The Outback (20 page)

‘Will you stop with the
accusations,’ snapped Colin, who had been through a stressful time waiting for
Stephen at the police station and was finding it hard to keep his temper in
check. ‘She was raped, okay? Her seizure occurred after the assault. The
doctors who examined her at the hospital alerted the police after checking her
wounds. She isn’t even conscious yet.’

Rose put her head down.
She was humiliated, but also penitent for her callous and false accusations.

‘Is Stephen the only
suspect?’ asked Niall, ‘because if the police are looking for the culprit, I
could certainly offer up a more likely candidate.’

‘He’s right,’ added
Matt. ‘This had to have been done by Pierro. We all saw his reaction when he
walked out last night.’

‘Pierro has an alibi,’
said Colin.

‘And so does Stephen.’
Niall’s frustration was starting to penetrate his usually relaxed demeanour.
‘He never left the van once during the night. I’m a light sleeper and I would
definitely have noticed if he had.’

‘That is why both of
them have been released without charge while the police carry out their
investigation.’ Colin took a deep breath to keep composed. Despite agreeing
wholeheartedly with Matt and Niall, he was trying to be as diplomatic as
possible in relating what little information he had. ‘Hopefully, Celeste will
regain consciousness soon and she can put the matter to bed once and for all.’

After the group had
adjourned their meeting, they went back to doing the only thing that they
could. They returned to their caravans and they waited.

Chapter 27

Joe returned to
Birribandi as soon as he had received the news of Celeste’s ordeal. He arrived
back at the town late on the Tuesday evening and so as not to disturb his employees
too much, he waited until the following morning before paying them a visit.
When he did turn up at the caravan park, he brought with him a most unwelcome
passenger.

‘What’s he doing here?’

Colin was barely able to
control his temper upon seeing the man exit from the passenger side of Joe’s
car and he knew that Stephen would not exercise such restraint when he learned
of Pierro’s return.

‘I don’t want to see any
trouble here,’ warned Joe. ‘Pierro has been through enough in the last twenty
four hours and he has as much right to be here as you.’

The Italian was not in
good shape. He had dark rings around his bloodshot eyes and had gone without
more than just sleep, as he was also unwashed and unshaven. His condition
conveyed a state of extreme stress that could be attributed to either grief or
guilt. Colin put it down to the latter.

‘Do you really think
that bringing him back here is wise...or even safe?’ Colin asked.

Joe did not like the
thinly veiled threat in the Irishman’s words. However, before he could
remonstrate with the younger man he became distracted by a far greater concern.
Colin turned to see what caught Joe’s attention, but he already had a good idea
what it would be. Joe attempted to step around Colin so as to intercept Stephen
before he could start any trouble, but Colin prevented him by placing a hand on
his boss’ chest.

‘Don’t go blaming
Stephen for anything,’ said Colin. ‘Not when you are standing by that monster
over there.’

With Joe briefly
distracted, Stephen took full advantage of the opportunity presented to him.
The Irishman had not only Colin, but also the car between himself and Joe,
which provided him with ample time to make his move. Pierro was expecting the
onslaught, but had little fight in him. The Italian merely turned away from his
rival as Stephen unleashed a flurry of punches to his torso.

The Irishman was not the
type to punish a defenceless opponent and the more that Pierro shielded himself
without striking back, the less frenzied his attack became until Stephen was
simply pushing the other man against the side of the vehicle, hoping to provoke
a combative response.

‘Why won’t you fight me,
you coward?’ he cried.

Joe brushed Colin aside
and approached the frustrated man, but he knew that the threat had already
passed.

‘Let it go, Stephen,’ he
said. ‘You know this is not the answer.’

‘He needs to pay for
what he’s done.’

Stephen lowered his
guard, but his arms were still tensed and ready to react at a moment’s notice.

‘Pierro has been neither
charged with nor found guilty of any crime,’ said Joe. ‘Like you, he is
grieving and like you, he is a free man until such a day that a court decides
otherwise.’

The point had been made.
Both men had suffered an equal heartbreak and both men had equal cause should
either have perpetrated the horrendous crime that had torn apart the harmony of
the camp in just twenty four short hours. The only lesson learned from the
morning was that both of the hospitalised girl’s lovers could not be trusted to
be kept close together. Joe decided that it was best for everybody if Pierro
left the camp and stayed at his house until Celeste’s attacker was found,
whether it be one of the two rivals to her affections or somebody completely
different.

