Stealth

by John Hollenkamp

  “Yes, I know. So tell me a bit about him, I mean you and him. Just pretend I am not a copper tonight.” She moved her hand to his and squeezed it. She took a sip from her beer. Her eyes zoomed in and locked onto his as if she was willing him into talking.

  Darren gazed at her for a moment, “I suppose it can’t do any harm.”

  “When I moved down from Queensland, I ended up in Manly. Like any real Queenslander I headed straight for the nearest hotel. The Manly pub.” And he had a chuckle.

  “That’d be right,” she softly commented. “You were on your own, I suppose.” Cate leant over the table and rested her chin on her clenched hands eagerly waiting for him to tell her more.

  “Turned out they were a bit understaffed that night, the bloke behind the bar was whinging about the dish pig not turning up for work. I’d drunk a few schooners and was nicely warmed up, then I shot my mouth off by offering to help him out. But,” … he paused to have a gulp from the schooner glass, “…he took me up on the offer, so that was it for the beers until much later and I got stuck into doing the dishes. That bloke whinging was Johnno.”

  Cate loved the smile on his face. She stared into his eyes. “I love those long eye-lashes of yours.” She leaned over and kissed him on the lips. He cleared his throat after she settled back into her chair. It unnerved him a little. She’s full steam ahead, wow. What do I do now? So Darren decided to ignore her surprise kiss and keep talking.

  “Anyway, I had plenty of practice at home. At home, as kids we had to set and clear the table and do the dishes. Mum didn’t believe in a dishwasher, she used to say, ‘Got three dishwashers here, what do we want another one for?’ and shoo us into the kitchen.” Christ, I can’t believe I’m crapping on about dishwashing. Darren realised.

  “Sounds like a promising skill to have. One day you’ll make a lovely house-husband.” Cate laughed and watched him as he struggled to react to her comment. She brushed his hand and excused herself. “Lighten up. I’m going to the ladies, don’t leave town”.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her and ogled her sway as she meandered through the crowd. He was happy not to have to endure the constant doubting and confusion of her mannerisms and reactions in the last month. Now, he knew. She did like him after all. He was smitten.

  Cate returned from the loo and slid into the chair opposite her date. She picked up her glass. Curiosity showed on her face, “How come you lied to me, back then in the carpark about not knowing Johnno?”

  “Do we have to rehash that again?”

  “No, of course not. I’m sorry. My copper’s hat. I have to remind myself to take it off,” Cate apologised, now eager to change the conversation. Talking about Johnno was going to dampen, or worse, kill tonight’s mood. She didn’t want that to happen.

  “Let’s have another drink. This time I might have a Tequila as well. What say you? Come on, let’s get pissed. Let the past be the past,” she pressed.

  “Why not?” Darren started to get up.

  She grabbed his hand. Gently, but firmly she drew him closer. “Come here, and kiss me.” He could not resist. Their lips met again and delicately touched. With care and concentration, like when you try not to break a Ming dynasty vase.

  CHAPTER 42

  LEARN TO MAKE COFFEE

  The Tequila shots had made her giggly. Cate was rummaging through her bag for the unit keys. Darren stood close to her, not because he was clingy, but to stop her from falling over.

  “Think I found them,” she sounded elated.

  “It’s this one, I think.” She held up a single key separate from the others. He felt her fingers melting into his hand, as he took the set from her, keeping the single key up.

  The touch of her sent goose bumps up his arms. His neck was tingling. His senses were completely consumed by her presence. Time seemed to be of no consequence. He couldn’t even remember putting the keys into the door-lock.

  A strong gust of wind disturbed the drapes covering the window. They were naked on her bed. No covers. The sheet and blanket were hanging off the side of the double-bed.

  “Wow, I think I’m sober now,” she said. He felt her breathing on his chest. The soft nipple of her full breast brushed against his skin as she relaxed next to him.

  “You’re definitely not just show, are you?” She breathed out.

  He was lying on his back, exhausted and in a place where he’d never been before. “I don’t know if I’m sober, or high, or what. But it feels really good.”

