AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you know who this Floyd is? The guy Karim was talking about last night,” she asked, suddenly remembering Karim’s words.
Nico studied her for a few seconds before giving a slight shrug, as if to say she already knew everything else, was already in too deep, so why not give it all to her.
“Yes. Floyd Hamilton is an apprentice at the mechanic shop where Rania worked. She made a complaint about him following her around. Sort of stalking her, I gather. We interviewed him yesterday afternoon, but he said he knew nothing about her complaint. Denied he was ever obsessed over her. He also never mentioned anything about an altercation with Karim. But that’s definitely a question I’m going to put to Mr. Khaled this morning.”
“Wow. She had a stalker? And Karim beat him up?” She pursed her lips. “Well, that changes a few things.” Lacey felt a sudden rush of ideas flood her brain. If this apprentice was fixated on Rania, perhaps believed himself in love with her, and then Karim disgraced the guy by hurting him and then threatening him with more violence, it gave the man motive.
“I know,” Nico said, catching her eye and raising an eyebrow, as if reading her mind. She loved how they seemed to think in parallel. Like their minds were in perfect sync.
Nico slugged down the dregs of his coffee and went to have a shower. Lacey shivered and pulled her cardigan tighter around her shoulders. The past two mornings, Nico had turned on the gas heating. But they’d been too…preoccupied today, and the house was left with a morning chill hanging over it. Lacey decided to light the fire. If she was going to be stuck here all day while Nico was at work, she may as well make the place cozy.
A little later, after Nico had gone to work, rumbling down the driveway on his motorcycle, Lacey had showered and lit the fire. She was standing at the kitchen window again, staring out at the garden, mulling over everything she knew about the investigation. About Herb with his covert boxes belonging to Rania, about Karim being a cocaine addict. And now about this new suspect, a possible stalker named Floyd.
She shook her head, reminding herself this was not her investigation. She had the whole day ahead of her to fill. It was a nice vista out the window, the green lawn, stretching away to a small, rambling orchard at the bottom of the hill, with two raised vegetable beds off to the left full of the last of the end-of-season veggies. The geese wandered through the orchard, white bodies lumbering through the long grass, and she could just make out their honking calls through the windowpane. A bank of trees lined the far left-hand fence, marking the edge of a patch of native bushland that’d been set aside as a state park. And to the right, she could make out the corner of her Kombi parked alongside Nico’s large shed. The whole place was rustic and a bit rambling. It was quite idyllic. In fact, she could absolutely live here.
Whoa. What was she thinking? She was absolutely not going to live here. Tasmania was a place where she could find solace while traveling around the immensely beautiful natural wonders. She’d never in a million years intended to live here. It was an escape. Nothing more, nothing less.
And just because she’d kissed Nico, that didn’t mean anything either. Certainly not anything permanent. He was a nice guy, and she was attracted to him, but she needed to get moving. And as soon as her van was fixed, that’s what she intended to do. Which reminded her, maybe she should call Dave and check on how the spare part was going.
Right then, her phone rang, the shrill tone shocking her out of her musing. Careful to check the caller ID to make sure it wasn’t her mother, she answered with a wary “Hello” when the number came up as unlisted.
“Hi, Lacey, it’s Dave.” Speak of the devil. She was relieved when his friendly voice sounded down the phone. Perhaps his ears had been burning, or perhaps she’d conjured him up by simply thinking about him.
“That’s a little weird,” she said into the phone. “I was just thinking of you. Have you got good news for me?” She almost held her breath as she waited for the answer.
“Yes. Your fuel pump is arriving on the ferry tomorrow. But the courier won’t get it to me till late in the arvo. The best I can do is come around and replace it for you Saturday morning. I hope that’s okay?”
Her heart sank a little. Today was Thursday. It’d be nice to get Dotti fixed sooner rather than later. But if Dave was prepared to come around on a Saturday to fix her, then she should be grateful. She would finally have her wheels back.
“Thanks, Dave. That’d be great,” she said, forcing a smile into her voice, ending the call.
This would also give her two more nights with Nico. But that thought was too complicated to contemplate right now. That scorching kiss was too much to contemplate. She could still feel the ghost of his teeth nipping at her bottom lip. Still feel the imprint of his fingertips on her ribcage like they were bruises. She’d wanted him so badly the desire had boiled behind her belly button like lava, causing her stomach to cramp. That had never happened before. It was unsettling just how fiercely he affected her.
