Cold Deception (13 page)

The Chadbourne Hotel was lit up like a Christmas tree. Which was exactly the effect Angus wanted. It might be June, but Yulefest was a great money spinner in the Mountains with the punters wanting a pretend White Christmas. And they might just get it. Snow was forecast and the wind was howling outside. It was going to be a cold winter.

He smiled at the crowd of dinner patrons being escorted into the grand dining room by a piper fit out in a full tartan kilt and playing the bagpipes. Over in the lounge the monthly meeting of a raucous women’s book group was underway. They called themselves some weird name. What was it? BITCH. Books in the Chadbourne Hotel. He snickered. More an excuse for a booze up than a discussion about books, but they always had a good time.

“Angus, me mate.”

Jacko Sullivan grabbed his hand and pumped. “Grand night for Yulefest. Good crowd. You joining us?”

Angus shook his head. “Not tonight Jacko. Maybe next week. Too much work. This place doesn’t run itself.”

“Ah, and you do a great job. Don’t know what this town would’ve done without you.”

Satisfaction blossomed within his breast. He’d repaired the fortunes of this town and everyone knew it. Even Jacko, who’d doubted a medically retired cop would have the wherewithal to get this place together, now oozed gratitude. It was a balm to his soul.

“Go on. Go in and have a good time,” Angus said. “We’ll have a drink later. Got some good stuff in my office.”

“I might just take you up on that,” Jacko said with a nod and a wink toward the bar.

Angus turned to see Nessa sitting on a stool leaning on the bar. He’d never seen her like this. She could pass for a patron, not a spaced-out junkie. Obviously she’d used his money to buy some decent clothes instead of more drugs. She wore some kind of simple black dress with matching high heels and her wild blonde hair was tamed with a comb. He itched to remove it.

“Sure, sure,” Angus said, losing interest in the other man. He had to get her alone. He crossed to the bar and took her arm, at the same time aware at least one member of the book group watched him. Sally Stuart. Links to the Taylor women seemed to be everywhere.

“Come with me,” he said, an urgency in his voice that made him twitchy. She tipped her head toward him and smiled.

“Okay.”

Clear eyes. God, how he wanted her. He almost dragged her through the corridors to the back entrance and into his apartment with her laughing all the way.

When he got to the front door, Gary materialized from the shadows.

“Boss,” he said in a low worried voice.

“What? What now?”

“It’s Rez.”

Angus paused and shifted his gaze from Ness to Gary.

“I’ll be inside,” she said. “Take your time.” Her smile promised a night of everything he wanted.

He frowned as he turned back to Gary. “Make it quick.”

“He’s here.”

Rez emerged from the shadows looking even more disreputable than usual.

“What the fuck are you doing here? Where’s my stuff?” Angus hissed, furious he had to rely on such incompetents. They would both pay.

“Don’t worry. I haven’t lost it,” Rez said, sounding both servile and sulky. “I can get it anytime I want.”

“Just make sure you do. I’ve got people wanting that product. People who’d be very pissed off if they miss out. They’d be unhappy with me which means I’d be seriously unhappy with you. And bad things happen to people I’m unhappy with, don’t they Gary?”

He glared at his offsider who ducked his head and muttered, “Yeah, Boss.”

“Get it and bring it here. No more delays or excuses. You understand me?”

Rez nodded. Even in the gloom, Angus could see he’d paled.

“Tomorrow. I want it tomorrow. Now get out of my sight both of you.”

As they scurried away he turned back to the doorway, impatient for Nessa.

*

Julia stumbled through the bush and fell over a tree root. Someone was following her. Someone dark and wild, with needle-sharp teeth and grasping hands. His arm held something. As he lifted it, the light from the moon glittered like fire against the metal. But the knife was edged with darkness, darkness that dripped like blood, so much blood. His arm slashed down toward her, the blood from the knife scattering drops all over her…

She threw back her quilt and sat up, gasping for breath. She hadn’t had one that bad for a while. Reaching for the glass of water on her bedside table, she shook her head, trying to dislodge the toxic images still clinging to the back of her eyelids. She held the cool glass to her forehead, aware the room was cold but she was perspiring. The pounding in her head gradually subsided, allowing her to register other sounds coming from the house. Someone was screaming. She heard a thump and what sounded like Dee, furious.

