Daisy Got Laid Ch. 07

Daisy recounted the events of the previous evening for what felt like the fiftieth time. The two detectives patiently wrote more notes in their pads and listened with grave expressions on their faces. From the amount of time the local constabulary had devoted to her break-in thus far, they evidently felt it was more serious than an aggravated burglary.

Mike was in the kitchen making yet more cups of tea. He had insisted on accompanying her back to the house after they had talked things over at breakfast. She almost regretted telling him everything now – she should have left some of the details out and maybe he would not be acting like an old hen.

"There's no way I am letting you go back home alone!" he had said in concern. "The police have no idea who this bloke is and therefore are unlikely to be able to trace him. From what you have told me about Jack, he is obviously into loads of well dodgy stuff. Chances are he has pissed off someone seriously dangerous and they are going to stop at nothing to find him. Should you get in the way again, then you might not get away so lightly next time!"

Daisy knew that everything he said had the ring of truth to it, but the stubborn part of her refused to accept that she might need looking after. It was just not in her nature to accept help; she was far too independent.

"I'll be fine!" she said brightly, sounding unconvincing even to her own ears.

"No you won't and I am not going to let you go back there on your own," Mike replied firmly.

Daisy could see Mike was not going to be swayed from his Knight-in-Shining-Armour mission so she mutely nodded her agreement and finished her coffee in silence.

Several hours later the situation seemed even more hopeless. The address she had given the officers last night had proved to be useless. Jen's mum apparently had not seen her daughter for weeks and had no idea where she could be. She was understandably worried now and, given the situation, so was Daisy. Who knew where she and Jack were, and what trouble Jen was in. Despite all the recent arguments, Daisy certainly did not want anything to happen to Jen. She was hoping against hope that Jen was not with Jack right now and that there was a simple explanation for her disappearance

"Have you ever heard Jack mention a Stefan Lapeski?" asked the older officer who had up until this point remained fairly non communicative.

"No, never," replied Daisy, bemused. "Who is he?"

"He's a local thug and involved in most of the crime round here. He's not the main man, but the word is Jack has been seen round with him. This Stefan bloke is not a nice character, drugs mostly, but he aint not exactly fussy."

"Oh great..." Her voice trailed off in dismay. "Do you think that the guy from last night is connected to this Stefan bloke?"

"At this point we wouldn't like to speculate, but from your description of the man, it sounds like he could be Stefan's side-kick, Mad Mac."

Daisy felt rather sick. The thought of being on some kind of hit list for local Mafiosi types was hardly the best news she had had all weekend.

"But don't worry, its not you they are after, it's Jack. They are unlikely to bother you again - especially if they found no sign of him at your house. I suspect your burglar had a good look around before you got home and found nothing. SOCO have taken finger prints, but we'll be surprised if any evidence has been left; this guy was no amateur."

The copper smiled kindly at her in an attempt to reassure her. He could see how worried she was and he reached out and patted her knee paternally.

"Any time you get worried, just ring the station and somebody will be there. Anything more serious, call 999 and they will send someone straight away. All the details of this incident will be there on screen for the dispatch team to see and they won't mess about."

Mike came back into the room with a tray of cups and sat down next to her. He put his arm around her and said reassuringly, "I promise I won't leave you alone in this house. If you have no-one else, I will come and stay with you for a while."

It was tempting but Daisy didn't feel that she could really take advantage of his kind heart like that. Surely he had a life and better things to do than baby-sit her?

"Mike, that's really sweet but –"

"Don't argue with me," he interrupted. "I have nothing better to do other than relax before Uni begins."

"I can't let you put yourself out for me..."

"Oh you think I enjoy living with two male slobs who never wash up and leave dirty underwear all over the house? I was kind of hoping that you were more hygienic to live with!" He grinned at her disarmingly and she smiled despite her misgivings.

"Ok, if you insist, stay for a few days until things calm down again. I have to admit, I wasn't exactly looking forward to being here alone tonight."

The coppers drank their tea down hurriedly and stood up to leave.

