by Elise Noble
The bullet hole in the floor. Yet another reminder of my failures, but not nearly as bad as the hole in Russ’s chest. That… That made my own insides seize every time I thought about it, which over the past two weeks had been every waking minute of every day, and most of the nights too.
“Are you okay? I thought you were dead, I—”
He kissed me again. “Don’t think about it. The doctors say I’ll be as good as new in a few months.”
Don’t think about it? How could I not? “Is Emmy really mad about the damage?”
“Not in the slightest. I offered to pay for the repairs, but she said it was worth every penny. So, what do you say? Dinner?”
Dinner. He tossed the word out casually, as if he hadn’t just picked me up from freaking prison. I almost choked on the stupid lump in my throat. Did he honestly have to ask? There was only ever going to be one answer.
“I don’t care where I go as long as I’m with you.”
When we arrived back at the resort, Jarrod opened the car door for us, and I helped Russell out carefully, lending him my arm. He was putting a brave face on things, but I’d seen the way he winced every time the car went over a bump.
“Shouldn’t you still be in the hospital?” I asked.
“I’ve got painkillers.”
That wasn’t a proper answer, but Russell was stubborn. If he didn’t want to go back there, he wouldn’t. I wrapped his arm over my shoulders and supported his weight as we walked slowly up the path to the villa, inhaling in the sweet aroma of the plumeria with a newfound appreciation. I wasn’t sure how I felt about going back to the place where my world had fallen apart for the second time just two weeks ago, but Russell wanted to, and I was in no position to object.
Dazed. I was still dazed when we walked through the door, and for some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me that the villa would be full of people. Akeem, maybe, but not everyone else. Leyton was there, and Mimi, plus Emmy, Luke, Akeem, Glenn, Aurelie, and a brown-haired girl I’d never seen before. Who was she? Her nervous smile seemed out of place among the celebrations. But I soon forgot to ask when Akeem cheered, threw confetti over us, then popped open an enormous bottle of champagne. Emmy caught the cork in midair.
“How was traffic?” she asked. “We weren’t expecting you back for at least half an hour.”
Traffic? I had no idea? I’d barely looked out of the window on the journey, content just to sit next to Russell and hold his hand. Grounding myself after everything had been so up-in-the-air.
“Not too bad,” Jarrod said from behind me. “The authorities finally got the message about moving quickly, so the paperwork was done when I arrived for the most part.”
“Drink?” Akeem asked, holding out two glasses of champagne.
Russell shook his head. “I can’t, not with the medication.”
Akeem passed them both to me instead. “Then you’ll have to drink his. Come on, sit down. You know everyone, right? Well, except for Hanna. Nobody knew her until last Friday.”
Hanna? That was the brunette? “Uh, hi.”
She gave me a little wave. Why did she look so nervous?
“Are you okay?” I asked Russell. “Do you need to lie down?”
“I’ve done nothing but lie down for the last fortnight, so it feels weirdly good to stand. The painkillers are holding their own at the moment.”
“Just say if you want to leave. I guess. I mean, I have no idea where we can go.” Presumably since Emmy was there, she’d want her villa back.
“We’re in the honeymoon suite tonight.” Russell grinned, which made me smile too. “Akeem’s already moved our stuff.”
“The honeymoon suite? Are you trying to tell me something?” I tried out a joke, and it felt good.
“Give me a chance to buy a ring first, darling,” he murmured. “I’m not asking you without one.”
Now he was joking too. Right? Uh, he didn’t look like he was joking.
“Will you two sit down, for fuck’s sake?” Emmy said. “We’ve got a lot to catch up on, and I’m hungry.”
Akeem just couldn’t help himself. “So, after you got dragged off to jail, Luke and Leyton followed Russell to the hospital, and they had this, like, hackers convention until the nurses got upset and kicked them out, and—”
“Akeem, slow down,” Emmy told him. “Can you check on the canapés? With the amount of alcohol I plan on drinking tonight, I need something to line my stomach.”
“Actually, that’s a good idea. Nobody wants to clean up vomit at three o’clock in the morning.”
Russell lowered himself onto a seat, and I shuffled mine closer so our legs touched. I never wanted to be away from him again, not even for a second. Akeem vanished out of the door, and Emmy took up the tale.
“As Akeem was saying, the guys convened at the hospital to go through all the evidence from the Jasper John case again. Between them, they worked out there might have been a second person in his house that night. A woman.”
A woman? Was that Hanna? I closed my eyes for a second and tried to imagine it. Hanna dating Jasper John? No, it didn’t work.
“And they realised he might have paid for that woman’s company.”
Oh. Oh. Hanna was a prostitute? That made much more sense. I stared at her for a beat too long, and she lowered her gaze to the table.
“Mimi asked around and worked out who she was, and we found her in Oaxaca. She’d been hiding from Michael too, in case he realised she was the witness, but when she found out he was dead, she agreed to come back to Australia and tell her story.”
“It was you who called triple zero that night?” I asked.
She spoke for the first time, her voice soft. “Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t come forward sooner, but I was so freaked out. I didn’t know what to do but run.”
Well, we had that much in common. “That I can understand. What did you see?”
