Flashpoint (22 page)

M
y God, has she been raped?
was the first thought that sprang to Jo's mind when she opened her door to the distraught figure. She took in the tear-stained face and dishevelled clothes, the whooping gasps for air.

‘Ruby, what's the matter?' she said, slipping her arm around the girl's shoulders and guiding her into the house. ‘You go into the bathroom and wash your face. I'll fix us some lemonade.'

Ruby shuffled into the bathroom, returning in a few minutes to sit on the lounge. Jo watched as she took a sip of lemonade, glad to see some of the colour had returned to her face.

‘Has Angelo done something to hurt you?' Jo prompted.

Ruby swallowed and shook her head. She latched on to the hem of her red tank top and twisted it in her hand. ‘No. Yes. Not exactly. He doesn't know I'm here. I promised I wouldn't tell, but I have to. Please, Jo . . .' She looked up from her lap. ‘You mustn't tell Dad how I found this out, he'd kill Angelo if he knew.'

***

The snake shot from the floor of the passenger's side as if loosed from a bow, sinking its fangs into Cam's forearm and injecting him with streaks of red-hot pain. He screamed, shook his arm and felt the cool of its thick, muscled body brush against his side as it slid back to the floor. Somehow he'd managed to keep the hurtling ute on the road; now he eased his foot off the accelerator and gently applied the brake. He had to think past his fear, be rational. He'd pull to the side of the road, shoot the snake then apply a tourniquet to his arm. He was a big man; the venom would take a while
to start having an effect. There was still a chance he could get to Ruby in time.

But the clutch put up a resistance to the pressure of his foot. He looked down, to see the snake twining around the pedals.

The fangs found their mark upon his calf a second before he could react. Despite the rapid jerk of his legs, it struck again, this time at his thigh, sending molten ribbons of pain into his groin. When the ute petered to a stop on the roadside, Cam tumbled out, acutely aware of the venom throbbing through his veins with each beat of his racing heart.

His left arm seemed to be encased in a sleeve of red-hot lead; even looking at his watch was a struggle.

Ten minutes to go.

Ten minutes to get to Ruby.

He realised he was hyperventilating and tried to slow down his short, sharp gasps with positive thoughts. The hay truck would be along any minute, he told himself. He would flag it down and get the driver to take him to the farmhouse. Meanwhile, he had to attend to the snakebites. The first aid kit was unreachable; it was inside the cabin with the snake. He'd have to improvise a couple of tourniquets before attempting any vigorous movement.

He took off his belt and tied it around the top of his arm, tightening it with his teeth. Then, keeping his arm low he eased onto his side to work on his shoelaces. They weren't ideal, but they'd be better than nothing.

The sound of an engine in the distance made him stop. He squinted into the growing cloud of dust, unable to make out what was creating it. One moment there seemed to be two vehicles, the next moment they'd blurred into one – a hay truck, a car, a couple of
motorbikes? As he shook his head to clear his blurred vision, the gravel beneath him began to vibrate.

***

Jo put her elbows on the counter and leaned towards Derek, mustering all her willpower to stop herself throttling the obstructive little man.

He said, ‘I've already told you, Ms Bowman, his radio doesn't seem to be working. Last I heard he was calling in at the school.'

Jo thumped her fist down on the counter. His teacup rattled and a tide of tea slopped into the saucer. ‘Then you have to send someone to the school to get him. He's in danger!'

Derek let out a long slow breath. He picked up his cup and began mopping up the drips with a tissue. ‘Ms Bowman, this is Glenroyd we're talking about, not some outer suburb of Los Angeles. Things like you described just don't happen here.' He shrugged. ‘Besides, there's no one available to follow up on these bizarre claims of yours. Pete's on rostered days off, Leanne's on traffic and I have to stay here at the station.'

He looked at Ruby with a smile of forced benevolence and clasped his hands on the counter. ‘I think that someone's taken this whole situation out of context. I think that someone will be in big trouble with Daddy if we start out on this wild goose chase.'

Ruby's eyes bulged. ‘It's not just me who knows. Jo has proof too. Someone's out to get my father, you stupid, motherfucking –' Her hand shot out to Derek's teacup, and before Jo could stop her, she'd tipped the contents over his balding head.

