Flashpoint (23 page)

But Jo's warning was lost. ‘What have you done to my father, you fucking bitch!' Ruby yelled, and launched herself at the other woman.

There was a shot. It was the loudest sound Jo had ever heard and went on blasting in her head long after the bullet had left the barrel. Ruby went rigid, staring at the swirling dust where the bullet had hit the ground, unable, it seemed, to take her eyes from it.

Jo moved to pull the frozen girl into her arms. As the shock wore off Ruby began to shake, to suck in mouthfuls of air.

Jo whispered in her ear, ‘Sssh, take some slow deep breaths. It's going to be OK – remember?' Ruby nodded, trying to steady her breathing.

‘That was a warning shot,' Ruth said. ‘You won't be
so lucky next time.' Her voice was firm, as controlled as the hand on the gun.

Jo was a lot less composed. ‘How could you do this, Ruth? I thought we were friends?'

‘Your naiveté always appealed to me, Jo. Your willingness to see the good in people before the bad.' The gun was pointing at her now. ‘Yes, I always did consider you my friend. I never planned on getting you involved in any of this. It was unfortunate that you happened to be in the prefab when I threw the bomb. When I saw him enter, well, I couldn't believe my luck, so I locked the door. All I'd expected was to destroy a few photos.' She shrugged. ‘I'm an opportunist, Jo; you'd have been a necessary casualty, I'm afraid.'

Jo swallowed. Still clasping Ruby to her, she said, ‘Are you planning on killing us now?'

‘Unfortunately yes, as soon as my assistant arrives. I'll need him to help me clear up. We'll have to think up a way to dispose of your bodies. I'm not going to risk burning again, it's too unreliable.' She glanced towards Cam's still form. ‘I'll leave Cam's body where it is. We'll clear away any evidence and no one will know we were even here. A snakebite, what a terrible tragedy.'

‘Let the girl have some last words with her father then,' Jo said.

Ruth thought for a moment, looked at Ruby then indicated to Cam with a flick of the gun. ‘You go with her; that way I can keep the gun on both of you.'

Encouraged by Jo, Ruby moved back to her father's side. The tears rolled down her face as she took his hand.

He attempted to speak even though Ruby told him not to. It seemed he had something he needed to say.

‘Ruby,' he whispered, his face creased with
agony. ‘I hope you know how much I've always loved you. I've never been very good at saying stuff like that. But I hope you've always known that I do. I haven't been a good dad; I get preoccupied with my job. I should never have stayed on as a cop after . . .'

‘Sssh . . .' Ruby wiped at the tears coursing through the dust on his face. ‘We have a plan. We're all going to get out of here. And then, when you're better, you can buy me a pony and . . .' She couldn't say any more. She laid her head on his chest and whispered into his shirt, ‘I'm sorry too, Dad.'

The sound of a car engine drew Jo's attention away from Cam and Ruby to a white ute pulling up next to her VW. She put her hand on the girl's shoulder. ‘Ruby, someone's arrived.'

Ruby jerked in a breath, her eyes suddenly wide with hope.

‘Angelo!' she screamed.

But he walked over to Ruth, staring straight through the girl, as if she was already a ghost.

‘You took your time,' Ruth said to him.

Ruby jerked in her breath. Jo pulled her close.

‘I had trouble finding the place,' Angelo said in a conversational tone.

Ruth clucked her tongue. ‘Never mind, you're here now, you've done well. Eric will be pleased.'

Angelo smiled. ‘I reckon I've more than earned my colours now.'

‘There's just one more thing.'

‘What's that?'

‘Kill them.'

The smile fell from his face. ‘What?'

‘You heard me.'

‘Ruth, this was never – Jesus, I've done everything else, I've done more than enough!'

‘I told Eric you were too young. Now you've proved it.'

Angelo's dark eyes flicked around for a moment. Finally he swallowed and put his hand out for the gun.

‘Good boy, you won't regret this,' Ruth smiled.

Ruby mouthed him a plea then buried her face in Jo's shoulder.

