End of Life As I Know It

Two years after our wedding Roslyn gave up work to have Simon, our son, and eighteen months later Lucy our daughter. We were all in good health and happy. Life couldn't have been better.

We never discussed those aspects of our past that had brought us together, deciding instead that we would have inevitably linked up anyway.

I was going over the past ten years, searching for clues as to the why of this whole episode, when it hit me. I rang Loz. "Mate, can you find out if George Preston has been released from gaol?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because Roslyn has been abducted and I wouldn't mind betting that he has had something to do with it."

"Let me check and get back to you."

"Hold on, I have another request. Could you check on Ryan McMaster's finances? Could he have managed to raise three million dollars, and did he, in the past twenty-four hours?"

"Is that it?"

"For now, yes."

My next call was to Roslyn's father. "Where's Roslyn?"

"How the fuck should I know. You've got a nerve ringing and asking that question. My daughter's missing and why is it that you're not out there looking for her? Never did think that you had any sense."

That pretty much confirmed my suspicions. If I were in his shoes my first response would be concern for her well-being.

"I'm getting desperate and calling all our friends, sort of exclusion calls." I hoped that he was going to think about his answer, because each of our friends' first response was 'what's wrong, is she all right? Not that I could answer that.

My phone rang, it was Loz. "Who's the smart person then?"

"What have you found out?"

"George Preston was released on parole two days ago. As for McMasters, he'd be lucky to raise three thousand dollars, let alone three million. What is that all about?"

"Whoever it was that has abducted her demanded three million for her return. It was the abductor hinting that her father could be a source of funds that led me to ask him for help. This is where it gets interesting, the money was delivered to me in the black wheelie bag that I was supposed to deliver it in. The bag had combination locks so I couldn't verify that there was money in it. I called a cab to take me to the airport. Now the cab driver insisted on loading the bag into the boot and taking it out again, something about knowing how to lift it properly. My thinking is that there was no money in the bag, I don't know. I followed his instructions and fronted the QANTAS check in counter as directed, only to find that the ticket that I was supposed to collect was not there. I called the number used to give me instructions, to be told that a surprise was waiting for me at home. Expecting to find her there, I raced home to find, nothing. I noticed that the wheelie bag that I now had did not have a combination lock, the bags had been switched by the cab driver, then got a call, the surprise was hearing Roslyn's voice apologising for breaking the news to me in this fashion, news that she was leaving me. It might just be my wishful thinking, but I'm sure that she was forced to say that."

"Knowing the two of you, I'd say you're right. Get on your bike and get over here, while you're on your way I'll engage the grey matter and see if I can come up with some sort of explanation."

Getting on my bike didn't mean putting on Lycra and hopping on a bicycle, it mean for me to get to him as expeditiously as possible.

"I've spoken to the police and a detective is on his way over. They are contacting George's Parole Officer to find where he is staying, and they will probably pay him a visit on the way here. We sit and wait. While we're waiting, let me run something past you. What if George and your father-in-law are in this together."

"But why would they be?"

"Remember, before he was put away, they were the best of mates. That was until the old boy threw him to the wolves. Both of them lost out on the deal, McMasters and his wife split up, and thanks to yours truly, you didn't know about that, she took him to the cleaners. He is cash strapped at the moment. What were the arrangements for him giving you the money?"

"I was to pay it back, with interest of course, but then I expected nothing different from him."

"So, you will be paying off this 'loan' for the rest of your life. That will be money that he has no chance of making himself. I would hazard a guess that if there were money in that wheelie bag, he and George will be splitting it, sort of compensation to George for loss of earnings while he was inside, but that is highly unlikely."

Loz's secretary came into the office followed by a man. 'Sir, this is Detective Sergeant Roberts." She smiled at Loz and left.

"Sergeant, what news do you have for us?" Loz asked.

"None, as it happens." Not what we were expecting at all. "We spoke with George Preston's Parole Officer who gave us an address. When we attended that address we found it belonged to an elderly former school teacher, who had lived in that apartment for twenty years and had never heard of George Preston. We called the Parole Officer and he admitted that he had dropped George off outside the apartment block but had not accompanied him to the apartment."

"So where to from here?" I asked.

"I think a visit to McMaster's apartment is in order."

"Do we know where that is?"

"I will get someone on it right away." Sergeant Roberts said as he phoned his station.

It may have only taken five minutes, but they must have been the longest five minutes I have ever spent.

Roberts answered his phone. There were several grunts, and a 'that is interesting', followed by a couple more grunts, and a final 'good work', before he turned to us. "We have spoken to McMaster's secretary, who told us that he was on vacation, and that she didn't know where. But then we did some checking, using the Electoral Commission's Certified List that used to be the Electoral Roll, and found that she and her boss were enrolled at the same address, making it unlikely that she would not know where he was. We will lean on her to see if she changes her mind."

