Chapter 31: Elliot - The Foster Child

‘What the hell!’ I snatch the box and push the lid back down on it, worried that there might be another of those threatening cards inside it. Cora is shaking.

I put my arm around her and pull her into me, resting her head on my shoulder and stroking her hair soothingly. ‘I’m sorry you had to see this. I’m normally the one who goes out of the house first.’

‘It’s horrible. Thank goodness you put that camera up. That should show us who put it there.’ She wriggles out of my embrace so that I can check my phone.

‘Actually it should have sent us a notification that someone was at the door.’ I open the app. ‘Damn. It’s all black, there’s no footage at all.’

‘You mean it isn’t working? Again?’ Her voice is shaking.

It looks like someone has covered it but I don’t want to tell Cora this. ‘I’ll get a signal booster, that will stop it dropping,’ I tell her. ‘You carry on to work or you’ll be late. I’ll sort this all out.’

I follow her out. She stops and looks up at the camera which is now covered with black tape. Shit.

‘Someone’s covered the camera so they can’t be recorded,’ she gasps. ‘We have to call the police and report it. We can show them the cut-up wreath and tell them all the other things that have happened.’

I reach up and pull the tape off. ‘I want whoever is responsible for this caught too, Cora. But I don’t think we have enough to involve the police. They’re too stretched to deal with burglaries never mind someone cutting up a Christmas wreath. And we can’t prove any of the other things.’

‘They covered up our camera,’ she points out. ‘This is deliberate vandalism and intimidation. Someone has it in for us, Elliot, and they want us to know it, that’s why they returned the wreath in a box…’ She visibly shakes. ‘You don’t think it’s symbolic, do you? That whoever is doing this is threatening that we’ll end up in a box?’

She shivers, and I put my arm around her shoulders. I hate to see her so scared. I’m going to make Rocky pay for this. ‘Look, I’ll give the police a ring but I doubt if they’ll be able to do anything. And I’ll sort out the camera. I promise. We’ll find out whoever is doing this.’

‘I thought it might be Violet but surely she wouldn’t be this cruel. Could it be Caleb?’ Her voice trembles. ‘He’s given me a really dark scowl a couple of times.’

‘I don’t know but I intend to find out,’ I growl.

‘It has to be him. It all started after that business with Tilly,’ she points out. She glances at her watch. ‘I’ve got to go, I’ll be late and I don’t want to upset Mrs Stirling again.’

I’m worried about her, she looks so shaken up. ‘I’ll drop you off.’

When I return I open the doorbell app on my phone hoping that it’s recorded something before it was covered. I suck in my breath as an image of someone leaning over and unlocking the gate appears. It’s a figure dressed completely in black, wearing a balaclava. It could be a man or a woman but I’m staking my bet that it’s a man. Rocky.

I’m not going to tell Cora about this, neither am I going to report it to the police. I don’t want the police involved, then everything will come out. I don’t know how Cora will react to my past, to the knowledge that I’ve done time and it’s one of the lawbreaking gang I used to hang around with who is hounding us. Or how it will affect my business. I need to sort this out before things get worse.

I take the box containing the slashed wreath into the study and put it on my desk.

I was right, there is a Christmas card underneath it. It’s a good job I suspected that and managed to take the box from Cora. I slit open the envelope to reveal an identical card to the others. I wonder what message the creep has left me this time. I open it up.

IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, IT’S GOING TO COST YOU.

I was right, it is blackmail. I’ve had enough of this now. I’m not sitting around waiting to see what that bastard Rocky is planning next. I’m going to find him and put a stop to it once and for all.