It Started With A House: Lizzie. Book 1 (The Westport Mysteries) (7 page)

By the time I got
back to my front door, I was green from the knees down. Every time I tried to
wipe them off, they just stuck to my hands. Flicking my fingers to try to get
rid of the bloody things, I thought maybe throwing these jeans away might be a
good idea. I didn’t think I’d ever get all those grass seeds off. Now, I know
the inside of my house is a bit of a mess but I didn’t want grass seeds
everywhere, so I decided I would take my jeans off outside and quickly run
upstairs to my bedroom for a clean pair. Riley was safely in the attic so I
didn’t need to worry about running into him. Checking all the neighbors were
safely in their houses, I slipped out of my jeans. I stepped through the open front
door and was heading for the stairs when my phone rang.

Damn, I hated
leaving a ringing phone. Thinking I could quickly grab it and run upstairs
while I spoke, I went searching for it. Now where did I leave it?

I could hear it
ringing louder as I moved into the kitchen and that’s when I remembered I had
left it in my purse from last night. Picking it up, I saw it was my mother.

“Hello,” I
answered.

“Hel…are…there…Liz…”
Damn signal. I moved out to the hallway to try to get a better reception.

“Hello. Can you
hear me now?” I asked. If I stood near the front door the signal improved.

“Oh yes. Now I
can hear you. Where are you, love?” asked Mum. My mum calls everybody
Love
. She really is the sweetest lady. She’s
all of 4 foot 7 inches tall, a tad plump and has short brown, curly hair she
styles in an Afro. However, don’t always be fooled by her exterior—she
has a seriously bad temper if you push the right buttons.

“Hi Mum. What’s
up?”

“Well I was
thinking, seeing how we haven’t seen your new house since you’ve moved in, I
would bring Grandma Mabel over for a visit.”

“That would be
great.” I actually loved Grandma Mabel. As I mentioned earlier she is a bit of
a wild card but you were never bored when she was around. My Grandpop passed
away when I was really young and she’d lived alone up until last year when she
moved in with Mum and Dad. I listened as Mum started to tell me about how she
and Auntie M were redecorating her lounge room but I lost concentration when I
spotted something under the bottom stair. Kneeling down, I bent over to have a
closer look.

What the hell
was that? Squinting into the darkness, trying to get a grasp on what I was
looking at, I quickly realized it was a rat. A very large rat—and, as I
was on my hands and knees, it was now only inches from my face. So close in
fact, I could see its beady little eyes and twitchy little whiskers.

“Ahhhhhh!” I
screamed, jumping up at record speed.

“What? What is
it, love? Are you okay?” Those were the last words I heard from Mum because I think
I lost signal when I threw my phone at the rodent hunkered down under the stair.

“Ahh! Get out,
Get out!” I screamed, running in circles, looking for something to stand on. I
did
not
want that furry little thing
running over my feet and up my legs, thank you very much. Seconds later, Riley
came running down the stairs.

“What is it? What’s
wrong?”

“There’s a rat!
Under there!” I yelled, pointing to the stair, hopping from one foot to the
other. Riley bent down, reached under the stair and pulled out the rat by its
tail. It squeaked and squealed but he casually opened the front door and threw
it outside. Just like that.

I was
hyperventilating at this point and had started to shake. I hate rodents. And
where the bloody hell was that cat? I was obviously feeding him too well.

“Are you okay?”
Riley smiled, looking down at me. “And why are your pants outside?”

Damn. In my
panic about the rat I had forgotten all I was wearing were my underpants and a
singlet top. Luckily for me though, I had put on my good Victoria Secret panties
and not my big old period panties. I’m not sure whether it was seeing me in my
underwear or seeing me dance around like a mad woman, but Riley seemed to be in
a better mood. Probably it was the latter.

“I’m fine,
thank you.” With that I turned and walked upstairs towards my bedroom with as much
dignity as I could muster.

Chapter Seven

Mum
and Grandma Mabel arrived within the hour. I watched from the door as a Mum
helped Grandma from the car and she shuffled her way towards me. When she was
younger, Grandma Mabel was extremely beautiful. I’ve seen old family photos of
her and she stood tall with jet black eyes, curly black hair right down her
back, and an absolutely killer of a figure. Age had not been kind to Grandma,
though. She’d gotten shorter as she got older and she now stood with a hunch. Her
jet black eyes had lost their shine and become watery. Her once long black hair
was grey and short, permed into tight curls and given a purple rinse once a
week at Danny’s salon. Her spirit never changed though. She still had fire in
those watery eyes.

Standing in the
kitchen, looking at Riley, swishing her false teeth backwards and forwards in
her mouth, it wasn’t hard to guess what she was thinking.

“You’re lucky
I’m not twenty years younger, young man. I’d be chasing after you, I can tell
you that,” she said with a serious look.

Twenty years?
Really? Someone needs to remind her she’s eighty-two. Riley seemed to take this
all in his stride though.

“You’re lucky
I’m not twenty years older,” he replied, giving her the killer grin. He actually
seemed to be enjoying her. Funny, Scott never liked Mabel that much. He always
thought she was a danger to herself and everyone around her.