I don't know about Loz, but I was deflated. Here I was thinking that we were getting close to getting Roslyn back, but now we seem to be as far away as before.

"You should leave it to the police for now. I will be in touch the moment that we've found out more." He left.

Loz pushed an intercom button. "Kathy, we are in desperate need of a caffeine hit, and bring one for yourself."

"Are you slipping it to her?" I asked him.

"You guessed, clever aren't you?"

"Not really, I noticed the look that she gave you when she brought the Sergeant in."

Kathy came in with a tray with three mugs of coffee and a plate of cake slices. "Ah, my favourite." Loz said as he helped himself to a slice, "You are too kind." She flashed him that smile again and looked at me. "He knows." Loz told her.

She relaxed and sat down, smiling at me. "Hello Sam, it's been a while, how's Roslyn?" The look I gave her stopped her mid smile. "No, what has happened?"

She listened patiently as we outlined the story up to the present.

"You have a couple of very strong emotions at play here. You have George full of pent up anger wanting to get back at you," She looked from me to Loz, "for taking his comfortable lifestyle, and his endless supply of women, away from him. Being convicted of rape would have made him a prime target to become some crim's bum boy. I'm guessing that would not have helped matters. And then you have McMaster's loss of just about everything, wife, house, life. He would be looking for revenge against the person that he holds responsible for that."

"Now you know why I hired her." Loz said grabbing Kathy's hand.

"And here I was thinking it was because I'm gorgeous and good in bed."

"That too. Kathy has a Psych degree and could be making shit loads of money being a practising Psychologist, instead she works for me, and is paid a pittance."

"That reminds me, I need a raise."

"She does this every time I happen to mention how good she is." He turned to her, "You get enough, and you live rent free in a serviced apartment..."

"Being serviced on a regular basis by the apartment owner, that in itself is a reason for a raise."

"We'll talk about this later."

"You two sound like a married couple." I said.

"We are." They said in unison.

We sat around talking about not a lot for the best part of an hour and Kathy had just ordered out for something to eat that, as it turned out none of us felt like eating, the coffee we drank in silence. A silence that was shattered by the phone. "Stimson Legal." Kathy said. She listened for a second or two before handing the phone to Loz.

He listened for a little longer before he replied. "We'll be right there." He was heading for the door even before I had managed to get out of my chair. "The police have located George in an apartment rented for him by McMasters, in the same building as his own. They have something of a hostage situation in progress."

"Roslyn?" I asked him.

"Yes."

"I hope that they don't do anything stupid." I knew the moment I said that just how stupid I sounded.

We reached the cordon that had been set up around the scene, and once we had established our identities and purpose, we were allowed through to where Sergeant Roberts was standing with a couple of policemen, one armed with what was a sniper's rifle."
"I see the bastard's here!" The voice came from the man at the front window. He reached to his left and dragged Roslyn to his side. "I was counting on you being here Sam, I wanted you to be here when I get my revenge." He raised his hand to reveal a pistol that he held to Roslyn's head.

"What do you want?" I asked him.

"I want you here with us so that you can witness me killing your wife before I kill you. I don't give a fuck what happens to me after that."

"Don't do this," I was about to deny responsibility for this situation but realised that this would inflame matters even further than they were now."

"George, you have a lot of money there, you have your life ahead of you to spend it." Kathy called to him.

"What fucking money, there is no money."

"Is that my fault? I passed on the wheelie bag that her father gave me. If you'd noticed it had combination locks, and I didn't have the combination, so how could I have opened it and taken the money. I wouldn't have done that anyway, I want Roslyn back and would not have done anything to endanger me getting her back. If there was no money in the bag there never was any money in the bag."

"I don't believe you, Ryan has assured me that he put the money in the bag." I got the impression that he was talking to Ryan.

"Where would Ryan have got his hands on that amount of money, the man is flat broke."

There was a mumbled conversation. "He told me that he had it transferred from his Cayman Island account."

"And you believed that bullshit. He has no Cayman account, in fact the only account that he has is currently overdrawn. He was using this exercise to get money to pay off his debts. It's my betting that you would not have seen any of it."

"When you get a clear shot, take it. I would prefer him alive, but if you can't get that shot, so be it." Sergeant Roberts said to the sniper.

The sniper had his rifle resting on the roof of a patrol car. The moment arrived. George's attention was on someone else in the room. The shot rang out and George was flung back as the bullet penetrated his shoulder. The pistol flew from his hand and fell to the floor. Roslyn dropped from sight and I thought that she had been hit, but then she stood and pointed the pistol at the other person in the room.

Three policemen, one armed with a battering ram hit the front door and stormed inside with shouts of 'Police, hands in the air.'

They emerged moments later with George clutching his bleeding shoulder and Ryan McMasters in handcuffs followed by Roslyn, who broke into a run and flung herself at me.

