Heller (32 page)

“Lily-livered
lackey!”

“Fearful
flunkey!”

“Them’s
fighting words. Okay I’ll go, coward,” and sticking out my tongue
at him, I walked to Heller’s office and rapped loudly and
cheerfully on his door. There’s nothing guaranteed to make you feel
smugger than witnessing someone else’s hangover. He winced and eyed
me balefully.

“Do you have
to make so much noise, Matilda?”

“I don’t have
to, but it’s fun.”

“I feel like
I’m dying.” He leaned his forehead on his palms.

“You’re not.”
I went in and sat down, giving him a good raking over with my
eyes.

“Death seems
like a very good option at the moment.”

“You’ll feel
better in a few hours.”

“Who knows
about this?”

“Just Daniel
and me. I asked him to keep it to himself.”

“Thank
you.”

“You missed an
appointment. I took Sid with me instead.”

He cringed and
rubbed his eyes. “I forgot. I’m sorry.”

“They gave us
the job. It’s a good one. A couple of years of income at least.

He raised his
tired eyes to mine. “Thank you for being so professional about
everything.”

I shrugged.
“What happened last night?”

“I can’t
remember. It’s such a blur. There was a woman. Not the kind I’d
normally go for; a bit rougher. I can’t even remember her name. I
just remember she was very . . . demanding. I had a few drinks in
the bar while I waited to pick up someone. And she mixed me more
drinks in her room, and then some more and then I can’t remember
much.”

I stared at
him accusingly. “Do you know that you drove home this morning?”

He grew even
paler. “No.” A long pause while he processed that information. “How
stupid of me. I don’t even remember doing that.” He covered his
face with his hands for a few moments. “Imagine if something had
happened to me? I can’t believe I was so stupid, especially with
everyone to think about.”

“Why did you
do it, Heller? It’s so unlike you.”

He avoided my
eyes, lowering his own to gaze intently at his motionless fingers
resting on his desk. I thought he wasn’t going to speak, but then
he did. “After the other night between us, I felt . . .” He sighed
heavily. “I thought it might help me feel better if . . .”

He stopped and
remained silent for so long that I knew he wasn’t going to say any
more. I guess he wasn’t a man who liked to examine his emotions. I
didn’t push it and instead let my eyes linger on the hickeys on his
throat. That woman had had her fun with him last night. They’d
obviously done a bit of rough.

His hand crept
up to his neck and his expression wasn’t quite embarrassed, but
more annoyed. “I don’t know how to hide them. They’re so ugly.”

That made me
smile. “I have some concealing makeup. I’ll go get it.” I ran up
the stairs, grabbed the makeup and ran back down again, noticing
with delight that I wasn’t even out of breath. I closed Heller’s
door and spent five minutes covering up the bruises. “There! It’s
not perfect because you’re browner than I am, but at least you
won’t scare Niq now.” I handed him the concealing stick. “You’ll
need this for tomorrow.”

He looked
pathetic, which I’m sure he was doing on purpose. “Can’t you do it
for me every morning till they go away, please Matilda? I wouldn’t
be any good at this.” I gave a resigned sigh and agreed.

“There’s more.
My back is stinging.”

“She scratched
you?”

He nodded. “I
remember she had these long red nails.”

I stared at
him, suddenly tense. “Did she have blonde hair too? And was she
tanned?”

He nodded
again, frowning slightly. “How did you know?”

“Oh man,
that’s creepy.” He was puzzled, but I didn’t see how I could tell
him without sounding completely crazy.

“Take your
shirt off.” He unbuttoned it and stood up with his back to me.
Eight deep gouges rent his smooth skin, four down each shoulder
blade. His shirt had fresh blood seepage on it.

“Holy shit,
Heller! Are you sure she was human?” He shrugged ruefully, which
caused him to grimace in pain. “You have truly suffered for your
pleasure. I hope it was all worth it.”

“I gave as
good as I got. She’ll be feeling sore this morning too.”

I held up my
hands in protest. “Please, no more details. I really don’t want to
know what you got up to. Sit down. I’ll be back in a minute.” I
went out to the main office and retrieved the small first aid kit
from its spot in the kitchenette.

