The Stalking of Louise Copperfield

by Robert W Fisk

  “Sorry Mr Harvey,” said Kezia. “I didn’t hear the question.”

  There was a snicker of laughter around the class. Kezia Goody Two Shoes had been caught napping. That was a good one!

  Neil Harvey looked at the faces Kezia had drawn on the pad.

  “Who said ‘My kingdom for a horse?”

  “King Dickhead,” said Kezia without thinking.

  The small class laughed.

  “Very clever, Kezia.” Mr Harvey was a kind man. “King Richard. Actually, he was a clever man who got bad publicity after his death.”

  Kezia was burning. She knew Mr Harvey had seen her drawings, and she had given a stupid answer. She was grateful that Mr Harvey was a nice man. What was wrong with her?

  CHAPTER 22.

  Mrs Hohepa sat with a cup of tea on her verandah. It was a lovely day because for a change there was no wind. Mrs Hohepa saw a courier’s red van pull up and a woman take flowers to the front door. The flowers were waiting on Louise’s door step when she got home.

  Louise stood on the porch step and read the card carefully.

  “Thanks for the memory.”

  The roses were not Frank’s doing. His idea of romance was a slap up meal and a glass of wine in a restaurant, not a dozen red roses and a mystery message.

  ‘What memory?’ thought Louise. ‘Someone from the past? Ricky Ricciardello maybe? He always forgot her birthday was in September. Maybe a late offering?’

  The roses had been delivered by courier, who said they came from ‘Florentina’, which Louise knew to be a high quality florist shop. The card was embossed with the same name. Embossed, quite classy.

  Louise left the front door ajar as she turned back into the house, with the roses in her arms. She rested them on the kitchen bench, found a vase and prepared the roses for display. She had no trouble finding an aspirin to put in the water to keep the roses fresh.

  Louise had not slept well since the night of the party. She felt tired and unwell, frequently developed headaches and did not let Frank near her. She felt constantly that he was going to accuse her, row with her, shout at her, slam doors, and Louise dreaded that kind of response.

  Still. Someone thought enough of her to send her roses. It was romantic, even if a little creepy. She gave no thought to Detective Constable Hyslop’s waring about unsolicited gifts, nor did she think of the conversation she had heard between Frank and Stuart Larcombe.

  Stuart Larcombe watched from his car as the flowers were delivered. Mrs Hohepa sat at her window, drinking her afternoon cup of tea. She wondered who was parked outside her house, a burglar casing the joint? No, too fanciful. Anyway, a burglar would never drive a beautiful car like this one.

  Just in case, Mrs Hohepa took out her Panasonic digital camera and took a photograph of the car and its driver. On the little screen it looked like any other flash car, so that was no use if Louise was to be burgled, or worse, if Kezia was attacked. Mrs Hohepa went out of the back door and down the side of the house. The branches and trunk of a kowhai tree gave her cover from the man in the car. The bellbirds feeding on the lovely drooping flowers were not disturbed by her because she never disturbed them and they had no fear. They sang their beautiful ringing song for her as she stopped to admire them.

  Peering around the trunk of the tree, Mrs Hohepa extended the telephoto lens and took a picture of the number plate before he drove off.

  As well as this older man in his expensive suits, who seemed to be a friend of Mr Copperfield’s, she often saw the slim young man with the long black hair and his hoodie pulled up. Young men seemed to favour the criminal look these days, she mused. Probably lurking to catch a glimpse of young Kezia, the young man would wait under Mrs Hohepa’s kowhai tree on the footpath outside her picket fence. He was often there before daybreak, just looking.

  He wasn’t the same young man who called at the house, the Arab looking boy, from Syria, Kezia beau. He was taking English lessons from Louise. She was a hard working woman, as if she didn’t have enough to do just living with that horrible Frank. The Arab boy helped Kezia in the garden. They seemed to be getting very attached

  Recently the young man in black with a hood had taken to walking down the side of the house. Mrs Hohepa was not happy with that. Mrs Hohepa wondered if she should have a word with Louise about her visitors. On the other hand, the dog did not bark so perhaps he was a friend of Kezia’s? Girls these days.

