TICK TOCK RUN (Romantic Mystery Suspense) (14 page)

“Your keys?”  Lee said.

“Stuff that.”  I threw them to him anyway.  “Let’s take your car,” I said, as he locked my front door.  “That’s what people do, right?  Switch vehicles when they’re being tailed.”

Lee pointed a fob at his Leon.  It beeped and the headlights flashed. 

I slammed down into the passenger seat.  As soon as Lee opened his door and sat down, I banged the dashboard with my palm.  “Step on it!”

Lee threw my clothes and keys onto my lap and then turned the engine on.  A dreadful thought leapt into my head as he released the handbrake.  I gasped and turned, expecting to find a balaclava-wearing madman waving the missing steak knife in the back.

It was empty. Phew.  I slammed back against the seat.

Tyres screeched on tarmac as he shifted into first and sped off. 

“Hold on tight,” he rasped, skidding out of my street. 

His daredevil driving had me clamping the seat, although I didn’t want him to slow down.  He took the second corner at high speed.  Packets of gum slid off the dash and a bottle rolled around in the footwell. 

“Anyone following?”

I looked behind.  “Er, no.  I don’t think so.”

All I wanted was to be somewhere else, somewhere safe.  Now that my home had been invaded, I felt more vulnerable than ever.  A nightmare was closing in on me, like the whole town was one dark room with fast shrinking walls. 

While we raced through the streets, I saw death on every corner.  The words may as well have been stamped across my inner eyelids like a logo.  Someone in a smart suit was swinging a long slender object. 

“What’s that in his hand?”

“Relax,” Lee said.  “It’s just an umbrella.”

It looked like a sawn-off shotgun.  A child threw a tennis ball into the air, it seemed like a hand grenade at first.  I didn’t need any more reminders that I was in trouble.  The message in my bathroom had done enough.  Something inside the car beeped, making me jump.  I scanned the interior of Lee’s car, wanting to hide my face under some ingenious disguise.  But there was little even the most creative of people could do with a packet of gum and Bart Simpson air freshener.

“Take a different route,” I said.

“I already am.”  Lee’s answer came short and fast.  His face was a tight mask of concentration. 

I searched out of every window, clocking the cars, checking for a tail.  My eyes were so full of tears it was like looking through warped glass. 

“Almost there,” Lee said.  “Hold on a little longer.”

I wiped my eyes and nodded to myself, certain I hadn’t seen the same car twice in the last five minutes.  Only then did I take my eyes off the streets to wriggle into my jeans and slip my shoes on.  I pulled my phone out of my bag.  “Damn it!”  My mobile was dead altogether now.  I had to phone the police, and warn Laura. 

Lee slowed down and pointed at a white door with a little window, but didn’t stop outside.  “We’ll park further up the street, just to be sure.”  He glanced into the rear-view mirror. 

“I don’t think anyone followed us,” I said.  “I’ve been watching.”

Lee’s street was easily busier than mine.  Two-story narrow houses stood together like an over-stuffed bookcase.  Cars were parked bumper to bumper with only a few empty gaps between them.  Anyone could have been spying on me.  It was hard to know who to look at. 

As the car slowed, my nerves kick-started again.  Although I wasn’t cold, my body shivered nearly enough for my teeth to chatter.  I didn’t need anyone to tell me it was scary.  If someone knew I’d gone to Lee’s then I wasn’t safe here either.

Lee pulled to the curb.  “Let’s go inside.”

The thought in my head that someone was watching me refused to budge, and therefore, so did my legs.  Someone was threatening to kill me.  I had every right to be on edge. Part of me felt like running to the hills and hiding out.  But if I did, how would I ever know it was over and safe to come home?  This maniac might just await my return. 

A line of traffic zipped past.  An elderly lady emerged from a house a few doors behind, strolling along as if time didn’t exist in her world.  I wished it didn’t in mine.

I stared into the wing mirror, waiting for her to pass so I wouldn’t hit her with the car door. 

Lee waited with me, walked his fingers along the dash.  “If I could get them to threaten me instead, Chelsea, I would.”

Shocked by his statement, I looked him in the eye.  “That’s so, so… nice.”

“It’s not,” he said, and shook his head.  “I just can’t bear to lose someone else.  I’m being selfish.”  He opened the car door and stepped onto the street. 

Staring at his butt, I wondered if there was another meaning behind his words.  On top of being nervous, I now felt confused.

CHAPTER 13

W
hen we reached Lee’s front door, he unlocked it and hurried me into the lounge. 

I pulled the charger out of my bag.  “I have to warn Laura.  Where’s your plug socket?” 

Lee pointed past the end of the sofa.

I crossed the room and rammed the plug into the holes, connected my mobile and waited.  I glanced at the curtains.  Wanting to draw them closed, I walked across the room and tugged at the fabric, but Lee set his hand on my arm.

“No,” he said.  “We need to see if anyone is watching.  Just try to stay away from the windows.  You’re a walking advert.”

