Heller's Revenge (43 page)

“Clarrie, let me introduce my
boyfriend, Will Armstrong. Will, this is Clarrie Cockburn.”

They shook hands. Clarrie leaned
towards me, and while stealing a look down my cleavage (which
wasn’t easy for him to do as I was taller than him), whispered in
an indiscreet voice that I’m sure the whole room could hear, “I
thought Heller was your boyfriend.”

I stared at him in disbelief.
“No, Clarrie. As I’m sure I told you a thousand times, Heller is
just my boss. Will is my boyfriend.”

I could have kicked Clarrie for
bringing Heller up right then, knowing how sensitive Will was about
the whole matter of my undefinable relationship with him. Luckily
for me, another man approaching us distracted everyone from that
taboo topic.

“Tilly, how wonderful to see you
again! I’ve really been looking forward to it. Just ask Clarrie.”
He tried to kiss me on the mouth in an over-enthusiastic manner,
but I turned my head rapidly at the last second as he bore down on
me. “Gee, you look good.”

“Lovely to see you again too,
Milt,” I lied. “And can I say how nice it is to see you here at
Clarrie’s wedding. Let me introduce my boyfriend, Will.” And I made
the introductions.

Milt’s face drooped with
disappointment on meeting Will and he shook hands half-heartedly.
Again, I was surprised by his eagerness to see me, considering last
time I saw him I almost ruined his chances of ever having children.
I still had those photos of Clarrie and him tied to chairs and I
liked to look at them now and then just for a laugh.

“Of course I’m at the wedding!
I’m Clarrie’s best man,” he informed me proudly and despite
despising both of them, I found that quite touching.

Frankly, I was stunned to find
how the passage of time had softened their mutual loathing of me.
Heller had predicted that would happen and that the men would begin
to reminisce fondly of our time together, but I hadn’t believed
him. Looks like he was right. Yet again. I firmly pushed all
thoughts of Heller from my brain. I had promised myself that today
I would concentrate solely on Will. God knows, we barely saw each
other as it was, even though I had promised to see him more often,
so I didn’t want to waste a second of his company thinking about
Heller. We shook hands with the celebrant and sat down in the guest
area, smiled at the few elderly people in attendance, obviously
Clarrie’s and Kitty’s relatives, and held hands tightly, waiting
for the ceremony to begin.

“Hopefully it will be us here
one day,” Will whispered in my ear. I gave him a non-committed but
guilt-ridden smile.

When he had asked me to marry
him, I hadn’t known what to say. I had just stared at him,
speechless, until the whole situation grew very awkward and he
realised I wasn’t going to say yes. I think I broke his heart that
day, although I didn’t mean to. He had really taken me by surprise.
Who expects someone to propose to them when you haven’t even been
together for a year?

It had been the most perfect
proposal too – everything I had ever dreamed about. In another
life, I wouldn’t have hesitated and would have snapped him up like
the catch that he was. But in my life, my reality, it was
impossible for me to marry Will. I had responsibilities and a life
apart from him that I wasn’t willing to relinquish, no matter my
feelings for him. To cover the uncomfortable and tense situation
created my failure to accept his proposal, I’d suggested that he
ask me again once Niq turned eighteen. And being an optimistic
person in general, he clung to the hope that we could be
permanently together in a few years time. But I had my own doubts
that he would be willing to wait that long for me, especially
knowing now that he’d already been screwing around. But I also
doubted that I would be ready to leave my life for him at that
point anyway.

There was a small commotion at
the door and we all stood up, turning our heads in that direction.
Kitty’s little daughter was supposed to act as the flower girl, but
shyly and hesitantly poked her head through the door before
sprinting down the aisle and hiding behind Clarrie’s legs. We all
tittered with laughter. Kitty then arrived on the arm of her
father. Or to be more precise, Kitty’s distended and obviously
knocked-up stomach arrived before the both of them. I had mixed
emotions at the sight. I was flabbergasted that Clarrie had been
able to muster up enough sperm to impregnate a woman, and I was
also frankly appalled at the thought of Clarrie spawning. God help
the world!

