Game Changer

by J K Nen

  Evelyn had not been too worried despite Melody’s concerns that the strange caller had her unlisted number.

  “What about the women linked to her husband?” Logan asked.

  “My honest opinion is that despite the trauma they went through, they came out better off. Most of them ended up with more money than they had ever seen in their lives. I doubt cutting off the money train out of spite would have been wise.”

  “What did you think of their marriage?” Steele probed.

  “Honestly, I think he was just as obsessed with her as she was with him. When she first moved out, she rewarded herself for each fifteen minutes she did not call him. I know it sounds crazy but that’s how often she called or texted him. After a few days, he was the one calling every fifteen minutes.”

  “At the time of her disappearance, where do you think they were at with their reconciliation?”

  “I’d say close because he agreed to go for counselling. They mostly communicated via text because she plain refused to talk to him. She did let him to talk to Damaris and Byron.”

  “What about Jayden Amos?” Logan asked.

  Her response threw the detectives.

  “Eve got me to hire him for arm candy duty. All he had to do was go on dates and play boyfriend. She posted their pictures in Facebook just to piss Ted off, and boy, was he ever!”

  “Enough to kill her?” Steele prompted.

  “No, just enough to have Jayden followed. Ted discovered he had a live-in girlfriend at his Bondi pad.”

  When Ted confronted Evelyn with the evidence, her response was nonchalant.

  “At least it’s his girlfriend he’s cheating on, and not his wife,” she had shrugged.

  Ted, apoplectic with rage, broke a picture frame and stormed out.

  Then Ted investigated Jayden’s financial background and gave Eve the statements.

  “Get involved and you’ll be footing his bills, including his debt repayments,” he told her.

  She calmly told him money was not an object. Ted broke an antique Chinese vase in fury. Eve merely shrugged and left the room, smiling smugly.

  Ted even confronted them on dates. Eve would send Jayden to a backup restaurant and found joined him later. Finally, Ted suggested marriage counselling but Eve still kept Jayden. Jayden’s girlfriend, despite supporting her man’s acting stint initially, changed her mind. She wanted him to stop, especially after seeing him all dapper and handsome in photos online. By then, after so much time in Eve’s company, Jayden had fallen for Eve. The girlfriend left and Eve had Jayden all to herself.

  “So they were an item by the time of her death?” Steele asked.

  “It seemed that way to me,’ she replied. “She stopped giving me the shopping to do it and passed that onto him.”

  Evelyn also had him stay over with her. They went on picnics and movies, no longer just the big events that they originally planned to use to bolster publicity.

  “Do you believe Ted Winters knew that Jayden was part of an act?” Logan asked.

  “I don’t think so and I won’t give him the satisfaction,” her voice hardened for the first time. “He could play around but when the shoe was on the other foot, he acted like she killed his mother.”

  “Evelyn’s brother Ahmed claims he had no idea about this other relationship,” Steele said. “Is he telling the truth?”

  “I believe so,” she replied. “She told him she’d hired him to support me. That’s all Jayden was to Ahmed, an employee.”

  “Where’s Jayden now?” Logan wanted to know.

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “As soon as Eve disappeared, Ted showed up and kicked him out of the house and had all the locks changed. Even I was not allowed back in the house.”

  “Why?” Logan thought it strange that Ted Winters would treat his late wife’s PA so.

  “He had wanted me to spy on Eve for him and I refused,” she replied, her tone sullen. “Then he accused us all of being in cahoots with her and playing cupid for her and Jayden. I guess I have to start looking for a new job. But I have Jayden’s number if you want to talk to him.”

  Jayden Amos had checked into a motel when the media frenzy proved too much. He only called back because Logan texted him first. When Jayden answered the door, Logan understood why Evelyn Winters chose to hold on to him. He was a beautiful young man- long blonde hair, finely chiselled jaw line, clear grey eyes, straight nose and bow lips. He looked like a young Fabio. He looked like he had been crying.

  Jayden confirmed the story Melody Appleton had told them. What began as a customer-client relationship blossomed into something deeper.

  “I was in love with her but she was still in love with Ted,’ he sighed.

  “Did she tell you that?”

  “No, but I knew because she still flaunted our relationship in his face. She’d have him pick Reese up after I had stayed over so he could come and see us all at breakfast.”

  “Reese?” Logan was puzzled.

  “Damaris, their daughter,” he clarified. “It never ended well.”

  The couple would have screaming matches, with Jayden leaving the house. He would return to find broken items, which Evelyn stowed in her office.

  “Did she ever give you money?”

  “Only what I was owed. Once our relationship got more personal, we agreed to stop the payments. Surfing season was starting and I got a couple of endorsements and sponsorship deals. I was preparing for Hawaii when all this happened.”

  “Did you notice anything unusual recently?”

  “She had a couple of breather calls. They were becoming more frequent, and it was usually the landline. She felt like she was being watched.”

  “Did she report it?”

  “We suspected it was one of Ted’s PI’s snooping around. So we usually put on a show for them.”

  “Such as?’

