Zora's Dawn (Defender Book 1)
Read Zora's Dawn (Defender Book 1) Online
Authors: Sheryl Lee
ZORA’S
DAWN
BOOK
ONE OF THE DEFENDER SERIES
BY
SHERYL
LEE
Text
Copyright © 2015 Sheryl Lee
All
Rights Reserved
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To
the many people who have stood by me while I wrote and re-wrote this book I
thank you all. You know who you are.
Zora Hayes
sighed with pleasure as she sipped her first cup of tea for the morning.
Staring out of the window she studied the dry brown grass in her tiny back
garden and wondered if it would rain soon. Her flower garden was wilted and
sad, even though she was watering diligently. It was crazy weather; in tropical
north Queensland in January the grass should be luxuriant and green, not patchy
and brown. An unusually dry weather pattern had sucked all the moisture out of
the ground, causing water diviners to start advertising in the local paper and
the news media to speculate on the strange weather.
She picked
up the teapot to pour herself another cup, just as her mobile phone vibrated. Glancing
at the caller ID she saw it was a fellow journalist, Powers. While she and
Powers were work colleagues, she tried to keep a certain distance from him. He was
friendly enough but there was something about him that made her uneasy. Frowning
slightly she finished pouring before picking up the phone. Before she could
even open her mouth Powers was talking. “Did you hear what happened, did
Malcolm get onto you yet?”
Zora’s
frown deepened. “Good morning to you too Powers, I hope you are well, I’m fine,
thank you for asking. No, why would Malcolm contact me?”
“Pardon
me, good morning, enjoy your cup of tea. Be prepared for a call from him.”
Zora
paused with the cup in her hand, how did he know what she was doing? One of the
reasons she kept him at a distance was this unsettling feeling that he could
almost see her even when he obviously could not.
“Zora? Can
you focus please?”
Dark
auburn eyebrows pulled in tight over golden eyes, Zora counted slowly to 10
before replying. “I’m focused thank you Powers. There has been no contact from
Malcolm or anyone else. Why, what has happened?”
“There was
a body found in a canefield by some poor guy who had stopped at the side of the
road for a call of nature.”
“Someone
died in a canefield? Snake bite or something?” There were plenty of venomous
snakes in the district and they were often to be found hunting rats and mice in
the canefields so it was not an unreasonable thought, but Zora could not
remember it ever happening.
“No, much
more gruesome. This was a murder like nothing that has happened before, here or
anywhere really. Look, Malcolm will call you shortly, I just wanted to give you
some warning. You’d better get out of your pyjamas, you’ll need to come into
the newsroom.”
Zora
glanced down at her purple boxer shorts and singlet, liberally sprinkled with
bright pink hearts. She held the phone away from her ear and studied it
suspiciously. How did he do that? It was borderline creepy. Realising that
Powers was still talking she put the phone back to her ear. “Put on jeans and
sneakers, not those stilettos you always like to wear, in case we have to go
out to the scene.”
“Me? I’m
the social reporter, I won’t need to go view the scene of a murder!” Really,
her stomach was churning at the thought of it. Even if the body was removed,
and surely it would be, wouldn’t there be blood and maybe a smell? While keen
to move up from social reporter, Zora was not sure violent crime was the
logical next step. But then who would have thought there would be a murder in
this sleepy little area?
“You’re
going to have to trust me on this Zora, you really need to be involved. Now
hurry up and drink your tea and go get dressed. Malcolm will call you soon.”
Without any further explanation Powers ended the call.
Zora
shrugged, Powers was a strange man, albeit a handsome one. The combination of deep
brown hair and dark chocolate eyes against white skin seemed highly desirable
to women, but for her an uncomfortable feeling of familiarity and that way he
had of reading her mind meant his good looks left her cold. She had once heard
a work colleague call him a Greek statue come to life which at the time had
made her snort some tea out of her nose. Shaking her head Zora dismissed Powers
from her mind and picked up her cup. If he was right she had better drink fast.
She hated having to start the day without her morning ritual of draining the
pot.
Sitting in
the newsroom later on that morning Zora listened with only part of her mind as
Malcolm explained the media ban that had been brought into force on the grisly
murder. That being the case there was nothing much for them to do, so she
wasn’t sure why they all had to be there. Not that the entire news crew was in
the meeting room. For sure there was Malcolm, herself, Powers and Sunny, but
the rest of their small team had failed to show. Sunny, a slender blue eyed
blonde with an infectious smile winked at her and Zora smiled back. She liked
Sunny, she was a friendly happy girl – rather like a human Labrador really,
always smiling and ready for fun.
Zora was
only too happy to leave once Malcolm had finished explaining that the police
had requested the media ban due to similar murders elsewhere in the country.
She wholeheartedly agreed that they didn’t want any copycat murders, nor panic
in the general population – although in that respect she did feel that the
general public should be warned to be careful. She and Sunny left the building
together, chatting amiably about meeting up for coffee later on that day.
She was
less than pleased to find Powers waiting beside her car, his admittedly awesome
body nicely displayed in jeans and a tight black t-shirt. Zora stared at his
glowing white skin, wondering if he actually glowed in the dark, and irritated at
herself for the image that popped into her head. Seeing the knowing look in his
eyes and the smug smile curving his generous lips she averted her eyes and
frowned crossly instead.
