The Finest Line (5 page)

A deathly chill crept up her
spine as she looked at Josh’s android lying on the floor. Her hand
trembled as she picked it up. A memory of her holding it up and
talking into it flooded her mind. Slowly she pressed the power
button but the screen remained blank.

There was a knock and James
called out. “Miss Kavanagh, Ray Sanders is here.”

“I’ll be right out.” Mairead
continued to stare at the device. She didn’t want to hand it over.
The phone contained the last moment she had shared with Josh and it
was theirs and nobody else’s. Decidedly, she placed it in the
bottom of her suitcase.

Ray Sanders was wearing the same
crumpled suit. His face lit up when Mairead emerged from the
bedroom.

“My dear,” He marvelled openly.
“You look the absolute vision of loveliness.” He turned to James
who was also struggling to hide his awe. “Surely this goddess is
not the same girl in the hospital.”

James simply raised an eyebrow
but Mairead giggled. She liked Sanders immediately. With her heels
she was taller than him and she suspected her flamboyant barrister
was gay. She felt comfortable as he took her hand and led her to
the couch.

“Now Mairead,” He took her hands
in his as he sat down and squeezed them gently. “Your stately
friend there is quite concerned about you.”

Mairead looked up at James who
seemed very annoyed that his conversation with Sanders had been
revealed. The barrister continued. “I’ve assured him as I am going
to assure you now. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. The
police are going to ask you some questions, and at every one of
them you are to look at me before you answer. In fact I’ll be doing
a lot of the talking.”

Mairead nodded. “What about the
drugs I did?”

“That’s the terrible thing about
these parties Mairead. You just never know what they are slipping
in to your drinks and cigarettes. Before you know it, you’re
hammered and you’re thinking ‘How on earth did I get like
this?’”

Mairead trembled and tears
brimmed. This old crumpled barrister with his thatch of grey hair
and wide brimmed glasses had become her knight in shining
armour.

Sanders turned to James. “A
little brandy would be quite the order right now.”

“There is no alcohol on the
premises.” James informed him.

Mairead pouted. “He took it all
out.”

“Well then,” Sanders continued
as he looked back at James, “I hope you make a good cup of
tea.”

Mairead had to bite her lip
against a giggle, when she saw the annoyance on James’ face. She
watched him stride to the kettle.

Sanders leaned forward. “No
chance he’s got a gay twin brother whose looking for an older love
interest?”

Mairead burst out laughing. “I
don’t think so.”

“Oh well,” Sanders sighed and
then squeezed her hands once again. “Now Mairead, tell me
everything you remember about that party and in particular about
Joshua Mason.”

For the next fifteen minutes
Mairead related how she had visited several parties over a few
days. Joshua had lived in the same building and one day had found
her sitting by the swimming pool crying. She had just tossed her
phone into the pool after her father’s call. Like her, Joshua had
been more interested in good times than in his studies at the
university.

Mairead had smoked a joint in
his apartment and found her new friend to be a little shy but
obviously popular with his friends, who dragged them away to their
first party. From there, Mairead recalled the drinking games, the
sleepless nights and the cruising from one place to another, until
they eventually arrived at the fateful apartment. Here Mairead grew
quiet.

“Can you remember how you came
to be on that balcony?”

With startling clarity the face
of Mark Lewis invaded her thoughts. She remembered everything, even
when she had first laid eyes on him.

He had entered the apartment and
was immediately the centre of attention. Mairead had stood back
while everyone flocked about him vying for his attention. At one
stage he had looked in her direction and a wisp of a smile had
excited her.

His cool, quiet command of an
audience was stimulating, as was the way he wore a casual suit and
a thin line of blonde hair on his upper lip and chin. Only his blue
eyes were intense.

After his initial glance, Mark
took no further interest in her which was something unexpected.
Mairead found herself wanting him to seek her out but when he
didn’t she grew frustrated.

She watched as he lined up some
powdery substance on a coffee table and one by one a select few
were allowed to participate.

