Craven (9781921997365)

by Casey, Melanie

  Ed leapt to his feet, dragging me up with him. We half-walked half-ran out of the warehouse and threw ourselves into his car. Ed flicked on a flashing light on his dashboard. I spent the next ten minutes huddled in the passenger seat in desperate fear for Mum and terror of being wrapped around a telegraph pole from Ed’s crazy driving.

  As we got closer I could see the yellow buildings.

  ‘That’s it!’ I pointed.

  Ed nodded. His jaw was set in iron determination.

  We screamed into the private driveway, taking the bend on two wheels. We could see a police car and an ambulance about two-thirds of the way along the row of storage units. Ed pulled up next to them with a squeal of brakes. He was out of the car before I’d even unbuckled my seatbelt.

  ‘DI Dyson. Where’s the owner?’ He fired the words at the closest officer.

  ‘Not here yet, sir.’

  Ed walked up to the roller door. ‘Anita? Anita, it’s Ed! Can you hear me?’ he shouted.

  There was no answer.

  ‘We can’t wait. Break this open,’ he said.

  ‘The owner can’t be far away,’ the uniform said.

  ‘I don’t care. There could be a woman inside and she might not have much time. Do it now.’

  ‘Yes, sir. The crowbar, Jim!’

  His partner pulled the tool out of the boot of their car. They pushed it under the bottom of the door and leant on it. The door groaned but didn’t give. Ed joined them. The three men strained and pushed. The metal of the door groaned and buckled. They stopped for breath. It took three more attempts before the lock gave way with a screech and a pop.

  Ed reached under the rim and forced the door upwards. I rushed over, bumping into one of the uniformed officers in my hurry.

  Shafts of light reached into the interior of the unit. I peered around, my eyes fighting to adjust to the gloom. There, slumped in a chair at the back of the near-empty unit was Mum.

  ‘Mum!’ I shouted, running over to her.

  I was vaguely aware of the lights coming on and Ed rushing up next to me. I reached to touch Mum’s face. Her skin felt cool to the touch but not cold.

  ‘Mum?’ I stroked her cheek. ‘It’s Cass. Can you hear me?’

  Ed reached for her neck and felt for a pulse. He fumbled in tense silence for long moments.

  ‘She’s alive.’

  ‘I know,’ I said.

  EPILOGUE

  ‘I still don’t understand,’ Gran said. ‘How could someone enjoy another person’s fear?’

  I raised the cup of tea to my lips and took a long sip before shaking my head. ‘I don’t understand it myself, Gran. He had a thing about people who couldn’t overcome their fears. He liked to torment them. I think he started by wanting to help them to work through their phobias but then somehow that got twisted into killing them with the thing they were most afraid of.’

  ‘The world’s a better place without him,’ Mum said.

  Gran and I nodded. Mum had been quiet and withdrawn since she’d been released from hospital. She’d been battling to come to terms with what had happened and this was a conversation we’d had more than once since we’d come back to Jewel Bay. I’d quit my job at the university before Bennet had the chance to fire me and we’d hit the road as soon as Mum was fit to travel.

  She was tucked up in a blanket on one of the sun-lounges in the atrium at the back of our house. Shadow was pushed up against her legs. In true cat fashion he had about two-thirds of the available space.

  ‘How could a man who’d dedicated his life to helping people change so completely? He was killing the very people he was supposed to be helping. And why would he go around pretending to be crippled if he wasn’t?’ Mum said.

  ‘There’re a lot of theories about that. Ed told me they think the injuries he sustained when he was attacked by Carl Monaghan might have messed with his brain and altered his personality. They’re not sure why he pretended to need the walking stick. Maybe it was to avoid any suspicion, maybe he had some weird alter ego thing going on.’

  ‘That just sounds like a convenient explanation to appease everyone in the psychiatric community,’ Gran said.

  ‘And the NA community. It can’t have been good for them either,’ I said. ‘Still, the attack seems to have been the trigger for it.’

  ‘It makes me angry to think that someone so disturbed was just walking amongst us. I still can’t believe his partner didn’t know and didn’t have anything to do with it,’ Gran said.

  ‘Ed said he was shattered when he found out. He really loved Dr Metzger,’ I said.

  ‘Talk about the odd couple,’ Mum said. ‘The partner looks like Captain America and Dr Metzger looked like a lost member of the Addams Family.’

  ‘How could you love someone and not know they were a killer?’ I said.

  ‘I don’t know, but I’m not sorry he’s dead,’ Mum said. ‘Ed did the right thing.’

  ‘Did I hear right?’ Ed stuck his head out through the kitchen door. ‘Did someone say I actually did the right thing for a change?’

  ‘We were talking about you, not to you,’ I said with a laugh. ‘Back to your chores!’

  Ed was suspended on full pay pending the outcome of the inquiry into his shooting of Dr Metzger.

  ‘Lunch will be ready in ten minutes,’ he said.

  Miracles were becoming a common occurrence in our lives. The first miracle had been finding Mum alive. That was closely followed by Mum and Gran forgiving Ed for his previous poor judgement and inviting him to come and stay with us while he was on suspension. The most recent miracle was Gran allowing him to use her kitchen to cook us a meal.

