Death by Beauty (31 page)

Gemma left a phone message for Angie, made sure she had the piece of paper with the security code for the cabin and rummaged
through a cupboard until she found a couple of rape kits, took out two sterile containers and a packet of sterile swabs. Putting
them all in her bag, she scribbled a note for Mike and left it on the bedside table, then kissed Rafi gently on his polished
cheek, her heart opening at his soft, unhurried breathing, and quietly tiptoed out.

Hugo, now dressed in jeans and a hoodie, followed her quietly down the hall and up into the night air.

As they climbed into her car, he asked, ‘When are you going to tell me what’s going on?’

The roads were clear at this time of night and the driving was easy. In just over an hour they were descending from the escarpment
into the hinterland where small farms slept under the stars. Another half an hour and Gemma was silently swinging
into the driveway of Sapphire Springs Spa. She had explained to Hugo what she needed from him.

Only a few lights were on around the grounds, and apart from a light above the terrace outside the entrance, the reception
area and cabins were mostly dark. No one seemed to notice their arrival as she doused her headlights and coasted into one
of the parking bays. Quietly, she got out of the car, the video camera over her shoulder, the sterile containers in her bag.
‘We’re aiming for that one over there,’ she whispered to Hugo. ‘Number five. We need to keep out of the way of the security
cameras.

‘Where are they?’

‘Not sure. But keep out of the lit areas along the paths.’

‘How are we going to get into the place?’

‘I’ve got the security code,’ she said in a low voice. ‘So, you know what to do?’

‘Sure,’ he said, taking the camera from her. ‘We’re making a crime-scene video.’

‘That could well be the case. I need you to record every step I make. Okay?’

‘Cool.’

At this hour, even the frogs were silent, the only sound an occasional small splash in the water of the lake and the rustlings
of the palms that grew around the grounds. Gemma wondered if there were security cameras hidden among the trees. But everything
remained silent as they made their way across the dewy grass.

‘So far, so good,’ she whispered, stepping up to the cabin, and pulling on protective gloves, praying that no one was monitoring
the security camera that was almost certainly covering the entrance to the cabins at that hour.

‘What will you do if there’s someone sleeping in there?’

‘Make sure we don’t wake them. Camera rolling now?’

‘Yep.’

Gemma’s gloved finger lightly touched the security code and the door softly clicked open. She crept in first, looking around,
and exhaled with relief: the cabin was empty. Hugo followed her and held the camera steady as Gemma’s mobile set on torchlight
flashed around, coming finally to rest near the bedhead and the wall just above it. She searched until she found the tiny
brownish smear from the mosquito, positioning the mobile on the bed with the light shining straight up onto the small mark.

With Hugo covering every step she took, Gemma tore open the sterile seal on the rape kit, removing one of the swab sticks
and gently stroking it along the dry trailing smear of blood. The tip of the pure white swab took on a grubby tan hue. Gemma’s
gloved fingers unsealed the small, sterile container and dropped the swab stick into it, sealing it tightly. Just to be sure,
she repeated the process with the second swab stick and sterile container so she had two good specimens.

‘Okay,’ she said, ‘we’ve got what we came for. Let’s get out of here.’

They hurried through the darkness, retracing their steps to the car park. Just as Gemma was about to open the car door, the
headlights of another vehicle turned from the road into the driveway. ‘Hugo, get down!’ she hissed.

They crouched low behind her car as the headlights swung across the car park before coming to a stop a bare twenty metres
from where Gemma and Hugo crouched.

Gemma held her breath. It was a dark blue Mercedes. And the man who was getting out of it was Angelo Tolmacheff.

Her heart and mind started to race. What the hell was he doing here? Tolmacheff, Lorraine Litchfield and the vampire triangulated
in a sharp and dangerous point – Sapphire Springs Spa.

Neither Gemma nor Hugo moved until the bulky figure of Tolmacheff had disappeared through the main entrance.

‘Come on, into the car!’ she whispered.

She winced at the sound of the ignition and engine. She didn’t use the headlights as she cruised quietly out of the car park,
through the entrance, and onto the road.

She didn’t switch the headlights on until they were well clear of Sapphire Springs.

