The Murder Suite: Book One - The Audrey Murders (8 page)

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              John Campbell had just turned fifty-nine.  Well that is what he told anyone who asked. He was actually sixty- two but he knew he was a good looking guy and still had all his hair and played golf almost daily to keep in shape.   In fact, he could have his pick of good- looking ladies.  He had been married a couple of times but marriage wasn’t really his ticket.  He liked younger girls, much younger girls and although he didn’t really need to pay for them he found it a lot easier to have “his girls”, as he referred to them, on tap.

Tonight was Tuesday night and he a standard date at nine o’clock with Delia.  She was eighteen, if she was lucky, and absolutely adorable with black straight hair and big red lips.  She always wore red, very high- heeled shoes.  John had a foot fetish and high heels were weakness.   He didn’t have to worry about money he owned his own business and times were good.   When the economy was bad his business always took a turn for the better.  He owned a beer distribution company and he always said; “When times are tough, women buy lipstick and guys buy beer”.   He was right. Business was booming. 

              John didn’t have any children of his own but he had hired Jimmy who had worked for him for the past twenty years and John decided it was now time for Jimmy to take over the company.  He had drawn up the papers and they both signed on the dotted line.  This was John’s last week running the company.   Friday he was going to take a holiday up north.  He had arranged to go big game fishing in Whangaroa harbor and was looking forward to getting out of the city.  John looked at the paperwork on the desk he wondered if he would miss the day-to-day running of the business.  It had been a great thirty years in the beer business.  He had made enough money to pay off both wives and still have a million dollar house on the North Shore.   His “girls” cost him a pretty penny.  They were the cream of the crop and ran him a thousand dollars a night but they were worth every penny.  John liked to play rough and his money satisfied all his sexual needs.    Delia was his favorite girl although lately she had seemed to be less attentive.   John pushed the papers to one side of his desk and picked up the phone.  

              “Hey Mike, wanna take in a game of golf this afternoon? “Great.  I’ll call and see if we can get a tee time at two thirty.  Bye”.

              He hung up the phone and called his golf club to confirm. The pro always got him in.  He called his mate back and called out to Jimmy. 

              “Hey Jimmy, I am off for lunch then off to play golf with Mike. See you tomorrow morning.” 

              Jimmy nodded and went back to stacking cases of beer.  He was looking forward to having the business to himself.  John was a bit of a wanker really.  He didn’t approve of his social life.  Jimmy was married and loved his wife and always respected women.  John would embarrass him when they entertained clients.  It was always to a strip bar with young prostitutes.  Some of their clients liked that sort of thing but Jimmy didn’t.  Things would change when he took over.

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It came down like a blanket over the valley.  Torrential rain.  It had been a couple of years since Audrey had seen rain like this.   It seemed to come out of nowhere.  She needed to check the creek in the valley by the pigpen.  When it rained like this water would pour down the mountain and fill the creek to overflowing.  The creek would flood and the swirling, muddy waters would gush under the road, across the cow paddocks and out into the bay.  The floor of her valley was always damp due to her natural spring. The underwater spring was the only water source for the chalets.  A concrete soak well and pump house pumped the water up plastic pipes to her water tanks every two hours.   But when it rained, the whole area was just a wild torrent of swift flowing water.

Shit! Thought Audrey. The guests are not going to be happy.   At least the guests had hot tubs, cable TV and hundreds of DVD and CDs to choose from.  The power would often go out in bad storms.  The last time she was without power for four days. 

Audrey knew she couldn’t do anything about the creek overflowing but she could make sure the spouting was clear of debris so the rainwater would run into the lower water tanks.  She had two, five thousand gallon, concrete tanks below the chalets that captured all the rain water so that the guests had a good water supply.  Being in the country the owners were responsible for their own sewage tanks and water tanks. There was no city service for either.

She heard a car driving up to Suite A.  She grabbed an umbrella and ran up the steps to greet them.   They all looked tired and travel weary, especially the kids - two little girls, as cute as buttons.  She had already set out the toys in the suite and placed soft toys on their beds in preparation for their stay.   Mum and Dad looked pleased to be there and even more pleased to see a welcoming bottle of wine in the fridge.  The girls jumped with glee when they saw the hot tub. 

“Can we get in?  Pleeease Mummy?” they squealed.

“OK. Go inside and get your togs out of the suitcase,” said their Mother obviously relieved the girls had found something to occupy them.  Audrey left them to settle in and returned to her lower suite pleased to be out of the rain.

The honeymoon couple pulled up in their rental car to Suite C as soon as Audrey opened up a bottle of wine and poured herself a glass. She grabbed the umbrella again and welcomed them. They were very young, very happy and very excited when they saw the room and discovered the hot tub. Audrey showed them around and left them to enjoy their privacy.

The rain was not stopping.  Even the spouting could not hold the deluge. The water was running in streams down the colored concrete courtyard and down the gravel driveway making long bald streaks in the gravel.   She looked out over the grass flats of the farm across the road.  They were almost under water already.   This was not good. She checked the weather online and it looked as though it was going to last at least through the night and tomorrow morning.  A lot of damage could be done in that time.

Then Audrey had a horrible thought. She was going to go down to the pigpen tonight just to check all the bones had indeed been consumed. 