“I should take
you down the Bingo hall. My, how the girls would like you,” she grinned.

“I should warn
you I’m a shark at Bingo. I used to take my Gran once a week to St Pat’s,” he
told Grandma.

“St Pat’s? You
got to watch those girls over there. They cheat!” she stated, crossing her arms
over her chest in a movement that obviously said
do not mess with me, I know what I’m talking about.

“Mum! You can’t
say that!” My mum looked up from petting Cat. They had made an instant bond the
second she walked in the door.

“I can if it’s true,” glared Grandma. “And
you should know Nelle, because you were there.” Grandma always called Mum Nelle—she
pronounced it Nelly. When I was younger I never understood why until Mum
explained it was her name, Ellen, spelt backwards.

“Mum, Riley just told you his Gran plays
there. That’s like saying she’s a cheat,” scolded my Mum.

“Oh….well,”
thought Grandma Mabel. “Maybe I should rephrase that. All the girls except
Riley’s gran are cheats. There, that better?” she asked, looking around at us
for confirmation.

We all turned
to look at Riley. He was smiling, so we took this a yes.

“Well, as much
as I’m enjoying this, I really should get back to work. You’re not paying me to
sit on my backside.” This was true. I would much rather see Riley standing
where I could see his backside. Riley stood and put his cup in the sink.

“I’ll see you
at St Joey’s tomorrow night then, will I?” asked Grandma with a cheeky grin.

“You might just,
Mabel. Should I ask for you at the door?”

“Dear God,
don’t encourage her,” I said to Riley as he walked past, giving me a wink. Once
he was clearly out of earshot, Grandma turned to me and gave me a very wicked
smile.

“You kept very
quiet about him, girly,” she said.

“There’s
nothing to be quiet about. He’s just doing some work for me. I will admit
though, I am enjoying his company.” No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep
the smile off my face.

“It’s not his
company you’re enjoying,” she said, grinning back at me.

“Well, he seems
like a very nice man, but let’s not forget you do have a wonderful boyfriend. Even
if he is a little slow in asking you to marry him,” said Mum. She was always
hoping Scott would propose. Mum’s on a mission to get one of her children
married. As Danny is gay and Molly is currently single, all the attention was
on me.

“Mum, I keep
telling you Scott and I are happy with the way things are. Anyway, you only
want me married for the grandchildren.”

“That’s not
true. I just think Scott is a lovely man with a wonderful job. He could provide
for you nicely. You could do a lot worse you know, Love.”

“Yes, I’m well
aware of that Mum,” I huffed. Scott told me at every opportunity he had I was
lucky to have him. I mean, of course I know that, but did I have to be reminded
all the bloody time.

* * * *

After
they left I decided to do some research on Avis. I now had Internet thanks to a
lovely man who had come yesterday afternoon and connected me. It was amazing. Just
like magic, contractors arrived and fixed things. Like the man who was on my
roof fixing the broken tiles, and the plumber who had arrived and fixed my
disgusting water. I somehow think I needed to thank Riley for this. He really is
amazing.

Pulling my
laptop out of its bag, I googled the name of the nursing home Allen had given
me. It turns out it wasn’t too far from here, so I gave them a ring and set up
an appointment for tomorrow to talk to the facility manager about Avis. While I
had Google open, I decided to type in Riley’s name and see what I find.

To my surprise
I found one match. It was a photo taken at a society wedding, and he was
mentioned as the Best Man and brother of the Groom. Wow, he looked really good
in this photo. I should save it and use it as a screen saver. No, that’s
probably a bit creepy, I mean, what would happen if Riley saw it one day?

Thinking about
him made me realize I really didn’t know much about him. I knew he lived in a
converted church, not too far from here and I knew he loved his Gran. I had
also found out he was ex-military and had decided to become a builder when he
left the army. He was now running a successful, if not overly profitable,
business.

“Hey Lizzie,
I’m finishing early today,” Riley said from behind me. I nearly jumped out of
my skin.

What’s with him
sneaking up on me all the time? I think I’ll have to put a bell on him or
something. I quickly shut the lid on my laptop and hoped he hadn’t seen I was Googling
him.

“I have an
appointment I have to keep this afternoon so I need to go home and get ready.”

“Oh, okay,” I
said a bit flustered. “I’ve been meaning to thank you for organizing all of the
contractors and getting things fixed around here. I know I was supposed to do
that and I haven’t been very organized. Sorry.” I gave him my best apologetic
grin.

“That’s fine. I
know all these guys anyway, so they’re going to give you a good rate. It’s no
problem.” He smiled. Would I ever get immune to that smile? I didn’t think so.

“I’ve set up an
appointment to meet the facility manager at Allora Lodge Nursing Home tomorrow
morning at ten to see what I can find out about Avis,” I said, trying to encourage
conversation. I may not be immune to his smile but at least now I could put
thoughts together after seeing it.

“Really? Would
you mind if I tagged along?”

Would I mind? Now
let me think about that for a moment…“Sure that would be great.” Stupid question.
Of course I didn’t mind. “You might think of some questions I wouldn’t have
thought of asking.”

