Persona (The 'Professional' series) (11 page)

Daniel was
too pumped up to sleep.  He tried to appear calm for Ella, enough for her
to get to sleep, but he couldn’t.  The danger hadn’t passed. He needed to
be alert just in case. 

He was
hoping that Eric didn’t walk in on Lindsey, hopefully his date would keep out
late.  He lifted his head slightly and looked at Ella, quietly sleeping on
his arm.  He smiled to himself. Why was it whenever he got Ella near a
bedroom, she was asleep within minutes?   He pulled her closer. 
Her bum gave a slight wiggle against him.  On second thoughts, perhaps it
was a good thing that she had fallen straight to sleep, she was warming him up
very fast.

Daniel’s
eyelids started dropping, his eyeballs were dry.  He had been awake for
hours now, waiting for a noise, anything.  The only noises now came from
Ella’s shallow breathing. 

She had
tried to wiggle away from him a couple of times during her sleep, but he had
pulled her softness back into his hard body.  Her body was so close he
could smell the fruity toiletries that she seemed to use.  She always
smelled fresh and fruity.  She didn’t seem to go for the heavy scents that
a lot of women seemed to like. 

The only
good thing to come out of this mess was that he got to spend the night with
Ella in his arms.  Daniel blinked his grainy eyes.  He noticed dawn
was breaking.  It was getting lighter.  Surely, Lindsey would be gone
by now? 

He relaxed a
little.  He would give it ten more minutes and then carefully check if she
was still around.  He took a big breath in, unable to keep his eyes open
any longer and fell asleep.

Ella woke up
to banging on the bedroom door. 

She had no
idea what time it was.  She was terrified again.  She nudged Daniel,
who within seconds, was wide awake.  He put his hand over her mouth to
keep her quiet so he could listen.

“Daniel?
Daniel, Ella what’s happened?  It’s Eric.”  The banging grew more
frantic.

They both
tried to scramble out of the bath, the tangle of the duvet making things
awkward.  Daniel got out first and held his hand out to help Ella.

“Eric, thank
God.”  He unlocked the door and threw it open.  “Are we glad to see
you or what!”

Eric took in
the scene, Daniel naked apart from underpants, Ella with a duvet wrapped around
her, both walking from her bedroom.   “Um, I’m sorry.  Have I
interrupted something?”

“Goodness, no!”
exclaimed Ella going red.  She needed to gather her thoughts. She could
feel her body start to shake with shock or relief, she didn’t know. “I’ll let
Daniel explain. I need a minute or two.”

“Not yet,
you don’t.”  Daniel grabbed the corner of the duvet and pulled her back
against his chest.  Ella was spun back and pulled against his solid chest
in one motion.  He hugged her and kissed her hair, his warm breath was
disturbing her.  

“You’re
shaking. You are safe now.  I’m going to call the police.  Don’t you
worry.”  He kissed her forehead and took a step back holding her shoulders
lightly. Desire, that had smouldered through his eyes as it swept possessively
over her, was quickly squashed.  “Now you can go and have a lie
down.”  He had needed that hug as much as her, or if truth be told, even
more.

He watched
her make her way to her room.  He turned towards Eric who was looking at
him with a puzzled expression on his face. “You will not believe what happened
last night.”

Eric arched
his eyebrow and made a sweeping gesture with his arm at the broken lamps and
mess in the room. “Do I really need to know?”

“It isn’t
how it looks.  Now sit down while I call the Police.  Then I will
tell you all about my stalker, Lindsey.”

