Effie was in the kitchen having a camomile and coconut tea to calm herself. Thankfully the banging and shouting from the cupboard had stopped. It had seemed like a good idea to put Liv and Fraser inside when they had all been standing near the cupboard. She wanted Fraser and Liv to make up because if they didn’t she’d never see Liv again and she really liked her. The back porch door opened and in came Robbie, looking all official and serious.
‘Hey, everything okay?’ asked Effie. ‘I heard you’d been called to a nasty accident.’
‘You can only have received that information from Liv. Has she been released on bail?’
‘No, she’s completely innocent,’ said Effie happily.
Robbie frowned hard. ‘But I found the spray paint in her car.’
Effie shrugged. ‘I don’t believe Liv would do something like that.’
‘Hmm.’ Robbie didn’t sound so sure.
‘Did you want a drink?’ she asked.
‘I am in need of a large hot chocolate,’ he said, leaning on the counter opposite her.
‘Was the accident horrible?’ she asked, unsure whether she really wanted to know any details as her mind found it easy to paint vivid pictures.
‘Absolute carnage,’ he said shaking his head and Effie feared the worst. ‘Low bridge, large lorry, driver not paying attention and hundreds of adult toys and lingerie all over the road.’
That wasn’t exactly what she’d pictured when he’d said carnage. ‘But nobody hurt?’
‘Thankfully not but it took a lot of sorting out, let me tell you.’ Robbie got a mug out of the cupboard.
‘I’m sure it did.’ Effie tried not to giggle at the image in her mind. Poor Robbie, she thought as she passed him the cocoa and a spoon.
‘Did the evening go to plan?’ he asked, as he made his hot chocolate.
Effie had a think about all that had happened. ‘Not entirely.’
‘Poor Fraser – at least he tried,’ he said.
‘That bit was fine. It’s the other stuff.’
Robbie looked interested. ‘Do you want to share? Off the record of course,’ he said, sitting down and hugging his mug.
She paused for a second. She did trust Robbie but she knew how quick people were to judge. ‘I thought I’d met a decent man. One of the good guys, but he turned out to be a scammer and now I feel like a numpty. But I’m hoping to put a curse on him. Nothing deadly – just warts, scabies or athletes foot, that sort of thing.’
‘Have you got his details? Because we can prosecute if there’s any wrongdoing.’
She waved at him to stop. ‘You said off the record. And he’s not committed a crime exactly. He just said lots of nice things and like a fool I believed him. But thanks to Liv I didn’t hand over any cash.’ She rubbed at the corner of her eye where a tear was threatening to fall.
‘There are some terrible people out there. I know. In my line of work you see the worst of society. I’m sorry this happened, but you mustn’t blame yourself. Okay?’
She had been beating herself up but Robbie was right – she needed to stop. ‘I’ll try.’
‘You need to do something that makes you happy, to take your mind off it,’ he suggested. ‘Are you still ghost hunting?’
‘It’s not exactly ghost hunting.’ He gave her a questioning look. ‘It’s more trying to connect with the spirit world.’
‘Most people are terrified of that.’
‘But they’ve not lost someone,’ said Effie. ‘It’s different for me because I’ve lost a loved one.’
Robbie seemed hesitant. ‘Are you expecting to see their ghost?’
Effie sighed heavily. ‘Wouldn’t that be the loveliest thing? To see my dad again. Even if it was only for a moment. To see his face, his smile and maybe even hear his voice.’ She saw Robbie’s expression. ‘No, I don’t expect to see his ghost but if I saw someone else’s ghost that would be cool too. Sort of proof that they live on somewhere, somehow.’
Robbie nodded. ‘I see what you mean. But I always thought ghosts were troubled souls, in which case it’s a good thing that your dad’s not here. It means he’s at rest.’
‘I’d not really thought about it like that. I was a bit too caught up in what I wanted. But I definitely want him to be at peace.’
‘I’m sure he is,’ said Robbie. They sat in silence for a while. Each time they caught the other’s eye they smiled. It was a comfortable, easy silence and for once Effie’s mind wasn’t too noisy.
‘Thank you,’ she said and she meant it.