“He needs
first aid?” Daniel whispered in surprise. “Must have been a wild
night!”

I nodded at
him emphatically, rolling my eyes, and returned to Heller’s office.
I made him sit, leaning forward, while I stood behind him and
gently patted the blood away, dabbing on disinfectant, and applying
dressings where I could. The pain would have been palpable and
personally I would have been bawling my eyes out by then if someone
had doused my raw wounds with that much disinfectant. But he showed
absolutely no reaction at all. He didn’t even blink.

“Tough guy,
huh?” I smiled. He glanced up at me and held out his hands. I
placed mine in his, regarding him affectionately. He closed his
fingers around mine and rubbed his thumbs gently across the backs
of my hands.

“Do you
forgive me, Matilda?”

“What for?” I
asked, surprised.

“For asking
you to sleep with me even though I knew you weren’t sober. I
promise it won’t happen again. I don’t want you to be afraid to be
alone with me,” he answered quietly. “I’m not a rapist, Matilda.
Women have always agreed before I’ve slept with them.”

I was
momentarily stunned and had to think fast before I opened my mouth
again. “I told you before, I’m not afraid to be alone with you. I
asked you to stop and you did. That’s a lot more than some men
would do. Besides, I
wanted
to sleep with you and I’m sure
it would have been wonderful. But it just isn’t a good idea,
Heller. It would be too intense. And, I’m your employee. We’re
better off the way we are.”

“Which
is?”

I shrugged. “I
don’t know. I’ve never had a relationship like this before.”

“Me
either.”

“I guess we’ll
just have to make up the rules as we go.” I dug up a clean shirt
for him, gave him a couple of paracetamol tablets and then shooed
him off back to bed to recover from his excesses.

I sat at my
desk for ages that afternoon thinking about Heller and me. There
was definitely something between us, but what was it? The only
thing I knew was that whatever it was, it would never be any normal
kind of relationship. Then I remembered that I still hadn’t called
Will.

That night I
helped Daniel cook a real meal in his own kitchen. He finally chose
to make corn and zucchini fritters with a simple salad. And
although his kitchen looked like a warzone afterwards, he proudly
dished up his meal to Niq and me. It was pretty good, to be honest,
and I don’t know who was beaming with more pride afterwards, him or
me.

After dinner
with Daniel and Niq, I returned to my flat and flipped on the TV. I
caught the end of the news and the newsreader was summarising the
main stories for the day. A photo of a toothy, over-brown, heavily
made-up woman with brassy blonde hair flashed onto the screen.

“And a woman
was found murdered in a room at the Chancellor Hotel late this
morning by hotel staff. It is believed she was strangled. She has
been identified as Grace Owens, a mother of three. Police have
declined to comment on the progress of their investigation.
Tomorrow’s weather will be fine with a maximum of –”. I didn’t hear
any more as I flew out of my flat, up the stairs to bang on
Heller’s door.

He opened the
door in surprise and I pushed past him, inviting myself in.

“What hotel
were you at last night?” I demanded.

“The
Chancellor. Why?”

“Have you seen
the news?” I grabbed the remote to his giant TV and flipped through
the channels until I found the tail-end of another channel’s late
news. The same photo of the woman flashed briefly on the
screen.

“Was that the
woman you were with last night?”

“Yes. What’s
going on?”

“Heller! She
was murdered, strangled! This morning! Her body was found by hotel
staff
this morning
!” I shouted at him, waving my arms
wildly, half-hysterical. “How rough were you with her?”

“It wasn’t me,
Matilda,” he said calmly. “She was definitely alive when I left.
She tried to persuade me to stay by offering to . . . Never mind,
you don’t want to hear that. But when I left she was sitting up in
bed. Definitely alive.”

“I saw you
coming up the stairs this morning. It was about five o’clock. I was
up early to go to the gym. Do you remember that? We crossed paths
on the stairs and you said ‘Don’t look at me like that Matilda’.” I
hoped I wasn’t coaching him.

“I remember.”
He stood up, went to his phone and punched in some numbers. “Corby,
I need you over here immediately. I have a problem. Thanks.” He
hung up.

