by Clare Kauter
“Will do,” I replied. “What are you up to?”
“Sewing a tutu for a stegosaurus.”
I paused, sure that I’d heard him wrong. “What?”
He sighed. “Didn’t I tell you about this last time I saw you?”
He’d been in Sydney about two weeks ago, but to be honest he hadn’t seemed like himself. He’d told me something had gone wrong with a case. He didn’t elaborate, and I knew better than to ask. Adam wasn’t the most open person when it came to his feelings. One thing we had in common.
“Did you tell me you’re now working with Jurassic ballerinas?” I asked. “Nope. Somehow that must have slipped your mind.” I thought for a moment. “Are we talking a full size dinosaur here?”
“Toy dinosaur,” he replied. “I’ve just finished painting it, but I really think the skirt will make her eyes pop.”
I paused, just taking a moment to absorb that. “It might seem like the obvious question,” I said, “but why are you painting a toy dinosaur?”
“For a game,” he said.
“A game?”
“Tabletop game combined with roleplaying.”
“Right,” I said, frowning. “What does this game involve, exactly?”
“Dinosaur dates and doomsday preppers.”
“So obvious,” I said. “I can’t believe I even needed to ask. And how exactly did you get into this game?”
“It started out as a cover for… well, it’s not important what it was a cover for.”
“Ooh, I want to hear that story.”
He laughed quietly. “Maybe I’ll tell you when I’m back in Sydney.”
I raised my eyebrows, absentmindedly scooping up a handful of the glittery blue water and letting it run through my fingers. “Are you coming soon?”
“Tomorrow.”
I smiled, looking forward to seeing him again. Adam Baxter was the only reason I’d stuck with my job these past few shitty months. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll think of some reason to come.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Don’t tell me you’re coming here to try and blow off work. That’s not like you at all.”
“Not blowing off work,” he replied.
“Then why?”
He paused. “Why did you call me?”
“Are you trying to change the subject?”
“Are you?”
“Maybe.”
“Then maybe I am too, but I’m stubborn and you’re not going to get it out of me, so why don’t we just talk about whatever it is that you want to talk about?”
I sighed. He wasn’t lying. I knew from experience that if he didn’t want to tell me something there was no way I’d be able to make him. “It’s about Billy Defranco.”
There was a pause before he answered. “Billy Defranco?”
“Yeah,” I said. “You know him, right?”
“I do,” he said. “But how do you know him?”
“He’s just transferred back to Sydney.”
“Oh, really?” said Adam, sounding surprised.
“Why the tone of surprise?”
Another pause. “Just thought I would have heard about it if he moved back.”
“Why would you have heard?” I asked. “Because of what happened on his last case, you mean?”
I could practically hear Adam smiling on the other end of the phone. “Nice try,” he said, “but if you’re going to attempt to trick me into giving you information, you’ll have to do a better job of it than that.”
I grimaced. “Am I so transparent?”
“Yep,” he said. “Blunt questioning suits you better than subtlety, Nat.”
“Fine,” I said. “Blunt it is.” I took a deep breath. “What was Billy’s last case and why did he switch to security and leave the state?”
Chapter Sixteen
Billy
My eyes were playing tricks on me. That had to be it, right? The sun wasn’t fully up yet and the figure had been a distance away. I’d just seen some random guy and thought it was Jake because I was hungover and my vision wasn’t at its best. But if it wasn’t him, why had he gone to so much trouble to lose me?
OK, dumb question. If a guy had started running towards me in a dim parking lot I probably would have tried to ditch him too. Especially some guy who smelled of alcohol and vomit and looked as disgusting as I did right now. I’d caught sight of myself in someone’s side mirror while searching the car park for the ghost and the sight of my own reflection had caused me to jump back, squealing in terror. I didn’t look like the kind of person you wanted to interact with of a Tuesday morning. Or any morning. Or any time whatsoever.
I sidled up to another car and fixed my hair as best I could, trying to look a little less insane before I walked into the cafe. Maybe a coffee from the legendary barista Martha had mentioned with her amazing grinding skills (that will always be funny) would snap me back to reality. I hadn’t seen a ghost. I’d just seen some random dude who looked kind of like Jake (who was very much dead) and my dehydrated brain had decided it was him.
I probably didn’t look a whole heap better by the time I entered I Bean Everywhere, but the lighting was dim and I hoped that would serve me well. I ordered a long black at the counter and the barista, Azita, got to work immediately, grinding away. I mustn’t have looked too scary because when I smiled she didn’t run away screaming, so there was that.
I chose a table outside. Obviously. What kind of idiot would choose an inside table when they could sit out here and watch the sunrise over the beach? I mean OK, yes, it was utterly freezing, but I figured the hot drink would warm me up. As I bathed in the pink-orange light, I could almost convince myself that all was right with the world. Just as long as I didn’t start thinking about, well, anything.
“Good morning, Billy,” came a voice to my left. I squinted my eyes to see better in the soft lighting and turned, finding Martha making her way towards me.
I gave her a smile. “Good morning. How are you?”
