“You’re right, Mia,” Martha concurred. “It’s just that many of the members in our group are truly panicking. After all, the victims have all been doctors so far.”
She didn’t look too upset when she said this considering her own loss, so I ventured to ask, “This is what I wanted to see you about, Martha. Aside from what you told me so far, is there anything, no matter how small, you think may be of help?”
Martha looked from me to Joy and back to me again. “Not that I can think of at the moment. I already told you about overhearing the phone conversation with Cliff Downes. And then you found the horse racing betting slips. I gave you the names of the horses I remembered; and that’s pretty much it.”
I sighed with disappointment. It really didn’t look like Martha was going to be able to offer any more help so I changed my line of questioning. “Regarding Cliff Downes, what do you know about him?” Perhaps, Martha could shed some light into the despicable Dr Downes.
Martha shrugged. “Not much. He played the odd game of golf with Jim. We didn’t really socialise with him outside the hospital.” She paused and thought for a while. “I know he’s considered a bit of a looker by the ladies, and he’s always seen with a different woman.”
“And you’re positive he’s in this cheaters’ club?”
She nodded. “As far as I know. I mean, Jim was talking to him about this on the phone conversation I overheard. So I’d say yes.”
“But he’s married, right?”
“Who knows with him,” Joy interjected. “It seems his marriage is already on the rocks, hence his wife’s absence. Whatever he told you, Mia, is probably a lie. He’s tried to crack onto practically every woman here on the ship.”
This was news to me. “Oh?”
Joy didn’t need encouragement to keep talking. “And he doesn’t seem to discriminate between younger and older women. He tries it with all of them—he even tried it on me!” She sniffed at the idea.
“Really? And did you tell your husband?”
“No. I didn’t want to have any trouble, but I did tell Cliff to take a hike or I’d kick his balls in.”
I laughed, remembering how I’d actually carried out what Joy had threatened him with.
Joy threw me a knowing look. “I see he tried it on you, too.”
“Yes, he did,” I told her, trusting her to keep it to herself. “But he didn’t get very far.”
“It seems he’s been keeping a low profile of late though. Someone saw him limping only the other day,” Joy said with humour in her voice. “Could it be you almost castrated the man? If so, you deserve a medal, my dear.”
We had a good laugh at this. Then, my drink arrived and I turned back to Martha. “About the horses, can you remember any more names other than the ones you gave me?”
Martha looked thoughtful for a few moments and shook her head. “No. I’m so sorry, Mia. I would love to be able to help you, but the names I remember are the ones I already gave you. And the only reason I remember them is because Jim won quite a bit of money on those horses. There was...one horse...” She paused, as if trying to remember. I held my breath, not wanting to break her concentration. “Well,” she said finally, “this may not be anything of value, but there was this one horse that seemed to be a favourite with Jim. He was always talking about it and said he’d won on this horse more than on any other.”
“And the horse’s name is?” I prompted.
“Erotic Heart,” she replied, a curious look in her eyes. “The only thing that confused me was instead of saying he’d won on the horse, Jim actually used the word ‘scored’. I’m not sure if this is horse racing lingo or not, but there you have it.”
I sat, transfixed, my heartbeat suddenly accelerating to a rapid tempo. I wanted to kiss Martha. Without knowing, she’d provided me with a clue, and I couldn’t wait to go and see Chris to share the information with him.
~~~
“I think I got it, Chris!” I was so excited when I entered his cabin that Chris had to take me by the arms, guide me to one of the stuffed chairs, and push me into it.
“Calm down and tell me all about it,” he ordered as he took the other chair.
“I think the common denominator among the victims is a woman—a woman with whom all the victims had an illicit affair. And she goes by the name of Erotic Heart, just like the horse.”
Chris regarded me with wide eyes. “How did you come to this conclusion?”
I told him about my conversation with Martha and Barry’s favourite horse. “And here’s the clincher,” I remarked, my eyes shining with elation. “Barry told his wife he ‘scored’ on this horse more than once! Martha was confused and thought he meant he’d won on the horse, but I think he had an affair with whoever Erotic Heart is.”
“Shit!” Chris rubbed his temples, trying to take in the implication of the situation. “So what you’re saying is the members of the cheaters’ club took on names like the horses they used to bet on. At the same time, Erotic Heart is probably the wife of one of the doctors or she could be single—we don’t know this yet—but she had affairs with each victim?”
I nodded. “It’s exactly what I’m saying. And if I’m right, I think Erotic Heart is married.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because, my young friend, the killer is a male. And I think these are crimes of passion. We’re not dealing with a serial killer, only a multiple killer. The kills are not very organised, are they? The MOs are all different. So my take on it is that the killer is Erotic Heart’s spouse and he’s found out about the affairs and is now killing off her lovers one by one.”
Chris sat, looking stunned. I smiled with satisfaction as everything seemed to make sense all of a sudden. When Chris recovered, he shook his head in wonder and said, “Man, it looks like we’re dealing with a male version of a bunny boiler!”
I nodded. “I’m afraid so. Which means we need to identify who this woman is pronto! If we find her identity, we’ll be able to get to the killer.”
