Donna Joy Usher - Chanel 01 - Cocoa and Chanel (9 page)

‘It’s true,’ she said, ‘it’s so easy for women to be accused of cashing in the furry chequebook.’

‘Furry chequebook?’

‘You know.’ She pointed down to her nether regions.

I shook my head.

She rolled her eyes and pointed at her crutch.

‘Oooh,’ I said, ‘the furry chequebook. I won’t be using that.’

‘Soooo what are you going to do?’

‘Well…’ A stupid idea had been rolling around in the back of my head but I was loath to voice it.

‘You can tell me,’ she said, shuffling closer.

Bruce handed me another drink. ‘And me,’ he said.

‘Okay, but you can’t tell anyone because it’s silly.’

‘Cross my heart,’ Martine said.

‘And hope to die,’ Bruce finished.

‘I want to find the serial killer.’ I said the words in a rush, happy to have them out of my head and in the open. Once they were free they swirled around, taking form and becoming a reality.

My God
, I really did want to find the serial killer. I hadn’t admitted it even to myself. The idea was shocking and absurd, but it felt real to me. I wanted to hunt down the bastard who was doing those terrible things to women and make him pay. It didn’t matter that they were prostitutes. They were people, with families and friends, and no-one deserved to be treated like that.

‘Silly hey?’ I said, looking at Bruce and Martine’s shocked expressions.

‘There’s a serial killer?’ Martine said.

‘In the Cross?’ Bruce added.

‘You don’t know?’ How could they not know? It was five women now. I filled them in on the basics of the killings, leaving out anything I thought might be confidential.

‘No wonder the girls have been acting so strangely,’ Bruce said when I’d finished.

‘The girls?’ I asked.

‘The group that work this area: Bianca, Rosie, Isabella and Lizette. ‘They normally work different corners, but lately they’ve been hanging together.

‘Huh. You know these girls?’

‘They’re friends,’ Martine said.

‘Do you think they’d talk to me?’

‘If we introduced you, they might. They don’t like pigs, sorry, cops much.’

I yawned and looked at my watch. It was already two in the morning. ‘I need to get to sleep,’ I said apologetically. ‘I’m going to look at some apartments tomorrow.’

‘Come back tomorrow night,’ Martine said, ‘and I’ll see if I can get the girls to talk to you.’

‘Thanks.’ I gave her a hug, surprised at how muscly her torso was. She must really work out.

I walked the short distance home with my mace in one hand and a whistle in the other, determined not to become victim number six. But even though I was scared I was also euphoric. I had my first lead. Tomorrow night I was going to get to talk to some of the Cross’s prostitutes. I just hoped they could give me some useful information.

***

I looked at three apartments that day. All as bad, if not worse, as the one I was currently living in. I wasn’t really asking for much. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t modern. I just wanted a clean, quiet place to live. The rest I could deal with.

I did, however, drop into the dog groomers and get Cocoa booked in for the next day. I also did a large amount of window shopping, too scared to enter the shops in case I damaged the shiny fabrics. If I knew one thing it was that I couldn’t afford anything in those designer stores.

The show was in full swing by the time I got to Dazzle that night. Bruce was busy with a large group of Asian tourists so I took my seat at the bar and tried to pick Martine out of the dancers.

Eventually Bruce finished and came over to greet me.

‘Lizette and Rosie have agreed to come here and talk to you,’ he said.

‘Really?’ Raw excitement zinged through my veins.

‘Couldn’t pin them down to a time,’ he said, ‘they’ll be here in between business.’

I sipped my cocktail while I thought about that. I was going to interview them knowing they had just had sex with a strange man. I hadn’t realised what a prude I was till that flashed through my head. I blamed my Mum for my prudish side, always harping on about my virtue and reputation. But Mum was old before her time and I swore I wasn’t going to be like that, so I pushed the thought away and focused instead on what I wanted to ask them.

Lizette and Rosie approached the bar about an hour later. They were pretty girls, one plump and one thin. They both wore short skirts and tops with plunging necklines, revealing an ample amount of cleavage. Lizette was chewing gum in a quick, anxious fashion, her eyes darting nervously around the room.

After Bruce introduced us they perched on the edge of the stools closest to me, their bodies tensed as if ready to flee. Rosie kept looking over her shoulder and licking her lips.

‘Thank you for coming,’ I said.

Lizette blew a large bubble, popped it with her finger and then stabbed the gum back into her mouth.

‘So, umm, I was wondering if you knew anything about the latest murder?’ It wasn’t how I had wanted to start the questioning but their body language was unnerving me.

