All Saints: Love and Intrigue in the Stunning New Zealand Wilderness (The New Zealand Soccer Referee Series Book 1) (19 page)

“That was close.” Teina winced
and caught my hand in his, lifting it to his lips.

“Which part?” I laughed out loud
and then glanced behind me at the sentry watching our progress up the beach.
“The bit where you got horny in a public place, or the bit where we got
caught?”

“I got horny?” Teina shoved me in
jest and I giggled and set off running along the sand. I heard him breathing
behind me, controlled puffs of air which put his extreme fitness on display.
After a few hundred metres my lungs burned and my legs felt like jelly. I
stopped and bent to clutch my knees, squealing as Teina caught me up in strong
arms and swung me around. He set me down on the wet sand and spun me, pulling
me into his chest. His lips felt soft against my neck and he ran his hands
through my hair, snagging his fingers in the tangled curls.

“What is this, Ms Saint?” he
whispered, resting his forehead against mine.

“I’m not sure.” I answered
truthfully but our return to Auckland hung over me like a dark cloud. My
carefree mood evaporated and I grew tense, not wanting the day to end but
knowing it had to.

The
journey home seemed to take less time and we touched the fringes of crowded
Auckland in under two hours. “Thanks for today,” I said, leaning across the
centre console and kissing Teina. He parked under a street lamp and the light
glinted off his hair leaving streaks of silvery white.

“Sorry you lost your shoes,” he
said with a grin, running his fingers up the side of my neck and watching their
lascivious progress. “I think I know when it happened.”

“Me too.” I smiled, remembering
the kiss and where it might have gone. I imagined my canvas shoes sitting on
the sand where they slithered unnoticed, the child still watching over them in
the darkness.

I froze at the sight of the
police car sitting further up the road, its fluorescent colours muted in the
darkness. I didn’t want Teina to see my demise and kissed him again one last
time, hungry to communicate my affection. “I could love you,” I whispered,
dreaming of a life I’d never have and he opened his mouth in surprise. “Bye,
Teina,” I said, sliding out of the car barefoot. “Think well of me.”

“Ursula!” he called, alarm in his
voice. I slammed the door and skipped up the front steps, jabbing my key in the
lock and trying not to look at his confused face in the reflection on the glass
of the front door.

The lift cranked upstairs, taking
an age to reach the third floor amidst worrying judders and shakes which failed
to stem my growing sense of foreboding. I pushed the front door open and held
my breath, fingering the hem of my dress in trembling fingers like a child as
the two policemen rose from my sofa. Jack looked at me with regret in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Ula. I had no choice.”

“There’s always a choice.” I
stared at him, the numbness turning my face blank. I glanced down at my toes,
seeing the black sand particles clinging to my skin. Raglan and Teina’s kisses
seemed an age ago.

“Where’ve you been?” Jack
demanded, putting his hands on his hips. I glared at him and wondered how I’d
ever loved his charm and easy good looks. He hadn’t fought for me then and he
wouldn’t now.

“Out with a friend.” I stood my
ground and turned my gaze towards the police officers, uniformed and awkward in
my space. My eyebrow raised in expectation. “What do you want?”

“We need to speak to you about a
laptop which our officer here brought into the station.” The cop had a gentle
manner and looked older than his colleague.

“What laptop?” I shook my head,
feigning ignorance.

Both cops’ eyes darted to Jack
and back to me. “It was found here, miss. In your possession. It relates to
enquiries currently being made about a fraud.”

I put my hands on my hips and
shrugged. “Was it a grey laptop?” I drew a rectangle with my fingers. “About so
big?”

“It would be best if you came
down to the station, miss,” the younger cop said, his voice calm and passive,
aimed at soothing the silly woman in the room. “The detective leading the case
will speak to you there.”

“Fine.” My heart beat fast but I
acted like a West End superstar and gave a polite smile. “The first time I saw
the laptop, he had it.” I pointed at Jack. “After we fell out and he left, I
picked it up and put it in my bedroom next to the bed. I can’t get into it; I
don’t know the password but my fingerprints will be on the keyboard where I
tried.”

“He brought it here?” The other
cop looked at Jack in confusion. “He said it you already had it.”

I shook my head with confidence.
“No. It arrived with him. I’d never seen it before I found him looking at it.”

