Hazel opened the front door. She expected her raised foot to touch down on the doorstep but it never reached it. As she strode out from the doorway she suddenly found herself falling, tumbling over something large in her path which she hadn’t had chance to see. The first thing she noticed of the outside world was the sky which she viewed from the flat of her back. “OW!” she cried having a delayed reaction to the fall.
“OW!” Came a cry from elsewhere. Startled she quickly picked herself up. “Would you mind where you’re going?” a voice grumbled at her.
“Mind where I’m going?” asked Hazel astounded. “This is my –“astonishment paralyzed her ability to speak. Impossible as it was, stood right in front of her was the stranger from the college dusting himself down on her footpath. “You?” she exclaimed realising he must have been the obstacle she fell over. The man looked up and was as surprised as she was to see her.
“What are you doing here?” he asked sharply.
“Me? I live here!” Hazel said verily astonished by the man’s attitude. He was behaving as if she was the trespasser. “What were you doing on my doorstep?” she pressed.
“Well I didn’t know it was yours,” he protested.
“Really? I find that hard to believe. First you impersonate my arts teacher then I find you’ve kidnapped him,” she stressed. “Then you turn up on my doorstep. What is that if not stalking? Rachel said I should have called the police. She was right she said you’d fine me,” she took a step back realising she was no longer by the safety of the door as that was where he was standing.
The man just looked at her vaguely as though she was speaking a foreign language. “Have you got a cat?” he asked fancifully. Hazel was dumb struck for a second or two.
“What?” she asked in astonishment. He had just changed the subject completely, without any warning as easy as flicking on a switch. He didn’t seem to notice never mind care that she had just insinuated he had followed her here. She didn’t know whether to be frightened or angry.
She had spent the whole weekend stewing on this. Rachel fussing round her whilst she tried to piece it all together and accept what had happened as an isolated incident, now the cause of all her distress was stood on her doorstep ignoring her protestations and asking questions about cats instead. “A cat? Long furry thing. You got one?” he asked with the air of someone on a gentle care free stroll treating it as the most natural enquiry imaginable.
“Are you even listening to me?” Hazel stressed.
“I was smelling your doorstep,” the stranger explained leisurely placing his hands into his trouser pockets.
“What for?” Hazel suddenly felt her fear and frustration ebb away into confusion and a strange sense of curiosity. The stranger saw this as his chance to show off. He took one hand from his pocket and pointed at the doorstep stepping towards it as if giving a demonstration.
“You’ve had a dead bird dropped their roughly about four days ago and unless it made a text book crash landing only cats bring dead birds to a doorstep.” He seemed rather pleased with himself. Hazel’s eyes narrowed.
“Are you completely mad?” she asked dumbfounded her face contorted into an image of confusion.
“No, it’s fact. They think it’s a present,” he insisted. Hazel suddenly snapped out of it realising she’d been drawn in and side-tracked by his trivial observation.
“Why are we having this conversation?” she asked bewildered.
“You asked me what I was doing on your doorstep,” he said plainly as if it explained itself. “Although it’s not the out and out reason,” he said a little more wearily. “Who goes round sniffing at people’s doorsteps?” he smiled as if to say “I’m not mad”.
“You apparently,” Hazel threw back at him. “Curiosity. Ha! There you see? Another cat reference.” He realised he wasn’t helping to ease the tension. “Thank you by the way for not going to the police,” he said with sincerity.
“I don’t know why I didn’t,” Hazel replied seriously with an underlining threat it might still happen. Before the man could answer Rachel suddenly appeared in the doorway.
“Who are you talking to?” she asked. Hazel hadn’t been able to close the door when she stumbled over him so Rachel had been able to hear their voices from the living room. Hazel looked at the stranger for help; she didn’t know what to say. Rachel had caught her with him but she had questions she wanted answering but she knew Rachel would hit the roof if she found out who the man really was.
“This, this, this is –“
“Hello I was just passing,” intervened the man giving a courteous salute to Rachel.
“Yes just passing,” Hazel confirmed.
“By our front door?” asked Rachel suspiciously. Hazel knew she wasn’t good at lying and if Rachel sensed it she wouldn’t let it drop.
“Yes that’s right. Charming front door,” replied the man giving Hazel a little more breathing space.
“We met at the college,” she added. “He was just passing and recognised me,” Hazel continued innocently.
“But you said all the students in the class were women,” pointed out Rachel. Hazel hated it when she did this; she was like a dog with a bone.
“Well no we didn’t meet in class as such did we?” Hazel cringed looking for further assistance from her now ‘fellow student’.
