Free Falling (32 page)

DI Neeson looked between the two of us slowly. “I’ve had
your dog’s toxicology reports come through today. It has confirmed their
suspicions that Chester had ingested rat poison.”

I groaned and closed my eyes, nodding slowly. In a way, that
was a good thing. It meant that their course of treatment that they’d started
based on it being rat poison had been the right course of action. Now we just
had to hope that he got better and suffered no ill effects from it as a result.

“I’ve been to the clinic today, and apparently the type that
he ingested is the most common brand, a powder, bought at any garden centre or
supermarket. So that leaves us with nothing new to go on really. Lab tests on
the grease proof paper that we found in your yard show that it contained some
sort of raw beef and also showed traces of the same substance. From that we can
conclude that this definitely wasn’t just an accident and that your dog somehow
found the poison himself. Someone definitely put it on the meat before feeding
it to him.”

I tightened my jaw as a little whimper left my lips. I
didn’t want to think about it, about someone sprinkling it on the meat and poor
little unsuspecting Chester eating it.

“So, do you have leads and stuff? Do you know who this
person is?” I asked, echoing Alex’s words from earlier, but purposefully not
saying the word ‘guy’ because I was convinced it was a girl that was behind it
all.

DI Neeson shook her head, frowning disappointedly. “At this
time we don’t have any extra evidence. The tech guys in our recognition
department are still running the prints that we lifted from your bedroom door
so we’re waiting for those to come back. Our first priority was the prints that
we lifted from the items we collected from your house. Those are being
analysed, but it appears that some of them belonged to you two and Mr Hannigan.
There are also a couple of other prints on the items from the box, but from the
list you gave me of who had touched what, it’s a strong possibility that the
prints we found belong to your two friends. I’ve dispatched officers to their
houses to obtain prints from them so that we can rule them out, but the sizes
of the prints we found are most likely female.”

I frowned.
So they have nothing to go on at all?
“What about Sandy, did you look into her?” I asked.

DI Neeson nodded. “I’ve just come back from meeting with
Miss Watson. She was with her mother from the end of school until the time when
she went to bed. They went shopping and then went for dinner. Their story
checks out. I’m sorry, Maisie, I know you thought it was her, but it looks like
you were wrong.”

That news felt like someone had punched me in the gut. It
really wasn’t Sandy? I was so sure, so absolutely sure that it was her. A cold
shiver trickled down my spine like ice water. Somehow, not knowing who was
doing this, not having a face to the person, made it seem even worse. A
stranger had stolen the key to my house and poisoned my dog; a stranger had
gotten my phone number and had sent me those notes and flowers. It was
definitely easier when I had a face to the person. Now, it could have been
anyone, anyone at all. I gulped as Luke’s words about Zach came back to mind
again. I tried to dismiss it quickly, assuring myself that Zach was a nice guy,
but the hair on my arms seemed to stand up as I realised that I actually knew
nothing about him at all. Sandy had said today that she knew things about him
that he wouldn’t want common knowledge. What exactly was that about?

Alex frowned thoughtfully. “What about the phone calls she
was getting? Surely you can trace the number?”

DI Neeson leant back against the counter, smiling sadly.
“We’ve tried, but it appears that the calls are from an unregistered number,
it’s untraceable. We know what network the calls are coming from, but the
number is just a throw away sim, pay as you talk, no contract.”

Alex’s frown deepened. “Have you tried calling it? Give me
the number, I’ll call him,” he snapped.

DI Neeson shook her head, seeming amused by Alex’s outburst.
“We’ve tried calling it, each time it’s been switched off.”

“Well can’t you find the location from the signal of the
phone or something? I’ve seen enough episodes of 24 to know they can pinpoint
the location of a cell phone signal down to a few meters,” he stated, folding
his arms defensively.

DI Neeson chuckled quietly. “I’m afraid that we don’t have
access to Jack Bauer’s technology,” she replied, her eyes twinkling with
amusement. “Though it would make my job a lot easier if we did.”

