Murder and Mayhem (46 page)

Nicola’s body responded to his touch as she watched
his fingers circled her hard nipples. She closed her eyes and ran her wet
tongue over her lips.

Danny’s eyes stayed focused on her face as he moved
his hand over the slight swell of her belly and down to the soft downy mound,
feeling the silky hair between his fingers. Nicola sighed and leaned against
him, her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted, her breath coming in short
sharp gasps. She was warm, she was wet and she was ready. She could feel the
hardness of his manhood pressing against her buttocks, straining against the
confines of his jeans.

“Oh, babe,” he whispered as he took her by hand and
led her to the bed. He laid her down and stroked the inside of her thighs. Love
and lust flushed through him like warm butter

“Aren’t you going to get undressed, Danny?”

Danny shed his clothes and lay down beside her. He
kissed her eyes, her cheeks, throat, and nipples, and the soft, sensitive area
of her groin. When he nudged her legs apart and sat back on his haunches, she
shuddered as his tongue touched her sex.

Nicola felt the passion rising, her body crying out
for release. “I want you inside me.”

Danny straddled her, taking the full weight of his
body on his hands and looked into her eyes. They were twin green pools of fire.
Nicola reached down, took hold of his penis and guided it inside her.

Danny arched his back and propelled his body forwards
and felt the hardness of his manhood slip into the dark mysterious recesses of
her body.
Nicola locked her legs around his
buttocks and took him to a place where nothing else mattered.

On the screen Rod Stewart crooned an old love song as
their bodies moved in time with the music. Passion rolled over them in waves of
desire until suddenly they reached a shuddering explosion of blissful release.
Danny collapsed onto the bed and pulled Nicola into the cradle of his body
where she lay with her head against his chest, both hearts beating double time.

Nicola took refuge in the comfort in his body. As he
held her close, she knew she loved this man–wholly, completely. He was unlike
any man she had known before. Her naked desire for him made her body burn. She
didn’t know how she was going to survive without him…

*****

Rosie put the mug Milo on the side-table, grabbed a
magazine and started to fan her face.

“Phew, that certainly was something to get the old
heart pumping. Where do you get this stuff from?”

“Now that would be telling,” I said.

“I would never have thought dear old Ross…”

“Hey, there’s a lot you don’t know about
dear old
Ross.
You seem to forget we were young once.”

Rosie sighed. “It seems like it was in another
lifetime.”

“And, besides, there’s such a thing as imagination. In
my mind I conjure up all manner of things.”

“You always were the dreamer in the family. I remember
when we were kids I used to ask Mum where you were and she say you were off somewhere
daydreaming.” We laughed as we recalled childhood memories.

“You know you don’t have to experience everything to
know what its like. For instance, I’ve never killed anyone−but that
doesn’t stop me from imagining what it would be like. And God knows there’s
enough violence on television and in the newspapers to fill a thousand books.”

“Well, you certainly have me believing everything you
write,” she said, and then laughed. “Along with half the people at the clinic.”

“You do realize we’re going to have to tell them
sometime.”

“Oh, why spoil it for them. They’ve probably never had
so much fun before. A serial killer in their midst! It’s kinda given you
celebrity status.”

“I saw a program on television,
before we left, where people were discussing books and they all agreed no one
wrote good love stories anymore, or great sex scenes, so I keep that in mind
when I’m writing.”

“I don’t think anyone would find you wanting.” She
picked up a sandwich and took a bite. “Mmm… I don’t know what this is but it
sure tastes yummy.”

I grabbed a sandwich and bit into it. “Ross does make
the best sandwiches, doesn’t he? Do you want me to keep reading or do you want
to have your lunch in peace?”

Rosie gave a dismissive wave and took another bite.

“Mmm… no, keep reading. It sounds like you might be
coming to another interesting bit.”

I took a bite of my sandwich, washed it down with Milo
and wiped the lace-edged napkin across my mouth, leaving a streaky chocolate
smudge.

“Ross is going to have to give that a good soak,” Rosie
said.

*****

Danny woke with the jumbled fragments of a dream
cobwebbing his head. He looked at Nicola asleep on his chest, her coppery hair
fanned across his body. She had a look of contentment on her face. He gently
extracted his arm from beneath her and sat on the edge of the bed rubbing his
face.

Nicola stirred. “Where are you going?” she asked as
she peered out through sleep-laden lids.

“I’m not going far, only to the bathroom.”

“Yes, you are.”

Danny leaned down and stroked her cheek with the back
of his hand. “I’m just going to have a shower. Go back to sleep,” he whispered
and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

As he crossed the room, moonlight shone in through the
window and caressed his legs and broad shoulders. The muscles of his body
rippled. When he turned on the bathroom light a golden halo formed around his
head.

Nicola slipped out of bed and followed him.

Danny turned on the shower and as he stepped under the
pounding jets he reached out and took her in his arms and they made love as
tears ran down her cheeks.

* * *

As they lay curled up in bed, their arms wrapped
around each other, Danny asked, “Did you meet anyone after Steven left?”

“No. Not for a long time. When I moved to San
Francisco I found employed with a law firm in the city. At around the same
time, a new associate joined the firm, and a couple of weeks later we started
dating. But, after a couple of months, James started to become really
possessive and I didn’t want to get into another relationship like that so I
broke it off.  It was hard because we often had to work together. He’d send me
flowers and leave notes on my desk and messages on my phone and emails. He even
called by the house and dropped notes in my mailbox.

