by Clare Kauter
I nodded. That was a good plan. “But then how did you know I was here, Will?”
I doubted James had called him.
“I heard from a nurse who used to work at the clinic. She calls me whenever you end up in hospital.”
“Celia?”
“James called me.”
I looked at James. “I wanted a friend here, and she was the only friend of mine who wouldn’t think it was weird that I was waiting in your hospital room.”
That seemed like a fair excuse, seeing as most of his friends knew that I’d once attacked him with a hockey stick and therefore probably didn’t think we were that tight. Still, I felt like maybe James had engineered it so that I’d have to face Celia when I woke up and apologise to her sooner rather than later.
“Did you call anyone else?”
James shook his head. “I’m too scared to call your friends, and I don’t have any of their numbers. Oh, but I did text Lea.” I looked at him, letting his words sink in for a second. He didn’t seem to realise what was about to go down.
“You messaged Lea?”
“Yes.”
“Telling her I was here?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you even know what is about to happen?”
“What?”
“She’s going to round up my friends and bring them here. You and Celia can’t be here when they arrive.”
“Why?”
“Really?” He looked back at me blankly. “Somebody’s going to die.”
A look of realisation spread across his face. “Oh, shit…”
As if on cue, the door flew open again.
“Charlie!”
In barrelled my entire high school friendship group - Penelope, Nancy, Joy, Naomi, Rose, Stacey, and Joanna, followed by Oswald, and, of course, Lea.
Normally, my friends would have climbed onto the bed and hugged me and said ridiculous things like how they thought I was dead and how I looked better than expected and what did it feel like and was the ambulance driver hot, etc. Today, though, they stopped dead. James McKenzie was taking up the space on the bed.
And he was under the sheets.
Next to me.
The shock on their faces would have been comical if it weren’t so terrifying. The only two who wore vaguely normal facial expressions were Lea, who was wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, and Oswald, who looked completely nonplussed. Stacey recovered relatively quickly and responded with an attempt to distract the group at large.
“Celia! Fancy seeing you here!”
It was a good try, but if she thought that was going to help the situation she was sorely mistaken. Their facial expressions grew even more frightening.
Luckily, Will was much better equipped to handle the situation than the rest of us. I guess all his experience with mental illness at the clinic meant that he could stay calm in this sort of highly volatile situation.
“Hey, ladies,” he said. “It’s so nice of you to all show up here to look after Charlie.”
As much as my friends loved James, they were equally as susceptible to the other McKenzie’s charms. Of course, they had even less chance with Will than with James, but they didn’t know that. (It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I’d found out he was gay, and I’d known him all my life.)
“Unfortunately, visiting hours are over and it’s family-only at the moment, so you guys are going to have to go home,” he said, herding them out the door. It didn’t matter that what he was saying didn’t really make sense (I was not related to Celia or the McKenzies, and yet here they were). The girls were completely defenceless against The McKenzie Charm. “I’ll make sure Charlie calls you guys the second she gets out. She’s looking much better now – it shouldn’t be too long. OK, it was lovely to see you all. Bye!”
He shut the door behind them.
“That was amazing,” said Celia.
“How the hell can you control them like that?” James asked.
“You could too if you didn’t panic.”
“They’re scary.”
We all nodded in agreement. They were pretty scary.
The door opened again and we all whipped our heads towards the sound in panic, but luckily it was just Lea.
“I broke away from the pack,” she said. “I’m so sorry – I didn’t realise things would get that weird. If I’d known you two had been sleeping together, I wouldn’t have brought them in.”
“We’re not – ” I began, but stopped when I caught Lea’s smile.
“Whatever. I’m glad you’re OK, Charlie. Will you be home tonight?”
“Should be,” I said. “I feel OK now.”
“Good. I’ll save you some baked beans.”
“You’re an angel.”
She grinned at me and left.
“How is it that your most normal friend used to be married to a serial killer?” James asked.
“Well, you stole my only actually normal friend. I had to work with what I could get.”
At that point a nurse arrived and told us that visiting hours really had ended, so she kicked the others out. I flicked on the television and tried to find something good to watch, but ended up watching a weather report because everything else was so bad. It was a dramatic weather report, to be fair – torrential rain predicted for Gerongate and surrounding areas tomorrow night. Such excitement. Much emotion.
Later that day, Adam came to check me out of the hospital. We picked up clothes from my house, and I told Lea to finish the baked beans herself. I wasn’t going to be dining with her tonight. I was going to have another dinner care of McKenzie at a conference event instead.
“My drink got spiked last night and you won’t even give me a whole day off?” I said as we drove along in Adam’s BMW.
“It wasn’t even a big dosage,” said Adam. “Don’t be a baby.”
I was pretty sure he was joking. “So, no lasting damage then?”
“No,” Adam answered. “Except to your memories from last night.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’d noticed that.”
“Do you remember anything useful?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I remember talking to a guy at the bar, but I’m not really sure if it actually happened.”
