The Outback (22 page)

‘So you did kill the
other guy?’

‘Colin!’ exclaimed Matt,
who now had no doubt that his friend had gone too far.

The nurse silenced the
Englishman by raising her hand.

‘My hands were on the
knife when it delivered the mortal injuries,’ she said.

Her choice of words seemed
unusual. Colin sensed that the nurse was holding back the truth.

‘What do you mean “your
hands were on the knife”?’ he asked. ‘Surely you either stabbed him or you
didn’t.’

‘All I am saying is that
I have accepted responsibility for what happened. That man died by my hand.’

Although Matt had earlier
wanted to stop the interrogation, he was drawn in by the nurse’s admissions and
was now just as absorbed in her answers as his friend was, so he allowed Colin
to go on.

‘What are your thoughts
on the stabbing in Birribandi?’ the Irishman asked.

This sudden shift in the
conversation caught the nurse off guard and her stunned reaction made it
obvious that she was yet to hear of Pierro’s murder.

‘You haven’t heard, have
you?’ asked Colin.

‘Heard what?’ she replied,
her complexion beginning to pale.

‘The chief suspect in
the assault on Celeste was murdered on Tuesday night. He was stabbed to death,
except that this time we can safely rule out the previous victim as a suspect.
It all sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it?’

She placed her head in
her hands as she attempted to come to terms with the news. Looking up, she said
‘you still think that the crimes are somehow connected, don’t you? After thirty
years, it isn’t possible.’

‘Like I said, in the
recent killing the rapist could not have been killed by his victim. The motives
are completely different, unless of course there is something that you are not
telling us.’

She began to tremble. It
was only a slight movement, but she was trembling nonetheless. She took a large
gulp of coffee to settle her nerves.

‘All we need is the
truth,’ said Colin. ‘There is no need for you to become involved in this case.
Just tell us what happened thirty years ago. How did the man who attacked you
die?’

He reached across the
table and placed his hands over hers. It would have been a most inappropriate
gesture if done just moments earlier, but it now seemed like the most natural
thing in the world. After three decades of keeping her peace she was about to
confide in a pair of strangers from the other side of the world.

‘About a week after the
attack, I received a message through one of Rhett’s friends that both he and
Jonno; that was the other man, wanted to meet up with me. Although I hadn’t
named either of them, the fact that the police had been in contact got them
scared. They were both claiming to have been too drunk to remember what
happened and were said to be devastated when they heard about it.’

‘You didn’t seriously
consider going along, did you?’ asked Matt.

‘I was very young at the
time and a part of me hoped that they were telling the truth. Rhett was
actually quite charming back then. I’d met him several times at the bar and I
longed to turn back the clock to when it was fun with him. He had a real
swagger to him as everyone in the town thought that he was going to make it as
a footballer. All the girls used to call him Retro.’

For a brief moment, she
smiled as her thoughts returned to a time before her life had turned sour. Both
Colin and Matt shook their heads with pity for the tortured woman.

‘Whether they felt
guilty or not; rape is rape,’ said Colin.

She snapped out of her
trance-like reminiscence.

‘I know that now, but
back then I was a very confused and distressed young girl. It probably sounds
crazy, but I actually hoped that if I could talk it through with the two men
then maybe it would be like it never happened.’

‘Pretend it was all just
a misunderstanding,’ offered Colin.

‘Like I said; it sounds
crazy now. Anyway, I went to the house that the two of them shared, where they
were both waiting. I could see straight away that neither man had been coping
well since the incident, but this was more through fear for themselves than any
feelings of actual guilt. I knew instantly that I had made a mistake in going
round. They both knew full well what they had done to me.’

‘Did they attack you?’
asked Colin.

‘Not at first. At first
they just begged and pleaded with me to keep quiet. They said that prison would
destroy them, but if I named no names then the police would be powerless to
arrest them. I was offered favours, money, anything to buy my silence and when
I refused, it made them angry. I tried to leave, but Jonno blocked my way and
struck me across the cheek when I tried to pass. I was scared. I thought that
this time they were going to kill me for certain.’

‘And that is when you
picked up the knife,’ said Colin.

Naomi nodded, solemnly.

‘It was lying on the
kitchen worktop. I never intended to use it on him. I just hoped that it would
be enough to scare him off. Then Rhett grabbed me from behind. He wrapped his
left arm around my body keeping me from moving and enclosed his right hand over
mine.’

Colin and Matt
straightened in their chairs. They were both acutely aware of how many times
and how close Rhett had come to Rose and Jenny. The terrifying ordeal they were
having described to them could so easily have happened to their own
girlfriends. The story that Naomi Green had to tell no longer felt so distant.

