by Uc Amalu, Jr
CHAPTER TWELVE
The aroma of freshly ground herbs, accompa-nied by a
strong undercurrent of garlic, rose from the pot and
permeated the kitchen. The result was mouth watering.
Anna poured a small drop of red wine into the bubbling
mix and stirred it some more. A crusty stick of bread lay
on the bench top alongside a small tub of mixed butter
and crushed garlic. Picking up a sharp knife, Anna began
to slice thick chunks of bread from the stick before
smearing them generously with the garlic butter. Next,
she placed the pieces side by side on a sheet of foil and
rolled them tightly together, encasing them entirely.
She pulled a tray from the top shelf of her oven before
setting the temperature to one-eighty. Placing the garlic
bread onto the tray, she sat it on the bench allowing the
heat time to rise. Her glass of wine sat on the counter,
she picked it up and took a mouthful. The smooth blend
flowed down her throat with ease, the bitter aftertaste
causing her eyes to squint as if she had looked directly
into the sun. With her wine still in her hand, she returned
to the simmering pot and stirred it slowly. The saucepan
behind it was beginning to bubble, Anna placed her wine
down and reached for the handful of spaghetti she had
set aside. A hissing sound escaped the saucepan when
the pasta was lowered into the water.
Once she had settled the spaghetti and pushed all the
ends into the saucepan, she stirred it quickly and turned
the flame down, creating a slow simmer. The oven was
now hot enough for her bread. She picked up the tray and
was about to slide it inside when her doorbell sounded
its shrill chime. Anna glanced up at the clock on her wall.
Six-fifteen, she hadn’t been expecting anyone. In just a
few quick movements, she pulled the oven door down
and slid the tray inside, closing it before she walked
towards the front door.
"Ben…"
"Hi Anna, I hope I’m not interrupting anything?"
Anna glanced back to the kitchen before turning back to
him, "No, I was just cooking some dinner." She opened
the door wider and stood aside, allowing him room to
pass by. "Please, come in."
She closed the door behind him and held out her hand,
gesturing for him to come through. Ben followed her lead
and made his way through the lounge room and into the
kitchen, where he stopped and leaned against the
doorjamb.
"Smells great," he complimented her. "Italian?"
"Of course. It’s my specialty." She picked up her wine and
stood in front of the bench top, waiting for him to kick off
the conversation.
Ben shifted from one foot to the other before, "How have
you been, Anna?"
"Oh yeah, great thanks. How about you?"
The two of them were like a couple of teenagers on an
awkward first date. Ben standing with his hands in his
pockets and Anna fiddling with her hands and pulling at
her hair. Neither one sure of what to say to the other.
Anna swished her wine around in her glass, mesmerised
by the swirling of the liquid against the clarity of the
crystal. "Can I get you a wine?" she asked, as though she
had only just became aware of his presence.
"That’d be nice, thanks," Ben replied quicker than he had
anticipated. The last thing he wanted was for her know the
effect she still had on him. He chided himself silently for
his over-zealousness. Anna took another glass from the
cabinet and poured him a red, she smiled wryly before
handing it to him and returning the bottle to the bench
top.
"Shoot!" cried Anna, leaping over to the stove. The water in
the spaghetti spat out over the rim of the saucepan,
spilling onto the naked flame below. She turned the stove
off and lifted the heavy saucepan over to the sink.
"Are you alright?" Asked Ben, edging slowly towards her.
"You didn’t scold yourself, did you?"
"No. I’m ok," she replied, staring down at her hands.
Ben approached her and gently took her hands in his,
inspecting them for himself.
Anna pulled away from him and spat, "Damn it Ben, I said
I ’m ok."
"I’m sorry, I was just trying to…"
"Trying to what? Look, why are you here, what do you want
from me?"
Her words tore into him, stripping the flesh from his very
heart. This scenario was too familiar, it was how it had
been for them in the last few years of their marriage. Both
struggling to care for themselves, distancing the other
until they were so far apart that they felt like strangers.
Ben stepped back and held his hands in the air. "Gees
Anna, I can’t do this anymore."
"Do what exactly?"
