Her Brother's Keeper: A Stolen Child - A Dead Lawyer

By Kitty Boyes

HER BROTHER'S KEEPER

Book Three of the Award Winning Arina Perry Mystery Suspense Series

• Language: English
• Publisher: K B Publishing
• Release date: Jul 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9780648191032

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

CHAPTER ONE

She sat at her desk in the office of her flourishing motel across the road from the beach. With Dinky on her lap and stroking his soft white fur, she penned a new evening menu. Through her open window, she absorbed the soothing sound of the rolling tide as the waves curled and broke against the shore, inhaling a deep breath of fresh sea air, taking solace in her peaceful environment. Peaceful that is until her door crashed open.

Startled, Arina looked up as Hannah burst into her office.

‘Arina,’ the intruder gasped, ‘You have to come now!’ she panted and abruptly turned to leave.

Seeing Hannah red faced and wild-eyed with a clenched fist at her mouth, alerted Arina in an instant. She tossed her pen on the desk, pushed back her chair, and stood to follow the woman.

‘Wait! What’s wrong?’

The woman was already out of earshot.

Arina told Dinky to stay as she hurried after Hannah, but the little dog followed regardless of her command. Passing the reception desk, she told Angela; whose eyebrows were still raised after Hannah passed, to alert her nanny Mel to keep an eye on Ben a little longer. Normally Arina took her two-year-old son into town after she completed her office work. However, this looked like some kind of crisis she needed to deal with.

Knowing Hannah, who came across as highly-strung at the best of times, Arina wondered if this emergency could be another burst water pipe in one of her units. She’d had one last week. That was messy, very messy but nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

As Arina exited the rear kitchen door, Hannah, who was several metres ahead, turned back to face Arina. Tears on Hanna’s face and her hands clenched into tight fists held at her heart, told Arina this was a whole lot more than a burst water pipe.

‘He’s in room sixteen, Arina.’ She said pointing towards the block of units directly ahead. ‘A body… he’s… he’s dead!’

‘What? Who’s dead? What are you saying, Hannah? Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? I have to call the police.’

Arina pulled her mobile phone from the pocket in her slacks and picking up her pace, dialled the emergency number. Then thinking better of it, she stopped, disconnected the call and dialled for Inspector Jason Hall at the local Police Station. Two rings and Hall answered. Her pace increased as she made her way to the offending unit.

‘Hi Arina, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?’

Hall and Arina became firm friends in the time since her ordeal with the murders of Rebecca and Darren. A special bond formed between them during this dramatic time. This, coupled with Hall’s personal confession regarding the loss of his only daughter, developed a need in him to protect Arina.

His daughter, a secret sleuth; wanting to be like her dad, despite her father discouraging this tendency in her; none-the-less became involved in a crime involving drug dealers. She was raped and murdered aged twenty-two. This heartbreaking crime left Hall devastated with the loss of his girl and the subsequent end to his long-time marriage. These heavy costs embittered him, making his normal demeanour change into one of continually venting rage and anger. He became intimidating and used stand-over tactics with his subordinates in the Police Department. This behaviour became an issue and they eventually transferred him from a very busy Perth Station to a nice quiet rural town. Quiet that is until he met Arina.

He recognised the same traits in Arina that his daughter possessed and like his daughter, found he was unable to discourage Arina’s sleuthing. Her need to find answers coupled with Matt’s need to set things straight involved snooping around places they shouldn’t be. The least he could do, under these circumstances, was protect her the best he could. He grew to love her as a daughter and she reciprocated his affection, in turn adopting him as her copper-father.

They had their arguments back then and Hall could get quite intimidating and brusque at times, but Arina never backed down. She learned to stand her ground with him during that year of the murders. These past two years, though, he was so much more pleasant to be around.

He attended their marriage and arrived within minutes of Ben’s birth; cradling the tiny little bundle of joy as tenderly as any mother would. This big, bad, bald headed man became Ben’s gentle caring and proud godfather. He often popped in to see how ‘his little Ben’ was doing; sometimes bringing toys Ben was too young for, especially things like the latest Play Station. Then again, old George wasn’t much better. He came to see little Ben daily, sometimes taking him for joy rides on the lawn mowing tractor, which did nothing but make Arina nervous. The first time she heard his giggles of delight and watched him enjoy the ride, pointing where George needed to drive next, was enough to allay her fears. George held an arm protectively around the little bloke should he lean too far one way or another. He was in safe hands with George. Ben was well loved by these men and others alike. The staff fussed over him, and Ben lapped it up. He loved chatting with the ladies in the kitchen, enough so that he became a little distracting and Arina would take him upstairs until his nanny arrived to watch over him.