"Sam, Darling, I knew that you'd come, I knew that you wouldn't believe what they forced me to say to you."

I Held her to me for what seemed like forever until Sergeant Roberts cleared his throat. "Missus Kingsley, we need to take you to hospital for a check-up and then we would like for you to tell us what happened."

An ambulance threaded its way through the police vehicles and stopped next to us. The paramedics gave her the quick once over before helping her into the ambulance vehicle. I was stopped as I went to get in with her, until Sergeant Roberts nodded permission to them.

"We'll be right behind you." Loz told me as the door closed behind me.

Roslyn took a pair of panties from a pocket in her jeans. "There will be DNA from two men on these, they will be evidence of my having been raped by two men." she handed them to the paramedic who placed them in a plastic bag.

Two men?" I asked her. I expected that George would try again, but the only other person there was her father.

"Yes. Two men. I have been raped by my own father as well as George, at least I think I have. I was drugged, probably one of those date rape drugs and I know that my father had hold of my legs while George raped me, and I thought I heard him say 'Your turn' as he got from me. Someone else had sex with me, and I can only assume that it was my father."

She was wheeled into an examination cubicle and I was asked to wait outside.

Sergeant Roberts, followed closely by Loz and Kathy arrived.

"How is she?" Sergeant Roberts asked.

"She's being examined. She told me that she had been raped by two men, one was definitely George, the other she assumes, was her father. She's been drugged."

"Shit." Sergeant Roberts was stunned. "What kind of sicko would do that to his own daughter?"

A doctor emerged from the cubicle. "We will have nothing to tell you for some time, we don't have a fancy machine like you see in those CSI type shows that can produce instantaneous results of tests that take us hours. I know that you're impatient for results, but I suggest that you go somewhere and we will contact you as soon as we have completed our tests."

"Can I stay with her, I'm her husband"

"Sure." He opened the curtain and I went in and sat next to her. "Hi Darling, how are you feeling?"

"As well as can be expected. No I'm fine, I'm better than fine. This episode has given me closure."

"What do you mean, closure?"

"Something came back to me while my father was doing his thing, it was his breath. I remember back years ago, my father came to me in the middle of the night. It was a month or two before George's visit, and he raped me. Oh he didn't put his penis into me, but he did rape me with his finger. The next day I confronted him about it and he claimed that nothing had happened and that he was never in my room. I doubted my recall until early this morning. I tried hard not to say or do anything that would tell him that I remembered the first time, but I will tell the police and I'm prepared to give them the evidence that they need."

It was dark when I was allowed to take her home. There was a police car waiting for us.

"I heard that you have been allowed out. We have evidence that will put both of them away for a long time. For starters, George has broken his parole, so back inside with no remission. He's being held in a secure wing of the hospital until he's well enough to be moved back to gaol. The rape kit revealed the presence of semen from two men, George and your father, present in your vagina as well as on your panties. Your toxicology screen revealed the presence of a date rape drug in your system. There was a needle mark on your upper arm where the injection was made. I think we have enough, more than enough, for a conviction."

"Good, it couldn't happen to two more deserving people." I said.

"How do you feel about this?" Sergeant Roberts asked Roslyn.

"Good, no, better than good." I tossed her a quizzical raised eyebrow. "This has given me closure that I didn't know I needed until this happened. Something happened years ago that I had effectively blocked. It is no longer blocked, at least I don't think so. I'll find out later." Another quizzical look that brought a smile to her face.

"We'll need you to come in tomorrow to make a statement so that we can wrap this up."

"Sure, we'll be there." She answered for both of us.

I could not understand how calmly she was taking this whole episode.

I rang Mum to tell her that it was all over and asking if she could look after the kids for another night, "I need to be sure that Roslyn's over this before we face the kids and have to explain what has happened. And we have to go to the police station in the morning so that she can make a statement."

"That's fine, would you like to say 'hi' to them?"

"Sure."

"Hello Dad, what's been happening, Grandma hasn't told us anything."

"She didn't know anything. We'll explain it all tomorrow. Put Lucy on. Hello Lucy, your mother and I miss you, we'll see you tomorrow. Now you be a good girl for Grandma, and that goes for Simon too. We love you."

"I love you Daddy, and I love Mummy too."

It was an hour later and we had showered and were getting into bed. I was not looking forward to having to go through the same experience as we had gone through all those years ago.

"I love you." Roslyn whispered just after she had given me the most sensuous kiss I have ever had. She took my hand and placed it over her breast, she did not draw away from the touch, and neither did she draw away when she guided my hand between her legs. "I know that you'll be gentle, but this once I want you to forget about holding back. I want to feel your love for me in every touch, every kiss, everything. I need you and your love to finally wash away the experiences of the past that have held me back."

"I hadn't noticed."

"You will notice the difference tonight."

Do you know what, I did, and it was great, better than great, it was perfect.

The end of my life as I know it didn't end, it just got better.