Free Falling

She motioned for the chairs that were placed around the table in the centre of the room. “Shall we sit? I’ll do a quick update meeting but then I need to get back,” she suggested, her tone brisk and slightly annoyed. I sat down, looking at her expectantly, as did my dad. She placed her file down, clasping her hands together on top of it. “We’ve arrested someone in connection to your case.”

I nodded, my mouth dry. “Zach.”

She gave a curt nod. “That’s right. As you know, we were waiting for the recognition department to finish their report on the fingerprints that I took from your house,” she explained, raising one eyebrow. I nodded, waiting for her to continue. “Well, we found Mr Anderson’s prints on your bedroom door handle, and we also ran your dog’s collar for prints, and found a partial print on there too.”

I swallowed, waiting for her to continue, but she didn’t. That’s it? That’s all they arrested him for? “And that’s it?” I asked, my tone coloured with disbelief. “He’s been to my house. We went into my bedroom, he petted my dog. Is it not possible that the prints could have gotten there then? That seems kind of weak evidence for you to arrest him for! This is all just silly. You should let him out and start looking for the real person who sent it,” I ranted as anger built up inside me.

Lines formed between her eyes as she frowned at me. “Mr Anderson has previous history with the police. I asked him for a few minutes of his time, but he refused,” she countered, her tone belittling and harsh.

Whoa, wait, Zach has a police record? I didn’t know that…

My dad sat forward in his seat and placed a hand on my arm, a silent warning to tell me to calm down. “I’m sure you can appreciate the delicacy of the situation. Maisie is frustrated because Zach is a friend of hers and she feels like this may be a mistake on your part.”

Hmm, he worded it better than me as usual.

“I assure you, we’re looking into everything thoroughly. I’m aware that it may be frustrating for Maisie if they’re friends, but I’m sure she would rather us treat her case seriously than gloss over leads and not investigate them,” DI Neeson rebutted.

“Of course. We appreciate you doing your job to the best of your ability.” Dad nodded, flashing his charming smile at her. Instantly, she shifted in her seat, looking away from him and fiddling with the file. I tried not to cringe because I knew in that moment she was thinking about him naked. I guess my dad was considered good-looking to some, my friends certainly thought so, but seeing a policewoman flustered by a smile made me cringe in my seat. “The thing is, I thought Zach was a pretty decent kid. I mean, yes, he’s a little troubled, and he has a very weird idea of what classes as a sport, but other than that I genuinely liked him. It’s a little hard for me to believe that he’s involved in this,” Dad continued.

DI Neeson looked up then. “There are things you aren’t aware of, Mr Preston. I’m sure you’ve heard from Maisie that one of her fellow students was murdered last night,” she asked, raising one eyebrow. Dad nodded in confirmation, and I frowned instantly wondering where she was going with this. “Well, we have reason to believe that the person behind the incidents involving Maisie, is also the person who murdered Miss Watson.”

I almost choked on air. The same person? The person who was harassing me had killed Sandy too? “What? Why do you think that?” I gasped.

She turned her eyes to me. “A call was made to Miss Watson’s cell phone an hour before the estimated time of death. It’s from the same number that made the calls to your cell phone. Miss Watson wasn’t at home when she was found. We think that the person called her and lured her out with the intention of killing her.”

“Oh God,” I muttered. Anguish and worry built up in my stomach. If the person who was sending me that stuff had killed someone then what was to stop them from killing me? Maybe they’d even been harassing Sandy too before she died! Maybe I was next. Maybe I was in danger right now, and someone was going to stab me so many times that it looked like I’d been gutted, just like the witness said that Sandy had. I had to get out of here. I had to leave and…

“Maisie, sit down and breathe!” A hand closed over mine, pulling me back to my seat. Until then I hadn’t even realised that I had moved. I looked up into the concerned green eyes of my dad. “Just calm down. Everything’s fine, I promise,” he cooed, squeezing my hand gently. He turned back to the police officer. “So you’re now treating Maisie’s case as a possible murder case too?”

DI Neeson thumbed the file on the table. “At this time we’re still conducting investigations, but from here on out I’ll be sharing information with the lead officer from our homicide department.”