“So you have nothing?” Alex asked, slamming the kitchen
drawer and frowning angrily.

DI Neeson didn’t even flinch at my brother’s anger. “At this
time we’re still waiting for the Intel. Once we have the partial print
recognition reports then we’ll have more to go on. We’re looking into the paper
that the notes were written on, and also looking into the type of typewriter
that was used. Hopefully there will be something there. If not then it’ll only
be a matter of time before we catch the perpetrator. Don’t worry, we
will
catch them,” she replied, her voice confident. I sighed and nodded, taking the
cup that Alex offered to me. DI Neeson’s attention turned back to me then as
one of her eyebrows rose. “Miss Watson said there was an altercation at school
with you today. Care to tell me about that?”

Not really.
“Um,” I shifted on my feet, dropping my
eyes to the floor.

“I told you to leave the investigation to us, not start
fights in the middle of school,” she said, her voice clearly disapproving.

“She provoked me,” I huffed defensively.

DI Neeson cleared her throat. “Maisie, I know you thought it
was her that hurt your dog, but she was elsewhere when the incident happened.
You have no need to carry around these ill feelings towards her.”

I scoffed at her words.
No need to carry around ill
feelings for her, apart from the fact that she slept with my boyfriend!

“Please just leave the investigation to us,” she requested.
Her tone held a warning so I nodded in acknowledgement. I smiled gratefully at
Alex as he skilfully steered the conversation away from Sandy and asked more
questions about the investigation.

DI Neeson stayed just long enough to drink her coffee, warn
me against getting into another argument with Sandy, and question me again
about anyone else that would have a grudge against me. She seemed disappointed
when I said I couldn’t think of anyone. As she left she promised to be in touch
as soon as she had any leads, but for now I was to ensure I contacted her if
anything strange or untoward happened.

After she left I snuck up to my room, knowing that Alex was
about to call our parents and tell them about the things that had happened and
Chester. I didn’t really want to be there while he explained everything so I
left him to it and went to make a start on my homework assignments.

Stepping into my room alone for the first time since I had
found the card was a little hard. The room felt cold and a little alien as I
looked around it slowly, checking that nothing was out of place. I wrapped my
arms around my torso, hugging myself to try and gain some sort of comfort, but
it was no use. A feeling of loneliness settled over me and I suddenly longed
for Luke to be here with me. To wrap his arms around me, to pull me onto his
lap and rock me like a child. I missed him so much it was almost scary.

Huffing out a big breath, I forced myself to get a grip of
this worry and fear before it ate me up. I dropped my schoolbag down onto the
bed and flopped down next to it, pulling out the first book that I came across
and started to make a start on my work in a bid to keep my mind off of
everything.

Half an hour later there was a knock at my door. Alex let
himself in, a phone clamped between his ear and his shoulder as he put down a
sandwich and a glass of apple juice. “Yeah, she’s here right now,” he said into
the phone.

My stomach dropped as I shook my head quickly, somehow
knowing that it was one of my parents and they would want to talk about
everything again. Would they blame me for Chester too?

“Yeah, see you then,” Alex stated before pulling the phone
away from his ear and holding it out to me. “Dad for you.”

Groaning inwardly, I took the phone and waited for my
brother to leave before I put the phone to my ear. “Hi.” I winced, waiting for
the frantic scolding because we hadn’t called them earlier.

“Hi, sweetheart. How are you holding up?” Dad asked. The
familiar sound of his voice made my eyes prickle with tears. I didn’t realise
until now just how much I missed him and my mom being here.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“Alex told me what’s been happening. I’m not going to get
into the whole
‘you should have told me as soon as everything started
happening’
thing, because I don’t think that’s going to help the situation
at all.”

I smiled gratefully and looked up at my ceiling, willing my
tears not to fall. I was already sick of crying over this. “Thanks, I
appreciate that,” I muttered.

“I need you to promise to be careful. Don’t go to places on
your own, take Alex or Luke with you, alright?”

