Dead Girls Dancing

by Graham Masterton

  As Kyna had asked, Who in the name of God would want to kill eighteen young dancers and their dance coach? And why?

  When she reached her house she saw that a scarlet Toyota was parked on the kerb outside. She had been so involved with the horror of the Toirneach Damhsa fire that she had almost forgotten about Conor. As she turned into her driveway, the Toyota’s door opened and Conor climbed out, turning up his raincoat collar and walking hurriedly towards her.

  He opened her car door for her and said, ‘Hallo, Katie.’

  ‘Sorry I’m so late,’ she told him. ‘I expect you’ve heard about all those young dancers being burned.’

  ‘I have, of course. There was a report about it on the Six-One News again, just this evening. I was thinking of you when I saw it.’

  Katie lifted her briefcase out of the back seat of her car, locked the doors and then made her way to the house, with Conor following close behind her.

  ‘You’re not too tired, are you?’ he asked, as she put her key in the front door. ‘I’ll go, if you want me to, and maybe see you tomorrow.’

  ‘No, you’re grand altogether,’ she told him. As soon as she opened the door, her Irish setter, Barney, came bustling up to her with his tail slapping against the radiator. Barney saw Conor, too, and snuffled up to him almost as enthusiastically as he had greeted Katie. He and Conor had made friends the last time Conor had come here. Conor and animals seemed to have an almost mystical affinity for each other, which was one of the reasons he had become a pet detective, and one of the reasons why Katie had fallen for him.

  Katie was about to say, ‘Well, somebody’s pleased to see you,’ but decided against it. She hung up her coat and then opened the living-room door and switched on all the lamps. After what she had been through today she felt like a drink, but she didn’t want to have one with Conor here, and besides she hadn’t had any supper and it was far too late to be drinking vodka on an empty stomach.

  Conor followed her into the living room and they stood facing each other like characters in a stage play.

  ‘So, what is it you wanted to say to me?’ said Katie. She hated it that he was still as handsome as the first moment she had set eyes on him, and still carried that distinctive fragrance of Chanel Bleu. Why couldn’t she see now that his nose was too big, or that his beard was too scruffy, and why didn’t he reek of BO and disappointment? But she couldn’t, and he didn’t.

  She felt scruffy herself. Her dark red bob needed a trim, and she had dropped mayonnaise on the sleeve of her cream-coloured sweater, and her dark green linen skirt was badly creased from sitting at her desk for most of the day. She didn’t want to take off her shoes in case her feet smelled.

  ‘Is this all about Clodagh?’ Conor asked her. ‘I mean, is Clodagh the reason that you haven’t been answering any of my calls or texts?’

  ‘If Clodagh’s your wife, then yes.’

  ‘Why didn’t you give me the chance to explain?’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were married before you took me into your bed? I think that’s more to the point, don’t you?’

  ‘I am married, yes, Katie, I admit it – but only technically. Clodagh and I separated more than eighteen months ago and we’ll be getting divorced. There’s been a hold-up over the title to the house, otherwise we would have been divorced already. But when I saw you, I didn’t want to wait any longer. What if I’d waited, and you’d gone off with some other fellow, and I’d lost you?’

  Katie said, ‘Oh, for sure. There’s a long queue of horny men outside my office just busting to jump on top of me. I’m a detective superintendent, Conor. Every one of my days is filled from the crack of dawn till midnight with chasing drug-dealers and fraudsters and pimps and other assorted scumbags and sitting in musty courtrooms and going through a heap of paperwork that makes Knockboy mountain look like a molehill by comparison.’

  She was trying to sound cross, but she was so relieved by what Conor had told her that by the time she had finished she couldn’t help smiling. Barney had heard her from the kitchen and came into the living room licking his lips from a drink of water, and both he and Conor had almost the same expectant expression on their faces, which made her smile even more.

  ‘I should have told you what the situation was with Clodagh, I admit,’ said Conor. ‘But as far as I’m concerned, our marriage is stone-cold dead, and I know for a fact that she’s been seeing somebody else herself, some fellow who works for Coilte, the forestry company.’

