Deserving Death (18 page)

Easy to be confident if he knows he’s wiped it down well, Ella thought. ‘Would you be willing to give us a DNA sample?’ she asked.

‘What for?’

‘The more samples we have, the more people we can rule out,’ Paul said.

Vardy hesitated, then said, ‘Okay.’

Paul went to get the oral swab kit.

Ella said, ‘Do you have any thoughts at all about how the wallet came to be in your garage?’

‘I can only think that somebody sneaked in via that dodgy side door and hid it,’ Vardy said.

‘Why would anyone do that?’ she asked.

‘I have no idea.’

‘Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt you?’

‘No one at all. I try to keep my nose clean. I try to get along and just do my job and live my life and let others live theirs.’

‘What about Dean?’ Ella asked.

He stared at her. ‘You think Dean found out, and killed her, and now has set me up?’

Before Ella could answer, Paul came back with the kit. He explained the procedure and consent forms, and Ella watched as Vardy signed them then followed Paul’s instructions to swab the inside of his cheek. Dean Hardwick had given no sign that he knew his wife had been seeing someone else, and he’d been spoken to again since Bayliss had died but knew of no links between the women. It struck her as odd that Dean might act now, five years after the affair ended. If Vardy was telling the truth. Although perhaps Dean had only just found out. Or perhaps they’d started up again.

‘Did you and Maxine ever talk about leaving Anne and Dean?’ she said.

‘No,’ Vardy said.

‘Not once?’ Paul said, labelling the swab.

Vardy shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that. She loved Dean, and I love Anne. What we had was different. Maxine said once that I was like a lifeboat in a raging sea. We were comfort to each other and then we could go out and face the storm again.’

‘That’s very poetic,’ Ella said.

He looked at her. ‘Laugh all you want.’

‘I’m not laughing,’ she said.

‘I had nothing to do with what happened to Maxine or to Alicia,’ he said. ‘They were my colleagues and I cared about them both. It’s a terrible tragedy that they died. I understand that you need to find who killed them, but being snide about a relationship that meant a lot to me only makes you look small.’

Ella didn’t care. ‘Why would Dean want to set you up?’

‘Because I slept with his wife?’

‘But if he killed her – and we know that he was in WA the night she died, by the way, so his hands are clean – why not just kill you too?’

‘So he got a mate to do it on a night he knew he’d be away,’ Vardy said. ‘And maybe death’s too good for me. Maybe he thought it’d be better to see me in jail for years, suffering that way.’

‘Or maybe you and Maxine had started seeing each other again,’ she said, ‘but this time you wanted something more, and when Maxine wouldn’t leave him you lost control. That sound right?’

‘No,’ he said.

‘You started arguing and you lost control and suddenly she was dead,’ Ella said. ‘What could you do? If you called for help everybody would know. You panicked and took her wallet so it’d look like a robbery and got out of there.’

‘No!’

‘You’ve been worrying yourself sick about it ever since, worrying what’d happen if somebody did know about you two, if that somebody came forward,’ Ella went on. ‘So you hid the wallet as insurance in case that day arrived, but you couldn’t stand the pressure. You can’t sleep, you feel sick all the time. Better to get it over with, so you call in an anonymous tip and start the ball rolling.’

‘This is insane,’ Vardy said. ‘Can you hear yourself?’

‘It’s time to tell us the truth,’ Paul said.

‘I have. I don’t know how that wallet got in my garage. I had an affair with Maxine five years ago and I haven’t seen her or been in touch with her since it ended. That’s all I know.’

‘Mark,’ Ella said. ‘Come on. Paramedics and cops work together. Once you help us, we can help you.’

‘I believed that before I walked into this room, but not any more,’ he said. ‘I want a solicitor.’

*

Solicitor Ruby Dixon arrived quickly and sent Paul and Ella out of the room.

In the corridor, Paul pulled the fabric of his shirt off his back. ‘You think he did it?’

‘I don’t know, but something’s off somewhere.’ Ella felt drained and headachy.

‘If he didn’t, and somebody has set him up, who could it be except Dean Hardwick?’ Paul said. ‘Who’d have reason to want to do that?’

‘He might’ve been lying when he said he’d had no other affairs.’

