Moving On (8 page)

‘Of course you do and I hope you count me as one of them.’

‘Of course I do.’

‘Another thing, don’t let your family know where you’re going. Let them worry about you, for a change.’

‘They won’t care, let alone worry.’

‘They might not at first, but as time passes, they will. Tell them they can contact you by email only.’

She gave Molly a quick hug. ‘You can do it. I know you can.’

Her neighbour’s kindness stayed with Molly all day, making her feel warm and cared about. She didn’t know whether she could be more assertive but she could definitely try, couldn’t she?

When a missile broke another window in the middle of that night, she didn’t weep, she got angry, furiously angry, and it only firmed up her resolve to stand up to whatever the world – or Craig – threw at her.

He was
not
going to get the better of her. Why should she let him get her house from her at a knock-down price?

She’d take Jane’s advice, and hold her ground, rather than backing away from confrontations from now on, verbal or otherwise.

Euan went into the office early the following morning so that he could check the building work before office hours. Outside, in the sunny but cool spring air, men were whistling as they erected the wooden framework for the next row of six lodges, accompanied by a chorus of birdsong and the sharp, staccato sound of drills putting in tek screws.

The houses always looked so fragile at this stage, like a child’s assembly kit.

He stopped to chat, because he liked the men working there to know he was keeping an eye on things, that he understood what they were doing. But he also stopped to chat because he enjoyed their wry comments on life. He’d worked with the foreman before and trusted Dan to keep things on track – and to maintain the quality of the work.

But however much you trusted your staff, he believed it still paid to be visible and not an absentee boss.

He was back in his office before eight o’clock. When he heard a sound outside, though no one had called out good morning, he went out to find one of the cleaners kneeling down, taking things out of the bottom drawer of the reception desk.

‘Are you looking for something?’

She gasped and jumped to her feet. ‘Oh, I— It’s just— Penny rang and asked me to clear out her bottom drawer. It’s only her personal things.’

He looked at the muddle of objects on the floor: a box of tissues, a half-eaten bar of chocolate, a packet of women’s tights, a magazine – yes, these were personal. But there were also quite a few papers, the top one displaying the company heading.

‘I’ve got a box to put them in, Mr Santiago. I’m sorry for disturbing you. It won’t take me more than a minute or two to finish.’

‘I’d rather check those papers first, if you don’t mind. It looks as if business stuff may have got mixed up with Penny’s things.’

His former secretary walked in just then, and while the cleaner hovered nearby looking distinctly uncomfortable, he explained what had happened.

Avril looked at the mess on the floor as if it was crawling with maggots, and said to the cleaner in a chill tone, ‘I don’t think it’s your job to go through the desks in here. And when dealing with a mess of personal things like those, you ought to be wearing rubber gloves. You’ve put yourself at risk doing it, in more ways than one. If anything’s missing, you might be accused, too.’

The cleaner backed away, looking terrified. ‘I haven’t taken anything away yet. I was only doing a favour for a friend. Look, I’ll leave it and let Penny collect it herself.’ She turned and hurried away.

‘Just a minute!’ Euan called, amazed when she started running. After a startled glance at Avril, he took off after her.

She bumped into another cleaner on the corner and ricocheted off the wall, sending cleaning materials flying.

He went to bar her way. ‘Are you both all right?’

‘Yes, no harm done,’ the other cleaner said cheerfully.

The one he’d been chasing said nothing. He peered at her name tag. ‘Are you all right, Karen?’

She nodded, shrinking away from him.

‘Why were you running away?’

‘I thought you’d be angry. Penny said you used to frighten her and I can see why.’

Euan realized suddenly that he might just have given Penny more evidence – if she was out to sue him – if he hadn’t made a mistake about that. Oh, hell! ‘When I found you going through the desk drawers, I was worried that you’d been pilfering,’ he said quietly. ‘And then you ran away. What was I to think?’

The other cleaner looked at him in shock. ‘I’d better call the supervisor, Mr Santiago. She’s also the union rep. It’s her job to sort problems out.’

‘Good idea. Do that. We’ll all wait here for her.’

