Her Father's Daughter: A Murdered Man - A Missing Girl

By Kitty Boyes

HER FATHER'S DAUGHTER

Book Two of the Award Winning Arina Perry Mystery Suspense Series

A MURDERED MAN - A MISSING GIRL

Shocked to discover that Rebecca, a b

• Language: English
• Publisher: K B Publishing
• Release date: Jul 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9780648191025

Kitty Boyes

Kitty has written her 5-book Mystery Suspense novels from the pristine coast of Western Australia.Follow her writing journey at www.kittyboyes.com she welcomes your visit and likes when you stay for a quick chat. Subscribe and become an email member to stay on to learn when and if, book six hits the shelves.

Book preview

The motel grounds were crammed with revelling party guests. An atmosphere charged with laughter and voices echoed into the still night air. There were people meeting new people, catching up with those they knew and some staying in tight circles.

The band Matt hired pumped out upbeat modern and old-time dance music destined to be heard all through the night. Champagne corks popped, glasses clinked and plenty of food trays with delicious finger foods were brought out to the marquees. The delicacies were eagerly consumed amongst those chatting, while the dancers danced, with Matt and Arina amongst them.

Life for Arina hadn’t always been a party. Last year she underwent a great deal of trauma. She almost lost her life in an underground tunnel. Surviving this, she faced the enemy of her life as he threatened her, Matt and old George with a gun. She knew she wasn’t completely over the damage and needed to work towards dealing with this a little more. Okay maybe a lot more. She narrowly escaped death to find answers to questions about the integrity of her mother’s good name to end up finding those truths and a few she certainly hadn’t bargained on, nor would she have ever been prepared for. Her world rocked on it’s foundation having learned how she lost her family to a madman. Her sister, her mother, her father.

Her whole family.

Gone.

Taken in the cruelest ways through one man’s jeaousy, greed and above all, his madness.

Finding love with Matt is what brought her through the darkness of those long weeks spent grieving and losing herself in a void that on her own she would have never had the strength to climb out of.

Matt’s understanding, when she occasionally fell apart helped her cope. He knew about fragile human minds and how extra life stresses after a traumatic event could cause a person to fall apart and crumble. She put his instinctive ability to be sensitive to her random rewinds to his psychology degree. He put it down to simply loving her. She decided she liked his version better.

In Matt she found tenderness, yet strength; he would bring home a stray cat but look out if someone took his parking spot. He didn’t suffer fools gladly but would be there in a heartbeat to help an old lady across the road. He trusted most anybody right up until they proved untrustworthy at which point, he walked away from them. A sucker for the underdog, he also possessed an uncanny knack to understand people; even more so, to know them deep inside. It was with Matt, Arina reached new sexual heights with some, according to him, yet unexplored.

His passion for his work, his family and for her were boundless and his innate sense of humour dried up tears before they started, often replacing them with a laugh. His support and courage were unlimited. Given all his passions he occasionally changed moods without warning and Arina wasn’t always able to decipher the reasons for the shifts. Yet she found in him a soul mate who resonated with her on a deep level. With him, she could be her. She knew she could never live without him and when he asked her to marry him. Her response? Immediate with absolutely no hesitation.

'Matt this is the best day of my life!' Arina said taking short gasps to try to get her breath back. 'But I gotta sit down, that rock-a-billy dance nearly killed me!'

'There’s going to be a lot of those best days if I have anything to do with them. You’re positively glowing! Over there,' he said pointing 'let’s go sit in the gazebo for a few minutes. I wouldn’t mind a few quiet moments with you.'

He smiled down at her from his six feet three-inch frame with his kissable lips and brilliant blue eyes, the crease which ran from his cheek to the corner of his sensuous mouth deepened when he smiled. He led her with his arm around her waist, snuggling her tighter to his side as they walked.

They sat together holding hands taking a breather, chatting about the success of the night when old George, Arina’s gardener, dressed in his best-mismatched clothes, and his hair glued down with some sort of oil, approached.

'Sorry to interrupt you two but there’s a policeman ‘ere asking for ya.'

'A policeman? Oh god, don’t say we’ve had a noise complaint! Where is he, George? I’ll take care of this Matt. You stay here, wait for me? Get us a drink? ' Matt smiled, nodding in agreement.

'He’s standing on the front steps Areena. You can’t miss ‘im.'

'Thanks, George. I guess it’s time to wind this show down.'

