Throw a Double for Spite

by Cherie Mitchell

  Her phone pinged from her bag at her feet and she glanced down, wondering who it might be. She’d spoken to Briar earlier and told her she was going out on a date with Megan. She wasn’t expecting to hear from anyone else tonight.

  “Go ahead and see who it is,” Megan said as she picked up her own phone. “I have to send an email anyway. I was supposed to do it before I left work but time got away on me.”

  Riley looked curiously down at her phone. Unknown number. She opened the message. ‘What are you doing now?’

  Frowning, she typed out a reply. ‘Who is this?’

  The response was immediate. ‘Haha, very funny. How’s the pizza?’

  She gave a half laugh and had to force herself not to look over her shoulder. Frowning, she tapped again at the keyboard. ‘I don’t know who this is.’

  “I’m salivating thinking about that pasta. What is it? Is everything ok?”

  “Wrong number.” Riley sat the phone face down on the side of the table as the waitress sauntered back with their meals. “Here’s your pasta now.”

  Another text message arrived as Riley drove into her garage after her evening out with Megan. She checked the message as the door rolled down behind the car. Unknown caller. ‘It’s Jack, you idiot. Why are you ignoring me, Dean?’

  She typed in a quick ‘You have the wrong number’ before setting off for the stairs. A long shower before reading a few chapters of her book in bed sounded like her idea of heaven.

  Her phone pipped with another text message just as she was making a cup of hot cocoa to take with her to bed. Unknown number. She’d already plugged her phone into the charger on the countertop and she leaned across to check the message.

  ‘I’m so sorry. It was sweet of you to answer my messages despite my obvious dimwittedness.’

  She grinned to herself and hovered her finger over the keyboard. Should she reply? It was probably best to leave it at that. Another text message pinged through and put a stop to her indecisiveness.

  ‘In case you haven’t guessed, I’m Jack. Pleased to meet you, polite but unknown person on the other end of the phone.’

  She gnawed at her lip. Clearly, her best move would be to take no notice of the message, leave her phone on the counter, and go to bed. ‘Jack’ now knew that he had the wrong number and that would be the end of that. She picked up the mug and was about to walk away when courtesy or lunacy made her turn back. ‘Hi, I’m Riley.’

  The screen immediately burst into life again. ‘I knew you would have a sweet name to match your sweet personality.’

  She laughed out loud and typed her reply. ‘You’re such a charmer. Goodnight Jack.’ She waited for another message but there was nothing. She had just reached up to switch off the light when the screen lit up.

  ‘Sweet dreams, sweet Riley.’

  Smiling broadly, she padded through the now dark apartment to her bedroom.

  Chapter Eleven

  Riley could feel someone’s eyes upon her and she didn’t need to be any sort of genius to know whose eyes they were. Fighting back a quick flare of temper, she spun around in her chair and glared at Paul, who was sitting at his desk outside Colin’s office and gazing besottedly across the room at her. It took him several seconds to register that she’d spotted him watching her but when he did, he hurriedly looked down as his face infused with a wash of vibrant color. Riley left her desk and marched across the office to stand beside his desk. She kept her voice even and clear, the volume loud enough for Heather at the next desk to hear if she cared enough to listen. “Did you want something, Paul? We have that meeting with Angus at one. Can I get Lucy to pull some information together for you? Maybe print out a few documents or spreadsheets?”

  “Uh.” He began to move paper around his desk, studiously avoiding her gaze. “I think I’m on top of it.”

  Riley laid her palms flat on his desk and leaned in close. “You keep watching me,” she whispered hoarsely. “It’s making me uncomfortable. Can you please stop?”

  The tips of his ears burned incandescent and he wouldn’t look up to meet her furious glare. “I hadn’t noticed I was looking at you. I was deep in thought and not looking at anything in particular.”

  “Hmmm.” She righted herself and was about to walk away when he suddenly grabbed her wrist, gripping it tightly to prevent her from leaving. She stared down at his white-knuckled hand in surprise. “Ow! Let me go. What are you doing?”

  Heather cleared her throat and tapped loudly at her keyboard. Michael, at the desk next to Heather, pulled out his filing drawer and began to rummage noisily through the rows of manila folders.

  Paul released Riley’s wrist and finally met her eye. She was startled to see the burning fervor in his gaze, the faint crisscross of red veins on the whites of his eyes. “Have you had long enough to think about it?” he asked imploringly. “You haven’t given me a definite answer yet.”

  She glanced behind her but Heather was staring fixedly at her computer screen and Michael wasn’t paying them any mind. Riley purposely knocked a small pile of papers from the top of Paul’s desk, sending them sailing through the air to land on the frayed carpet beside his chair. “Oops. Let me get those.” She crouched down, hidden from the rest of the office by the wall of his desk. She glared up at him as she gathered the papers together. “No. It’s a firm no, ok? Please stop asking me. I don’t date my work colleagues – not ever. You crossed a line by issuing the invitation in the first place.”

  He stared wordlessly down at her, rasping his hand across the rash-riven bristles on his neck in a manner that set her teeth on edge. He seemed taken aback by her statement, or perhaps annoyed. “Well, you’ve made yourself abundantly clear.”

