Chapter Fifteen

  Selina (1987)

  “Guess what?” I said to Lisa as I limped toward her at school. “Mum said I could come over to your house.”

  Lisa frowned and watched my awkward gait as I approached. “Seriously?” she said with a look of concern but happiness.

  I nodded my head and smiled. After Dad had stomped my leg after beating me for his loss in the latest race, Mum felt guilty. I was pretty sure my leg had a bone broken in it. My entire thigh was black and blue. Remy had done his best to wrap it in a compression bandage, and I was hurting like hell. But there was no way I would be taken to the hospital. I just had to put up with it.

  “That’s fantastic,” Lisa said with a grin. “We can watch some movies. How long are you allowed to stay for?”

  “Probably a couple of hours. Harry will pick me up when Mum says I must go home.”

  Lisa’s smile was more accessible, but I could still see the concern on her face. She reached out, took my bag in her hand, and we walked together toward the lockers.

  “Selina,” Chris called. I frowned as I looked over at him. He had a frown pulling at his brow. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  I looked over at Lisa, who was glaring at Chris. “What do you want?” I asked.

  “I just want to talk; I’m not going to hurt you,” he promised.

  I sighed and left Lisa as I limped over to where Chris was standing. He was frowning deeper as I approached him.

  “What?” I asked impatiently.

  “Are you okay?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Did you call me over here to ask me that?”

  “No. Look, Selina, um,” he started as he turned, looking like he was trying to gather his thoughts. This was a different side of Chris. One I hadn’t seen before. “Selina, is your old man knocking you about?”

  My eyes widened, and I gasped. I shook my head rapidly as my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “No. No, I’m just clumsy.”

  Chris narrowed his eyes as he looked over my face. He quickly rolled his sleeve, and I saw scars that dotted his arm. “Bullshit, Selina. Look,” he started again before huffing.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “That is what my Dad did to me as a kid before I was taken away from him and put with my grandma. I know what it looks like to be beaten.”

  Tears burned in my eyes as I gingerly reached out my fingers to touch the scars that dotted up Chris’s forearm.

  “How did this happen?”

  “Cigarette burns. Apparently, he enjoyed using me as an ashtray.”

  “Jesus,” I whispered before looking up into his face. “Chris, you can’t tell anyone.”

  Chris frowned. “If you tell someone, they can step in and stop it. They can take you away.”

  “And put me where? I don’t have a grandma I can go to.”

  Chris sighed. “They can put you in foster care.”

  I sighed and nodded. “I guess so.”

  Chris reached out and took my hand in his. “Please tell someone. I know I’ve treated you like shit, and I’m sorry; if I’d realized sooner what was happening with you, I wouldn’t have done it. There are things that you don’t know about your family.”

  “And you know them?”

  Chris licked over his bottom lip and nodded his head. “Yeah.”

  I narrowed my eyes as I tried to find the answers in his face. “You know who my Dad really is, don’t you?”

  Chris frowned. “You know that Mark isn’t your biological father?”

  I nodded. Chris breathed in a deep sigh before letting it out. “I’m sorry you are stuck with him, but please, tell someone.”

  “Who is my real Dad, Chris?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, but I could tell it was a lie. Chris turned and walked away, quickly pulling his jumper's sleeve down before catching up with his friends.

  “What did he want?” Lisa asked as she came up behind me.

  “I don’t know, just some bullshit he had going on with Harry,” I lied.

  The look on Lisa’s face told me that she wasn’t convinced. Chris’s words held me captive for the entire day. He knew who my biological father was. He knew what Mark Lewis did to me. I wondered whether I could genuinely walk away if I told someone. Could I be as lucky as Chris and get away?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ashton (Present)

  “Just curiously, is there anyone else you could think of that might have wanted to hurt Selina?” Zach asked as we continued to sit in the home of Lisa Reynolds. “Maybe not kill her, but someone that perhaps was showing more attention to her than usual?”

  Lisa’s eyes widened, and she gasped. “Yes. Chris. Shit, what was his surname,” she said as she looked at her mum. “Do you remember? The boy that Jason beat the snot out of for pushing Selina over in year seven.”

  “Oh, I do remember him. But I can’t think of his last name. He came from Reservoir, a rough kid in the housing commission area. His grandma ended up taking custody of him.”

  “That’s right. He was always mean to Selina; she knew him from primary school. He always bullied her, but right before she went missing, he’d started paying more attention to her. He would ask to speak to her alone, and if anyone bullied her, he would stop it.”

  Lisa reached out for one of the yearbooks. She started moving her finger over the photos on the page before tapping on a single picture. “There, Chris Borderton.”

  I took the book and looked down into the photo of a gangly-looking fourteen-year-old with curly blonde hair on top and cropped around his ears. An earring in one ear seemed to glisten in the camera's flash.

  “Fantastic, thank you,” I said as I handed the book to Lisa. “So you say he was paying more attention to her than normal?”

  “Well, not more, just different. He’d always bullied her, pushed her around, called her names, and was generally mean. Then, one day, he shoved her, and Selina yelped in pain, which seemed to spook him. She told me she’d come off her bike, but I never believed that. But whatever happened, it really changed Chris. After that day, he kept watching her, and I would catch him following us at school. Like wherever we were, he was.”

