Deadly Deceit (21 page)

In the distance, he caught sight of Sally walking towards the boat moorings.

Following her, he ducked in and out of the bushes that bordered the beach for cover.

When Sally stopped at the jetty wall, and looked at her watch, Tom approached cautiously, and crouched down behind a bush, a few metres away, to watch. By the way she was pacing around and staring along the beach, he guessed she was waiting for someone.

It was only a couple of minutes before a figure jogged towards her from the other direction. Tom screwed up his eyes to see who it was. Definitely a man by the size and gait, he thought. There were no surprises when he saw the man’s face…

Brad ran up to Sally and wrapped his arms around her. They stood kissing for a long time, until she pulled her head back: “What took you so long?” She sounded peeved again.

“Had to shake my brother and Rebekah off first,” Brad said.

“
I
should come first,” Sally huffed. “Anyway, Charles can look after Rebekah without you.” She paused. “What were you
really
doing?”

Brad nuzzled into her neck. “You always come first my love.”

That seemed to mollify Sally, but she still pulled out of the embrace. “Listen Brad, I’m not comfortable about keeping secrets from Jess. We must tell her everything.”

“No!” Brad straightened up. “Definitely not.”

“She’s my boss now, Brad,” Sally persisted. “She deserves to know.”

“No.” Brad’s voice was firm. He put his hand up Sally’s skirt and started caressing her. “Not yet, my love, she’ll ruin everything we’ve worked for.”

Sally moaned, and thrust her hips towards him.

He was rubbing himself against her in slow, deliberate motions.

Sally grabbed the edges of his t-shirt, and pulled it over his head in one quick movement. “
Why
should I keep it a secret?” she asked, provocatively, as she tossed it aside.

“Because I’m telling you to,” came the reply.

“You’re
telling
me?”

Brad grabbed her arm. “You’ll do what I say.”

“You can’t
make
me keep silent.”

Brad yanked Sally’s t-shirt over her head and flung it on the sand.

Tom’s eyes widened as Sally’s bare breasts glowed white in the moonlight. When she tried to pull away from Brad, he lurched forward and pinned her against the jetty wall. Tom tensed, ready to intervene.

But Sally just giggled as Brad held her still with one hand and dragged her beach skirt to the ground. She kicked it away.

Tom couldn’t tear his eyes away from Sally’s naked curves as she stood shivering in anticipation.

“
Make
me keep silent!” Sally goaded.

Brad slowly pushed her legs apart, until Sally was spread-eagled against the jetty wall.

“Go on,” Sally urged.

Slowly, Brad started kissing her face, moving his tongue slowly down her neck… over her nipples… across her stomach.

Sally was visibly trembling. “
Make me!
”

With his hands holding her pert buttocks, Brad dropped to his knees and buried his head between her legs.

Sally threw back her head, delirious, hair flowing.

Tom had never seen such frenzy on a woman’s face during sex. Sally was one hot lady! So engrossed was he, his reaction to the faint snap of twig behind him was slow. But when he did turn…

Jess stood staring at him.

If it hadn’t been so dark, she’d have seen him flush crimson. He looked over to the jetty, where Sally was moaning with pleasure, and back at Jess’s stony white face in the moonlight.

He took her arm and quickly guided her to some bushes further away so they wouldn’t be overheard. “Did you hear all that before… before the main show started?”

“I did.”

“Brad’s playing Sally like a piano. Using sex to control her.”

“Hmm.” Jess looked over to where Brad was now on top of Sally on the sand. “Impressive, isn’t he?” She turned back to Tom. “But I’m not sure who’s controlling who in that relationship.”

Tom looked from her to Brad and Sally again. Was Jess being
serious
? “Brad’s trying to stop Sally telling you something.”

“So I heard.”

“Well, I heard Sally on her mobile earlier, when I went back into the kitchen to get that wine. She was making arrangements to meet someone. I didn’t know who at the time.”

“So, when were you going to tell me about it?”

He heard the controlled anger in her voice. “You looked so exhausted,” he explained. “I thought I’d find out what Sally was up to first, and let you sleep. I guess we woke you up.”

