Don't Let Me Forget

by Belinda Williams

  ‘You think Andrew set you up?’ Jet asked, keeping her voice low and neutral so it didn’t hint that she’d wondered the same thing.

  ‘I can’t prove it. I doubt I ever will be able to. But yeah, someone set me up.’

  ‘Why Andrew?’

  ‘You honestly need me to answer that? To protect you.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I’m not following.’

  He stopped and turned to her. ‘You’re in denial if you don’t recognise he’s obsessed with you.’

  Jet looked away. ‘I don’t need protecting and I’ve told Andrew as much.’

  ‘How much do you remember?’ he asked again.

  Jet frowned. ‘I remember you taking me to that room and I remember her.’

  ‘Crystal?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Do you remember what happened after?’

  ‘No! I’ve told the police all of this. I passed out with Crystal watching over me. Then Andrew found me and took me home. For once in my life I’m grateful of my ex-husband’s interference,’ she finished.

  ‘He didn’t tell you, did he?’

  ‘Tell me what?’

  ‘That I was the one who came and got him.’

  Jet very nearly tripped again, but she caught herself this time. ‘But he thinks you drugged me,’ Jet protested, trying to keep her voice below the hum of the crowd.

  ‘Jet, think about it. Why would I drug you, then go and get Andrew? If I’d been the one to do it, I would have had my way with you and then been nowhere to be seen—not that I’m that kind of guy.’

  Jet inhaled a long breath, trying to absorb this new information. ‘So you’re saying you went to get him. That he was protecting me. If he doesn’t think you’re the one who drugged me, then why would he set you up?’

  ‘You don’t remember, do you?’

  ‘Don’t remember what!’

  Several pedestrians stopped and stared at them and Alex hurried her along. Jet took another breath to try to steady herself. The outburst was unlike her and she needed to try to stay calm. The conversation was going around in circles and nothing was making sense. It was time she started asking questions of her own.

  ‘Who was Crystal?’ she demanded.

  Alex slid her a sideways look. ‘You’ve read the headlines. She was a child prostitute.’

  ‘Yes, I know that,’ Jet said impatiently. ‘But who was she to you?’

  To Jet’s surprise, Alex’s expression turned sad.

  ‘She was a sweet young kid who got messed up with the wrong people, that’s who she was. And she didn’t deserve to die.’

  ‘How did you know her?’

  Alex sighed and cast his gaze out across the harbour. The water was inky black in the evening light and beyond it the gentle curves of the Opera House decorated the night sky like an artwork. On any other night they could have been a couple taking a stroll after dinner, taking in the city sights.

  ‘A few of my mates got messed up with the wrong people,’ Alex said eventually. ‘They liked high-class girls.’ He glanced at her. ‘It was all above board. I tried it once or twice, but it’s not my thing to pay for women. Anyway, one night my friend gives me a call, sounding scared. He makes me leave the club I was at to go across town to this hotel room he’s at. When I get to the door, he’s in the hotel room with Crystal waiting inside.’

  ‘He slept with her?’ Jet didn’t attempt to hide her distaste.

  ‘No! That’s why he called me. He was freaking out. He says he requested a sweet, innocent type because that’s his thing. He likes pretty women who are petite, not the Kim Kardashian types. And they sent him Crystal. He knew something was wrong as soon as he saw her. She told him she wouldn’t leave until she got paid the money, but my friend didn’t want to do that in case it implicated him for being involved with an underage kid. I got angry. I couldn’t believe he’d dragged me into it. I mean, if anyone had found out, it would completely ruin my reputation—although it’s too late for that now.’

  ‘So what did you do?’ Jet wasn’t entirely buying the story, but she was keen to hear more.

  Alex shrugged sheepishly. ‘I lost my shit. I’m not going to deny, I was pretty loaded by the time I got there. Plenty of alcohol and possibly some drugs, I can’t remember exactly. So then Crystal freaks when she sees me going off. This tiny little girl pulls me into the hotel room and begs me not to tell anyone about her.’

