This Charming Dilemma, page 23
‘It’s Matt, he probably ran off the road by swerving around a bunny rabbit.’
‘Well it doesn’t matter what he did, we gotta get those cameras.’
‘No, I’ll just stay here,’ I said, pulling the covers back over my head, ‘and besides why can’t Sid go and I’ll stay here with Amy?’
‘No Sid refuses to go, now quick, I really want to retrieve those cameras including the ones on the gate.’
Oh my god Millie has turned into danger mouse.
‘If someone has run Matt’s arse off the road deliberately and he was truly shot at, then don’t you think we need to call the police? You’re not being a thoughtful mother, putting yourself out there Millie.’ I said, being brave from under the safety of the covers.
‘And that is why I want to go and get the incriminating cameras,’ she hissed, ‘because Matt is heading to the police station. So come-on!’ she demanded, pulling off the covers.
I seriously don’t know why Millie is insisting on taking a tired, pregnant woman stalking but begrudgingly I find myself getting in the car.
Maybe Millie can do the cameras while I sit in the car and have a little snooze.
‘Lisa I think someone is following us now,’ Millie said, pulling me from my trance.
‘You sure you haven’t picked up Matt’s paranoia,’ I said, wiping drool from the side of my mouth and looking behind me to see lights in the rear-view mirror.
‘In fact, where are we?’
‘No, I’m not paranoid, because I have gone up Carnivorous Road, down Watts Road and now we are driving on the old forest road towards Crankshaw’s farm and they are still behind us.’
Shit have I been asleep the whole time!
‘So now I’m approaching the intersection I think we might just head towards town,’ Millie said, putting her indicator on with her eyes locked on her rear-view mirror. ‘And boom,’ she smiled, picking up her phone and punching in a number.
‘You!’ Matt’s voice rang out from the blue-tooth speaker.
‘Matt you need to go and get those cameras… all of them,’ Millie demanded, ‘Lisa and I have our stalker following us into town.’
‘What? After me and Damo were nearly killed you want us to go back and get shot at again, that’s really nice Millie, I wouldn’t want you to get killed or nufing.’
‘No, now would be the perfect time because the people that followed you are now following us,’ Millie said with gritted teeth, ‘so you better hurry up because I can’t hold them off forever.’
‘Well me and Damo have just pulled up at the police station and are waiting for him to get back. He’s got a sign saying he’ll be back soon.’
‘So you have time then,’ Millie said.
Silence from the other end.
‘And another thing, your finger prints are on those cameras, they could charge you with trespassing.’
‘God that’s so unfair, you don’t care if we get into trouble, god Millie…’
‘Matt!’ Millie interrupted him in her dangerously stern voice.
‘Yeah okay, we’ll do it, you better remember us in your Will Millie.’
‘Yep, you can have Sid’s stamp collection. Lisa and I will meet you there as soon as we shake this person, just hurry alright.’
Millie quickly disconnected from Matt before he started ranting again. She looks in her rear-view mirror to make sure we are still being followed. I’m still thinking about what I’m going to say to Jake tomorrow.
‘What kind of headlights do you think they are?’ Millie asked me, pulling me from my thoughts again.
‘Um… bright ones?’ I answered.
‘No plonker, I mean like Camry, Honda?’
‘Oh… I don’t know,’ I said turning around, my thoughts back on Jake. You know it’s funny because right now all of this seems surreal, I know I should be excited that we’re being stalked and it’s all over a mine that I am meant to be boycotting to present myself as an environmental hero to the nation on public TV but all I want to do is go to bed and eat tons of cookies with BBQ sauce.
The dim lights of town approach and the car is still following us, Millie makes a comment mainly to herself, willing them to follow us into the lights of the town. But just as the first street lamp approaches, the car turns off down a side road.
