It Started With A House: Lizzie. Book 1 (The Westport Mysteries) (25 page)

Chapter
Twenty Five

I
woke up the next morning ready to drive straight to the library but Riley
reminded me he had to be at the house for the delivery of the bath. I argued I
could go alone but as Riley had been a part of this since it started it was
only fair he got to be there too. So, I sat in my kitchen
with a cup of coffee and my thoughts, waiting for the delivery van.

At some point
that
To Be Sorted
file in the back of
my mind would have to be dealt with, but today I didn’t feel like I had the
energy for that. I did wonder about Sedan Man though, and how he fitted into my
life. I had gone over it a thousand times and could not come up with any
logical reason why he would be following me. I mean, if he was some weirdo
stalker, how did I meet him? I’d never been one to frequent bars or nightclubs,
so it’s not like I acquired an admirer there without realizing. I couldn’t ever
recall meeting him through work. The only time I could remember seeing him was
after I moved in here. But according to Helen, he’d never been here before I
moved in. We hadn’t seen him since Saturday but I wasn’t convinced we’d seen
the last of him.

Getting up, I
looked out of the window to check for his car. All clear. Even though, if I was
him I probably would have changed cars by now. We could pick his black sedan a
mile away. Hearing an engine coming down the road, I looked over and saw the
delivery van we’d been waiting for driving up the street. Yay. Hopefully the
unloading wouldn’t take long and we could get on our way.

I was feeling
really antsy about seeing the photo’s again. Last night my theory had seemed
sound, but this morning, in the cold hard light of day, I was wondering if I
was just plain crazy.

Once the van
had expertly reversed into my little drive, just narrowly missing the fence
posts, Riley ran outside and along with three other men—geez, how heavy
was that thing—they unloaded my beautifully restored bath and managed to
get it upstairs and into place.

It looked so
nice. The old rust stains and watermarks were gone, the inside of the bath now gleamed,
shiny and white. The outside of the old cast iron bath was painted a high gloss
black. If I hadn’t known the truth, I would have thought it was a brand new
bath.

“We’ve
re-enameled the inside of the bath and the outside has been painted with a high
quality marine paint. Look after it and it will outlast you,” smiled the
deliveryman. Yeah, with creepy Sedan Man following me around, I didn’t think
outlasting me would be all that hard.

Handing me the
invoice, the three men got back in their van and drove away. Looking at the
figure at the bottom of the page, I nearly passed out.

“Shit, no
wonder it looks so bloody good. What did they do? Coat it in gold first?” I
could have bought three baths for that amount.

Riley, choosing
to ignore my last comment, casually walked back upstairs, over to the bath and
started fitting the plumbing to it.

“What are you
doing?” I asked, following him.

“Making it hold
water. At the moment there is a reasonable sized hole where the plug goes. I need
to get it fitted and sealed so the bath won’t leak.”

“Do you have to
do that now?”

“Yes. I have to
seal it with silicon, which needs to dry. If I do it now, it can dry while we’re
out.”

“How long will it
take?” Geez, how long did a girl have to wait?

Seeing my
impatience, Riley smiled and got to work. Watching him work was really quite
mesmerizing. He was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans today and as he moved I
could see the t-shirt pull tight across his back and see the outline of his
muscles. I watched as his jeans rode low on his backside every time he bent
forward.

“On second
thoughts, there’s no need to hurry. Take your time.” I smiled and enjoyed the
view.

* * * *

We
finally made it to the library after lunch. We’d had another stop on our way there
to grab something to eat—I’m starting my diet tomorrow, okay?—so
you can imagine how impatient I was. Barely able to wait for him to find a
park, I fidgeted in my seat, willing the old lady whose park we were waiting
for, to hurry up and reverse out.

“Maybe I should
tap on her window and ask her if she’d like me to do it for her,” I suggested.

“Patience,
Lizzie. The library isn’t going anywhere.”

“Neither are we
at this rate.”

When we finally
made it into the library we made our way straight to the section upstairs that
held the photos. We both remembered where they’d been filed, so it didn’t take
us long to find them. Well, we found where they should have been. All the
photos seemed to be there except for the ones we were looking for.

“Look again in
case they’ve been misfiled,” I suggested. I watched as Riley flipped his way
through the photos again. Still not there.

“Why don’t you
have a look and I’ll see if I can find someone to help,” said Riley, standing
up and handing the box of photos to me.

