Frisky Business (9 page)

She took a deep breath, steeling herself to speak. If she didn’t say something now, she never would. ‘I met you last year at David’s party.’

‘You did?’ he frowned. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘You were Darth Vader?’

‘Yep.’

‘We … talked. I was dressed as Red Riding Hood.’

‘Doesn’t ring a bell,’ he said. ‘But I was pretty pissed that night.’

‘We went upstairs. We didn’t take our masks off.’

‘Nope, definitely not me.’ She watched his face, but there wasn’t a flicker. Maybe he genuinely didn’t remember. But he hadn’t seemed that drunk.

‘It must have been the other Darth Vader,’ he said.

‘There was another one? Do you know who he was?’

‘No, sorry – don’t have a clue. He had a much fancier costume than mine – probably one of David’s knobhead friends.’

‘Oh. Right.’ And there it was – the relief she had expected to feel earlier was seeping through her now like analgesic, softening and relaxing.

‘Come over and I’ll introduce you to Orla,’ he said.

‘Romy, sorry to interrupt,’ May said, approaching her as she let Derek lead her away, ‘but whenever you’re ready, could I have a word with you about the swing?’

‘Sure, May – I’ll be with you in a sec.’

‘One of my tenants,’ she explained to Derek when May had retreated to a safe distance. ‘She wants my permission to set up this swing she wants to buy.’

Derek
looked across at May. ‘She looks a bit old for a swing,’ he said.

‘You don’t know the half of it,’ Romy said, rolling her eyes.

She felt light-hearted as she joined the group around Orla, as if a weight had been lifted from her. She had caught a glimpse of what it might be like to find Luke’s father – all the complications and problems it could cause. Just as she had realised she might be better off not knowing, she had been given a reprieve.

‘Well, I’ve come up a blank,’ Lesley said to her later. ‘How about you? Did you question Derek?’

‘Yeah, it wasn’t him.’

Lesley sighed. ‘That’s it, then. He’s not here.’

‘No,’ Romy smiled. ‘He’s not here.’

Kit watched as the door opened and a flood of light illuminated the garden as another group of people hurried down the steps, waved off by Romy. He watched as they walked down the street and out of sight. When he turned back to the house, the door was closed again, the garden in darkness once more. He had made up his mind to go and knock on the door several times, but he had hesitated and started dithering again, and the moment had passed. Now the party seemed to be finally breaking up. Romy had been to the door several times, seeing people off, and now she was moving around the room, gathering things up. He lost sight of her for a while, and then a light came on at the other side of the house and she appeared in the window. It looked like she was cleaning up. He decided it was now or never.

He pulled the mask he’d bought from his jacket pocket. He’d
decided he would make an entrance – go up to her door in a mask and say ‘trick or treat’. On the way here, he had slipped into a newsagent’s and bought the first mask he could find – a cheap plastic one that made his face sweat, which was why he’d waited until the last moment to put it on.

Silly, it is, he thought wryly, looking at the wise old face of Yoda. Still, he had felt it would be easier to approach Romy with the mask as a shield – it also meant he could still run away if he changed his mind and she need never know it was him. He pulled the mask over his face, the thin elastic tight on his ears. He was about to climb down from the tree when Romy came to the door again and he paused. She stood at the top of the steps making that ‘pshwsh’ sound people make to call cats and calling ‘Bumble’ softly.

Kit looked down and saw a fat ginger cat rubbing himself on the bark of the tree – his tree! He tried to hiss at it really quietly, so Romy wouldn’t hear, desperately willing it to go away. But it was too late. Romy spotted the cat and came bounding down the steps and out the gate. Kit froze on the spot, looking down at the top of her dark head and trying not even to breathe as she bent to the cat.

‘There you are,’ she cooed, crouching down in front of him and stroking his fur. ‘Were you scared of the fireworks? Poor little fella.’

She was reaching to pick him up when a firework screeched into the sky and exploded with a loud bang. The cat yowled and scrabbled up the tree, landing right in Kit’s lap, simultaneously sinking its claws into his crotch and its teeth into his hand. Already balanced precariously on a branch, Kit got such a fright he yelped and instinctively pulled away. Losing his balance, he came crashing out of the tree and landed with a thud right at Romy’s feet.

‘Ugh!’ he groaned as he sat up. ‘Nice one, Ginger!’ He scowled
at the cat as it executed a perfect landing beside him seconds later and stalked over to Romy, its tail in the air.

‘Oh!’ Romy was looking down at him with a startled expression, and he jumped up quickly, brushing bits of twig and leaf from his clothes, aware that he must look like … well, like he’d literally been dragged through a tree backwards.

‘Hello!’ he said, giving her a big friendly grin, trying to look reassuringly normal, despite the fact that he had just come hurtling out of a tree.

‘Hello.’ She didn’t smile back, looking at him sketchily as she bent to pick up the cat, as if afraid he would pounce on her if she let her guard down for a second. She held the cat to her chest, stroking its fur. ‘Did you get a fright?’ she whispered, frowning crossly at Kit as if it was his fault – as if he’d done something to hurt the bloody animal, when in reality it was the other way around. She looked the cat over, checking for injuries.

Kit waited for her to recognise him. He was surprised it was taking her this long, but then it was dark and it had been a very long time. Still, he didn’t think he’d changed that much. He reached a hand up to run his fingers through his hair and rake out any bits of tree, and his fingers met plastic. Of course! He’d forgotten he’d put the mask on, and somehow it had survived the fall. Maybe he could get out of this with his dignity intact after all. He could run away incognito and she would never know it was him. Then he could call to her house tomorrow like a normal person.

