Outback Ghost (29 page)

‘Anyway,' Stella continued, ‘her last imaginary friend was called Polar and she faded away within a day of us arriving at the cottage. I thought maybe that was the end of her imaginary friends and then I almost sat on a new one.'

Her quirked an eyebrow and she gave him a look.

‘Bear with me here.'

‘I'm all ears.'

‘Heidi introduced her new friend to me as Lily-Blue.'

‘What?' That took him aback, but he recovered quickly and shrugged. ‘Maybe she heard Mum mention her or something. Or maybe she's heard the name somewhere else.' Then it hit him. ‘No, she must have seen my tattoo and that's where she got it.'

Stella shook her head. ‘No. She'd only met your mum once then and the name never came up in conversation. Her first mention of Lily-Blue was before the pool incident.'

He opened his mouth but had no idea what to say. He didn't know what Stella wanted to hear or how he should feel about this.

‘She's been talking to this friend for days, playing with her inside and outside and I thought it was weird but I didn't want to ask too many questions because I didn't want to upset her. Then, strange things started happening. The piano would sound when Heidi and I were outside. Lights would flicker. And a night sometimes I'd hear something in the kitchen.'

A chill came over him. ‘Like the other night.'

She nodded. ‘I'm a country girl and I know old houses make noises, so I tried to reason it all away. You and Frankie kept asking me if the place spooked me and I tried to tell myself I was being ridiculous but it did. I considered leaving a couple of times but Heidi loves it here. So do I. I figured I couldn't be scared of ghosts if I didn't believe in them.'

‘Stella. What are you trying to say?'

Her eyes met with his and all he could see was sympathy, compassion and pity. ‘I think your sister is here. I think she's a ghost.'

Goosebumps shot up all over his skin. It took a moment for him to compute what she was saying and compose himself but then he firmly shook his head. ‘If there's any ghost here, it'll be Uncle Tom. Not that I believe in such things.'

‘It's not Tom,' she said adamantly. ‘And I didn't believe it either. Until the other night.'

‘What happened the other night?'

‘Just after you left, Heidi woke sobbing, so I went into her and she told me she was crying because Lily-Blue was sad and crying too. I swear, Adam, I felt a presence in that room. I think I may even have heard the other cry.'

He screwed up his face and his gut hurt.

‘I know it sounds insane,' she whispered.

‘Yes, it does.' He'd never heard anything more absurd. ‘Did Heidi say anything else? Did she say how her friend, er… died?'

‘I don't think Heidi knows she's dead.' Stella rubbed her hands up and down her arms as if she had goosebumps too. ‘She hasn't even made the connection between Lily-Blue and you and Esther. All she said is that Lily-Blue is sad because her mum is sad and she doesn't want her to be anymore. I wouldn't have said anything but I couldn't be around you with this hanging over my head and Heidi's been so down that I had to do something. I'm sorry.'

Adam didn't know if he could listen to this anymore, but then Stella said, ‘Heidi told me when Lily-Blue isn't playing with her, she lives under that tree out the back.'

His heart stopped beating. ‘What tree?'

‘That gorgeous jacaranda.'

‘Fuck no.' Pain reared up in his forehead and he knew no amount of strong painkillers would ever get rid of it.

‘I'm sorry,' Stella said again.

He barely heard her. ‘Uncle Tom planted that tree. Just after Lily-Blue went missing. He said it was in memory of her.'

‘Oh God.' Stella clapped a hand over her mouth.

‘Mum hated it,' Adam continued. ‘She said by planting it Tom was admitting he didn't think there was any hope of her return. I almost got rid of it this year when we renovated this place, but Tom always said he'd planted it because her favourite colour was purple and it reminded him of her. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of his monument to her.'

As if Stella could read his thoughts, she laid a hand on his knee. ‘It doesn't mean he did anything sinister. It could just be a coincidence.'

But he knew she didn't think that any more than he did.

‘It's ridiculous, that's what it is.' He sprang to his feet and glared at Stella. ‘You're talking like we have facts. But you know nothing about my sister or her disappearance. Don't you dare say ­anything about this to Mum.'

