by Huston, Judy
“It’s fairly quiet now,” she pointed out, but Josh shook his head.
“Let’s talk about it after dinner.”
Talk about what? And why wouldn’t he talk about it now? Was he afraid she would throw the bread rolls at him when she heard what he had to say? If so, why? These and other questions spoiled her enjoyment of the rest of the meal.
Neither of them wanted coffee. When they left the restaurant Dimity expected him to suggest driving to some place where they could talk, but instead he drove straight to her home.
He stopped outside and sat tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, staring ahead through the windscreen.
“Want to change your mind about coffee?” she suggested at last.
“Not right now. Let’s take Bert for a walk.”
“What?” Dimity stared at him blankly, then shrugged. If he wanted somewhere quiet to talk, a stroll around the neighbourhood at this hour was probably a good choice.
She cajoled a reluctant Bert from his kennel where he had been sound asleep, and returned to find Josh prowling restlessly, circling Shane’s car in the driveway.
“What are you doing?” she queried.
“Keeping warm.”
They started out. After his initial lack of enthusiasm, Bert trotted happily ahead of them on the lead.
“We always go the same way,” Dimity said. “He likes the same places, the same smells.”
Josh, walking with his hands thrust into the pockets of his jacket, didn’t answer. Glancing sideways at him under a streetlight, she wondered at the tense set of his jaw, and the way his eyes seemed to be avoiding her.
“For goodness sake!” she said at last. “What’s wrong?”
He waited with her until Bert had explored a new and exciting scent at the foot of a tree.
“I was thinking of things today,” he said when they finally moved on.
“So you said.” Dimity’s mouth was suddenly dry. A swarm of butterflies seemed to have taken up residence in her stomach.
“If you don’t want to see me any more, I’d rather you just tell me,” she said.
“What on earth makes you think that?” Looking totally taken aback, he put an arm around her and hugged her before returning his hand to his pocket. “That’s the last thing I’d want to do.”
Despite her relief, Dimity was far from comforted.
“With the way you’re acting, what else am I supposed to think?”
They stopped at a cross street to let a couple of cars go by.
“I know I’m not handling this well,” Josh said when they resumed walking, “but I don’t want to worry you.”
“Well, you are!”
“Okay.” They were between streetlights and she couldn’t see his face clearly but she heard him take a deep breath. “Look, do you think somebody might be trying to hurt you?”
Whatever she had expected, it wasn’t this.
“Hurt my feelings?”
“No, I mean do you an injury.” He was looking down at her, but she still couldn’t see his face well. “You seem to have been involved in a lot of accidents in a short time.”
He’d been brooding about her health and welfare all afternoon? Dimity slipped her free hand through his arm and slid it down into his pocket to join his hand. His fingers closed immediately around hers.
“These things happen,” she said gently. “I wasn’t badly hurt.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” His fingers massaged hers warmly but his tone was bleak. “What actually happened the first time, when you ended up with the black eyes? Did you get the other driver’s details?”
“No.” Dimity returned the pressure of his long fingers. “It happened at night when I was picking Shane up at Shenanigans. When I was nearly there a car slammed into mine, then kept going. I hadn’t seen it behind me – I don’t think it had its headlights on. The driver had probably been drinking, or maybe the car was stolen.”
“Did anyone else see it happen?” Josh was being annoyingly persistent about the incident.
“It was the early hours of the morning. The nightclub was closed and there wasn’t any other traffic around. Shane usually gets a lift home when he works that shift, but something went wrong so he rang and asked me to pick him up.”
Bert brought them to a halt again. She rested her head against Josh’s shoulder, trying to nestle into him.
“It must have been terrible.” He kissed her forehead absently. “Wouldn’t Shane have been outside waiting for you? Was it close enough for him to see it happen?”
“It would have been but he wasn’t there at the time. He usually waited out the front for me, but not that night. He left his phone inside and went back for it. Apparently he had trouble finding it. It was so long until he appeared that I started to panic, thinking something had happened to him too.”
“You didn’t try phoning him?”
“Yes, but his phone was off.” She removed her hand from Josh’s pocket and let Bert tug her forward. “At least the car was still driveable.”
Strolling beside her, Josh still seemed lost in thought.
“And you weren’t able to get the number of the other car, the one that almost ran you down when you were walking Bert? Somewhere around here, wasn’t it?”
“Back there. The last street we crossed.” Dimity gestured. “I’d passed a parked car, and thought I saw someone sitting in it. I assumed it was that car when I heard it. But it was still there afterwards, and it was empty. The shape of the seat top looked like a person in the dark. The other car came out of nowhere.”
“And now there’s the problem with the brakes on your own car.”
He seemed to be trying to choose his words carefully.
Dimity laughed.
“Have you been reading too many whodunits? Why would someone go to all that trouble to hurt me?”
As they reached the edge of the reserve he startled her by catching her in his arms and pressing her against a handy picket fence while his mouth captured hers with an urgency that took her breath away before she strained towards him, aware of nothing but the powerful tide of emotion overwhelming her.
