Kristan nodded seriously.
"You could learn to fly. Then you could have your own helicopter. I wasn’t joking about giving you lessons, you know."
Liz gave a delighted laugh.
"As long as this is what you want," she added quickly. "No lies, no secrets. We make it work, and if it doesn't, if either one of us isn’t happy for some reason, then..."
"Then we'll simply work it out," Kristan finished for her. "Together. Come here."
She pulled Liz roughly over her and kissed her. The kiss was deep, slow, proprietary, and when she stopped it took a second for Liz to come back to her senses.
Then she became aware of the pounding on the door, and that Kristan was already getting up off the couch.
"Who is it?" she yelled, turning back to look at Liz and shake her head in disbelief.
She yanked the door open, and her expression changed from annoyance to concern as soon as she saw Kelly standing there, wet from the rain, a little out of breath and in floods of tears.
"Kel," she exclaimed. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, Kristan, I tried to call but I kept getting your machine...”
“My phone’s switched off. What’s going on?”
Liz jumped off the sofa as soon as she recognised Kelly’s voice, and both she and Kristan helped her to walk inside.
“She’s in shock,” Liz declared when Kristan asked Kelly another question and again got no answer. “Darling, can you get me a cover please, and something to drink?”
“Sure.”
Kristan was back almost immediately, and she draped a light quilt tight over Kelly’s shoulders and put a glass of water in front of her. She sat by her side and kept her hand on her back, watching in silence as Liz talked to Kelly gently, helped her to get her breathing back, checked her pulse and made sure that she was okay.
“Better now?” Liz asked quietly after a couple more minutes.
Kelly nodded. Her colour was back and she glanced around, looking for Kristan. She grabbed her hand when Kristan smiled at her, and again she burst into tears.
“Tell me what’s wrong, Kel,” Kristan repeated impatiently.
“Oh, Kris, how could anyone do this?” the woman cried. “My poor Charlie...”
“Who’s Charlie?” Liz asked immediately, feeling her stomach tighten.
“Charlie’s my cat, dear,” Kelly answered her, her eyes red and full of pain. “They tortured the poor animal...”
She took her face in her hands and sobbed quietly.
“Who’s ‘they’?” Kristan asked tightly. Her face was like thunder and her eyes were flashing. “Where?”
"In the cafe… And I don't know... I just found him..."
Kelly was breathing hard again and Kristan stood up.
She looked angry and just about ready for a fight, and Liz reached for her immediately.
“Please don’t,” she said urgently. “Not on your own.”
“Someone needs to stay with Kelly.”
“Then we’ll all go,” Liz said firmly. “Okay?”
Kristan relented. It made sense.
“Okay,” she agreed. “We’ll go together.”
To be quicker, and because Liz was still a little bit concerned about Kelly, they drove the little distance to the cafe. Kristan parked right in front of it, and before Liz could stop her she jumped out of the big 4x4, ran up the stairs and disappeared inside.
She did not have to go far.
Right in the middle of the dining room, Kelly’s beautiful little cat Charlie had been nailed to a table.
Kristan stopped dead in her tracks, feeling anger course through her as she stared at the poor animal and realised that not only did he have a knife through the stomach, but also that his eyes appeared to have been scratched out. Would that have been done before or after his death?
Kristan’s stomach lurched as she started to imagine the scene in her head, and what terror and pain the poor animal must have felt. Because she had a feeling that whoever was sick enough to do something like this would have enjoyed making it hurt. She spun around, only to collide with Liz.
“What happened to...” Liz started, and the words died on her lips.
She reached for Kristan and covered her mouth with her hand at the same time.
“Oh my God,” she murmured.
Kristan stood in her line of sight, blocking the view of the table and the rest of the room.
“Don’t look at it,” she murmured.
Liz had grown rigid.
She was pale as they walked back out of the cafe and onto the stairs where Kelly was waiting.
“Who would do such a thing, Kris?” she murmured. “Oh my God...”
Kristan was already on the phone to the police. When she hung up she went to sit down next to Kelly. She wrapped her arms around her and held her tight.
“How’re you doing, Kel?” she asked quietly.
“A bit shaken up, Kris,” the woman replied, and she looked it. “A bit shaken up.”
“I know. I am very sorry about Charlie,” Kristan said gently.
“That poor little thing, Kris…”
“When is the last time that you saw him?”
“Just after lunchtime when I closed up. You know I had my dentist appointment today, right?” Kelly said, and Kristan nodded and listened patiently. “When I got back I found him…”
“What time was that?”
“Oh, I’m not sure... I think probably just after two o’clock…”
Kelly looked at Kristan, the look in her eyes heartbreaking.
“It’s my fault, you know,” she sobbed.
“Of course not,” Kristan exclaimed. “Why would you think that?”
“I forgot to close the back door. That’s probably how that person managed to get in, and…”
Kristan was adamant.