"If you think of anything else, not matter how trivial, let us know. We will give you a call if we get any leads from our end," said the younger guy. He smiled warmly at Daisy and she felt a little better.

Daisy thanked them for everything and showed them out of the door. After they had left, she sat down in the kitchen and watched in silence as Mike washed the cups up. She could not help wondering if Jen was ok. After everything the police had said, she was seriously worried.

Picking up her mobile, she tried ringing Jen again. The service message merely told her that the phone she was calling was switched off. It was no use. Sighing, she stood up and walked over to the back door.

The garden was still a mess despite all their best intentions at the beginning of the year. She supposed that a certain landscape gardener was unlikely to be doing any work in it in the near future. That thought was a miserable one and she pushed it aside determinedly. Max was out of her life and she had more important things to think about right now, dinner being the most urgent thing on the agenda. The cupboards were bare and the fridge was empty.

"Fancy a trip down Tesco?" she said brightly. There was nothing like a supermarket shop to put things in perspective.

* * *

Max was lying on the couch watching Formula 1 racing. It was not something he made a point of seeing all that often, but he felt too knackered to do anything more constructive. The sight of fast cars whizzing round an endless track at suicidal speeds, was strangely therapeutic. It required almost no concentration and allowed him to digest the weekend's events.

Maeve had left a few hours ago. She had seemed fairly unconcerned about her aunt Brenda being suspicious as to her whereabouts all night, and had kissed him a hasty goodbye before disappearing out of the flat with barely a backward glance.

It was hardly flattering really; Max almost felt like a one night stand. Women usually stayed as long as humanly possible and waited until another date had been arranged before they finally left amid tearful farewells.

He pitied her poor boyfriend – sucker probably had no idea what she got up to with those killer legs and gorgeous, sexy red hair... She was like a siren, luring unsuspecting men onto her rocks, drowning them in their own lust....

Oh stop it, he admonished himself. Too much alcohol was making him maudlin. That and Daisy ignoring him. He had tried ringing her this morning, but her phone was switched off. He supposed he could have left a voicemail message, but he bottled it when he heard her voice telling him huskily that she was too busy to take his call. Too bloody minded more like.

Exercise was what he needed and lots of it. This would take his mind off Daisy. Sex with another woman had clearly not worked. Maeve was certainly memorable, but still Daisy lingered in his thoughts. Bitch!

Sighing heavily, he jumped up and went to change into his running gear. Twenty minutes later he was pounding his way through the park and feeling like shit warmed up. But, he reasoned, he deserved it after last night. No more drinking for him. As he huffed past a group of teenagers lurking by the swings, his mobile bleeped from his pocket indicating a text message. Slowing down slightly, he pulled it out to read the message.

It was Belinda: come pick Kelly up at 5, am off out tonight.

No please or anything – just the usual demands and expectation that he would drop everything to do as she asked. Typical Belinda... Trouble was she had him over a barrel. If he refused, then she didn't let him see Kelly and it was Kelly who suffered.

God she was such a bitch. He punched in a brief reply and picked up momentum again. He had better go shopping for some food and stuff. There was bugger all in the house and Kelly would need some cereal and pack-up food for the morning. Oh great, the last place he would rather be was shopping at Tesco on a Sunday afternoon.

* * *

It felt like they were an old married couple already. Mike pushed the trolley while Daisy chucked stuff in. He did not bat an eye, even when she stopped on the feminine hygiene aisle and debated over which brand of tampon to buy.

"I grew up in a house of five girls," he laughed when she asked incredulously how he could possibly recommend one brand over another. "I was always being sent to the corner shop to buy embarrassing stuff like that –it became a standing joke between me and Mrs Patel."

By the time they got to the check-out, Daisy was about ready to propose; all she needed was for him to cook dinner when they got home and he would be the perfect man! They companionably packed the shopping into bags and Daisy paid, ignoring Mike's offer to contribute to the bill.

"No way," she said firmly. "You are doing enough for me as it is without paying for half my Tampons too!"