Eric’s mouth
dropped open. “No, not Stalker X.”

~~~~

A couple of
hours later the Police left.  Ella started to tidy up the room.  She
needed something to do, she did not want to think too much about what had
happened.  She didn’t want to be reminded that there was a psycho woman
out there who thought she was a whore.  She also didn’t want to think how
safe she had felt in Daniel’s arms.  She rubbed her hands together and
jumped when she heard the intercom.  

“It’s
okay.”  Daniel massaged her arms and held on to one of her hands when he
answered. 

The guard’s
voice boomed out. “Sorry to bother you Mr Spittle, but there is a Mr Jeff
Williams down here to see Miss Ella Hender.  Shall I send him up?”

Ella noticed
the increased pressure of Daniel’s grip.  “Yes, of course.  Send him
up.”  He let go of her fingers and Ella keenly felt the loss of them.

Jeff came
running in the door and ran straight up to Ella, enclosing her in a hug. 
“Christ, Ella.  Are you OK?  Eric phoned to tell me what
happened.  I drove straight up.”  Ella was stuck for words.

Daniel
looked at Eric, his eyes narrowing.  Eric merely shrugged his shoulders.

Jeff looked
around at Daniel, his eyes looked frantic.  “Look Mr Spittle, I am sure
under the circumstances you will not mind Ella coming back home for a couple of
days, or until at least that woman is caught.”

Daniel
looked towards Ella.  The last thing he wanted was to let her out of his
sight, but what could he do?  He sighed, suddenly feeling very tired and
very defeated.  “Of course.” 

He turned
towards her.  “Ella take as long as you need.  You can start back on
your assignment whenever you want.   I am sure we can work something
out.  We can have the extra time added on at the end if you want.  Or
another reporter could be sent, if you prefer? Now if you don’t mind, after all
the excitement I need to get some sleep.”  He really couldn’t watch Ella
leave again.

~~~~

The car
drive home seemed endless.  Ella felt as though she had left her heart
back in Daniel’s apartment.  It all seemed so helpless. She was in love
with someone who would never love her back. She stared out of the window,
avoiding conversation with Jeff.  He left her alone, thinking she was
sleeping and he had turned the radio on low. 

Her heart
dropped as Jeff parked outside the apartment block.  Back home.  Jeff
told her to sit where she was.  She watched as he went around the front of
the car and opened her door for her.  He held out his hand to help her out
of the car. Crumbs, that was a first. He was usually standing waiting to lock
the car doors, while she was struggling with the bags.  Perhaps he had
turned over a new leaf?  Now she felt really guilty.

Daniel put
the phone back down into the receiver.  Still no news about Lindsey. The
Police had not found her yet.  He walked to the window and noticed the
Police car patrolling outside his apartment.  He expected the same scene
outside Ella’s window.

He rubbed
his hand over his mouth and chin, vaguely noticing the growth of stubble. 
He hadn’t needed to shave since Ella left as he hadn’t left the
apartment.   

Eric had
talked to him last night.  He hadn’t wanted to listen, but he knew he had
to pull himself together.  But, he figured, a little pity ‘down time’
never hurt anyone.  If he wanted to wallow, he would wallow.  He had
never felt this way before.  So, he was going to have his couple of days
and then pull himself back to being Daniel Spittle, actor.

He rubbed
his chin again.  Perhaps he did need a shave and shower.  Christ, he
had taken plenty of cold showers when Ella was around. 

Eric’s wise
words came back, his friend was right.  Daniel knew what he was going to
do.  He was going to shower, shave, go out for dinner with his friend,
have a few beers, come home to bed and then get back to normal.  Time for
feeling sorry for himself was over.  Anyway, self-pity did not suit him.

~~~~

 “SShhhhh!”
 Daniel put his finger up to his mouth as he fell through the door,
pulling Eric with him.

Eric, trying
to hold up his friend, searched for the light switch.  “What do you mean
sshhhh
,
there is no one here!”  He laughed at his friend. 

They had a
good time tonight, perhaps too much to drink, but a great time.  Eric
thought he had upset Daniel with
that
talk the night before, but luckily
it seemed to have had an effect on him.  

Eric wasn’t
daft, he knew his friend was in love with Ella.  Perhaps, in different
circumstances, she would have been the ideal partner for him.  But until
she made her own choices, all Eric could do was be there for his friend. 
Hell, perhaps she would always be known as the ‘one that got away’. 

“One
nightcap?”  Daniel slurred.

“No, I’m off
to bed.” Eric answered.  The exertion of helping his friend home, and the
alcohol, now making things a little dizzy.  “I’ve had enough,
thanks.  See you in the morning.”  He looked back at his friend who
already was lying back on the chair.  “You make sure you go to bed. 
Don’t fall asleep there.”  It looked as though he was already asleep. Eric
sighed and went to bed.

Daniel
folded his hands together over his stomach and wriggled deeper into the chair
to get comfortable. 
Mmmm, quite comfortable
.   A brief
thought went through his head that he would actually get a better sleep on the
chair, than in his bed.  All he seemed to do in bed was think of
Ella.  It must be the whiffs of her bubble bath that tormented his sleep.

He sat up
quickly, the room taking a little tilt.  Ella.  Yes, he would phone
Ella.  He had left her alone so far, but it would be the right thing to do
to tell her about the Police enquiry, wouldn’t it?  His alcohol addled
brain made the decision easy.  He picked up his mobile and phoned.