Julia put down the glass. She fumbled her way into some shoes and pulled a sweater over her pyjamas as she crossed to her bedroom door.

Rez stood in the corridor, his hands on Blossom, shaking her. Dee pulled at him, yelling, while Blossom hysterically sobbed. Eleanor was nowhere to be seen.

“You fucking bitch. Where is it? What did you do with it?” He shook her some more, banging her head against the wall.

“Leave her alone you animal,” Dee yelled. “The police are on their way.”

“Fuck off, Rez. I don’t want you here anymore. It’s over between us,” Blossom shrieked, trying to pull away from him.

“It’s over when I say it’s over. I asked you, where is it?”

“What’d you think you’re doing, asshole? Get away from her,” Julia shouted.

“I threw it off a cliff. It’s gone.”

“You idiot!” he screamed at her. “Do you realize what you’ve done? My life’s worth nothing unless I get those oxies back!”

Before Julia could get to him, Rez backhanded Blossom. She fell to the floor, screaming. Julia swung back and punched him a hard one, right in his left eye. He yelled and fell to his knees. Before she could kick him, he scrambled back across the hallway out of the range of her foot.

Eleanor shouted up the stairway. “The police are coming.”

Sure enough the faint sound of sirens could be heard.

Rez leapt to his feet and staggered down the stairs. Julia made a grab for him too late. She got to the head of the stairs only to see him push Eleanor roughly out of the way then run to the front door. By the time she got downstairs and out the front of the house, he’d disappeared down the road and into the bush.

The police car roared to a halt and two uniformed cops emerged.

“He went that way,” she pointed.

The two officers took off in pursuit.

Julia turned back to the house where Dee held a sobbing Blossom while Eleanor looked like she wanted to kill someone. An effect heightened by the rifle she held in her hands.

“What the hell are you doing? I thought you got rid of that years ago. It’s not loaded is it?” Julia asked her, horrified at the sight.

Eleanor shook her head. “I graduated from killing snakes when we lived up north to the rifle range here. I thought it might scare him.”

“Put it away. It’s scaring me. Do you have a license for it?”

Eleanor shrugged. “Of course. I like shooting.”

“Ma! Get rid of it! The cops are coming back.”

Eleanor held the rifle in one hand and massaged the top of her arm with the other.

“Are you hurt?”

“No. I’m fine.” Eleanor grimaced and jerked her head to the lights going on in houses all along the street. “The neighbors are going to get very tired of us.”

Julia herded them all back into the house. “Too bad. Come inside. And get rid of that thing.”

Blossom was still crying, but furious tears. “That bastard,” she sobbed, holding her face where he hit her. “I should never have let him in.”

“You let him in?” Eleanor said sharply to Blossom as they made their way into the lounge room.

From the look of her face, Blossom would have a fine shiner. Julia hoped she’d hit Rez hard enough to compensate. She lifted her hand and inspected it. Grazes across the knuckles but nothing broken. She wouldn’t be using it to scrape paint for a few days.

Blossom sat back on the couch and avoided her mother’s gaze. “He wanted to see me. I thought he was concerned about me but he’s only concerned about scoring and making money.” She bent forward, held her head in her hands and started rocking back and forth. “I’m an idiot. A fucking idiot. Why did I ever let that dropkick into my life?”

Eleanor sighed with exasperation. “Don’t ask me,” she muttered on her way upstairs to stow away the gun. Julia refrained from offering an opinion, more concerned about what he wanted.

“What did you throw off the cliff, Bloss?”

Blossom sat back up, her eyes filled with fear. “Oxycontins. About twenty packets all bundled up. Oh, God. I am in such trouble.” She stood suddenly and made for the stairs. “I have to get away. He’ll be after me. I can’t stay here, it’s too dangerous.”

Julia pulled her back and made her sit.

“Stop it. Stop panicking. The police will be back in a minute. We need to tell them and let them take it from there.”

“I’m going to call Dylan,” Dee said.

Julia’s heart sank. But she nodded. They need some advice from someone more senior.

As Dee bustled out to call Dylan, the uniformed police burst through the door, confirming Rez had disappeared. They started the process of taking statements, while Eleanor saw to Blossom’s face and Julia’s knuckle. Within a few minutes, Dylan arrived, looking frazzled. She couldn’t blame him. It was three o’clock in the morning and freezing.