“What did you talk about?”
I thought for a moment. “I think he was trying to tell me I was in danger; that I should stay away from Lionel. But that could be something I dreamt in the hospital, it’s kind of hard to know.”
Adam nodded. “You don’t remember what he looked like?”
I shook my head. “No. There’s just a blank space in my memory where his face should be.”
“You don’t remember anything else?”
“I remember Lionel talking to the barman, and I remember James helping me outside and calling an ambulance. Apart from that, nothing.” I thought for a moment. “You don’t think this has anything to do with Lionel, do you? Or that guy at the bar? Surely it’s just a random drink spiking.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Oh, great. Lionel was expanding his repertoire. “Did you give a statement to the police?”
“Yeah, James sent Joe Winton and another guy over. I told them what I could remember, but I’m not holding my breath.”
“Yeah, I have a feeling Lionel is going to lose the security footage somehow.”
“Of course he will.”
“Do you know if James saw anything? Or any of your friends?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t really get a chance to talk with them about it.” I didn’t bother going into details. Adam didn’t need to know about my insane friends. “I heard Tim flew to Sydney this morning.”
Adam nodded. “I can’t tell you anything about it, though.”
“He didn’t even tell me he was going.”
I couldn’t see properly from this angle, but I was pretty sure I saw Adam roll his eyes. “He’s working. He’ll be back in a few months.”
“A few months? Are you serious?”
“Yo
u can live without him. I promise.”
“I know I can live without him. It’s just that if I was going to disappear for a few months, I’d probably tell my friends before I left.”
“It was kind of a last minute thing. I’m not telling you any more than that.”
“Right, OK.”
It was unlike Adam to even tell me that much. I wasn’t complaining. Well, not about the amount of info I had. I might complain to Tim at a later date about his terrible friend etiquette. It was lucky I’d made up with all the others, otherwise I wouldn’t have any sane friends left in town.
“How’s your case going, anyway?”
I frowned, confused. “Lionel?”
“The kid.”
My heart started to beat faster. Crap. With all the other stuff going on, I hadn’t gotten anyone’s advice on what to do about Jared.
“Um, it’s going OK. No suspicious activity yet.”
I didn’t want to tell him about Jared. Not just because I’d promised not to dob him in, but also because I didn’t want Adam to know that I was so incompetent at spying that I’d had to beg the kid not to confront his mother about hiring me. I was a big cramp in B-Co.’s style. That was not the kind of reputation they’d worked to create.
When we arrived at the hotel, Adam carried my Hello Kitty overnight bag to my room for me. It wasn’t particularly heavy, but I wasn’t feeling all that great yet. (If this was what people usually felt like after taking drugs, it wasn’t a path I’d recommend going down. I decided to ask Will about it at a later date, seeing as he was the only former junkie I knew.) Several ladies swooned at the sight of Adam striding through the hotel, little pink bag in hand. When he carried it, it looked like high fashion. (If I’d been carrying it, I’d look like a 12 year old.)
After we dropped my stuff in my room and I hung up my dress ready for the party that night, we headed back to Adam’s room. When we entered, there were no obvious signs that there was anything more going on than, like, normal hotel room activities. Once the door was shut and firmly locked behind us, however, it was like being on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith – there were computers and spy technology hidden everywhere.
Adam pulled a suitcase from under his bed, unlocked it, and took out a laptop, then opened a cupboard that held some other monitors. He’d placed cameras in various hotel rooms as well as hacking into the hotel’s own security cameras (which was probably easy enough to do when you had the owner’s permission). Everything was strategically placed so that all screens could be seen from Adam’s bed, and was organised in such a way that it could be hidden at a moment’s notice.
“We’re recording everything as well, just in case I miss it in real time. I’ve got it transmitting back to the control room where a couple of other guys are watching it too, because I can’t always be here – I have to go to the events and stuff. The thing is, we might not know what we’re looking for until after the event, so we need to keep a copy of everything in case we need to re-watch it.”
I nodded. That made sense. “Do you expect to see anything?”
Adam shrugged. “No idea. But it can’t hurt.”
“Unless we get caught watching his room.”
“Yeah. That might hurt.”
“Got it. Secret squirrels.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
Fair call. “Do you know whose body it was at the construction site yet?”
He nodded. “I spoke to James an hour or so back. Apparently he was Sheila’s accountant.”
“Any connection to Lionel?”
“Yeah. Used to be his accountant, too.”
Oh, good. That didn’t look sus at all.
“So, what’s the plan for tonight?” I asked. “Anything exciting?”
“Apart from another dinner gathering?” Adam said. “You could tell me why you and McKenzie are apparently friends again.”
“Um, you know. He stopped being a dick.”
“What about his brother?”
“Yeah, we’re good again too.”
“And that Celia girl that you hated more than anything the other night?”
“I guess everyone just realised how much they loved me when I ended up in hospital,” I snapped. “I noticed you didn’t visit me.”
