Free Falling

by Moseley, Kirsty

  Alex hadn’t really said much since we arrived at the animal hospital. When he was upset he was more the strong, silent type; he would be hurting inside and not showing it no doubt. I sat in the car on the way home, chewing on my lip, silently wondering if he blamed me like I blamed myself. After all, the person hurt Chester because of me. It was my fault he almost died. The guilt of that was slowly eating me up inside.

  As we pulled up into our driveway, the door opened on the brown Sedan that was parked on the street outside our house. DI Neeson smiled over at us, taking off her sunglasses and tossing them into the car. “Good afternoon,” she greeted warmly as I climbed out and crossed the front yard to her car.

  “Hi. Have you been waiting long?” I asked, nodding at the newspaper that was strewn across her front seat where she’d obviously been sat for a while.

  She waved her hand dismissively. “Not long.” She nodded towards the house, digging in her pocket and bringing out three bunches of keys. “Let’s go inside and put the kettle on, I have some information for you.”

  Alex stiffened, his hand going up to grip my shoulder supportively. “Do you know who this guy is? Have you arrested him?”

  DI Neeson shook her head in rejection, waving her hand towards the house again. “Let’s talk inside.”

  I gulped. For some reason this seemed like it was going to be bad news. I lagged behind as the police lady and Alex both headed to the house, using the new keys to open the door. I hesitated at the door, for some reason not wanting to go in. The house was too quiet. After seeing Chester in the veterinary hospital, still so weak, I couldn’t help but miss him greeting me at the door.

  Alex and DI Neeson headed straight to the kitchen, so I stopped in the hallway, steeling myself for whatever I was going to hear. Was she going to confirm that it was Sandy? Was she going to tell me that they were arresting her right now and that it was all over? Or was that grim expression on her face for some other reason?

  “Maisie, want coffee?” Alex shouted from the kitchen.

  I gulped, knowing I needed to get it over with. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I forced myself to move again and walked into the kitchen, seeing them both standing there. “Yeah, thanks.” I nodded, smiling gratefully. I took a lot of sugar in my coffee so the boost would probably be a good thing right now.

  DI Neeson looked between the two of us slowly. “I’ve had your dog’s toxicology reports come through today. It has confirmed their suspicions that Chester had ingested rat poison.”

  I groaned and closed my eyes, nodding slowly. In a way, that was a good thing. It meant that their course of treatment that they’d started based on it being rat poison had been the right course of action. Now we just had to hope that he got better and suffered no ill effects from it as a result.

  “I’ve been to the clinic today, and apparently the type that he ingested is the most common brand, a powder, bought at any garden centre or supermarket. So that leaves us with nothing new to go on really. Lab tests on the grease proof paper that we found in your yard show that it contained some sort of raw beef and also showed traces of the same substance. From that we can conclude that this definitely wasn’t just an accident and that your dog somehow found the poison himself. Someone definitely put it on the meat before feeding it to him.”

  I tightened my jaw as a little whimper left my lips. I didn’t want to think about it, about someone sprinkling it on the meat and poor little unsuspecting Chester eating it.

  “So, do you have leads and stuff? Do you know who this person is?” I asked, echoing Alex’s words from earlier, but purposefully not saying the word ‘guy’ because I was convinced it was a girl that was behind it all.

  DI Neeson shook her head, frowning disappointedly. “At this time we don’t have any extra evidence. The tech guys in our recognition department are still running the prints that we lifted from your bedroom door so we’re waiting for those to come back. Our first priority was the prints that we lifted from the items we collected from your house. Those are being analysed, but it appears that some of them belonged to you two and Mr Hannigan. There are also a couple of other prints on the items from the box, but from the list you gave me of who had touched what, it’s a strong possibility that the prints we found belong to your two friends. I’ve dispatched officers to their houses to obtain prints from them so that we can rule them out, but the sizes of the prints we found are most likely female.”

  I frowned. So they have nothing to go on at all? “What about Sandy, did you look into her?” I asked.

  DI Neeson nodded. “I’ve just come back from meeting with Miss Watson. She was with her mother from the end of school until the time when she went to bed. They went shopping and then went for dinner. Their story checks out. I’m sorry, Maisie, I know you thought it was her, but it looks like you were wrong.”

  That news felt like someone had punched me in the gut. It really wasn’t Sandy? I was so sure, so absolutely sure that it was her. A cold shiver trickled down my spine like ice water. Somehow, not knowing who was doing this, not having a face to the person, made it seem even worse. A stranger had stolen the key to my house and poisoned my dog; a stranger had gotten my phone number and had sent me those notes and flowers. It was definitely easier when I had a face to the person. Now, it could have been anyone, anyone at all. I gulped as Luke’s words about Zach came back to mind again. I tried to dismiss it quickly, assuring myself that Zach was a nice guy, but the hair on my arms seemed to stand up as I realised that I actually knew nothing about him at all. Sandy had said today that she knew things about him that he wouldn’t want common knowledge. What exactly was that about?

  Alex frowned thoughtfully. “What about the phone calls she was getting? Surely you can trace the number?”

