Sharp Turn - Marianne Delacourt [62]
Cass was right. Something about the image seemed like porn.
I had a think and rang Wal back. ‘Does Bolo have a laptop or PC there?’
‘In his study.’
‘Think you can get a look at it without him knowing?’
‘Maybe later tonight. When he’s asleep.’
‘Good. Check his browser cache for the last few days. I want to know what he’s been looking at.’
‘Got it.’
I didn’t tell Wal about the stalker. He’d be conflicted about who he should protect, and right now I wanted him with Bolo.
After a good look in the rear-vision mirror and several glances up and down the road, I got out of the car. As I walked past the birds, they screeched loudly and jumped around in their cage, trying to attract my attention. I felt guilty that I’d barely given them any time lately.
I offloaded my bag and had a quick shower to clean up my face. I had to go to Hoshi’s nightclub job tonight and I didn’t want to scare his client.
By the time I got back outside to the birds, I felt a little calmer. I opened the cage door and Hoo jumped straight out onto the ground, as indignant as could be. JoBob mustn’t have been around much either. He strutted up the driveway onto the grass and began happily beaking for goodies. Only about a half-hour of light was left, so I changed their water and filled their feed container. That meant scooping into a tub of bird pellets and topping it up with bird mix. They didn’t like the pellets (the bit that was good for them) but they’d kill each other for sunflower seeds. Really, they were so human!
Brains tried to bite me as I put the filled seed container back in the cage.
‘Bad bird!’ I said, withdrawing my hand.
We engaged in a strategy-and-dare game where I pretended to put the food at the other end of the cage and she chased me there. I then had to quickly move back to the original position and slot the container in before she –
‘Owwww!’ I screeched, losing another round.
I left her happily crunching and went to check on Hoo, who’d found his way along the pool gate to the window ledge above my kitchenette. Cage birds tended to become astounding climbers. My phone rang as I was squeezing along between the pool fence and the side of my flat to retrieve him.
‘’Lo?’
‘It’s me. What are you doing?’
‘Hey, Bok. Wrestling creeper.’
‘Say what?’
‘Never mind. Are we cool about Jenny?’
He didn’t hesitate. ‘Yeah, we’re cool.’
I believed him. He’d tell me straight out if it was a problem. ‘That’s good.’
‘You sound upset,’ he said.
I told him about the guy following me and how I’d punched Ed in the nose.
‘You have to tell the police this time,’ he said sternly.
‘Don’t be so dramatic.’
‘Don’t be such an idiot.’
No one told it to me like Bok. I squeezed along the last bit of the narrow space to the window and reached up to get Hoo. He was chewing on a roughed-up section of the wooden frame.
‘Tara? You still there?’
‘I’m just getting one of the birds – oh, shit!’
‘What? What’s wrong?’
‘I’ll call you back.’
I shoved my phone into my pocket and set Hoo on my shoulder. He began happily tearing at the vine behind me while I ran my finger along the window ledge. There were gouge marks there, fresh from the look of the wood. Someone had been trying to force entry. I tested the window. It didn’t shift, but that didn’t stop a cold hand rattling my spine.
I took Hoo back and gave him and Brains an almond each from the treats tin and closed the cage.
I wondered if I should ring Fiona Bligh. Maybe Bok was right. This was getting beyond anything I could deal with.
Chapter 21
I WENT INTO THE flat and locked the door. There was a note from Cass stuck to the kettle, saying she’d gone out with Joanna.
I found the length of dowelling that Dad had wanted me to use as an extra security measure and slotted it into the window tracks. Then I drew the kitchen curtains for the first time since I’d moved in.
Stress made me hungry so I grabbed some slices of bread and cranked up my laptop. I had some serious thinking to do and a decision to make