wanted to run towards it.

  Guilt prickled my conscience as I glanced around searching for Matt, spotting him alongside the truck, interviewing Senior Sergeant Ed Helms. I always thought gawkers at accidents were poor excuses for human beings. If you weren’t there to help, then you shouldn’t be there. But I pushed the guilt aside with the thought that I was here to help. Sure, I was helping Matt and I, but we wouldn’t digress about that.

  “Molly! Molly!” Danny pulled up behind me, panting. “Geez you can move fast when you want to.”

  “What’s up?”

  “We found the car. The green wagon.”

  My ears pricked and my eyes widened. “Where is it?” I asked, turning away from Matt and Ed.

  “Parked on the side of the road, a few hundred meters back. Andrew is on his way to it now. Come on.” He grabbed my free hand and pulled me along with him, speed walking towards the car.

  “Where’s Lizzie? I thought she was with you.”

  “She stopped to take a call from Riley. She’ll catch up with us.”

  A thrill flipped my belly as Danny and I walked away from the crowd, Harper happily jogging alongside us. A cheer erupted from the race grounds and I figured the favorite had just won the race and I hoped we were as lucky in finding our mystery woman.

  “Molly! Danny!” Lizzie called to us, as we ran through the carpark. “Wait up.”

  We slowed as she rushed towards us, her cheeks flushed in the floodlight glow.

  “I found it!” she called to us, grinning. “The green car. I found it!”

  “Yeah, so did we,” stated Danny. “Come on. Andrew should already be there.”

  “But it’s back that way,” she said, pointing over her shoulder.

  “It’s up there on the side of the road. Andrew spotted it.”

  “Ah, Danny,” I said, tapping his arm. “There’s another one over there.” I pointed to the tail end of a green wagon just visible as the van alongside it moved away.

  Danny’s hands jumped to his hips as he too saw what I was pointing at. “Who knew there would be so many bloody green wagons around?”

  “Not me, that’s
for sure,” I agreed.

  “So, what do we do?” Lizzie asked.

  “Are you guys coming?” called Andrew as he stepped between two cars and headed towards us.

  “There’s a slight problem. We have more than one green wagon.”

  “Molly, what type of car was the wagon?” Andrew asked, realizing our dilemma. “Was it older or newer? Holden, Ford?”

  “Ummm, it was green.”

  “What shade of green?” asked Lizzie.

  “A vibrant green.”

  “Was it a factory color or after-market paint job?” Danny asked.

  “How would I know that?”

  “Well, Holden released a Commodore Wagon that was a vibrant green.”

  “Is that one of them?” I asked, pointing to the car nearby.

  “No. That’s a Toyota.”

  “Then it’s definitely not one of those.” At least I thought it wasn’t.

  “That’s a start,” said Andrew, smiling.

  Danny pulled his phone from his pocket and started to Google cars. Within seconds he had a page of images showing me what a Commodore wagon looked like. I nodded.

  “How many of those are around?” I asked.

  “Depends. Was it a SV6 VE or the SS?”

  I allowed my shoulders to droop. “Did I mention that it’s green?”

  Danny threw me a look. “How do you not know this?”

  “I’m sorry I’m not a car buff like you! But in my defense do you know the difference between a Canon full frame and a Nikon cropped sensor? Huh?”

  “Well no, but cars are around you all the time. Look! There’re hundreds of them right here in front of you. How many cameras do you see?”

  “Three. That man over there has a Canon EOS 6D slung over his shoulder with a 430 EXIII Speedlight on-camera flash. The guy in the crowd gawking at the accident was using a Nikon Z6, and that woman is pointing a Nikon D5 at us.” Whenever I needed extra money, I worked at The Camera Stop. I knew my cameras.

  Danny huffed.

  “What did you just say?” Lizzie asked, spinning on her heel.

  “Which bit? The 6D the Z6 or the D5?”

  “The woman pointing one of them our way, bit.”

  My head shot around to where the woman was standing as my thoughts fell into sync with Lizzie’s.

  “Was she taking our photo?” Lizzie asked, a hitch in her voice.

  “I don’t know. It looked like she was.”

  “Where is she now?” Danny asked, his head swiveling from side to side searching.

  “She was over there,” I explained, pointing to the spot between a van and a Mini.

  “Surely she wouldn’t be able to get a clear shot of us in this light?” Andrew added, as we all sprinted in the direction she was seen.

  “It wouldn’t be great quality but there’s enough light for her to have got us. Her camera was pretty impressive.”

  Danny got to the spot first, but of course the woman was gone.

  “What did she look like?” he asked.

  “She was wearing a hoodie with the hood up.”

  “Then how do you know it was a woman?”

  “She paired it with denim shorts and if a man owned those legs, I’m quitting being a woman.”

  “Over there!” shouted Lizzie.

  We didn’t have to be told twice. Instead we jostled for first place and ran between the cars to where the woman was heading. She must have sensed she was being followed as she looked over her shoulder before upping the pace.

  Luckily, I’d worn my sneakers as heels would have slowed me down. I had no idea if this was the same woman who drove the wagon or not, but if she’d been an innocent bystander and had accidentally taken our photo she never would have run. Running made her guilty of being up to no good in my books.