  He paused, and smiled, and held out both hands. ‘Katie, I think you’re the liveliest, prettiest, sexiest, most individualistic woman I ever met. Now that I’ve found you, I couldn’t bear to let you go. Not over something as stupid as forgetting to tell you that I’m not quite divorced yet.’

  Katie closed her eyes for a moment. Suddenly she felt very, very tired. Her job was so demanding that she forgot sometimes that she needed emotional support as much as she needed her team of dedicated detectives. Kyna was always there to encourage her, and to sympathize with her, and she found Kyna extremely attractive, but she knew that the complications of starting a relationship with Kyna could ultimately wreck one or both of them, not only personally but their careers in the Garda, too.

  Barney licked her hand and she opened her eyes again. Conor was still standing there with his arms out. She walked towards him and he held her very close, so that she could breathe him in, not just his aftershave but the smell of his clothes and his body. This was more than emotional support. As tired as she was, she felt that he was holding her up and lifting off her shoulders all the weight of the past few days.

  He stroked her hair and she looked up at him. There was such a calm, benign look in his eyes that she pressed her head even closer to his chest and she could hear his heart beating. He didn’t have to ask her if he was forgiven. This embrace was more than enough. They stood there holding each other so tight that she could feel him rising inside his trousers.

  ‘I think I need a drink,’ she said, at last. ‘How about you?’

  ‘A Coke, if you have it, or a tonic water. I don’t want to get caught drinking and driving.’

  ‘You don’t have to drive. You can stay here for the night.’

  He looked down at her acutely. ‘You’re sure about that?’

  ‘Of course I’m sure. Look – why don’t you pour us some drinks while I take a very quick shower? I’ve been in the morgue today and I’m sure that I still have the smell of death on me.’

  ‘Katie—’ Conor began.

  ‘What?’ she said, and stood on tiptoes to kiss him. They kissed and kissed and she could hardly bear to stop kissing him. She loved the soft clean bristles of his beard, and the way his tongue tangled with hers and explored her teeth one by one, like a diver exploring an underwater cave.

  They didn’t have to say any more. Conor went with Barney into the kitchen to fetch some ice for their drinks while Katie went into her bedroom, switched on the lights and undressed. When she stepped out of her thong she found that it was slippery and when she touched herself she realized just how much kissing Conor had aroused her. She looked at herself in the dressing-table mirror and thought she looked beat out and bedraggled, but she smiled at herself because she was happy and she didn’t care what she looked like.

  *

  When she came back into the living room in her thick pink towelling bathrobe she found Conor sitting on the couch stroking Barney’s ears, and Barney staring up at him, totally mesmerized.

  ‘I’m sure he has erogenous ears,’ said Katie, picking up the vodka-tonic that Conor had made for her and sitting down close to him. ‘In fact, I think he’s erogenous all over, the way he chases after all the bitches around here. I was wondering if it was too late to have him spayed.’

  Conor shook his head. ‘If you’re going to do it, you should do it when they’re young. It reduces the risk of testicular cancer or prostate trouble, and they definitely lose their interest in the ladies. But Irish setters in particular ca
n lose this lovely shiny red coat and develop a “spay coat” instead, which is dry and woolly and not so colourful. So my advice is, leave Barney be. He’s glossy, and he’s virile, and we wouldn’t want to turn him into a sexless hearth rug.’

  Katie kissed Conor and snuggled up close to him. She was aware that her bathrobe had opened at the front so that he could see into her cleavage, but she deliberately wanted to arouse him. She knew that she smelled alluring, too, because she had sprayed herself with Daisy Blush.

  Every day at the station she always had to be dominant and decisive, even with men who made no secret of the fact that they found her attractive, like Chief Superintendent Denis MacCostagáin and Superintendent Michael Pearse. But Conor made her feel completely submissive, as if she would do anything to please and excite him. It was this shedding of responsibility that she found so arousing.

  ‘Why don’t we take these drinks into the bedroom,’ she said. ‘I love Barney, you know that, but I don’t want him dogging.’