Arina approached the policeman and recognised him straight away. 'Hi Jerry, I’m sorry about the noise, I’ll…'

'I’m not here about your party Arina. And sorry I couldn’t come and be part of your engagement to Matt, but duty calls.' His eyes discreetly scanned Arina wearing a white sequined top with a long black full-circle skirt. Elegantly piled on top of her head, thin tendrils of her long dark hair gently fanned either side of her beautiful face and her medium sized diamond earrings glistened in the light as she moved.

‘You look beautiful tonight, Arina.’

'Thanks, Jerry, so what brings you here then? I’m sorry we haven’t had a proper chance to talk about Jake since his death; I know you were his partner for quite a while. His suicide must have been a big blow for you too.'

Jerry spread his legs a little at the same time putting both thumbs in his belt, moving aside his holster and baton as he did so.

'Nah, I’m through the worst of that episode now thanks, Arina, though I admit we were shocked to hear about his sudden death. Jake’s mind seemed to go on him with his obsession about you. I watched as that happened, tried to snap it out of him a few times, just knew things wouldn’t turn out good for him. Besides, the investigation into him after his death revealed he got himself hooked on a few weird drugs too, so they wouldn’t have helped his mind.'

Arina had heard about this and wondered at the time if Bill supplied Jake with the same drugs he administered to Elana, his abused partner. Jerry shifted his stance and continued.

'My new partner is a woman, Jamee, quite fit and super keen, with an attitude like you wouldn’t believe. Man, she takes no shit from anybody!' He shook his head smiling 'She gets the job done though and I know I can rely on her. I’ll bring her here to meet you some day. But tonight, I’m here to ask if young Rebecca Starr’s left yet? Her mum called the station after she couldn’t reach you here and asked me to look for her because she was due home at seven thirty after her shift here. I expect like her mum does, she decided to kick on, but she wants her home now. Nat’s worrying about her, so I offered to collect her and take her home.'

'Rebecca? No. She went home. I distinctly remember she said goodbye. I saw her collect her bag. I asked her to stay and enjoy the party, but she had another job on here early in the morning and wanted a good sleep. I haven’t seen her since and I’ve no idea where she might’ve gone from here.'

'Oh bugger, mind if I look around here for a bit, just in case?'

'No, go ahead, of course you can. I will too. I’ll get Matt and a couple of others to help us.'

An hour later the last of the guests were gone with no trace of Rebecca. Nobody recalled seeing her since about seven, quite a few didn’t know her, but two people: one employed by Arina and one of the small towns business owners, Carl Johnson who knew her family confirmed they saw her about ten past seven heading towards the back of the motel, a shortcut she often took to get home.

Jerry called Rebecca’s mother to ask if she’d come home yet. She hadn’t.

'Crikey, Jerry. Where could she be? It’s after midnight. This is quite worrying.'

'No idea at this point Arina, do you know if she had a boyfriend?'

'Oh right, do you suppose she might be off to see a boyfriend? Forgot the time or something? Mmm, she never mentioned anybody special to me, but I can check with a couple of her work friends if you like?'

'No need. Just give me their names and anything you know about them such as their address and I will follow up on them tonight. Thanks for your help tonight Arina, this looks like a great party, I hope this didn’t put a damper on things for you.

'No, Matt and I were just talking about winding down the party, so no worries there, Jerry.' She turned to Matt who just joined the pair. 'Matt, honey, did you check down the back in the pool area?'

'Yep I’ve only just come from there after a full perimeter search There’s nobody about anymore and no Rebecca to be seen.'

'Okay. Jerry, let’s go grab the info from my office.'

Arina scrolled through her computer files and quickly found her Staff Information summary page. Rebecca, a school student and new to the job, became the third of three students, that Arina employed. They worked an hour in the mornings before school, and two hours in the evenings. Two of them worked weekends as well. Arina often saw Rebecca chatting with the other two students Manny and Stacy, both of whom worked the breakfast delivery trays and helped waitress in the dining room of an evening.

The motel rooms were fully booked tonight and none of them were paying guests. Arina reserved the rooms for her friends from Perth, Bunbury, Geraldton and a few other smaller towns dotted over the state. She did this to enable them to enjoy her party to capacity, and not worry about drink-driving. She did turn away several genuine customers who wanted to stay overnight, but Arina personally reserved rooms for these disappointed people at other accommodation around town. She gave them all vouchers for a half price stay next time they were in town.

Arina printed out the information Jerry needed and handed him the sheet of paper. The thought Rebecca might be in trouble made Arina shudder, she cleared her mind by telling herself Rebecca could be with a boyfriend, simply forgetting the time. She’s fine! And will be home soon. It was all she could do to keep dark thoughts from entering.