“Excellent,” she said, beaming. “I always feel fantastic after my morning walk. Something about the ocean breeze and the cold air. Makes you feel alive, doesn’t it?”
Maybe that’s what had happened to Jake Rogers. The ocean breeze had made him feel so alive I’d seen him walking around this very morning. Even after he’d been stabbed to death.
“Absolutely,” I said, deciding not to tell her that I was starting to think I might have seen her ghost earlier. Best keep that kind of thing to myself. “I was down here for a run and I thought I’d take your recommendation and get coffee here.”
She smiled broadly. “You won’t be disappointed.”
“I’m sure I won’t,” I replied. “Plus I’ve got the best seat in the house. Would you care to join me?”
“Oh, I’d love to! I’ll just place my order.”
Two minutes later she was seated next to me as we stared out over the ocean. If I’d thought to bring a ring, this would have been the perfect time to propose.
“Do you mind if I ask how the case is going?”
“It’s…” I trailed off, unsure what to say. We thought you were crazy, but Roy thinks he saw Jake’s ghost as well and now even I might have laid eyes on him? “It’s turning out to be more complicated than we initially expected.”
“How so?”
“I don’t suppose the ghost mentioned a safe deposit box to you, did he?”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Do you think that’s why he was killed? Something to do with the safe deposit box?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea, Martha.”
The waiter arrived at that moment placing my long black in front of me and a huge cappuccino in front of Martha. Her mug was so big she needed two hands to lift it.
“That’s quite impressive,” I said, eyeing her drink.
She smiled. “If they served it by the bucket, I’d order that without question.”
; I laughed, then picked up my own drink and took a sip. Oh, wow. Martha had a point.
She raised her eyebrows at me. “Good?” she asked.
“Amazing,” I replied. “I’m going to have to make a habit of coming here.”
She beamed. “I’m glad to hear it. It’s so nice to have company.”
I was definitely in. Maybe this toy boy gig wasn’t such a far-fetched option after all.
“It is,” I agreed.
“So, Billy,” she said, “did you have any more questions you’d like me to answer in light of what you’ve found out?”
I thought for a moment. I needed to ask about her medical history, if she was on any medication, things like that. Trouble was, I didn’t want to upset her or imply that I thought she was crazy. After all, I was pretty sure I’d seen the ghost myself.
When I didn’t answer immediately, she raised her eyebrows. “I thought you might want to ask if I’m on any medications,” she said. “Or if I’ve suffered from delusions in the past. How my health is.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but I couldn’t think of what to say.
She sighed. “I know what you must think. You don’t believe in ghosts, so what I’m saying sounds insane. I assure you, Billy, I’m not on drugs. My health is as good as it could be. I don’t have a history of imagining things in dark corners. I promise you, whether you believe it or not, I saw that man on the beach.”
When she finished speaking, she took a sip of her cappuccino. She hadn’t sounded frustrated with me. She’d spoken perfectly calmly, which only served to illustrate her point. She wasn’t crazy.
“I think I just saw him in the car park,” I replied.
She raised her eyebrows, looking mildly shocked at what I’d said. Not that I could blame her. Even I was surprised that came out of my mouth. I’d been intending to keep it to myself. But she seemed so calm and rational and I just wanted her to know I believed her.
“I wasn’t expecting that, I must say.”
I laughed quietly. “I wasn’t expecting it either.”
“Does this change things?”
I paused for a moment. “I think it does.”
Not in the way she suspected, though. I hadn’t seen a ghost. My brain was trying to tell me that I had, but that was ridiculous. There had to be a logical explanation. Most likely I’d seen a guy who vaguely resembled Jake Rogers and thanks to the dim light I hadn’t been able to tell it wasn’t him. He ran because I was chasing him and his ‘disappearance’ had simply been him hiding somewhere because he thought I was going to mug him. Far more likely.
But Martha… What had she seen? She hadn’t jumped away screaming at the sight of me this morning, so maybe her eyesight wasn’t that crash hot after all. Maybe someone had pranked her on the beach that morning, just trying to scare an old woman for fun, in which case I had a second case to solve. I needed to stop this monster that was out terrorising old ladies for kicks. It was my duty as Martha’s future human play thing. Couldn’t have local miscreants cluttering up my beautiful beach or targeting my lovely wife.
OK. I believed Martha. She’d seen someone on that beach. Not a ghost, but a real flesh and blood person. And I needed to find out who.
Chapter Seventeen
Natalia
Adam was silent for a moment before replying. When he finally spoke, he didn’t exactly answer my question.
“Why do you care about Billy’s history?”
“Because he’s back in Sydney working as a PI again and they’ve paired me up with him.”
“What do you mean they’ve paired you up with him?”
I swallowed. Oops. I hadn’t meant to tell Adam that bit. I should have just said we were sharing an office or something. Fuck. Why hadn’t I thought before I spoke? Adam didn’t know exactly how, well, shitty things had become at the office for me, and I hadn’t wanted him to find out. “Uh…”
“Nat?”
