Free Falling (27 page)

I shrugged. “I don’t know. He won’t be too late,” I mumbled,
sitting down on the sofa.

Luke sat next to me, pulling me close to his side as his
hand stroked across my hip softly. “So, will you tell me what you were talking
about earlier?” he asked quietly.

I nodded and pressed into him as I told him about the hate
campaign that someone had started against me recently. The silent phone calls,
the scribbling on my notebook, the letters typed on red paper, and the flowers
that I initially thought were from him. His body stiffened when I told him that
the flowers were the same type as what someone had left next to Chester in the
back yard. His jaw was tight; his fingers were digging into my waist as he
seemed to be struggling not to let his anger show. I knew he would be angry, he
was almost as protective over me as my dad and brother were.

I looked up at him and shrugged sadly. “See, he
was
poisoned. How else can you explain that he ate something and that there was a
flower there?”

He gulped loudly, looking a little lost for words as he
shook his head slowly.

I sniffed, knowing I needed to tell him everything now, I
couldn’t keep anything back. “I got a box on Saturday too. It had a flower in
there and a teddy bear that had been mutilated. The note in with it said I was
next,” I whispered. “Obviously she decided to hurt Chester instead and punish
me that way.”

Luke’s mouth dropped open as he jerked in his seat. “Someone
sent you a mutilated teddy bear and a death threat?  Did you call the police?
Christ, Maisie! What the hell did your dad say?” he ranted, standing up and
looking down at me, clearly outraged.

I shook my head, shrinking down into my seat because of the
annoyance I could see on his face. It was then that I realised that I’d been
incredibly stupid. If I’d called the police when I got the box, maybe then the
police would have dealt with it and then Chester wouldn’t be fighting for his
life. I’d buried my head in the sand and made everything worse.

“I-I didn’t tell my dad,” I stuttered, wincing as he let rip
a string of expletives, gripping his hands into his hair. “At the time I didn’t
think it was a big deal,” I continued, trying to explain my actions.

He made a scoffing noise in his throat. “You didn’t think it
was a big deal? Someone heavy breathing down a phone and sending you notes and
stuff
is
a big freaking deal, Maisie!” he chastised.

I nodded, my chin trembling. I didn’t know what to say.
There was no way I could make this better.

He sighed and plopped down next to me, wrapping his arm
around my shoulders. “Look, sorry, I shouldn’t have shouted at you, but you
should have told someone. You could have at least told me. Why didn’t you tell
me someone was sending you stuff?” he asked. His eyes searched mine and I could
almost see the hurt there that I’d not confided in him.

I smiled apologetically. “I should have, I’m sorry. I
thought she was just trying to scare me, I thought she was trying to get a
reaction from me so she could laugh about it with her friends.”

His frown deepened. “Why do you keep saying she? Who exactly
do you think is sending you stuff?”

“Sandy!” I almost spat the word because I was so angry.

Luke burst out laughing as he looked at me like I’d lost the
plot. “Sandy? Seriously?” he scoffed, shaking his head in amusement.

I frowned and pushed his arm off of me. “Yes her! This all
started after the party, when you two…” I swallowed loudly, unable to say the
words. He squeezed his eyes shut and sighed sadly; obviously thinking about
what he’d done again. “It’s her. She’s a witch, and she’s doing this now
because I embarrassed her at the party after,” I added for good measure. I
crossed my arms over my chest defensively as I glared at him, daring him to
challenge what I was saying and defend her again like he did after I’d fought
with her at school.

He didn’t say anything, just looked at me as if he was
choosing his words carefully. “Show me the box,” he finally ordered.

I nodded, standing up and motioning towards the lounge door.
“It’s in my room.” Taking a deep breath I walked out, trying not to think about
anything else as I marched up the stairs to my bedroom. Luke was following
close behind me; a comforting hand rested on the small of my back. As I stepped
into my room we both headed over to the closet where I pulled down the box and
handed it to him, frowning distastefully.

He opened it, his teeth clenching as he looked at the
contents and pulled out the note. He hissed a cuss word under his breath as he
read it. “We need to call the police,” he muttered through gritted teeth.

