by AK Leigh
He moved a hand downward and began to scrunch up her dress at the bottom.
The next second, her hands were clamped around his wrists. She stepped away. ‘Can we … I just want to take things a little slower … with us.’
Us. He liked the way that sounded.
He smiled, closed the gap between them, and placed a hand on her cheek. ‘I’m happy with that.’
She flashed him a cheeky grin, ‘Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun making out in the meantime.’
He laughed, ‘Couldn’t agree more,’ then took her mouth with his.
Chapter 22
Don Silkstone
Don woke the following morning to the feeling of something heavy on his chest. He opened his eyes and peered down. A mop of dark brown hair and porcelain white skin shot a reminder to his brain. The woman the concierge had arranged had been everything he’d asked for and more. She couldn’t have looked more perfect—the spitting image—and she’d been submissive and compliant. The way he liked it.
She hadn’t argued at the use of the name; the role-playing; the tie; the whip; the roughness. In fact, the rougher he’d been, the more she seemed to get off on it. Again, just the way he liked it. Maybe she could become his regular whenever he was in Far North Queensland?
He smiled as he touched the faint red marks on her wrist, showing the evidence of where he’d bound her the night before. He felt himself harden.
He nudged the woman, ‘Hey. Wake up.’
She groaned but didn’t move from his chest.
He shoved her harder this time, and made his voice more forceful, ‘I said, wake up.’
She lifted her head. Her eyes were blurry and dazed. It took her a second, but he saw the moment she recognised him.
Her eyes glowed as a wide smile flashed over her red lips, ‘Good morning, Master.’
He grinned. She’d remembered.
As a reward, he gave her hair a gentle stroke, ‘Good morning, my little slave.’
She rolled to her side, facing him, revealing her firm breasts in the process. With one hand, she trailed a path from his chest to his face. ‘You have me until midday, Master. How can I please you until then?’
He smiled. It was almost easy to believe this was real. He gave her a slap across the arse, grabbed her by the wrists, and bound her with the tie he’d used on her the night before. ‘You, are going to stay here like a good girl while I go out to check on some things. When I get back, you had better be nice and wet for me.’
She threw him a teasing rebellious look, ‘Or what?’
He reached for her neck, and gave it a squeeze. Hard. So she knew exactly who was in charge. Then he leaned in close, bore his gaze into hers, and whispered, ‘You get punished.’
She giggled, ‘I might like that, Master.’
‘Let’s test that theory, shall we?’
He didn’t let her comment before he flipped her onto her stomach and reached for the whip on the bedside table.
Chapter 23
‘I’m seeing Gabe again later, so we need to be finished soon.’
‘Again? Wow!’ Lizzie threw Carrie a look that said ‘don’t you dare tease me about this’. Her sister paused, cleared her throat, then asked, ‘What are you up to this time?’
‘I’m taking him to Kuranda—’
‘On the train?’
Lizzie turned to Nina, who had interrupted, and nodded, ‘Yeah … the train stops at Barron Falls. I thought I could take the opportunity to explain our heritage.’
The general public were unaware of their distant aboriginal ancestry. Even though it was common for those who had a long familial connection to Cairns, like they did, to have some aboriginal ancestor, often it was not assumed to be the case for them based on their unusual ash-blonde hair colour.
Nina smiled, ‘I think that’s lovely.’
‘Me too.’
Lizzie smiled at both her sisters, ‘Thank you.’
‘What are you going to do when you get back?’
Lizzie shrugged, ‘Hadn’t thought about it. I guess it depends on how the date goes.’
Carrie snorted, ‘Which is code for you’re going to sleep with him.’
Lizzie slapped her sister on the arm, ‘It is not. It’s code for “it depends on how the date goes”. We’re taking things slowly.’
‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all before. Take. Protection.’
Even though it was a half-joke, Lizzie made a mental note to stop at the chemist on the way to picking him up. It couldn’t hurt to be prepared. No matter how slowly she wanted to go …
‘All right. Let’s get back to the case now.’
