Throw a Double for Spite

by Cherie Mitchell

  Riley stared at the closed door for several seconds, recounting her words and wondering which one she should have avoided. It was all too complicated for this late hour. She left the unpleasant cup of cocoa where it was, flipped off the light and went back to bed, giving Briar’s door one last confused glance on the way past.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Riley was determined to take a real lunch break today, to actually leave the office and step outside the door for at least an hour. It wasn’t as if either Angus or Colin had noticed her dedication over the past few weeks and she’d certainly received no thanks for it. At 12.30 pm, she picked up her handbag and walked through to the reception, feeling a little like a prisoner about to make a daring escape from lockdown. “Lucy, I’m on my lunch break if anyone is looking for me.”

  “Ok.” Lucy, looking harassed and tense, handed a slip of paper across the desk. “Someone phoned for you while you were in that meeting with Angus. They left a message but they hung up before I could get their number.” She pulled an apologetic face as the phone began to ring again. “Sorry. It’s been hectic out here and it doesn’t look as if it’s going to stop any time soon.”

  Riley looked down at the message in her hand as she left the building. Scrawled in Lucy’s hurried handwriting were the words, Let sleeping dogs lie. She frowned down at the note and was about to walk back into the office to ask Lucy if she knew anything more about the anonymous caller when she saw through the window that Paul had just approached the front desk. She crumpled the note and thrust it into her handbag. Lucy had probably misheard the message and whoever it was would eventually ring back and explain themselves.

  She set off around the corner of the building to the street, lifting her face to the warmth of the sun as she stepped out onto the sidewalk and joined the throng of lunchtime pedestrians. If felt good to be away from the confines of the office, away from Angus’s irrational barking and Colin’s unfriendly scowls. At least Paul had stopped his constant staring and ogling although he continued to ignore her and if he was forced to speak to her about work related matters, his tone was curt and abrupt almost to the point of rudeness.

  She turned the corner and walked half a block to a coffee shop that she knew served good coffee and fresh sandwiches with appealing fillings. She hadn’t stopped for breakfast before leaving Briar’s apartment this morning, unwilling to poke through the other woman’s cupboards and refrigerator in the hopes of finding something akin to her usual granola and fruit. The empty apartment had felt cold and hollow and Riley had quickly dressed, packed her suitcase, and left for the office.

  She ordered at the counter and turned to look for an empty table in the busy café. Someone walked in the door behind her but she didn’t glance in that direction as she started purposefully for a just-vacated table by the window.

  “Hey Riley.” A masculine hand with severely short fingernails landed on her arm. “I thought it was you.”

  She gazed up into a plain, unremarkable face, unable to place this person who clearly knew her. It took her several seconds to recognize the man for who he was – Dan, Megan’s ex. “Oh! Dan. How are you?”

  “I’m good, really good. Are you having lunch? Do you mind if I join you? I was just about to order myself a coffee.”

  “Uh...” She looked around the bustling coffee shop again. The waitress was now clearing the coffee cups and plates from the vacant table and there were no other free tables. “Sure. You go ahead and order and I’ll grab that table before someone else gets it.”

  Dan joined her a few minutes later, clumsily bumping the table with his knee as he folded his lanky form into the chair opposite her. “Nothing beats a lunchtime latte.”

  “Yes, although they’ve been few and far between for me lately. Work has been busy.” She gave him a polite smile. They had nothing in common and her much anticipated lunch break now looked as though it might be a painful exercise in teeth clenching awkwardness.

  “I’m worried about Megan,” he said without preamble. “Have you spoken to her lately?”

  Riley stared across the table at him. “We talked last evening. Why are you worried about her? What happened? She told me your break up was amicable.”

  He took a sugar sachet from the receptacle on the table and tapped it against the tabletop. A strand of greasy, lank hair fell across his high forehead and when he looked down, Riley could see the beginnings of a bald spot on his crown. A sprinkling of dandruff graced his shirt collar and she found herself staring at it. “You could call it amicable, I suppose.” He lifted serious eyes to meet hers as she hurriedly wrenched her gaze away from his collar. “But I feel sorry for her more than anything else.”

  “Why would you feel sorry for her? Megan is a strong, independent woman and she doesn’t seem at all bothered by the break up.” Was he insinuating that Megan was heartbroken because the relationship had ended? Yes, she was saddened but she wasn’t distraught. How had he formed the impression that Megan cared more about him than she did? She didn’t want to talk to this man about her friend when they’d barely said more than one or two words to each other in the past. Riley looked past him to the counter, hoping the waitress would hurry up with her order so she could eat her lunch and leave. Perhaps she could lie to Dan and say that she’d just remembered she had a one o’clock meeting?

  “She’d been acting oddly for several weeks before we ended things.” He hesitated, as if he were searching for the right words. “She’s a complex person,” he said at last. “She’s sometimes prone to errors of judgement due to how she overthinks everything.”

  Riley frowned, starting to get annoyed now. She’d been looking forward to this break and now Dan and his vague comments had ruined it. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you mean. I’ve known Megan since I was a teenager and I consider her to be one of my best friends. I’m sure you had your differences but the ins and outs of a romantic relationship are unique to each couple. It didn’t work out between the two of you, and I’m sure you have some regrets given what a wonderful person she is, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to talk unkindly about her to me.”

