by Juanita Kees
Riggs stood behind the desk, his usual smile drawn down in a grim drag of his mouth. ‘Fenella, Murphy.’ His greeting was short and sharp. ‘Come around into my office.’ He turned to the pretty police constable beside him. ‘Haines, you’re it. Hold all calls unless it’s urgent. And by urgent, I don’t mean Mavis calling to say someone stole her cookie jar or the neighbour’s cat drank all her milk again.’
Merryn Haines smiled. ‘Got it, Sarge.’
Fen tightened her hold on Kieran’s hand as they followed Riggs into his office. He stood aside as they passed then closed the door behind them.
‘Sit. Can I get you a coffee? Although you might want water instead. The coffee hasn’t improved any. Still tastes like hundred-year-old mud.’
Fen shook her head. ‘I’m fine.’ Irritation skittered along her nerve-endings. Get to the point.
Riggs dragged a binder off the pile on the edge of his desk as he sat. ‘We’ll start with some photographs to see if you can ID any of the men you’ve seen come to the winery. Relax, take your time. Look hard.’ He pushed the binder towards her.
She opened it and looked, turning each page face down until she stopped. ‘This guy. He was the one at the bar.’ She looked at Kieran for confirmation.
He nodded. ‘Yeah, that’s him.’
Riggs turned the photograph towards him. ‘Mario Marino, also known as Turtle. Road captain of Beyond Hell’s Reach with a string of assault charges, one resulting in grievous bodily harm upgraded to manslaughter when the victim died from a brain haemorrhage.’ He stood and pinned the photograph to his whiteboard with a magnet.
Kieran moved his chair closer to hers, the touch of his leg comforting, the weight of his arm on the backrest behind her reassuring. Her belly crawled with nerves and a knot of fear squeezed at her throat. She flipped through the rest of the photographs, studying each one. Her fingers hovered over one, recognition crawling through her mind, triggering a long-forgotten memory. Good looking, a kind smile, a harsh voice, but never harsh with her. Or Antoinette. He’d always had lollies for her in a white paper bag or a sandwich she’d eat under the table, in her dark corner, away from the noises behind the door.
Riggs turned the page for her. ‘Luciano Romano, recently deceased. He was the president of the club and the owner of the brothel Antoinette worked and lived in. I’ll spare you from the details of how he died.’
Fen nodded, her belly churning. She turned another page. The face leaped out at her in recognition, making her shift back in her chair, icy fingers raking her spine. ‘This is the man at the wedding.’
‘Bingo.’ Riggs leaned back in his chair. ‘A man who’s spent half his life in jail and the other half on the streets. Luke’s father, Ray Sampson, accurately nicknamed Roach, fresh out of a fifteen-year sentence on drug dealing charges. A man who murders for money, who sells anything he can get his hands on in the black market, who has friends with nicknames like Slasher and reputations that make some of the most hardened criminals on file steer clear of their clubhouse. The new president of Beyond Hell’s Reach.’
Kieran shifted closer, leaning forward to study the photo. ‘The fact that Luke contacted Fen is no coincidence, is it?’
Riggs shook his head. ‘Nothing with these guys is a coincidence. I know the how, I don’t know the why and what they want. If it was only money and a place to launder it, they wouldn’t still be hanging around. There are plenty of small towns in the area they could start up new business in. What concerns me is how they found you, Fenella.’
She rubbed at the gooseflesh climbing her skin and flicked over the page, not wanting to see that face or the tattoo under his eye. ‘How?’
‘When Luke Sampson was employed at the mine, he became mates with Zac Bannister. That part is the only coincidence. The question is how Sampson made the connection between Fenella Rose-Waterman and Rosa De Lucio.’ With a look at Kieran, he added, ‘Bannister was arrested a year ago for murder and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The boy had very loose lips. Still has. He didn’t mind telling the detectives how he came to know these boys. Less of a coincidence was how he ended up sharing a cell with Roach Sampson. Bannister bragged about all the girls he’d wanted to “do”.’ He looked back at Fen and continued. ‘Your name came up, he told them about the foster care, how you came to be here with Martha Wallace and how trash like you needed to be taken out.’