Mairead strode up to him. “And
where is mine?”

Mark sat back and smiled as he
studied her. “If you have a few hundred dollars that you’re willing
to part with you may be my guest.”

“Do you take a credit card?”

He smirked, “Sure, I’ll just
swipe it in the crack of my arse.”

His indifference to her charms
was becoming as annoying as it was exciting. “I don’t have any cash
on me.”

He looked a little sad. “Then
you don’t get to play.”

Her eyes bored into his and when
she saw him take a small swallow she knew that he was interested.
It had become a game and one that she knew that she could win.

She smiled thinly, “I’ll get you
the money!”

Taking hold of a chair and with
a little wobbling effort, Mairead managed to stand on it. “I have
an announcement. My virginity is up for auction. Who wants to make
the first bid?”

Every eye in the room turned to
her. Joshua fell over himself to get to her and tried to get her
down.

“Mairead stop it! Get down.”

Someone called out a bid of a
hundred dollars and was promptly attacked by his girlfriend.
Another raised the bid to two hundred dollars.

Josh seized her hand but she
wrestled it from his grip. “Leave me alone.”

“Mairead,” Josh pleaded with
her. “These are not the type of people you do this shit with. We’re
getting out of here now.”

He attempted to grab her but she
slapped his hands away. “Fuck off Josh. You’re not my fucking
boyfriend so don’t even try to tell me what to do.”

Josh backed off, obviously
wounded and embarrassed. The little guilt she felt was quickly
forgotten when she noticed that Mark had taken a keen interest in
her.

The bidding had become serious
when it reached four figures. The excitement was tangible and
Mairead was in her element. Her eyes locked upon Mark as she
watched him rise from his seat and walk towards her.

He looked up at her and smiled,
“Five thousand dollars.”

Everyone gasped including
Mairead but she quickly recovered her cool.

She smiled, “I don’t take credit
cards either.”

“Of course you don’t” Mark
opened his jacket and pulled out a thick wad of notes. “There’s two
thousand dollars as a down payment.” He gently took hold of the
front of her low cut top and pulled it open, tucking the money into
her bra. “Give me a couple of hours and I’ll be back with the
rest.”

As Mairead celebrated her
victory, Mark was soon forgotten in a haze of drugs and alcohol.
There was nothing more she remembered about that night.

The memory went untold as she
felt the bile rise in her throat. Mairead pulled her hands from
Sanders grasp and ran to the bathroom where she expelled her
breakfast into the toilet. Sinking down to her knees she moaned as
revulsion washed over her. If she could flush her existence away
with her vomit it would have been far more merciful than the hatred
she felt for herself.

This was the material that the
media dreamed about, the sex scandal of the century. She had
auctioned her virginity and had nearly paid a terrible price. The
only decent man she had met, during her three months in Australia,
had died after saving her. Her name would be splashed across every
tabloid and talk show, and her father would despise her.

No one must ever know what
happened that night. She could only pray that none of the guests
had told the police. The fact that it was not in the papers already
gave her some hope that her crime would remain untold.

Getting to her feet, Mairead
flushed the toilet and watched the contents disappear. She breathed
deeply as she washed her hands at the basin. Reluctantly she looked
at herself in the mirror and calmly smoothed down her hair. Licking
her finger she wiped away a speck of stray mascara and separated a
few clumped eyelashes.

James and Sanders were hovering
nearby when Mairead came out of the bathroom.

“Are you alright dear?” Sanders’
face was filled with concern.

Mairead smiled. “Nerves and a
little too much breakfast.”

She glanced at James who was
frowning at her, and quickly turned back to Sanders. “Now the
balcony, you were asking about. I do recall being extremely tired
and finding a sun bed on the balcony. I must have lay on it and
passed out. Everything after that is a total blank.”

CHAPTER FIVE

The ordeal with the police had
gone so much better than she’d hoped. No mention was made of her
activities during the night. The questioning was confined to her
relationship with Josh and when she had last seen him.