  Lizzie was the first one to drop off. Fair enough, her body was still recovering from her own trauma. Andrew went next, but he had a little bit of age working against him. That left Danny, Harper and I. Only when Danny got tangled in Harper’s lead, he fell like a tonne of bricks, tripping Harper in the process. I stopped to check they were okay, but Danny grabbed the lead and yelled at me to keep running.

  The woman now had a good fifty meters on me, and I started to doubt my ability to catch her. I had a clear view of her though as she headed towards the green wagon parked on the side of the road, beeping the doors unlocked as she raced towards it.

  I slowed my pace as I knew I had no chance of reaching her before she started the engine and roared away.

  But one thing I did now know for sure was the driver of that vehicle was indeed following one of us. And it was a woman.

  I doubled at the waist and sucked in some much-needed oxygen, memories of Doctor Jensen telling me to take things easy dancing in the forefront of my mind. I made a vow to my unborn child I would take it easy from now on and then made my way back to the others.

  “Did you get her?” Danny asked, handing Harper’s lead back to me.

  “No.” I brought them up to date with what she was driving though.

  “Why do you think she was taking pictures of us?” Lizzie asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, but the other day when we were at Carol’s, I was positive someone was in the bushes taking the photos there too.”

  Lizzie shivered and hugged herself. Andrew sensed her distress and pulled her in close. She smiled gratefully as she accepted his gesture.

  “We should go home,” I said, feeling guilty. “We did what we came here to do.”

  “Do you want to see Matt first?” Danny asked, as we headed back the way we’d came.

  “Yes please. If you don’t all mind waiting for a bit?” I directed my question to Lizzie.

  “Of course,” she replied.

  To be honest I wasn’t really looking where I was going. I was walking on autopilot back towards Matt, my mind on the woman and the car. She was driving me nuts, wanting to know who she was and what she was doing. And why. Let’s not forget why.

  I sighed as I stepped out between the cars and straight into a man who was hurrying along also not looking where he was going. We collided with such a force I was knocked backwards, tumbling into Danny.

  “Molly?” a familiar voice asked. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you okay?” The voice belonged to Tom, the barista from Café by the River, and he looked four shades of frazzled. His hair was messed, his shorts were dirty and his pupils were dilated.

  He held out his hand to steady me and I gratefully accepted his offer, smoothing my skirt back into place. It had kind of flipped up a little higher than was decent for a pregnant woman.

  “Oh hi! You were the last person I expected to see tonight.”

  “What are you doing out here?” he asked, his complexion changing from white to red with two quick breaths.

  “Just seeing how Matt is. What about you? Were you in the accident? Oh my God, are you okay?”

  “Yes. No. I mean, yes, I’m fine and no I wasn’t in the accident. I was here at night racing with some mates when we heard the accident. You weren’t in it, were you?” he asked, looking around our group. “You all look kind of shocked.”

  “Hey Tom,” they all sang in unison.

  “We’re fine. There was just someone we were hoping to chat to but she left before we could catch her.”

  He nodded knowledgeably. He still held my hand, his fingers hot and his palm clammy. Not that I was criticizing. I was sure mine didn’t feel all that great after the marathon I’d just run.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he asked. “How did you go finding out information about those photos?”

  “Ummm, that’s who we were chasing.” I hurriedly explained the woman in the green car. It seemed Tom was as caught up in our escapade as we were, as by the time I’d finished, his eyes were gleaming. And he still held my hand.

  “So, you think she’s the woman in the photos?” he asked.

  “Possibly. We think she’s a fa
n of Matt’s and she’s fangirling him. I was going to ask her to leave him alone. He’s taken.”

  “Molly! What are you doing here?” I startled as the man himself walked up beside us, his voice loud and booming.

  I squealed and hurriedly pulled my hand from Tom’s, guilt swamping me for the third time in a short space of time.

  “Hey!” I trilled. “I just ran into Tom.”

  “Literally.” Tom laughed as he held eye contact with me.

  “Yes. I’m sorry about that,” I admitted, blinking rapidly.

  “It was no problem. I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt.”

  “Are you hurt?” Matt raced towards me, concern filling his eyes.

  “I’m fine. Danny caught me before I hit the ground.”

  “Yeah, and she’s getting heavier by the day,” Danny scoffed.

  I glared at him.

  “What? You are!”

  Humph.

  “What are you doing out here?” Matt asked. “I thought I said I’d see you tomorrow?”

  “Yes but the green wagon was following you and I tried to call you to tell you but your phone was switched off or not in a service area and then I left a message and then Danny suggested we come out here to tell you in person.” It all came out on a rush of air, no breaths and definitely no pauses. I sucked in some oxygen, as my family stood silently by.

  He looked suitably stunned. “Oh.”

  “For what it’s worth,” added Tom, “I think you did the right thing, Molly. If I suspected a member of the opposite sex was pursuing my partner, I’d want to know about it.”

  I gave Tom a grateful smile. Matt scowled. “Don’t you think I would have noticed the car?”

  I hesitated before answering. Matt was perceptive. He was smart and intelligent and could figure out even the hardest Sudoku, but at times he could be totally oblivious to something right in front of him.

  After a moment of agonizing silence, he shook his head. “Don’t answer that.”

  “I’m sorry. But you don’t always see things. Like the other day, you didn’t see that post in front of your car, or last week you didn’t see the huge puddle, and what about the woman with the wheelie walker? You definitely didn’t see her.”

  “What woman with a wheelie walker?” Danny piped up.