I closed the door behind Grandma and put her walker in the boot. When I hopped onto the driver’s seat, grandma looked down. “I’m sorry I blurted about your pregnancy to her the way I did.”
“Don’t worry about it. She had to learn one way or another.”
“It would have been easier for you if you’d told her on your own terms though. I am sorry Molly.”
I smiled. “Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered how she learned about it. The result is still the same. But do you know what? I don’t care what she thinks.”
“That’s the spirit. You got to have that attitude in life or you’ll just spend your time wound up in knots. You see, you can’t please everyone, so why not just please yourself? Provided you’re not hurting anyone that is.”
“You said earlier that I should start taking notes of all your wisdom. Well that’s going to be my first entry.” I leaned across and kissed her papery cheek.
“Good. Here’s another piece of advice. Keep your eye on the driver of the green station wagon. That one’s been following you since you left home.”
Grandma nodded to the reversing camera I had just activated. Sure enough, parked directly opposite me was the green wagon. Only this time there was no driver inside.
“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” I hissed, pushing the gear into neutral and spinning to look over my shoulder.
“There’s plenty of green cars on the road and at first I didn’t think anything of it. But when I saw you checking those photos on your phone, I started to put two and two together.”
“Photos?” I spun to face her.
“Yeah. It looked like Matt had his arm around a woman and that woman wasn’t you. I wouldn’t have been concerned about it, but you looked worried. Then I saw that car again. Is she the other woman? Do I need to get out and hold her down?”
I sighed. “No! There will be no holding anyone down. And she’s not the other woman.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was checking the photos for clues. You see I had them on the computer last night and you can see it’s a bad photoshop job. Whoever did it is setting Matt up. I just don’t know why.”
“Well, following her would be a good start to finding out.”
“Do you think the driver of that car is the woman in the photos?”
“Don’t you?”
I shrugged as I bit my thumbnail. “I haven’t seen the driver, so I don’t know for sure.”
“How often do you get followed?”
“Never.”
“Then there’s a pretty good chance they are related.”
The driver of the wagon had appeared when I wasn’t looking as the wagon was now presently pulling out of the car park and heading towards the road. My heart missed a beat as I considered what I knew.
“It could just be a coincidence,” I suggested. “There are a lot of green wagons getting around.”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”
Grandma was right. I hurriedly reversed out of the park and hightailed it after the wagon. I caught up with it quickly.
“You’d better not tell mum about this,” I warned grandma. “She’ll have a coronary and never let me take you shopping again.”
“Pfft. Take no notice of her. She’s another one that’s too uptight. I suggested yoga to her once. That didn’t work so I put her onto my Mindfulness app. I don’t think she’s doing it right, though as she’s not very Zen.”
The green wagon indicated and turned left at the next set of traffic lights. Keeping a few cars behind it, I followed. I then followed it along Main Road, Parker Street and Elm Street. By the time it turned into Nelson Road I was getting bored and I had an inkling they knew I was tailing her.
“Should we pull them over or something?” I asked.
“They might have a gun!” A light sparked in grandmas’ eyes and I could already imagine the story she was going to tell the girls at bingo.
“I’m sure they don’t have a gun. They’re illegal in Australia.”
“Yeah, it didn’t stop that psycho pulling one on Lizzie and me that time though.”
I shivered at the memory and eased back on the accelerator.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s not worth it,” I explained. “I’m not putting us both in danger just to find out who that is.”
“Oh, I was just joking. I’m one hundred per cent positive they won’t have a gun!”
“You’re that sure?”
She swished her teeth. “Probably more like eighty percent.”
I slowed the car to a stop.
“I can’t say that I’m not disappointed, but it’s for the best. I wouldn’t want you and the baby to be in any danger.”
“Yeah. I’m sure whoever it is will show themselves soon enough.” I really wished they would just disappear and never return, but I wondered what the likelihood of that would be.
“You should tell that really cute policeman about it,” Grandma suggested.
“And tell him what? That a green wagon was seen travelling behind me and then parked at the same shops we were at. I’m not even positive it’s the same car.”
Chapter Twelve
The week went by quickly after that. I kept my eye out for green wagons but didn’t see one again. I was now positive it was just a coincidence and hoped the driver hadn’t called the police telling them how they were being stalked by a black SUV with a pregnant driver and her eighty-five-year-old grandmother.
Tonight, was Friday night and was the regular get together with my siblings. We were going to Danny and Andrew’s which was great as I really needed Andrew to wash my hair. Not because it was dirty or anything, but because he gave the best head massage I’d ever had. In fact, I’d often mentioned to Danny that I thought it was better than sex, but he’d just told me that I mustn’t be doing the sex thing right.
I wanted to be comfortably dressed, so I stepped into my navy polka dot midi dress and coupled it with my mesh topped white Sketchers which I’d picked up this afternoon. They were perfect. Flat, comfortable on my feet, and good to look at. I may have purchased three other pairs in varying colors, but I had months of pregnancy ahead of me, so they were a great investment, right?
Matt would be there tonight too. It would be the first time I’d see him all week as I’d been avoiding him. That was a lot harder than it sounded. But as I still hadn’t figured out how I felt about our relationship I knew it was for the best. I really hoped my heart could let him into the friend’s zone if it came to that, but every time we spoke on the phone and I heard the deep dulcet tones of his voice reverberate in my ear, I doubted I’d ever be able to let him go. Thankfully I’d had the great excuse of us both being too busy to see each other. He was busy tracking down Darryl Lewis and I was busy with work.
Having Lizzie as my assistant was working out extremely well as she’d managed to have me fully booked for the next eight months. She kept my due date clear, but I needed to ask her what was going to happen if the baby came early. I sighed and pushed that conversation into the ‘too hard basket’.