  “Interesting,” I mused. I wondered if this kid was perhaps someone looking out for her or had developed a crush. Or could there be more to the case?

  “Did Selina ever tell you what he would talk to her in private about?” Zach asked.

  Lisa shook her head. “No. Selina was a terrible liar. Whenever I asked, she said he wanted to know something about Harry, her older brother. It always hurt that she wouldn’t let me in. We had an argument the week before she went missing,” Lisa sighed.

  “What did you argue about?” I asked.

  “Chris. I knew that she was lying. He wasn’t asking about Harry. I called her on it, and she got furious at me. The argument only lasted for like half a day. After I apologized profusely and promised not to meddle, she forgave me. The following week she went missing.”

  Tears welled in Lisa’s eyes, and I could see how much she truly loved her friend. “Thank you, Lisa. If you think of anything else, please give us a ring?”

  “Of course,” Lisa said with a smile.

  Zach and I stood before walking Lisa back into the florist shop, where her daughter was busy helping an old man choose flowers.

  “Thank you again,” I said with a smile.

  “I really hope that you find out who did this to her. I want her to have some justice finally.”

  I nodded. “I agree. She deserves that, at the least.”

  Lisa smiled and nodded before turning away. Zach and I walked silently back to my car. My mind was going over everything that Lisa had told us. I had been convinced that Selina’s father had hurt her, but now with the information about Chris. The fact that Selina had been raped threw in an interesting curve ball. Could we be looking in the wrong direction? Could this have been Chris all the time?

  “What do you think?” Zach asked.

  I hummed as I brought the car to life. “I’m not sure. But I want to find out more about Chris Borderton.”

  “That’s what I was thinking too. What do you think the likelihood is that he will speak to us? Or that we will even find him?”

  “No idea, but it’s worth a shot. I still have a gut feeling that it was Mark Lewis, but there is a little inkling in my head that Chris could also be our guy.”

  “Yeah, that was what I was thinking too.”

  I glanced at the time on my dashboard. We didn’t have to go and meet with Robert King until that afternoon, so we had time to go back to the precinct and research our case. I wanted to talk to Zach about last night too. The more I thought about what happened, the more I wondered if he could have been my anonymous hookup.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Zach

  My mind was flipping between the night before and the case I was working on. I was struggling to keep my mind on the job. Every time I looked at Ashton, I saw his naked ass. I felt the way his wet warmth milked me. The only thing I truly regretted about the night before was that I hadn’t been able to hold Ashton to me and hug him, kiss him. It was all the little things I wanted.

  “Any luck on finding Chris?” Ashton asked, pulling me out of my daydream.

  I cleared my throat and shifted to hide the hard bulge in my pants. “Not yet. Who thought that Borderton was such a fucking popular name in Melbourne.”

  Ashton snorted. “Yeah, it seems the story of our lives at the moment. But you might find him quicker if you typed his name into the computer rather than just staring at your screen.”

  I blinked and turned my attention to the computer screen, feeling my cheeks blush with embarrassment. I’d got so caught up in my fantasies that I’d been staring at a screen doing nothing for the last half hour.

  “Shit,” I growled before pressing enter to search for Chris’s name. “Sorry.”

  Ashton chuckled. “Do we need to talk?” he asked, looking at me seriously.

  I licked over my bottom lip and searched his face. “About what?”

  Ashton rolled his eyes. “Zach.”

  I groaned. “What gave it away?”

  “The lost and dreamy look you get every time you look in my direction. Why did you come back to the room?”

  I groaned again. “I don’t know. Curiosity.”

  Ashton smiled and nodded his head. “Well, if it’s of any consolation, it was good. More than good.”

  I chuckled. “I’m glad; I enjoyed it too.”

  Ashton sighed. “But.”

  I nodded my head. “But we can’t do it again, I know.”

  “Are we going to be able to avoid it? I mean, we’ve both had a taste.”

  “I know. It’s like the fucking forbidden fruit. Ashton, I really liked it.”

  Ashton sighed. “Me too.”

  I looked into his eyes and saw how his pupils dilated as he thought about our encounter the night before. I wasn’t going to lie to Ashton; I wanted him. I wanted more of him, and the more I got to know him, I wasn’t sure I could give him up.

  “Fuck, this could go so bad for us,” he growled.

  I nodded my head. “I know. But at least we both are openly gay; we aren’t hiding it.”

  Ashton groaned. “Not helping.”

  I chuckled. “I know. I’m sorry. Actually, I’m not. I know I should feel guilty, but Ashton, I can’t. I like you.”

  Ashton looked over at me and searched my face. “This could completely destroy our careers.”

  “It could,” I agreed.

  “But we are going to do it, aren’t we?”

  I chuckled. “Probably.”

  Before I could say anything more, the computer binged, breaking the tension between us. I turned to see a result on the screen. A mug shot showed a Chris Borderton.

  “That’s definitely him,” I said. There was no question about the way he glared at the camera.

  “Yep, definitely. What was his arrest for?”

  “Sexual assault,” I replied with a gasp.

