Free Falling (Best Friend 2)

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end. The ringing of my phone made us both jump and Zach to snatch his hand back into his lap as he turned his head and looked out over the field. I sighed and pulled out my phone, expecting it to be one of my friends or Alex, asking where I was.

Instead, the name DI Neeson flashed on my screen. I frowned at her name, wondering what this was going to be about. For some reason my mind flicked to Sandy. Did she somehow know that I’d been in a fight with her and now she was calling to scold me for it? I squirmed uncomfortably as I answered the call.

DI Neeson’s voice greeted me. “Good afternoon, Miss Preston. I just wanted to let you know that the locksmith completed the work on your house this morning.”

“Oh, oh right. That’s good,” I muttered, feeling my shoulders relax slightly.

“I have your new keys. What time will you be home? I can meet you there,” she offered helpfully.

“Um, I’m not sure. Alex and I are going to go and visit Chester straight after school. So maybe four thirty?” I replied, thinking everything through. That would give us almost an hour with Chester which should be plenty of time because apparently we weren’t allowed to take him home today anyway.

“Four thirty is good for me. I’ll see you at your house then.” The line went dead before I could even ask if they had found anything or had progressed with the investigation. Thankfully she hadn’t mentioned my altercation with the blonde witch.

Pushing my cell phone back into my pocket, I stood up. I needed to get back before everyone really did start calling me and asking where I was. “I should go back inside. I only said I was going to the bathroom.” Zach looked up at me and nodded. “I’m going to have to cancel tutoring for tonight. I’m going to see Chester straight after school.”

A grin crossed Zach’s face as he nodded. “Tutoring’s cancelled? Whatever will I do with myself?” he joked.

“Jump over stuff no doubt,” I replied, rolling my eyes playfully.

His deep laugh filled the air as he nodded in agreement. “Probably. Thanks for the water,” he said, holding up the now empty bottle.

“No problem. Are you coming in with me?” I asked, nodding back to the building. “Have you eaten?”

He pushed himself up in one fluid motion and shook his head. “I’m just gonna run some more. I get kind of antsy when I get stressed. Sometimes running helps with it, and I can keep myself focussed,” he replied, twisting the bottle around in his hands before tossing it towards the trashcan that was off to my right.

“Hmm, maybe I should take up running then,” I joked.

A smirk broke out across his face as his eyes twinkled with mischief. “You could probably do with getting a little fitter from what I remember of your running skills.”

I gasped and slapped his shoulder, chuckling because I knew he was talking about the night we met and how I had drunkenly ran away from Luke’s broken windshield. “Shut it, you,” I giggled, which made him laugh too. “Go back to your running and I’ll see you in class this afternoon.”

“See ya, little rebel,” he called as he turned and jogged off towards the open field again.

I chuckled, shaking my head in amusement before turning back to face the firing squad, knowing I was going to be in trouble for sneaking off like I had.

The visit to see Chester after school left my throat hoarse, my eyes stinging and my heart aching. Although he was a lot better than last time I saw him, he was still weak and just laying around. His little tail wagging as we walked in was the only thing that made him seem more like his old self. The vet had said that he was still on medication and that he was extremely lucky. They were keeping him in for another night as a precaution, but that we could pick him up after school the following day. Leaving him in there had almost broken my heart, but he was better off with the experts for now.

Alex hadn’t really said much since we arrived at the animal hospital. When he was upset he was more the strong, silent type; he would be hurting inside and not showing it no doubt. I sat in the car on the way home, chewing on my lip, silently wondering if he blamed me like I blamed myself. After all, the person hurt Chester because of me. It was my fault he almost died. The guilt of that was slowly eating me up inside.

As we pulled up into our driveway, the door opened on the brown Sedan that was parked on the street outside our house. DI Neeson smiled over at us, taking off her sunglasses and tossing them into the car. “Good afternoon,” she greeted warmly as I climbed out and crossed the front yard to her car.