  “Good.” She stood up and sat the uneven stack of papers back on his desk in a facsimile of order. She raised her voice again for Heather’s benefit, as she was sure the other woman was listening keenly to every word. “I’ll go ahead and finish that spreadsheet for Angus. See you in the boardroom in fifteen minutes.”

  She strode across to her desk, glancing back at him as she sat down to check his reaction. He was writing furiously on his notepad and didn’t look up. She let out a long, exasperated exhalation of breath that she hoped would reach his ears, picked up her pen, and went back to work.

  During the meeting with Angus, a regular component of their working week where the three of them discussed figures and plans for the week ahead, Paul refused to look at her. He was dismissive of her comments, interrupting her every time she tried to speak, and in the end she shut her mouth and sat back to allow him to talk. Angus seemed unaware of the undercurrents and the meeting reached its natural conclusion with very little input from her. After he had dismissed them, Riley considered taking Paul aside to ask what he thought he was up to in there but the thought of doing so exhausted her. She would give him a few days to recover from her rebuff and if things didn’t improve, she would address the matter then.

  She went back to her desk to get her phone from her drawer before retiring to the breakroom to make a cup of coffee and enjoy her sandwich. It wasn’t a real lunch break but after her meeting with brash Angus and affronted Paul, she needed a moment to herself. The muted noise of the office continued outside the door as she ate her sandwich and scrolled mindlessly through her phone. The device suddenly vibrated in her hand and a text message flashed up. Unknown number.

  A small smile played across her lips as she opened the message. ‘Hi again Riley. Pardon me for dropping in unannounced. How is your day going? Jack.’

  She grinned and pushed the phone aside. Yes, he was charming and tenacious but she was not about to get involved in a game of message ping-pong with an anonymous texter. She picked up her coffee cup to finish the last of it, just as Paul walked through the open doorway and threw her a glare that could melt a polar icecap. Frustrated with him and annoyed with herself for letting him get away with it, she snatched up her phone and quickly replied to Jack’s message. ‘If you must know, my day has b
een a nightmare. Hope you are faring better with yours. Riley.’

  Paul noisily made himself a cup of tea, dropped the spoon into the sink, and retreated without saying a word. She rinsed her coffee cup and Paul’s spoon and tossed the plastic wrapping from her sandwich into the trashcan. Her phone pinged again just as she was about to leave the room. ‘I’m saddened to hear it. Is there anything I can do to make it better? Jack.’

  ‘No, but thanks anyway. Enjoy the rest of your day. Riley.’

  She had no sooner sent the message when her phone began to ring. Briar. She leaned back against the breakroom counter as she answered with a laugh, “Hello you. To what do I owe the honor of a phone call in the middle of the day?”

  Briar’s voice was breathless and rushed and Riley’s laughter evaporated as she listened. “I’m sorry to call you at work. Do you have a minute to talk?”

  “Of course I do. What’s wrong? Briar, slow down. What happened? What’s the matter?”

  Briar sucked in a ragged breath and started again. “I’m sure there was someone lurking around my apartment last night. Something woke me up and I was positive there was someone in the apartment. I was so damn scared! I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. You’ve heard about that Peeping Tom, haven’t you?”

  Riley gripped the phone in alarm. “The Condo Creeper. Morgan and my mother were talking about him on the weekend. Do you think that was who was trying to break into your apartment?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see any sign of a disturbance when I finally got up the courage to go and look a few hours later.” Her voice broke and caught before she unsteadily continued. “I didn’t go into work this morning. I felt too unsettled and ill after my disrupted night’s sleep. I only woke up a short time ago and I’ve been all the way through the apartment looking for any sign that someone might have been here. I can’t seem to calm myself down, which is why I phoned you.”

  “I’m glad that you phoned me but you should have called the police. You should have rung them in the middle of the night when you heard the noises. Hang up the phone now and call them.” Riley looked up as Angus’s bulk filled the doorway. He hesitated, looked past her to the coffee machine, and then walked away.

  “No, there’s no point in calling the police now. I have nothing concrete to tell them or show them. They’ll think I’m acting like a hysterical crazy female.”

  “Why didn’t you call them last night?”

  “I’d left my phone in the living room to charge and I was too scared to go out and get it.”

  Riley had never seen this side of Briar before. She always acted so confident and sure of herself. It was disconcerting and unsettling to hear the raw panic in her voice. “I’ll come around after work to see you. We can go through your apartment together and make sure that it’s secure. It will give you some peace of mind. You must make sure to take your phone into your bedroom with you tonight. You can’t be too careful until he’s caught.”

  There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, although she could still hear the sound of breathing.

  “Briar? Are you there?”

  “I’m here. Riley, is there any chance that you could stay over tonight? I can make up the bed in the spare room. I’m already dreading nightfall and I know if I have company it will make me less apprehensive. I know it’s a lot to ask, especially given how busy you are with work and everything, but it would me feel more secure.”

