It Started With A House: Lizzie. Book 1 (The Westport Mysteries) (19 page)

“If you are
referring to us giving you some sort of sexual favor, then you are so far from
reality that maybe you should pull your head out of your ass and take a good
look at yourself, because there is no way on Gods earth that any part of
you
will be touching any part of
me
. So when I purchase this bag and hand
you my credit card, you had better make sure that not a single millimeter of
your skin touches mine. Because if it does I will scream so loud your Boss will
be all over you before I could say
Sexual
Harassment
.” The salesman went white and dabbed his top lip with the handkerchief
he pulled from his pocket.

“Please, don’t...don’t
do that,” he begged, shiftily looking around the room. “I’ve already got one
harassment charge against me, I can’t afford another one.”

“Well then, I
suggest you get me this bag in red and give me a very good discount,” said
Molly, glaring up at the man.

She may be
small, but don’t mess with her. The man hurried off and when he came back with
the red bag, he gave Molly such a good discount I thought he might be adding
his own money to it just to make up the price. Walking out the store Molly
turned to me, her handbag out in front.

“Could you hold
this for a minute please, while I throw up.”

Personally, I thought
it was extremely funny. “You are truly amazing, Molly. I could never have handled
him the way you did.”

“Yeah, well, I
just get sick and tired of men judging me by my bra size.”

That I could
understand.

Chapter
Nineteen

The
traffic was really busy on the drive home. It felt like everybody was trying to
get out of the city, but I didn’t care. Sitting bumper to bumper with the bus
in front of me, I let out a contented sigh. We were finally on our way home. I
had survived another shopping day with Molly.

“How’s the hunt
going for the owner of the ring?” asked Molly, closing her phone and turning
towards me. She’d been on that thing all day. I actually don’t know how she
stands it, she can’t even go for two minutes without someone either ringing her
or texting her.

“Not great,” I
admitted. “Riley gave the ring and letters to his brother Jared to see if he
could dig anything up and I lost the only photo I had when my bag got stolen. We
did take the ring to Brian Hogan for a valuation, though. Do you remember him,
Molly? Mum used to go in there when we were kids. He still remembered who I was
and I haven’t been in there since Billy bought me that friendship ring when I
was fourteen.”

“God, I
remember that ring. It was seriously ugly,” scoffed Molly. I laughed.

“Yeah, I know. At
the time I thought it was so romantic and beautiful, though.”

“Whatever
happened to Billy?”

“He broke my
heart and moved to Canada with his family about a month after giving me that
ring. He was the first in a long list of men who broke my heart, but he was the
only one who bought me jewelry.” I shrugged, tapping my fingers on the steering
wheel, getting a little bit impatient, as I’d been stuck behind a bus for the
last ten minutes. “I’ve still got it, you know.” I laughed, indicating and
changing lanes, hoping to get around the bus before he stopped at the next bus
stop. Looking in my mirror, I noticed about two cars back was a black sedan
that looked awfully like the one that had been stalking me. I felt my heart
skip a beat.

“It’s funny how
we hang onto those things, isn’t it. I’ve still got my first piece of jewelry a
boy ever bought me as well,” said Molly, completely unaware of my erratic
heartbeat.

We were in the
city, so surely it couldn’t be the same black car, I thought. There must be
hundreds of them driving around. And how would he have found me? Even though,
my car was pretty easy to spot. Driving around the bus, I pulled back into the
lane and watched my rear vision mirror to see what happened. Sure enough, it
followed me, all the time keeping at least one car between us, meaning I couldn’t
get a look at the driver.

Hmm. I could
hear Molly chatting away about one of her ex-boyfriends, but I wasn’t exactly
listening. My mind was on full alert to see what the black car would do.

A few minutes
later, he had done nothing. He was still there.
Okay, stop being so ridiculous, Lizzie
. How the hell would the
driver of that black sedan have followed me? Molly and I had been in loads of
shops today, there was no way we’d been followed. Even I had trouble following
Molly around and I was right next to her!

Taking the next
left turn, I checked my mirror just in case. Two seconds later, I noticed the
black sedan make the turn. There were no other cars between us now but it was
still too far behind me to see the driver. So I slowed up a bit to allow him to
get a bit closer. But he just kept the same distance back.

Now that alone
made the alarm bells in my head start to clang. Everyone, and I mean everyone,
in the city was always in a hurry to get somewhere. There was no such thing as
a slow driver.

