He's After Me (16 page)

I let him in.

‘We must’ve left the door open when we left for New York. An open invitation to burglars.’

Silence falls. ‘I find that hard to believe.’ Mum voices what we’re all thinking. Dad had an obsession for making sure our house was locked up every time we went out. Doors, windows, everything had to be secure.
‘I come into contact with the dregs of society on a daily basis,’
he used to say when we complained.

He shrugs. ‘I wasn’t the last one out that morning,’ he says and the unspoken feeling fills the room that this is all Jude’s fault, only Dad is too loyal to say.

Except Zoe and I know what really happened. I can feel her eyeballing me, openly hostile. Suddenly, understanding floods through me, filling my veins with its toxic truth.

She thinks I had something to do with this.

‘Anyway, there’s loads of things he didn’t take. Laptops, TV, Wii, iPods …’

‘I wonder why?’ says Mum.

‘The police think he was more interested in using the flat than stealing stuff. That’s the worst bit really. He’d been living in it while we were away, it’s obvious. He left it in a right mess. We think he had a woman there as well.’

‘How could you tell?’ Zoe’s voice is harsh.

‘Some items that were left …’

My washbag. My pants!

Fortunately my father is discreet. ‘It was obvious. They’d been eating our food, drinking our champagne, sleeping in our bed. He used my razor, she’d worn Jude’s clothes. That’s what freaks her out the most. She feels violated.’

‘I’m not surprised!’ Zoe growls in disgust. ‘Some creep going through your stuff!’

I look at her in alarm. She won’t say anything, will she?

Mum shivers. ‘Where is Jude now?’

‘Gone home to sleep at her parents’ house. She says she never wants to set foot in the place again.’ He looks gutted.

How ironic is that? All I ever wanted to hear was that he and Jude had separated. But I never meant it to happen this way. Even Mum looks sad.

‘It’s the shock,’ she says gently. ‘Give her time. She’ll get over it.’

Dad smiles at her gratefully. ‘The police think we surprised him, coming home when we did, and he had to make a quick getaway. They think he might have been watching us for a while, and took his opportunity when he saw us going off in a taxi with our cases. Probably thought we were away for a week or two.’

‘Aahh!’ Livi’s sharp intake of breath makes us all turn to look at her. ‘I’ve just remembered something. That time we stayed over at your flat, yeah? There was a bloke in the bus shelter opposite, watching us. Do you remember, Anna?’

‘Yes.’ Thank you, Livi, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for throwing them off the trail. ‘Yes, I do. Then I noticed him again later that night, and he was still there, watching the flat.’

‘You need to tell the police that, Dad. I bet it was him!’ shrieks my sister in excitement and nobody but me notices that Zoe gives a snort of derision.

‘I will. Did you get a good look at him?’

‘Not really.’ Livi’s face clouds with disappointment.

‘Don’t worry. There’ll be CCTV footage for them to look at.’

‘CCTV?’ I say, thunderstruck.

‘Yes. They’re studying it now.’

‘Well, I hope they find him,’ says Zoe venomously.

‘Didn’t the neighbours notice anything?’ asks Mum.

Dad gives a wry laugh. ‘You’re joking. I wouldn’t even know who my neighbours were.’

‘Lucky you,’ says Mum and they both laugh again. Even in my panic I can’t help noticing that, weirdly, they’re more relaxed in each other’s company than they have been for months. And I wonder if, just maybe, some little bit of good will come out of all this mess.

Then the front doorbell rings and all hell lets loose.

L
ivi jumps up, her face all bright and shiny. ‘That’ll be Jem!’

‘Who’s Jem?’ asks Dad, just as I’m registering, how come she knows he’s coming round?

‘Anna’s boyfriend,’ explains Mum.

‘I thought his name was James?’ says Dad, bewildered, and my heart sinks. Then Zoe leaps to her feet.

‘I’m going!’ she announces angrily.

‘I’ll see you out!’

