strain in her face.
‘You read that one way and it’s incredibly romantic,’ Vivian said. ‘Read it another way and it’s oppressive and threatening. I understand why you felt it might be hard to have people take you seriously. Did you pluck up the courage to move back into your house?’
Stephanie picked at the lip of her cardboard cup. ‘I did. And for a couple of weeks, it was OK. I wasn’t going out much because I was transcribing interviews. When I’m in that phase, I’m very focused on what I’m doing. I sit with my headphones on, oblivious to the outside world. I have my groceries delivered so I don’t have to leave the cocoon of the client’s voice. It’s total immersion.’ Her face relaxed into a smile and Vivian caught a glimpse of how Stephanie must seem when her life was not infested with fear and anxiety. ‘It makes it easier to catch the flavour of their voices when I come to write the book itself. During that period, Pete could have been sitting on my garden wall for hours at a time and I would have been blissfully unaware, sitting up in my little office under the eaves.’
‘Do you think he was?’
The stressed and worried woman was back. ‘Probably,’ she sighed. ‘Well, maybe not sitting on the wall, but certainly driving past several times a day, parking where he could see my house, walking up and down the street. Because those were the things he was doing when I became more aware of my surroundings after I’d finished doing the transcripts. It seemed as though every time I looked out of the window, he was there. Or his car was parked outside the house. I tried hard not to let him stop me going about my normal business. But it was almost impossible. When I left the house, he would fall into step beside me and speak to me. I ignored him but he wouldn’t give up. If I caught the bus or the tube, he was there across the aisle or strap-hanging further down the carriage. One time he even tried to get into a cab with me. I practically had to slam the door shut on his fingers to get him to back off. But that wasn’t the worst. There was one other occasion that really freaked me out.’
‘What happened?’
Stephanie shuddered. ‘You’re going to read more into it than there was. It was me he was trying to get to, not Jimmy.’
‘What happened, Stephanie?’ Now Vivian was warm, slipping effortlessly into woman-to-woman mode to extract more from Stephanie.
‘Scarlett had brought Jimmy into town with her. They’d been to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs, then I met up with them in Regent’s Park. Jimmy was letting off steam in the kids’ playground while we sat on a bench chatting. We had half an eye on Jimmy, the way you do. And we both realised at the same moment that there was a man over by the slide who was having much too much to do with Jimmy. I’d kind of registered the guy and thought he was with a couple of other boys, so I hadn’t really paid attention. But then he turned round and I recognised Pete. With his hair cut short. Looking really different. But clearly Pete.’
‘That must have been horrible. What did you do?’
‘We took off like raging banshees, me and Scarlett. But he only smiled and walked away. Briskly, but nothing that would look suspicious to anyone else. It was as if he’d flicked us the bird. Saying, “I can find you wherever and whenever I want.” It really unnerved me.’
‘Was Jimmy bothered?’
She shook her head. ‘Not in the least. He looked bewildered for a minute when we came running across the playground. Scarlett scooped him up and we took off in the opposite direction. But that was the last straw for me. First I googled stalking to see what remedies I might have. There’s a law, the Protection from Harassment Act, that sounds like it should do the trick. Stalkers, in theory, can face criminal charges or you can take civil proceedings against them. Injunctions and the like. I felt quite cheerful about it. I made an appointment to speak to a police officer at my local station. She was really sympathetic, but the problem was that Pete had been very careful about the content of his texts and emails. He hadn’t done anything in the street that could have been construed as an assault or a threat. At least, not in terms of the criminal law. There was nothing she could do.’
‘Not even a quiet word?’
Stephanie’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. ‘That’s the irony. If the police spoke to Pete without good legal reason, they’d be the ones doing the harassing. It’s crazy, isn’t it?’
Not for the first time, Vivian felt the frustration of due process. But this wasn’t the time or the place to get into that. ‘So there was nothing?’
‘She suggested I talk to a lawyer. The civil courts have a lower standard of proof, you see. So I made an appointment with a lawyer who specialises in this kind of case and it turned out that, even with a lower standard of proof, I didn’t have enough against Pete to take out an injunction. It would have been different if I’d reported the criminal damage to my house when it happened. But her advice was to go away and keep a log of everything he said and did. Then come and see her again for another expensive appointment in three months’ time.’ Stephanie shook her head, wondering. ‘Obviously, she didn’t mention the expense. That was just my cynical take on it. The bottom line was, you’re on your own, sister. The law was not on my side.’
‘I take it he persisted.’
‘He persisted, all right.’
26
Scarlett was waiting for me in the car after I’d seen the lawyer. I told her the verdict and she swore like a football hooligan then said, ‘That is just so wrong. He can do what the fuck he likes. Get in your face as much as he wants. And there’s fuck-all you can do? He needs sorting out, he does. I tell you, Steph, I still know some lads in Leeds who’d be happy to come down and do him over.’
‘No, I told you. That’s not the way to go. Apart from anything else, what happens if one of your old mates makes a secret recording of you putting the word out then sells it to the papers? All your hard work over the past year goes straight down the tubes. Not to mention you get arrested for conspiracy to have somebody beaten up.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘We’ve got to find another way to get him.’
Scarlett pouted. ‘And so far you’ve come up with zilch.’
‘Yeah, well. I’ve been giving this some thought. And I’ve decided that I’m going to sell the house. No estate agent’s board, no details in their window. Just a very discreet word of mouth to the people on their books. Then one day Pete the Bastard will turn up to follow me to the bus stop and it won’t be me who walks out of the front door.’
Scarlett looked dumbstruck. ‘Can you do that?’
‘It won’t be easy, but yeah, I think so. Every time there’s going to be a viewing, I’ll make sure I act as a decoy. I’ll trail him all over town on a jolly while the agent’s showing the property to prospective buyers. The day before the move, I’ll let him follow me to the Eurostar and we’ll toddle off to Paris for a couple of days.’
Scarlett laughed with delight. ‘You are one clever bitch, Steph. And where are you going to live then?’
‘I thought I might come and crash with you for a few months. What do you say?’
She did a little shoulder-and-hand jive in the seat. ‘Cool, cool, very fucking cool,’ she said. ‘We’ll have a right laugh.’ She frowned. ‘You never told him about Leanne, did you?’
I shook my head. ‘No way. That was our secret. He knows nothing that can damage you, believe me. I’ve always been very discreet. That’s how I protect my investment.’ I gave her a friendly punch on the arm. ‘Are you OK with me moving in for a bit?’
‘Stay as long as you want. I like having you around.’
‘I like being around. But I’ll be honest, the big advantage for me in staying with you over any of my other mates is that I’ve got a proper place to work. Somewhere that’s not in the way, so I don’t feel like I’m imposing,’ I added hastily, in case she thought a workroom of my own was the only reason I preferred her place.
‘Not to mention the high wall and the security gates,’ Scarlett said. ‘He could sit out there for bloody days and never get so much as a glimpse of you.’
‘He doesn’t even know where it is. Just the general area.’
She snorted. ‘He’ll find out. All he has to do is ask around the pubs. It might cost him twenty quid, but there’s plenty ready to shop me. For all the good it’ll do him. Like I said, he’s not going to be able to pester you behind my
