LITMIR.BIZ

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quantities of water she drinks. That wouldn't suit my system in a fit. I need the roughage of red wine and tobacco to bolster me for the job.

      Chastity's walls were a jarring note in the clutter-less room. They were covered in a multitude of slogans. Some were about healthy living, such as giving up smoking and drinking and saying no to drugs. Others stated the body was a temple of Christ and to treat it accordingly. There was a lot about celibacy and the like.

      Okay, I was proud of my little girl and wished I could be as morally highbrow. But not yet. Not with a leather-clad Fox in a Spitfire. Some things were just too, too tempting.

      `Are the other girls into all this?' I asked, waving at the notices. Some had a red and gold double `V' emblem stamped on them.

      `Pretty much. We thought we would launch a crusade to encourage other girls to think twice before using drink and drugs,' said Chastity, her eyes glazing with fanatical fervour as she beheld a vision of her own making. I recognised that look. I got it too, but for other, more earthy reasons.

      `What do the two V's stand for?'

      `You don't want to know.' She giggled, blushed and then hustled me out. `You'd better go before that yummy young cop comes searching.'

      `Hey, not so fast. When did you go in for black sequins?' I held up a little black, sparkly dress that'd been hanging on the back of the door next to Chastity's chaste pink fluffy dressing gown.

      `It belongs to my room-mate.' She held my eyes, daring me to call her bluff. As if I would. I trusted my daughter. Most of the time.

      `I'm surprised Sister Immaculata allows outfits like these. She didn't in my day.'

      `It's just for dressing up,' said Chastity. `No big deal.'

      I should've known better. My daughter doesn't deign to undertake anything that's not important. But my sensors didn't pick up the discordant note. Blame the hormones. They were focusing on something completely different.

      And that something was waiting outside…

      Chapter Two

      `Another woman was taken last night,' said Sodbury at the next day's morning briefing. His small, close-set eyes were doing their agitated flicking routine.

      `How come we've a missing person report after only a few hours?' I asked. `She might just have gone off with someone for the night.'

      Sodbury shuffled the papers on the desk and zeroed in on the relevant page. `She was with another girl. They'd been having a drink at the bar and then she went to the toilet. When she didn't return, her friend went to look for her. She couldn't find her, so raised the alarm.'

      `You were watching the club the whole time?'

      `Yeah, Rock, all the damn time.' He sounded belligerent, as if I was accusing him of incompetence. I wasn't. I just wanted facts.

      `And you didn't see anyone being forced into a car or looking drugged?'

      `No. Nothing suspicious happened at all. Just a usual night out on the town.' Sodbury frowned savagely, as if the world was ganging up against him. `I can't understand why we didn't see anything. We had both exits covered.'

      I ignored his burst of anger.

      `What do we know about this girl?'

      `Roberta Fellows, known as Bobbie. She's eighteen and apparently very attractive. She's at uni studying to be a teacher, lives in student digs and her parents are well off.'

      `Like the others,' murmured Fox.

      `What?' said Sodbury.

      `Just thinking aloud,' said Fox.

      `Who was her friend?' I asked Sodbury. `I'll go and see her. You never know, I might turn up something.'

      Sodbury furnished me with details. I glanced at the name: Maria Dellaporte. I'd seen that name somewhere recently but couldn't for the minute recall.

      Burton and Ely went back on surveillance duty while Fox and I drove out to see Maria at her family's home in one of Perth's upwardly-mobile western suburbs. We talked for a while, but Maria gave us little to go on. But as we were leaving I suddenly remembered where I'd seen the Dellaporte name before.

      It had been on the door of my daughter's room at Saint Immaculata's. Angelina Dellaporte was Chastity's roommate, and the owner of the snazzy dress.

      `Hey, Maria,' I said. `Do you have a sister at Saint Immaculata's by any chance?'

      `Yes, Angie,' she said. `Bobbie and I went there too.'

      I showed her the list of names of the other missing women and we finally hit the jackpot.

      `Hallelujah!' I said to Fox as we drove back to the station.

      `So they went to the same school but not at the same time,' he said. `And some left ages ago. So where does that get us?'

      `Further ahead than we were.' But I could tell he was sceptical. I ignored it. `Let's go and rattle Sister Immaculata's cage, you never know what we might turn up.'

      A few minutes later we were in the Iron Nun's office. She was sitting behind her desk and we were standing. I was going for the psychological advantage. Every little bit helped in dealings with my mother.

      `Sasha Lucas, Monique Dewson, Ashleigh Johnson and now Roberta Fellows. Do these names ring a bell?' I asked.

      `They are former students,' said Sister Immaculata with calm deliberation.

      `And?'

      `What else do you want me to say?'

      `Anything that might help my investigation.'

      `Investigation?' She looked at me blankly.

      `Hello! You do know these women are missing?'

      `Are they?'

      `It's been plastered over the media.'

      `You know I don't read the newspapers, Eve.' Her voice held gentle reproach and made me want to gnash my teeth.

      Instead, I sighed and plonked myself down on one of the hard-backed chairs next to the desk. To hell with psychological advantages. They rarely worked with the Iron Nun anyway.

      `Okay,' I said. `These women have gone missing over the past couple of weeks. They were last seen at the Paradise Nightclub. There's been no trace of them since. Is there anything these girls had in common? Anything that links them together?'

      Sister Immaculata's glasses glinted so that it was impossible to read any expression in her eyes. I was never sure if this was a deliberate ploy or not but it was effective all the same.

      `They were all high-achieving students.' She folded her lips and her hands and gazed at me, serenely.

      `That's it?'

      She smiled and remained silent so I carried on fishing.

      `Were they friends? In the same class?'

      `No.'

      I huffed. Angels had more luck turning stones into bread than me getting information out of my nun mum. Everything with her was on a need to know basis. I'd always had to pump hard to get any pertinent facts and even then the information wasn't always forthcoming. Like, who was my father? And did he know I existed? You know, fundamental stuff.

      I stood up and made to leave. `If you think of anything, let me know,' I tossed over my shoulder as we made for the door.

      `You didn't give her one of your business cards,' said Fox as we strode down one of the lengthy, polished wood corridors.

      `No need. She knows my number.'

      `I forgot. Your kid goes to the school.'

      That was one reason. I wasn't ready to share that the Mother Theresa look-alike was my mum. The knowledge might put him off his stride, and we didn't want that, now, did we?

      Our next stop was the Paradise

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