“Ula!” The shock on Jack’s face
gave me the ultimate in satisfaction and I didn’t regret a single word of it. I
justified my declaration by sticking to the absolute truth. I hadn’t seen the
laptop before Jack unpacked it from Pete’s boxes. I didn’t put it in there and
didn’t recall seeing Pete use a device like that. I only had Jack’s word it was
ever in the box.

“My husband owned a white Apple
Mac,” I said, keeping my attention on the two uniformed officers and dismissing
my plain clothed cousin. “It doesn’t hold its charge anymore so I have to use
it when it’s plugged in. Would you like to look at it?”

The police officer on my left
nodded and I strolled through to my bedroom and drew it out from its hiding
place in the wardrobe. I never bothered stashing it in the safe. If a burglar
helped himself to it, more fool him. He could keep the knackered one and I’d
claim a new one on my insurance. Nobody stole it the last two times the place
was tossed, so I figured it to be worthless, old technology. I pulled it off
the shelf and stuffed my jacket back into the empty space, handing it out
behind me to the police officer who’d followed me in. “I’ll get you the
charger,” I offered. “You’ll need it.” I yanked the white plug from a socket on
the wall. “This was Pete’s personal computer. I didn’t wipe any of his stuff
after he died; I just started new folders under my name on the desktop. It’s
got my lesson plans on it so please don’t wipe anything.” I smiled and studied
the young man’s expression of embarrassment. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“No, sorry. Just come down to the
station with us and I’m sure the detective will explain everything.”

“Ok.” I grabbed a cardigan off a
hanger in the wardrobe. “I’ve got work in the morning so can we get this over
with?”

The buzzer for the front door
rang four times while I locked up my home and ignored Jack as he fought for my
attention. We left as a tight-knit group of four, taking the stairs instead of
the lift and reaching the ground floor together. “Can I have my keys?” I paused
on the last step, bailing Jack behind me and eyeballing him as he poked around
in his pocket. He handed them over and one of the uniformed cops leaned forward
and took them from my open palm. I kept my eyes fixed on Jack, knowing he saw
the turbulent rage bubbling inside. “Don’t enter my home again without
permission.”

“He entered without permission?”
The officer nearest to me shot Jack a look and I nodded.

“Yes, he did. I threw him out
yesterday. I hope you had a warrant. I’m sure you should’ve shown it to me
before searching my flat.”

The other policeman swallowed and
his cheeks flushed pink. “We didn’t...”

“Yeah, you did. Would you like me
to list the things you moved in the process?” I kept my voice level and the men
exchanged a thin thread of concern.

Jack pressed the button for the
front doors just as my downstairs neighbour emerged from his apartment. Ahmed
stared in disbelief to see me escorted off the premises by two uniformed
officers. I waved to him and he gaped in response, too surprised to raise his
hand. I stood on Jack’s foot as he held the door open, avoiding eye contact
with him and leaning as hard as I could on his shoe with my bare foot. His
wince gave me a flicker of satisfaction.

Outside in the cool night air my
heart sank as I came face to face with Teina Fox standing on the doorstep with
his finger on the buzzer. The cops acknowledged him with an upwards tilt of
their heads and let the door bang behind them. Teina looked at me and cocked
his head, mouthing, “Are you ok?” as I passed.

I nodded and gave him a wan
smile, feeling anything but ok. I felt humiliated, betrayed and cheated; but
there was nothing new in that. I urged him with my eyes not to acknowledge me
and Jack looked at him with curiosity as Teina’s eyes watched me leave.

He slipped past Jack as though
visiting someone and my wily cousin nudged my arm. “Does he live here?” he
asked, curiosity budding in his eyes. “Or is he visiting someone?”

I ignored him, letting the older
police officer seat me in the back of the police car, guiding me under the door
arch with his hand on my head. The car sped along the road and I wrinkled my
nose at the faint scent of vomit masked with disinfectant. Jack sat in the back
seat next to me and he leaned across and tried to whisper, one eye on the cops
in the front. “Just tell them the truth,” he hissed, barely making a sound over
the purr of the engine.

“What?” I replied, raising my
voice so the men could hear. “Don’t tell the truth? It’s a bit late for lying,
Jack. I don’t know how involved you are in all this but I won’t be covering for
you.”

I heard the driver swear and the
car veered towards the curb. The passenger got out and moved around the
vehicle, opening Jack’s door and yanking him out by his sleeve. “Get in the
front!” he snapped and Jack glared at me before turning his body and leaving
the vehicle. I heard raised voices and covered my smirk with a shaking hand.

