Heller

by JD Nixon

  I locked eyes with him, but didn’t say a word.

  “We found his body fluids – his semen – in every single one of her orifices. Do you understand what I’m saying, Tilly? Every single one. Would you want him to do that to you? The woman also had bite marks on her buttocks, breasts and thighs. It’s no wonder her husband went ballistic when he saw them.”

  “So you’re blaming the victim now? You’re saying she deserved to die? Because she had a night of rough sex with someone who wasn’t her husband?” I stared at him, enraged. “They were separated, Brian. She was free to do whatever and whoever she wanted.”

  “It would drive any man to the point of madness to find out that his wife was up to that kind of thing with someone like Heller.”

  “It’s none of my business what Heller does in his own time. All I know is what he told me and it sounded as though whatever he did to her, it was what she wanted him to do. She did a few things back to him too, you know.”

  “You have very frank discussions with him, don’t you? I wouldn’t talk to my boss about stuff like that.”

  “We’re fairly close, yes.”

  “But not sleeping together?”

  “No!”

  “You’ve changed since you started working for him. You’re getting hard, just like him.”

  I was furious at that unwanted observation. “I’d rather be hard like Heller than be as big an arsehole as you.”

  “Tut, tut,” he sneered. “Such bad language from such a nice girl. What would Mum and Dad say?”

  “Why don’t you go and tell them?” I scorned. “You always did like getting me in trouble.”

  “Always Mum and Dad’s little angel. They don’t know what a devil you really are.”

  I smiled sweetly at him. “Heller has a message for you.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. He wasn’t happy about how you messed him around this morning. Keeping him here for hours when you knew he couldn’t possibly have done it.” Brian had the good grace to squirm a little. “His lawyer wanted him to lodge an official complaint against you and your mate.”

  Brian laughed contemptuously. “Am I supposed to be scared?”

  I grew serious and leaned forward, moving my hands out towards him. “Yeah Brian, you probably should be. Heller’s not going to do that. He told me you’ve made an enemy of him now. And he will get some revenge on you one day.”

  He leaned back in his chair, away from me, and folded his arms. “So what? How melodramatic. He’s all piss and air. He’s nothing but a nancy boy.”

  I entreated him with my eyes. “Brian, please. He means it. I’d be worried if I was you. You didn’t see his face when he said it. Maybe you should apologise?”

  “Fuck off! I’m not apologising to him! He should be sucking my dick with gratitude for not chucking his pretty arse in jail.”

  I eyed him in disgust. “God, listen to yourself, Brian. You sound like you’ve got a hard-on for him.”

  He stood up quickly, forcing his chair to teeter on the verge of falling, before righting itself. “Fuck off! We’re done.”

  “Lovely to see you again too, dearest brother. Take care now. Kisses for Cara and Libby.” And I ambled out of the station, collected Tysen and returned home.

  Our weekly staff meeting was scheduled for that afternoon. I went into Heller’s office earlier than the others and told him about my meeting with Brian, recounting all the details. “You were right. He wouldn’t listen to me. He doesn’t believe you’re any threat.”

  “His mistake.” His face was cold, hard and evil. There was no other word for it, except evil. I believed everything he had said. And threatened.

  As the others trooped in and sat down, he rearranged his features back into a neutral position and we progressed through our normal business items. Daniel noted that revenue was up again for the previous month and I felt proud about that, knowing that some of that was due to the business I had brought in.

  Heller didn’t react to that news, but merely regarded me quietly for a moment while everyone waited for him to speak. “Matilda, I have an assignment coming up in the next few days that I want you to do. I’ll talk to you about it later, but I don’t think you’re going to be very happy about it.”

  Daniel and I exchanged surreptitious glances and he gave the slightest shake of his head as if to deny any knowledge of the assignment. My curiosity was piqued, but infuriatingly Heller didn’t expand any further.

  That night, I lay in bed worrying about everything. It was only as I was finally drifting off that I remembered that I still hadn’t called Will.