‘He began to whisper
things in my ear,’ she continued. ‘Sick things. He told me that I wanted to use
the knife and that the thought of taking my revenge was making me hot. He said
that he could tell that the bloodlust was turning me on. As he spoke, Jonno
moved in closer and then I felt my arm begin to move, but not of my own
volition. Rhett was forcing it. He guided my hands as they plunged the knife
into Jonno’s stomach in three short, sharp stabs.

After the third strike
Rhett left go, but the knife was still inside of Jonno’s stomach with my hand
on it. I was frozen rigid with fear and I simply could not let go. As he
slumped forward and his weight pressed down on the blade, I could feel it slide
deeper into his body. I could see the very life drain from his eyes as he died
by my hand.’

‘You didn’t kill him at
all,’ interrupted Matt. ‘Rhett did.’

She ignored the
Englishman’s assessment of the situation.

‘Afterwards, he told me
that I had deserved my revenge and that I was now the same as him. He then said
that I should tell the police that Jonno was the only one who had attacked me
and that the more blame I apportioned to the dead man, the more it would
justify my actions.’

She spoke with regret,
but she did not shed a tear. That well had dried up long ago.

‘Why did you never tell
anybody this?’ asked Colin. ‘Surely after time, when you had come to terms with
what had happened to you, you could have exposed him for what he was.’

‘I...I couldn’t.’ She
turned away from the two men.

‘What if he had attacked
someone else? What if he has attacked someone else?’

‘Colin don’t,’ said
Matt. ‘This hasn’t been easy for her, you know.’

The Irishman paid no
attention to his friend’s attempts to deter him from getting to the truth. His
questions increased in pace and frequency.

‘Is there anything that
you could tell us? These crimes have to be related. What if there is a copycat
out there? Did he have any friends? This could be an old buddy of his paying
some sort of sick homage.’

‘I’ve already said
enough.’

She had a faraway,
spaced out expression and Matt for one knew that it was time for them to leave.

‘I’m sorry if we have
brought up some unpleasant memories, but you have been a help to us. Hopefully,
after today you will never have to hear the name of Rhett Butler ever again.’

She offered them luck
and promised to include them and their friends in her prayers. They both
thanked her again and then left to go and meet up with Niall and Jonas. Matt
had been left shocked by the encounter, so much so that he was even beginning
to share in his friend’s paranoia.

‘Do you really think there
could be a copycat killer; someone recreating those crimes of thirty years
ago?’ he asked Colin.

‘It seems plausible, but
I’m not actually buying into that idea myself,’ the Irishman replied. ‘I just
suggested it to see her reaction.’

‘So who do you think is
doing this; surely not Stephen?’

‘Stephen’s innocence is
the only thing in all of this that I am certain of. There is only one man who
could have done this, but he’s avoiding suspicion because right now he has the
perfect alibi; the whole town is convinced that he’s dead.’

‘You’re crazy,’ said
Matt.

‘There is a part of me
that actually wishes that were the case. The fact is that Rhett is the only
person who could have been capable of carrying out such sick crimes. If you
remember this all started the night after you convinced me to put that stupid
picture up.’

‘Do not start with the
superstition thing again. I’ve already told you that people don’t go coming
back to life.’

Colin sighed with
frustration.

‘I’m not saying that
Rhett’s returned from the dead as such. Naomi said that he guided her hands and
made her kill the other rapist. What if he is doing the same again? What if
Rhett is somehow influencing people into acting out sick crimes from beyond the
grave?’

Matt did not like what
he was hearing and refused to play host to his friend’s supernatural conspiracy
theory.

‘If you are talking
about possession, it is just as crazy a suggestion as your one about Rhett
being raised from the dead and equally impossible. I knew that it was a bad
idea coming here today and this proves it. Once we get back to the caravan park
I don’t want to hear any more stories about Rhett, okay?’

They were careful not to
mention the meeting with Naomi Green when they got back to the bus. Joe was
talking on his mobile phone when they caught up with him, so they had to wait.
Once he had terminated his call, he beckoned for their attention.

‘That was the sheriff on
the phone. He has advised me that Stephen is going to be moved to a secure
remand facility further up state. The sheriff said that they are no longer
looking for any other suspects and it is now likely that Stephen will be passed
over to the federal courts to await trial. I know that he is your friend, but
it is looking increasingly like he is going to go to prison for this. I’m
sorry.’

The four backpackers
were left shocked and deflated. Until that moment they had all felt as if they
were in a nightmare and would soon wake up. It was now all too apparent that
this was not going to happen. They now realised that the tragedies unfolding
around them were real and even if they got through them unscathed things would
never be the same again. Never before did they all have so much at stake; their
future, their freedom and their lives.