I too flipped
through them, but couldn’t find any of the photo’s we were looking for. Within
a couple of minutes Riley was back with the pretty lady who had helped us the
first time in tow. She too flipped through the photos and looked a bit puzzled.

“Well, we
didn’t realize they were missing. I have to say, these old photos have been
popular though. You’re not the only ones who have been in to see them.”

“Really? Can I
ask who else has been to look at them?”

“Well, I don’t
know their names of course, but the day after you were here, two men came in
and asked for them. I only remember because I was working in this section that
day. Of course, I don’t know if they were the exact same photos you looked for,
but this section of the library hardly ever gets anybody interested in it.” She
sighed. “I’ll have to report them missing.” She walked back down the stairs.

Waiting for her
to be out of earshot, I leaned forward and whispered, “Riley, do you think it’s
strange that every time we get somewhere with finding out who Will might be,
the evidence keeps going missing? I mean, first my bag gets stolen with the one
and only photo I had, then when we may have information from Brian Hogan, he
gets killed in a fire and now the photos are missing too.”

“Yeah, I know.”
Riley sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been
wondering for a while if the guy in the black car may be connected to this.”

“Really?”

“Think about
it, Lizzie. You said you‘d never seen him before you moved into the house and
Helen said she’d never seen him before you moved into the house. What if he’s
looking for something? Your house did have a break-in, remember?”

“Yeah, but the
house was cleared out before I bought it. Wouldn’t whoever it is have looked
through it before I moved in? And the only thing that went missing in the break-in
was my underwear.”

“Ok. How about
this? What if whoever cleared the house didn’t find what they were looking for
and then you started to do the renovations? If it were me, I’d be wondering if
you had found it when you were ripping things apart.”

“But the only
thing we found was the ring and the letters. Why would anybody be after those
so badly? I mean couldn’t they have just asked Avis for them when she was
alive?”

“Maybe Avis
didn’t hide them. Maybe her mother did. Avis may never have known where they
were.”

This was
something I’d never thought about. Sitting quietly for a few minutes, I processed
what Riley had said.

“Well then, if
Sedan Man is looking for the ring and letters, why is he stalking me the way he
is? Tossing off in my bed isn’t going to make me hand them over.”

“I don’t know. It’s
just a theory. We don’t know anything for sure.”

Just then my
phone rang, gaining me a few death stares from other library patrons. Oops. Oh
well, shit happens, I thought, quickly reaching into my bag and turning it to
silent. Looking at the caller ID, I saw it was Molly. Getting up, I walked
outside to answer it.

“Hi, Molly, what’s
up?”

“Hey, I was
wondering if you’re still living with Riley or are you back at your house yet?”

Looking back to
see if Riley had followed me, I said, “I’m going home today. I just have to get
my stuff from Riley’s. Why?”

“Could you have
Harper for me tonight? I’ve just got a call about a job in Loganville and I
need to stay there overnight. I don’t want to leave him alone.”

“Yeah, that’s
okay. I’ll just have to keep him away from Cat, that’s all. When are you
dropping him over?”

“Well, I was
hoping to come over soon because I really need to get on the road.”

“Ok, I’m not
there at the moment but I’ll head home and see you soon.”

I went back
inside to fill Riley in on what was happening. We got back in his truck and
headed back to my place.

* * * *

Walking
to the front door, we immediately saw the familiar signs someone had been there
while we were out. Riley turned to me and handed me his car keys.

“Take these and
wait in the car. Lock the doors. If he comes out before me, drive as far away
from here as possible and phone the police,” he whispered.

Grabbing his
arm to stop him heading up the stairs, I felt sick in the stomach. When was
this ever going to end?

“Let’s just
phone the police and wait in the car until they get here.”

“No. I don’t
think he’s here anymore, but if he is I don’t want to give him the time to get
away again. Now please, do as I ask.” Riley looked at me, his eyes pleading.

“Nope. I’m
sorry, but if you are going up there, so am I. Two against one is far better
odds anyway.”

Seeing the
determination on my face, Riley sighed, turned and headed for the stairs,
motioning for me to stay behind him. I was more than happy to stay behind him. I
may be acting brave, but believe me, I was not feeling brave.

