Death by Beauty (37 page)

The trifecta! Just as Lorraine had said. She’d gathered them all together – Steve, Rafi and herself.

‘Steve! Oh thank God. Help me! I’ve got to go to him!’

She threw down the bloodied bottle and ran towards the door, following the sound of Rafi’s distraught screams.

‘I’m coming, Rafi! It’s all right, darling!’ she called. ‘I’m here, I’m here!’

She pushed the door open. In the master bedroom, where the décor was a cross between Versailles and Disneyland, Rafi
sat up in the middle of the bed, his face red and crinkled with screaming, twisting the bedcovers with convulsive grabs of
his fingers. When he saw his mother, the screaming briefly stopped. Then it started again, even louder.

Gemma, whispering soothing words, clambered up onto the huge canopied bed and gathered him to her. Rafi seized her and the
screaming stopped as he snuffled and shuddered, looking up at her every other moment, his face crumpled in bitter disappointment.
Where were you?
his cries demanded.
Why didn’t you come? I was crying and crying and you didn’t come
.

Gemma collapsed back against the fluffy animals, pillows and bolsters, holding her son’s heaving little body tight against
her heart until both of them slowly calmed down. ‘Everything’s all right,’ she told him. ‘Mama’s here.’

She looked up to see Steve at the door and only then did she realise he was injured; his right eye was swollen and half closed,
set in discoloured flesh, and he limped as he approached. ‘Gems, she had a key to my place. God knows how she got it. Could
have been someone at work. That thug was with her and they took us both at gunpoint. I’m so sorry, Gems. I had to go with
her. I couldn’t endanger Rafi. I did what she told me. I was nearly out of my mind.’

‘It’s okay, Steve. Everything’s okay.’

‘I checked Lorraine. She’s gone.’

There was a pause; and exhausted as she was, Gemma understood what he was saying. ‘I didn’t mean to kill her. It was a reflex
action. She was going to take Rafi. I had to stop her. He was screaming. He was frightened, hungry. He was calling for me.
He said, “Mama”!’

‘I know. I could hear him. It was his crying that helped me break free.’

Steve sat on the bed, putting his arm around her shoulders, drawing her close to his chest. Together they gazed on their son,
exhausted and finally at peace.

And that’s how they were when Mike walked in.

Later, after giving her statement to the police, she was too exhausted and shaken to walk. When Mike finally drove her home,
Gemma was grateful for his steady presence. ‘Mike, I didn’t mean to kill her. I didn’t – I’m not a killer, am I?’

‘It’s okay, Gemma. We’ll talk about it later. Let’s just get you home.’

Kit was waiting for them when they arrived. She threw her arms around Gemma who sobbed out the whole story.

Later, as Gemma was sitting in the bath with Rafi, trying to wash the scenes from the mother-of-pearl hell out of her mind,
Angie rang.

‘We’ve charged Tolmacheff. He’s in hospital under police guard. The detectives are interviewing April Evans and Lizzie.’

‘What has Lizzie said? Why did she help them?’ Gemma asked.

‘She swears blind she didn’t know what was going on down there. We’re trying to find out how the vampire got her to cooperate
with him to pick up Mischa. Dr Evans is saying
she only just discovered what was going on the day she called you over.’

‘That leaves me,’ said Gemma. ‘I killed – someone.’ She couldn’t say the name.

‘Gems, I saw your statement. And don’t worry about copping a manslaughter charge. Even if you do, it’ll never come to court.
The DPP wouldn’t waste the time and money. No jury in the world would convict a mother defending her baby.’

Gemma put the phone down and pressed Rafi closer to her heart. She never wanted to let him go.

It took her a week of talking with Kit and Angie, going over and over the events that ended in Lorraine’s death before the
incident stopped dominating her mind all day and most of the night.

Eventually, a call from Angie put an end to some questions. ‘I’ve got a long report here from Ted Ackland. You’d have to be
a scientist to understand it fully but it explains the mutilation of the hip areas. Apparently, the hip bones are one of the
best places for extracting the genetic material needed to manufacture the growth factor that was part of DiNAH therapy. This
was given to the future recipients of the face transplant so that they already had their donor’s DNA code in their system
prior to the transplant. That made them more receptive to the donor tissue. That, plus the growth factors from the client’s
own DNA material, meant the transplant was more easily accepted and healed very well.’

‘In the end, though,’ Gemma said, ‘they just wanted to take Harlow Hadley’s money and leave the country.’

‘Mmm, yes. Now, Gems, don’t worry about Gross ripping up your investigator’s licence,’ Angie continued. ‘I had a word with
Steve’s contact in internal affairs. Gross has been standing over a sex worker about a drug matter and getting free sex in
exchange for not charging her. She’s now willing to make a sworn statement about it – and she’s got plenty of witnesses to
back her up. When I pointed this out to the Acting Inspector, he suddenly decided that blurry images on a security camera
were probably not the strongest basis for a break-and-enter charge.’

‘What would I do without you?’ Gemma asked.

‘Get into a lot more trouble, no question.’

She barely saw Mike during this time. He seemed to be working all hours, and Hugo had gone to his father’s place to get ready
for his return to school.