  “I know the feeling,” she whispered. The silence was nice, she felt his fingers lightly scratching her shoulder and her neck. Then he ran his fingers up the nape of her neck, caressing and gently massaging the back of her head. “We’re never going to sleep, if you keep this up.”

  “Want me to stop?” He answered her softly.

  “No,” she whispered and kissed his ear.

  She rubbed her foot over his ankle and slowly she brought her leg up sliding over his and tauntingly she swung her leg right over his groin. Her pubic mound was comfortably nestled against his thigh. She moved back and forth and pressed her body harder against his. Her free arm moved away from his chest and her fingers crawled past his belly-button.

  “Now that’s dangerous,” he said as he stiffened his neck.

  “Oh, why is that?” she kissed the side of his lip. She let her tongue touch his top lip and moved it along feeling the stiff bristle of his moustache.

  “You know about the sleeping dragon, don’t you?” He folded his arms around the back of his head.

  “Oh, yeah. And what’s the dragon’s name?”

  Darren turned his smiling face towards hers and replied, “Puff. You know, the magic dragon.” And she broke out laughing first. He followed suit.

  Within moments they were entangled, writhing and rolling on the mattress, their faces pressed into each other. Until she disengaged and pushed herself away with her arms out, holding herself up against his shoulders. She spread her legs resting her knees on either side of him on the bed. With one hand she guided him inside her. She was sitting straight up, feeling all of him. His hands rounded both her breasts and his thumbs gently rubbed her nipples. She moved her lithe body, until she felt his warm body tensing inside her. The strength of his taut body lifting her slightly. She clenched her thighs and bit her bottom lip. Minutes later, she collapsed next to him, regaining her breath. She wrapped her arms around her exhausted lover. They fell asleep.

  The morning came too quick. She was awake first and studied her lover’s eye-lids, still closed. She rolled her head towards the bed-side table. Her eyes stopped at the clock. Six am. Bugger. I have to get up. She kissed Darren lightly on the lips. Carefully, she swung her legs off the bed. Her feet touched the carpet.

  “Hey, where are you going?” he mumbled.

  “The shower. Got to get ready for work.” She disappeared to the bathroom. Darren opened his eyes wide. Despite only having a couple of hours of sleep, he felt wide awake, alive, invigorated. He jumped off the bed and searched for his briefs. He ruffled the bed-sheet looking for them at the bottom of the bed. He dropped to his knees and found his black undies under the bed.

  “Do you want to brew us some coffee?” She stuck her head through the gap of the bathroom door. Her hair was dripping water onto the carpet. She smiled.

  “You got instant?”

  “No way, I don’t drink that crap. How about just boiling a kettle and I’ll be out in a minute.” She shut the door.

  Darren went through the open bedroom door. He tiptoed to the kitchen, he felt shy. He was in strange surroundings. He found a stainless-steel kettle on the fake granite benchtop, filled it up and depressed the lever to heat the water.

  “Good morning.” He saw Cate was already partly dressed. Panties on, bra strapped up, she was still drying her hair with a large towel. Darren gawked at her flesh.

  “Hi, handsome.” She paused towelling her hair and pecked him on the cheek.

  “You better show me
how to make this coffee.”

  “I will. You’ll need to learn, if you want to come back here again.” She winked.

  “Figured that.” He smiled at her.

  CHAPTER 43

  NICE SINGLET

  “What time do you finish?”

  “Usually when all the drunks have gone to bed.” Darren answered sitting in his taxi, waiting in front of the Steyne Hotel in Manly.

  “Hmm. That could be late.” After a brief pause, she added, “I’ll leave the front door unlatched.”

  “Is that an invite?”

  “And the RSVP is due now.”

  “Confirmed.”

  “See you when I’m looking at you.” And she hung up.

  She yawned, her watch showed it was 5 pm. At that moment, the office door widened and her trainee detective waltzed in.

  “Hey, boss, you’re looking a bit weary,” he remarked as he dropped the files onto her desk.

  “Nice of you to be so observant, but in this case you can dispense with the observation. By the way, although the door is ajar, please feel free to knock and announce your entry.”