* * *

Max was shoving some additive laden cereal into a bag when he heard a familiar voice laughing. Startled he turned to check where the sound was coming from and see if his fevered imagination was deluding him yet again.

It was the woman he had been obsessing over for weeks... Daisy! For one mad minute he was tempted to drop his bag and run over to her grinning like a lunatic. Then he saw Mike take the shopping trolley from her and he watched them, an icy chill in his heart as they left the store smiling and talking animatedly.

The checkout girl was glaring at him by the time he heard her asking him for the fifth time to pay for his goods. She snatched the card off him as soon as he handed it over, probably thinking he might just change his mind and she would be forced to call security.

He left the store in a total daze. What an idiot he had been; she had never said she wasn't seeing anyone else, he had just assumed that was the case. Whatever they had had, clearly it meant nothing to her. He was just a fuck - nothing more and nothing less. If he had had any sense, he would forget her and move on. Plenty more women out there, he reassured himself miserably. Maeve being one of them if he played his cards right.

On the other hand, celibacy was becoming more attractive by the day. There was certainly a lot to be said for a woman-free life. If he thought about it, he reasoned, women had been the major cause of just about every disaster in his pitiful existence.

He walked slowly down the street towards the flat thinking, about all the femme fatales he had had the unfortunate misfortune to become involved with over the years.

Monica Wright. He was nineteen and she was thirty one - a neighbour of his family with a lorry driver husband who worked away a lot. All was fine and dandy until big Ron came home early one night and caught them at it in his bed. It was lucky Max hadn't broken a leg climbing out of the window!

Sara the psycho. He had quite liked her really, but unfortunately he had also liked her best friend, Helen. Sara had been rather pissed off when she found out he had shagged Helen whilst Sara was away on holiday. She had waited until he was at work one day soon after, then she had gone round to his flat and cut all his clothes into pieces before dumping them on the street outside (much to the amusement of the neighbours).

Clare the bunny boiler. She had stalked him for over a year – it had been creepy as hell, all the endless phone calls and text messages. It had taken a 'serious chat' from a copper mate to get rid of her in the end.

Miranda... married to the night-club bouncer. Another pissed off husband with homicidal tendencies.

Lindsey. She had tried to commit suicide when he had ended their very short relationship. A night spent in casualty, trying unsuccessfully to convince the nurses that he really wasn't a total bastard, was not the best night he could recall. Thankfully she agreed to have counselling after that.

And the list went on... And on...

He reached his front door with the renewed conviction that women were seriously damaging to his health. Slowly he climbed the flight of stairs to his flat and unlocked the door.

Damn, the phone was ringing. He reached it, but it had rung off and he was left with a dialling tone in his ear. Bugger... He did 1471 and it was Belinda. Oh yeah, he should have included her on his list of nutcases... Belinda the bitch – he had definitely married her in haste and repented at leisure.

Max flicked the kettle on and plonked himself back down on the sofa. The sky was like charcoal outside, the threat of rain imminent. Not unlike the day he married Belinda really. The portents had been there, but he had refused to take note. He had been determined to do the right thing for once.

He had met Belinda at a club one fateful night, many moons ago. It had been a typical drunken night out with his mates, around the time of the Clare-stalking-drama. All evening he had been bugged by her abusive text messages. This had been highly amusing to his mates, but not very funny to him. As a result he had been in a foul mood.

Belinda had walked past and accidentally spilt her drink over him. His new shirt was soaked in Bacardi and coke and he had laid into her with a tirade of abuse. Of course he had then felt guilty when she got upset and he had had to apologise.

He had bought her another drink to say sorry – which was fairly ridiculous when it was him sat there soaked in disgusting sticky alcohol. She was a pretty girl and he had quickly fallen for her brand of innocent charm.

They had dated a few times, but he soon realised she was extremely manipulative and bitchy. Unfortunately, when he tried to finish it with her, she did not react too well. She went completely hysterical and he, fearing another Clare episode, backed down. They limped along for a while until, out of the blue, Belinda announced she was pregnant.

