Promise (12 page)

His silence unnerved her. What was he thinking?

‘He would have killed her,’ she said. ‘I’m sure of it. They locked her out of the house for hours and hours at night. I probably don’t know the half of it. I’m sure they’re . . . using some drug. The mother always seems so out of it.’

She held the smouldering joint between two fingers. She hadn’t smoked in years and this didn’t seem like the moment to start again.

He passed her a glass of beer. ‘I get why you took her away. You don’t have convince me, Anna.’ He took the joint back.

She took a sip of the beer. It was too sweet.

‘But the thing is, they’ll be after you.’ He sighed and rubbed a finger across his chin. ‘You’ve nicked someone’s kid. There’ll be a conga line of cops behind you.’

‘Well, they’ll be wandering around down south somewhere.’

He drew on the joint and smoke leaked out with his words. ‘Don’t underestimate them or the information they have access to.’ His voice was flat. ‘What about your dad, does he know where you are?’

‘No. No one knows. Dad’s retired now.’ Specks of rain hit her shins and feet. ‘There’s
no way
for the cops to know I’m here.’ She glanced through the window at Charlie, a small curled shape under the white sheet.

‘What about your boyfriend?’

‘You mean Liam?’ When Pat had come to Sydney and stayed with her, she’d been having a three-month fling with a guitarist. ‘No, that ended. Ages ago.’

She decided not to mention Dave. A lawyer boyfriend would spook Pat even more.

He tapped ash into a saucer beside him. ‘So you didn’t tell
anyone
at all that you were coming here?’

‘No one.’

He nodded and stretched his legs out in front of him.

‘And I got rid of my mobile phone and I didn’t stop for petrol . . . I filled jerry cans.’

She breathed out shakily. This was not what she’d expected. She felt a hot wave of shame that she’d presumed she could just turn up and he’d take them in, no questions.

What if he asked them to leave? Where on earth would they go?

‘A woman talked to us down near Coffs when I stopped for a nap. But she’s the only one we saw. And I ran into a guy on your driveway, on the way in. He’s got a ponytail and blue eyes. He got a good look at us.’

Why was Pat so afraid of the cops? Had he done something?

‘That’d be Michael. I’ll talk to him. If the cops turn up he’d be most worried about them finding his dope plants.’

‘Which is why he might throw me to the wolves.’

He smiled at her. ‘Michael wouldn’t
collude
with the authorities. He doesn’t own a phone or register his car ’cause they’re part of
the machine
.’

‘I’m sorry I lobbed in on you like this. I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.’ She sighed. ‘I just scooped her up, I didn’t plan anything. But I couldn’t let her go back to that house. I really thought she might be killed.’

‘If it’s the stepfather who’s hurting her, what about the dad?’

‘Oh . . . she told me that her mother doesn’t know who he is. I don’t know if that’s true . . .’

Pat nodded. ‘Did you drive through the night?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Well . . .’ He dropped the last of the joint into the ashtray. ‘I should get you some dinner so you can go to bed too. You must be knackered.’

‘Is there maybe an old hut or something we could stay in for a little while? Just until I figure things out. Like the kuti hut? I’d stay out of your way . . .’

‘Michael’s in the kuti hut. He’s fixed it up.’

‘Oh.’

‘How long do you intend to keep her, Anna? What’s your plan?’

Her only plan had been to get to Pat’s.

‘I’ll keep her as long as it takes for them to figure out that her home is not safe. They’ll discover the phone calls to FACS and . . .’

‘And how will you know when they’ve figured it out?’

Her thoughts were spinning uselessly. She had absolutely no idea how she’d find that out.

Pat tucked the tobacco pouch into his shirt pocket. ‘Let’s just settle you in for tonight and talk more tomorrow. Anyway, it’s nice to see you again.’

He squeezed her hand and gave a small dry laugh. ‘Even if it’s in slightly bizarre circumstances . . .’

She’d forgotten how callused his hands were, how strong.

‘You did good to get the girl away from her stepfather.’ He squeezed her hand again, then let go and glanced in the window. ‘You did good, Anna.’

‘And Sabine? Do you think maybe it’s best if we don’t tell her the whole story? Just that Charlie and I are holidaying. She’s my niece, maybe?’

‘I’m not going to lie to Sabine.’ His voice had an edge.

She felt a surge of embarrassment that she’d imagined his loyalty to her might be stronger than his loyalty to Sabine.

‘Okay. Sure. No. You’re right.’ The wind blew a gust of rain in on them.