‘And if we did, why should we tell you?’ Lizette asked. She blew out another bubble which swiftly met the same fate as the first.

‘Because you care that prostitutes are dying? Yeah right,’ Rosie said. She blinked rapidly a few times and then rubbed the back of her neck.

‘I care that
people
are dying,’ I said, staring into her eyes. She met my gaze for a few seconds before breaking away and looking nervously over her shoulder. I resisted the urge to do the same.

Lizette gnawed at her bottom lip as she stared at the floor. ‘Maybe you do,’ she said, scraping her hands through her hair. ‘But how do we know we can trust you?’

‘Do you know something?’ I leant forward in my chair.

Like a startled animal she slid off the stool and backed away from me. ‘I don’t think you can help us,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘You’re too young and …’

‘Powerless,’ Rosie said, also standing up.

‘You do know something,’ I said. ‘You have to tell me what you know.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Rosie said. ‘We don’t know who sent you.’ She took Lizette’s hand and they hurried from the room.

‘That was weird,’ I said to Bruce once they’d gone.

‘Did they tell you anything?’

‘No, but they know something. They’re scared.’

‘Wouldn’t you be?’

‘Yes, but it’s more than that.’ I paused to think about it. ‘They wanted to be protected and they didn’t think I was up to the job. They were right too. I mean what could I do for them?’ I felt deflated. I’d been so excited about this, certain I’d get a lead, and I still had nothing.

‘What are you going to do?’ Bruce asked.

‘What can I do?’

‘Don’t give up.’

‘Well, I guess I could go over the crime scenes and see if they missed anything.’ I snorted as I said it. I mean as if I would find something that the trained detectives had missed, that
Roger
had missed. I may as well be looking for the cure for cancer.

Plus, I only knew of the one site, so I was going to have to wheedle the others out of Roger. I was going to have to bat my eyelids and flirt with everything I had.

Well,
that
I could do.

I had no doubt that with my kissaliscious bubble gum lip gloss, school-girl-cute-ponytail, trusty push-up bra, and a ‘lost’ button on the top of my uniform blouse, that I would have the information I needed by the end of my first day back at work.

I woke with just enough time to scoff a bagel and get Cocoa to the groomers. It was a beautiful day, the sort on which you couldn’t help but feel good, no matter how much your life sucked. I decided to walk down into town around the harbour and through the Botanical Gardens while Cocoa was being buffed and polished.

I took my time making my way to the harbour. Once there I found a café with a view of the city and ordered a coffee. Sydney really was beautiful. I just wished I could find some decent accommodation I could afford.

Those thoughts were bouncing around in my head when my phone rang. It was Martine.

‘Hey girlfriend, where are you at?’

‘I’ve walked into town,’ I said. ‘What’s up?’

‘You won’t believe it; I bumped into the guy who owns the apartment block I live in.’

‘He owns the whole block?’

‘Yes, but I wouldn’t go there: short, fat, small man syndrome. Anyway it turns out there’s an apartment up for rent and I told him about you.’

‘Are dogs allowed?’

‘Not normally, but I told him about how you’re a cop, and Cocoa’s gone through police dog training…’

‘You know that’s not strictly true, right?’ The night before I’d told her and Bruce about the farting incident.

‘Of course, but
he
doesn’t. Then I started talking about all the killings and how nice it would be to have a police dog on the premises. How it would give all the tenants peace of mind and let us stop thinking about moving out of the Cross.’

‘
Martine
.’ I had to laugh at her audacity.

‘Anyway, he wants to meet you and Cocoa this afternoon and if he’s happy it’s yours at a discounted price.’

‘Really?’ I screeched into the phone.

‘Ouch.’

‘Sorry.’ I lowered my voice and smiled at the people who had turned to look at me. ‘What time?’

‘He’ll be there painting the apartment till four.’

‘Cocoa’s at the groomers, I have to get him at 3.30,’ I said.

‘The one around the corner from Dazzle?’

‘Yep.’

‘I’ll meet you there.’

***

Martine was waiting out the front when I arrived at the groomers.

‘We have to hurry or we’ll miss him,’ she said. Even at this time of day her auburn hair was enormous and she was sporting a full face of make-up. I felt extremely under-dressed in my walking shorts and shoes.

Cocoa was in a pen playing with a few other dogs. When he saw me he started barking and jumping up and down. His clip looked good and his beard was full and fluffy but his toenails were painted hot pink.

‘Holy moly,’ Martine said, staring at his feet. They had clipped them short like a poodle to emphasise his nails.

