Jennifer closed her eyes and concentrated on easing the tension out of her body and softening her muscles. She felt her body sink into the mattress and that’s all she remembered.
*
Calum’s hands, lathered in moisturiser, hovered over her skin. Christ, what was he thinking when he offered to do this?
He took a deep breath, placed his palms on her lower back and began to gently knead, bringing his fingers and thumb into play on her muscles. Working on her, he was glad he’d offered. Her muscles were tense.
With every downward pressure, Jennifer moaned, making his cock twitch and grow harder. Despite his discomfort, he continued to work on her back and shoulders. After a while, she was so relaxed her mouth popped open. Jennifer was asleep. He eased himself over to his side, set his phone to buzz him at six am and shoved it under his pillow, then made himself comfortable, closed his eyes and smiled. He was in deep, deep shit.
It felt like no time at all had passed when his phone went off. He looked down to see that during the night, Jennifer’s cheek was on his chest. Her leg was over his hip and she’d curled her arm around his waist. She had him trapped, but he loved the feel, it made him smile. Yeah, he liked this a hell-of-a-lot. He slipped his free hand under the pillow and turned off his phone. Now he had to disentangle himself from Jennifer. He started by easing out from under her, and carefully laid her head on the pillow, then softly lifted her arm and leg, and slipped out of bed.
Chapter 9
A sliver of early morning sunlight hit Jennifer’s face. She screwed her eyes shut and arched her body under the flowery quilt. She yawned and stretched her arms up and out to the side. She stilled, remembering that she’d more or less ordered Calum to sleep next to her. Heart thumping, she lifted herself up to look. No Calum. Maybe, once she’d fallen asleep, he’d gone back to sleep on the floor. She threw back the quilt, crawled to the foot of the bed and saw that all his clothes and bedding were gone.
Okay, it was safe to say, Calum had taken off before she woke.
Jennifer told herself that was a good thing: nothing happened, therefore no strings. It was Saturday, and after the solicitor this afternoon, she could go home. She gasped. An anxious feeling burst in her chest. But why? Was she anxious to get home to London? Yes, of course that was it. Really, her sister and niece needed to leave as well. That way, they’d save the quiet country town of Tumble Creek a visit from city thugs.
At least she’d had a decent sleep, and felt so much better for it. Bret had escaped and there had been no more phone calls. That had to be a good sign, yes? She dragged herself out of bed, showered and dressed, hoping cargo pants and an embroidered cotton top would be appropriate for a visit to the solicitor. She slipped her feet into her favourite sandals, muttering about Bret and extortionists.
‘As if life doesn’t have enough problems — honestly?’ she said to Marilyn’s black and white glam photo. On her way to the kitchen she realised that, other than stale scones and coffee made from hot tap water, food was scarce. She caught sight of a note propped up against a thermos with a paper bag next to it on the table.
She moved closer and picked up the note. Back later, Twinkles. Calum.
Her heart stuttered. Her breath quickened. Her mind was in a muddle. Calum had gone to the trouble of making sure she had breakfast. Jennifer dared not think anything into that.
She poured herself a coffee, opened the bag, peered in to find an assortment of sweet buns, and plucked out a cinnamon scroll. She wandered around the kitchen, munching and sipping her instant coffee. Jennifer imagined sitting around the kitchen table, with Sofie and Claudia. And during winter the old stove would keep them warm. Jennifer opened an overhead cupboard, found the most exquisite set of dinnerware, and took a cup down to look underneath. ‘Wow, Royal Doulton, Rose Buds. Uncle Bob, you’re a mystery.’ She shook her head and put the cup back. Were they all wrong about his sexual preferences? Perhaps he had a female soul, and Veronica loved his gentle side. But where was this elusive woman?
A quick look at her watch said she had a couple of hours to kill before Sofie and Claudia turned up for their appointment with the solicitor. Jennifer went downstairs to the shop’s kitchenette. Restoration ideas fluttered through her mind. She quickly dismissed them as idiotic fantasies and opened the cellar door. Cool air rose and touched her face. The smell that wafted up reminded her of visits to ancient vineyard cellars in France, Germany and Italy. She’d only ever been down her uncle’s cellar once, under his strict supervision. Drawn to the flagstone steps that disappeared down into inky blackness, she had to investigate, and now, she had to do it without him.
