CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Ben opened his eyes. He was greeted with a middle-aged
nurse smiling kindly down at him. Her deep blue eyes
were kind and her full, red lips looked so soft and
sensual. He smiled at the thought of kissing them.
“Well, hello there,” she said in a hushed voice. “Good to
see you’re awake.”
“What happened?” he asked, using his arms to push
himself up into a sitting position.
“You have seven neat stitches in your temple and a nasty
little concussion to boot. That’s what happened.” she
helped him sit up properly then handed him some water.
Ben took it from her and raised it to his lips. “Oh God,
Anna!” The memory of the afternoon’s events came
rushing back to him in one gigantic wave.
“It’s ok,” the nurse hushed him. “You got the bad guy and
everyone is safe. Your partner Detective Marnotti came in with
you and then left again. He said he’d be back a little later.”
“Jay?”
“Yes, that’s right.” She patted his face down with a cool
washer.
“Did someone mention my name?” A familiar voice filled
the room.
Ben looked over to the door and saw Jay standing there
holding a can of coke in one hand and a manila folder in
the other.
“Hey, Jayy, great to see you.”
“It’s great to see you! I was worried there for a while.” He
pulled up a chair next to the bed.
The attractive nurse put down the washer and excused
herself before leaving the room. Ben smiled at her as she
left. He turned back to Jay who was grinning broadly at
him.
“What?”
“You like her!” his smile grew wider. “Don’t you? Go on,
admit it.”
Ben smirked like a schoolboy and then changed the
subject. “How is Anna?”
“She’s fine. A little shaken by the ordeal, but otherwise
she’s ok.” he stopped cold.
“What is it, Jay?”
“She’s been charged in relation to Tessa’s death, Ben. I’m
sorry.”
“Did she…”
“No she didn’t kill her, but she was pre-sent when she
died and then helped cover it up by keeping her mouth
shut.”
“So who did?” Ben’s curiosity rose. “My memory, it’s a bit
scrambled.”
“A blow to the head will do that to ya, Benny boy.” Jay
joked. “You were on the money all along. The Wellness
Clinic…”
“What about it?”
“It seems the good doctor performed some after hours
terminations and Tessa’s happened to go wrong. Anna
knew about it and said nothing.”
“Jesus,” he whispered, rubbing his forehead. “So what
about Rose?”
“She’s admitted to the killing and gave a statement. I
wouldn’t be surprised if she gets off on insanity though.
She’s one fruity loop that one.”
“So why the mutilation? It doesn’t make sense.”
“She thought that if she cut her up and made it look like
some sicko on the loose that it would throw police off the
track.”
“Well, she was right there.”
“I spoke to Anna. Her story was pretty consistent with
what I got from Rose.”
“So why didn’t she just tell us? It doesn’t make sense,
Jayy.” he sighed.
“She was so afraid of people finding out that Tessa was
her daughter. She just wanted to leave her past in the
past and when Tessa came back looking for her…”
“So she had met with Tessa long before now, then?”
“Apparently so, about a year or so ago she showed up on
her doorstep. Anna told her she wanted nothing to do
with her and the life she reminded her of. For a long time
she never came back.”
“Until Tessa found out she was pregnant?”
“Yeah. She called on Anna for help and she put her onto
Rose and told her that she would take care of it if she
promised to leave her alone after that. Tessa agreed and
that’s when they went to see Rose.”
Ben sat with his hands in his lap, lost in thought.
“Ben?”
“Yeah, I’m ok. Did you manage to dig up anything on
Grimshore?”
“I sure did. Tessa’s father was a guard at the girls home
back in 1977.”
“When Anna was there?” Ben interrupted.
“Seems so. His name was Bernard Houseman. It appears
that when the home became aware of his activities with
Anna, he was to be hauled in front of the disciplinary
commission. He chose another course of action though.”
Ben looked at him expectantly.
“He decided to string himself up from a tree in his back
yard. He had a wife and three kids. I guess he didn’t want
to have to face them, over the incident.”
“Gees, Jayy, this saga just keeps getting more and more
depressing.”
“Sure does.”
“So what happened with Anna?”
“The girls home took the baby from her immediately after
birth and adopted it out. It was a sealed adoption. My
source did well to uncover the birth certificate when they
ran Anna’s background check.”
“Damn,” Ben cursed. “If only I had tried harder to find a
next of kin when we found Tessa’s body. Instead of just
accepting that her parents were dead and there was no-
one else to notify.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You did what you could,
Ben.”
“If I had have dug a little deeper, I may have uncovered
this weeks ago and maybe.”
“Look, it’s over. There’s no use agonising over what could
or should have happened.”
“Maybe,” Ben agreed.
“We still got bigger problems than that, Benny, my boy.”
“How so?”
“We still have a psycho-sicko unit out there, running
around performing copy cat killings of Tessa’s murder on
other pregnant women. We gotta catch the animal.”
“Oh hell,” sighed Ben. “Who would know all those details,
Jayy? The foetus snatching detail was never released to
the public.”
“I dunno, but as soon as you get outta here, we’re gonna
find out.” He slapped his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “In the
meantime buddy, you and I have to celebrate the one
small victory we have achieved. Rose’s arrest and solving
Tessa’s murder.”
“Sure,” said Ben, his enthusiasm not quite that of Jay’s.
“Bluey’s, tomorrow night, nine o’clock.”
“I’ll be there!”
“Well you’d best get some rest if you want to be out of
here by morning.” The cute nurse was standing in the
doorway holding a fresh washer and a bowl of soapy
water.
Ben’s eyes lit up.
“My buddy and I were just planning a celebration
tomorrow night.” He looked back at Ben and grinned. “I
don’t suppose you’d care to join us?”
Ben’s eyes widened. He glared wildly at Jay for
being so
brazen.
Her lips parted and a smile spread across her pretty face.
She looked at Ben and replied, “I’d love to… Unfortunately
I have to work tomorrow night, but I’m free Friday night if
that’s any good?”
Jay looked at the two of them and pushing his chair
back he said, “Well I’ll leave you two to fine tune the
details. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, smiling at Ben. He
then turned to the nurse and said, “I hope to see you
again soon, too, eerrr?”
“Carolyn,” she answered, taking his bait for details.
With that Jay left them to each other’s company.