  ‘You’ve told the police all of this?’ Jet asked sceptically.

  ‘Yes!’ Alex caught himself. ‘Yes, of course I have. I demanded she tell me how old she was. She told me she was nineteen. I guess I must have been pretty scary because when I yelled at her that she was full of shit, she broke down crying and admitted to being thirteen years old.’

  ‘Thirteen?’ Jet whispered.

  Alex thrust his hand through his hair, messing it up. ‘Yeah, tell me about it. My temper evaporated on the spot. I mean, I’ve got kid cousins who are Crystal’s age and they’re running around going to movies and shit, while this girl is having sex with men twice her age. It’s fucked up.’

  If Jet hadn’t believed Alex before, she believed him now. The pain in his eyes, the disgust on his face and, most of all, the concern.

  ‘So I took her,’ he said.

  ‘What?’ Jet breathed.

  ‘I took her with me. I took her home and got her some clothes kids her age should be wearing.’

  ‘You took her,’ Jet repeated.

  ‘Yes. To my house. To my home. I pretended she was a friend’s kid sister visiting from overseas. I have plenty of Asian mates, so no one questioned it. She looked so different without all the make-up and clothes that whoever she was working for would have a hard time recognising her.’

  ‘But why? I mean why not go to the police?’

  ‘I fully intended to, but I wasn’t stupid. A kid like her isn’t just a one-off. I’d bet my life she was involved in some pretty serious shit and if I took her to the police, before too long she’d wind up dead. I know how it works. The police would have asked all their questions to get to the bottom of the dirty network she was obviously a part of and then she’d have nowhere to go. She’d end up getting caught back in the world she was trying to leave. It never ends well. Trust me.’

  Until just now, Jet wouldn’t ever have trusted Alex Benedetti. That was changing.

  ‘You told the police all of this?’

  ‘Sure did. Why do you think they were never able to charge me for anything to do with Crystal’s death?’

  ‘But you were charged for the seventeen-year-old.’

  ‘Because I was stupid. I started asking questions. I should have just let things lie and focused on protecting Crystal, but I wanted to know what she was a part of. What it was I was protecting her from. I had plans to send her interstate and set her up a new life. But I was dumb and I asked questions.’

  ‘I don’t see how that makes you stupid.’ It made him human, Jet thought.

  ‘Yeah, but I got in too deep. Looking for answers, I started hiring the services of escort agencies, starting with the one my mate had used. No luck. The girl they sent was nineteen or twenty. Then again, they were probably scared after Crystal disappeared.’

  ‘How long did this go on for?’

  ‘Six or seven months. I thought I was careful. I never hired any girls directly or used my name. A few of my mates were in on it. Everyone thought we were players having high-end parties with girls we paid for.’ He let out a huff of frustration. ‘Little did I know I played right into whoever set me up. When Taylor came forward I already looked guilty.’

  ‘But surely you told the police all of this?’

  ‘I had sex with Taylor. I couldn’t deny it. When I told them I used a condom and they found my sperm inside her, who would you believe? Her story or mine?’

  Jet decided not to answer. ‘What do you think happened to Crystal?’

  ‘I wish I knew. I never even saw her body. The police cordoned off the area as soon as th
ey arrived.’

  ‘Which one of your staff called the police?’ Jet asked. She knew from the news reports a member of Alex’s house staff had found the body, but the person’s name was kept out of the media. Perhaps that person held more clues to what had happened that night?

  ‘We never found out who because none of them admitted to it. Apparently whoever called the police said they were scared to tell me in case I tried to hide the body,’ Alex finished in disgust. ‘The police pulled me aside as a suspect the minute they arrived.’

  Jet refused to feel sympathy for Alex, but she had to admit he sounded upset. ‘Do you think her death was an accident?’

  ‘When the police interrogated me they told me Crystal had a blunt force trauma to her head. It could be from the edge of the pool or from something else entirely.’

