"There," said Quinn, pointing to the closest cliff face of Dawson's Point. "Two figures, walking up the track."
Cooper followed his partner's gaze and quickly spotted them. "It's getting late, there's only a couple more hours of light at best. What are they doing heading out there?"
"I don't like the feel of this, boss."
"Neither do I."
"We going after them?"
"Yeah. But first go tell Ziegler to get his partner and Garry and follow us." Cooper took another look at the figures. "It looks dangerous up there. I think one dead reality television star is enough, don't you?"
24
Cooper and Quinn made good progress through the scrub, but Kyle and Jerome had a decent head start.
"I still don't get how things went from three people drinking angel's brew in the bush together, to one of them being suffocated," said Quinn, as they pushed on.
"Yeah, I know," said Cooper. "I've been thinking back over everything we've learnt about Zara. What type of person did you get a picture of from the other contestants?"
"Honestly? It sounds like she was a bitch. I mean, it's a contest, right? They're all in it to win a million dollars. From what the others have said, and also backed up by the crew members I interviewed, it seems Zara was willing to do whatever it took and use whoever she needed to get onside with the public in hopes of winning the cash."
"That's the impression I got, too. She befriended Jerome, who by all accounts was a confused and scared young man when he came onto the show, and painted a picture of friendship for the cameras. She promised to look after him when they got home to Sydney, but then she told Lucas she planned to do nothing of the sort. And Jerome was the contestant she apparently liked the most."
"She definitely didn't treat people well, boss. But what do you think that had to do with her death?"
Cooper pushed aside a tree branch, careful not to fling it back in Quinn's face. The climb was getting steeper, and he answered between deep breaths. "She was manipulative. Not just here on this show, but back home beforehand as well. If we're right in suspecting some kind of secret sexual relationship between Kyle and Jerome, I think Zara would have tried to use that secret to her advantage."
"You're thinking blackmail?"
"Maybe." Cooper paused to rest for a minute. He looked up to the top of the ridge, but couldn't see anything as there was too much bush around. He pressed on, Quinn following close behind.
"We don't have any evidence that Kyle and Jerome were having any kind of relationship," said Quinn.
"No, but my gut was telling me something was off about Jerome. He was keeping something from me, I was sure about that. And after watching some of the television show with that in mind, the connection between the two of them became more obvious. I don't think Jerome was still nervous about going home, so there had to be some other reason for his feeling sick. I reckon he's either had too much angel's brew, or he's more nervous about his relationship with Kyle."
They pressed on up the ridge, and from here Cooper could see across the island down to the much higher peak of Mount Gower. He was glad they weren't trekking up there. Garry had told them it was the most difficult climb on the island, and you weren't allowed to go up there without a local guide. Dawson's Point was high enough for Cooper, thank you very much.
Cooper heard voices up ahead, and held a hand up to stop Quinn. They exchanged glances, Quinn had heard the voices too. They advanced slowly, placing their feet carefully, and before long the conversation carried to them on the breeze.
"It's getting late." Cooper recognised Kyle's voice. "I know you wanted to go to our favourite spot, but it's not a good time. The others might get suspicious."
"I don't care," said Jerome, and it wasn't hard to recognise the anger in his voice. Jerome was on the edge, both figuratively and literally. Cooper felt a chill despite the warm temperature and the climb he'd just completed.
"It'll be dark soon. We have no torches," said Kyle, his voice calm and flat.
"No."
"Jerome, come on…"
"I said no."
Cooper could see them now, and he and Quinn continued advancing slowly. Kyle and Jerome had stopped, and were facing each other. They were too close to the edge, and while this ridge might not be as high as Mount Gower, a fall from up here would certainly be fatal. He signalled to Quinn and they stopped about ten metres away from the pair.
"You killed Zara," said Jerome.
Kyle's eyes widened, his face a picture of innocence. "I… the tea was too strong…"
"That's bullshit. I'm not falling for your lies anymore. The police took all the pillows from her room. It's a murder investigation, Kyle." Jerome took a step back. He covered his face with his hands, then dropped them again. "You were supposed to look after her, put her to bed, make sure she was okay. That's what you said. What did you do, Kyle? What did you do?"
Kyle's shoulders slumped, and at that moment Cooper knew Jerome was onto the truth. He waited to see if Kyle would admit it.
"I had no choice," Kyle said eventually. He tried to take Jerome's hands, but Jerome pulled away. "She was going to expose us. You know I can't risk that. I'll lose everything. My career, my family, my kids…"
"What about me? Don't you love me? Don't you want to be with me? I don't want to lie about who I am anymore."
"It's not forever. Just a little bit longer. We need to get through this together. I told you, hang in there. You're going to win this thing, Jerome. A million dollars. I can make that happen. With that money, plus what I've got saved, we can disappear together. But not yet. We need to wait for all this mess with Zara to die down."
That got Jerome's back up. "All this mess? You killed her! You were supposed to protect her, and you killed her. How could you?"
