Chapter 65

Present day

Amanda

Amanda Danson had no real evidence to support her suspicions so she hadn’t actually mentioned it to anyone yet.

It was just a feeling. That was all.

As she kept telling herself: it was one thing knowing for certain you were being watched but another thing entirely to prove it.

Of course, it could be that she was simply going crazy but more likely it was just that, after what happened at work, she was feeling very nervous.

It had been a fairly uneventful day up to early afternoon but her stomach felt fluttery whenever she thought about seeing Liam later. It had been a long time since she’d felt like that about anyone; everything had changed after the tragedy. She had kept her head down, created a new, low-key existence.

It had all been so. . . final.

But this was supposed to be a fresh start, and she liked to think part of Carla was still alive. Through her, Carla lived on.

She had spent the morning actually looking forward to seeing Liam later and even planning to pick up a bunch of flowers for his sweet gran on the way over there.

At two fifteen, after ten minutes tidying the role-play area, everything changed.

Amanda had been just about to go up for her afternoon break when Carol Hartnell, the nursery’s Business Manager, approached her.

Carol’s partner, Susan, owned the West Bridgford franchise of Busy Bees but she basically left her to run the place and boy, did Carol enjoy wielding her power.

‘Pop into my office when you’ve got a minute,’ she said discreetly to Amanda as she whisked past. Her eyes darted everywhere at once, noting what tasks had been neglected by the staff.

‘What did she say?’ Sarah hissed from the carpeted reading area when Carol went back to her office. Obviously Carol hadn’t spoken discreetly enough.

‘She wants to see me.’

‘Ooh, I wonder if it’s about the lead TA job?’

Amanda shrugged but she supposed Sarah could be right. It might well be about the new position that was coming up in a couple of months at the Mansfield branch when Janis Lawton moved back down south. Amanda had indicated an interest in the lead Teaching Assistant vacancy but that was before the accident and she hadn’t thought much about it since.

‘You’ll be set up if you get that,’ Sarah gushed. ‘A big pay rise, very nice.’

‘I doubt they’re going to just hand it to me like that,’ Amanda laughed. And a big pay rise still wouldn’t bring her salary anywhere near what she’d been earning before but there was no sense lamenting those days. ‘There’ll be interviews. Janis said that Karen Butler from the Mansfield branch was hanging her nose over it.’

‘Ugh, she’d put parents off bringing their kids in,’ said Sarah, blobbing out her tongue. ‘Perma-tanned chav.’

Amanda couldn’t help smiling; it was a good observation, if a little cruel.

She finished folding the mini police uniforms onto a hanger and left the other roleplay clothes for someone else to do later.

‘Back in five.’

‘Good luck,’ Sarah called.

Amanda walked over and tapped at Carol’s open office door. Carol looked up, smiled and beckoned her in but there was a tightness about her face that Amanda didn’t like the look of.

‘There has been a concern raised by a parent that I have to get to the bottom of,’ she said as soon as Amanda sat down. Carol wasn’t one for niceties.

Amanda felt the muscles freeze in her face. ‘A concern about me?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ Carol nodded.

Amanda mentally scanned through her dealings with parents and children over the past week. Nothing untoward sprang to mind.

It had been a completely normal week with only the usual occurrences; the odd harmless scuffle between kids and one or two very minor first aid cases. That was it.

‘So,’ Carol said, finally looking up from a printed A4 sheet, ‘a potential client emailed Mansfield HQ to report, and I quote, their “very bad experience with Miss Amanda Danson, at the West Bridgford branch”.’

Amanda opened her mouth to protest but Carol raised a hand to silence her while she continued to read.

‘“Miss Danson seemed distracted and disinterested when I came in to view the facilities with a view to my youngest child starting the nursery. Several times I had to repeat information that I consider to be key, and she took a personal telephone call in the middle of my appointment”.’

Carol stopped reading and put the piece of paper back down on her desk. She folded her hands in her lap and leaned back in her chair, looking at her expectantly.

Amanda opened her eyes wide and shook her head.

‘I swear nothing like that happened, Carol.’

She knew she sounded defensive and unconvincing but she was telling the truth. Her mind was still racing through the week, trying to match up anything that could be construed as negligent or unprofessional. She came up with a blank.

‘Did the person leave their details?’ Amanda asked. ‘If I knew their name I could—’

‘I haven’t got that information,’ Carol shook her head. ‘Apparently, they told Mansfield they weren’t interested in any involvement in an investigation but simply wanted to let this branch know about their experience as a new client.’

Amanda wrestled with a sharp niggle of injustice.

‘But anyone could just ring up and say things about any one of us,’ she tried to reason. ‘They should at least be required to leave their names to prove they’re genuine.’

Carol’s face darkened.

‘This is not the response I’d hoped to get from you, Amanda.’ She slid a sheet of paper over the desk. ‘Take this away with you and have a good look through it. It’s a list of the appointments you’ve conducted with new parents for the past two weeks.’

