Brittle Shadows (2 page)

Silence, then,
“Say what?”

“What does it
matter where I am?” She could be anywhere in the world, doing anything, and who
would be any the wiser?

“I thought we
had something special happening.”

So did I
, she thought.
Once
. A rhythmic whack-whacking sound drew her
to the rail. Four players were engaged in a vigorous game of mixed doubles on
one of the two tennis courts. The other was empty. “We’ve been over and over
this. I’m sorry, Ross, but I just don’t have the energy for this right now.”

“So when will
you be back from wherever you are?”

She spotted the
glass-enclosed swimming pool almost directly below her and wished she had
packed a swimsuit. “A few…” She paused. “I don’t know. Maybe never,” she said,
voicing a thought that until then hadn’t crossed her mind.

“What’s got
into you?” Panic tinged his voice. “You don’t sound like your old self.”

“Will you
answer me one thing?”

“Sure. Fire
away.”

“If I asked you
to come back to Perth, would you?”

“I’m home now.”

“No, I don’t
mean one week in eight. I mean back for good.”

“But, Jem, I’m
earning three times what I was in Perth.”

“Goodbye, Ross.
Have a nice life.” Hanging up, she retreated inside. She hadn’t told him about
Tanya dying. She didn’t need his misplaced sympathies.

Another door
had just closed.

Her skin felt
gritty and tight after the flight. Perhaps a shower would help clear her mind,
too. She found a supply of towels in the hall cupboard, along with sheets,
blankets and a couple of pillows.

She kicked her
sandals off. Midway through peeling her cotton top off, she heard a loud
burring. She froze, her arms high in the air above her head, her face swaddled
in fabric, waiting to hear the sound again.

Brrring…

Pulling her top
back down, she padded out to the living area and tried to get a fix on where
the noise was coming from. A flash of movement at the end of the kitchen’s
raised counter caught her eye. All white, she hadn’t noticed the video intercom
earlier.

Should she
ignore it and hope her caller went away? No one knew she was there and the
clean-shaven man staring up at the camera was a stranger. Almost as if sensing
her disquiet, he held up what looked to be an identification badge. Police?

She picked up
the handset. “Yes?”

“Chris Sykes,
Detective Sergeant, and DC Lee Tait. Do you have a few minutes?”

She hesitated
for a moment and then pushed the door release button. The DS’s black-and-white
image disappeared from the screen. She hurried to the door, only opening it
when she heard the lift brake.

“Hello, Jemma.
Long time no see,” said the taller of the two men walking her way.

She scrutinized
his face. Deep-set hazel eyes. Strong, Roman nose. Wide mobile mouth. Short
black, wavy hair swept back from the forehead. Vague stirrings but nothing she
could put her finger on.

He laughed.
“You don’t remember me, do you?”

She gave her
head a slow shake. “No. Should I?”

“Let’s see, the
last time I saw you would’ve been about eighteen years ago, just before Tanya
left Perth. You were probably only about nine or ten.”

“And of course
neither of us has changed since then.” She still couldn’t place him.

He laughed
again; a deep, throaty laugh, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Our family
lived down the street from you. Tanya and I were teenage sweethearts. I think I
spent more time at your aunt’s place than I did at my own for a while there. I
guess your sister didn’t talk to you much about us?” More question than
statement.

“I’m sorry, I
don’t remember.” She didn’t remember much at all about that time. Her mother’s
slow, lingering death the year before from ovarian cancer had left such a black
hole in her life, there had been no room for anything else. “Don’t forget Tanya
is – was – eight years older than me. That’s a huge gap at that age. As much as
she doted on me, I doubt she would have been inclined to share her love life
with her annoying little sister, do you?” She waved the two detectives into the
apartment.

“Point taken,”
Chris said, waiting for her to close the door. “Although we did catch up again
at our school reunion last year. I thought you might’ve been there, too.”

“I couldn’t
make it, unfortunately.” A white lie. She’d had every intention of going.
Tanya, on the other hand, hadn’t wanted Jemma there, choosing to take her lewd
fiancé’s word over her own sister’s. The beginning of the end.

“Anyway, how
did you know I was here?”

“The property
managers. I had asked them to keep me informed.”

“Why? The
coroner’s already made his finding.”

“Courtesy
really,” he said. “Thought it would help for you to know we’re here if you need
us. Is there anything we can do? Get you?”

“Thanks, but
I’m fine. Really.”

He shrugged.
“Well, just give us a shout if there is anything.” He handed her a business
card. “Any time of the day or night.”

She escorted
Chris and his silent partner back to the door. “Tell me,” she said, “do you
have any doubts Tanya killed herself?”

Jemma curled up on the couch and
gazed out at the city lights. Cocooned in the dark she felt invisible, almost
as if she didn’t exist. Had Tanya felt the same way?

She closed her
eyes. Memories of her vibrant, full-of-life sister flooded in. Her eyes snapped
open, a gut-wrenching sob tearing at her throat. She had wanted to come, wanted
to do this one last thing for Tanya, but maybe it had been too soon. Deep down,
though, she knew it was more than that. She blamed herself for her sister’s
death. If only they hadn’t argued, if only she hadn’t told her about Sean, if
only she had been there for her after his death, then she might still be alive.

But if-onlys
wouldn’t bring her sister back.

Jemma touched
the wineglass in her hands to her lips and downed the last of the velvety
Cabernet Merlot. Her sister had good taste in wine, if not men.