I didn’t answer. I knew the time had passed for me to brush
this under the carpet now; I was going to have to face it and tell the police
everything. My eyes wandered over my room as Luke put the box down on my
dresser and pulled out his cell phone, dialling 911. Something white caught my
attention on my bed, resting up against my pillows. I frowned and walked over
to it, seeing that it was an envelope. There was no writing on the front of it.
I picked it up quickly, ripping it open curiously. As my fingers closed around
what was inside I let out a little whimper. Pulling out the card of the
envelope I read the two words on the cover, ‘With Sympathy’. It was one of
those cards you sent when someone had lost a loved one. I gulped and opened it,
expecting to see a typed message in there like from the notes. But other than
the standard poem that was printed inside, there was no writing on it at all. Instead,
something small and silver slid out and clattered to the floor. My eyes
followed it, and I whimpered when I saw that it was Chester’s tag from his
collar.

“Oh God,” I croaked as I looked up at Luke and burst into a
fresh round of sobs. The person who had poisoned Chester had obviously
concluded that he would die from it.

Luke’s eyes widened in shock, his gaze going from the tags
to the card in my hand. “How did that… how did that get in here?” He still had
the phone pressed to his ear as I threw myself at him and cried into his chest.
He cleared his throat suddenly, his arm wrapping around my shoulders as I
gripped fistfuls of his shirt. “Yeah, police please.” He gulped. “Someone’s
been in my girlfriend’s house,” Luke said into the phone, his voice a little
shaky as he spoke.

Chapter 18

It took over and hour for the police to arrive. Our complaint
wasn’t deemed urgent because no one was in immediate danger.

Luke had finally managed to calm me down, and he’d also
managed to get hold of Alex and tell him to come home from the gym. To say that
Alex had been shocked would be a severe understatement. He’d looked from me to
Luke several times, asking stupid questions over and over before the penny
finally dropped and he switched into overprotective, angry brother mode. He
didn’t seem to believe my suspicions over Sandy either.

When the police finally did arrive we all sat down in the
lounge while I relayed my tale over and over again, everything that had
happened recently, from the silent phone calls, right down to the sympathy card
that I’d found on my bed.

“So the card was on your bed?” Detective Inspector Neeson,
the kind faced police lady asked, scribbling on her notepad.

I nodded, clutching at the Kleenex I had in my hand. “Yeah.”

A frown lined her forehead as she pursed her lips. “When you
came home from tutoring you say that the front door was locked, and that you
had to unlock the backdoor to go into your yard?”

I thought back, just double checking in my own mind. I’d
definitely unlocked both doors, I remembered it fairly clearly. “Yeah, both
doors were locked,” I confirmed.

“And you didn’t go into your room at that time,” she
clarified.

I shook my head in answer. “I went upstairs, but only into
Alex’s room to see if Chester was in there.” From the corner of my eye I saw
Alex’s jaw tighten when I mentioned Chester.

She made a few more notes then before speaking, “When you
went to the back yard did you leave your front door unlocked?”

I frowned, thinking hard, unsure as why that would even
matter. “I guess. But what does that have to do with anything?”

She smiled kindly, her eyes soft and sympathetic. “I’m just
trying to ascertain when the card was placed on your bed. There was no forced
entry to the house, so it’s possible that someone snuck into the house and
placed the card while you to tending to your dog outside,” she suggested.

I swallowed my anger. Did that mean that Sandy had been
waiting for me to arrive home so that she could sneak in behind me and put the
card there?

Alex leant forward, cocking his head to the side. “But then
how did Chester get outside if there was no forced entry? I didn’t open the cat
door, and Maisie said that she didn’t either.  My parents aren’t here so they
couldn’t have unlocked it.”

DI Neeson nodded along, not seeming shocked so she’d
obviously already thought along those lines too. “That’s another thing that I
was about to ask,” she answered. “Does anyone have access to the house? A spare
key with a neighbour or anything?”

I shook my head in answer, pressing myself into Luke’s side,
enjoying the solid firmness of his body. Alex answered before I could. “We do
leave a spare back door key in the yard for emergencies,” he muttered.

