Читать книгу Stalker - Lisa Stone, Lisa Stone - Страница 16

In the restaurant the waiter had just asked if they’d like to see the dessert menu.

‘I couldn’t possibly,’ Julie Williams said with a small sigh of satisfaction from having eaten a delicious meal.

‘I will,’ Russ said.

Julie raised her eyebrows. Russ was supposed to be trying to lose a few pounds that had built up around his middle from too many business lunches.

‘There’s no harm in looking,’ he said with a smile. The waiter went to fetch the menu.

‘Have whatever you fancy,’ Julie said. ‘We don’t do this often. It was a lovely suggestion, coming here. Thank you. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.’

‘Good, I’m pleased.’ He reached across the table and took her hand. ‘I know I don’t say it often, but you do know I love you, don’t you?’

‘Yes, of course,’ she said, returning his smile, ‘although it’s nice to hear it. I love you too.’

The waiter returned with the large leather-bound menu and set it in front of Russ, open at the dessert page.

‘I’ll give you a minute to decide,’ he said, leaving them to study it.

Russ began reading out the list of delicious desserts: ‘Chocolate fudge cake, banoffee pie, raspberry trifle, apple pie, cheesecake. Hmm.’ Julie smiled. ‘And all served with whipped cream. Are you sure I can’t tempt you?’

‘No, I couldn’t possibly. You have one though.’

Russ felt his phone in the top pocket of his shirt vibrate with an incoming text message, and took it out without taking his eyes from the menu. Then Julie’s phone in her handbag beside her chair also bleeped. He glanced up and putting the menu on the table swiped the screen on his phone. Julie took her phone from her bag. They always checked messages straightaway when they were out in case it was their babysitter with a concern about the children.

‘It’s an email from Home Security,’ Russ said. ‘Subject, camera warning.’

‘So is mine,’ Julie said, immediately concerned.

He read out the message as Julie saw the same words on her phone: ‘This is an automated message to alert you to a possible breach of security in your surveillance system. Please log in and check your cameras now. If you have forgotten your password, click on the link below.’

‘Do you think there’s something wrong?’ she asked anxiously.

‘It could be a camera malfunctioning but we should check as the message says. You know our password?’

She nodded and with mounting concern logged in.

Silence as they both viewed the images coming from the cameras in their house, less defined on the small screens of their mobiles compared to the monitor on the wall at home.

‘Everything looks all right,’ Russ said enlarging the images one at a time as much as the screen size would allow.

‘But where’s Sophie?’ Julie said. ‘I can’t see her in the living room.’

‘Making a cup of tea?’ Russ offered. ‘Or in the bathroom, or checking on the children. Don’t worry. I’m sure everything is fine but we’ll phone her to make sure.’

‘I’ll phone her mobile,’ Julie said, bringing up her list of contacts. ‘The landline will wake Jack and Phoebe.’

She pressed for Sophie’s number as Russ continued viewing the images being sent live from their cameras.

‘Come on, Sophie, pick up. Where are you?’ Julie said agitatedly as her mobile rang and rang.

‘I’ve just spotted her phone on the table in the living room,’ Russ said. ‘It’s probably on silent. Try the landline.’

Julie cut the call to Sophie’s mobile and pressed their home number. It rang and rang. Panic kicked in. ‘Where the hell is she?’ Then finally it was answered with a quiet, ‘Hello?’

‘Sophie. It’s Julie. Is everything all right?’

‘Yes. Why?’

‘We had a message from the security firm saying there might be something wrong.’

‘No, everything is fine here, honestly.’

‘You took a long time to answer the phone.’

‘I’ve been upstairs checking on the children.’

‘Oh, OK. Thanks,’ she said, relieved. ‘And no one has called at the house?’

‘No.’

Julie didn’t want to panic the girl by saying the email had mentioned a possible breach in security. She’d said everything was fine so it was very likely an insect had tripped the system as had happened in the past, but this time the CCTV had triggered an automated email. ‘We won’t be long. We’re just finishing off,’ Julie said.

‘OK. No worries. See you later.’

She said goodbye and returned her phone to her bag. ‘She says everything is all right and she was checking on Jack and Phoebe. I guess it was an error?’

‘Maybe,’ Russ said hesitantly, still studying his phone and the image from the camera in their living room. On the floor beside their sofa he’d noticed two empty whisky glasses. Suddenly Sophie and a young man appeared in the living room, dishevelled and tucking in their clothes. He turned the phone to show Julie the screen.

‘Who’s that?’ she cried, her hand shooting to her mouth.

‘Boyfriend, I guess. She didn’t tell you he was coming?’

‘No, of course not!’

Russ summoned the waiter for the bill as Julie threw on her jacket.

‘No dessert or coffee, Sir?’

‘No, thank you; just the bill.’

Russ settled it quickly and they left, with him trying to reassure Julie that the children were safe, but that it made sense to go home straightaway. She didn’t need telling twice.

