Heller's Regret (41 page)

Chapter 30

I collapsed in the back seat of Clive’s 4WD.
Corby risked his thousand-dollar suit to reach over my smeared
uniform to do up my seatbelt. I tried to repay his kindness by not
throwing up on him.

“God, what a horrible adventure,” I said.

“I have some good news for you though. That
boot camp has agreed to refund every cent paid by all the women who
‘escaped’,” Corby told me.

“They were pretty adamant they were going to
sue the arses off us. What made them change their mind?”

“I may have used some strong terms in
approaching them,” he smiled. “I understand they thought it best to
settle than be dragged through the courts, all their dealings made
public.”

I shook my head. “You lawyers. You have a
million tricks up your sleeve.”

Corby winked at me. “Million and one. But to
be honest with you, it was probably a personal visit from Heller a
while ago that convinced them.”

“Probably.”

Back in my own flat, Clive waited while I
showered and changed into fresh clothes, adding to my already
overflowing laundry basket. I drank more water and lay on my bed,
giving in to sleep until Dr Kincaid arrived.

He plonked his bag on my bed, not happy at
being at the Warehouse. “I’m going to ask Heller for a bonus this
year, just for looking after you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What happened this time?”

“I think I was drugged with something. One
minute I was okay and the next I was all woozy with blurred vision.
Later, I couldn’t speak properly. The cops thought I was
wasted.”

“How are you feeling now?”

“Okay. Tired, thirsty, bit of a
headache.”

“Did they run any tox tests on you at the cop
shop?”

“None,” said Clive. “Too busy to even
interview her.”

“Any vomiting?”

“Yes,” butted in Clive. “She was covered in
vomit when we picked her up from the watch house.”

“I wasn’t
covered
in it. There was a
normal amount,” I protested.

“Any remaining nausea?”

“A little, but it feels like everything’s
improving.”

“Good. How fast did this substance work?”

“I don’t know because I don’t know when it
was given to me.”

“Did the person slip you a tablet?”

“No.”

“Use a needle?”

“No.”

“Hmm. Interesting. There are some topical
drugs that I’ve read about. Did they rub something on you?”

“No. Oh, wait. He
did
rub my neck with
his thumb or fingers. It was weird.”

“That might be our clue. Where did he rub?” I
tried to locate the precise position. The doctor adjusted the
glasses on his nose and peered down at my skin. “I’m not seeing
anything, but I’ll take a swab just in case. I expect the police
lab will be all over this.”

“I wonder if he used the same drug on the
teens? They also swear he didn’t give them a pill or used a
needle.”

“All very interesting, but I’m really only
concerned right now about your health. You don’t appear to have
suffered any allergic reaction and seem to be recovering from its
initial effects. I suggest a good night’s sleep and some more
water. We’ll see how you are in the morning.” He looked at Clive.
“Your night for babysitting her, it seems.”

He and I probably wore identical expressions
at that comment.

“I don’t need babysitting,” I insisted.

“Miss, you’ve been unwell lately and now
you’ve absorbed an unidentified and powerful substance. Let’s be
safe about it.” He nodded his head towards Clive. “I’d rather this
great lunk is inconvenienced for one night than to have to spend
the next couple of months dancing attendance on you because of some
exotic illness.”

After the doctor left, Clive told me dourly
he would be in the lounge room, but latched my bedroom door wide
open. “Call out if you need anything,” he said, lumbering away.

I decided to pretend he wasn’t in my flat,
pulling the bedcovers up to my neck. The next thing I knew, morning
sunshine played across my face. I pushed myself up into a sitting
position, stretching and throwing my legs over the side of the bed.
I felt more coordinated and more coherent.

When I poked my head out of my bedroom, Clive
sprung awake from his makeshift bed on my lounge, rubbing at his
eyes. “You okay?”

“Yep. Just going for a pee.”

“More water?”

“I can get it.”

Finished with the bathroom, I poured myself a
glass of water, sipping it as I leaned against the kitchen bench.
“So Farrell received my text message?”

“Yes. But ages after you sent it. The
ambulance took a long time to arrive.”