“Who’s
that?”

“My lawyer. I
want him with me when I go to the police.”

I stared at
him as if he had taken leave of his senses. “You can’t go to the
police! They’ll arrest you.”

“Matilda, I
don’t have any choice. My DNA will be all over that room,
everywhere over that woman. In her, on her, all over the bed, the
floor, the bathroom, everywhere. It’s better if I go in
voluntarily. It looks bad for me, but it will be okay because I
haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Heller,
didn’t you use condoms?” I was embarrassed asking him, but my
anxiety drove me to.

His expression
was as neutral as usual. Talking about his sexual activities didn’t
seem to embarrass him at all. “I know. It was foolish. I always do
normally, but I really was very drunk last night and I didn’t use
them.”

I waited with
him until his lawyer arrived, a trim, smartly dressed,
intelligent-looking man in his early forties, with sharp gray eyes
and a serious face. Heller introduced us and gave a brief outline
of the situation. Corby questioned me closely about my meeting with
Heller on the stairs – the time, what he was wearing, what state he
was in and what he said, making quick notes as I spoke. Then Heller
asked me to leave so that he could discuss things in detail with
Corby. I grasped his hands and squeezed them tightly, feeling
slightly desperate.

“Don’t worry,”
he assured me with a kiss on the forehead. “I’ll be okay. I’ll come
and see you when I get back from the police station.” I nodded
unhappily and returned to my flat.

I couldn’t
settle that night, waiting to hear some news. I spent the night
pacing back and forth in my living area. I tried to distract myself
with the TV, a book and then the internet, but it was no good.
Nothing helped me loosen up. Night turned to dawn and still I
hadn’t heard anything. Heller had been at the police station for
over eight hours by then. What the hell was happening? I was going
insane with worry.

There was a
gentle knock on my door. I flew over and flung it open. Heller
stood there, completely exhausted, strain lining his face. I threw
myself on him, hugging him tightly and promptly but stupidly burst
into tears of anger, stress, relief and tiredness. He pushed me
gently inside and closed the door with his foot, holding me close
against him until my sobbing subsided and I was spent.

“Sorry,” I
mumbled, snuffling loudly. “I don’t know where that came from.” He
handed me his handkerchief. I mopped up as best I could and we sat
on the lounge, me gripping his hands tightly as though he might be
snatched away from me at any moment.

“Your brother
was the lead detective in the team that interviewed me,” he said
grimly. His accent was prominent again so I knew he was
exceptionally angry. “And I could tell that he enjoyed every second
of it. He played games with me, Matilda.”

“What do you
mean?”

“He knew I
hadn’t done anything before I even said a word. The woman, Grace,
she rang room service after I left and had some breakfast
delivered. She was definitely alive at five-thirty when it was
delivered, by which time I was fast asleep on my bed, after you had
seen me.”

I blinked at
him dumbly for a moment. “But why would he put you through that? I
don’t understand. It’s cruel.”

“Because he’s
a sadist who enjoys power games. He made me spell out every last
detail of my night with her. Everything I did to her, everything
she did to me. In explicit detail. It was unnecessarily
humiliating. Your brother was very upset to hear that it was you
who could alibi me. He didn’t like that little detail at all.
You’ll probably have to go down to the station to make a statement
to him later today. Sorry, my sweet.”

“It doesn’t
matter. I don’t mind.”

“There’s also
CCTV footage of me in the hallway leaving her room, in the foyer
heading for the carpark and in the carpark itself driving away
before she even rang room service. And that time gels with the time
you saw me walking up the stairs.”

“Sounds cut
and dried.”

“But worst of
all was that while I was being interviewed for hours and hours,
going over and over the same information, another set of detectives
was processing her estranged husband who had already confessed to
stalking her to the hotel and strangling her after I left.”

“They had a
confession from him but he still kept interviewing you? That’s
unbelievable!”

“Your brother
made a big mistake today. He thought he was being clever, top dog
wielding his power, but he’s made an enemy of me.” Heller cut me
with his icy eyes. “I will have my revenge, Matilda. At some point,
maybe in the future, your brother will pay for today.”