“I wasn’t asleep,” she said, simply.

“I had no right, Jess. I got carried away.”

She flicked a glance over to Brad and Sally, now locked together and rhythmically pounding the edge of the surf. “You’re not the only one it seems.”

He stood back. “Quite a floor show, isn’t it?”

“
And
their last,” she said, with conviction. She turned back to him. “Please don’t mention this to anyone, Tom.
I’ll
deal with Sally in the morning.”

“Of course.”

She nodded. “I think it’s time we went back to the house,” she said, stiffly.

These islands are like a web, with my networks spun right across them. I know everything that happens, and everyone who comes here. I’m like a spider. When I feel a vibration on an outer strand of my web, I pounce on my prey.

Now, I feel a vibration. Jessica Turner. There’s something different about her. And I know what it is. Unlike the others, she doesn’t seem afraid of death. Why? I believe it’s because her child is dead.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble – those who believe in me – it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
*

But my delay in dealing with her has made her dangerous. Already she has brought that Federal Agent here; and she wants to bring in the British police too. I can’t allow that to happen. It will ruin everything.

The first time I saw her I decided she would end up in that watery graveyard, but I’ve had a change of heart. I let Bondye deal with that stupid Pearson woman. Now, I think I might let him deal with Jessica Turner too. Only this time, it will be much more terrifying to see her naked and pleading for her life on the sacrificial altar. She might have some respect for voodoo then.

Her interfering friend will not get away unpunished either.

*
Matthew 18.6 Bible New International Version

Tom threw the plantation shutters open wide and stared out to sea. Relieved finally to see the purple glow of morning breaking, he took a deep breath of salty air and looked at his watch – 5.05. Outside, the scene was as still as inside the house. Jess and Sally must be sound asleep after all that action in the middle of the night.

He went over to the bed and picked up his sketchpad. He looked at Sally’s face. He still hadn’t got her expression of sexual ecstasy right. He could normally draw anyone, and any expression, in a few minutes. He’d had a lot of practice. Faces had intrigued him from the first moment he’d picked up a pencil. As an only child, he’d started drawing his mother, and then moved on to children in his class. Even back then, he’d found it difficult to forge relationships. So he drew the faces of the children he liked most, and hung them on his bedroom wall.
They
were his friends, in his eyes at least.

He cringed now remembering Jess’s face when she found him watching Sally and Brad. Beneath that stony stare of hers, he knew she was upset. Who could blame her? He was her guest, and he’d repaid her by sneaking out in the night to find out what one of her own colleagues was up to. They’d walked back to the house in silence, and returned to their rooms with a simple goodnight. He felt bad about that.

He hadn’t bothered to go back to bed, he was too keyed up. He’d heard Sally come back about an hour after him, and wondered if Jess would have it out with her. But after Sally’s door clicked closed, the house went quiet again.

He spent the rest of the night creating a log of chronological events on his iPad from the information and papers Jess had given him. When finished, he gathered all the papers up and slipped them safely back into the plastic folder to return to her in the morning.

Then he scrolled through the log.

Monday 3 August
– TCI Immigration Minister (Clement Pearson) gives evidence to a British Government Inquiry into illegal immigration and the sinking of two Haitian sloops off Grand Turk.

• Same day, around 5pm, he turns up at the Governor’s Office. Governor’s PA (Sally) hears them having a row. Doesn’t know what it’s about. Or does she? Did someone else in the office overhear that row?
  Find out if local lady, Alvita, was still at work?
  

Tuesday 4 August
– Clement Pearson is found hanging in his garage at home by his wife. Inquest says suicide. But was it?
Need to get a look at the scene of the hanging, and post mortem report.

[TWO WEEK GAP]

Tuesday 17 August
– British Governor is seriously injured in a car crash in the early hours of the morning driving himself down from the lighthouse on the Ridge. What was he doing up there in the middle of the night? Who knew he was up there? Murder attempt on the way back?