  Chapter 25

  A couple of days later, I checked my bank account. There was more money in it than I’d ever had in my life. I couldn’t spend my salary fast enough. Heller was a very generous boss, paying for all of my day-to-day needs as well as paying me to work for him. But he did expect a lot, as I was about to be reminded when the devil himself walked into the office. He crooked his finger at me as he walked past and I followed him into his office, sitting down without being invited.

  “Time to talk about that new job for you. It’s your first sleepover job.”

  “Okay,” I said docilely, half-excited and half-nervous. I was also proud that Heller felt confident enough of my ability to give me the responsibility of safeguarding a client overnight. It was unexpected.

  “We have a pastor coming to the city for a few nights. He’s giving two lectures while he’s here and wants someone to look after his wives during the visit.”

  “That sounds all right. Why did you say I wouldn’t be happy? I’ve done that kind of work . . .” I broke off as his words sunk in. “What do you mean wives? You meant to say wife, didn’t you?”

  He ran his hand through his spiky hair in procrastination and avoided eye contact with me, his gaze fixed on his fingers that were playing with his expensive gold pen.

  “Heller? What did you mean by wives?” I repeated myself impatiently.

  He shrugged and blasted me with that lovely blueness. “Matilda, it’s self-evident, isn’t it? It’s a plural word. The man has more than one wife.”

  My blood pressure rose a few points, but I kept my voice deliberately calm. “How could he? That’s not legal.”

  “It is tolerated in some states in the United States. He’s one of the world’s leading proponents of polygamy. He runs his own religion, the Church of the Manifold Flowers of God.” I rolled my eyes in disbelief. “He’s here in the city from the US for the next few days to give some lectures to like-minded people.”

  “Heller, I am not the right person for this job. It’s like a red rag to a bull,” I warned him, arms crossed with attitude.

  “Don’t you think I know that, Matilda? But he wants a woman. He doesn’t trust his wives with a male security officer apparently. There are a lot of people opposed to his ideas, so he employs security whenever he leaves his own compound.”

  “For God’s sake! I can’t believe what you make me do sometimes.” I was struck by a sudden thought and smiled at him, pleased with myself for finding a loophole. “But I can’t do this job. I’m not licensed to perform security work.”

  “I know. I wouldn’t let you do security work without a licence, but this is more like escort work.” I stilled immediately and glared at him. He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, bad choice of words. What I meant was that you’ll be acting as their companion, not security. Similar to what you did with Mrs Hayek. You don’t need a licence for that. It’s like being their friend.”

  “Well, I won’t be their friend. I don’t want this assignment. The whole idea of polygamy is repugnant to me. Get someone else to do it.” I stood up to leave.

  “Matilda,” he warned in his sternest voice, which is an extremely stern voice, let me tell you. I sat back down again. “I’m not asking you to do this assignment, I’m telling you to do it. You’re my employee and you’ll do it because I tell you to do it. And you’ll do it with a smile, remembering your big
pay cheque.”

  There was absolutely no doubt that he was efficient at communicating his thoughts clearly. I set my jaw stubbornly, but I knew when I was beaten. He was the boss, after all. He looked at me doubtfully, as if not entirely sure of my acquiescence. “I’ll take you over there tomorrow when they arrive. But you’re going to have to take care around him. He may not be used to modern women. He’s very religious and old-fashioned.”

  I swept my hair over my shoulders and stared back him in defiance. “I couldn’t give a shit what he is. He’s nothing but a creepy pervert. I’m going to set his wives free.”

  “Matilda! You’re going to have to mind your language, please.”

  “Keep your hair on, Heller. I won’t ruin your chance of bringing in more money.” And with that sneering comment, I flounced out righteously, stamping to my desk with all the attitude and muttering of obscenities under my breath of a teenager told the internet was down for the evening. I had actually witnessed that terrifying event once with Niq, so I knew what I was talking about.

  The next day I wanted to make sure I made an unforgettable first impression on the Pastor, so dressed in a highly provocative outfit. I chose a tight deep purple short-skirted suit that showed more of my thigh than was usual for a business environment, teamed with a low-cut lavender blouse. I made sure I had on my best push-up bra, laciest panties and a lot of makeup. I spilled my hair out softly around my shoulders and gave myself a generous spray of a seductive floral perfume. I slipped on my highest heels. I smiled wickedly at myself in the mirror and flung my overnight bag over my shoulder, carefully making my way down the stairs to the office, where Heller was waiting to drive me over to the hotel.