“Oh God, Dylan. We’re so glad you’re here,” Dee said. “We don’t know what to do.”

He gave her a brief hug. Julia avoided his gaze, too conscious of their last encounter and the inconvenient interest her body seemed to take in him. While she banked up the fire and listened to Dee’s version of the night’s events he asked a couple of questions, then sat next to Blossom on the couch. Julia stayed away from his line of sight, but hovered, listening to him question the now considerably quieter but furious Blossom.

“Tell me how many oxies were in the package, Bloss.”

“There were about twenty packets with fifty in them. A lot.”

“Do you know where he got them from?”

She shook her head.

“And why did you have them?”

“I didn’t know I had them,” she cried, clutching him arm. “Truly. After I got out of detox I was going through my car and found them in the boot. He planted them there. When I saw them I was so furious, I took them and threw them off the cliff.”

“Which cliff, Bloss?”

“Just at the bottom of the garden.”

“How long ago?”

She hesitated, thinking. “When I got out, so that’s, what, three days ago? Yeah, that’s right.”

Dylan grunted and stood, frowning down at her.

“You’re sure he didn’t tell you where he got them from?”

She shook her head. Julia could tell she told the truth. Blossom had a tendency to over explain when she lied.

“Okay,” Dylan said. “If he’s out there it’s too dark to find him. Knowing him, I doubt he’ll be hiding in the bush on a cold night like this, especially when the drugs aren’t here anymore. He’ll be holed up at some mate’s place planning his next move, which hopefully will be trying to find the oxies. You’ll need to show me exactly where you threw them tomorrow, Bloss. In the meantime, I’ll have someone stay here for the next few hours until dawn.”

He looked over at the two uniforms and sighed at their appalled faces.

“Looks like that’ll be me.”

Julia turned away and fiddled with the wood burning stove. “There’s no real need for you to do that. I don’t think he’ll come back.”

“Yeah, well, that’s not a judgement call I’m keen to make.”

Julia straightened away from the stove only to see a reproachful look on Dee’s face, a reproachfulness directed at her.

“We’d be grateful if you could stay, Dylan. I’ll make up the spare room,” Dee said.

He shook his head. “Better if I stayed down here, Dee. If Rez does come back, I can deal with him more quickly. Your couch and a quilt will be fine.”

“I’ll put on some coffee,” Julia said, making for the kitchen. Her heart sank when Dee appeared at her elbow.

“I know you have a problem with the police, but rudeness to my friends is not acceptable,” she hissed. “He’s trying to help us. Blossom could be in a lot of trouble.”

Julia felt her cheeks heat. If only that was the real problem. He wanted information she couldn’t give him. Information that would drag her back into a world she wanted to leave behind. The fact she could barely meet his eyes without noticing the dark stubble on his cheeks or the way his dishevelled hair curled at his collar, didn’t help.

“Sorry,” she hissed back. “It’s just that Rez is probably long gone. There’s no need for him to put himself out. And I don’t have a problem with him.”

“Then stop behaving as though you do. It’s unnecessary and childish.” She grabbed some cups and swept out of the kitchen, leaving a trail of disapproval.

Julia gritted her teeth. Dee hadn’t spoken to her like that since she was a teenager. Then she’d been relieved that she cared enough to reprimand her. Now she just felt silly.

*

She had to put a stop to whatever strangeness was going on between her and Dylan. Nothing could come of it. Bad for his career and as for her, the thought of anything intimate with a man made her break out in a cold sweat. She wasn’t frightened of him, just wary. No, she could see he was a decent man doing a hard job. But revealing herself in that way to anyone was too much to consider. Complicated and dangerous. Particularly now with all this chaos around Blossom.

She carried the coffee plunger and a jug of milk into the lounge room, determined to be friendly and cool.

Dylan moved around the room, checking the locks on the windows. He grunted when she offered him a cup and shook his head at her offer of milk. Dee bustled back in with a quilt and some pillows and started to arrange the couch. Eleanor and Blossom had gone back to bed.

“You know where everything is, Dylan?” Dee asked.

He smiled and nodded. “Sure do. Go to bed. You look done in. I’ll have this coffee and settle in for the night. You should go to bed too,” he said to Julia, without looking at her.