Chapter 15: THEN - The Safe Room

Honey turned ghostly pale when the police officers brought me home. She saw my red-rimmed eyes and almost crumpled in front of me.

“Is it Mum? Dad?” Her panicked face turned from me to PC Thomas and then to PC Long.

I shook my head. “Peter Harlow followed me again. He wouldn’t let me walk home without him.”

“What?” Honey blurted. “Fuck. Not this again.”

I bristled at her response. “Sorry for the inconvenience.” I pushed past her, heading into the house. “I need to call Mum and get her home.”

“She’ll be home in ten anyway,” Honey said. “She sent me a text to say she was leaving work soon.”

With Mum’s shifts we never knew when she was going to be home. I nodded, relieved.

“Why don’t you girls sit down,” PC Thomas suggested. “Point me in the direction of your kettle and we’ll get a cup of tea ready for your mum.”

Honey showed him where everything was while I sat down on the sofa, my body aching with tiredness. I just wanted it all to stop. How did it get this far? I closed my eyes and saw him blocking my path, practically pinning me against the wall. He hadn’t hurt me though. He hadn’t pushed me back or even threatened me. All he did was stand in my way. Then why was I so scared? It was almost as though he was the threat. Just his presence, like he knew that merely being in my eyeline was enough to make me feel like I was going to be hurt in some way. He didn’t have to touch me. He didn’t need to scream or shout. He’d barely raised his voice throughout the entire encounter.

As soon as I heard the key in the door I jumped up and ran into the hallway.

“Mum, the police are here,” I said before she was even in the house.

“What? Why?”

“Peter followed me. I called them. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“All right, calm down, love.” She dumped her bag and gave me a quick hug. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”

I shook my head.

We headed through to the kitchen, and the police introduced themselves to Mum. I sat on a chair staring at the tabletop, my face hot as the officers explained what they saw.

“I do have to say that the emergency services are there for emergencies only,” PC Thomas said. “Sorry to sound harsh, but a spat with a friend doesn’t qualify⁠—”

“What the fuck?” Honey interjected. “Are you kidding? He’s been stalking her! He texts and calls her all the time and now he’s even following her. Wouldn’t you call the police if you saw your stalker?”

“Is this true, Amber?”

I cleared my throat and tried to speak up confidently. “Yes.”

Mum wrapped a protective arm around me. “Amber is not a timewaster; she’s a very scared girl. She’s fifteen years old and this man tried to take her on a date. When she rejected him, he started calling and texting her over and over again. She had to block his number eventually and now he’s following her too! What are you going to do about that?”

PC Thomas’s gaze found mine. “Do you still have the text messages? Can I see them?”

I shook my head. “No, I deleted them.”

He seemed disappointed in that. “I can’t arrest someone for speaking to a teenage girl on the street. But there are laws against harassment. If that’s the case here, then you need to keep all the evidence and a diary of events before we can do anything.” He stood then as though ready to leave. “Amber, I know this is scary, but he seems like a young man with a crush. Once he gets over the rejection, he’ll leave you alone.”

I didn’t reply because even at fifteen I knew he was wrong. If Peter was a balanced person, he would have already moved on. It’d been weeks and he hadn’t got the message. Deep down I knew he’d only just begun. I heard his delusions and I didn’t have faith that they’d just go away.

Mum sighed. “Okay, thank you, officer.”

I watched them walk out of the house with a sick feeling in my stomach. It crossed my mind that Peter knew exactly what he was doing on the street earlier. He wanted to scare me and to feel in control, but he knew not to cross any boundaries that would break a law.

“Look at you with all the attention and the admirers,” Honey said, mockingly.

I couldn’t stand to be around her and her jealousy, so I got up from the table, my chair squeaking against the tiles, and went upstairs. No one followed me but a few hours later, Mum checked in on me to see if I wanted dinner.

“You didn’t do anything wrong today, Amber,” she said. “He could have hurt you. That’s what the police are there for, to protect you.”

“Do you think Peter will hurt me?”

Her face paled, like all the blood had drained away. She walked over to me and sat on my bed. “No, my darling. I don’t think he will hurt you. I spoke to Mary about him and she said he’s never been violent. She did admit that he can be quite intense and that he’s had his issues since his dad died, but there’s no reason to think he might hurt you. Is that what you’re afraid of?”

“Yes.”

I thought about when I lingered outside the kitchen, listening to Mum on the phone with Mary. She’d sounded so sure it was just a matter of time before he did something. That was the worst part, the waiting, like it was inevitable one day he’d try to hurt me.

She stroked my hair. I noticed tears gathering in the corners of her bloodshot eyes. “We’ll protect you, Amber. Me and your dad. We won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

I didn’t believe her. Fate hit me squarely between the eyes—a terrible premonition of him killing me one day.

But I didn’t tell her that. Instead, I said, “Do you think he’ll leave me alone soon?”

“Yes, I do. I think he’ll grow up and realise what a terrible thing he’s done and leave you be.” She kissed me on the forehead. “I’ll bring you up some dinner.”

I pulled the duvet up to my chin and watched her close the door behind her, leaving me alone in my room. About fifteen minutes later she brought up a plate of food, boiled potatoes, reheated frozen vegetables and a small pork chop, before leaving me for the night.

I couldn’t sleep. I saw PC Thomas’s face in my dreams chastising me for calling 999 for a non-emergency. Then Peter was there, laughing and blowing kisses. I woke with a start to see my phone lit up on the bedside table. I grabbed it and flipped it open without thinking.

“Hello?”

“Hi, beautiful. Did you miss me?”