‘I’m just finishing my shift,’ Karen protested. ‘I have to go and pick up my kids from school.’

‘Not till the supervisor’s spoken to you. I want confirmation that you weren’t stealing.’

She burst into tears but the other woman didn’t try to comfort her. She put her mobile phone back into her overall pocket and said, ‘Liz will be here in two minutes. She said we were all to wait.’

‘Good. Suits me.’ Euan leaned against the wall.

Liz came hurrying round the corner in under two minutes. He’d seen her around because she was in charge of the cleaners for the hotel as well as for the suite of offices, but he hadn’t spoken to her. She was wiry, looked as if she’d had a hard life and seemed ready to be aggressive with him. But when she heard what had happened, her annoyance shifted from him to Karen.

‘You know very well you’re not supposed to open any drawers or cupboards, Karen, and only to touch what you need to clean.’

Sobs were her only answer.

‘We’ll go and have a look at the things she took out of the drawer, Mr Santiago, if that’s all right with you.’

‘It’s fine with me and thank you for coming so promptly, Liz. I wasn’t sure what to do for the best, but I don’t want confidential business information going out of here.’

When they got to the reception area, they found Avril sitting at the desk, looking as if she belonged there. ‘Liz! Long time no see.’

‘Are you back with us, Miss Buttermere?’

‘Only temporarily. I’m helping Euan out because Penny decided to leave without notice. I seem to have walked straight into trouble.’ She flicked one finger towards the mess on the floor. ‘I decided it’d be best not to touch that lot without witnesses. Would you help me go through it, Liz?’

‘Be glad to, Miss Buttermere.’ She turned to Karen. ‘You’d better stay. Do you want to ring someone to pick up your kids?’

Avril looked at Euan. ‘And perhaps you’d like to get on with your work, Mr Santiago? I know how busy you are. Liz and I can investigate this and I’ll bring you up to date about it later.’

Dismissed, he thought, hiding a smile.

What a relief it was to have Avril back in charge of the office!

The next morning Jane came round to see Molly. ‘I rang my son last night. Stuart would like to come round to see the house today, if that’s all right with you.’

‘That’s fine. But—’ She hesitated.

‘I heard another window smash last night. They didn’t hurt you?’

‘No. I didn’t put a light on in the room I was occupying and they chose to target the other one again. I’ve got the glazier coming round this morning to repair the window for the second day running. I still can’t believe this is happening.’

‘People sometimes go overboard when they want something badly. The main thing is that you’ve not been hurt. And don’t worry. I told Stuart about your little problem and it didn’t put him off, rather the contrary. He hates bullying and cheating with a passion.’

Molly wasn’t so sure about it. Stuart might be all right with the situation, but what about his wife? And what would they feel like once they’d moved in, if whoever it was carried on smashing windows, day after day?

She rang up the police, then her insurance company, and the person on the phone was very disapproving of the same window being broken two days running.

‘Have you thought of hiring a security firm? If this goes on, you’ll have to pay an increased premium, you know,’ a young-sounding woman said. ‘Please make sure you inform the police about this.’

‘I’ve done that already.’

‘And what did they say?’

‘They don’t think they can do much to prevent such incidents, but they’ll send patrols round a couple of times a night.’

Towards the end of the morning, Molly kept watch from the corner bedroom window for Jane’s son arriving, while the glazier fitted another window in the room next door. When she saw her husband drive past, she stiffened. No mistaking that profile or the personalized number plate. What was Craig doing here? This wasn’t a road that led anywhere he was likely to go. In fact, it didn’t really lead anywhere, except to a further tangle of streets.

He could only have come here to gloat! she decided. When he drove past a short time later, going in the other direction, slowing down again to smile, she was certain that was why he was here.

A few moments later the doorbell rang and she realized she hadn’t even seen whoever it was approaching, so lost had she been in her own thoughts. She ran down to open it, to find Jane and her son standing there. He was as upright as she remembered, but he’d lost most of his hair and had shaved his head, which made him look very different. His smile was still as warm as his mother’s, however.

