Spoilt by Joanne Ellis

please.”
    “ I’m sorry, Chelsea, but we found Elle murdered this
morning.”
    Chelsea’s knees buckled and Maggie stepped forward to catch
her.
    “ Whoa there little lady, stay up,” she said and helped Chelsea
over to the couch.
    “ Sorry, I’m ok. I’m just so shocked. I wasn’t expecting this.
Well, maybe I was expecting it … I don’t know what I was
expecting.” Chelsea placed her shaking hands into her lap and
clasped them tight together.
    “ That’s ok, honey, we understand,” Maggie replied glancing at
Lucas who stood rooted to a spot just inside the door.
    “ What happened?” Chelsea asked.
    “ We believe she was targeted by a serial killer we’ve been
trying to track.”
    “ Oh.”
    A shaky hand went to her mouth again.
    “ Are you up to answering a few questions?” Maggie
asked.
    Chelsea nodded.
    “ Now you mentioned to Detective Hudson that you didn’t know
how long Elle had been missing. Is that correct?”
    “ Yes, I’d been away from Friday night and didn’t return until
Monday. I wasn’t sure if she was home when I returned.”
    “ So it’s safe to say she could have been missing from Friday
night onwards?”
    “ Yes, it’s quite possible.” She paused. “Actually no, when I
rang Mrs. Sheridan she told me she’d spoken to Elle on Saturday
morning.”
    “ Are Elle’s possessions here?”
    “ Yes, as I explained to Detective Hudson,” she said giving a
fleeting look to Lucas, “I discovered her handbag and phone were
still here when I tried to call her phone and it rang in her
room.”
    “ Do you know if Elle was planning to have any visitors over
while you were away or if she planned to go out?”
    “ Elle goes out most weekends.” Chelsea offered a brief smile.
“She mentioned inviting this new guy she’d met over for
dinner.”
    Maggie glared at Lucas, who still stood in the same
spot.
    “ Do you know his name?”
    “ I don’t remember her mentioning one.”
    “ Do you have any questions, Lucas ?” Maggie enquired.
    Lucas looked over at Maggie and Chelsea. He was upset with
himself for not doing his job the previous day. Seeing her again
had tied his tongue again too.
    She might still be alive if you had been thinking about the
investigation and not your pants. It’s time to get back to
business. Where is that hard tough cop when I need him? You can do
this.
    He shook his head to clear his mind of lustful thoughts and
pushed aside his annoyance.
    “ Chelsea,” he began, “you don’t know who this man
is?”
    “ No,” she replied glaring at him as he sat across from her. “I
never met him.”
    “ So you don’t know what he looks like then?” he
snapped.
    “ No, I just said I’d never met him.”
    “ Elle never told you anything about him?”
    “ No, she didn’t, which was strange for her but I knew she
would introduce me if he became important to her.” She paused to
wipe away the tears spilling over the rims of her eyes and returned
her hand to clasp the other. “She ... liked to keep her options
open, so to speak.” She looked from one detective to the other.
“Why are you asking me questions about some guy?”
    “ The other victims had a new man in their lives and we are
trying to find a connection,” Lucas said. Assuming the role of bad
cop and being back in control brought an immediate relief. See, she’s just a
beautiful woman, move on.
    “ I’m sorry. I don’t remember anything specific about
him.”
    “ Not even where or how they met?” he asked a little
condescendingly.
    “ Not that I can remember. She told me lots of
things.”
    Lucas watched as colour rose in Chelsea’s cheeks and her
knuckles clenched and whitened. His heart lurched and his resolve
began to waver. Focus!
    “ I thought friends told each other everything,” he said a
little too loud.
    “ We do!”
    “ Then why didn’t she tell you about him?”
    “ I don’t know.” She stood up and sent Lucas a look that would
have frozen fire. “You’re