Sweet Things Dying - Chapter IV

The fourth instalment from Adam Cole novel #1...

IV

“I gather,” Sacker said as Cole ended his narrative, “that you suspect the matter will be a waste of time?”

“I’m not sure what to think,” Cole replied. “It turned out to be nothing the last time. Her parents seem to suspect it will be so again. I may have to agree with them.”

“This must be the first instance where you’ve agreed with them on anything.”

Cole smiled. His tea and cigar finished, he took a Turkish cigarette from the silver box on Sacker’s desk, struck a match to it, and breathed in the rich smoke. “I suppose that says something,” he admitted. “While the letter is intriguing, it does bare some hallmarks of having been staged – to give her disappearance a dramatic flair. It’s possible this will turn out to be another cry for attention.”

Sacker shrugged: “Maybe. But it pays. And since you’re so bored anyway, why not take it up? It could be a good diversion for a day or two. If Mac did see her in a cab so late at night that warrants some questions. To say nothing of what he reported about her demeanour. The parents must have an inkling as to what was troubling her.”

“They will never help me.”

“Why would they? Last time, you told them they were over-bearing. Then you told the reverend his religion was horseshit. We’re lucky they bothered to pay us at all.”

“It was the Christian thing for them to do,” Cole said.

“And speaking of the Christian thing to do, you’re bloody lucky they had no idea you fucked their daughter not long after she returned home.”

Cole’s jaw clenched. “How – ? I never admitted to that,” he said.

“You didn’t have to. I can read you like the filthy, pornographic book that you are.”

“Am I so obvious?”

“For all you’ve complained about her family and her misleading everybody, you certainly failed to contain your excitement over her. From the moment you met her, for weeks afterward, your demeanour shifted in the way a man’s spirits do when he’s fallen for a girl.”

“How would you know? When have you ever fallen for a girl?”

“I fall for women – it is a much more elegant process. Plus, any woman I have been interested in has never worked in a coffeehouse. You reeked of coffee for weeks. Your veins must have coursed with it. It was evident where you spent your free time – and why. I take it that she never took you home and properly reintroduced you to father?”

“It was never so serious as that,” Cole said.

“Hm. Just a fun courtship, eh? It becomes clear what it was about Miss Bloom that truly enticed you. I do hope you were gentle with the girl.”

“Perhaps I should be off.”

“Good idea! Heather Bloom may return any moment. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on the sex.” Devilish amusement brimmed in Sacker’s eyes. He took up his pen and scribbled out a receipt. “Take this to Mr. McWilliams and collect a retainer before you do anything. All right?”

Cole tucked the receipt between the pages of his notebook. He stood to leave. “If there is something more to her disappearance, why should Heather reach out to me after all this time?”

“Perhaps because this time she really wants to be found,” Sacker replied. “And maybe she saw more in you than you ever did in her. But what do I know? You’re the detective – go figure it out.”

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