WILL TIME WAIT: Boxed set of 3 bestselling 'ticking clock' thrillers (75 page)

That’s how long she figured it would take those men to get
over here.  Tick... tick...  The slashed tyres and Dave’s curiosity
were holding us hostage, eating into our escape window.  A thought popped
in to my head, and I jerked.  My eyes swept the shadows and bushes. 
Were the men who’d slashed my tyres and killed my husband here, right
now?  “Sarah, go wait by Nicola’s car!” I ordered. 

Dave cupped Nicola’s face, softened his voice and
smiled.  “Where do you need to go in such a rush?  Tell me.”

I glanced up at the house, failing to cast off the
stranglehold of worry that someone was watching us. 
Yeah, tell you,
her attackers, and a thousand others website perverts and then watch all hell
break loose.

“Well...thing is... we,” An unfathomable tangle of words
rushed from Nicola’s mouth and she seemed to get lost as Dave stroked her
face.  His smile widened, clearly pleased and relieved to see she was
alive and well.  In any other situation, I’d have considered his smile an
alluring, panty-dropping one.  It trapped her gaze completely.  Boy,
she must really like him, but this was not the time for such moments.

“Nic,” Dave said.  “You don’t look well.”

Nicola raised a hand to her forehead and swayed.

Extreme worry smacked me hard.  Us here, dithering on
the drive, plus Dave turning up out of the blue, surely this would be
interpreted as wavering from our usual routine.  The longer we stood here
conferring, the more likely Nicola’s attackers would see us on camera and
realise we were doing a runner.

It could bring on a cat and mouse hunt any moment.
  

It felt like my body might burst into flames.  The mind-blowing
thought of an ambush assaulted me.  I’d die before I let anyone hurt my
daughter.  “It’s a family emergency,” I repeated.  “Look, if you must
know, my husband is dead.”

“Dead?”

“Yes.  But I don’t really wanna talk about it. 
Sorry.”  Right now, Dave was just another brick wall in our way. 
“Nicola, grab his keys and let’s go.”  I met Dave’s eyes in a silent but
poor apology.

Dave ran the back of his knuckles down her cheek. 
“Okay.  I’ll drive you wherever you need to go.  But I think I should
take Nicola inside.  She looks unwell.”

I gulped.  The last time a man had been inside my
house, he had been murdered.

Nicola’s eyes darted to me.  He was right.  She
looked dizzy, like her lights were on but there was nobody home.  Then
suddenly she froze, watching something over my shoulder.

“What is it?”  I tensed, registering the fresh horror
on Nicola’s face.

I turned.  When I saw a dark-coloured car crawling
along the poorly lit street outside my house, I stopped cold.  I tried to
stare through the driver’s window.  Something was wrong. 

This street was a tucked-away loop off a residential
road.  There was no reason to drive here unless visiting my or Harry’s
house.  In the blink of an eye, the car sped off and screeched round the
bend, flashing out of view. 

Not good... not good. 
Chills went down my
spine.  Was it those men?

“Sarah, come here.”  I needed her by my side.  The
car was out of sight, but would it be back?  I didn’t know what to
think.  Sarah trudged over to me and I grabbed her hand, tight.

“I was worried last night,” Dave said to Nicola.  “But
seeing how jumpy you are now...”

I glanced back at the street blanketed in darkness. 
Had those men passed by my house in warning?  Or perhaps returned to slash
Nicola’s tyres and now cottoned on to our plan to escape? 

Oh, crap.

What if they made good on their promise to go after our
families?

I squeezed Sarah’s hand.  Who would I save first? 
I couldn’t phone or drive to everyone.  Oh, God.  Sarah, definitely
Sarah, then my parents, but oh, my aunt lived closer so...  “Nicola!” I
screeched, my head in a total spin from not knowing whether to worry about my
family or not. 

Perhaps I was overreacting, but too much was at stake. 

Think, Christa.  Think.  Yes.  We had to
twist this exchange into something else, for the sake of the cameras, so those
men would not suspect we were trying to leave.  Panic rampaged through my
body.  “Do something, Nicola, or they’ll realise.  Make it look like
we’re just...”  Just what?

“Why would someone slash Christa’s tyres?” Dave asked her.

Nicola grabbed him by his coat collar and forced his lips
down to meet hers, kissing him long and hard into silence. 

Jeez.  Good thinking.  A break-up, make-up scene.

Then, in a flash, just as I hoped her idea might work, the
impromptu love scene ended.  Their lips parted as Nicola’s legs
buckled.  Raising a hand to her forehead, her whole body went limp as
though melting.