Seconds passed. Jo waited for her whole life to pass before her eyes.

But all she saw was an empty black void.

Her throat began to twist. She was losing control. She had to stay strong, for Ruby.

And then the gun began to shake in the boy's hand. He couldn't do it. He was looking at Ruby as if she was a pet dog who needed putting down but he was unable to pull the trigger himself. Ruth's face twisted. As she snatched the gun from Angelo's hand, a shot cracked through the stillness of the bush, uncorking a flock of screeching cockatoos. Jo pushed Ruby to the ground. She saw the arch of Ruth's back, the startled look as she fell.

With no time for shock or thought, Jo instinctively lunged for the gun before Angelo could get to it first.

‘Stay where you are!'

But the gun had about as much effect on Angelo as a stick of liquorice. He ran towards Ruth's fallen body. ‘Oh God, Jesus!' he screamed, throwing himself over her. Blood flowed like lava from her mouth and pooled onto the gravel.

His hands ran over her bloodied face, his lips met hers as he tried to blow air into her lifeless mouth.

Jo thought she might throw up. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to erase the sight before her. Then, thudding feet and heavy breathing alerted her to the stumbling form of Leanne crashing through the bushes.

‘You cut that bloody fine,' Jo said, surprised she still had the strength to talk, let alone stand upright.

Leanne gave her a tight smile. ‘Keep that gun on him.' She nodded to the weapon Jo still held in her shaking hands.

Leanne re-holstered her own gun, reached for her handcuffs and walked cautiously towards Angelo.

Not sure what to expect from the boy, Jo's hand tightened until the ridges of the grip were digging into her hand. But Angelo's bloodstained face was pale with shock; he offered Leanne no resistance. If not for the occasional convulsive sob he could have been an automaton. He allowed Leanne to cuff him to the ute.

Jo joined Ruby next to her father. Her throat constricted as she gazed at the girl clutching at his limp hand. Jo touched his cheek. He was pale and cold, his lips shiny with blood. She brushed some of the gravel from his neck and felt for his carotid pulse.

‘Call the ambulance, Leanne,' she said, raising her head to find Leanne already gone.

They were having a picnic, all five of them, sitting in the middle of the school oval as a family. A sprinkler, like a giant insect, turned itself on with a splutter and the fine mist floated to their cheeks on a gentle breeze. The girls wore white muslin dresses and laughed when the moisture tickled its way through the thin fabric to their skin. Zach ran in tight circles, catching the drops in his plastic Darth Vader cape. Cam watched and smiled. He was wearing his old school uniform. The shirt was tight and one of his arms ached, but he felt strangely content.

The girls had been picking flowers: wattle yellow, cobalt blue, deep, waxy pink. Elizabeth had picked the biggest bunch, and handed them to Jo to add to her own. She smiled, took Zach by the hand and began to walk away. When Cam called out to them, Ruby shook her head.

He struggled to open his eyes; they were wet and sticky. Everything was blurry and indistinct, as if he were looking through water.

He could hear better than he could see. ‘Cam, are you awake? Can you hear me?'

He heard a familiar voice, felt a hand squeezing his. He squeezed back. He wanted to reach for Jo's face but there was an invisible force pressing down upon him, pushing his limbs into the mattress.

The ring tone of a mobile phone jarred into his senses. Again he heard Jo's voice. ‘Yes he's just woken, but still very groggy. Come in later this afternoon. I'll see you then. Bye, Rod.'

It was all coming back to him: Ruth, the snake, Ruby. Ruby.

‘Where's Ruby?' he whispered. ‘Is she all right?'

He could see more clearly now and found himself focusing on Jo's soft mouth.

‘She got sick of waiting for you to wake up and went downstairs to the gift shop. The doctors unhooked you from the machine a couple of hours ago, gave you an injection of something to wake you up. They had to sedate you; you were fighting the respirator. You've been in a medically induced coma for almost a week.' She laughed. ‘Let's just hope a tiger snake doesn't bite Mrs Bucket's precious poodle. I think they must have used up the anti-venom from all the vets in the district.'