Fen shivered. Trash. The word bounced off the walls to echo in her head. Shadows playing in the lamplight. Raised voices. Harsh words. She stiffened against the memory and Kieran’s hand covered hers, the visions and sounds receding as she turned her hand palm up and curled her fingers around his.
‘And then you were on Sampson’s list. He put the sums together and realised where they’d hidden you when the Department of Child Protection and Family Support “lost” you in the system after Antoinette’s death. What we still don’t know is why it’s so important he needed to find her daughter.’
‘How did he know about me?’
‘Club members had free entry to the bar at La Paloma Negra, all they had to pay for was services rendered. Before he went to jail, Roach was vice-president at Beyond Hell’s Reach. He knew Antoinette, had been a client, but she was off limits after Romano took her off the table and labelled her his property.’ Riggs leaned forward in his seat. ‘Fen, it’s important you try to remember what happened that day. With your mother’s case reopened, the investigation team will be asking you a lot of questions.’ Regret edged its way into his voice. ‘Especially now their informant is dead.’
Fen raised her head from focusing on the strength of Kieran’s hand on hers. ‘The woman in the garbage bag?’
Riggs nodded. ‘When Martha Wallace heard Roach had served his sentence and was being released, she contacted the police with her suspicions about Antoinette’s death and the anomalies she’s found in the reports at the time. She wanted to make sure he couldn’t find you. Except she chose the wrong cop to talk to. Now she’s dead.’
‘Oh my God, that’s …’ Words formed a lump that lodged in Fen’s throat. Martha Wallace hadn’t deserved to die to protect her.
‘She was fiercely committed to her job and her charges, but she wouldn’t have done herself any favours by becoming too emotionally attached to them. Her coldness was self-preservation. She cared for every single child she put through the system. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have gone to such great lengths to keep you hidden from Beyond Hell’s Reach all this time.’
‘But they still found me.’
‘My theory is that once he knew where you were, Roach coached his son, Luke, to stay close to you until his release so he could find out how much you remember of that night your mother died.’
‘I don’t remember anything except being terrified and hiding in the dark under a table.’ Fen shrank against the backrest. ‘Why would he do that?’
‘Because we think he had something to do with it.’
‘It was an overdose.’
‘Sampson was Antoinette’s supplier. The police reports were too clean, too cut-and-dried. A high that resulted in hallucinations, causing the victim to self-inflict life-threatening wounds. Martha wasn’t convinced that the trauma you suffered was consistent with accidental death. It was enough for her to lose you on the grid.’ His voice turned gentle. ‘I need you to remember, Fen, so we can stop this nightmare before someone else dies. I don’t want outlaws in my town. I don’t want people dying at their hands.’
‘Repressed memories aren’t always retrievable and even if they are, they’re not reliable. The things I remember come in nightmares or at moments I least expect them. I don’t know what the triggers are. I don’t know if what I see is real or made up. Most of the time, I don’t remember the dreams. I was seven.’ Her hands turned cold and the scars on her wrist began a fiery crawl.
‘I’m going to ask you to do something for me, okay?’
She nodded. ‘If it will stop these threats and the damage they
’re doing, I’ll do it.’
‘Good girl. I need you to go back to La Paloma Negra, to the rooms you lived in. Maybe seeing it, retracing your steps that night from what you do remember will trigger what followed.’
Kieran released his hold on her hand and sat up in the chair, his spine stiff, his tone angry. ‘That’s insane, Sarge. You’re throwing her under the bus sending her into their territory.’
‘It’s not their territory anymore. Romano gave the business to one of his girls after Antoinette’s death and club members have been banned from the premises ever since.’
‘I want guarantees that Fen will be safe going there.’
Riggs looked hard at him. ‘She’ll have protection. Mine. Her visit will be off the records.’
‘No, I’ll go with her.’