Everybody rallied around
Stephen once Joe had driven away with the unwelcome Italian. Not one of the
backpackers doubted their friend’s innocence and they ensured that he knew that
he could count on their unwavering support. In a way, the caravan park was a
community of outcasts; every one of them an outsider. If they were to get
through the hard times ahead, it was imperative that they all stuck together.

Chapter 28

Pierro returned to the
caravan park after nightfall. He parked his car just before the entrance to the
driveway and turned off the engine. He did not want to alert the residents to
his presence and so walked the rest of the way into the park. No noise came
from within the unlit vans and the only sound that could be heard was from the
repetitive croak of cane toads. The only light was from the pale glow of the
moon.

The Italian did not plan
on staying for long. All he wanted was to get to his room and pick up an
important item to take back to Joe’s. It was a simple task that he would never
get to complete. Unbeknownst to him, his entrance had not gone unnoticed.

The door to his bedroom
gave way at a gentle push. Although it had been left unlocked, there were no
signs of any disturbance. He had expected Stephen and his friends to have
turned the place upside down in a vain search to find anything incriminating
that they could use against him. Perhaps he had underestimated them, or maybe
they simply did not expect the room to be left so invitingly unlocked. A break-in
would certainly arouse suspicion and be very difficult for them to explain.

He had filled a small
rucksack with clothes and toiletries earlier in the day. Frustratingly, Joe
stood and watched over him whilst he packed. This was supposedly for the
Italian’s own protection, but it prevented him from taking what he needed the
most. That is what he had returned for now.

The bottom drawer of the
cabinet slid out easily and the bundle was safely where he had left it. He
reached down and picked it up. Unable to resist the temptation, he briefly
flicked through the crisp wad of notes. He had not saved as much as he would
have liked, but it was enough for him to make a clean break from that God
forsaken town. He carefully slipped the cash into his bag and crept out the
same way that he had entered, all the while careful not to make a sound.

As he strode silently
through the kitchen and back to the dining hall, he found the doorway now
blocked by a shadowy silhouette. To be caught snooping around at night in light
of the crime that some were accusing him of would not bode well in his defence.
He tried desperately to think up an excuse for his being there at that late
hour, when the figure took a step forward, exposing his physiognomy to the
defining beams of moonlight.

At once Pierro knew what
he had to do. Earlier in the day he had been caught out in a state of shock and
despair. He had been weak and not stood up for himself. There was no way that
he would make that mistake again. He lurched towards the interloper with brutal
determination. Once within range, he grabbed the other man by the throat with
his left hand, shoving him into a side wall. He then held him firm whilst
drawing back with his right to administer the first blow. He only became aware
of the knife as he felt its blade pierce just beneath his rib cage.

The burning agony
increased as the cold steel passed through cartilage, bone and finally into his
heart, completing its deadly diagonal ascent. At that final moment, the pain
stopped. It had become so sharply focused that it withdrew into a singularity
and then it was gone. It took with it, the feeling, the air and the life from
Pierro’s now limp body.

The Italian’s murderer
withdrew his weapon with as much care as he used when delivering the fatal insertion.
He displayed the precision and skill of a seasoned butcher, killing not with
malice or rage, but with carefully executed efficiency. Without making a sound,
he calmly laid the body to rest on the tiled floor.

Pierro’s bag had been
left at the other end of the dining room. The killer picked it up and examined
the contents. It was not long before he came across the cash, which he then
shoved into the inside pocket of his overcoat. Killing the Italian had been a
necessity, but finding the money made the task all the more worthwhile. He took
one last look around to make sure that he had left no trace of his presence and
then he disappeared back into the night.

Chapter 29

‘I didn’t do anything!’

‘Save it for the Judge,
kid. We have close to a dozen witnesses that saw you assault the deceased just
hours before his death. We also know that you were sleeping with his
girlfriend, who is at this moment fighting for her life in a hospital bed. Let
me guess; she said that she was going to leave him and then changed her mind at
the last minute; is that why you wanted to kill them both?’

‘I’m telling you that it
wasn’t me. You have the wrong man.’

The deputy did not
listen as he roughly manhandled Stephen into the back of the squad car. His
superior would never tolerate such callous treatment of a prisoner, but Sheriff
Lee was within neither sight nor earshot of the incident. He was inside the
dining block with Joe, trying to restore calm and order to this shocked
community of backpackers.