Reaching the
top of the stairs, Riley decided to look in the bedroom first. I could feel his
body ready to respond, as he slowly pushed the door open and scanned the room. From
where I was standing, it all looked normal, but I felt Riley tense as he
entered the room. It was as I followed him, my hand holding onto the back of
his shirt I noticed the photo that had been placed on the bed. I let go of
Riley and silently watched as he picked the photo up and examined it.

With a sigh of
disgust, he passed it to me and whispered, “I’m going to finish searching the
house.”

My hands trembled
as I took the photo and looked at the close-up image of me sleeping. I can’t
tell you how creeped out and horrified I was that someone had been that close
to me and I never knew. All sorts of horrible thoughts started to run through
my mind…like…had he touched me? Surely I would’ve known if he had. I could feel
the anger and resentment build.

I’m the kind of
person who doesn’t really lose their temper quickly. Usually I have to be
pushed and pushed until one day I’m pushed too far. Today, I was getting close
to breaking point. I heard Riley walk back into the room.

“He’s not here
anymore,” he said, walking up behind me and placing his hand on the small of my
back.

“
Ah
! This is so frustrating!” I yelled,
close to tears. “What the hell does he want from me?”

“I think he’s
just taunting you.”

“I want this to
be over. I want to know why this is all happening and I want it to stop. I’ve
had enough!”

“Do you have
any idea when that may have been taken?” asked Riley, nodding towards the
photo. I could hear the hardness in his voice.

“No. It’s
definitely been taken here. I only bought these sheets when I moved in.”

I watched as
Riley pulled out his phone and dialed the police. After a few minutes, he hung
up.

”They are on
their way,” he sighed.

Walking back
down the stairs, ready for their arrival, I saw a silhouette at the door and
realized Molly had arrived.

Chapter
Twenty Six

“Hi
Liz. Thanks for having Harper for me. I felt so bad leaving him on his own.”

“Yeah, he’s no
problem. So long as I hide Cat.” I walked into the kitchen and put the coffee
on. I really needed something much stronger, but it was still too early in the
day for alcohol. Although, maybe I could sneak some in my coffee.

“I’ve got
something for you too,” said Molly, following me into the kitchen. Harper had
gone, nose to the ground, looking for any signs of Cat.

Lifting her
large canvas bag on to the table, she pulled out a framed photo about the size
of an A3 sheet of paper. It was a beautiful black and white image of my house. The
house still looked sad and broken in its state of disrepair, but the light
Molly had captured it in, made it look haunting and beautiful.

“Oh, Molly. It’s
really beautiful,” I cried, walking over and taking the photo from her.

“Yeah, I
thought I’d do a before and after shot. If ever you get it finished, that is. I
thought they’d look nice hanging together.”

Looking closer
at the photo, I could see it was taken from the opposite side of the street,
slightly side on to the house. It had a full shot of the tree in the front
yard, without obstructing the view of the house.

“I had to
Photoshop it a bit. Because of the angle I took it on, I got a lot of the cars
in the street as well. I took a second photo one day when the street was nearly
empty and edited them together.”

Wow, Molly
really had put quite a bit of effort into this. “Hang on a minute. Do you still
have the original?”

“Of course I
do. I don’t delete anything. You just never know when you may need it.” Yeah,
like now for instance. “Why?”

“Did you happen
to notice if a black sedan was in the street on the original photo?”

“No, I didn’t
notice. But I’ll check my laptop when I get to Loganville. What do you want to
know for?”

“If it’s in the
photo, can you see if you can get the license plate number? I’ll give it to
Riley and see if his brother Jared can track down the owner. Maybe then I can
get my life back.”

“Is that guy
still following you?” Molly still didn’t know the extent of what had been
happening and I wanted to keep it that way.

“Yeah. The police
think he may be the one who broke in here. I’d like to be able to catch him so
I can sleep better at night.”

“Well, if
that’s why you’ve been staying at Riley’s, why are you moving back now?”

Good question. I
could hear Riley moving around in the bathroom upstairs and knew now was not a
good time to get into the whole explanation of how having him so close was
torturing me. My hormones couldn’t take much more.

“It’s
complicated,” I sighed.

“Are you
struggling having him so close?” God…another mind reader.

“Am I that
transparent?”

“Yes. You just
have to take one look at your face when you look at him to know how you feel.”

Sighing, I
handed Molly her coffee and sat at the table. “I just need some space to get
control again, that’s all.”