It must have been something big or I wouldn’t have been sitting there without so much as a trial.
“Jasper wasn’t like my regular clients. He used to make dinner for me, and he liked to talk. Most Friday evenings, we got together, and sometimes I stayed the night and he made me breakfast too. I wasn’t supposed to be there the night he died. He’d called earlier in the week and said he needed to meet someone, that it was important. I guess that was you?”
“Yes, but he never showed up.”
“He said you sent a text message cancelling.”
Huh? “I didn’t send a message.”
“We checked with the phone company,” Luke said. “Someone sent a message from your number to John’s on the Friday afternoon.”
Michael. It must have been Michael. What did he do, delete it afterwards? He could’ve deleted it from John’s phone too since he’d been at the bloody crime scene.
Emmy followed my train of thought. “I think we can probably guess who did it.”
Yup. Everyone nodded.
“Anyhow, Jasper called me and said he was free after all, so I went over,” Hanna said. “Except right after I got there, someone knocked on the door. Jasper told me to make myself scarce. I guess he was protecting me, because a man walked right in and shot him. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but I saw him on TV afterwards, and he was a cop.”
“You saw his face at the house?”
“I was upstairs, and I peeped around the corner just as he looked back towards the kitchen. I couldn’t breathe, I was so terrified.” Even now, her breath came in little gasps. “But then I heard the door slam, and I ran to help Jasper, but his eyes were just staring… So I hid again and called triple zero, and then I ran.”
“And that was why the police let me go? Because you identified Michael? I’m surprised Superintendent Clarke didn’t try to say I’d paid you off or something.”
“Oh, it gets better,” Emmy said. “He did try to claim that, but Hanna here tried to do her civic duty three years ago and mailed him a letter identifying Michael as the shooter right before she lef
t for Thailand.”
“Surely he’d have said it got lost in the mail?”
“He did. But she marked it private and confidential, sent it by registered post, and he signed for it. At best, the now ex-Superintendent Clarke was guilty of negligence, and at worst, he was complicit in whatever scheme Brenner had cooked up.”
“Oh my gosh. He got fired?”
“Indeed he did. Left the building carrying all the shit off his desk in a box.”
“Wow.”
“You haven’t heard my absolute favourite part yet. The QPS asked if you wanted your old job back. We told them to fuck off on your behalf.”
Once I’d loved working there, and a tiny part of me wondered what it would be like to return. But then I remembered that nobody had stuck up for me after the accusations. Not one of my former colleagues had said, “Hold on, that seems out of character.” They’d just kept their heads down, more interested in looking after their own interests than getting justice.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
While I was away, I’d worked as a freelance graphic artist. I could do that again until I found a new career path. It didn’t pay big bucks, but it paid enough. I’d be okay.
And that was it. The nightmare was over. Russell’s injury stopped me from whooping with joy, but I did manage a relieved smile as I picked up my glass of champagne.
“I’d like to propose a toast. To the best set of friends a girl could hope to have.”
Everyone held their glasses up except for Akeem, who’d just walked back in the door and held up a bottle.
“Cheers.”
CHAPTER 22 - KYLIE
RUSSELL DIDN’T MAKE it to three o’clock in the morning. It was eleven when he started looking uncomfortable, and I wasn’t about to stay at the party without him. Akeem dropped us off at the honeymoon suite—which was actually another luxury villa—in a golf cart.
“Do you want me to have breakfast delivered in the morning?” he asked. “Shall I book you some spa treatments?”
“Breakfast would be good, but I want to visit my parents tomorrow.”
We’d shared a tearful phone call earlier, but Dad heard the laughter in the background and told me to go back to my friends and enjoy myself. Tomorrow, I wanted to talk to him properly, and I longed for a hug from my mum.
“What time? I’ll arrange a car.”
I’d really miss Akeem when we left. “Mid-morning? About ten?”
“It’ll be waiting by the lobby. Unless you want to borrow the Mustang again?”
“Emmy’s back now.”
“So?”
“Won’t she want to drive it?”
“There are three certainties in life—death, taxes, and the fact that Emmy won’t get out of bed before noon tomorrow. I’ll bring the key over in the morning.”
The morning… I needed to speak to Chloe too, but I had a lot of bridges to mend there. Mum told me she’d got married and had a baby, and I’d missed everything. We’d always sworn that if either of us got married, the other would be maid of honour, but instead of helping with her wedding preparations, I’d disappeared. I knew we’d never be close again, accepted it, but I hoped that if I apologised, we could at least stay friends.
But I’d think about all that in the morning. Tonight, I just needed to sleep.
Which came with its own challenges.
“Are you okay to share the bed?” I asked Russell. “What if I bump into you?”
“If you think you’re taking the sofa, you’ve got another think coming.”
“But I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’ve got morphine, and I’ll take my chances. I’m just sorry I can’t make love to you. You’ve got no idea how much I want to.”
I eyed up the bulge in his trousers. “Oh, I think I do.”
He saw where I was looking and gave me a wonky smile. “You have that effect on me.”
“Perhaps I could give it a suck?”
