by Morgana Best
I looked up and saw Nico standing close by. His back was to us, but he was close enough. How much had he heard?
Chapter 23
I stood abruptly, nearly knocking over my glass of champagne as I did so. I had to tell someone. Where was Max? And for that matter, where were Oleander and Athanasius?
Failing those, I would have to speak to Detective Power, as Detective Walters was also nowhere to be seen. Power was only metres from me.
“Can I speak to you?” I asked, tapping him on the arm.
He swung around. “Well, hello, Ms Bloom. Do you wish to confess?”
It was a weak attempt at a joke—at least, I hoped he was joking. “I know who the murderer is,” I hissed.
He raised his eyebrows, but the look on his face spoke volumes. He did not believe me.
“It’s Nico North,” I whispered. “Nicholas North, the victim’s best friend.”
Power crossed his arms over his chest. “And exactly what has led you to that conclusion, Ms Bloom?” His tone was one of extreme boredom.
“I realised because he’s just returned from America, and the American spelling, realize, was on the fake suicide note,” I told him. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realised I should not have been party to that information.
Power frowned so deeply that his eyebrows formed a unibrow. “How do you know that if you had nothing to do with the murder?” he snapped.
“It’s a small town. Everyone knows that,” I said. It probably wasn’t far from the truth. “Nico has just returned from California, and his wife said he still gets in the wrong side of the car sometimes. He is more likely than anyone else to use American spelling.”
Detective Power sighed. “So that’s it? Don’t give up your day job, Ms Bloom. Leave the detective work to the professionals.” He finished his words with a snigger.
I shook my head. “His wife just told me he owns a rifle, and that he told her not to tell anyone. He was always insanely jealous of Chase Evans and also thought his wife was having an affair with him.”
“And did his wife tell you all that?” Power said, stabbing his finger in Helen’s direction.
I followed his gaze. Helen had staggered into a wall, and two women grabbed her arms to support her. “She seems far too inebriated to be able to tell you what day of the week it is,” he said. “Don’t waste any more of my time, Ms Bloom.” With that, he turned on his heel and marched into the crowd.
I stared after him, infuriated. Where was Max? There was still no sign of him and there was no sign of the mysterious man who had been following him around. Finally, I spotted Athanasius. He was sitting in a tartan chair, chatting to some other men. I made my way over to him, when the Dutch runners blocked my path. “Thank you for paying for my shoes,” one of them said.
“You’re most welcome,” I said. “I’m so sorry my wombat ate yours. I hope he didn’t frighten you too much.”
“Not at all,” the man said with what was clearly false bravado.
“I hope you were able to buy a new shoe in time for the race,” I continued.
He nodded. “Yes, thank you. I actually bought two shoes, a matching pair. There are plenty of running shoe stores around here and I was able to get the exact brand in my size. How did you go in the run?”
“I survived it,” I said.
They all laughed as if I had said something funny. Helen appeared at my shoulder. “I have to speak to you in private,” she said, pulling me away. The smell of alcohol on her breath nearly knocked me over. I think she had abandoned the champagne in favour of gin.
“What is it?” I asked her.
“Your detective friend has given me a message for you.”
I was surprised. “Max? Max Greyson?”
She nodded again. “He wants to speak with you in private and doesn’t want anyone to see you both. He wants you to meet him out on the balcony now, but don’t let anyone see you go out there and don’t tell your friends that you’re going. It has to be secret. Top secret!”
“Did he say what it was about?” I asked her.
She leant forward and winked. I had to grab her by her arms to steady her.
“I think it’s for a romantic assignation,” she said with a lascivious wink.
“Thank you. Look, I want to catch up with you later in the week, if that’s all right.”
She hiccupped again, more loudly this time. “Sure.” With that, she hurried in the direction of the bathroom.
I rubbed my forehead. So Max wanted to speak with me in private. I schooled my features into a neutral expression to keep myself calm. That didn’t mean it was anything romantic—Helen could have simply drawn that conclusion. Maybe he had found out something about the case and didn’t want the other detectives to see him speaking to me.
I looked around at everyone, but no one was staring at me. I walked down the length of the curtains looking for a way out, thinking it would be difficult to disappear onto the balcony without being seen, but the entrance was actually around a corner and down a narrow corridor. I let myself out onto the balcony and was immediately hit with a strong breeze.
This time, the weather was not my doing, but I loved the breeze and the smell of the salt air. I leant on the balcony and looked over. The Marina restaurant was perched high on the side of a cliff. It wasn’t a particularly tall cliff as far as cliffs go, and I bent over the rail to look at the rocks and the sand below. It was a beautiful breeze. I stood there and let the sea spray gently wash over my face.
I heard footsteps behind me and swung around. “You!”
There was no sign of Detective Max Greyson. There, in front of me, was Nico North. A black look covered his face.
Chapter 24
“Max isn’t coming, is he?” I said, rapidly putting two and two together.
Nico’s expression was menacing. “For a smart woman, you certainly fell into my trap.”
“It’s a shame you had to involve your wife,” I said angrily.