White-faced under the rivulets of tepid tea, Derek sprang back from the counter in a way that made Jo
thankful he wasn't wearing a gun.

‘Ruby, that's enough,' she reprimanded without much conviction. ‘We're obviously getting nowhere. We'll go to the school ourselves and hopefully catch your father there.'

She grabbed Ruby by the hand, leaving Derek slack-jawed and dabbing at his head with a handkerchief, staring at them as if he'd just seen horns sprout from their heads.

They almost collided with Leanne at the station door.

[text break]

His heart dropped when he recognised Ruth Tilly. Of all the people in Glenroyd, why did it have to be her? And where was the hay truck? Had it turned into the farm and stayed there?

Ruth ran from her car to where he sat leaning against the side of the ute. She surprised him with a look of genuine concern.

‘My God, Cam, what happened, have you had some kind of an accident?'

‘Snakebite,' he said, wondering if he'd lost the ability to make sentences; it was such an effort to get out the words. His mouth was as dry as desert sand and the beginning of a headache taunted the back of his eyes with tight jabs.

Ruth took in his crude tourniquets. ‘Bandages would be better. I have some in my car, I'll get them. And you should be lying flat.' She gently pushed him down. ‘Have you called for help?'

He shook his head, regretting the movement as spears of pain were unleashed behind his eyes. ‘Phone and radio stuffed.'

Ruth moved towards her car.

‘Wait,' he cried. ‘The bikies have Ruby. They're going to kill her if I'm not there by two. The note said she was
at the farmhouse at the end of this road. You have to go and tell them what happened, please. It's me they want anyway . . .'

She hushed him with a finger to her lips. ‘My phone's long range, it should work. I'll get help; don't you worry about a thing.'

Shit, how often had he heard himself say those very words to some beleaguered victim lying by the roadside? As he waited for Ruth to return, he tried to ignore the changes he could feel in his body. He focused his thoughts on Ruby. They'd have to let her go, he told himself. Even bikies wouldn't kill a fifteen-year-old girl, though there were other things they might do. He screwed his eyes tight against the image until a shadow blocked the red. When he opened them again, Ruth was kneeling beside him. She leaned towards his hip, probably to replace the shoelace tourniquet with a bandage.

Then he felt a tugging sensation at his holster and heard the pop of the stud. His eyes widened when he saw what she was doing.

‘Help's on its way, Cam,' she said with a smile that chilled his blood. ‘But help for me, not for you. My assistant is as keen to observe the effects of a tiger snakebite as I am. He should be along shortly.'

She backed away and sat on a rock, watching him with the clinical coldness of a vivisector. Cam couldn't believe what he was seeing; he had to be hallucinating. She removed a notebook from her pocket, rested it on her knee and wrote something in it, careful to keep the gun in her other hand trained on him. After a while, she spoke.

‘I never pass up a research opportunity, Cam. I'm documenting your symptoms for a paper I'm writing on the
Norechis Ater Occidentallis.
Tiger
snakebites can take up to twenty-four hours to kill if not treated. You were bitten three times. They often strike more than once, though of course there would've been little venom in the other bites. It will be interesting to see if your death will occur any sooner.' She let out a burst of staccato laughter. ‘I put the snake in the freezer after you left the lab so it would be sluggish and stay put under the front passenger mat. It must have been good and aggressive when it warmed up. Tell me, how are you feeling – headache? Blurred vision? I believe a victim can also experience severe abdominal pain. Perhaps you won't reach that stage. Maybe you'll just go straight to internal haemorrhage or paralysis.'

Cam said nothing. He closed his eyes against the pricking tears of helplessness. When he opened them again, Ruth was leaning over him, very close. Her breath felt like dry ice upon his burning cheek.

His tongue was stitched to the roof of his mouth; he had to struggle to release it. ‘Please, Ruth. You have to help Ruby.'

‘I don't want to make your dying any easier, Cam, but never let it be said I'm inhumane. Ruby was never in any danger. I wrote the note. She's probably in the back room of the workshop screwing her boyfriend or smoking dope as we speak.'

Cam murmured a prayer of thanks. The wave of relief washing through him brought with it some lucid thought. ‘The notes, they were from you, all along?'

