Mad, Bad and Dead, page 28
‘Oh. Well, if you can’t see Emma… but it would really help me.’
It seemed that even now, Swan couldn’t bring himself to say please. Never mind. ‘Is she still in the hotel?’
‘Yes. Detective Constable Chandler or I can be there today with her if you want someone to help.’
‘No, it’s fine.’ Swan made Emma clam up. Chandler didn’t seem to be able to get past her defences either. ‘I’ll come and see her now, and bring her things.’
Andre and I were in the city in half an hour, and he decided to go shopping again when I said I thought it was better if I talked to Emma alone. I chose one box out of the back of the 4WD – the box with her and Kate’s personal things in it. Upstairs, I checked in with the officer outside Emma’s door and then knocked. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and she seemed surprised to see me, but she let me in. The room was a mess, with snack food packets and empty drink cans everywhere and the bed unmade. She flopped down on the bed and continued watching the TV, ignoring me. I left the box by the door, picked up the rubbish bin and went around, collecting up the mess while I tried to judge her mood and decide how to approach her.
When the room was reasonable again, I sat in the chair at the little desk and tried to look motherly. Not something I was any good at so I dropped that idea. ‘Swan tells me you’re off to Kiwiland tomorrow.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Is your dad excited you’re coming?’
She shrugged. ‘Doubt it, but he doesn’t have any choice really, does he?’
‘You’d be surprised. A lot of men would say it’s not their responsibility.’ I pointed at the box. ‘I brought up some of your things. Your personal things, not clothes and stuff.’
Her eyes slid sideways towards the box. ‘Like what?’
‘Some of your mum’s things, for a start.’
‘My monkey?’
I had to search my memory to remember that it was a stuffed toy. ‘Yes, that’s in there.’
She kept watching the TV, but her face was the show. Twitching, lip biting, blinking. She sat up, her arms around her legs, and rested her forehead on her knees. She stayed like that for several minutes and I didn’t dare say a word. Something big was going on in her head and she needed some space. Finally, she unfolded herself, her face a mix of white and blotched red, and went to the box. Flipping back the top, she stuck in a hand and pulled out the stuffed monkey.
For a moment I thought she was going to hug it, but instead she threw it to me, and I caught it awkwardly. ‘I’m giving it to you,’ she said.
‘Um, OK. Thanks.’ I looked at the monkey – it was mauve and cute, not ugly and poo brown like Mia’s old one. ‘Why?’
‘Turn it over.’
I obeyed, and examined it. Nothing out of the ordinary.
‘Mum sewed it up really well. You’ll have to use scissors to get inside it.’
‘What’s in there?’
‘A phone.’ She sucked in a raspy breath. ‘A phone I never want to see again. What you do with it is up to you. Give it to Swan or your boyfriend. I don’t care.’
‘OK.’ This was confusing, to say the least. ‘What’s on it?’ I was guessing photos, but she shook her head.
‘Let them work it out. Tell them the code is EFFU. But once I get to New Zealand, I’m never coming back. Ever. Not to testify. Nothing. They’ll never get that guy who killed Mum. So you tell them –’ Her voice caught on a sob. ‘I’m never coming back and they can’t make me.’
‘Emma, can you please tell me what this is about?’
‘No! I’m never saying anything. Ever! It got Mum killed, and nearly me and you as well. It’s not worth it!’ She thumped down on the bed and grabbed a pillow, holding it against her like a shield. ‘You have to go now. I want you to go.’
‘All right.’ I stood slowly, clutching the monkey, and looked down at her. ‘If you ever need anything, you let me know. I mean it. If it doesn’t work out with your dad, you can come back and stay with me.’
‘No, I can’t,’ she said sadly. She sounded like a ninety-year-old woman. I wanted to sit and give her a big hug, but I was pretty sure she’d shove me away. She glanced up at me. ‘But thanks.’ Then it was back to the TV like I no longer existed.