A disapproving look crossed the police lady’s face as she
scribbled on her pad again. “Could you go with Officer Tatum and show him where
it’s kept?” she asked Alex, before turning to the male cop who had been sitting
there silently at her side the whole time. “Greg, bag it up and we can check it
for prints,” she ordered, raising an eyebrow knowingly, as if everything now
made perfect sense to her.

Suddenly her thinking became clear to me too. She thought
someone used the spare key to let Chester out, fed him poisoned meat, left a
card on my bed, and then relocked the door again after themselves so it
wouldn’t be obvious. When you thought of it that way, it did make sense.

Alex stood up quickly and marched out of the room, followed
by the silent cop.

Luke’s arm slipped around my shoulders as the lady turned
back to me with inquiring eyes. “Who knows about the key in the back yard?”

I was a little taken aback by her question. I thought about
it now and my mind flicked to Sandy. As far as I was aware she had never been
to my house before, so how would she know where the key was? “Um, I don’t know.
Just a few friends that have been with me or Alex when we’ve forgotten our
keys. It’s not common knowledge,” I answered, still wondering how Sandy knew
about it. Maybe she’d been watching me and saw me use it last week.

DI Neeson took a deep breath, seeming to be contemplating
everything. “We’ll interview your neighbours and see if any of them saw anyone
hanging around your house today,” she stated. “Can you think of anyone that may
have a grudge against you? Anyone that would want to hurt you?”

Luke stiffened at my side, his arm tightening on me as he
shook his head subtly, as if he was unconsciously dismissing my idea all over
again.

“I know who it is,” I replied confidently. DI Neeson’s
eyebrow rose in question, her pen hovered over her paper. “Sandy Watson.” Luke
let his breath out in a slow sigh, his hand stroking the side of my hip.

DI Neeson scribbled down the name on the paper as she spoke,
“And what makes you sure that it is Sandy Watson?” she questioned, studying me
carefully. I sighed deeply and launched into telling her everything – Luke
cheating, me calling Sandy a dirty tramp at the party, us arguing in the school
hallway, her wanting Luke for herself and her admitting that us breaking up
wasn’t nearly enough for her. Throughout the whole thing the inspector looked
from me to Luke. She didn’t look overly convinced, and I grew more frustrated
with every passing second. It seemed that no one was going to take my
suspicions seriously.

“So you didn’t see her write on your locker or post the note
through?” she asked. I shook my head in answer. “And when you confronted her
about the note, she didn’t confirm that it was her that sent it?”

I frowned. “Well no, but she’s the only one that has an
obvious problem with me. You asked if anyone has a grudge against me and she’s
the only one,” I countered defensively. Somehow I felt now that she was
thinking I had some sort of grudge against Sandy instead and was trying to get
her into trouble. I hated that no one was taking it seriously just because she
was a silly teenage girl. Yes, it did seem a little farfetched that the head
cheerleader would be starting this hate campaign against me, but there was no
one else, so it
had
to be her. 

DI Neeson nodded thoughtfully, seeming to be choosing her
words. “We’ll look into it. At this stage there is nothing but guessing
involved so we have to tread carefully. I’ll look into everything, you can rest
assured on that.” She motioned to the box and contents that sat at her side
having already been placed in clear plastic bags when they arrived. “We’re
going to take the notes, box, card and flowers in for evidence. I’d like you to
have a think about who may have touched the items. We’ll have to take
fingerprints from anyone that has come into contact with the items so we can
rule them out of any evidence we collect from the box.” She stood up and ripped
out a piece of paper from her notebook, holding it out to me with a pen. “I’m
going to bag the rest up and also take prints from the front and back door
handles, and also your bedroom. While I’m doing that I’d appreciate it if you
could compile the list of names that have had contact with each item.”

“Okay.” I looked down at the paper, my mind a blank as to
where to start.

Luke was obviously more on the ball than I was because he
took the pen and paper off of me, immediately sectioning it off into columns
and then looking up at me expectantly. “So, other than me and you, who touched
the box? You said that Alex signed for it, so obviously he touched the outer
wrapper. Did you show the box to anyone else?”