The stranger was feeling just as hot under the collar with this line of questioning as Hazel was. For one thing he didn’t have time for satisfying nosey parkers who had nothing better to do not when he considered his true purpose for being here. However he knew he’d left Hazel in the lurch by asking her not to tell the truth about that night, so all the questioning was a direct result of his request. He was grateful that she’d clearly kept her word so the least he felt he could do was to try and dig her out of this mess.
“No, no I mean what would I want with life drawing?” he winced with a reassuring titter he wasn’t even convinced by.
“It was during a break in the refectory,” Hazel lied leaving the stranger cringing feeling she was trying too hard.
“Refectory now is it? Right so you met in the canteen.” Rachel didn’t appreciate fancy names she was the type to call a spade a spade. “What do you study?” she pressed on with her interrogation.
“Err,” he paused lost for words he hadn’t thought of that.
“You don’t know?” she asked finding it hard to believe.
“I don’t pay much attention,” the man shrugged with an innocent smile. “Photography,” he suddenly announced the idea suddenly coming to him. “Yes I do photography. Love a good lens,” he winked at Rachel.
“Ha! Why does that not surprise me?” Rachel sneered. “Men and cameras, who else would be behind the lens? You never see many women do you? But they don’t want to do the same things with a camera as men do,” she said disparagingly pointing at the man accusingly before going back inside and closing the front door behind her.
Hazel just looked at the man sympathetically. “She’s divorced,” she said simply as if to justify her sister.
“Why does that not surprise me?” retorted the man. Hazel let slip the tiniest of smiles.
“So if you’re not here about the other night why are you here?” she asked. “And why did you tie up Mr Willis?” The man chewed on his bottom lip, shoved his hands into his pockets and strode past her.
“That’s rather a complicated issue but as to why I am here, I am making enquiries about the missing girl,” he answered.
“Jessica Clarke? Why are you interested in her?” Hazel scrutinized.
“I didn’t kidnap her if that’s what you’re implying?” He spun on his heels sharply glaring at her disapprovingly.
“So why are you interested in her?” Hazel probed. “You’re not the police you proved that the other night when you asked me not to call them.” The man didn’t speak. “Maybe I should call them now,” she threatened.
“Do that, “he insisted. “ They’ll never find me,” he remarked confidently.
“You’re not hard to describe,” she remarked. “Red waistcoat, dark trousers, red cravat, dark jacket. The same clothes you were the other night.” Hazel had only just noticed this as she said it. He was exactly as he was three days ago. Why? The only difference seemed to be a thin layer of stubble protruding from his chin.
“People can’t always be found especially if they don’t want to be.” He narrowed his eyebrows as he spoke his tone becoming much darker. “You are three streets away from where Jessica Clarke went missing and yet, not a sign. Her parents won’t get any comfort from the police. You won’t find her here.”
Hazel began to feel very prickly. She knew he was being deadly serious and what he was saying was possibly true. “I don’t want to talk about missing children,” she snapped folding her arms defensively. “It’s not the sort of thing people should be gossiping about.”
She wanted to change the subject so badly but she was overwhelmed with emotion. She didn’t see any of this as a game; she had to put this man right. “You don’t have a clue how those parents are feeling, saying the police won’t find her is a terrible thing to say.” The stranger looked sensing the hidden truth of her heart. He knew there was more to her reaction than he could understand.
“Perhaps,” he said softly. “Then I’ll depart I have some enquiring to do.” He gave her a warm smile and began to walk away.
“But that still doesn’t explain why you were on my doorstep?” She called but the stranger didn’t respond, he didn’t speak or turn he just simply walked away. Before Hazel could react the front door opened again.
“Are you going to work today?” Rachel asked obnoxiously but Hazel had already made her mind up.
“No. Quick phone work and tell them I’m sick. I’ve got something to do,” she said determined to get to the bottom of what was going on.
“But you’re not sick,” Rachel pointed out.
“Look I haven’t got time to explain, phone work then get a coat and come with me. I’m going to follow him.”
“Why what’s he done? Who is he?” Rachel was puzzled as to what was going on. ‘What was so important about this man for her to be missing work?’
“Just text me when you’re done and I’ll tell you where I am,” Hazel instructed desperate to go before she lost the man for good.
“I don’t understand. You’re going to give up a day’s work just to follow a trainee photographer?” Rachel asked bemused.
“Gemma’s always saying I should get out of that place. I’m taking her advice,” Hazel shrugged racing off to catch the man before he could escape.
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