I left the room and went back down to my rental, sitting the monkey in the back footwell and covering it up with my jacket. Once upon a time I would have had that monkey on my lap, ripping it apart with whatever I could find that was sharp, and satisfying my curiosity. Those days were gone. After what Emma had said, I felt like shoving the monkey in the hotel dumpster and leaving it there to be taken to the tip.
It was half an hour yet before Andre was due back so I climbed out of the 4WD again and went to find a café. While dawdling over coffee, I played with my own phone. There wasn’t much on it – my photos were nearly all of Mia, my Contacts list was tiny, and I had hardly any apps. I was a dinosaur, according to most people. I found one photo of Heath, taken when he wasn’t looking, where he was staring into space. Probably thinking about a case. If people measured their lives by what was stored on their phones, mine was pretty small. I liked it that way.
I wondered what we really would do with the pub. If it was possible to rebuild, would we bother? Or take the insurance money and buy a pub somewhere else? I loved Candlebark, or I had until dead bodies started turning up everywhere. And people like Keith Scott and his son got into dealing tobacco and then ice. But there was Connor, who wasn’t talking to me, and Joleen who was so good with Mia…
I shook my head. It was too soon to make decisions. Like launching into a new relationship on the rebound. I went back to the 4WD and found Andre waiting for me, arms laden with shopping bags. As we drove to Ascot Vale and he showed me what he’d bought, I tried to be interested in his new clothes but he soon worked out I wasn’t in the mood and fell silent. He raised his eyebrows at the monkey I carried inside, and it was a relief to tell him what it was about. Thank God for a friend I could rely on.
‘That’s a bit ominous,’ he said, frowning at the monkey who stared back at him without blinking. ‘Are you going to open it up?’
‘Do you think I should?’
‘Shit, yeah!’ He picked up the toy and shook it. ‘It does feel heavier than you’d expect. Where are your scissors?’
‘I don’t know…’
‘Judi, whatever is on that phone has been responsible for Kate’s death as well as the hunt for Emma. Don’t forget the attack on you. I want to know, don’t you?’
‘Don’t you think that once we know, we’ll be targets, too?’ I couldn’t help thinking of what Andy had hidden, and I rubbed the scar on my hand. His secret had nearly got Mia and me killed as well. Bloody secrets. They were lethal!
‘You’re going to give it to Heath, aren’t you?’
I nodded. ‘That’s the plan. But…’
‘Do you wish now you had never seen what Andy left you?’ Andre asked softly.
‘No.’ But it wasn’t a definite no.
‘Because?’
I considered his question carefully. ‘Well, once I’d seen it, I knew what I was dealing with. And I guess that helped me decide what to do.’ I thought about it for another few seconds, then I went to get the scissors and handed them to him. ‘Just remember, Andre, that it’s like Pandora’s box. Once we open it and look, we can’t take it back.’
‘Yes, I know.’
But I could see he didn’t really. He was practical and straightforward. Do this and then that. Finished. Like his time inside. He’d made a mistake, paid for it, moved on. The problem was that other people often wouldn’t let him.
All the same, I did want to know. Information was power. I’d learned that and there was no point pulling back now. I’d always wonder, perhaps always regret it if I didn’t look.
He snipped down the back seam of the monkey and dug his fingers into the stuffing. ‘Got it.’ The phone he pulled out was small and cheap, pink with sparkles on it. Probably the first phone Emma had been allowed to have. He turned it over and found the On button, pressed it and waited for the starting screen to come up. ‘Oh. It needs a code to get in.’
‘EFFU.’ I suddenly wanted to take it out of his hands and smash it. For all its pink sparkles, that phone gave me the creeps. He tapped in the code and the phone lit up.
‘Not much on it. Not many apps, or else they’ve been deleted. Some music, half a dozen photos.’ He held it out and I glimpsed images of Emma staring seriously into the lens, and one of her mum laughing. ‘Nothing much here really. Weird for a young teenager.’ He tapped a few more icons. ‘Oh wait, there’s a video, but it’s sort of dark and light.’ He peered at the screen. ‘That’s someone’s ceiling and a lamp.’
Then the voice started.
‘Hi, Emma. It’s me. OK to come in?’