“But what if the killer disposed of her, too?”
“That’s a chance we have to take. We’ve had no female victims to date. So the killer either took her out and dumped her body back home somewhere, in order to come on this cruise to wreak his revenge, or she’s travelling with him even as we speak, but she’s none the wiser as to what hubby’s up to.”
Chapter 17
“Well, this is going to make our job slightly easier,” Chris stated. “At least, we have the common denominator. So rather than read through thousands of forum threads, all we have to do is search for all the posts made by Erotic Heart.”
“Is the internet connection back on?” I asked, sipping on coffee we’d ordered from room service.
“It sure is.” Chris poured himself a cup of coffee and stirred in a teaspoon of sugar. “By the way, I’ve been able to confirm van Horn as the administrator of the site.”
“How did you do that?” I pulled up a chair next to his at the small desk so we could both be in front of the laptop screen.
“Too long a story and very technical for you, Ferrari. Needless to say, it’s definitely van Horn. He used a different name on the actual site, but I traced a number of IP addresses coinciding with some of his posts back to his ISP.” He saw the confusion in my eyes, and explained, “Basically, each internet service provider, or ISP, uses a whole bunch of IP numbers, or addresses, for their users. These numbers identify the actual service provider, among other things. They also tell us when the user posted to a site or used the internet. This creates a log of dates and times when the user is on the net, and...” he paused and shook his head when he saw the glaze over my eyes. “Never mind, just take it from me; I confirmed van Horn as the administrator and owner of the site despite the fact that he used Neurotic Boy as his avatar and his internet account is under the name of Burt Horner.”
“Then, how did you connect him with van Horn?” I was still confused.
“Because he used a real c
redit card to pay for his internet service, and this is how I knew the account belonged to him.”
I was impressed. “Well done. We’ll leave aside the fact that you’re doing something illegal by hacking; but well done all the same.”
Chris smiled his thanks and turned to the laptop, bringing up the Neurotic Erotics Club site. “By the way, Multiswitch, whose real name is Wanda Kerr, made a one-off post on the forum. I don’t think she’s the common denominator, not if we’re right about Erotic Heart.”
I agreed, and Chris then searched for the name Erotic Heart. Suddenly, the page changed to a summary of comments posted by the user under different threads. I looked at the bottom of the screen and saw there were twenty-seven more pages of comments. It seemed Erotic Heart was a very busy lady.
“Man, this chick’s into everything!” Chris exclaimed while we did a quick look-through of the threads she had posted under.
“I think we’re on the right track with her,” I replied when my eyes scanned all the categories—illicit liaisons, threesomes, fetishes, anal, S&M, and a whole lot more.
Chris clicked on a few random summary pages. “There’s so much she posted. So where to from here?”
“I guess we read through some of the comments to see if she mentions anybody in particular, especially if any of the other horse names come up in her posts.”
Chris nodded and clicked back to page one on the summary of posts. The first comment was under the illicit liaisons thread; it was dated 5 August 2012.
“Today is my seven year anniversary on this site. I wanted to say I’m so happy I found you guys. Before this, I used to have to make do with internet dating and in my younger years, it was all done by posting ads in a newspaper. I’ve enjoyed every steamy minute of my sexual encounters and can’t wait for more.”
Following this post, there were a few replies of congratulations, but none of them were from names we recognised. “She looks like she’s been at it for a long time,” I commented as Chris clicked on another post. This one came from the threesomes thread and it was dated 8 January 2007, one of her early posts.
“They say there’s a first time for everything, and this was a big first for me. I had the hottest sex in years with one sexy stud taking me from the front and one from the back at the same time. Let’s just say I was the meat in the sandwich.” The post was followed by a smiley icon with its tongue hanging out of its mouth. Again, we looked to the replies, but did not recognise any of the names. SexManiac said: “You were worth it, darling. I loved your tight butt.” Erotic Heart came back with: “And I loved your big, hard cock.” MysteryMan posted: “Enjoyed sticking it to ya, love!” To which Erotic Heart replied: “And you’re finger lickin’ good. Mmmm.”
“This is disgusting!” I protested. Despite this, I felt wet between my legs and knew I had to get out of the room lest Chris see me blush. When he didn’t reply, I turned to him and noticed his own flushed face going right to the very roots of his hairline. One look down at his shorts told me the reason why. “Okay, that’s it!” I declared firmly. “We can’t do this together.”
Chris remained silent, probably absolutely mortified at his erection. I took pity on him. “I tell you what. Let’s take turns doing this. I read through the comments on certain pages and you look at others. We’ll keep tabs on which pages we’ve searched and look for anyone posting with one of the horse names.”
Chris simply nodded and handed me his laptop. He said in a low tone, “You stay here and continue. I’m going out for a walk.” He slammed out of the cabin before I had a chance to reply.
I went back to the comments, feeling a lot more at ease without Chris looking over my shoulder, and worked my way through ten pages. It took me around two hours to do this, but I didn’t stop to read the details of the posts that were sometimes so explicit they brought colour to my face and wild images to my mind. Instead, I simply looked at the usernames of those who commented on Erotic Heart’s posts. I had been going at this for about an hour and a half with my eyes feeling dry and tired, when I finally spotted one. At last, a name I recognised! Footloose.