‘Don’t bother!’ she snaps at me and rushes out of the door.

Mum and Dad stare at each other in surprise. ‘What’s up with her?’ I hear Dad ask as I chase after her.

In the hallway, Zoe bangs straight into Jem.

‘Whoa!’ he says, laughing, and steps from one side to the other, his arms wide, blocking her way. ‘What’s the rush?’

‘Piss off!’ she snarls and pushes him in the chest so hard he staggers as she barges past him, straight out through the front door.

Livi’s jaw drops open.

‘Zoe, wait!’ I shout.

‘Leave me alone!’

‘Zoe! I need to explain!’

‘Let her go,’ jeers Jem. ‘She’s nuts.’

Zoe comes to a halt and turns around, metres from the house, her face contorted with fury. She thrusts her arm out, pointing at Jem who is now standing beside me.

‘And you are SCUM!’ she yells and I hear Livi gasp.

Jem’s lip curls and he saunters down the step towards her but she stands her ground. ‘And YOU!’ She turns her accusing finger towards me. ‘
You
are the biggest loser I have ever met in my life.’

‘What is wrong with her?’ asks Livi, grabbing my arm.

‘You involved me in all this, you bitch! You made me your alibi, and all the time you were scheming, planning …’

‘Zoe! I didn’t know—’

‘Don’t give me that! I believed you! I thought it was him! I thought he was the weird one! But you’re just as bad …’

‘What’s going on out here?’ Dad’s strong hands grasp my shoulders and move me to one side and he stands at the top of the step. ‘What’s all this about, Zoe?’

‘Ask your freaking daughter!’

‘Come inside and we can talk about it.’

‘She’s mad!’ says Jem, a sneer on his face.

‘I’m not mad, you are!’ screams Zoe. ‘And you!’ She points at me again, beside herself with rage. ‘You’re twisted! You’re worse than him … You’d screw over your own father to keep him happy …’

‘Don’t listen to her,’ says Jem quickly. ‘She’s a psycho!’

‘I’m not the psycho! You’re the one who breaks into places. You’re the one who steals. You’re the one who trashes people’s homes.’

‘Oh God!’ Behind me I hear Mum catch her breath.

Tears stream down my face.

‘It wasn’t like that!’ I whisper as my legs give way and I stumble. An arm comes round my waist to support me. Dad’s.

‘Bitch!’ Jem advances on Zoe, his face ugly with rage.

Mum brushes past me and wraps her in her arms and Zoe collapses against her, crying.

‘How could you?’ says Mum, metres from him. ‘We trusted you! I trusted you with my daughter!’

Jem’s face changes. It’s open now, wide with affronted innocence. He spreads his hands wide, appealing to her. ‘It’s all lies,’ he says. ‘She’s one mad cow! I’ve never even been inside your husband’s flat.’

You can tell from her face she’s nonplussed. She doesn’t know what to think. Too late, I realize what a plausible liar Jem is.

But then Dad says, ‘Who mentioned my flat?’

Silence.

Jem, realizing he’s given the game away, lets out a small bark of derision. ‘Is that what all this is about?’ he says. ‘Lighten up, man. We only stayed there a few nights.’

‘Just go,’ Dad says to him bleakly. ‘Before I call the police.’

Jem’s expression changes. It’s crafty now, taunting.

‘You know what, man?’ Now it’s his turn to point the finger, only he does it in a crude, one-fingered salute. ‘You’ve got nothing on me. I didn’t break into your flat. Your precious daughter invited me in!’

‘Go now!’ yells Dad. ‘Before I change my mind. If I find you anywhere near my daughter again, I’ll break your bloody neck!’

Jem backs away, cursing, then swaggers off down the road, yelling threats and expletives back at us.

Zoe throws her arms around me and my sobs turn to wails.

Someone else is crying too.

Livi is standing at the gate, watching Jem disappear, and the tears are streaming down her cheeks.

He always knew it would be her that came between them. Her and her big gob.