At only seventeen, a quiet girl, though not entirely shy, Rebecca kept to herself mostly and worked hard for Arina. She still attended school doing her last year as were two more of her staff. Rebecca showed a little nervousness at the beginning of her working life here but soon became competent along with a confidence which visibly flourished in her. Rebecca came in slightly shorter than Arina’s five feet six inches with a petite figure and curly blonde hair kept mid length to fall softly to her shoulders.

Rebecca loved colours, evident by her colourful array of bright clothes, and because of this love of colours, coupled with her artistic abilities, Arina recently moved her into the kitchen for the evening meals rather than waiting tables. Decorating plates seemed to be her forte. The aesthetics she created on a humble plate or platter were masterpieces in Arina’s opinion.

Arina came upon Rebecca’s talent accidentally when Rebecca offered to help put together the dinner plates for her dining room guests. She became fully convinced of her artistic ability when putting together the platters for tonight. Arina genuinely liked the girl. She saw how, in such a brief time her job seemed to open her up and allowed her to grow. Who knew where a girl with her talents would end up? Not missing, that’s for sure. She just needed to come home. And soon!

Arina felt a certain sense of responsibility towards Rebecca. Not just because she was an employee or because she went missing from here, but because she’d taken her under her wing and admired the girl. Arina couldn’t help but notice the keen interest Rebecca held in all manner of things and she helped nurture those interests by encouraging her and showing her different directions and ideas to delve deeper into them to see where they might take her.

Sometimes Rebecca stayed back after closing to share something special with Arina or wanting her opinion on something. Rebecca was just beginning to blossom. Where the hell could she be?

CHAPTER TWO

The morning arrived with a loud thump at six o’ clock. Arina reaching sleepily across the bed behind her to touch Matt and reaffirm the presence of her new fiancée; to confirm the reality of last night and to make sure this headache, that lurked in the background of her still sleepy mind wasn’t for nothing. She hesitated when he wasn’t within reach.

Opening one eye she tested the dull morning light piercing her lids, feeling the mild drumming of a hangover waiting to come into full play in the recesses and turned to look at the spot reserved for Matt. He wasn’t there. Arina groaned. Dinky yapped excitedly because Arina was awake at last and with two front paws up on the bed he reached Arina’s hand and began licking her fingers. Arina pulled her hand away and scratched behind Dinky’s ear.

'Go make me a coffee Dinky. A strong one please' She closed her eyes. Where’s Matt? I need to know if Rebecca arrived home okay.

'Matt? Are you in the bathroom?' she shouted at the closed ensuite door, 'Matt! Where are you?' No reply made her scoot from the bed she shared last night in passionate abandon with her man. She took the stairs down slowly holding the handrail, nursing her head willing it into instant recovery.

Dinky trotted down behind her. The kitchen and other rooms were still in semi-darkness, nobody had been here since last night. Turning to go upstairs to get dressed, she heard the door from outside into the kitchen close; she turned back and saw Matt walking in.

'There you are. Where have you been? I was worried.' Matt ran his hand through his hair and let out a small sigh.

'Good morning sweetheart. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about Rebecca; I searched again and then went to talk to mum. She said she’ll stay a few extra days to help look for her.'

Matt’s mum Ella left Secret Bay and his dad Gordon many years before; she took five-year-old Matt with her. Her career as a police officer in Secret Bay ended when she left and a new career as a private investigator grew and flourished in Perth.

Matt worked with her after achieving degrees in both psychology and Internet Technology. Matt knew how to hack, something way above Arina’s head, and although he claimed to always be very careful, she felt sure in her own mind he had to be on the brink of discovery and quite sure too that certain official government departments were probably keeping an eye on him too, so he continually assured her he kept this practice to a minimum to allay her fears. In fact, he helped the police in a few instances, but he told her, this information needed to be kept quiet. She knew he laughed at her insight and secretly she gave him the benefit of the doubt.

'Really? Days? But surely she’s home by now?'

'No, I just called Jerry; he’s been up all night looking for her and trying to console her mum in between. He’s gone home to bed now but expects to be back out there in a few hours. It’s critical she’s found within at least 12 hours 24 tops and although he hasn’t ruled out a typical teenager taking off for a few days, he’s close to her mum and knows Rebecca is not the type. Mum says there isn’t a definite ‘type’ but of course concedes and hopes this is the case.'

'I am so glad your mum is here too, Matt and I’m happy she’ll stay a little longer. But I am sure Rebecca will be found soon and I know your mum’s needed in Perth so I would hate for her to sacrifice her own current jobs in favour of staying. She told me just last night she had seven cases she’s currently working on. She’s as busy as all heck so let’s hope Rebecca turns up this morning. Now come here and give a freshly engaged girl a big meaningful hug!' She winked.

