TICK TOCK RUN (Romantic Mystery Suspense) (36 page)

The hairdresser smiled, looking up from a client whose hair was reaching for the ceiling in squares of silver foil.  “Can I help?”

“Sorry to bother you,” I said.  “I noticed you have a surveillance camera outside.  Does it work?”

“Yes it does.  Why?  Has something happened?”

“Nothing to worry about.  It’s a private matter.  Do you think you still have footage of March 10
^th
?”

The hairdresser frowned.  “I’d have to check.  But as you can see I’m very busy today.  Besides, I can’t just hand my discs to a stranger.  Sorry.”  She turned away, checked the hair foils then offered hot drinks and magazines around.

I get it
.  She’s only attentive to clients.  I wished I had the reporter props I’d used on Laura’s hen night.  She might not have ignored me then.  “I’d like to book an appointment.  A cut and dry.”

The hairdresser’s eyebrows shot up when she glanced at me.

I pulled my hair in front of my face and examined it.  “Or maybe highlights.”

She stepped behind the reception desk and opened a large diary.  “Next Thursday suit you?  Four-thirty?”

“Great.” 

She pushed an index card my way.  “Fill this in.”

I scribbled my contact details then glanced up.  “So... about that footage.  March 10
^th
.”

She heaved a sigh.

I produced my driver’s licence from my purse and pushed it across the desk.  “Look.  That’s me, Chelsea Denham, and here’s proof of my address.”

She checked my details against the customer card I’d filled in.

I pointed out the window as the door bell chimed behind me.  “I’m at a friend’s house across the street.  Number twenty-six.  We think someone’s been spying on the house.  You can watch me walk over there if you want to make sure.  I swear I’m not lying.  I just need to view the footage from March 10
^th,
if you still have it.  I’ll give you the disc straight back.”

“Not late, am I?” a chirpy female said from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder.

“Oh, hi, Chelsea.”  It was Mrs Sanders, a dental nurse from the same place where I worked.  “Having your hair done, too?”

“Making an appointment.  I didn’t know you lived round here.” 

“Enjoying your week off?”

I hesitated.  “Erm... yes, absolutely.”  I faced the hairdresser again and stared smugly, pleased my identity had been confirmed.

She regarded Mrs Sanders, and the other customers who were staring at us, then gave a humourless laugh.  “Wait here.”  She slipped into a back room and reappeared with a disc in hand. 

Hallelujah! 

She waved it at me.  “If it’s not been wiped, it’ll be on here.”  She paused before handing it over.  “I want it back.”

“Of course.  Thank you so much.”  I smiled, popped it in my bag and exited while saying to Mrs Sanders, “See you next week at work.”

Lee joined me on the street with a few DVDs in hand.  “No luck at the bakery.  These are from the newsagents.  He keeps the footage for a while, figuring burglars might case the joint beforehand.  How did you go?”

I patted my bag.  “I’ve got the disc.  It took a hair appointment to persuade her.”

Lee dangled a string of scratch cards in front of me.  “Plus, I told a few lies.  But it’s for a good cause.”

I laughed.

We crossed the street holding hands, then entered Daryl’s house again.  Lee dropped his discs in front of the flat screen, then slotted mine into the player.  He sat on the sofa.  I lowered myself onto the beige carpet.  Sitting between his legs gave me the best view possible.  It made the screen appear even bigger, like being in a small cinema, although, this was one movie marathon in which popcorn was not appropriate. 

“Before we trawl through these discs,” Lee said.  “There’s something I need to show you.”  He passed his mobile phone over my shoulder.  “Laura needs a hold over Mark in case it’s him blackmailing her, right?”

“Yeeesss,” I said, dubious.  I took the mobile and looked at the shocking image on its screen.  I leaned back between his legs, and flicked through several more photos in disbelief.  “What the f...”

All the images showed Mark standing under his front porch.  At first glance it looked like he was holding a pale-skinned person by the naked waist. 
Naked?
  I jerked forward, focused harder.  He was clearly holding some odd-looking, nude female. 

Actually, I was right.  It was female... of sorts. 

My mouth fell open.  I recognised it to be a life-size, blow-up doll.

I turned my head and looked at Lee, who was chewing on a matchstick.  “Is this for real?”

He pulled the stick out of his mouth, nodded, rested his chin on my shoulder and kissed my neck. 

I stared back at the photos, stunned.  “How in the world did you get your hands on these?  Why is he holding a doll at his front door?” 

“Put it this way, if you found something like that strapped to your house, wouldn’t you want to move it before the neighbours saw?”

“You set Mark up?”  I swivelled around to face him and patted his knee. 

“Kind of ironic, a twist on the photo he took of Daryl and Laura.  I obviously couldn’t get him to do their exact pose, but this turned out to be even better.”

“It’s brilliant.  You’re a genius.  He’s only half dressed which makes it look even worse.  One hand over her boob in this shot!”

“Not bad, eh?  I had fun watching.”

“But not as much fun as Mark had, once he got her inside.”  I chuckled.  “Did he spot you taking the photos?”

