Runaway Lies

by Shannon Curtis

  ‘This is Steve,’ Darcy said. ‘He’s Alannah’s partner.’ She hesitated briefly over the last word, and Steve’s gaze flickered. Oh, crap.

  ‘Pleased to meet you, Steve,’ Gertrude greeted the man, smiling warmly in welcome. ‘I was just about to put the kettle on and wanted to know if either of you would like a cuppa.’

  ‘Steve’ smiled, and this time Darcy was sure. His smile didn’t reach his eyes. ‘No, I’m fine, but thanks for the offer.’ His tone was friendly.

  ‘Darcy, what about you?’ Gertrude looked at her.

  Darcy shook her head, finally switching her gaze to the older woman. ‘No, thanks, but I was thinking about dinner, Gertrude.’

  Gertrude’s eyebrows rose. ‘You were?’

  Darcy nodded, not blinking as she stared at the frail old woman hovering in the doorway. ‘Yeah. I would love some of your fabulous cabbage rolls. You know how we all love them.’

  To her credit, Gertrude’s eyes didn’t even flicker. ‘Cabbage. Are you sure you want cabbage?’

  Darcy nodded. ‘Oh, I’m sure. I’ve got a craving for cabbage like you wouldn’t believe.’

  Gertrude nodded, her smile tremulous as she backed out of the room. ‘Cabbage it is, then. I’ll get right on it.’

  The door closed, and she heard Gertrude’s footsteps hurry down the hall. ‘Steve’ glanced briefly from Darcy to the door and back again, before smiling. He withdrew another towel from the bag, and folded it up into a thick, sizeable square.

  ‘Cabbage, huh?’

  She pasted a smile across her face. ‘Yep, can’t get enough of it.’ God, did he know?

  He nodded. ‘So, let’s get started.’

  Darcy lowered her feet to the ground. ‘You know, my shoulder’s feeling pretty good at the moment, and Alannah has been getting me to do some mild stretching exercises before we start,’ she said conversationally as she moved around the table, away from the man with the callused hands. She kept her gaze on the supplies stacked in a corner of the room.

  ‘Really?’ the man said, and she heard his soft steps behind her.

  ‘Uh huh. We use those TheraBands,’ she murmured as she bent over and picked up the lightweight dumbbell from the floor, shielding her movement. She could sense him moving close behind her, and she launched herself up, swinging the dumbbell around and putting the full weight of her body into the motion.

  For a moment she saw his eyes, his cold, clear blue gaze, ruthless and full of intent, before the weight thunked against his temple, and he fell sideways over the table, dazed.

  She ran around the table, screaming when he grabbed her loose shirt. The fabric tore, and he grasped her injured arm. She screamed as he yanked her back to him. She fell against the table, and he pressed the towel over her face, cutting off any sounds as darkness covered her and he forced her back down onto the table. The towel was rough and scratchy against her face, and he pressed it over her nose and mouth, cutting off her air supply. Frantic, she brought up the dumbbell she still clutched, blindly shoving it in the general direction she hoped his head was. There was contact – a bump that had her dropping the dumbbell, and the pressure on her face lightened.

  She shoved the towel away, sliding out from under the cloth.

  They eyed each other, she breathing heavily, he silently calm as he coiled the towel between his hands, like a thick twist of rope. She swallowed, trying to drag air back into her starved lungs.

  He lunged towards her, holding the towel out at neck height. She ducked, trying to skip past him. He grabbed her easily by the arm and threw her back against the wall, whipping the towel around her neck and twisting it with one hand while the other held her still, meeting her wild gaze with a satisfied smirk as he slowly twisted the towel.

  Her eyes bugged as the thick cloth tightened around her neck, choking her. She twisted, scrabbling at the towel, then his arm, dread curling in her stomach as he didn’t even flinch as she raked her nails down his forearms. She kicked out, gurgling noises emerging from her throat as he easily dodged her feet. She felt along the wall, panic making her heartbeat thump loud in her ears as darkness started to ring her vision. Her hand caught the lampshade on the sidetable. She grasped it, gritting her teeth as she hurled it against the side of his skull, the ceramic base shattering with the contact. He bellowed as he let go, raising his hand to his temple. She dived away from him and ran, feeling a slight tug, and then nothing.

