“But I can’t just stop work over it, Dad!” Sarah was starting to feel under siege after just two days of staying with her parents. It wasn’t that she didn’t get on with them, it was just that she liked her own space. Despite the risks of being back home, she was fed up of being in hiding and knew she had to get on with her life.

Walter Lewis wasn’t convinced by his daughter’s argument. “Look, can’t I just pick up some paperwork for you and bring it here. It’s not like you don’t work from home anyway, surely you can work from here just as easily as from your flat?”

“It’s not that easy. I’d need my computer and you don’t have broadband here, it would be very slow. I don’t like the idea giving my mobile number out to the office much either. No, I need to be back at home.”

“Your mother would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you, you know that. Look, if you won’t be persuaded then at least let me come with you. I’ll bring the papers and I can park myself in front of the TV all day, you won’t know I’m there and at least I’d be there if that Ben chap turned up again.”

Sarah sighed, she wasn’t going to win this discussion, she knew that. At least this compromise was liveable with, although she was sceptical about how she would get much work done with her father sharing her cramped living space. Still, she couldn’t let Ben win this time by completely disrupting her life yet again. It was time to stand up for herself a bit more.

Walter drove his daughter to the flat in silence. She knew he was worried about her, not so much considering Ben a particular threat, but was concerned how much his reappearance bothered Sarah. He’d never really figured out why Ben scared her so much, but had gone along with his wife and daughter’s vehemence that the lad was a nasty piece of work and to be avoided at all costs.

Sarah let herself into the flat, suddenly feeling quite grateful that her father had accompanied her after all, memories of the fear from Saturday’s experience flooding back as she stepped through the door. She glanced up the stairway and idly wondered if Philip had returned from his weekend away. Still, it wasn’t as if she could pop up for a chat with her dad hanging about and Philip was probably at work (whatever it was he did, she’d never had the opportunity to ask) at this time of day.

“Right,” said Walter after a quick glance around the flat to check everything was as it should be and kindly ignoring the mess Sarah kept it in, “I’ll put the kettle on shall I? A nice cup of tea before you start work.” He rubbed his hands with glee at the sudden inspiration of how to be useful to his daughter.

Sarah just nodded, pretending to be enthusiastic as she could see how much Walter needed to feel helpful. She really needed a cup of coffee, but she could live with tea – it was all caffeine. It was time to boot up the computer and see how many thousands of emails her boss had forwarded to her already this morning.

It was difficult to get into her work. As she had suspected, her father’s presence had loomed large in the tiny flat and he’d got bored very quickly with both the papers and the poor offerings of daytime television. He was constantly interrupting with offers of his tea making skills, and of course, with the amount of fluid she was drinking to keep him happy, she was having to make more trips to the loo. Sarah getting up for a bathroom visit only seemed to indicate to her father that she was ready for another tea break and so the vicious cycle continued.

Eventually however, Walter discovered an interesting documentary during one of his marathon channel hopping sessions and got involved, leaving Sarah to get on with her work at last. She was just getting to grips with a particularly meaty coding problem when the doorbell rang.

They both looked up startled, the thought that it was Ben went through both their minds at once. For the second time, Sarah was glad her father had stayed with her after all. She went over to the intercom and picked up. “Hello?”

“Hello. I’m PC Banks and I’m accompanied by PC Blackthorn. May we come in and talk to you for a moment?”

Sarah was thrown, what on earth were policemen doing here? “Sure, hang on I’ll let you in.”

She opened the door for them and they entered her flat, looking completely oversized and awkward in the tiny living area. “Please, sit down.” She gestured to the sofa and drew up a dining chair for herself. “How can I be of help?”

“Thanks. Can we just take your name, miss?” The one who had identified himself as PC Banks pulled out a notebook and pen and held them poised to jot information down.

“I’m Sarah Lewis, and this is my father, Walter Lewis.” Sarah gestured towards her dad.

The policeman nodded to Walter in acknowledgement but then returned his attention to Sarah. “I suppose you know why we’ve come, Miss Lewis. You’ve probably seen the incident board outside asking for any witnesses of last night’s assault to come forward.”

“Assault? No, sorry. I wasn’t actually here yesterday, I was staying at my parent’s house.” She glanced out of the window, noticing for the first time the bright yellow board pleading for information.

“Yes, a gentleman by the name of Philip Marks was brutally stabbed just outside this building.” The policeman paused, waiting for any sign of recognition over the name.

Sarah’s face went ashen. “Philip? Oh god, is he okay?”

“You know this bloke, Sarah?” Walter interrupted, looking very concerned.

