Beneath the Skin

by Melissa James

  Lovers. Him and Elly? It was ridiculous, laughable—and so damn right that his heart filled with strength. It was inconceivable; it was inevitable. It couldn’t happen—yet he could no more stop it than he could stop tomorrow coming.

  Could his insecure little girl endure Elly’s entrance into their lives on a more intimate basis? Zoe liked Elly now, but there was a world of difference between liking Daddy’s old friend and tolerating his lover. The roller coaster Elly had brought with her grew fifty feet higher. She was destroying all the serenity and security he’d worked so hard to build here—

  Stop lying to yourself. Elly never hurt you; it was always the other way around. Maybe you’re bad for her … and with your track record, you’ll probably be bad for her again.

  So why did he keep thinking about it? Why couldn’t he turn off, move away, avoid her, cut the fantasies dead? He’d done it often enough before.

  At that moment she removed her hand from his, her eyes taking on that haunting look of composure, and its practised wrongness struck his soul with chilling force. ‘So long as this picnic is more orthodox than the last one. We couldn’t get away with that sort of stuff at our age. Even cops can get busted for public indecency, right?’

  ‘True,’ he muttered, his heart breaking for her. It seemed he’d even ruined her memory of that day. ‘Things might have changed between us since then.’

  ‘Nothing needs to change. We were friends then, we’re friends now.’ Her mouth formed a restrained half-smile, full of studied serenity. ‘I won’t be staying long.’

  His brow lifted. ‘Very effective, Dr Lavender. If you give all your male patients that Mona Lisa look, they’d be too scared of you to try for so much as friendship.’

  She choked off the giggle, but her smile widened and her body relaxed. ‘Okay, Detective Sergeant Jepson, you win … for now.’

  Relieved he hadn’t lost his ability to make her laugh when she threatened to close off on him, he grinned. ‘With you, Elly-May, I never expect more than an armed neutrality.’

  She looked with peculiar intensity at a watercolour on paper tacked to the wall by a proud Zoe. Her fists clenched and her lovely body became rigid, trembling, but no longer with desire. ‘That’s more than anyone else gets from me, Claudius. So count yourself lucky.’

  Splat. The sound came from the kitchen—and the painful connection turned to laughter.

  ‘Uh-oh. That sounded ominous,’ he murmured with a grin.

  ‘Can we eat our pizza now, Annelly? I’m bery hungry,’ came the complaint from the kitchen. ‘And Daddy, I spilleded your pizza on the floor …’

  ‘Yup, looks like your fun’s already begun. Welcome to Jepson family life, Elly-May. Join in with us as long as you can stand it.’

  Her smile lilted. ‘That might be a little longer than you expect, Claudius.’

  ‘So the handsome prince took Sleeping Beauty to his castle. They invited everyone in the land to their wedding. And they lived happily ever after.’

  Elly closed the book and looked at Zoe, seeing curled golden lashes fanning pale cheeks. No more sleepy calls for ‘More, Annelly. Just one more story’, just a trusting child asleep in her arms, her tiny smile so like Adam’s it made her ache. Unexpected tenderness flooded her. Somewhere in the past few hours, this child she hadn’t known until today had accomplished what few did: she had made her care. Like father, like daughter. Softly, she lowered Zoe to her pillow.

  ‘Goodnight, little Sleeping Beauty.’

  She walked into Adam outside the door. His hands landed on her shoulders, holding her at a slight distance. ‘You’re spoiling her, you know. One bedtime story is the rule.’

  She laughed, to hide the quiver of pleasure rushing through her at his touch. ‘How many rules have I broken so far?’

  His expression showed awareness of her desire. His hands remained on her, his thumbs caressing her collarbone. ‘I’ve a feelin’ you enjoy breakin’ rules, Miz Elly.’

  ‘Depends on what they are.’ Her tongue ran over her upper lip. ‘Some rules exist only in our minds, social taboos that have no meaning. Those I’ll always break, with pleasure.’

  When he spoke, his voice was low, husky. ‘How much pleasure do you think you could stand?’

  Though he didn’t move, his voice willed her closer. Her breath blew out in a rush. She swayed toward him—

  A sigh floated into the hallway, a soft creaking of the bed as Zoe moved. An innocent reminder of all that stood between them.

