North Star (28 page)

A loud splintering of timber brought her back with a jolt. She hadn't even realised John had steered her over to the fireplace. He stomped his booted foot through one of theold crates and began throwing them into the blackened hearth. Spotting a squashed box of matches on top of the mantelpiece, he set about starting a fire. Kate tried to stop the shaking that was running through her body, but it was no use.

The fire caught rapidly. Within minutes, the flames were spitting and crackling, making shadows dance around the room in an eerie glow.

John rubbed her arms until the warmth began to thaw away the worst of her shivering.

‘I know this is hard, but it's important, Kate,' he whispered as he squatted down beside her in front of the fire. ‘The last time you saw Len, was he alive?'

Kate nodded her head slowly.

‘Where was he?'

‘He was lying outside the doorway.'

‘Why didn't you tell me this before?'

‘Because I don't know if I'm a murderer or not,' said Kate, staring into the flames. ‘And I'm not sure I want to find out.'

‘It's my job to figure it out,' he said gently. ‘Kate, you were only a kid and there were extenuating circumstances. You didn't murder anyone—at most it was self-defence. We need to find out what happened.'

‘Why can't you just let this rest?'

He didn't answer.

‘I don't want to stay here any more,' Kate said, standing up abruptly and walking towards the door. Outside, the rain still fell, but the storm had passed. In the doorway, she paused and glanced over her shoulder at John.

‘If you have to do it, then do it. Make this thing end, once and for all.'

Kate sat at the kitchen table, trying to warm her cold hands around a mug of coffee.

‘Mum!' Liam's voice rang out from the front of the house. ‘There's a whole heap of cars coming down the driveway.'

Kate didn't move, only sighed wearily. There was nothing more she could do. Maybe this was for the best. She needed to face this, finally learn the truth; then, one way or the other, she could get on with her life.

‘Mum? What's going on?' Georgia asked anxiously.

Kate had little choice but to tell them, now that half the community was out scouring her property for remains. This part was going to be the hardest, she thought, as a familiar queasiness settled in her stomach. After everything she'd done to protect them over the years, they were now about to discover how truly dark and miserable her childhood had been.

It was one of the most difficult conversations she'd had to have, looking into the two precious faces before her, their eyes wide with shock as she gave them a G-rated version of the events that happened on that terrible night so long ago.

‘So there's a body out there somewhere?' Georgia asked with a horrified expression.

Kate sent a hasty glance towards Liam, fearing he'd be distressed by the question, but found him staring at her expectantly with a look of excitement etched on his face. Boys and their fascination with all things gross.

‘It was a long time ago. There wouldn't be any body there now,' she said, feeling ill.

‘It'll be okay, Mum,' said Georgia gently, putting her hand on Kate's arm.

Tears welled, but Kate refused to let them fall. She gave Georgia a grateful smile, then hugged both kids and reassured them that everything would be okay.

Please let that be true
, she prayed silently, knowing that it was out of her hands now.

The Beaumonts arrived then and Jenny shooed the children from the gloom that had settled over the kitchen. Once alone, Kate turned haunted eyes upon her two friends and told them the whole sorry story. Afterwards Jenny stared at her, speechless, while Nathan seemed as though he'd been turned to stone.

‘Kate,' Jenny said eventually, ‘I have no idea what to say, where to start . . .'

‘It's okay.' Getting to her feet, Kate moved towards the window and looked out at the vehicles and all the people wearing bright orange SES jackets, bustling back and forth like a miniature army. ‘It's all my fault. I should have come forward sooner. I should have told someone, but I let Henry push me around and look where it's got me.'

‘You haven't done anything wrong, Kate. You acted in self-defence. You were a child, for Christ's sake! What's wrong with these people?'

‘Jen's right. No matter what they find out there, you didn't do anything wrong,' Nathan stated with a firmness that brought a lump to Kate's throat.

‘Except forget to report I'd hit a man over the head with a timber splitter.'

As though she had summoned him with her dry statement, Detective Freeman knocked on the front door and came inside to introduce himself to Jenny and Nathan.

‘Whatever happened to the victim's rights around here? Do you know what that animal did to Kate?' Jenny demanded, advancing upon the detective furiously.

‘We're confident that once we find some evidence it will back up Ms Thurston's story.'

Kate suspected the unspoken message was that if she was not telling the truth, the evidence would tell them that as well.

‘Of course it'll back up her story! Who do you think you are?'

‘Jen,' Kate cut in. ‘It's all right. He's just doing his job.' She was so far beyond being worried now; it was simply a matter of taking each breath and not giving in to the urge to collapse in a crumpled heap on the floor.

The waiting stretched on. Jenny and Nathan tried to distract her by discussing business, but Kate couldn't keep her mind on the conversation for long and eventually they all just sat and stared at the walls.