  DI Neeson leant back against the counter, smiling sadly. “We’ve tried, but it appears that the calls are from an unregistered number, it’s untraceable. We know what network the calls are coming from, but the number is just a throw away sim, pay as you talk, no contract.”

  Alex’s frown deepened. “Have you tried calling it? Give me the number, I’ll call him,” he snapped.

  DI Neeson shook her head, seeming amused by Alex’s outburst. “We’ve tried calling it, each time it’s been switched off.”

  “Well can’t you find the location from the signal of the phone or something? I’ve seen enough episodes of 24 to know they can pinpoint the location of a cell phone signal down to a few meters,” he stated, folding his arms defensively.

  DI Neeson chuckled quietly. “I’m afraid that we don’t have access to Jack Bauer’s technology,” she replied, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “Though it would make my job a lot easier if we did.”

  “So you have nothing?” Alex asked, slamming the kitchen drawer and frowning angrily.

  DI Neeson didn’t even flinch at my brother’s anger. “At this time we’re still waiting for the Intel. Once we have the partial print recognition reports then we’ll have more to go on. We’re looking into the paper that the notes were written on, and also looking into the type of typewriter that was used. Hopefully there will be something there. If not then it’ll only be a matter of time before we catch the perpetrator. Don’t worry, we will catch them,” she replied, her voice confident. I sighed and nodded, taking the cup that Alex offered to me. DI Neeson’s attention turned back to me then as one of her eyebrows rose. “Miss Watson said there was an altercation at school with you today. Care to tell me about that?”

  Not really. “Um,” I shifted on my feet, dropping my eyes to the floor.

  “I told you to leave the investigation to us, not start fights in the middle of school,” she said, her voice clearly disapproving.

  “She provoked me,” I huffed defensively.

  DI Neeson cleared her throat. “Maisie, I know you thought it was her that hurt your dog, but she was elsewhere when the incident happened. You have no need to carry around these ill feelings towards her.”

  I scoffed at he
r words. No need to carry around ill feelings for her, apart from the fact that she slept with my boyfriend!

  “Please just leave the investigation to us,” she requested. Her tone held a warning so I nodded in acknowledgement. I smiled gratefully at Alex as he skilfully steered the conversation away from Sandy and asked more questions about the investigation.

  DI Neeson stayed just long enough to drink her coffee, warn me against getting into another argument with Sandy, and question me again about anyone else that would have a grudge against me. She seemed disappointed when I said I couldn’t think of anyone. As she left she promised to be in touch as soon as she had any leads, but for now I was to ensure I contacted her if anything strange or untoward happened.

  After she left I snuck up to my room, knowing that Alex was about to call our parents and tell them about the things that had happened and Chester. I didn’t really want to be there while he explained everything so I left him to it and went to make a start on my homework assignments.

  Stepping into my room alone for the first time since I had found the card was a little hard. The room felt cold and a little alien as I looked around it slowly, checking that nothing was out of place. I wrapped my arms around my torso, hugging myself to try and gain some sort of comfort, but it was no use. A feeling of loneliness settled over me and I suddenly longed for Luke to be here with me. To wrap his arms around me, to pull me onto his lap and rock me like a child. I missed him so much it was almost scary.

  Huffing out a big breath, I forced myself to get a grip of this worry and fear before it ate me up. I dropped my schoolbag down onto the bed and flopped down next to it, pulling out the first book that I came across and started to make a start on my work in a bid to keep my mind off of everything.

  Half an hour later there was a knock at my door. Alex let himself in, a phone clamped between his ear and his shoulder as he put down a sandwich and a glass of apple juice. “Yeah, she’s here right now,” he said into the phone.

  My stomach dropped as I shook my head quickly, somehow knowing that it was one of my parents and they would want to talk about everything again. Would they blame me for Chester too?

  “Yeah, see you then,” Alex stated before pulling the phone away from his ear and holding it out to me. “Dad for you.”

  Groaning inwardly, I took the phone and waited for my brother to leave before I put the phone to my ear. “Hi.” I winced, waiting for the frantic scolding because we hadn’t called them earlier.

  “Hi, sweetheart. How are you holding up?” Dad asked. The familiar sound of his voice made my eyes prickle with tears. I didn’t realise until now just how much I missed him and my mom being here.

  “I’m fine,” I lied.

  “Alex told me what’s been happening. I’m not going to get into the whole ‘you should have told me as soon as everything started happening’ thing, because I don’t think that’s going to help the situation at all.”

  I smiled gratefully and looked up at my ceiling, willing my tears not to fall. I was already sick of crying over this. “Thanks, I appreciate that,” I muttered.

  “I need you to promise to be careful. Don’t go to places on your own, take Alex or Luke with you, alright?”

  Luke? So he’s forgiving Luke now? “I will,” I promised, nodding. Now that I knew it wasn’t Sandy the seriousness of the situation weighed down on me. It could have just as easily been me or Alex that had been poisoned, if the person had sprinkled that rat poison onto something in the fridge then maybe we would have unknowingly eaten it. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have access to the house and our food, they’d let themselves into my house for goodness sake. I knew I needed to be careful.

  “How’s Grandad?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

  “He’s… he’s okay,” Dad answered, not seeming too sure about it.

