Love Lies Dying Page 9

  John took the key ring from her, “Thanks. I really like it.”

  “I’ve used it once,” she said, her eyes burrowing through him. “Maybe you’ll need to use it one day.”

  John stared back at her, unsure whether she was being serious or just joking.

  After a long pause, he said, “Well, thank you, it’s very nice and a lovely thought. But you shouldn’t have bought it.”

  “It’s my pleasure. And it’s solid silver too!”

  “Yeah, I can tell,” he weighed it in his hands. “Heavy.”

  “Strong things for strong men,” she said. “We petite ladies can’t be seen sporting those kinds of things around town.”

  Zoe giggled again.

  “I hope you like it,” she said.

  “I do, Zoe,” John replied. “Thank you.”

  He tested the eye-bolt a couple of times, drawing back the trigger and watching the catch open.

  “Go on,” she said. “Put your keys on it.”

  While Zoe watched, John pulled his keys from his pocket and transferred them from his old key ring to the new one.

  “There,” he said when he was done. “Easy!”

  “Perfect,” Zoe beamed. “It’ll look so good on you.”

  He placed the key ring in his left hand and brought it down towards his left hip.

  “Hey, hang on,” Zoe said.

  “Huh?”

  “Wrong side,” she pointed to his left hip.

  “What?”

  “It goes on your right hip.”

  “Right, left,” he shrugged his shoulders. “What’s the difference? It’s the same thing.”

  Zoe shook her head, “Nope. You’re wrong. It’s got to go on your right hip.”

  “But, Zoe, I’d prefer it on my left,” John replied.

  “You just told me right, left what’s the difference! So you shouldn’t mind wearing it on your right hip.”

  “But I –”

  “Please, Johnny,” she pouted. “For me?”

  John let out a deep sigh, “Left, right, right, left…”

  He took the key ring from his left hand and transferred it to his right. He held up his right hand so Zoe could see the key ring easily and then he pointed to his right hip.

  “Right hip,” he mouthed silently to her.

  She giggled and was smiling once again.

  John found the belt loop on his right hip, pulled back the trigger on the key ring to open the eye-hook and hooked it around the loop. He stood up and moved to the side of the table where he modelled the key ring for Zoe; swinging his hips from side to side so that the keys jingled.

  “And what does madam think?” he asked in a mock-English accent.

  Zoe laughed louder, “Madam is impressed.”

  “Good,” John smiled at her and then looked at his watch. “We’d better get going. It’s quarter-past three and we want to be home in time to get that call from Helen.”

  Zoe nodded. She stood up and began to gather all her parcels together.

  “You should have a cell phone, Johnny,” she said. “Then we wouldn’t have to race home.”

  “Don’t like them,” he said. “They give you brain cancer.”

  Zoe laughed as she turned around to face him with all her bags in her hands.

  “And people can always find you,” Zoe said.

  “That too,” John agreed. “Is that why you don’t have one?”

  “You don’t need one if you’re stuck in a house all day surrounded by guards,” Zoe said. “Ricky always knew where I was.”

  Her smile disappeared as she looked to the floor.

  John took hold of her bags and gave her a quick hug.

  “Come on,” he said. “Enough of that. Let’s not spoil a great day so far.”

  “Okay,” she nodded. “I’ll try.”

  “And I don’t want your tears staining my new-fangled key ring, either,” he said as he bumped his right hip against hers.

  Zoe’s laugh drowned out the sound of keys jingling.

  “You didn’t take the red key off the ring when you put all your keys on it,” she said as they walked out of the coffee shop.

  “Why would I?” he said. “You said it was the key to freedom.”

  “It is,” she replied.

  “Well, maybe I will need it one day,” he said.

  She looked up at him and smiled.

  “You never know,” she said.

  “That’s right,” he agreed. “You never know.”

  Nine

  John drove the car along his street with a little less than ten minutes to spare before four o’clock.

  The trip home had been a quiet one. Zoe hadn’t said much and even though John had tried to start a conversation, he realised that this trip meant the end of the fun and the start, once again, of all the worry and problems with Fox.

  He hoped Helen had found out something useful for Zoe. Otherwise she was going to be in this uncertain state for days, maybe weeks.

  Where will she go? he thought to himself. She can’t stay here; not for weeks or months. That’s bound to cause problems.

  “You okay?” he had asked.

  She only nodded and continued to stare out the side window.

  “Feel free to put the radio on if you like.”

  She had turned to him then and smiled, “Thanks, Johnny. I think that just might help the situation.”

  She reached over and scanned the stations until she found something that she liked.

  The music was too loud for John’s taste, but he wasn’t about to stop her listening to it if it helped her.

  The loud beat actually gave them both much-needed time to think.

  And before long, John was turning into the driveway.

  “And here we are,” he turned to face Zoe as he brought the car to a stop in the driveway.

  She smiled at him.

  John turned down the music on the radio.

  “Murdock Tours hope you enjoyed your day,” he said with his hands cupped over his mouth. “Please take time to look through our gift shop and pick up some of our brochures detailing other exciting Murdock Tours!”

