Note Before Dying (Ghostwriter Mystery 6)

by Larmer, C. A.

  Roxy stared at him, feeling grubbier than she ever had with Macker Maroney. The photographer was absolutely right. These celebrities and their entourage were even sleazier and more underhanded than he was. At least he hadn’t pretended to be otherwise. She tried not to show it as she said, “Fine. I’ve just got one interview to go then...with Annika.”

  Houghton interjected, “Nope, she stays of it.”

  “What? I thought...”

  “Just go with what you’ve got. We’re running out of time. Let’s just get this bloody book done. Annika’s missed her chance.”

  Then he grabbed his phone and strode away to make a call.

  Doug was chuckling now. “He’s pissed at you, big time.”

  Al growled. “He can go fuck himself. As if Annie was ever gonna end up with him. Jesus.” Then he glanced at Roxy. “Don’t give me that holier than thou look. So, I sold a few tabs. Hell, if they’re gonna lock me up for drugs, they’re gonna have to lock up half the friggin’ shire, shut down the Goddess Café, hell, Quick’s probably got weed in his backyard masquerading as a tomato plant. He’s an old surfie, I know what they’re like.”

  Roxy’s brain needed to back up a bit. “Goddess Café?” she said. “What do you mean by that?”

  He shrugged. “What? You didn’t fall for their holistic bullshit? Hans has been harvesting a nice little crop down by that swimming hole for years. Sells bags of weed to the backpackers when they rock past. Very lucrative side business, I believe. So how come he gets away with it and I get threatened with the lock up? What’s that about?”

  Roxy wasn’t listening to him now. Her mind was spinning again. So that’s why Hans seemed so shifty, she thought. Could he be responsible for all of this? She tried to wedge the pieces into place. Maybe Sunny and Jed had come across Hans’ crop; maybe Macker had been blackmailing him over it. Perhaps he had killed them to silence them or to protect Govinda and her business?

  Taking Roxy’s own silence for attitude, Al stood up with a huff. “Fuck this shit!” Then he stormed off.

  Roxy blinked and caught Doug’s eye.

  He looked mildly amused. “Might be time for another ‘love-in’,” he chuckled. “So, you don’t need any more from me?” She shook her head. “Good, I’m getting out of here. Way too much tension, man.”

  Then he, too, walked away, and Roxy was left sitting on the veranda feeling confused but a little more buoyed nonetheless. If what Al said was true, then Hans and potentially even Govinda also had a motive for all three murders. But was it strong enough? Do people kill over a few pot plants?

  “Arrrgh!” she said aloud, shifting in her seat. Sadly for Sam, even she wasn’t buying that. So, Hans grew a bit of weed. Big deal. You rarely got a custodial sentence for that anymore. You certainly wouldn’t need to kill three people because of it.

  Her mind wandered back to Sam again. Was he now behind bars? Did they have sufficient evidence to deny him bail? She thought, too, of what Annika had said and felt a certain sense of relief. It felt good to have someone in her corner, someone who knew the man better than she did. She just hoped Annika was right.

  “Roxy, phone call!”

  She looked around to find Annika waving the portable phone in her hand, and jumped up to retrieve it. It was Oliver, of course.

  For the first few minutes she let him rant about drug deals and murders and the number of corpses that kept showing up everywhere she went. It had become a catch cry from her agent, and she thought then of her mother and cringed. She’d better call her before she also heard the news. When Oliver was done ranting, he said, “The bloody book better still be on.”

  “It is. I’ve done the two main interviews. I’ve got enough to start writing it up.”

  “Good. Why don’t you come home? You can write it from here. I’ll organise a flight.”

  She couldn’t do it, there was no way she was deserting Sam now. Roxy kept thinking of his gentle kiss, his puppy dog eyes. She knew she was being foolish and irrational, she knew they had known each other just a week, but she felt a connection to him she had not felt with any man—at least, not since Max Farrell.

  Roxy didn’t say any of this to Oliver, of course. Instead, she just said, “I’d better hang around, in case more questions crop up. These guys are hard to track down over the phone.” It was a white lie of sorts, but she wasn’t prepared to give up on Sam Forrest, not yet.