‘Hi, Hall, it seems we have a dead man in one of our units. Care to come and have a look-see?’

‘What? Are you kidding me Arina?’

‘Not this time, Jason. I haven’t been in the room yet. Making my way there now.’

‘Stay out of there! I’ll send a unit there this instant. Do you hear me Arina? I said, stay. Out. Of. The room!’

‘Too late, Hall, I’ve just opened the door.’

‘Stay out!’ He yelled, and the call disconnected as she pushed on the door. She understood the need to stay out, but she could look in from the doorway, couldn’t she?

‘Oh my God!’ and she bent to grab Dinky a split-second before he passed over the threshold.

CHAPTER TWO

Not taking her eyes from the sight of the room, Arina handed Dinky to Hannah and inched the door open. Her eyes widened in horror at the carnage. It was as though someone went on a rampage of destruction and violence. Bedding and clothes were strewn in all directions. Drawers were pulled out and refrigerator contents were scattered to rest wherever they were flung.

Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle an emerging scream. On a chair, the only thing still upright, apart from a dark, partially consumed soft drink visible on the floor the other side of the chair, sat a man. Pale and bloodied. A bright blue synthetic rope wound around his neck. Arina recognised the rope. They had a red one just like it. A cheap variety, Matt bought as a stand-by for tying down ute loads of items destined for the rubbish tip. Arina followed the line of the rope to the ceiling fan. Black soot at the part that connected the fan to the ceiling indicated a seized motor.

In a state of shock, her unbelieving eyes drifted back to the man. His orbs bulged from their sockets. His blue tongue protruded grotesquely from his gaping mouth, where a drying, semi-crusted line of blood had dripped onto the rope and continued the descent via natural gravity, to his green striped pyjamas. What wasn’t soaked up in his pyjamas, continued a path to the tiled floor. This small puddle of blood merged with one that flowed under the chair from the other side of the man. From her current vantage point, Arina couldn’t see the wound this extra blood must have come from. His arms hung limp either side of him, blood had dripped from his fingertips. His backside was partially off the seat as the rope tried to take him up to the ceiling. The breeze that drifted inside when she opened the door did nothing to combat the smell of death. Tempted to go further in the room and about to take a step inside, she stopped when she heard sirens approaching.

The wailing alarms sounded like Hall must have sent every available car and then some. The cacophony became deafening but thankfully cut off as they drew nearer.

Arina pulled back to the reality of young Hannah’s distress, who remained where she left her. Hannah shook so hard it caused Dinky’s ears to flap up and down. Guilt flooded through Arina for the harsh thoughts she harboured in believing Hannah was over dramatic and that any situation could be easily dealt with. At that moment, she wished hard to unsee the dead man and longed for a burst water pipe instead. This wasn’t something she could deal with and grateful for small mercies, this tragedy would be left for Hall to sort. No sir-ee. Hall won’t get an argument from me this time.

Arina put her arms around Hanna’s shoulder in an effort to comfort her, whilst her own belly squirmed in anticipation of emptying its contents. Hannah turned in towards her and planted her face into Arina’s chest. Dinky, stuck in between them, whimpered. With great wracking sobs, causing her body to shudder, Hannah purged her tears of terror.

Arina still held Hannah when Hall slammed the door of the Police vehicle and approached them; his face contorted with concern. He peered into the units’ open doorway and satisfied a dead man existed, turned to Arina.

‘Arina, are you two okay?’

‘Yeah just honkey-dory, Hall. Couldn’t be better.’

Hall turned to face six police, four men and two women, who gathered for further instruction. A few moments later an ambulance parked nearby, and a familiar white van pulled up from which Arina watched Doctor Mark James alight. Mark, a short stout figure with a bald spot in the middle of the top of his head appeared ready for action. Complete with white lab coat, coverall plastic overshoes in his hand and his trusty black bag dangling from his right arm, he made his way directly to the unit. At the door, and before entering, Mark bent, placed his bag on the ground and put on his overshoes. He picked up his black bag, nodded towards Hall and disappeared inside the unit. Doubling as the town’s pathologist Mark did most of the hospital’s autopsies, but when required, like in cases suggesting murder, bodies were transferred to Perth. Arina wondered if this might be another case of transferring the body to Perth when Halls’ voice boomed out towards his officers.

