Chapter 5

August dropped me at home the next morning and we shared another kiss before I got out of his car.

"I'll get things arranged for the house's security to be done before this weekend. If you have any furniture or other large items you'd like to move let me know. Give my regards to your father."

"I will, thank you. I don't think there is anything much to move since your house has pretty much everything already. I mostly just have my clothes and such items that I'm sure will fit in the car."

I entered the house carefully but cursed and automatically reached where my gun would normally be strapped when a voice greeted me in the dark of the living room. I had not switched on a light and tried to sneak in without disturbing pops since it was about 4 am in the morning.

"You scared the life out of me!" I protested.

"Just proving to you that I can look after myself. Not even my son can sneak past me."

"Funny."

"So, how was the sex?"

I almost growled at him.

"None of your business!" I said and after a pause: "I...agreed to marry him."

"Really? Oh..."

"Why do you sound disappointed?" I asked suspiciously.

"I was kinda convinced you would make him work for it a while longer. This means that he is probably going to have a ton of people over here later today to make our house "safe" so he can whisk his bride away to his castle. I'll have to make sure I hide all my stuff."

"What stuff? You mean your porn collection from 1982?"

"No better, my blow-up dolls Suzie and Jackie as well as my collection of sex toys."

"Gross...too much info pops."

"You started it. Seriously now, I have some files and things that I wouldn't want people getting their hands on. I'll make sure it is all moved into the safe room."

I helped my dad move several boxes of stuff downstairs into the safe room and it was just after 6 when we were finished. My jog was a bit harder than usual, and I knew it was because I had such a late night, so I made my coffee extra strong.

When I got to the office Danny informed me that the results of the fingerprint analysis of the victim found in the container home came back. The man that was shot was assumed to be the one supposedly working at the Casino. Fingerprint analysis revealed that his name was Albert Heins, he was 43 years old and did indeed work at a Casino. He had previous run-ins with the law, including armed robbery and car theft and served some time in prison.

The gun I found in the bush didn't have any fingerprints on it and it had been licensed to a fake name, so this was a dead end. It did prove to be the weapon that shot Albert, confirmed by comparing the shot shell from the gun to one of the shell casings found in the room.

We still had plenty of leads to follow now. We'd have to go and talk to his employer and colleagues at the Casino to see if we can learn anything. "Tim", who we assumed was still alive, would be a bit more difficult to track. Even though fingerprints were found in the home that we assume was Tim's he had no criminal history, so he wasn't on the system. There were no other fingerprints, so it was assumed that the attackers wore gloves. None of the other evidence collected gave any clues to who the assailants were at this stage.

The neighbours described Tim as being of slight build, blond shoulder length hair that he usually wore in a bun, brown eyes. A bit on the short side. And a stud through his left eyebrow.

There were two universities in our district, so we decided to get a composite sketch drawn and then try to match it up with the students currently attending. No doubt Tim wasn't his real name. We would also show the sketch to the lecturers and see if perhaps with some luck one of them recalled seeing this student. The classes were large with 40 to 60 students on average, so I didn't put my hopes too high.

So, we set off to the Casino. This one was in a shady part of the district. Prostitutes could be found on the street and all sorts of illegal trading also happened here. This was one of those areas that the police department always had an ongoing struggle with to try and "clean it up".

None of the staff looked too happy to see two cops and didn't want to talk to us, but they took us to the manager. After explaining why we were there the manager was a bit more cooperative. He confirmed that Albert was an employee but that he'd been late for his work shifts a couple of times lately and that he suddenly stopped coming to work altogether and we confirmed that it was the day that the shooting happened which explained why he couldn't come to work.

We spoke to his work colleagues again and none of them knew him very well. Just that he was a quiet person, but sometimes lost his temper. He had been in some incidents with rowdy clients. We found out that he had a girlfriend called Cayenne, a stripper at a strip club not far from the casino. They weren't able to provide us with her contact details so we ended up going to the club to see if we could find her.

Seeing how uncooperative the casino people had been, we changed out of our uniforms into casual wear before heading to the club. The club was quite packed and smoky. Danny was clearly uncomfortable with all the naked and half-naked women around and I sympathised with the guy. His girlfriend was the jealous sort.

"If you want you can wait for me outside or in the car?" I suggested as we made our way around looking for a woman with the description we had been given of Cayenne.

"And leave you in here by yourself? Your dad would murder me."

"Perhaps. But I don't want you to feel like you are cheating on your girlfriend. Remember, this is for work. We're not here to have a good time."

"Easy for you to say since you are gay and single."

I glared at him.

"Even if this had been a gay strip club the same applies. And for your information I am no longer single."

"Really? Since when?"

"Last night."

"I guess that explains the..."

Danny was tapping against the back of his neck and I realised with horror that I had forgotten about the hickey. Shit. I wondered if I had a scarf in the car? I was also surprised that the old man didn't mention anything this morning about it. He wasn't the sort to let this kind of thing slide.

"Well, congratulations. Who is the lucky guy?" Danny continued.

"His name is August."

Just then a lady not dressed in much, approached us.

"So, what can I do for you boys?" she asked, looking at us seductively. Here for a drink, a lap dance or just to watch the show?"

"We are actually looking for Cayenne?" I asked.

The woman scrunched her nose like she was smelling something rotten.

"I really don't recommend her. If you want to have a good time, there are others much more..."

"We are police officers and need to speak to her in relation to her boyfriend," I interrupted as I showed her my badge.

