“Yes, but he meant us, the adults—not his son. David has no idea Chris helps me with investigations,” I confessed.
Dobbs remained silent and Smythe frowned momentarily. “Well, don’t worry your head about it just now. I’ll deal with Rourke when the time comes.”
I was surprised at his comment but felt warmed by it, or perhaps it was the alcohol I’d consumed.
Dobbs stifled a yawn and glanced at his watch. “It’s almost 1.00am. I say we all get some shuteye. Nothing more we can do tonight.”
We left the café and started making our way toward the lifts. “I need a walk first,” I said to the others. “I can’t go to sleep with my thoughts in such a jumble.”
Dobbs yawned again, and this time he couldn’t suppress it. “You go, Mia. I’m done for.” By this time, we reached the lifts and one of them stopped on our floor, its doors swishing open. “Phil, you coming?”
“I think I’ll walk with Mia. Remember, safety in numbers.”
I tried not to smile when I caught a wink from Dobbs before the doors slid shut. Smythe led the way to the Promenade Deck that was deserted when we went out and leaned at the rail, looking out to sea. No moon was present, but the stars in the indigo sky provided us with a twinkling dome of light.
“Not too cold for you?” Smythe asked, glancing at the sleeveless white cotton dress I wore.
I warmed up under his gaze and felt like a heater had just been switched on. “Um... no, no,” I assured him. “The breeze is surprisingly mild tonight. Not a nice night for murder, is it?” I decided to keep our conversation on a professional level.
“Is it ever?” His eyes skimmed the horizon that was practically invisible as you couldn’t see where the ocean met the sky in the moonless night.
I shrugged. “I guess not. You know, it’s just spooky this killer is getting so bold. I mean, going to the victim’s cabin is a huge leap from pushing someone overboard in the dark.”
Smythe nodded. “I know. But oftentimes this kind of killer wants to be caught, albeit at a subconscious level. Remember, he probably called in the first kill himself. I guess he felt a certain power in doing so.”
“You mean so the world can validate his acts?”
“Something like that. I’m no forensic psychologist, but I’ve dealt with enough cases in my career. First, they’re really careful, but in later kills they seem to get less guarded, sometimes even sloppy.”
I frowned. “But we’re not dealing with a serial killer. It’s just multiple homicides—a crime of passion.”
“Sometimes there’s a fine line between them,” Smythe replied, his jaw firm. “Whatever they are, I hate these guys. They’re the scourge of society.”
I thought back to the last case I’d worked where Smythe saved my life. I shivered involuntarily and almost jumped when I felt his hands on my shoulders.
“You are cold after all,” he said. “Let’s go back inside.”
“No, it’s okay. I was just thinking about... well... the last case. I never did thank you properly for looking after me.” I did nothing to shake his hands off my shoulders, nor did he take them off.
He turned me to face him squarely. “Mia...”
The magnetism between us was too much for me and I thought my skin would start sizzling any second now. I gently pulled away. “I do appreciate your saving my life and sticking by me, even though I drove you insane with my interfering.”
We both turned back to the rail and Smythe laughed gently. “You really are a handful at times. But I also have you to thank for helping solve those murders.”
“And Chris, of course. I couldn’t have done it without him,” I reminded him.
He nodded. “Of course. Chris is a bright fellow and he’ll be a credit to any future employer.”
I smiled. “Well, right now, he’s coming in very handy, and he’s a credit to me. I’m like a mother to him, you know?” I decided to confide in him. “Chris’s mother never had much time for him.”
“Ah yes, you mean the beautiful Elena.” Smythe had met her in the course of his investigation of a suicide at our hotel about a year ago. “So where is she now?”
“Who knows? I think she’s enjoying life in the rich playgrounds of Europe. According to Chris, she barely keeps in touch.”
Smythe shook his head. “Her loss, I’m sure. And I assume she cleaned out old man Rourke?”
My body stiffened for a moment and Smythe shot me a querying look. “I wasn’t privy to his settlement arrangements with her.”