  He sat up straight, his face registering shock and surprise. “It was never my intention to speak ill of her and I’m sorry that it came across like that. As I said before, I’m worried about her. She can be... erratic.”

  “I spoke to her last evening. She sounded perfectly fine to me, and I’m sure I’d be one of the first people to know if she had any concerns,” Riley said crisply.

  “Now you’re offended.” His face settled into glum, unattractive lines before brightening again. “I’ve always liked you, Riley. I think we could have been good friends given the right opportunity.”

  “Unfortunately we won’t ever have the chance to find out now.” She barred her teeth in another semblance of a smile and raised her hand to get the waitress’s attention. “I have to go. I’ve just remembered I have a one o’clock meeting. My boss doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

  “Perhaps we could meet sometime. Have a drink and talk about Megan.” His hand snaked across the table towards her, stopping short just before the tips of his fingers reached her arm. She hurriedly moved her arm off the table and swiveled around to swing her handbag strap away from the back of the chair.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think we’ve said all that we need to say.” She jumped to her feet, already moving away from the table and the distasteful Dan. “Enjoy your latte. I’ll let Megan know that you asked after her.”

  Dan grated his chair back, the legs squealing irritably against the bare wooden floorboards, and turned to watch her as she hurried away. She spoke quickly to the waitress, who looked annoyed about having to tip her coffee into a takeaway mug and place the sandwich in a paper bag but she did it anyway. Riley took her lunch and left the coffee shop, feeling Dan’s eyes upon her as she passed the window where he remained seated at their table. In her haste to get away from him, her heel caught in a crack on the pavement and
she stumbled slightly before righting herself and hurrying away, cursing both her bad luck and her bad timing.

  ***

  Riley had just unlocked her car in the parking lot after finishing work when Briar called. It had taken her a while to settle back into her day after her strange meeting with Dan. His odd comments remained tattooed on her mind but she’d eventually put his bizarre behavior down to Megan wounding his ego by dumping him, before thankfully burying herself in the pile of paperwork that Angus had given her. “Hi Briar.”

  “Hey, it’s me. I’m going to be a little late. I’ll give you the door code so you can let yourself into the apartment.”

  “Ok...” She couldn’t remember agreeing to stay at Briar’s place for two nights. “Look, do you really want me to stay another night? If you’re going to be out anyway, I might as well go back to mine.” She glanced through the window to where her suitcase lay on the rear seat. All she wanted to do was drive to her apartment where she could relax on her own for the rest of the evening.

  “I won’t be long, I promise. Please stay one more night,” Briar pleaded. “I’m worried that I might sleepwalk again. It’s been months since I last did it and I’m scared that last night was the start of an episode.”

  Riley relented. “Ok. Do you want me to start dinner?”

  “No, we can order in again. See you soon.” Briar’s tone had switched from dejected to breezy in a matter of seconds.

  Muttering under her breath and cross with herself for giving in so easily, Riley threw the phone and her handbag onto the passenger seat. Just one more night and then she could return to the daily routine of her own peaceful, regular life.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Riley punched in the key code and let herself into Briar’s empty apartment, her suitcase banging awkwardly against her legs as she walked through the door. The living room smelled faintly of extinguished candlewicks and the fruity shampoo that Briar liked so much.

  She carried the suitcase through to the bedroom and laid it on the end of the bed that she’d made this morning before leaving the apartment. She stood in front of the chest of drawers and bent to smell the roses but disappointingly, there was no sweet fragrance hidden within their glorious, velvety petals. A rose without a scent was oddly two-dimensional. One of the petals dislodged and fell onto the artfully distressed surface of the chest. She picked it up and idly turned it over in her fingers, wondering how something so beautiful could have such a major flaw. She looked around the silent room, her eyes again coming to rest on the furiously glowering Vin Diesel poster on the wall above the bookcase. Briar had never hinted at an interest in either cars or Vin Diesel and the poster, primed as it was to attract the attention of petrol heads and fast car aficionados seemed entirely out of place in the apartment. Suddenly curious to know more, she allowed the rose petal to fall from her fingers and pulled open the top drawer on the chest to peer inside.

  “What?” She stared in disbelief at the neatly folded rows of men’s socks and underpants. She slammed the top drawer shut and pulled the next one down open. This drawer was filled with folded men’s t-shirts and the one below that held jeans and sweatshirts. “Briar, what aren’t you telling me?” Her brow creased in confusion, she shoved the bottom drawer closed and looked around the room again, searching for another clue. Her gaze alighted on the carved box on the bookshelf. She crossed the room in two quick strides and fumbled with the small tarnished brass latch.

  Inside the box was a handful of old photos, along with a business card. Riley picked up the business card first. Matt Franklin, Autos R Us. There was a phone number under the logo but nothing more. Franklin; this must be one of the many brothers that Briar had spoken of. Riley sat the business card on the shelf beside the box and picked up the photos.