Taking a deep
breath, I thought, okay, let’s see if it is him. I’d been living and working here
for the last ten years and I knew these streets pretty well, so at the last
minute, I pulled into a small one-way street on the right. Just as I was
turning, I looked in my mirror and saw the black car pull across two lanes of
traffic, cutting off anybody in his path. Okay, it was him. Shit! What the hell
was I supposed to do now!

Molly was still
chattering away about some ex-boyfriend, but I had absolutely no idea who she
was talking about. First of all, my mind was solely on the black car following
me and second of all, Molly has that many ex-boyfriends I couldn’t keep up.

Reaching the T
section at the end of the street, I made a quick decision and turned left,
earning me the blast of someone’s horn as I cut them off. Once around the
corner, I started darting between cars at every chance I got, hoping I would
lose the car tailing me.
 
Sure enough,
the black car followed.

“What the hell
are you doing?” asked Molly, holding on to the door handle on one particularly
sharp turn.

“I’m being
followed by that black sedan again,” I replied, my heart racing. “I’m trying to
lose him.”

“Don’t be
ridiculous, Lizzie. Why would anybody be following you?” asked Molly, trying to
look over her shoulder, but I was changing lanes and turning corners so quickly
it was hard for her to turn around.

“Yeah? Well
watch in the side mirror and see what happens when I do
this
.” I jerked the wheel to the left and jumped into another bus
lane. At the first opportunity, the black car did the same. I took a few more
left turns, pretty much driving in one big circle and watched as he stayed
behind me the whole way.

Molly had gone
pretty quiet. I think she was just hanging on and maybe saying the odd prayer
when finally, the driver of the car had enough. Stopping at a red light, the
black car pulled up alongside me. I watched as the passenger window rolled down
and I looked in to see that the driver was the same bald man who had been
involved in the minor car accident. The same one who I thought was my neighbor.
Only this time, hanging on his rear vision mirror, was a very expensive pair of
pink Victoria’s Secrets panties. The same ones that had gone missing from my
house at the time of the break in.

Feeling the
blood drain from my face, I looked back at the man to see him smiling. Reaching
over, he unhooked them from the mirror and pulled them towards his him, caressing
the fabric as he did so. I felt like the world had slowed down and everything
was moving in slow motion as I watched him pull the fabric towards him and
inhale deeply, all the while keeping the self-satisfied smile plastered to his
face. As the light turned green, he dropped them in his lap, blew me a kiss and
sped away.

I took a few
deep, shuddering breaths and tried to relax my fingers which were now white-knuckled
on the wheel. The cars behind me honked their horns for me to move, but my
brain wasn’t sending the right signals to my feet. In fact, my brain wasn’t
really doing very much. I just sat and stared after the car as he drove away,
trying desperately to control my breathing. Molly, who’d
 
been sitting very quietly, reached over
and grabbed my hand.

“Lizzie, we
have to move. You can’t stay in the middle of the road.”

Cars were
pulling around me and a few people were giving me impolite hand gestures. Finally
the brain started to function once again and I managed to move my little car
out of the way. Pulling over to the side of the road, I placed my head on my
hands and tried to control the shaking.

“What the hell
was that about?” yelled Molly.

I quickly
explained the situation with the black sedan and how it had been stalking me for
a while. “I don’t suppose you got his license plate number?” I asked.

“No. Why didn’t
you tell me about this before now?” said Molly, her voice going up a few
octaves.

“Because I
didn’t really believe it. Why would someone break in to my house and follow
me?”

“When did all
this start happening?”

“Not long after
I moved into the house.”

“Do you think
this has something to do with the house or do you just have an admirer?”

“Well, if he’s
an admirer he has a strange way of showing it!” I hadn’t told her about the panties
being mine. That was freaking me out more than anything else. Putting the car
back into gear, I started the drive to Molly’s house, checking for the black
sedan the whole way there.

* * * *

It
was dark by the time I dropped Molly home and drove into my street and tonight,
the moon was hiding behind the clouds. It was actually one of those beautiful
nights when the nearly full moon backlights the sky behind the dark black
clouds so that the edge of the cloud is illuminated and casting an eerie glow. I
would have liked to have sat there a while enjoying the effect, but the anxious
feeling sitting in the pit of my stomach was totally ruining it for me.

