4.
We waited for the nurse to finish her checks and leave the room before speaking. Once the door was closed, I pulled out the photos and held them in front of Steph.
“This makes no sense,” I said, shaking them up and down.
“Jim, I know how you feel.”
“DAM IT, STEPH!” I yelled, my emotion temporarily overwhelming me. She flinched away and I pulled back a little, embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to yell. Steph, this doesn’t fit.”
“I’m listening,” she replied as she lit a cigarette.
“You’ve seen Clancy, spoken to him. Do you think that he has the strength required to lift Tami and drag her up into the roof of her home?” Steph looked at me with an expression of intrigue. “And the wound. Tami, you saw the chief, you saw Melanie. That was a different person, I’m sure of it. It’s almost like we’re chasing two different people. The controlled one like Tami and Rita Carlisle and the out-of-control one. Whoever killed Tami had the presence of mind to control their emotion. The chief and Melanie, and that girl,” I clicked my fingers in the air, trying to remember her name,” Rita Hayman, they were all pure rage.” At that moment, there wasn’t the slightest doubt in my mind that whoever was killing these people, had an accomplice. An accomplice also capable of taking a bite out of someone.
“We have to find Clancy, he’s the key to everything now. Without him, we have nothing.”
“A lot of officers are out looking for him,” she said, stubbing her cigarette out, “and there’s also the Levinson thing.”
“The Levinson thing?” I asked. She frowned a little.
“I went to see him again. He’s got a house in Daylesford and Alec and I went to talk to him. You know, to ask him about Lightman again, to see if he knew anyone else that could be involved.”
“What did he say?” I asked, trying to prop myself up, but the bolt of pain that shot through my chest convinced me not to.
“Never got to talk to him. Guess who was standing on his porch talking to him when we arrived?” I didn’t have a clue.
“Richards.”
“The new chief?” I asked, surprised.
“Just the temporary one, but yeah, the chief. And they weren’t having a friendly conversation either. He was right up in Levinson’s face, finger pointing and stuff.”
“Did you hear what they were talking about?” I asked but Steph shook her head.
“They stopped the second we pulled up. Didn’t see them at first, a big bush near the front gate shielding them. But when we came up the path, there they were. Richards stepped toward us and asked us what we wanted. When I said we wanted to speak with the good doc, he shook his head. Told us that he was questioning him personally and we were to return to Cider Hill and help locate Clancy Higgins.”
“Why would he-” but Steph stopped me with a hand held out, motioning for me to wait.
“Wait, there’s more.”
“More?”
“Aha. Alec is stationed in Daylesford and remembers pulling over a car a couple of months ago, out on the Daylesford- Ballarat Road. He was sitting on the side of the road watching for traffic when this car sped past, driving erratically. It was a black Mercedes.”
“The doctor’s?”
“Yeah, but that’s not the interesting part.”
“Steph?”
“The doc had a passenger.” I looked at her, unsure of why she wasn’t just telling me.
“Who was it?”
“Jim, it was Tami. And Jim, she wasn’t just a passenger. He said she was sitting pretty close to him. VERY close to him.”
“What? Are you positive? How can he be sure?”
“It was her smiling eyes. And the fact he had seen her a few times before. In the company of other men around town.” My anger suddenly boiled to the surface, my face feeling flushed and hot.
“No, that’s not true. It’s a lie,” I cried out.
“Jim, you have to know. He was driving erratically because,” but she stopped herself.
“WHY? WHY WAS HE DRIVING ERRATICALLY?” I yelled, my heart beat feeling like it was hammering at my temples again.
“He was trying to do his pants up as Alec approached the vehicle. Tami was blushing while the doctor sat grinning at him.” Suddenly, without knowing I was going to, I picked up the glass of water sitting beside me and threw it at the opposite wall. It exploded on impact, the water hitting the wall and ceiling in a spray of liquid as glass shards clinked around the room. I felt confused, unsure of my memories, trying to remember back to when I had seen her, the tears sitting hot in my eyes, almost stinging them as I wiped them away. How could she not tell me? How could she betray me? But she hadn’t. I tried to slow my breathing, taking great gulps, holding them deep. Our chance meeting was still weeks in the future and then, what reason would she have to discuss her past with me. I wasn’t anyone to her then, and he was no one to me when I first saw Levinson, the connections between the three of us still not complete. There was no reason for her to tell me.
The door burst open for a second time, the nurse and officer coming in again. The nurse came at me and immediately began scolding me for my outburst, performing a number of checks on me. I didn’t respond, sinking lower into my bed and closing my eyes. All I wanted to do was be alone and cry. As if reading my thoughts, Steph bent and kissed