“So what’s wrong?”
I played the innocent. “What’s wrong with what?”
He smiled. “You’ve gone all uppity on me.”
I hated it when he read me so well. “I have? Well, maybe it’s because David’s not ‘old man Rourke’, as you put it. In fact, he’s younger than you, Smythe.”
“Okay, so he’s what... forty, forty-one?”
“Forty to your forty-four, if I remember your age correctly.”
“Fine, so I’m forty-four. Big deal! I’m not in competition with him, you know. But you seem to think so.”
This threw me. “It’s not like that,” I stated a tad too firmly.
Curious eyes regarded me. “But I guess at some stage it was?”
I raised my chin and looked out to sea. “No comment.”
Smythe’s hands suddenly reached out for me again, and this time he brought my body right up against his. I felt the hard muscles of his stomach and chest against my breasts and I turned to putty in his hands. My five-foot-nothing frame was at the mercy of his six-foot-three athletic build. I could have struggled, but didn’t.
“What, no complaints, comments, or otherwise?” he taunted me. I simply gazed into his eyes with a passion I couldn’t stem, much to my annoyance, and heard him say, “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.”
Before I could do or say anything, his mouth assaulted mine in a kiss that left nothing to the imagination. I opened up under him and his tongue invaded me while his arms tightened around my body, making escape impossible.
We kissed for a long time—meltingly, passionately, erotically—and I wanted the kiss to go on and on, never to end. I felt safe, loved. I was home. How would I ever kiss another man after this? I pushed closer into him, if that were possible, and felt his hardness against me. Images of us lying naked in his bed with him inside me invaded my mind. I instantly felt wet. I couldn’t wait to have him.
“He’s a good lay...” The statement flashed abruptly into my head. Amanda Wilson’s statement, to be exact. She’d said this when describing Smythe’s skill in the bedroom, only a few months ago. I froze.
Smythe sensed the change in mood because all of a sudden I was free of his arms, his eyes regarding me with confusion. “What is it?”
Anger overtook my other emotions. “You have the nerve to ask?” I took a couple of steps back from him. “How dare you kiss me after professing your love for Amanda just a few short months ago?” He went to answer, but I didn’t let him. “You bloody men are all the same! Amanda didn’t want you, so now I’m your rebound shag?”
Smythe seemed genuinely shocked. “What are you talking about? I thought I was falling hard for Amanda, but there was always something in the background that stopped me from—”
I put up my hands to ward off any excuses. “Please, spare me the explanation, Smythe. Whatever was in the background certainly didn’t stop you from going to bed with her.”
Now, he looked like he was going to push me overboard. He was onto me in a flash, his hands on my shoulders, trying to shake me into reason. “It was you, Ferrari! You, who was always in the background. I wanted you! Are you satisfied now? And who said anything about a rebound shag? We didn’t even get to the bedroom, for God’s sake! And believe me, when we do, it will never, ever be a rebound anything!”
I was awestruck. I had no comeback. I hated myself because tears of frustration started rolling down my face and Smythe saw them. So I did the only thing
I could do, I pushed with all my might and sent him reeling a few steps away from me. Then, I ran away.
Chapter 19
My hopes of sleeping in were shattered with banging at my door early in the morning. I espied the bedside clock with one partly opened eye. 8.11am. Ugh!
“Whatever it is, piss off!” I yelled out with a croaky throat in need of water. I closed my eye again and shoved a pillow over my head.
The banging kept going. “Mia!” It was Chris’s voice.
I raised my head off the pillow for a moment. “Go away!” I yelled out again. “I don’t care if the friggin’ ship’s sinking. I need my beauty sleep. Now, be a good boy and buzz off.”
“I found the username for Downes on the forum,” he announced with persuasion in his tone.
Oh, he knew me too well! I bolted upright to a sitting position. “Wait a minute,” I called out and heard laughter from the other side of the door. This had better be good, I thought as I dragged myself out of bed and went to the bathroom to pee, brush my teeth and splash water over my face. Only then did I feel relatively human.