"I did it for us. Please listen to me, Jerome."
"I've heard enough!"
"So have I," said Cooper, stepping forward to show himself.
It was a mistake.
Kyle grabbed hold of Jerome, and moved the two of them precariously close to the edge. Cooper risked a look down, and wished he hadn't. No-one would survive that drop.
"Kyle, don't do anything stupid," said Cooper.
"What are you doing here?" asked Kyle.
"My job. I'm here to investigate Zara's death, and I know it was you who suffocated her. Don't make this any worse for yourself." Cooper inched towards them.
"Stay back, or we'll both go over," said Kyle. He was trapped, and Cooper could see the options were running through his mind. There was nothing more dangerous than a man who just realised he was going to lose everything.
"All right, I'm staying back. Why don't you take a step back too? Jerome is scared, you're way too close to the edge there. Step back, give yourself some breathing room."
"No! Just leave us alone. We need to talk."
"I can't do that, Kyle." Cooper sensed Quinn wasn't behind him anymore. "Come back from the edge, and we can all talk."
"I said no." Sweat ran down Kyle's face, and he raised a hand to wipe it from his brow.
Cooper made eye contact with Jerome, tried to reassure him with a look. It didn't work. Jerome was clearly terrified. Cooper didn't know what to do. Should he wait for back up? Did they have that long? He couldn't know what Kyle was thinking. What he did know was that the television star's life had changed forever up on this cliff. Could Kyle face up to what he'd done, and live with the consequences? Or, was he looking over the edge right now trying to get up the courage to end it?
"I didn't intend to kill her," Kyle said. He was speaking to Jerome, who was frozen in fear. "She was going to tell the media about us, get you disqualified from the competition. We would have lost the money, and it would have ruined my career."
"Zara wouldn't do that," said Jerome. It was little more than a whisper.
"You think you knew her. She played you, Jerome. She used you, took you under her wing, but it was all for the cameras. She was going to out us, I'm
telling you."
"You didn't have to kill her."
"I wasn't going to. I made her brew extra strong, to teach her a lesson. But when I got her into her bed, she was just lying there, and the pillow was there, it was so simple. I knew they'd find the drugs in her system eventually, so I figured they'd just think she overdosed by herself. It solved all our problems."
Jerome came back to life. "You think killing someone is the answer to our problems? That's not the answer to anything! I thought I knew you."
He struggled to break free of Kyle's grasp, but Kyle held on tight, determination in his eyes. He'd made his decision. Cooper lunged forward. He saw movement behind Kyle as he managed to grab hold of Jerome and pull him away to safety.
Quinn got his fingertips on Kyle, but it wasn't enough.
Jerome's scream echoed through the cliffs as Kyle Aren fell backwards to his death.
25
It was a long walk back to the house for Cooper, Quinn, and a heartbroken Jerome. Garry Adams and Senior Constables Ziegler and Rhodes had arrived shortly after Kyle's fall, and were working on locating the body for retrieval at first light. They'd brought extra torches, so at least Cooper and Quinn were able to navigate the cliffs on what turned out to be a moonless night.
The local doctor was called to give Jerome a sedative. He'd need to be formally interviewed regarding his involvement with Kyle and Zara and the angel's brew, but that could wait until they got home to Sydney. He'd been through enough.
"So we can go home?" asked Ivy, once Cooper had finished telling the contestants and crew as much as he could about what had happened to Zara, and out on the cliffs of Dawson's Point.
"Yes." Cooper turned to Maeve. "You can organise flights for tomorrow, assuming that fits in with your filming schedule."
"There'll be no more filming," replied Maeve. "These people have been through enough. We all have."
"What about the contest?" asked Lucas. "I mean, I'm sorry about what's happened and all, but you owe one of us a million bucks. I haven't spent the past two months out here for nothing."
Cooper cringed at the callousness of Lucas's question, but looking around the table, he realised Lucas was only voicing what they were all thinking. It firmly cemented his opinion of reality television shows and the people who participated in them.
"I'll speak to the station manager," said Maeve. "You'll all be compensated fairly for your time, and what you've been through. But the show can't possibly continue under these circumstances."
Lucas sighed, then nodded his approval. The rest of the contestants remained silent.
Cooper and Quinn left them to it and headed back to the resort. They still needed to close off Kyle's room as a crime scene, and call Munro and tell him the case was closed. Munro would organise for someone to notify the family.
"I almost had him," said Quinn, as they walked.
"I saw his face, Joe. He was determined. We're just lucky he didn't take Jerome with him."
"You think he'll be okay? Jerome?"
"I don't know. He's got a lot to deal with, and by all accounts his family aren't terribly supportive. Let's hope this changes their minds, even a little. He's going to need them."
Quinn shoved his hands in his pockets. "I can't help thinking of Kyle's family. His wife and kids. It's going to come out that he killed Zara, and why. Not only do they have to deal with his loss, they have to face who he was as well."
