by Nicole Trope
Nicole
TROPE
Three Hours Late
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, alive or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
First published in 2013
Copyright © Nicole Trope 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available
from the National Library of Australia
www.trove.nla.gov.au
ISBN 978 1 74331 315 2
eISBN 978 1 74343 453 6
Set in 12/18 pt Minion Pro by Bookhouse, Sydney
For Mom, Dad, Lyn and Elwin—my personal cheerleading squad
In dreams there are flashes of his face.
Kaleidoscope light touches his hair.
His arms reach out.
In dreams his hand touches mine.
We twirl and dance touched by light and shade, spinning
until we cannot be seen.
Contents
Three Hours Late
1
2
3
4
Twenty minutes late
5
6
One hour late
7
8
9
One hour and twenty-five minutes late
10
11
12
13
Two hours late
14
15
Three hours and ten minutes late
16
17
Three hours and forty minutes late
18
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Three hours late
‘Aiden, we’ve been around this block twice already. Don’t you think that if the guy was here we would’ve found him?’ asked Julie.
‘I know, I know,’ said Aiden. ‘But it just feels . . . I can’t explain it, Jules. Maybe it’s a little of that police instinct we’re all supposed to have. Besides, the last call he made came from this tower.’
‘Yeah, but that was an hour ago. The choppers have been over this park at least twice. They would’ve seen the car if he was here. Let’s go check out some of the shopping centres. He told his wife he’d taken the kid to an arcade earlier today. Maybe he went back there. Shopping centres are a great place to hide. Let’s start at the first one we come to and go from there. We’re wasting time here.’
‘I don’t know, Jules. I think this guy will be closer to home.’
Julie pushed some blonde curls back behind her ear. ‘I think he’s hidden away in the dark somewhere far from prying eyes, just like the rat he is.’
‘Don’t make me pull rank, Jules,’ said Aiden.
Julie and Aiden hadn’t been partners long but they had clicked from the beginning. Julie never needed to be told who was in charge.
Now she looked at Aiden, hurt by the rebuke, but relaxed when she saw he was smiling.
‘Fine, but this is the last time, okay? Go around once more and then we’ll start on the shopping centres.’
The police cruiser crawled past the park again.
‘I know it looks deserted but I just want to check out the bush at the back,’ said Aiden. He pulled off the road into the dust and stone area that served as a car park and the two police officers climbed out of the car. In the dying light of the afternoon the empty swing moved back and forth as if waiting for a small body and pumping legs. The slight creak of the metal chains sent a shiver down Julie’s spine. Even as a kid she’d never been a fan of the park. There were too many big kids, too many unknowns.
‘There’s nothing here,’ said Julie, wrapping her arms around herself.
‘Looks that way,’ said Aiden. The bushland surrounding the park looked undisturbed.
White lines chased each other around the freshly marked oval. There were three schools close by that were probably getting ready for their sports carnivals. Aiden glanced across the empty stone steps that served as stands for watching parents. He didn’t understand his certainty that the guy was here. It would be a stupid place to hide. It was too close to the house where the kid lived. The guy was probably hiding out in a giant car park where he would be almost impossible to find. Or maybe just maybe he was long gone by now. He could be on the highway heading out of Sydney on the way to Queensland. Or he could be hiding out in some small country town already. He could be anywhere.
‘So why do I think he’s here?’ muttered Aiden.
He closed his eyes and tried to work out what was bothering him. He felt like there was something he was missing. But whatever it was it remained out of reach. He opened his eyes with a sigh.
The park had a small play area off to the side but was dominated by the oval in the middle. All around houses stood on sentry duty in the quiet Saturday afternoon. It was a little cold now for kids to be out but even so the park was eerily empty.
He turned to walk back to the car as the sun dipped a little lower on the horizon and then he caught something in his peripheral vision. He turned around and waited for it again. And there it was: a flash as the last rays of the sun hit something metal. There was something in the bush.
Aiden started walking towards the place where he’d seen the flash. Crossing the oval, he noticed tyre tracks. He broke into a run.
He knew what he would find when he got to the cluster of gum trees, banksias and tangled undergrowth. He knew they would be there.
As he drew closer he saw the outline of the car, a blue Toyota sedan. He knew that when he checked the licence plate it would be WVX 217.
His heart was pumping now and despite the cold he was beginning to sweat. He slowed down and made himself a cat. If they were still in the car he didn’t want to startle the man into doing anything stupid, and if they were outside the car he didn’t want to alert the guy to his presence.