I blinked a couple of times at that information. DI Neeson was now obviously working with the officer I had spoken to this morning, the one with the intimidating eyes.

Dad nodded, giving my hand another reassuring squeeze. “And you believe this person is Zach? Have the phone records confirmed that?” he asked curiously.

I looked at DI Neeson. That was a really good question and I was incredibly glad that my dad was here with me. He always seemed to have the right things to say in these situations. A muscle in her temple twitched as she sat there, seeming to be choosing her words carefully. “His phone records show nothing out of the ordinary. I have officers conducting a search of Mr Anderson’s house right now; we believe that the calls are from a different phone and number. Once we find the phone we’ll have more to go on.”

I cringed, thinking of poor Olivia having to watch as people searched her house for the phone. No doubt Zach’s uncle Alan would be ranting in the background about what a deadbeat kid he was. I felt a pang of guilt. Zach would probably be in for a rough time when he got home because of all of this.

Dad cocked his head to the side. “But at this time all you have to go on are the fact that Zach’s prints were on my daughter’s bedroom door and the collar of the dog?” he asked. DI Neeson gave a curt nod of confirmation. “What was he arrested for before? You said he has previous history with the police.”

DI Neeson cleared her throat and stood up. “I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss that information. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have just under nineteen hours left to question Mr Anderson before I’m forced to release him. I’ll call you with any news.” Her tone was final as she stuck out her hand towards my father. “It was nice to meet you, Mr Preston.”

“You too. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us,” he replied politely. She marched out of the room, closing the door firmly behind her and my dad turned to me and smiled teasingly. “You need to work on your people skills. You can’t just go off ranting at these people and then expect them to help you. You have to know the right way to handle it. Politeness and reasoning usually works best.”

I rolled my eyes. “And you’ve had a lot of dealings with the police have you?” I joked.

A sad smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. “Let’s get you home. We’re obviously not going to learn anything else here. Sounds to me like they’re clutching at straws and hoping that it’s Zach. She knows it too. She doesn’t believe it’s him any more than I do, but they have to go through the motions, especially now that the same person apparently called Sandy’s phone. They’ll release Zach tomorrow without charge,” he assured me, before frowning and adding, “Well, unless they find something at his house.”

I gulped, not even wanting to think about it. I refused to believe that someone I was close to would be capable of something like that.

I skipped school the following day, mainly because I didn’t want everyone looking at me again, and also because I didn’t want people asking me why Zach was led off in shackles the previous day. The only bad thing about skipping school was that I was then home with my dad who still had time off work because they thought he was still off taking care of my grandad. It wasn’t that I minded hanging out with my dad – on a normal day I would actually love it. But it was just that he was smothering me. I hadn’t really had a minute to myself all day long because he was doing his overprotective caveman bit. It got even worse when Alex came home from school because then I had two of them following me around like little puppies asking if I was alright and if I needed anything.

Because my dad didn’t want me wallowing and thinking about it all the time, he insisted that I stay downstairs and hang out with them rather than be alone in my room. I knew they were only doing it because they cared and were worried about me, but by dinnertime I was about ready to scream. I felt trapped, and I needed a change of scenery before I went insane.

I excused myself from watching some car chase programme that they were both engrossed in, and headed into the bathroom. As I closed the door behind me, I leant against it and blew out a big breath. I needed air. It felt like I was slowly suffocating, choking on the overprotective fumes that filled my house. I needed out for a little while.

I looked around hopelessly, knowing that as soon as I said I was leaving the house my dad and brother would insist that one of them came with me. I fruitlessly tried to think of a plan that would give me a few minutes on my own. All I could come up with was leaving without telling anyone, but I wasn’t that desperate, or stupid. People in horror movies always did stupid stuff like leaving without telling people where they were going so it took ages for them to be missed. No, I wasn’t stupid enough for that. But I needed to get out of the house.

Charlotte. A visit to Charlotte’s would calm my nerves; we could talk about unimportant things and then maybe this nervous tension would leave my body for a while. I grinned as I pulled my phone from my pocket, dialling her number.

She answered on the fifth ring. “Hey,” she chirped.

“Hi. Are you home? I need to get out of the house and just do something normal. Want to hang out and watch a movie or something? I’ll bring something sickeningly romantic,” I suggested hopefully.