‘You remember Stuart, don’t you, Molly? And by the way, did you see your ex driving past just now?’

‘You saw Craig as well?’

‘Yes. No mistaking that personalized number plate, or his face, come to that.’

‘Oh, good. Would you mind writing down the date and the time you saw him? I’m keeping a diary of everything that happens. Pleased to see you again, Stuart. Do come in. The glazier’s just finishing. Your mother did explain what’s been going on?’

‘About the harassment? Yes.’

‘Doesn’t it worry you?’

He bared his teeth in a grin that would have frightened her if she’d been a guilty person brought up before him. ‘It’ll be a fun little project to catch them, Molly.’

‘If only you could!’

‘I think I’ve got a fair chance.’

Jane moved towards the door. ‘I’ll leave you to show Stuart round in peace. I have an important phone call to make.’

She looked so sad as she said that, Molly glanced quickly at Stuart. He was watching her go. And he looked sad, too.

As she was finishing showing him round, Jane came back and Molly took them into the kitchen for some coffee.

‘Well, what do you think of the house?’ Jane asked her son.

‘It’s perfect for our needs and the harassment doesn’t worry me. But I do need to find somewhere
quickly
, so the deciding factor will be how soon we can move in. We’re staying with Wendy’s sister at the moment and she’s driving me crazy with her fussy ways, plus I have friends coming back from a tour of duty in Afghanistan in a couple of weeks. I need somewhere with spare bedrooms so that I can spend time with them.’

Another chance to be positive, Molly thought. ‘I can be out of the house within a few days. I’ll just have to find somewhere to store my furniture. Oh, and we have to discuss rent.’

He held out a piece of paper. ‘These are the prices and descriptions we’ve been given of houses in this area. That one,’ his finger stabbed at the sheet, ‘sounds closest to yours, so that would seem to be a fair rent.’

She hoped she’d hidden her surprise at how much it was.

‘Four weeks in advance suit you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Or you could rent the place to us furnished and we’d pay a little extra? We’re careful tenants.’ He grinned at his mother. ‘If we weren’t, Ma would soon be after us. Our stuff’s in storage and that’d save uncrating and re-crating it if I decide to work overseas for a while. Do you need all this stuff?’

‘No, definitely not.’ She thought rapidly. ‘I shall need a bed, I could take the furniture in the conservatory, my computer desk and a bookcase, as well as crockery and stuff like that. But I’ve got plenty of cookware, so you’d still have enough left. I can’t see me giving any more dinner parties for twelve.’

He stuck out one hand. ‘Done! You’re a woman after my own heart. No shilly-shallying and know what you want.’

She was a bit surprised by his compliment but pleased, and saw Jane beaming and nodding approval at her. ‘Won’t your wife want to see the house first, though?’

‘One of the grandchildren’s ill, so she’s gone rushing off to help. We’ve already discussed what sort of place we need, and she trusts me and Mum to find somewhere to suit. I’ll write you a cheque now, shall I, Molly? And I’ve got a rental agreement somewhere in the car that an agency gave me. I’ll give it to you and we can fill it in together next time I come. If you trust me, that is.’

‘You’re Jane’s son. Of course I trust you.’

He smiled and gave his mother a quick hug. ‘There you are, Ma. I knew you’d come in useful one day.’

She pretended to hit him.

As they walked off, he put one arm round his mother’s shoulders and Molly had to swallow a lump in her throat. She didn’t think Brian had even looked at her lately, let alone shown any affection.

She walked slowly round the ground floor, feeling as if a load had been lifted from her shoulders. It took her a few moments to realize that the bright new feeling creeping into her head was hope.

How long had it been since she’d felt hopeful? Or even vaguely positive?

Galvanized, she went upstairs to start packing her personal possessions, then changed her mind and did some searching on her computer. She found a storage place, the sort where you hired a lock-up space, and phoned to book a unit. She’d put her things there till she settled somewhere.

While she was at it, she decided to ring Brian’s mobile to tell him he had two days to remove his boxes of toys, then she suddenly realized that if she did, he’d probably tell his father she was leaving. And who knew what Craig would dream up then?