  ‘Talking of dogs, I have one more thing to tell you,’ said Conor. ‘I heard last night from one of my scummy vet contacts that Guzz Eye McManus is holding a special fifty-dog fight up at Ballyknock the Saturday after next, to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. The dogs will be coming in from all over, Cork and Kerry in particular. The bets already placed are astronomical – that’s what your man believes, anyway. He’s staked five hundred euros of his own money on two pit bulls.’

  ‘That’s a fantastic tip-off,’ said Katie.

  ‘I was going to tell you, of course, no matter how things were between you and me. I wasn’t totally sure, but I guessed your not calling me was all about Clodagh. Your Detective Scanlan told me she’d seen her coming into the station looking for me, and that she and you exchanged a few words.’

  ‘We didn’t argue or anything. All I did was tell her where to find you. But I won’t pretend that I didn’t feel like I’d been hit in the heart with a hammer.’

  ‘Katie—’

  Katie smiled and kissed him. ‘It’s over. Forget it. If I’d been married but separated, the same as you, I probably wouldn’t have mentioned it, either. I felt guilty enough having poor John staying with me and all the time him thinking that when he got his prosthetic legs he and I were going to be back the way we were. That – that was more painful than I can tell you. I felt so treacherous. But I fell for you, too, Conor. It’s been a long time since I felt such an instant attraction to any man. Don’t ask me what it is about you.’

  She couldn’t help smiling again, and kissing him. ‘Maybe it’s because you like animals so much. Or you have a bit of the animal in you yourself. Anyway... I’ll be putting a call in to Inspector Carroll at Tipperary Town first thing tomorrow morning. If McManus is staging such a big event, we should be able to pick up a whole crowd of dog-fighters if we plan it properly, quite apart from him. In fact, it could be the biggest blow against dog-fighting that this country’s seen in years.’

  ‘You’ll have to keep your operation well under wraps, though,’ said Conor. ‘McManus has eyes and ears everywhere. That’s how he’s managed to run these dog-fights for so many years without ever being lifted. Apart from the fact that everybody’s scared of him. They say he tied some fellow who cheated him to two SUVs, and drove them off in opposite directions.’

  Katie said, ‘Unh-hunh, don’t let’s talk about grisly stuff like that. I’ve had a bad day as it is. I’m tired and I just want cuddling.’

  ‘You don’t mind if I take a quick shower first myself? I’ve been rushing around today like a pig on PCP.’

  ‘You smell grand to me. But of course.’

  Katie made sure that Barney’s water bowl was filled for the night and then she took her drink through to the bedroom. She dropped her bathrobe and climbed naked into bed, plumping up the pillows and fluffing up her hair. She had taught herself early in her career to blank out the stresses of the day when it was time for her to sleep, no matter how traumatic they had been. Now, waiting for Conor, she had a similar feeling to finding that emerald earring she thought she had lost for ever, or finishing a novel in which all the characters end up being happy. It was almost smugness, as if she had managed at last to overcome one of life’s perpetual disappointments – but it was excitement, too, because Conor would soon have his arms around her.

  She took a sip of vodka, listening to the shower pump and the squeak of Conor’s bare feet in the shower tray, and she whispered to herself a small prayer that her mother had taught her to say at bedtime.

  ‘I thank you, Lord, for watching me, and seeing what I could not see, that if I opened up my eyes, my life would bring a sweet surprise. That love, and happiness, are always there, if only we believe in prayer. That even in the dead of night, your light, O Lord, will soon shine bright.’

  A few minutes later, Conor came into the bedroom, his hair wet, wearing nothing but a maroon bath towel around his waist.

  ‘Is it okay if I borrow your toothbrush?’ he asked her.

  Katie didn’t answer. She was already asleep. Her lips were slightly parted and her eyelids were flickering as she dreamed some dream that, tomorrow, she wouldn’t be able to remember. Conor stood and watched her for a few moments before he went back to the bathroom to hang up the towel and brush his teeth with his finger.

  He eased himself into bed next to her and then switched off the bedside lamps. He put his arm around her waist and held her close, his erect penis pressed against her thigh. He didn’t feel frustrated, though. He felt the same sense of relief that Katie had felt – that for once in his life fate had been kind to him and brought him that sweet surprise that Katie had prayed for ever since she was a child.