“Mark looked desperate as hell to get the doll in the house and out of sight from the neighbours.  I doubt he’d have even noticed a
real
naked woman in the street, let alone see me behind a tree trunk.”

“This is great,” I said with excitement.  “Let’s hope we catch him on these discs.  If it is Mark who’s blackmailing Laura, I’m pretty sure threatening to plaster these photos across town will make him back off.  It’d work for me.”

Lee smirked.  “Unless he wants to be the butt of jokes for a long, long time.  Actually, I’m hoping these photos will spark a reaction, get him to retaliate and reveal himself.”

“Mark’s not the sort to see the funny side in something like this.  His reputation is precious to him.  He’d crawl under a rock or move out of town rather than get sneered at.  So yes, I expect he’ll react.  Where did you get the doll?”  I paused, then held a finger in the air.  “No, wait.  I don’t want you to answer that.”

He laughed.  “I won’t then.”

I pushed myself up and gave him a kiss.  It was the least he deserved.  “So this was your stakeout?”

Lee circled my lips with his finger.  “Yes.  I had to have a damn good reason for leaving you alone in that cosy bed this morning.”

After bluetoothing the most embarrassing of the photos to my phone, I settled back on the carpet.

Lee pointed the remote at the player.  “Let’s see if we can spot him on a disc and end this thing.”

After a fuzzy start and sections of random dates, an image flashed onto the screen.  I spotted the date stamped in the upper corner, March 10
^th
, and tapped Lee’s leg.  “This is it.  But I can’t see Daryl’s house.”

“No, the camera’s pointing to the left.  Try to look for cars you recognise and focus on the driver and plates.  The photo was taken from inside a car, remember?”

I nodded.

Lee fast-forwarded the disc.  We knew the photos were taken sometime after Daryl’s dental appointment in the afternoon. 

A few grainy waves distorted the image.  No audio.  The camera shot one static angle.  We sat watching, the silence broken only by cars rolling down the street outside, providing the missing soundtrack.  Lee fiddled with my hair and rubbed my shoulders to stem the boredom.  He dotted ticklish kisses and softly nibbled the back of my neck every so often, which played havoc with my concentration. 

“Later,” I said playfully, pushing his face away.  “We might miss something important.”

Thirty fruitless minutes later, I began losing hope and my bottom was past numb.  I jumped up, sat next to Lee on the sofa, draped my legs over his thighs and began stroking his arm.  “I hope this isn’t going to turn out to be a waste of time.”  I sighed, wishing that snuggling up in a cinema was actually where we were.

“We won’t know until we watch them.”

Lee’s determination grew at the point that mine wavered.  He repeatedly stopped and started the footage, pausing on cars to focus on the driver and asking me to check the number plates.  Those that I could make out, I didn’t recognise. 

I wanted to watch the footage, but I hoped that Daryl didn’t star in it, concerned about Lee’s reaction to viewing his dead brother large as life on the big screen.

A hiccup in the footage gave way to a previous recording again.  Lee skipped the disc ahead, stopping when March 10
^th
came back.  I shuffled around to get more comfortable, then, suddenly, lurched forward in my seat.  “Freeze it!”  I pointed to the screen.  “There!  On the left.”

Lee jabbed the pause button. 

Squinting through the mottled freeze-frame, I studied the corner bonnet and bumper of a black car.  “That could be Laura’s BMW.  Press play again.”

The footage rolled on.  If it was Laura’s car, she’d parked a few houses away from Daryl’s, but then, I guessed it looked less suspicious if anyone spotted her in the area. 

My pulse came to life, wild and throbbing in anticipation.  I squeezed Lee’s thigh.  A few seconds later, Laura walked into view on the screen.  “That’s her.”  I jerked. 

The screen flashed, then blinked black.

“You’re kidding me!” I yelled. 

Lee speeded through the disc, but March 10
^th
didn’t return.  He faced me.  “Did you notice what Laura was wearing?”

“Yes.”  I shivered as I spoke.  “The grey studded jacket.”

“The one she’s wearing in the photo?”

I nodded.  “This could be moments before she meets Daryl and kisses him on the doorstep.”

We held each other’s gaze for a few seconds, then dived across the carpet and rummaged through the other discs.  “Which one?” I screeched, searching for a date that wasn’t crossed out. 

“Just try any.”

“Pick one.”

Lee snatched up a random disc.  We came together in the middle of the room on our knees.

He waved the silver disc in the air near my face.  “We’re close,” he said, a smile creeping onto his lips.  “If one of these discs contains March 10th, we just might spot whoever snapped that photo drive off in their car.  It’s a one way street so they have to drive past the cameras.”  Lee worked fast.  He ejected the hairdresser’s disc and replaced it with the random one from the newsagent. 

With my tongue almost glued to the roof of my mouth, I bounced on my knees on the carpet.  “Hurry up.  Play it.”

 Just as Lee picked up the remote and pressed play, my phone rang. 

“Great,” Lee grumbled. 

I snatched my bag and opened it.  Laura’s name flashed onto the screen of my mobile. 
Typical,
I thought.
  Terrible timing as ever.