Siddon Rock (27 page)

Jimmy James gave him an opaque look.
Not one of Nell's
, he said.
Somethin' different than from around here. A stranger.

If anyone had asked Macha Connor about that day, and if Macha could have answered, this is what she would have told them.

Jos's entry into the Yackoo was lit only by the tiny, wavering light of his torch. Such a small child, even for his six years. Maybe Macha thought that he too had fled from the music in the town that opened dark places for her. But the frightened child was no threat and she picked him up. She put him in her bedroll near the fire and watched over him.

Macha moved when the sun slipped obliquely through the trees. She left Jos sleeping by the hut and walked towards the town, taking the short route over the rock. At the peak, she stopped and looked down into the streets where groups of people moved from house to house, and men clustered on the pub verandah. Puffs of dust
rising from the roads leading out of town marked where cars had recently driven away, and there were none of the usual Sunday sounds of music and singing from the various churches. The activity was too much for Macha, and she turned around, heading for the Two Mile, where she collected food and water. When she returned Jos had gone, but Macha easily followed his tracks through the bush to the north edge, until they disappeared on the hard ground.

By now the sun was directly overhead and threw no shadows. Macha looked out to the horizon where the margin between open plains and sky blended into a shimmering water-like mirage. As she searched the distance, eyes squinted against the glare, a figure appeared in the vertiginous light. To see more clearly, Macha lifted her rifle and looked along the sights, but the figure was still amorphous; at one moment it appeared to be a man, at the next it could have been a large dog or a dingo. What she was certain of was that it carried a bundle that looked like a child. The figure was not moving towards Siddon Rock but towards the inland.

There are points in a life when all that was and all that could be condense into a single moment and force a decision. Some have the moment at a turning point, a cusp of events that unexpectedly wedges itself into daily happenings. This is how it was for Catalin who, when she realised she was pregnant, knew she would leave the chaos of war-infested Germany.

For Macha Connor, who had been shown how to see by her mother's farmhand lover Mellor Mackintosh –
Ya gotta trust what ya see –
that moment was when she saw
a bundle that could have been a child being carried away. She tucked the butt of the rifle firmly against her shoulder, but the sights were clouded by the ghosts. They crowded around, and a sly, sibilant mutter started as they pushed the gun barrel down. Macha hesitated, then she re-focused, held the weapon firmly and gently squeezed the trigger, shooting through the throng who had travelled home with her from the war. Then she ran, flying across the hard ground, expecting to find a dead man and a child. But there was no child, just a dying dog who looked at her with a hate-filled blue eye.

At dusk that same day Jimmy James would try to read the story Macha left embedded in the earth at the edge of the Yackoo. He too looked out and saw a man or a dog, but he could see no tracks on the hard earth to lead him to where it might have taken Jos Morningstar.

When Kelpie Crush had not returned by the following morning, Bluey Redall opened the Strangers' Room for Inspector Bailey. Inside was the paraphernalia of a collector. On the table were grubs and insects in jars and several sheets of paper were partly covered by pinned moths. Obviously cut from newspapers and magazines, pictures of insects of all kinds littered the table and were stuck to the walls, along with recipes and pictures of unrecognisable food.

Bit of a mess
, the policeman said,
but nothing's here
.

After the bar closed for the night. Bluey Redall said to Marge, whose blue notes were particularly dark and silent at that moment, that the Strangers' Room was
a real dog's breakfast. And that copper, he didn't reckon it was strange, even though he looked at it. Just you come and have a look.

Bluey opened the door to the Strangers' Room, which swung wide against the inside wall.
Looks fine, even if it is a bloody mess
, Marge said. Then Bluey closed the door, shutting them in.
Now look.
Stuck to the door was a patchwork of tiny black and white photographs, each one of a boy.

They look like the proofs of school photos from last year
, Marge said.
Why on earth would he want them?

Yeah
, Bluey said,
but not all the kids are there, just the boys in the cub scouts. And look how there's a moth pinned through some. Those night-flying ones that bump around the lights. Why some and not others?

But didn't Jos join a while back? And there's not a photo of him
, Marge said.
I wonder why?
She looked at each tiny photo carefully.
Here's Will Hinks. And Barry Aberline– from that lot down past the south road turn-off. We know all these kids, Bluey.