Her eyes widened.

"She...she's not here tonight," she said a bit too quickly. She definitely looked nervous.

"Okay...do you know when she'll next be in? Or even better, do you have her contact details and residential address since she's an employee here?"

The lady eventually came back with a number and address scribbled on a piece of paper.

"Thank you, much appreciated," Danny said, but the lady almost flat out ignored us once she'd given him the paper.

"Okay, let's get going since she's not wanting to talk to us anymore," I said.

Outside by our car I phoned the number, but it went straight to voicemail. I left a message explaining who I was and that we needed to speak with her urgently. I was about to get into the car when Danny stopped me.

"The tyres are slashed."

I looked and sure enough, all four tyres were slashed.

"Great."

We had to wait for assistance and went back to the club to ask if they had any surveillance cameras facing the parking lot. They said they did, but conveniently that particular camera had malfunctioned. All four tyres were removed and taken away to see if anything could be found and we then had to go and make a statement. It was about three hours later when we got back to the office.

Today had been a long day and I realised it was going to be even longer when I arrived at home and saw all the machinery at work in the yard. Since it was starting to get dark, they had these huge floodlights. It looked like they were digging up the whole property.

I found pops inside the kitchen, not looking too happy.

"Hey pops. Why are they digging for bodies out there?" I asked to try and lighten the mood.

"The whole day! The whole freakin' day they had been drilling and hammering and making a racket. Not even Hades could scare them off! I couldn't concentrate on work at all! And it's all your fault! Why did you have to say yes?"

"I thought you wanted me to marry him? Besides, why didn't you just take your laptop somewhere else?"

"And leave the saferoom?"

"You know, if that stuff is so sensitive why don't you rather destroy it?"

"It is not the kind of thing I can destroy, a lot of it is critical evidence that can't be handed over for...special reasons. It has to be kept in case it is ever needed."

"O...kay. Forget I asked. Now, today I went to a casino and then a strip club. Aren't you proud of me?"

My dad looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"You had your bachelor's party already without me? How dare you?"

I laughed and told dad about what happened at the casino and the club.

"Believe me it wasn't much fun and then somebody slashed our tyres outside the strip club. I had to make a statement for both of us while Danny had to explain to a hysterical girlfriend why he would be late for dinner. I feel sorry for the dude."

"It seems like the woman at the club knew something was up. The girlfriend sounds like a definite lead, but it is worrying that her phone is not ringing."

"Yeah. We'll go around her place tomorrow if I still can't get hold of her. Otherwise we may have to revisit the club. We couldn't actually find out when she'd be there for her next shift. I might ask Grey to phone and pretend to be a customer that wants to hire her or something."

"So, son. Did you get any compliments today?" he asked with a grin. I knew he was talking about the hickey.

"I knew it, youdidn't tell me on purpose, right? Luckily the others at the office were civil enough not to say anything about it, but Danny did eventually bring it up when I mentioned that I was now engaged. Just you wait, I'm going to wait until next time you are drunk and draw on your face with a permanent marker."

"A penis I hope?"

"Oh, good idea."

Later before going to bed, I sent August a message.

Me: "Had a busy day, how about you? They seem to be changing the house into Fort Knox here. I thought they'd be going at it all night. Was happy when things quieted down at 10 pm. The neighbours would no doubt have filed a complaint if it had gone on longer, we have a very nosy agony aunt diagonally across the street. Hope you sleep well."

August: "My day was busy too, I just got home. It sounds like the alterations are right on schedule. Everything should be done by Friday evening. Sweet dreams, Kai. I hope you dream of me."

I smiled. August was really a sweet guy. Just then another message came. Which was a photo of August in the bathroom. His naked torso was in plain view and he smirked at the camera. The shot was angled so that the bathroom counter just covered his hips which was obviously naked. I could see the turquoise blue tattoo patterns running down the side of his neck, over his chest and stomach and all the way down.

He was so hot. His gym and pool definitely wasn't just for show, as I already knew. I felt disappointed that the counter was in the way. Another message notification dinged.

August: "About to go for a shower. Thought I'd give your dreams some inspiration."

I certainly did have very colourful dreams and had to jerk off to get rid of some of the sexual tension in my body. The next morning, I went for my usual jog and took Hades along this time. My mind was swirling with everything that's been going on lately. The house renovations, my moving in with August this weekend. August's hot body. The case I'm currently working on with Danny. But mostly August's hot body.

Just then I noticed Hades stopped suddenly and looked at a spot of trees, but I didn't see anyone there. I didn't want to have to chase after him, so I pulled his leash and called him to me and continued on the path. Perhaps there were squirrels or some other animal that he heard.

I barely had my coffee and breakfast when the noise started up again outside. Dad came into the kitchen cursing. I poured him a cup of coffee and handed it to him wordlessly. He definitely wasn't a morning person.

"Remind me why I'm letting them do this?" he asked me after drinking about half his cup.

"Because you want your son out of your house and not be booked into an Old Age home."

He just grunted. I pressed a kiss on the top of his head and headed to the office, leaving Hades with pops.

Cayenne still wasn't answering her phone, so Danny and I drove to her home. It was in an average neighbourhood. We knocked on the door, but nobody answered. Everything looked closed up. I noticed that there was no post in the mailbox which told me someone must have been here at least recently. We looked around the yard and since we couldn't see anything suspicious, we had to leave for now.