Her finger felt around on the wall for the light switch, found it and without thinking flicked it on. A sickly yellow light lit the way. Taking a deep breath, Jennifer started down the worn steps. Then with a snap, the lights were off, leaving her in the dark. ‘Crap!’ She inched her way back to the door and ran to the upstairs kitchen. ‘Torch, candles — pantry?’ She found an assortment of both and headed back to the cellar.
Torch at the ready, candle and matches in her pocket, Jennifer peered down the gaping black hole. There might be nothing more than damp cobwebs down there now, but somehow she doubted that. She directed the torchlight at the sandstone wall. The faint glow was barely enough to see by. ‘Great, it’s a conspiracy.’
Ducking the spider webs, Jennifer carefully negotiated the narrow steps spiralling down. The air felt cooler with every step. A nagging little voice inside her said, It’s every chef’s dream to have his or her own cellar. She replied, Sure, but not this chef and not this cellar.
The air was dank and chilly at the bottom of the stairs and Jennifer rubbed at her bare arms. Every move she made echoed. The cellar felt like a large cave. The darkness sucked the light right out of the torch. She moved forward and shone the faint beam around the stone walls and floor. She passed it over what appeared to be a pile of old clothes and quickly went back to the spot. ‘Oh my God, a hand!’ Frozen with fear, her throat closed on a scream. Her entire body shook. She dropped the torch. It clattered onto the flagstones and went out.
Jennifer widened her eyes, but the blackness surrounded her, dense like an impenetrable cloak. Her breath came in short gasps and strange, squeaky noises came out of her mouth.
RUN!
*
Calum had been to the hardware shop and bought a carton of smoke alarms. He wanted to fit them at Bob’s place as soon as possible. He stood at the front door of the empty chemist shop, hand raised ready to knock, when a blood-curdling scream erupted from inside. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. More screams echoed through the shop. It was difficult to tell where they were coming from, but he knew one thing: it was Jennifer.
‘Shit!’ He had to get in there, fast. He hammered on the door, and then thumped it with his shoulder, any harder and he’d break the plate glass. It crossed his mind to go around the back, but that would’ve taken too long. By the time he got there she’d be at the front with her hair on fire because she hadn’t listened to his warnings, or worse still, she was wrestling thugs.
‘Jen!’ he shouted. Ignoring the few pedestrians who slowed their pace for a better look, he ran back to his work ute and pulled a mallet out of his tool box. ‘I’m coming, Jen!’ He raised his mallet ready for the first blow into the shop’s glass front door.
‘Cal! Ya can’t use a mallet!’ a passer-by hollered from across the street, ‘the place is heritage listed!’
Calum glared over his shoulder and hesitated, then heard the brass bolts slide with frantic speed and turned to see the door fly open.
‘Calum!’ Jennifer cried out. All colour had drained from her face, but at least her hair wasn’t on fire.
Itching to hold her, he dropped his mallet. Before he could step in and wrap his arms around her, she grabbed a handful of T-shirt near his throat and hauled him in.
‘Get in here!’ She yanked him across the shop floor. ‘Quick, hurry, there’s a dead man i
n the cellar!’
She pushed him through the cellar door, and pulled a candle out of her pocket, shoving it at him.
‘What’s this?’ Calum took it and peered down the stairs. ‘What am I supposed to do with a candle?’
‘That’s a cellar and there’s a horrible dead body down there, and —’ She pointed a trembling finger into the blackness.
‘I gather you’ve tried the lights?’
‘They were on for less than a minute and — bang! They went out. Look, will you please hurry up!’
‘There’s no hurry. If he’s dead, he’s not going anywhere.’
She eyed him sceptically. ‘You don’t believe me.’
‘I do! But a candle, Jen — come on. I’ll wait here; you get a torch from the ute. It’s in the toolbox on the back tray. Unless you’d rather wait here while I get it?’
She looked at him, green eyes panicky. ‘I’ll get the torch.’ She zipped away.
‘Dead bodies in the cellar. What next?’ Calum muttered.
