Olivia had spent much of Sunday running away from her problems, playing things cool with Noah and giving Molly a wide berth.
The first had been easy enough, as aside from a few messages checking she was okay, Noah had pretty much left her alone. Olivia lived with Molly, though, which made things more awkward. So being the coward she was, she had made a point of getting out of the house early, heading into the city to do some Christmas shopping.
The streets had been filled with fellow shoppers and buskers, including Norwich’s well-known street performer, the Puppet Man, who had been performing one of his favourite songs by the Beatles as Olivia walked by, with what looked like a blue capped duck on his hand, and for a short while she had managed to lose herself in the festive atmosphere, though her problems had never been far away.
Rather than return home – she was still worried about facing Molly – she had stopped by to see her mum and Jamie. Elena had already been fretting about the video Olivia had been sent and had a dozen questions, wanting to know what the police were doing. Truth was, Olivia didn’t know. She had given them a statement, and they knew where to find her if they needed anything else. For now they were investigating Howard’s death and would be focused on finding out who had murdered him.
The questions were annoying, but they were better than what she worried about facing at home, and she didn’t want to cave and go to Noah’s, so she let her mum talk her into staying for dinner.
It also gave her a chance to talk to her brother, who was the one link she had to knowing who Noah really was. Unfortunately, his answers had done nothing to reassure her. ‘How did you say you met Noah again?’ she had asked, trying to sound casual, as she chatted to him between him serving customers at the bar.
Luckily Jamie was preoccupied enough not to question her curiosity. ‘We met in the gym,’ he told her, as he pulled a pint.
That agreed with what Noah had told her and she was going to leave it at that, but another question niggled. ‘Have you known him long?’
‘Since earlier this year. I had seen him around, but we’d never really spoken before, then he came over and started chatting one night.’ Jamie had looked up at her then, dark eyes narrowing. ‘Why are you asking? Is everything okay with you two?’
‘Of course. Everything’s fine. I was just curious, that’s all. He never talks about his family or friends much.’
‘You know his family all live in Devon.’
‘Yeah, I know.’
‘I think he’s close with his brother and sister, but from what I gather he has a bit of a love–hate relationship with his dad.’
‘The authority thing. He’s mentioned it. His dad was in the US Air Force, wasn’t he?’
‘Yeah, the colonel. I think he was pretty strict. Very religious. You know Noah. He rebelled against that every step of the way.’
‘He never mentions his friends around here. He must have some.’
‘I think he still sees some of his old police mates. And he’s friendly with some of the other guys at the gym. We’ve all been out a few times. Then of course there’s Dan.’
‘Yes, Dan. Of course.’
Jamie didn’t elaborate on whether he knew Dan’s sex, so Olivia didn’t comment. He must have noted her tight expression though. ‘He’s a good guy, Livvy. He won’t dick you around like Toby did.’
‘I know.’ She had smiled to keep her brother happy, but still the questions niggled. She had thought Jamie and Noah had known each other longer than a few months. The fact that Noah had walked himself into Jamie’s life, the same as he had hers, bothered her more than she cared to admit.
Molly had messaged while she waited for her mum to serve dinner, worried and wanting to know where she was, and Olivia had felt a surge of panic and guilt, quickly firing back an apologetic message saying she wouldn’t be home until late and asking her to feed Luna.
She had hoped Molly would be in bed when she returned that night, as it was almost midnight, but her lodger was on the sofa, drinking wine and watching TV, and she had looked up suspiciously when Olivia walked in the house. ‘Everything okay?’
‘Everything’s fine. Thanks for feeding Luna. I’m beat, so I’m gonna go straight up to bed.’
She started to walk away, tensing when Molly spoke. ‘Are you sure everything’s okay? You’re acting really strange.’
‘Honestly, I’m fine. Just tired and worried about everything. I have work tomorrow, but we’ll catch up in the evening, okay?’
‘Okay, sure.’ Molly shrugged, turning back to the TV. ‘Night.’
Olivia slept restlessly, guilt and worry fuelling her dreams.
Molly wasn’t acting like she had done anything wrong. Had Olivia overreacted to what had happened? And the whole Noah thing was starting to bug her. He had tried to call her when she was driving home and she had sent him a message before going to sleep, but he hadn’t replied.
She needed to clear the air with Molly and she needed to talk to Noah. She was back at work in the morning though and would no doubt have to face Roger’s wrath for skipping work on Friday. Yet another stress to add to her list. Molly and Noah were both going to have to wait if she wanted to keep her job.
She was exhausted when her alarm went off on Monday morning and, after a night of tossing and turning, wondered how the hell she was going to make it through a full day of work. Glancing at her phone, she was a little unsettled that Noah still hadn’t replied to her message.