  Zoe giggled and slapped him on the shoulder, “You idiot.”

  “All part of the service ma’am,” he replied as he mimed tipping his hat in her direction.

  “A question for the tour operator,” she put up her hand and batted her eyelids.

  “Yes, little lady, what can I do for you?”

  “Are we going to sit here all day or what? A certain little lady has had too much mineral water and needs to use the bathroom.”

  John laughed, reached over and opened the glove compartment. Sitting inside was a small zip-top leather pouch. He picked it up and handed it to her.

  “Open it,” he said.

  She pulled back the zip and placed her fingers inside, pulling out a handful of keys.

  “Spares,” he said.

  “Great!”

  He pushed some keys around until he found the one attached to a chain with a small blue plastic alien hanging from it.

  “This is it,” he lifted it up for her to take. “The front door key.”

  Zoe giggled, “You’re the best tour operator ever. Such service! And I bet the bathrooms will be spotless.”

  “Of course!”

  He returned the rest of the keys to the pouch, zipped up the top and threw it back into the glove compartment.

  “Out you get,” he said to her. “I’ll bring in your bags.”

  She smiled and pecked him lightly on the cheek, “And such a gentleman too.”

  As she climbed from the car, he tapped her on the shoulder.

  “One thing,” he said.

  “Anything.”

  “Open the garage door for me, please?”

  She turned around and smirked at him. “And I thought you were a gentleman,” she said.

  “Hey I’m bringing in all those large and heavy bags!”

  “Ha, ha.”

  As s
he ran around to the front of the car, he watched her buttocks jiggle in her cut-off jeans.

  Some women just have it all, he thought to himself.

  She bent down to open the garage door, pointing her butt in the air and wiggling it as she worked the handle.

  “Jesus,” he muttered to himself as he watched. “What an ass.”

  Then she stood and pulled the garage door. It swung up past her and thudded into position in the ceiling of the garage.

  “Voila,” she mouthed as she swept her hands forward allowing him access to the garage.

  He mimed tipping his hat to her again and drove forward into the garage.

  He pulled up just short of the back wall and beside Helen’s car. He turned off the engine. The music on the radio stopped at the same time. He was thankful for that. A bit of peace and quiet would help him think better than anything else.

  He looked in the rear-view mirror but could see no sign of Zoe. She’d probably turned and run straight for the front door to get to the bathroom as soon as possible.

  The bags in the back of the car reminded John of the wonderful few hours he had spent with her.

  Everything was so easy and simple. She lived only for the moment and could be amused or distracted by simple, everyday things.

  Such an easy life, he thought to himself. Yeah, right. Who are you kidding? She’s spent years being beaten every second night by Fox. Yeah, great life!

  But what would she do now?

  Maybe she was trying not to think about it, but John knew he had to.

  If that prick Fox was dead, then everything was fine and he couldn’t come after her. But what if it wasn’t that easy? What if some of his guards and employees actually did phone the police and get them involved? Fox may not be hunting her any more, but the police might be. There was no way that he and Helen could hide her out here for long.

  They’ve got a term for that, “accessory after the fact” or “harbouring a wanted criminal” or something, he thought.

  And that was the easy option.

  What if Fox wasn’t dead? What if he had only been knocked unconscious and was now on her trail and hunting her down, determined to kill her, and anyone helping her?

  And what if Helen came back and said she couldn’t find anything? That didn’t necessarily mean that Fox was dead or alive. They’d still be in limbo wondering whether he was coming after them or not. That was the worst situation of all.

  John rubbed his hands over his face.

  Nothing’s ever easy, he thought. Nothing.

  He climbed from the car and shut his door. He stood looking out into the street, focussing on the houses opposite.

  “Does everyone have such a complicated life?” he muttered.

  Then he turned and stared over at Helen’s car. He hoped she would have good news for them. He opened the back door and climbed in to grab Zoe’s shopping bags. It looked to him as if they had multiplied in the back of the car on the way home. She brought new meaning to the phrase, “Spending up a storm.”

  John laughed to himself. “Well, it’s her money…or it was.”

  He dragged out the bags, shut the car door and walked out of the garage. He looked up at the garage door and thought about closing it, but changed his mind. He’d have to put all the shopping bags down to do it, and he couldn’t really be bothered. Anyway, they were going to meet Helen in an hour or so for dinner, so he decided to leave the door open.

  There’s no law against it, he thought as he walked up the paved path towards the front door.

  As he walked, he managed to hook his new key ring through the belt loop on his right hip.

  “Got to keep her happy,” he muttered. “Left, right, what’s the difference?”

  The bags were beginning to get heavier so he quickened his pace. He looked ahead, hoping to see Zoe coming to help him carry her purchases, but there was only the front door.

  The open front door.

  The door was wide open, the little blue alien hanging from the key.

  The key still in the lock.

  “Shit,” John said as he dropped the bags and sprinted for the door.