“Why? That person was having a heart attack.
They should have been there quicker.”

“Hospital ramping. All the ambulances were
stuck in queues at emergency departments, waiting for a free bed so
they could unload their patients. It was on the news last night.
There were people piled everywhere – in wheelchairs, on beds in
corridors waiting to be seen, stuck in the ambulances. Not a good
time to be sick around here.”

“My New Year’s resolution is to never be sick
again.”

“It’s not New Year’s Eve.”

“Don’t care. I’m making a fresh one. My old
one hasn’t panned out too well.”

“What was it?”

“To have a healthy, happy year.”

“Shit happens. Sometimes there’s not much you
can do about it.” And that was probably as philosophical as Clive
ever got.

“I’d like to return to finish the job at the
conference today.”

“I don’t think that’s wise. We don’t know the
full side effects of this drug yet.”

“I’m fine, really. And I hate to abandon a
job before it’s finished. Please?”

He stood, ready to depart. “I’m assigning
another man to the job with Farrell. But if you want to go as an
interested observer, who am I to get in your way?”

“I take it that means no uniform?”

“It’s too baggy on you anyway,” he said, the
suggestion of an ironic smile shadowing his lips.

By the time I was ready to leave, I’d missed
catching a lift with Farrell and the other guy. Dressed in jeans, I
drove my own car to the convention centre, using the same carpark
where so much drama had taken place yesterday. I hadn’t been lying
to Clive when I’d said I felt fine, with no more residual
aftereffects than someone almost recovered from a mild cold.

I found Farrell in no time. He stood with a
new guy I’d only ever seen in the crowd of men, either side of the
hall doors.

Farrell watched me approaching with no
expression on his face. I wondered if I had any expression on mine.
Closing in on them, I nodded to the new guy.

“Chalmers, you scared the life out of me by
disappearing yesterday.”

“Have you heard how that guy you worked on is
going?”

“Tom told me this morning that he survived. I
had to continue CPR for about an hour while we waited and waited.
The paramedics had been working eighteen hours straight with no
breaks. It was a mess.”

“Must have been a busy day all round. The
cops were too busy to process me.”

“Heard you spent some time in the watch
house.”

“I can’t recommend it for your next
vacation.”

“Better cancel that booking I had.” We looked
at each other. “Why, Chalmers? Why’d you put yourself in so much
danger?”

“You told me to keep an eye on them. You were
too busy to help me and I didn’t want to lose track of them.”

“You should have called the police, not tried
to deal with those five people yourself.” And for a rebuke, it was
a pretty mild one. I didn’t mind hearing it.

“The cops were so busy they mightn’t have
been able to do anything about it for ages.”

“They prioritise the abduction of children.
That’s why the information was given to the media to
publicise.”

“Did the police say anything to you about
Malefic when they interviewed you?”

“Only that he’d disappeared. They’d managed
to trace his address using the van’s registration details. But when
they got there, it was abandoned.”

“Pity. He really needs to answer some
questions. I have no idea what he planned for those girls, but he
said something about an important ceremony and that he needed them
to free himself from his master.”

“All this ‘master’ business sickens me,”
Farrell said contemptuously.

“I wouldn’t care less about it so long as
they weren’t trying to hurt others.”

A bent over figure reached the top of the
outside stairs, and headed our way, distracting us from our
conversation. We waited patiently while Old Dude limped towards us,
decidedly less cheery than he had been yesterday.

“You okay?” I asked more out of politeness
than interest.

“No,” he croaked. “That woman. She’s
insatiable. I had to come back here to escape her.”

“She wasn’t keen to reclaim her virginity
today? It’s her last chance.”

“No,” he answered, groaning as he shifted his
posture. “She said she never wants to hear the word ‘virgin’ again.
This was the safest place for me to get away from her.”

“So what happened to you? You don’t look so
good. Or walk so good.”

“She was piece of roughie. I have suffered in
the name of love,” he said nobly.

“Lust, you mean?”

“Whatever. I had to shove an icepack down my
undies to help the swelling go down. Oh God, my poor goolies. It
feels as if someone kicked them ten times.”

