Bounce Down: 1st Quarter: Start of Play (11 page)

I titled my
response, ‘
You’re
welcome
’ and typed,
‘Looking forward to a repeat performance starring the
infamous red nightie. Ps also looking forward to getting
reacquainted with you and your best friend. Suzie x’

At my parents’ I was pleased to
discover mum had cooked a roast chicken, complete with all the
trimmings.

She related what had been
happening with everyone from my brother, Aiden, to the neighbours’
comings and goings. Eventually dad cut in her on monologue to ask
me about my weekend.

Now I knew why I interrupted so
much. We all loved mum, but once she got started on a subject, well
interrupting was the only course open to us if we wanted to join
the conversation.

As I glanced over at him, I
knew we had a special father-daughter relationship and I used to
think he was the one man I needed in my life. Then boys came on the
scene and I wanted them to be like my dad, my role model. Having
said that, Brendon was nothing like him and dad would be horrified
if he knew what he was really like.

My parents and my brother were
all big fans of the Swan River Football Club, or Crocs as they were
affectionately known; crocs being short for crocodiles, even though
Perth’s Swan River was not home to any real crocs.

When I dropped the Brendon
MacIver bombshell they were initially dumbfounded, but then
delighted. The dreaded impossible-to-answer questions soon
followed. I fielded them quite well until, “When are we going to
meet him?”

Although I had anticipated this
one, I still had to be careful how I worded my response. “It’s a
bit too soon to meet the parents and I don’t want to push him.
We’re not at the boyfriend/girlfriend stage yet and we’re just
taking things slowly.”

Slowly couldn’t be any further
from the truth. We were approaching our relationship like an out of
control freight train; full speed ahead with no sign of
stopping.

“
You need to
keep knowledge of our relationship to yourselves, with the
exception of Aiden of course, until we were ready for everyone to
know. It’s important for secrecy at this stage because of Brendon’s
public profile.”

Later in bed, I realised I had
forgotten to delete Brendon’s email and my reply from the computer.
Working for the Police Department had made me paranoid, with good
reason. I made a mental note to delete them first thing the next
day.

It was mid-morning when Peter
came up behind me. “Come upstairs for a cuppa.” He was spinning my
office chair around to face him as he spoke.

“
Um, I have
to finish something first.” He had a determined look on his face,
which bothered me.

“
No, you
don’t! I’ve cleared it with Steve. Let’s go!” He grabbed my hand,
pulling me to my feet.

I bent to pick up my handbag.
“Pete, what’s wrong?” Now he really had me worried. I had never
seen him like this before.

Without answering, he led me
through the door to the elevators. Even in the lift on the way up
to the top floor he remained silent, facing forward.

Soon we were seated at the last
table, being the most secluded. “What’s all this about?”

He leaned across and held my
hands in his. “You know I want you to be happy and don’t want to
see you get hurt?”

Great, he couldn’t leave it
alone.

“
Look, I know
you mean well but....”

He continued as though I hadn’t
spoken. “I’ve been trying to figure out why, this time, you haven’t
confided in me and now I know.”

“
Excuse
me?”
What did he know?

He avoided looking me directly
in the eye. “I feel guilty checking up on you behind your
back....”

Outraged, I pulled my hands
free. “What have you done?”

As he did not immediately
answer, I prompted, “Well?”

He had the grace to look
embarrassed. “Rick saw you had an email from Brendon.”

Okay, so he
wouldn’t have seen much as I hid the email immediately. Plus I had
deleted both emails this morning so....
Holy crap!

He confirmed my worst fears.
“After you left yesterday, I asked the techies in BCI (Bureau of
Criminal Intelligence) if they could get into your emails.”

I shook my head, not quite
believing he had done this.

He pulled a sheet of paper from
his pocket. “I know these are private emails between you and
Brendon....”

“
You’re damn
right they’re private.”

He held up one hand in
surrender. “I’m sorry for what I did, but now I have seen these
messages, I’m worried about where this is leading.”

He showed me the printout of
Brendon’s email and my reply. There was no need to read them. I had
committed every word to memory.

I rested my elbows on the table
and closing my eyes, put my head in my hands. But his next words
had me sitting bolt upright, with my mouth gaping open in
surprise.

“
A threesome?
You know this won’t end well.” I saw he was shaking his
head.

I burst out laughing, even
though what he had done was no laughing matter. It served him right
for incorrectly interpreting my private messages.

“
Suzie, this
is serious. If word of this gets out your name will be mud and I
care about you too much to let that happen.”

I grinned at his unlikely
assumption and gave him back the printout. “Try substituting the
letters c o c k for best friend.”

As the penny dropped he glanced
up, an apologetic look on his face. “Suze, I’m really sorry.”

Serious now, I looked him in
the eye, as I contemplated what I should tell him. “You need to
back off, okay?”

He nodded in agreement. “Of
course, but I still don’t understand why you’re shutting me
out.”

Frustrated, I again put my head
in my hands for a moment, before looking up to face him. “There’s a
reason I haven’t told you. The information I’m withholding needs to
be kept private. This means you can’t tell anyone else, especially
other cops and, at the moment, I don’t know if I can trust
you.”

“
What? How
can you even doubt me?”

I glanced down at the
misconstrued printout. “Oh, right; well all I can say is, if you
don’t fill me in, I’m going to have to find out my own way.”

God help me
if I was wrong to do this.
I reached into
my bag for my mobile phone. After opening the photo album, I
selected Brendon’s picture. I had taken the close-up photo showing
the upper half of his body while he was sitting at the breakfast
bar, wearing his grey hoody and giving me one of his sexy
smiles.