  Obviously, ‘something else entirely’ meant she’d been intentionally hit on the head. Jet fell silent. They stopped near a railing and looked out across the harbour, but Jet didn’t really take it in. Had the people Crystal worked for found her and killed her? Surely that was possible, too?

  ‘The police never told me this level of detail,’ Jet said after a while.

  Alex shrugged. ‘Why would they? It’s part of an ongoing investigation and you’re a witness. It would colour your story and their job was to protect you.’

  ‘What story?’ Jet scoffed. ‘I hardly know anything. Now you’ve shared this with me, it seems I know less than I thought. I’m not sure why they think I’m such a valuable witness. If you and your mates hadn’t kept trying to frighten me, maybe the police wouldn’t have thought I was valuable at all.’

  Alex looked across at her. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘You know exactly what I’m talking about. The hit-and-run accident in the city a couple of weeks after Crystal’s death. The Mercedes that tried to run me down in the Hunter Valley and those men who took me after work the week before last. It has to stop.’

  Alex frowned. ‘You didn’t hear it from me, but those men who forced you into the car near your work might know me. I can assure you it won’t ever happen again. That sort of behaviour is definitely not my style. Let’s just say people on my side were worried about the situation and took matters into their own hands to protect me, rightly or wrongly. I don’t know anything about those other incidents you mentioned, though. A hit-and-run? That definitely wasn’t anything to do with me. I also had no idea you were in the Hunter Valley.’

  ‘Bullshit,’ Jet said. ‘It was all you. I was the best witness the police had. You and your network of ‘mates’ have been after me from the beginning.’

  ‘Jet, I’m serious. That wasn’t me. Or us.’ Alex reached across and touched her arm tentatively.

  She held her ground and stared at him intently. ‘It had to be.’

  ‘Andrew is trying to protect you. He’s a powerful man.’

  ‘No,’ Jet said, shaking her head. ‘It doesn’t fit. He had no idea where I was when I was in the Hunter Valley, it drove him mad. And the hit-and-run enraged him. It can’t have been him.’

  Or could it? Jet resisted putting her head in her hands. She just wasn’t sure what to think anymore.

  ‘Hey.’ Alex touched her arm lightly again. ‘I think you might know more than you realise.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Try to remember more from that night when you were drugged. With Crystal.’ His expression was almost desperate.

  ‘I’m sorry, Alex. I’ve told you. That’s all I know. I honestly wish I could help.’ Now more than ever, after what he’d just told her.

  ‘You must remember,’ he whispered. ‘You have to.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Jet said again, suddenly feeling wary of him again. It was like he thought she knew something she didn’t.

  He stared at her for a long while, and the feeling of wariness intensified.

  ‘The blood. You have to remember to blood.’

  ‘No,’ she said carefully. ‘There was no blood when I was awake.’

  ‘It was all over your hands and arms.’

  Jet straightened, her wariness turning to shock, and staggered backwards. ‘No, there wasn’t.’

  He leaned in close. ‘There was. Ask Andrew. He was the only other one who saw it. But when he took you home, he must have cleaned it off. And then he denied it. The bastard denied it to the police. And you don’t remember.’

  Jet took another step back at the vitriol in his tone. He was implying she did remember and she was lying.

  Oh my God, had there been blood?

  ‘No. No, I’m sorry, Alex, I know you want to help Crystal but there was no blood. I’m certain of it.’

  ‘Ask Andrew.’

  She wasn’t asking her ex-husband anything and it was time to leave.

  ‘I have to go.’ Jet turned to walk away and stifled a cry when Alex caught her around the waist.

  ‘If you don’t remember the blood, then there could be other important things you’re not remembering. Like Crystal,’ he persisted.

  Jet tried to pull her hand away, but Alex’s grip was tight.

  ‘What are you saying?’ Jet whispered, her head and heart pounding in time together. ‘Do you think I saw what happened to Crystal?’

  Alex held her fast and raised a dark eyebrow. ‘Did you?’

  ‘What? No! Of course not. I’d remember something like that! Now let go of me!’

  People were staring at them but Alex ignored them, and her.