Amanda took the list but she didn’t look at it.

Of course she felt defensive, she was being attacked through no fault of her own. She couldn’t deal with this happening, not after what had happened in the past. It was like history repeating itself.

‘I already know there’s no point in going through this list.’ She glared back at Carol. ‘I would never take a personal phone call in the middle of an appointment.’

Sure, her mum had called her at work a couple of times since the accident just to check she was OK. But she had definitely been on her break both times, never in the middle of showing a parent around.

‘Well, I have to add there have been one or two comments made to me lately from colleagues, so it’s not just this complaint that concerns me.’

Amanda was speechless. Who had been ‘commenting’ – code word for snitching – to their common enemy, Carol? Not Sarah, she was dizzy and thoughtless at times but surely. . .

‘I realise you’ve had the accident to contend with and, if you recall, I did suggest you take a little more time off if you needed it,’ Carol continued. ‘People have noticed your attention span isn’t what it was, and you seem to have lost interest in social activities that are important to the branch as a team.’

‘That’s just not fair,’ Amanda said, fighting back tears.

Who had been talking about her behind her back?

She glanced out of the glass side panel of the office and saw Sarah looking over.

‘I totally dispute what you’re saying; I’ve tried not to let the accident affect my job but it has been hard.’

‘I understand,’ Carol agreed. ‘Which is why I suggested you might not want to rush back to work when you did.’

Amanda folded her arms and glowered.

‘We can’t follow up on this complaint because there are no further details. Just take this as an informal chat. It’s in your own interests to try and up your game from this point forward.’

‘But what they said isn’t true,’ Amanda protested, not wanting to move until Carol believed she was innocent. ‘Someone has obviously got it in for me; they’re trying to make trouble.’

A flicker of impatience crossed Carol’s face.

‘I haven’t got time to endlessly debate this,’ she said firmly. ‘Let’s just agree you’re going to buckle back down and focus properly on your role again. I have to say, I don’t think you should be considering applying for the lead TA position at this point in time.’

Amanda found herself dismissed and drifted out of Carol’s office like a zombie. Her heart bumped painfully against her chest, her breathing suddenly rapid and shallow.

She searched frantically in her head for a reason someone might complain about her. Perhaps the parent had got the wrong member of staff, surely that was possible? But no, according to Carol they had used her full name.

Maybe she had been a bit distracted with some of the parents.

The car accident had affected her, brought back horrible memories. . . but she definitely hadn’t taken a call mid-conversation with a parent. That, she was certain of.

‘How’d it go?’ Sarah squeaked when she got back.

She snatched up her handbag and walked out without replying. She badly needed a break and some fresh air.

---

Somehow, Amanda managed to get through the afternoon.

When she returned from her short walk, she told Sarah straight that she didn’t want to discuss her conversation with Carol. To her credit Sarah backed off and left her alone for the rest of the day.

The worst part was this new nervy feeling about who she could really trust. For all she knew, a colleague could have anonymously contacted Mansfield HQ and made an untrue complaint about her, simply to scupper her chances of getting the lead TA job.

But walking to the bus stop after work, she found herself turning around a couple of times for no other reason than a creeping sickness in the pit of her stomach.

Quietly, her brain had made a very faint link between the feeling someone was watching her and the fact that somebody was trying to cause trouble for her at work.

She scanned the pavement behind her and over the road but couldn’t see anyone.

There had been two or three instances where she had almost seen something, mad as it sounded. You can’t almost see anything: you either do or you don’t, right? And yet that was the only way she could really describe it.

And there were the calls to consider. Numerous, silent calls where she couldn’t hear anything at all but could feel the animosity trickling down the line.

Ten minutes later, she got off the bus and walked down the street. She felt OK now; maybe it was just a touch of anxiety through the stress at work today but then, as she turned into the driveway, she caught movement across the road out of the corner of her eye.

When she looked up there was nothing, nobody there at all.

At first she was convinced someone had dashed behind a parked car to avoid being spotted, so she waited for a minute or two at the gate but no one reappeared.

When she got inside the house, she had a cup of tea and a chat with her mum. She didn’t mention anything about her concerns, and her mum was on the late shift so she’d have an early night.

Amanda texted Liam and said she was feeling unwell. She couldn’t face having to go over there and act all upbeat.

He tried to ring her back but she ignored the call.

She couldn’t face going out tonight. She longed for a relaxing bath and to catch up on the last couple of days’ soaps on TV.

That would take her mind off things.

Two hours later, up in her bedroom, she’d almost forgotten about being creeped out earlier. Until she turned to close the curtains and saw that same infuriatingly quick movement just out of her visual range.

She turned the bedside lamps off and peered out of the window, scrutinising the churchyard and the path that ran parallel to the road. There were lots of trees and bushes and places to dash behind if someone wanted to remain hidden.

She closed the curtains but left a tiny gap through which she could stand and watch if the mood took her.

She really was starting to wonder if she was imagining things. After all, who would want to spy on or follow her?