Two Birds Read online

  He groaned, the craving for a single malt intensifying, the bottle of water they’d left him not cutting it. He needed time and space to grieve the loss of his darling bride. His wife was lying on a slab in the mortuary and here he was penned up in a police interview room. It wasn’t right.

  Somewhere a woman screamed. Daniel froze, his ears straining to hear what was going on.

  “No! No. You’ve got it all wrong.” Leah’s voice.

  More voices. None that he could make out. Doors closing.

  Then quiet.

  He stood. Before he could reach the door, it opened.

  “I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” said the lady detective, standing aside to let him through. “You are free to go.”

  “That’s it? You’re not going to tell me what’s happening with Leah? These walls aren’t exactly soundproof, you know.”

  The detective steered him back into the interview room and closed the door. “We have charged Mrs Jensen with the murder of your wife.”

  His jaw dropped, his brain in overdrive.

  “Preliminary findings are that your wife died from a single stab wound to her upper abdomen, which punctured her stomach and on through her liver, which in turn caused massive hemorrhaging. Contrary to what Mrs Jensen told us in her statement, there were no other wounds to your wife’s body. She also had your wife’s blood on her clothes and skin.”

  “So did I.” What was he doing?

  “Yes, but your account correlates with the evidence.”

  Daniel nodded, extended his hand. “Thank you, DS Teo.” Amazing what not being charged with your wife’s murder could do for his memory for names.

  Outside, the day had drawn to a close, the pavement still warm from the day’s heat. A knot of loud-voiced men spilled out of a bar down the street. That single malt beckoned. With a lick of his dry lips, he trudged head down toward the noise and light of the bar.

  The bar, he soon discovered, was a gay bar. Not that he cared. His needs were simple: a whiskey or two, a silent toast to his freedom and a final farewell to the woman who’d once been the love of his life. That was until two years into their marriage, when she started criticizing every little thing he did. Nothing he did was ever right.

  Leah hadn’t lied when she told the police he and Kristine had been arguing, though he was sure she hadn’t witnessed it. The bit Leah made up about him repeatedly stabbing Kristine had been her undoing. He’d only stabbed her once.

  Luck had been on Daniel’s side when he pushed past Leah in the doorway to get to the phone, transferring Kristine’s blood from his skin and clothes to hers. Leah had been unable to tell the police how it got there. That, along with the lie about what she’d witnessed, had been enough for the police to pass judgment.

  He raised his glass and smiled. Two birds, one stone.

  ***

  Thank you for reading Two Birds. I love to hear from my readers: [email protected]

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Based in rural Victoria, Australia, Vicki Tyley writes fast-paced mystery and suspense novels in contemporary Australian settings.

  Born in New Zealand, she emigrated with her husband to Australia in 1982. Vicki has travelled extensively, spending a year touring the world before terrorism was an influencing factor. She has lived in the central business districts of large cities, suburbia, idyllic seaside locations, rural areas, bushland, and remote desert mining camps.

  In the lead up to her writing career, she worked in a multitude of different industries including banking, stockbroking, importing and wholesaling, human resources, mining, hospitality, civil engineering, and toys, in predominantly accounting, IT and management roles.

  All these life experiences are brought to bear in her writing.

  Want to say hello or ask a question, email Vicki at [email protected]

  Website: www.vickityley.com

  OTHER BOOKS BY VICKI TYLEY

  THIN BLOOD

  Craig Edmonds, a successful stockbroker, reports the disappearance of his wife, Kirsty. What starts as a typical missing person's case soon evolves into a full-blown homicide investigation when forensics uncover blood traces and dark-blonde hairs in the boot of the missing woman's car. Added to this, is Craig's adulterous affair with the victim's younger sister, Narelle Croswell, compounded further by a recently acquired $1,000,000 insurance policy on his wife's life. He is charged with murder but, with no body and only circumstantial evidence, he walks free when two trials resulting in hung juries fail to convict him.