‘Kieran, no. You need to stay with Liam. I don’t want him and Liv alone.’ She placed her hand on his arm, the muscles tense under her fingers. ‘Please.’
He turned to her, taking her face between his palms. ‘I can’t let you face that alone.’ Those warm green eyes turned haunted. ‘I won’t abandon you when you’ll need me most.’
His unspoken words and the weight of regret lay between them. Like he thought he’d abandoned Diane when she’d needed him. That if he’d stayed with her that day, she might still be alive, and his son wouldn’t be experiencing the same repressed trauma Fen was. In setting her demons free, he’d be releasing some of his own. Then maybe they’d both be free. Away from harm, uncontrolled by guilt, permitted to move on from the past.
She held his gaze, anchored by it. ‘Only if Riggs can promise Liv and Liam will be safe.’
‘I’ll see to it myself. I’ve got back up coming in, forensics are still processing the scene, the detectives investigating Martha’s death will be here for a few days. There’s enough of a police presence to keep the club out of town for a while.’
‘It won’t stop guys like Roach Sampson from sneaking in alone.’ Kieran dropped his hands from Fen’s face to the arm of her chair, his knuckles brushing her wrist.
‘Constable Haines is good with kids. She has a horde of nieces and nephews. She’s also a crack shot with a taser. And a gun. I’ve seen her wield a police baton, and trust me, you don’t want to get in her way. She’s not as harmless and sweet as she looks when it comes to the job. I’ll play bodyguard to Liv for the day. She won’t like having me under her feet in the café, but I’ll find a way to convince her.’
‘Then all that’s left is when.’ Fen rubbed at the crawl of terror in her belly.
‘It can’t wait. Once we release the statement about Martha’s death in that fire, the hell these boys are known for creating will explode. They’re already edgy about the cold case investigation into Antoinette’s death. The cops still taking payment under the table will be volatile under the pressure of being exposed.’ He pushed a sticky note towards her. ‘That’s the name of La Paloma Negra’s owner and her number. She’s expecting me to call and arrange it.’
‘How do we know we can trust her?’ What if they were walking into a setup? Fen shivered.
‘She was in the club the night your mother died. Someone paid her to change her statement and buy her silence. She’s come forward to the crime and corruption commission voluntarily and is willing to make a statement in the cold case investigation. She’s done living with the nightmares too. But we need other witnesses. And you were there, Fen. In the room.’
Nausea rose in waves. She reached for a water glass, sipped and swallowed it down. She didn’t want to think about the demons a visit to the past would unleash, or the consequences if the black dog turned on her and she picked up a blade again. The time had come to set that dog free and slash the demons instead of her skin, to take full control of her life instead of hiding from the truth in the shadows. To claim justice for her lost childhood and freedom from the chains of the past. To bring peace and safety back to the vineyard again.
‘I’ll do it.’
‘Good. Now go home while I arrange my schedule and make a date for you to go and see Cherish.’
They stood and Kieran guided her out the door with a hand at her waist, leaving Riggs with a pile of paperwork on his desk and two positively identified criminals on his board. Out in the sunlight, Fen shaded her eyes with a shaky hand.
‘Remember when we first arrived in town and we used to go to Mama Bella’s because sitting there, sipping milkshakes made us feel invisible and part of the crowd?’
Kieran grinned and turned her to face him. ‘I remember. Bella would always throw in a plate of cookies for free.’
‘Can we do that before we go home?’ She wrinkled her nose at him, standing in the shelter of his strength. ‘Before reality tears away that magic cloak of invisibility and brings all the bad memories screaming to the surface?’
‘My treat.’ He leaned down to whisper in her ear. ‘I’ve got you, Fen. I won’t let you go through this alone. You mean too much to me.’
The words shot heat straight up from the soles of her feet into her heart, warming everything through on its way up. But she shouldn’t be reading too much into those words, even when his eyes blazed hot on hers with promise. Her gaze dropped to his lips where his teeth teased the bottom one. Her toes itched for her to step up and kiss him, except that would have the town talking for weeks. She stepped away instead.
