The Coming of Anna (The Manhattan Series) (11 page)

“Anna, meet Officer Lindley, a detective from the local
police department and Edgar Williams, private investigator.  They both want a
few words with you.”

“Why?  I did not do anything?  And I don’t want to lay
charges against anyone.  Thomas, you are taking this too far.”

“Miss Lemar,” Officer Lindley says, “please, can we talk
inside?  I think you need to have a seat.  We are going to be a while.”

I turn around and walk inside.  What did Thomas tell him? 
Why did he go to the police in the first place?  I feel anger towards Thomas
and this whole absurd situation build inside me.

As soon as we are all seated, Trudy comes in to say that she
was able to cancel my cab.  I want to protest when she picks up my bag from
where Thomas put it down and starts walking upstairs with it. 

“Miss Lemar,” Officer Lindley continues, “can you tell me
when you saw Anton Brouchard the last time?”

“It was on Tuesday night.  I presented some sessions at a
teacher’s conference in Los Angeles that day and I had dinner with him and a
group of other teachers.”

“Miss, we know that Brouchard had been in your hotel room
after that dinner.  We have him on the surveillance footage the hotel provided
us with.  You really need to tell us everything that happened.”

“It does not matter.  I am not pressing charges.  I don’t
want anything further to do with Anton or this whole mess.”

“Miss Lemar, Anton Brouchard is dead.  We had been looking
for you but nobody knew where you were.  You seemed to disappear into Los
Angeles somewhere.  The taxi driver who picked you up at the hotel, said he
left you at the airport.  Footage showed that you left the airport without
making a reservation but then you just disappeared off all cameras.”

“Dead?  Anton is dead? How can that be?  I did not kill
him!  Do you think I killed him?”

I feel hysterical.

“No.  We know you did not kill him.  The surveillance
footage from the hotel shows him leaving your room.  It was clear that he was
drunk.  It also shows you leaving the hotel not long after that.  Unfortunately
the cameras on his floor of the hotel were out of order, so nobody knows what
happened after he got off the elevator on his floor.  His body was found in his
room.  Unfortunately I cannot give you any more information than that.  But you
must please tell us everything you know about that night.  Thomas has already
told us some of it but you have to tell us everything in your own words.  You
are not a suspect at this stage but if you do not co-operate with us, we will
have to start looking at you more closely.  What do you have to hide?”

“Anna?  May I call you Anna?” the private investigator
speaks for the first time.

I nod my head and he continues.

 “Everybody here knows that you probably did not kill Anton Brouchard. 
When Thomas called me this morning, asking what could be done about Brouchard’s
attack on you, I contacted Lindley here and when he heard that you were here,
he immediately wanted to talk to you.  The Los Angeles police had been looking
for you since Wednesday.  They knew you probably came home but when you weren’t
home and the school did not know where you could be found, some red lights
started flashing.  Even your children did not know where you were and you had
not used your cell phone or one of your credit cards since leaving Los
Angeles.  According to the footage you must have been one of the last people to
see him alive.  Whatever you can tell us about the night he came to your hotel
room, may help in the investigation.  We understand that you are not going to
lay any charges.  It would be a futile exercise anyway, seeing that he is
dead.  But please, tell us your version of Tuesday night’s events.”

I look at Thomas and he nods.  I know it is time for the
whole truth to come out.  All I can hope for is that my past relationship with
Anton does not get dragged into court. 

**********

Two hours later I feel empty and as tired as I have ever
felt in my life.  I have told them everything there is to know about Anton
since the first time I laid eyes on him right through to that night when I
shoved him out of the door of my hotel room.

When the two men leave, Thomas comes to me.  He looks into
my eyes for a second and then folds his arms around me. 

“Don’t worry.  You will probably not have to tell anyone
that whole story ever again.  I just wish you had trusted me enough to confide
in me the moment it happened.  Please, never hide anything from me again.”