He topped up his glass of beer. ‘Do you like this lager? She makes it.’

‘Yeah, it’s good,’ she said. She took another too-sweet mouthful. ‘How long have you and Sabine been together?’

He stretched his legs out. ‘Two years. She was WOOFing at Stefano’s. Stef’s living at the top of the hill, in Theo’s old place. You remember Theo?’

‘No, I don’t think he was here. What’s woofing?’

‘You know, backpackers working for board, doing gardening and stuff. She does cleaning now for a few families down the valley.’

She could sense him sinking into his stoned mode. He seemed to have forgotten about dinner.

‘How many people live on the community now?’

How many people did she need to hide from?

‘Oh, there’s Beatie and Will . . . You remember Beatie, of course. And Stefano, Avril and her kids, and Michael,’ said Pat. ‘The thing is,’ he paused for a long moment and sniffed, ‘it turns out Sabine’s here illegally. Her visa ran out ages ago. And that’s the reason I’m a bit worried about the police turning up. And why she’ll be
totally
freaked out.’

‘Oh. Right. Do you really think the cops would be interested in a backpacker overstaying their visa when they’re looking for a child who’s been taken?’
Abducted.

He shrugged. ‘Maybe not. Or maybe they get two birds with one stone. Anyway . . .’ He sighed. ‘No one else on the property knows about her visa situation and she’ll kill me when she finds out I’ve told you . . . but I . . .’ He waved a hand around. ‘I just wanted to explain why I . . . you know . . .’

‘Sure. Thank you. I get it.’

From the kitchen, Charlie called out, a few words of babble. Anna stepped inside. Charlie had rolled onto her stomach, her legs tucked up beneath her. Anna smoothed the sheet over the girl and watched Pat through the window, draining his glass of beer. What if he asked them to pack up and leave? Where would they go?

Pat came into the kitchen and lifted the lid of the pot on the stove. ‘I’ll just heat up this rice and get you a plate of food. You look ready to drop.’

‘Thanks.’ She sat at the table.

Sabine appeared in the doorway, dripping, clothes plastered to her body, and her hair hanging in rats’ tails.

‘Smells good!’ Her smile was bright. ‘It’s wild out there!’ She spotted Charlie on the couch and whispered, ‘Oh, sorry. Didn’t see her.’

‘It’s okay,’ said Anna. ‘She seems to be fast asleep.’

Sabine pulled a towel from the cupboard by the bathroom door and disappeared into the bathroom. A few moments later she reappeared naked, her hair in a towel turban. Before Anna averted her eyes, she saw Sabine’s round belly. She was pregnant!

Anna’s face burned. Why hadn’t Pat said anything? Sabine walked through to the bedroom as Pat pulled another bottle of beer from the fridge.

Sabine re-emerged in a long t-shirt, her hair still up in the towel, as Pat tossed a green salad. Sabine sat beside Anna. ‘How do you like the beer?’

‘It’s good. Thank you. Do you want some?’ Anna tilted the beer bottle then realised she was offering a pregnant woman alcohol.

‘No.’ Sabine patted her stomach. ‘Not so good for this one.’

‘When’s your baby due?’ She tried to sound casual.

‘In three months, we think.’

‘Congratulations.’ Anna smiled at Sabine then turned to Pat. She felt her lips straining over her teeth; she wasn’t even sure if she was smiling.

Pat nodded back, blank-faced. ‘Thanks. Yeah.’ He smiled briefly. ‘It’s a bit of a surprise at my age.’

‘You are
not
that old,’ said Sabine. She turned to Anna and rolled her eyes. ‘He likes this idea of being an old man for some reason.’

Pat put the rice pot on the table. ‘I’m just trying to persuade you of my wisdom. Okay. Let’s eat. And feed the expectant mother.’ He briefly laid his hand on Anna’s shoulder.

Anna wondered if he’d told Sabine about the abortion. Or maybe he’d long forgotten about it.

Sabine lifted the lid of the pot and peered in. ‘How old is your girl, Anna?’

‘She’s five. But she’s not my girl.’

‘Oh?’ Sabine raised her eyebrows. With her hair bundled up in the towel, her face looked thinner and younger. She could be thirty.

Pat put a wooden bowl of salad on the table. ‘They need somewhere safe to be.’ He lowered his voice. ‘The girl is beaten badly by her father.’

‘
Step
father,’ said Anna.

‘I see,’ said Sabine. She glanced at Pat, her eyes wide.

