Opportunity by Charlotte Grimshaw Page B

arguing.
    I said to Viola, 'Are you all right?'
    My father was taken past. 'I've done nothing,' he said to his
escort. 'She knows it.' He wrenched himself close to me,
amazed. 'Why are you here? Did you call the cops? I could
lose my job. I've got debts. You've done this. It's a trick.'
    He was pulled away, shouting.
    Viola said, 'I didn't want to call the police.'
    I rounded on her. 'Well, they're here now. What did you
think you were doing?' I watched as my father was shoved into
the police car. I was calming down. I was starting to think.
    She said, 'I thought it'd be all right to go to his house. He
said he was going to have a party with some musicians. It
wasn't like going with a stranger, because he said he was your father .'
    'Everyone's a stranger. Was he drunk?'
    She hesitated. 'A bit, maybe.'
    I leaned down to her. I said, 'He's a drunk who drives a
taxi. He has to be stopped. He's going to kill someone.'
    'You want him to lose his job?'
    'You think he shouldn't lose it?' I took her arm and pushed
her towards the cops.
    The sergeant said to me, 'You'll need to make a statement.'
    'Gladly,' I said.
    But in the car I said to Viola, 'How did you know my
number?'
    'I remembered it from work.'
    'How did you call without him knowing?'
    'He was pacing around the kitchen, raving about you, your
mother, what bastards people were. I picked up the phone —
he didn't even notice. He's crazy. I was frightened .' I glanced at
her. She saw my expression and looked stunned. I felt fear
come off her — fear of me. I stopped driving so fast and said,
'This is a situation. We need to get through it. He stopped you
leaving. Anything else?'
    'He kissed me.' She shivered.
    'That's assault.' I pictured it: him kissing Viola.
    'We'll get him,' I said. 'He won't be hurting anyone again.'
    At the police station I had a talk with a senior sergeant. I
told him everything.
    'He's known to us,' the man said. He went from one room
to another, came back. He told me what my father was saying.
He said, 'It's a long chance, him picking up your young friend.'
There was a silence. I wondered what my father had said. The
sergeant looked at me steadily. I could tell he was turning over
the possibility that Viola and I were connected in this, that we
were in league.
    'I can hardly believe it myself,' I said. Just get through this,
I thought. Just see it through.
    He said, 'But we can get something out of it. We can finally
ban him from the cabs.'
    I went into the room where Viola was sitting.
    'Tell them everything,' I said. 'The drinking. The kiss.
Everything.' I looked hard at her. 'Don't leave anything out.'
    Afterwards I got her back in the car and drove her to our
house. The thing would have to be explained to Karen.
    Karen had all the lights blazing. Viola blinked. She looked
extremely young, foolish and vulnerable.
    Karen said, 'So this is the "darling". '
    Viola's mouth turned up in a mad grin. She looked rudely
around the room, as if storing up detail.
    In a caustic voice I explained what had happened, adding
that I had feared for Viola's safety, and that the word 'darling'
had been meant to reassure. I made it plain that I was at the
end of my tether, that I was upset.
    Karen looked contrite, then ironic. She said sharply, 'How
did she know our home number?'
    'I remembered it from work,' Viola said.
    Was there a simper in her answer? She looked from me to
Karen. She smiled. I jumped out of my chair. Was she enjoying
this — torturing us, making trouble between us?
    But she couldn't have contrived it. She couldn't have known
she was going to meet my father. He'd admitted that he'd been
cruising around, that he'd stopped for her on a whim; also
that they'd never met before. It was sheer chance — although
it would be Viola he found, walking in the night alone. I
thought about it. She should have refused the lift. But he was
a taxi driver. She would have assumed he was after a fare. Then
she trusted him because he was connected to me. And