Second Time Around (25 page)

Later that afternoon while he waited for Halley to arrive with Lily so they could travel home together, Alec knew he wouldn’t be able to keep the children with him. He had a business to run and it was unprofessional to have to keep covering the mouthpiece on the phone so he could tell the children to stop arguing and shrieking in the background. He had perfected a few slashing gestures which meant ‘
silence!
’ but they only worked when the children were looking his way.

Alec was working out what to tell Halley when she entered his office with Lily’s baby capsule in hand.

“I have just had the best day ever,” she exclaimed, setting down Lily in her capsule so she could bestow hugs and kisses on the children crowded around the laptop. Then she transferred her gaze towards Alec and grinned when she noticed that every small object on his desk had been shoved to the centre of it.

Cassie had been sitting on Alec’s lap while he worked, shaking a small container that made a tinkling sound. Halley crossed the room and dropped a kiss on Cassie’s head then placed another on Alec’s cheek. “How was your day?”

“We survived,” he informed her as she pulled back. Alec spared Cassie a quick glance to ensure that makeup he had coerced Leonora into applying over the black streaks on Cassie’s face was still doing its job. He planned to volunteer for bath duty tonight and scrub off what the cold cream and cleaning wipes hadn’t managed so Halley would never know.

Just as he was about to ask when the crèche would be ready Halley began talking.

“I was interviewed for an entertainment programme this morning and part of it might appear on the news this evening,” she said with excitement as she plucked Cassie from his lap. In Cassie’s absence Alec’s thigh still felt warm and he looked down to discover there was a wet patch on his trouser leg. He slid his legs under the desk and forced a smile as Halley proceeded to give him details of the interview. Part way through telling him something Riker had said about the director she paused and frowned at what Cassie was holding.

“I don’t know that it’s a good idea to give her a paperclip dispenser to play with,” she said.

“Don’t worry. The hole at the top has been taped over and so has where the lid joins to the base.”

Halley coaxed Cassie into passing the dispenser to her and noted how thoroughly sticky tape had been wrapped all over it.

“But how will you get any out when you need them?”

“Leonora will figure out a way,” Alec said. It would serve her right for laughing at his expression every time she poked her head in the door today.

Halley’s attention was taken by a creamy smear on Cassie’s chin. She wiped it off with a finger and examined it.

“This looks like makeup,” she said with surprise.

“Every female on our floor has insisted upon giving her a kiss and a cuddle today,” Alec said, only slightly exaggerating. “It probably came from one of them.”

He got out of his chair, intent on taking Cassie off Halley before Halley noticed how much makeup Cassie actually had on her face.

“How about I change her nappy? She probably needs it by now.” Alec swooped in and before Halley knew it he had Cassie lying on her changing mat. Halley glanced at the forearm she had used to support Cassie’s weight and noticed the wet sheen on it. While Alec got stuck into the task she took a baby wipe for herself.

In the habit of disposing of her waste in a plastic bag kept in Lily’s nappy bag, Halley unzipped the bag and saw corners of envelopes poking out.

“Oh, I nearly forgot,” she exclaimed as she hurried to tuck the wipe into the plastic bag. She grabbed the envelopes and waved them at Alec’s back. “Look, I’ve got fan mail,” she said in awe.

Finished with his task, Alec rocked back onto his heels and looked over his shoulder. Halley had a small collection of different coloured envelopes in her hand and she was waving them.

“Wow,” he said, impressed. “I’m married to someone famous.”

Em and Corey who had been watching Casey spawn zombies on Minecraft were willing to be distracted.

“Can I help open them?” Em asked.

“What about me?” Corey added.

Halley hesitated for a moment. Just because the letters had been sent to her via the studio’s mail centre it didn’t mean the contents would necessarily be fan mail. During the last movie she had made she had received one from a deranged woman upset that ‘she had stolen Riker from her’.

Then she relaxed. Filming had barely begun and she hadn’t been around long enough to rub anyone up the wrong way. Besides, Em and Corey still had limited reading skills and she doubted they would be able to interpret anything objectionable.

“Sure,” Halley said. She distributed the envelopes between the children as though she was dealing cards, counting them as she did so.
I have nine fans out there already
, she thought with awe.

“Hey, she got more than I did,” Corey complained.

“Em’s older than you,” Halley informed him. She hadn’t expected that non-reason to work but it did. She watched them carry their little collections back to their seats where they tore into the envelopes as though they expected to find a golden ticket inside. Scraps of envelopes formed an untidy pile between them on the floor.