‘Anna rescued her. The girl lives next door to her.’

‘Good on you,’ said Sabine. Her accent meant that Anna couldn’t tell if there was a note of irony. ‘So, you just picked her up and . . .’ Sabine lifted her hands in the air.

‘Yes.’

Sabine made an exaggerated frown and nodded her head. She seemed to be waiting for Anna to say something more.

‘I was afraid she’d be killed.’

Sabine turned to look at Charlie. She was silent for a moment then crossed to the couch, where she knelt and looked at the girl’s face and laid her hand tenderly on Charlie’s back. Pat watched her closely, and when Sabine glanced over at him, Anna couldn’t interpret the look they exchanged. Was Sabine thinking about the police?

Sabine sat back at the table and said, ‘So you made friends with the girl?’

‘Kind of . . . I don’t know her very well, actually,’ said Anna. ‘They only moved in a couple of weeks ago.’

Pat served a spoon of rice onto each plate and Anna picked up her fork. Her chair seemed to tilt under her.

‘You know what?’ she said. ‘I think I need to go to bed now. Sorry, I can’t eat.’

She stood and the floor felt like soft sand. Everything that had been solid and steadfast about her life was gone. All she had now was Pat and Sabine, and they didn’t feel particularly solid. And all Charlie had was Anna. Panic nudged at her.

‘Sure you don’t want some dinner?’ asked Pat.

She shook her head. She couldn’t speak. Her body was grinding to a stop.

Pat put down the serving spoon.

‘I’ll carry Charlie.’

A
nna scissored her feet between the clean sheets. She’d been waiting to lie down like this for days, it seemed. Beside her, Charlie slept on her back, the toy rabbit under her good arm where Pat had tucked it.

Anna closed her eyes and waited for sleep to pull her down, but her mind was still skittering about. She couldn’t back out now. She was squarely in it. And what if Pat asked them to go? She and Charlie were clearly a complication he didn’t need. She took a long shaky breath. Tomorrow she’d figure out the way forward.

She tried to focus on the rumble of the rain on the roof and the regular
plink plink
from the drip bucket in the corner. She pictured the miles of cocooning bush around the house. Seventeen years ago Pat had shown her an aerial photo of the area and pointed out the tiny speck that was his house. She was taken aback by just how much bush surrounded his place. The bright green of the camphors and the muted green of native bush stretched in all directions. The road – which seemed like the lifeline of the area when you were driving on it – could barely be seen in some parts of the photo; it appeared as a thin brownish stripe at creek crossings or alongside cleared paddocks. Pat and Anna had leant over the photo, and Pat explained with glee how many houses and huts couldn’t be seen. Some houses were shielded by trees, others were built precisely so they were hidden from view. Lots of people moved to the area to hide – from society, from the authorities or an ex-wife – and used the network of barely passable dirt tracks that appeared on no map.

If Pat wouldn’t let them stay, surely she could find someone willing to rent her a caravan or shed, somewhere she and Charlie could hunker down for a few weeks?

Her first step would be to persuade Pat that the police weren’t on her tail. It was unlikely her dad would think of Pat, and if he did, she was pretty sure he wouldn’t mention it to the police. Once her dad found a big stash of dope in Luke’s room, and sat Luke down and quietly talked him through all the ways that dope would mess up his life. Then he stood by the toilet as Luke flushed it away. He didn’t, at any point, threaten to report Luke to the police.

She pictured detectives turning up at her dad’s neat brick house and treating him with the respect due to retired coppers, but quizzing him about where Anna might have gone. The young cops would stand around his ancient answering machine, listening to her message, and her dad would recount what she’d told him about the violence in Charlie’s house, and he’d try – in his measured way – to convince them she’d done it with the best of intentions. And Dave would tell them about the night they heard Charlie screaming.

Anna just had to stay hidden long enough for the police and FACS to join the dots and investigate what was happening in Charlie’s home. Anna didn’t know what that would mean for Charlie. The girl might end up in a foster family, and Anna had heard enough to know how badly that could go.

Or perhaps the worst had already happened. Nothing could be worse, surely, than Charlie trapped in that house with Harlan and Gabby, lying terrified in that room, empty but for the piss-soaked mattress and clothes all over the floor.

The outside light came on, and Pat or Sabine dragged a chair over the verandah boards. Smoke from Pat’s spliff drifted in the open bedroom window. Anna couldn’t hear what Pat and Sabine were saying, but it sounded tense.