Witch Hunt

Chapter Ten




The tide was out. Mud filled up most of the view from my window. It had a dark sullen pallor to it, the colour of an angry toad. You could see a paler line of grey further out: the water slithering to Chalkwell. A light fuzz above it suggested it was bringing in a mist.

And there was something else out there in the air that occupied the space between me and the creeping sea. Something I couldn’t yet make out but could feel – like a million unseen eyes watching me. Or perhaps they were just early stars?

It would be a cold night tonight.

I shivered and turned away from the gloom.

The mirror above my fireplace had a woman in it who looked slightly nuts; sad eyes, as grim as the dirty river. The pink skin underneath my lower lids had taken on a shade of damson plum. My bob had shaken free of any style and formed itself into something more brush-like. I peeled a strand away from my cheek. I needed a trim and several nights’ sleep but for now hairpins, some good foundation and lipstick would have to do.

I was finishing off the repair job when Joe arrived. To be honest, I was a little surprised to see him a) in uniform and b) accompanied by a female officer, who he introduced as Lesley.

I led them into the living room and offered them cups of tea. They refused. I saw that Joe, though quite bouncy as usual, had assumed a brusque air of efficiency. In fact he didn’t waste any time and asked to see my computer straight away. ‘I’ve filled in Lesley with the details,’ he said.

Lesley nodded from the sofa. She was a short woman. Probably weighed about the same as Joe, and wasn’t particularly forthcoming. She had the kind of face that made you feel sorry for her, like a bowl of rice pudding with two raisins in it. I imagined she was tolerating Joe’s detour to my place as a favour.

I opened the laptop and began to type in my password. ‘I did exactly what you suggested – closed the lid and left it. So everything should be here,’ I told Joe.

He came over and leant his hands on the table, lowering his head to look at the screen. Our faces were only a couple of inches apart. I could feel his body heat and smell him. A quick glance reminded me that he looked fit in uniform. Always had. Looked pretty good out of it too.

I recalled meeting him at an old friend’s thirtieth three years ago. He was with a large group of people and I think he had a girlfriend there too. But it was okay, his sunny demeanour wasn’t dented by embarrassment. On the contrary, he looked genuinely pleased to see me and presented me to his friends as ‘an exceptionally talented writer’, or something along those lines. I followed him with the usual self-deprecation and he smiled at me, almost as if he were proud. When I met his eyes, later that night, while Christopher was off at the bar and his girlfriend was dancing, there was definitely a twinkle there, like he was letting me know that there was something for me whenever I was ready. There was no pushiness about it or any sense that he was demanding an acknowledgement. It was more like an open-ended and unspoken question that lingered in the air between the two of us; ‘would you ever … ?’ Nothing more.

Anyway there we were, by my desk. Joe met my gaze and smiled. I sucked in my abdomen and registered a small thrill.

He seemed oblivious to the effect he was currently having on me: his eyes swivelled over the living room to his partner on the sofa.

‘Let’s have a look.’ This from Lesley. ‘Dragged me all this way, might as well sort it out.’ She plodded over to the chair next to me and heaved her large behind into it.

‘What were you doing?’ Her voice was gruff and fat.

I sniffed and sucked in her smell. She reeked of nights on the computer, microwave meals for one and two cats. ‘I was working on Word – ah – here it is.’ The document was there, cursor still flashing halfway down the third paragraph after the date 1589. ‘And I’d just been on Google to check that date. I minimised the window.’

Lesley grunted. ‘So you were online?’

I shook my head. ‘Not for long. We had a conversation for about two minutes.’

Joe sighed and looked at me. ‘I told you …’

‘I know,’ I said, justifying my folly. ‘I just wanted to see if I could draw out some details. And I did – he said he was fifteen.’

Joe nodded in a kind of ‘you silly sod’ manner and turned to the screen. His back was broader than I remembered. I wondered if it was still as lean.

‘But then you closed the dialogue box, right?’

‘Yep,’ I told them both. Lesley’s eyes reduced further into wriggly slits as she concentrated on the laptop. ‘But then it popped up again. That’s when I disabled the modem. Look.’ The internet icon indicated it was disconnected. ‘And still it came up.’

Lesley grunted. ‘I suspect it was more of a time delay on your part. Or a misremembering.’

That sounded like an accusation. ‘No, honestly. I distinctly remember it came up after I came off …’

‘What did they say?’ It was Joe now.

‘He said “I’m sorry” … He’s coming or I can feel him here. Something about smelling him. I asked “who?”’