  “Making out with the windows wide open,” he shrugged.

  Like a red flag to the bull, Logan thought.

  French dropped a bombshell when Logan returned to the Command Centre.

  “Are you aware that Z sent seven notes months before Janine Maher was kidnapped?”

  “No, who told you that?” Logan demanded. “There’s nothing in the case files.”

  “One of Jonno’s buddies just told me. Did we get everything on this case from Jonno?”

  Logan thought hard. They had only taken his files out of his office. She had had an inkling that he had spares in his home. They needed a court order to seize those documents. His career in law enforcement was over.

  CHAPTER 13

  Logan and Steele sifted through the files and bagged evidence officers had retrieved from Johnstone’s home office. He had gone to great lengths to conceal evidence, and played Russian roulette with his career. He was looking at jail time for withholding critical evidence. Logan finally found what she was looking for.

  Seven poems, neatly typed up. Seven poems for seven victims. The first corresponded to the ode found with Janine Maher’s body:

  Mama hunted by His side in the Moonlight mild;

  Fierce as the lioness; destructive like the wild boar

  As her hounds bayed for the blood of the wild

  Firing her arrows at the beloved Sun so true

  The second poem, also typed in Algerian font on non-descript paper, for Adele Rose.

  Mama stood by His side for the Council commune

  Women’s Lib kissed Hades as Daddy’s head bore her immune

  To the charms of men save the owl on her arm and olive branch

  As she wove her web around His throne as one would a trench

  “Geez this guy fancies himself as a poet,” Steele said, passing the third ode dedicated to Joan Stacks, to Logan.

  Time spawned her to pay homage to the Father from the Hearth

  Looking within for the fire to keep the Sanctuary

  Craving solitude in the wilderness belly of Mother Earth

  Wholeness being the core of her intuiti
on

  For Evelyn Winters, Z had written:

  Father won her over with little truth;

  But she got him back through the Little and Big Dipper

  She breathed vindication with bears and madness

  For unlike the others, she remains a keeper

  She pulled up poem number five.

  She had not a care save the fruit of the womb;

  With divine beauty and savoury fragrance she gifts the grain

  That grief could send gods and man to the tomb

  But her joy changes as the seasons strain

  The sixth poem was just as baffling.

  In her basket the maiden carries pomegranates and corn

  From her throne flows seasons of hope and renewal

  That in pain from the breast from which she was torn

  Reunion breathes joy unspeakable like a jewel

  The seventh poem was no better.

  Convention had no place in conquests made for lust

  Beauty and charm encased in a shell amidst a shower of rose petals

  She will not be possessed by man nor gods as all must

  That those who spurn her die as should all mortals

  “Seven poems, seven victims,” Logan said, dread knotting her stomach.

  Z was far from done. There were three more victims out there.

  “I officially have a migraine now,” Logan declared as she gathered up the poems and passed them onto Sedgewick to enter into evidence.

  Had Johnstone deliberately hid the notes to ensure that as the body count rose, and he nabbed Z, he could score political or career points, she wondered.

  Logan would not put it past the ambitious bastard. She picked up the phone to call Commissioner Castle.

  CHAPTER 14

  Paulette Tamate finished her dessert and ordered a glass of sweet white wine. On the last Friday of each month, she treated herself to dinner, the spa, the movies or a night out with her cousins. The ladies would book a hotel suite and party until the wee hours.

  She was learning to enjoy single life. Before becoming her husband and business partner, Sitiveni was her childhood sweetheart in their little Samoan village. He was her only boyfriend, however boring that sounded. Now she relished her newfound independence.

  The couple first came to Australia to study at James Cook University in Brisbane. They returned to well-paid jobs in Apia. When they had saved enough, they returned to Brisbane for postgraduate studies. This time, they remained in Australia.

  He worked as an insurance broker and she started became a nutritionist at a children’s hospital. Soon she noticed an alarming number of obese children. She understood obesity well. Her Polynesian heritage predisposed her to obesity and diabetes. Paulette made time for exercise. She even joined the local basketball team. Heck, she played representative basketball for Samoa in the South Pacific Games. Paulette started Healthy Gains, a part-time nutritional coaching business. She tested the market with three Samoan families. With the packaged meals, simple recipes and activity rosters, other family members lost weight by default. Using Instagram and Facebook, she shared their progress and success. Soon other families engaged her. When she made in a week what she earned in a month, she quit her job to work on her business fulltime.

  Her clientele expanded to include children of wealthy, time-poor parents. She trained housekeepers and nannies to cook delicious, nutritious meals. Every family got a tailored program based on lifestyle and other factors. Her methods worked. With online testimonials and word of mouth recommendations, her client base grew. With increased demand, staff size grew to ten. Sitiveni quit his job to help her manage the business. Within five years, they grossed two million dollars in profit.

  The success went to Sitiveni’s head. He grew tired of Paulette and the children. Leilani was nine and son Ioseva was seven when he began an affair with a nineteen-year-old Fijian girl. He secretly siphoned money out of the business to buy a house in Lautoka for his mistress and found excuses to travel there.