  Ten years later, Jacinta Deller, a newspaper journalist is retrenched. Working on a freelance story about missing persons, she comes across the all but forgotten Edmonds case. When she discovers her boyfriend, Brett Rhodes, works with Narelle Croswell, who is not only the victim's sister but is now married to the prime suspect, her sister's husband, she thinks she has found the perfect angle for her article. Instead, her life is turned upside down, as befriending the woman, she becomes embroiled in a warped game of delusion and murder.

  PROLOGUE

  Craig Edmonds stared at hands sticky with darkening blood.

  His hands.

  He held them away from his body and looked down at his chest in horror. Large, dirty-red blotches marred the once pristine white shirt. Forgetting the blood on his hands, he tore at the buttons, ripping the shirt open.

  Breathing in short, sharp gasps, he frantically examined his torso, looking for the wound. No cuts. No injuries. No holes where there shouldn’t be any. His chest heaved in relief. He wasn’t dying, after all.

  But then, mid-sigh, it struck him: if it wasn’t his blood, whose was it? His head whipped around, his eyes scanning the room like radar on overdrive.

  Even in the half-light, he quickly saw all was not as it should be. The glass shade from one of the bedside lamps lay in shattered fragments on the floor. The curtain rail over the bedroom’s bay window hung at a precarious angle. Usually a black-and-white photo of a nude, tattooed woman hung above the bed; now the frame lay in pieces in the doorway.

  He focused on the queen-sized bed. His stomach clenched as he took in the twisted and disheveled bedclothes. Instinctively, he knew the dark patches on the sheets weren’t shadows that would disappear once the curtains were opened.

  He swallowed, the acrid morning-after taste of whisky harsh in his parched mouth.

  “Kirsty?” he croaked. Clearing his throat, he called again, hesitant but louder.

  In the crushing silence, time stood still.

  “Kirsty!” he screamed, as he dashed into the master bedroom’s compact, white-tiled en suite. He stumbled, clutching at the doorframe. He took in the bloodied handprints adorning the vanity unit and walls like some sort of macabre finger-painting. Fighting an intense wave of nausea, he looked down at the blood-smeared floor.

  Trying desperately to rein in his growing panic, he raced to the main bathroom. His wife wasn’t there either. Next room.

  Out of breath, heart hammering, he reached the internal door that led to the double garage and opened it. The external roller door was down and his red Alfa Romeo and Kirsty’s silver Lexus were parked next to each other.

  Gripping the door handle, he sagged against the door. He took a deep breath. Fought for control of his adrenaline-charged body. He lurched into the kitchen, heading for the sink.

  Hands shaking violently, he somehow managed to turn on the cold water tap. He watched, mesmerized, as the blood from his hands, diluted by water, swirled in a pink eddy in the bottom of the sink before disappearing down the plughole.

  Oblivious to the water dripping from his hands, he dropped onto the pine storage-box-cum-bench beneath the window at the end of the kitchen. Elbows on knees, he dropped his forehead into his hands. If only the infernal pounding would let up, he could think straight.

  His memory of the previous evening was patchy, to say the least. He had a vague recollection of arriving home stressed after a late-night meeting at the office and, bypassing the dried-out dinner
Kirsty had kept warm for him, heading for the bottle of Chivas Regal. After that, it was anyone’s guess as to what had happened.

  A series of short clips flashed through his mind. In one, he saw himself shouting at Kirsty, her throwing up her hands and yelling back. What had they been arguing about? In another, he was picking up his car keys, and…

  Damn it! Why can’t I remember? he thought, glancing towards the door leading into the garage. It was then he saw the set of four smudged, rust-brown streaks low on the doorframe. He closed his eyes, praying for the nightmare to end.

  Except he had a feeling the nightmare was only beginning…

  SLEIGHT MALICE

  SLEIGHT ~ use of dexterity or cunning, especially so as to deceive.

  MALICE ~ the intention or desire to do evil; ill will.