Em had opened the contents of the second to last letter when she suddenly stopped.

“What’s the matter Em?” Halley teased as she took Lily from her capsule to give her a top up before the long drive home. “Are you bored of being my secretary all ready?”

“This one’s different,” Em said.

“Different?” Halley sank into one of the guest chairs opposite the desk and deftly unhooked the flap on her bra so Lily could feed. She then tugged up the cuddly blanket Lily was wrapped in until the satin edging was up to her armpit. A little self-conscious of the children’s interest in the process since Cassie had been bottle fed from birth, Halley had become adept at screening herself from view. “How is it different?”

“Instead of writing, all the letters are stuck on.”

“Let me see.” Alec’s voice sounded stern. Em got off the chair and passed it to him. After reading the short note he swore.

“Uncle Alec said a bad word,” Corey unnecessarily informed the room at large.

“What does the note say?” Halley asked, feeling anxious. It was unlike Alec to swear, especially in front of the children. Then she thought of how Leonora had waylaid her before she came into the office to let her know how challenging Alec’s day had been.

Although Halley had laughed after hearing some of the things that Cassie had done and Alec’s reaction to them it didn’t take a genius to work out that Alec had not been amused by them. Instead he had probably dwelled on what could have happened, only serving to make the incidents bigger in his mind.

With a moment of insight she realised that something along those lines explained why he had come home in a stew over her meeting up with Riker in the park. After his past experience with Miranda it was clear that he had assumed the worst possible reason to explain the kiss caught on camera.

“Pass it here.” Halley gestured with her hand for Alec to give her the note. She wasn’t giving him anything else to fret over. Whatever the note said she would downplay it.

Alec reluctantly handed over the folded piece of A5 paper. Halley opened it and saw that it was a single sentence spelt out in a colourful line of capitals made in different fonts.
Most likely these letters came from women’s magazines
, she thought, seeing as several of them were in different shades of pink. She turned it up the right way to read it.

I’m coming for you.

The note set the hair on the back of her neck on end but Halley forced herself to look bored as she screwed the note up in her hand and dropped it. Whatever sound it made when it hit the carpet was masked by the timer on Alec’s phone going off.

“It’s my turn now!” Corey eagerly started shoving at Casey to get him off the chair in front of the computer.

“I haven’t finished yet!” Casey held Corey back without taking his eyes from the screen. Corey spread his feet apart for more leverage, kicking the pile of envelopes as he did so.

“Time to pack up,” Alec said firmly as he scooped the screwed up note from the carpet. “We’re going home.” He turned to Em. “Which envelope did this note come out of?”

Em eyed the torn up envelopes that had been spread across the floor and shrugged.

“I don’t remember.”

Halley watched Alec lean out the door and overheard him ask Leonora to find him a small bag.

“Don’t make a big thing of this Alec,” she said when he closed the door and started gathering up all the envelopes. Lily had finished feeding and Halley gratefully readjusted her clothes, not wanting to argue while he was looming over her. “It’s just some idiot playing a pathetic prank.”

During the drive home she managed to dissuade Alec from contacting the police by promising to ask the director’s assistant to ask for his wife’s advice. Since she was a police detective Alec finally decided that was agreeable and gave her the plastic pocket the resourceful Leonora had come up with to contain the note and torn up envelopes.

Halley didn’t tell Alec that the director’s assistant was currently away with the flu so it could be a couple of days before she saw him again. She hoped that Alec would have forgotten about it by the time the director’s assistant returned to work.

When they got home she slid the plastic pocket under one of the couch bases. With any luck she wouldn’t see it until the next time she spring cleaned.

From the doorway Alec started talking and Halley guiltily jumped. Trying to think of a reason for being where she was she picked up a cushion, plumped it then arranged it on the couch.

“Sorry, what did you say?” she asked, continuing to work her way along the other cushions on the couch.

“I asked you whether there were any computers in those boxes in the garage.”

When Halley had moved in she had felt too rushed to be able to sort through everything properly so a lot of Paul and Krystal’s belongings had been packed up to go through later. With everything that had happened since their wedding she had been too busy to even consider starting the task.

“Krystal had a laptop.” Halley screwed up her face in thought. “I think it’s in one of the boxes with the orange marker on it.”

Leonora had suggested colour coding the boxes so they knew which room they had come from. Halley had done that to begin with but with the children continually borrowing the markers she had just grabbed whatever colour she could find towards the end.

She followed Alec out to the garage and hoped it was in one of the boxes she had packed first. Upon spying the number of boxes that were written on with orange marker she decided she desperately needed to start making dinner.