  “Holy shit.”

  “He is currently serving time at Port Phillip.”

  “We need to interview him. This could be our man.”

  I read through the arrest report. He’d been arrested for the sexual assault of a fifteen-year-old girl he’d picked up at a nightclub two years earlier. He said she’d told him she was eighteen, but according to the girl and her parents, she had been unequivocal with him that she was seventeen.

  “It wasn’t a violent attack. The girl said it was consensual, but because she was underage, he was charged,” I read.

  Ashton hummed. “Not exactly the same as Selina. Why would he go from a violent rape that kills a girl to picking up an underage girl at a nightclub and being charged with statutory rape?”

  I nodded. “It doesn’t really add up, but I think we should still go and talk to him.”

  “Yeah, I agree.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Selina (1987)

  “I’m so happy to have you able to come and spend some time with us again, Selina,” Lisa’s mum, Nicole, said with a smile as she placed a glass of coke and a sandwich in front of us.

  “I’m thrilled to be here,” I replied genuinely. Nicole gave me a warm smile.

  “There are more sandwiches if you are still hungry after that one, girls,” she said before leaving the room. I wasn’t sure if she was always this friendly or because she thought I didn’t get much to eat at home.

  She’d be right. This week had been hell. If it hadn’t been for the help Mum could get from the Salvation Army, we wouldn’t have had any food in the house. Dad was disgusted when he found out she’d been to charity to ask for help. She was sporting a fresh black eye this morning.

  My leg was still aching in my thigh. I was exhausted, but there would be no stopping me from coming to Lisa’s house. It was huge. She had a massive television and even one in her bedroom.

  “Are you still hungry?” Lisa asked as I finished my sandwich and put my plate in the sink.

  I shook my head. “No, I’m good, thank you.”

  Lisa grinned. “Wanna go to my room and watch a movie?”

  I nodded and followed her into her overstuffed bedroom with the teddy bears she’d collected. Lisa’s dad was a pilot and brought her home another teddy bear from whatever country he visited.

  She opened a cabinet that sat beside the television in her room. “Choose a movie,” she instructed.

  “Oh wow, you have so many,” I gasped. The last time I came over, we spent the afternoon watching her brothers show off and play football. “We don’t even have a video player.”

  Lisa smiled. “Dad is obsessed with movies. When he is home, he and the boys watch them constantly. Mum and I prefer other films, so she brought one for my room so we could watch in here when the boys were taking over the lounge room.”

  “You’re so lucky.”

  Lisa smiled. “I am.”

  That was something I loved about Lisa. I’d met many kids from wealthy families, but they always found something to complain about. Lisa wasn’t like that. She realized that she had it well and appreciated it. I think that was what I liked about her. She was humble, but without the entitled attitude, a lot had.

  I turned my attention back to the array of videos. I gasped as I saw the same movie I wanted to watch. I pulled it from the shelf and turned to Lisa, who beamed.

  “Good choice,” she giggled, pushing the video into the player. “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

  I giggled as Lisa quoted the movie. In truth, I hadn’t seen it, but I’d heard Lisa mentioning parts of the film so often that it felt like I knew it off by hand. We settled on Lisa’s bed and watched the movie. I was enthralled. It was so weird to watch a show and not have ads throughout it.

  Just as the credits started to roll, Lisa’s mum, Nicole, knocked on the bedroom door. “That was good timing,” she chuckled. “Selina, your brother Harry is here.”

  “Thank you,” I said, feeling disappointed at the knowledge that it meant it was time to go home. I turned to Lisa and smiled. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

  Lisa nodded her head and gave me a quick hug. “I hope you can come back again one day.”

  “Me too,” I replied before climbing off the bed and heading for the front door, where Harry was waiting and talking to Jason.

  “You ready?” Harry asked.

  I nodded and slipped my feet into my shoes before returning to Nicole. “Thank you for having me.”

  “Oh, any time, precious girl; I like having you over.”

  I smiled and walked through the door and down the path where Chris stood at the bottom of the driveway.

  “Hey, Sel,” he greeted.

  “Hey, Chris,” I answered. It had taken a little bit to get used to seeing Chris regularly, but he had been a constant since he told me about his Dad. Constantly checking on me. Sometimes it was annoying, but other times it was lovely.

  I limped down the road while Harry and Chris chatted away. “Hey Chris, can you walk her the rest of the way? I’ve got to go do something,” Harry said.

  Chris nodded his head. “Sure.”

  Harry veered off and dashed down the street, taking a quick moment to spend time with his girlfriend, whom we weren’t supposed to know about. He wasn’t the most subtle.

  “I’m surprised your Dad let you go to Lisa’s again,” Chris said.

  I sighed. I’d been surprised too. The first time had been just after he beat me so badly I had to take a week off school. This time was because of the thigh injury he’d caused. “I think Mum was feeling guilty.”

  Chris nodded his head. “You haven’t told anyone yet, have you?”

  I shook my head. “I can’t, Chris. If they don’t believe me, Dad will kill me.”

  Chris stopped and put his hands on my arms; looking down into my eyes, he shook his head. “They will believe you, Sel; you can’t even walk without a limp anymore.”

 

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