“Ok,
it’s a date.”

Not a
real date of course, as I was currently attached to Scott and let’s face it,
Riley would never be interested in someone like me, but I was happy to take
what I could get and just looking at his gorgeous face made me happy.

* * * *

After
Riley left, I had a quick tidy up. Not that you would really notice since I
still had a heap of unpacked boxes lying around and really the house was old
and decrepit still. No amount of cleaning would fix that. Walking into the
kitchen, I opened the broom cupboard to put the broom away and as I turned back
towards the window, I noticed a shadow pass across it.

That was strange.
I wasn’t expecting anyone.

Crossing the
room, I pulled back the old blinds and looked out to the street. Car still in
the driveway, black sedan still parked across the street. No-one was walking
around though. I must be imagining things.

Turning back to
the kitchen cupboard, I finished putting the cleaning products away but my eyes
kept darting back to the front window. A strange prickly feeling ran up my
spine and, when I saw the face looking back at me through the slats in the
blinds, I nearly wet my pants. Strangling a scream, I jumped up and ran over. By
the time I got there, whoever it was…was gone. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to
open the front door and check to see who was there or not. It was the middle of
the afternoon, but it all just felt so creepy. I did check the lock was firmly
in place though.

Why would
someone be looking in my windows? Maybe it was my neighbor Helen checking to
see what I was up too. It didn’t look like Helen though. The person looking in
the window was too tall to be Helen. Rubbing the Goosebumps off my arms, I
walked back into the kitchen and checked the lock on the back door as well. Just
to be sure.

With all the
cleaning done, I could sit back and wait. Friday night was my night to catch up
with Molly, Danny and his partner, Andrew. We had been making Friday nights a
bit of a ritual and I loved the nights we went to Danny and Andrew’s. They
lived above the salon and we would get all the treatments out and spoil
ourselves. But tonight, they were all coming to my place. That was okay with
me, Andrew hadn’t had the chance to come over and see the house yet. I really
liked Andrew. He’s a lot older than Danny—about seventeen years I think—but
he’s a good, grounding influence on my brother, who can tend to be a bit
flighty. Tonight also gave me the opportunity to show off all the work that had
been done. Riley worked really fast. He’d stripped all the wallpaper off of the
walls in the attic and had already started to build the new walls of my
storeroom and bathroom we were putting in up there. The panic I had previously
felt about not getting the office finished in time, subsided. I wouldn’t have
to explain to Scott why I wasn’t ready for his client files. Riley was more
than worth every cent I was paying him.

Checking the
alcohol level in my pantry, I soon realized a trip to the local bottle shop was
needed. Somehow, I didn’t think the half bottle of cooking wine was going to be
sufficient for my siblings. Getting into my car, I reversed out of my drive and
screamed off in the direction of the shops. I think you already get the idea I
don’t really drive very slowly. I don’t go over the speed limit very often, but
I’m more than happy to reach that limit as quickly as possible. I am a safe
driver though. I’ve only ever had one accident in my life and it wasn’t my
fault the poor cow decided to cross the road as I was tearing around the
corner. Anyway, let’s just say the cow came off a lot better than my car did.

Slowing down as
I looked for a parking bay, I just managed to swerve out of the way of the car
reversing out of its bay. The car behind me was not so fortunate, though. I
heard the smash of metal and plastic as the two collided.

Thinking I
should probably make sure everybody was okay, I pulled into the next available
car park and ran back the twenty meters or so to the scene of the accident. By
the time I got there, the older man was out of his car and shaking his fist at
the driver of the other vehicle. Really looking at the other car for the first
time, I realized it was my neighbor, the one who always parked in stupid places.

I approached
the two men, who were now arguing and asked if everyone was okay. My neighbor
looked at me and paled slightly.

“Maybe you
should sit down,” I offered. The last thing I wanted was for a large man like
himself to pass out in the middle of the street. He looked to be in his
forties, was wearing a cap over a shaved head and a gold sleeper in one ear. I
thought he looked like he’d be quite scary if you met him in a dark alleyway. I
started to think maybe he could park wherever he wanted to. There was something
about him that looked familiar though.

The old guy
didn’t seem fazed by his size, just kept shaking his fist and ranting about
young drivers these days.

“No, I’m fine.”
He turned back to the old man, pulling his wallet out of his pocket. Handing
the older man several hundred dollar notes, he got back in his car and drove
away. This obviously appeased the old man as he got back into his car and did
the same.

Ok, from where
I was standing it looked like the old man should be paying him but who was I to
argue. Left standing alone in the middle of the street, I wondered why the hell
I’d bothered. Surely the bald-headed guy had to have realized we were neighbors?
You would think manners alone would have stated he at least thank me for caring
enough to enquire if he was okay. Huffing, I spun on my heel and headed to the
bottle shop.

* * * *

I
probably should have phoned Danny and got him to bring the wine, as I wasn’t
really the most qualified to buy alcohol. Danny always teased me about how half
a glass of wine would get me drunk. I mean, as if! I was not that light weight
a drinker—a full glass maybe, but definitely not half a glass.