‘As if I would.'

‘Good, because she's just starting to recover and the last thing she needs is you talking some airy-fairy crap about a ghost or even a figment of your imagination who you reckon is Lily-Blue.'

‘Adam, that's not—'

But he couldn't listen to whatever it was she had to stay. He needed to get outside. He needed fresh air. He needed a beer.
Damn!
Pain dragging at his eyeballs, he stormed through the front door and slammed his fist down on the veranda railing. It felt as if he'd splintered his knuckles but the pain in his hand was nothing compared to the pain in his heart.

If Stella hadn't wanted to sleep with him, she only had to say. Instead, her desire to ‘talk' had turned his world upside down.

‘Well, that went well,' Stella said to herself as she heard Adam's ute hoon off into the distance. The noise followed quickly on the heels of what sounded like him thumping the veranda. She didn't blame him – what she'd landed on him tonight was about as weird as things got – and she'd had to fight the urge to go after him. She probably would have if it weren't for Heidi and she consoled herself with the fact this wouldn't be a good idea. He needed time to digest what she'd said.

Letting out a long sigh, she heaved herself off the couch and collected the untouched mugs of coffee and the plate of biscuits. In the kitchen she emptied the coffee down the sink and put away the cookies, unable to shake off the disappointment that filled her.

For a brief moment when she'd sat on Adam's lap at the Christmas tree, she'd forgotten about the whole Lily-Blue issue and simply let her mind imagine what they would get up to later that night. When he'd arrived and pulled her into his embrace, she'd wanted to stay there forever. Taking a step back and telling him they needed to talk had to be one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do and her body hated her for it. She felt all strung up inside as if she'd been about to devour a decadent chocolate cake and then someone had whipped it away from her. She contemplated seeing to her own needs but dismissed that idea almost immediately.

Only Adam could satisfy the craving inside her and she might just have pushed him away forever. Leaning back against the kitchen bench, Stella caught her head in her hands as the tears she'd only just managed to keep barricaded the last hour suddenly broke free.

What was supposed to be her and Heidi's holiday of a lifetime was rapidly going down the gurgler.

Adam ignored Mutton bouncing at his feet as he stormed into his house and headed straight for the fridge. Every muscle in his body felt tense – sexual frustration mixed together with anger and confusion was a lethal combination. Screwing the top off a bottle of Carlton Dry, he stormed back out onto the veranda and sat on the crate he used as a makeshift chair.

‘Bloody hell!' He shot right back up and started pacing. Beer splashed out onto his knuckles and he slowed to take a swig. He couldn't think straight as a million thoughts and questions whirled through his head. When Stella said she'd needed to talk, this was the last thing he'd ever have imagined her saying, but now that she had, what the hell should he do with it?

Could there possibly be any truth in what she'd said? She'd been genuinely distraught talking to him but he didn't know what to think. Even if she believed Heidi was talking to a ghost, could
he
believe it?

Since Lily-Blue disappeared all those years ago there hadn't been a day he didn't think of her. He worked the farm constantly on edge, wondering if she'd suddenly walk back over the horizon, or worse, he'd stumble upon a shallow grave when driving the tractor or something. As a kid he'd desperately hoped they'd find her alive but as the years passed and he grew older that hope had faded. In his heart, he'd believed her dead for a very long time. And if that were true could there be truth in what Stella had told him?

He shuddered as his spine tingled. Not in a good way. He racked his brain thinking back to the day he'd already re-lived in his mind a zillion times. Uncle Tom had been in Geraldton that morning and had arrived home to all the frenzied terror. Not everyone had mobile phones back then so no one had been able to get in contact with him. When had he returned to the farm? Had he really ever been away? His head throbbed even more trying to remember details from that day and he found he couldn't recall any definite facts anyway. He'd been a kid, shook up and terrified, and he guessed that made him a dodgy witness.