He crept forward, trying to avoid hidden twigs; cursing the gold-red fall of leaves that carpeted the ground.
The car’s engine was running, just purring gently. Aiden wondered how long it had been running for. How long could a tank of petrol last if the car was parked?
He grabbed his taser from its holder. A gun would freak the kid out but he wouldn’t know what a taser was.
He stepped forward and peered through the rear window. When he couldn’t see anything he moved around to one of the back passenger windows.
If the kid was in the back seat Aiden would have to signal to him to keep quiet. He already had his finger against his lips. Hopefully the kid would be more curious than terrified by the sight of a police officer looking through his window.
The man would probably be in the front seat and wouldn’t see him. Unless of course they were both in the front seat and neither was in a position to see him. Unless neither of them was in a position to see anything.
Aiden looked back at the oval and saw Julie jogging across to meet him. He put his hand up, indica
ting that she should stop; the last thing he needed was more noise. Julie obliged and became a statue. She wouldn’t move again until he told her to.
He refocused on the window. He saw a booster seat covered in pictures of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. Eeyore stared out the window at Aiden, his tail drooping and face resigned. There was no sign of the boy.
The park and the car sat together in the silence of the day. Aiden stepped forward again, straining his muscles to keep his body light on the ground. Holding his breath, he looked into the front seat.
He put his taser back into its holder.
He stood up straight and waved at Julie.
She resumed her run across the oval.
1
Liz watched Alex make his way up the front path.
His progress was visible from the living room window with only a slight twitch of the curtains.
Alex stood deliberately on every crack he saw, sometimes moving to the other side of the path to make sure he didn’t miss one.
His hair was slicked down with water and even from her position at the window she could see he was freshly shaved.
Once, so very long ago, she had watched him like this when he came to pick her up for a date.
Then she had watched him with the delicious anticipation of the night ahead. She would stand at the window with her heart hammering and her cheeks burning, just waiting for him to ring the bell. Her hair would be perfectly curled and styled and her toes would already be pinched by her too-high heels. Her body would react to his presence even before she looked into his eyes. Her stomach fluttered and burned with infatuation and desire. She would watch him walk up the front path and think, ‘This must be love.’
It had been love.
Once it had been love.
Now she watched him to gauge his mood, to figure out what her best opening line would be. Now her stomach burned with dread.
This morning she was wearing an old maternity tracksuit and her hair was pulled back with odd-coloured clips. Her breath still smelled of her breakfast coffee.
She hoped he would not want to look at her. She hoped he would simply take his son and leave. Today, she needed him to see only that she was unkempt and ugly. ‘Don’t look at me!’ she wanted to yell.
Logically she knew that she could have been dressed in a garbage bag and there would still be no way he would just leave without forcing her to make herself understood again. No way would he just take Luke and go. Logically she knew that, but she also knew that when it came to Alex, the rules of the universe only applied sometimes. So this morning she had nursed her cup of coffee and prayed, because you never know your luck.
But now that she had seen him she knew he would want to stay. The dark green shirt he was wearing still held traces of crisp fold lines from when he had bought it. Liz had never seen it before. He would want to talk. He would not let her off lightly. Not after last night.
Shit—last night.
Liz didn’t want to think about last night. She wasn’t ready to deal with her mistake but Alex would not be dismissed. She could see from the way he walked and the way he dressed that he believed something had changed last night.
In the morning light that was always so cruel she would have to make the facts clear again. She would have to tell him yet again that their marriage was finished.
She watched as he smoothed his hair down and then, just before he lifted his hand to ring the bell, she stepped forward to open the door.
He smiled when he saw her.
She looked down at her cold bare feet. Her nail polish was mostly chipped away.
It was a charming smile. It included his eyes and encouraged a return gesture.
Liz looked up but stared past him.
‘Hi,’ she said.
He nodded in reply.
Liz angled her body away from him and called, ‘Luke, Daddy’s here. Come on—get your backpack.’
‘Daddy, Daddy, yay, yay!’ Luke yelled from the other room.
Liz knew that Luke would leave the television on and dart into the living room and it was possible that in the chaos of his excited greeting Alex would forget about Liz and just leave with his son.
‘That’s right, Daddy’s here. Come on, don’t keep him waiting. You and Daddy are going to have so much fun.’
‘Yeah, me and Dad are gonna have fun! Hey, Dad, what did you bring me?’
Liz rubbed her hands through her son’s fine blond hair, smoothing it back off his face. His eyes were lit up with the joy of seeing his father, his arms already outstretched in anticipation of a hug.