Alec came into the kitchen with the laptop tucked under one arm just as she was dishing up.

“It wasn’t in a box with orange marker on it,” he said.

“Oh?” Halley spooned a serving of her special macaroni cheese with bacon and pineapple onto a plate.

“The box was written on in purple marker.” Alec set the laptop on the breakfast bar.

“It must have been in the bedroom when I packed it up and not in the study,” Halley mused as she dished up another serving.

“I opened
all
the orange boxes before I tried another colour,” Alec continued. He tapped the laptop. “I finally found this in the box that was at the bottom of the far corner of the stack.”

When Halley didn’t respond Alec continued.

“Do you know how many boxes I had to open before I tried that one?” Although Alec’s tone was mild Halley could hear a trace of irritation. Before she could answer he answered for her. “
All
of them.”

Halley moved to the cutlery drawer and allowed Alec’s suggestion of writing the contents of the boxes on them to wash over her. It was something she would have normally done but since everything was just going next door and she didn’t have to worry about a box getting lost in transit she hadn’t bothered.

By the time they started eating Alec had got over his pique. As he fed Cassie he told the excited children that he had enough computers for them each to have one of their own the next day.

For the rest of the week everything went a lot more smoothly. Then the following Monday during a break between takes on set Halley opened another envelope containing a note made out of cut up letters.

Halley felt her stomach drop as she read the note. She then looked up and scanned the area around her to see if anyone was paying any attention to what she was doing. One of the cameramen caught her eye and gave her a wave. She gave a brief wave back to him then returned her attention to the note to discourage him from coming over.

Are you excited? I am.

The words themselves were innocuous enough. It was just the creepy way they were spelled out in capital letters that made her pulse race, she told herself. It didn’t mean anything. All the same she promised herself to give both notes to the director’s assistant the moment he returned to work. Although neither note implied a direct threat to her safety she felt unsettled enough to do something about it.

She slid the note and the envelope into the side pocket of the cavernous bag she took with her when out with the babies, leaving the rest of the fan mail for Corey and Em to open. Those two enjoyed playing her personal assistants which was great because she was no longer in the mood to read anything.

Determined to push the note from her mind, Halley focussed on what the director was asking them to do for the next take.

The scene she was in that afternoon required her to work with a body double for a stunt where she was catapulted into the air. The manoeuvres she performed before the body double took over took a lot of concentration and by the time the scene was wrapped up she had completely forgotten about the letter.

The letter stayed forgotten until the end of the week when she received another one.

She and Riker were filling in time while the lighting on the set was being adjusted and had decided to open their fan mail. Riker had ripped into his and was swinging a black lacy g-string around one finger while she was still selecting the most suspicious looking envelope from the small wad of fan mail she had been handed. As far as Halley was concerned, suspicious meant any standard white envelope. Unfortunately for her most of them were plain white envelopes.

With a sigh she decided to take the one from the top. Beside her, Riker was already tearing into another envelope before she had turned over the one in her hand. He tipped another g-string onto his hand, this time coloured red.

The contents of his fan mail are far more interesting than mine
, Halley mused as she slid her fingernail under the flap to open it.

She could see childish handwriting on lined paper inside so she put the envelope to one side and moved onto the next.

From his next envelope Riker pulled out a strip of condoms taped to a note. He started reading the note then dropped it, shaking his head.

“Does anyone send you stuff like that?” Riker gestured to the pile that was accumulating on the floor between their chairs. Halley spared a brief glance at the fragrant assortment of underwear, photos of naked women and condoms he had received.

“I got a pair of Y-fronts once,” she deadpanned as she took care not to rip the envelope flap between her fingers as she opened it. If there was nothing to worry about inside she would reseal it for Em and Corey to fight over opening later.

Riker grinned at her answer then scowled as a photo of a naked woman tipped out of the envelope he was holding into his hand.

“Talk about being upfront.” Riker flashed the photo at Halley and she briefly saw breasts that couldn’t have been made by nature before the photo joined others on the pile between them. He leaned back in his chair. “Whatever happened to modesty?” he bemoaned.

“I never heard you complain about nudity before,” Halley said as she drew out the single sheet of paper from inside the envelope.

Riker gave his head a good shake as though he was trying to physically clear his mind then sat up in his chair.

“You’re right. What’s wrong with me? Perhaps I’m getting old.”

“Perhaps you’re finally growing up,” Halley countered as she unfolded the piece of paper on her lap.

As soon as she read the words formed by cut out letters on the paper she paled. Riker noticed.

