‘Go on,’ he prompted harshly when she hesitated. ‘I take it there was more?’
‘That was only the beginning…’
Now she wanted everything out in the open, wanted to pour the whole story out, as if by doing so she could purge herself of the horror, the fear with which she had lived for so long. So she told him how the letters had grown more and more sexually threatening, how the unknown stalker had declared that he believed she was his destiny, that one day they were meant to be together.
‘He even started to interpret things I’d said on the programme—things I’d said to children—as being messages just for him.’
Once again she shuddered, her blue eyes dark and shadowed.
‘He referred to them in his letters, giving them totally different meanings—making them disgusting and dirty. That was when we called the police, but of course there was no real evidence.’
‘The letters?’
Sadly, Catherine shook her head.
‘I burned most of them. Oh, I know I shouldn’t have done, but at first I just didn’t think it would last—I thought he’d soon get tired of pestering me. And then, later, they were so horrible that I couldn’t bear to have them around, and I destroyed them without thinking that they would be needed. Once I’d told the police they said I should pass the letters on to them unopened.’
‘Good advice,’ Evan put in quietly. ‘Did that help?’
‘I wish I could say it had; if anything, it made matters worse. It was as if he knew what I’d done and he changed his routine as a result. That was when the phone calls started.’
Evan muttered something violent and obscene in a savage undertone, drawing her pansy-dark eyes to his face. Seeing the cold fury etched around his nose and mouth, she hesitated, almost fearful of continuing. Immediately he made himself relax, wiping the harsh lines from his face with a speed that made her blink.
‘Go on,’ he encouraged with an unexpected softness, warm fingers tightening slightly on hers.
‘He started ringing me at my flat—sometimes in the evening, just after I’d got home from work, sometimes in the middle of the night.’
‘Did you recognise the voice?’ The question came sharply.
‘No—but I think he’d done something to disguise itput a handkerchief over the mouthpiece or something— and he always whispered, so that distorted it too. He seemed to be getting more obsessed—more angry. There was one time when he’d seen me on the show with another presenter. He thought I’d been flirting—“unfaithful” he called it! He said I was a two-timing bitch and if I didn’t change my ways he would punish me—’
Her breath caught in her throat, threatening to choke her, and she had to pause, struggling to control the panic that rose up in her. Evan waited silently, seeming to sense intuitively that to speak would be to destroy her composure completely, but those strong, warm fingers still intertwined with hers tightened in an eloquent communication of sympathy.
‘I’d had an answering machine installed, but I found that I was just standing by it, waiting to hear his voice, and he always seemed to know when I was there. He said that he’d make sure I never had a relationship with anyone else—he’d kill anyone I dated—and—and if necessary he’d kill me.’
Her voice broke again, her eyes flooding with tears, but it was as if Evan was passing his strength on to her through his touch on her hands, and in a moment she was able to continue.
‘The police did what they could. They tried to trace the calls, but they were all from payphones scattered all over London. They even offered to escort me to and from work, but I couldn’t take that—it was like being a prisoner—and I couldn’t rest in my flat, never knowing when the phone might ring again, whether it would be him…It all came to a head last week when I was out shopping. I’d just gone to the supermarket to get some groceries, but suddenly I heard someone running behind me.’
Once more she shuddered, reliving the fear she had felt in that moment.
‘It was only a man running for a bus, but it panicked me. I realised that he could be watching me all the timefollowing me. I just snapped. I came straight here, didn’t even go home to get any clothes. I was afraid he might be there waiting for me.’
Abruptly Catherine became aware of the fact that she was still holding onto Evan’s hands, her fingers clenched on his, tightening in response to her inner distress, and with a muffled exclamation she released them sharply, her confusion growing as she saw the red marks on his skin, the indentations where her nails had dug into his palms.
‘Oh, I’m sorry!’ She couldn’t believe her own thoughtlessness.
Evan barely spared his hands the briefest of glances, his shrug dismissing both the damage she had done and her apology.
‘And what’s happened since you came here? Have things been easier?’
‘Oh, yes. Only one person knows where I am and that’s my agent. I had to tell her, because she’s a special friend as well as working with me. And I rang work and told them I was ill—exhaustion due to stress. Well, it’s near enough to the truth. Luckily, we’ve just finished filming the last of the current series, so I’m not leaving anyone in the lurch—and I was due two months’ leave anyway. They probably realise something’s up; my mind hasn’t exactly been on my job lately.’
‘But what will happen when your leave is up? You can’t hide away here for ever.’
‘I know. I have to admit that I haven’t really thought beyond that. I suppose I’m just praying that something will be resolved before I have to go back—that the police track him down, or he loses interest in tormenting me and gives up. I just know I can’t bear the thought of him being out there—watching.’
‘Are you sure you’re not letting him win by giving in to him in this way—letting him ruin your life?’
‘Oh, you would say that! You’re a man!’ Catherine couldn’t believe she had actually trusted this man, poured her heart out to him, only to get this typical masculine response. ‘You don’t know what it’s like to live in fear-not to feel secure in your own home—’
‘It was a question that had to be asked.’
‘Of course you’d see it that way.’ Unable to bear that intent sea-coloured gaze any longer, she got to her feet in a restless, disturbed movement. ‘I don’t know why I ever told you.’
If she had expected that confiding in him would bring a sense of relief, then she had been desperately wrong. Instead, she felt even more vulnerable than before, frightened by the way she had let a complete stranger into the carefully restricted, protective world that had enclosed her safely until now.
‘You obviously can’t or won’t help me.’
‘Did I say that?’
It was his very stillness that shook her, making her stop dead in the middle of the room. Evan hadn’t moved an inch; he still sat in his chair, his hands lying loosely on its arms, his hard-boned face turned towards her. He was so big that even sitting
