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Laura's wide and worried eyes watching him.
"She looks after little Kate and Felicity every afternoon after school, doesn't she?"
The girls! Nick swore loudly. This was the first time the caller had mentioned his daughters.
His legs turned to sawdust and he sagged against the kitchen bench.
"Right now Mrs Cunningham's snipping the dead heads off roses in her front garden. She
keeps a nice garden, doesn't she? I'll enjoy taking a closer look at it when I come next week for
your daughters."
"This isn't going to help your brother," Nick shouted. But before he could continue he heard
the click of the receiver being replaced.
With an angry cry, he dropped his phone back into its cradle. His heart pounded. Sick and
shaking, he slumped onto a kitchen stool and let his head drop into his hands.
He groaned as he fought off nightmarish images of Kate's and Felicity's terrified faces as a
dark, mad stranger approached them.
"Nick?"
Nick lifted his hands away from his face. Laura was leaning towards him, her eyes brimming
with concern.
"It was a nuisance call," he told her. "There have been others. The family of a criminal I
prosecuted last week took exception to one of their relatives going to jail."
"What does he want?"
"He's making threats about stalking the girls and Heather."
"That's terrible," she whispered, white- faced. After a thoughtful pause, she asked, "What are
you going to do?"
"I'll get back to the police." He sighed again, feeling suddenly exhausted. "But, bad as it
sounds to us, as far as the police are concerned we only have a low-level threat at this stage."
"But if this man's spying on the girls?"
Nick swallowed back a wave of nausea. "What I'd really like to do is take time off and get the
hell out of here with them."
Laura seemed to think about that for a minute or two. "But could you just hide indefinitely?"
"No," he admitted with a sigh. "What I need is a safe house. It looks like this guy knows the
girls' daily routine. He knows they go to Heather's. I need to find somewhere he wouldn't know
about. I'd send them up to my parents' place on the Atherton Tableland, except my dad's going
into hospital for some tests. Mum has more than enough on her plate, what with worrying about
him and the fact that it's almost harvest time."
Laura nodded in silent agreement. "Rob and Susie get back from their honeymoon tomor-
row," she said slowly. "They're setting up house at Susie's place."
Nick rolled his eyes. ' 'That would be great, wouldn't it? Rob could carry Susie, Kate and Fliss
over the threshold of his nuptial home."
Laura's mouth quirked. "I'm sure they wouldn't refuse to help you out, but OK maybe it's
not the best option."
She switched her gaze to a spot on the wall, and she stood there deep in thought.
"I don't expect you to worry about this," he said.
"No wonder you were out of your mind when the girls disappeared this morning."
"Yeah. This guy has certainly put the wind up me. That's just what he wants, of course. It's
probably all bluff, but I can't risk it." He grimaced and ran tense fingers through his hair.
Still staring at the wall, Laura nodded. Then she turned back to him. "He'd be unlikely to
know anything about me, would he?"
"No...you should be safe." There was something about her expression, a kind of dawning
determination in her bright blue eyes, that made Nick frown. "What are you thinking?"
He realised she was looking very earnest now like the Laura he'd first met the do- gooder.
The woman who'd somehow conned him into doing a clown stint at a children's hospital. "It's
not your safety you're thinking about, is it?" he asked.
"No," she said softly.
"Oh, no," he said. "Don't even begin to think about trying to help us."
Laura smiled faintly. "What's the use of being a born-in-the-womb do-gooder if I don't put all
those helpful impulses into practice when they're really needed?"
Nick swallowed. "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"
"I'm thinking the girls would be safe at my place. Nobody knows we're connected."
"But, Laura- "
"Tomorrow's Sunday and I have Monday off. That's at least two days the girls can be in a safe
house with twenty-four-hour supervision while the police track this fellow down."
He stared at her, surprised at how calm and collected she sounded. "But you don't have kids.
Do you know anything about looking after little girls? They can be quite a handful."
She folded her arms across her chest. "I happen to have excellent qualifications."
"Really?" Nick was aware he sounded as if he was in court as he asked, "Would you care to
elaborate?"
Laura lifted her chin and eyed him haughtily. "Apart from the library work I do with
children every week, I have even more useful credentials I've spent several years of my life
being a little girl."
His mouth twitched into an unwilling smile, but then he frowned again. He hardly knew this
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