Luke? So he’s forgiving Luke now?
“I will,” I
promised, nodding. Now that I knew it wasn’t Sandy the seriousness of the
situation weighed down on me. It could have just as easily been me or Alex that
had been poisoned, if the person had sprinkled that rat poison onto something
in the fridge then maybe we would have unknowingly eaten it. It wasn’t as if
they didn’t have access to the house and our food, they’d let themselves into
my house for goodness sake. I knew I needed to be careful.

“How’s Grandad?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

“He’s… he’s okay,” Dad answered, not seeming too sure about
it.

A lump formed in my throat. “No he’s not.”

Dad sighed deeply, his breath crackling down the line. “He’s
in a bad way, but he’ll be fine. He’s through the worst of it now,” he assured
me. “So, I’d better go and tell Mom everything that’s been going on. I’ll be
home tomorrow when you get home from school though so I’ll see you then.”

I closed my eyes; the nerves in my stomach seemed to settle
as I thought about getting one of my dad’s hugs. They always made everything
seem better. “You don’t have to come home. Stay with Grandad,” I protested,
trying to make my voice sound like I wasn’t desperate for him to come home.
“We’re fine here. You don’t need to come back.”

“Yeah I do, sweetheart. No arguing, I’m coming home. End of
conversation.”

I smiled to myself at the finality of his tone. “Okay. I’ll
see you tomorrow.”

“Love you.” His words made a warm fuzzy feeling settle over
me. There was no denying I was a daddy’s girl.

“Love you too, Dad.”

After speaking to my dad and the knowledge that he was
coming home tomorrow kind of made my mind settle a little and the worry recede
marginally. Finally, after another hour of working on my assignments, I drifted
to sleep listening to the rhythmic sounds of Alex hitting the punch bag down
the garage below my bedroom.

When my alarm buzzed next to my bed in the morning I groaned
loudly. I’d had a restless night sleep, my dreams plagued with a faceless
person chasing me, every single time I’d ran into a room only to find it filled
with lilies. Each time I’d woken, startled and sweating, only to go back to
sleep and have the same dream over again. My whole body now ached from
exhaustion. I really didn’t need another day at school today, especially if it
was going to be a day like yesterday where everyone was whispering about me.
And on top of that I had to face Sandy, now knowing that it wasn’t her that was
sending me all of those nasty things. Did I have to apologise to her today for
accusing her? Deep down I knew I should, but the thought of saying sorry to
that boyfriend stealing hoe almost made me sick to my stomach.

After laying there for as long as I could without making
myself and Alex late, I finally threw off the bed covers and headed for a quick
shower. Alex was already dressed and ready by the time I made my way
downstairs. He smiled sympathetically, silently pushing an empty bowl and a box
of cereal towards me. I waved it off, turning my nose up at the thought of
eating. My appetite was as non-existent as my will to apologise to Sandy.

“I’m not hungry. Shall we just go?” I mumbled tiredly.

“Yeah if you want. By the way, I called the animal hospital
already and the guy said that Chester can definitely be collected today.” He
slid his cell phone into his jeans pocket and picked up his keys.

I smiled at the news. At least one thing was going well
today then. “Is he better today?”

Alex nodded, biting off another piece of the banana he was
holding. “Apparently he’s good this morning. I could hear him barking in the
background,” he answered.

“That’s great news.” I blew out a breath, letting out some
of the stress that was pent up inside me. At least that was one less thing for
me to worry about.

On the way to school Alex seemed like he was doing
everything to try and keep my mind off of the police and the stalker I seemed
to have gained. He sung badly to the music, told terrible jokes and was
generally just his usual goofy self. It felt nice to just be normal after
everything that had gone on recently.

By the time we pulled into the parking lot though, the
normality seemed to evaporate immediately. I frowned as I looked around. People
were crowding outside, huddled together in groups; some were hugging and seemed
to be crying. Alex could barely get his car rough the gates of the parking lot
because everyone was standing around.

“What the hell’s this?” Alex muttered, blasting his horn to
get a couple of freshmen to move out of his way so he could pull in.