Lizzie nodded. Luckily they had Nina to keep them on track, otherwise they’d get lost in tangents. She faced her big sister and asked, ‘Any new leads?’
Nina nodded, ‘I checked out the CCTV angle again and there was nothing within a five-kilometre radius from that night.’
‘Which means the offender knew the area.’
And therefore knew which places to avoid being seen if they’d committed a crime and didn’t want video footage of themselves around the time of the attack.
Nina nodded, ‘Highly likely.’
Lizzie noted that down.
Nina continued, ‘There were no known sexual or violent criminals within a three-mile radius of the Pontomic River at the time of the killing either.’
‘I’m afraid I have nothing more to offer forensically … but I did do some research into those black ropes you were asking about. They were made from polypropolene, which—’
Lizzie finished Carrie’s sentence, ‘Is widely available, both online and in stores.’
‘Exactly.’
Lizzie sighed, ‘Great. I thought that might help us narrow the suspect pool down.’
‘Sorry. Doesn’t look that way.’
‘So we’re at a standstill for now.’
Nina nodded, ‘Not the first time.’
Lizzie and Carried nodded together.
‘I might look into the mistress and husband’s backgrounds a bit more. See if I can dig anything up?’
‘Good idea, Nina. I might check out the sexual angle. Double-check all the reports. See if anything was missed; make sure all the evidence was handled properly; the right chain of command was followed. Even the smallest amount of DNA can help. And I’ll see if there’s anything the bones can tell us.’
Lizzie nodded at her sister’s choices, ‘I’m going to do some more work on this profile.’
Nina stood. ‘Okay, we’ll leave you to it. Remember we have the press conference on Monday morning.’
‘I remember.’
Carrie rose. With a wink and cheeky grin, she cooed, ‘Have fun on your date.’
Lizzie laughed, ‘I will.’
After collecting their things and saying their goodbyes, Lizzie was alone, her yellow notepad on her lap. As usual, she went over all the things she’d noted so far. Satisfied there was nothing to add, she wrote ‘classifications’ and began to make notes for step two of the profile.
Crime type: organised, disorganised? Not likely to be organised. The loosely bound sheet around the body suggests it was not planned or premeditated. Therefore has to be disorganised. She thought about this for a moment. Usually the disorganised criminal had a lower socio-economic background and average or below-average intelligence. However, the attempts at hiding the body in a lower socio-economic area told Lizzie the murderer was probably very intelligent and, therefore, came from a higher socio-economic bracket. She noted that on her pad then added: perhaps killer had hoped getting rid of the body in a poorer area would mean lacklustre police work, less likely identification of the body and no tracking back to the offender?
Homicide type: single, double, serial, triple, mass, spree, serial? Likely to be single homicide. Police reports did not note any similarities to other homicides and only one known victim was discovered.
Primary intent of offender: Nina’s top five motives for crime: sexual
, emotional (specifically revenge and/or jealousy), financial, criminal involvement, control/power issues. The fact ropes were used hints at control/power issues. Likely tied the victim up before her death to keep her pliable and submissive to demands. Though no semen has been found at this stage, sexual motive could be a factor as it often is in these cases. Victim was wealthy. However, husband gained nothing by wife being killed as they were negotiating a settlement for him. As it stood, the will gave him nothing in the event of her death due to the pre-nup. If not the husband, who else would benefit financially from her death? The Star of Hope charity was already getting a regular stipend, even after her death according to the will; they only had to get the husband to move in with the mistress if they wished to get all the money. Not a high probability. No known criminal entanglements by wife or husband. That intent unlikely. Is an emotional motivation probable?
Lizzie thought for a moment, then wrote: was this motivated by jealousy or revenge by the mistress? She underlined the last part. The memory of the woman came back to her. Bella Nunez had a small frame. Lizzie flicked back to her earlier notes. Murderer: one male or one strong female, or smaller female plus accomplice? If Bella had indeed committed the crime, she would have needed an accomplice. She noted that down.