I thought about it, then stepped away and nodded.

He lifted an eyebrow and squinted at the ceiling, suggesting he’d had a thought.  He didn’t share it. 

More concerned with contacting Laura in case someone was about to break into her house, I turned my attention back to my mobile.  “I should have known someone had been coming in and out of my house when my photos were in the wrong place and the table lamp kept switching on,” I muttered, waiting for my mobile to come to life. 

“When did you last use your bathroom?” Lee asked.

“Yesterday.  Someone must have broken in last night while I was at Laura’s.”

The screen lit up, and I pressed the call button.

Laura answered on the third ring.  “Hey, Chelsea.”

“Someone’s been in my house, Laura.”

“Eh?”

“It’s a mess.  There’s swearing... writing... ‘you’ll pay, slag.’  And my own goddamn steak—”

“Jesus, Chelsea.  You’re kidding!”

“No.  Quiet a second.  I need to—“

“Where are you?”

“At Lee’s.  Just listen, will you?  Look, I spoke to the police earlier, but we’ve got less time left than we thought.  My timer runs out before yours.  Tomorrow night.”

“Really?  Oh, Christ!  So who was in your house?  When?”

Panic shrivelled my voice.  I needed Laura to be safe.  “I want you to go to Emma’s or your aunt’s.  Anywhere.  Just go!  This is not a prank, not a virus.  It’s definitely a death threat.”

“I’m fine here,” she said, bringing her voice down.  “Paul’s home.  I’ll ask him not to go to the gym.  We’ll lock up and put the alarm on.  It’s like Fort Knox here, remember?  You sound terrible.  Come to my place.”

“No.  It’s too dangerous if we’re together.  Makes it easy for them to get to both of us.  Listen, do you still have my house key, Laura?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Hold on.”  There was a pause.  “Yes.  It’s here on the same keyring as mine.  Did someone use a key to get in?”

“I think so.  I’ll phone you later.  I need to get in touch with Officer Baines.  Stay alert.”  I hung up. 

“Is she safe?” Lee asked.

CHAPTER 14

A
fter the police collected my house key to give to the forensics team, I stomped back into Lee’s kitchen. 

He pulled me away from the worktop before my fist slammed down on the crockery stack.  I found myself draped over him.  His strong arms felt like an armour casing around me, keeping me safe.  I hadn’t realised how much I needed someone’s touch, until now.  His warmth took the edge off the tension like a shot of tequila. 

A moment later, he spun me around and rubbed my shoulders through the dressing gown.  I closed my eyes and pictured myself weighted down in a rising tide - the water swelling up to my chin while I waited helplessly for the inevitable. 

Exactly how bad were things going to get?

Lee let go of me and started making tea.  Steam rose in grey twists from the spout of the kettle.  

“The British way of solving problems,” I muttered.  “Let’s hope it works, though I could do with something stronger.”

Once in the lounge, Lee ordered takeout and handed me one of his t-shirts and a blanket so I wouldn’t have to stay in my dressing gown.  I draped the t-shirt over the back of the sofa, but wrapped myself in the blanket like a sick person.  “Thanks,” I whispered.  “You’re being too good to me.”

He sat beside me.  “You need to warm up before you catch your dea—”

I pretended not to hear his remark. 

 “Sorry.”  He switched the TV on.  “Let’s have some time out.” 

I curled my legs underneath me on the sofa and stared around his room.  The black curtains matched the plump leather sofas which had silver over-stuffed cushions on each end.  I stroked the soft fabric.  “It’s like sitting inside the pages of a style magazine.  Puts my house to shame.”

“I like your place.  It’s cosy.”

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘battered.’”  I pointed at the large canvas above his fireplace.  “That would suit my house.  I bet I could kick tins of paint over a canvas and sign the corner.” 

Lee laughed.

Once this horrid week was out of the way, and as soon as Laura had become Mrs Johnson, I’d get my own life back in order and spruce up my home.

My gaze lowered to a group of photo frames resting on the hearth.  The largest stood proudly on the left in a shiny, black frame.  Not even a speckle of dust tainted its surface.

I pointed.  “Is that your brother?”

He blew into his mug.  “Yes.” 

I couldn’t help taking a second look.  The photo was much clearer than the snapshot from his wallet.  Daryl had very short, dark hair, a sharp jaw-line and deep-set eyes.  His face fascinated me because I assumed I should know him.  “He’s handsome.  I can think of three friends who would have gone for him.”

Lee shrugged.  “I never looked at him like that.  But I guess you could say he was nice looking.”

I glanced between the photo and Lee.  “I can see the resemblance.”

His lips twitched, and then he smiled.

I leaned over the coffee table and thumbed through the perfectly stacked men’s health and style magazines and cinema booklets while I finished my drink.  A movie buff.  Great.  “Where do you work, Lee?  We’re spending all this time together, yet I hardly know a thing about you.”

“At Jackson’s Printers.  I’m one of the managers.  I deal with the clients, polish designs on the computer, that sort of thing.”