‘Goddammit!’ Millie exclaimed, ‘well goes to show it was definitely following is, now hang on, I’m going to turn around and make a hasty run back to the Crankshaw’s farm,’ she said, spinning the car around and taking an alternative route so the car doesn’t see us and start following us again. Millie is driving like a maniac and I hope she remembers there are four of us in this car not just her and I. I remind her of this in a stern voice as she clocks up wayyy past the speed limit. Whoa I just sounded like a responsible mother!
‘I know what I’m doing,’ Millie defended herself, ‘you just go back to sleep.’
We approached the Crankshaw’s farm with the park lights on, Matt’s car is nowhere to be seen. Millie picked up her phone to call Matt again when he bangs on the window causing us both to scream.
I think I just peed myself a little.
‘Jeppers Matt, where is your car?’ Millie said, trying to locate her heart.
‘Here!’ he said, throwing Millie the two cameras from the front entrance, ‘Damo and I hid da car under some branches, clever aye, you can’t see it.’
‘Where? Oh, over there,’ Millie said, spotting the car in the long grass with a tree branch on top of it, ‘okay well we’ll keep an eye out while you and Damo go get the others, if we see an approaching car, I’ll beep the horn.’
Matt looks like he just peed himself a little as well.
‘There’s a carton of rum in it for you both,’ Millie said, sweetening the deal.
‘Yeah fine, we’ll do it, and not just cos you told us to do it for some cans of Bundy,’ Matt stomped off with Damo who suddenly appeared out of the depths of the darkness. We watch as they disappeared up the long driveway towards the shed.
Millie switched on her interior light, ‘oh will you look at this,’ she said, turning the cameras over in her hands, ‘smashed, deliberately smashed!’
‘So do you think we will be able to get anything off it?’ I said looking at Millie’s facial expression which is crossing between really pissed off and really… well scary.
‘Give it a go but I doubt it, wait till I track these fuckers down,’ she seethed, ‘destruction of property really pisses me off.’
I was just pondering if I should remind Millie of our trespassing when we heard a shrill piercing scream ringing out from the shed.
‘Shit!’ Millie said, throwing the cameras in the back seat and starting the car and heading towards the shed.
‘You’re seriously not going to go up there,’ I panicked, hanging on as Millie sped up the drive towards the shed. ‘Well I’m not going to fucken leave them there!’ she screamed back, clearly the both of us are freaking out, ‘get ready to open the back door for them to jump in!’
Clearly Millie and I are thinking the worst as she spun the car around and shined the lights into the shed as I ducked out of sight so I don’t get shot at. Think I’ll just close my eyes, bugger Matt, he can open his own door.
‘What the hell,’ Millie said in a puzzled manner, then started to laugh.
I poked my head up and opened one eye to see Marline holding Matt on the ground in a wrestling pose.
What the hell?
Millie and I tentatively get out the car to hear Matt groaning in pain as Marline had him in a hog-tied position on the ground. Damo appears from behind an old drum, clearly he just freaked out and hid.
‘What are you doing here?’ John said, appearing in the headlights looking slightly amused, causing Millie and I to jump.
‘What are you doing here,’ Millie questioned back, also slightly amused.
‘Um… retrieving cameras,’ she said in suspicious manner, ‘what’s your excuse? I thought you were bound by contract?’
‘I’m off the clock,’ he shrugged, ‘so Marline and I thought we’d come up here, see if we could see anything, especially when Matt said he was run off the road.’
‘So what, you’re like an adrenaline junkie?’ Millie asked.
‘Yeah well it’s not funny!’ Matt exclaimed as Marline released her grip on Matt, ‘do you know what it feels like when someone comes at you in da dark like that and crash tackles you,’ Matt flips his body around to a sitting position, posed to punch anyone that comes near him.
‘Sorry but I thought you were someone else,’ Marline said with a grin on her face. ‘But hey,’ she continued, ‘you’ve got a good set of lungs on you,’ she giggled.
‘Well you would scream if it happened to you too,’ said Matt, red faced, pulling himself up from the ground.
‘So did you get the cameras?’ Millie asked John.