Fat cow. He could’ve carried this off it hadn’t been for her.

J
em has disappeared from my life as if he’s never been there. At first he rings me twenty times a day and I tell him I never want to see him again.

I am so ashamed.

I remember when I told him Dad and Jude were going to New York. He was over the moon.

‘The answer to our prayers,’
he’d said. ‘
We can be together all night long.’

And, stupid me, against my better judgement I’d allowed myself to be persuaded. I’d moved into my father’s flat with him. I’d slept with him in my father’s bed. I’d trusted him, leaving him on his own there – and this is how he’d repaid me. Helping himself to whatever he found lying about.

All I’d ever wanted from him was love. All he’d wanted from me was a free ride.

‘You used me!’ I say and he pleads with me, telling me it’s all a big mistake, but I know he’s lying. Then he turns nasty, saying horrible things about my family, especially Dad and Jude. (Since when did
she
become part of my family?) Most of it I’d said myself, but it sounds worse coming from him. He threatens to tell people I’ve been tagging with him all over town, but I tell him to get lost. He’s done his worst. I know he won’t do that anyway, he’s got too much to lose.

I feel betrayed. Humiliated.

Then the phone calls, the texts, the Facebook messages stop and finally everything goes quiet. At last I can forget him.

But now, perversely, I can’t get him out of my mind.

The truth is, I miss him.

Dad seems to be round a lot. He managed to coax Jude back from her parents, but I don’t think she spends more time at the apartment than she has to. He says she doesn’t feel safe there any more. She won’t even look at the CCTV footage because she says everywhere she goes she’d be looking out for him if she knew what he looked like. You’d think she’d have a bit more bottle about her, with some of the clients she’s had to deal with. Dad says that’s the point, she’s had trouble with one or two in the past.

‘What sort of trouble?’ asks Livi.

‘Clients who think she’s let them down because she didn’t get them off.’

‘What do they do?’

‘Shout a bit when they get sent down. Make a few threats. It’s happened to me countless times.’

‘Scary!’

‘No, it’s all talk. They forget all about it once they’re banged up inside. Interestingly, the one guy that really freaked Jude out was someone whose case she won. He wouldn’t leave her alone after that, made out there was something special between them.’

‘What happened?’

‘I can’t remember. It was a client from her last practice. She moved down here and he lost track of her, I guess.’

She moved down here and met you, we’re all thinking.

Mum sighs. ‘There are some strange people about, that’s for sure. Take Jem, for instance. I really liked him.’

Here we go again!

‘Yes, well, I blame myself for that,’ says Dad.

‘Why?’ I say in surprise.

‘I should’ve been there for you.’

‘You were.’ He warned me enough about Jem. I just wouldn’t listen.

‘I welcomed him into my home!’ Mum says, looking stricken. ‘He was always so pleasant, so well mannered …’

‘Most psychopaths are!’ says Dad bitterly.

‘Jem’s not a psychopath!’

‘He stole my watch, my money and Jude’s jewellery, let alone her … more personal items. Believe me, that’s the hallmark of a nutter. I should know. I come across them every day!’

‘Well, he said he didn’t!’ protests Livi. ‘Why doesn’t anyone believe him?’

‘Because he’s a flaming liar!’

I know Dad’s right. To a point. He didn’t take Jude’s ‘personal items’. Her pants and her top. That was me. But I’m too ashamed to admit it. The rest of the stuff though, he took that.

But no one can convince Livi. It’s quite sweet really, the way she stands up for him, like a fox terrier defending a pit bull. As far as she’s concerned, Jem can do no wrong. He’s the injured party and there’s a simple explanation.

‘Jem’s getting blamed for something he didn’t do!’ she maintains mutinously. ‘Someone else could’ve broken into your apartment.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ says Dad.

‘Well, maybe Jem had a mate around when Anna was at college and he helped himself.’

I sigh heavily. I’d thought of that too. But the truth was, Jem didn’t have any mates.