When I started to open the door, an arm stuck through the crack holding a steaming cup of strong coffee and brioche. Then, the rest of Chris’s body appeared with a wide smile on his face. He walked in and took a seat at the coffee table. He looked tired, but the smug glint in his eyes said it all.
I took a sip of the wonderfully aromatic coffee and a bite of brioche before I spoke. “Where’s your coffee?”
“Been drinking it through the whole night. I didn’t get any sleep yet. Too busy working while the likes of you was snoozing away.” He grinned.
It was a good thing he said this with humour in his voice; otherwise, he would have worn the hot coffee all over where it hurt the most. My eyes went to the spot, and sensing violence, he crossed his legs. I smiled and joined him at the table. “Thanks for breakfast. So what gives that can’t wait until I get up?”
“Man, I had one enlightening night,” he declared in wonder, “full of deviant sex and depravation.” He coloured a little despite his confident front.
“You’re growing up too fast, Chris. And before I forget, if your father should ask, you did NOT take any part in this investigation. He’d sack me from my job if he knew I introduced you to hard porn!”
He laughed. “You’re funny sometimes, you know? I’m my own man, Mia. Dad’s really flexible with me.”
“Okay. Okay. Just tell me what you found. You didn’t wake me up so early for chitchat.”
“Fine. Let’s get on with it. You know how Cliff Downes was a plastic surgeon?”
I shook my head. “Can’t recollect with all the doctors I met on this ship, but go on.”
“Get this.” Chris leaned forward in his chair. “His username is ‘Abreast of Everything’, just like the horse—plus his obvious love of boobs, I’d say.”
I almost choked on my coffee. I coughed and spluttered for a few seconds while Chris watched me in amusement. “Want some water?”
I nodded and he grabbed a small bottle from the mini-bar fridge and handed it to me. I took a few sips before I could speak. “With the reputation he had, he should’ve called himself ‘Pussy Fingers’ or something to that effect,” I stated with sarcasm. “But how did you find him?”
“I had to read through a huge number of Erotic Heart’s posts,” he explained, colour seeping into his face again.
“Hence the ‘enlightening night of deviant sex’,” I said, thinking about my own night of almost divine sexual pleasure. But I didn’t want to go there right now.
Chris stood and got himself a bottle of water from the mini-bar. I felt like teasing him but didn’t. The poor boy was probably getting very hot under the collar. It was one thing to read or watch porn on your own, but quite another when you had to relate it to someone who could be your mother. So I waited in silence until he composed himself.
He sat back down after drinking almost the whole bottle in one go. “I had to do a lot of cross-referencing to find him, but what helped was the name of the horse we got from Mrs Barry. You’d already found some of the others, but it took a while to find this one, namely because he had something with Erotic Heart in the earlier years. So I ran a search of Abreast of Everything’s posts and compared his summary with Erotic Heart’s. I almost missed it because they only shared one post.”
My curiosity got the better of me when I asked, “And what was it about?”
Chris went bright red in the face. “Well... um...”
“Come on, Chris. You came in here boasting about your night of deviant sex, so spill it!”
He shifted in his seat. “Let’s just say she gave him a tongue job he never forgot. He raved on about it on several other posts he exchanged with fellow enthusiasts.”
“Is that all? So he gets a cool blowjob. Big deal!” I couldn’t understand why Chris looked so embarrassed. After all, he was a young man of the world. He knew about these things.
“Um... no.” His voice interrupted my thoughts.
I gazed at him as his eyes looked down and to the side while his chin subtly pointed downward and over his shoulder. “Oh no! Don’t tell me! That is gross!” I exclaimed in a loud voice. “I’m eating here, you know!” I still held a piece of brioche in my hand, not sure if I should finish eating it. Chris remained silent while I took a few moments to get the gruesome image out of my head. “So the good doctor liked a bit of a sweep around his ‘back door’.” I couldn’t find any other way of putting it without puking.
Chris nodded. “You got it.”