‘That was the guy I saw at Indigo Ice with Litchfield,’ said Hugo. ‘He sure gets around. Where does he fit in?’

‘I’m working hard on that, Hugo.’

‘That was easier than I expected,’ said Gemma, turning to Hugo after driving in silence for some time.

‘You’ll give that to Angie?’ Hugo asked, indicating the two containers holding the swab sticks. ‘For a DNA profile?’

‘I’ll take it round to Lance at Paradigm Laboratories. There’s too much of a backlog at DAL. If it ends up as evidence in
a murder trial, it’ll have to go there eventually.’

‘You reckon Mischa might have been bitten by a mozzie and then whacked it?’

‘I’m hopeful.’

‘But won’t the blood be all mixed up with mozzie stuff?’

Gemma shrugged. ‘That’s what the experts can sort out. I’m hoping it’s not too degraded. That there’ll be enough to prove
Mischa was there.’

‘You’ll have to give him something as a comparison – something of Mischa’s.’

‘Good, Hugo. First thing in the morning, I’ll go to her house and do just that.’

Gemma and Hugo crept quietly down the stone stairs.

‘That was totally cool,’ said Hugo, easing Taxi off the doona. ‘And I reckon night rates must be double pay.’

‘I’ll deduct it from the expenses for your board and lodging, buddy,’ Gemma said, ruffling his hair as he turned over to go
to sleep.

‘Rats. Thought it was worth a try,’ he said, yawning. ‘Night.’

Mike had left very early to finish the petrol-tanker job and Hugo was sprawled on the lounge, one leg sticking out from under
the doona and Taxi snuggled into his neck. Gemma bribed Rafi with half an Anzac biscuit from Mike’s latest batch and loaded
him and his gear into the back of the car. She felt a little bleary from last night’s activities and singing ‘I had a cat
…’ to Rafi as she drove helped her to wake up. Rafi squealed with delight at the ‘fiddle-dee-dee’.

She was heading to Mischa Bloomfield’s share house.

‘No,’ said her housemate, letting Gemma in and glancing with surprise at Rafi in her arms, ‘I still haven’t heard from her.
I’ve been really worried.’

‘Has she taken her toothbrush?’ asked Gemma, checking in the bathroom as the housemate looked on, bewildered.

‘That’s hers there. The mauve-and-white one. Why?’

Deftly, when the girl’s back was turned, Gemma transferred the toothbrush into a plastic bag. ‘Call me if you hear anything
from her,’ Gemma said.

Their next stop was Paradigm Laboratories.

‘I collected these items according to the book,’ said Gemma after introducing Lance to Rafi and thanking him for agreeing
to see her on a Saturday morning. ‘I had a – a – colleague videotape every move I made. I used sterile containers and sterile
swab sticks. And here they are,’ she said, placing the plastic bag holding the containers on Lance’s desk. ‘And here’s the
comparison article,’ she added, giving him the bagged toothbrush.

Lance looked at her with admiration. ‘You can take the girl out of the cops, but you can’t take the cop out of the girl, huh?
There’s an extra fee for fast-track jobs.’

‘Send the invoice to Angie at Homicide.’

‘I’ll do the DNA comparison as soon as I can. Okay?’

‘Thanks very much, Lance. Have you been able to do that assay on the DiNAH therapy yet?’

‘No. I’ve sent it to a drug expert in the chemistry department at the university,’ he told her. ‘It’s a bit beyond my expertise.
It seems to be some sort of macrolide.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Something that acts on T-cells. But it’s way out of my area.’

‘Do you know if it’s the sort of thing that might result in sudden onset depression?’

‘It’s possible,’ Lance replied. ‘We’ll have to wait until the expert has reviewed it.’ He indicated the swabs she’d brought
from the rape kit. ‘I’ll get cracking on these.’

The phone on her desk was ringing as she carried Rafi in. She raced down to her office and picked it up.

‘Gemma Lincoln?’ a man’s voice, familiar, Gemma thought. She recognised him a split-second before he identified himself.