  She stirred, pushing out from under his hands. ‘I’d better go.’

  He released her. ‘I’ll walk you to your car.’

  She didn’t even have to glance at him to know the Sharon Look was back on his face; the look of innate superiority and disapproval of everything she was. She’d lost him so completely fourteen years ago, she hadn’t even tried to win him back—her Adam just wasn’t there. And it seemed, despite the connection they’d just shared, he still preferred to be gone.

  In Elly’s prejudiced eyes, slender Sharon of the angelic face and silver-golden hair had never loved Adam. She’d set her sights on the second son of the conservative, respectable Jepson family, upper-middle-class lawyers, graziers, school deans and politicians, proud descendants of the English family that crossed the world on a ship in the 1850s. Sharon had taken Adam’s loving, adventurous boy’s heart and walked all over it. All the qualities Elly had found so lovable in him, Sharon had squashed with a tender, ruthless suppression.

  Adam, don’t you think it’s time you stopped your childish jokes and pranks?

  Playing football is for hooligans, not respectable people.

  Adam, you’re too dirty to hug. You’ve been out fishing—you don’t expect a kiss before you have a shower, do you? You smell like sweat, fish and beer. And those animals …

  That Janie’s so wild. She’s bad for you, Adam. You must stay away from her.

  Elly sighed. Perhaps rigid, repressive Sharon had been right for once with the unthinking condemnation she’d never meant for Elly to overhear. And Adam’s wife had never been more right than now, three years after her death. This thing arcing between Elly and Adam was crazy. If they gave in to it, Adam’s life, maybe even Zoe’s, would be in danger. It was better for them both if she packed up and left Macks Lake tonight.

  ‘Good night, Adam.’ And goodbye. She stepped off the verandah, ready to perform another vanishing act.

  An urgent hand pulled her back. ‘Elly, don’t move!’

  Kaltukatjara Community, Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia

  ‘Go back to the road and stay on it. This is our place. You got no permit to come here, or talk to anyone. It’s the law.’

  A little way from the road, eight sets of dark eyes watched Danny’s face in calm challenge, but if he pushed back, the weapons in plain sight would turn on him. Eight men, six of them bigger than him and filled with wiry strength, eyes cold with suspicion.

  The town wasn’t gated, of course, not in this back-of-beyond place on the Docker River Road on the Western Australia– Northern Territory border. It was barely even a road, just a dusty, blazing-red track with grey-green scrub and straggling trees alongside it, and with houses painted all colours of the rainbow. Poor houses, Danny thought, and substandard humans who’d never get to Perth or Darwin, let alone Sydney. This was as much as they’d ever own. It even smelled poor, just air, dirt and trees. How dare they lock me out? If they knew the things I’ve done, that I can destroy this pitiful village with just a phone call …

  ‘Do you know who I am?’ he demanded, hands shaking as he felt Monster crouching behind his quiet veneer, just waiting to leap.

  A young man spoke up. ‘Yeah, someone who’s goin’ back onto the road. Now.’

  If he didn’t care about them, they didn’t care about him either. Wind-burned and sore from wandering in temperatures of forty-three degrees Celsius, he’d been trying to get into the community for over an hour. The bloody trucker he’d hitched with for two days e
ntered the town without hassle, bringing food and water to the little store. He’d paid the trucker hundreds to get him in. But though Dave had assured the people Danny was all right, he hadn’t got a metre from the road without being stopped by a human barricade with distrust in their eyes. A bloody trucker had been welcomed in, and he, a Spencer of Gundawin, was treated as a common criminal!

  Like I said, they’re stupid, Monster said softly. The world’s better off without them.

  He thrust his hands into his pockets. He was shaking with the growing need to let Monster loose. He’d controlled it for days now, hundreds of kilometres and half a dozen remote communities. He’d stayed Monster’s hand with four words: Janie wouldn’t like it.

  But his sudden sense of certainty that these subhumans had seen Janie, still had Janie here maybe, and were keeping her from him, changed the game. Clarity set his body shaking and brought Monster to the fore.

  One last chance, he told Monster. Just let me ask.

  Monster bowed, and he felt the smile. Giving permission. I should never have named him!

