CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A dim porch light beside the white front door lit the small
cottage style house. A quaint wrap-around verandah
added a touch of charm to the otherwise plain abode.
Through the darkness, Ben saw the silhouette of a set of
what he thought were a child’s swings, in the yard beside
the house. A small rock lined pathway led from the
footpath to an outdoor mat at the base of the front steps.
The Saunders home was by no means a palace, but it
looked homey enough.
He glanced in his rear view mirror; still no sign of Jay
and it was now ten o’clock. Even though he was expected,
he didn’t want to keep the Saunders’ up any longer than
was necessary. Under the circumstances, he didn’t want to
keep them waiting at all. Ben rolled up his window and
got out of his car, he would give Jay just a few more
minutes to show and then he would go it alone. His
watch captivated him, the soft iridescent glow
mesmerised him when he glanced down at it once more.
The squealing of tyres on asphalt soon broke this
hypnosis… Jay had finally arrived. He pulled in behind
Ben and got out of his cruiser, his boots clicking when
they hit the footpath below him.
"Where have you been? It’s just after ten."
"Damn kids and their street racing…"
"Never mind. Let’s just get this over with shall we?"
"Let’s!" Snapped Jay, flicking a cigarette butt to the
ground and stomping it out with his foot.
"Don’t you know how to use an ashtray, Jayy?"
"Gees, who rubbed your lamp the wrong way tonight?
asked Jay, ‚I was having a blissful evening, but it’s
souring by the second."
Ben stood still, his head lowered to the footpath and his
shoulders slumped forward. "Sorry, mate. It’s been a
rough night and the whole meeting with Anna. You know
how it is." he replied.
"Yeah, couldn’t have been an easy thing for ya to do, Ben.
Maybe I shoulda just gone and done it myself, eh?"
"No, I think I needed to do it. I have to get some
perspective in my life and this was a good start, I guess."
He straightened up and breathed out loudly, a groan
escaping him. "You ready?"
Jay nodded that he was.
"Let’s do it."
The two men marched up the pathway, climbed the three
steps and stopped at the front door. Ben pressed a
button marked ‘Saunders’ on the architrave around the
door. They heard the chimes ring out inside the house
and a minute later middle-aged man appeared in front of
them.
"Mr. Saunders?" Ben asked.
"Frank Saunders, that’s right," he replied. "You must be
Detective Payne?"
"Yes, and this is my partner Detective Marnotti." Ben gestured
to Jay.
"Please, won’t you come inside?" Frank stepped aside and
held the door open for them to pass through and pointed
them to the living room on the right. He closed the door
and walked into the living room behind them. "Take a
seat," he said, settling into a recliner. "Janice," he yelled,
seemingly into the air, "the Detectives are here."
A short, petite woman of about fifty or so emerged from a
doorway behind him, bringing with her a tea tray and a
plate of biscuits. She made her way to the living room and
placed the tray on the coffee table in front of the three
men before seating herself on a sofa near her husband.
"Help yourselves, Detectives," she softly said.
"This is my wife, Janice," Frank made a formal introduction.
"Janice this is Detective Payne and Detective Marnotti."
Janice smiled politely and gave them a simple nod to
greet them. Jay and Ben did the same.
"Now what’s this about Kylie-Anne? What trouble is that
girl in now?" Frank asked.
Jay looked at Ben and then back at Frank. "She been in a
bit of trouble before?"
His hands slapped his thighs and he animated a laugh,
"Trouble! The girl’s full of it. She breeds it like a sickness."
"How so?" Ben joined the conversation.
"Drugs, boys, wild parties, stealing and that’s just for
starters," he looked over at Janice before continuing. "And
then there’s Ashleigh of course."
"Ashleigh?" Jay queried him.
"Our grand daughter, she lives with us," Janice whispered.
"Kylie-Anne was only sixteen when she had her," said
Frank, looking over at Janice. Her head bowed as if in
shame of her daughter. "She never spoke much to anyone
about Ashleigh. To her, she simply didn’t exist. ‚Up until
she had Ashleigh we didn’t think that an ounce of
goodness could come of that girl. Every time we’d set
boundaries and rules for her, she’d go out of her way to
break them. If we gave her an inch she took a mile. I got
her a job once, when she was seventeen, checking books
in and out at the campus library…"
"The University library?" Jay asked.
"Yes. I convinced them she would be perfect for the task,
but Kylie-Anne… Well she had other ideas. She was
escorted off the campus on the first day for selling weed
to the students in her lunch hour. Made a mockery of me
she did."
"What happened then?"
"Naturally I told her to pack her things and leave. I wasn’t
going to have her around young Ashleigh, dragging her
up in that sort of lifestyle."
"So she left? Just like that?"
"Just like that. Exactly like that!" Frank re-iterated.
"How long ago was that?"
"It will be just over three years ago now, if I remember
correctly."
"And you’ve had no contact with her since?" Jay asked.
Frank nodded his head, "That’s right."
"What about Ashleigh?" Ben began. "Surely she called or
wrote to check up on her own daughter?"
"Well that’s what you would expect from any decent
mother isn’t it? Not Kylie-Anne. She never cared for the
child from the very beginning. Couldn’t wait to be rid of
her, that’s the cold hard truth of the matter. Kylie-Ann was
just a baby who had a baby. Too young for any
responsibility, let alone that of motherhood."