He was initially against me
taking his picture, stating there were heaps available on the
internet, but I said I wanted something personal.

I passed him the phone. “This
is Brendon.”

“
What’s his
surname, this guy looks familiar?”

“
MacIver.”
Let him process that one. I knew he liked his sports, but he wasn’t
really into AFL.

“
Brendon
MacIver, where do I know that name from?”

I was not about to make it easy
for him. “His name and his association with me is the information
you have to keep to yourself.”

I grabbed my phone back and
stood up. “I have work to do.”

He got to his feet and followed
me to the elevators. I could see his mind still trying to work it
out.

“
So you’re
not going to tell me who he is?”

I smiled at this. “I already
have.”

I warned Peter about the need
for secrecy once we were alone in the lift. “I don’t want you
asking me about this in the office where we may be overheard and
definitely no emails, okay?”

“
Okay, but
who...?” The doors opened before he could finish his
sentence.

“
You’re a
detective, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.”

Instead of going back to the
office I headed in the opposite direction, towards the female
toilets where he couldn’t follow me.

The next time I saw him, he was
heading out the door with his team and gave me a knowing look as he
passed. So far so good; my family and now Peter.

I checked the time, as I was
having lunch with Mandy, off site, to also tell her. I dismissed
going to the lunch bar next to the rear entrance of our building;
too many cops for my liking. Instead we went to a coffee shop near
the Art Gallery.

“
So, what’s
this news I know you’ve been dying to tell me, and why didn’t you
answer my email?”

Earlier she had wanted me to
email her an update on Brendon, but I called her instead and
arranged to meet for lunch.

“
Before I
tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone, even police
officers. Do I have your word?”

“
Of course.
I’m so sorry about telling Peter, it’s because I don’t know
anything about this guy. I was worried about you. You can trust me,
I promise.”

I studied her face and saw that
innocent look. I knew her look of innocence stemmed from her
looking younger than her age. She had the appearance of an 18 year
old, instead of her actual age of 23. Combined with her height at
five foot and her honey blonde hair, always worn in a ponytail, she
used her youthful looks to her advantage.

I accepted her sincerity. “You
don’t have to worry about Pete anymore, because I told him about
Brendon and have also secured his silence.”

She nodded eagerly. “Great, so
let’s have it.”

I smiled at her excited
expression as I showed her the phone picture of my mystery man.
Mandy, like my family, was a fan of the Crocs. I watched the
astonished look she gave the picture.

“
This... this
is the Brendon you’ve been seeing? Oh my god, why didn’t you tell
me? This is unbelievable!”

Her voice had risen, making me
especially glad I had not chosen the lunch bar.

“
The reason
is because he wants to keep us a secret, for the time being.” My
response was in a quieter tone than she had used.

As I did with my folks, I gave
the impression things would progress to our relationship becoming
public. I knew this was unlikely, but at least I was part of his
life; which was enough, wasn’t it?

“
I’m
back!”

With everything that had been
happening, I had completely forgotten my best friend Jeanette was
returning on Tuesday.

“
Hey, it’s
good to hear your voice. When did you get in?”

“
A couple of
hours ago.”

“
So, how was
it?”

“
We’ve gotta
catch up so I can you all about it. What about one of our cheese
and wine sessions?”

“
Sounds good,
how about tomorrow night?”

I noticed there was a slight
pause. She was probably consulting her diary. Even though we were
the same age, she had a much more active social life. I tried to
keep up with her, but with her working part time and me having a
full time job with overtime, it was difficult.

“
How about
Saturday, say around one?”

Now it was my turn to pause.
Brendon going to call on Thursday and, no doubt, we would be seeing
each other Friday night and into Saturday.

In the two weeks I had known
him, we had not spent an entire weekend together. I had gone home
by Saturday night on both occasions. Still, who knew what this
weekend may bring? I could hardly arrange to meet her either
Saturday or Sunday, in case we did a full weekend. It dawned on me
how much our arrangement would impact on my relationship with my
friends.

“
Um, I may be
busy on the weekend.”

“
What,
the
whole
weekend?” I could hear the surprise in her voice.

“
Maybe.”

I pictured her shaking her head
in disbelief.

“
Okay, what
gives?”

“
It looks
like we both have news to tell. Are you sure we can’t meet tomorrow
night?”

“
I’ll make
time. You bring the cheese and biscuits and I’ll take care of the
wine. How’s six sound?”

“
Like a
plan.” It was going to be interesting telling her about him. Not
only was she a fan of the SRFC, she was also a member and went to
every home game. I occasionally went with her when they played
against my favourite team, who were based in Victoria.

On Wednesday evening, after
greeting Jeanette, we talked for a short while over a wine. Unable
to wait any longer I handed her my phone, opened to the photo
gallery. After seeing Brendon’s picture she stared at me
dumbfounded, before looking back at the screen.

Letting her in on my secret
relationship with one of her idols was obviously a big shock to
her. He wasn’t her favourite player, the captain was, but I was
certain she was still impressed. I smiled at her silence. Jeanette
always liked to voice her opinion whether you wanted it or not.

“
This, this
is Brendon MacIver from the Crocs.”

I nodded twice, confirming his
identity.

“
This is what
you’ve been doing, correction
he
is what you’ve been doing while I’ve been stuck
in Europe?”

“
An overseas
holiday isn’t what I’d call stuck in Europe.” I laughed at her
point of view.

She shook head in disbelief.
“And how did you meet this Adonis?”

“
You know
very well he’s not Greek.”