Authors: Anne Buist
Medea's Curse (26 page)
She felt a wave of nausea. He seemed to be taking her
little problem very seriously,
but she wasn’t sure that she found that comforting.
When Natalie arrived at the Punt Road rooms, the police were long gone. Glass shards
were pushed to one side of the door; Victorian mansions weren’t built as fortresses
and the broken glass panels gave easy access to the door handle. The thief would
have been eyeball to eyeball with the small sign saying
No drugs kept on the premises
.
‘Anything missing?’ she asked Beverley.
‘Not that we’ve found.’
Her two colleagues in the coffee room said their rooms were untouched; so not a random
vandal. She walked into her room, which she shared with another psychiatrist who
used it on her days at Yarra Bend, and hadn’t arrived yet.
Natalie looked at the filing cabinets and opened the drawers. She only kept her current
files here, the rest were in the storage room. Nothing missing; but she could feel
the intruder’s fingerprints. The files were still in alphabetical order—but backwards,
as if he had taken them all out to go through them. If there was one that he was
after, he had read it. He was making sure she knew.
Natalie stood in the middle of the room and closed her eyes. She knew her imagination
was being fuelled by fear but she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was in
the room with her. There was nothing obvious. No papers thrown over the floor or
vase smashed on the hearth of the fireplace. She sat in her chair, aware of the sweat
of her palms against the leather. Closing her eyes she tried to picture the room
as she had left it. Opening them she stared at her desk. Then saw it. Or rather,
saw what was not there.
The photo had always been a bit of a joke. Psychiatrists
weren’t meant to have anything
personal in their rooms, no family photos or things that identified them as anything
other than the neutral holding container that the patient could use as they needed.
Not that Natalie would have put up family photos even if she had been allowed. But
a photo Tom had taken of Bob reminded her to keep a sense of humour. Now it was missing.
The thief had already been in her home, knew Bob was her housemate. It was a direct
threat.
The cheapest fare to Sydney for the annual forensic conference was first thing on
Friday morning. Tom was taking Bob to his house. The theft of the photo had made
her jumpy.
Bob greeted her with ‘How do you feel!’, landed on her shoulder and bit her ear.
‘Ouch, Bob!’ said Natalie. ‘Keep doing that and I’ll let the stalker have you.’
He nestled on her shoulder, oblivious to any threat.
Natalie was halfway through a beer when Bob began flapping his wings and jumping
up and down. It was the door, but Natalie wasn’t expecting Tom for an hour.
Not Tom; Liam. He looked good. Annoyingly. He’d either changed at the office or been
home first. His suit had been replaced with casual black trousers and a dark polo
shirt.
‘I thought we could share some travel time.’ He leaned against the doorway, looking
her up and down. Natalie was wearing shorts and a tight top that accentuated her
nipples.
‘Meaning?’
‘I was hoping I could give you a lift.’
Natalie raised an eyebrow and waited.
‘I have a car waiting.’
‘Let me guess, a limo with champagne in the fridge.’ Natalie tried not to smile.
‘Haven’t looked. But there’ll definitely be some bubbly in the Qantas lounge.’
‘Qantas lounge?’
‘I believe you have to be in Sydney tomorrow.’
‘My flight is in the morning.’
He shrugged. ‘Change it. You’d just be going a night early. Live dangerously. ’
Beverley had a lot to answer for.
‘Carol is doing an investigator course to enhance her role with us,’ said Liam. ‘Though
I don’t think your secretary put up a fight.’
‘Just totally by coincidence you happen to be going to Sydney?’ There was no reason
she couldn’t go tonight, besides the cost of an extra night’s accommodation, but
Liam probably intended that she would share his room. His arrogance had gone up a
notch. Or was this his idea of making up?
‘Not exactly. I have to meet someone and tomorrow is as good a day as any.’
‘You’re that sure of me?’
Liam laughed. ‘That stupid I ain’t. Jaysus woman…’ Shit, she loved it when he laid
the accent on. ‘I can enjoy a dinner in Sydney by myself, but it seems a waste. I
thought spontaneity might be your style.’