“I picked you up.”
“That doesn’t count.”
“Someone’s getting clingy.”
“Weren’t you even concerned?”
“I can’t believe you’re getting so upset that I didn’t come to visit you when I was busy breaking into a gangster’s room to set up cameras. I’m trying to save your friend’s life.”
“You’re doing this for yourself.”
“Why don’t you just go and cry along to some Whitesnake?”
“Prick.”
“How about we focus on the job at hand?”
“Fine.”
Adam handed me some headphones and I listened crankily to a boring conversation between two of Lionel’s cronies in one of their private rooms. I recognised one of the guys as Coconut Head from Rift, the guy who hadn’t wanted to let James and me up the stairs to the VIP lounge last night. They were talking about swapping shifts or something equally as dull.
When there was a knock on the door, I ripped off the headphones and stood to greet our visitor, glad for the distraction. Adam grabbed my arm and made a ‘shh’ motion.
“Who is it?” he called.
“It’s James.”
“You alone?”
“Yeah.”
“OK,” he said, turning to me. “You can let him in now. But in future, remember not to just open the door to anyone.”
I nodded. That was a fair point, given what we were doing in here. I opened the door and let James in, locking it behind him. He was wearing a distractingly well-fitted suit.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
“Boring,” I answered. “Nothing is happening.”
“What were you hoping for?” asked Adam. “Did you want someone else to get murdered?”
I rolled my eyes without saying anything.
“Did you remember anything else from last night?” James asked, changing the subject.
I shook my head. “No.”
“She thinks she talked to someone at the bar, but she can’t remember anything about him.”
“Wait – an older guy? Maybe in his fifties?” James asked, suddenly very intense.
“Maybe,” I said slowly. “Why?”
“I remember seeing some guy sitting near you when you went up to get a drink. I wouldn’t remember what he looked like, but he had a massive bushy moustache. Kind of stuck in my mind.”
“Do you think you could describe him to a sketch artist?” Adam asked, suddenly interested.
James bit his lip. I found myself accidentally staring at it before I realised and snapped out of it, focusing my mind back on the conversation. I blame the drugs.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I was a long way away. The best I can do is a vague description. Maybe I’d recognise him if I saw him again, but I can’t be sure.”
Adam nodded. “Witness testimony is notoriously unreliable anyway,” he said. “But you’re sure about the moustache?”
James nodded. “Yep. That I’m certain about.” He turned to me. “People have started heading to the ballroom. I’ll meet you down there when you’re ready.”
I returned to my own room to get changed, pulling on the long black gown and heels I’d brought for tonight. The dress had thin straps to hold it up and was relatively fitted all the way down, stopping at my ankles. I was hoping that meant I wouldn’t trip over it. The only hazard tonight was my shoes. (I’d chosen this dress because it had the advantage of covering my grazed knees. It had been a rough couple of days.)
Taking a deep breath, I walked out my door and headed downstairs towards the ballroom. When I reached the doors to the room, I sighed. Another night, another unpleasant social event. Time to bite the bullet.
As I reached for the
door, I felt a hand around my waist. I turned, ready to strike (that self-defence training was apparently kicking in), but stopped.
It was Lionel.
Chapter Ten
“Hi,” I said, forcing a smile and trying not to focus on the fact that he was touching me. How many bodies had these hands dismembered?
“Hello, my dear.”
My dear? I didn’t realise we were so close. What was the etiquette when you suspected someone had drugged you?
“How are you?” I asked.
“Well, thank you. May I enquire as to what brings you here tonight?”
“Adam Baxter wanted me here. I’m the secretary for the company, but he seems to think I’m his PA.”
“His what?”
“Oh, personal assistant.”
“Ah,” he said, nodding in understanding. “It is only that I heard you were quite ill last night. Are you sure you should not be resting?”
Was he trying to intimidate me?
“Oh, it was a temporary ailment. Pathetic, really. Nothing I can’t handle.”
Our eyes locked and I wondered how much he was reading into that statement.
He knew. I was sure of it.
We were interrupted by Adam’s arrival at the door. He greeted Lionel, then linked arms with me and said, “Shall we?”
We entered the party, leaving Lionel behind.
“He knows,” I hissed to Adam.
“What?”
“Lionel knows we’re after him.”
“That’s a good trick considering that we don’t even know we’re after him.”
“I don’t trust him,” I said.
“Oh, right. If you don’t trust him then he must be guilty,” Adam responded.
“Firstly, rude,” I said. “And secondly, how many serial killers have you caught? That’s right. None.”
“I’m only reason that Jeremy Martin is in prison,” he said.
“You were following him while he was serially killing,” I pointed out. “And you didn’t even realise.”
“You worked for him for five years before you just happened to be there when he confessed. I don’t think you should really be all that proud.”
“Whatever. I always knew he was a creep. And I have that same feeling about Lionel.”