Despite my best efforts, I barely muffled my
laughter, watching as he shuffled painfully through the doors into
the hall.

“That alone was worth the effort of coming
in,” I laughed freely.

“Why did you come back anyway?” enquired
Farrell.

I was saved from answering by the stampede of
attendees exiting the hall for coffee and the bathroom.

“Whoa! Stand clear,” Farrell warned, pulling
me to the side.

A young girl jumped on me, throwing her arms
around me and pinning me with a wet kiss on my cheek.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you
so
much. You saved my best friend, Stacey, from that monster. She rang
me from the hospital last night. I told her I saw on the news you’d
been arrested. She demanded to speak to the detectives immediately
so she could tell them
everything
that really happened.
She’s
so
headstrong like that.”

“Hold on,” I said, extracting her from my
body with much effort. “Are you Juanita?”

“Yes,” she said, delighted I knew her name.
“Stacey and I have been best friends since we born. I don’t know
what I would have done if something happened to her. That weird man
scared me, so I went back to the hall. I hoped Stacey would follow
me, but she didn’t. I was sick in the stomach when I heard she was
missing.” Another throat-choking hug, another sloppy kiss. “Thank
you
so
much for keeping her safe.”

“Juanita, you did exactly the right thing in
that situation in seeking out safety. That was very sensible of
you. I only wished the other girls had shown as much sense. They
could have saved themselves from a frightening experience.”

She waved shyly to me when she re-entered the
hall, summoned to the next session.

I didn’t hang around for much longer. There
was nothing I could do here and I doubted much exciting would
happen today. I went home. I finally did my washing, in between
loads managing to ring Mum, take a phone call from Dr Kincaid about
my health, delete eight loved-up pics from Dixie, and cook and
hand-deliver fresh muffins to an appreciative Daniel and Niq. By
mid-afternoon, I was bored out of my brain.

Clive rang to tell me Corby was picking me up
in fifteen minutes to escort me to the police station so I could
give my statement about the events of yesterday. I didn’t bother
changing, deciding my jeans were good enough for them.

As we waited in the reception area, Brian
walked past with his partner, Jed.

“Tilly,” he pulled up in surprise. “What are
you doing here?”

“Don’t ask,” I warned, hoping to head off a
pile of awkward questions.

“Are you in any trouble?”

“Nope,” I said honestly, glad he hadn’t asked
me that yesterday.

“Who’s this?”

“This is Corby, Heller’s lawyer. Corby, this
is my brother, Brian and his partner, Jed. They’re homicide
detectives here.”

“Hey,” said Jed, his brow furrowed. “I
remember seeing your name recently. Wasn’t it something to do with
those kidnapped girls?”

“Yep,” I admitted reluctantly.

“You sure you’re not in any trouble? Maybe I
could help?” Brian offered. “Most people don’t usually bring a
lawyer with them unless there’s trouble around.”

“Thanks, Brian,” I said, genuinely touched.
“But I’m only here to give a statement about yesterday. Corby’s
here to keep an eye on me, not the detectives.” Corby laughed
softly at that little joke.

“You ring me if you need any help or advice.
Okay?”

“Thanks again.”

“You have a brother who’s a detective here,
and you never once called on him for help yesterday?” Corby asked
when they’d left.

“No. I usually don’t want him to know what
I’m up to. Or more specifically, I don’t want my mother to know
what I’m up to.”

“Ah, now I understand. I tell my mother I’m
an accountant.”

The detective who finally came out for us
looked crumpled and frazzled. I guess spending a night talking to
fuzzy-minded teenagers would do that to any person.

In the small interview room, I told him and
his partner my side of events much more calmly and coherently than
I’d managed yesterday. I tried to recall every detail I could about
the place we’d been taken and Malefic’s strange insistence on
needing the girls for some ceremony with his own ‘master’. They
started at me in disbelief, their pens poised over their notes.
“Look, I know it sounds fanciful, but that’s what he said. I
think
he called it an annunciation ceremony, or something
similar to that. But I didn’t get to hear any more about it.”