Chapter 31

When the group returned
to work on the Friday following Rhett’s death, they numbered just six. Niall
had joined the forced absences of Celeste and Stephen, as he was at the police
station visiting his friend. The sheriff permitted just one of them to see the
incarcerated before he was to be transferred to a more secure facility out of
town and Niall was the obvious choice. For everyone else, it was business as
usual.

Jonas and Hiro took the
flanks, which left the two couples to occupy the space immediately around and
behind the trailer, with Paul giving them a helping hand. The two boys were
eager to keep their clandestine visit of the previous day to themselves and so
made sure to keep the conversation focused on their respective partners.

‘So what did you two
ladies get up to while we were away?’ asked Colin.

The two girls shared a
knowing smile.

‘We managed to stay
busy,’ answered Rose, ‘Hiro kept us entertained, didn’t he, Jen?’

Her sister giggled.

‘He certainly did,’ she
confirmed.

‘Did he get his guitar
out again?’ asked Matt.

‘It was even better than
that. He did impersonations for us.’

‘Impersonations; I can’t
imagine that they could have been much good.’

‘Actually, they were
very good,’ said Rose. ‘I especially liked the one that he did of Colin.’

The Irishman’s ears
pricked up at the mention of his name.

‘Don’t go telling me
that sushi boy has been mocking the way that I speak. He cannot even complete a
cohesive sentence in his own accent let alone mine.’

‘I didn’t say that it
was cohesive,’ said Rose. ‘Just that it sounded like you.’

‘Exactly like you,’
added Jenny.

Colin weighed the small
chunk of wood in his hands. He tried to calculate whether he could hit Hiro
with it from the distance that he was at. Although the Irishman was taking his
mocking in good spirits, something about the story troubled Matt. He was
getting a sense of déjà-vu, the source of which he could not quite put his
finger on. Before he was able to trace this elusive memory, Paul came up with a
distracting idea.

‘How about we have a
little music?’ the Aboriginal suggested. ‘Dad has an old transistor radio on
the back of the tractor; I could see if we can pick up any reception out here.’

‘Do we have to?’ asked
Colin. ‘I’ve heard Australian rural radio before. It’s like the signal has
taken thirty years to reach its destination. Listening to AC/DC or Cold Chisel
is not going to motivate me into picking any more sticks than I am doing
already.’

‘Don’t be such a
spoilsport,’ Rose scalded him before turning to Paul, ‘put it on. We could do
with a few tunes to loosen us all up a bit.’

The young Aboriginal
walked around to the rear of the tractor. The vehicle was moving slowly and he
was easily able to climb aboard without risk of accident or injury. He rummaged
through a box on the back before retrieving the small radio from it.
Surprisingly, a clear signal was easy to come upon, but as the first few notes
resonated from the tinny speakers, Colin shook his head with the bittersweet
knowledge of being proven right. It was, of course, a song by Cold Chisel.

Without the shadow of
Rhett overseeing proceedings the atmosphere was certainly more relaxed and
thoughts of the recent tragedies were quickly put to the backs of minds. Two of
the young backpackers, however, were about to receive an unpleasant surprise.
As the last few chords of the song faded, the music gave way to the morning
news bulletin. The leading story concerned the surprise death of a nurse at a
local hospital. There were only scant details at that time, but the presenter
announced that the police were treating it as a suicide. They were yet to
release a name, but said that they were keen to speak to two men who may have
spoken to the deceased earlier in the day.

‘How depressing,’ said
Jenny.

Rose agreed with her
younger sister.

‘Does anybody in this
place die of natural causes?’ she asked.

 ‘At least this time it
does not concern any of us. We are already being treated like prisoners as it
is. Not being allowed to leave and having to come here to work as part of the
chain gang each day.’

As the two girls spoke,
Matt and Colin tried not to let their anxiety show. They each felt hollow in
the pit of their stomachs. No matter how they looked at it; they were
responsible. Like Naomi Green had been thirty years earlier, the pair of them
had now become unwitting killers.

***

The squad car parked by
the entrance to the caravan park did not come as a surprise to either Matt or
Colin, but it did raise questions from the rest of the group.

‘Surely not more bad
news?’ asked Rose.

‘We have all been
together,’ replied Jenny. ‘Whatever reasons they have come back for can only
relate to the previous tragedies and not be anything new.’

‘Niall has not been with
us,’ Jonas pointed out. ‘Maybe he broke Stephen out and they go on the run.’

‘I wish that could be
true,’ answered Colin. As they all stood to exit the bus, he pulled the German
to one side. ‘Can you take my bag for me and put it in your van? I have a
feeling that the sheriff will want to speak to me and I’d prefer not to meet
him with a shit load of weed about my person.’

‘No problem,’ replied
the German, ‘but what if he wants to look in my van?’

‘Trust me, he won’t.
Besides, if the weed was discovered, I would own up to it. I wouldn’t let a
friend take the fall for me.’

