Murderer's Thumb (24 page)

M.T.

Thursday 12 October

What have these people got against me now? Emma asked me if I saw her mum's purse yesterday afternoon. Which I hadn't. Don't even know what it looks like. She gave me a queer look. It was missing and there was over $200 in it. She said Loody lost $50 from his car too. It was probably when he got beaten up after the pub shut last night. Apparently he lost a tooth in the fight. Now he'll look more gross than ever.

Emma was all over James Makovich at lunchtime and they were pashing behind the bus stop this afternoon. What's with her? She didn't even get on the bus. James had a spare helmet on his bike, so I guess he took her home.

Some dickhead rang last night and said he'd rearrange my face. His voice was muffied, like he was speaking into his sleeve. I bet it's Loody or Mongrel. I told him to get stuffed and hung up, but I couldn't stop shaking. I don't want this.

M.T.

Friday 13 October

It's nearly ten o'clock. I went out onto the verandah and I could see light coming from the shack. I reckon the boys must be there. What are the bastards doing? Just drinking, or have they got some other poor girl over there? I want to tell the cops, I really do, but Emma says no, not yet. What's she waiting for? They just want power over her. Mongrel has threatened to beat Emma up if she says anything to Rachel. He doesn't want the wedding plans stuffed.

Emma asked me again if I knew anything about her mum's purse. She said her mum says I'm an evil presence, child of the devil, stealing things and corrupting others. What a load of crap. Emma knows it too. I wish she'd stand up to her mum.

I'm sick of being angry and scared all the time.

M.T.

Saturday 14 October

Got two more calls yesterday, and one this morning, both with the same message—‘You're going to die!' Except this time the caller also said he knew about the thieving I'd been doing. I got so angry again. I slammed the phone down. It's those losers. They're trying to frighten me. Well, I'm trying not to let them.

Mum rang last night too. Aunty Jane wondered why I was getting so many phone calls. Frank said something smart like ‘must be all the local fellas ringing her up'. As if. Aunty Jane says I should get a mobile. I told her they give you brain cancer. And she knows Mum gave me one and I chucked it because I don't want her calling me.

Tonight's Meredith's party. I can't wait. Matt said he'll take us and stay for a couple of hours, then he'll leave early. He said it ‘wasn't his thing'. He's such a loner.

M.T.

Sunday 15 October

Last night was the worst party I've ever been to. Everyone avoided me. I couldn't work it out until Meredith said it to my face. She accused me of stealing her mum's jewellery. I couldn't believe it. I said, ‘Go on, search me then!' But she said I'd probably stashed it somewhere. I just wanted to go home, but Matt had already left. That was the main reason the party was a flop.

Plus Mongrel and Loody were there, giving Emma a hard time. They followed her about, kept giving her nasty looks. I cornered Loody and told him to leave her alone.

He was so up himself and said, ‘What are you going to do about it?' I said I'd tell the cops about what they'd done. He denied everything and reckoned the cops wouldn't believe a thief and an addict like me. Drugs now! Loser! I told him he was dreaming, that I was clean. I said I'd find out the truth and that I'd written everything down in my diary. That got him.

Then later on Mongrel stopped me outside. He grabbed my wrist and squeezed it so hard I thought he'd break it. He told me to keep quiet about what happened to Emma or they'd track me down and do the same to me. I told him to piss off. He put his other hand over my mouth and said he liked hurting people. He didn't have to prove it. He's got murderer's thumbs.

Emma came up to me and said she wanted to go home. She'd been crying and said Mongrel threatened to punch her lights out. She was pissed off because James Makovich hadn't turned up yet either. We asked Meredith's dad to take us home. He dropped us off early. Talk about a fucked party.

M.T.

Monday 16 October

Emma's disappeared. Matt came around after milking and asked me where she was. She hadn't slept in her bed. As if I knew? John Patterson dropped her off after me, so he was the one to ask.