‘I found one on the ground outside, but it doesn’t look good,’ he said, handing Millie a damaged camera, ‘but no sign of the box.’
Despite John informing her of this Millie had a quick scout around by John’s torchlight and questioned both Matt and Damo as to where they might have dropped the box in the first place. She looks really worried.
Matt informs Millie that he can’t recall what happened to her stupid box as they were being shot at. Millie reminded him he screamed like a girl and Matt was just about to respond when the sound of motorbikes starting rung out in the distance. Matt and Damo run to the safety of Millie’s car when single headlights appear at the old charred remains of the second shed in the distance.
‘Everyone fall out,’ John said as we all scurried back to our vehicles. John’s van appeared from the side of the shed passing Millie’s car as she started the engine as Matt and Damo curl up in fetal positions in the back seat. Millie reverses and follows John down the driveway, the dust from his vehicle impairing her vision. My heart is beating so fast I feel it’s going to come out of my chest. And I don’t dare look behind us.
We finally make it to the safety of the road. Millie was about to make the turn towards home when John did a u-turn in front of her and sped past us up the drive towards the shed again.
‘What the hell?’ Millie said, as we both looked behind us at John’s dust. It doesn’t appear that the motorbikes followed us out which means they are still up there.
‘Okay so do we follow?’ Millie asks, pondering this with a panicked look on her face.
‘I vote no!’ I said.
‘Yeah me too,’ Millie said, throwing the car back into gear and speeding off towards home.
‘They’ll be okay.’ Millie said, trying to justify herself.
‘Yeah it’s their choice,’ I said, also trying to justify myself.
No point asking Matt and Damo, I think they have gone back to the womb.
‘Argh shit!’ Millie examined, punching the steering wheel and turning the car around to go back. I so wanted to argue with her decision but I think I’ll just curl up in the fetal position as well.
‘Argh shit!’ she exclaims again as three sets of headlights approach.
‘It’s them, the bikes!’ I panicked, observing the single headlights. Millie stayed in the middle of the gravel road. Surely she’s not going to play chicken.
‘Um… Millie!’ I said nervously as the headlights got closer.
Millie seems possessed, and I’m sure I just saw my life pass before my eyes.
‘Millie!’ I exclaimed, fear kicking in even more as the headlights got even closer as my foot pumps the imaginary brake on the passenger side.
‘Shit!’ Millie screamed, swerving as she realises the bikes weren’t going to get off the middle of the road either. Millie hits the brakes as the car comes to a sliding halt, showering us in the dust of the gravel. The bikes speed past us as John pulls up beside us in his van.
Hang on… they don’t look like motorbikes, but more like scooters! The sound of what I could only describe as overpowered electric lawnmowers faded into the distance as the dust cleared.
‘Well that’s weird!’ said John.
14
‘Is Matt Horton around?’ the local policeman asked me from the other side of my desk at the office.
‘Um… no,’ I said, shaking my head slowly.
‘Okay, his boss at the garage said he might be here, I was just inquiring as to why a car registered to him is parked in the long grass down Crankshaw Road with a tree branch on top?’ I gave him my best bewildered look. ‘Okay I’ll try him at home, have a nice day,’ he said.
I look at the piece of paper in my hand containing Jake’s contact details but I am a bit hesitant to pick up the phone. I mean surely he doesn’t need to know, but I do want him to know, I mean I would love nothing else than to be in a relationship with Jake, but not like this. I mean I want it to be a choice he makes, not because he feels he has to out of obligation.
Okay I’m over-thinking this, just pick up the damn phone.
I quickly punch the numbers into the office phone and hold my breath, okay this is it, just come out with it, remember, no expectations.
Oh great, it’s a voice automation system. I finally pressed five for enquires when a male voice appeared on the line.
‘T&G Mining.’
‘Oh err, hi, I was just wondering, could I speak to a Jake Crankshaw or possibly leave my number for him?’
