Chapter 15 #4
“Why are you here?”
“Fuck!” Taz banged his head as he moved, startled. “Jesus.” He rubbed his hair, messing it up even further.
“If you hadn’t broken into my house, you wouldn’t have banged your head.” I folded my arms and wondered if I’d developed a stalker, one who appeared to be quite talented at DIY, so I wasn’t sure I’d be complaining.
“Your brother says you can shower over there.” He stood up, still keeping a hand on his head.
“You’ve spoken to Nate?”
“He let me in, so no laws broken.”
“How did you persuade him to do that?” My brother was not as lax with security as I was, in fact, he verged on paranoid, whereas I was founded on fighting fear and embracing adrenalin.
We’d had very different childhoods.
“I can be persuasive when I want.”
“Clearly.” I needed to find out more about that conversation. “Do you really have nothing better to do?”
“Genuinely, no, unless I start on my mother’s extension, and that’s not going to happen. I’ve got another three weeks and I start another job, so I thought I’d be helpful.” He pulled the top of the bath. “These things are as flimsy as fuck. How this has lasted forty years is beyond me.”
“The person who lived here before me probably hadn’t used it for thirty.” He died six months ago in a care home; his house having been left unoccupied for the previous seven years.
“Sounds about right. If you don’t want any help with it, I’ll leave you be.” He showed no sign of doing that, attacking the end bath panel so it was now only suitable for the skip. Not much different to before.
I was many things, but a fool wasn’t one of them. “I’m not turning down free labour.”
“Good. I didn’t take you to be an idiot. Can I keep the backdoor key for now?”
“Yep. Can you text me when you’re going to be here so I don’t accidentally take you to the floor.”
He raised his brows, eyes dancing. “Sounds like it could fun.”
I wondered whether he was flirting. “It wouldn’t be. Not for you, anyway.”
His smile was dangerous, I decided then. “I will text you.”
“That means I’ll have your number.”
“And if you run it to find out who I am, you’ll be breaking several rules, Detective McAllister. How’s the case.” He put down the toilet lid and sat on it.
“Confusing.”
“Who do you like for it?”
“You know I can’t discuss that with you.” I was beginning to wonder if Taz was a cop.
He shrugged. “Fine. I have something that might help you though. There’s a pen drive next to your bed.”
“You’ve been in my bedroom?”
“It’s the only room that isn’t a construction site, Mia. You’re basically living in a bedsit in a six-bedroomed house. I didn’t go through your drawers, so don’t worry.” He pulled at the chain above the toilet. “Are you thinking of keeping this?”
“No. It can go.”
“What’ve you got planned for in here?”
“What’s on that pen drive?”
“Something you’ll find interesting.”
I closed the bathroom door and leaned against it, effectively imprisoning him. “Is it going to destroy my laptop?”
“Absolutely not. Do you want a free standing cast iron bath? I think it’d look great in here; the room’s big enough.” He assessed the space.
I wasn’t distracted. “Taz, or whatever your actual name is, what is on that pen drive?”
“Something you wanted to read and couldn’t. Do not ask me how I got it.” He was watching me now, his gaze piercing. Dark eyes and long eyelashes, the sort of face you’d notice and mop of dark brown curly hair that I’d never seen look anything other than unkempt.
“I won’t.” I saw his phone on the floor and turned off the music. “But I need to know why.”
“Why what?”
“Why you’re helping me.”
“Told you, killing time before a new job.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“You’re quite formidable, has anyone ever told you that?”
They had, but I was distracted from telling him that by the vibration of my phone. I took it out of my pocket, seeing a familiar number had texted, but not one in my contacts.
Mia, I’m sorry to bother you, but I think there’s someone in my garden. It’s Lily.
“Shit.”
“What’s up?”
“Lily – the, it doesn’t matter.” I caught myself, remembering that although he’d helped me with my last big case, I didn’t know who he was. Not really.
“Lily Goodhew.” He looked up at me with those dark eyes. “She’s named in the files on the pen drive.”
I realised what files he meant. “The ones I couldn’t access?”
A shrug, nonchalant. “I have a vested interest in this case being solved.”
Later, many weeks later, I’d go back to this moment where a man I didn’t know sat on the toilet lid of my wrecked bathroom and understand that this was when I probably knew.
I dialled Lily’s number, her voice shaking as she answered, high pitched and anxious.
“Hello? Detective Mia? I think someone’s in the garden.”
“I’m going to get a response team over to you. Where are you right now?” I rested against the door, watching Taz. He was still, elbows on knees, watching me right back.
“I’m in my bathroom. I locked the door.”
“Do you think anyone’s in the house?”
“No. I just thought I saw a torch in the garden, you know like from someone’s phone.” Her words were whispered. “I thought I heard someone.”
“Okay, Lily, I’m going to get a response team over to you now, so I’m going to come off the phone to call them. I’ll call you straight back.”
“Can’t you come over?”
I’d had this before, victims who struck up an overattachment to someone they perceived as being able to save them. I’d seen other coppers get taken in by it too.
“A response team can get there quicker, and if someone is in your garden, they’ll be able to deal with it. I will call you back.” I hung up before she could say anything else, dialling a too familiar number and calling it in.
I dialled Lily straight back, but there was no answer. Worry and irritation simultaneously cruised through me and I sat down on the floor, back still to the door, and put my phone down on the carpet that probably needed to be decontaminated before it went in the skip.
“Do you need to go to her?” Taz’s tone was measured and calm.
“No. It would be the worst thing I could do. She’s searching for people to anchor to. If she perceives me as her hero it will make things difficult.” Saying the words out loud made me actually hear them.
Taz stood up. “Turn your phone up, find some energy and let’s get these tiles off the walls.”
“I should check your pen drive.”
“What’s on it isn’t new. It’ll keep until Sunday. You’ll be more use to yourself if you can get these tiles off.”
“What do I use to do that?”
“Chisel, hammer, and an image of whoever’s head you want to cave in.”
That wasn’t a problem at all.