But there's not one of Jos
, Bluey repeated.
Look here.
He pointed to a white space at the centre of the picture display that had only a large brown moth pinned to it.
There's been a photo here, and it was taken down. You can see the pin-marks where the corners were. No photo, just the bloody moth. Why?

Buggered if I know
, Marge said.
But I think I know where you're going with this, and I don't want to think about it. If the cops say there's nothing in it, let's just leave it at that, eh.

I suppose we can't do anything about anything, anyway.
Bluey started picking up paper from the floor.
We'd better clean this mess up.

Marge peered down the microscope that had a moth under its viewer.
Just look at this. They look so fragile, the wings. And there's such a pattern on them. Like a piece of tapestry. There's blue and green and brown – so many different shades. You'd never think it, looking at it normally. And what's the difference between a moth and a butterfly, anyway?

Beats me
, Bluey said as he threw jars and cookbooks into a box.

Maybe it's that butterflies come out during the day and moths are around at night
, Marge said.
Guess there's always a dark side of everything, eh. Like light and dark of the same thing. Can you finish up here? I've got to clean up in the kitchen.
She walked off, then hesitated and came back to Bluey.
Do you think I'll ever not feel guilty, Blue
, she said,
or will it be here for the rest of my life?

Bluey put his arms around her, awkward at the intensity of the moment.
Nothin' for you to be guilty for, love. It's me who's at fault. I was supposed to be lookin' after him. Guess I'll just have to wear it.

Guess we'll both just have to wear it
, Marge said.
Both of us.

That Kelpie Crush disappeared the same day as Jos Morningstar was the talk of the town for weeks. Some worried at it, trying to find meaning, but most people agreed with the comments of Brigid Connor.
He was a stranger
, she said,
and we knew nothing about him. He could've taken young Jos, or not, we'll never know. But there's nothing we can do about it all.

Here are some pieces of the town's recollections of Robert (Kelpie) Crush. That he seemed to be terrific with the kids in the cub pack, which fell apart after he disappeared. That he was too good to be true, all that smarminess to everyone. That Abe Simmons never did like him, although he never actually caught him cheating at poker. That Harry Best had been to talk with him, when he first came to town, about his worthiness to start a cub pack, and told everyone he was suitable. There were one or two – no names being said – who thought Harry should be held responsible, but most said that was going too far. Those who leaned on the bar of the pub knew he pulled a good beer and never said anything about anyone. Marge and Bluey Redall were probably the only ones who suspected that he never slept. And Sinclair Johnson was heard to declare quite often,
That bloke saw and heard more than we knew
, until told by Sybil Barber to
put a plug in it and move on to something else.

It was also remembered that Harry Best, Sinclair Johnson, Abe Simmons and Doctor Allen were the last ones to see Kelpie Crush as he dashed up the track over the rock.

At the Tuesday night poker game, the week after the disappearances, the talk was of their last sighting of the man. Sinclair Johnson and Abe Simmons couldn't agree on whether he had been going up the rock, as he told them, or was coming back from somewhere. Could have been either, Harry Best said, reminding them that Kelpie had been standing still when they first saw him.
Looked to me like he could have been coming or going. But remember his nose?

Yeah
, Doctor Allen said – he'd been roped in to make a foursome –
It was broken, I reckon. Looked like he walked into something really hard. However he did it, it had taken a real thump.

Harry poured himself another scotch and added a splash of water.
He said he walked into something that felt like a wall
, he said.
Maybe the rock knows something we don't about what happened, and was trying to stop him from getting away. There's more things in heaven and earth …

Bloody hell
, Sinclair Johnson interrupted,
if that's the sort of nonsense you teach the kids! Bloody rocks knowing things! You're losing it, mate. No more scotch for you! Rock is just rock. Nothing special. No life. Just bloody hard dirt.

For the rest of his life, Harry Best brought out the memory in the dark of the night when he couldn't sleep, and wondered if he could have stopped it all at the beginning when he talked to Kelpie Crush about starting a cub scouts pack in the town and decided he had no need to check further on the charming stranger.