  CHAPTER 23.

  The sign painted on the door had been a roaring success. Charlotte had never seen Louise so upset. She was very pleased with herself as she watched Kezia open the front door and found the word, ‘SLAG’. She laughed at Louise’s consternation, her rapid jerky movements and rushing about. Charlotte was not happy when the old Maori sheila helped Louise clean up.

  Buying the paint had been a big risk. She should have brought some from the farm. The woman in the shop would remember her, she was sure, plus some paint had spilled on the carpet in her car. If the police investigated they could match the paint on her car’s floor mat and talk to the woman in the hardware shop.

  ‘Slim chance,’ she thought. ‘Anyway, my only crime is being a nuisance.’

  It was time for more payback. Charlotte had thought of another trick, one Louise would not dream of.

  Charlotte walked down the tree lined street in her dark blue tracksuit. The path was tree-lined, cool in the summer sun, like today. The dappled shadows helped to blur features, although if people did notice her, Charlotte had nothing to hide; she was just a woman out with her camera to take some snapshots.

  Charlotte saw the old lady in number sixteen, nosey old bag. She gave her a friendly wave, forcing the old woman to wave back. There was a lovely old kowhai tree by the driveway, with birds that did not fly away but kept feeding as she stood under the tree. One bellbird that seemed to pose for her made a lovely photograph.

  Charlotte crossed the street to the house diagonally opposite, number 15. It was well maintained, as were all the houses in Allnatt Street. The neighbours’ house looked empty at this time of day but with the curtains open and washing on the line, the owners were likely to be back at any time. Charlotte went into the garden as she had done many times before.

  Next door were the Copperfields. In the garden was the Arab boy, working hard as he turned over the soil to get it ready for plants. She took several photos, including a close-up of the boy’s head and shoulders, making it appear that he was studying the laundry on the rotary clothesline.

  Satisfied with her work, Charlotte went back to the street and walked to her car. Put together with the photographs she already had of the Arab boy and Louise together, she had almost enough for her next payback.

  Charlotte had also seen the courier delivering flowers that must have come from Nigel. The flowers looked expensive. She would find out next month when the bill for the credit card arrived. Charlotte had not slept for thinking of Louise, the double-crossing cow and her partner who sent roses to her so-called friend. Louise was so sexy with small and delicate features, very feminine, unlike Charlotte herself who was tall and masculine and looked more like her father than her mother Alice. She would have to find some way to pay Nigel back for sending the roses but for now she would deal with the woman who had seduced him.

  Charlotte had enormously good luck the following day. She had parked her car in the main street, near the Manor House Motel. Parking was difficult but she had found a space near the motel which was not too far from where she wanted to shop. With her phone in her hand, Charlotte looked up from locking the car door and saw walking towards her hand in hand were the Arab boy and Louise’s daughter, Kezia.

  Charlotte used her mobile phone to snap the couple as they came towards her. They were admiring the plantings in the driveway of the motel. Then they turned around, hand in hand, looking for all the world as if they were leaving the motel with happy after-sex smiles on their faces.

  Charlotte could not get the whole sign in the picture, but when she looke
d, above the couple’s head she could see the bottom of the sign reading ‘MOTEL’. Ideal.

  When Kezia and Alexander were at school and Louise was at work, Charlotte parked her car at the end of Allnatt Street and walked to number 13. She walked down the garden path to the front door and knocked. When nobody came she turned over the stone under the rose bush in the garden and used the key that was hidden there to open the front door. She knew the old lady across the road was watching but with her black wig and her hoodie pulled up, she thought she should be safe.

  She went into Kezia’s room and opened the lid of her iPad.

  CHAPTER 24.