  She whipped open the door and shot through, slamming it shut behind her.

  CHAPTER

  23

  Darcy ran along the hall, her heart pounding as she raced for the front door. Instinctively she wanted to run up the stairs, but she wasn’t sure if she’d given Gertrude enough time to move the kids to the safe location.

  She rounded a bend in the hall at the same time as she heard the faint click of a door behind her. The sound spurred her on. She didn’t know what was more frightening, the fact that he wasn’t thumping along behind her, or that he wasn’t yelling at her. A cold, dangerous silence fell upon the house. She burst into the foyer, her sneakers slapping across the polished parquetry as she headed for the front door, frustrated at having to stop and open it, expecting his rough hands on her again, pulling at her hair, her shoulders… She glanced over her shoulder, just in time to see him jog around the corner of the hall on silent feet. She slammed the door shut behind her, anything to slow him down.

  She raced across the verandah, making certain her shoes clattered against the steps in an effort to draw ‘Steve’ out and away from the home, away from the kids, away from Gertrude and Roland. She darted across the end of the gravel drive, across the first step of the lawn and leaped over the retaining wall. She hunched down, her back to the decorative sandstone, chest heaving, and slowly peeked over her shoulder.

  The man who’d passed himself off as Steve stood on the verandah for a moment, lifting his hand to shield himself from the glaring sunlight as he looked out across the property. She hunkered down, holding her breath as the sun beat upon her head. She saw her own shadow, so obvious to anyone looking from above the retaining wall. Sweat coursed between her breasts, and she tried to calm her heart, just so she could hear him over the pounding pulse in her ears.

  A soft shoe slide. The skitter of a pebble across the gravel. The crunch underneath the weight of a shoe.

  Darcy bit her lip. She kept visualising, over and over, the man quietly stalking up to her position at the wall, standing over her, shooting her through the head. Did he have a gun? It didn’t matter, she had to avoid him whether he was armed or not. She tried to swallow, wincing at the pain in her throat. Damn, her neck hurt. And that was what he could do with one hand. She didn’t want to imagine what he could do to her with a bit of effort.

  She was beginning to shake. Oh God. This can’t happen. Not here, not now. Memories of the last time bit at her self-control. What would he do after he killed her? Would he go after the children? After Gertrude – she’d seen his face, after all? The last time this happened, everyone else had died. She didn’t want history to repeat itself. Darcy tried to melt into the stonework behind her, barely breathing, ignoring the ants scurrying over her hands, her ankles. Maybe she should run down to the shed, grab a car and draw him out that way.

  Footsteps, quick and quiet, took off running down the drive. Darcy peered over the wall. He was running towards the shed where all the vehicles were kept, and he was scanning the grounds as he went. Okay, so maybe not the shed.

  She climbed stealthily over the retaining wall, keeping low as she started to run back to the house. The kids – she had to make sure the kids were safe, that they were secure. She had to protect them. She couldn’t creep away, not like last time. She wanted to run, to scream – but that wouldn’t help Julia or Jonah, and they were all she could think about. As she scurried across the timber deck on light feet, a siren sounded from the bay of sheds at the bottom of the hill.

  The man stopped and whirled, and Darcy froze, one foot over t
he doorstep leading back into the house as his eyes zeroed in on her.

  She could hear the yells, the sounds of trucks starting from the other end of the property – and was that the drone of a helicopter? But she didn’t remove her gaze from the man who posed such a threat. He looked down the hill for a moment, probably assessing the time it would take for help to arrive. He turned back at her, a slight smile lifting his lips, and she noticed the bruising along one side of his face. He held up his hand, making a pistol out of his fingers. He closed one eye and shot her with his pretend gun, then whirled and sprinted to the clinic car. Darcy didn’t stick around, bursting through the door and dashing up the stairs. She heard the engine rev and the squeal of tyres as the car drove off.

  CHAPTER

  24

  ‘Hey, we’re supposed to be meeting at Marty’s tomorrow.’

