Kim couldn’t help glancing down the road before she stepped inside her home. Soon, a new family would move in to Edna’s house. They would make changes, inside and out, not knowing the horror and fear that had been experienced there. No matter what they changed, Kim would always picture Edna tied to that dining chair in the middle of the room, bathed in the stench of her own bodily functions, just minutes away from death.
My fault.
My fault.
My fault.
‘Piss off,’ she said to her thoughts as she unlocked her front door. They didn’t help her but she couldn’t stop them coming into her head. Regardless of the pep talk from Leanne about guilt being the most useless emotion the human mind could conjure, that vision of a helpless old lady would never leave her.
She turned on the light and there was Barney with his tail whooshing across the laminate floor in the hallway. The negative thoughts fell away.
‘Hey there, boy,’ she said, rubbing him on the head. ‘Ah, bugger that,’ she said, closing and locking the door. She lowered herself to the floor, and Barney walked all over her legs, whooshing his tail in her face before curling beside her left leg. She leaned over and fussed him roughly.
‘I’ve bloody missed you,’ she said, half stroking, half scratching him. She suspected he hadn’t missed her nearly as much. She’d got used to spending a lot more of the daytime hours with him.
These first days were proving hard for a number of reasons. After two months away from her job, jumping straight back in to twelve-hour days probably wasn’t what Woody had meant by taking it easy.
‘Come on then, boy,’ she said, giving him one last squeeze before getting up.
She opened the back door before brewing a pot of coffee. Minutes later Barney was back to the open door with a ball in his mouth.
‘Give me a minute, eh?’ she said as the doorbell sounded. She checked the camera but the person had stepped out of the frame.
Barney’s ears had perked up and he headed for the door with the ball in his mouth.
She opened the door, stunned to see the figure that was standing halfway down the path.
‘Ted?’
She hadn’t seen the man in months, and although she had seen him at just about every stage of her life, none of those times had been at her home.
‘Oh my goodness, it’s you,’ he said, approaching the door. ‘How coincidental. My car has broken down and I’d like to use your phone.’
‘Your car is parked perfectly fine right there and you have a mobile,’ she said, opening the door for him to enter.
‘Never could get a thing past you, could I?’ he said, strolling past her. He bent down. ‘Well, hello there, young man, I’ve heard a lot about you.’
Barney’s tail responded to the warm, playful tone in Ted’s voice.
‘So, why are you here?’ she asked, closing the door.
‘I was just passing and wondered if you needed anyone to not talk to. I’m quite good at it.’
Kim laughed. Ted had been her counsellor from the age of six, appointed just days after she’d been found clinging to her dead twin, Mikey, who had succumbed to starvation after their mother had left them tied to a radiator. Ted was one of the few people who knew pretty much everything about her. And not one word had come from her mouth. At every stage of her life, she’d been sent to speak to Ted, deemed the best in the business. She’d never opened up to him but she had always felt better after an hour in his silent company. In her adult years, she had chosen to visit him by choice, often to seek guidance on a particular case, but never had he visited her at home.
‘Coffee?’
‘Yes please,’ he said, patting Barney on the head.
Kim took down a mug and paused. ‘How do you…?’
‘Normally you pour the hot water into—’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever made you a drink,’ she said, stunned at the realisation. No one in her life dated back further than this man and she’d never even made him a cuppa.
‘White no sugar,’ he said.
She made it and pushed it towards him.