Janice leaned forward in her chair, her mouth opened, but
she shut it as quickly as the fleeting thought that touched
her.
Ben looked at Jay. The sadness in his eyes deepening,
knowing what they were about to tell the Saunders’ of
their daughter’s fate.
"What is it, Detectives?" Janice stared at them. "Oh, it’s
something terrible this time isn’t it?"
Unable to face her, Ben dropped his gaze to the carpet.
Jay leaned forward in his seat, looked at the couple
before him and said, "I am deeply sorry to tell you both,
but…"
"But what?" Janice interrupted, her face creased with
concern.
Jay looked over to Frank, his expression blank. "I’m
afraid your daughter is dead."
Silence covered the small living room like a shroud
,
neither parent able to utter a sound, shock gripping them
like a vice. Ben and Jay both remained quiet, awaiting
the outburst of why’s and how’s and the eventual
mutterings of denial. They had been bearers of bad news
enough times to know that very few families
cope with the death of a loved one without some form of
non-acceptance, even the ones that had been feuding.
They knew the storm was brewing and that it would soon
be unleashed before their very eyes.
"Was it drugs?" Frank spoke first, his expression still void
of any emotion.
Janice looked to them for the answer; the tears from her
green eyes began streamed down her cheeks. Her thin
lips trembled with sadness.
"I’m sorry," said Ben. "Kylie-Anne was murdered."
"Oh, dear God no!" Janice crumbled on the sofa. "It can’t
be her. How do you know it’s her? You must be wrong."
Frank left his recliner and sat beside his wife, taking her in
his arms he rocked her gently and kissed her forehead.
Jay cleared his throat and said, "She has been identified
by someone who we have questioned in regards to her
death."
"We are so very sorry for your loss," soothed Ben, wishing
he could take away their pain.
"Who…" Frank choked out. "Who did this?"
"Unfortunately we haven’t found the killer yet," Jay
answered him.
"We are using every resource available to us to find who’s
responsible for your daughters death." Ben interjected.
His assurance sounded weak and he knew it was. They
had been investigating these murders, including Tessa’s,
for nearly a week now and they were getting nowhere.
Frank nodded his head, "You make sure you catch this
animal, Detectives. No matter what our grievances were,
she was still our daughter."
"We understand," whispered Ben. He took a deep breath
before asking the cruellest of all questions. "We will need
to ask that one of you come down and formally identify
Kylie-Anne’s body as soon as you are able. I realise this is
a difficult time for both…"
"What time and where, Detective?" Frank asked, cutting
him short.
"Tomorrow morning? The city morgue." Jay informed
him.
"I’ll be there at nine."
"Once again, we are so very sorry for your loss, Mr. And
Mrs. Saunders," said Jay, rising from his seat. Ben did
the same. "We will see ourselves out."
Janice looked up from behind her husbands shoulder.
"Please find whoever did this to our little girl." Frank
tightened his embrace and rocked her some more, his
own heart aching with sorrow.
Ben and Jay left the Saunders to console each other and
made their way back to the street.
"Christ, I hate that part of the job," cried Jay, lighting a
cigarette when they reached their cars.
"So many people suffer from the reckless acts of others,"
said Ben, staring out into the darkness. "We need to get
this peanut Jayy, how many more are going to die if we
don’t?"
Jay sucked back hard on his cigarette before blowing the
smoke back out into the air. "We will my friend… we will."
Ben rubbed his forehead and his eyes be-gan to squint.
Reaching into both pockets, he was unable to find a card
of his painkillers. "Bloody brain bleeders!" He cussed.
"You ok, Ben? I think you better get home before it sets in
for good. You want me to drive ya or are ya right?"
"Thanks, Jayy. I’ll be ok." Ben assured him, waving his
hand dismissively.
"I know how ya feel mate. My guts is turning over just
thinking about seeing that girl lying on Augies steel table.
Here we are trying to tell that poor couple that their
daughter is dead and all I can picture is the way she was
cut up." Jay puffed harder on his cigarette, "thank God
they ain’t gonna be seeing that part of things." He
gestured back towards the house they had just come
from.
"Hell. I’m sorry, Jay. I hadn’t thought about the effect it
would have on you. Coming here, to see the parents I
mean."
"It’s all part of the job, Ben. I can handle it."
Ben opened his car door and slid inside, "You’re really
okay?"
"Hey, I’m fine. Or at least I will be when we nail this warped
unit."
"I’ll see you tomorrow then?" Ben smiled weakly at him.
"Hell yeah!" cried Jay "We got one sick puppy to catch
and we ain’t gonna do it sittin’ at home twiddling our
thumbs."
Ben’s started the Chevy and put it in gear. "Tomorrow
then." He said before driving off down the street and into
the night.
He looked back at the Saunders home in his rear view
mirror. Ben thought of the husband and wife inside,
grieving horribly for the daughter they haven’t seen in over
three years. They must have so many things they wish
they could say to her now, so many wrongs they will never
get the chance to right. He could never begin to under-
stand the depths of despair they were in, losing a child at
any age would be a gut-wrenching ordeal. His
determination to find this killer was mounting every
minute. One way or another, he will solve these murders,
no matter how long it took.