"Daisy-girl, we don't have much time. Tell Mummy where it hurts."
She made a loud sucking sound as she inhaled the last of the coloured slush up the straw and smacked her lips enthusiastically.
"Just my shoulder," she finally replied, pointing to her right hand side.
I felt around carefully, but when she didn't tense up, decided the injury must only be minor. Mine on the other hand hurt like fuck.
"OK, baby. You sit here, I'll quickly brush myself off, and then we've got to go."
"Go where?" she asked, as I pulled several paper towels from the dispenser on the wall.
"Go from here," I replied.
"But where to?" she insisted, as I began wetting towels and delicately washing gravel out of open grazes. I winced, but didn't stop cleaning myself up.
"Somewhere new," I said, as I chucked the bloodied paper into the bin in the corner. I glanced up at my face in the mirror and blanched at the size of my eyes and shadows beneath them.
"Kelly Tarlton's?" Daisy asked excitedly, the chase and consequent fall all but forgotten.
Well, what the hell. "Yes," I agreed. "Kelly Tarlton's. But we've got to sneak out the back, so we make it before they lock the doors on the Aquarium, OK?"
"OK, Mummy," she chirped, slipping off the toilet seat and crossing to the door, ready for the next adventure to occur. I shook my head, but found myself miraculously smiling. If only my life were as simple as the next aquarium visit.
We ducked out of the toilet and slipped into the kitchen. The chefs were all busy, but noticed us as soon as we entered the room.
"Can I help?" one guy in a white outfit with extra large white chef's hat asked.
"My daughter's sick, she needs some fresh air," I offered, keeping Daisy’s face planted into my neck with a well placed palm on the back of her head. "Can we slip out your back door, there's a fuss out the front on the footpath."
The chef grunted, but pointed to a mesh covered door at the back. "Half our meals are going cold because of it," he grumbled, clearly sympathising with us about our need to go out the back and not the front.
The door clanged shut behind us, but I was already at the end of the alley. Luck proved our friend, as a taxi was just clearing its latest passenger on the side of the street. I slipped into the rear with Daisy before the customer had finished paying.
Five minutes later we were miles away from Ponsonby Road and the flashing lights that had appeared there from the ambulance and police vehicles parked in front of the restaurant. I sank back into the plastic covered seat of the cab and let a slow, long breath of air out.
Home was out. The goon would return there waiting for me.
Work was out. My guess was McLaren sent his man because of my morning visit from Detective Pierce. Heading back to the office was impossible now.
Daisy's after school carer was out. McLaren knew about Daisy now, he'd chase down every lead. I contemplated warning Zoey, Daisy's babysitter, but the less she knew the better, and if she appeared innocent, they'd leave her alone.
Who, or where, did that leave?
I suddenly realised how isolated I'd let myself become. Being a single parent I'd had to rely on others from time to time, but coming from where I had come from, I had limited that circle of helpers severely. Even though I had no one to turn to now, I was grateful that I had kept our circle small. The less people who knew about us, the better it was for them.
The taxi pulled up outside Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium on Tamaki Drive. I paid with cash and slipped out after Daisy, who was practically running to the front doors of the building. Her pigtails flying, a skip in her step. I noticed we'd lost her backpack somewhere along the way. Hell, we'd probably lost it on our front doorstep, I don't remember her school bag after running for our lives. But I had my handbag, some cash and my bank cards.
The movies always make out that you shouldn't use your electronic cards when hiding. Which made me think of my cellphone. As we queued up in the short midday line for entry, I reached inside my bag and thumbed my phone off. There was no one to call me anyway.
I felt my nerves untangle the deeper we went underground. As the lights dimmed and the piped artificial sound of aquatic animals filled the air, I let a little more of the tension go. We could spend a few hours here, grab a bite to eat, stay out of sight, and then I'd find us a motel to stay in. Of course finding one that would accept cash and not credit cards would mean we'd have to travel further out of the CBD. And to do that I'd need to withdraw cash from an ATM, which I considered would be safe if it was in an area I didn't stay in.
All of these thoughts were spinning through my head, but as my daughter laughed at the sharks swimming above us in the glass tunnel, and pointed out each exciting new creature that she could identify by name, I told myself that it would all work out somehow.