‘But then you’ve got
that
pissed husband killing Maxine and going to all that trouble when he could’ve just knocked on Vardy’s door and punched his lights out,’ Paul said. ‘I reckon we’re hearing hoofbeats and thinking zebras.’

It was starting to feel overly complicated to Ella too. ‘So what do we have then – Dean Hardwick, who we know was on the other side of the country, finding out about the affair, getting some mate to kill his wife, and setting up Vardy?’

‘Or Vardy killing her himself and trying to blind us with a bullshit story about a broken door latch, which his solicitor’s going to leap on with glee, and convoluted explanations of revenge,’ Paul said.

‘Or somebody else altogether,’ Ella said. ‘For reasons we can’t even guess at yet.’

Her mobile buzzed in her pocket. ‘Marconi.’

‘It’s Carly.’

‘This isn’t a great time,’ Ella said.

‘I know you’ve got Mark Vardy there, and I wanted to tell you that I saw him and Tessa arguing yesterday at the drinks session in Alicia’s memory.’

What is it with her and Tessa?
‘I really can’t talk,’ Ella said.

‘She was snapping at him and he grabbed her shoulder,’ Carly went on. ‘I asked him about it last night and he said he couldn’t remember it, but I felt he was lying. This morning I asked her, and she told me some crap about her slagging me off and saying I was a dyke bitch and him telling her to shut up.’

‘Okay,’ Ella said.

‘I thought you might like to know, that it might help you.’

‘Okay, I’ve got it,’ Ella said. ‘I have to go.’

‘Who was that?’ Paul asked when she’d put her phone away.

‘It’s complicated,’ Ella said.

The interview room door opened and Ruby Dixon walked out with Mark Vardy.

‘As my client is not under arrest, he’s leaving,’ Dixon said. ‘And I believe that under the circumstances, and as a matter of professional courtesy from one branch of the emergency services to another, you should have encouraged him to call me much earlier in your conversation.’

‘We have a job to do,’ Paul said.

‘And you could say we were extending professional courtesy to Maxine Hardwick,’ Ella added.

‘I want that swab destroyed too,’ Dixon said. ‘Mr Vardy’s consent is withdrawn.’

‘We’ll be talking to a magistrate about that,’ Ella said. If they could make the case that the result was vital to their investigation, it wouldn’t matter if they no longer had his consent.

Dixon’s gaze hardened. ‘In future, my client is not to be interviewed, questioned or spoken to unless I am present.’

She slapped her card into Paul’s hand, then motioned for Vardy to go down the corridor ahead of her. Ella and Paul followed them to the lift. Vardy went in first, then turned to face them over Dixon’s shoulder. He looked subdued, sad.

‘Mark,’ Ella said, ‘did Tessa Kimball say something nasty to you about Carly Martens yesterday?’

‘You don’t have to answer that,’ Dixon said.

‘It’s okay,’ Vardy said. ‘She did. I told her she shouldn’t say things like that.’

‘And you argued?’ Ella asked.

Vardy nodded. ‘She was angry. She tried to push me. I grabbed her shoulder.’

Dixon pressed the button to close the doors. Paul stuck out his foot and kept them open.

Ella said, ‘Why didn’t you say that to Carly when she asked you?’

‘There’s no way I’m telling one of my staff that another one said she was a dyke bitch, excuse the language,’ he said. ‘No matter what.’

Ella nodded at Paul to release the doors.

‘He’s telling the truth about that,’ she said when the lift was gone.

Paul shrugged. ‘Doesn’t necessarily mean he’s telling the truth about everything else.’

‘I guess.’

‘Anyway,’ Paul said, ‘the swab, the tap on his landline and the surveillance team will help us find out for sure.’

Nineteen

C
arly sat on her lounge with her mobile to her ear, listening to it ring. Linsey was at work in the cafe, and Carly’d already been there to see her, stalling over coffee while watching her hurry about, but in the end she’d kissed her and left. ‘I’ll call you when I can,’ Linsey had said apologetically, but an hour later she still hadn’t done so. Some mornings were like that, Carly knew, and it didn’t really matter, because she’d been able to come home and think a few things through. Without pinching her wrist.

‘You again,’ Shonta said. ‘Uh-oh.’