A strange heavy scraping sound was coming toward him, and not from the cellar, but from the shop. Adrenalin shot through Calum, and fists clenched, he took on a defensive stance. Then Jennifer came through the door, a torch in one hand, and dragging his mallet in the other.
‘Christ, Jen,’ he let his hands fall to his sides. ‘Why did you bring that? All I wanted was the torch.’
‘You might need it down there.’
‘Give me that.’ Calum took the heavy mallet from Jennifer’s hands and set it down to rest against the wall. ‘It’s okay, he’s dead,’ Calum stated with a raised eyebrow. Jennifer looked ready to crack, so he softened his attitude. ‘You don’t look too good. Why don’t you stay up here and ring the police?’
‘I am not going to crack, I want to see for myself — you know? I’m not a sicko. I just need to know what I saw wasn’t a figment of my imagination.’
‘Fine.’ He switched the torch on and a ring of light lit up the steps. ‘Stick close to me.’
‘Like a shadow.’ Her trembling hands gripped Calum’s shoulders as he edged down the stone steps to the floor.
He shone the torch beam across to the left, then back for a short way to the right. The light passed over something shiny. He inched forward and stopped at a puddle on the floor.
Jennifer gasped. ‘Look at all that blood!’
‘What blood? And where’s the body?’
‘He could be hiding.’
‘I thought he was dead?’
‘He looked dead. I’m not silly enough to stop and feel for a pulse! Would you?’ she gave him a scathing look. ‘Of course you would.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ He swung the torch, carefully searching into corners, then moved closer to the pool of ‘blood.’
Jennifer shuffled behind him, peeking over his shoulder, hot breath near his ear. ‘You’ve got more muscle, in case we get jumped.’
‘Right —’ he swallowed hard. ‘Glad to hear it.’ Without thinking, Calum inclined his head to give Jennifer better access to his neck. And then he tried to breathe like a normal human being. ‘There’s no one here.’
‘Crap! He must’ve taken off when I ran up and opened the door for you. Yep — eeywh, look wet footprints going off towards the stairs.’
‘Not very dead then,’ Calum said with a wry grin. ‘Damn big prints though.’ He could feel the tension making the muscle just above his jaw twitch. ‘Let’s have a closer look.’ Calum dipped a finger onto the wet patch, rubbed it between his finger and thumb, and sniffed it. ‘What a waste.’
Jennifer looked down. ‘It’s not blood, is it? It’s wine.’
‘Yep.’ Calum picked up one of the bottles lying on its side against the wall and handed it to her.
‘He’s been drinking wine down here. Oh my God! I don’t believe it — Grange Hermitage! The bastard’s been swigging on the most expensive wine in the country — he was drunk on a two-thousand dollar red!’ Jennifer turned to Calum. ‘He’s been in here all night — all night! That’s what I heard. He was singing.’ She began to pace. ‘I thought it was a pissed local. Damn it, what was he singing? I couldn’t understand the words, but I’m sure it was familiar.’
‘He left something.’ Calum picked up the photo and dusted it off.
‘It’s a woman.’ Jennifer turned the photo over. ‘Nothing on the back. There’s something vaguely familiar about it, but I can’t think clearly. What’s he doing in my uncle’s cellar?’
Calum swung the torch around. ‘What’s this?’ He peered deeper into the cellar.
Crouching, ready for anything, they faced at least ten racks of wine five feet high and spanning the floor. Silently, carefully, they searched between every rack, but found nothing.
‘Like you said, he’s gone.’ Calum rubbed his scalp. ‘Maybe he knew about the cellar, and thought he’d try some before it all disappeared.’
‘Are you being absolutely honest with me? On my first night here, you and Sergeant Stewart were having a heated discussion about Uncle Bob as you were coming down the stairs — what was that about then?’ Jennifer waited.
Calum didn’t want to sound insensitive. ‘You’re a woman of the world…’ he began. Jennifer rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, I’ll get to the point. We’d only just met you and the argument was whether or not to ask if Bob was gay.’
‘Is that all?’ Jennifer frowned. ‘We thought he was, but now I’m not so sure. It may just be that he was a warm and gentle man with a feminine side. Uncle Bob bought his girlfriend Veronica frilly underwear in Paris. You wouldn’t know where I could find her, would you?