  One cold Melbourne winter's night a suburban bungalow goes up in flames. Despite their best efforts, firefighters are unable to save the home. When a badly charred body is discovered in the remains, web designer Desley James is devastated. Her best friend, Laura Noble, had been the only one in the house that night – her partner, Ryan Moore, is away in Sydney on business. Then Desley learns the unidentified body is male. But it's not Ryan. He and Laura have disappeared…

  Not realising until it's almost too late what some people will do to cover their tracks, Desley teams up with private investigator Fergus Coleman to search for the missing couple.

  “In perfect Vicki Tyley fashion, ‘Sleight Malice’ entertains and stuns its readers.” – Lit Fest Magazine

  CHAPTER 1

  Rough hands grabbed her. Clamped across her waist, his powerful arm squeezed the breath from her lungs. He hauled her backwards, her thrashing arms and legs no more an inconvenience to him than if she had been a pinned fly.

  She coughed, her eyes watering as the hot, acrid air seared the inside of her throat. With both hands, she tried in desperation to prize the immovable weight from her stomach. “Let me go! Get…”

  Her chest convulsed against the heavy, grit-laden smoke. The man’s hold on her eased. She seized her chance and wrenched herself from his grip. She stumbled forward, shielding her face with her arms, but the fire’s intensity drove her back.

  Back into the arms of the firefighter.

  “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t go in there!” shouted the hulking black and yellow protective-clad figure. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

  Desley James scarcely heard him over the din of the fire trucks, pumps and roar of the blaze. Her only concern was for Laura. Where was she? Had she been at home? Had she escaped the inferno? What about Ryan?

  She opened her mouth to speak, inhaling a mouthful of burnt air instead. Spluttering, she bent her head forward and drew the thin cotton T-shirt she wore over her mouth and nose.

  “Have you got everyone out?”

  The firefighter leaned down, his ear almost touching her face. “Sorry, what was that?”

  She repeated her question, watching his face as her words, muffled by the fine weave of her makeshift filter, sunk in. He averted his gaze, but not before she had her answer.

  “Oh dear God, no. Please tell me it isn’t true. It’s not possible,” she added in a whisper only audible to herself.

  This time when he lifted her off her feet she didn’t resist; all the fight had left her. A female police officer joined them, draping a blanket around Desley’s shoulders as the firefighter set her down beside the open back door of a police car.

  She shivered, pulling the blanket in tighter as she sunk onto the backseat, the wool fibers bristly against her hot skin. The vehicle’s interior light cast a ghostly pall over the two faces staring down at her.

  BRITTLE SHADOWS

  When soon-to-be-wed Tanya Clark is confronted with her fiancé's naked corpse hanging from a wardrobe rail in the upmarket Melbourne apartment they share, her life is torn apart. Two months later, distraught and unable to cope, she drowns her sorrows in a lethal cocktail of alcohol and prescription drugs.

  On the other side of Australia, a grieving Jemma Dalton struggles to come to terms with the suicide of her only sibling. Despite there being no evidence to the contrary, Jemma refuses to accept Tanya had intended to kill herself. Not her sister. Then the coroner's report reveals that at the time of her death she had been six weeks pregnant. The will, too, raises more questions than it answers. How did a young woman on a personal assistant's wage amass shares worth in excess of $1,000,000?

  In a desperate bid to uncover the truth, Jemma puts her own life at risk and starts to probe the shadows of her sister's life. But shadows, like bones, grow brittle with age. The consequences can be deadly.

  PROLOGUE

  One foot inside the apartment, the smell hit her. Sour, like cat pee. Except they didn’t own a cat.

  “Sean?” she called, her voice cracking. She cleared her throat. “Sean, honey, are you home?” Louder this time.

  Not a sound. Only that putrid smell.

  She dumped her heavy satchel on the floor, kicked the door closed, and surveyed the room.

  The late afternoon sun streamed through the balcony-facing floor-to-ceiling windows. Long shadows from the life-sized, headless bronze nudes standing sentry sliced the living area. The Age newspaper lay open at the business section in the middle of the narrow glass-topped dining table, Sean’s mobile phone next to it. Apart from one of the eight chairs sitting askew from the table, she could have stepped into the pages of Home Beautiful.