“Oh, shit!”  I lurched forward.  “Grab her.”

Dave reached out and hooked her waist, but she slid through his
arms, down his body into a heap at his feet.

I rushed over and patted her cheeks.  “Nicola!”

CHRISTA

“E
veryone
inside.  Move it!”  I pushed Sarah’s back and hurried her up the
drive to my house.  Dave scooped Nicola off the ground and into his arms.

“Quick,” I said, unlocking the front door and holding it
open, not believing our bad luck.  Damn.  “Get her in the
house.  Watch your step, Dave.” 
And welcome to hell.

Dave carried Nicola indoors and I shooed Sarah in after him,
into my fractured world with eyes.  After doing a quick sweep of the road
for other crawling cars or anyone checking up on us, I closed the door, locked
it and tossed my bag aside.  Yes, we were back in view of the cameras, but
at least the men would know we were still home and not doing a runner.

“Where to?” Dave asked with Nicola flopped across his arms.

I pointed down the hall.  “In there.” 

He carried Nicola into the lounge.

I turned to Sarah.  “Go and wait in your room,
sweetheart.”

“But mum!”

“Please.  Just while I see to Nicola.”  Truth was,
I couldn’t bear the thought of my daughter being on camera for more than a
second.  Nicola had thankfully sabotaged the camera in Sarah’s
bedroom.  “Sarah, remember not to use the bathroom.”  The thought
horrified me.  “Use my ensuite.  It’s.  Very.  Important.”

Clearly confused and upset, Sarah ran upstairs.  A tear
came to my eye for her.  She needed me to comfort her, not banish her to a
lonely room.

Dave laid Nicola lengthways across the sofa.  I dashed
away to grab a juice from the fridge, then returned to see Dave placing a
pillow beneath her head.

“She’s coming round.  Just groggy,” he said.

I knelt at her side.  “Nicola?”

She raised a hand to her forehead and slowly opened her
eyes.  “Oh... what happened?”

“You fainted.  How do you feel?  Did you hurt your
head?”

“I’m okay, I think.”  Her eyes brightened and I
realised she’d spotted Dave.  “Oh, hi.”

“Hello yourself,” he replied with deep concern hemming his
voice.  “First time a woman’s ever fainted while kissing me.”

“Me too.”

“A woman?”

“No, silly.”  Her lips twitched into a tight smile.

“So,” Dave said, gently skimming her cheek with the back of
his hand.  “What caused you to faint?”

Nicola paused for a moment, her gaze remaining on Dave as
though remembering, or perhaps debating whether or not to out the truth.

I raised the carton of juice to distract her.  “Sip
this.”  If anything happened to a nice guy like Dave, I’d feel
terrible.  And anyone who knew the truth would be in danger.

She took the straw between her lips and drank.

“Do you still feel faint?” I asked.

After another sip of juice, she rested her head back on the
cushion.  “A bit dizzy.”  The horrors of the day must have crashed
fully back because her eyes widened and she tried to push up.  “Oh,
crap.  We should...”

I set my hand on hers to stop her moving.  “Stay there
and rest for a moment.”

“B-but...”

“No buts.  You’re no use to us if you faint
again.”  I stared up at Dave, frightened that his presence in my house
might cause the men to react, but also wondering at the timing.  Was his
showing up some cosmic intervention, perhaps telling us that our plan was
wrong?  I needed to clear my head so I could figure out all of this
insanity.  No buts about it, we were not leaving this house, well, not
soon with Nicola in such a weak state.  So acting normal for the cameras,
whatever that may be, and bringing the tension down a notch in order to think,
was the only option.  I stood.  “Coffee, Dave?”

“Thanks.  I’d love a cup.  Two sugars, please.”

“Typical builder,” Nicola commented.

“Coming right up.  And you...”  I faced Nicola and
adopted a head-mistress tone.  “You need to eat something.”  I left
the lounge, set the kettle to boil in the kitchen and concentrated on acting
calm and casual for the cameras while placing biscuits on a plate, painfully
aware of my every movement being filmed.  My mind raked over the mess the
whole time.  It was mentally juggling too many things and dropping them
one by one.

It’s quiet.
 

No music or noise came from Sarah’s bedroom.  She’d be
curled up in bed, listening to her iPod or texting her friends.  Poor
mite, she did look drained and overwrought and I wished I could magic all her
hurt into a bubble and float it away. 