This gave me renewed energy and within another half hour, I came across Neurotic Boy and Adrenaline Rush. I was now on a high, but before I could continue, Chris returned.
He looked more relaxed than when he had left. “Sorry about before,” he apologised when he entered the cabin. “I—”
I gave him a reassuring smile. “No need to explain, Chris. It happens to the best of us. Now, get yourself over here. You’re going to be a busy boy tonight, hacking whatever it is you hack into.”
All other thoughts forgotten, Chris took a seat on the chair next to me and I explained what I’d been doing. “It was taking too long to read the comments themselves, though they are more than spicy; so I simply started going through the posts and scanning for names that might jump out at me. So far, aside from Neurotic Boy, which I knew we’d find sooner or later, I found Footloose and Adrenaline Rush.”
Chris looked happy all of a sudden. “That’s excellent work! Thanks, Mia.”
I stood and stretched. Time for a rest—and later a shower to cool myself off. “Try to find out who these people are. We’ll update the others at dinner. And tomorrow, I’ll look through some more of the posts and see if I can come up with anyone else. We need to identify if the victims match the names I found on the forum. We also have to find out who Erotic Heart is—and if we have time, try to come up with any other names we can link to the medical convention list. I mean, for all we know, half of them could be part of the cheaters’ club. And if any of them had something to do with Erotic Heart, we could have a huge body count on our hands.”
Chris nodded, already at work.
“I’ll give you a call before eight. We’re meeting Dobbs and Smythe at the buffet restaurant.” I left the cabin and went to mine, where I fell into a deep sleep the moment my head hit the pillow.
I slept for a couple of hours and awoke feeling refreshed. My neck was a little stiff after sitting for so long in front of Chris’s laptop, but a hot shower would soon take care of this.
Whilst the rejuvenating stream of steamy water cascaded over my body, I thought about all I’d been able to unearth from the cheaters’ forum. I was pleased with the results and with any luck Chris would come across further information.
My mind kept busy as I got out of the shower and started to get ready for dinner. I tried to imagine Erotic Heart. For some reason, I saw her as a blonde siren with beguiling green eyes and red pouty lips—a woman whose passions ruled her completely. Although I hadn’t spent too much time reading the details of her posts, I’d gleaned enough to know she was a truly erotic creature with a voracious appetite for sex and experimentation.
I was no prude myself, but some of the stuff Erotic Heart was into shocked me to the core. Not so much because she seemed to enjoy it, but because she allowed her body to be used by the men she went with. She allowed pain and humiliation in her sexual adventures with S&M; she took part in not just threesomes but sexual parties of four, and even five, where she was the only female. Men used her body in the most depraved of ways, and yet she seemed to be proud of it, enough to post about her exploits in the forum.
I shook my head when I saw my reflection in the mirror. I was a passionate woman who enjoyed lusty sex, and I had a penchant for younger men. In addition, I wasn’t averse to trying certain things, but certainly none of what Erotic Heart was into. I respected myself, and my body, too much to allow anyone to use me in that manner.
This made me wonder what went on in the woman’s head. My intuition told me she was obviously very unhappy in her marriage. I recalled she’d mentioned this in one of her posts; something about her steady marriage and how her husband was more or less the “missionary position” type. So I could relate to why she wanted to experiment, but to go so far!
The other thing I wondered about was her age. In the post, she talked about her seven-year anniversary on the forum. She also men
tioned that prior to this she’d used internet dating and newspaper ads. I tried to remember when internet dating first became popular. This must’ve been around the late 90s. So the time span between now and back then would have to be around fifteen or so years. Plus she didn’t mention how long she was answering newspaper ads. Therefore, depending on how old she was when she started doing this, she could have been cheating on her husband for more than fifteen years!
I thought back to the days of newspaper ads, plus actual matchmaking agencies, and this brought me to my early twenties, which meant Erotic Heart could be of a similar age to me or older. She’d mentioned in a post that she mainly stayed in her marriage for the financial security.
Again, I shook my head and then dropped my line of thinking. I only hoped Chris would surprise us all with the identity of Erotic Heart.
~~~
“What do you mean you can’t find out who she is?” I exclaimed with frustration.
Chris, Dobbs, Smythe and I were sitting at one of the outdoor tables on the stern of the ship, just outside the buffet restaurant. The night air was bracing, but not too cold to eat out. Even so, most diners sat inside and we pretty much had the whole deck to ourselves.
When we’d met at the restaurant, Chris and I gave them a rundown of what we found. Smythe seemed to enjoy some of the details I gave on Erotic Heart’s adventures, even though I glossed over them quickly. I detected a smile that told me he was picturing the woman in all the acts I described, though I kept them as circumspect as possible. Dobbs, on the other hand, looked vaguely interested, but seemed more interested in his food. I found this humorous and this made it easier for me to relate my findings.
The South Pacific Murders Page 16