  Stuart sat at the table in the garden under a shady tree with Louise, who had brought out a tray of tea, coffee and scones. Larcombe had made a bet with Frank that he could seduce Louise without using drugs. It had been a boast, and an empty one for two reasons. He had until the end of the month to succeed or fail.

  Louise was doing a great job at resisting his advances. Despite presents and innumerable cups of tea and date scones when he called in ‘to see Frank’, or ‘to get away from it all for a while’, Louise had not let Larcombe near her. In fact, she was guarded and ill at ease, which made Larcombe feel that perhaps she suspected he had been the one who had had sex with her.

  The second reason was that she aroused him as no other woman had for some time. Despite using Viagra he had trouble completing his action unless his sex partner was high on Ecstasy or GHB. This discovery shattered Larcombe. It was something he could not share even with a doctor. He could only have sex if his victim was drugged. Rohypnol was all right, especially when the girl did not know he had drugged her. When using Rohypnol, Larcombe could manage to hold an erection. Best of all was a willing partner where both of them could use MDMA or Ecstasy.

  He could also become highly aroused when he tricked a husband into a situation where he could have sex with his wife. That gave him the biggest thrill of all, and the subsequent affair could go on for months if he was lucky. It was fun, it was exciting. He had used this trick several times in the past before trapping Frank to let him have Louise, playing the wager card then watching as otherwise calm friends writhed and twisted over whether to betray their wives or break their word and have Larcombe abandon them for other partners in business. .

  But Louise. It was different with her. He became aroused just thinking of her. There was no need for Viagra or Rohypnol. He became aroused just sitting near her house, watching for her to appear. His arrangement with Frank heightened Larcombe’s arousal to a near frantic state. He had found a woman who answered his every need, except for the fact that he had found no way to persuade Louise to come to bed with him. That shattered him as well. Louise was always pleasant but she never responded to his opening gambits. She treated Larcombe as if he were twenty years older than her, rather than the ten years between them.

  He had not spiked her drink on the night of the party, but she had been drugged, not with Ecstasy, because she was not hyper, but loaded with Rohypnol, which stupefied her. He took satisfaction from frustrating the intentions of whoever had loaded her drink.

  ‘Ironic, that,’ he thought. ‘Doing my dirty work for me.’

  He smiled across the coffee table at Louise.

  “Louise,” he said. “Thank you for putting up with me, and for making me welcome when I need a break. I am so pleased to have a friend like you who is just a friend and nothing more.”

  ‘Liar,’ thought Louise, but she smiled and said ‘Thank you, Stuart.’

  Frank would never know the efforts she had made to keep Larcombe sweet for him and his precious business. She would have to do something soon, though. Larcombe could quickly become a nuisance, as she had noticed his arousal when she was around. Perhaps she should ask Nigel to come over for coffee at the same time?

  CHAPTER 25.

  Nigel Jones was worried. But then, Nigel Jones was always worried. He liked to think that worry made him efficient in his work, which demanded meticulous attention to detail.

  Nigel was worried mostly about Charlotte. He thought that she was having an affair with the young man from the party. She slipped away whenever she got the opportunity. When he woke in the morning, she was often not beside him, although her side of the bed had been slept in, which reassured him somewhat.

  “Where were you this morning?” he asked as she returned home in her dark clothes. He hated people in hoodies and wished Charlotte would not wear one.

  “Went out,” she said.

  “Obviously,” he replied. “But where?”

  “Oh, around. Coffee?”

  Nigel looked at her carefully. There was no flush of recent sex on Charlotte’s face. She looked him straight in the eyes, without any semblance of guilt. Perhaps she had just been walking around and about after all.

  “Yes, please,” he said. “Want to come back to bed for a cuddle?”

  Charlotte thought of Nigel and Louise in bed together, when the kids were at school and Frank was at work. It was easy for Nigel to slip away from desk work and say that he was off to inspect something to see how well it was built.

  The thought excited Charlotte. Instead of confronting Nigel over Louise, she would compete.

