The Deadly Caress

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

The Campbell home was perched on a cliff that jutted out to meet the ocean. From his vantage point on the beach, Brian McMahon saw the prearranged signal. Jean had opened the veranda doors.

     He raced across the coarse gray sand, and past large boulders that seemed like some giant had strewn handfuls of them at the bottom of the cliff. His fingers skimmed the handrail as he bounded up the steps carved into the cliff's rocky face.

     Slow down, he told himself when he reached the top; Jean needs time alone with her. Allow them both some time. However, he was dying to meet Amanda.

     Borders of scented lilies and irises were just splashes of color as he hurried along the path that led to the covered courtyard. He felt the eagerness of a young schoolboy, the schoolboy he’d never been. It took all his self-control to pause at the back door. These boyish thoughts took him back to when he was fourteen and living on that run-down acre with that alcoholic he called a father.

     He’d never known the carefree life of a teenager: to enjoy going to the local movie theater in the school holidays like the other boys did. He’d been too busy surviving.

***

Jean closed her eyes momentarily. “Give me a chance. That’s all I ask.”

     “I’ve come all this way not because I’m just curious but to find out what I can and you keep putting me off. That’s so infuriating. You’re starting to sound like Samuel who won’t tell me anything no matter how many times I ask.”

     “Your father was a sales representative for a large company that sold machinery and parts. It would be impossible to trace him.”

     “Thank you.” Finally, she was getting somewhere.

     “I know I must be repeating myself, but it’s wonderful to have you here at last. I can't tell you how much this means to me.” Jean turned away. Not before Amanda saw a tear roll down Jean’s cheek.

     Amanda suppressed the sudden kindling of similar emotion. “If it hadn’t been for the photo shoot I was doing on dolphins in Western Australia, I’d have been here weeks ago. Right now, I should be in Tasmania doing a piece with a writer for the Australian Geographic.”

     “Your job sounds demanding.”

“I’ve been taking photos ever since I can remember. Mostly since the part-time job at a photographic studio while I was in high school. Why I chose to do accountancy at university I don’t know.”

     “What happened?”

     “One year was all I managed before I threw it in. Then I was back at the studio. That’s where I learnt my trade.” The hobby that became her passion had kept her sane when the darkness in her mind seemed to overwhelm her, and she thought she would go down the same path as her mother. Well, the woman she’d believed to be her mother.

     Jean picked up a ring-bound folder from the coffee table and handed it to Amanda. “I’ve kept a scrapbook of your work.”

     Amanda leafed through it. “How did…that’s from Geo, and that spread, the National Geographic? Even the one I did for Black and White. That one shot. You’ve no idea. I had to hang upside down under a bridge.”

     “Wasn’t that dangerous? You could’ve been killed.”

     Amanda laughed, and couldn’t believe she had. “I had so many harnesses on me, I could hardly move.” Jean cared…she really cared. A welling of heartfelt feeling expanded in her chest, it was so unfamiliar that it threatened to overwhelm her. She took a deep steadying breath. “I’m surprised that you’ve collected all these.”