by G. S. Bailey
The guy had blushed a bit. He filled his chest with air. “I see.” He rubbed at his chin and allowed his eyes to roll downward again.
Clair filled her own chest with air, pressing forward in her little knitted dress.
“Well, what do you want to know?” the big man asked.
Clair shrugged. “Is there a file?”
“Not one we’re currently dealing with, miss. It’s been some years.”
“Could you find some information for me?” Clair smiled sweetly. “Maybe I could come back?”
The police sergeant grinned, nodding and almost winking. “I’ll see what I can find.”
“Tomorrow, then?” Clair tossed back over her shoulder from open glass doors.
“I’ll see what I can find,” the sergeant said again.
“Okay. Bye, Officer,” she left him with and continued on her walk, strolling along the shoreline again then venturing on past where she had encountered the old man the day before. She walked up the footpath that skirted the cliff face until she could see the mansion through the trees and lawns.
There was a two metre high wrought-iron fence of vertical bars with spiked points. It could be seen off into the distance forming a perimeter to the mansion grounds. The fence followed the path to the summit of the headland and a protruding ledge that had a few bench seats, a place where one could rest and look out at the ocean and down at the fishing boats in the cove or across to the lighthouse. The wrought-iron fence also protruded a little beyond the cliff’s edge and ended right there. It would be for a dare-devil to swing out and climb around the thing to gain access to the mansion grounds. Clair was not inclined to try that.
She intended to approach the mansion, though, so she walked back down the path and started back up the steep climb, but on the road. She came to spiky wrought-iron gates and an intercom button.
“Hello. May I speak to the owner of the house, please?”
Clair figured, who better to ask about the Mulvane death than the widow herself?
“Hello!” she said again, pressing the button. “Is anyone home?”
There was no answer forthcoming, but after a few minutes a woman came walking down the driveway from the house. She looked too young to be the widow Mulvane.
“Hi!” Clair called to her as she approached. “Sorry. I was hoping to speak with Mrs Mulvane.”
“She’s not home.” The woman was younger than Clair.
“Are you Mrs Mulvane’s daughter?” Clair asked. “I’m Candy.”
“I’m Amanda,” the woman replied. “I work here.”
Clair looked around, up at the mansion, and she clutched the iron gate, grappling with it. “Wow! Serious fence!”
Amanda smiled. “It is, isn’t it?”
Clair made a face. “Keeping something in or out?”
Amanda giggled. “Um—out!”
They shared a giggle that time.
“You’re that girl, aren’t you?” Amanda asked curiously.
“Probably.” Clair nodded. “I’m getting way more looks around town than I’d normally get in this,” she added, indicating her dress.
“It’s pretty,” Amanda said, biting a lip.
“It would look good on you,” Clair replied, drawing a smile. She considered that getting to know a mansion employee could come in handy, but she also liked the younger woman’s face. She struck Clair as genuine. She was probably born locally and had only ever been out of the cove on day trips and a few vacations with her parents. She was likely going out with a guy from two houses down who she went to school with.
“So, what are us girls supposed to do for fun around here, anyway?” Clair tried. “What’s that Bar and Grill place like? Or the little pub just down here?”
“Oh, we go to the Grill,” Amanda enthused. “The other pub’s for men mostly.”
“For men?” Clair questioned sceptically.
“No, I mean for fisherman—like, right off the boat and still smelly, fishermen.”
“Oh!”
They shared another laugh.
“But I don’t know anyone,” Clair went on pointedly. “I’m stuck at the B&B with the oldies. It’s totally boring except for this research paper I have to do for class.”
“Well, you could always come out with us… I mean with my brother and some of our friends. We’re going to the Grill tomorrow night.”
Clair smiled. “Could I?”
“Yeah—of course. Except my brother has already checked you out—just so you know.”
“Really?”
“Yep. He was at the B&B when you arrived.”
“Oh! The gardener guy with no shirt?”
Amanda nodded. “That’s him. But he’s harmless.”
Clair giggled. “He didn’t look harmless.”
There was movement at a window in the top floor of the mansion. There was someone there watching.
Clair gestured toward the house. “Who’s that?”
Amanda turned to look and she waved. “That’s Nell. Mrs Mulvane’s daughter.”
Clair waved too but there was no response. “I heard she’s a recluse?”
“Yeah, but she’s really nice. She’s not stupid or anything, like people think.”
“But she doesn’t leave the grounds? Why not?”
“She doesn’t leave the house! She just doesn’t.” Amanda shrugged. “I don’t know why.”
“Well, what does her mother say?”
“Don’t know. I wouldn’t be game to ask her.”
Clair made a face again. “What—she’s scary?”
“Yes! Very!” Amanda replied, giggling. “Except she’s sort of nice too. You just know not to ask anything about her business, that’s all.”
“Well, I’m going to ask! She can only tell me where to go.”
“I guess. But she won’t be back for hours, anyway,” Amanda explained. “I could tell her you came by and wanted to speak with her.”
Clair wrote her mobile number on a scrap of paper and handed it through the bars. “If you’re going to the Grill and there’s room for one more…” she said. “Nice to meet you, Amanda.”