‘Uh-oh is right,’ Carly said. ‘Mark Vardy’s file.’

Shonta hesitated. ‘That could be really tricky.’

‘Top brass milling about?’

‘Somewhat.’

‘You can’t say? Are there other people close by?’

‘That’s correct,’ Shonta said.

Carly thought. ‘Is the file still there?’

‘For now.’

‘But you can’t get to it?’

‘Possibly not,’ she said. ‘But how about I call you, we arrange something then?’

‘That’d be great.’

‘Absolutely,’ Shonta said. ‘Talk later.’

‘Thanks,’ Carly said, and hung up, hoping ‘later’ wasn’t too far away. She had no doubt that Shonta would do her best to find out what she could, as long as the file hadn’t been removed from the HR office.

She got up to put the kettle on. It hadn’t got close to boiling when her mobile rang.

‘I’m in the bathroom again,’ Shonta whispered. ‘I can’t give you many details but there was nothing bad in it. Not a single complaint, not even a work review. He’s squeaky clean.’

It wasn’t quite what Carly had expected. She’d thought he might turn out to have a record of complaints, even alleged assaults – anything that could indicate a propensity for trouble and violence that he’d otherwise kept hidden from his colleagues at The Rocks.

‘What’s the feeling around HQ?’ she asked.

‘Complete shock,’ Shonta said. ‘A lot of people here know him from when he was in HR, and none of them can believe it.’

‘He worked there?’

‘When he was off the road for an injury a few years back. Before my time. Everyone’s saying he’s a really nice guy.’

Carly rubbed her chin. People often said that about murderers – he was a lovely man, and nobody ever would’ve guessed it, and so on. But surely sometimes they had to be right and the guy was innocent.

‘Are you okay?’ Shonta was saying.

‘I’m fine,’ Carly said. ‘Thanks so much for your help.’

‘Anytime.’ There was a noise in the background and her voice dropped to a whisper again. ‘Later.’

‘Cheers,’ Carly said, but Shonta was already gone.

The kettle whistled and Carly made a cup of tea, hoping the routine task would help her think. Maxine Hardwick’s wallet had been found in Mark Vardy’s garage. What did that mean? How could it’ve got there if he didn’t hide it there himself? But if someone else put it there, why would they have done so?

His number was in her phone. She pressed the button to call.

Voicemail. ‘
You’ve reached Mark Vardy, please leave a message.
’

‘It’s Carly,’ she said. ‘You’re probably screening, and I can understand why. I just wanted to say hi, and . . .’ And what? She didn’t want to say she was sorry about what was happening if it turned out that he did kill Maxine. ‘If you want to talk, I’m here.’

Not too bad. Noncommittal, but still supportive. She was trying to think what to add when she heard the beep that indicated the end of the message and the line went dead.

She drank a couple of mouthfuls of tea then tipped the rest down the sink. Time for the next step.

*

Tessa placed the teaspoon silently into the sink and walked back to her room, closing the door behind her. She took her muted mobile from her pocket before she sat down. She would’ve felt the vibration of the call but she couldn’t help checking the screen anyway. Nothing. What the fuck was John doing?

She held the cup of tea in both hands and closed her eyes. Getting antsy wouldn’t help. He would call when he called.

But seriously. She’d rung them both as soon as Carly left. John hadn’t answered, and she’d left a message on his voicemail asking him to call her back asap. Robbie had picked up on the eighth ring and she’d told him how Carly was now linking all their names together, and he’d said she’d come to the shop yesterday and hassled him, but so what? She couldn’t know anything.

‘You didn’t think to tell me this last night?’ she’d said.

‘You didn’t give me a chance.’

‘Tess?’ their mother had called.

‘Sounds like you’re needed,’ Robbie’d said.

‘Have you talked to John?’

‘Not today.’

‘If you do, tell him to call me,’ she’d said.

‘Tess?’ their mother wailed again.

‘Bye,’ Robbie’d said, and hung up.

She hadn’t answered her mother and after a few more cries Lily had gone silent. Back to sleep, Tessa hoped. She’d sneaked out after a while to make a cup of tea, then sneaked back in. Now she dialled John again.

‘What?’ he answered.