“What!”
she snapped. “I’ve come in and what a waste of my day off that was.”
Powers
stayed leaning against the driver side door, preventing her from opening it.
“We need
to go look at the murder site.”
Zora
blinked up at him in astonishment. “How can we do that, we don’t know where it
is, and even if we did, we are supposed to stay well clear of any of this. It’s
a police matter and we are to keep out of it.”
“I know
where it is, I have a contact in the police department as you know. You do need
to see it, so let’s go.”
Zora’s
golden eyes widened in surprise. “
I
need to see it? Why do I need to see
it? It’s nothing to do with me!” She grabbed absently at renegade tendrils of
her long auburn hair that the breeze was blowing into her face.
Powers
reached out and captured a lock of her hair, winding it around his finger and
looking at it thoughtfully. “Like fire, your hair and your eyes, they are like
fire.” He began sliding the lock around and around his finger and Zora stared,
hypnotised by this totally uncharacteristic behaviour. Her hair seemed to glow
brighter where it touched his fingers, but she knew that was just her
imagination. With a final gentle tug Powers released the lock and it bounced
back onto her shoulder. Shoving both hands into his pockets he studied her
thoughtfully.
“You do
need to see it Zora, we both do. This is something we both have to pursue. I
think there is something more to this than the police will ever find out.”
Standing
her ground Zora asked, “Like what? Do you know something Powers? If you do you
should disclose it to the police.”
Powers
just shook his head. “No I don’t really know anything, it’s just a feeling I
have. I’ll tell you about it, but first I would really like you to come with me
to the site, and just take a look at it. I’ll buy you coffee and a nice sugary
donut if you do.”
Zora
sighed, everybody know she loved the combination of coffee and donut. “Fine, your
car or mine?”
Powers
raised an eyebrow and turned to look at her little Nissan Micra. It was baby
pink and had eyelashes painted above the headlights and Zora loved the
foolishness of it. “I think my car might be a little faster.”
Sighing
again, Zora followed him without comment to his much larger 4WD vehicle. She
hated these cars, so big and bulky they were almost impossible to see around in
car parks and at traffic intersections. She had to admit though that they were
a sensible choice in a town with questionable at best road surfaces. Ignoring
his helping hand she clambered up into the passenger side, wriggling a bit to
get comfortable as he pulled out of the newsroom carpark.
Powers was
silent as he negotiated the traffic, and Zora was content to stare out of the
passenger window, wondering where they were going. There were canefields all
around the district so they could be going almost anywhere. Thinking logically,
if this was as gruesome a murder as it seemed they would surely have to be
going somewhere pretty remote, otherwise the chances of something being heard
or seen by somebody seemed high.
When they
turned off the main highway onto a smaller connecting road she gave herself a
mental high five. This road was reasonably well travelled during the day but
there were few houses, it was mostly canefields and bush. She wondered what
time of day the body was found and jumped when Powers answered her unspoken
question.
“The man
who found the body had stopped for a call of nature on his way home from work.
He works night shift and was coming home at about seven this morning. I believe
the murder happened before dawn though.”
Zora gazed
thoughtfully out the window, hoping Powers believed her to be absorbing what he
said, and she was – but she was also trying to remember if she asked her
question out loud or only in her head as she thought. And if the latter, was it
only a coincidence or had Powers read her mind? Suddenly realising how absurd
her thoughts were she shook her head slightly to clear it. She should be
focusing on why they were travelling along this road, she should be accessing
her reporter instincts. The only problem with that was she was not so sure she
had any reporter instincts. She was new to the job, and so far had only
travelled the nightclub circuit and covered events at the Entertainment Centre.
Her
musings were interrupted as Powers pulled the vehicle off the road and turned
off the engine. In the silence Zora gazed around. That they were at the right
place was obvious by the police tape cordoning off a section of the canefield.
However there was nothing else to show that anything had happened. Zora turned
to Powers who was unclipping his seatbelt.
“So all we
report is that a dead man was found in a canefield and police are treating it
as suspicious? What about the poor man who found him? He’s for sure going to
tell his mates what he saw.”
Powers
said nothing, just hopped out of the vehicle and came around to her side to
open the door. She was a little surprised when he offered a hand to help her
out, but gave a mental shrug. It was very difficult to get out of one of these
monstrosities with grace when you weren’t used to it and you were wearing
heels. Accepting his hand she allowed him to help her down, stumbling a little
on the uneven ground. Powers slid a hand under her elbow until she found her
balance, a courtesy which was very out of character for him, at least where she
was concerned. The feel of his warm hand on her skin was causing an unwelcome
case of goose bumps, so she stepped away a little and rubbed her arms briskly.
“I have no
doubt that man will tell his friends about what he actually saw, but I think it
will be contained locally. I am sure the police would have stressed the
possibility of a copycat murder.” Powers moved closer to her as he spoke, and
took her arm again. Zora mentally rolled her eyes as his touch caused a fresh
batch of goose bumps. Deciding that she was just spooked to be at a murder
scene Zora went with Powers to the cordoned off area.