An Unexpected Gift (10 page)

At
times like this she remembered all too well the verbal and emotional bullying
Carl had often inflicted on her. Each time she remembered those moments, it
reduced her to a wreck. How could she explain how lonely and scared she felt?

She
didn’t want to drag Kerrie into this mess and put her life in danger too.
Kerrie was a hot head and she wouldn’t think twice about going over to Carl and
punching him in the face. Kerrie would do this without thinking because she
didn’t know just how dangerous a person Carl really was.

She
was so completely lost in the darkness of her own thoughts that she hardly noticed
Daniel getting out of the black cab that had parked up in front of her. As she
looked up she noticed his shock of blonde hair first; it looked even more
blonde contrasting as it did with his long dark coat.

He
looked so tall and sure of himself as he walked up to her. He seemed anxious
but his face softened as soon as he saw her.

She
had tried to freshen herself up but Daniel could see from the puffy red eyes
that she had been crying. Her face was blotchy and she sniffled away. She
seemed shattered, broken. This was so not the woman he had seen before. Even on
the night of the attack she had held it all together remarkably well. He knew
instinctively that it had been something to do with Carl.

She
looked up at him as he strode towards her and then, as if it was the most
natural thing in the world, she was in his arms and he was holding her close.
Burying her face into his warm winter coat, she melted against him. He held her
tight with one protective hand against the back of her head.

“Caitlin,”
he said softly. “It’s going to be alright.”

She
didn’t want to leave the warmth of his coat or the security of his embrace.
Reluctantly, they broke away and stood, half leaning against the small wall
that encircled the church.

“Hey,”
he said, giving her a friendly nudge with his arm.

“Hi,”
she croaked, wanting to sound more upbeat than she actually felt. She turned
her face sideways to look at him and attempted a smile.

“Anything
you want to tell me about?” he asked quietly.

“It’s
been a bit of a crap day.” As she spoke, she realised that they were holding
hands. It had all seemed so natural.
He’s married
. She slowly unfurled
her fingers from his.

“I
think we can safely say it’s been a bit of a crap week, month and year
Caitlin.”

She
wondered what had made his week so awful. “Are your ribs still hurting?”

“Actually
my ribs are the one thing that are positively moving forward.”

Caitlin
smiled. “As in out of your body?” she asked, cheekily.

“As
in hurting less and healing,”  he replied with a deadpan expression.

It
felt so easy, so comfortable, so normal sitting out here with him. For a slight
moment, Caitlin forgot about the conversation with DCI Osborn. Until he asked
her why she had been crying.

The
easy camaraderie which they had enjoyed momentarily faded as she recounted her
conversation with Osborn.

“They
can’t do much if they can’t actually pin anything on him,” responded Daniel
quietly. He wanted to hold her hand, to comfort her and run his hands through
her hair. But he fought the urge to do all of these things. So instead he
squeezed her arm gently, “They’ll charge Ryedon for the attack. No doubt about
it. I think they’re trying to get evidence to pin on Summers. As soon as they
have something on him that sticks, they can charge him. Then the CPS will
decide whether there is enough evidence for this to go to trial or not. And
even if it does, it can take months before we have to go to court and give
evidence against him. There’ll be different court cases for our different
circumstances.”

“How
come you know so much about police procedures?” she asked curiously.  

“You’re
not a cop are you?”

“Why?
Got something to hide have you?” he said this in a jocular way. There was a
familiarity about him, about how he was with her and she found herself being
swept into his cloak of familiarity.

She
felt a bit lighter now that she had seen him. He cheered her up. No doubt about
it. But then she remembered Marisa and it didn’t seem
normal
to her, for
him to be that way. He wasn’t being particularly forward or anything and they
weren’t doing anything other than having a conversation. Still, she wondered
what Marisa would make of it if she could see them.

There
was more than a hint of mere acquaintanceship about them now. She felt that
their friendship had shifted, if only just a little, to a more personal level
and she would be lying if she said she didn’t like seeing him.

Seeing
a shadow of sadness darkening her face, he asked her, “What else did DCI Osborn
say?”

She told him about the
conversation with the detective and that she had told him, on a previous visit,
the entire story of her relationship with Carl.  Though she had never
intended to tell Daniel about her abusive relationship with Carl and the way in
which he had harassed her when she left him, she now found herself spilling
everything out. The only thing she omitted to tell him was about the silent
phonecalls that had started up again.

He listened, as Daniel
always did, by giving her the space to speak without fear of interruption or
judgement. It helped her to offload the worry that had been burdening her of
late.

When
she had finished, Daniel put his arm around her and squeezed her gently.

“You’re
going to be alright Caitlin. You’ve reported all of this to Osborn. Now it’s
just a matter of time.” He was talking logically, calmly and the way he said it
all made her feel that perhaps everything would work out in the end.

That
the police would get the evidence they needed and that maybe Carl would end up
doing some time and leave her alone forever.  She felt better now that she
had told him everything. She didn’t have to carry it all around inside her
anymore. She could share her fears with Daniel.

It
was getting dark outside even though it was still only six o’clock. It was also
turning bitterly cold too. Daniel wanted to ask her if she wanted to go out for
a meal or a drink or something, even just a coffee but he stopped short of
asking her. Instead, he insisted on getting her a black cab home again.

“You
can’t keep doing this Daniel. I’ll get a tube back.” And though she didn’t
really want to splash out so much money for a black cab, when she would
normally travel by tube train, she insisted, “I can pay for a black cab myself.
It’s fine.”