Matt obeyed without hesitation, his smirk giving away the secret pleasure he found in his subservience. He carried her upstairs effortlessly in his muscly arms pumping up the stairs with his powerful legs; back to their master bedroom. For at least a few more minutes let the world turn without them because soon enough the busy day will start and thrown in amongst all this they needed to continue searching for Rebecca. She put a tight clamp on all other thoughts and concerns knowing she would be revisiting them soon enough and took a ride on pure sensation.

By mid-afternoon, with the assistance of her staff, the breakfasts were served, enjoyed and cleaned up; the units restored with clean sheets, dusted surfaces vacuumed floors and sanitised bathrooms. The guests left for various destinations early; most with hangovers. All of them with smiles and stories of how much they enjoyed the previous evening.

Soon Arina and Matt could concentrate on looking for Rebecca. Their workload tied them down more than usual because both Stacy and Manny called in sick. Jerry learned nothing new from these two girls; according to him, they didn’t know if Rebecca had a boyfriend or not. The concerns for Rebecca and her safety mounted as the twelve hours had ticked by and the crucial twenty four hours before they may be looking at a more serious outcome, loomed.

Extra crews were hired to clean up the gardens and dismantle the lights and marquees ready to return to the storage area behind the motel along with the chairs, tables and other items used to decorate the gardens. The last guests to leave were Arina’s grandmother Lilly, her companion Elana and her grandmothers’ chauffeur, Eric.

Elana, the severely abused partner of William Weiner, known as Bill, the man who once claimed to be her boss and family friend, turned monster. Elana suffered a great deal of mental and physical abuse over many years at his hands and still worked hard on overcoming her fragile mental health. At least she was off all the drugs now. Bill unmercifully and regularly administered these concoctions to her to control her to the point where most of her sanity disappeared.

These days, under the watchful eye of her grandmother, Elana was undergoing treatment with a reputable therapist and Psychiatrist. There was still some ways to go but Elana became a close companion of Arina’s compassionate grandmother who took diligent care of her.

Today, wearing another colourful dress, that no doubt her grandmother bought for her too, she seemed rather quiet as they made the way to her grandmothers waiting car. Arina knew Elana still experienced those moments where she went down inside herself for a while. Lately, according to her grandmother, these episodes became less frequent; a good sign of her continuing recovery.

It warmed Arina’s’ heart to see the continued improvement in this fragile creature and hoped for a someday where she could lead her life independently again.

Arina told her grandmother about Rebecca being missing and she, in turn, offered any help Arina needed to assist in finding her because as she said, she was quite sure Arina would not rest until she was found because she knew how much of her father was in her genes. Her grandmother knew her well, Arina found it uncanny at how well. It reminded Arina about finding her fathers’ diary, a small leather-bound booklet located by accident while sorting all the boxes in the attic.

Within the diary it plainly showed his endeavour to find answers regarding her three-year-old sister Jennifer’s death and that of his wife; Arina’s mother. Her father listed, in bullet point format no less, all the people he spoke to, the dates, what they said and the outcomes. Her father’s methods were all quite methodical and well documented. Had he pursued some things a bit more the answers he sought were within a hands grasp, but he gave up.

Arina decided to do a similar thing as her father had in finding Rebecca. Because find her she would, except she wasn’t going to give up. Not for any reason! Matt wasn’t the only one in this partnership who couldn’t rest until answers were found, no sir-ee, she could be as dogged as her Dad in that department!

Waving her grandmother and Elana off, Arina turned to Matt who was still flapping his hand with a smile which belied his deep concerns and anticipation of finding Rebecca. How well Arina came to know this man in such a short time. It was like he was an extension of her, yet an opposite in some ways, that complimented them both. Where he preferred searching for answers slowly, she was a little more into the action part of finding answers. Yes, and that hadn’t ended so well last time, had it, she reminded herself.

'Matt, I am going to pay a visit to Manny and Stacy, wanna come?'

He thought about this for a moment and with his fingers cupping his chin, replied 'No, you go, and I’ll go do some digging see if I can trace a social online to see if this throws any light on the girl and hopefully discover if there’s a boyfriend or not. Mum’s digging into the family.'

'The family? What’s family got to do with Rebecca being missing? I don’t get it?'

'Mum said that because Rebecca’s living with her mum and little sister that she is going to find the father and see if there might be any connections to follow up on in that direction. She’s good, Arina and