‘Okay everybody, you know the drill, put on your plastic wear first.’ Pointing towards the unit he continued. ‘Senior Constable Wilkins, get the camera and do the photo shoots, don’t miss a single point of the entire room. I want close-ups of everything in this place, floor to ceiling, including video. Don’t touch or move a single thing. Go!

The rest of you listen up. I want you right back here when Wilkins and Dr James are finished. In the meantime, Senior Constable Jerry Peters and Constable Jamee Curtis, start looking around here. I want you to cover the entire front perimeter of the units then make your way down the driveway to the verge, then the road and across it to the beach. Collect anything that shouldn’t be there. Photos first, Jamee you do the photos, Jerry you collect and bag everything. Gloves on and get going. Okay, the rest of you cover the motel grounds at the rear for the same, right up to and including the inside perimeter of the convent back there. One camera per team, one bagger. If any of you find anything significant, radio the details through to me. Immediately. Now go!’

As the group disbanded and sprang into action retrieving needed items from the boots of the cars, Hall turned to Arina. Hannah held a firm grip on Arina’s clothes as a medic tried to prise away her clutching fingers. Through intermittent sobs, Hannah held tighter and yelled at the Medic to go away. Arina took Dinky from in between them. He appeared to be struggling to breathe in the crush. She urged Hannah to let go of her and allow the Medic to help. Hannah held on.

Hall approached and whispered something into Hannah’s ear. Hannah dropped her chin and let go of Arina. Sniffing, with her head bent towards the Medic’s shoulder, Hannah allowed him to lead her, albeit on wobbly legs, to the ambulance.

Arina watched spellbound as the action flowed around her, beyond belief this was taking place in her world. Again. She watched as the Medic opened the back of the ambulance and helped Hannah inside. The back doors soon closed, and the ambulance sped off towards the hospital. Hands placed on her shoulders brought her sight back to Hall. His brow wrinkled and with his deep dark eyes, he peered into hers, looking from one eye to the other in turn, as though he was searching for something inside her.

‘Tell me you didn’t go into that room, Arina.’

‘I didn’t enter the Room Hall. I saw enough to last me my whole life from the doorway.’

‘Okay… Good… I mean, good you didn’t go in there and muck up any forensics. Thanks for that.’ He dropped his hands from her shoulders and pulled his cap off to wipe the perspiration from his head with his sleeve. Replacing his cap, he held her gaze a moment longer before speaking ‘Call Matt, get him to come home, you look like you could use a nice cup of strong coffee. I’ve got to go… check on things in there… make sure nothing is missed. Will you be okay?’

Arina sighed, looked at the feet attached to her shaking legs and wondering if she could actually walk with her knees trembling so much. She looked up and told Hall, ‘I’ll be fine.’

Ignoring Angela’s questioning look as she passed the reception desk, Arina closed her office door, pushed back her chair and sat at her desk. With her face on her knees and her hands on the top of her head, she bawled. Several minutes passed before she controlled her tears. She snatched a tissue from the box on her desk and wiped her eyes.

‘It’s okay Dinky,’ she said looking down at the little dog who continued to stare up at her with unblinking eyes. ‘I just needed to get that out of my system.’ What now? She thought. Who even was that? Arina shuffled her chair in towards the desk. She reached for the phone and dialled the front desk.

‘Angela, send through the booking list for the last few days please.’

In normal circumstances, Angela would forward the lists at the end of each week on a Friday. Details from the booking list went into an exclusive program Matt designed for her. Once Arina became used to her new program, it quickly antiquated her previous paid version. Matt named his brilliant new program Move Over To Excellent Logistics’ or MOTEL for short. The new program yielded critical information such as booking frequencies, return visits, capacity, and the total number of guests for any given season amongst other information relevant to running a motel, giving a clear picture of operations. Arina loved it and thought Matt so clever, especially since she was almost computer illiterate herself.