‘There's nothing wrong with poodles,' he heard himself say. He drew a breath and felt some of the weight lift from his limbs. He gingerly re-adjusted his position in the bed. ‘I'm in hospital? It's over?' He glanced around the single room, the bank of flowers on the table, the Get Well cards trembling on the windowsill. The white noise of the hospital buzzed in his head, making it hard to concentrate on what Jo was saying.

‘The bad part's over. It was touch and go for a while. They lost you for a moment in the ambulance, then you were flown down to the city from Toorrup by Flying Doctor,' she said.

Cam became aware of a dull throbbing pain in his bandaged left arm. In contrast to the white of the bandages, his fingers were a grey-blue colour, like water-immersed slugs.

He licked his dry lips. ‘Ruth?'

Jo looked away, biting at her bottom lip. ‘She's dead.'

Cam could feel her pain as sharply as his own. ‘She killed my family, Jo.'

She nodded and took a deep breath. Her grip on his good hand tightened.

‘Dad! You're awake!' It was his daughter's voice, as airy and vital as the wind. Jo moved away and he clasped Ruby to him, felt soft hair on his face. He felt the prick of tears at the back of his eyes; his body shuddered and he lost control.

‘You can cry, Dad, it's all right,' she whispered, raising her hand to stroke his forehead.

‘Thank you,' was all he could say as the cleansing tears streamed down and he slipped once more into a swirling fog of sleep.

***

Cam cast a worried glance at his daughter. She was sitting on the end of his bed, biting at her thumbnail. God, hasn't she been through enough, he thought as he listened to Rod.

‘Angelo's been transferred to the city nick, no bail,' Rod said. He sat on one side of Cam and Jo on the other. As the saline drip flushed the drugs from his system, Cam was regaining control of his body. He could move the fingers of his good hand now and caressed his thumb in soft circles on the top of Jo's hand.

‘He was a nom,' Rod continued, ‘a nominee bikie. Seemed he was cooperating with Ruth and Chainsaw as part of an initiation plan to get his colours. I think there was more to it than that, though. He seemed quite infatuated with her, doing just about anything she asked. She controlled him in pretty much the way Chainsaw controlled her. I tell you, the forensic quacks are having a field day.'

Jo said, ‘I always knew Ruth's behaviour could be over the top, but I had no inkling she was unhinged.' Her hand went to her throat. ‘She always said I was a
lousy judge of . . .' Her voice tapered off.

Cam gave her hand a squeeze.

‘Same psychosis as celebrity stalkers have, one of the shrinks told me,' said Rod. He chuckled. ‘Cam was one of the few males who had any kind of contact with the girls of a very isolated school. That was enough to raise him to celebrity status as far as Ruth was concerned.'

‘But she hated me,' Cam said.

‘Because you spurned her, by her twisted logic. What's that saying, Jo?'

‘Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,' Jo said.

Rod continued, ‘But then she transferred her attentions to Chainsaw and became just as obsessed with him. So when you stepped back into the picture, she had to get rid of you.'

Cam saw Jo glance at Ruby. His daughter's stiffening posture indicated she did not wish to hear any more.

‘I'm just going downstairs for a coffee. Do you want anything, Dad?' Ruby asked.

Cam shook his head. ‘Off you go then, love.'

Cam waited for the door to close behind her. ‘Is she . . . is she all right with this?'

‘She's getting there.' Jo hesitated. ‘I think it's something you need to talk about further down the track.'

Cam swallowed, nodded his head.

Rod said, ‘Angelo and Ruth murdered Bell when they discovered him spying on them at the dam – '

‘They used the fire truck to dump the body?' Cam asked.

‘That's right.'

‘She must have stayed in the truck. The footprints were his,' Cam mused.

‘
And she set the prefab alight,' Rod continued. ‘After she'd locked you in, she and Angelo murdered Vince, leaving behind the apology note she'd stolen from Jo. After that, she went back to the school and Angelo joined Cliff for the fire call. They timed it perfectly.'