“It is not your fault, Kel,” she said softly. “Look, the police will be here in a minute and I can talk to them on your behalf. Would you like to go home now?”
Kelly simply nodded.
“No problem. Just give me a couple of seconds, okay?”
“Okay, Kris, I’ll just wait for you right here.”
Kristan stood up and went to find Liz, who was standing over to the side looking tense.
“Are you all right?”
Liz nodded, looking worried and white as a sheet.
“This is not right, Kris,” she murmured. “Who would do something like this?”
“Someone very angry,” Kristan mused, wondering where her partner’s brother had been around lunchtime.
“Someone very sick,” Liz said in response, and she looked troubled.
Kristan met her eyes.
“Look, I need a favour.”
“Of course, what can I do?”
“Could you take Kelly’s car and drive her home?”
This did nothing to reassure Liz.
She was beginning to see that when most people were feeling scared, Kristan became angry instead. And when she was angry she had this tendency to do stupid things, like the other morning when she had almost ended up fighting in the middle of the road with James. Her temper could get her in trouble, and Liz hated the thought of her getting hurt.
“What about you?” she asked suspiciously. “What are you going to do?”
“Nothing much. I’ll just wait for the police. I want to talk to them about what’s going on, and I’m sure they’ll have questions.”
“Don’t stay here on your own after they’ve gone, okay?” Liz insisted.
”I won’t. I’ll drive over to pick you up as soon as we’re done here.”
Liz took a deep breath and sighed.
“Okay.”
“That is if you are all right to drive,” Kristan added, frowning a little as she looked at her partner. “You’ve gone very pale.”
“I’m fine. I’ll take Kelly home now. Be careful, okay?”
She pulled Kristan into her arms and hugged her hard.
“Don’t
worry,” Kristan promised. “I’ll be as quick as I can. I love you.”
Chapter 9
It took a little while for the police to get there, and Kristan realised it was a good thing that Liz would not know exactly how long, or what she had done with the time. She was on her own for a good forty-five minutes, and she put it to good use.
She walked through the empty shower blocks, the cafe, the shop and Reception, looking for any other nasty surprises, looking for signs that someone had been around where they did not belong. Basically, she went prowling around the Park hoping to bump into the guy who had killed Charlie, and she was disappointed when she did not.
Jen was manning Reception, and Kristan quietly filled her in on what had just happened. When given a choice to stay or go home, Jen firmly declared that she would stay.
“I’m on my cell if you need me, okay?” Kristan told her.
The small redhead nodded.
“No worries Boss. If I see anyone around I don’t recognise I will call you straight away.”
Kristan gave her a thumbs up and a smile, and she walked back to the cafe to wait for the cops.
When she picked Liz up a few hours later at Kelly’s she was in a somber mood. She declined an invitation to stay for dinner, and she drove them straight into town, parked on the high street and killed the engine. She leaned over the wheel with a frown on her face, and it took Liz’s gentle touch on the back of her neck to bring her back to the present.
“Sometimes I really wish I could down a bottle of Scotch and forget about the world for a while,” she declared, and her jaw flicked.
Liz immediately scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.
“Something bad is going on, isn’t it?” she said tensely.
Kristan sighed.
“Maybe. Looks like it,” she admitted.
She reached into her pocket for her cell phone and scrolled through the screens.
“The cops found a piece of paper stuck under Charlie. It had a written message on it,” she said as she found the picture she was looking for. “Look.”
Liz took the phone from her and stared at the photo. The paper was bloody, but on it you could clearly see that somebody had scribbled a few words.
It simply said, ‘I will hurt you’.
Liz shivered so violently that she dropped the phone. She grabbed Kristan and pulled her against her once more. She held her as hard as she could whilst the old panic twisted her stomach and squeezed her heart.
“Liz,” Kristan murmured against her ear. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
Liz pulled back, and her eyes were huge and full of tears. She was so upset she could only shake her head no, and then she started to hyperventilate and the colour drained from her face.
Kristan was out of the car like a shot. She ran around it, pulled the passenger door open and slid the seat as far back as it would go with Liz still on it.
Then she supported her as Liz leaned forward, looking white as a sheet and almost ready to collapse.
“Keep your head down,” Kristan instructed. “That’s it. All the way. Breathe.”
She held Liz’s left hand in hers, and with her right she softly kneaded the back of her neck with her fingers. She flinched when Liz started to cry, and she wanted to help her so much it hurt.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay, baby, I’m here...”
It was several long minutes before Liz was able to breathe properly again, and another five before she could speak.
“You think it’s him, don’t you?” she said then, almost choking on the words.
Kristan shook her head.
“Who, James?” she said. “No, I don’t. I did think of him at first, but I think if James had a problem with me he’d probably just come over and yell at me. This is different. This is sick, and seriously vindictive.”
Liz shivered again.
“I didn’t mean James,” she murmured.
Kristan stared at her, biting her lower lip. She hated seeing that look of fear in Liz’s eyes. She hated to see her cry; she hated to see her in such obvious distress.