Calum shrugged. ‘Nope. No idea.’
‘May I have the torch?’ She swung it towards the racks. ‘This is unbelievable,’ she breathed, looking around. ‘I knew Uncle Bob had been collecting wine for years, but this is…’ she trailed off.
‘One hell of a lot of wine,’ Calum murmured, impressed.
Calculating in his head, Calum worked out the cellar was huge, at least half the size of the shop above. Racks of wine took up most of the space. He watched Jennifer head for the rack nearest to them. She ran her fingers over some of the bottles, removing the cobwebs and dust to reveal the labels.
‘Oh my God,’ she gasped. ‘There’s more Grange Hermitage. All these Australian wines are top labels.’
‘That’s good, I guess.’
‘Good! What’s in this cellar is worth serious money.’ She walked to the last rack and studied the labels with Calum peering over her shoulder. ‘They date back as far as the early fifties. I’m speechless.’
‘C’mon,’ Calum took her hand. ‘Enough exploring. We’d better let Brock and Tony know about the body and how it disappeared.’
His intention was to glance at her, but her bewildered expression drew him in. His gaze lingered and his gut tightened. He tried to stifle a grin.
He led her towards the stairs and followed her back to the shop’s kitchenette. Calum used his mobile to ring the police and briefly filled them in on the breakin.
‘Yeah, we’ll wait. Come around the back.’ He closed off and opened the back door, letting sunlight in. ‘You’ve got stuff —’ he said, pointing at her hair.
‘What is it? What’s in my hair?’ Jennifer danced, head down, fingers ruffling through her curly mop.
‘Take it easy. It’s nothing. Lots of web.’ Calum chuckled.
‘You sure there aren’t any spiders?’ she asked, dipping her head toward his chest. ‘Hurry, have a look.’
Calum peered into her hair, plucking at a few cobwebs. He ran his fingertips along her scalp from front to back and she straightened up.
Breath shallow, she licked her lips and said, ‘Better do that again…just to be sure.’
‘Yeah, I should,’ he murmured. Her silky curls slid through his fingers. Her beautiful face tilted back, and his eyes searched hers. They’d gone a darker green, burning with desire. She was open to him, trusting. Her lips parted. Like a drug, he needed to feel
her mouth on his, longed to dip his tongue between her lips. Heat coiled in his groin. His fingers gripped the curls at the back of her head and he brought his mouth down on hers.
Leaning into him, she moaned. This only made him hungrier. His hands moved down her neck, her back to the small of her waist, itching to go further and cup her squeezable arse, so he did. Her cheeks were firm and he tucked her into his groin. She moaned again and he joined her. Her soft, plump lips moved over his, her tongue played with his. He shifted down and tucked his arms under her arse to lift her and move them both back inside.
*
The back gate creaked as it swung open.
Jennifer’s eyes flew open to see Calum’s eyes mirror hers, large and saying, caught, big time. Mouth not leaving hers he eased his hands away from her bottom and eased her down until her feet touched the ground.
‘We have visitors,’ he said against her mouth.
‘Damn,’ she muttered. He gave her a wicked grin.
She stepped back and straightened her clothes just as Brock and Tony marched into the courtyard, serious faces turning quietly amused.
‘G’day Brock, Tony,’ Calum said.
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ Brock tried to hide a grin and failed, miserably. Tony chuckled and got an elbow in the ribs, which shut him up quick smart. ‘What’ve you got?’
Jennifer invited them inside out of the biting sun. Brock asked the questions, but they both took notes. Half an hour later, they had all the facts, plus they checked out the cellar and removed the wine bottle to dust it for fingerprints.
‘So I gather you have no idea who the drunk might be?’ Jennifer asked.
‘Er — no,’ Brock said, ‘but the photo will help. And if you can remember what he was singing, it’ll help the investigation. Between the two of us we should be able to find out if this woman is a local. We’ll let you know if anything turns up.’ Brock shoved his notepad in his shirt pocket and sauntered up the path back to the gate.
‘We’ll keep you informed,’ Tony said over his shoulder.
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