Sean Mullins:
the love of Tanya’s life and the root of the rift between the two sisters. Even
now, Jemma couldn’t see what Tanya had seen in the
chauffeur-cum-personal-trainer besides his buff body and blond good looks. Yet,
for months, all Tanya could talk about was Sean this and Sean that. If there
was ever a woman besotted, she was it. And Jemma couldn’t have been happier for
her big sister. That is until she had the privilege of meeting her future
brother-in-law in the flesh, so to speak.

She remembered
it like it was yesterday. How could she forget?

When Tanya had
offered to redeem some of her Frequent Flyer points for a return
Perth-Melbourne ticket, Jemma had jumped at it. Not only would she be able to
spend some quality time with her sister, but she would also finally get to know
this wonderful man she had been hearing so much about.

It all started
out civilly enough, even if Sean spent the first few minutes at the airport
ogling his prospective sister-in-law’s breasts. Though Tanya made no comment,
her pursed lips said it all. Jemma resolved to change into a looser fitting,
less revealing top as soon as she had a chance. More for her own sake than his.
The last thing she needed was for her sister to accuse her of leading him on.

On the drive
into the city, Sean did most of the talking, big noting himself at every
opportunity. Both he and Tanya worked for a multi-millionaire property
developer – it was how they met – but listening to Sean, Jemma thought she
could almost be forgiven for thinking it was the other way around. Nothing
wrong with ambition, she assured herself.

Then at dinner
that evening, she felt his foot rubbing the inside of her calf under the table.
She jerked back, her chair almost toppling. He returned her baleful stare with
a smug smile and continued to fork food into his mouth. “Cramp,” she said in
answer to Tanya’s questioning look.

Back at the
apartment, Tanya and Sean bade her goodnight. Her body still on Perth time,
Jemma stayed up watching television in the living room. About an hour later,
she heard someone moving around and looked up to see Sean parading stark naked
across the room. She quickly averted her gaze, not wanting to see any more than
necessary.

She held her
breath, hoping he was sleepwalking or at the very least, it was an aberration.
With any luck, he would come to his senses, go back to bed, and save them both
from any further embarrassment.

She could still
hear his voice. “What are you watching?” Low and husky. Then the weight of his
body landing on the seat next to her. He smelled of sex. She gagged, leaping
from the couch as she felt the heat of his damp skin brush against her arm.

“What the fuck
do you think you’re playing at?” she hissed at him, her fists clenched so
tightly her fingernails cut into her palms. “You’re engaged to my sister for
God’s sake.”

“What?” His
pale grey eyes widened in feigned innocence, his mouth spreading in a
supercilious grin. “Just being hospitable.”

She backed
away. “I’m warning you: stay away from me.”

In a flash he
was standing, her right wrist in his steely grip. “Or what?” He yanked her off
her feet, his mouth so close to hers, she could taste his winey breath. “Or
what, little sister?”

“Or I’ll tell Tanya
what you’re really like.”

With a snort,
he released her. “What, and ruin your sister’s happiness?”

Why couldn’t
she have just pretended it hadn’t happened? Why couldn’t she have disregarded
the lecherous looks? Why couldn’t she have ignored the touching?

Because at the
time, she thought she was saving her sister from a faithless marriage.

Another sob
erupted from deep inside her. What was wrong with her that she couldn’t have
foreseen that Tanya would take her fiancé’s word over her sister’s? It still
hurt to think Tanya could have believed her own sister – her only real family –
capable of fabricating such stories.

Jemma set the
empty wineglass on the side table.
Whoever said time heals all wounds
,
she thought as she slid down the leather couch, a pillow crushed to her chest,
was
wrong. So, so wrong…

She cried
herself to sleep, the thought that she might never wake almost welcome. Except,
unlike her sister, she hadn’t washed down countless Valium tablets and God
knows what else with a bottle of bourbon first.

Sometime later,
she woke, groaning as she stretched her cramped muscles.

Ambient light
from the city night outside cast a ghostly pall over the room. Unsticking
herself from the leather, she pushed up on one elbow. She could make out
furniture shapes in the room, but no detail.

About to get
up, she stopped, her breath catching in her throat. Someone was at the door.
Her face pressed against the pillow, she hunched down, shutting her eyes the
instant light from the corridor spilled into the apartment. She heard the lock
snib, followed by hesitant footsteps. Adrenaline coursed through her body,
triggering her fight-or-flight response. But she had no means of escape and her
only weapon was surprise.

Desperate to
blend with the couch, she lay rock still and forced her breathing to slow.
Somewhere behind her, she heard a sharp intake of breath. Her heartbeat
ricocheted, her stomach knotting. She pressed her tongue hard against the roof
of her mouth to stop herself crying out.

The footsteps
retreated. Her eyes remained jammed shut long after she heard the click of the
door. Eventually the message from her brain got through. Without moving her
head, she peered under lowered lids into the gloom. Her ears strained for the
slightest sound.

Nothing.

She waited.

Still nothing.

Stretching her
arm up behind her, she groped on the side table for her mobile phone. In the
process, she clipped the empty wineglass, sending it flying. She gasped as it
bounced off her forehead and landed between her legs. She grabbed it by the
stem and sat upright, braver now she had a weapon of sorts in her hands.

She shuffled
along the couch, her eyes trained on the door, her free hand feeling for her
phone. Her fingers touched the square edges of a business card. She exhaled, a
faint sigh escaping her lips.

With the card
clamped between her teeth, she hooked her phone. She only hoped the light from
the mobile phone’s display would be enough to read the numbers on DS Sykes’
business card.

Resting the
wineglass against her thigh, she dialed Chris Sykes’ mobile number. She winced
at the tiny beep each time she touched the keypad, her gaze flicking back and
forth between the door and her phone.

After what felt
like an eternity, she heard a soft click, followed by a grunt, then nothing.