He had got into the habit of messaging or calling her most mornings and the fact he hadn’t replied to her had her worrying a little. She was tempted to call him, but told herself off, resisting the urge to pick up her phone.
This was good. He was giving her some much-needed space, so why was it bothering her so much that she hadn’t heard from him?
She managed to get ready and out of the house with little interaction with Molly, who was in the kitchen when she came down the stairs. Olivia shouted her goodbyes from the hallway and let herself out of the house, stopping off at Costa for a coffee and croissant, before heading to the office.
To her dismay, Jeremy was the only one already there, greeting her with a slimy smirk as she took off her coat. She still had twenty minutes before the office opened and had hoped to eat her breakfast in peace.
‘Nice of you to grace us with your presence today, Blake.’
‘Oh, did you miss me, Jez?’ She settled down at her desk, pleased that her use of his abbreviated name brought a scowl to his face.
‘Well, I can’t say you not being here made any difference to the sales,’ he told her nastily.
Olivia ignored him, unwrapping her croissant and taking a bite, as she waited for her computer to fire up.
‘You’re in Roger’s bad books you know,’ he told her when she didn’t react, sidling over and planting his bum on the edge of her desk. He picked up one of her pens, started clicking the end. ‘He was pissed off that you didn’t show up for work on Friday.’
‘He knows why I wasn’t in.’
‘Yes, your boyfriend called and explained. Have to say that was a surprise, you having a boyfriend, Blake. He must have the patience of a saint.’
Olivia’s temper rose a notch. Normally she would fire back a smart remark, but her head was pounding from lack of sleep and she wasn’t in the mood for Jeremy, the suffocating smell of whatever aftershave he had showered in, or that bloody clicking pen.
‘Look, do you actually want something or did you just come over here to insult me?’ she snapped. ‘Because I had hoped to eat my breakfast in peace.’
‘Ooh tetchy.’
‘No, just tired and not in the mood for your shit today.’ She was biting, but couldn’t help it, and she could tell he was loving it from the grin on his face.
‘Bad attitude for a Monday morning, Blake. I can see you’re gonna work your way right into Roger’s good books.’
Olivia made a grab for the pen, clutching at thin air when he held it out of her reach, that shit-eating grin widening.
‘Look, just piss off, okay.’
‘What, or you’ll set me on fire like your other friends?’
There was a moment of stunned silence as she stared at him, his pale eyes were challenging, a snide smile on his thin lips. Olivia was incredulous, barely able to believe his nerve. ‘You low-life son of a bitch. You have no idea.’
‘It’s true though, isn’t it? Those men are dead because of you.’
‘Just fuck off, Jeremy. Seriously, just fuck off.’ Although she snarled the words, her tone was louder than intended.
‘Everything okay here?’ Roger stood in the doorway, a scowl on his face.
‘Fine,’ Olivia and Jeremy both muttered at the same time. Thankfully Jeremy got up from her desk, sauntering back to his own side of the office, giving her a taunting smile as he sat down at his monitor.
‘Olivia, nice of you to join us today.’ There was nothing nice about Roger’s tone, which was downright sarcastic. The look he levelled her was a warning that she was testing his patience.
Olivia didn’t try to justify her reasons for being off on Friday. Roger already knew and she didn’t want to talk about what had happened in front of Jeremy. Keeping her head down she logged into the server and entered her password, trying to be discreet as she finished eating her breakfast.
Roger had managed to find another old database he wanted sorting through and, although the work was mind-numbingly boring, she threw herself into the task with as much enthusiasm as possible, aware she was on thin ice.
She had her head down and was focused on her work, so didn’t hear Noah enter the office, wasn’t aware he was there until he dropped down into the chair facing her desk.
‘Can I help you?’ That was from Jeremy, who had assumed he was a customer.
Olivia glanced up in surprise, panic quickly taking over when she saw Roger looking in her direction, a frown on his face. ‘What are you doing here?’ she hissed. ‘I’m working.’
‘We need to talk.’
‘I can’t now. Can’t it wait until lunch?’
‘No, we need to talk now.’
‘Well I…’
She trailed off as Roger approached her desk. ‘Is everything okay here, Olivia?’ He didn’t look happy.
Noah rose to his feet, eyes not leaving Roger’s face as he offered his hand. ‘Noah Keen. We spoke Friday morning.’
‘Oh yes, Mr Keen.’ Roger shook Noah’s hand. ‘Is there a problem?’
‘I need to borrow Olivia.’ When Roger frowned, he added, ‘Ten minutes. It’s important.’
Roger wasn’t happy, but he didn’t argue. ‘Go,’ he snapped at Olivia. ‘Ten minutes, though.’
Olivia wanted to protest, but Noah’s expression was grim and it occurred to her that something might really be wrong. Her heart started to thud as she grabbed her coat and followed him out of the office, ignoring the stares of Jeremy and Esther.