‘And Vince was involved with Cliff in the tanker theft?' Cam asked.

‘Yes. He deliberately bungled the investigation in return for a hefty kickback. Cliff only wanted the tanker for parts. Ruth put him in touch with Chainsaw and he sold the fertiliser to the bikies through her. He swears he didn't know why they wanted it. Ruth was concocting the amphetamines in the school lab for Chainsaw, not Cliff. Cliff was clueless about everything except the tanker. He was never even an official bikie associate, though I think he was working on it. The relationship Ruth had with him was authorised by Chainsaw to keep Cliff on side. Ruth used him just as she used everyone else.'

‘Cliff was the only witness who told the truth about the colour of the smoke,' Cam mused.

‘True. Ruth's report of the fire was a diversionary tactic. Why would she report the fire when she was the one who lit it? They'd obviously have preferred the body to be destroyed by the fire, but when it wasn't, because of Cliff 's interference, it was no big deal. They realised they could easily frame Cliff with it – they wanted him out of the way anyway. They planted his jemmy in the submerged car, laying other false clues like the car seat, to make it look like he murdered Vince.'

‘And it was Angelo who made the attempt on Mrs Rooney's life?' Cam asked.

‘They thought she might tell you about Miss Featherstone's financial predicament.'

Cam sighed. ‘I got all that pretty wrong, didn't I? I was sure Cliff was behind all this.'

‘You got it mostly right, just the wrong bloke,' Rod said. ‘Anyway, Cliff's been very cooperative, given us Chainsaw on a plate. We arrested him a couple of days ago on his way to Darwin. The money that allegedly came from Jane Featherstone's will was actually bikie money they'd laundered through the school via Ruth so they could get the science lab done up. If everything had gone as planned they would have doubled their investment within a couple of years. The lab Ruth established was the most sophisticated illegal lab the country has ever had, and because it was under the guise of a school science lab, nothing in it seemed out of place.'

‘They couldn't have used a whole tank of fertiliser, surely?' Cam asked.

‘No, Ruth took what she needed and the rest was distributed to other SS chapters around the country.'

Cam's head sank back into the pillow. He closed his eyes. It was hard to take everything in. He could hear Jo and Rod talking as if from the other end of a tunnel. When he heard them mention Leanne, his eyes shot open again.

‘What was that?' he said.

‘I said I've put her in for a commendation for bravery – that was a fantastic shot. It looks like the medal's going to go through. Apparently she was top marksman in her class at the Academy.'

Jo laughed. ‘She told me she used to shoot rats in the shed with her dad.'

Cam said, ‘That'll give her a boost. But how's she handling the . . .' He waved his hand, unable to find the words.

Rod knew what he was trying to say. ‘She knows she had to kill Ruth, that she had no choice. I think she was more upset when she heard about Gay Cronin feeding Herb's ashes to the chooks.'

‘That's rough,' Cam said, but it was hard not to smile. ‘Who's in charge of the station now?'

‘Constable Dowel; I think you'll find everything in order when you get back.'

Cam let out a deep breath. If I get back, he thought. His eyes strained to read the card on a bunch of white roses next to his bed. ‘Get well soon, love from Anne and Jeffrey,' it said.

For some reason he misted up again.

Rod took this as his cue and slipped from the room, leaving Jo and Cam alone. Cam closed his eyes, felt her cool fingers on his forehead.

‘It's all over now,' she whispered.

The silence stretched. He almost drifted off.

Finally he opened his eyes again. Grabbing at some loose tendrils of thoughts, he shook his head. ‘No, it's not.'

Jo frowned. ‘What do you mean?'

‘It's not over. There's still the matter of a certain dangerous driving charge filed by Vince.'

She laughed. ‘Oh, we can fix that,' she said, leaning over to brush her lips against his.

And because the dreams you have on the brink of waking are the ones that tend to last, he kissed her back.