Kitty was beautiful in white and
cried copiously throughout the brief ceremony. Clarrie screwed up
his vows, at one point promising to love and honour himself.

“Is that what they call it these
days?” I whispered to Will, who snorted with smothered laughter
that drew disapproving glances from the oldies.

And then it was all over and
there was a flurry of paper signing, backslapping, hand shaking and
air kissing. I gave Kitty a genuine, and careful, hug of
congratulations. She was radiant, and I had absolutely no idea what
she saw in Clarrie, but on behalf of all of the single women in the
world, I blessed her for taking him out of the dating pool.

Lunch at the top-notch
restaurant was delicious and I made sure I drank more than my fair
share of champagne. I stared at Will lustfully, rubbing his thigh
under the table and anticipating our afternoon together, when the
speeches commenced. We both turned towards the speaker to listen
politely, but under the table I tiptoed my fingers up Will’s thigh.
He shot me an amused warning glance and shook his head at me. I
smiled evilly and confined myself again to rubbing his thigh,
higher and higher, until he started squirming in his seat with
pleasurable discomfort. He grabbed my hand and held it tightly. I
pouted briefly, but behaved myself for the rest of the
speeches.

Clarrie gave a good speech,
heartfelt and reasonably amusing. He had a confident and pleasant
public persona. He was clearly just a tosser in private.
Surprisingly he gave warm thanks to me for being the person
responsible for Kitty and him meeting in the first place. But for
obvious reasons, he totally glossed over the fact that she had been
a hooker.
Pretty Woman
, eat your heart out! I’d always
secretly suspected that Kitty was the first woman Clarrie had ever
shagged and probably would be the only woman, considering his
personality and table manners. Like I said before, God bless Kitty
for taking one for the team.

We eventually farewelled the
happy couple, who were due to fly home to California the next day,
and made our way back to Will’s house. He had barely shut the front
door before I jumped him, and we didn’t even make it into his
bedroom, but ended up on his lounge, frantically coupling, lips,
tongues and hands everywhere, our clothing discarded with abandon,
my dress hanging from the ceiling fan, his shirt flung over the TV.
When it was over, we lay on the sofa facing each other, bodies
entwined.

“We never get to spend enough
time together,” he complained. “All we get time for is sex.”

“I’ve never heard of a man
complaining about that before,” I replied lightly. I wasn’t in the
mood for rehashing that old argument yet again. He was right
though. All we ever seemed to have time for was some quick shagging
before I had to go to work or get home. And I know I’d promised to
spend more time with him, but it didn’t seem to be working out. The
nature of my work and my life just meant that I couldn’t, and more
importantly, didn’t want to change anything about either.

I faintly heard the beeping
warning of an incoming text message on my phone. I padded over to
my handbag, once I had found it where it had been kicked under a
chair, and read the message.

“Party’s over, lover boy. Gotta
go.”

I kissed Will and dressed
quickly, pulling on my shoes when a car horn tooted from outside. I
gave him a wave, ignoring his disappointed face and left, climbing
into Heller’s vehicle waiting out the front of the house.

Chapter 28

Months later, I looked at myself
in the mirror, adjusting my sombre charcoal skirt suit and
rose-coloured button-up shirt. I had my hair up, wearing low
sensible heels and discreet makeup and jewellery. It was time for
me to testify in court against Meili’s murderer and I was as
nervous as hell, never having appeared in court before. I was the
prosecution’s star witness and had been warned by the Crown
prosecution team that I might be on the stand for more than one day
giving my testimony and facing any cross-examination by the
defence.

Heller waited patiently for me
to finish my last minute tweaks to my appearance and held my hand
down the stairs to his vehicle where Daniel joined us. I
appreciated them accompanying me to court and Daniel’s promise to
stay with me the entire time. Heller had been called up as a
witness himself, but wasn’t expecting to be on the stand for a few
days. He would conduct some business in the CBD during the day, not
allowed into the courtroom until it was his turn to testify.