It only took her a few minutes to throw some clothes together. She remembered to
grab Georgia’s file to read before seeing her mother, as well as her conference presentation,
which had yet to progress beyond headings.
Live dangerously.
She could almost hear
Eoin’s laughter as
she changed and packed her bag. It took five minutes. Tom had
his own key; she’d ring him from the cab.
Liam burst out laughing.
‘What?’
‘I think you just achieved the impossible. Don’t women need at least two hours?’
With the slam of the door, and Bob letting out a screech, Natalie slid into the limo
next to Liam.
Liam took her straight through security to the business lounge. The receptionist
greeted him by name. Liam had her ticket changed without any apparent penalty.
‘Drink?’
‘Don’t need anything.’
Liam flipped open his laptop.
‘You might be interested in this. I warn you, it’s hard to watch.’
Liam showed her fifteen seconds of a video clip. She was grateful for its brevity.
A little girl no more than five: blonde with blue eyes who reminded Natalie uncomfortably
of Chloe. With the child was a pink bunny, fluffy and new-looking. And a man in a
face mask holding her hand.
‘Let me assure you the rest is unpleasant. There’s just one other thing you need
to see.’ Liam went to the end, to the logo: bunny ears on a circle, with a smaller
circle in the centre, the second bunny’s oval more clearly phallic.
‘You need to tell me more about your suspect,’ said Natalie.
‘You know I can’t.’
Natalie pulled out Georgia’s file. In it was a photocopy of Georgia’s card, complete
with logo.
Liam took it from her. ‘Where did you get this?’
‘Seems we have a stalemate. I can’t tell you either.’
‘My suspect is in his late twenties, very smart.’
So he had been telling her the truth last time she’d asked. Natalie let out her breath
and took the card back. ‘Different person. This one maybe just downloads the videos.’
‘Whoa up. I still want—’
‘No can do, Liam,’ said Natalie. ‘I told my patient to tell her lawyer. She’ll be
in touch.’
Liam leaned in. ‘This isn’t a game, Natalie. We’re talking about lots of kids. The
video I just showed you is old, the one we thought was our chief suspect. The crime
techies couldn’t do a definite match and in later videos he got smart, used lots
of other perps. We’re just this far’—he held up his thumb and index finger a millimetre
apart—‘from getting him. I need to know where this card came from.’
‘You will,’ said Natalie. ‘Just not from me.’
When Liam handed her the second key to his room, she just looked at it. ‘I never
said I’d stay. Come to think of it, I can’t recall being asked.’
‘Think about it over dinner.’
Dinner was very good Chinese. The spicy salt and pepper squid was the best she had
ever tasted and they’d ordered a second serve. A layer of tension had disappeared
with the knowledge that she wouldn’t be under surveillance. Until she felt it roll
off her shoulders she hadn’t realised how much of a burden it had been.
‘Does Carol the Dental Queen know you’re fucking me? Or at least were,’ asked Natalie
through a mouthful of squid, ‘and still want to?’
Liam grinned. ‘If she was a betting woman her money would be in the right place.’
‘Does Lauren know?’
‘I thought we didn’t discuss exes or wives,’ he said as he called for the bill.
When he opened the door to the suite—
their
suite, she thought, with a shiver that
was unreasonably, unconscionably erotic—they didn’t speak. They stood for a moment,
just looking at each other, then, item by item, pulled each other’s clothing off.
She sensed in him a need that went deeper than just the sex, but right now it was
the physical sensations that dominated her own thoughts, and she gave into them as
his hands moved all over her.
When she had come three times they climaxed together on the table.
‘Think about this when you’re meeting the suits here tomorrow,’ she whispered in
his ear before pushing him off her.
They adjourned to the spa tub. She added a whole bottle of bubble-bath and the bubbles
frothed up and over the edge as they sank into it.
They had drunk only Chinese tea at dinner, so Liam opened champagne.
‘Okay, you’ve got me captive,’ said Natalie, wishing her words had less truth than
they did. ‘So tell me about your life.’
Liam nibbled on her ear. ‘What would you like to hear?’
‘Meaning what lie or what topic?’
‘Take your pick. Honesty is easier.’
