Free An Unexpected Gift by Lily Zante

huge sigh of relief as the realization hit home and then he laughed
out loud. It was a wholesome, loud and hearty laugh. He had his house back and
Marisa was gone, for good. Not the Marisa that he fell in love with, but the
Marisa that she had become, a needy, greedy, spiteful and vain Marisa. They had
grown apart so quickly in the last six months of their married life. The
laughter was his release; it was the letting out of much pent up frustration.
Living with Marisa these last few months had been especially trying. And now,
at long last, he had his life and his home back.
    Maybe
life was starting to look up now.
    Daniel
stood in his hallway, dropped his briefcase to the floor and inhaled
deeply.  For the first time in weeks, he was starting to feel optimistic
about the future.
     
    When
he awoke the next morning and came down the stairs, he felt the strong need to
vomit.
    He
cupped his hand over his nose, noticing a nasty odor in the house. It was the
sharp smell of excrement. Wrinkling his face, he looked down on the floor of
his landing and saw the squidgy and unmistakable pile of dog excrement on his
doormat. His letter box was soiled and the smell was everywhere. Quelling the
desire to reach over and retch, Daniel stepped over the feces and yanked the
door open in a fit of rage.
    The
joy of yesterday was but a distant memory.
    His
face was ablaze with anger and his blue eyes flashed angrily as he marched out
onto his driveway, looking around angrily in all directions. It was only six
o’clock in the morning. Daniel was an early riser and liked to be in the office
no later than seven thirty on most days. The quiet suburban street was empty,
and dark. There didn’t seem to be anybody around. He looked around, at his
house and saw everything looked fine there. Then he paused as something caught
his eye.
    The
tires of his prized Merc had been slashed. All four of them. And someone had
taken a sharp object and drawn a deep line all around the edge of his car.
    Damn
you Marisa.
    He
loved this car and she knew he had. She had also known how clean and tidy he
was and that posting dog feces through his front door would set him off.  She
was gone but still giving him hell.
    He
slowly made his way back into the house. He had a niggling feeling in the back
of his mind but it was too early in the morning to figure out what. Daniel
sniffed in disgust. The putrid smell of the excrement filled his nostrils,
making him want to throw up then and there.
    Instead,
he got a plastic carrier bag and threw it over the pile, scooping it up cleanly
and wrapping it up in several sheets of newspaper before throwing it into the
bin. 
    He
would get Louise, his secretary, to call Marie, his regular cleaner to clean up
the mess on the letterbox and the mat. The mat couldn’t stay a moment longer.
He lunged forward, picked it up and flung it out into the back garden. He
didn’t want it in his house. As for the tires, he would have to see to them
later. He was going to have to speak to Marisa and threaten her with the police
if she ever pulled a stunt like this again. But he was busy at work today and
had an eight o’clock meeting which was urgent.
    Everything
else had to take a back seat.
    He
looked at the clock, it was getting on. He needed to get to work. Before he ran
into the shower, Daniel flipped through his wallet and dug out DCI Osborn’s
number. This was the man who was looking into the attack he had been involved
in before Christmas.
    He
would give him a call later on in the morning, to see if they had made any
headway with getting that animal formally arrested and charged.
    Why
was it that his life was full of people who did nothing but cause him grief?
     

Chapter Eleven
    The
morning after meeting Daniel, Caitlin woke up to yet another silent phone call.
They had started up again a few days ago.
    This
cold morning, her ring tone shook her roughly from her sweet slumber. She
groggily reached out for her mobile phone which lay on