“No.
I’m the one who told you to stay out on account of me-“

“You
are?”  She didn’t remember it quite like that. From what she remembered,
he had come out to see her because she had been so down after her meeting with
Osborn.

“Yes
Caitlin, I came out to see you. Otherwise you would have gone home at a decent
time.”

“It’s
only six o’clock,” she countered, getting out her travel pass from her handbag.

“But
you don’t feel comfortable travelling home when it gets so dark. And I don’t
think you’d want to travel today, since you’re not feeling particularly on top
of the world.”

Caitlin
closed the zip of her handbag. He was right. She didn’t feel too good today.
But seeing him now had lifted her mood considerably.

They
argued back and forth for a few more minutes but in the end Daniel won. A
little while later Caitlin found herself in a black cab heading towards Butler's Wharf. And Daniel paid for the cab.

When
Caitlin left, Daniel walked back quickly to the Bank where he worked as a
senior trader. 

It
wasn’t until much later that night, around ten o’clock, that he got a cab home.
He had been tired and irritable ever the early morning when he had come across
the dog feces and his vandalized car but seeing Caitlin later on had cheered
him up.

Now
as he headed home, he was looking forward to the peace and quiet of his place,
as it had been before Marisa.

He
paid the cab driver and paused as he stared at his house, wondering if anything
else had happened since he had left it this morning. Sucking in his breath, he
walked up the driveway and a floodlight came on automatically, showering the
front of his house with yellow light. He walked over to the Merc and inspected
it carefully, walking all the way around it.

No
further damage had been inflicted. He opened his front door slowly and peered
at the floor before placing a foot on the doormat inside. Clean. No sign of dog
poop. Marie was good. He’d have to pay her a good bonus for clearing this mess
up.  

No
Marisa either.
Relief.

He
placed his briefcase on the floor and flicked through his phone. He needed to
take care of this now. The niggling feeling he had had all day, since he had
found the dog excrement and his tires slashed, had been slowly building up
inside him as he listened to Caitlin talking about Carl earlier.

That’s
when he realised that his initial gut feeling had been spot on.

He
didn’t think that Marisa wasn’t behind any of this.

For
one thing, it would require far too much effort on her part and she would never
dirty her hands with anything as revolting as dog feces. Marisa just didn’t
have that streak of vindictiveness to get or pay someone else to do it for her
either. He couldn’t see this being her style. She would not go out of her way
to maliciously cause damage to his property.

She
had made his life a misery but that was Marisa
being Marisa
. She didn’t
need to do anything else.

No.
This was the work of someone else. And he would bet money on that someone being
Carl Summers.

Having
found the number he was looking for, he called one of his closest friends,
Lyall Pritchard. Daniel had arranged for Lyall’s son Jason to have a year’s
placement in the back office at the bank where Daniel worked. He was able to
pull the right strings and Jason had done a great job. He had learnt lots and
would no doubt be returning once his final year was over. 

Not that Daniel demanded
a favor for a favor but in this instance, having a good friend high up in the
police force was a useful thing to have.

“Lyall?
Hi mate, it’s me Daniel.”

The
congenial voice of Lyall responded warmly. “How are you doing Daniel. Good to
hear from you mate. What’s up?”

“I’ve
got a slight problem Lyall. Just wondering if you can look into it.  I
don’t know if you heard but I was involved in an attack before Christmas. Came
across a hooligan beating up on a poor woman walking home at night.”  

There
was silence at the other end. “Jeez Daniel. No, I didn’t know. You okay? Is
she?”

“Yes,
we’re fine. Turns out her ex boyfriend was behind the attack – the man who
attacked her says the girl’s ex paid him to beat her up.”

He
heard Lyall inhale deeply at the other end. “Crazy people out there. Glad to
hear you’re alright Dan. What can I do?”

“There’s
more. The ex was abusive, which was why she dumped him. Now I think he’s just
plain obsessed, a bit of a psycho really. He’s been harassing this poor woman. To
cut a long story short, I’ve just had some dog excrement put through my door
and my tires have been slashed. Could you by chance look into it? I know West London is not your area but the police still haven’t found evidence to charge the ex
even though the attacker confessed. I think he’s deliberately targeting me now.
But my worry is Caitlin.”

“Caitlin?”

“The
woman who got attacked. I don’t want her to get hurt. Her ex was abusive and
I’m worried he’ll do something stupid.”

“What’s
his name?”

“Carl
Summers, there must be a police file on the system. The woman he attacked was
Caitlin Quinn and the man who actually attacked her was Alex Ryedon.”

“I
can speak to the local criminals and get them to spread the word around. Let
him know that he’s being watched.”

“I
don’t want you to get in trouble over this Lyall. I just wondered if there was
anything you could do. I don’t think he’s a hard core criminal, I think he’s
just a thug who’s into treating women badly. This time he’s gone too far.”

“Even
easier to sort out. The local criminal element will totally frighten him then.
Leave it to me Dan.”

“Appreciate
any help on this mate. I haven’t even reported the slashed tires to the police
yet.”

“You
should. Document everything you can. The more they have to pin on him the
better.”

“Thanks
mate.”

“Don’t
worry about it Daniel. I’ll take care of it. Say hi to Marisa for me.”

Daniel
paused and then hung up. He felt as though a huge burden had been lifted from
his chest.

A
slight buzz on his phone told him there was a text message for him. It was
Caitlin.