  ‘Has a woman been here lately? Her name’s Janie Larkins—she’s a doctor with the Aboriginal and Islander Medical Commission. I’m offering cash for information.’ He held up a wad of notes, surely more than any of them had seen in a lifetime. Take it, people. Do it. Don’t let Monster take over!

  The oldest man there—he looked about a hundred—stepped forward with a younger man’s assistance. ‘We dunno no Janie Larkins, and we ain’t seen a doctor in a year or more.’ The effort to say that much wore him out, and the younger men lowered him until he sat on the red powder that was the earth here.

  Danny watched him with revulsion. An old man like that was long past his usefulness. Why didn’t he drop? Then in the confusion he could run in, find Janie.

  A camel wandered past them. With a loud spurting sound, it crapped on the ground, and moved on into the community. A lousy camel could get in, and he, Danny Spencer, was being locked out? The skin of his palms stung as his nails dug in. Come on, people, I’m giving you a chance to live here. Just bring Janie to me!

  Stupid people don’t deserve to live, Monster said, his voice purring. Anticipation brought on the blackness, the blankness taking him over. Locking him in unseen chains, knowing he’d only wake up to find out what Monster had done.

  Please, people! Janie wouldn’t want you to die! ‘Which way did she go after she left?’

  The old man on the ground looked up at him and cackled. ‘If we ain’t never seen her, we can’t tell ya which way she went, can we!’

  The others laughed. Laughed at him.

  It’s my turn now, Danny. We don’t let anyone disrespect us like that. He’s just like Granddad, thinking we’re nothing but a piece on his chessboard to move around.

  Janie, Janie, where are you? Danny cried silently. Come to me, Janie! He’s making me want to fill my hands with blood. Only you quieten the monster inside me …

  I’m not ‘the monster’, Danny. I’m you, Monster said, soft and smug. I’m Monster, and I’m all you … you belong to me now.

  No! No, you’re not me, and I’ll never be yours! JANIE, WHERE ARE YOU?

  But she wasn’t here, and Monster stepped into him, smooth as blood, hot as the day—

  When he came back to himself, no one was dead, and only one man was cut. The others had taken his knife from him, and were poking him back toward the road, armed with knives and spears and a couple of rifles.

  The biggest man kicked him in the arse, and when he stumbled, the stupid blackfella snarled, ‘Get out, psycho, and don’t come back.’

  On his knees, he stared up at the man. Monster had retreated somewhere deep inside, licking the wound on his shoulder. Not enough to kill him, just to frighten him. Monster didn’t like getting hurt, it made him whimper and hide.

  ‘What did I do?’ he whispered, hating to own Monster’s acts.

  The man who’d spoken held up a phone and pressed play.

  Danny wanted to throw up when he saw that Monster had tried to stab the helpless old man in the throat.

  Don’t be angry, Monster whimpered. He talked to us like Granddad does. I couldn’t help it.

  Sick, weary, defeated, Danny headed back to the truck to wait for Dave. But sitting in the cab, he heard a loud whisper: ‘We didn’t tell him, Mum. Didn’t tell him the nice lady’s gone.’

  A slow smile curved his mouth, and lightened the stain of black on his soul. Thanks, kid, that was all I needed to know.

  CHAPTER

  7

  Elly froze as Adam moved with quiet stealth to her car, switching from friend and possible lover to cop mode in seconds. She frowned. Was the BMW a little lower than it ought to be …?

  She watched in helpless silence as Adam checked out the car, inside and out, then moved to the footpath, observing the yard, the whole length of the street and the houses either side of his.

  It seemed hours before he returned to her. ‘All four tyres are slashed. There doesn’t appear to be any other damage to the car.’

  ‘Somebody likes me,’ she joked, trying to control the tremors working their way out from her pounding heart to her weakened limbs.

  He touched her arm and held onto it. ‘You’re not going anywhere tonight, Elly. From now on you’re staying with me. It’s obvious you need protection.’

  ‘Because some idiots are jealous of my car?’

  His gaze met hers in the darkness, and he spoke very low. ‘Danny Spencer escaped from Mackleton minimum security prison sixteen days ago in a prison bombing. He’s the major suspect in the bombing and malicious damage to a laundry truck that killed one man and left the other in intensive care, and the murder of another truck driver in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia.’

