‘I had an eyelash in my eye, thought I’d smudged my mascara. I didn’t want to be pulled over on my way home and completely embarrassed.’ She smiled, falsely. ‘Any chance of a cup of tea?’
He contemplated her story and either he believed her or she’d soon be in for another round of questions. Whatever way, she had to get out of here.
‘You and your tea,’ he moaned but nevertheless didn’t stop her when she headed into the kitchen. It was the same pattern when they’d been together; she’d have a glass of wine or two and then want a tea and he hated it because it meant he’d be drinking alone.
She put the kettle on, offered him one which he refused, and did her best to steady her hands. They were shaking at the close call but she had to hold it together a bit longer.
The next half an hour was the most painful of all as she waited for him to drift off again, but sure enough, he did, and she didn’t even alert him that she was leaving.
She walked out of the door and didn’t look back.
And hopefully she had everything Noah needed.
32
Noah arrived at the Whistlestop River airfield with a sleepy Eva in his arms. The posters for the upcoming open day in less than forty-eight hours were in situ and the crews were all ready with what they needed to do. Noah wished he could embrace it more, but right now it was way down on his list of priorities. Maya was supposed to come to his place, but she’d texted him to tell him to meet here instead.
‘Why didn’t you come to mine?’ In reception, he pulled a small teddy bear from his pocket and handed it to Eva, hoping it would keep her calm. It didn’t always work but tonight, she was sleepy enough and it was relatively quiet with the crew on shift out back.
‘Here is better; Conrad is less likely to come here than your place or mine if he twigs what I was looking for.’ She pulled her phone from her back pocket. ‘I think I’ve got what you need.’
He settled Eva on his lap in the seating area at the end of the reception and took the phone to scroll through, one-handed, to see what Maya had found.
‘Tell me it’s the right information,’ she rambled as his thumb nudged the screen to take in picture after picture. ‘The guy insome of the photographs looked like the man you described, the aliases Conrad gave you match the names in this file.’
Noah looked sideways at Maya. ‘It’s him. No mistaking it. It’s Paul in these pictures.’
He felt her hand briefly touch his; he heard her offer of a cup of tea and her suggestion he keep scrolling through the information she’d photographed while she went to the kitchen. ‘There’s a lot to digest,’ she said.
When she brought the mugs through to the reception, she must’ve seen the look on his face, his eyes welled up, the angst trying to burst out of him at the situation he was in.
Maya, deflated, slumped down next to him. ‘Shit, it’s no use to you, is it?’
He blinked away tears, took the mug from her outstretched hand and set it on the table beside him, pushing it well out of the way of Eva before turning back. ‘Maya, it’s 100 per cent useful to me. I need to read it all again, properly. But I think Conrad was right, I wanted this information, and thanks to you, I have it.’
For a moment, they just looked at each other, not saying a word, understanding passing between them as Eva settled against him.
They read through the information on her phone together, taking it all in. Their heads were so close, Noah got the occasional brush of her hair against his face and if it wasn’t for the total shitshow he was still facing, he’d reach up and run his fingers through it, bring her mouth to his and kiss her for what she’d done for him.
Paul, or whoever he really was, had been of interest to the police for a long time. What he was trying to do to Noah, or what he’d wanted to do to Cassie, he’d done to other women. He’d pick someone, get to know them, they’d start a relationship and the woman would fall pregnant. Then he’d disappear out of their lives after the baby was born and he’d make sure he was so awfulto them that they’d be glad to see the back of him. He’d always make sure that his name was on the birth certificate, that way he’d have rights, and then he’d come back into their lives when the baby was a few months old. It was the same pattern every time, the demands for money or the threat of court. It was all there in the reports, the evidence, photographs, statements from other women.
It appeared that Paul would try to find a weakness with the women – the first had been a drug addict prior to meeting him and he’d threatened to tell her new employer, her family, basically ruin her life unless she paid him the sum he’d asked for. The second had had multiple affairs in a previous marriage so he threatened to paint her as an unfit mother. One woman had served a couple of months in prison in her twenties and he held that over her. Cassie’s only skeleton in her closet as far as Noah knew was an eating disorder she’d fought long and hard to get over, and that wouldn’t be enough to use against her. Maybe he’d simply run out of women with pasts and got cocky going for someone who had nothing to hide and hoped they’d be too scared of losing their child that they’d pay up regardless.
It looked like one of the women Paul had picked had hired a private detective to find him when he went AWOL, and the private detective had discovered he was in another relationship with a different woman who also had a child. From one of the reports, it seemed one woman had confronted the other and together, they’d worked out what he was up to. Somehow, another couple of women were found along the way. Noah had no idea how and right now he didn’t care. He was going to fight on behalf of Cassie; this man had to be held accountable for what he’d tried to do to her and to him, for the trauma to all concerned.
He kissed the top of Eva’s head, comforted by the baby-soft feel of her hair, the smell he’d grown accustomed to every timehe picked her up, the mix of baby shampoo and laundry powder and just… Eva. She felt like home and this man, this stranger despite the blood ties, had tried to take it away from them.
He felt a huge weight settle on his shoulders, either tension or relief; he had no idea how he felt right now. ‘Cassie had a heart of gold, you know.’
‘Tell me about her,’ Maya said softly.
‘She was a pain in the arse a lot of the time.’ He started to smile.
‘That’s kind of par for the course with siblings. Julie and I have had our moments along the way.’
‘Cassie was always so bossy, especially when we were little kids. She wanted to play games to her specification, although she was creative and had a pretty good handle on what would be fun without pushing it too far. She once designed an assault course in the back garden, using anything she could find in the garage. It was impressive.’
‘Sounds dangerous – and I remember some of Isaac’s assault courses; had to put a stop to a few of them before he broke his neck.’
