Chapter 46
Kelly took the call in the kitchen.
Johnny was upstairs seeing to Lizzie, who’d woken up. She was coming down with a cold. Another one.
Kelly couldn’t hear her father properly and moved around the downstairs to get better reception. But she still couldn’t make out what he was saying. It was late and it was unlike her father to panic so she knew something was up.
‘Dad?’
‘Kelly?’
Then an unidentified woman came on the line. She told Kelly her dad had been knocked over.
‘Knocked over?’
Kelly went into overdrive and gathered shoes and a jacket to throw on.
She prepared to rush upstairs to tell Johnny she was leaving and hopped about from one foot to the other, trying to get socks on.
She managed to get a location out of the woman.
He was lying on the pavement in the middle of Keswick near Hope Park after his ordeal.
As far as she could tell, he’d been knocked clean over by a jogger then nearly run over by a car which drove straight off.
A potential hit and run.
A hollow feeling crept into Kelly’s stomach, and she looked towards the terrace, as a noise drew her attention.
She peered up the stairs and flicked off the lights.
‘I’m on my way; have you called an ambulance?’
‘Yes, but your father is trying to get up; he won’t stay still. He’s saying you must be careful.’
Kelly tucked the phone under her chin and her eyes focused.
The lounger outside had moved.
She had left both of them close together when she and Johnny had brought in the blankets.
They’d kissed.
She’d regretted it but loved it at the same time. He was doing it again. No, she was allowing him to do it again.
Thoughts of Johnny’s lips on hers melted into insignificance as she sank back into the shadows of her own home. Then she thought of her daughter upstairs.
Her head tingled with alertness.
The tiny hairs on her arms stood up and her breathing slowed.
A movement on the terrace caught her eye and she saw a shadow cross the space and enter her lounge from the open door.
She pressed her back into the wall and found the curtain with her hands.
She manoeuvred her body into the alcove near the front door, where she hung coats, and covered herself with one.
And watched.
A figure, dressed in black, wearing a mask, crossed the floor and peered upstairs.
She heard a door open and close above her and tried to make a decision based on what was best for Lizzie.
Should she scream and alert Johnny, thereby forcing him downstairs and leaving Lizzie exposed?
Or should she tackle the intruder herself, thereby putting herself in danger but protecting her daughter?
There was no contest.
She felt behind her. Her hand made contact with an umbrella stand.
Inside it was a spare walking cane for Ted.
It was made of oak and had an enamel duck on the top.
She’d bought it with Johnny, at an antique market in Ambleside.
Her hand clasped it, and she waited for the figure to appear in the hall.
It didn’t take long, and she held the cane as tightly as she could, poising her body for attack.
The figure looked upstairs again, and she could tell he was figuring out the floorplan.
For a split second she refused to believe this was happening to her and her brain told her she was hallucinating, but then she saw him approach the stairs.
She grabbed the cane with as much force as she could load through her body and swung it towards him. It connected and she felt a splat where it hit his head.
He went down and she stood over him, but then he recovered and rolled away.
‘Who the fuck are you?’ she seethed.
He rolled and rolled and sprang up, then shot towards the terrace and jumped over her balcony. She chased him and heard him enter the river with a faint splash, but when she looked over into the dark water, there was no trace of him.
Her chest heaved up and down and her eyes darted every which way. Her heart pumped hard, and she willed herself to calm down.
Johnny came down the stairs and flicked on a light and she held up the cane.
‘What the fuck?’ He backed away.
Then she sank to her knees and mumbled some words that didn’t make sense.
He came to her and held her.
‘Kel, what happened? I heard a noise.’
She sank into his arms and allowed herself to be embraced wholly. In that moment she surrendered everything because she knew she was safe.
In the same moment, she realised that she wanted him home. It wasn’t the same without him, and that wasn’t to do with the fact that he might be able to deter an intruder or comfort her in her hour of need. It was because his presence soothed her. It was like they were two parts of the same whole.
She calmed her breathing and told him about the phone call from Ted’s phone.
‘Jesus! Is he OK?’
Kelly’s heart glowed because she knew how much he cared for her father.
Then her phone rang, and it was Dan.
Johnny answered and stared at her.
She knew exactly what Dan had told him.
Her team and her loved ones had been warned.
This was no accidental invasion.