  The well-groomed detective was taken aback by the reprimand. “I apologise, I didn’t mean to be frivolous.”

  “Thank you for the files. Go home. Enjoy your weekend. Next week is going to be full-on.” Cate said without looking at him, as she cleared her desk.

  Although Cate retired to bed early, the best she could manage was dozing off for half an hour at a time. The numbers on the digital clock changed at a snail’s pace. At midnight, she threw off her sheet and jumped out of bed. What the hell is wrong with me? This is stupid. As she opened the fridge door, the light cast a shadow on her singlet top, accentuating the fullness of her breasts and the pin-points of her nipples. She took a drink from a left-over 600ml Coke.

  At two-thirty in the morning she woke up with a start and instinctively swung out at the silhouette on the bed. Her wild swinging arm connected with Darren’s jaw. “Jesus!” he exclaimed, as he catapulted backwards. “Hey, it’s only me!”

  “Oh, shit! Shit.” Cate groped for the light switch on her bed-side lamp. Darren had his hand on the side of his face and started rubbing his jaw.

  “Fuck, you’re not bad with the welcome mat.”

  “Oh God, I am so sorry. Here, come closer let me have a look.” She drew nearer. He willingly let her come closer. She put her hand on his hand and moved it gently away from his jaw.

  “This might make it better.” She kissed him on the reddening cheek.

  “Nice singlet,” he said as he moved in closer to her.

  They had slept fitfully. The smell from brewing coffee and a cooked breakfast wafted up from below through the open window in the bedroom. Cate cracked open one of her eyelids to search for the clock on the bed-side table. Her head felt glued to the bed; her body submerged in her mattress.

  “Is Puff awake already?” she mumbled under her breath, feeling his body pressed against her back and bare buttocks.

  “He’s usually awake before me.” Darren replied from under the sheet. “But I am going back to sleep.”

  “Spoil-sport.” Cate rolled out of bed. “I’m making coffee.” She bounced her naked body to the bathroom.

  Darren opened his eyes. 11.09 am the numbers on the clock read. In the background, he could hear the faint noise of her tinkle. When she came back from the bathroom she snatched her nighty from the hook on the door and slipped it over her head.

  “You look a lot better without that little thing on,” he tried to reach over to pinch the garment.

  “You said you were going back to sleep.” She slipped past him, giving him a naughty look.

  “Nice cheeks,” he gawked at the lower part of her buttocks, not covered by the silky crème-coloured nighty.

  What about the legs?” She twirled once on her way to the kitchen.

  He was lying on his stomach on the bed facing the living area, his chin resting on his folded hands. “Bloody perfect.”

  “Time gets away. It’s already midday.” Cate cradled the hot cup of coffee in her hands.

  “Working today?” Darren was lying back against the soft cushion on the lounge, his legs stretched out in front of him. She sat on the coffee table opposite, her leg touching his.

  “No so far. But that can change with the drop of a hat. The joys of the job. And you?”

  “Later. Five o’clock start. The joys of Saturday passengers.” He tried to be funny.

  “Gives us some time, then.” She raised her eye-brows, as she cupped her mug and sipped black coffee.

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Darren sat straighter with a broad smile.

  “Not for that. Naughty boy.”

  “For what, then?” He tried his best to look deflated, but his eye fell on a photograph on the dark retro side-board. The picture displayed a young girl of about ten years old, standing in the shadow of a tall police-man. The man’s arm was resting on the girl’s shoulder, embracing her.

  “Who’s that in the picture?” Darren pointed his finger at the frame on the dated furniture piece.

  “My dad. He was a copper. As was my pop.” She nodded with a proud smile.

  “Your family live in Sydney?” Darren was curious.

  “Yes. Their graves are in Sydney.”

  Darren detected a sad note in her voice. “I’m sorry. They are not alive then?”

  “Both Nan and Pop died in a car accident over twenty years ago. I was young, but do remember the grief that nearly drowned the rest of the family. It was very sad.” She paused in her recollection. Darren remained silent with a sympathetic expression on his face.

  “Dad had a heart attack a few years ago. Just like that – he was gone.” She bowed her head and shook it as she got up to get a refill.