  She crossed the carpet toward the short hall that led to the bedrooms and stuck her head into the apartment’s galley-style kitchen. Tomatoes, red onions and a cling-wrapped tray of meat – the makings of what looked to be one of her fiancé’s specialties, Spanish steak – sat on the stainless steel drainer next to the sink. Further down the bench, she spotted a bottle of red wine together with two wine glasses, one of which was already poured. She sniffed the air and moved on.

  Usually wide open, the door to the guest bedroom was half-closed. Hoping Sean hadn’t offered a bed to one of his boozy mates, she hesitated for a moment and then gave the door a sharp shove.

  The door swung in, releasing a rush of sour air. Pinching her nostrils together, she leaned into the room, ready to beat a hasty retreat if anyone was in there. Her gaze went first to the queen-sized bed. Although the quilt looked rumpled, the bed itself didn’t appear to have been slept in.

  Breathing out through her mouth, she glanced across the bedroom to where sunlight, filtered through the window’s upward angled Venetians, striped the ceiling.

  She took another step into the room and turned around. The leather strap of her handbag slid from her shoulder. She didn’t try to stop it, couldn’t stop it. Unable to move, all she could do was gape at the open wardrobe, her eyes bulging almost as much as the vacant ones staring back at her.

  A silent scream blocked her throat. She couldn’t breathe in; she couldn’t breathe out. Her lungs wanted to burst. The purple, bloated face of the naked man hanging from the wardrobe’s steel rail on a belt, his swollen tongue protruding from his mouth, was almost unrecognizable. Almost.

  She stumbled backwards, snaring her handbag as she landed in a heap next to the bed. She scrambled in the bottom of her bag, her mobile phone eluding her like wet soap in the bathtub. When she did manage to get hold of it, she struggled to still her shaking hands. Her fingers felt fat and clumsy, the buttons on her phone tinier than she remembered.

  “Emergency. What service do you require? Police, Fire, Ambulance?”

  She opened her mouth to answer, but a magazine page stuck to her leg now had her attention instead. She peeled it off, dangling the magazine at arm’s length as if it were a dirty sock. She had never seen anything quite like it. Naked flesh. Entwined bodies. Explicit sex scenes.

  If she had thought things couldn’t get any worse, she had thought wrong. She shook her head, unable to come to terms with what she was seeing. Her fiancé, her lover, her partner was dead; dead and surrounded with h
ard-core homosexual pornography.

  FATAL LIAISON

  “It's easy, enjoyable, captivating reading, and I am eagerly awaiting the release of her fifth...” -Book Boogie

  “...easy, fluid readability factor. I didn't want to put the book down, and it was immensely enjoyable.” -MotherLode blog

  The lives of two strangers, Greg Jenkins and Megan Brighton, become inextricably entangled when they each sign up for a dinner dating agency. Greg's reason for joining has nothing to do with looking for love. His recently divorced sister Sam has disappeared and Greg is convinced that Dinner for Twelve, or at least one of its clients, may be responsible. Neither is Megan looking for love. Although single, she only joined at her best friend Brenda De Luca's insistence. When a client of the dating agency is murdered, suspicion falls on several of the members. Then Megan's friend Brenda disappears without trace, and Megan and Greg join forces. Will they find Sam and Brenda, or are they about to step into the same inescapable snare?

  CHAPTER 1

  As he listened to the second phone call from his mother, Greg Jenkins noted the increased tremor in her voice.

  “Samantha still hasn’t arrived. And she’s still not answering her phone. I’m so worried. Should I call the hospitals? What—”

  “Whoa. Slow down, Mum. Don’t stress out. Remember what the doctor said. Don’t worry about Sam. We all know how bad she is with time. She’d be late for her own funeral.” Greg laughed, hoping to ease his mother’s tension.