  And so she spent the rest of the morning sitting out on the veranda, her laptop in front of her, transcribing almost four hours of interviews with Alistair and Doug. It was a mind-numbing task and one she usually abhorred, but it proved a lifesaver today. She didn’t have the energy for much more than mindless tapping.

  By lunchtime Roxy decided to take a break and phone Gilda. She needed to know where things stood.

  Stepping back into the living room, Roxy spotted Annika lying on the velvet sofa watching a music video, Coco curled up beside her fast asleep. A provocative smile suddenly filled the screen and Roxy gasped. It was Jed Moody, larger than life.

  “He was one sexy mother,” Annika said softly, her eyes staring at the screen.

  Roxy nodded and sat down in the chair beside her. They both watched for a few more minutes before Roxy asked, “Was that the concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground?”

  Annika nodded. “Yep, 45,000 seats. Biggest gig they ever did. I wangled that. Houghton was convinced they wouldn’t fill the SCG, but I knew Jed would. Had no doubt whatsoever.”

  “You always believed in him, didn’t you?”

  “Even when he didn’t believe in himself, which was fairly regularly.” Roxy’s eyebrows rose enquiringly, and Annika added, “It’s funny; everyone thought he had a huge ego, but he was actually very fragile. It just took one bad review, one tiny dip in the charts, and he could be down for weeks. I always managed to bring him round, pump him up again.”

  And if that didn’t work, Roxy thought, there was always someone else ... for the both of them, by the sound of it. “Why did you both bother?” Roxy asked, still watching the Great Jed Moody strut across the stage. “I mean, don’t take this the wrong way, Annika, but yours wasn’t exactly the most faithful of marriages...”

  Roxy knew she was treading on very dangerous territory here and half expected Annika to slap her into place, but she simply sighed. “Because, despite it all, I loved the man, and I believed in him.” She glanced across at Roxy, her smile coy. “Despite it all, I’m his biggest fan.”

  “And Houghton is yours?”

  Her smile deflated. “Not anymore. Your book will be the final chapter, Roxy. After that, he tells me he’s leaving. He’s washing his hands of us all.”

  Roxy nodded. She couldn’t blame him.

  Annika looked back at the screen and her voice was barely audible as she said, “I guess it’s time.”

  Chapter 41

  Roxy left Annika to worship her ghost and wandered into the kitchen to make another phone call. She glanced around, half expecting to find Hans hovering by the oven, corn frittatas in hand, but he was nowhere to be seen, so she picked up the phone, propped herself on a stool and phoned Gilda’s mobile.

  “I’m glad you called,” said Gilda. “Wasn’t sure how to reach you. Still at the Moodys?”

  “Yep. Getting on with the book.”

  “They’re still doing it? Really?”

  “Yep, cash registers don’t stand still for anyone. Listen, I need to know how it’s all going with Sam. Please tell me you’ve realised you’ve got it wrong and are releasing him.”

  There was a pause. “No can do, sorry. Wiles has already read him his rights. Again. Quick is preening like a fucking peacock and if I hear the words ‘I told you so’ one more time, I’m going to thump him.”

  Roxy bristled at hearing that. “Will he get out on bail at least?”

  “Won’t know until tomorrow. I doubt it.”

  “So what about his dog?”

  “Roxy, I just can’t be stressing about that bloody dog.”


  “Fine, I understand. Can I at least go and get Lunar? Keep him until Sam gets out.”

  “If he gets out. What are you going to do with Lunar, anyway? You can’t take him back to Bindi’s. You heard the lecture when we arrived. It’s a native animal sanctuary, there’s no way she’s allowing a dog in there.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Roxy said, glancing back towards the living room. “I’ve got someone else in mind.”

  “Here? Really?!” Annika was not convinced she cared one iota for Sam Forrest’s dog. “I mean, I feel bad for Sam, I told you that, but it doesn’t mean I give a toss about his dog!”