At the time, Max had not been best pleased, but Belinda was in floods of tears and he really did not know how to handle the situation. He was also unsure as to how she had managed to get pregnant in the first place.

They had not exactly being having sex regularly and she had assured him she was on the pill. When he had asked her how it had happened, she had cried a bucketful and somehow the question had been buried under the more important issue of what they were going to do with a baby.

Despite the obvious financial difficulties of a baby, Max was surprised to find himself rather excited at the prospect of becoming a dad. His own father had been absent for most if his life and he felt a determination to make a better job of things. His mum was delighted to hear that she was going to be a Grandma and Belinda's pregnancy progressed without a hitch.

Max finished his landscape design course and found a job with a local company. He stopped drinking with his mates every weekend and they both made an effort to get along for the sake of the impending arrival.

It was Belinda who broached the subject of marriage one evening. He had not really considered the possibility; his own mum and dad had divorced when he was little and his mum had been left to bring him and his siblings up alone. As a result, he had no faith in the institution of marriage and certainly had no great desire to do the big church debacle.

Belinda announced that she felt their baby should not be born out of wedlock or some such crap. Initially he side stepped the issue, but after a week of sulks and cold shoulders, he resigned himself to the fact that he would have to back down (again) and go along with her wishes. Either that or live in misery forever more.

Rather reluctantly, he bought a ring and made a token proposal one night over take-away Chinese food. Belinda was over the moon and plans for a registry office wedding were hastily made as the due date approached.

On the morning of the wedding, his best man Stu took him aside and asked him quietly if he thought he was doing the right thing. Max had angrily replied that of course he fucking was! Thinking back now, he wondered if his mates could see just what a bitch she was and how deluded he was being. He heartily wished someone had had the guts to be more honest with him and tell him how it was back then.

The heavens had opened in a downpour of biblical proportions as they stood on the steps of the registry office, waiting impatiently for Belinda to turn up with her parents. Naturally she was late and they almost missed their slot, but eventually they were wed without further incident, for better or worse.

Six weeks later, Kelly was born.

The moment she slipped out into the world screaming like a banshee, Max fell in love irrevocably and unconditionally. He had never felt such passion for anyone before and he would have given up everything for this tiny baby. Right from the beginning, Kelly was Daddy's girl. She never cried when Max held her. She adored him; her dark eyes followed him around the room from wherever she lay.

By the time Kelly was two years old, Max and Belinda were sleeping in separate rooms and arguing all the time. Max was working long hours and trying to avoid being at home wherever possible. He hated being apart from his beloved daughter, but equally he hated fighting with Belinda night and day. It was upsetting for all of them, and after one particularly vicious row Max made the decision to leave.

Belinda took it surprisingly well, and to begin with she was fairly amicable over access to Kelly and money issues. It was not long before she began to be difficult however. As soon as she found out he was seeing someone else, she kicked off with tantrums and threats that he would not see Kelly again if he ever introduced another woman to her precious daughter.

Belinda made his life hell and it was incredibly difficult to have any sort of relationship with another woman while she was around. Megan, whom he had begun seeing after he split from Belinda, lasted six months. It ended when they returned from a weekend in Rome to find Belinda in Max's flat, going through all the cupboards searching for evidence that Megan had moved in.

As it happened, she had not yet moved in - although they had discussed it n Rome. Belinda went crazy and had a massive tantrum. She screamed abuse and Megan quite understandably left soon after. Max heard from her a few days later when she rang him to explain that, although she liked him a lot, she couldn't cope with the psycho ex wife bit and maybe he should consider professional help?

That was it re: relationships for a while, other than casual flings here and there. Belinda calmed down when she thought he was not seeing anyone and an uneasy truce limped on for a couple of years.

Kelly grew older and Max started the business with Sean. Life was okay, but Max felt that something was missing; there was work and Kelly, but he needed more than that.

When he met Daisy he thought he had found that something missing from his life. It seemed he was wrong however. It just wasn't meant to be...