It all began when Lucy was contacted online by some unknown person pretending to be her dead mum. She told Peter she was going to meet Cindy but Peter her brother was suspicious so told her dad Ian and stepmum Jane about it. Ian confiscated her laptop and wrote to the unknown person, pretending to be his daughter but the stranger did not fall for this. Then he began to get stalked. He got a wreath of flowers, a note with "Rest in Peace", an animal heart etc. He recieved texts and calls. The stranger could get in and out of the house - planted a book on insominia and all the rest of it. At first Ian thought his daughter was doing it, then his dead wife's sister. He accused his ownwife after ringing the mobile number that called him and discovering the mobile inher bag.
Hurt by his accusations, she told him to leave. He booked a trip to South Africa ahnd wrote to the stalker "Congratulations. You run my life. Ian" and the stalker wrote "Let's end this now. Meet me in the old pavilion in 20 minutes Cindy X" so he did. Following a series of clues he climbed up a derelict block of flats and got freaked out by a lptop playing music, a tailor's dummy on the balcony etc. Then he came to a room full of photyos of him and Cindy with his face crossed out. He broke down at which time the stranger entered the rom and locked the door and Ian said "It can't be". When the African hotel rang Jane to say Ian hadn't checked in and she found his passport she got frightened and told the police.
The stranger was revealed to be Steven Beale on Tuesday when Pat rang him to tell him all the news and he declared he was not in New Zealand but in London. Steven turned up in the house when Jane and Lucy were arguing like "a knight on a white charger", pretending to know nothing about what happened to Ian. He did regret his actions a little when Pat told him Ian always treated him as a son but he was quite unhinged. His legs were trembling and like the actor said - normal one minute, unhuinged the next - so unpredictable. Jane wanted him to leave once as the twins could not accept their dad's disappearance while he was around but changed her mind when she saw the strong bond between Steven and Lucy.
Steven assured Lucy that Cindy was dead and that some mental person was mesing with her head. He got a job in the cafe but developed a strong crush on Jane, upsetting her by reminding her she was still young and might find another man. She obviously didn't realise what he meant though the audience did. When the police questioned him about Ian he got nervous and sent a text supposedly from Ian to calm down Jane and stop the police investigations but unfortunately for him the police said they couldn't close the case until Ian returned. By yesterday Jane grew torely on Steven but when trying to get him to open up about his problems, Steven misread the signals and tried it on with her. She was appalled when he kissed her.