Cooper had already been through that in his own mind. Leaving two kids without a father was devastating. Situations like these reminded him of his own family, his wife and sons back home, waiting for him to return safely. He had a dangerous job, and he knew the possibility of him not coming home one day was always at the back of Liz's mind. Kyle's wife would have had no such fear. She would have no reason to think her television show host husband may not come home.
They reached the resort and found Zach and Nora back in the editing suite, the room the techs had adopted as their own. Cooper filled them in on the events of the afternoon, although they already knew most of it. News like that travelled fast on Lord Howe Island, even without mobile phone service. Cooper got on the phone to Munro so he could get a team out to Kyle's wife before she heard about her husband's death on the news.
"That wrap things up then?" asked Zach once Cooper ended the call.
"Just about. We need to isolate Kyle's room here, process it for evidence. But that can wait until tomorrow. Adams is out looking for the body, the uniforms will stay with it overnight and they'll hopefully be able to retrieve it in the morning."
"What about the show?" asked Nora.
"Show's over finally, by the sounds of it. Apparently a contestant's murder wasn't enough to put an end to it, but the host's suicide is."
"Man, I hate those type of shows," said Zach. "They always set the contestants up to compete with each other, no matter what the show is about. Losing weight, finding a partner, even the cooking shows and the renovation shows are all about competition and back-stabbing. I can't say I'm surprised one of them's finally ended in murder. Can you, Coop?"
"Nothing surprises me much anymore, Zach." Cooper pointed to Zach and Nora's computer terminals. "Come on, shut those down. We've done enough for today. Let's get a beer."
The Dark Series
Novels:
Dark Heart
Dark Past
Dark Secrets
Dark Chemistry
Dark Edges
Novellas:
Dark City
Dark Paradise
Keep reading for a sample of DARK HEART.
For more information on the Dark Series, check out my website:
www.catherineleeauthor.com
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If you haven’t read any of the Dark Series yet, read on for a sample of book one of the series, DARK HEART.
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Dark Heart Chapter 1
Detective Sergeant Charlie Cooper threw his keys into the wooden bowl he kept on his desk for just that purpose. Their clink signalled the beginning of his work day, which he hoped was going to be a light one — he still wasn’t fully recovered from the fortieth birthday party Liz had thrown him on the weekend. No such luck, though, Senior Sergeant Frank Munro was already heading his way.
“Coop. Got a call from Leichhardt Local Area Command. They had an aggravated assault on a fifty-year-old male yesterday. Today it’s your new murder case.” Munro had never been one for morning pleasantries.
“The guy didn’t make it, huh?”
“His father agreed to switch off life support last night, so it’s officially a homicide. SOCOs are at the crime scene now.” Munro handed Cooper the file. “Take Quinn,” he added with a grin, before returning to his office.
Cooper pushed the hangover to the back of his mind and glanced over the file. The victim’s name was Fraser Grant, a real estate agent. He was found in his Glebe apartment the day before by his elderly father, shortly after one pm. Blunt force trauma to the head; no sign of a weapon. Taken by ambulance to RPA Hospital, where they pronounced him brain dead. Detectives from the local area command, along with the scene-of-crime officers Munro had referred to, would be all over Grant’s apartment by now. Cooper placed a call to the officer in charge from Leichhardt LAC. It was standard procedure for the Homicide Squad to be notified of, and provide an initial response to, any homicide state-wide, but often it was more practical to leave the majority of the investigation to the local boys. After a brief discuss
ion, however, Detective Sergeant Perrotta from Leichhardt admitted he could use some help. Cooper agreed to interview the father.
“Quinn,” he called. The big guy looked up from where he was busy making coffee. “White with one for me, and put them in foam. We’re on the road in two.”
As Cooper drove the unmarked car out into the Parramatta traffic, he wondered how long it would be before the latest addition to Homicide started asking questions. He didn’t have to wonder long.
“So, you’re the lead on the Adultery Killer case, aren’t you?”
He’d been expecting it, but Cooper still flinched. “I’ve been investigating the murders that were given that name by the media, yes.”
“He’s been quiet almost a year now, hasn’t he? Doesn’t that mean he’s just about due?”
Cooper sighed. Every cop wanted to yap about that case, but when it came down to it, not many wanted anything to do with the investigation. Hardly surprising; no-one wants to be on a losing team.
The Adultery Killer had struck every year for the past nine years at around this time. He chose his victims carefully — all married women who were cheating, hence the nickname. Each time, a woman went missing and a few days later a photograph album and the victim's wedding ring arrived in the mail for the husband. The photos essentially documented the stalking, kidnapping, and murder of the victim. An identical set of photographs was sent to the Sydney Times. No bodies had ever been recovered, but the photos left no doubt the women had been murdered. The killer's message was simple — don't cheat — and in his own way he was trying to get that message through to the people of Sydney. At least, that was what Dr Max Christie believed. Cooper had spent so much time going over the case with the forensic psychologist that he’d accepted the conclusion as if it was his own.
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