Skeletal (10 page)

He got out of the door, and closed it, the ten-second walk to Billy’s side the only quiet of the day so far.

***

Ms Pearson 2004

Patty watched them arrive with interest. There was a small girl with an egg on her forehead pulling him forward. He was holding a boy on his hip. A boy who probably should’ve been on his own two feet, but had decided instead to let his father do the walking.

‘Mr Harrow,’ she called out when he looked lost.

He turned and followed her into her office. He didn’t appear to notice his daughter sitting outside.

‘Would you like to take a seat, sir? I’ll just check and see if Mr Fitzsimmons is able to see you now.’

He slumped in his seat, catching the boy’s leg between his hip and the chair. There was a wail, but only a half-hearted effort that soon cut off.

Patty knocked on Fitz’s office door. There was a pause for a good thirty seconds, and then he said, ‘Come in.’

‘Daina’s father’s here for you. Should I show him in?’

Fitz nodded and stood. ‘Please do.’

Patty went back to her office, and snatched the files the girl was tasting back off her. Mr Harrow’s eyes were closed. His boy tugged on his tie, but he made no effort to stop him.

‘Mr Harrow, it’s just through here.’

He got to his feet and pulled the boy high on his hip again. Patty wondered for a second if she should offer to watch his kids while he was in the Principal’s office, and then saw the girl reaching for her stapler with glee, and decided not.

He walked straight past Daina again with no acknowledgement. Patty studied her expression, but it was fixed. Still. Her relaxed gaze on the wall opposite her.

Patty nodded in appreciation. The girl had a good front.

***

Coroner’s Court 2014

‘Mr Harrow, I realise this must be a traumatic time for you.’ My mother gave an audible snort from the front row, but the coroner gave her no acknowledgement. ‘If you need to take a few minutes during your testimony just let me know, and I’ll halt proceedings.’

My father nods. I could fully understand Mum’s snort. He looks excited to be there, in a subdued way, but that is about it. I wonder if he’d be able to pick me out of a line-up at this stage.

‘You looked after your daughter for a day shortly before she disappeared,’ the coroner states. No one contradicts him.

Looked after – that’s a good one.

‘Could you tell us about that now?’

My father looks about the room instead. Trying to embed it in his memory, maybe. He crosses his legs, then thinks better of it and uncrosses them again. Then splays them. I wish I could still groan.

‘Yes, I got a call from the school. It was unexpected. Daina and I hadn’t had a lot of contact over the years, so I was surprised that they would still have me down as a guardian, but they weren’t able to get hold of Rachael, so they came through to me.’

To give him credit he didn’t seem to be rebuking mum for her failure. But given his lack of interest it was also entirely possible he didn’t realise there was anything to rebuke.

‘I was a full-time house husband at the time. I’d lost my job in telecommunications,’ – a call centre – ‘so my wife was out working full-time and I was staying at home and looking after my children.’

‘From your second marriage?’

‘Oh, Rachael and I were never married. It was never that sort of relationship. No, I’ve only been married once. And still am.

‘So I was in charge of William – he’s our youngest – and Judy – she’s three years older. And they were pretty full-on I can tell you. William was still having trouble sleeping through, so I was up and down all night. And then I get this call out of the blue saying my
other
daughter’s in trouble and needs help. I felt a bit like the gates of Hell had opened.’

He laughs. No one joins him. He doesn’t notice.

Good on you, Dad.

‘When I went to the school I couldn’t work out what had happened. That guy there,’ He nods towards Mr Fitzsimmons – I’m sure he was delighted to be referred to as “that guy” – ‘He pulled me into his office and told me some long story about how he wound up as Principal of the school. Honestly, it took about an hour before anyone told me why I’d been dragged down there to begin with.’

‘And what was the reason?’

‘Oh, he,’ my Dad nods his head towards Fitzsimmons again, ‘said that Daina had been making some allegations against some girl or something. She was involved in some bullying as well, which I was surprised at, because Daina was always such a sweet wee thing. End shot was it was serious enough that they were suspending her from school for three days. He,’ the nod again, ‘also said if it happened again they’d exclude her.’ He laughs all of a sudden, the noise unexpected. ‘Told me I needed to sort out some counselling for her. As if I could just magic up some arrangement out of the blue. I looked at that for Billy a few years ago, and unless you’re prepared to wait for six months then they expect you to pay for it. Like I could’ve afforded that!’

The coroner waits for a half-minute, but it appears Dad has just stopped his testimony. ‘Would you be able to explain what happened then?’

Yeah, Dad. Concentrate.

‘Oh, well, I was expected to take her home with me. Like looking after two kids under five wasn’t enough to be dealing with. My wife would’ve gone mental. Not that I was leaving her out on the street or anything. She was quite happy that I just take her home – she said she had a key – and so I drove her round to Rachael’s new place and left her there.’

‘Did you talk to Rachael about what the school had said?’

‘Well no. Not at the time. I had Billy and Judy with me, so I couldn’t just wait around until Rachael got home. Daina said she’d inform her about everything, and I trusted she would. She’s a good girl. And it was hardly like she was going to lie to her – a bit difficult to hide the fact that you’re home from school for three days, isn’t it?’

Not really.

‘But you phoned her later to check?’

Dad shifts his weight, and shakes his head. ‘It didn’t occur to me at the time, and later I just thought it would all have been sorted anyway.’

Yeah, right. Later, like just now.

‘And did the school contact you again?’

‘What? No. No, that would always usually be handled by Rachael. I guess this was a once off and they went back to checking with her again.’

