Stalker

90

Katryna moves the wine-box to the edge of the worktop, then fills her glass under the little tap, splashing some tiny red droplets on her hand.

The wind is rattling the kitchen air vent. Through the glass door she can see the empty street through the branches of the viburnum.

The two wooden doors of the cleaning cupboard in the hall leading to the living room knock against each other, then close tighter.

She puts her glass down on an advert from Sephora, sucks the drops of wine from the back of her hand, looks at the glass, at the blonde woman on the flyer, and decides to keep the baby and not go through with the abortion.

Katryna leaves her wine glass in the kitchen, thinks that she should send Adam a text message telling him she’s changed her mind. She walks slowly, keeping her eyes on the heavy wooden doors the whole time. She feels almost compelled to look at them, and stops when the far one starts to open slightly. Katryna takes a deep breath and hurries past. She forces herself not to run, but can feel the movement of the door as a shiver down her spine.

She sits on the sofa and carries on watching the film.

John Travolta has swapped faces with Nicolas Cage, but they just look like themselves.

She can’t help thinking about their neighbour. He gave her a funny look when he borrowed the rake, and she wonders if he knew she was at home on her own.

Her iPad has gone dark, and she puts her finger on the screen and finds herself pointing straight at Caroline’s smiling face when the screen comes back to life.

Katryna knows that if she turns her head to the left she can see the cupboard doors reflected in the window at the back of the house.

She needs to stop this, it’s turning into an obsession.

What if it was their neighbour who broke in and stole the cloth and a pair of her pants from the washing basket?

If you knew that the cellar door was only held shut by a rope, you could get in without making any noise at all.

Katryna stands up and goes over to the window, and is drawing the curtains when she thinks she can see someone running across the grass.

She leans closer.

It’s hard to see in the dark.

A deer, it must have been a deer, she thinks, and closes the curtain with her heart pounding.

She sits down on the sofa, switches the television off and starts to text Adam. In the middle of a sentence her phone rings, scaring her so much that she jumps.

She doesn’t recognise the number.

‘Katryna,’ she says warily.

‘Hello, Katryna,’ a man says quickly. ‘I’m one of Adam’s colleagues at National Crime, and-’

‘He’s not-’

‘Listen now,’ the man interrupts. ‘Are you at home?’

‘Yes, I’m-’

‘Go to the front door and leave the house, don’t worry about clothes or shoes, just go straight out into the street and carry on walking.’

‘Can I ask why?’

‘Are you on your way out?’

‘I’m going now.’

She stands up and starts to walk through the room, looking towards the cupboard doors as she goes round the sofa and turns towards the front door.

A person wearing yellow rain-clothes is standing on the doormat with their back to her, closing the front door behind them.

Katryna quickly moves backwards, goes round the corner and stops.

‘There’s someone in here,’ she whispers. ‘I can’t get out.’

‘Lock yourself in somewhere, and leave your phone on.’

‘God, there’s nowhere to-’

‘Don’t speak unless you absolutely have to, go to the bathroom.’

She’s walking on unsteady legs towards the kitchen when she sees that the doors to the cleaning cupboard have slid open slightly. She can’t think straight, and opens one of the doors, slips quickly inside and stands beside the vacuum cleaner, and pulls the door closed behind her.

It’s hard to close it properly when her fingers won’t fit in the gap. She tries to get hold of the edge with her nails and pull it towards her.

Katryna holds her breath when she hears footsteps outside the cupboard. They move off in the direction of the kitchen, the doors knock against each other the other door slips open a couple of millimetres.

She stands in the darkness with her eyes open wide, and hears a kitchen drawer being opened. There’s a metallic clattering sound, and she’s breathing in short gasps, and suddenly thinks about the relic in the church in Södertälje. Adam didn’t want to go in with her, but she went and looked at it anyway. It was a fragment of bone belonging to Thomas, one of the apostles. The priest claimed that the Holy Spirit was still present in the relic, in the yellow fragment of bone inside the glass tube on the marble table.

She reaches out her hand and tries to close the door, but can’t get any grip, her nails just slide over the wood. She moves carefully to the side, but the mop and bucket are in the way. The handle of the mop touches her winter coat, and a few empty hangers rattle softly on the rail.

She manages to pull the door closed, but loses her grip again. It swings open slightly and she can see a dark figure standing right outside the cupboard.