Outside, the chill in the autumn air seemed even sharper now and Julie pulled her jacket closer. ‘You’re taking it very well, Russ, but I’m furious with her. I trusted her implicitly. Just wait till I see her!’

‘I’m sure Sophie wouldn’t have neglected the children,’ he said, unlocking the car. ‘She’s done what many teenagers do – acted irresponsibly.’ They got in. ‘And to be honest, Jules, if she’d asked us if she could have her boyfriend round we would probably have said yes.’

‘Would we?’ Julie snapped the buckle on her seatbelt into place. ‘You might have but I certainly wouldn’t. She’s fourteen, Russ. A minor. I dread to think what her parents will say. They’ll need to know.’

‘Let’s see what Sophie has to say first, shall we?’ He started the engine and pulled away. ‘Perhaps they’ve just been sitting there playing Scrabble.’

‘It didn’t look like Scrabble to me.’

In contrast to the atmosphere and conversation during their journey to the restaurant – which had been light and convivial with the promise of a romantic meal for two at their favourite restaurant – it was now loaded with anxiety and recrimination. The silence was only broken by Julie’s morbid conjectures: ‘I can’t see how she’s been looking after the children properly if she’s been cavorting with her boyfriend … Supposing one of the children woke and saw or heard them? I bet she tried to switch off the camera in the living room so we couldn’t see them. That would have triggered the email, wouldn’t it?’

‘Yes, good point,’ Russ agreed. ‘But try to calm down, Jules, there’s no real harm been done. She said the kids are fine and we don’t want a big fall out between our families.’

Julie stiffened. When it came to the children’s safety and wellbeing she couldn’t accept Russ’s platitudes. In other circumstances two teenagers canoodling on her sofa wouldn’t have caused her the same upset and indignation, but anything to do with the children was an entirely different matter. She’d have fought off a pack of hungry wolves to protect Jack and Phoebe, so strong was her in-built maternal instinct. And of course she also felt some responsibility for Sophie, who was only fourteen and her goddaughter.

Five minutes later they pulled onto their driveway and Russ cut the engine. Julie immediately threw open her car door. ‘Let me handle it,’ Russ said, touching her arm.

With her face set in reluctant compliance, she followed him to their front door and waited as he unlocked it, glancing up at the camera. If Sophie was looking at the monitor in the hall she’d be able to see them now. Russ opened the front door and she followed him in. The house was quiet as it should be. Sophie was in the living room sitting on the sofa with the television on low.

‘Hello,’ she said sweetly, standing as they entered. ‘Did you have a nice time?’

‘Yes, thank you,’ Russ said, looking around the room. There was no sign of the glass tumblers. Presumably she’d washed and dried them and returned them to the cupboard. ‘Was everything all right here?’

‘Yes. Perfectly.’ She picked up her phone ready to leave, apparently eager to go. ‘Will you be giving me a lift home or shall I call a cab?’

‘I’ll take you,’ Russ said.

Julie couldn’t contain her anger any longer. ‘Who was that lad you had here while we were out?’ she demanded.

‘Pardon?’ Sophie said indignantly. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ But her cheeks were already flushing red.

‘Don’t play the innocent with me,’ Julie flared. ‘You had your boyfriend here.’

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘Well, who was he then?’

‘Who?’

Sensing that Sophie was about to dig herself further into a hole with more lies, Russ stepped in. ‘Sophie, you’re not in any trouble but—’

‘Yes, she is,’ Julie put in.

‘Why? What are you accusing me of?’ Sophie hissed.

Julie pointed to the camera in the far corner of the room. ‘We saw you with your boyfriend in here.’

Sophie looked at the camera and then at them. ‘You’ve been watching me through that?’ she said astounded. ‘Spying on me!’

‘There! So we know you’re lying,’ Julie snapped.

‘No,’ Russ said touching his wife’s arm for her to calm down. ‘Not spying.’ It made them sound like voyeuristic perverts. ‘Sophie, we received an email alert saying there could be a problem with the security system so we viewed the images coming from the cameras on our phones. Not only the outside ones but the one in here too. Only for a couple of minutes.’

‘You can see all of this room?’ Sophie asked.

Russ nodded.

‘What about upstairs?’

‘There aren’t any cameras upstairs.’

‘Why do you want to know that?’ Julie demanded, but she’d already guessed. ‘You took him to our bedroom, didn’t you? You little cow. Wait till I tell your parents.’

‘No, don’t do that!’ Sophie cried, her eyes filling. ‘They’ll be furious with me.’

‘For good reason,’ Julie said. ‘Not only have you betrayed our trust but theirs too.’

‘I didn’t mean to,’ she cried. ‘I promise it won’t happen again.’

‘Too right it won’t!’ Julie fumed. ‘You won’t be babysitting for us again.’

Sophie’s tears fell.

‘All right, enough,’ Russ said stepping in. ‘I’ll take you home now.’

‘You won’t tell my parents, will you?’ Sophie asked Russ in a small, plaintive voice.

‘No, not tonight,’ he said. ‘But I think you need to talk to them.’ Then to Julie, ‘We’ll discuss this later when I get back. OK?’ He could see how wound up she was and knew she could easily phone Sophie’s parents – their long-time friends – and say something she might later regret.