  Alex looked up and frowned as Bern walked into his office. It was the day after the explosion. The fire brigade had cleared the building of any structural damage, and operations could return to normal, though some of the staff had taken Dom’s offer of paid leave to settle their nerves – including Siobhan, the new receptionist. Earlier Dom had popped his head around Alex’s door briefly, after his return from visiting Judy in the hospital.

  ‘I’m not here to wipe the floor with you, as attractive as that sounds,’ Bern said before closing the door. ‘You could have warned me.’

  ‘About what? Dad’s homebrew? Laney’s short-lived hairdressing fad?’ There were so many things he should have warned his brother about but had gleefully held his own counsel.

  ‘Not what, who.’

  Alex frowned. ‘Okay, you’ve got me. What are you talking about?’

  ‘Your mysterious lifesaver.’

  ‘Darcy? You found something on Darcy McKenzie?’

  ‘Not McKenzie – Montgomery. Darcy Montgomery. I ran her prints. You should have seen the bells and whistles that blew at that.’

  Alex’s eyebrows rose. ‘Really? Tell me more.’

  Bern sank down into the chair opposite Alex’s desk. ‘She’s a fugitive.’

  ‘What? Sweet little Darcy, a fugitive? What did she do?’

  ‘She’s implicated in the murder of three cops and some other guy.’

  ‘What the hell? When? Where?’ Alex placed his arms on his desk. She had saved Dom’s kids, at great risk to her own life. He was having trouble marrying up this new information with the woman he’d met at the hospital, the broken, vulnerable woman who had managed to steal his friend’s heart, whether Dom was ready to admit it or not. God, what a mess.

  Bern scratched his head. ‘That’s the problem. She was in witness protection, and access to the files is restricted. I can’t tell you about the case she’s involved with, but the murders of the police officers aren’t restricted. She was at a safe house when these guys were killed, and then she disappeared. Now there’s a warrant out for her arrest, but it wasn’t issued until recently.’

  ‘Why?’

  Bern shrugged. ‘Maybe new evidence has come to light. I’ve left a message for the investigating officer to call me. The information is pretty sparse.’

  ‘So – she’s a suspected killer?’

  ‘Looks like it. Aside from the three police officers, there was another body at the scene, and the current theory is that it belongs to an accomplice she double-crossed. Three officers died protecting this woman, when it seems they needed protection from her. The whole force is looking for her.’

  ‘No wonder she wouldn’t give me her full details.’ Alex rose from his desk. ‘I have to tell Dom.’

  There was a light knock at the door before it opened, and Laney walked in, looking fit and athletic in her uniform of dark blue trousers and light blue collared shirt. She stopped when she saw not one, but two brothers in the room.

  ‘Well, hello. Having a family pow-wow, I see. Can anyone join in, or do you need a Y-chromosome to participate?’

  Bern grinned and stood to hug his sister. ‘Hey, gorgeous. How are things? Haven’t seen you in ages.’

  ‘Well, if you’d turn up to the Sunday lunches you would.’

  ‘Hey, I was there two weeks ago. Remember? Mum told me to get a haircut.’

  Laney snorted. ‘Mum’s always telling you to get a haircut, and that was a month ago.’

  She walked over and gave Alex a hug. He looked at her enquiringly. ‘Did you find anything yet on the bomb? It’s too soon to have any results, though, surely?’

  The Fire Investigation and Research Unit were handling the investigation into yesterday’s bombing, and were working closely with arson detectives. Laney was reviewing some of the evidence back at her office. Her department was good, but nobody was that fast.

  She shook her head. ‘I thought I’d drop by for a quick chat.’

  He arched an eyebrow.

  ‘About a case that popped up on our radar,’ she clarified. She leaned a hip against his desk and started to fiddle with his pen caddy.

  He glanced briefly at Bern, who shrugged his shoulders. ‘Well?’ Alex prompted. ‘What case?’

  ‘We had an explosion in Haberfield a few days ago.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Well, it was interesting.’

  ‘You think a speck of ash on the end of a matchstick is interesting,’ Bern said.

  Laney frowned. ‘Well, yes, because you normally wouldn’t have ash on the matchstick,’ she said curtly.

  ‘See?’