A muffled ‘No.’
‘Hey, don’t be like that. You and me are friends, remember? Like your mum and me are friends.’
I frowned at Andre. ‘Is this Kate’s boyfriend?’
He shrugged.
The sound of a bed creaking and something moving. Emma’s voice. ‘Don’t. Please.’
‘Now, don’t be like that. You know you like it.’
‘I don’t. Kabir, please.’
‘Don’t you make any noise now.’
‘Don’t! No! Kabir! I’ll tell Mum this time. I will!’
His voice turned hard. ‘No, you fucken won’t. Stay still, you little bitch.’
‘No! Stop!’
I leaned over to grab the phone off Andre but he’d already stopped the recording. He looked like he was going to faint, swaying slightly, his face as grey as ash. We both sat there in stunned silence, not looking at each other.
‘Fuck,’ he said. He stared at the phone like it was contaminated. It was. Contaminated with something horrific that had been inflicted on Emma and there was nothing we could do. It had already happened. ‘What do we do?’
‘I… I don’t know. I have to think about it.’ I got up, my bones feeling about a million years old, and began to pull the curtains and lower the blinds around the room. Melbourne never got completely dark anymore – there was always light that created a dusty gloom, but I needed to shut out the world completely, to make the house feel enclosed, a fortress against bad things. All the while knowing that was impossible. By the time I’d finished and checked the door and window locks, I still felt unsettled and – I had to acknowledge – afraid. I’d been here before.
Andre had found wine in the fridge and poured us a glass each. His was already half-finished. ‘I don’t know what to do with this,’ he said. ‘I want to go and kill that guy, whoever he is. Fucking exterminate him!’
‘We don’t know who he is,’ I said. ‘She called him Kabir. It could be a really common name.’
‘I doubt it,’ he said morosely.
‘Look.’ I laced my fingers together tightly, and the scar on my hand went white. ‘This is what got Kate killed. We know that. And Emma hunted. We know that, too. This guy must know about the recording. He’s trying to find it and to destroy anyone who could testify against him.’ I couldn’t shake the sickening sense of déjà vu.
‘He raped a thirteen-year-old girl!’ He drank the rest of his wine in one go and banged the glass back on to the table. ‘He can’t get away with that.’
‘Emma told me today that she won’t come back from New Zealand – ever – and that means she won’t testify against him either. She totally understands the situation.’
‘I don’t care. We have to do something. You have to give this to Heath or Swan.’
‘I will, don’t worry.’ I grimaced at him. ‘But I reckon this happened in Sydney. Different jurisdiction and Victoria Police won’t be able to do anything. Emma says there’s a corrupt cop up there so I’m betting this won’t go anywhere up there either.’
‘Shit!’ He got up and started pacing.
‘Can we sit on this for tonight, please?’ My head was aching and I really had had enough for one day. ‘Tomorrow morning, we can talk about it and work out what to do.’ I looked around the large, open lounge and shivered. Every house was starting to feel like a prison. Well, I wouldn’t let it get the better of me. If I did, I’d never live anywhere again without looking over my shoulder. This had to stop. If nothing else, it had to stop for Mia’s sake. This was really her house. I couldn’t poison her against it, or make her afraid to be here.
‘Get your nice new clothes on,’ I told him. ‘We’re going out for dinner.’
‘But –’
‘No buts. We’re doing it.’ I showed him the spare bedroom, found him some clean sheets and a towel, and he disappeared into the bathroom. Just as I was ferreting through the wardrobe, looking for something clean to wear, my phone rang. It was Heath.
‘Where are you?’ he said. ‘Swan told me you’d gone to see Emma. Any luck?’ Not ‘How are you? Are you OK? Let’s get together.’ Just his official voice.
‘I’m in Ascot Vale,’ I said nicely. ‘Andre and I are about to go out to eat.’ I wanted to ask him if he’d like to join us – I knew Andre wouldn’t mind – but I wasn’t sure I could go the whole evening without confessing about the phone. I was damn sure Andre wouldn’t be able to.