  “Sorry that your family has had such bad luck.” The smell from a fresh brew being poured got him off his backside. “I’ll have some more too. Any left?”

  “Sure. Give me your mug.”

  Cate poured the refill coffee. “What about yours? Your family, I mean.” It dawned on her that she knew very little about Darren’s past, other than his Queensland heritage.

  “Not much of a story really.” He leant his backside against the kitchen benchtop.

  “I grew up in Ingham. Everything about my family’s life revolved around sugar cane. My old man worked in the cane industry. The few friends my oldies had all worked in sugar cane. Mum didn’t go to work. She looked after us tackers. Me and my two brothers, Dougie and Donny. Her life was one long ritual: get up, feed us kids, wash clothes, mow the grass, cook dinner for the old boy, clean up, clean house and do it all again the next day.”

  “What, mow the grass every day?” She jibbed him.

  “Yeah, absolutely. Grass grows quick in Ingham. It’s the tropics. Rain and heat.” Darren reaffirmed the facts with a schoolteacher’s nod.

  “Serious?” She was utterly surprised.

  After a ten second look of confirmation, he laughed. “No. But it was pretty often, though.”

  “What were their names?”

  “Deirdre. And my old man’s name was Jack.”

  “Was?” she queried.

  Darren was surprised at her incredible ability to pick up on small things said in conversation. “You really have a knack honing in on a word, don’t you?”

  “My job.”

  “Dad died a while ago. Accident at the bulk processing terminal in Lucinda. Fell down some access stairs. Broke his neck. Probably pissed.” Darren said staring through the balcony doors.

  “Pissed? Drunk at work?” she donned a face of dismay. “Didn’t they do an investigation? You know, WorkCover and all that.”

  “Back then, a few things would be swept under the carpet. For the family, and of course for the operators of the terminal.”

  “That’s unbelievable. It’s against the law.” Cate was astonished.

  “Oh, get real, Cate. Everyone these days gets too caught up with political
correctness. Do you really believe in all this nanny-state shit? Don’t think I could count the times I’ve seen him sober,” Darren said. “Whether it was illegal or not, it was his own fault. Not the operators of the terminal.” He emptied his coffee mug, tipping the last bit down his throat.

  “I decided a long time ago that I wanted nothing to do with sugar cane or Ingham. So I left when I was seventeen. I only went back for dad’s funeral. To be with Mum, and my little brothers.”

  “Taking responsibility for your own stupidity is something I grew up with. The old man paid his price for his habit.”

  “And Johnno?” She teased his conviction, locking her eyes into his. Darren was again surprised by her sharp questioning. Fuck, she’s a smartarse, contemplating his answer before flatly stating, “He didn’t deserve a cowardly ambush and a knife through the heart. The punishment did not equal his crime.”

  Cate did not have time to respond as her mobile went off. “Okay, be there in twenty,” she agreed reluctantly.

  CHAPTER 44

  EARS TO THE GROUND, EYES OPEN

  A metallic dark blue Commodore wagon was parked under the naked umbrella of a tree. An ordinary vehicle, common as they come. It had no real distinguishing features, other than a dark tint to the windows. In summer, the occupants would have had good shade from the deciduous tree next to them. But it was winter. Despite it being a cool day, the dark colour of the car allowed the winter sun to heat the interior of the wagon.

  “You wouldn’t think the sun could turn us into a baked dinner on a day like this,” Cate commented.

  “We could lower the windows,” Adam proposed.

  “No. I prefer the anonymity in an observation exercise.” Cate replied. “I think we’ve been here long enough, anyway.”

  “I suppose we should move on, before we are noticed.” Adam looked at his watch, “We’ve been here for over two hours.”

  A taxi passed the surveillance vehicle at less than the posted speed limit. The car slowed in front of the mechanical shop, but not to a stop. The vehicle momentarily interfered with their view to the target. Cate sat up to attention, tapped her partner on the arm and said, “This might be the contact, pass me those binoculars.” With baited breath, she watched the taxi drive off. There was no passenger – either getting out or getting in. She sighed.