tell him I’m there, so he leaves the rest of you alone.”
I said, “With your ankle sprained? Alone? No, you shouldn’t. And tomorrow, I’ll be installing cameras here, and redoing the gate as well. The rest is fenced already, and the sea makes a pretty good barrier. No worries, Frankie. Unless he arrives in a Zodiac inflatable with his Special Forces team, he’s not getting in.” I thought a second, then told Daisy, “And don’t tell me it’ll be expensive, and decide you’ve got to somehow mortgage more of your life to pay for it. It’s no more than what I should’ve done already. Also: six-thirty tomorrow. That’s our date. Be ready.”
“That’s …” she started to say. “That’s … so extremely high-handed.”
“Yeh,” I said. “Probably. So let me ask nicely. Want to come outside and kiss me goodnight?”
Daisy
I did go out with him. Of course I did. The second the door shut behind me, I said, “Gray …”
He didn’t joke, and he didn’t brush me off. He said, “No, I’m not that casual. I’m bloody filthy about it. Frankie doesn’t need to hear that, though, and she doesn’t need to hear any worry, either. She needs to hear that it’s going to be OK. She needs to hear that everybody’s safe. I’d have said you needed to hear the same thing, but I don’t think so. I think you need to hear that I’m taking it seriously, and I’m going to do everything I can to make it stop. Meanwhile, I’m here for the weekend, and Mum’s here with the girls. I’ll put those cameras on, and not just on the gate. All around the section. I’ve got an alarm on the house already. Frankie’s going to be safe here, and so are you.”
“And your mum,” I said. Somehow, I had my arms around his waist, and he had his hands on my shoulders. He was solid ground, was what it was. His hands were so big. Also, he smelled nice. Like honey and spice again, and like man.
“And my mum,” he promised, and bent his head and kissed me. Gently. Softly.
“What about Gilead?” I asked. “Frankie did the protection order, and your mum can tell the police you suspect him, I guess, but without any evidence … Unless somebody saw him …”
“Too big a section to be likely,” Gray said. “Plantings all around it, too. I designed it for privacy. Perils of being a sportsman. But I’ll ask them to check, yeh.”
“Will you …” I hesitated.
“Will I what?” he asked.
“How do you warn him off?” I asked. “Or more like—how do we do it?”
“I have a couple ideas. I’m guessing I’ll be more effective than you on that one, though he should be scared of you. I wouldn’t say you’re a Jack Russell, but …” He kissed me again, then said, “I’ll see you tomorrow at six-thirty. Wear trousers.”
I blinked. “Well, that’s something nobody’s said to me before.” I’d been thinking about a dress, about how sexy I was willing to go for this. Pretty bloody sexy, I’d decided. Start as you mean to go on, they said, and maybe I would feel like that sultry vixen, with the candlelight and all, if I dressed like it.
“Because you have pretty legs,” he said. “Yeh, you do. Do me a favor, though. Wear trousers anyway.”
43
Precautions and Plans
Gray
I didn’t make one call that night. I made four.
The first was the one I’d told the others about: a mate in Wanaka, a small-time contractor. When I’d explained, he said, “Course I will. First thing tomorrow. New window glass, and cameras.”
“Cameras everywhere,” I told him. “Not just at the door. The burglar alarm didn’t scare him off. Maybe cameras will.”
“Your mum there and all, too,” Rangi said. “Not good.”
“She’s staying on with me for a bit,” I said.
“Still,” Rangi said. “I’d want to take the bastard out before I let my mum move back.”
“Well, yeh,” I said. “That’s the idea. Cheers, uso. Sure you don’t want to move to Dunedin and be my foreman?”
“Nah,” Rangi said. “I’ll take being my own boss, thanks very much. If I worked for you, I’d have to kill you.”
I laughed and rang off. And then I made the second call.
“Yeh,” Luke Armstrong said. No words wasted, as usual. When I explained the situation with Gilead—or what I assumed was Gilead, because the hard truth was that I didn’t know—he said, “What can I do?”
“He’s done both his visits around the same time of day,” I said. “An