Birribandi had a small
police department with limited resources and as such the crime scene had been
cleared quickly. There were no spacesuit-clad forensic scientists swamping the
area for minute biological clues invisible to the human eye or any intrusive
reporters looking to capture their big break. The body was removed by ambulance
to the local mortuary where it now sat beside the charred remains of the week’s
earlier casualty.

‘This cannot be true,’
protested Niall. ‘I know Stephen and he is not capable of murder.’

The sheriff was unmoved.

‘A week ago, I would
have thought that nobody in this town was capable of such an act. In all of
this town’s history there has only ever been one other crime of this magnitude
and that was over thirty years ago.’

‘That’s right,’ said
Colin. ‘When Rose and I were at the station to report the mugging you told us
that there had been a murder in this town before. How do you know that it
wasn’t the same killer this time?’

‘I can understand your
frustration, but it is not possible for the crimes to be related. Although
there are startling similarities; both cases involved a rape and a murder, I
can safely rule out any connection. The previous crime was solved thirty years
ago and has no bearing whatsoever on today.’

Colin was frustrated,
but determined not to give up on fighting for his friend’s freedom.

‘It could be a copycat
killer that you need to be looking for.’

‘I will decide who needs
to be investigated,’ said the sheriff, ‘and right now we have the most promising
suspect in custody.’

The policeman did not
take kindly to being told how he should be doing his job, but still Colin
refused to give up.

‘What about the rape?
Just because Pierro got murdered doesn’t mean that he didn’t attack Celeste. If
you ask me, he got what he deserved.’

The policeman did not
want to be drawn into an argument, but Colin was starting to test his patience.

‘I hope that you are not
condoning murder, Mr O’Meara.’

‘No more than you are
condoning rape. How is Celeste, by the way?’

The sheriff paused in
the same way he had before raising the subject of Rhett’s past in the mugging
interview. He hoped that by divulging some information about the injured girl
it may take the backpackers minds away from making unhelpful speculation
regarding the murder.

‘Miss Espuche has
regained consciousness,’ he said. ‘And she is expected to make a full recovery,
although it will take a lot longer for her emotional wounds to heal.’

This news, though not as
shocking as the murder and subsequent arrest, was enough to garner the anxious
attention of the group. It even managed to distract Colin. The questions came
thick and fast.

‘Celeste’s awake?’ ‘Has
she talked yet?’ ‘Did she name her attacker?’

The sheriff had neither
the time nor the inclination to address each of the questions individually. He
was willing to give them nothing more than the facts and had no desire to
encourage idle gossip.

‘We have taken a
statement from the victim, but we are yet to receive any leads as to the
identity of her attacker. Miss Espuche is currently suffering from post
traumatic shock.’

‘Shock or not, she must
have given you a name,’ said Colin. ‘Who attacked her; was it Stephen or was it
Pierro?’

The Irishman was letting
his frustrations get the better of him once more and Rose put a reassuring hand
on his shoulder to help calm him down.

‘We have been given a
name, but it makes no sense to us,’ the sheriff replied. ‘The victim has a
confused recollection of events and it will take a lot more time and
considerable counselling before we believe she can give us an accurate account
of what happened to her.’

‘What do you mean the
name makes no sense?’ demanded Colin. ‘If she fingered the culprit then he is
your man. That’s a first person testimony from the victim. Surely the case
could not be any clearer cut.’

‘I wish it were that
simple, I really do, but there is just no way that we can act on the
information she has given to us.’

‘That is ridiculous!’
Colin was starting to lose his cool again. ‘Who is it? Who did she say attacked
her?’

The policeman drew in a
large breath as if he himself could not believe what he was about to say. He had
hoped to avoid having to disclose the name, but he could now see that more harm
would be done by keeping it a secret.

‘She said that the man
who assaulted her was Rhett Butler.’

The revelation was met
with astonished silence.

‘Like I said; it makes
no sense whatsoever,’ added the sheriff. ‘Rhett Butler is dead. I have seen his
body myself. It may have been charred beyond all recognition, but it was definitely
him. We have a coroner’s report to prove this, so he is one suspect that we can
definitely rule out.’

‘So how could she think
that he had attacked her?’ asked Colin. ‘Did she get a clear look at the guy
who did it?’

‘That is another reason
why we cannot take her testimony too seriously. She never actually saw her
attacker, she only heard his voice. According to her that voice belonged to Mr
Butler.’

Colin’s eyes narrowed.

‘In that case, Pierro is
your man. He had the same accent as Rhett. It had to be him.’

The sheriff would not be
moved.

‘This is Australia; most
folks in this town have an accent similar to Mr Butler’s.’