  A lump formed in my throat. “No he’s not.”

  Dad sighed deeply, his breath crackling down the line. “He’s in a bad way, but he’ll be fine. He’s through the worst of it now,” he assured me. “So, I’d better go and tell Mom everything that’s been going on. I’ll be home tomorrow when you get home from school though so I’ll see you then.”

  I closed my eyes; the nerves in my stomach seemed to settle as I thought about getting one of my dad’s hugs. They always made everything seem better. “You don’t have to come home. Stay with Grandad,” I protested, trying to make my voice sound like I wasn’t desperate for him to come home. “We’re fine here. You don’t need to come back.”

  “Yeah I do, sweetheart. No arguing, I’m coming home. End of conversation.”

  I smiled to myself at the finality of his tone. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Love you.” His words made a warm fuzzy feeling settle over me. There was no denying I was a daddy’s girl.

  “Love you too, Dad.”

  After speaking to my dad and the knowledge that he was coming home tomorrow kind of made my mind settle a little and the worry recede marginally. Finally, after another hour of working on my assignments, I drifted to sleep listening to the rhythmic sounds of Alex hitting the punch bag down the garage below my bedroom.

  When my alarm buzzed next to my bed in the morning I groaned loudly. I’d had a restless night sleep, my dreams plagued with a faceless person chasing me, every single time I’d ran into a room only to find it filled with lilies. Each time I’d woken, startled and sweating, only to go back to sleep and have the same dream over again. My whole body now ached from exhaustion. I really didn’t need another day at school today, especially if it was going to be a day like yesterday where everyone was whispering about me. And on top of that I had to face Sandy, now knowing that it wasn’t her that was sending me all of those nasty things. Did I have to apologise to her today for accusing her? Deep down I knew I should, but the thought of saying sorry to that boyfriend stealing hoe almost made me sick to my stomach.

  After laying there for as long as I could without making myself and Alex late, I finally threw off the bed covers and headed for a quick shower. Alex was already dressed and ready by the time I made my way downstairs. He smiled sympathetically, silently pushing an empty bowl and a box of cereal towards me. I waved it off, turning my nose up at the thought of eating. My appetite was as non-existent as my will to apologise to Sandy.

  “I’m not hungry. Shall we just go?” I mumbled tiredly.

  “Yeah if you want. By the way, I called the animal hospital already and the guy said that Chester can definitely be collected today.” He slid his cell phone into his jeans pocket and picked up his keys.

  I smiled at the news. At least one thing was going well today then. “Is he better today?”

  Alex nodded, biting off another piece of the banana he was holding. “Apparently he’s good this morning. I could hear him barking in the background,” he answered.

  “That’s great news.” I blew out a breath, letting out some of the stress that was pent up inside me. At least that was one less thing for me to worry about.

  On the way to school Alex seemed like he was doing everything to try and keep my mind off of the police and the stalker I seemed to have gained. He sung badly to the music, told terrible jokes and was generally just his usual goofy self. It felt nice to just be normal after everything that had gone on recently.

  By the time we pulled into the parking lot though, the normality seemed to evaporate immediately. I frowned as I looked around. People were crowding outside, huddled together in groups; some were hugging and seemed to be crying. Alex could barely get his car rough the gates of the parking lot because everyone was standing around.

  “What the hell’s this?” Alex muttered, blasting his horn to get a couple of freshmen to move out of his way so he could pull in.

  “No idea,” I muttered, shaking my head in confusion. People were normally inside by now, chatting in the hallways before classes, but instead it seemed that half of the school was standing or sitting in the parking lot. Across the sea of fac
es, some looked rather excitable, some were just standing there silently, their faces pale, but some were clutching Kleenex, hugging and shaking their heads in apparent horror.

  As we both got out of the car some people turned to look at us. A hushed silence settled over the people closest to us as I swung my bag up onto my shoulder and weaved through the crowd with Alex at my side. Then, just like yesterday, the excited whispering started as I walked past. I rolled my eyes; silently wishing the ground would open up and swallow me. I fought the urge to turn and run back to the car just because people were turning to stare at me as I walked up to where I was hoping my friends would be waiting for me.

  Charlotte and Beth were standing in the same place as yesterday. “Hey. What’s everyone standing around for?” I asked, stepping to their sides and waving my hand around at the crowd.

  Charlotte’s mouth dropped open with an audible pop. “You haven’t heard?” she gasped. I raised one eyebrow in question, waiting for her to continue. “It’s been all over the news this morning,” she said, her hand reaching out and clutching at my forearm.

  My confusion built. “What’s been on the news?” Alex interjected, looking at Charlotte quizzically, obviously as lost as I was. News wasn’t something that usually graced our TV in the morning; Alex usually opted for sports channel or SpongeBob SquarePants.

  Charlotte’s grip tightened on my arm as her eyes widened even more. “It’s Sandy. She was murdered last night.”

  Chapter 21

  My breath seemed to catch in my throat, forming a lump that I had to swallow down before it choked me. Murdered. Sandy has been murdered? How, who, why, when? All of those questions sprang to my mind as I stood there, gaping at Charlotte like an idiot.