  “Please, Annika,” Roxy implored. “I’ll go over there and get him. I’ll even bring his dog food and feed him for you. It’s just for a night or two. Hopefully Sam will be released on bail tomorrow and it won’t be an issue.” When Annika still didn’t look convinced, Roxy glanced down at Coco, asleep at her tummy, and appealed to her softer side, the one she caught glimpses of from time to time. “Poor Lunar is all alone out there and must be stressing about where Sam is. Just one night, please.”

  Eventually Annika relented. “One night!” she said. “And make sure you bring his food and bowl and all that crap. I don’t want to know about it.”

  Roxy smiled jubilantly, then grabbed her bag from the veranda and headed out the front door to her car, which had been driven back and parked under the old fig tree earlier that day by a young police officer.

  By the time Roxy got to Sam’s cottage, Gilda had already phoned ahead and she saw the same youthful officer, this time holding Lunar by a lead, waiting for her at the top of the driveway.

  “You can’t come any farther,” he said. “Detective Milton says you’re to take her from here.”

  “It’s Detective Maltin and she’s a he, but thank you,” Roxy replied, thinking, how hard is it to get right? “Did you bring his food?”

  The officer looked confused and she waved him off as she got out and opened the door for Lunar who was chomping at the bit to see her. “Never mind. I’ll pick some up at the shop. Thanks again.”

  By the time they got to the Goddess Café, Lunar had his head out of the car window, tongue dangling down, ears flapping in the wind. He looked happy to be free and Roxy didn’t blame him. He must have been very confused about why his owner kept disappearing at random intervals.

  “Here we are, Lunar. Now stay, and I’ll fetch you some grub.”

  She got out and left Lunar staring after her, head still out of the window, ears now pricked high.

  The Goddess Café had a few patrons seated at its outdoor tables, several of whom Roxy recognised from her brief time in the shire, but she looked past them all and strode straight into the shop where Govinda was busily frothing milk at the espresso machine.

  “Hey, chook!” Govinda called out then sensing something in Roxy’s eyes, said, “Is everything okay?”

  “I’m fine. Please tell me you sell dog food.”

  She nodded her head. “You looking after Lunar again?” She stopped. “They haven’t hauled poor old Sam back in, have they?”

  Roxy nodded. She couldn’t believe Govinda hadn’t heard the gossip.

  As if reading her mind, the shop owner said, “I heard something about that but refused to believe it.” She sighed. “Still, can’t say I’m too surprised.”

  “Really?”

  She waved a jangly hand in the air at someone who was just entering the shop. “Chai tea? Sure, chookie, I’ll bring it out, yeah?”

  The patron nodded and walked out again. Govinda turned back to Roxy. “He had such dark energy, you know? And it seemed to be getting darker by the day. Hans told me about the fight Sambo had with Macker the other day.” She sighed again. “I guess it was only a matter of time before he couldn’t contain his rage.”

  “He didn’t do it, Govinda. There’s no way Sam killed Macker.”

  She stared hard at Roxy, a small smile edging onto her face. “You’ve fallen for him, I can see that.”

  Roxy blushed. “What’s that got to do ... I mean, whether I like him or not is irrelevant.”

  “Why else would you be defending him, kitten, after what he did? You must have it bad. He’s a killer, Roxy.”

  “Nothing’s been proven yet, Govinda, so stop speaking like it’s done and dusted.” She could feel her temper rising. “So where is this bloody dog food then?”

  Govinda gave her a sympathetic smile then waved her on towards the middle of the shop. “Just over there, before you get to hardware.”

  A few minutes later, Roxy returned to the counter with three cans of dog food and a bag of dog biscuits as Govinda was returning inside with a pile of empty cups. She dumped them in the sink behind her and turned back, rubbing her belly.

  Roxy glanced at the swelling bulge. “I hear you’re having another one,” she said, and Govinda’s face lit up.

  “Yep, a boy this time.” Her smiled deflated and she looked crestfallen for a few seconds before she said, “Look, sorry if I upset you before.”

  Roxy waved her off. “It’s fine, really. I just feel bad for Sam, that’s all.”

  “We all do! But if you play with fire...”