I just hold him tighter and say:  “I know I should have. 
But we all have our secrets.  I need to lie down for a bit.”

He walks upstairs with me.  Trudy had left my bag in the
hallway.  After everything that had transpired, she must have been unsure
whether to put my bag in Thomas’ room or the guest room.

“Will you stay in my room again or will you feel more at
ease in the guest room?  I want you with me but it is really up to you.”

“I want to be with you.  I want you to hold me while I
sleep.  I never feel safer than when I am in your arms.”

With that thought, I later lie in his arms and fall asleep
almost immediately.

**********

When I wake up it is almost dark outside.  Thomas is not in
the room and I hear voices coming from the kitchen.  I go downstairs and find
Trudy and Thomas sitting on opposite sides of the kitchen table, each with a
cup of coffee in hand.  It is clear that the two of them had been having a
serious conversation.

When she sees me, Trudy gets up and rinses her mug. 

“I have to get going.  It is getting late.  Will you two be
okay without me for the night?”

Thomas laughs:  “Yes, old worrywart.  We will be fine. 
Thank you for everything.  We will see you on Monday.  And yes, I will not
forget what you told me.  I will have a serious think about it.  I promise.”

When she passes me, Trudy gives me a quick hug. 

“Look after yourself.  And don’t run away before Monday.  I
want to see you here when I get back.  Dinner is in the oven.  Make sure that you
eat something.  You both look like you need it.”

Their comments are making me feel a bit confused.  They must
have had a very serious conversation.

While Thomas sees Trudy off, I open the oven door and the
smell of homemade beef casserole makes me realize how hungry I am.  I get two
plates from the shelf and decide to open a bottle of wine as well. 

Thomas and I eat in silence.  The silence is not
uncomfortable.  After dinner we watch some television.  When the late news
opens with footage of Anton’s hotel room, Thomas switches the television set
off.

“Excuse me for just a second.  I am going to get us some
more wine.”

He comes back with a glass of wine in each hand.  In his
left hand he is also holding a picture.  When I take my wine, he motions to me
to take the picture as well.

It is a picture taken at what seems to be a carnival.  A
beautiful girl with long blond hair and a heart-shaped face smiles at the
camera.  Next to her is a much younger looking Thomas.  He looks so happy and
carefree that it is hard to believe it is really him.

“Katrina?” I ask.

He nods.

When I look up at him, I see the pain engraved in the lines
on the side of his mouth.  He looks like he has grown ten years older since
entering the room with the picture.  He takes a seat across from me.

“Katrina was my childhood sweetheart.  We grew up together. 
Our parents were best friends.  Her parents both died in a plane crash when she
was sixteen and in accordance to her parents’ wishes she came to stay with us. 
She was an only child.”

“I was only a year older than Katrina.  When I finished school
I went travelling overseas while she was in her final year.  Before I left, we
promised each other that I would come back and that she would wait for me until
I did.  The one year became two.  Katrina had gone to college to study interior
design and while she was there she met someone else.”

“One day while I was working the vineyards outside of
Versailles, I got a phone call from my father.  He wanted me to come home
immediately.  Katrina needed me.”

“I had not forgotten her in all the time I had been away.  I
took the first flight home.  When I got there, it was clear why my dad had
called:  Katrina was in hospital.  Her boyfriend, Frank St James, had beaten
her to a pulp.  She was not on the ventilator anymore but her head was covered
in bandages.  Apparently he had seen her talking to one of her professors after
class and decided to teach her not to talk to another man.”

“When she came to, she asked that the charges against him be
dropped.  She did not want to live through the trauma again during a trial.”

“When the new semester started I enrolled for my business
degree.  We did not want to wait any longer to be together.  Our parents were
so happy that we were back together and with their blessing Katrina and I got
married on a cold winter’s night in December.  It was a beautiful ceremony.  We
were so happy.  We were still young and although we did not have it easy, being
together more than made up for it.  During the day we were both in class and a
few evenings a week we worked odd jobs to pay the rent.  My parents paid for my
studies and hers were paid for by a trust fund from her parents’ estate.”