  *

  The digital clock beside the bed read 6:11 when Katie woke up. She blinked and stared at the ceiling. As Detective Ó Doibhilin would say, her mouth felt as dry as Gandhi’s flip-flop. But then she felt Conor’s warm bare shoulder against hers and heard him steadily breathing, and she turned on to her side and there he was, sleeping like a saint on a sepulchre.

  Outside, it was lashing. She could hear the rainwater chuckling to itself in the downpipe outside her bedroom window. But the sound of rain was soothing and reassuring rather than depressing, because here she was snuggled up in bed with Conor.

  She stroked his shoulder with her fingertips and he stirred slightly and snuffled, but he didn’t wake up. Then she reached under the duvet and ran her fingers into the hair on his chest. He was quite muscular, and he had told her that he still rowed whenever he could with St Michael’s Rowing Club on the Shannon. His stomach was slightly rounded, but she liked that.

  She kissed his shoulder, twice, three times, and he murmured, ‘What? I didn’t mean that,’ but he still didn’t wake up. Katie couldn’t help smiling to herself, wondering what it was that he was dreaming.

  Now she couldn’t resist taking hold of his penis and fondling it, and then slowly rubbing it up and down, with the tip of her index finger circling around the opening. She couldn’t tell if he was waking up or not, but he began to stiffen and after only six or seven rubs he was fully erect. She loved his penis. It was so thick and long, with a slight curve to it when it was completely hard. She loved massaging his balls, too, until they were tight and crinkled and as big as two red plums.

  ‘Wufff... what?’ he said, opening his eyes. Katie kissed his shoulder again and gripped his penis as hard as she could, so that his glans swelled and the opening gaped.

  ‘What’s this wufff?’ she laughed. ‘Didn’t I say you had the animal in you?’

  Conor said, ‘Jesus. For a moment there I thought I was dead and gone to heaven.’

  ‘Well, you’re not dead, darling, but I hope you’re at least halfway to heaven.’

  Conor lifted his head from the pillow so that he could kiss her. At the same time he held her breast and started gently to roll her nipple around between finger and thumb. As her nipple stiffened, he tried to raise himself up, with the intention of climbing on top of
her, but she sat up and pushed him back down.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘This is me, making up for thinking the worst of you.’

  ‘Come on, Katie, it was my fault. I should have told you.’

  ‘All the same.’

  She got on to her knees and straddled him, pinning his wrists against the bed.

  ‘This isn’t halfway to heaven,’ he grinned at her. ‘I’ve arrived. I hope St Peter isn’t watching.’

  ‘Well, I’m teaching you a lesson here,’ said Katie. ‘When somebody’s sorry, you should accept their apology with good grace. And this is my apology.’

  She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead, and the eyelids, and the lips, her heavy breasts swinging against his chest hair. Then she reached down between her thighs, grasping his erect penis again and manoeuvring his glans between the smooth waxed lips of her vulva. She was very wet and slippery by now, but she kept a firm grip on him so that he couldn’t penetrate her straight away. He tried to hump up his hips because he was so desperate now to push himself inside her, but she held on to him even tighter, relishing the sensation of his glans just inside her vagina, and also the power of keeping him restrained, even though she was acting so whorish.

  She squeezed her vaginal muscles rhythmically, at the same time watching Conor’s reaction with her eyes suggestively widened and the most provocative smile on her lips.

  ‘God Almighty,’ he gasped. ‘If you knew what you’re making me feel like.’

  At last she took her hand away and slowly sank herself down on to his erection, until he was up inside her as far as he could possibly go and she felt as if his wiry pubic hair were hers. He reached up and massaged her breasts, playing with her nipples and pressing her cleavage close together. She leaned forward so that his penis was right on the very edge of slipping out of her, and they kissed again, their tongues fighting together as if they were trying to prove which of them was the more excited. Then she let her hips sink back down on him and the sensation his penis gave her as he slid back up inside her was so intense that she closed her eyes.