The ringing of my mobile from my handbag in the hall
interrupted my thoughts.  I dashed over, pulled it out and looked at the
screen.  My parents.  I tightened my fingers around the phone and
groaned.  Damn.  I had to answer it in case they were about to drive
over or something.  “Hi.”

“Hi, Christa.” It was my mum.  “How are you holding up,
dear?”

“Oh, you know, not too bad,” I lied. 
Yeah, the best
freakin’ birthday ever.
  “Everything okay?”

“Are you still coming round for lunch tomorrow?  I know
things are hard, but it’s important you keep yourself going.”

“Erm... yes.  About one o’clock okay?”  I said to
appease her.

“Lovely dear.  And Sarah can help me decorate some
cupcakes.  Oh, hold on, your dad needs to speak to you.”

She mumbled something then my dad came on the line. 
“Hi, Christa.”

“Hi.”  I wandered to the front door and peeked
out.  All clear.

“Listen, I wasn’t sure whether to mention this in light of
today but, we’ve just had a phone call from the inland revenue.”

“From who?” my voice rose to a squeak.  “What about?”

“Oh, it wasn’t about us.  They were asking questions
about
you
.”

“Me?”  My heart thumped.  “What did they say?”

“The man said he’s investigating a claim that you’ve not
been declaring all your income.  Is this true?”

An awkward pause rode the line.

Oh, shit.  I put my palm to my forehead. 
“Wha-t?  N... no.”  Yes it was.  This same thump of guilt struck
me when the cops turned up on my doorstep earlier.  I’d omitted my cash
sales from my books for a while now.  John’s idea.  He said most
people cream a bit off, but I refused to be that type of person... until he
moved out, money got tourniquet tight and temptation won out.  So, I
stashed clumps of cash in the space beneath the bottom drawers of cupboards in
my office to avoid paying tax on those sales.  Without doing so, we’d have
been eating baked beans by candlelight, cutting each other’s hair and bidding
for second hand clothes on ebay. 

I half wondered when the police arrived, and again now, if
John had shopped me in; just another way to manoeuvre me into a stranglehold. 
“But, hold on...” I said, deliberating.  “Why are they phoning
you
? 
And at this hour?”

“I don’t know.  But I think you need to get this sorted
out.  Having inland revenue on your case is not something to take
lightly.  Your mum is fretting.”

“I’ll sort it.  Tell mum not to worry.  It’s a
mistake.”  Oh, fuck.  A horrid feeling exploded low in my gut. 
Inland revenue would not phone my parents and it was highly unlikely that
they’d contact them on an evening.  “When did they call?”

“Five minutes ago.”

Crap.

I spun around and stared up at the walls and ceiling in the
hall.  It had to be those men.  They must have seen me on the bloody
camera, perhaps I had acted strangely and they’d worked out what I was
doing.  And now they’d seen us outside trying to leave the house, had they
used this dirt on me as a warning?  Did that mean they knew Nicola had
spilled their secret?  They had to know that my parents would tell me
about the phonecall, and no one knew I’d been cooking my books but me. 
 
Hmmm... Is the cash still there? 
I’d tried not to delve into
it knowing I’d need every penny to pay the solicitor fees for my divorce.

“Christa?” Dad said.

“Still here, Dad.  If they phone again, tell them you
don’t know anything about it, and that they should speak to me, okay?”

“Okay,” Dad replied, his voice gruff and unimpressed. 

After a bit of chit chat to numb their concern, I hung
up. 

While finishing making the drinks in the kitchen, my mind
raged like a pen scribbling circle after circle on paper.  I carried the
rattling tray into the lounge and set it on the coffee table. 
Deep
breath.  Compose myself.

“Which is mine?” Dave asked. 

I pointed.  Dave sipped his drink while I perched on
the arm of the sofa by Nicola’s feet.

“I’m sorry to hear about your husband,” Dave said.

“Thanks.”

“Who was on the phone?”  Nicola asked.

I flicked my eyes left toward Dave while playing with a
strand of hair.

“Er, Dave,” Nicola said.  “Do me a favour?”

“Sure.”

“Our phoneline’s knocked out.  The wire’s broken,
snapped or something.  I hate to ask, but can you fix it for us, please?”

“Snapped?”

“I did it!  With the garden shears. 
Accidentally,” I said so as not to bring forth more awkward questions.

Clearly puzzled and perhaps irritated, Dave’s lips twisted
to one side.  “Sure.  I’ll take a look.”