‘You’ve been caught playing out of PI school, Ms Lincoln. You’ve been busted trespassing.’ Gemma’s heart started thudding.
Of all the cops in all the world, it had to be Bruno Gross on the other end of the line. ‘Break and enter, in the company
of some juvenile delinquent. We’ve had a serious complaint made against you. And I’m looking forward to charging you.’ He
sounded delighted while behind his voice, she could hear the sound of heavy traffic.

The hostility between them went back years, to Gemma’s serving days and that regrettable one-night stand; because she had
refused to repeat the misdemeanour, Bruno Gross had taken an intense dislike to her. He’d made life difficult for her when
she was in the job and now there was no mistaking the relish in his voice.

‘Break and enter? That’s crazy! I didn’t break and enter!’

‘Dr April Evans from Sapphire Springs Spa tells a different story,’ he said with glee. ‘You were caught on their security
cameras last night breaking into one of the resort cabins with some lout. I’ve got you cold, Lincoln. Trespass, and break
and enter.’

Gemma felt the blood draining from her face. Fear poured in to the crazy mix of emotions and she sat down and held onto Rafi
tightly as he tried to squirm out of her arms. If the receptionist and Dr Evans had recognised her, might Tolmacheff also
see the footage?

‘No use denying it,
ex
-private investigator. The receptionist knew you from when you went out there with Angie McDonald.
She thought you were a cop. I’m considering also booking you for impersonating a police officer.’

‘Total crap. I did no such thing. And it wasn’t break and enter. I used the normal way of entry. And if people like you had
been doing their job properly, I wouldn’t have had to do it.’

Rafi started to cry, upset by the tone of Gemma’s voice. She found a toy for him and put him down at her feet to play.

‘When I do my job, I don’t break the law,’ Bruno said, with sneering primness. ‘What were you doing sneaking into a health
spa cabin at all hours of the night? What did you want in there? What did you
do
in there?’

‘Something you should have done, if you’d taken Mischa Bloomfield’s disappearance seriously.’

‘You’ve got to be joking. I’m too busy to go chasing every hysterical little tart who’s had a bad trip and thinks she’s being
targeted by a vampire. Get real. I’ve got serious crimes on my desk.’

‘Bruno, I had sound reason to believe Mischa had been kidnapped and taken to that cabin. I believe that a broken piece of
jewellery found in that cabin was hers, damaged in a struggle. I believe I had a legitimate reason to be there. And here’s
something else you should know: Angelo Tolmacheff was there last night. He is the man who is planning to kill his wife on
a camping trip. She went to the police and was told there was nothing she could do until he actually attacked her.’

‘There was nothing legitimate about what you did!’ he roared. ‘You’ve overstepped the mark. You don’t deserve to have an investigator’s
licence. With a conviction like this, you’ll lose it for sure.’

Gemma felt the full crushing weight of her situation. ‘Bruno,’ she said, swallowing her pride, ‘can’t we talk about this?
Before you put it on paper? There’s such a thing as police discretionary
power. I simply can’t afford to lose my licence. I’ve got a child to support.’

‘Too bad, sweetheart.’ He waited until the traffic noises behind him subsided before continuing. Gemma smelled a rat. Gross
wasn’t calling from his office. Why would he go to the trouble of using an outside line?

‘Tell you what,’ he said, his tone changing. ‘I guess we
could
talk it over … How about dinner at the Kismet?’

The Kismet motel was a modest place just off the highway near Parramatta Road, the scene of Gemma’s first and only encounter
with him. ‘We could discuss how to blow this allegation away; make sure it never gets off the ground. A nice, relaxing evening
talking over old times. Just the two of us.’

‘There
were
no old times, Bruno. Just one hell of a mistake on my part. Even now, you’re blackmailing me. Putting the hard word on me
again, calling from a phone outside the office so there’s no record on your mobile or your landline at work. You are a complete
prick.’

‘You’ll regret that, sweetheart. I’ll be suggesting to the magistrate that an example should be made of you. There could even be a custodial sentence involved. You’ll be hearing from me.’ He slammed the phone down.

Gemma hung up, dazed. Blindly, she walked into the living room and went to the deck to look out at the sea and the sky.