It was darker
in my driveway than normal, adding to my anxiety, as the streetlight was out
and, as I turned off my headlights and sat looking at my house, I thought how
dark and uninviting it looked. Just the idea of leaving the safety of my car
didn’t hold a great appeal but I knew I couldn’t sit there forever. However,
just as I was contemplating the walk to my front door, the clouds miraculously
parted and lit up the sky, giving me just enough light to notice the black
sedan pulling into the street behind me. It had no headlights on and was almost
silent. If it hadn’t been for the unexpected moonlight, I would never have seen
it until it was too late.

Shit! What the
hell is wrong with me? I had spent so much energy trying to lose him this
afternoon, I had actually forgotten he knew where I lived. Of course he was
going to turn up here eventually.

Watching my
rear view mirror, I saw the car door open and the bald-headed man start his
walk across the street. okay, if I was ever going to panic, now was the time. Quickly
locking my doors and using two hands to put my key back in the ignition, I
started the engine and put the car in reverse. It was as my heart was drumming
a beat even Led Zeppelin would be proud of, that I planted my foot on the
accelerator and squealed my way out of the drive, nearly running over the
rubbish bins sitting at the curb in the process. Bald man realized what was
happening and ran back toward his car, but my little Mini was too quick. Rapidly
changing through the gears and barely slowing for the corners, I sped away from
my house as quickly as humanly possible, not stopping until I was completely
sure I’d lost him.

“What am I
going to do?” I asked out loud, nearly crying. I’ll be honest and tell you that
there was that much adrenalin pumping through me, I was barely able to slow
down. My mind was racing at a million miles an hour. In the past I’d never had
to choose between the fight or flight thing, but I now knew I was excellent at
the flight part.

Okay, like Mum
always told me, deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. I
practiced this for a few minutes and tried to think clearly. If he’d been
following me long enough he knew where my parents lived and would probably go
there, looking for me. The same with Danny and Molly’s and I didn’t want to
anyone to get hurt in any of this, which left me really unsure of my next move.

Arghh! Where
the hell am I going to go? I am so not good at fear! There should be some sort
of iPhone App a girl could use when she was being chased by some bald-headed
lunatic and didn’t know what to do. Taking some more deep breaths, I tried to
think this through. I started to run through a list of all my relatives who may
be able to put me up for the night.

There was
Auntie M and Uncle Frank. Hmm, maybe not. If I turned up there pumped full of
adrenalin and telling her stories of being chased, they would be able to make a
soap opera out of the story that would evolve. No, not my best option.

What about
Aimie, my old roommate? Picking up my phone ready to dial her number, I looked
at the date and realized she would be working and probably not even in the
country as her job was a flight attendant.

Damn! Now what?
I know! I’ll stay with Scott. I actually don’t know why I didn’t think of it
before. Scott’s place would be perfect as bald-headed sedan man probably didn’t
know where Scott lived and even if he did, Scott lived in a secure building, so
he wouldn’t be able to break in anyway.

Good thinking Lizzie
. I just had to call Scott
and warn him I was on my way. I know, you would think most men would enjoy an
unexpected visit from their girlfriend, but not Scott. He hated surprises. Dialing
his number, I waited until his message bank kicked in and left a message
explaining what was happening. Putting my car back into gear, I pointed it in
the direction of the city and continued to call Scott on the drive, but each
time it went to message bank. By the time I got to his apartment building, he
still wasn’t answering but luckily for me the doorman knew me.

“Hey there,
Lizzie. How are you on this fine evening?”

“Okay, thanks
Stan. I’ll be better once I’ve had a hot shower and am snuggled up to Scott. How
about you?”

Stan was a
really lovely guy and I felt rude not asking how he was. All the time though, I
kept looking around scanning for the black sedan. I was pretty sure I’d lost
him about an hour ago, but I was really edgy. Maybe Scott would have a Xanax I
could pinch.

Looking back at
Stan, I waited the obligatory few minutes and found out how his wife Beryl’s
gout was, gave him my sympathies—apparently she was not the easiest to
live with when her gout was playing up—and headed to the elevator. Finally,
I felt like I could relax. The familiarity of the elevator and the knowledge
that this was a secure building gave me a sense of protection. I was looking
forward to that shower and comfy bed when the elevator stopped at the top floor
and the doors pinged open. Scott always kept a spare key hidden under the fire
extinguisher. Finding it, I opened the door and let myself in.