Joe huffed out a sigh. ‘You replied to them? Sadie, I told you not to. You’re fuelling them. This is what people like that get off on.’

I was embarrassed now. He was right – it had been a foolish thing to do. But it was born out of concern. ‘I was worried about him. In case he was in danger.’

‘Don’t do it again.’ Lesley’s weary condescension was leaking into Joe’s voice. ‘So, who did they say was coming?’

‘The Devil,’ I said simply.

Joe and Lesley exchanged a glance.

Joe nodded. ‘And this is what scared you?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I know it sounds ridiculous now in the cold light of day, but last night, it really freaked me.’

Now it was Lesley who spoke, obviously wanting to wrap up her visit as quickly as possible and get on to a proper job. ‘Okay, so if you minimise those windows, we should be able to see the dialogue box. That may give us some information we can use, should you continue to be stalked.’

Stalked – now that was an unpleasant word. I hadn’t thought of myself as communicating with a stalker. It had connotations of hunting and predators that didn’t seem to characterise these episodes. But anyway, I did as Lesley instructed and closed all the windows to reveal the pale blue wallpaper of my start-up screen. There was no dialogue box. ‘That’s odd,’ I told them. ‘I definitely didn’t close it.’

Lesley shot Joe a sideways glance. ‘You must have.’

‘No I didn’t. I just closed the lid.’

‘Well, they don’t shut themselves down.’ She pulled the keyboard nearer. ‘I’ll bring up the history. Will probably be there.’ Her tongue stuck out as her chunky fingers stomped over the keys.

I looked at Joe and smiled weakly. He returned it with such strength that I was briefly bowled over. His eyes twinkled and he winked. For a second my bones seemed to dissolve. I blew out and dropped my head trying to concentrate on Lesley’s far less attractive behind.

‘Well?’ he asked her after a minute.

She brought her hands back onto her lap. ‘Nothing. Google, as you said. Nothing else. The other stuff is dated from two days ago.’

I turned the laptop towards me and stared at the column. ‘That can’t be true. It’s deleted itself. Is that possible?’

Lesley looked at her watch and levered herself onto her feet. She darted a nod at Joe. ‘I’ll wait in the car. Nice to meet you, Sadie,’ she said, though it was plain it wasn’t.

Straightening up I looked at Joe. He was still bent over the laptop, trying a couple of the keys, looking through the different menus. ‘There’s definitely nothing here,’ he said at last and righted himself.

‘I don’t know what’s happened.’ It was truly perplexing.

Joe cocked his head to one side and smiled. Oh no – here came that look again, of gut-churning sympathy. ‘It’s been a hard time for you lately.’ His eyes were going sort of dewy. ‘Could you have closed the dialogue box down without realising?’

‘What, and deleted that particular section of internet history too?’ The irritation in my voice was in response to the pity he was showing, not the concern, but it all got jumbled together and my words came out more sarcastic than intended.

Joe kept his head to the side. ‘Had you had a drink or three, Ms Asquith?’

‘No!’ It was a knee-jerk response that masked the truth. I corrected it. ‘Yes. But I wasn’t drunk, if that’s what you mean. I had my wits about me.’

He nodded. ‘Okay. Well, try and work offline …’

‘I was working offline,’ I cut in then shut up. It was pointless – he didn’t believe me.

His lips formed a line. ‘Right, well I can’t leave Lesley downstairs …’

I stood up, put my hands on hips, sighed then showed him to my door.

He turned around on the outside landing and said, ‘Call me if it happens again and you want to talk. Okay?’

I nodded. He took a step down the stairs and looked back. ‘In fact, call me if you want to talk at all – I have good shoulders that are pretty water-resistant, should you want to cry on them.’ He made it sound like a jaunty joke but I was out of kilter with his mood now. I made my eyes unnaturally wide so that they would hide the glare that was behind them. Joe didn’t deserve to be the butt of my anger.

‘In fact we could do it over dinner if you fancy? Next week?’ His voice was hopeful, on his face hung a tentative grin, his eyes flitting to and from my own weird wired look.

I forced out a grin of my own. ‘That’d be nice.’ The look he gave me was tinged with a blush.

‘Great,’ he said and vaulted down the stairs with the controlled grace of someone used to training their body. ‘I’ll be waiting.’

I closed the door with a silent ‘Oh well,’ and went into the living room. I would give Joe a call at some point but not imminently. I had a date with Felix on Monday and a stack of work to get through. It was important that I pleased my new editor, wasn’t it?