The groomer released him from the pen and he bounded towards us, barking as he leapt into my arms. He proceeded to give me a full face wash, managing to get his tongue into my mouth twice as I struggled to avoid him.

‘That is one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen,’ Martine said.

‘Don’t knock it, it’s the most action I’ve had this year.’ I looked down at his toes. They looked ridiculous. ‘We don’t have time to have this removed do we?’

She looked at her watch. ‘Not if you want to see the apartment.’

I paid the groomer and put Cocoa’s hot pink collar back on. It and the lead perfectly matched his toenails. The groomer nodded her head in satisfaction.

Martine shook hers and sighed.

We made it with five minutes to spare. Joe, the landlord, had finished painting and was cleaning up his mess. The apartment wasn’t huge, but it was clean and bright with a modern kitchen and bathroom, and a huge window in the living room looking out towards the city. The bedroom was on a mezzanine platform looking over the living area. I loved it.

‘I thoughts you said he was a police dog,’ Joe said to Martine. His paunch was flowing over the top of his workpants and I was having trouble not looking. Unfortunately the alternative was his chest, where his half open shirt revealed several dangling gold chains and a large amount of sweaty black hair.

‘Oh he is,’ she said. ‘He’s undercover.’

He looked sceptical so I said, ‘Look we can’t give you all the details. That’s why they call it undercover. But let’s just say he’s trained to sniff out explosives.’

I was going to say drugs, but at the last second considered the fact that Joe may not want a dog that can sniff out drugs living in his block. If I had seen Joe while out with Roger I would have guessed drug dealer or pimp.

‘Oh,’ he said, ‘like one of them dogs that finds terrorists?’

I didn’t say anything, but I tapped the side of my nose and nodded.

‘You can’t tell anyone,’ Martine warned him.

‘Don’t want to blow his cover,’ I said, smiling sweetly.

Joe looked at Cocoa with a look bordering on reverence. ‘It would be a pleasure to have you living in my apartment,’ he told me.

I tried to conceal my excitement. ‘When can we move in?’

‘Well the paint should be dry by tomorrow. Do you want it furnished? Cause it’ll take me a couple of days to lose the furniture.’

‘Furnished will be perfect.’

‘Well tomorrow then. I can meet you here at say nine and give you the keys.’

I contemplated my week while I painted my toes the same colour as Cocoa’s (if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em). Sure there had been some shitty stuff that had happened but it was easily overshadowed by my new friends and apartment. Tomorrow I would move and then on Monday I would tease the location of the other murder scenes out of Roger.

I rang Mum and filled her in on my week, leaving out the grisly details of the body we had found and the fact that I was going to try to single-handedly track down a dangerous serial killer, and then I went to bed.

***

The one day I really wanted to see Roger and he still hadn’t shown up for work. All right, so I really wanted to see him every day, but today was different. Today it wasn’t about my Guinness Book of Records’ sized crush.

Because I was doing the early night shift there were only a few hours that we overlapped, and that time was ticking away. I was kept busy with a stream of visitors coming through the front door: people bailing out friends or relatives, officers bringing in suspects for interviews and building contractors. One of the rooms had sustained some rain damage a few months ago and it was only now being fixed.

When he finally did show it was with a woman in handcuffs. Her attire indicated she was one of the working girls; bright red tight spandex skirt and boob tube top. It was a brave clothing choice given her bootaliscious butt and impressive chest.

‘Hey girlfriend,’ she said to me as he dragged her through the front doors. She didn’t seem at all concerned about her predicament.

‘Bianca,’ Roger said, ‘can I trust you to stay here or do I have to lock you up?’

‘You can trust me,’ she said, shooting him a cheeky grin. Her large teeth shone white against the glowing ebony of her skin. I found myself responding to her cheery disposition. It was either that or the fact that Roger was in the same room with me.

As soon as Roger left, Bianca bolted for the front door. I vaulted over the counter, a feat that surprised me as much as it did her, and landed in front of the doors. It seemed all the obstacle course training had paid off.

‘Don’t even think about it,’ I said.

‘Damn girl, you like a superwoman or something?’

I shook my head at her and pointed to the chairs on the other side of the room.

‘You been exposed to some serious radiation shit?’

‘No,’ I said, laughing as I made my way back round to the other side of the table.

‘You’re like a ninja, right? I bet you could kick my big black arse all over this city.’

‘Who could kick your arse?’ Roger asked.

‘Your girl there. She’s scary.’

‘Chanel? Yes, she is scary.’ He shot me a grin that threatened to stop my heart.