A burst of chatter from the radio outside on the verandah made them all jump. Straining to hear, all three of them held their breath and listened.

Cold fingers seemed to reach into Kate's chest and squeeze around her heart.

They'd found something.

Nathan muttered beneath his breath, and Kate released a long, shaky sigh.

Jenny wrapped her warm arms around Kate in comfort. ‘It's going to be all right,' she whispered forcefully, and Kate wished that were true.

The squeak of the screen door preceded Detective Freeman's footfalls up the hallway. One look at his face dashed Kate's hopes of the news being good.

‘We've uncovered a skeleton in the vicinity of where you last saw Len Jackson. We've got forensics on standby to come and take a look. Then we'll send the bones off to be analysed. Once we have the results we'll know more.'

‘What happens to me now?' Kate asked, her lips trembling.

‘Nothing . . . yet. We have to wait and see what the lab can tell us about the bones, get them dated . . . It's a long process. Unfortunately, in the real world we don't have access to multimillion-dollar labs with instantaneous results, like they do on TV,' he said with a small smile.

Kate was too nervous to respond to his kind tone.

‘Have you seen John recently?' Jenny asked that evening, having taken Kate and the kids back to Goonda for the night.

‘No.'

‘He wasn't in the search today. I looked for him,' Nathan said, taking a long pull of his beer and staring out into the darkness beyond the verandah.

Even though the night was mild, Kate pulled her cardigan around her, feeling chilled to the very core. The insects were loud, filling in the dismal silences that continued to fall between the three friends.

‘The kids seem to be taking it well,' Jen offered quietly.

Kate frowned. Liam had been full of questions, excited by all the activity, not fully grasping the magnitude of the situation. Georgia, on the other hand, hadn't said much at all. She'd withdrawn into herself, and earlier that evening, when Kate had tried to talk to her alone, she'd come up against the brick wall she'd spent so many painful months tearing down.

‘How are they going to cope with this at school?' Kate asked.

‘They'll cope,' Nathan said.

‘I was supposed to be the dependable one,' Kate said with a bitter laugh. ‘Look at the parents these kids ended up with—a gambling, self-centred father and a murderer for a mother!'

‘You are not a murderer. Stop talking like that, Kate!' Jenny snapped. ‘They don't know anything for certain.'

The day's events caught up with Kate then and she felt the first tears well and fall. ‘How many bodies do you think are lying around on North Star, Jen? This is all just a formality—they'll identify him, make sure it's a sealed deal, and then they'll come and arrest me.'

Jenny gathered Kate in her arms and rocked her back and forth gently. ‘We don't know that for sure, and until we do, we're not going to think about it.'

Succumbing to Jen's mothering, Kate allowed herself to be tucked into bed, where she finally fell into an exhausted sleep.

The knock on the front door the next morning was as loud as a gun going off in the room. Kate pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt, ran a brush through her hair and followed the sound of low voices.

Detective Freeman stood in the centre of the room, and for a moment Kate felt as though she might pass out. As he turned to face her, she caught a glimpse of his serious expression and braced herself to hear the words, ‘You are under arrest.'

When they didn't come, she felt momentarily disorientated.

‘The preliminary coroner's report has come back. The bones will need to be dated for a time frame to be established. There are some discrepancies though,' he said with a puzzled frown.

‘What kind of discrepancies?' Nathan asked, and Kate was grateful he'd asked—she didn't think she could manage to utter a single word.

‘The skull has a bullet wound, and the coroner has given this as the likely cause of death.'

Sinking onto a chair, Kate felt a cold sweat break out across her forehead. ‘A bullet wound? There wasn't a gun. I swear, I only hit him.'

‘Kate, nothing is official as yet. We need to identify the bones first, so at this stage there's not much else I can tell you. I'm sorry. I know this is putting you through a terrible amount of distress, but we're doing the best we can.'

‘So you don't even know for sure it's Jackson,' Nathan piped up.

Just the sight of him, arms folded across his chest, legs firmly apart, gave Kate a shot of confidence. She was surrounded by friends here, she wasn't alone.

‘We're still waiting on the DNA results,' Freeman hedged. ‘But for now we'll work on the theory it is Jackson and continue the search to see if anything else turns up.'

‘Detective,' Jenny called as he turned to walk away, ‘do you know where John Cafferty is?'

‘I believe Senior Sergeant Cafferty has taken some vacation time he had owed.'

As the policeman let himself out of the house, Jenny stared at her husband almost accusingly. ‘Vacation time? Now? What the hell is the man thinking?'

‘Don't look at me,' Nathan said calmly. ‘I didn't know anything about it. Maybe he was told to stay out of it, seeing as he's personally involved.'

‘At least he could have been out here lending his support, not off on some holiday,' Jenny fumed.

Kate felt too numb to care.