‘Hold please,’ he said as the sound of a political advert about how the industry contributes some of its profits to small communities and blah, blah. I think I need to slow my heart rate down as it’s playing with the lump that has formed in my throat.
‘You there?’ the man’s voice appeared on the other end of the line again.
‘Yes,’ I said, all poised.
‘Jake Crankshaw finished up on our shutdown a couple of days ago, I can’t give out his phone details due to his privacy conditions but I have an email address if you would like to contact him via email.’
He finished up a couple of days ago? To go where?
‘Are you there?’ the voice asked.
‘Yes, yes, sorry, um… any idea where he would have gone?’
‘No, I don’t have that information, work finished here for his contact two days ago.’
‘Okay, of course, um… yep email is fine thanks.’
I’m writing the email down with a slight tingle to my ear, lucky the guy is spelling it out as I can only concentrate on one letter at a time.
‘Is there anything else I can help you with?’ the man asks, wrapping up our conversation.
‘No, thank you,’ I said, about to hang up, I looked at the email address in front of me again.
‘Oh, um… sorry but this email, it is acrabobeopportunities?’
‘Yes that’s right,’ the man said.
‘Okay, thanks,’ I said disconnecting and picking up my mobile to text Millie.
Acrabobe, isn’t that the mining company?
I text Millie asking her to spell the mining company as my brochure appears to be missing, well it’s not missing, just can’t be naffed to find it under this mountain of papers, but it sounds like the same name. Why would Jake’s email have the same name?
Anyway I opened my email to compose a new one. I don’t know how to write Dear Jake, I’m pregnant and they are yours, yes yours because they are twins, yours truly, Lisa. Well I could just write that but in case it isn’t Jake’s email and I give the bloke or lady on the receiving end of this email a bit of a soap opera read.
Dear Jake… no, too formal.
Hi Jake… better.
I really need you to contact me on some urgent business you need to know asap, as it’s urgent, okay thanks. Oh in case you have forgotten… no… in case you deleted it… no can’t write that either... okay my number is 042513395… better… it’s urgent.
Regards Lisa… no, too formal.
Love Lisa… definitely not.
Lisa… better.
Okay close your eyes and hit send.
Millie’s text comes back that yes it is indeed the correct spelling and I quickly send another message off to her telling her about Jake’s email address.
The email flashed a message to inform me it was sent and now I guess it’s in the fate of the electronic gods.
Matt obviously hasn’t picked up his car, he and Damo were still asleep on the sofas when I left his morning, John was there filming normal activities around home before joining Daniel on an unusual photo shoot today. And after last night, we all agreed it was definitely scooters or small motorbikes we saw. John explained he had decided to confront whoever it was but didn’t get the chance when they sped past him up the Crankshaw’s driveway and down the road.
I did wonder if it could be Betty or Fran as they are the only ones that have scooters that I am aware of, but they definitely wouldn’t be out at that time at night, Fran’s normally in bed by 7.30pm and Betty has a hard time even attending CWA meetings after 6pm. But the more plausible explanation that John came up with, is that it’s maybe kids and despite Matt’s protests that eventually led to a sulky tantrum, possibly kids with air rifles.
My phone rung as I glanced at the CWA financial report that made its way from my car to my desk in amongst my bridal magazines and a packet of ready-made soup.
‘Did you say that is Jake’s email address?’ Millie’s voice said when I picked up the phone.
‘Yeah, the contact number you gave me for Jake was the company he was working for, he left two days ago and that is the contact email they gave me.’
‘acrabobeopportunities? As in two words, acrabobe then opportunities?’ Millie asked again, clearly she is on the trail of something.
‘Yeah and I have already flicked him an email, asking him to get in touch,’ I said, glancing up to see Fran across the street parking her scooter.
‘Wait I’ll just Google this again,’ said Millie as I continue to glance at Fran.
Betty has just joined her and I’m thinking I might need to close the blinds and lock the door as I have no doubt they are heading this way.