“I told him several times it was over and asked him to
stop bothering me, but he persisted. When I told him that no matter what he did
it wasn’t going to change how I felt, he became really unpleasant and the phone
calls became abusive.”

“So, what did you do?” Danny asked.

“I thought about reporting him to my superiors for
sexual harassment but knew if I did that, it might make things awkward with the
other people in the office. So, I decided to move house and find somewhere else
to work. I moved to Mill Valley and got the job in Terra Linda, near the
Northgate Mall…, and changed my name back to Madison.”

“It must have been really hard for you to start over,
again?”

“It was. The worst part was being away from my family.
But after a while I settled in to the new job. And I love living in Mill
Valley. Now I work long hours and pretty much keep to myself. What about you,
Danny? Did you find someone?”

Danny ran his fingers through her hair and thought
about it for a while. Finally he took a deep breath and allowed all the painful
memories he’d fought so hard to forget, to surface again.

Maybe it was time.

“Yes, I did. Or thought I did, at least for a while
anyway.” He stopped, the words binding in his throat.

Nicola felt his heart pounding against her. In the
distance she could hear planes circling overhead–and the faint rumble of
traffic on the freeway. Voices drifted up from the street. Pale moonlight crept
in through the window and washed over their faces and along the back wall
creating dancing shadows from the trees outside shifting in the wind.

As the memories surfaced somewhere deep inside, they
rolled hesitantly off his tongue.

“I usually surf with the same bunch of guys every
morning but we don’t engage in conversation except to discuss surfing
conditions, or the weather.

“We’re out there at daybreak as the sun comes up over
the horizon reflecting on the surface of the ocean in a fiery glow. There
aren’t many people around at that hour so we tend to notice strangers.” He
looked down as though studying his hands and didn’t look up when he said, “One
morning I came off the waves and saw this woman sitting on the beach watching
us.  I just walked past not paying her much attention but the next day she was
back, and the day after.  She was tall, taller than you, with short cropped
blond hair and looked a little like Elle McPherson–with a smile and body to
match. She had deep blue eyes, the color of the ocean, with gold flecks in the
iris. She was a body surfer and wore this stunning crimson red one-piece
swimsuit that showed off every inch, every curve of her bronzed body–and
sometimes she’d wear a red two piece. Any wonder the all guys noticed her. With
that swimsuit and that body you’d have to be blind not to. I found out later
that she loved to wear red–it looked great with her blond hair and tan.”

“Pretty soon a couple of the guys started chatting to
her and when we were sitting on our surfboards waiting for a wave they’d talk
about her. But I didn’t take much notice. I wasn’t interested in what they had
to say. I was there to surf–not to gossip.

“One morning I came down to the beach and she was
there, earlier than usual. She called out ‘Hi’ as I headed for the water, so I
smiled and returned the greeting. The next morning she was back and as I walked
past she spoke to me again. Just, hi, how you doing–nothing earth shattering or
profound. I said it looked like another sweltering hot day and she agreed. When
I came off the waves I dropped down on the sand beside her and we sat for a
while looking out at the ocean neither of us saying much. We didn’t even
exchange names.

“A couple of days later we started chatting. She told
me her name was Sara Summers and said she had moved from up north somewhere and
didn’t know anyone. She said she loved to surf.  Pretty soon we started meeting
every morning, and then we had coffee. Then we started to meet up for lunch at
weekends, and finally I asked her out to dinner. After about six months we
started dating regularly.” Danny walked over to the bar fridge and grabbed a
couple of bottles of water. He handed one to Nicola, adjusted the pillows,
leaned back against the headboard and took a long drink.

“Later that year I planned a trip to the U.S and when
I asked Sara if she wanted to come with me she jumped at the chance. We
traveled through the mid-west, and had a ball. When we got home I asked Sara to
marry me but she said things were pretty good the way they were so why change.
Not long after that we moved in together, and life was good.

“Neither of us wanted children at that stage, we were
both happy to be free to do whatever we wanted. To come and go as we pleased.
The I.T. Company I worked for had the Government contract so I was sent all
over the country setting up special software for their hardware. Sara never
went with me but every year we’d travel to a different part of the U.S. and
we’d have a great time. I was happy and I was in love for the first time since
Emma. Sara was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and Sara said
she felt the same about me.” Danny stopped and gulped down half the water and
sat with a faraway look in his eyes.

Even though Nicola could see the pain in his eyes she
had to know what happened between him and Sara so they could move on with their
lives and make a fresh start with no secrets between them. She didn’t want any
ghosts from the past to come back and haunt them.

Danny wrapped his arms around Nicola and gathered her
to him she could feel the tension in his body and sensed a change in his mood.

In a voice little more than a whisper, he continued,
“One Friday in October, two years ago, I returned home after spending two weeks
in Canberra working on a new program for the Department of Defense, and found
the house empty. It was only three in the afternoon so I figured Sara would
still be at work. I raced upstairs and had a shower and when I was finished I
went down stairs to the kitchen to get something to eat. Suddenly it dawned on
me that something was not right. So I raced upstairs and opened the bathroom
cabinet and noticed all Sara’s things were missing; her shampoo, her toothbrush,
all her makeup, everything was gone. I went into the bedroom to check her
closet. It was empty except for a couple of hangers, and part of a broken
shoelace from one of her old sneakers on the floor. When I looked through her
drawers I saw all her clothes were missing.