Then Barry Timothy was at the door last night, asking me all these questions about where I was Saturday night and if I went into Mrs Patterson's room. Then he asked me about Meredith's mobile phone which is also missing. He asked me where I used to live before I came to Falcon Ridge and I got really angry. He knew I'd been squatting and doing drugs. Arsehole! Then he asked me about Emma and if I knew where she'd be. I told him she'd been crying and Mongrel had threatened her, but I couldn't say why. I know those two would get me if I did. Plus Emma made me promise not to tell the cops, because of Rachel's wedding. So I told him about James Makovich and how she was hoping to see him at the party. Barry left and said he'd be back.

I didn't go to school today. I got another phone call, same voice as before except this time he said he was going to kill me, burn me like a witch, and burn the diary too. That made me think it was Loody. He was the only one I told about the diary. I said ‘Where's Emma, what have you done to her?'

The voice said ‘Emma's left town, and you will too, unless you want to die.'

But I don't believe it. She wouldn't go without telling me. I think she's dead. And I'm shit scared, but no one around here believes anything I say any more. I've got to get out of here. Soon. I don't reckon I've got time to get people to believe me. Now my diary's important. I've got a plan to hide it. Hopefully Matt or someone he can trust will find it. Maybe then they'll get Loody and Mongrel and justice will be done. And Emma will be OK.

M.T.

TWENTY-SIX

Adam folded the pages and put them back in the little box. He felt sick, knowing what Loody and Mongrel had done at the shack. They must have murdered Emma. The motive was clear. Shut her up. He wondered about Loody losing his tooth in a pub brawl. Was that true or was it Mongrel's way of reminding Loody to keep quiet as well? Just like he'd threatened Loody last night about keeping their alibi straight and said he'd punch out another one of his teeth. It all fitted.

He checked his watch. Time to head home. He stood up, put the plastic box in his back pocket and started to climb the hill. Crickets shrilled through the cracks in the soil. Away from the swamp's shade, the sun stung his sunburnt neck.

Lina's testimony was compelling. It made him hate Loody and Mongrel. How could he face Loody at milking tonight? He grimaced just thinking about it, as if he'd eaten something sour. Would he be able to control his emotions? Loody was a murderer. It made Adam's skin prickle.

He shook his head. How could Loody live with himself, working for the Thackerays all this time, after murdering their daughter? How did he have the gall to dig up the silage? Of course that's why he asked Adam to go with him. To make it seem as if he knew nothing about the buried girl, to throw suspicion elsewhere.

And Mongrel with his murderer's thumbs, the mark of violence. He probably dealt the fatal blow, then ordered Loody to bury her. How could Mongrel go ahead and marry Emma's sister, nestle in as one of the family when he was a killer?

Adam spat in the dirt. He had to do something, tell the police somehow. But he was sure Mongrel had Barry Timothy in his pocket.

Was there any way to warn the Thackerays about Loody and their own son-in-law? They'd never believe it. Colin wouldn't anyway. He was too blunt, too immune to bullshit. That's what he'd think about the story. Just bullshit. Matt wouldn't get it either. The Brolga was his only hope. He could trust her Christian ethics even if she was over-the-top evangelical. She was still desperate about her daughter. If he could speak with her in private, then he might be able to convince her about what happened to Emma.

As he came to the top of the hill he realised he had a chance. The Brolga stood feeding calves in the dappled shade at the edge of a small holding paddock only fifty metres away. He walked over, sticks crunching underfoot.

‘Hello, Mrs Thackeray!' he called out.

She turned to him, raking her hair back behind her ears with her bony fingers, and smiled. ‘Adam, you've been walking?'

‘Yeah.'

‘I told you not to. Colin will…you know…he doesn't like people trespassing.'

‘I was at the wetlands. Emma and Matt helped improve it, didn't they?'

She looked away from him, gazed down the hill. ‘Matt's practical…works hard, loves birds. But it was Emma's idea. I think it was where she liked to be, near the swamp.'

‘Did she spend a lot of time there?'

The Brolga shut her eyes and shook her head. ‘No, not, not really.'

Was she about to cry? He sensed she was drifting away. Adam hid his embarrassment. ‘Please, Mrs Thackeray. I've got to talk to you, about Emma. I think I know who killed her.'

The Brolga bent and picked up the empty bucket. A dead gum leaf stuck to its base. ‘You? How?'

‘The diary…I found the diary.'