  ‘I told them about the blood, Jet. The police know about the blood. I told them I think you saw something. That you must know more than you realise. You were lucid when I brought Andrew in. You need to remember the blood. Or maybe I’m stupid and you remember more than you’re letting on and you’ve been lying all this time.’

  Jet stared at Alex in horror, her breath coming in hard and fast gasps like an animal caught in the headlights. What was Alex saying? That Jet knew who the killer was? That she’d seen the killer?

  Then another thought, a much worse thought, occurred to Jet. If she didn’t remember the blood Alex swore was on her, could Jet have hurt someone? Could it have been Crystal’s blood on her?

  Jet moaned, feeling dangerously close to being sick.

  ‘Are you alright, miss?’ A man stopped to ask.

  Jet blinked. The spell was broken. She stared at Alex for a split second, then she shook him off and ran.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The adrenalin didn’t start to wear off until Jet pulled into the parking spot in front Dan’s cottage several hours later.

  Jet bit her lip and cut the engine.

  She really hadn’t thought this through. The clock on the BMW’s dash told her it was three minutes past four in the morning. What on earth was she doing here?

  All Jet knew was she’d needed to run. To get away from Sydney. To get away from Alex and his crazy accusations and the prying eyes of her ex-husband. Six months ago she would have run to Edie, but she couldn’t do that now.

  Jet saw the curtain downstairs in the cottage move and the porch light flicked on. Dan had been waiting for her. When she’d fled back to her apartment, she’d sent him a message telling him she was coming and that she would explain everything when she got here. He hadn’t questioned her and told her he would be waiting. No questions. Just reassurance. She loved him for it.

  Oh my God. She loved him?

  Did she? Could she?

  Jet hadn’t thought she’d ever fall for another man after Andrew. Or perhaps she hadn’t wanted to let anyone past her defences ever again, but Dan had somehow found a home in her heart, thanks to that easy way of his.

  Jet got out of the car unsteadily. She couldn’t examine her feelings for Dan right now; she needed to leave that for another time when she was thinking more clearly.

  The front door of the cottage opened and he stood waiting for her in boxer shorts and an old T-shirt. She’d never seen a more welcome sight. Without saying anything, Jet walked over to
him and stepped into his arms.

  He embraced her and guided her head onto her shoulder, which was when she started shaking. She didn’t cry, she simply shook silently with fear or shock, she wasn’t sure which.

  After a while, Dan guided her inside and towards the sofa. They sat down together, one of Dan’s arms still around her.

  He waited.

  Jet looked at him. She didn’t want to tell him any of it, because then it would make it real. It would make it possible. But she took a deep breath anyway.

  ‘There was blood. Alex says there was blood on me.’

  ***

  Dan didn’t know what to expect after he’d received that message from Jet after midnight. He was still up because some prehistoric male part of him wasn’t able to get to sleep until Jet messaged to say she was on her way home for the night. That was what they’d agreed. Fat lot of good it did when he was hours away and couldn’t do anything, but it at least made Jet feel safer. It also made him feel like he was doing something useful to help her when really he was doing jack shit.

  But her text message wasn’t the one he had expected.

  She was driving to come and see him. Now. Tonight. She wouldn’t say why. Just that she would explain when she got here.

  So he’d dozed on and off for the next few hours while he’d waited. He kept drifting in and out of weird dreams about Andrew and Jet. He knew that’s what this was about. Her ex-husband. The prick must have done something really bad to make her leave Sydney in the middle of the night. Dan considered himself a patient guy, but every time he thought about it he had to force himself to breathe evenly to calm himself.

  Despite the hazy dreams he slipped into, Dan mustn’t have managed a deep sleep because as soon as he heard Jet’s car approach, he jolted upright.

  Now she sat next to him cradled into his side. She was as white as he’d ever seen her. Then she’d started talking about blood, lots of blood, and how that blood had been on her. He let her speak.

  She didn’t sound like the Jet he knew. Her words were jumbled and confused, not neatly organised and direct as they normally were, but he didn’t interrupt.