  “Oh, all right. What brought that on? You usually ignore me in the morning.”

  That was true. Nigel was so focused on his work that it occupied his mind from the time he woke up until he went to sleep. He pulled back the covers.

  “Better take your pants off,” he said.

  “You wish,” she replied, but she took off her trousers and her panties in one downward movement and slipped in beside him.

  “It’s late. Shouldn’t you be getting ready for work?” she whispered.

  “Work will keep,” he replied, kissing her gently on the lips. For once she did not pull back, and for once Nigel was not worried.

  Charlotte immediately saw a way to get even for with Louise for her sleeping with Nigel. She would make herself so available and sexy that Louise would be unable to compete. It was a perfect sting; and Louise would never know she was being undermined as Nigel saw less and less of Louise and turned more and more to Charlotte the Harlot.

  She would also try to woo Frank, who should be easy. She saw lust in his eyes and his body language changed when she came close to him. She knew that she could manage both men and that was essential to give Louise the shock of her life. Then when Louise found out she had lost both men to Charlotte, she would end the affair with Frank and she would leave Nigel, walk out, leaving him high and dry with neither woman. Serve him right.

  CHAPTER 26.

  It was a late summer afternoon and the classroom was stiflingly hot because all the windows were closed while the grass on the sports field outside was being mowed. Even so, the noise of the tractor and the clatter of the mower could be heard clearly. Kezia was not the only student whose head was nodding as the class listened to Mr Bannister explaining calculus.

  Mr Bannister was not their usual teacher. Miss Beech was on maternity leave and had been for some weeks now. A succession of young teachers took Miss Beech’s maths classes. The last of these was Mr Bannister, the Deputy Principal.

  Mr Bannister was old, much older than Kezia’s mother, but he was still very fit. He made everyone bend over and touch their toes or the ground between their feet and then complained that so few sixteen year olds had the flexibility to do as he asked.

  Kezia could. She could touch her toes quite easily; even do the splits if she was asked. She did not volunteer because she noticed Mr Bannister was looking down the blouses of the girls as they leaned over. She didn’t want him looking at her crutch as she did the splits.

  Youssef came to the house nearly every day, sometimes a little earlier if he had finished his tasks at the Pet Pals Clinic. Mr Ross, the owner, suggested to Louise that some of the English lessons could be in the Pet Pals Clinic where Youssef could learn the specific language he needed for his work. Youssef had a wonderful way with the animals. H
e was bright, and learned fast.

  Kezia left later than usual for school each day so that she could see him as he arrived for his lesson with Louise. Kezia dreamed of Youssef holding her hand as they walked down the road together, perhaps stopping now and then for a chaste kiss in the shelter of a tree. Instead, she had lunch with him on the three days he attended school. They would sit outside under trees enjoying the slight breeze trees always seem to bring. Sometimes they were joined by friends but more often they were on their own. If friends sat with them, they would all put their lunch boxes into the centre of the ring they made and share their food.

  ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” people always said. Kezia was soon making lunch for both of them. Realising that Youssef’s culture was very different from hers, she explored what he could and could not eat. With a change to a partly Mediterranean diet, Kezia began to lose her bulges. A genuine friendship between them grew into love. Each missed the other when they were apart; the garden which gave them reason to be together was flourishing.

  While they were working together, Youssef was learning as much from Kezia as he did from Louise. He was amazed by the distinctive social culture of New Zealand, at how such diverse people united in the common task of making New Zealand the best place in the world to live and raise families. But he was to discover that there were elements of xenophobia who saw God’s Own Country being overrun and changed by immigrants such as Youssef.

  On this day, while they enjoyed eating together under the shade of the trees that surrounded the sports field, they watched cricket, a game that Youssef understood. He appreciated the subtlety of a second innings declaration that gave the opponents a chance to win, if they were good enough. A visiting school was playing and Youssef was trying to explain the term ‘sporting declaration’ to an American exchange student, but to him it just seemed like a stupid way of throwing away a chance to win.