Malicious Intent (42 page)
Authors: Kathryn Fox
Vaughan’s third mistake, overestimating her, had given Anya her freedom. Then it occurred to her that she would remain free only if the tape recording of her shooting him could not be found. She felt ill again. What if he ever gave the tape to the police? It proved she’d shot him, wrongly believing he’d killed Ben. With that tape out there somewhere, she’d never be totally free. Maybe that was his plan all along, to have her live in a constant state of dread, never knowing whether a phone call or a knock on the door would mean an end to her freedom.
He’d planned everything else. Even when he died of his lymphoma, the bastard would haunt her from the grave. He would have planned for that too. He had the tapes – somewhere.
Suddenly, Brody’s elation at the charges being dropped provided little comfort.
‘To you.’ Brody clinked his client’s glass and took a swig.
‘How about we celebrate tonight? I’ll take you out to dinner.’
‘That sounds great,’ Anya said, just as the phone rang. She picked it up.
‘We need to talk,’ Martin said abruptly. ‘Ben really needs to see you.’
‘I want to see him, too.’ She took a sip and felt her face KATHRYN FOX
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flush. ‘Look, the charges have been dropped. There won’t be a trial. The prosecutor believes I shot in self-defense.’
After a painful silence, he said, ‘Good for you. Listen, how about tonight? Can you meet us at Darling Harbor, outside the IMAX theater at six?’
Anya looked over at Brody, who was mopping up the spill with a dish cloth. ‘Um, yeah. Sure. We could all have dinner tonight. I’d like that.’
‘I’m glad things worked out for you.’ His voice softened.
‘Really. For all our sakes.’
Anya hung up. Martin calling was a good start. She had to make the most of it.
Brody came over with the bottle. ‘Top up?’
She covered her glass with one hand. ‘Dan, about tonight.’
‘Let me guess. Had a better offer?’
‘Martin is going to let me see Ben.’
Brody nodded. ‘We can do it another time. Anyway, must go. Clients await.’ Placing the bottle on the coffee table, he smiled. ‘Congratulations again,’ he added, before letting himself out.
Anya held the glass to her chest and switched on the television, in time for the morning news.
Kate Farrer’s release from hospital made the bulletin, along with her receiving a commendation from the Police Commis-sioner. In the group of colleagues welcoming her back, Detectives Ernie Faulkner and Ray Filano shook hands and patted the newly decorated detective on the back. Bloody hypocrites, Anya thought as she watched the charade on TV, grateful not to have her own name mentioned. No doubt Kate would tell her about it at lunch tomorrow. She headed for the shower.
With water streaming down her back, she sat down and clutched her legs to her chest. Charges dropped. She was free.
A surge of emotions filled her as hot water teemed over her body. She vowed never to disclose her secret. The police and Brody thought she’d shot only to wound Vaughan Hunter. She 344
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knew she hadn’t. She’d wanted to kill him, and God knows, she’d tried. The bullet in his shoulder was aimed straight at his heart. He was right. She could kill in cold blood, if she were any more competent with a gun.
And all it took were lies – bluff – to make her do it. Hunter had altered her perception, beliefs and behavior without ever putting her in the anechoic chamber. It frightened her, too, how attracted to him she’d been and how much she’d wanted him to hold and touch her the day at the Easter Show. Tightening her grip on her legs, she tried to block out the image of him with Ben and thanked Martin for taking their son away from Sydney, out of Hunter’s grip.
With fingertips wrinkling as water cascaded over her flexed head, she thought about his other victims and tried to imagine their isolation and desperation in the chamber. They were completely dependent on their captor for life. He probably tormented them with that vacuum switch, sucking out enough air to make them feel they would suffocate, then turning it off just in time. He was a sadist, a sexual predator who maintained a respectable persona in the community. It was still difficult to believe he’d ruined so many lives.
The abducted women weren’t the only ones destroyed by Vaughan Hunter’s experiments. The Galea boy had done nothing wrong, but would probably suffer permanent brain damage.
Alison Blakehurst’s husband and kids, Briony Lovitt’s daughter and lover, had all been shattered by the decisions of just one man. Clare Matthews’ baby and Debbie Finch’s father had also been killed by his manipulation. Even Mohammed and Anoub Deab had become his victims. She wondered how many others there had been, that she didn’t know about.