~~~~

Ella was
staring at the ceiling listening to Jeff quietly snore. The gap between them
felt like a gulf stream. Crumbs, what a mess.

She thought
back to a couple of days ago, when the house phone had rung.  She had
picked it up, hoping that it was Daniel, but the line had just gone dead. 
It had happened periodically through the day.  Jeff was in work and she
started to get a little scared. 

The
information from the Police, sitting outside her apartment, was that Lindsey
hadn’t yet been caught.  There was a chance that the calls were from
Lindsey.  She was a secretary after all and could have easily got her
details off Daniel’s agent.  Ella had gone outside to the patrol car and
passed the information to the police. 

A couple of
days later, they had come back to her.  The phone calls were from a Miss
Claire O’Neill. 
Did she know her?
  The Police had asked
her.  She had rattled her brain.  Didn’t Jeff work with a Claire O’Neill? 
She had told the Police that she had no idea who she was.  They informed
her they would speak to Miss O’Neill.  Ella suddenly had the feeling she
needed to speak to Jeff when he returned from work.

Jeff had
come back from work with another bunch of flowers.  He had brought one
home every day since she had returned home.  It was something that he
never normally did, but Ella had liked it, she had thought it was sweet of him,
a side she hadn’t seen in a long time. 

This time,
when she had taken the flowers, she felt really guilty as she knew what she was
going to do.  She put the flowers in a vase, gave him a sweet peck on the
cheek, took his jacket (which she was hoping contained his mobile phone) and
sent him off to the shower before she served dinner.   

She held her
breath while waiting for the shower to start.  Ella grabbed his jacket,
her hands shaking, to find his mobile.  She searched the mail
archives.  Bingo.  Tears started silently falling.  Message
after message, signed, not with a name, just
C
.   Sexy texts,
loving words, but more recently begging messages, which Ella noticed coincided
with the time of the ‘psycho’ incident, as she now called it. 

She looked
at the phone in her hand.  He was an intelligent man for goodness sake,
was he so confident that she would never look at his phone, not to delete
them?  Did he spend evenings when he wasn’t with
C
rereading
them? 

Ella tried
to get a grip on how she felt. Upset? Devastated?  No, more like empty.
She heard the shower water switch off.  Not long before she had to deal
with him.  She stirred the curry she had made on the stove.

~~~~

Tears fell
and hit her pillow.  After a little back peddling, Jeff had finally
admitted that he had gotten involved with Claire from work.  He had
insisted that when he had heard that Ella nearly died at the hands of a psycho,
he had realised that he loved her, not Claire. 

They had
argued, cried, sulked and then ended up in bed together.  That was the
situation now, Jeff sleeping and Ella realising that even the make-up sex did
not help.  She felt emptier than ever.  She now knew, one hundred per
cent, that her relationship with Jeff was over. 

She heard
her phone vibrate and quickly picked it up off her side table, checking to see
that Jeff hadn’t been disturbed.

“Hello,
ssshhhh.  Did I wake you up?” Daniel slurred down the phone.