“If it helps,
he has the same look in his eye when he looks at you.”

“It doesn’t
matter,” I said, shaking my head. “He’s moving away, probably as far from me as
possible,” I said, feeling that all too familiar lump forming in my throat
again.

“Well then,
strike while the iron is hot! Don’t just sit here feeling sorry for yourself. If
you want him, go and get him.”

“That’s easy
for you to say, Molly. You are extremely confident about who you are. And after
Scott, I’m not even sure if I would recognize that look from someone else. And
if I did recognize it, how do I know it’s real?” I could feel the tears
prickling the back of my eyes. Looking up I willed my body to reabsorb them
before Molly noticed.

Molly reached
over and placed her hand over mine. “You’ll know it, Lizzie. That I know for
sure.”

Hearing Riley
running down the stairs, I quickly rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand,
while Molly looked at me as if to say
well,
what are you waiting for?

“Hey, guess
what?” Riley asked without really waiting for an answer. “Jared just phoned to
say Shelly had the baby. She had a little girl, Mia Ruby.”

His face was
glowing with pride and happiness, and Molly and I sat back to bask in his glow.
In fact, I’m pretty sure for a moment there I could see moisture around those
beautiful eyes. Molly was the first to move, getting up and walking over to
Riley, pulling him in for a huge Fuller hug, pushing her ample breast into him
as hard as she could. I think she was just doing this to make me jealous and to
prove her point. Well, I must admit, it was working.

Humph
.

Pulling away
and turning to look at me, she gave me a very calculating little smile. Not to
be outdone, I got up, took a deep breath and moved towards Riley.

“Congratulations,
Uncle Riley,” I said, moving to him with my arms outstretched. All of a sudden,
he reached out and pulled me to him, surrounding me with those gorgeously toned
arms. Lifting me off the ground, so my nose was snuggled into his neck, he
pulled me tighter. God, he smelt good. His aftershave mixed with his shampoo
and body wash was a complete aphrodisiac as far as I was concerned. Places
started to tingle that had absolutely no right to tingle here, in my kitchen,
with my sister watching.

On second
thoughts, who cares where we are and who’s watching. Taking a few deep breaths
and inhaling every bit of his scent, I enjoyed the feel of his breath against
my ear.

After holding
on just a little bit longer than necessary, I let go and stepped back. Feeling
slightly dizzy, I held onto the kitchen chair for support, wishing with
everything I had he would reach down and kiss me. I’m not sure what was going
through his mind, but he looked from me to Molly and then back again, running
his hands through his hair as he did so. I’d noticed this was a habit of his he
had when he seemed to be frustrated.

“Hey, I’d like
to go and visit them as soon as possible. Jared said the family was allowed to
visit this afternoon. Do you think that would be okay?”

“Why are you
asking me? Of course it’s okay. Go. Enjoy seeing your newest family member for the
first time,” I said, smiling.

“But I don’t
want to leave you alone.”

“I won’t be
alone. I’ll go over to Mum’s for a visit.” I could see Riley weigh this up
before saying, “Okay. I’ll call the police back and see if they can talk to you
at your mum’s.
 
But please Lizzie,
stay away from here until I get back.”

“Oh, Riley,
would it be okay if I got your house key from you. I just want to get some
things before I go to Mum’s.” I wasn’t telling him these things were all my
belongings that had made their way to his house over the last week or so. I
knew I was going to have a fight on my hands. I will admit my heart was not in
the move home, but I also knew I couldn’t do this anymore. Having Riley
sleeping only meters away from me, with absolutely no walls or doors or locks
to prevent me from getting to him, and knowing I couldn’t touch him, was just
way too hard. Distance is what I needed.

“Why don’t you
follow me over there now? I want to get changed before I head off anyway.”

So that’s what
we did. Molly left, I locked Harper inside with a bone Molly had kindly
supplied, and I followed Riley back to his house. Waiting while he had a shower
and left, promising I would lock the door behind me, I packed my clothes, laptop
and Cat in the car and dropped them all off at the house. Harper was still in
the kitchen eating his bone, so I felt pretty confident the house had not been
violated while I was away. Sneaking Cat upstairs, I locked him in the bedroom,
along with all the rest of my crap and then headed over to Mum’s.