  Daniel wolf-whistled admiringly when I walked in. Niq almost gave himself whiplash turning to stare, a big smile on his face.

  “I’m going to meet a religious nut,” I explained.

  “God help him!” Daniel replied with a grin.

  I entered Heller’s office. His eyes gleamed with interest, running up and down my body appreciatively, but he frowned. “No Matilda. That outfit’s all wrong for this job.”

  “This is what I’m wearing,” I insisted, and there was no way I was budging from that position. For once, I stared him down. He sighed resignedly, muttered under his breath and stood up to leave. We drove, not to one of the six-star hotels where we usually met clients, but a more run-down hotel, once the most fashionable place in the city but now seedy and neglected with age. It looked as though it hadn’t been renovated since its hey-day in the 1960s.

  “Why here?” I queried as we walked through the shabby unattended foyer over to the lifts, one of which had a dusty ‘out of order’ sign across its doors.

  “Apparently running your own religion isn’t as lucrative as you’d expect,” Heller commented dryly.

  “How many wives does this prick have?”

  “Matilda,” he warned.

  “Sorry! How many wives does our greatly esteemed client have, my dearest lord Heller?” I said in my sweetest voice, blinking up at him with mock-adoration in my eyes. He reluctantly smiled down at me as we stepped into the creaky lift.

  “Six.”

  “Another Henry VIII on our hands, huh? Has he chopped off any of their heads yet?”

  “Not as far as I know,” he said patiently, ignoring my bad-humour. “His name is Pastor Merton Peachey.”

  “You’re kidding me? Pastor Peachey?”

  “I kid you not.”

  “Christ almighty, he sounds like a cartoon character!” He glared at me and I held up my hands in apology. “Okay, okay. I promise I’ll behave myself. Mostly.”

  He gave me a gentle, exasperated nudge with his arm so I elbowed him back harder, not in a good mood. We stepped out of the lift and headed down the dingy hallway, the wallpaper peeling, scuffed and stained, the carpet virtually threadbare. Three of the six ceiling lights had blown and nobody had bothered to replace them.

  He knocked on the door of the hotel room to which we had been directed. It was opened by a thin, hard-faced, dour man, dressed in an old-fashioned black funeral suit and white dress shirt, accessorised with a black tie. How merry, I thought. He was in his late fifties, salt-and-pepper-haired, mean-mouthed, with mesmerising gray eyes that goggled with instant disapproval at the sight of me. I flicked my hair back and pushed my chest out further in response, and it was all I could do not to smile seductively and wink at him.

  Heller allowed me to enter the room first, pretending to be a gentleman, then jabbed me viciously in the back with his finger as I walked – his warning to behave myself. As I arched forward in pain, I kicked backwards with one leg and made satisfying contact with my high heel on his shin. He sported a slightly pained expression as he sat down at Pastor Peachey’s behest on the much worn lounge. I sat next to him and assumed my most vacuous, wide-eyed expression.

  Pastor Peachey was clearly uncomfortable in my presence. His glance moved rapidly between Heller and me. He didn’t look impressed. I felt guilty then that I had probably ruined a chance for Heller to snare a presumably lucrative assignment. He didn’t usually take on any other kind. The cheapness of the hotel must have been compensating for the expensiveness of my services and I felt doubly guilty.

  The good Pastor spoke with a southern-US rural twang, and started our conversation by bestowing on us an obscure, lengthy and as far as I could tell, completely irrelevant passage from scripture. I think it had something to do with wanton women. We listened to it politely, oblivious as to its point and then when he had finally concluded, Heller questioned the Pastor about his exact needs in his precise business-like manner.