‘So … what are you doing here?’ she asked him.

‘Oh, just …’He shrugged, playing it casual while desperately trying to think of something to say to convince her he wasn’t a nutjob or a pervert. ‘Just, you know … Hallowe’en.’ Great! He was really on fire tonight.

‘You were up a tree.’

‘Um …
yes. I was.’

‘Aren’t you a bit old for climbing trees and dressing up for Hallowe’en?’

‘I’m very immature.’ Brilliant! Where the fuck had that come from? Still, it got a little smile from her. She nodded slowly, looking at him for a long time, like she was trying to decide something – probably whether he was an axe murderer or not.

‘Well, happy Hallowe’en,’ she said, throwing him a dubious look as she turned to go.

‘Happy Hallowe’en,’ Kit called. When she was at the gate, he bent down to brush mud from his trousers. ‘May the force be with you,’ he mumbled to her back.

Romy spun around. ‘What did you say?’

‘Happy Hallowe’en.’

She shook her head. ‘After that.’

‘Um … may the force be with you?’

The cat wriggled out of her arms and padded back through the gate and up the steps, but Romy still stood there, looking at him strangely. ‘Why did you say that?’ She looked a bit freaked out – which he supposed made sense in the circumstances. But why now? She hadn’t seemed fazed when he first landed at her feet.

‘It’s just an expression.’ Kit shrugged. ‘It’s
Star Wars.’
Surely she knew
Star Wars?
He was sure he could remember watching it with her.

‘Yes, I know it’s
Star Wars.
It just … it seems an odd thing to say.’

‘I guess I’m just in a
Star Wars
frame of mind,’ he said, pointing at his mask.

‘Do you like
Star Wars?’

‘What?’

‘I said do you like
Star Wars.’

‘Sure,’
he said, shrugging. ‘Doesn’t everyone?’

‘Who’s your favourite character?’

Christ, did she think he was five or something? Granted, he had just fallen out of a tree wearing a Hallowe’en mask, but even so … and why was she still standing out here engaging him in conversation anyway? Shouldn’t she be inside ringing the police or something? He just wanted to get away, as quickly as possible. ‘I can’t say I’ve ever given it much thought. I guess R2D2 is pretty cool.’

‘Oh.’ Her face fell, and he got the impression his answer disappointed her somehow. He must be imagining it. Why would she care who he liked out of
Star Wars?

‘Disappointed, you seem.’

‘What?’

‘You know, Yoda,’ he said, pointing to his mask again in explanation. ‘Says everything backwards, doesn’t he?’

‘Oh. Yeah.’

‘I mean, obviously I like him too. But y’know, they’re all good,’ he said, hoping to cheer her up. Stop babbling about
Star Wars
and get out of here, he chided himself.

Romy was looking up at the tree where he had been sitting and across at her windows, clearly putting two and two together. ‘Were you watching my house?’ she asked.

Jesus, why was she standing here confronting him about it? Didn’t she have any self-preservation instincts? If he really was a mad stalker, she could be in serious danger right now.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t.’

‘Really?’ She regarded him sceptically.

‘Look, it’s not what you think—’ Before he had a chance to say any more, they were interrupted by a herd of children in Hallowe’en costumes swarming down the path and bursting between them like a loud, debris-strewn river, leaving Kit and Romy on opposite banks. Romy stepped back to her gate to let
them pass, but while the rest of them streamed away, one child stopped dead in front of Kit.

‘Stranger danger!’ He heard a breathy gasp and looked down to see his nemesis gazing up at him – the little witch with the spider’s web face. ‘Scream, kick, run,’ she was muttering under her breath, as if coaching herself, before doing just that. She shrieked loudly, administered a sharp kick to Kit’s shin, then sprinted off down the road like a firework rocketing into the night, emitting a high-pitched squeal the whole way.

‘Fu-uck!’ Kit puffed, reaching down to rub his shin. ‘Bloody hell! What do they teach kids in school these days?’ He looked up at Romy, who had backed into the gate and was opening it behind her without taking her eyes off him.

‘They teach them, “Scream, kick, run.” I’d say she’s a credit to her teacher,’ she said, looking after the little girl, who had now disappeared.

‘Jesus, Romy,’ he gasped, still winded from the pain in his shin, ‘I’m not—’

‘How do you know my name?’

‘What?’ Oh fuck! ‘Look, I’m not a perv—’

‘You were watching my house and you know my name. Who are you?’

There was nothing else for it. He was just going to have to take off his mask and reveal himself as the idiot he was. He stepped out of the shadow of the tree so she could see him better.

‘Don’t come any closer,’ she breathed, her glance shifting nervously between the end of the road and him.

He stood still where he was and pulled the mask off over his head.

‘
Kit!
’ she gasped.

‘Hi,
Romy.’ He smiled at her sheepishly.

She just stood staring at him, dumbstruck. What on earth? Kit glanced nervously to the end of the road. ‘Do you think she’s coming back?’ he asked her.

‘Oh, most definitely,’ she said, a smile tugging at her lips.

‘With townsfolk.’

‘Oh!’

‘Yeah. Pitchforks, flaming torches, the whole shebang.’

‘Right.’

Still she didn’t move. She stood there watching him, just letting him sweat. They both turned when they heard voices at the end of the road and he saw the little girl coming back, this
time with a couple of adults in tow. ‘He was pretending to be someone’s dad,’ she was saying as they drew closer, ‘but I knew he wasn’t—’