• Governor’s car travelling down from lighthouse. Truck smashes into the car at crossroads (driver side). Governor’s car catches fire. Photos show extensive damage and fire. How did Governor get out alive? Did he save himself? Or did someone pull him out? Still no sign of the truck or driver. No witnesses. Murder attempt? Police say accident. Why? Hard to believe.
  Where is that truck? Where is the driver? Need to get a look at the Governor’s car.
  
• Jess arrives to take over from the Head of the Governor’s Office (David Evans). At dinner that evening, she meets the Chief Justice (Dominic Canning) who talks to her about Haitian voodoo and impact on islanders. Several pets disappeared. Locals believe they have been sacrificed. A
  row over dinner between his wife, Rebekah, and Sally. Those two don’t get on. Why
  ?
  

Wednesday 18th
– Jess finds letter (half finished) under lighthouse steps. Governor’s handwriting. Letter to his wife asking for forgiveness for something. What? Why leave letter there? Dropped in dark? Disturbed by someone? Who?

• Dead Immigration Minister’s wife, Mrs Pearson, is found hanging by her bound feet in her garage. Throat cut. Why murder her? What did she know? Why so brutal? Why in the same spot as her husband?
  Need to get a look at crime scene.
  

Thursday 19th
– Governor dies of injuries in Miami hospital, without regaining consciousness.

• I arrive in the TCI.
  

Tom stared at the log for a moment, then typed in another entry.

• Rebekah Canning declares she’s in love with Charles Regan, NY banker and co-owner local dive company. Says her husband doesn’t know. But everyone else seems to.
  

Tom ran his fingers through his hair. He wanted to help Jess, although he couldn’t be seen to be doing any police work on the island. Still, he could do some digging
off
the island. He scrolled to his email account and typed in a colleague’s address in Canberra. He would have to phrase the message carefully in case it was intercepted.

Hi mate,

Arrived safely in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Lovely place, with great scuba diving around the coral reefs. You’re missing a treat. I’m going out diving with an American guy, Brad Regan, and his twin brother Charles, who own the local dive company. Fantastic diving off the wall – the sea bed drops suddenly to 7,000 feet a few hundred yards offshore. Can’t wait to get out there. Google those guys and take a look at their dive company. Terrific photos on the internet.

It’s not all perfect in paradise though. The Governor was injured in a car crash and has since died. Jess and her colleagues are devastated. There’s also been a murder, a local woman. Google the press reports and take a look for yourself. Good job I’m on holiday!

He thought about Rebekah. She might be the wife of the British Chief Justice, but there was something weird about her, and she looked under real strain. Could he ask for a check on her too? Yep! He might as well check out Carrie too, while he was at it.

Jess is really busy coping on her own with things, although she has some backup from the local expat community. Rebekah Canning, wife of the British Chief Justice, is being particularly high profile, along with American Carrie Lynch, who runs the local kindergarten.

Anyway, this is just to let you know I’ve got my feet up for a couple of days. But I’ll definitely be back for the PM’s briefing next week. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Cheers, Tom

He re-read the email and pressed send. He was satisfied his mate would know he was asking him to run checks on Brad, Charles, Rebekah and Carrie.

Next, he scrolled to Jess’s photos of the Governor’s Land Rover and studied them. It was the burnt, rusty hue of the paintwork from the fire that really caught his attention. It looked pretty even all over the car, which seemed odd in the circumstances. And why, if the truck had smacked head-on into its side door, had the Land Rover not tipped onto its side or been shunted along the road? The more he looked at the photos, and the way the paintwork was burnt, the more suspicious it looked.

He needed to take a look at the vehicle. Why not go now, he thought, before anyone started work at the Government Garage. That way he wouldn’t have to answer any questions. And security seemed very lax on this island, so hopefully the Garage wouldn’t be locked.

Still dressed in his cargo shorts and t-shirt from earlier, he slipped his feet into his trainers. He found his torch and Swiss Army knife in his suitcase and slipped them into his shorts’ pocket. He tucked his iPad under his arm. He wouldn’t leave it after what happened to Jess’s laptop.