‘Oh, right.’
‘He’s been shopping for clothes,’ I prattled on. ‘He lost everything in the pub fire. He’s had to buy undies as well.’
He let out a loud breath. ‘Shit, I’m sorry. I haven’t even talked to you about that. Or anything. I should have called.’
‘It’s all been very weird and horrible. I don’t even know where to start to tell you about it.’
‘I’ve heard a lot from Swanny. Don’t feel like you need to debrief me or anything.’
Debrief him? I laughed, but it wasn’t funny. ‘No, I won’t.’ It settled my mind. ‘Shall we meet for breakfast? Can you manage that?’
‘Sure. What time?’
‘Let’s say eight. Around the corner at Chez Nous.’ That’d give me time to do what I was planning.
‘OK.’ He hesitated, and I knew he was still thinking about crashing our dinner.
‘See you then,’ I said brightly and disconnected, then felt immediately guilty and dismayed. I was lying to him. And the last time I’d done that, he’d been really angry and our budding relationship had almost curled up and died right then and there.
This is not really a lie. I’m just putting off telling him until I’m ready.
That helped a bit. I found a clean T-shirt with satin edging that looked a little more dressy than my usual tops and dragged it over my head. A quick brush of my hair and I was ready. Andre and I walked to the Thai restaurant on Mt Alexander Road and had a lovely meal of roast duck red curry and Penang beef curry and my favourite coconut rice. We tried to keep the conversation light, but inevitably we ended up talking about the pub.
‘I could do a Thai night,’ Andre said, scooping up more coconut rice. ‘This is amazing.’
‘We might have to wait until the pub is rebuilt,’ I said, laughing.
‘I think,’ he said, his face going all serious, ‘I think we should look at reopening the pub in the old workshop in the main street. Just as a temporary measure. Transfer the alcohol licence – that’d be a winner, surely. Run it like a licenced café. There’s a café in Elwood that used to be a service station and garage. We could do that, too.’
And with that, we were off, brainstorming how to do it, what we’d need, what regulations we’d have to negotiate, what to call it. It made the evening fly, and by the time we staggered home, our stomachs full to bursting, it was starting to feel like our disasters might finally be behind us.
Until I looked at Emma’s phone again. But by then, I’d decided what to do with it.
25
I waited until Andre had gone to bed and I could hear him snoring lightly, then I took my phone and Emma’s and crept out to the 4WD. I’d read somewhere that inside a car was the best place to make recordings, because it acted like a little sound box. I just had to hope nobody roared past in a noisy car.
I set my own phone to record, and checked how to play Emma’s video, made sure the sound on both was up reasonably high, and pressed Play and Record together on both phones. Then I sat there with my fingers in my ears and watched. I couldn’t bear to listen to Emma and that bastard again. Andre was right about the video being of the ceiling of her room – she must have had the phone recording beside her bed, maybe in the top drawer.
Whose idea was that? I pondered while I waited, deaf to the voices, only hearing the ones in my head. It had sounded like it wasn’t the first time this guy had raped her. I couldn’t imagine Emma coming up with that idea on her own, which meant after the first time, she’d told Kate. That Kate had never gone to the police suggested she didn’t trust them, that she knew they’d want evidence – more than a rape kit result.
But even after making the recording, she still didn’t go to the police. Or… the next thought turned my guts to ice. Maybe she had. And the corrupt cop up there was somehow involved with this Kabir guy and tipped him off.
Either way, knowledge of the recording had got out. Kate had changed her name and she and Emma had gone on the run, trusting nobody, trying to hide in Candlebark. She’d changed Emma’s name, too, but legal name changes were probably searchable. For a cop, it’d be easy to find out their new names. Something had flagged where they were – possibly her tax file number from working at the pub. I had no idea whether she’d have been able to get a new one of those.
And then it had all gone to shit. Perhaps Kate had expected someone to come and threaten her and make her hand over the recording. But the knowledge of the rape was still inside her head and inside Emma’s. At any time, they could both testify. This bastard Kabir had decided they both had to be wiped off the earth.
