Free Challis - 01 - Dragon Man by Garry Disher

fingers of
his burnt hand. I wont keep you. Just a quick coffee and you can be on your
way.

    But in the kitchen she found herself
shaking violently and she let a cup fall to the floor. A woman abducted?

    He clasped her upper arms. Are you
all right?

    Stressed out, cant you tell?

    Look, come and sit down.

    He cleared the newspaper off the
sofa and sat with her. Their knees touched. An abduction, she said. I just
know theyre out there, waiting to get me.

    Clara, this has nothing to do with
your mailbox getting burnt.

    It feels like it does!

    Hush, hush.

    He was huge and enveloping. They
were very warm against each other, heat coming through the thin cotton, and,
where her bare forearm touched his, a kind of current was passing. Her voice
was muffled against his uniform. Van, I really need something to chill me out.

    She wasnt surprised that he
misunderstood her. He began to stroke her, thinking that was what she wanted.
Still, the stroking felt nice in itself. The other could wait, and would come
sooner rather than later if she could soften him up over the next couple of
days.

    She was stroking him now, the soft
skin inside his elbow. She reached up and pulled his head down to hers. The
kiss started slowly, no more than a nibble, but Clara was surprised to find
herself enjoying it. The line between calculation and need grew blurred.

    Afterwards, drowsy and half-naked on
the Moroccan floor rug, he said, God, I needed that.

    Been a while?

    I dont mean that. I mean the worlds
such a shitty place you forget whats good about it.

    Christ, he wasnt going to fall in
love with her, was he? So Im a good fuck, she said, to keep things in
perspective for him.

    He was mortified. No! Well, yes,
but in a nice way.

    She laughed. Only teasing. She
rolled on to her hip and lay with her cheek on the hard slab of bone and muscle
that was his chest. Will I see you again?

    She heard the rumble in his chest
wall. I could come again tomorrow.

    Or I could come to your place.

    He rolled away and pulled on his
underpants and trousers. Christ, no, dont do that.

    Why? Ashamed of me?

    Its better if I come here, thats
all. Its quiet here. Tucked away. Nobody to see me come and go.

    It was as if everything was decided.

    * * * *

    It
was stuffy in the Displan room. Ellen Destry pinched an electric fan from the
sick bay and placed it on her desk, letting the air wash over her as she opened
Scobie Suttons file of convicted sex offenders now living on the Peninsula.
Twenty-two names. After a further search, she discounted eight: they were
serving prison sentences. Of the remaining fourteen, five had moved interstate,
two had committed suicide, and three had convictions for paedophilia. She made
a printout of all the names, in case some had finished their prison sentences
or moved back into the area, and printed out full criminal-file copies of the
remaining four men. One, in particular, caught her eye: Lance Arthur Ledwich, born
1955, convicted in 1991 on five counts of procuring sexual penetration by fraud
and three counts of rape. Released in 1995. Apparently hed placed ads in a
Geelong newspaper calling for young women to audition for a film. A producer of
wedding videos by trade, hed auditioned the women at his studio in Newtown,
where his cameras, lights and props had provided the necessary verisimilitude.
Hed asked each woman to undress and change into a gym tunic for the part of a
schoolgirl whod been sexually awakened after a rape. Hed managed to deceive
five women into having sex with him and had raped another three. One woman also
alleged that hed punched and squeezed her windpipe when she refused to have
sex with him, but this charge was later withdrawn.

    Violent, devious. Was he working the
highway now?

    The phone rang. It was the new
constable. Could someone in CIB be present at an interview of a burglary
suspect? Ellen pushed Ledwichs file to one side and went downstairs.

    * * * *

    The
time 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 20