  Riley didn’t hesitate, pushing past the small niggling voice at the back of her mind that was insisting that this panicky, anxious person did not sound anything like her friend Briar. “It’s not a lot to ask. I’ll stop by my apartment first and pack an overnight bag and then I’ll come over. We can order something for dinner and have a girls’ night in. It’ll be fun.”

  “Thank you,” Briar said softly, her voice barely more than a whisper. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Still perplexed by the conversation, Riley left the breakroom just as Angus strode out of his office and brushed rudely past her on his way to make himself a coffee.

  Chapter Twelve

  Riley washed and dried her coffee cup and sat it back on the shelf. She glanced at the time on the microwave clock – nearly 7.00 pm. She’d left the office later than she’d intended and now that she was home, she could think of nothing better than curling up on the sofa in front of an inane TV show but she’d promised Briar that she would come over. She walked into the living room to switch off the TV that she’d turned on when she arrived home. She picked up the remote and aimed it as the screen just as the evening news came on.

  “In tonight’s top story we investigate the increasingly frightening nocturnal activities of the man we know as the Condo Creeper. Until he is caught, the young women of this city must remain on high alert.”

  Riley stared at the immaculate, impassive face of the generic female TV presenter, with her stiff blonde hair and smartly tailored powder blue suit as she detailed the case. An alarmingly plastic-looking identikit picture of a man filled the screen; a computer-modeled image of a man who Riley thought could just as easily be anyone or no one. The camera panned out to show several items of black clothing folded neatly on a table and a dark-colored barrel-bag. The bag was unzipped to reveal a highly suggestive serial killer’s tool kit of duct tape, rope, a mask, a knife, and a screwdriver. The presenter’s voice warned viewers that it was only a matter of time before the Condo Creeper became the Condo Killer.

  Grimacing, Riley turned off the TV and walked through to her bedroom. She added her nightgown to the clothes in the small suitcase lying open on her bed and flipped the lid shut. She eased the zip around the exterior of the suitcase and carried it out to the door, her mind now on the evening ahead. Briar’s anxiety was unusual but she was more than happy to help her friend feel more secure by staying over for the night. Ready to leave, she was about to grab her handbag from the counter when her phone rang.

  A robust, jovial voice bounced against her ear the instant she answered the call. “There’s my girl. I’ve missed your voice. How are you, sweetheart?”

  Her fingers went automatically to her throat and the familiar shape of her R pendant. “Hello Bill.” She had stopped calling him Dad from the moment she first found out about his affair. He’d never mentioned the loss of his title – had he even noticed?

  “Have I called at a good time? I know you’re a busy career woman these days and you don’t always have time for your dear old daddy but it’s been a while since I last heard from you.”

  She winced, embarrassed by his self-absorption and complete lack of empathy. How could he have forgotten that he’d ignored her for a full year after leaving the family home? Why hadn’t he ever noticed that their relationship had never regained its former strength and resilience? Why was it always over to her to phone him, to be the one to keep in touch? “I was on my way out but I have a few minutes to spare.”

  “How is your mother? Did you see her for Mother’s Day or is she off on one of her endless vacations?”

  “Why do you care? You didn’t care about her while you were married so why are you so interested to know what she’s doing now?”

  He sighed. “I’ve just been talking to your sister. I said hello to the girls.”

  “Samantha and Jessica,” she said automatically. “Their names might be easier for you to remember once they get a bit older and they’re in your target age group.”

  “Now, now, there’s no need for that. Morgan said you’ve been working too hard and it sounds as if it’s starting to show. Men prefer a woman who they can take care of, sweetie. You don’t want to let your job take over your life. That’s a sure route to bitterness and discontent. I’ve told you this before, but I’ve always thought that you will be the one to give me a grandson. It would be nice to think that was in the not too distant future.”

  She abruptly changed the subject, making a mental note to warn Morgan about discussing her with their father. Morgan should have known bet
ter but then again, she’d probably brought up Riley to deflect Bill’s unwanted comments about her own life. Unfortunately, Riley was well aware of her father’s multitude of quirks and shortcomings. “Rumor has it that there’s a new woman in your life.”

  “Lacey, yes.” Without prompting, Bill launched into a spiel about the glowing attributes of his new girlfriend.

  Riley interrupted him mid-flow. “Lacey. Do you choose them based on the pure ridiculousness of their stripper names? I’ve always wondered how you make your selection when there are so many air-headed, gold-digging young women for you to choose from. And do you know what else I’ve always wondered? I’ve always wondered how you manage to keep your job as a college professor when you’re screwing girls the same age as your students. Aren’t there supposed to be laws against that?”

  “Riley...”

  “I should go,” she said abruptly, her finger already poised above the End Call button. “My friend is waiting for me.”

  “Yes, you can’t keep the boyfriend waiting. Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do,” Bill chortled, apparently unconcerned by the coldness in her voice.

  Riley ended the call and headed for the door. Her phone rang again as she reached for the door handle.

  “Hi Megan.” She left the apartment with the suitcase in one hand and the phone in the other, slamming the door hard behind her. “I’m just on my way over to Briar’s.” She started on her way down the internal stairs to the garage before stopping and going back to check that the door was securely locked. “She thought she heard a prowler around her apartment last night and she’s nervous about spending tonight alone.”