I thought how he looked that afternoon when he dropped me off and went back to his car. He’d come with me to the door, Billy hanging off one side, Judy clinging onto his hand on the other. There had been an expression of shock when I’d tried the door and it was locked. Relief when I’d produced a key and said Mum must be out.

He’d headed back to his car, shoulders higher now the burden of me was lifted. His duty was discharged. He didn’t have to take me home, or have awkward conversations.

When he’d belted Billy into his car seat he’d ruffled his hair and kissed him on the cheek. More affection in a two-second period than I’d had in my life from him. And then he’d backed down the drive, attention on the road, attention on his other children, attention on the journey home.

I remembered waving to the car as it turned into the road. Dad hadn’t even turned to look. Gone from his thoughts already.

***

There was a hefty knock on the door soon after four o’clock. I stiffened at the noise, then relaxed as I realised mum still wasn’t home. I was expecting to see a salesperson, or a Mormon couple at the door. Even the dread thought of a debt collector flitted through my mind.

Vila was standing there instead. ‘Heard you got booted out,’ she said as she pushed her way inside. Susie stood behind her and waited until I nodded before coming in.

‘It’s only for a few days. They haven’t excluded me or anything.’

‘Why are you suspended anyway? We saw Michelle get called to the office, then she was back, and it wasn’t till Susie had a word with Ms Pearson that we realised you were behind it.’

I turned to the kitchen, ‘Do you want a drink of something?’

‘No, I want to know what happened.’

‘I’ll have a glass of lemonade if you have it,’ Susie said and came up behind me. ‘Why d’you have all the curtains pulled?’

‘You can open them if you like. Mum usually wakes up late so she doesn’t want to see the sun much.’

‘She work nights?’

Vila snorted. ‘She’s on the DPB. She doesn’t work at all.’

‘She’s a nightowl,’ I said with a bristle of annoyance. ‘Always has been.’

There was some lemonade in the fridge, a mixer left behind. A supermarket brand. I poured out a glass and watched a few bubbles form with grim determination on the side of the glass.

‘Here you go,’ I handed it over. ‘Vila?’

‘I’m good thanks.’

She’d opened up all of the curtains, revealing the stained remnants of a dozen parties. There were cigarettes still ground into the carpet where an ashtray had overturned and people had kept on traipsing through, oblivious.

Vila wrinkled up her nose, but continued back through to the lounge and opened it up to let the sun reveal the extent of the damage in there as well. She brushed crumbs of god-knows-what from the couch and sat down with prissy precision.

‘So what happened? You know I’m not going until you tell me.’

Yeah, I had figured that. Oh well, safety in lying wasn’t there. ‘I told Mr Fitzsimmons about what you’d told me. About Michelle and Mr Bond.’

Susie spluttered and a mouthful of lemonade sprayed out of her nose. ‘I told you that in confidence!’

‘Don’t worry, I didn’t say that I’d heard it from anyone. I just said I’d seen it.’

‘And what then?’

‘Well, it doesn’t look like Mr Bond came into any kind of trouble, does it?’

Susie frowned and put her glass down. ‘Did they prove you hadn’t seen something?’

‘They asked Michelle to the office and she denied it.’

Susie still looked unhappy. ‘I thought they’d have to do more than that. I mean, she’s underage and stuff isn’t she? Don’t they have to report anything like that to the police just to be sure?’

That had been what I’d been expecting to happen. It was good to know that someone else was on my wavelength. Bad that it was nobody of any influence.

‘Well, you just know how to make friends all over the place, don’t you?’ Vila said and stood back up. Susie looked surprised for a moment, but after a long look from Vila she got to her feet as well.

‘We’ve got to be going, homework you know. I’ll catch up with you when you’re back in school.’

I nodded and showed them to the door.

Susie grabbed my upper arm and squeezed. ‘You going to be okay?’

I nodded and tried to smile. It was the closest anyone had got to caring about me in a while, and I felt stupid tears trying to make an appearance. Self pity, mum’d call it.

Vila was almost to the footpath when she turned again. ‘Oh, I forgot,’ she yelled back to me. ‘We’re gonna have a small party in the park tomorrow. After school. Want to come?’

Friday. In the park. I tried to think if I had any other plans. ‘Sounds good.’

‘We’ll pick you up around five. See you then.’

‘See you.’

***

Coroner’s Court 2014

Susie doesn’t look as good as she should on the stand.

For some reason, maybe a lifetime of teasing, she’s dyed her beautiful red hair mid-brown. It may stop the references to Gingas, but it does little for her appearance.

Her diminished height is emphasised with the weight she’s gained. It’s not much more than a stone over what she weighed in high school, but given her body’s limited capacity to spread it out she looks like she’s wearing a truck tyre’s inner tube for a waistband.

She’s still sweet though. She still looks concerned that she’s doing everything right.

Her life really deserved to work out better than it has. A supermarket career doesn’t have much room for elevated growth, but she’s always been too kind to hand in her resignation and leave them in the lurch.

She reached the exalted heights of duty manager at eighteen, and there she’s stayed. She should’ve gone to university; she was certainly bright enough, but I guess no one ever bothered to tell her that.

I certainly hadn’t.

‘You were involved in the incident in the park on the…’ the coroner consults his notes before continuing, ‘On Friday 14
th
November, is that right?’

Susie nods, and then leans forward to the microphone. ‘Yes, that’s right.’ She looks like she’s expecting to be arrested at any moment if she gets something wrong.

‘Can you tell us what happened that night?’

Susie fidgets on the stand. She looks down into her lap where her hands are clenched together tight.

‘We’d been invited to a party in the park. Just a get together, you know.’