With the herpes cultures and DNA from the fetus and sperm, the police would be able to confirm he’d had sex with the women. With Kate’s testimony, the chamber and the fibers in all the women’s lungs, he’d be facing a stiff prison sentence if he was enough to stand trial. Proving he killed the women might not be necessary. Maybe a jury would see no moral dif-KATHRYN FOX
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ference between talking someone to their death and physically pushing them. It was pretty clear his intentions were malicious.
She couldn’t forgive herself for being so gullible. Hearing Ben screaming was a nightmare come true. It was like hearing Miriam calling out in so many of Anya’s dreams.
Hunter had set out to manipulate her completely, by slowly taking away the things that were most important to her. The article in the paper affected Martin’s job offer, and would have ramifications for her work, too, if she ever got work again. The only genuine calls since that article appeared were from the sexual assault services. That’s what she’d have to focus on from now on.
Fucking Hunter. She’d proven his hypothesis and almost lost Ben forever in the process. And that’s something she was going to have to live with for the rest of her life. She cried, from the gut, and a tidal wave of emotion released itself until long after the hot water had run out.
Once out of the shower, she quickly dressed and headed downstairs, eager to see Ben and be positive for him. She was, after all, free. It was up to her to make the most of life with her son, as privately as possible. Hoping that her makeup hid swollen red eyes, she grabbed her keys and stepped into a pair of black heels inside the door.
Outside, flashes of light blinded her. A throng of reporters shouted loudly, accusing the prosecutor of bias by dropping the charges. A television camera appeared and a woman’s voice demanded answers to the questions that would be asked in Par-liament. Someone else asked how the controversy had affected her son. A man shoved a microphone in her face and wanted to know whether she’d had a sexual relationship with Vaughan Hunter before shooting him.
More bulbs flashed.
Anya could almost hear Vaughan Hunter laughing.
There are numerous people who have contributed in many ways to this book, and who deserve special mention.
For their generosity in research and technical advice I sin-cerely thank Detective Sergeant Mal Lanyon, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Sweeney, Dr. Julienne Grace, Dr. Jo Duflou, Dr. Martin Pallus, Dr. Peter Ellis, Dr. Diane Little, Dr. Jean Edwards, Dr. Dominic Dwyer, Dr. John Clarke, Mark Marion, Ken Marslew from Enough is Enough, and Siobhan Mullany for her invaluable legal and procedural input, but especially those mackerel skies! Thank you, too, to others who freely shared their opinions, experience and expertise along the way, beginning with Ian Foster, Sandra Lambert, Frank McKone and Lance Chapman.
To Jeffery Deaver for his tremendous generosity and gra-ciousness, thanks again for setting the bar so high, and to James Patterson for his kindness and encouragement.
Special appreciation to Hal and Di McElroy for believing, and to the magnificent Marg McAlister at writing4success – the best teacher and mentor any writer could hope for.
Finally, thanks to the most incredible agent, Faye Bender, for her passion, belief and appreciation of life’s ‘silly dance’
moments, and the staff at HarperCollins, especially Lyssa Keusch and May Chen.
KATHRYN FOX, a general practitio
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ner with a special interest in forensic medicine, lives in Sydney, Australia, where she is at work on the next Anya Crichton novel.
www.kathrynfox.com
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Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Cover photograph © Chase Jarvis/Getty Images, © PhotoDisc/Getty Images
MALICIOUS INTENT. Copyright © 2004 by Kathryn Fox.. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader May 2007 ISBN 978-0-06-145177-5
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- Cover Image
- Title Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
- Chapter Twenty-Three
- Chapter Twenty-Four
- Chapter Twenty-Five
- Chapter Twenty-Six
- Chapter Twenty-Seven
- Chapter Twenty-Eight
- Chapter Twenty-Nine
- Chapter Thirty
- Chapter Thirty-One
- Chapter Thirty-Two
- Chapter Thirty-Three
- Chapter Thirty-Four
- Chapter Thirty-Five
- Chapter Thirty-Six
- Chapter Thirty-Seven
- Chapter Thirty-Eight
- Chapter Thirty-Nine
- Chapter Forty
- Chapter Forty-One
- Chapter Forty-Two
- Chapter Forty-Three
- Chapter Forty-Four
- Chapter Forty-Five
- Chapter Forty-Six
- Chapter Forty-Seven
- Chapter Forty-Eight
- Chapter Forty-Nine
- Chapter Fifty
- Chapter Fifty-One
- Chapter Fifty-Two
- Chapter Fifty-Three
- Chapter Fifty-Four
- Chapter Fifty-Five
- Chapter Fifty-Six
- Chapter Fifty-Seven
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Credits
- Copyright Notice
- About the Publisher
- Prologue