  Danny was out.

  With a smothered cry she bolted, stumbling out of her sandals in blind panic, landing sprawled on the gravel driveway.

  He lifted her to her feet and led her back to the house, away from the sight of her vandalised car. He sat her down on the sofa, and hauled her close. ‘I’m sorry, Elly.’ He caressed her back with a soothing hand. ‘I put off telling you as long as I could, but with the murder and now this, I had to make it official. Talk to me.’

  ‘No! Don’t touch me!’ She pushed his arms, trying to break his hold. ‘Let me go. If he’s here, if he’s watching, if he sees you touching me, he’ll kill you—he’d even kill Zoe!’

  ‘It’s not going to happen.’ His voice was so gentle, so kind. ‘Talk to me, Elly. I could always help you before, when we were kids.’

  ‘You can’t stop him. His sadistic games have begun. If I don’t give him what he wants, he terrorises me, laughing from the shadows as my life falls apart.’

  ‘I know about Spencer’s fixation with you.’ Adam held her in a vice-like grip. ‘Until this afternoon, he’d only been traced as far as Mullalabuk in the Kimberley region. To the best of our knowledge he’s still in Western Australia. The truck of the dead driver was found just off the 95 Highway at the edge of the Gibson Desert. We’re trying to determine if and when he visited the community. We’re sending an Aboriginal liaison officer tomorrow to talk to them. Forensics says the truck driver died eight days after Spencer escaped, so that gives us a lead.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she panted, still struggling against him. ‘He’ll find me. The law never stops him. This was the fourth time he broke the Apprehended Violence Order and hurt me, and all he got was thirty days.’

  At that his hold softened, allowing her to move away. The implicit understanding in the movement—the freedom of choice he offered—soothed and comforted her.

  ‘We’ll get him this time. He’ll get twenty years for killing the truck driver.’

  ‘No. He’ll get off. He always does.’ She paced the room, hating the words that poured from her mouth, but unable to stop them. ‘He’s a millionaire in his own right, and the only heir of a multimillionaire cattle baron in the Northern Territory. His grandfather
steps in every time the law gets serious, and gets Danny’s sentence lowered with the help of an army of psychiatrists who babble about his grandmother’s and father’s deaths, his mother’s desertion, his sad childhood, and promise ongoing treatment. Then he escapes within days with thousands of dollars he shouldn’t have, changes his appearance completely, calls in private detectives, and is free to destroy my life again!’

  ‘Like when he killed your dog and cat?’ he asked, his voice gentle. Standing near her, but not touching. Protection and caring, but without invading the space she desperately needed right now. ‘Is that why you don’t have critters any more?’

  Her shoulders slumped. Feeling broken. ‘Would you?’

  He said nothing, just took a step to her, kissing her forehead and moving away again.

  ‘It’s not just Mickey and Minnie now,’ she whispered. ‘A man’s dead because of me.’

  ‘Not because of you.’ His voice was gentle and hard at once. ‘That’s Spencer’s fault. Don’t take the fall for his acts.’

  She stepped back. ‘A man’s dead because I ran away. He’s doing this out of frustration and anger because he can’t find me. Now he’s finally killed a human, Danny’s last restraint is gone. He’s upgraded from killing animals to human beings because I rejected him.’

  He shook his head. ‘The bodies of six jackaroos have been found on Gundawin land in the past two weeks. The NT police finally got search warrants on the whole of Spencer’s property after the trucker’s death. We can’t prove it yet, but we believe all six were murdered. Their families suddenly got rich after their disappearances. They must have been paid hundreds of thousands each to not go to the police or the media.’

  She stared at him. ‘I would have sworn Danny hadn’t killed anyone when I knew him – and that’s not a hopeful statement, it’s a doctor’s assessment.’

  He shrugged. ‘Everything’s different now. His status has gone from stalker to murderer. His grandfather, Alicia Florrick and Sigmund Freud couldn’t save him. No matter what anyone says or does, he’s going down.’ He kissed her forehead again. ‘I’ve called in the cavalry. We’ll do whatever it takes to stop this creep from getting to you again.’