  Ed returned to his cooking and we all slipped back into our own thoughts. It was good to have Ed around. He’d desperately wanted to get away from Adelaide in the Dr Metzger aftermath, but his own place in Fairfield was rented out. Gran and Mum were remarkably relaxed about the whole idea of him staying with us. I’d taken more convincing. We’d been an all-women household for so long that I’d had deep reservations when Gran had first suggested it.

  The rhythms of our house had taken on an almost sacred quality for me since I’d left Adelaide. After my experience with Dr Metzger I was desperately in need of their psychic balm. I was convinced that Ed’s presence would strike a discordant note and ruin the harmony. I’d been wrong. He’d slotted in like the last piece of a favourite puzzle that we’d all been searching for.

  I sank back into the well-worn cushion on my chair and looked out over the garden. It was a cool winter’s day, the wind outside was whipping branches of the eucalypt in our backyard into a frenzied dance. Grey clouds were racing across the sky letting the sun break through every so often in a blaze of momentary brilliance. Birds sat huddled on the branches with their feathers puffed against the cold. I let my mind wander to thoughts of the future. I wasn’t sure I knew what I wanted to do. My career as a tutor was definitely over.

  ‘What happens now?’ Gran asked, reading my mind as she so often did.

  ‘Um, we eat lunch?’ I said, not meeting her eyes.

  ‘You know that’s not what I mean.’

  ‘I do?’ I sniffed the air. ‘It smells really good.’

  Gran shook her head.

  ‘She’s going to go back to Adelaide,’ Mum said.

  I looked at her in surprise. She had been the one most opposed to my going in the first place. I was startled by her words but also by the tone in which she’d spoken them. She didn’t sound upset or anxious about the idea.

  ‘I wasn’t going to talk about it until you were better.’

  ‘It’s all right, sweetheart. All that time you’ve spent next to my bedside holding my hand has given me a pretty good glimpse of what’s in your future.’

  ‘You were reading me? I thought you were asleep. That’s hardly playing fair, Mum!’

  ‘I didn’t mean to; all your normal defences were down.’

  ‘So?’ I said, stifling my annoyance.

  ‘So, I t
hink moving in with Ed is a great idea. I’ll be much more relaxed knowing you’re not living alone and I think you’re both ready.’

  ‘What?’ Gran and I said in chorus, turning to stare at her.

  Ed stuck his head out again. ‘Ready! I think you’re going to be really impressed,’ he said.

  If you enjoyed

  Craven

  Look out for more books in the Cass Lehman Series beginning with Hindsight.

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  It’s a cliché I know, but writing a novel is really a lot like giving birth. It takes a team of dedicated professionals to bring a new baby into the world who’s happy, healthy and looking forward to a future full of possibility. You can do it on your own, but without the support team the process is fraught and the outcome much less certain.

  The team at Pantera Press made the process of bringing Craven to life as painless as possible and provided me with wonderful support and reassurance at every turn. Thank you Ali and John Green, chief obstetricians, you have been truly wonderful to work with. Thanks also to Glenda Downing for your thoughtful editing and Desanka Vukelich for your skilled proofreading – you were the head midwives who held my hand through the final phases of delivery.

  Thanks also to Luke Causby for your fabulous cover design. Getting to see what the newborn looks like is always the fun bit, and your talent and patience are boundless.

  Thanks also to Andrew Dunbar for making me look so glam in my proud parent photo inside the back cover.

  So, enough of the baby analogy …

  Thanks also to my husband Peter, my children Emma and Liam, my Dad Rod, and the wonderful group of family and friends who have given me so much support and encouragement. Your enthusiasm means so much to me. To my Grandma Rita, I hope there’s a bit less swearing in this one!

  To the readers who enjoyed Hindsight and have come back for the second instalment, thank you for your support! You’re the key to it all. I hope Craven keeps you turning the pages and checking under the bed long into the night!

  Melanie Casey

  MELANIE CASEY

  Melanie Casey was born and lives in South Australia with her two young children and her husband.

  After studying English Literature and Classical Studies, Melanie shifted to Law, and now works in government.

  A chance meeting with a highschool English teacher in the supermarket made Melanie realise that she should be doing what she’d always loved, writing! Another period of study, this time at the Professional Writing School of Adelaide’s College of the Arts ensued, helping Melanie to acquire the skills she needed to put her plans into action.

  Hindsight was Melanie’s debut novel. Craven is the second in the series of crime novels featuring reluctant psychic Cass Lehman and cynical Detective Ed Dyson.

  First published in 2014 by Pantera Press Pty Limited

  www.PanteraPress.com

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is copyright, and all rights are reserved.

  Text copyright © Melanie Casey, 2014

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  This is a work of fiction, though it may refer to some real events or people. Names, characters, organisations, dialogue and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, firms, events or locales is coincidental or used for fictional purposes.

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  ISBN 978-1-921997-35-8 (Paperback)

  ISBN 978-1-921997-36-5 (Ebook)

  Cover and Internal Design: Luke Causby, Blue Cork

  Front cover image: © Tim Daniels / Trevillion Images

  Back cover image: © Arthur Dent/iStock

  Editor: Glenda Downing

  Proofreader: Desanka Vukelich

  Author Photo: Andrew Dunbar

  Typesetting: Kirby Jones

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