‘Five messages and you can’t call me back?’

‘I’m busy.’

‘You heard about Maxine Hardwick’s wallet?’

‘Of course.’

‘Carly was here shouting about it,’ Tessa said. ‘About you and me and Robbie and Mark all being involved in something together.’

‘Which proves she has no idea,’ John said.

‘Only about Mark. I know her, and she’s as stubborn as they come. She’s not going to stop.’

‘Which is great for us, because there’s nothing detectives hate more than pesky civilians with conspiracy theories. Soon they’ll stop taking her calls and we’ll be in the clear.’

‘I’m so sick of all this,’ she said.

‘Forget her,’ John said. ‘She can’t do anything.’

‘Only make my life a misery.’

‘I thought it already was,’ he said.

She hung up and threw the phone on the bed, and put her face in her hands. It rang. She let it buzz on the quilt for a moment before answering. ‘You are such an arsehole.’

‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ he said. ‘Look. I understand that you’re stressed. We all are. But you’re getting all wound up over nothing. No matter what Carly thinks or how she acts, she can’t actually do anything. It might feel like the detectives are all over you, but that’s just how they work – they act like that in the hope that someone will crack. Besides all that, there are rules about evidence, and we know there isn’t any to find. You just need to stay calm.’

‘I hope you’re giving Robbie the same lecture.’

‘Don’t worry about Robbie,’ John said. ‘We had a talk and he’s all good.’

‘When was that?’

‘This morning. An hour or so ago.’

‘When you knew that I was waiting for you to call me? When I told him to tell you to call me?’ She was on her feet. ‘You both want to think about being nicer to me.’

‘Nicer?’ he said. ‘What are you, in high school?’

‘I’m keeping your secret and you couldn’t even call me back when you knew things were bad.’

‘You’d better think about your brother before you say anything else.’

‘Don’t threaten me.’

‘Tess?’ Her mother again. She must’ve been shouting.

‘Just a minute,’ she called.

‘All I said was think,’ John said. ‘And remember who you’re talking to.’

‘Or what?’

‘That’s something you don’t want to ask,’ he said.

‘Tess!’ Her mother’s voice was shrill.

‘Have fun,’ John said.

‘Fuck you.’

She hung up on him and stood there shaking. The room felt so small, the walls and ceiling like they were closing in. The air was hot and humid. She felt out of control, powerless, besieged.

‘Tess!’ her mother shrieked.

She flung open the door and stormed down the hall. ‘What?’

‘I’ve spilled something.’ Her mother’s face was small and pale in the gloom.

‘You mean you’ve wet the bed,’ Tessa said.

‘I really don’t think so,’ Lily said.

‘I can smell it.’

Lily pushed herself up on an elbow. ‘You know I’m not well. And who changed your sheets when you were little?’

Tessa closed her eyes. ‘Can you get up?’

‘Don’t you think I would’ve if I could?’

Tessa grasped her arm and helped her sit. The bedclothes fell back and the hot odour of urine and unwashed body hit Tessa in the face like a slap. She tried not to breathe and not to show it as she pulled the quilt out of the way. Her mother lifted her skinny legs out and sat on the side of the bed, nightdress stuck to her scrawny body.

‘Give me a minute,’ she gasped.

Tessa looked down at her bony shoulders, her thin greying hair, the knobs of vertebrae pressing through the white skin on the back of her neck. ‘Mum, you’re skin and bone.’

‘Being sick takes away my appetite.’

Lily grasped her hand and tried to stand. Tessa put her arm around her and felt her ribs, her skin bagging under her fingers. They made their way to the bathroom, and Tessa opened the shower door with her foot then helped her mother sit in the plastic chair in the recess.

Lily sat forward, puffing for air.

‘Okay?’ Tessa said. ‘Ready for the water?’

Lily nodded, long fingers grasping the chair’s arms.

In the bright glare of the fluorescent light Tessa saw that grime marked the creases in her neck. ‘You stopped using the wet wipes again.’

‘They feel cold,’ Lily said. ‘Water’s better.’ She reached for the tap but lacked the strength to turn it.

Tessa took down the showerhead and turned on the water, running it against her hand until it was warm. She put the head in her mother’s hand. ‘You can manage?’