Opening the delivered list and adding the details to the database, Arina noted room sixteen was let out to a Mister Keith Alexander for two days. Last night was his first stay. On a fresh sheet of paper, Arina wrote down details like his home address, his car registration and that he paid by credit card for the entire stay. There was no doubt in her mind, Hall would march in any minute from now and ask for them. Arina wanted this cleared up as soon as humanly possible and the best way to do that was to cooperate fully. Oh yes, she learned to give police all the information they needed to progress a case after holding things back in their last drama. Initially, they did this to save their own butts but also because Hall was such a prick back then. That done, Arina picked up the landline with a certain amount of trepidation, hoping Matt wasn’t in one of his moods because she wasn’t sure if she could handle a bad attitude from him after her morning.

CHAPTER THREE

‘Matt, hi, it’s Arina. I…’

‘Yeah, I know it’s you, Arina. I don’t understand why you always need to introduce yourself every time you call.’

Matt wasn’t laughing, his response felt like he chided her. Arina almost cried; she’d been on the verge of tears a few times when Matt began speaking to her like this over the past few weeks. Most of the time he would be his normal adorable self and suddenly his whole personality would change where he almost bordered on being abusive towards her.

They’d only been married just over two years and already Arina thought the honeymoon over. But this seemed to be more than that and instead of giving in to his short tirades that sprouted unexpectedly; she shouldered the urge for instant retaliation. She wondered, more than once, if maybe the severe head injury he endured at the hands of Elana, before they were married might be the cause of his mood swings. Although often moody, he never displayed an inkling of this kind of treatment towards her before. This worried Arina because she didn’t know how to tackle the escalating issue.

Arina kept things to herself in relation to this, not being the type to talk about her problems to friends or family. However, Grandma was another story. Arina always told Grandma what went on in her life, sometimes because Grandma sensed things and ordered it out of her. There were times though when Grandma told Arina what was going on in her life. It seemed like Grandma had pre-knowledge or psychic connection to her. However, this particular issue needed to remain her secret burden. For now, anyway. Matt would eventually flip back to his normal amazing self like he didn’t realise he’d been particularly nasty towards her.

Arina didn’t tackle him about her concerns but they were making her believe he needed a head check with the Doctor or a specialist or even a psychiatrist or something. She felt sure there was an underlying problem and knew she would eventually have to confront his behaviour and help him deal with the problem. She hoped things wouldn’t get worse. Of course, there was always the possibility he was going through something and would get past this. He had been overworking lately.

Gordon hadn’t been well, and Matt took on his Dad’s responsibilities as well as his own, in keeping his fathers’ businesses in order. Matt undertook a massive task, which became the main reason she didn’t press him about his behaviour but if he pushed her too far something was going to give. She knew that. His approach to this call might be exactly the kind of thing to set her off. She held back, choosing to ignore his rude response. This time.

‘Matt, I know you’re busy, but something awful happened here today that I thought you needed to know.’

‘What’s wrong, Arina? Are you okay? How is Ben?’

He was back. The switch flipped.

‘I’m fine Matt, so is Ben. We’ve got a dead man in unit sixteen. The police are here and Hall’s taking care of things. I expect they’ll be finished with the room in another hour or so. What I’m unsure of is if I need to call his home to see if he has a wife and kids that need to be told. 

‘Oh, jeez! That is a big one. I’m coming home, be there in about an hour. I have a few urgent things to get out first. And no, Arina, making the call to his family is not for you to do. The police take care of that. I do expect Hall will want a full statement from you though. Tell me all about what happened when I get home. Okay? I’ve got to go.’

‘Okay Matt, but no need to rush home, I’ll take care of whatever needs doing this end.’

A knock on her office door made her look up to see Hall putting his face around the doorway. Arina waved him inside. ‘Bye for now, don’t worry about me, see you tonight. Love you.’

‘Okay, thanks, sweetheart. I love you too.’

‘How is everything going with you, Arina?’ said Jason Hall.

She hung up the phone and looked up at him with a deep sigh. She flicked back her long ponytail and put both hands together on her desk.

‘Yeah, I’m okay Hall. I want to call the hospital soon to see how Hannah’s doing. The poor woman was pretty traumatised finding the body this morning.’

‘That’s what I’m here to talk to you about. I figured Hanna must be the young lady who found him. Now that’s confirmed, I’ll head off to the hospital to see how she is. I need to interview her