  “Yeah, yeah, you get bloody burned.” If Roxy heard that cliché one more time, she was going to do some burning of her own.

  “Speaking of fire, how’s Al?” Govinda was typing the price of the tins into the cash register.

  “He’ll be all right. I think they’re more worried about the effect on album sales than his reputation.”

  She smiled. “Oh, selling a few E’s isn’t going to hurt, especially around here. No biggie.”

  Roxy thought about this, considered questioning her about the marijuana crop Hans supposedly grew at the back of the property, but she knew she was wasting her time. All she was doing was trying to find other suspects—any suspects—to help shift the blame away from Sam.

  “That’s six twenty, thanks,” Govinda said, giving her a curious look. As Roxy handed the cash over, Govinda said, “So did your cop friend say what’s going to happen to Al?”

  Roxy shook her head. “Although he might want to watch his back. Asha’s dad is on the warpath, apparently. Furious with him.”

  Govinda shook her head. “Another young kitten who’s lost her way. First she sleeps with Jed, then she hits on Al...”

  “Except Asha was never with Jed. And she was only with Al for the drugs.”

  Govinda blinked a few times, confused. “She never slept with him?”

  “Nope. In fact, she was quite revolted by the thought; said Jed was too old and crusty for her. I guess he was losing some of his sex appeal.”

  Govinda turned to place the dirty cups in the kitchen sink and reached for the tap. “She was young,” she said softly, her voice barely audible over the swishing of the water. “Too young for Jed. Who knew?”

  As Roxy returned outside, she noticed Hans sitting under the shade of the large Poinciana, sucking on a small harmonica, the music now wailing mournfully across the yard. Several of Govinda’s children were playing happily in the sandpit nearby. She spotted the older child, Heavenly Rose, and her sister Destiny, the one with the dark hair, and beside them, clutching onto a bright red spade, was the toddler with the wicked grin and the bright, sunflower eyes.

  Hans waved one hand as Roxy walked past, and as she waved back she stopped and stared. There was something about the scenario that was eerily familiar. An icy shiver raced down Roxy’s back. Oh my God! She thought suddenly. It’s been staring at me from the start!

  Hans stopped played. “Everything okay?” he called out and she blinked a few times as pieces of the puzzle began to chop and change in her brain all over again.

  She realised now that she had everything the wrong way around; everything was back to front. Roxy kept staring for a few more minutes and it was only when Hans’s eyes narrowed and he went to stand up that she snapped herself out of it and forced a smile onto her lips. Roxy raced back
to the car and jumped in. As Lunar bounced up to her and licked her face, she pushed him away and grappled for her mobile phone.

  Damn it, still no reception.

  She threw the phone back into her bag, took a final glance towards Hans, who was now standing, hands on his hips, frown across his forehead, and cranked the car to life. She had to get out of there and find Gilda fast. The answer had been in front of her nose all along, and she hadn’t even noticed. The pieces of the puzzle were finally in their correct place and Roxy knew exactly who had dunnit, and why.

  There was just one question left to ask.

  Chapter 42

  When Roxy returned to Moody Views, Annika had deserted the couch and was now lounging on a creamy coloured hammock that had been strung up on one edge of the lawn, between two trees.

  Roxy watched her from the veranda as she keyed Gilda’s mobile number into the house phone then placed it to her ear. Gilda did not pick up and she cursed under her breath, then left a message: “Gilda, it’s Roxy. I need to ask you something. I need to know who told you that axe belonged to Sam. It’s really important. Call me on...” she paused, cursing again. “Just try me on the Moody home number, as soon as you get this.” She repeated the number then hung up and continued staring towards Annika for a few more minutes.

  “Hey, Roxy,” Houghton said, his head poking out from the French doors behind her.

  She jumped. “Oh! Hey, Houghton. Do you know if Hans is due up here today?”

  “Hans, the cook?” He shrugged. “I don’t think so. Why?”

  She turned back to stare out at the lawn. “I’ll ask Annika.”

  He held his pudgy hand out to stall her. “You should probably leave her alone right now, if that’s okay. Been watching Moody Roos clips all morning, she’s a bit weepy at the moment.”