  The first faded photo was a family shot, a snap of a fresh faced young man and woman with their eyes screwed up against the sun standing on the front doorstep of a modest family home. The woman held two blanket-wrapped newborn babies, one in each arm, while the man’s grin beamed out of the picture with mega-watt radiance. Twins. Riley turned the photo over to see the word Homecoming written on the back. She moved on to the next photo, this one of two curly-haired cherubs seated in highchairs. One of the babies wore a pink ribbon in her dark hair and the other one was dressed in a mini baseball outfit. A birthday cake bearing a large Number One candle sat on the table in front of the babies, safely out of reach of grabbing little fingers. The twins’ first birthday was printed on the back of the photo in the same neat handwriting.

  Riley flipped through to the third and last photo. There was only one baby in this shot, the little girl from the previous photo. She was standing beside an old-fashioned armchair with birthday cake smeared over her face as she gazed intently at someone out of the frame. The words on the back read, Baby Briar’s first steps!

  She compared the photo of the cake-covered tot with the photo of the two babies in highchairs. Briar was a twin. Why had she never mentioned it? Wasn’t that a fact your close friends should know?

  The apartment door slammed and Riley jumped in fright. She hurriedly dropped the photos back into the box, closed the lid, and pushed it back into place on the shelf, but not before shoving Matt’s business card into her skirt pocket.

  “Honey, I’m home,” Briar sang. A few seconds later, she popped her head around the bedroom door. The smile fell from her face when she saw Riley’s expression. “Why are you looking at me like that? What’s wrong?”

  “Why do you have several drawers full of men’s clothes in your apartment?” Riley blurted out. Her heart was racing and she knew she sounded defensive.

  “Oh, you saw those.” Briar nonchantly straightened the hem of her hi-vis vest and see-sawed the zipper head up and down the zipper teeth. “They’re Tom’s. He was supposed to come back and get them but he never did.”

  “Who’s Tom?”

  She lifted one shoulder in a careless half-shrug. “We were seeing each other for a while. He moved in but it didn’t work out.”

  “You were in a relationship? So why are his clothes in the spare room instead of in your room?”

  “I moved the chest of drawers out of my room after he left.” Briar proudly made a fist, raising a muscle on her shapely tanned bicep. “I’m used to manhandling heavy objects and equipment on the building site. It wasn’t a big deal to shift it.”

  “You’re a twin.” Riley hadn’t meant to phrase the statement so bluntly but the words fell out of her mouth before she could stop them.

  Briar’s eyes darkened, becoming flinty and hard. “You’ve been snooping.”

  “I just looked in the box...” Riley dropped her hands helplessly down by her sides. Yes, she had been snooping and there was no way around it. “Why have you never mentioned your twin brother?”

  “I don’t have to tell you everything.”

  “Of course you don’t, but having a twin is special. I would have loved to have a twin to share my life with.”

  “He’s dead.” Her words hit the air with all the sudden, shocking impact of a bomb blast.

  “What? That’s terrible! Briar, I’m so sorry. How did it happen?”

  “He died when we were two. It was an accident but I’ve always blamed myself. I was playing with the gate to the yard and I somehow managed to unlock it. He wandered out onto the street and he was hit by a car. I...” She trailed off and clamped her mouth shut.

  “I’m so, so sorry. That must have been devastating for you and your family.” Riley took one step towards Briar but the furious look on the other woman’s face stopped her from advancing any further.

  “I don’t think you should stay after all,” Briar said stiffly. “I think I’d rather be alone tonight.”

  “What about the prowler? The Condo Creeper? And your sleepwalking? I thought you were too scared to be alone.”

  “I’ll manage. You should go now.” Her expression was cold, her voice frosty. All traces of friendliness had disappeared fr
om her face and she now wore the indifferent mask of a stranger.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Goodnight, Riley.”

  Upset at herself for what she had done, Riley grabbed her suitcase from the bed and walked through the empty apartment to the front door. Briar did not attempt to follow her. One unanswered question hammered at her brain. How well do I know this woman?

  She walked quickly along the street to where she’d left her car. A light rain was falling now and the night sky was black and free of stars. The street lamp directly outside Briar’s apartment building was out, plunging the immediate area into darkness. Riley reached her car and looked up at Briar’s windows as she unlocked the door. A figure appeared briefly framed in the window before disappearing as a hand dragged the curtains across to blank out the rectangle of light.

  Sudden footsteps alerted Riley to someone approaching and she hastily threw her suitcase over into the back seat before falling in behind the steering wheel. She slammed and locked the door as a man sauntered down the street towards her, walking slowly and taking his time to gaze around at his surroundings. She slid down in her seat, keeping her eyes fixed upon him. What was he doing? And why had he stopped outside Briar’s apartment?

  The man, broad-shouldered and anonymous in a black trench coat that fell to mid-calf, looked around again and then bent his head. There was the brief flare of a small yellow flame and then the distinctive red glow at the end of a lit cigarette. He tossed the spent match into the gutter and walked on without glancing in Riley’s direction.

  She let out the breath that she’d been holding in and reached for the seat belt. With all the strange goings-on lately, was it any wonder that her imagination was running away on her?