  Ten

  John sprinted up the hallway and found Zoe by the phone in the lounge room.

  She turned around with a surprised look on her face.

  “What is it?” she yelled.

  “Huh?” he said, peering around the room, looking for any sign of trouble.

  “Johnny, what’s wrong?”

  He caught his breath, “I was going to ask you the same question!”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, I saw the front door wide open and the key still in the lock and I thought…well, I don’t know, I thought there was trouble.”

  Zoe smiled and walked to him. She hugged him hard and looked up at him.

  “Are you my knight in shining armour, here to save me?” she whispered.

  “More like your unfit friend in trembling terror.”

  She laughed and swatted his chest.

  “Don’t worry,” she turned and headed for the bathroom. “I had to rush in because the phone was ringing.”

  John looked around the room once more, trying to convince himself everything was fine.

  “Really?” he finally said. “Was it Helen?”

  He turned to find himself alone in the room. Zoe had gone.

  The bathroom.

  John’s mind was starting to clear and function properly again. He ran his fingers through his hair.

  Calm down, he thought. Don’t go all paranoid all of a sudden.

  He turned and walked back down the hall and outside once more. He swept his eyes along the street. Nothing was out of place. All looked fine apart from the number of shopping bags scattered around his front lawn.

  He hoped no one had seen him make a fool of himself and was even now waiting for a second performance.

  Luckily, everything seemed okay.

  He walked down to the bags, bent over and picked them all up. He turned and headed back to the front door.

  Zoe’s had enough crazies in her life already, he thought. Don’t add to that tally now.

  He placed the spare front door key on the key holder as he closed the front door. He walked back up the hallway and Zoe appeared at the kitchen door.

  “Coffee?” she asked.

  “Yeah, why not.” He struggled past her with the bags. “Where do you want me to put these?”

  “Just on the bed, near my suitcase,” she said.

  “Okay.”

  John walked across the lounge room and into the main bedroom. He dropped the bags on the bed, glad to be rid of them, and headed back to the lounge.

  Zoe was waiting for him on the sofa. She watched him as he came towards her.

  He couldn’t read the expressions on her face; there was no happiness or sadness.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “That was Helen,” she said in a low voice.

  “I gathered that,” he sat down next to her on the sofa and placed a hand on her bare knee, trying to comfort her.

  “And?” he said.

  “She wants to meet us at five thirty.”

  “Ahuh, but did she find anything?”

  “That’s just it, Johnny,” Zoe leaned closer to his face. He could feel her breath on his lips. “She didn’t say.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She said she couldn’t talk now, but she wanted to meet us at five thirty at the entrance to the Kmart on Elizabeth Street.”

  “And that’s it?”

  “That’s it.”

  “Nothing more?”

  “Nothing more.”

  “She didn’t ask to talk with me?”

  “No, she just hung up,” she replied.

  John shrugged. He wasn’t surprised. He wondered what he had done with the flowers he had brought home last night. He sighed deeply. He didn’t know why he tried anymore.

  “But why at the Kmart?” he asked.

  �
��She said it’s exactly halfway between here and the hospital,” she replied.

  John nodded, sat back on the sofa and sighed again.

  After a long silence, Zoe turned to face him.

  “I’m scared, Johnny.”

  He pulled her to him and hugged her tight.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll sort it out,” he whispered.

  I’m scared too, he thought.

  They arrived at the car park at quarter past five. Finding a parking spot was easy. The car park was more than half empty, the peak shopping hours well and truly over for the day.

  John pulled into a space right in front of the entrance of the Kmart and turned off the engine.

  “Well, here we are,” he turned to face Zoe.

  She hadn’t said a word as they drove; thoughts and emotions played across her face while she stared out the window and fiddled with her braids.

  “Do you think she’s found out anything, Johnny?” she asked in a quiet voice.

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “Only time will tell.”

  She nodded and turned to face him.

  “I’m grateful, you know,” she said. “For everything you’ve done for me.”

  “That’s okay,” he said.

  “I just landed on your doorstep last night and both Helen and you have been so helpful in every way. I couldn’t have got this far without you both.”

  She reached over and kissed him on the cheek.

  “We’ll help in any way we can,” he said.

  She shuddered and rubbed her bare arms with her hands.

  “You should’ve brought a coat, you’ll get cold.”

  “I’m not cold,” she replied. “Just scared.”

  “Don’t be.”

  “It’s hard not to be.”

  “I know.”

  They sat in the car for a few minutes, saying nothing. They both stared at the entrance to the Kmart.

  From where they sat they could see some of the staff behind the counters. Occasionally one or two of the staff would turn and stare back out at them.

  A small stream of people continued leaving the complex. John watched people head for their cars with parcels in their hands.

  Life is so easy for some, he thought.

  He turned to look at Zoe.

  She sat staring at the entrance to Kmart. Her breathing was deep and rhythmical, her chest expanding and deflating in a slow, measured action. Her breasts lifted and fell in time with her breath. From side on, he couldn’t see the diamond in her belly button, but he could see the ring that held it there.