“I can’t even breathe hard at the moment without it hurting.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise for that man. Brenner’s out of both of our lives now, and that’s where he’s staying.”
“I’ll take the left side of the bed, shall I?” Since the bullet went into his right lung.
“I think that would be best.”
That night, I slept soundly for the first time in over three years, listening to Russell’s breathing in the dark until I drifted off. Holding hands while we slept wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind for when I found the man of my dreams, but it would do until he healed. Then we’d have to make up for lost time.
We’d have the rest of our lives together, and thanks to him believing in me, I was free.
Free to travel.
Free to smile.
Free to love.
Free to do whatever the hell I wanted.
“Don’t hug him, Mum!”
I managed to stop her just before she flung her arms around Russell, and he bent his knees and managed to kiss her on the cheek instead. Then I got the hug I’d been craving as she squashed the breath out of me.
“I thought we’d never see you again,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. Now do you see where I got it from? “We understood why you had to leave, but that didn’t make it any easier.”
“I just want to forget the last three years ever happened, apart from meeting Russell, of course. And Tai, and Ren, and all the people from Blackwood.”
“I don’t even know who Tai and Ren are, dear. You’ll have to tell us the whole story over tea. Your dad’s put the kettle on.”
Dad hugged me too and settled for a reserved handshake with Russell. He’d always been a man of few words.
“And Chloe’s coming over. We thought you’d want to see her.”
“How upset is she?”
“Well, I can’t pretend she was overjoyed that you upped and left without a word, but she realises you didn’t have a lot of choice under the circumstances. Plus you also inspired her new business venture, so she’s grateful for that. Oh, here she is now.”
She had a new car, a minivan with a kiddie seat in the back, but she looked exactly the same. Wavy blonde hair, freckles from the sun, and a floaty, flowery dress. She made most of her clothes herself.
“Kylie!” She ran over and gave Mum competition in the hugging stakes. “You look amazing. All the time you were gone, I kept imagining you starving in some flea pit, but wow.” Then she turned to Russell. “Is this the guy who got shot?”
Russell mustered up a smile. “The one and only.”
“Russell, this is my friend Chloe. Don’t listen to any of the stories she tells about me. Chloe, this is Russell. He’s…he’s…” What did I call him? We hadn’t put a label on our relationship yet. “He’s my everything.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet! And she only doesn’t want me to tell the stories because they’re true.”
“I like her,” Russell whispered to me as we walked into the house. “I can’t wait to hear these stories.”
“We might have to leave early.”
“What was that?” Mum asked. “Leave early? You don’t want to do that. Remember the last time you wanted to leave a get-together early? You tried to climb out of Uncle Bert’s bathroom window and fell into the toilet.”
Chloe turned and grinned. “My stories are better.”
This was going to be a really long day, wasn’t it? But I’d still love every minute of it, and the relief that Chloe wasn’t mad at me was indescribable. I had my life back.
Inside, Mum and Dad’s little terrier, Benjy, bounced around our feet, yipping and yapping. He’d always had more energy than manners, and any attempts to train him had failed miserably. He knocked Chloe’s handbag onto the floor and scratched my leg, but I couldn’t even be mad.
“Hey,” I said half-heartedly. “Sit. Stay.”
Of course, he completely ignored me, and I bent to help Chloe pick up her things.
She always carried enough stuff for an impromptu weekend away, and Benjy grabbed a tiny doll from the pile and ran off down the hallway.
“Give that back!” I yelled after him. This was just like the old days, other than Russell’s quiet chuckle behind me.
“Oh, it doesn’t matter,” Chloe said. “It was a gift for you, but you probably don’t need it anymore since Michael’s dead now.”
I finally managed to lever Benjy’s jaws open and retrieve the… “What is this?”
It looked like a tiny doll, but it had Michael’s freaking face. Yuck! I threw it back to Benjy so he could do his worst.
“It’s a personalised voodoo doll. I’ve started selling them in my Etsy store, and they’re really popular.”
“This is your new business venture?”
“Your mum told you? Yes, people send me their hated ones’ photos, and I make the dolls at home while Sophie’s sleeping.”
Totally tasteless, but who cared? At least somebody was benefitting from the tragedy.
“Is Benjy eating another Michael doll?” Mum asked, coming back with a plate of biscuits. “I like to think he did his bit to help. And with those other two arseholes as well.”
“Mum!” I’d never heard her use that sort of language before. Seemed I wasn’t the only person Michael had changed.
“The dog’s got a bit of work left to do with Owen,” Russell said. “He’s still alive.”
“No, he died in the hospital this morning, that’s what the news said. Custard cream?”
Owen was gone? It was really over?
Russell checked his phone, and a smile spread across his face. “It’s true. Complications from his gunshot wound, apparently.”
“Good riddance.” The last bit of tension ebbed out of me.
“Indeed.” Russell turned back to my mum, and she beamed at him. “I’d love a custard cream. Thanks very much, Mrs. Nichols.”
With the family reunion complete, it was time to look to the future when we got back to the resort. We couldn’t stay there forever, although Akeem had booked us the honeymoon suite for the rest of the week.
Russell had swapped his laptop for an iPad, and he lay outside in the shade, staring up at it.