She sighed.
“Okay, yes. When I saw the note, because it kind of fits what you told me about him, the next person I thought about after I discounted James was your ex,” she admitted, and she felt Liz start to tremble again.
On impulse, she leaned over and she kissed her.
“I love you so much,” she whispered. “I will not let anything happen to you.”
Liz reached out and touched her face.
“You don’t know him, Kris… You don’t know him like I do.”
“Stop, Liz. It’s okay.”
“What if he’s responsible for Mike too?” Liz murmured.
This did hit home.
Liz watched as Kristan’s incredibly clear blue eyes shifted to almost black and Kristan pulled back. She stood there for a couple of seconds, watching Liz with an intense look on her face.
Then she extended her hand and waited until her lover took it.
“It will not change how I feel about you,” she said fiercely. “Never. Now come on. We need to go talk to the cops.”
They were at the station for two long hours. The police were very interested to hear the details of Liz’s relationship with Robert, and Kristan sat silently by her side as Liz went through it. She left nothing out, and by the time they finished both women were emotionally spent. Liz because she hated talking about Robert, and Kristan because it simply made her feel sick to hear the woman she loved calmly describe the abuse she had suffered at the hands of that thug.
When they left the police station they simply walked for a while, holding on to each other.
“How’re you doing Kris?” Liz murmured after a while.
She was beginning to understand her lover’s patterns. It was not good when Kristan was so silent and still.
“I had no idea,” her partner said roughly. “I had no idea it had been that bad. You should have told me.”
“Why? It was not ever going to change anything.”
He had broken her arm in three places and threatened to kill her. She had not wanted to tell Kristan because she was so ashamed of it.
“Ashamed of what?” Kristan exclaimed, turning her head to look at her.
“I should have been stronger. I should have left before it got to that point.”
Kristan exhaled sharply.
“Liz; please don’t do this. It is not your fault, okay? And if he is responsible for Mike, I will…”
She almost choked on her words. She did not finish her sentence, but she did not need to.
Liz understood exactly how she felt.
“Nothing good ever comes out of violence, Kris,” she pointed out.
Kristan stopped walking when her lover said that. She turned to her slowly, and Liz did not think anyone had ever looked at her with so much love in their eyes before.
“What?” she smiled.
Kristan just returned her smile, shaking her head a little in wonder.
“You are such an amazing woman,” she observed. “It would be so easy for you to be bitter and angry about everything. And yet you’re just kind, and gentle, and just… amazing.”
“Yeah, well… Bitterness, anger, all that stuff you know, it would only be another way to hurt myself.”
Liz took Kristan’s hand in both of hers and she kissed the bruises on her knuckles.
“I choose to be happy. I want you to do the same.”
In Kristan’s idea, happiness always started with a good meal. Sandwiched in between a surf shop and a garage was a non-descript wooden door with a sign painted on it that simply said ‘Paradise’. She pushed the door open with a smile and stepped aside to let her lover go in first.
“After you, babe.”
Liz walked in and immediately felt like she had entered another world.
“Oh, wow…” she whispered.
Right behind the unassu
ming wooden door was a large patio with a beautiful fountain tucked away in one corner. Tropical plants and lush flowers were hanging from the balcony above. The floor was beautifully tiled, the space was warm and lit with candles, and Kristan was pleased when she saw the delighted look on Liz's face.
"I was hoping you would enjoy spending some time in Paradise with me," she murmured, and she wrapped her arms around Liz from behind and kissed her neck softly.
Liz giggled, smiling at the soft calming sound of the water and the wonderful smell of lilies in the air.
"Oh, Kris, this is great. I love it," she said, beaming.
A waiter appeared almost immediately at their side and greeted Kristan by name, and he led them to a table in the corner. Liz sat on the comfortable cushioned bench with her back to the wall, and Kristan slid in right next to her. They sat with their thighs and shoulders touching, and Liz relaxed against her girlfriend.
"Feeling better now?" Kristan murmured.
"Yes. This place is so peaceful… I needed that.”
“I know.”
“So this is a restaurant?
“Indeed.”
“You would never guess it from the outside. And you have been here before, obviously."
Kristan nodded.
“Yes, Mike took me here last year for my birthday.”
Liz opened her eyes wide.
“Do you realise that we have slept together and decided on a future together, and I don’t even know when your birthday is?”
Liz sounded genuinely astounded, and Kristan burst out laughing.
“July 19. I’ll be thirty-five. You?”
“March 12. I turned forty-one.”
Kristan’s eyes sparkled, and she laughed.
“You’re kidding, I missed your birthday this year? Well, we’ll have to do a post official birthday celebration type thing for you then,” she declared, smiling. “Do you like surprises?”
Liz raised a dubious eyebrow.
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether I think I can trust you or not,” Liz replied, looking suspicious.
“Well I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?” Kristan declared with a grin.
Unbroken Page 10