He shook his head. “She genuinely believed that the detective wanted to speak with you. I told her that he wanted to speak with you in private. Helen is quite a silly woman, but I’m fond of her.”
“I doubt it’s mutual,” I snapped, and then regretted my words when his scowl deepened.
“What did you want to say to me?” I asked him, although I realised he didn’t want to say anything to me.
Behind me, the storm was building. I sensed it and felt it rather than heard or saw it. I concentrated on increasing the intensity and was satisfied when I heard the windows rattle. Surely Oleander and Athanasius would know I was creating the storm and come to my aid.
“I don’t want to say anything to you,” he said. “I’m simply going to throw you over the edge.”
He was still a few paces from me and so far had made no attempt to close the distance. I needed to delay him until help could come.
“How did you know I was onto you?” I asked him.
“I overheard you talking to my wife,” he said, “and the silly woman told you that I had a rifle, and that I’d thought she was having an affair with Chase.”
“You and Chase were friends for years,” I said.
He shrugged one shoulder. “More like frenemies. He had all the lucky breaks while I didn’t. Do you know I missed out on getting into vet school by one mark?”
I nodded. “I heard that.”
He pushed on. “And Chase scraped in by just one mark. It’s not fair. He had all the lucky breaks in life. He didn’t appreciate anything he had, and he always had affairs. I’ve never once had an affair. When I came back from California, all he could do was gloat incessantly and tell me he was having an affair with a married woman. He was so over the top about it that I was convinced he was taunting me. I thought he was having an affair with my wife. He even told me how long the affair had been going, and it was only a few days after we arrived back in the country. There were too many coincidences, and I was sure he was having an affair with Hele
n.”
“So obviously you asked Helen about it, and she denied it, but you didn’t believe her.”
A glimpse of contrition passed over his face momentarily, but then it was gone. “Yes. I was angry with her and I didn’t believe her. Chase just pushed me too far that day. He said he was going to leave his wife and get his mistress to leave her husband, and then half her husband’s wealth would be his. I just lost it. I’d never been in such a rage. I went home and got my rifle and well, you know, the rest is history.”
“But I was there on the scene not long after, because I found his body,” I said. “I didn’t see any cars going back down the road, and the police said he had been shot not long before I got there.”
“Of course I wasn’t going to drive there to shoot him,” Nico said scathingly. “There’s a little-used dirt track not far behind the vet surgery, and I just had to cut through the mangrove swamp.”
I had never thought of that.
He advanced on me. “Enough talk. I can’t risk anyone finding us here.”
“I told Detective Power everything,” I said. “He knows. The game is up.”
Nico emitted a harsh laugh. “I find that hard to believe. I just had a nice chat with him before I came out here.”
I was thinking of something else to say, when Nico lunged for me. I did not have time to react. He spun me around, and stood in front of me, his back to the rail. He grabbed my hair hard with both hands and pulled as hard as he could.
Unfortunately for Nico, he did not know I was wearing a wig, and what’s more, the wig was not glued on or even pinned. He had no time to be surprised that my hair came off in his hands, because the momentum of trying to throw me over the rail by my hair sent him backwards over the rail instead.
I leant over the rail just as Athanasius, Oleander, and Max hurried onto the landing.
They all gasped, and I hoped it wasn’t at the sight of my real hair.
I did my best not to burst into tears. “Nico North confessed everything to me. He had just overheard his wife implicate him in the murder.” I sniffed the tears. “He grabbed my wig, thinking it was my real hair and tried to pull me over the edge, but he ended up going over,” I said.
They all rushed past me and looked over the edge. I looked up to see Detective Power standing behind them, his mouth agape.
“I told you he did it,” I snapped in the most accusatory tone I could muster. “You didn’t listen to me, and that almost got me killed.”
Max rounded on him. “Goldie told you? When?”
Power’s mouth opened and shut. He did a good impression of goldfish.
Instead of speaking, he whipped out his phone and called for an ambulance.
“He’s moving, so he’s not dead,” Athanasius called out. “Luckily for him, he landed in a patch of sand between the rocks, but his leg is at a funny angle.”
Max took me by my shoulders. “Are you all right, Goldie?”
I nodded. I didn’t want to dissolve into tears and throw my arms around Max’s neck as I had after the scene of the last murder in East Bucklebury.
I rubbed my forehead. I hoped this wasn’t going to become a habit.
Chapter 25
Oleander handed me my phone. “You left your phone on the table. It’s a wonder Persnickle didn’t eat it.”
I stared at it absently. “Oh, sorry. Thanks for fetching it.”
Oleander eyed me strangely. “I took a call for you, from a woman who said something about your empty womb being a matter of urgency.”
I looked at my watch. Just after five. “Yes, that would be Gertrude. Don’t worry about it.” I waved one hand in the air.
Oleander leant across and patted my knee. “You must be happy, Goldie.”
“Why? Because I thwarted a second murder attempt?”
Oleander eyed me warily, and then said, “No. That was good, of course, but I meant…” Her voice trailed away, and she nodded to Max.