I swallowed, cursing at myself. “They’ve paired me up with him on a case to make sure he settles back into things OK.”
“That sounded like a lie.”
“Only a little bit.”
“How about we try the truth next and compare the two? Maybe I can give you some pointers.”
I gritted my teeth, annoyed at myself for not thinking this through. I should have known I couldn’t lie to Adam. Now I was going to have to tell him more than I wanted to. He didn’t know about the Shitty Cases Division or everyone being piles of crap to me for the last three months and the last thing I wanted was for him to think it was his fault. Good lord, what if he tried to step in? Nope. Uh uh. I could not handle that.
“He seems like a good PI,” I said. “The case I got was a bit of a weird one and Bruno asked me to take Billy along. He has a connection with the victim’s employer so that’s been helpful.” All true. Slightly misleading, but true. “The thing is, I’ve just been wondering why someone as capable as Billy would want to go back to working security. And why transfer to another state? It seems a bit dramatic.”
“I can’t tell you what he was working on, Nat.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. Open case.”
“Can you tell me anything?”
He thought for a moment. “It ended pretty badly.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Did someone die?”
“I really can’t say, Nat.”
I swallowed. That sounded a lot like a yes. “Right. But it was traumatic enough that his interstate move isn’t shocking?”
“I can’t say I was surprised when I heard about it, no.”
I thought for a moment, wondering how far I could push the questions. I figured I might as well ask what I wanted even if he couldn’t tell me, just on the off-chance that I’d glean some sort of insight into what had happened. “Did Billy mess something up?” I asked. “Was it his fault that things went wrong?”
“No,” Adam replied after a moment. “It wasn’t his fault.”
“He seems…” I paused, unsure of what to say. “He seems kind of traumatised.”
“Like I said, things didn’t end well.”
“I’m just wondering why he’s back,” I said. “He still seems like maybe he’s not over it, whatever it was. Why transfer back to Sydney if he’s still traumatised by that last case?”
“I don’t know what’s going on in his head, Nat.”
“You don’t know if someone pressured him to transfer back, do you? To raise the Sydney office’s stats?”
He thought for a moment. “It’s possible, but if someone did they didn’t tell me about it.”
“Do the managers here tell you much about what they do?”
“Why?” he asked. “Is there something I should know?”
Um, they’re all dicks and they treat me like crap because they want me to quit and they just generally suck at their jobs and, oh yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re actually corrupt?
“No?”
Wow, I’d done a great job of selling that. Very decisive. Not at all an obvious lie.
“You know that wasn’t even slightly convincing, right?”
“Yep.”
“Are you going to tell me the truth?”
I sighed. I wanted to, but the trouble was that I didn’t have any proof about the corruption thing and whining to Adam about how badly everyone treated me wasn’t going to fix anything. I mean, if he interceded on my behalf that would just make everyone even more certain that he’d given me my job because we were fucking each other.
“Do I have to?”
“Yes.”
“Can I wait until you get here to tell you?”
He paused for a moment, considering. “OK, tomorrow it is.”
I groaned inwardly. Great. Like I needed something else to worry about. “What time do you get in?”
“After lunch.”
“You need me to pick you up?”
“I’m sure I’ll manage to make it to the hotel by myself somehow,” he replied. “Besides, ar
en’t you in the middle of a case? I don’t want to cut into your time.”
“Lucky,” I said. “I’m meant to be heading to Long Bay tomorrow.”
“Finally turning yourself in?”
I snorted. “Just visiting.”
“Part of your case or a social call?”
“The murder victim was this guy’s lawyer,” I said. “Apparently Billy knows him. Got him put away for something a couple of years back. That’s how I managed to get him to agree to us visiting.”
“Seriously? You sure he’s not going to try to shiv Billy?”
“I’m almost certain that’s why he wants to meet us. He’s really obsessed with Billy’s nipples.”
Adam was silent for a moment. “That’s an oddly specific piece of anatomy to be obsessed with.”
“Yeah, it’s almost like this guy who’s in prison for murder is a bit of a weirdo.”
He laughed quietly. “So you’re busy working tomorrow afternoon, but do you want to meet up at night? Grab dinner or something?”
“So you can butter me up with delicious takeaway before you begin interrogating me?” I asked.
“Obviously.”
I thought for a moment. “What kind of food?”
“Your choice.”
“Wow, you must really want answers.”
Usually he liked being the one to choose. And when I say he liked to choose, I mean he planned it out three weeks in advance and picked up dishes from three different places, plus a loaf of bread from a bakery you’ve never heard of and desserts from a place that only served people who knew the secret password. He cared more about food than maybe anyone else I’d ever met. He’d cooked for me once or twice and that food had been the best I’d ever tasted, no exaggeration.
“Of course I want answers. You’re being super cagey and I want to know what’s going on.”
“It’s not – the managers aren’t peddling drugs or anything.” I paused. “As far as I know.”
“Reassuring.”
“They’re just kind of arseholes.”
“I want details,” he said. “And if you tell me something good, I might be able to let you in on what happened with Billy.”
