‘Sweetheart,’ he said. ‘I understand. You just did what you had to do, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s okay, darling. I’m proud of you.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. Where is your brother now?’ he asked her gently.
‘He’s in the freezer downstairs.’
Suzie Harpin took Ed Brown by the hand. He was her first boyfriend in two decades and she already knew that he was the love of her life. Ed was the man she had waited for and was destined to be
with. He was the man she would marry. And that was why she knew he would understand what she had done.
They descended into the basement of the house Suzie had made theirs. She did her best to explain it all to him, and he had seemed very understanding so far. Now all that was left was to show him. He had insisted that he wanted to see.
I had to do it for us, you see. So we could be together…
Suzie really hoped he wouldn’t be mad with her. They just had to get through these first few days, and then everything would be wonderful for them. She just had to explain everything and he would appreciate how much she had sacrificed for him. Then they could live together like Brooke and Ridge without anyone getting in the way. Not Ben and his bitch of an estranged wife. Not the police. Not anyone.
‘Sweetheart,’ Ed said as they walked down the stairs, ‘you know we have to share everything now.’ He squeezed her hand gently.
She nodded. He was right. She was so glad that he understood.
Ed, her boyfriend, had lost his temper. She had to accept that. It had been scary and Suzie had not liked it at all. It wasn’t right for him to push her down like that and she had thought momentarily of retaliating. Suzie had imagined hitting Ed with something hard until she could overpower him, and then locking him in the bedroom until he apologised. But she was glad she hadn’t done any of those things. After some calm consideration she had
realised that those kinds of little hiccups were to be expected. Even the world’s greatest romances sometimes got off to a rocky start. Ed had spent over a year and a half in a cell on his own at Long Bay. That was a lot of time, and Suzie knew first-hand that it could be a harsh and loveless place. It would take some time for him to feel safe again and to trust another person after all he had been through. That was okay. Suzie would show him how safe and loved he was. She would show him, and then things like what happened when Lisa was banging on the door would never happen again. She had to allow for a period of adjustment. That was only fair.
But first she had to show him what she had done.
‘Sweetheart, please don’t be upset with me,’ she repeated as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
‘How could I be upset with you? You saved me, darling. You are the love of my life.’
Suzie smiled. Ed was just like Ridge Forrester sometimes. So romantic. So forgiving and understanding. She had to be understanding, too, she reminded herself. She had to overlook any little temper flares he might have in the beginning. That was a natural, normal part of any relationship. Just look at Ridge and the time he and Bridget had kissed. Ridge and Brooke were able to get past that little indiscretion, and have a happy, romance-filled marriage. It was not Ed’s fault that he got nervous or scared or paranoid or angry. It was not his fault if he was sometimes taken off guard. He was only human.
They reached the internal garage door. Suzie opened it and switched the light on. The fluorescent tubes flickered on with a hum, the air chilly and a bit dusty. Suzie was wearing little lacy socks that she had bought especially to look pretty around the house, and the cold of the concrete seeped through the thin fabric to the soles of her feet. She shivered.
‘That’s the freezer there,’ she said, pointing. ‘I’m sorry about the mess. I had to make room to fit him in.’ There were still a couple of wet spots on the floor.
Ed looked at the floor and frowned. Now Suzie felt bad that she hadn’t mopped it up. She was new at all this domesticity and it didn’t come naturally. She just never imagined that she would take him down there. Not so soon, anyway. She would have cleaned it up perfectly and mopped up every last drop of water if she had known. He was so tidy himself.
Ed started towards the freezer, walking around the water on the concrete floor, as one walks around cockroaches or dead rats.
‘So, ahh, your brother is in here?’ he said, gesturing to the freezer.
She nodded.
The freezer was about a metre and a half long, and deep enough that it came up to Suzie’s waist. Suzie stepped up to it, curled her fingers under the top and lifted. The suction let go with a tiny
fwaap.
‘Just understand that I did this for us,’ she said. ‘I had to.’
‘I know, honey. You did what you had to do. I’m proud of you,’ he said.