“This is where I’d like to keep you.” His words, barely audible, were interspersed by rough, demanding kisses across her neck and throat. “Knowing you’re safe with me.”
An excited baying brought them abruptly back to the real world. Engrossed in each other they had totally forgotten Bert, who had taken advantage of Dimity dropping his lead to pursue a neighbourhood cat down the footpath.
“It’s lucky he’s so fat,” observed Dimity after they caught him and, deciding to give the reserve a miss, headed for home at a leisurely pace.
“I’d back the cat any day,” agreed Josh, putting his arm around her.
Luxuriating in the memory of his kisses, Dimity put her hand up to hold his where it rested on her shoulder.
“You shouldn’t worry about me,” she said. “I really feel perfectly safe.”
His arm tightened.
“The only person I can think of who might want to do me in,” she added with a chuckle, “is Malcolm.”
“Malcolm?” Josh sounded taken aback. “Why?”
“Well, as you said, he was virtually trying to blackmail me. But I made it clear he couldn’t, because I didn’t care if Shane kept the job or not.”
Josh looked unconvinced.
“He seemed too plastered to think straight, but I suppose he might have been able to do something to the brakes on your car when he was wandering around the waterfront last night. He might even have tried to get you drunk to make you less capable of driving.”
“Don’t get carried away.” Dimity squeezed his hand. “I was only joking.”
“It wouldn’t make sense, though. Shane’s job wasn’t in the offing when you had the first two accidents.”
Dimity was amused by his cogitations.
“So your money isn’t on Malcolm?”
When he didn’t answer she looked at him, surpri
sed that he seemed so serious about it.
“Well, who else is there?” she demanded. “What about Gail? Now there’s someone who really does want to get rid of me!”
Noticing Bert had stopped to inspect a bush, Josh stopped too and turned her towards him.
“Promise you won’t explode,” he said. “That you’ll listen.”
“I wish you’d just cough it up.” Dimity felt a surge of exasperation. “Come on, it’s getting cold.”
She coaxed Bert along. Josh caught up with them. They were almost back.
“Wait a minute.” He put a hand on her arm. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but I couldn’t help wondering – do you think it could be Shane?”
CHAPTER NINE
Dimity came to a dead stop. Then she turned to face him.
“Did you say what I think you said?”
“Dim, please listen for a minute. I know it might seem a bit harsh, but– ”
“A bit harsh?” Dimity goggled at him. “You’re accusing my brother of trying to murder me and you’re worried I might think it’s a bit harsh?”
“Okay, calm down.” Josh took her hand but she jerked it away. “There’s no need to take it personally– ”
“Of course it’s personal! Are you crazy? Why on earth would Shane do such a thing?”
“All I can do is look at the facts.” Josh reached for her again, but she moved sharply backwards. “What started me thinking was something he said this afternoon.”
“What?” demanded Dimity.
“He mentioned doing a stunt driving course. That reminded me of what you said about the car that nearly ran you down. And he did a mechanics course, too. He’d know how to tamper with your brakes, and he had plenty of opportunity to do that last night when he was backwards and forwards with the food.”
Dimity tried to speak but he rushed on, determined to make all the points he had been pondering.
“And where was he when you couldn’t find him at Shenanigans the night the car hit yours? He could have stolen a car, rammed you, then abandoned the car and returned, pretending he’d forgotten his phone as an excuse for not being there.”
“Oh, pile up the evidence! Great detective work! But tell me, Sherlock, why would he go to all that trouble? He could get me at home any time.”
“Too obvious. He’s not stupid.” Josh’s expression was troubled but resolute. “I’m sorry, Dim. I hate saying these things but I’m worried to death about you. I keep thinking about the way he attacked you with the knife.”
“I don’t believe this!” Dimity stared at him as if she had never seen him before. “How could you bring that up against him? He was a child! And you still haven’t said why you think he would want to do it!”
Josh rubbed the back of his neck.
“You mentioned an insurance policy.”
“So?”
“And would he get the house too if anything happened to you?”
“He’s my beneficiary.” Dimity was now looking more bewildered than angry. “But even the house and the policy together hardly make up a fortune. Do you seriously think he’s rampaging around in a car trying to kill me for that?”
“I don’t know.” Josh raised his shoulders in a shrug of frustration. “People do weird things for small amounts of money. I don’t know Shane the way you do. All I see is the evidence, as you call it, suggesting there’s a threat to someone I– ”
He stopped.
They looked at each other, ignoring Bert snuffling around their feet. Then Dimity shook her head.
“I want to go home. Please go away.”
All the fight seemed to have drained out of her. She walked slowly towards her front gate leading Bert, also subdued by his energetic evening.
Josh started to follow, then stopped.
“I’ll pick you up in the morning.”
“No.” She spoke without turning. “I don’t want you to.”
“I’ll be here.”
He spent most of the night pacing around his suite, angry and upset once again about the way they had parted.