‘What do I look like?’

Tessa didn’t say. She hung a towel within reach. ‘Drop your nightie on the floor. I’ll get it after.’

Lily muttered something, and Tessa went out, closing the door behind her.

In her mother’s bedroom, she dragged back the curtains and opened the window. Sunlight made the room look dingier and dirtier than ever. An empty wine cask stood tucked between the bed and the bedside table. So Robbie had gone out to the shops after all. Tessa kicked it towards the door then pulled the quilt back. Something heavy clunked to the floor. A full cask, then she found another still tangled in the fabric.
That bastard
.

She put the casks by the door then yanked off the sheets. They reeked. She wasn’t sure when she’d last washed them. A fortnight? More? Though it wasn’t for lack of trying.

She carried the pile gingerly to the laundry, washed her hands and got fresh linen and a clean quilt, then came back to listen at the bathroom door. The water was still running.

‘You all right?’

‘I’m not completely useless,’ her mother said.

‘Fine,’ Tessa said in an undertone as she turned away.

She wiped down the plastic mattress cover on Lily’s bed, then carried out the casks. She drained them in the sink, then tossed the empties in the bin outside the back door. Back in the bedroom, she put the clean sheets on the bed, stuffed the pillows into clean slips, and shook the fresh quilt over it all.

She got a clean nightie from the chest of drawers, then tapped on the bathroom door. ‘Ready?’

Her mother mumbled something. Tessa pushed the door open to see her sitting in the chair, still in her nightie, the showerhead on the tiles and water pouring down the drain.

‘Mum,’ she said.

Lily scowled at the floor.

Tessa picked up the showerhead and held it out to her.

Lily muttered.

‘Sorry?’ Tessa said.

‘I can’t do it, okay?’ Lily snapped. ‘My shoulders hurt. I can’t get my nightie off.’

Tessa took a deep breath. ‘You want me to do it for you?’

‘Yes,’ Lily said, adding as if in afterthought, ‘please.’

Tessa turned the water off. She lifted the nightdress over her mother’s head and arms. It felt grimy in her hands. She dropped it on the floor as her mother huddled naked and goosepimpled before her.

Tessa had figured that one day it would come to this, but she’d never imagined it would be so soon.

She swallowed and turned on the water, testing the temperature again before letting it stream down her mother’s back. Lily’s skin was white and cold, and Tessa saw red spots from pressure points over her hips and spine.

‘Mum,’ she said.

‘I know.’

‘You can’t go on like this.’

‘I know. I’m so sorry.’

Tessa filled her palm with liquid soap and smoothed it down her back. ‘You’re going to get sick for real.’

‘I never meant it to be like this.’ Lily put her face in her hands. ‘Needing you to wash me. I just can’t . . .’

‘It’s okay.’ Tessa rinsed her off, then put a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘Here. Sit back. I’ll do your hair.’

Lily leaned back and Tessa let the warm water stream over her scalp. Lily closed her eyes. Tessa lathered in the shampoo, then rinsed it out.

Lily opened her eyes. ‘You must hate me.’

‘I don’t.’

‘Everything I put you through, all the things you have to do for me.’ She blinked back tears. ‘It’s too much for you. It’s too hard.’

‘It’s hard because I love you,’ Tessa said. ‘And I worry about you. You’re losing so much weight, and not eating, and you’re going to get bed sores soon if you don’t get up and around. I just want you to get better.’

‘I want that too,’ Lily said.

Tessa looked at her.

‘I do, I really do,’ Lily said. ‘I want to be better, and normal, and I want to not feel bad any more. I want to cook you dinner. I want to have Robbie come over and we all sit around the table together like we used to. I want to stand up in the shower, on my own.’ She grasped Tessa’s wrist. ‘Things are going to change. I can do it. I know I can.’

Tessa had heard similar before, but something felt different today. The Al-Anon people talked about rock bottom. She guessed maybe needing your daughter to shower you was it.

She said, ‘I believe you.’

Lily started to cry.

Tessa leaned down and hugged her, wet as she was. Lily wrapped her thin arms around her. ‘Thank you,’ she said in her ear. ‘I won’t let you down.’

‘I believe you,’ Tessa said again, and she meant it.