The back gate slammed. Her body stiffened. He was walking down the path. ‘Please don’t come here. I need to think. Go back out of the gate now and think this through, Rhys.’ She closed her sore eyes and blew her nose as she waited for the door to open. There was no way he’d listen to her. He wasn’t the type.
‘Out of the gate. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Is this another silly game you’re playing? Is it meant to mean something that I’ll never fathom? You sometimes think you’re so clever. That’s your problem. Think you’re better than anyone else.’
Within seconds his tone had changed. She ended the call. If it wasn’t him, who was in her garden? Something was off and it wasn’t just Rhys. It was ever since she’d allowed Rhys to set up her profile on that stupid Swap Fun website. The door handle rattled as she trembled on the kitchen floor. ‘Just go away,’ she yelled.
Thirty-Eight
Rain pattered against the living room window. Diane pulled the fleecy blanket further up towards her chin as she shivered.This Morning, a television programme she normally loved filled the solitude but she couldn’t concentrate on anything. After all that had happened, every hour went by slowly. Someone had broken into her house and she couldn’t get it out of her mind. Every part of her home felt dirty, like it was contaminated.
Sleep hadn’t come at all. Her heavy eyelids threatened to close as her breathing became heavier. A random snore brought her out of her slumber and she awoke with a start. What if he was to come back? The intruder knew things about their past, her and Samantha. Was he part of her past, is this why she had been chosen? Maybe he was punishing her for all the wrongs she’d done. Shame burned through her cheeks. Eventually the police would dig up something from her past should these incidents keep occurring. If nothing else these days, she had respect. Would the community turn on her if they knew what she’d done? She’d even changed her name to escape it. It had been so easy. Move from her town of birth to the town her brother had moved to and start again. No one had questioned it and her past had never threatened to meet her present. It had all worked out well, until now.
She tried to curl up a little on the settee. It was no good. Her legs weren’t going to bend in that way. Her hip twinged and her swollen fingers lost their grip on the edge of the blanket, making it slip a little. Her eyes filled up. Being only in her fifties, she saw other women her age looking like they were still forty, out enjoying themselves with great jobs and loving families. She had nothing and there was nothing to look forward to. Her once lovely long chocolate brown hair was now mostly grey and limped in tangled clumps over her shoulders. The menopause had also treated her badly, putting her through the wars. She envied every woman who’d sailed through it. One health problem after another had plagued her since. She stared at the screen. Some of the presenters and guests were around her age. They looked so full of life and radiant.
Back then, men had swarmed around her, just like they had with Samantha. They’d loved her shiny hair, her hourglass figure and the way she could wiggle in a pair of heels. They loved the crimson lipstick and the smell of her perfume. She could have had anyone but she chose to profit from her looks. Not in the way a model profits from being the star of an advertising campaign but in more sordid ways. At seventeen she had the looks but soon her reputation made sure that most of the decent boys didn’t want to know. It was a different time in the eighties. They may have had the big hair, the educational opportunities and the shoulder pads, but women were still being patted on the arse by the guys they worked for. No one judged either the women or the men for this, but they all judged her. They all wanted to shag her when they got paid and they all went home to their wives and listened to them bleat on about what a tart Dianefrom-down-the-roadwas.
She stared at her reflection in the murky window. ‘Worthless whore,’ she whispered as tears filled her eyes. That’s all she was. A new name meant nothing. Deep down, she was nothing but a whore and the town she left had said it out loud. No wonder her bro had moved away, the teasing must have forced him to. No one cared if she was okay at seventeen. No one had offered to help. Maybe things would have been different today, just maybe. Maybe social services would have stepped in to help and she’d have continued studying, got a good job and had the husband and family she’d dreamed of back then.
Her home phone went. As she reached out to answer, her bones creaked. She brought the received to her ear. ‘Hello.’ She wiped her eyes on the corner of her blanket. The caller was silent. ‘Hello?’
The call went dead. She placed the receiver down and pressed 1471 only to be told that the caller had withheld their number.
A cold shiver ran through her body. First the card, then the break-in, now a phone call from someone who’d hung up. A million thoughts flashed through her mind. Was the intruder checking to see if she was in? Maybe this time he was going to come for her, maybe hurt or kill her.
She wasn’t worried about dying but the thought of someone coming to her home and hurting her more than she already hurt sent a shudder through her body. She trembled as the phone rang again.
Reaching for the receiver, she held the phone to her ear and waited. She could hear the caller breathing at the other end. ‘Derek? Who is this?’ she cried. A thought crossed her mind. ‘Samantha, is that you? Please, just say something, anything. The silence is killing me. I miss you, Sam. Did you send me the card?’ Breaking down, her sobs filled the living room. It couldn’t be Samantha but for a moment it felt like she was really talking to her. All the heartache at her disappearance came flooding back as the caller hung up. ‘Come back,’ she yelled, her voice cracking.
It wasn’t Samantha. Her closest friend would never put her through this much pain. ‘Come back,’ she cried.
Thirty-Nine
‘Aimee, what the hell?’
Nicole dropped her bag on the table and kneeled beside her friend.
The phone slipped from her hand and fell to the floor. ‘I thought you were him.’
‘Come here.’ Nicole held Aimee close until her tears subsided. ‘What happened? Did he call?’
She nodded and wiped her nose. ‘I thought you were him. I did it. I finally told him to never come back.’
‘We’ll get through this and the old Aimee will shine back through. You’ll see. You did the right thing.’ Nicole grabbed some tissues and passed them to Aimee. ‘Here, I’ll put the kettle on. Chamomile tea?’
‘Please. Why are you back home so soon?’
Nicole switched the kettle on and grabbed a couple of mugs. ‘I left my phone on charge and I need it. Thought I’d dash back and grab it. I’ll have to have this and run. I’m not going to be Miss Popular for being late but stuff ’em. They need me more than I need them. What’s been going on, hun? There’s something you’re not telling me.’
Aimee ran her hands through her greasy hair. Nicole was right. Without pausing for breath, she reeled off the details of the party that Rhys had taken her too.
‘Jeez. It’s complicated then.’
‘They think it’s Rhys as he’s absconded but there were others at that party. It was off, the whole night was off. I can’t put my finger on it but everyone turned up to this stupid party and looked fed up when they were paired off, as if none of them really wanted to be there. I can’t believe I did it. It’s going to ruin all that I’ve worked for. I’m going to need to move and start again.’
Nicole placed the tea on the table and offered her friend a hand up. ‘No you’re not. You’ve done nothing wrong. The police will catch whoever did this. They will get Rhys eventually. With no money, he can’t run for long. He can’t just vanish.’
‘You were right too. I’m so sorry.’
‘I could see it all along. I just hoped I wouldn’t lose you as a friend. Drink your tea. When I’m gone, have a shower and get to that park. The run starts soon, doesn’t it?’