Although she could hear muffled shouts. Were they in her mind? Robbie began frowning. ‘Can you hear—’
‘Whoops!’ said Effie, hopping off the stool. ‘I need to let Fraser and Liv out of the cupboard.’
Robbie opened his mouth but didn’t reply.
*
Liv was fed up of crawling around the floor. Goodness only knew what dirt and grime she was getting on her clothes. She also was quite disorientated as it was so dark. She sat down where she was and reached out with her hands. Her fingertips touched something.
‘Ow!’ yelped Fraser.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Liv, biting her lip. ‘Did I hurt you?’
‘No, only kidding,’ said Fraser.
‘You’re hilarious,’ she said shaking her head, although there was no point because he couldn’t see her. ‘I guess Effie is right that we should stop arguing.’
‘I’m not arguing,’ he said.
‘Yes, you are!’ There was silence and then a snort of laughter. ‘Shall we agree we won’t keep having a go at each other?’
‘I will but can you do that because you seem quite fixed on me having ghosted you, which I haven’t.’ He said the last bit fast.
‘Okay but someone did. I am happy to accept that it wasn’t you.’ She was okay about that because if he really hadn’t done it then the Fraser she’d got to know was actually all right – a bit grumpy but then she had to acknowledge that she’d triggered some of that grumpiness. And it was this Fraser who had been kind to her, kissed her under the mistletoe and gave her goosebumps at his touch. He was also fit which was an added bonus.
‘You sure?’ he asked.
‘Yeah I am. Thing is, if it wasn’t you then who was it?’
‘I don’t know. Could be anyone. It could be someone like John.’
‘But he didn’t ask me for money. I don’t understand what they’d get out of building a relationship with me only to ghost me. Makes no sense.’
‘I guess we’ll never know.’
‘But don’t you want to know who it was?’ It was already eating away at Liv like she’d rechannelled her hurt and anger on to the person behind the fake profile.
‘I guess. But I don’t know how to go about that. And I’ve got quite a lot of other stuff on my mind right now,’ he said.
‘Like where your dad is?’ There was a long pause and Liv feared she’d overstepped a mark.
She heard him take a deep breath. ‘I know roughly where he is.’
Liv heard shuffling. Was he sitting down or standing up? She couldn’t tell. Then he stepped on her foot. ‘Argh!’ She automatically pulled it free.
‘Whoa!’ he yelled.
That was all she heard before he fell against her and pinned her to the wall. ‘Ow! What are you doing?’
‘You tripped me up!’ he complained as he tried to right himself.
‘Do not put your hands there,’ she said into the darkness. He was half leaning on her. Her heart was thumping hard in her chest – but that was just the shock of a great klutz of a man falling on her, right? She got a waft of cologne mixed with something herby – a not altogether unpleasant smell.
‘Sorry. I honestly can’t see a thing. Is that your shoulder?’
His hand was resting on her shoulder and slightly touching her neck. She shuddered at the contact. It was a very different sort of shudder to the one she’d felt earlier. ‘Yep,’ she confirmed in a small, husky voice.
He adjusted his position and she could feel his breath on her cheek. If she moved her head slightly their lips would touch. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, his voice soft and soothing.
Her heart continued to thump. ‘I think so. You?’
‘I’m good,’ he said against her cheek.
Liv turned her head slightly and his beard grazed her lip. This was really quite erotic. ‘Fraser?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Do you think there’s any chance, despite everything, that we could—’
‘I am soooooo sorry,’ said Effie, opening the door and making Liv fall backwards out of the cupboard with Fraser virtually on top of her.
‘Ah,’ yelped Liv.
‘You made up,’ said Effie clapping her hands together. ‘I wasn’t expecting you to be getting it on in there. But yay! Whatever works for you. Shall I shut the door again?’ she asked whacking Liv in the head as she tried to hastily close it.
‘No!’ they both said together.
‘And we weren’t getting it on…’ said Liv scrambling backwards as her eyes adjusted to the light.
‘Looks that way to me,’ said Effie putting her hands on her hips.
‘I sort of fell on top of her,’ said Fraser, looking embarrassed.
‘But you’re friends now?’ asked Effie, looking apprehensively between them both.
‘Fine. We’re fine. Right?’ Liv looked Fraser square in the eye.
He nodded. ‘Yeah we’re good.’