* * * *

Things
were pretty quiet in the Fuller household when I got there, which meant Grandma
must either be out or having an afternoon nap. Finding Mum in front of the
television, watching Judge Judy while she knitted, I felt a feeling of safety
envelope me. It was like when you were a kid and the school bully had chased
you all the way home, and as soon as you opened the front door and smelt the
dinner Mum was preparing, you knew nothing could hurt you anymore. That was
exactly how I felt now. Sitting on the couch, I looked over to see Mum smiling
at me.

“It’s very
quiet here, Mum. Where’s Grandma?”

“I know. Isn’t
it lovely? She’s gone out to the Seniors Club. They’re having another get
together today, so I dropped her down at the Global Church, down the road.”

“At least it
keeps her active and out of your hair for a while.”

“Yes. I can
watch Judge Judy without her constant interruptions. She even boos them, and
shouts at them, raising her fist in the air! If you can believe that,” said
Mum, a frown forming between her eyebrows. She obviously disapproved of
Grandma’s right to heckle.

“Something smells
good. What are you cooking?”

“It’s a new
recipe I found while watching
Ready,
Steady, Cook
,” she said, her frown turning into a smile. “It’s a chocolate
brownie recipe but it’s really different to the one I’ve been using. As I say,
you’re never too old to learn something new, so I thought I’d give it a go. What
are you doing here, anyway, Love?”

“Oh…not much. Riley’s
brother’s wife had their baby, so he’s gone to the city for a look.”

“Ooh…how
lovely! What did they have?”

“A girl, Mia
Ruby,” I smiled. I hoped Riley took lots of photos of her because I couldn’t
wait to see what she looked like. Mum and I were a lot alike in that way. We
both loved babies. I’m not too keen on children, however, which seems to be a
bit of a problem because from what I gather, they don’t stay babies very long.

“Oh, Love. I’ve
just finished this lovely little pink cardigan and bonnet set. I was going to
give it to the hospital for the baby ward, but do you think they would like
it?” asked Mum, pulling a tiny pink jumper out of her knitting bag. Taking it
off of her and holding it up, I wondered how a whole person could ever be this
small.

“I think they’d
love it, Mum.” Seriously, I don’t know if they would, I had never met Shelly
actually, but the thought that Mum was so kind and caring made my heart all
warm and fuzzy. Getting up and walking over to her, I gave her a hug.

“Are you alright,
Love?” she asked.

“Yes, Mum. I’m
just a bit tired. I haven’t been sleeping very well, lately.”

“Well that’s
probably because you’ve been sleeping with Riley and not all that concerned
about sleep,” she scolded.

“First of all,
I am not sleeping with Riley. God, I wish. I have been staying at his house
while my bathroom is getting fixed but he’s been sleeping on the couch. Second
of all, who told you?” I know I hadn’t mentioned it. “Let me guess, Danny,
right?”

The blush
creeping up Mum’s cheeks was a complete giveaway. “He may have let it slip, but
I wasn’t supposed to let you know he told me.”

“Secrets don’t
last very long in this family,” I huffed. “Anyway, what have you got against
Riley? You were always telling me to get naughty with Scott.”

“Yes, I know
and look where that led,” she said, a look of regret dancing in her eyes.

Sighing, I
said, “It’s not your fault, Mum. None of us knew what an ass he was.”

“That’s not
true. Danny kept telling me he wasn’t a very nice person, but I just thought if
you married him, you would be looked after. You were always the one who needed
to be looked after, Lizzie. Molly was always the strong one who looked out for
you when you were little, but now you live alone, I’ve been worried about you.”

“There’s
nothing to worry about, Mum, I can look after myself.”

“But that’s
such an old house and you’re all alone in it. What if there is some maniac out
there looking for a beautiful young lady like you?”

If only she
knew. “No one is going to hurt me, so relax. I’m okay.”

Yeah, great speech, Lizzie.
If only I felt
half as confident about that as I sound.

Hearing the
phone ring, Mum put her knitting down and went to answer it. I heard a few oohs
and ahhs and after hearing the familiar click of Mum hanging up the phone, she walked
back into the room.

“Grandma needs
to be picked up early. Apparently she’s up to no good and the Minister has
asked her to leave.” I heard the heaviest sigh I had ever heard, escape her. “Would
you mind going to get her for me? I just can’t leave my brownies in the oven
and you probably won’t know when to take it out.”

“Sure, Mum. No
problem,” I replied, forgetting all about my visit from the police.