A disturbing thought suddenly came into Libby’s mind. What if it was not the first time her mother had suffered this particular trauma? What if she had experienced it all before, and suffered in silence? And what if she had not screamed? What if she had crouched by the window all night long, not daring to move or call for help? ‘He’s been here before.’ Her mother truly believed that.
Libby herself could not accept the possibility that some unknown stalker was out there, spying on them. As far as she was aware, neither she nor her mother had any enemies. So, why would anyone want to hurt them?
These past years, Eileen had suffered many attacks of paranoia, but this time it was different. It felt more real. And what did she mean when she told Libby, ‘I don’t want him to hurt you – it’s not your fault’?
Deeply troubled, Libby turned over and sank into a restless sleep.
‘MOLLY !’ LAYING THE receiver beside the telephone, Brian hurried to the bottom of the stairs. He waited a moment, then when there was no sign of her, he called again, this time more loudly: ‘Molly, get down here, will you?! Jack’s on the phone, and my toast is going cold!’
Molly appeared at the door of her bedroom, ‘What does he want?’
Already frustrated with her for having stayed with him longer than he’d expected, Brian thumped the banister with his clenched fist. ‘How would I know?! You should answer your mobile, then he wouldn’t need to call the land-line!’
When she came running down, he lowered his voice so Jack could not hear. ‘Don’t you think you should put the poor devil out of his misery? Meet up with him, for crying out loud! All he’s asking is that you talk things through.’
‘Hmph!’ She raised her voice so Jack might hear. ‘As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing to talk through!’
Brian shook his head in despair. ‘Honestly, Sis, you can be a nasty piece of work when you set your mind to it.’
Making a face, she was about to go over and pick up the phone, when she changed her mind, deciding that it wouldn’t do any harm to keep Jack waiting.
From the doorway, Brian watched in disbelief as she calmly stood over the telephone, obviously enjoying the moment. ‘Are you going to speak to him or what?’ he deliberately spoke loudly before giving a wry little smile as Molly spun round, gesturing for him to clear off out of it. Which he did.
Snatching up the receiver, Molly was irritated. ‘Yes? What is it you want now?’ Determined to make Jack suffer, she called out to her brother, ‘Brian? Where’s Mal?’
‘Gone – as you well know!’
For Jack’s sake, she feigned disappointment. ‘Oh, and he never even gave me a kiss goodbye.’
Brian made no further comment. Not for the first time, he had been shocked by his sister’s behaviour. If he was Jack, he’d have been long gone. Because Molly was his sister and his landlady, it put him in a bad position; so much so that, he had secretly started looking for somewhere else to live. Though, if this development deal came through, he might even find himself in a position to put down a deposit and actually buy a place.
He could see that Molly was just using Mal to make Jack jealous. He had always been aware of his sister’s shortcomings, but lately, he had seen a side to her that had truly disgusted him. He would not interfere in her life, but once he got himself another place, she would hear a few home-truths from him – and so, for that matter, would Mal. His mate was a good bloke, but he was too trusting, and too besotted with Molly, to see what she was really like.
Torn between the devil and the deep blue sea, he wanted to warn Mal to be on his guard. On the other hand, if he told him the brutal truth – that Molly had no real feelings for him – he might risk Mal falling out with him, and he didn’t want that. Not when the man was like a brother to him, and especially not now, when they had committed themselves to working on this big project together.
Brian felt that the sooner he was out of Molly’s house, the better. He had never thought he would say it, but living under the same roof as his big sister was just too uncomfortable for words.
Now, on hearing Molly play the injured party, he decided to skip his now cold toast and make a run for it, before she came off the phone and turned her spite on him. Within minutes, he was out the door and gone.
Brian just didn’t get it. Mal and Jack, both infatuated with his sister. ‘Jack’s either hopelessly in love and can’t see the forest for the trees, or he’s hoping to change her selfish ways.’ Then he said out loud, ‘You’ve no chance, mate! Best get rid of her while you can.’ He jumped on his motorbike and revved it, hard. ‘If you don’t, she’ll make your life a misery.’
The thing was, when they were younger Molly was an OK sister. But somewhere along the line, she’d become hard and selfish.
The conversation was not going Molly’s way. ‘So nothing I’ve said has changed your mind, Jack?’ she asked in a hurt voice. ‘You’re still hell-bent on leaving me?’
‘Don’t put it like that, Moll.’ Jack felt guilty, but he was not about to undo all his plans, at least not when she refused to even discuss a middle way. ‘We can go up north together – make a new life. Get married sooner rather than later. I’m ready for that—’
‘Are you, now?’ Molly’s voice shook with anger. ‘Well, I’m not! You think you can just click your fingers and expect me to throw away my job, but you have no intention of doing the same for me. The answer is no. Unless you ask for your old job back and drop this idea of chasing ghosts, I want nothing more to do with you.’
Jack had been trying to see it from her point of view. ‘What if I didn’t accept the post permanently?’ he suggested. ‘What if I was to ask for a trial period of, say, three months? It’s not unknown for an employee to do that and still retain his old position. Think about it, Moll. Three months would maybe give me enough time to search for answers. It will at least give me a chance to do some delving – to go back to my old stamping-ground and search for the answers I so badly need.’
‘You won’t find any answers there, Jack. You’re not the only person in the world who suffers from nightmares, but other people learn to live with them. So why are you so determined to ruin our lives by going on this wild goose-chase? Why can’t you stay where you are, and maybe spend a weekend or even a couple of weekends up there? You’ll soon find out that there are no answers.’
‘That’s not what the psychiatrist hinted.’
‘Yes! That’s exactly it. He just hinted, and you jumped on the idea, like the fool you are.’
Jack chose to ignore that spiteful remark. ‘But I need you to support me, Moll. It’s important to me. One way or another, will you give me the time to find out if there is any truth in what he suggested – that my nightmares are rooted in real events that I can’t shut out?’
None of what Jack had said had made any impression on Molly, except to fuel her rage. ‘I wish I’d never suggested you going to see him!’ she snapped. ‘The idea was for you to get some closure of sorts. Not to leave me and go searching for something that isn’t even there.’
‘Well, whether you like it or not, this is something I have to do. It might be the solution I’m looking for, and apart from that, when the promotion came up and it was offered to me, it was too good an opportunity to turn down. Surely you can see that, Molly?’
When she remained silent, he asked her again, ‘So, are you prepared to