Times of Trouble by Victoria Rollison

don’t you
come to the airport, and meet me. I’ll have a few minutes to
explain more then.’
    ‘ Ok, I’ll see you
there. Text me which gate you’re leaving from.’
    I was more confused
than ever. My suspicions about what he had been up to were cooling.
It was impossible not to be worried by his tone; he sounded really
anxious. I quickly showered and dressed, explaining to mum as I ran
out the door that I was borrowing her car to see Liam off at the
airport. When she heard he was flying back urgently to Sydney, her
face lit up with hope.
    ‘ Has he found
her?’
    But I couldn’t give
her good news, as much as I would have liked to.
    When I found Liam in
the departure lounge, he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday,
and looking far from relaxed. His air of confidence was completely
gone today. His face looked drawn and grey, his eyes red and his
hair didn’t look like it had been brushed. Much to my annoyance, he
still looked attractive.
    ‘ My flight boards in
15 minutes,’ he said.
    ‘ Can you tell me why
you’re going back? We don’t have time for a really drawn out
explanation...’
    ‘ I know, I know. I’ll
make it as quick as I can.’
    I wanted him to get
to the point, but when he did, I wished he hadn’t said
anything.
    ‘ You remember I went
to see the property manager? He told me the previous tenant had
been murdered there. He said the man’s name was Danny
Wright.’
    The word murder
crashed over me. ‘Sophie’s boyfriend was murdered? What about
Sophie?’ Suddenly my throat was dry.
    ‘ She wasn’t
there.’
    ‘ How do you know she
wasn’t there? How did Danny die? What the hell happened to him?’
Panic filled every pore of my body, and I felt like I was going to
faint.
    ‘ He was shot.
Apparently he must have opened the door to someone, and they shot
him in the face.’
    I gasped. ‘But you
don’t know Sophie wasn’t there. How do you know she wasn’t taken by
whoever shot Danny? You don’t know!’ I was starting to get
hysterical. People sitting around us were staring, but I didn’t
care. ‘Liam, you can’t just tell me you know Sophie wasn’t there!
How do you know?’
    ‘ I’ve already told
you, I know she’s in Sydney!’
    ‘ And is she safe
there? Who shot Danny? Why would someone kill him? What’s going on
Liam?’ My voice cracked as I said ‘kill’. This was all starting to
become far too real.
    Liam put his hand on
my knee, and looked me in the eyes, trying to calm me down. ‘I
understand you are frightened. I kept quiet about it before because
I didn’t want you and your mum to panic.’
    ‘ Shit Liam! You never
said anything about people getting shot! When did this happen?
Before or after Sophie emailed mum?’
    ‘ The day before.
That’s how I know she wasn’t there.’
    ‘ So do the police
know who did it? Do you have any idea? Why would Danny be killed?
What are you not telling me?’
    ‘ I’ve been trying to
find out who might have killed Danny. I’ve managed to work out that
whoever it is, they weren’t just after him.’
    ‘ How do you know
that?’
    ‘ Well, the email from
Sophie is a fairly big clue that she felt she was in
danger.’
    ‘ Of course she was
petrified. Her boyfriend had just been killed!’
    ‘ Yes, and also the
fact she’s been moving around so often that I haven’t been able to
track her down. The move to Sydney, I believe, was to get away from
the people who killed Danny.’
    ‘ People? How do you
know it’s more than one person?’
    ‘ I just do. There are
too many reasons to explain now. I think Sophie and Danny got
involved in something that made them a target.’
    ‘ So you have no more
idea than that?’
    ‘ That’s what I’ve
been working on. I don’t know why they‘re after her. Or why they
killed Danny.’
    ‘ What do you know
about him?’
    ‘ He owned a gym in
Brompton. But his other business was managing Sophie and Katie’s…
careers’.
    ‘ And who on earth is
Katie?’
    ‘ Katie