Page 8 of Evil Beautiful

“And who might your uncle be?”

“Detective Jeremy Parks, he’s a very important man in the SAPS. If you do anything to me you’re going to be sorry.” She threatened.

There was the sound of a phone ringing and I looked around to see another commando type person standing a few feet away, it was his phone that was on speaker that we could hear.

“Detective Parks.” A sleepy voice mumbled.

“Detective Parks, we have someone here who belongs to you. A Miss Alecia Parks, she says she’s your niece.”

There was a disgruntled groan. “What the hell has she done now? And who is this?”

“We caught her stalking a client of ours, Sir. She has photographs and video footage of the employees, as well as of several of their customers, and we found some personal effects of one of our client’s employees. She had a short lived sexual relationship with the employee that he terminated and apparently she won’t accept it. She’s become somewhat of a nuisance and my client’s brother isn’t pleased with the state of affairs.”

Pixie and I looked at each other and we both shrugged. It seems her brother was keeping a closer eye on her than she thought.

“Who is your client’s brother?”

“Dominick Maingarde, Sir.”

There was a deathly silence and then the swearing started. It became fairly inventive as it carried on and then finally it tapered off.

“Where is she now?”

“She’s at my client’s place of business where she’s been invading the privacy of Ms Maingarde’s customers and her employees. Mr Maingarde is currently out of the country therefore Mr Acheson will be dealing with this matter.”

There wasn’t any swearing this time, only the sound of breathing before he spoke.

“As a favour to my brother I’ve been bailing that girl out of trouble for more years than I care to remember. It stops right now. I’m done. She’s on her own. Tell Ms Maingarde I’m sorry for the inconvenience and tell Mr Acheson he may handle the problem as he sees fit. She’s no longer my responsibility. Goodnight.”

And that was it.

Alecia started screaming abuse and swearing at her uncle, us, the world, and everything in general. She was acting like a psycho.

The guy with the phone spoke very quietly to his men and Alecia instantly stopped screaming to listen.

“You know where to take her. Give them the bag with the medications and drugs she’s been taking. Inform the staff she’s suffering from a probable psychotic break and is to be put on suicide watch. Warn them that she’s a danger to others and herself. She’s to be admitted indefinitely.”

I was stunned. Stunned at the speed decisions had been made that would alter a woman’s life for ever.

But then again, as I listened to her ranting I realised it wasn’t the first time she had been admitted to a psychiatric facility. The woman was sick and needed help and I hoped that this time she received the treatment she so very obviously needed.

“Ms Maingarde, the rest of the team will escort you home. Mr Paxton, I’ll be following you home.”

The quiet guy gave the orders and we all followed them because none of us wanted to cross the man. He looked way too dangerous.

When I pulled up in front of the gate to my little cottage he pulled up next to me, got out and walked around to my window. I rolled it down and waited.

“Mr Acheson wanted me to inform you that there will be a guard on your house tonight. If it proves necessary to extend the protection he will be in contact. Have a good night, Sir.”

And with that he walked back to his car. He waited at my gate until I had parked, locked the car and unlocked the security door and door into the house. Only when I closed and locked the security door behind me did he drive away.

I always left lights on in the house when I worked the late shift at the shop, so I wasn’t walking into total darkness. I dropped my backpack onto a chair as I walked into the lounge. The night replaying in my head as I pulled off my jacket and dropped it on the chair as well.

Everything that had happened was totally surreal.

From meeting Gideon and being instantly attracted, to the altercation between him and Pixie, to Alecia’s bullshit, it played like a movie in my head.

One part of the movie was exciting, the rest not so much.

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