  Paulette’s cousin Laisani lived with her Fijian mother in Suva, and worked in the same company as the girl’s mother. Although she had never met Sitiveni, she recognised him from the photos Paulette posted on Facebook. Once she confirmed his name with the girl’s mother, she messaged Paulette via Facebook.

  Sitiveni denied everything until Paulette flung a copy of the deeds for the house. Cornered, he demanded a divorce outright.

  “She makes me feel alive,” he exclaimed. “All you ever do is worry about the business and the children. You never have time for me.”

  Paulette was astounded. That a grown man could compete with his own children for her affection defied belief. If he did not want to stay with her, there was no point in making him stay. It was true their lives revolved around their children’s activities, but she had assumed that was the whole point of marriage and parenthood. In her defence, the children were only with them up until they graduated high school. Then he could have her all to himself. She could not understand his selfishness.

  Paulette agreed to the divorce. Acrimony set in when he wanted future earnings from the company. Like most ethnic marriages, there were no prenuptial agreements. Fortunately, even as business owners, their lawyer had insisted everyone sign employment contracts outlining their responsibilities. Based on these contracts, the judge awarded Sitiveni a third of the couple’s assets. Paulette bought him out and agreed to share custody of the children. She spent the next twelve months working through her pain. Weekly appointments with a therapist kept her focussed on what mattered – herself, the kids and Healthy Gains. Despite the jokes about the usefulness of therapists, she realised they did have their strong points. Therapy kept her objective. She was grateful for her children. If she was a committed mom before, she now joined the ranks of helicopter mums. Her antics annoyed her children. Paulette did not care.

  Sitiveni soon found that the money from the divorce settlement could not sustain him and his pregnant partner. When she had twins, life got harder. He returned to selling insurance. When he called Paulette, seeking reconciliation, she rebuffed him. While Paulette hated him with a passion, she understood her children needed their father. Afraid that concern for her children could drive her back to him, she relocated to Sydney.

  In the eighteen months since, life was sweeter. The children visited their father one weekend a month and for school holidays, limiting Paulette’s contact with him. The beautiful four-bedroom home at Waverley was close to the children’s schools. She converted a large warehouse at Potts Point into a gymnasium with a crèche, training kitchen and office. Half of her staff followed her to Sydney. She had moved most of her business online, and she travelled when she needed to.

  Paulette’s parents moved to Sydney from Auckland where they had lived with her older brother Henari. Paulette could not imagine entrusting her children to paid help. With her parents help, she had a clean home, her kids fed and watched with the vigilance of a pair of hawks, and, she could have a night out once a month.

  Everything in Paulette’s life played second fiddle to her children. Twelve-year-old Leilani with her almond-shaped brown eyes and long, wavy black hair, skin the shade of butterscotch and Asiatic button nose, was almost as tall as her mother. With her competitive streak, it was no surprise she captained the school basketball team. Her interest in makeup and skin care had grown lately. Their special date night was the last Saturday of each month. Paulette watched her games in the morning, then they went biking, hiking, movies, shopping or anything else that captured Lei’s fancy. She was getting interested in boys but like most Pacific Island teens, hot nails in her eyeballs would not make her confide in her mother. Paulette overheard her on the phone with her best friend, Naylor, talking about the cute boys in school. She knew her boundaries. Lei had accused her too many times of hovering. Paulette felt she had good reason to. Danger lurked everywhere.

  At 12, Leilani could pass for a 17 year old. She was already turning heads, if the posts on teen F
acebook pages were to be believed. Paulette created a Facebook account using a fake teen identity and logged on to spy on her children. She knew Leilani would be furious if she found out. Those pages had various boys telling the page administrators Leilani Tamate was “hot.”

  What if these were adult men masquerading as teenaged boys, Paulette fretted.

  Paulette’s fears for ten-year-old Iosefa were just as bad. Though bigger than other ten year olds in his school, he was gentle and sensitive. When he was bullied at school, Paulette’s cousins confronted the bullies. Nothing is more terrifying to a bully than a pair of heavily tattooed, bald and burly Samoan men telling him if he did not stop, Iosefa’s tribe of twelve uncles would show up. The bullying stopped but he sank into depression. He felt like a girl for letting his uncles fight his battles. Paulette enrolled him in karate class the first week in Sydney. He thrived, working his way up to a green belt. He spent every spare moment in the backyard practising. Paulette’s parents thought he should get involved in rugby or other team sports. While she respected her parents’ opinion, she saw how unhappy team sports made her son. He would remain in karate until he was ready for team sports.

  As she ordered a second glass with a slice of tiramisu, she thought of the five children who had reached their goal weight that day. They celebrated with the families with a sugar-free, fat-free party. The challenge had been to break destructive eating habits and lifestyles and substituting with healthier habits. Parental commitment was key in keeping them on track. Most of the children themselves were aspiring little chefs, owing to television shows like Junior Master Chef. In cooking their own meals and snacks, they made the job a lot easier for their parents.