Oleander had taken it upon herself to invite Max to my celebration party. It was a celebration for not being thrown over the edge of the landing. I was a little embarrassed about it, because I didn’t know if Max had friend-zoned me. Sure, I felt lots of chemistry towards him, but I had watched enough episodes of Married At First Sight to know that chemistry isn’t always reciprocated, no matter how strongly one person feels it.
Oleander must have guessed what I was thinking. “Give it time, Goldie. He’s a good man, not like your ex-boyfriend.”
“Speak of the devil!” I said, as a text from Thomas came in.
Goldie, Alexis has just left the firm. I don’t need you at the Gold Coast any longer to manage the Southport office. Can you come back to Melbourne immediately to take up your old job? I know you don’t have anywhere to live here now, so you can stay with me until you find a place.
My ears started burning at first, and then my face. I had never been in such a rage. The nerve of that man! I could read the subtext clearly. His girlfriend had left him, so now he wanted me back, not just as a real estate agent, but also as his girlfriend. What self-respecting woman would do that?
I thought there was no point beating around the bush, so I came straight to the point. I texted back, No, Thomas. I’m living here now. Is that going to be a problem with the Southport office?
To my surprise, his reply was immediate. I’m shutting the Southport office. Either return to Melbourne within the fortnight, or you no longer have a position with my firm.
I sat with my mouth open, staring at my phone.
“Is something wrong?” Oleander asked me.
I simply handed her my phone. “My boss,” I said.
Oleander muttered some dreadfully rude words. “Is he serious?”
I nodded. “I believe he is.”
I took my phone from Oleander. Seething with a cold, steely rage, I texted Thomas back to say that since I was unable to return to Melbourne, he would have to fulfil his legal obligations in all the payments he owed me. I said if he had anything further to say he could contact my lawyers.
This time, there was no reply.
Oleander patted my shoulder. “Goldie, are you all right? You’re out of a job!”
I chewed the end of one French polished fingernail. “It’s a terrible shock, but it’s not the end of the world, I don’t suppose. It would have been awkward working for Thomas, and my uncle did leave me a little bit of money as well as the house. I figure I can get by for some time until I find another job. There are so many real estate agents at the Gold Coast that shouldn’t be too hard to get a position.”
“But your old boss won’t give you a good reference, will he?” Oleander asked me.
I shrugged. “He will if he knows what’s good for him.”
“Why don’t you go into business for yourself?” Oleander asked me. “There are some vacant offices in the main street of East Bucklebury.”
I laughed, in spite of my predicament. “That’s not a good sign, you know, Oleander, to have vacant buildings in the main street.”
“But you can get the rent for a song,” she said, “and East Bucklebury is going ahead.”
I tapped my chin. “You might be right. There are all those developers, and I don’t think the other real estate agents can be bothered with East Bucklebury because it’s so out of the way. You know, I might have a good opportunity here.”
Oleander agreed. “Look, I know you won’t make as much money at first as if you were, say, in an office at Surfers Paradise or Broadbeach, or in the position you were going to have in Southport, but surely you can build up the business over time, and you won’t have the overheads.”
The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. “I’m fully licensed, so I can go into business for myself. I won’t need to make a lot of money to live on because I invested the money that my uncle left me. I can live on that for a while if I have to, and then I’ll have all the severance pay, holiday pay, and sick pay that Thomas owes me. If I’m careful, I’ll be all right.�
� I smiled at her. “Oleander, I think this is a great idea.”
She smiled. “I’m glad, and Persnickle is having a good time.”
Some of the residents in the assisted care facility were crowded around Persnickle, giving him lots of pats. He rolled over for a belly rub, and everyone happily obliged.
I laughed. “Persnickle is being spoilt. He won’t want to come home with me.”
“Nonsense,” Athanasius said, coming up behind me. “He loves you, Goldie.”
Max peeked around from Athanasius’s shoulder. “What was that? Who loves Goldie?”
It seemed he was jealous, after all. “Persnickle,” I said, and noted the obvious relief on Max’s face.
“Oh, I thought you were talking about your boss.”
Max knew that Thomas was my ex-boyfriend, and he knew the circumstances under which I had arrived in East Bucklebury.
“I don’t have a boss anymore. I’ve just decided to go into business for myself, here in East Bucklebury.”
Max’s mouth fell open, and then he looked around him. I took a guess at who he was looking for.” You’re looking for that man who follows you everywhere, aren’t you?” I asked him, surprised at my forthrightness. Still, it was too late to take the words back.
“Oh yes, about him.” Max shot a pointed look at Oleander and Athanasius.
Oleander stood up. “Athanasius, come and help me keep an eye on Persnickle.”
Athanasius looked startled. “Why? Why do we need to keep an eye on Persnickle? He’s doing quite well for himself, getting all those belly rubs.”
Oleander sighed dramatically. She seized Athanasius by the elbow and dragged him, still protesting, over to the residents.
Max took Oleander’s vacated seat beside me.
I held my breath. Was he going to tell me he was married, and the mysterious guy was his wife’s brother? Or may be the guy was his secret lover? I shook my head. Surely not! Still, I had the worst gaydar of anyone I had ever met. What other explanations could there be? I supposed I was about to find out. My skin ran cold as a bout of nausea hit me.