Brown had been much more civil
to her and even offered her his sympathy for losing her friend. He
told her that his investigations were concluding that Josh’s demise
was death by misadventure.

Sanders had kept total control
over the proceedings and when the subject of drugs came up, it was
quickly dismissed. No charges were being laid and she was granted
permission to go home.

James saw everyone out while
Mairead curled up on a recliner. She had never felt so much shame
and a heavy cloud of depression was blanketing her. The auction
kept playing itself over and over in her thoughts, until she wanted
to scream.

James approached her. “Would you
like something to drink Miss Kavanagh?”

She shook her head and curled up
tighter. Tears were flowing down her face but she was turned away
from him. He left her to brood.

Time only served to make the
weight of her shame crush her. She no longer cared about silencing
the intervals of crying.

James returned. “Get up.”

She didn’t look at him and
replied through gritted teeth. “Leave me alone.”

James placed his hands on the
armrests so that he could look into her face. “I will not leave you
alone. You are going to get up and wash your face. You are going to
fix your make-up and brush your hair.” His tone was more assertive
than she had ever heard. “There is a market not far from here and
the fresh air will be good for you.”

Mairead shook her head. “I don’t
want to go out.”

“I’m not giving you a choice,”
He told her firmly, “If you want to talk, I will listen. If you
don’t, I will not question you. What you will not do is sit here
feeling sorry for yourself. What’s done is done. The only way
you’ll recover from this is to keep living and doing whatever
function that reminds you that you are still alive and well.”

“What would you know?” Mairead
began to cry.

“I know plenty. I know what it
feels like to lose someone you care about. I know what its like to
be in a place so dark, that you believe you’ll never be able to
enjoy life again.”

“I’m no good James. I’m no good
to myself or anyone else. I’m just vermin.”

“Mairead,” He spoke her name
angrily. “You are stronger than this and if I ever hear you call
yourself vermin again...” James expelled a breath. “I remember a
naughty little girl who had just been severely reprimanded, face a
man twice her size and call him a ‘Motherfucker.’

Mairead looked at James and
could not suppress a smile. “You read my lips.”

“Oh yes, quite clearly. I also
remember promising you a well smacked bottom if you ever used
profanity again. To this date, I have never delivered on that
promise but if you don’t get off that chair and get yourself ready
to go out, you will discover very painfully, that I am a man of my
word.”

Even in depression, Mairead felt
her naughty little girl awaken. “You didn’t scare me then and you
certainly don’t scare me now. I don’t have to do anything you tell
me.”

James smirked. “I’m going to
count to three and if you are not out of that chair, you are going
to find yourself over my knee.” His gaze bore into her, “One.”

Depression was gone and her
defiance was making a strong return. “You have some nerve talking
to me like that.”

“Two.”

Mairead felt the tingles in her
backside and squirmed in her seat. “Stop it. I don’t believe for a
second you would even try.”

He was about to say ‘Three’ when
Mairead leapt from the chair. “Alright, I’m up.” She frowned and
pouted. “Really James, you take way too many liberties with me. You
should try to remember that in reality you are only my
chauffeur.”

James smiled, “I will endeavour
to do just that.”

Mairead tried to gather some
dignity. “I believe some fresh air would do me some good. I choose
that we should go to the market and not because I feel in any
sense, intimidated by you.”

Her jellied legs threatened to
betray her as she walked to the bathroom. Only when the door was
shut behind her was she even able to breathe again.

As usual, James was right about
the market. The rows of brightly coloured marquees and the smells
of fast food and fresh produce, reminded Mairead that life could be
really good. Each stall had new discoveries and her troubles were
soon forgotten as she browsed amongst the treasures.

Every now and then she stole a
glance at James and his new attire. He had exchanged his stuffy
suit for a t-shirt and jeans, though he still remained hidden
behind dark sunglasses. Mairead had changed back to her shorts and
tank top with a wide-brimmed hat that James had planted firmly on
her head with a glare that had dared her to take it off. Now they
blended in with the crowd and Mairead was able to thoroughly enjoy
her time.