Adam forced himself to sit back down on the crate, took another swig of beer and tried to collate his thoughts into some kind of order. If, and that was a big if, Heidi
was
talking to his little sister and her information was correct, was Lily-Blue buried under Uncle Tom's jacaranda? A foul taste came into his mouth and no amount of beer could erase it. Had Uncle Tom killed her? The idea seemed absurd. From what he remembered Uncle Tom had always worshiped her. Having never married or had kids of his own, he'd doted on his siblings' kids. But he'd always favoured Lily-Blue that tiny bit more than Adam, Simone or Frankie.

His stomach revolted and his fingers trembled as they tightly gripped the bottle. What if all the time Lily-Blue had spent with Tom in and around his cottage he'd been taking advantage of her? And Adam had never suspected jack-shit about it? Older brothers were supposed to protect their little sisters but it looked like he'd been too dumb to even know she needed protection.

‘Fuck!' Every bone in his body throbbed as an overwhelming urge to hurt someone came over him. He lifted the bottle and hurled it off the veranda. It landed on the top of his ute, shattering glass into the night but Adam barely flinched. If only Tom were still alive he could confront him, force him to tell the truth. But that was impossible. If there was a confession, Tom had taken it to the grave. If he'd taken Lily-Blue's life, for whatever sick reason, he'd gotten away with it for almost eighteen years before he'd died himself. Had he hurt anyone else in that time?

Again, Adam's thoughts were getting away with him. It wasn't time to think about possible other victims. He needed to think about his family – about his mum and dad and how this revelation, if it held any truth, would affect them. Dad's emails showed him to be having the time of his life on the cruise and Mum had finally started making moves to rejoin the human race. Dropping this bombshell could threaten all of that. No matter how crazy Stella's story had sounded, he felt in his heart that she wouldn't mess him about if she didn't seriously believe it to be true. She'd spent the last few days all twisted up in knots wondering whether or not to tell him. Now he had some inkling of how she must have felt because the onus was on him to decide what to do with her information.

Whatever he decided, it was highly unlikely anything good would come of it. If they found a body, his family could finally grieve but they might be forced to admit Uncle Tom hadn't been the person they imagined. The alternative was he got the police to investigate and, after reopening the case and dredging up all the awful memories of the past, they still found nothing.

What would be better for his mum?

This question taunted Adam for hours into the night. The next morning he awoke on the couch, still fully dressed, empty beer bottles lined up on the floor beside him and Mutton curled up at his feet. His head ached and he didn't know whether it was down to thinking too much or drinking too much to try to stop thinking. The last thing he remembered was Mutton dropping his head into his lap out on the veranda. The puppy had sensed something wrong and his gesture of animal comfort had been Adam's unravelling. The anger he'd been brewing all evening had been pushed aside by the overarching sadness he'd been bottling up for years.

He cried for his sister. He cried for his mum and dad. He cried for himself. For all the years they'd only half-lived, trapped in a limbo of uncertainty.

At some stage he must have ended up inside, Mutton taking advantage of his master's vulnerability to spend a luxurious night on the couch instead of outside in his kennel. Adam sat up, reached out and ran his fingers through the puppy's thick coat, taking comfort in the warmth and softness. He still felt crap but in the light of day, he knew he wouldn't be able to sit around or even get stuck into work without doing something about what Stella said.

‘
Stella
.' He breathed out her name, disgusted at himself as he recalled the way he'd spoken to her last night. He'd gone round there for a booty call but ended up shouting and storming out in anger. No matter what was going on his head, she didn't deserve the way he'd treated her. And the first thing on his agenda was to go round and apologise.

Maybe this time, instead of flying off the handle, he could listen properly to what she had to say.

Stella's heart stilled when she heard a ute pull up out the front of the cottage. She'd been sitting at the table trying but failing to catch up on editing but she rushed to the window at the sound, a whole combination of emotions rearing up within her at the sight of Adam and Mutton striding up the garden path. After last night, she hadn't been expecting to see him so soon. Glancing down at her pyjamas, she cursed herself for not yet dragging herself into the shower and getting dressed. If he was going to hurl more angry words in her direction, she could at least be looking her best. Unfortunately there was no time to change and more important was protecting Heidi from any wrath he might be harbouring. Quickly checking Heidi was still playing happily on the floor of the lounge room, Stella rushed outside to intercept him, closing the front door gently behind her.