“Does this woman have no self-respect whatsoever?” I launched on a new tirade. “I mean, she’s really into such humiliating acts. I can’t believe she boasts about them on the net. Who does that?”
“Some very sick puppies, I expect,” Chris answered, his tone confident once again now he’d managed to get the message across. “And whatever you do, don’t ask me about what they did with food.”
I shivered. “Eew! Don’t worry, I won’t ask. I enjoy my food too much to lose my appetite forever. But this explains why Downes was naked. Maybe, the killer did something to humiliate him where the ‘sun don’t shine’.”
“The doctor couldn’t find anything, but perhaps the forensic people in Hawaii will find something in the nether regions of his back passage. So what now? We placed all the victims in the forum. I’d say this is definitely our common denominator.”
I shook my head to dispel the image of something stuck up Downes’s arse and brought my focus back to Chris. “Yes,” I agreed. “You’re right about that. What about Erotic Heart, though? Any luck tracing who she is?”
“Not yet, I’m afraid. I don’t understand why she suddenly stopped posting.”
“Because she finally came to her senses?” I suggested, even though I didn’t believe it. “Albeit a little too late, of course.”
“Either that or she dropped off the face of the earth,” Chris offered.
“Okay. Let’s assume she went to another ISP—she should still be posting to the forum, right? Plus the service she had before would still contain archived records of her account.”
“Well, unless she’s come up with a new username, she’s not posting at all. As for archived records, yes, they should be there. But it all depends where the ISP stores its archives. Some companies do everything on one server; others may use several—each server having a different purpose.”
“So you’re saying they might use one server for active accounts and another for inactive ones?”
Chris shrugged. “It’s possible. They can do pretty much anything they like.”
I stood. “Well, it’s the only lead we have at the moment; so get into their archives. You tracked all the others, but you couldn’t track her. It’s plausible she’s in the inactive accounts.” I finished my water. “Go get some sleep, Chris. You look tired.” I noticed the dark shadows under his eyes for the first time since he entered my cabin. “We still have time before we reach Pago
Pago.”
Chris stood and followed me to the door as I showed him out. Then, he paused and turned to me. “What are you going to do today?”
Avoid Smythe like the plague, I thought. But I knew I couldn’t do this altogether. “I’ll update Dobbs and Smythe on what’s going on. Oh, and one more thing, we assume Erotic Heart is a woman because she talked of her boring marriage, etc. Is there any chance it might be a gay guy, say someone like Enrico?”
“It could be anybody, Mia. Most people on the net like to invent new identities for themselves.”
I frowned. “Well, see if you can find an account for Enrico Lotti. I doubt he’s Erotic Heart, but I still want to know if he has an account in the cheaters’ forum.”
“Will do.”
After Chris left, I jumped into the shower in order to help prepare myself to face the new day—and a new Smythe. Now, it was my turn to blush, and I was glad Chris wasn’t here to see it.
~~~
I caught up with Dobbs and Smythe at lunch. They were sitting near the Deck Grill enjoying a burger under the sun. Smythe was in his bathers and Dobbs wore shorts and a short-sleeved cotton shirt, open halfway down his chest.
“Aren’t you guys hot sitting out here?” I said on approach, averting my eyes from Smythe’s athletic physique. Thank God I was wearing sunglasses so he couldn’t see my eyes.
“Join us for lunch, Mia. It’s nice and breezy here,” Dobbs invited, taking a huge bite of his cheeseburger.
Smythe nodded hello. “Hope you slept well?” His tone was full of innuendo and I wanted to hit him. What if he’d shared with Dobbs the details of our romantic interlude?
I ignored his question and leaned over them. “I’m meeting someone for lunch,” I told Dobbs, hoping this would make Smythe jealous.
It must’ve worked because he asked, “Where’s Chris?”
“He’s sleeping. He worked through the whole night and came up with Downes’s username on the forum.”
For a moment, both men stopped eating and gazed at me with surprise. “So we have a confirmed common denominator among the victims,” Dobbs stated.
The South Pacific Murders Page 18