It was becoming a bad habit. And yet, as far as he could see, he’d had no choice.
He didn’t want to believe his suspicion about Shane any more than she did. It beggared belief to think he would do such things.
But if he had . . .
Roaming out onto the balcony, Josh thought of the scar on Dimity’s arm and felt a chill that had nothing to do with the night breeze. While he believed his reasoning that she was safest when she was at home, he would feel better when he could be with her.
The first rays of light appeared in the east. He watched them creeping across the water, willing them to hurry. He was going to be at her home early whether she liked it or not, and he’d straighten this thing out with her if it took all day.
The resolution, however, proved easier said than done. When he arrived he found another car parked behind Shane’s in the driveway and saw Dimity and Sandra loading it with equipment for the workshop.
Both turned hostile faces towards him.
“Didn’t you get my text?” were Dimity’s first words. “Sandy’s taking me.” From the look of her, she hadn’t slept much either. The dark shadows under her eyes reminded him of the shiners she’d been sporting when they first met.
“My phone’s been turned off.” In anticipation, he felt like adding.
“I’ll get that last box,” Dimity said to Sandra before heading for the house.
Sandra folded her arms and stared balefully at Josh.
“No need for you to wait,” she told him.
“You’ve heard?”
“How could you suggest that about her own brother? Shane mightn’t be perfect, but that was absolutely rotten!”
“Probably actionable,” said Dimity, returning with a carton.
“Probably,” agreed Josh. “Look, if we have to deal with this in the driveway, I accept I hardly know Shane, but I have to look after your interests first. Any slight possibility–”
Dimity shoved the carton onto the back seat and faced him.
“Why do you have to look after my interests? I’m quite capable of doing that for myself.”
“And she has friends to help her,” chipped in Sandra.
Josh raised his hands, palms towards them.
“Okay, okay, I can see I'm persona non grata around here right now–”
“I have to admire your perception,” snapped Dimity. She sat in the front passenger seat and slammed the door with such force that Josh winced, expecting it to bounce open again.
“Look,” he said hastily to Sandra, “I know she doesn’t want me around right now, but I’m worried about her. Don’t let her go driving on her own or walking the dog tonight. I’ll give her a chance to cool down, then talk to her at work tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t count on her being too chatty,” warned Sandra, but she looked slightly less belligerent.
“I’ll take the risk,” Josh said grimly.
****
As the car approached the community centre, Dimity wiped away angry tears.
“I’m beginning to wonder if he’s jealous of Shane and wants him out of the way,” she said.
Sandra looked dubious.
“It would be a pretty drastic way to do it.”
“He even picked up on the stunt driving. And the mechanics course. Next thing he’ll remember Shane’s a chef and accuse him of poisoning the soup.” Dimity scrabbled in her handbag for another tissue. “He said he had a couple of things to talk to me about. If that was the first, I hate to think what the second was.”
“The mind boggles,” agreed Sandra.
Most of the children from yesterday’s class were already waiting with their parents when Dimity arrived. Glad of the diversion, she launched into the day’s activities, even managing to forget about Josh occasionally.
It was impossible not to think of him, however, when she looked out the window while preparing the children’s morning tea. She foun
d herself half expecting to see him in the yard, half hoping to hear his voice behind her.
Frustrated with her thoughts, she switched on the jug. Not for the first time where Josh was concerned, she felt torn in two.
She was appalled to think he could suspect Shane of such a thing, furious about the seeds of doubt he had now sown in her own mind.
But while the anger swirled on the surface, underneath, unchanging, rock steady, was a conviction. No, a knowledge.
Knowledge that she and Josh were right for each other.
It was impossible. Looking blindly out into the yard, where the same renegade group of boys had organised another impromptu cricket game, Dimity wished herself back to that uncomplicated time, seemingly a hundred years ago, before she had walked into the hotel in that dreadful pink suit, before she had known Josh Williams even existed.
But that was impossible too.
For better or for worse he was in her life, and she couldn’t wish him out of it.
She was actually glad when a squabble between two of the children threatened to develop into fisticuffs, requiring her intervention.
Sandra arrived at four o’clock, took her home and stayed for dinner, a quiet meal because Shane and Leigh were having a rare evening out together. For most of the time they confined their talk to neutral topics, including Sandra’s planned departure on Tuesday afternoon for a three-day hairdressing convention in Brisbane.
“If things get too bad, toss in the job and come with me,” suggested Sandra. “The hotel room’s paid for, the air fare’s cheap and I’d enjoy the company.”
Dimity nearly succumbed on the spot, but restrained herself. Maybe her general standards as a temp left something to be desired, but it would take an ultra-drastic event to make her walk out on a job before her time was up.
“Have you told Shane what Josh said?” asked Sandra when they were clearing the table. It was the first time Josh’s name had been mentioned since they arrived home.
Dimity shook her head.
“How could I? Can you imagine?”
Those imaginings kept her awake most of the night.
Not Shane, she kept thinking. Not her little brother.