What was she going to tell Mike about this? About creeping out in the middle of the night, taking Hugo with her? About being
sprung on Sapphire Springs’ security cameras? About being blackmailed by Bruno Gross because of her actions? If she lost her
licence, she’d lose her livelihood. And if Lorraine Litchfield was telling the truth, she was also in danger of losing her
life.

As she went back inside to find Rafi, Hugo snored and muttered in his sleep, a doona-covered lump, now almost completely covering
Taxi apart from a protruding ginger tail. For a moment, Gemma wished she could just dive under there with the Ratbag and the
cat and hide.

Angie called back and Gemma told her about the conversation with Gross.

‘He
what
?’

‘He as good as said that if I slept with him, he’d use his discretionary powers and not charge me. He was calling from away
from the office so the call couldn’t be detected.’

‘The bastard! That is just so typical of him. But what the hell did you think you were doing out at Sapphire Springs in the
middle of the night?’

Gemma brought her up to date. ‘Angelo Tolmacheff was there, too. He’s connected to Sapphire Springs. He obviously has a key
to the place – it seems to attract evil creatures. And the vulnerable.’ Vampires and their victims, she thought.

‘If you’ve got Mischa on those swabs,’ said Angie slowly, ‘even though it was obtained in a somewhat unorthodox manner, it
can still be admissible in court at the judge’s discretion. Especially when you’ve got that video recording the collection
of the exhibit. You did well.’

‘But Ange, what the hell am I going to do about bloody Bruno Gross? He could ruin me.’

‘Mmm. Let me think about it, honey. A sleazebag like him must have slipped up somewhere. I know he has a lot of enemies, me
included. I’ll make some inquiries.’

Gemma turned as Mike walked in, throwing his car keys on the table.

‘Thanks, Ange. I’ve got to go. Talk to you soon.’

‘What did you get up to last night?’ he asked. ‘I found the note.’

‘I went out to Sapphire Springs Spa,’ she said, taking a deep breath before filling him in on the whole story. ‘I was picked
up on the security cameras. I thought I’d got away with it, but apparently not, according to Bruno Gross.’

‘The guy you used to work with? The dickhead?’

‘Inspector Dickhead now. The receptionist and Dr Evans at Sapphire Springs recognised me from the footage. He’s going to charge
me with trespass, and break and enter. Unless I have dinner with him. And the rest.’

Mike didn’t say anything, instead he went to the kitchen and pulled out some eggs and a saucepan. ‘Have you had any lunch?’

‘I couldn’t eat a thing at the moment. Mike, I feel sick. I could lose my licence over this.’

She collected Rafi in her arms, and walked back out to the deck and leaned her hip on the railing, staring out to the sea
where a couple of small boats bobbed, gusts of wind wrinkling the surface of the water and soft clouds skimming the horizon.
Since she’d returned to work, her problems seemed to have escalated. She took a breath of the sea air and joined Mike in the
kitchen as he made an omelette and put an egg on to boil for Rafi.

‘I need to find Elizabeth Winchester and work out her connection to the vampire. It was her car he was driving at Indigo Ice.
The same car that picked up Mischa Bloomfield. Winchester’s
got
to know something.’ Gemma watched Mike eating. ‘How about you? How’s the deal with Nick Cleary going?’

‘He’s pretty confident of picking up a lot of work. Between us, we have a long list of contacts with various law enforcement
agencies. I expect it will start off slowly and then build. Meanwhile, I’ve got my other contracts.’

His manner was detached, even as he helped Rafi to eat his toast and egg, and Gemma knew he was still angry. Things were unresolved
between them.

Taxi came into the room and rubbed against Gemma’s ankles. The lump under the doona groaned.

‘What strange life form moves under there?’ Mike asked, turning around to see Hugo struggling to sit up. ‘Hello, Hugo. Can
we help?’

Hugo, dressed only in T-shirt and underpants, swung off the doona. He stood a few moments on his long knobby legs, scratching
his head and then looked up. ‘You could help actually, dude. Can I borrow your laptop some time today?’

‘I guess that can be arranged,’ said Mike. ‘What for?’

‘I think I’m on to something,’ said Hugo. ‘You’ll see.’