I took a deep breath and tried to get a grip on my emotions. I wasn’t going to look so tough if I started hyperventilating just because he’d smiled at me.

It wasn’t so much that he’d smiled. It was the way he’d smiled, and I don’t want to bore you, but it was cheeky and endearing and there had been a light in his eyes when he’d said my name. I’d had to stop myself vaulting the table again so I could wrap myself around him and shove my tongue down his throat.

I tore my eyes away and focused on the stupid manual I was only part of the way through, while I tried to think of a way to swing the conversation the way I wanted it to go. I couldn’t do it with Bianca in the room though so I was going to have to wait for him to finish with her.

As Bianca followed him into the interview room something tickled at the back of my mind. I ignored it, knowing if I tried to identify what it was it would slip further from my conscious mind. Eventually it surfaced, floating up to bob amongst my other thoughts.

Hadn’t Bruce said that one of the working girls they were friends with was a Bianca? I wondered if it was the same one. I tried to suppress my excitement but by the time Roger had finished with his interview I was almost hopping from foot to foot.

‘What are you in for?’ I asked her, smiling in my friendliest manner.

‘I had some Buddha on me.’

‘Buddha?’

‘Some Maryjane?’

I shrugged my shoulders.

‘Some gangster? Locoweed? Ganja? A reefer?’

I shook my head as I stared at her and wondered what the hell she was on about.

‘Some grass.’

‘Oh marijuana,’ I said.

‘You’re as white as your skin. No wonder you a cop.’

‘I’ve tried it,’ I said before I remembered where I was. I shot a nervous look over my shoulder. ‘Once,’ I whispered.

She chuckled and shook her head.

‘Are you a friend of Bruce’s?’ I said.

‘Dazzle Bruce?’

‘Yep that one.’

‘He’s the bomb,’ she said. ‘He don’t care what the colour of your skin is or what you do for dough.’

Roger appeared at the front office door and I stopped my line of questioning.

‘You still here?’ he said to Bianca over the counter.

‘I’m just chatting to your super girl. She’s a blast. But I’m going now.’

Roger came into the front office as she pushed out through the front door and sashayed her way up the steps, an impressive amount of thigh hanging out the bottom of her skirt.

‘So Roger,’ I said, turning to face him. I hadn’t realised how close he was standing and I found myself staring up into his blistering blue eyes. I immediately lost my train of thought.

‘Yes Chanel,’ he said, smiling down at me.

I’d spent hours fantasising about being this close to him and now that it was happening I hadn’t the faintest idea what to do. ‘I was thinking,’ I said, stalling for time as I tried to remember what the hell I had been thinking.

‘So have I,’ he said.

Dear God
. My heart was racing, my palms were sweating and my knees were trembling.

‘You go first,’ I said, hoping he was thinking what I was thinking.

‘I was wondering if I could have my foot back?’

I looked down to see that one of my feet was squishing the toe of his boot.

‘Sorry,’ I said, jumping away from him.

I heard someone clearing their throat from behind me. It was Bianca.

‘I think I left my sunglasses in that room,’ she said to Roger.

After he had left to look for them she said to me, ‘Dang girl, you work fast. I sure am sorry about my timing.’

‘Not at all,’ I said, ‘we were discussing a case.’

‘Uhuh. I’m sure you were. He’s a fine package. I wouldn’t mind discussing his case.’

‘Shhh,’ I said, as Bob and Nathan came down the stairs.

‘Yes sirree, the way his ass moves in those uniform pants, well it’s enough to make a girl lie down and beg.’

‘Shut
up
,’ I hissed under my breath as they passed the counter, heading for the back offices.

Roger returned with a pair of red sunglasses which he handed to Bianca. ‘Thank you kind sir,’ she purred. ‘Might see you later at Dazzle,’ she said and then she winked and left the building.

‘Dazzle?’ Roger asked.

‘Hmmm? I have no idea what she’s talking about.’

‘You wanted to ask me something?’

‘Actually,’ I said, moving to the other side of the office. I was working on the principle that if I kept enough space between us my brain might still work. ‘I’ve been thinking about that woman we found.’

‘What about her?’

‘Well I was thinking about all of them,’ I said. ‘Were they all killed in the same alley?’ Oh yeah, nice work Chanel. That sure was a subtle and tricky line of questioning. There was no way he would see where
that
was going.

‘No,’ he said. ‘If they were we could post a guard on it, or put security cameras in to catch the bastard.’ I was surprised by the vehemence in his voice. ‘Why do you ask?’ he said, staring into my eyes again.