Pen put her arms around him and squeezed tight. “That’s a relief, ay?”
Andrew hugged her right back and kissed the top of her forehead. She stunk of bleach. “Yeah, maybe we can go back to normal again now. I’ll call work and get a few days off. They won’t like it but tough-titties. We’ll go stay with your parents till the end of next week. Then we’ll come home and play things by ear.”
“A whole week with Nan and Granddad,” said Bex, pulling a face. “Seriously?”
Andrew frowned at her and stuck out his tongue playfully. “You’ll live. They don’t see enough of you, anyway. We can sit around in our PJs all day watching horror movies if you want.”
“You don’t like horror movies. They scare you.”
Andrew nodded. “After this week, I think real life is scarier.”
“No one is lazing around in their PJs,” said Pen. “I don’t want my parents thinking we’re a bunch of slobs. We can go on some daytrips. Leicester zoo is a nice afternoon out. They have a silverback gorilla.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Andrew. “Guess we should go pack.”
Pen laughed and walked toward the kitchen. “At least let me go call them first. They might not even agree to have us.”
“Here’s hoping,” said Bex.
Andrew slapped his daughter on the bum. “You’re not too old to put over my knee, young lady.”
Bex held up her hands in two fists. “You don’t got what it takes to beat me, old man. You’re nothing but a lousy bum.”
Andrew grinned. “You reckon?”
Bex nodded and giggled.
“We’ll see about that.” Andrew lunged for his daughter, making her shriek and run upstairs in a fit of giggles. A minute later her dreadful pop music came on the stereo and thudded through the living room ceiling.
Looks like things are back to normal already.
The relief was still washing over Andrew. There were no guarantees that his encounters with Frankie were well and truly over, but at least now there would be consequences if he were to try anything else. At least for the next week-and-a-half they would be away from the worry. Hopefully Andrew’s bosses would be understanding. The project he was working on could wait a little while longer.
Best I call them now, Andrew thought, heading for the phone in the kitchen. Pen intercepted him on her way out and put her hand up to stop him.
“I’m just going to call the firm,” he told her, wondering why she had blocked his path.
She shook her head. “The phone isn’t working.”
Andrew wrinkled his brow. “Really? Let me take a look.”
The two of them went into the kitchen and Andrew headed over to the fridge. On the wall beside it was the cordless phone sat in its cradle. Andrew plucked the handset free and held it to his ear.
Nothing.
There was no dial tone at all. Andrew keyed in some buttons to see if they made any noise on the line. They did not.
Andrew placed the handset back down and tried to figure it out. First he checked that the phone line was connected into the cradle and found that it was. Next he decided to verify that the phone line was connected at the wall output. He followed the cream-coloured wire downwards towards the floor and then began tracing it along the skirting board. The wire disappeared behind the fridge, but Andrew found it coming out the other side. It was on the other side of the fridge that Andrew discovered the reason why the phone was no longer working.
“The line’s been cut.”
Pen looked at him blankly, then down at the skirting board. “What? How?”
Andrew stared at the frayed wire and could think of only one reason. “We need to get out of here. Frankie’s in the house.”
“What? You think he did this?”
“Look at the wire, Pen. It didn’t cut itself!”