  He told us that he had been the object of abusive attacks for his beliefs in the past and didn’t wish to subject his wives to such harassment while he was visiting the city. He wanted them kept busy and supervised while he prepared his lectures and met with local members of his congregation. Pastor Peachey looked at me uncertainly, but decided that twenty-four hour companionship was probably what he needed. Heller was so convincing that, with an insultingly obvious lack of enthusiasm, Pastor Peachey agreed to keep me on for the next three days during his visit.

  I had unwillingly packed for this eventuality and Heller went to fetch my bag from his vehicle. The Pastor stared at me in intense silence the whole time Heller was gone. I began to feel like an abject sinner under his brooding gaze and started to fidget uncomfortably. A few more minutes and I might even have even felt compelled to confess to my many, many sins, including the ones I’d only ever thought about. Well, there was a whole thick volume of them on Heller alone, wasn’t there?

  Pastor Peachey suddenly spoke gruffly, breaking the awkward silence. “I’ll introduce you to my wives.”

  He picked up the phone and spoke tersely into it. After less than a minute there was a soft knock on the door. He answered and ushered in five plain women, ranging in age from barely twenty to nearly forty. They were dressed dowdily, in noticeably home-made flower-printed dresses that primly covered their bodies neck to ankle, including full-length sleeves. Head scarves covered their long plaited hair. They wore boots that I suspected came from an army surplus store. They appeared to be channelling their fashion inspiration from Little House on the Prairie. None wore one speck of makeup or a single piece of jewellery, not even a wedding ring. Their eyes were modestly downcast.

  They stood obediently behind their husband, arranging themselves neatly in a semi-circle. They obviously hadn’t been exposed to a woman like me before, except perhaps during their husband’s sermons on wickedness. Individually, they stole furtive glances at my clothes, makeup, hair, boobs and heels, either drinking it in for further heated discussion on sin amongst themselves, or hopefully I thought, ploughing the seed for future rebellion. I met their eyes boldly, smiling in a friendly way. I wasn’t optimistic though, as they all seemed thoroughly under the rule of their husband and master, who happened at that very minute to be glowering at me, noticing my friendly efforts with his wive
s. God! I’d never get used to saying that. Wives. It was just plain wrong.

  “These are my wives, Miss Chalmers – Mary, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Hannah and Sarah. Wives, this is Miss Chalmers, who will be looking after you for the next few days while I conduct business in this city.” It appeared as though he had introduced them oldest to youngest. Perhaps there was a wifely hierarchy in the family. I’d have to ask them later.

  “Please, call me Tilly,” I requested and smiled at them warmly. They nodded shyly at me, and I received a few small smiles in response. Heller’s subsequent return to the room with my bag generated quite a stir among them though, with so much whispering and giggling that Pastor Peachey’s face flushed an unbecoming red and his lips pressed so tightly together they were in danger of disappearing. They had evidently never seen a creature such as Heller in their neck of the woods.

  “Ladies! What is this commotion?” the Pastor admonished in a harsh voice, and they all subdued instantly. “This is Mr Heller. He will not be staying with us.” And for the first time in my life I witnessed five adult women experiencing simultaneous disappointment. The Pastor didn’t bother with a reciprocal introduction because of the briefness of the relationship, but I would have bet a large sum of money that each of those women would have loved a direct blast from Heller’s amazing blue eyes as he regarded them during an introduction, even if only for a second. It would have been a treasured moment for the rest of their lives.

  After further lengthy religious pontificating from the Pastor that also seemed to relate to wanton women, Heller made urgent, almost desperate, moves to escape, leaving me behind. In truth, I couldn’t blame him – I didn’t want to be there either. It was going to be a long three days. I walked him to the door. There he stroked my cheek with surprising tenderness, his eyes filled with some emotion that I wasn’t in the mood to interpret and that he seemed unwilling to experience.

  “See you soon, Matilda. Behave yourself and keep in touch,” he said quietly.

  “Sure,” I replied coolly and spun around to return to the room. He suddenly clutched me by my upper arms and pulled me out into the hallway, away from the curious eyes of the wives and husband. He pushed me against the wall, pressed himself on me and kissed me. I hadn’t been expecting that at all, but responded as best I could in the circumstances. He was a great kisser and it was a very nice kiss. I could have done with a couple more.