Can't Buy Me Love

Chapter Fourteen

In the house things didn’t seem real; she viewed everything through a fog of happiness. She was pleasant to her new associate Thomas, smiled at her father, and drifted around in a cloud of happiness.

At some point that evening Marina must have slept, because she was woken by a loud bang coming from downstairs. Her bedroom door swung open before she could get out of her bed and her father stood there in just his pyjama trousers.

                “What was that?” she asked him, not liking the look of terror in his eyes.

                “The police are coming, they’re going to arrest me,” as she started to question, he stopped her with a raised hand, “no time love. Take this envelope and anything you want then leave, I’ve called a cab.” He thrust a wad of notes into her hand, “have you got somewhere to go?”

She looked at him all words had left her for a moment, this was the man who’d limited her life since she’d come to California, and now what? He was being arrested? Her heart was racing and she finally mustered a response, “um...not really, you’ve hardly encouraged friendships.”

Her father looked to the ceiling for a moment, then sighed, “I don’t want you here when they arrive Marina, you have to leave now. Take everything you need and leave, you’ve got a few minutes, presume you’re not coming back, you may not see anything here again.”

                “Dad?” she was scared suddenly.

                “I’ve no time to explain. Really. But I’m....I’m sorry...” With that he turned and left the room. As usual he was lacking on information.

She pulled her biggest suitcase off the top of the wardrobe and emptied everything into it, all her clothes, the few CD’s she had, her laptop, camera, chargers for everything. Then dragged it down to the hallway. Her father was coming out of the study.

He handed her another envelope, “go to this address. The place is in your name. You’ll be safe. Don’t answer the door to anyone unless it’s my attorney. He’ll call you first. Is your phone on?”

She was still confused and half asleep when she was bundled in to the taxi. As it left the drive and turned left, three blaring police cars whizzed past her, screeching to a halt in the drive way.

The address in the envelope was a condo in the Valley and it took forty minutes to get there, a very extravagant taxi ride. She paid the driver from the money her father had given her, then made her way inside. It was a typical home for these parts, reasonable sized with four bedrooms, a double garage and groomed gardens. It was fully furnished, the beds made, even TV, cable and DVD player were plugged and ready to go. The fridge however was empty.

Marina sat at the small dining table and opened the envelope her father had given her. It contained details to three investments and two bank accounts, all in her name, and amounting to several hundred thousand dollars. There were also policies and various codes, and numerical values which she could only presume were bank account details.

She was in a daze, her mind filled with random ideas; she had no idea why her father was in trouble. Three police cars was no petty crime. For a moment she wondered if he’d killed Anna. Something that wasn’t as unsavoury a thought as it should have been.

It was still dark, and her phone informed her it was four am, but sleep eluded her; she didn’t want to wake Nathan, though she’d never needed him more. So she called him regardless. His mobile phone cut straight to answer phone, so she left a plea to call her. But no further details.