He loves me. He really loves me.
Now Suzie and Ed peered inside the freezer together, looking down at a variety of frozen foods and ice.
‘He’s well hidden, you see,’ she explained. ‘I was careful.’ Someone could come in with their groceries and not have any idea that her brother was in there. He was near the bottom and there was a fair lot of food on top, even after the things she had taken out. She began to pull the food out and Ed helped. Eye fillet. Roast. An ice cream container filled with leftovers. Frozen meat pies. White bread. A bag of frozen peas bearing the image of the smiling Jolly Green Giant.
And there, under the Jolly Green Giant, was Ben’s head, looking like a fleshy pink-coloured shrink-wrapped bowling ball, and almost as heavy. If you didn’t know what you were looking at it might take some time to figure out the contours. Suzie pulled it out and Ed took it out of her hands without saying a word. He turned it this way and that and examined it through the layers of Glad Wrap. He started to unwrap it.
Please don’t let him be mad at me. Please.
It had been a messy job. Unpleasant to be sure. The bathtub had been a swamp of flesh and blood by the time she was done. But it was nothing that hours of scrubbing had not eventually fixed. In the end, she had managed to fit Ben inside the freezer in
only eight pieces—head, torso, upper legs, lower legs and arms.
Ed had unwrapped part of the head, leaving only a layer or two of Glad Wrap around it, making the features of the face—eyelashes, swollen lips and tongue—visible beneath the clear plastic. He was now inspecting the other seven parcels with interest.
To Suzie’s delight, he did not seem upset at all.
He understands.
He loves me.
I’m so lucky to have found him. He is my perfect lovebird.
‘I guess this is goodbye,’ Makedde said.
Andy nodded.
The porter had taken her bags, and now they stood ill-at-ease in the foyer of her hotel suite. Andy had his hands in his pockets.
Don’t go.
Mak was wearing a woolly pullover that fell off one smooth, tanned shoulder, and a pair of designer jeans with stylish but unnecessary pockets all over them. They fitted her beautifully, as everything seemed to. She had flat shoes on for once, so she didn’t seem as tall as she usually did. Her hands were in her pockets as well, and her head down. Her carry-on bag, an oversized black leather purse, was on the floor by her feet. The door was closed behind them and Andy was painfully aware that this might be their last moment of privacy, perhaps ever. Her flight was at 21.35, less than two and a half hours away. She had to go. If he was going to do something, he had to do it now.
‘It’s probably for the best,’ Mak went on. ‘And if it’s not for the best, well…’ She offered a close-lipped smile and a tiny, restrained laugh. ‘Well, then
we will probably end up running into each other again anyway.’
That had seemed the way for them so far, brought together and pulled apart like a couple of rubber bands. Only now he had no conferences to fly to Vancouver for, and she had no more trials in Australia. What possible excuse would he have to see her again?
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you to the airport?’ Andy asked. He wanted very much to be there to see her off. It only seemed right after all they’d been through.
‘No Andy, please,’ she said. Her voice cracked. ‘I think this is best. They’ve got it all sorted. Karen will be here to pick me up any minute.’
‘Mahoney. Okay. Okay, I’ll leave it at that.’ He didn’t push it. He could see she was on the edge as it was.
But I don’t want to leave it at that, Makedde. I really don’t.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
Stay with me.
‘Will you let me walk you down to the car?’ he asked.
‘Of course.’ With that, she lifted her bag to her shoulder and moved towards the door. The moment was lost. That was it. She was leaving. He had not kissed her and told her to stay. He had not said the words he had rehearsed in his head. He had done nothing at all.
‘Mak,’ he said, his voice tight.
‘Yes?’
She turned to face him. Her eyes were bright and glittery, on the verge of tears. This was hard for her too, he could see that. She was covering it as best she could but he knew her too well to miss the pain running strong beneath her brave smile.
‘Um, I’ll get the door for you,’ he said weakly, having lost his nerve.
He held the door open for her and she started down the hall.