* * *
The fire was crackling, the house cozy and warm, and Lacey was waiting up for Nico to come home. The remains of a vegetable pie in the oven, ready to reheat, and a bottle of red stood on the table, ready to be opened. But it was already past ten. Should she keep waiting? That question was easy to answer. Because of course she was waiting up for him. Her stomach did a little flip at the mere thought of seeing Nico walk through that door. She’d been thinking about him all day, random images of them kissing in the kitchen that morning interrupting her at the oddest of times. And as much as she told herself this was never going to work, not long term, her stupid heart leapt every time she thought of him. She needed to see his face. Needed to see that he truly didn’t regret that kiss. Needed to know if his heart skipped a beat every time he saw her too.
She’d spent the day walking Smudge down at the beach. And had run into Margie and Pam, another neighbor, talking for much longer than she thought possible. Did it become a necessity that you be able to talk about something ad infinitum without drawing breath once you turned seventy? Lacey thought it might be, because with those two old women around, she couldn’t get a word in edgeways. Margie still wanted to talk about how terrible it was to have been the one to find Rania, and how she’d been unable to sleep at night because her mind kept rehashing the event over and over. Lacey sympathized with her, but she also urged her to move on. Perhaps even seek some counseling if she couldn’t do it on her own. But Margie waved a dismissive hand at Lacey’s suggestion, saying that she didn’t need to see a quack, and she was fine with her and Herb bumbling their way through it.
Lacey doubted that, but kept her mouth shut.
Herb was nowhere to be seen, which was a shame. She’d love to see if she could wheedle out more about those boxes stored in his shed. But Margie was unusually cagy about the police raid on her house, not mentioning it once, then frowning and quickly changing the subject when Pam broached the subject of more police cars outside the cottage the other night, wondering what they were up to. It made Lacey decide that Margie wasn’t such a foolish old woman after all, and she was at least keeping some of her cards close to her chest. Perhaps she regretted telling Lacey about Herb’s nightly wandering and had learned her lesson. Although Nico would never have revealed his source, Margie may have put two and two together and figured out who’d given away her secret.
Eventually Lacey made her excuses and edged away.
The rest of her day had been spent wandering the garden, picking some vegetables for tonight’s pie, staying away from the fierce, honking geese. Nico had warned her they were very territorial. Almost as good as having a guard dog. But they shouldn’t chase her, as they’d recognize her by now. Lacey wasn’t prepared to take the chance, giving them a wide berth.
Then she Googled Stanley, the next place to visit on her agenda. It wasn’t very far, less than an hour’s drive, and she wondered if she should pick somewhere farther down the road to stay on Saturday night, once Dotti was fixed. Or should she change her plans and head inland to see Cradle Mountain capped with snow?
All in all, it’d been a restful day, pulling some weeds and pottering around the kitchen, cooking. Something she hadn’t done in a long time. It felt domestic and homely, with Smudge following her around like a shadow.
Lacey glanced up and spied the wine bottle on the kitchen table through the doorway. Drat it, she needed a drink, and she was tired of waiting.
But just as she cracked the seal on the bottle, the now-familiar grumble of Nico’s motorcycle sounded outside. Then she saw the flash of a bright headlight as Nico pulled his motorcycle into the shed. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she found herself smoothing her hair and hoping her outfit—jeans and a sweater—looked okay. Which was stupid.
She grimaced at her teenage-like behavior, determined not to let any of it show when Nico walked through that door. She would be friendly and happy to see him, nothing more. She turned the oven on to heat the pie, while she fetched two of the crystal glasses they’d used the other night.
Then in walked Nico, motorcycle helmet under one arm, his hair pulled back in a ponytail, but still mussed from the wind. His nose was pink from the cold, the bruises less pronounced now, becoming a faded yellow, and she watched as he shrugged out of the leather jacket he wore when riding his bike. It certainly gave him a little of that bad-boy edge. Along with the scar and the long, dark hair, it wasn’t too much of a stretch of the imagination to think of Nico as one of those dangerous alpha-male-types, who might belong to a biker club or tough street gang. She was quite glad he was the exact opposite, but there was a certain kind of attraction…