Natalie held her breath. Did she really want to know anything? She probably already
knew too much.
‘Favourite song?’
Liam laughed. ‘All time or current?’
‘All time of course.’
‘“Hungry Heart”.’
Natalie burst out laughing. ‘You have got to be joking.’ Seeing his expression she
added, ‘Okay, okay, everyone can have a Springsteen moment.’
‘Your turn.’
‘I’ve already sung them to you.’
‘How about films?’
‘
Four Minutes
,’ replied Natalie without hesitation.
‘Don’t know it.’
‘It’s a German movie. Culminates in a piano recital of classical music, in handcuffs.’
Liam laughed. ‘I’ll watch it some time.’
‘Your movie?’
‘
Sound of Music
.’ He was so deadpan she almost believed him; until he was laughing
at her for being so gullible. ‘
Life is Beautiful
.’
‘The one in the concentration camp?’
Liam nodded.
‘Where the father looks after his son?’
The simple interpretation stopped him short. Then the wit took over again. ‘The one
where the father gets shot.’ He paused again. ‘How about you—a movie you liked but
you wouldn’t ever tell anyone about.’ Except him, obviously.
Natalie thought for a moment. ‘Okay, this is like you are
so
dead if you tell anyone.’
Liam rubbed her leg affectionately.
‘
Flashdance
. I was confined to bed for four months when I was sixteen. My mother
felt helpless and kept finding me old movies. I think she thought it would inspire
me to do my physio; trouble was I wanted to be a singer not a dancer, but it was…Well
it had some good music and dancing in it.’
‘That’ll not be why you liked it.’
It wasn’t hard to figure it out; the heroine was from the wrong side of the tracks
and had to do everything the hard way. In the end she had changed the establishment’s
ideas rather than having to compromise her own. Not what happened in real life.
‘Nick was rich, a working-class guy made good, who’d left his wife,’ said Natalie,
conscious of the significance as the words left her mouth. ‘And he drove a Porsche.’
She grinned. ‘You’d enjoy the scene where she takes off her jacket in the restaurant.’
Liam let the marriage reference slide. ‘How important to you is the band?’
‘It’s a good outlet.’
‘And the tattoo?’
Natalie had seen him looking at the band of initials around her arm.
PRANZCP
: President
of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. She’d been manic.
‘Overexcitement at my qualifications and a bad tattooist.’ she said. ‘Did a
P
instead
of an
F
.’
They got out of the spa with champagne still left in the bottle, and sat on the balcony
in hotel robes looking out across Sydney Harbour.
‘This is the best,’ said Liam.
The lights on the bridge, the convex shapes of the Opera House and the buildings
around them, the boats bustling around the port made Circular Quay look like a fairyland.
She didn’t even know she was going to ask it until she did.
‘What went wrong with you and Lauren?’
Liam didn’t look fussed. ‘We both got exactly what we wanted.’
Natalie looked at him.
‘What you want in your early twenties is not necessarily what you need in the long
term. Then, she needed a husband who looked good both physically and professionally.
I wanted a smart, pretty and interesting wife. What was not to like? She’s great.
A very smart and capable woman.’
Natalie was reminded uncomfortably of a conversation she had had with Declan about
a patient.
‘There is, you see, a fundamental dilemma for the single woman having an affair with
the married man,’ he had said.
‘What? Whether he’ll leave or not?’
‘I’m talking about a deeper level. What she really wants is not him, but rather to
know what it is to be
her.’
She didn’t want to be Lauren: she didn’t want the job that was probably more about
committees than patients; the two kids with the nannies and the private schools;
and for that matter the husband who had grown bored and was screwing another woman.
But she thought of Liam tying her up and wondered where else he could take her. Where
she could lead him. To explore that, there needed to be a relationship. She was beginning
to think that might be what she wanted.
After the keynote presentation on the unreliability of memory and a workshop on assessing
dangerousness, Natalie slipped out of the conference and hailed a cab to take her
south of Cronulla, where Georgia’s mother lived. Damian rang while the driver was
still negotiating city traffic.
‘I thought I’d let you know Tiphanie made bail.’
‘About time. Anything new on Travis?’