‘Yes. The bomb was never meant for you. I'd been following you for weeks. I knew your Saturday routine, I knew you'd be at netball and I knew the bikies would be blamed.'

He paused, not sure if he could believe his ears. ‘It was you who killed Elizabeth and Zach, not the bikies?'

She gave him a satisfied smile. ‘Yes, me all along.'

He made a pathetic attempt to flail out, but she pushed him back to the ground with the flat of one hand. His breath came out in gasping sobs. ‘Why?'

Ruth settled by his side. Her fingers slowly moved across his chest. ‘Why, Cam? Think hard and you'll know why.'

Like a spider, her hand crawled to the opening of his collar. Twisting a tuft of chest hair around a red-tipped finger, she began to tug. ‘You made a fool out of me, Cam. I wasted years of my life over you.'

‘I don't understand.' He cringed from her, willing himself further into the gravel.

‘We loved each other, Cam, but you chose to forget all about it.'

Her hand left his chest. Cold fingers brushed his parched lips. Her touch sent shivers through him, worse than any amount of snake venom.

‘You seem to have conveniently forgotten about that day at pony club, all those years ago,' she said. ‘My pony got a fright in the arena and bolted off with me into the bush. You jumped on a horse and chased after me, grabbing hold of the reins and stopping us. When we dismounted, you took me in your arms and I knew then that you loved me, I knew then that we were meant to be together.'

An image flashed into Cam's mind: a terrified pony, a frightened girl. That was all there was to it. He'd not given the incident another thought since the day it happened.

‘I tried to forget about you, Cam, I really did. I even got married.'

Cam drew a laboured breath. ‘You killed him.'

‘I got my Master's degree, he served his purpose. You see, I couldn't stop thinking of you, you poor little orphan of the empire. I decided to instigate a
little psychological experiment. I was pretty sure when tragedy struck you'd come running back to the only home you've ever had, and I planned on being here, waiting for you when you came. You've always craved security – why else would you join the police? You traded one secure institution for another. You really are a very simple, predictable man, Cam. Unfortunately for you though, you hung on longer than I anticipated, arriving just a bit too late. My passion for you had finally burned itself out. I realised then that your presence would be nothing but a liability.'

It was all beginning to make sense. ‘You got involved with Cliff, the drugs.'

She laughed. ‘Wrong. I got involved with a real man, Cam, someone who does more for me than you ever could.'

‘He's going to jail for a very long time; the case against him is almost there. They'll still get him, even if they can't get you.'

Ruth laughed. ‘Cliff? That's the whole idea. That's how it's meant to be. Cliff can rot in jail for all I care. I used him just as I used my husband.'

Cam's mind became a coloured whirl of pain and confusion. ‘You set him up? He's a patsy? Then who?'

‘My lover, Eric Matthews.' She tweaked his nose. ‘You probably know him better as Chainsaw, the president of the SS motorcycle club.'

***

‘Over there!' Ruby said, pointing with the rolled note they'd found at the school. ‘It's Dad's ute.'

‘Oh shit,' Jo said, ‘it looks like Ruth's there, too. Can you see your dad anywhere?'

Ruby covered up her mouth with her hand. ‘God, he's lying down, she's bending over him!'

Ruth stood up when she saw Jo's car crunch into the siding.

‘Now, Ruby, you have to be calm. We have to play this right and you have to think clearly.' Jo squeezed her hand. Ruby nodded back, trying to be brave. But when she saw her father lying so still, she couldn't help herself. Jo's cry of warning came too late. Ruby sprang from the car and raced to her father's side.

Jo followed with all the caution of a tightrope walker. Ruth met her eyes and shrugged her shoulders in a what-the-heck manner. Jo switched her focus to Cam and stepped closer. His eyes were closed, his breathing tortured, his uniform black with sweat. Tears pooled in Ruby's eyes as she leaned over him to stroke his face.

His eyes fluttered open. ‘Ruby, be careful,' Jo heard him whisper. ‘You have to try and get away, she's a killer . . .' Ruby turned to face Ruth. Jo sensed what the girl was about to do. She cried out. ‘Ruby, stay where you are, she has a gun!'