“Hi. Have you been waiting long?” I asked, nodding at the newspaper that was strewn across her front seat where she’d obviously been sat for a while.

She waved her hand dismissively. “Not long.” She nodded towards the house, digging in her pocket and bringing out three bunches of keys. “Let’s go inside and put the kettle on, I have some information for you.”

Alex stiffened, his hand going up to grip my shoulder supportively. “Do you know who this guy is? Have you arrested him?”

DI Neeson shook her head in rejection, waving her hand towards the house again. “Let’s talk inside.”

I gulped. For some reason this seemed like it was going to be bad news. I lagged behind as the police lady and Alex both headed to the house, using the new keys to open the door. I hesitated at the door, for some reason not wanting to go in. The house was too quiet. After seeing Chester in the veterinary hospital, still so weak, I couldn’t help but miss him greeting me at the door.

Alex and DI Neeson headed straight to the kitchen, so I stopped in the hallway, steeling myself for whatever I was going to hear. Was she going to confirm that it was Sandy? Was she going to tell me that they were arresting her right now and that it was all over? Or was that grim expression on her face for some other reason?

“Maisie, want coffee?” Alex shouted from the kitchen.

I gulped, knowing I needed to get it over with. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I forced myself to move again and walked into the kitchen, seeing them both standing there. “Yeah, thanks.” I nodded, smiling gratefully. I took a lot of sugar in my coffee so the boost would probably be a good thing right now.

DI Neeson looked between the two of us slowly. “I’ve had your dog’s toxicology reports come through today. It has confirmed their suspicions that Chester had ingested rat poison.”

I groaned and closed my eyes, nodding slowly. In a way, that was a good thing. It meant that their course of treatment that they’d started based on it being rat poison had been the right course of action. Now we just had to hope that he got better and suffered no ill effects from it as a result.

“I’ve been to the clinic today, and apparently the type that he ingested is the most common brand, a powder, bought at any garden centre or supermarket. So that leaves us with nothing new to go on really. Lab tests on the grease proof paper that we found in your yard show that it contained some sort of raw beef and also showed traces of the same substance. From that we can conclude that this definitely wasn’t just an accident and that your dog somehow found the poison himself. Someone definitely put it on the meat before feeding it to him.”

I tightened my jaw as a little whimper left my lips. I didn’t want to think about it, about someone sprinkling it on the meat and poor little unsuspecting Chester eating it.

“So, do you have leads and stuff? Do you know who this person is?” I asked, echoing Alex’s words from earlier, but purposefully not saying the word ‘guy’ because I was convinced it was a girl that was behind it all.

DI Neeson shook her head, frowning disappointedly. “At this time we don’t have any extra evidence. The tech guys in our recognition department are still running the prints that we lifted from your bedroom door so we’re waiting for those to come back. Our first priority was the prints that we lifted from the items we collected from your house. Those are being analysed, but it appears that some of them belonged to you two and Mr Hannigan. There are also a couple of other prints on the items from the box, but from the list you gave me of who had touched what, it’s a strong possibility that the prints we found belong to your two friends. I’ve dispatched officers to their houses to obtain prints from them so that we can rule them out, but the sizes of the prints we found are most likely female.”

I frowned. So they have nothing to go on at all? “What about Sandy, did you look into her?” I asked.

DI Neeson nodded. “I’ve just come back from meeting with Miss Watson. She was with her mother from the end of school until the time when she went to bed. They went shopping and then went for dinner. Their story checks out. I’m sorry, Maisie, I know you thought it was her, but it looks like you were wrong.”