“One night she was off but I had to go to the library to do
some research for a paper that was due the following week.  When I got home, I
was greeted by an eerie silence and a strange smell.  I found Katrina in the
bathroom.   The whole place was full of blood.  Her open eyes seemed to stare
at the wall and her long hair and face were covered in blood.”

I just stare at Thomas.  They did not get a divorce.  She
was dead.  I was too stunned to utter a word.

“The autopsy showed that she had been raped, beaten up, cut
with a hunter’s knife, strangled and even drowned.  The official cause of death
had been strangulation.  According to the coroner she had a lot of water in her
lungs.  The bath was filled with water and her blood turned it a sickly,
pinkish colour.  But it seemed like he dragged her from the water before she
lost consciousness completely and then strangled her.”

He was quiet for so long that I thought he had forgotten
about me being there.  But he continued.

“Of course I was a suspect.  But the evidence quickly
revealed that it was Frank St James.”

“Is he in prison?” I talk for the first time.

“No.  He fled the country.  That is how Edgar started
working for me.  I hired him to find St James.  Every time Edgar finds him, he
flees to another country.  He always chooses a country that would not extradite
a rapist and murderer.  He had changed his identity as well as his appearance
numerous times over the years.  But Edgar is good at what he does and always
manages to find him.”

“Thomas, how did you manage to get over it?”

“I didn’t.  The worst thing was that he did not only take my
wife from me.  My parents adored Katrina and losing her in such a manner
devastated them.  To top it off, my brother died about two months after her. 
My father’s health had already started deteriorating after Katrina’s death.  He
died less than a year after Bobby.  He had a heart attack.  I still believe my
mother could not handle all the tragedy.  She died before they could erect my
father’s headstone and we buried her next to him.  The official cause of death
was kidney failure.  But in my heart I believe she died from a broken heart.”

“What did you do?”

He looks around the room and with a gesture of his hand, he
says:  “This.”

“I finished my degree.  Then I started the business.  I
threw myself into my work so I could forget.  I bought this house and set up my
life in such a way that I did not have need of a wife or anyone else.  I hired
the best personal assistant and the best housekeeper money could buy.  I
thought I had my heart safely locked away.  But then came Anna,” he smiles but
the hurt and the heartache are still visible in his eyes.

I kneel in front of his chair and take his head in my
hands.  I draw his lips closer to me and kiss him with all the love I feel for
him in my heart.

I come walking into the dimly lit room.  The only light in
the room emanates from a few candles in one corner.  The scent of my perfume
lies heavy in the air. 

Thomas is lying on his back on the bed, with his hands
behind his head.  He seems different somehow.  After everything he told me this
evening, I thought he would be upset and emotional; but quite the opposite.  He
seems more at peace than he ever has since that day he knocked on my front
door. 

He watches me and his eyes remain engaged with mine as I
slip out of my clothes and only keep my black lace bra and panties on.  I see
the longing in his eyes and it makes me want him with everything within me that
is woman.  I straighten myself out on the bed next to him and feel his strong,
masculine heat.  I smell him and the only thought in my mind is that I want to
please this man with everything in me - with every inch of me.  I love him and
somewhere deep inside me I know that I am able to heal the wounds that have
made him lock his heart to love for so long.

I feel his strong, warm hands on me as he caresses me.  He
starts kissing me softly, but soon there is an urgency to his kiss that tells
me he wants to make love to me; he wants to own me.

He presses my breast, but soon the bra starts feeling
obsolete and he unhooks it to lay bear my milky white breasts with the rosy nipples. 
He kisses my breasts and I feel my nipples stiffen.  I want him so much that I
almost immediately start feeling the wetness between my legs. 

In a gruff voice I hear him say: “I need something from you
tonight.  I need you to be in absolute control.”