  ‘About the case?’ Alex reminded her gently, shooting his brother a dark look. These two knew how to press each other’s buttons, always had.

  Her eyes widened. ‘Oh, right. Yeah. Haberfield. Interesting. Did you see it on the news?’

  Bern snapped his fingers. ‘Wait a minute – er, no. No, I didn’t – probably because I was on a date and you were at home watching the news.’

  Laney folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow at her brother. ‘You were on a date? Really? Who? Where?’

  Bern shrugged. ‘Can’t remember.’

  ‘The only dates you get these days are with that partner of yours as you take turns holding the other’s doughnut. I can’t remember the last time you asked a woman out.’

  ‘That’s because, sister dear, they ask me out, not the other way around. I get plenty of offers. When was the last time you went out with a guy?’

  ‘Yesterday.’

  ‘Guys you work with don’t count.’

  ‘Shut up.’

  ‘Make me.’

  ‘Name it, baby. Time and place.’

  ‘Tomorrow. Marty’s gym.’

  ‘Uh, guys, can we get back to this interesting Haberfield case?’ Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘I have something to discuss with Dom.’ Like a possible killer hiding out with his kids.

  ‘Oh, sure. There was a gas leak.’

  Alex pursed his lips and nodded, making a rolling motion with his hand. God, what did his sister’s reports look like? He felt sorry for her supervisor.

  ‘A gas leak that was ignited by a sensor light,’ she said.

  Alex frowned. ‘What? I don’t get it.’

  ‘It took us a little while to discover the source, particularly as the homeowner was a former firefighter and was super cautious with fire safety around his home, so we couldn’t quite figure out why or how the fire started. It’s the reason we dug further, because this guy took more than the normal precautions, based on his experience. The guy said he smelled gas just before the house blew.’

  Bern whistled. ‘And he survived? I hope he bought a lottery ticket.’

  ‘Yeah, he was really lucky,’ Laney agreed. ‘But something he said – he has a sensor light on his back path, and he was just walking up it when the next-door neighbour’s cat scared the bejeebus out of him, darting ahead of him. He almost tripped over it.’

  Alex sighed. ‘I still don’t get it.’

  Bern frowned. ‘Neither do I. What happened to the cat?’

  Laney grimaced. ‘Oh, it’s toast,’ she stat
ed, waving a hand. ‘But it’s the fact that the guy couldn’t see it in the dark. His sensor light didn’t go on.’

  Okay. Now he had an ache in his eye. ‘Sometimes that happens,’ he said, trying not to give into his frustration.

  She smiled. ‘You don’t see it.’ She raised her hands to illustrate her words. ‘The sensor light completes a circuit. There was a gas build-up. When something moved within the sensor’s range, the circuit completed.’ Her speech was slow, as though she was explaining something to a person who spoke English as a second language. She held her arms above her head. ‘The light didn’t go on, because it was disconnected.’ Then she waved her arms about. ‘Even though the actual light was disconnected, the sensor still completed the circuit. The gas exploded when the light didn’t go on.’

  ‘I think another light isn’t quite going on,’ Bern muttered in the background, but Alex ignored him, realisation slowly dawning.

  ‘You mean to say this is a similar explosion to the Kombi van?’

  She clapped her hands. ‘Yes! It came across my desk purely by chance, and if I hadn’t already looked into the Gosford explosion, nobody would have noticed the connection. The owner was adamant the light worked, and I tend to believe him. He’s a fireman – safety first.’

  ‘So someone rigged a gas leak to explode when the circuit closed,’ Alex said, just to make sure he understood it correctly.

  Laney nodded, then made a face. ‘Having two cases that were so similar in trigger, setup, et cetera, I started digging.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘So far I’ve found six cases with the same MO.’

  ‘Are you saying it’s a serial firebug?’ Bern asked, his expression darkening.

  ‘Not quite. These cases are spread out over four years – quite a lag for a serial fire-setter. Usually they start to escalate, and the fires get bigger, with more damage, and potentially more loss of life. Whoever is doing this is very controlled, very focused. Up until now, someone has died at each “accidental” explosion,’ Laney said, making quote marks in the air. ‘This Haberfield fire is the only one where nobody died. Except the cat.’