Julie gave a curt nod and then, taking a twenty-pound note from her purse, thrust it at Sophie. ‘Here’s the money I owe you for tonight. Count yourself lucky I’m paying you after the way you’ve behaved.’ She turned and began towards the hall. ‘I’m going to check on the children.’

‘I’ll see you shortly then,’ Russ called after her, and led the way out to the car.

‘I’m sorry,’ Sophie said as they got in. ‘I really didn’t mean to upset you both, but please don’t tell Mum and Dad.’

‘I won’t. We all make mistakes. Jules was very worried about the children. You feel differently when you’re a parent.’

‘Thank you. Will you tell her how sorry I am?’

‘Yes, of course.’ Russ started the engine and pulled away. ‘Sophie, one thing I don’t understand is why we were sent the email alert in the first place. Do you have any idea?’ She shook her head. ‘We weren’t broken into and all the cameras are working so the only other reason I can think of is that the system was tampered with. Did you or your boyfriend touch the monitor or any of the cameras in any way? Please be honest, I’m not angry.’

‘No. Honestly. I didn’t even realize that camera in the living room was working. It wasn’t showing a picture on the screen in the hall.’

‘We only have the outside cameras showing on the monitor. So neither of you tried to switch if off?’

‘No.’

At home Julie had checked on the children – they were both sleeping peacefully – and was now downstairs viewing the recording on the monitor in the hall. She had all the camera images showing and the digital display at the bottom of the screen showed the date and time. She had rewound the tape to where Sophie had arrived to babysit at 6.50pm, and had watched her on the camera trained on their front door as she’d rung the bell and Julie had let her in. Then the camera in the living room showed the three of them talking although she couldn’t hear what they were saying as there was no sound, before she and Russ said goodbye and left. Outside, the camera covering the drive showed them getting into their car and pulling away. Julie then saw Sophie sitting on the sofa texting, presumably to tell her boyfriend they’d gone. Within five minutes he was at their front door, so either he lived in the neighbourhood or he’d been waiting out of sight close by. He didn’t press the bell so Julie guessed Sophie must have told him to text her when he arrived as the doorbell might wake the children. They kissed on the doorstep and then the camera in the living room showed the lad making himself comfortable on the sofa and Sophie leaving the room, grinning. She returned with two glasses containing what looked like gin or vodka and ice.

Ten minutes passed when they sipped their drinks, laughed, snogged and groped each other. Julie fast-forwarded the tape and then stopped as Sophie stood, picked up their empty glasses, left the living room and returned with refills. Cheeky little cow! Then sprawled on the sofa with their drinks on the table, they continued their heavy petting. At one point they stopped and cocked their heads as though they might have heard something and Julie hoped it wasn’t one of the children calling out and being ignored. Another five minutes or so and Sophie had her hand down his trousers and his mouth was on her breasts. It was getting close to the time the email had been sent. Julie looked at the footage sent from the outside cameras but nothing untoward was showing there. More heavy petting; she fast-forwarded again and then slowed the tape to ‘play’ mode again as the lad stood. Clearly aroused, he pulled Sophie up and they disappeared from view, presumably going upstairs to her bedroom to have sex.

The living room stayed empty, and the outside cameras showed no sign of any disturbance that could have tripped the alert. She continued to watch, her anger growing. Russ had been studying the dessert menu now and the emails would shortly arrive on their phones. Another few minutes and she guessed it was the time she’d phoned Sophie’s mobile, but she could see it now lying on the table in the living room. She’d then called the house phone but the living room remained empty so the little minx must have answered the extension in their bedroom. She inwardly fumed as she pictured Sophie untangling herself from her boyfriend to reach out of bed and pick up the handset, just as she and Russ did sometimes. No wonder it had taken her time to answer. She’d been having sex in their bed when she’d phoned!

A minute later she saw them rush into the living room tucking in their clothes, now aware that she and Russ were returning. The boy grabbed his jacket and went out the front door while Sophie tidied up the living room, smoothing the sofa cushions, taking out the glasses. She reappeared in the living room, sat on the sofa and switched on the television. Then to her horror Julie saw her daughter appear in the doorway of the living room, possibly woken by the home phone ringing. She watched as Sophie went over to her and disappeared from view, she assumed taking Phoebe back upstairs to bed. She must have only just dropped off to sleep again when they’d arrived home.

Julie watched as she and Russ came in, her face set in anger and shouting at Sophie while Russ tried to keep the peace. She saw herself thrust the twenty-pound note into Sophie’s hand, then leave to check on the children while Russ took Sophie home. Thank goodness nothing worse had happened, she thought, and thank goodness they’d taken the engineer’s advice and had a camera installed in the living room or they’d never have known. What was it he’d said? Many of my clients who take this option are surprised by what they find goes on in their absence. He’d certainly been right there! Returning the screen to the real time images, Julie left the monitor and went upstairs to change the linen on their bed.