“What do you have there?” he asked and snatched the note from her trembling hand. He scanned the sentence on the page.

“What the?” Riker raised his eyes to meet Halley’s. “Is this the first one of these you’ve had?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Halley snatched it off him. Riker hadn’t finished with it and snatched it back.

“
Will you scream
?” he read aloud then brought his eyes up to meet hers. “What do the other ones say?”

Halley recalled the note in the baby bag and unzipped the side pocket. Finding it, she handed it over and told him the contents of the first note.

“It appears I have an admirer,” she finished lightly.

Riker gave her a look that told her that he didn’t agree. He started firing questions at her, wanting to know more details about the other two notes and what she had done about them. Halley had hoped he’d laugh when she told him that the first one was in a plastic bag under the couch at home but Riker looked anything but happy.

“Have you contacted the police?”

“No. Why would I? It’s not like my life is being threatened.” Halley folded her arms defensively across her chest as Riker studied the note she had handed to him.

“What does Alec think about this?” he asked.

“He overreacted about the first note and I forgot to tell him about the second one.”

Riker swore under his breath then signalled to someone out of Halley’s line of sight. She groaned when the executive producer who happened to be on the set that morning came over. In a short, clipped conversation Riker quickly ascertained that the notes weren’t some PR stunt organised by the studio to gain more publicity for the upcoming movie.

Before Halley knew it the police had been called and filming was put on hold while she was interviewed about the notes. As she had expected there wasn’t really much they could do. They would try and get fingerprints from the notes and envelopes and see if they matched up to anyone on their database but they weren’t hopeful.

Upon noting that the postmark was local they had advised that she take sensible safety precautions and always be accompanied by an adult when she left the house.

Riker insisted on escorting her, Cassie and Lily to Alec’s office that evening. Halley knew he had an agenda and it was confirmed when he told Alec about the other two notes. She could tell that Alec was not happy to hear the news and she was less than happy to have the pair of them work out a schedule that saw one or the other of them at her side all day.

She was also irked to learn that while she was being interviewed by the police Riker had arranged for someone at the studio to open her fan mail for her from now on while wearing gloves. On the way home she decided that she was madder at Alec for taking Riker’s side over his high-handed tactics.

“You are both overreacting!” she stormed at him later that night after the children had gone to bed.

“I would rather overreact than lose you,” Alec retorted. Although Halley was glad to know that he felt that way she still didn’t like how the decision about how to proceed being taken from her and told him so. Upon hearing that, Alec sighed. “Then what do you want to do?”

Halley was unable to speak for a moment. She hadn’t actually expected Alec to ask for her opinion. When he gave her a gesture to indicate he wanted to hear what she had in mind she held up her hand.

“Just a moment. I’m thinking.”

Halley didn’t want anyone to fuss over her. It wasn’t something she was used to. She knew that Alec wouldn’t accept that though. She knew he would worry about her the whole time they were apart and he wasn't as good an actor as she was. It wouldn’t take long for the children to work out that something wasn’t right and worry along with him.

Upon reflection Halley supposed it wasn’t a big deal to have someone at the studio open her mail. They weren’t going to read any of it. Anything that didn’t consist of letters stuck on a piece of paper would be immediately passed onto her after all.

“Okay, it makes sense to do as you and Riker want,” she muttered ungraciously.

Alec took a few more steps over and drew her into his arms.

“Were we having an argument?” he queried.

“I don’t think so.” Halley leaned back so she could look at him. “Why? Do you want one?”

The side of Alec’s mouth twitched as he fought to keep from smiling.

“No. I was hoping we could make up.”

Halley pulled free from his arms and headed for the door. When she reached it she stopped and turned around. Alec was watching her.

“What are you waiting for? Last one upstairs gets to wear the handcuffs.”

Halley raced off but Alec passed her before she reached the top of the stairs.

The next afternoon Alec was still smiling despite the fact that Corey had somehow deleted a game he had wanted to play. Since he didn’t expect to need his computer for the remainder of the day he set Corey up at his desk then sat the laptop Corey had been using on the other side of his desk to have a look at it.

With his mind on other things, Alec automatically opened the laptop’s email program and went to the trash folder. The mouse twitched as he was about to open it and clicked open drafts instead. He stared in confusion at the screen for a few moments until it finally registered that he shouldn’t have opened the email program to begin with.

Alec moved the mouse to the X to close the program but stopped the moment he read Halley’s name as the addressee of the single email in the drafts file. Curiosity made him open the email and read the contents. By the time he had finished he was no longer smiling.