She looked at him as if for the first time, her eyes radiating hope. ‘You have?' she said breathlessly, reaching out, grasping his arm.

Adam was surprised at the strength of her grip. Grief made her desperate.

‘I…I'll bring it, tonight, after dinner. But Colin and Matt…I don't think I should…I don't know how they'll react.'

‘I know. We can speak privately.' Her eyes were solemn, troubled. ‘I'll meet you at the tractor shed at eight, if that suits.'

‘Sure.'

She walked off with the empty bucket, the gum leaf still attached, leaving Adam wondering how he was going to break it to her.

He rang Snake as soon as he got home. ‘I found it. It's nasty,' Adam said.

‘What happened?'

‘Mongrel and Loody raped her when she was drunk.'

‘You're joking.'

‘No, I'm not. They must have murdered her too. They wanted to stop her talking.'

‘S'pose. What did it say exactly?'

Adam sighed. The pressure in his head was intensifying. ‘The week before the party, at the shack…that's when it happened.' He glanced at the clock. It was five to four. ‘Look, I don't have much time. I've got to milk soon,' he said. ‘I'll get back to you after milking.'

‘Right. Are you going to give it to Barry?'

‘Dunno. I'll catch you later.' He slammed down the phone and scribbled a note for Rosemary:

I'm milking. Ring Barry if you're worried.

He scrawled the number underneath. He wasn't going to tell her he'd seen Kazek's car. He didn't want her to dissolve just yet.

Adam didn't want to milk. His headache was growing, fuelled by too much happening at once: the stolen diary, Kazek nearby, Loody and Mongrel implicated as murderers, and his dilemma about how to tell the Brolga. The sunburn on his neck didn't help either. He felt like shit and fought to control his double vision.

Even though it was cool in the shed, the air was stuffy. It smelt of dust and urine. The apron's halter rubbed the raw skin at the back of his neck and the rhythms of the milking machine magnified his headache. Loody and Colin were in the shed with him, putting on cups and spraying udders. Adam couldn't face Loody. The saunter, the friendly toothless grin, the crude jokes—it made him flinch, made him want to smack the cowboy in the face with a hammer and knock the rest of his teeth out. He tried to shut Loody out of his mind.

Only another hour or so and he could hose down the yard and head back to the house. His mum ought to be back from Booradoo by now. He had the Kazek drama to worry about too.

He looked across at Colin who was disinfecting teats with a small spray bottle. The farmer stared back, his mouth pinched. For so long Adam had suspected Colin of murdering Emma. He'd read in the paper how most victims are murdered by family members. Colin sure fitted the description. He was such a surly bastard. But then again, Snake had thought Matt was the really odd one, the twisted psycho who seemed harmless but in reality was a calculating killer. Like Colin, he was out that night, had the chance to lure Emma away from the house, smash her head in and bury her in the silage. But Adam never took that hypothesis seriously. Of course there was always the Brolga, but a vicious head injury didn't seem her style. Besides, she was home when Snake's dad dropped Emma off. Then there was Rachel, but she'd been on a nursing shift the night Emma disappeared.

In the end it was so obvious: Mongrel and Loody. Loody had worked for the Thackerays long enough to be part of the family, and according to Lina, Loody liked Emma a lot. The trouble was Emma thought he was a loser. But then they all got so pissed that everything got out of hand. If Emma talked they were in serious trouble. She'd been threatening to tell, and Lina was egging her on. So Mongrel and Loody acted. They lured her out of the house that night after the party with a bogus phone call, probably using Meredith's stolen phone. And if Adam's hunch was right, Loody was pretty good at stealing things. It all added up. Loody had more access to the Thackerays' house than Lina ever did.

What Adam needed was proof. But Adam was certain he'd solved Emma's murder. It all fitted together.

‘Adam, Adam!' someone was shouting. He knew that accent. He looked up and saw the hunched figure of Kazek descending the stairs into the pit.

Adam felt the instant tension in his gut. He fumbled with the cups on the cow in front of him. Not now, not here!

‘What are you doing?' Kazek yelled over the din. His sandals tapped against the cement floor as he made his way towards Adam, his arms waving so that his cardigan flapped like the sides of a squirrel glider.