I’d been extensively coached by
a number of people about what to expect on the stand, including the
Crown prosecution staff, Brian, and Heller’s own lawyer, Corby. So
at least I didn’t feel completely unprepared for my forthcoming
ordeal. I’d made sure that I had an adequate supply of tissues in
my handbag for any unexpected waterworks while on the stand. Daniel
solemnly showed me that he had thoughtfully placed a hankie in each
pocket of his trousers and one in his jacket as well, which made me
giggle despite my nerves.

There had been much surprise and
pointed comment about the defence team employed by the defendant.
They were one of the city’s more expensive law firms and clearly
out of the financial reach of the accused murderer, whose
occupation was listed as unemployed. Dark mutterings were heard
about the deep pockets of those who were silently supporting him,
probably the same bastards who had hired him to murder Meili in the
first place. But nobody knew who ‘they’ were for certain, although
most suspicion fell on an international mining company that wished
to commence coal mining in a heritage-listed rainforest area. Meili
had been influential in forcing the government to hold an
environmental enquiry into the proposal before it was approved.
He’d been concerned about the fate of an endangered species of
frog, which inhabited a swamp that would be subsumed by the open
cut mine. The company had already invested millions in the project,
assuming it was a done deal as promises had been extracted from
politicians and money had exchanged hands. Without Meili around to
keep pressuring the government through publicity, the enquiry was
quietly shelved and the proposal had turned into reality. Quite the
motive for murder, when you thought about it. Billions of dollars
would be earned by that particular company over the life of that
mine.
And that was the price of Meili’s life
, I thought
sadly to myself, not to mention the fate of the endangered frog
species that was predictably wiped out because of the mine.

I took to the stand, ignoring
the cold, hard face of the accused. Instead I peered up into the
public gallery, finding Daniel and taking comfort from his
supportive smile and presence. I let my eyes roam over the rest of
the gallery, arrested when I noticed a group of people sitting at
the front – three men and a woman. They had to be Meili’s family,
the resemblance to him was so strong and I assumed I was looking at
his mother, father and two brothers. Four pairs of lovely light
gray eyes regarded me with curiosity. I would introduce myself to
them after I was finished testifying, to give them my personal
condolences for their great loss.

I was sworn in and managed to
survive a long day of testimony, being gently questioned over my
reason for being with Meili and taken through the events leading up
to his murder. The prosecutor spent quite a lot of time going over
the boat explosion. I was emotionally exhausted by the end of the
day and very glad when the judge adjourned the court and ordered
everyone to return the following morning at ten.

Heller met us outside the
courthouse. He insisted on taking me to his flat and made me dinner
that night. Daniel and Niq joined us and they did their best to
cheer me up and help me forget what was in store for me the
following day. I stayed that night with Heller in his bed, dropping
off to sleep immediately, drained with fatigue.

Back in court the next day, I
was led through the morning of Meili’s murder, those few awful
minutes and the aftermath. The jury was shown the photos I’d taken
of Meili that day, and I explained why I had been taking so many
photos of him. I smiled sadly to see him hugging the tree again
because it was such a joyous photo. His family, and more than a few
of the jury, smiled as well when I told them why he was
embarrassing himself in such a way. Then the series of photos I’d
taken of him doing up his shoelace were shown and you’d have to be
blind or bribed not to notice that the ‘jogger’ holding a gun
approaching Meili in the photos was the same man that was sitting
in the courtroom, pretending to be innocent. I was proud that I
only went through a few tissues as I gave my testimony that
day.

The prosecution team led me
through my chase of the murderer and my harvesting of his DNA,
promising the jury that there would be scientific evidence about
that later. The prosecution finally finished with me and after a
short lunch break, it was time for the cross-examination. I
received a quick pep-talk from the prosecutor before I was back on
the stand again. The defence team’s whole argument seemed to be
that, yes, their client was the man I had chased and captured the
DNA from, because there was no arguing with science. But they
stated that he was merely an opportunistic bag snatcher and not the
man who had murdered Meili – a victim of mistaken identity by an
understandably distraught woman who had just seen a friend being
murdered. It was a clever defence because it didn’t try to paint
their client as an angel, just a lesser kind of criminal.