The two plainclothes police were waiting in the hallway. They did not look at Andy or acknowledge him, but walked one ahead and one behind Mak, leaving him tagging somewhere behind. The procession moved towards the elevator. Mak smiled and nodded to the woman behind the desk in the lobby. ‘Thanks for everything,’ she said. ‘Have a good day.’
Someone pressed the button to call the lift.
Do something. Anything. Tell her the truth. Tell her you don’t want her to go. Tell her you don’t think Thursday night was a mistake.
The elevator arrived and the four stepped into it in silence. Any feeling of intimacy was well and truly gone now. Packed in like sardines, Andy felt like he could not breathe, let alone speak. Mak was leaving. This was it. Should he do something when they got downstairs? Pull her aside? Was there something he could say? But what? Andy knew there was probably nothing he could say to make her stay. Not now. Ed Brown’s escape had sealed the fate of their relationship even more effectively than their misunderstandings. Mak was so guarded now
that she wouldn’t consider giving it another try. As possible as it had seemed that night at Bondi Beach, he now knew that the chances of a happy reunion, with Ed convicted and safely behind bars and both of them able to free themselves from the saga that had come so near to ruining their lives, were all but gone. For those few hours it had seemed within his reach. An illusion.
The elevator stopped on the ground floor. The doors opened. They stepped out on clean white tile. Sliding glass doors opened to the outside world. Andy ran his eyes over the patrons of the Cosmopolitan Café next door, people walking across the dark street, faces inside passing cars. He noticed a man standing in the shadows across the street, leaning against a wall on his own. He seemed to be looking their way.
Ed.
Then a woman in a long coat approached the man, and he lifted her off the ground and embraced her. Holding hands affectionately, they set off up the street, passing under a lamppost. He saw the man’s face. It was not Ed Brown. But that did not mean that he wasn’t out there watching, somewhere. He was dangerously cunning, always finding ways to get what he wanted—information, access. Andy automatically did another scan of the street. It looked clear.
Mak and her entourage had reached the unmarked car. Senior Constable Mahoney was behind the wheel. She nodded when she saw him. ‘Hey, Andy.’ She stepped out and leaned against the
door. The porter had Mak’s bags ready and loaded them into the car. He opened the passenger-side door for her and waited for her to get in.
Mak stepped up to Andy. His heart flew into his throat.
‘Goodbye, Andy. Thanks for everything,’ she said. The statement could only be a courtesy, nothing more. What could she possibly have to thank him for? ‘I hope Jimmy will be okay.’ She squeezed his hands affectionately as they hung tensely at his sides.
‘Take care of yourself, alright?’ she said. ‘I’m really glad we had that time together.’
Mak moved forward and hugged him before he could react. His throat felt like it had closed up. Her arms were around him, squeezing him tight, and then she was gone. She slipped into the car and the porter closed the door. Andy backed away in a daze. He had not said anything. Why hadn’t he said anything? Karen Mahoney caught his eye. She brought her hand up to her face in the sign of a phone, and mouthed, ‘Call you later.’ He nodded.
The car pulled away.
Andy didn’t wave. He didn’t move.
He felt as empty as a drum.
Andy Flynn watched the car disappear down Knox Street, and when it was gone he went in search of some Jack Daniels. He had noticed a bottle shop on the adjoining road. It was still open. He had a long restless night ahead and he could use the company.
The Prison Lady’s hand was still touching his arm.
Ed Brown wished she would remove it. He
needed
her to remove it—immediately.
The Prison Lady was growing impatient, that was obvious. Now that there were no bars between them she clearly expected him to propose. She clearly expected affection.
‘But sweetheart,’ she cooed, ‘when do you think we should get married?’ She stroked his face, and let her fingers run down his chest.
Those fingers…
touching
him.
The Prison Lady wanted sex.
SEX.
She wanted to have sex with him. He knew it.
She’d said she was a virgin, but look at her. She was just like the others. All women wanted one thing. They wanted
sex.
Ed was utterly repulsed by the thought of having sex…real live messy sex with flowing body fluids and sweat and unclean smells and germs and—