‘Ah, it’s in the car, little man, but can you give me a minute? I just need to talk to Mum about something.’
It was possible he would just leave, but it was not probable.
‘Do we have to do this now, Alex?’ She said. She made sure her voice was light and high. She made sure to keep out any note of impatience. It was his choice to make after all. It was always his choice. But which choice would he make? Who was Alex today? Which Alex was standing in front of her in his crisp new shirt? Liz rubbed at her bunched neck muscles.
After his greeting smile his face had set to neutral, hiding his mood. Her stomach churned and she recognised a feeling she had put aside in the last few months, except when she was talking to him. It came rushing back now, closing in on her.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Yes, we do need to do it now. Go and find Nana, Luke. Mum and I need to talk.’
Luke heard the catch in his father’s voice but he was only three. He hadn’t yet learned when to keep quiet.
‘But, Dad . . .’
Liz jumped in quickly when she saw Alex’s eyes flash. He had never hurt Luke, never even laid a hand on him, but she could foresee a time when the boy would be a continual challenge to his father, and then who knew what would happen?
Alex didn’t like to be challenged.
‘It’s okay, Luke. Do what Dad says. Go and find Nana. And your blankie, Luke—don’t forget your blankie.’
‘Why does he need to drag that thing around, Liz? He’s three years old already. Isn’t it time he gave it up?’
‘I think he’s been through a lot, Alex. His blanket is his security.’
‘He wouldn’t need it anymore if his whole life hadn’t been thrown into chaos.’
And behind those words were so many years of blame that Liz didn’t even need to acknowledge them. Instead she dipped her head a little and weaselled her way out of the confrontation.
‘Just give him a few more months and we’ll sort it out, Alex. He’s only a little boy.’ She was aware that her voice had taken on a pleading whine. She hated the way she sounded.
Alex shook his head at her and stood up straighter, nearly reaching her height. He could always tell when he had the upper hand.
‘So what did you want to discuss?’ she said, buying time to allow herself a moment to try and find the right words to appease him. She needed words that would keep him calm and words that would help her maintain her distance. Her head filled up with white noise. There were no right words.
‘You know what I want to discuss, babe. I want to talk about last night.’
Now his voice had an edge of sexual fire. The tone crept inside her, warming her whole body.
Her cheeks flushed. She was mortified by last night. If only because of the way her body responded. If only because of the way her body responded right now, clinging to the memory. It was treason.
She sighed, wondering if it would be better just to say that last night had made everything all right and they were going to be one big happy family again. She knew she could pacify him now and then get her father to come over and explain the facts again when Luke was due to be dropped home. Alex understood her father’s size and the possibility of him using his fists. Liz had thought about calling in her father more than once, more than ten times, but she never had.
Jack Searle towered above Alex and Liz could see Alex diminished every time they were in the same room.
But Jack didn’t like to use his fists; he sank into silence instead. He simply left the wife he couldn’t deal with. He just left and though Liz felt, even now, that she would never recover from being discarded like that along with her mother, she knew there were worse things you could do than just leave.
She thought hard about what she could say to Alex now but her mind was stubbonly blank. She had to be conciliatory but firm at the same time. She needed to keep him happy but make herself clear. Talking to Alex was exhausting.
Liz realised she should just have left it to her mother to hand Luke over to Alex. She should have stayed in bed until she had figured out what to say to him. She had been doing that for months already—being somewhere else when he came to pick up Luke—so why had she opened the door for him today?
She tried to find some placating words, but the small part of her that was recovering from being married to him took over her mouth and she said, ‘Oh, Alex, last night was a mistake. It was nothing. I’m sorry I let it go so far, but you have to know that there’s really nothing to discuss.’
‘I don’t know that, Liz. It was not nothing. I’m not nothing.’ Alex bit down on his lip. He knew her mother was in the house. Then he rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath. ‘We were so good together,’ he said, bringing out his smile again. ‘Surely you can see that. We were always so good together.’
She shook her head and looked at her feet again. The nail polish had been a bright blue. It was called Caribbean Dream.
Alex changed tack. ‘Come on, babe, give it another go. I can have you and Luke back home and unpacked in an hour. It will be so good for him to have us together again.’
His voice was warm and smooth like melted chocolate. She hated what he became when they discussed the possibility of getting back together again. She hated the way he darted back and forth between charm and aggression. She knew how quickly it could all go back the way it had been. In darker moments, when she thought her future would be spent in her mother’s house watching the world go by and waiting for her son to grow up, she had to force herself to acknowledge what would happen—after a few honeymoon days—if she returned.