"I can’t even be in the same room as you. It’s just
impossible. You become hostile when you lay eyes on me,
cringe at my touch and tear strips off me whenever I open
my mouth." He paused briefly, summoned his courage
and began again. "Anna, I am here in an official capacity.
You can either talk honestly with me here and now or we
can do it down at the station. The choice is yours."
She was stunned, his words had knocked the wind out of
her. Never in their entire marriage had he ever spoken to
her the way he just did. "Official capacity?"
"That’s right," he said, pulling his notebook from his
pocket.
"Ben what’s this all about?"
"I understand that you were the counsellor allocated to
Miss Tessa Hunt and Miss Kylie-Anne Saunders, is that
correct?"
"I’m not going to answer…"
"Is that correct?" Ben powered on, blocking out his
personal ties with her.
"Oh my God, you’re serious," said Anna in disbelief.
The moment was broken by the alarm on the oven wailing
away. Anna looked away from Ben, walked over and
switched the oven off. She turned to her pot of bolognaise
and killed the flame beneath it. Her focus shifted back to
Ben. His expression remained stern, his notebook and
pen firmly in his grasp.
"I guess you had better sit down," she whispered, pulling
a chair from her dining table.
Ben crossed the tiny kitchen and pulled up a chair
opposite her. "So you were nothing more than their
counsellor?"
"Yes, I saw both those girls." Anna had given in to Ben’s
harshness and opted to answer what she was able. She
was still recovering from the shock of the change in his
demeanour.
"Is there any reason you kept it from me? You did know I
was investigating the Hunt case."
"Yes, I just didn’t think it was important. Honestly, Ben…"
"This is an official interview and I wish to keep it that way,
so if you don’t mind, please just answer the questions."
His words cut her down in a way she had never
experienced from him before. The fact that he had
stopped trying to cater to her every mood shocked her
,
this wasn’t the man she knew. The man she knew would
pamper her and treat her like a Queen, he wouldn’t have
spoken to her so terribly and demanded such things of
her if it weren’t to her liking. She wished the other Ben
would come back, the man before her was a stranger,
dark and brutal.
"I should have told you. You’re right, I’m sorry."
Ben laid his notebook down on the table and continued
with his questioning.
"Tell me about Tessa. Did she disclose anything that could
be important to our investigation?"
"Honestly Ben…" Anna stopped and looked at him,
waiting to see if he was going to drop the coolness. His
gait remained stiff, it was clear that this was how it was
going to be. "She only spoke of her pregnancy and
whether or not she was going to terminate."
"Did she mention anything about the father of the baby?"
"I can’t disclose that sort of information, I have a duty to
protect the privacy rights of my clients." She decided that
if he wanted to play official status, so too would she.
Ben sighed and tried again. "I know she was involved with
Donald Beaumont. Was he the father?"
"Ben, please. I can’t…"
"Anna, I need your help here. Those girls need your help.
Do you really think protecting their privacy is important
now?" Ben’s eyes pleaded with her to reconsider the
situation.
Anna gave in. "To tell you the truth," She stopped, took
another sip of wine and continued. "Tessa wasn’t sure of
the father of her baby. All she did say is that she had been
seeing a few men when she found out about the
pregnancy."
"Did she name these other men?"
"No. I already told you, she was there to talk about the
effects of termination, not her whole life story."
"So you deal exclusively with the subject of abortion?"
"With the clients from the Wellness Clinic, yes. They have
me on a continual re-tainer, specifically for their clients.
Anything outside the scope of termination is not covered
by them. Should the girls wish to speak to me regarding
further issues in their life they are more than welcome to
see me privately."
"And you’re sure that there is nothing else personal she
may have mentioned in passing? It could all be relevant,
Anna."
Anna shook her head and stared down into her glass.
"Kylie-Anne’s pregnancy was the result of a one night
stand. Does that help?"
"So she didn’t know the guy either?"
"How many one night stands have you had where you
remember or even know their name?" she hissed at him.
Ben was hurt by her personal attack on him. She knew
damn well that one-night stands were not in his nature.
The question did, however, remind him of Jay and his
little waitress from Bluey’s. He fought off the urge to
smile.
"Had Tessa decided whether or not she was going to keep
the baby?"