“Yes, I’ve met him several times, he lives in this building… in flat four. He’s a really nice guy.” Sarah was visibly distressed.

PC Blackthorn reassured her. “He was badly wounded, but the hospital seems to think he’ll make a full recovery.”

“Actually,” PC Banks resumed, “he asked after you by name. Was quite concerned about your welfare in fact. He saw his attacker but the description was a bit vague. He did mention a name though… Ben. Didn’t know the surname. We were hoping you might be able to shed some light?”

Sarah was momentarily struck dumb. Ben had done this terrible thing? A punch up or something like that she would almost have expected, but grievous bodily harm? It suddenly occurred to her to wonder what he might have done to her had she let him in when he requested that Saturday. Or was this his revenge for her refusing to talk to him? Poor Philip! She should never have got him involved, that was for sure, and what danger had she put her family in over the last few days? She suddenly burst into tears at the shock of it all.

The policemen watched and waited patiently while Walter fussed around his daughter, fetching tissues and trying to soothe her. When she’d calmed down a little, Walter explained to the officers who Ben was and how he had been hassling Sarah over the last few days.

When he had finished, Sarah had composed herself somewhat and added her version of the story, telling them how Ben had mistaken Philip for her boyfriend when Philip had kindly stepped in and also about the harassing telephone calls she had received the other night.

“Well, I wish you’d got in contact with us earlier about this guy.” PC Banks said ruefully. “Anti-stalking laws are quite comprehensive these days and we’re allowed to intervene much sooner than we used to be able to. Even when people withhold their number we can get the phone company to trace the calls, although to be honest, if he’d had any sense he would have used a phone box somewhere, but the rest would have been enough for us to act on anyway. We’ll look into this information you’ve provided us and we may need you to provide a written statement and identify this guy in a line up. We’ll get in contact again when we need to.”

“I’m really sorry. I just didn’t realise that you would be able to do anything. I wish I had more information for you like where he was staying or something like that. I really just don’t know though.”

“Not to worry, we’ll have a better chance of finding him with this description and knowing his full name. If you do remember something else, though, can you give me a call?” He gave her his card. “If I’m not there, there’ll be someone who will be able to get a message to me. In the meantime, if Ben shows up, I want you to lock yourself in and dial 999 immediately, do you understand?”

“Yes, thank you.” Sarah took the card and placed it carefully in her purse. “Oh, by the way, could you tell me which hospital Philip is in please? I’d like to be able to visit… if he wants to see me still after all this, of course.” She smiled wryly.

The policeman gave her an answering smile. “He’s at the General. Anyway, we won’t be taking up any more of your time. Thank you both.”

“I’ll see you to the door,” said Walter, determined to be useful once more after the revelations of the morning, and showed out the officers leaving Sarah sitting staring into space, wondering if she would ever feel safe again.

Her father returned to his room and looked at his daughter’s despondent face. “I suppose you’d like me to run you to this hospital now?”

She looked up and smiled at Walter, aware that he had done so much for her today already. “I’d love to be able to go, but what about visiting hours? I’m not sure I’ll be allowed in if we go now.”

“Rubbish. These days the General allow visitors at any reasonable hour. If he’s allowed visitors there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to go see him. If you can take the time off work that is.” Walter hinted slyly at her earlier protestations of the importance of her job.

“I’ve done enough that I can get caught up later without too many problems,” she lied. “That is, if you wouldn’t mind driving me over there?”

“Of course I don’t mind, you silly girl. Go get your coat, we might have a long walk from the car park to the reception. The parking there is a disgrace.” She could see he was revelling in being the hero of the hour, he’d always loved to be needed and secretly enjoyed a crisis. She grinned at him and did as she was told.

After surviving the battle to find a space and having to pay an extortionate amount to “Pay and Display” she was feeling less confident that she was doing the right thing. What if he was so ill that they weren’t allowing visitors? What if he refused to see her?

She was directed to the right ward by the main reception, and safely navigated the maze of corridors, now all she had to do was get past the receptionist here. Her father plonked himself happily into a chair in the waiting room and left her to it.

“Hi, I understand you have a Philip Marks staying here. I was wondering if he was seeing visitors?”

The receptionist looked up, “are you family?”

Sarah’s face fell. “No, no I’m not. Just a friend.” She had suspected this would happen, but it was still a blow.

“Hang on a moment. Can I take your name?” Sarah gave her name over and watched as the receptionist had a quiet word with one of the passing nurses who then wandered out of the room.

A little while later, she was back and headed directly for Sarah, smiling. “Miss Lewis? The patient would love to see you, come on I’ll take you through.”