That news felt like someone had punched me in the gut. It really wasn’t Sandy? I was so sure, so absolutely sure that it was her. A cold shiver trickled down my spine like ice water. Somehow, not knowing who was doing this, not having a face to the person, made it seem even worse. A stranger had stolen the key to my house and poisoned my dog; a stranger had gotten my phone number and had sent me those notes and flowers. It was definitely easier when I had a face to the person. Now, it could have been anyone, anyone at all. I gulped as Luke’s words about Zach came back to mind again. I tried to dismiss it quickly, assuring myself that Zach was a nice guy, but the hair on my arms seemed to stand up as I realised that I actually knew nothing about him at all. Sandy had said today that she knew things about him that he wouldn’t want common knowledge. What exactly was that about?

Alex frowned thoughtfully. “What about the phone calls she was getting? Surely you can trace the number?”

DI Neeson leant back against the counter, smiling sadly. “We’ve tried, but it appears that the calls are from an unregistered number, it’s untraceable. We know what network the calls are coming from, but the number is just a throw away sim, pay as you talk, no contract.”

Alex’s frown deepened. “Have you tried calling it? Give me the number, I’ll call him,” he snapped.

DI Neeson shook her head, seeming amused by Alex’s outburst. “We’ve tried calling it, each time it’s been switched off.”

“Well can’t you find the location from the signal of the phone or something? I’ve seen enough episodes of 24 to know they can pinpoint the location of a cell phone signal down to a few meters,” he stated, folding his arms defensively.

DI Neeson chuckled quietly. “I’m afraid that we don’t have access to Jack Bauer’s technology,” she replied, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “Though it would make my job a lot easier if we did.”

“So you have nothing?” Alex asked, slamming the kitchen drawer and frowning angrily.

DI Neeson didn’t even flinch at my brother’s anger. “At this time we’re still waiting for the Intel. Once we have the partial print recognition reports then we’ll have more to go on. We’re looking into the paper that the notes were written on, and also looking into the type of typewriter that was used. Hopefully there will be something there. If not then it’ll only be a matter of time before we catch the perpetrator. Don’t worry, we will catch them,” she replied, her voice confident. I sighed and nodded, taking the cup that Alex offered to me. DI Neeson’s attention turned back to me then as one of her eyebrows rose. “Miss Watson said there was an altercation at school with you today. Care to tell me about that?”

Not really. “Um,” I shifted on my feet, dropping my eyes to the floor.

“I told you to leave the investigation to us, not start fights in the middle of school,” she said, her voice clearly disapproving.

“She provoked me,” I huffed defensively.

DI Neeson cleared her throat. “Maisie, I know you thought it was her that hurt your dog, but she was elsewhere when the incident happened. You have no need to carry around these ill feelings towards her.”

I scoffed at her words. No need to carry around ill feelings for her, apart from the fact that she slept with my boyfriend!

“Please just leave the investigation to us,” she requested. Her tone held a warning so I nodded in acknowledgement. I smiled gratefully at Alex as he skilfully steered the conversation away from Sandy and asked more questions about the investigation.

DI Neeson stayed just long enough to drink her coffee, warn me against getting into another argument with Sandy, and question me again about anyone else that would have a grudge against me. She seemed disappointed when I said I couldn’t think of anyone. As she left she promised to be in touch as soon as she had any leads, but for now I was to ensure I contacted her if anything strange or untoward happened.

After she left I snuck up to my room, knowing that Alex was about to call our parents and tell them about the things that had happened and Chester. I didn’t really want to be there while he explained everything so I left him to it and went to make a start on my homework assignments.

Stepping into my room alone for the first time since I had found the card was a little hard. The room felt cold and a little alien as I looked around it slowly, checking that nothing was out of place. I wrapped my arms around my torso, hugging myself to try and gain some sort of comfort, but it was no use. A feeling of loneliness settled over me and I suddenly longed for Luke to be here with me. To wrap his arms around me, to pull me onto his lap and rock me like a child. I missed him so much it was almost scary.

Huffing out a big breath, I forced myself to get a grip of this worry and fear before it ate me up. I dropped my schoolbag down onto the bed and flopped down next to it, pulling out the first book that I came across and started to make a start on my work in a bid to keep my mind off of everything.