The Plot – Chapter 16
Join the Dots
For a moment, she allowed herself to enjoy the frisson of a hot, moist tongue exploring the whorls of her ear; sharp teeth pinching the lobe ever so slightly, just enough to thrill, not to hurt. Stubble grazing that sensitive spot. It made her quite dizzy, caused tingles in all kinds of places.
A warm hand slid inside her jacket, cupping, squeezing …
She put a restraining palm on his shoulder, pushed him gently back into the passenger seat.
‘That’s not why I wanted to see you. Not this time.’
Placing her hands on the wheel, she stared out through the windscreen at the rain-wet gum trees, their elongated, grey-green leaves buffeted by the backwash of trucks thundering on the freeway beyond.
‘Oh?’
‘There’s something wrong.’
‘With us?’
‘No, silly. With Neil.’
‘Fuck him.’
‘That’s exactly the problem. I haven’t been fucking him and he wants to know why.’
‘No, I mean, who cares?’
‘I know what you mean, but this whole … thing … has got me scared. Don’t tell me you aren’t worried too.’
‘The guy who got squashed by a tree.’
‘Our tree. When we were supposed to be there.’
‘There are other trees.’ He waved vaguely through the windscreen. ‘A whole forest out there. Look at them: longing for some hot, steamy love up against their yearning trunks. Cause it’s a lonely life, being a tree. As soon as it stops raining, we’ll go make one of them happy, eh?’ He squeezed her thigh.
‘Nico, stop it. He scares me, and I think – I’m sure – he’s been in my phone.’
That took the wind out of his sails. He sat quietly for a moment, gazing out at the rain.
‘Look, uh, I know you’ve told me not to.’
‘What?’
‘I took a screenshot of our chat. I … uh … do, sometimes.’
‘Nico!’
‘I’m not going to lie to you, Court … I tell you how great it is, being divorced and all that, a free agent, but actually it’s bloody lonely. I lost most of my friends, and … I guess sometimes, when I sit by myself in my room, trying to avoid Mum and Dad and their disapproving faces, it’s nice to look back and remember the good times, the laughs we’ve had, you know? But you always insist on leaving no traces, no photos, setting our chat to delete, so …’
‘Nico, we need to have a serious talk about this – another time. Whatever you’re trying to tell me, will you get on with it, please?’
‘Here you go. This was Friday week. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but later, after you cancelled, I read it again and just thought the tone was a bit … off. Not how you usually are.’
She took the phone from him, read the screenshot, gasped.
‘I didn’t write this.’
‘Then he was trying to lure me there early. Sneaky bastard.’
‘If it hadn’t been for Donna calling in sick …’
‘Fuck. What do we do?’
He was sure of two things.
One, she’d changed since Monday. She’d gone from dreamy and far-away to wary and evasive. She was no longer indifferent to him: instead, she was scared. He could see it in her eyes, the stiffness in her shoulders when he got close to her, the catch in her voice when she spoke to him. The way she seemed to consider every word before she spoke. The way she avoided eye contact or held it too long.
Two, this Dmitry wasn’t her ‘Nico’. At first he hoped desperately that it was a pet name, or a codename. He fought against the sickening realisation that he’d killed the wrong man.
There was no room for doubt now.
It was no longer the justified response of a wronged husband. He’d become a murderer, killed an innocent man, a man who was loved and respected. A decent, hard-working family man, not like how he imagined this slimy Nico sleazebag at all.
He’d loved her so much, just wanted to put it right, go back to where they’d been before this piece of filth had come between them, worming his way into …
And she’d made him a murderer.
So now his life was ruined, and she was going to pay. They both were.
He’d tried to check her messages. She kept her phone with her all the time now, even took it into the bathroom. But nobody can stay awake twenty-four hours a day. He’d waited for his chance, creeping so quietly in the middle of the night …
Only to find that she’d changed the PIN.
He took the little plastic discs out of the box. They really were as light and unobtrusive as the reviews said. A foolproof way to keep track of things that belonged to you. Stop others from stealing them.
He’d tuck one into the lining of her handbag and slip another under the spare wheel in her car.
Next week in The Plot:
Chapter 17: Heart to Heart
Bettina Crisp asks Leah for advice. DC Gabi Papadakis makes an interesting discovery on a Discord server.
Disclaimer: The people, organisations and events described in this story are entirely the product of the author’s imagination; they bear no intentional resemblance to real-life people, organisations and events. Some locations are based on real places, however the City of Corymbia and its localities are inventions of the author.