‘What the hell’s going on?’ she demanded as soon as they were outside.
He took her arm, walked with her a few feet, leading her off the narrow pavement and away from the pedestrians. There was an empty bench set back from the street and he guided her to it, sitting down beside her and taking her hands.
‘Noah, you’re scaring me. What the hell’s going on?’
‘Janice Plum was attacked last night. Someone set her on fire. She’s in intensive care.’
‘What? How do you know that?’
‘One of my old police mates. Did anything happen last night? Any phone calls? Any videos or notes?’
‘No, nothing. I would have told you.’
First Gary, then Howard and now Janice. This was real, someone was really targeting them all. Despite the notes, the video and the phone calls, part of her had been in denial, believing that what had happened to Howard and Gary was perhaps a coincidence. But not anymore. Twice was stretching it. Three times was too much.
Her legs were trembling and she was glad she was sitting down. ‘Is Janice– is she going to be okay?’
‘It’s too soon to say. She’s in the best place, and she is the best chance the police have of identifying who is doing this.’
Olivia thought back to Gary, chained to the kitchen chair, and Howard burning alive on the video she had been sent. There was no way either of them would have survived what had happened to them.
‘Why did he leave Janice alive?’
‘The community centre caretaker happened to be driving past and saw lights on. He went to investigate, found Janice on fire and reacted quick enough to douse the flames. Her attacker must have heard him coming and fled the scene.’
God, the poor woman. Olivia had never liked Janice, but she would never wish harm on her.
Noah rubbed his hand up and down her arm. ‘Are you okay?’
Shocked, scared. Olivia didn’t say either of those words, though. Instead she nodded numbly. ‘It’s a lot to take in.’
‘I know. The police will want to talk to you again. They will probably call you, but I didn’t want to risk them showing up and catching you by surprise or you seeing it on the news later, and I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.’
‘I appreciate that.’ She honestly did. Wasn’t sure how she might have reacted if she had heard the news from Jeremy or if the police had arrived unexpectedly.
‘I need to go back to work.’
‘You sure you’re up to that?’
‘I don’t really have a choice. I’m already in the doghouse with Roger for taking Friday off.’
‘I’ll talk to him.’
‘No don’t, please. You’ll just make this worse.’
Noah huffed out a sigh. ‘You know, your boss is a bit of dick, Liv. Do you really like working there?’
‘No,’ she admitted. ‘But now’s not the time for a change.’ She managed a small smile. ‘Maybe when this is over I can look for something else. Right now though I need this job to pay the bills. Which means I do have to go back.’
‘Come and stay with me tonight.’
She had promised herself she would be strong, take a step back from Noah until she had sorted her head out, but there he was sitting in front of her being all kind and thoughtful, and looking so damned good while being kind and thoughtful, that, had her head not been reeling with the shocking revelation about Janice, she would have wanted to jump all over him. He messed with her head and she couldn’t think straight when he was around. He made niggling little alarm bells seem like they were not such a big deal.
‘I can’t. I promised Molly we would spend some time together tonight.’
‘You spent Saturday night with Molly.’
‘I know, but…’ She debated telling Noah what had happened. ‘Molly and I need to have a chat.’
His eyes narrowed at that. ‘Why, did something happen?’
Would he think she had overreacted? Olivia realised she did need a second opinion on this. ‘Okay, I don’t want you to laugh because this is really embarrassing.’ Her cheeks were already flaming. ‘I think she hit on me.’
Noah’s green eyes widened, but he remained straight-faced. ‘You think?’
‘Saturday night. We’d both had a few drinks and as I went to go up to bed she gave me a hug.’ God, it was mortifying saying this out loud. ‘Well… It started out as a hug, but then was a little bit more than that.’
When Noah stared at her, not speaking, she elaborated. ‘She caressed my bum.’
His lips twitched at that and, when Olivia slapped him on the arm, annoyed at his reaction, he burst out laughing.
‘Damn it, it’s not funny. I’ve been avoiding her ever since.’
‘All the more reason then why you should come and spend the night with me.’
‘I need to talk to her, Noah. We live together and it’s really uncomfortable.’
Plus of course she needed more time to sort out what to do about Noah and his secrets. Now wasn’t the time for that conversation and she had to get back to work, but she knew if she stayed the night in his bed, she wouldn’t be able to think objectively about him.
‘Okay,’ he agreed. ‘But I’m going to meet you here after work and walk you down to your car then follow you home.’
When Olivia opened her mouth to argue that it was unnecessary, he pressed his finger against her lips. ‘No arguments. I won’t stay and I won’t pressure you to stay with me, but I need to know you’re safe. Okay?’
It was a compromise she could live with, and she would feel safer having him with her when she walked down to get her car. ‘Okay.’