"When she left my office, all she said was that she was
going to do the right thing."
"What does that mean? The right thing?"
"Who knows? It all depends on who she meant the right
thing to be for."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, she could have meant the right thing for her, the
father or the baby. I have no idea." She sat back and
shrugged, her auburn hair bouncing off her shoulders.
"And Kylie-Anne? Anything else that you can tell me about
her?"
Her eyes burned into him, there was no denying her
disdain for his questioning of her. "I already told you
about as much as I know."
"The more evasive you are, Anna, the longer and harder I
am going to push you. It would be in your best interest to
just answer my questions now and I’ll leave."
"I don’t see how much more I can help you."
Ben lowered his head, closed up his notebook and tucked
it away. He just couldn’t understand why Anna had to
make every little interaction so difficult. Not just this, but
even when they spoke in general it was harder than it
should be. She was always so guarded, so protective of
herself. He pushed back on his chair, drank his wine down
in one swallow and stood up.
"Thank you for your time," he said before slamming the
crystal wine glass on the table top with a clunk. With that
he turned and strode towards the front door.
Anna followed after him, shocked that he had halted their
interview so abruptly.
"You mean, that’s it?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed.
" I refuse to sit here all night beating my head up against
a brick wall, Anna. This is so typical of our married life. I
was such a fool to think you would respect my authority
as an officer of the law and be truthful with me. So, yeah…
that’s it."
"Ben, I didn’t mean to…"
He cut her off, "You will probably be hearing from another
Detective at some stage, if confidentiality and privacy are
such an issue to you, I’ll make sure he has a warrant when
he comes."
She ran ahead of him and stood between him and the
front door, stopping him from leaving.
"Ben, I’m sorry." Her eyes pleaded with him not to leave
under such bitter circumstances. She exhaled deeply and
then said, "Kylie-Anne was definitely going to go ahead
with the termination, or at least that’s what she told me.
She said that her parents had disowned her and she was
not going to bring another life into a world where people
who are supposed to love you, throw you away when you
don’t live up to their expectations."
"Do you know where we can find her parents, Anna?
Somebody needs to inform them of what has happened."
"All she told me is that her dad is some hot shot
professor at the university."
"He shouldn’t be too hard to track down then," Ben
mumbled while fishing around in his pocket for his
notebook. "What about Tessa, is there anything, you can
think of that might help us find her killer?"
"I’m sorry, I wasn’t lying when I said that they really don’t
tell me much. I’m only paid to discuss…"
"The effects of termination… I know." Ben interjected.
Anna’s face softened and she looked into his eyes. "These
murders, they’re pretty grue-some aren’t they?"
Ben nodded, "They are the most brutal I have ever worked
on, we need to get this monster Anna… and fast."
She stepped away from the door, opening it she said,
"Look, I’ll study my case notes again Ben, and if there’s
anything I think you need to know I’ll pass it on."
"Yeah, I’m sure you will."
Anna swallowed hard, "Of course I will Ben. I’m not going
to send you up the garden path here. Although, there’s
really nothing in them, I’m sure."
"I just wish you would let me take a look. What is nothing
to you, could be of great value to us."
"I�
�m sorry Ben, but I’m not going to breach
confidentiality." Her demeanour stiff-ened again. "If you
really need to see them for yourself, you’ll have to do it by
the book."
"So if I got a warrant, you’d hand the files over?"
"Every last one."
"I certainly hope this is just a professional thing Anna. I’d
hate to think you’re hiding something from me," Ben eyed
her suspiciously.
She smiled then leaned over gently kissed his cheek.
"Strictly professional I swear."
Ben walked through the open door and out onto the
street, when he reached his car he looked back but Anna
had already closed the door.
"Thank you, he whispered.
He wondered if he should have warned Anna to be extra
careful. Until they get a break in the case, they have no
idea if the murderer is after pregnant women only or if he
may be targeting the people around them as well. If these
killings are a statement against abortion, Anna, Dr.
Sugars and Marla could all be in danger. He decided it
would be best to keep quiet for now, he didn’t want to
spread panic or worry anyone unnecessarily. He would
keep an eye on Anna himself.