“Thanks,” I said as he left the room.  I faced Nicola
and kept my voice just above a whisper.  “Okay.  We don’t have
long.  That was my parents on the phone.  They got a strange phone
call about ten minutes ago from some guy claiming to be from the Inland
Revenue.”

“Really?”

I nodded.  “Look, it’s possible it’s a genuine
call.  I wouldn’t put it past John to have shopped me in.”  I glanced
down at my hands knotted on my lap and explained what I’d done.  “But I
don’t think the call was actually from the Inland Revenue.  I think it was
from one of the men.”  I rubbed my face to uncloud my brain. 
“Jeez.  All this time... I thought I’d told my secrets to the devil in
John.  But the real devil is the one you don’t see coming.”

“I know.  Makes John look like a pussy cat.” 
Nicola covered her mouth with her hand.  “D’you think they know I’ve told
you what’s going on?”

I shrugged.  “It’s possible.  Perhaps the men have
seen me pocketing cash on camera, and contacting my parents is a sort of warning
that only we’d understand now that they’ve seen us trying to leave the
house.  Or that
you’d
understand, if they don’t know you’ve told me
what’s really going on around here.”   
God, this was confusing
. 
They knew, they didn’t, it was them, it wasn’t... which was it?

“Where’s the money?”

“In my office, various places.” 

“Hmmm... I did hear one man rattling your cupboards when
they were chasing us round the house.  Maybe they figured they’d rob you
while they were here.  And actually, I’ve just remembered, they were
looking for a computer.”

“Whose?  Mine?”

“No.  Yes.  Oh, I’m not sure.”

“Interesting.”

“D’ya think this call was to scare you into moving the cash
so they’d know where it is?”

“I think they’re trying to put the frighteners on us. 
Any way they can.”  I buried my head in my hands, felt tethered and
cornered.  “They can have the bloody cash if they’ll leave us alone. 
Oh, what are we going to do now?”

Nicola set her hand on my arm.  “We can’t leave the
house.  Not now.”

I raised my head and traded a stare of worry with her. 
“I agree.  But it’s not safe to stay here either.  We have to sort
this out tonight before that detective phones or worse, comes round here. 
But I don’t want Sarah involved.  Do you think Dave would drive her to
Brian’s house?”

“Of course he would.  Good idea.  Get her out of
the way.”

“He’s going to ask more questions, you know.”

Nicola squeezed my arm.  “He wants to help so... 
We’ll give him something to do, make him feel like he is helping us.”  She
paused then clicked her fingers.  “Got it!  I’ll give him that cafe
receipt.  He goes in there quite a bit and is always friendly with the
staff.  I’ll ask him to ask whoever’s working if they know whose order it
was.  I’ll give him some cock ‘n’ bull story about why.”

“Shouldn’t we save it?  Give it to the police? 
There might be a finger print on it.”

“Yeah, mine.  Give Dave a photocopy.  Your printer
does copies, right?”

I nodded. 

Nicola lifted her behind off the sofa.  She pulled the
receipt out of her back pocket, holding it by the corner.  “Here.”

I took hold of the still-soggy receipt by the edge. 
“You think Sarah will be okay with Dave?”

“I do.  He’s a good guy and a father too. 
Besides, Brian knows him, right?”

“Yes.”  I left Nicola to drink her coffee, made a photocopy
of the receipt and dashed upstairs to tell Sarah to be ready to leave in five
minutes.  I sat on her bed, hugged and kissed my fragile daughter. 
“I promise everything will be fine.  I love you, but right now, I think
it’s best Dave drives you to Brian’s house.  I’ve got a few things to sort
out.  Are you hungry?”

She shrugged and sniffed in my arms.  “A bit.”

“Maybe you can grab a burger on the way, eh?  I don’t
want you fainting like Nicola.”

“Is she okay?”

“Fine.”  I grabbed a cardigan off the floor and passed
it to her.  “Put this on.  Button it right up.”

She frowned.

“Just do it.  Please.  No arguments.”  The
more covered up the better.  I didn’t want anyone looking at one inch of
my daughter.  Who knew what type of people subscribed to this site?

“Can’t I stay here?  With you?” Her ghostly-red eyes
broke my heart afresh.

I kissed her head.  “I wish you could.  But I’ve
got things to sort out.” 

She pouted.  “And you don’t want me in the way.”

“It’s not that I don’t want you here...  I’ll get things
done quicker if I know you’re being looked after.”  I thumbed tears off
her cheeks.  “We’ll go to Grandad’s tomorrow and help Nanna make
cupcakes.  We’ll spend the whole day together and do something fun. 
How’s that sound?”