A run-through of what she’d jotted down showed her nothing more she could add.
Aloud, she muttered, ‘Okay. At this time, there are two primary intents: control/power and emotional.’ Finished with the classifications, she glanced at her watch. 10:30 am. It was one hour until she had to be at Gabe’s. ‘Shoot.’
If she wasn’t at Gabe’s by 11:30 am, they would miss the noon departure.
She placed the notepad on her coffee table and darted off in the direction of her bedroom to get ready for her whole-day date.
Chapter 24
Don Silkstone
Don was thankful he’d thought to bring refreshments with him. He’d been sitting in his car, parked on the street across from her unit, since 6 am. Elizabeth Farris hadn’t left her unit for the entire morning, though her sisters had come and gone. He knew she was still there because he saw her walk past the open window every so often.
He sighed and took a sip from his bottle of water. He almost gagged as he swallowed it down. What he needed was a drink. A real drink. He recapped the bottle and peered through the windscreen of his car. How long was he going to stay here?
Too bad it was morning. An urge to go back to the bar he’d been at the night before was creeping over him. He could go back to the hotel, order some champagne, get the woman to come back.
She’d given him her card, so he wouldn’t have to go through the concierge again …
The thought was cut off by the entry to Elizabeth’s unit opening. The woman in question stepped out. A beige handbag with a long strap was hanging diagonally across her body. The placement of the strap pushed back the white button-front blouse she was wearing, emphasising her breasts.
She was going somewhere.
The black knee-length shorts she wore, and the cute denim tennis shoes on her feet, suggested it wasn’t anywhere related to the case. She would dress more professionally for that. She and her sisters had been wearing smart suits when they’d gone to interview Baronie. They always wore neat attire during their press conferences too.
Still, he should follow just in case. Then he could go back to the hotel and relax properly. With that woman who’d been so good to feel in his lonely arms and the finest wine the hotel had. He waited for Elizabeth to drive off in her car then followed.
Chapter 25
Even though she’d seen it countless times before, Lizzie stared out the train’s window at the beautiful, lush, tropical scenery. Mountains, trees, waterfalls, kauri pines all flashed before her vision. Kuranda was a roughly two-hour train ride from Cairns. She and Gabe had managed to chat the entire way. It had been relaxing and seemed such a natural thing to be doing. As though they’d been doing it for months, instead of days.
She felt Gabe squeeze her hand, ‘It’s beautiful, Elizabeth. I’m glad you convinced me to do this.’
She smiled, ‘Me too.’
The train came to a stop. A voice over the intercom system informed them they’d arrived at Barron Falls. This was it, time to share her full history with him.
They hopped from the train and made their way along the walkway to the lookout area. Gabe leaned on the metal rail surrounding the lookout’s wooden platform and stared out at the loud free-flowing falls she knew well. White wisps of foam shot out in multiple directions as the water crashed down to the gorge below.
After a few moments, Gabe said, ‘Wow. It’s so beautiful.’
‘They are pretty spectacular. We’ve come at the right time. In the dry season the falls are pretty, well, dry.’
He grinned and wrapped an arm around her. He tugged her to his side. She complied and laid her head against his shoulder. They stood watching the magnificent view for a short while. Again, it felt like they’d done it a thousand times before.
He looked down at her, and said, ‘Hey, can we get some photos together?’
She smiled, ‘Sure.’
After a session of selfies of the two of them, with the fall as backdrop, Lizzie blurted matter-of-factly, ‘This is one of the sacred places of my ancestors.’
He gave her a confused look, ‘What do you mean?’
‘My great-great-great-grandmother was a Djabugay Aboriginal. Well, half if you believe the rumours.’
‘Wow … so that makes you …?’