The two men quickly exchanged
rucksacks. As they all left the bus the sheriff called over to Colin, just like
he had expected.

‘What’s the problem
today, officer?’

The sheriff did not like
Colin’s flippant attitude and let the Irishman know it with a slight scowl. As
before, the deputy was by his superior’s side and just itching to put the force
into law enforcement.

‘Mr Wilson has told me
that he took some of you kids into Cooper’s Creek to visit Ms Espuche
yesterday,’ said the sheriff.

‘She’s our friend and
she’s in hospital. There isn’t anything unusual about wanting to visit a sick
friend, is there?’

‘Not at all. Did you pay
a visit to anybody else while you where there?’

‘Actually, I did.
Shortly after we arrived, a nurse approached me and asked if I was one of the
backpackers from Birribandi. When I told her that I was, she asked if I could
drop by and see her after I’d visited Celeste. She said she wanted to ask me
some questions.’

The lie would not be
difficult to expose if the policeman had spoken to the receptionist at the
hospital. The sheriff’s countenance did not indicate whether or not he bought
the story.

‘What sort of questions
did the nurse want to ask you?’

‘You know, the usual
stuff; where am I from, how am I liking Australia, where did I plan on heading
next?’

The sheriff was not
amused. He had gone out of his way during the past week to make the
investigation easy on the backpackers and did not expect to be repaid with such
a blatant lack of respect.

‘Do not play games with
me or I will have you charged with wasting police time,’ he warned.

The deputy sneered at
Colin from over the sheriff’s shoulder. It was like the younger lawman wanted
Colin to dig himself deeper into trouble. The Irishman put his hands up
defensively.

‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry.
She asked me a load of questions about Rhett, that’s all. None of them really
made any sense. I assumed she was a friend of the family or maybe even an old
girlfriend of his and that she had only just heard of his death.’

‘And what did you tell
her?’ asked the sheriff.

‘I told her that I only
worked with him and didn’t really know him that well. She didn’t seem too cut
up by his death, just a little bit shocked, that’s all. I gave her Joe’s number
and told her to contact him if she wanted to find out the funeral
arrangements.’

The Sheriff took a
moment to pause and contemplate what action, if any, to take. Now that they
knew that he was watching them they were unlikely to go stirring up any more
trouble. He also had both men’s passports and could therefore ensure that they
were going nowhere in the immediate future.

‘Very well, but if you
remember anything unusual about the way that she acted, let me know
immediately. That’s all that we need from you for now, but remember that this
investigation is far from over.’

Colin had almost gotten
away with it, but as he walked away, the sheriff called out to him again. He
turned around and this time it was the deputy who was leading the questioning.
The junior officer had clearly been whispering in his superior’s ear.

‘Before we go, I want to
take a look in that bag of yours,’ said the younger lawman. ‘You don’t mind, do
you?’

‘Not at all, officer,’
replied Colin.

He handed over the
satchel, which he had earlier borrowed from Jonas. The policeman rummaged
through the bag with a complete disregard for its owner’s rights, but Colin
knew that he would find nothing incriminating inside. Once the search was
completed, the deputy handed the bag back to him.

‘Now I want to take a
look in your van,’ he said.

‘Do you have a warrant?’
asked Colin.

‘I don’t need one; the
owner is standing right over there. Do you want me to go and ask his
permission?’

Colin knew that it would
be futile arguing with the officer, besides which, he had nothing illegal in
the van that he had to worry about. His drugs were still inside his bag, which
was stored safely inside Jonas’s van. He led the deputy to his caravan and
opened the door for them both to enter.

‘What exactly are you
looking for, officer?’ queried Colin. ‘That is, if you don’t mind me asking.’

Sarcasm was the only
weapon he could use against the lawman and he wielded it liberally.

‘You can ask all of the
questions that you want,’ replied the deputy. ‘Some kids in town have said that
a stranger matching your description has been dealing drugs. I’m sure that the
allegations are unfounded, but we have to follow up every lead, you
understand.’

Colin could feel his
sweat glands starting to heat up, but so long as the deputy limited the search
to just his van, he would be okay.

‘It’s nothing to do with
me, officer,’ he said. ‘I’ve never touched drugs. We Irish are happy enough
with our Guinness.’

The policeman ignored
the Irishman’s comments as he began his search. First he checked the wardrobe
and then went through drawers, before finally reaching his hands under the
bed’s flimsy mattress.

‘Too easy,’ he said,
whilst retrieving a small, clear plastic bag from the bed, which he then held
up for Colin’s inspection.

The bag contained at
least a dozen small tablets.

‘Let me guess,’ said the
deputy. ‘You’ve never seen this before in your life.’

It was now Colin’s turn
to be on the receiving end of the sarcasm.