She didn’t want any bones lying around where the floodwaters could carry them down the fast flowing creek and out into the bay.  That is, if she was lucky.  They might end up on the road.   There was nothing she could do but keep an eye on things.   She decided to get in her Rav4 and check the storm water pipe under the road.  If it needed clearing out she needed to get to it now.   She put on her rain gear and tall gumboots, grabbed some tools from the shed and headed down the drive. The water was gushing down both sides of the road. The gutters were overflowing and couldn’t keep up with the heavy flow coming from the hills up the road.   Already the valley floor was underwater leaving her no choice but to park the car on the gravel roundabout and head on foot through the rapidly rising water.  It was impossible - there was no way she could reach the pen site.  Having no choice she headed back to her car and drove down the road to the storm water drain. The rain was torrential She headed down the bank on foot. The gushing water was almost to the top of the huge storm water drain.  Tree branches, leaves and logs were trapped in the storm’s fury.  The water appeared to be moving through the debris, under the road and through the farm ditches towards the bay.  She returned to her car and headed back to the chalets.  There was nothing she could do but just hope.  Hope that any evidence got washed out to sea.    Maybe the pigpen was not a good idea.  She would have to come up with a new plan next time.

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Constable Driver’s phone never stopped ringing.  If it wasn’t the accident: it was the weather.  Kaeo, was built on a flood plain. The Prime Minister had even suggested moving the whole town to higher ground.  Of course that didn’t happen and the local residents rallied around during heavy rain to lift groceries off bottom shelves in the local grocery store and pile sandbags at the doors of the two petrol stations.

Now Kaeo was about to go under water again.  His house was also in the flood area and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.  He was lucky the truck had not left yet. He hired the truck driver and his mate to reload all the furniture back into the truck along with all the cardboard boxes of household stuff.  This way they would be out of the floodwaters.  He then arranged to have the family stay in Kerikeri at a nice motel.   They would need to leave immediately before the floodwaters prevented traffic from getting out of town.   The water was already beginning to rise.  The problem was the Kaeo river.  It was already beginning to spill over the riverbanks and onto the road.  Soon it would be high tide and the water would have nowhere to go.   What a mess.  As soon as the family left for higher ground, Constable Driver got into his 4wheel drive and headed in the opposite direction towards the Kaeo River and Whangaroa.

The fire truck was making its way through the flooded streets.  Driver decided to take a right onto the loop road.  The road ran along the river flats and up and over Radar Point to Matairi Bay and back onto the 10 past the Kaeo Township.  It was a tourist route and had only recently been tar sealed all the way.  As he headed down Wainui Road he noticed that the creeks were washing the water across the road. He drove past the Chalets perched high on the hill. Water was streaming down the driveway adding to the floodwaters below.  It was going to be a problem but there was nothing he could do.  The residents would just have to wait it out.   Large pieces of tree debris were beginning to be washed down the road with the excess water.  The biggest problem was mud slips washing over the road and blocking any access.  This road was known to have numerous slips and Driver guessed the road was going to be blocked at any time.  He turned around and headed down to Whangaroa harbor.  Mud slips were already falling down the cliffs but the road was still open.  Locals were out clearing away storm debris from the road and torrential rain was continuing to fall out of the sky at a frightening pace.  

Driver decided he had better get back to town where he could work on the radio with the emergency crews who were already being called out to assist with stranded vehicles and blocked side roads.

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Smithy couldn’t find Bruiser anywhere.  Damn dog.  He grabbed his rain gear from the peg by the door and pulled on his gumboots.  The water was already rising in his back yard.   He decided to search by foot. No use taking the car it would just get stuck in the muddy driveway.  He cursed himself for not adding more gravel to the drive now it was just a muddy soup.   “Bruiser, Bruiser, he called over the sound of the torrential rain. “Where are you boy?”  By the time he had got to main road he could see the water from across the street was pouring down the driveway and out onto the road causing major flooding.  The creeks could not carry all the water and they were overflowing causing the water to flow over the road and down the soaked paddocks on his side of the road.  It was going to get worse before it got better he noted.  He started walking down the hill calling out to his best mate “Bruiser, Bruiser”.  

The local fire truck was coming up the street towards him.   Smithy was well known in the area.  He waved at his mates on the truck and they gave a quick squeal on the siren.  Smithy knew they would be at it until the rain stopped. 

Mud slips were a curse in this sort of weather.   Then he spotted Bruiser.  He was down in the ditch pulling something from the creek.  What was it?  Looked like a bone.   “Bruiser he yelled at him “come here boy!!”  But Bruiser wasn’t going to budge.   

Smithy climbed down the slippery bank but couldn’t reach the dog. The water was too deep and the mud beneath his feet was too soft trapping his gumboots like quicksand.   He yelled once more at his dog while throwing a stick at him.  Bruiser yelped as the stick hit him and he let the bone go.   “Come here boy” said Smithy and Bruiser ran to his master. “Stupid dog” said Smithy and he reprimanded him all the way back to the safety of the old house.    Bruiser stood at the door and wined.  He wanted out.  “You want that bone don’t you Bruiser?” said Smithy.  Well, you can’t have it. Maybe tomorrow if the rain stops we can go back and find it.  Bruiser wined and lay on the floor near the door.  He only had one thing on his mind.

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Audrey guests were all settled into their suites.  They had been pleased to get to the Chalets before the waters rose.  Audrey had been watching the water rise in the paddocks across the road.  From high up on the mountain she had a good view of the surrounding area.   She had been watching old Smithy across the road he had wandered past the Chalets and down to the creek area.  She couldn’t see what he was doing down there.  A minute or two later he came back with his dog.   She saw the fire truck heading up the hill.  She just hoped the power wouldn’t go out.  She saw a few power board trucks heading up the hill also.  Maybe a pole was down further up the road.  Not a good sign.   The paddocks across the street were now completely covered in brown muddy water.  The farmer must have moved the cattle out of the flats and put them onto higher ground.   Audrey liked the farmer.  He was a hard worker, a quiet guy. Audrey had brought a couple of steers from him a few months ago.  She liked country life and didn’t even miss the big cities she had worked in overseas.