She answered, knowing the question he was about to ask. It was the questions they were always asked after someone found out their ancestry. ‘About one sixty-fourth aboriginal.’
‘I never would have guessed.’
‘Most people don’t. I think it’s the hair colour?’
He reached up and touched her loose curls. ‘Mm. It is an unusual colour. Beautiful unusual, not ugly unusual.’
She laughed, ‘Thanks. I think. And yes, it’s natural before you ask.’
‘I wasn’t going to, but good to know.’
She smiled, and continued, ‘Even though we don’t have what the majority of people would consider to be a lot of indigenous blood, we were raised to acknowledge and honour all of our ancestry. Hence Mum insisted we learn French and Dad taught us all about our distant Aboriginal culture.’
‘So, it comes from your dad’s side then?’
‘Yes. My great-great-great-grandfather was German. And before you ask: ja, ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch auch.’
He lifted an eyebrow, ‘Whoa, you’re multilingual. What can’t you do?’
She winked when she confessed sheepishly, ‘Sport.’
He chuckled. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t hold that against you.’
She smiled, ‘Thanks. My sisters and I come here every invasion day to honour our three-times great-grandmother, and our other deceased relatives.’
‘Invasion day? That’s what you call Australia Day?’
She nodded, ready to defend the term, as she and her sisters had for many years.
Instead he offered her a sombre smile, reached out and touched her arm. ‘Then that’s what I call it from now on.’
She couldn’t stop herself from beaming. The majority of men she’d dated had argued that she and her sisters were being ‘too sensitive’ about the terminology, or even being ‘culturally insensitive’ because they were so white!
‘Thanks, Gabe. What about you? Other than you saying your ancestors are from the French Alps, I have no idea what your heritage is.’
‘My parents are both French. Born in a town called Annecy. It’s quite beautiful. I think you would love it. It has everything: lakes, mountains, forest.’
‘Why don’t you have an accent?’
‘We moved out here when I was little. Four, I think? I was born in Annecy too, but Camille and Jean-Paul were born here. We went back a couple of times, to visit extended family.’
His brow crink
led. There was something he wasn’t telling her. Was it the thing he’d alluded to on their walk around campus the other day?
She frowned, ‘What is it?’
He offered her a close-mouthed smile and shook his head, ‘Not today. I don’t want to spoil things.’
‘You won’t.’
He reached up and cupped her face in his palms, ‘It will.’ Before she could respond, he added, ‘Do you trust me?’
‘I do.’
‘Then let me work this out in my head properly and tell you at the right time. Can you do that for me? Please?’
Any other man who had asked her would have been told to jump off the Falls. But with Gabe, she found herself nodding and saying, ‘All right.’ True to her nature though, she heard herself add, ‘But you have one week.’
He smiled, ‘Fair enough,’ then moved her into a hug.
A voice called out, ‘Remember to be back here in two hours, folks.’
She parted from him, grinned, and whispered, ‘Come on, I’ll show you a secret spot that gives you the best vantage point.’
***
Later that night, Gabe paced his apartment. The day at Kuranda with Elizabeth had been his best date ever. He was falling harder with each moment that passed. He needed to tell her the truth. Soon. He’d wanted to tell her when they’d been standing together at the lookout. She’d asked him then what it was. But he’d backed out.
He couldn’t stop the thoughts that kept telling him she wouldn’t understand or might think he was some type of weirdo. The more he thought about it, the more he realised it would sound that way.
Clearly, she hadn’t been too put off by it because when they’d been back on the train and he’d asked her to have dinner at his apartment the following night, she’d agreed. Maybe between now and then he could figure out the best way to tell her his real motives for the change in job and move to Cairns?
All of the questions that had tormented him before he’d met her returned: how would she react when she discovered that he’d known about her and her sisters for a while and that he’d tracked them down to take on his cold case? New ones came: would she believe that his feelings for her were genuine? Would she agree to take the case to Nina and Carrie? What would be his next step if they said no?