“Well, what about tonight? You could come over.”
“To your place?”
“Yeah—if you want? It’s silly being here all alone. You could come for dinner.”
“I’d love to!” Clair replied enthusiastically. “Where and what time?”
“I’ll pick you up at the B&B at six?” Amanda offered. “Is that okay?”
“Okay—see you then!”
Clair strolled back down the drive and caught sight of another house in through the trees. There was a driveway but it was overgrown. She walked closer and saw that the house had smashed windows and bits of the roof missing. She experienced a cold shiver as she turned away, and she kind of hurried along back to the main road. It felt like she was being watched or something, but that was silly.
She shook that off and strolled into town where she bought a coffee and sat watching the fishing boats for a while. She figured she must be the only tourist in town. Everyone looked at her and either nodded or smiled and mumbled a hello. It was actually a friendly little place, she decided.
“Oh, Mr Oldfield!” It was the old man from the day before.
“Morgan, lass… Morgan will be fine.” He stopped, peering down at her.
“I was just wondering if you knew the name Cornish—N. D. Cornish?”
The old man sat down. “I do, lass. Noel Cornish passed away about ten years ago. He was a good mate.”
“Oh, I see… I’m sorry,” Clair offered warmly.
The old man smiled. “He had a good innings, old Noel. Passed in his sleep… He was the widow’s father, though I’m guessing you know that.”
“No. I didn’t know that,” Clair replied thoughtfully. “Her father?”
“Yeah... Susan Cornish before she married. Her dad’s favourite.”
“Oh, wow… I found his name on some papers at the lighthouse.”
“You’ve been up there?” The old man looked up at the headland. “You been snooping around the lighthouse?” he went on, chuckling.
“Yes. You said I was a snoop yesterday, so I thought I’d better do some.”
They shared a laugh.
“Old Noel was the lighthouse keeper, lass. The last one. Finished up back in the early seventies.”
Another old man had sidled close. He had a toothless grin splitting his small, round face, and huge ears sticking out the bottom of a woollen beanie.
“Seems we’ve got a real detective come to town… A lady Sherlock Holmes!” Morgan told him.
“Hi. I’m Candy,” Clair offered. “I’m only a student. Not a real detective.”
The old man’s grin seemed to be fixed in place as he nodded with his neck and shoulders bobbing.
“This is Lou,” Morgan explained. “Say hello, Lou!”
“Hello,” Lou said, with his grin resuming afterward.
Clair stayed chatting with Morgan Oldfield and met a few other locals. She caught a few hours’ sleep in the afternoon and was waiting on the front steps of the B&B at six when Amanda arrived to pick her up.
Chapter 8
David was feeling good. He planted his empty beer glass on the bar and did a little air-guitar as his song finished. “Catch-ya Luce!” he called to the barmaid. Lucy was her name. She gave him a high-five, and he spun, strumming his imaginary guitar. “Vic!” he said, shaping up to Victor Turak, a fisherman friend who shaped up in mock readiness to box. The two men shadow-boxed each other but David’s shadow boxing morphed back into an air-guitar solo as he left his friend and spun toward the door of the bar, almost bumping right into his ex-girlfriend, Cassandra.
“Cassie! Oh, shit!” He pulled up, grinning and switching his air-guitar to air-drums.
“Hello, David. Had a few, have you?”
A man stopped behind Cassie. It was her boss, Reece Norman, the man she had dumped David for. He placed his hands upon her shoulders. “Hello, David.”
David dropped the air-drumsticks, raising his hands in an exaggerated surrender as he steadied himself. He had had one too many beers. His mind was kind of numb and swaying this way and that. He tried to focus, though.
“Reece,” he said, shaking his head and waving a finger. “You know, Reecey, you’re looking sharp, man… Looks like a million bucks, eh, Cass?” he slurred. “A million fucking bucks, eh?”
David focused at the last and eyeballed the other man. He then met Cassandra’s eyes, which had watered up a bit. “Sorry, Cassie,” he said to her sincerely. “I’m a bit drunk.”
He passed the two of them, glancing at the other man again, then moving on out the door and across the car-park to the street. He had left his utility at home, planning on having a few beers and being over the limit. He sat down for a while, watching the evening strollers along the foreshore and trying to sober up for the walk.
He sat for an hour before moving on and up the street to his house where he heard laughter emanating from the living room. His mind had sharpened. He was still a bit drunk but was thinking clearly. He walked into the house to find his sister and some other woman laughing hysterically.
They both pointed at him and laughed louder.
“What the hell?” he said. “What’s so bloody funny?”
The other woman was hot. David sort of recognised her. He remembered the new girl at the B&B and had placed her.
“Actually, his shirt is tucked in a bit.” Clair looked at Amanda. “It looks like it was tucked in.”
One side of David’s shirt was secure, the other side had worked its way free of his jeans. It was still tucked in a bit at the back. He walked through the room with the two women still laughing at him, sharing a joke he had no idea of. “Crazy chicks,” he grumbled to himself, and when he got to the kitchen and opened the fridge, he called back to his sister, “Is there anything to eat?”
“In the oven!”
David found his dinner there and sat at the table to eat it. The two women joined him. They had wine.