‘There’s a lot of distance still between us, Kieran. So much to still sort through. Liam. Me. This mess with Luke, outlaw motorcycle clubs, fires, threats … Having you by my side to fight it, means more to me than you’ll ever know.’
That and having him home again with a kid who, every day, stole another piece of her heart. It would make it so much harder to send them away if she couldn’t stop Luke and Roach from destroying their lives.
Kieran took her hand and tugged her into step beside him. ‘One step at a time and we’ll work through it. I’m not going anywhere, Fen. I promised myself I’d give Liam a fresh start, but I know now that unless he faces his fears, his repressed memories will always dog his future. He wasn’t young enough to fall into the bracket from birth to three when the mind holds no consciously retrievable memories. So, at some stage in his life, we’re going to have to deal with that.’
She stopped walking and her fingers slipped from his grip.
He turned and frowned, then took a step back towards her. ‘What’s up?’
She stepped into him and his arms closed around her automatically. ‘Maybe if I find the key to unlock my memories, I can help Liam unlock his.’
‘You’d do that for him?’
‘For him. For you. For Diane.’
‘Then you’re a lot more forgiving of her than I am. I’m still angry at her, Fen. She had no right to try to take Liam with her.’ He stood stiff and solid against her.
‘Being broken makes people do irrational things. Antoinette was broken too. I didn’t understand that as a seven-year-old. I didn’t understand why some days she hated me so much when on the days she was sober and straight, she’d tell me how much she loved me before she’d say she didn’t want me anymore. Then Liv came into my life and became that mother who loved me and taught me that sometimes when people are that broken, you can’t fix them, and that’s not your fault.’
She slipped her arms around him and his hands settled at her waist as he drew her against him. He held her gaze for a long moment, took her silence and the narrowing of the gap between them as consent, then he kissed her until she forgot they were in the middle of Main Street with half the town looking on.
She kissed him back until the heat level threatened to melt the light frost on the grass in Memorial Park and steam up the windows of the shops that lined the street where she knew an audience would have gathered. And because it was too late to salvage any pride, she kissed him back with everything she had in her heart. Because damn it, she loved him against all the odds.
Kieran held her close, so close she could feel every hard edge and ridge, the
heat that rose off him, and the need for comfort in each other that had always bound them together. Then his head lifted, his hands fell away and he retreated enough to allow a sliver of ice-cold wind to come between them. ‘We should go.’
Fen nodded. Like her faded memories, and with emotions running high between them, they couldn’t possibly tell the difference between real and fantasy in that kiss. She opened her eyes to meet his gaze, warmth flooding her cheeks.
He smiled that smile that tripped the circuit breaker on her heart and made her believe things would be okay. ‘It’s a step, Fen. A small one towards beating this.’
Chapter 11
Fen’s mind swirled with the events of the morning as she clicked on the icon for an eight-week cruise to Canada and Alaska. The knowledge that she had to go back to that dark and dingy place in her past had brought reality crashing down, stealing the comfort from sweet kisses and double thick milkshakes.
‘This one looks awesome, Mum. It includes a train trip. You’ve always said you wanted to see the Rockies.’
No matter what Riggs promised, the need to keep her mum safe niggled. An urgent, gnawing demand she couldn’t find a reason for. As if something awful would happen to Liv if she didn’t hide her away under that table that featured so often in her nightmares. Her safe zone, where no-one could see her or hear her. Where they didn’t know she breathed as quietly as she could, where the clawing hands and rough grasps couldn’t reach.
‘For the last time, I’m not leaving you, Fenella. And anyway, that one is too far and too long. If I were to go on a cruise, I’d try a short one first. Like the one that goes from Fremantle to Albany.’
‘Then go on that one. It’s the perfect time. You know things slow down over winter. When was the last time you took time off?’
Liv’s warm, gentle hand came to rest on her shoulder as Fen clicked through the photographs of glass-topped trains travelling across bridges with forests of firs flashing by. ‘I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work.’