I entered the police station
still barefoot and followed the officers through a charge room to a line of
doors marked as interview rooms. A group of teenage male drunks lolled around
the charge area, giving the sergeant hell and wolf whistling as I trod the
corridor to their left. I ignored their vulgar heckling and hoped I didn’t
spend the night listening to their even bawdier singing.

Jack tried to follow us into the
room but one of the cops put his arm out to bar his way. “Not you,” he said,
sounding conflicted. He jabbed a finger in Jack’s face. “Go get the detective
and you’d better start talking pretty fast to get out of this one.”

I turned my face to the wall to
disguise a sadistic grin of revenge, wondering if the camera bulge in the
ceiling had already taped my entrance. I thought about my sweet vicar and the
mental list of confessions grew by one more item. I wrote it all down on a
clean white sheet in my head, adopting a calligraphy script I couldn’t do in
reality. To my fornication and acceptance of stolen money, I added lying by
misdirection.

“Take a seat, miss.” The older
man smiled and pulled out a chair. “Can I get you a tea or coffee?”

I thought for a minute and opted
for water, pulling out of a request for gin at the last second. A glib sense of
humour would get me so far, but it might not be in a direction I liked.

“Am I allowed a phone call?” I
pleaded with my eyes and the younger cop furrowed his brow.

“You’re not under arrest, miss.”

I waved my arm to encompass the
small, grey painted room. “This doesn’t feel very voluntary. I get home to find
you in my lounge and you bring me here. I thought my rights included a phone
call.”

The door opened with a thwack and
a tall male entered, dressed in matching jacket and trousers. He blended with
the walls to an alarming degree and I stared at him with more interest than
fear, wondering if Auckland police colour matched all their detectives with
their workplaces. “Thanks for coming in, Mrs Saint,” he said, slumping into the
chair opposite and placing a file stacked with notes on the table in front of
him.

“I’ve asked for my phone call,” I
said, chewing on my bottom lip and feeling the skin crack where I’d done it so
much. “How long do I have to wait for that?”

The detective looked surprised.
“Oh.” He sat back in his seat and hung his arms down either side of him. The
older police officer left the room and the younger one seated himself opposite,
his shirt sleeve brushing the detective’s jacket every few seconds as he
fidgeted. “You’re not under arrest,” the detective stated. “You can make a call
if you like, but I can’t see the point. You were asked here to answer a few questions.
Isn’t that correct, officer?”

The young cop nodded and I shook
my head. “That’s not true. I got home to find two officers already in my
apartment. They asked me about a laptop which my cousin had in my home the day
before. I fell out with Jack on Saturday and didn’t see him again before today.
The officers asked me to come to the station and I didn’t realise I had a
choice to decline.” I stuck my bare foot out of the side of the table. “I
didn’t get a chance to put shoes on.”

The detective let out a snort
like an angry bull and directed his glare at the young man to his right.
“Outside!” he snapped and rose to his feet. He shuffled the papers back into
the wallet and left the room, the young officer slithering behind him like a
naughty child. The door closed, but I heard the shouting through the walls. I
hoped he’d included my treacherous cousin in his tirade.

The detective re-entered the room
alone and without his papers. He sat opposite me and stuck his hand out.
“Detective Inspector Odering,” he said, smiling with his eyes.

I shook his hand, my fingers cold
and clammy with suppressing the raging fear in my breast. “Please may I have my
phone call now?”

“Let’s start again,” Odering
said, holding his hands up, palm outwards. “You’re entitled to have a
whānau representative.” He used the Māori word for family and it made
me think of my mother. I’d love my mother to sit next to me, but suspected he
wouldn’t be able to arrange that. He shrugged. “I apologise for the way you
were brought here but assure you; I just have some questions for you.”

“Is Jack listening to this?” I
asked, glancing at the camera in the corner of the ceiling. “I’m not saying
anything with Jack listening.”

The detective got up and left the
room again. When he returned and gave me a reassuring nod, I believed him.

Three hours later and my brain
felt ready to explode. I’d told him everything I knew and some things I didn’t
realise were tucked in my memory. I liked him in an older man kind of way and
he treated me more like a human being than his colleagues had. When my order of
cold water didn’t materialise, he fetched it himself.