“David, this is Candy,” Amanda announced. “She’s from the Gold Coast.”
“Hi,” Clair said, smiling.
David nodded. “Hi.”
“Except David’s not like the others,” Amanda said to Clair.
“Oh—how so?” Clair replied.
“He’s more like a girl.”
David frowned but kept eating. He was hungry.
“In that he..?” Clair prompted.
“In that he’s the one who always falls in love.”
David frowned harder. They were too giggly to argue with, though. Plus the other chick was hot, he reasoned again. He wouldn’t want to argue with her.
“Do you?” she said to him.
“Do I what?”
“Do you fall in love?”
He shrugged. “Nope! Love’s bullshit.”
“Oh, you do so!” his sister scolded. “And it is not bullshit.”
“No, I agree with your brother,” Clair said. “Love is for movies and fairy tales. All you need is sex!”
“Yes!” David agreed, cheering. “What’s your name, again?” He examined Clair closely.
“Candy.”
“And how do you two—um..?” he motioned between the two of them.
“We met at the mansion. She’s going to ask the widow who killed her husband,” Amanda clarified as a matter-of-fact.
“Oh? But she killed him, didn’t she?” David queried.
“That’s what I’m hearing,” Clair agreed.
“And you’re..?” David prompted.
“I’m doing a paper for my college course. Oh, and some big old copper is going to show me the file tomorrow. I showed him some boob and he couldn’t say yes quick enough!”
“Candy!” Amanda scolded.
“You showed him some boob?” David questioned with interest.
Clair thrust her boobs forward, showing off her cleavage. “You guys are easy,” she scoffed at David.
“True,” he conceded, earning a more genuine smile. “Tell her!” He pointed to his sister. “Tell her to show Brent some boob or something.”
“No!” Amanda said. “It’s not like that with him.”
“Bullshit! He can’t get his eyes off the barmaids down at the Grill on a Saturday night. He’s no different to the rest of us.”
“Oh, really?” Clair challenged Amanda. “The barmaids..?” she questioned David.
“See-through—boobs on show!” he explained. “And Brent with his tongue hanging out just like the rest of us.”
“Yeah, well, you can hardly blame him for that,” Amanda defended. “If girls are going to go topless!”
“Hey!” Clair exclaimed in mock indignation.
“Oh… Sorry… Not that there’s anything wrong with girls going topless.”
David was confused, looking at the two women for some clarification.
“I’m a stripper,” Clair explained. “You know—pole dancer—lap dancer.”
David grinned.
“Yeah, suck your tongue back in!” his sister said, giggling.
“Private dances?” David queried jokingly.
“A hundred bucks a song,” Clair replied, also jokingly. Although she got up and wriggled around David to get some more wine from the fridge.
“Your food’s getting cold,” his sister informed pointedly, raising her eyebrows at his stupid grin.
Clair brought the wine bottle back. She topped up Amanda’s glass. “Do you want to try it on?”
“Okay.” Amanda stood to go with her new girlfriend.
David questioned them, but was left there alone without explanation. They returned after a while wearing each other’s dress. Clair was wearing Amanda’s house dress and Amanda was in Clair’s slinky little woollen number.
“Well?” Clair said to David, presenting his little sister.
Amanda had a great figure that was accentuated by the skin-tight dress. She never offered cleava
ge but was at the moment. “Damn!” David exclaimed. He was taken aback.
“See!” Clair said to Amanda.
David found himself looking Clair over too. The house dress had transformed her just as much, and what it had transformed her into had David’s heart pounding a bit. Although he consciously pushed that notion aside and pictured Clair lap dancing again.
The girls then vanished, and David gravitated toward the television and a rugby game that was on. Amanda came from her room a few times for more wine, but he never saw Clair again before going to bed.
Chapter 9
The entire town of Everly Cove went to bed before mid-night on a Thursday. There was nothing open—no shops, not even an all-night service station. The fishing boats slept too. There was no one out to sea at that hour, and on that particular Thursday night the cove was still and calm with a three-quarter moon lighting the small town grey and glistening off the water.
Nell Mulvane had her telescope trained on a lone person walking along the foreshore. Nell was usually awake around mid-night and on into the early hours. She usually slept from dawn until mid-day. She liked owning the town at night, which is how it felt to her to be the only person awake and watching things down there. She saw the occasional walker and liked to follow them with her telescope. This one was a man who lived somewhere down the police-sign street. Nell recognised him but didn’t know his name, and she would lose sight of him around about the Police sign.
She watched until he vanished, then moved her telescope to focus on The Cove Bed and Breakfast where the new girl had been staying. The B&B was in darkness with no lights or movement within.
Nell swept around the foreshore again, checking for any other activity, then abandoned her watch and chose a video tape from her collection, which took up nearly the entire wall. She had taped many television series and documentaries. She liked any kind of nature or history program, and she loved drama shows. She had chosen episodes of Charmed. She had recently begun watching the series right through again and was only into the second season.
Nell kept the volume low, but after a short time her mother came and sat beside her.
Nell cuddled up. “Did I wake you, Mum?”
“No, love. I was reading. Are you hungry?”