It felt like there was only Rafi and herself in the world. The awful images of what she’d done continued to assail her – but
she knew she’d do it all over again if she had to.

Finally she wore the sequences out and found she was able to put the nightmare away for minutes at a time. Then hours. She
heard through Angie that Delphine had settled into her new life in the Southern Highlands and Mischa was happy in a new job.

On the matter of Lorraine Litchfield, Angie was more prosaic. ‘Look, honey, Litchfield had been gunning for you for years.
This was the second time she’d tried to destroy you. One of you had to go, and I’m really pleased it wasn’t you.’

A week later as Gemma carried Rafi into the kitchen to mash up some banana for him, she noticed an envelope with Mike’s handwriting
on it propped up against the electric kettle. She sat Rafi at the table, pulled a chair up next to him and opened the envelope.

Dear Gemma
,

I hope you will understand my sudden absence. I made the decision to go away for a while now that you and Rafi are safe and
most of the cases you were involved in are resolved. I would have done this earlier except the Litchfield business happened
and I simply couldn’t leave then
.

I’m writing because I’m a bit of a coward when it comes to this sort of thing, and I know that talking to you would make it
very difficult for me to leave. You’d probably talk me out of it, which wouldn’t solve anything but only put things off for
a while. I’ve tried to make it clear that things weren’t going well between you and me. When I walked into Litchfield’s bedroom
to find you, Steve and Rafi cuddled up together, it hit me like a bomb – all the things that had been worrying me. Somehow,
although I live with you, I still feel like an outsider. You pay more attention to Hugo than you do to me. You’ll probably
deny that, but I know I’m only getting a part of you. I need more
.

I’ll call in a week or two and give you the details of where I’m staying. I need some time alone to think about the direction
I want my life to take. Maybe we can make a life together. Maybe not. You give more to Steve than to me, and the worst thing
is, there’s not a damn thing I can do about it
.

As always
,

Mike

Gemma stood up, dropping the note onto the table, and blindly walked out to the deck. It was a blustery morning with the sea
white-tipped ahead of the nor’-easter pushing fast clouds across the sky.

Mike hadn’t signed ‘Love as always’, she noticed through the daze, just ‘As always’. The ‘love’ had gone. She sat on the bench
by the table, staring blankly out at the horizon. The shock numbed her for a little while and then the tears came.

Hours later when she was all cried out, she called Angie and told her about the letter.

‘I’d better come over and make you a stiff drink.’

‘Yes, please. A stiff drink and a good friend are what I need.’

During their chat, Hugo arrived to pick up some things he’d forgotten, letting himself in with his key, clattering across
the floorboards, appearing on the deck holding Mike’s note in his hand. ‘Has Mike really gone?’

‘Give that to me, Hugo,’ said Gemma. ‘You’ve got to stop reading other people’s stuff.’

‘He’s leaving because of me. It’s my fault.’

‘Hugo, that’s not true. Sit down. Listen. This has nothing to do with you. It’s between me and Mike, okay?’

‘I found out some things for you,’ he said, ‘using the info Mike had already hacked. I’ve printed it all out and it’s sitting
on Mike’s desk. About Tolmacheff and the companies he’s been using to launder money. Something called Perestroika Enterprises.
About his business contacts and his connections to Sapphire Springs Spa, brothels and a college that’s supposed to teach English
but doesn’t have any students – I hacked into its website to check its
enrolments: totally zip. He’s got connections to really bad guys in Serbia and Russia. Man, he is a major criminal.’

Gemma walked him to the door and waved him off as he ran up the stone stairs to where his father waited in his car. Hugo didn’t
look back and Gemma, with her own tears blurring her vision, understood why.

‘Mike doesn’t know what I’ve been dealing with,’ Gemma sniffed, blowing her nose as she joined Angie again. ‘The pressure
I’ve been under. It’s been a hell of a time with a baby, work, and trying to do a live-in relationship as well. I don’t have
any experience in two out of those three. And now, with this Litchfield business …’

Angie leaned over and patted her hand, saying, ‘It’s been a tough time for you both. And you’re learning on the job.

‘Mike does have a point, though,’ she continued a few moments later, putting the note down after reading it a second time.
‘You
are
still emotionally involved with Steve.’

Gemma was silent, then said, ‘Mike is such a good man. It hasn’t been easy for him. I know all that, and yet …’ She stood
up and swallowed the rest of the stiff scotch that Angie had insisted on, then leaned over the railing, staring out at the
sea. Finally she turned back to face Angie. ‘I don’t know what to do about that. It’s just something I live with. That connection
to Steve. It’s in me. Maybe it’ll fade.’

After a pause Angie changed the subject. ‘Tolmacheff comes out of hospital today. Girl, you are one tough chick. What did
you do to him? He couldn’t swallow for days. He’s being transferred to the remand centre. The charge sheet is as long as your
arm. And we’re very close to picking up the vampire. You’ll possibly be charged with manslaughter. But I guarantee it’ll be
No Billed.’

As she walked with Gemma and Rafi up to her car, Angie paused and turned back to her. ‘What do you want, Gemma?
Who
do you want?’

Gemma didn’t answer, just waved Angie off then walked back inside and out to the deck, cuddling her squirming little boy.
Right now, she thought, I just want Rafi and – peace.