‘Stephen doesn’t,’ said
Colin.

The policeman was well
aware of what the young backpacker was implying, but he had been drawn into this
conversation for far too long. He had spent too much time with these kids as it
was and there was more pressing business for him to attend to.

‘That is all of the
information that I can give you at this time,’ he said. ‘I have talked it over
with Mr Wilson and we have both agreed that it will be for the best if we allow
you all to keep working. A solid routine is what everyone needs right now to
help them get through these hard times. As a precaution, I will be taking all
of your passports with me when I leave here today as the investigation is far
from over, but you will still have the freedom of the town.’

‘Taking our passports;
why?’ asked Jenny. ‘Surely none of us are suspects.’

‘You have each said that
you think that Stephen is innocent of the murder. If that is the case then the
killer could be sat among us right now. Until this case is closed, I am not
taking any chances.’

To emphasise that he had
spoken the final word, the sheriff stood up and walked out the door. As far as
he was concerned, he had found the guilty party and all he had to do was prove
it, but if he had thought that his talk would allay the fear within the camp he
was very much mistaken.

***

‘This stinks.’

Colin was the most
reluctant to hand over his passport and had done so only when Joe threatened to
search the caravan for it. He still had a considerable stash of illegal drugs
hidden in there and did not wish to be joining Stephen in jail.

‘I’m more concerned
about being stuck here whilst there is a killer on the loose,’ said Matt. ‘Who
knows which one of us could be next? From this moment onwards we need to make
sure that nobody is left alone; especially the girls.’

The possibility of a
continuing threat got the Irishman’s attention.

‘Do you really think
that we could be in danger?’ Colin asked.

‘We both know that
Stephen couldn’t kill anyone. Whoever murdered Pierro is still out there. It
could be that the Italian had enemies, but we cannot afford to let our guard
down for a moment.’

Colin nodded his
agreement, but he did have another concern that he wanted to get off his chest.

‘What do you think about
the other thing?’ His voice trailed off as if he was embarrassed to even bring
up the subject.

‘I think that we can
safely rule out Rhett as a possible killer,’ Matt replied flatly.

‘Are you sure? What if
there was something in that superstition of yours and we brought him back?’

Matt could not believe
what he was hearing.

‘What do you mean
“brought him back”? We didn’t do anything, remember? All we had was a
photograph and if that could raise the dead then the whole planet would be
crawling with zombies. When my Nan died nobody covered her pictures and she
didn’t come back from the dead to haunt us all.’

‘Yeah, well I’m going to
go along to the library and do a little research of my own. I’m not prepared to
just sit around and wait for some madman to either rape or kill again. The sheriff
said that this town has suffered these crimes before and they may be connected.
We know that thirty years ago Rhett was questioned over a rape and the fact
that his name has been mentioned again has to be more than just coincidence.’

‘Rhett is dead,’ said
Matt. ‘How can a dead man rape somebody?’

‘That,’ said Colin, ‘is
what I intend to find out.’

***

Matt accompanied Colin to
the library purely in keeping with his vow not to leave anyone alone. He saw no
merit or sense in digging up the past and he hoped that the sooner Colin got
such crazy ideas out of his system the better. The library had two terminals
dedicated to internet access and the pair booked one of these to aid them in
their amateur investigation.

‘Here we go,’ said
Colin, ‘I’ve logged onto the newspaper archives. All we have to do is search
under certain key words and see what we get.’

‘I didn’t think this
town had a local newspaper,’ said Matt.

‘It doesn’t, but in a
country this small the story was bound to have been picked up by one of the
nationals. Especially thirty years ago. What else have they got to report on?’

Matt could see his
friend’s point. During his stay in Australia he had noticed that seemingly
trivial incidents and events that would never leave the regionalised locality
they occurred in back in Britain could pass from one side of the continent to
the other in this vast, yet sparsely populated nation.

‘Where do you plan to
start?’ asked Matt.

‘We know that there’s
only been one murder in this town before last night, so let’s start with the
obvious.’

Colin keyed in the words
“Birribandi” and “Murder”. The search brought back just one result. The
Irishman highlighted the header and then left clicked the mouse to bring it up.
The story was five years old and related to a memorial service that the
townsfolk had held to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the killing. There
was no mention of Rhett and it only said that the murdered man was a then
twenty two year old footballer named John Warwick, who was killed by a woman he
was alleged to have assaulted.

Colin tried going back
and putting in different keywords, but they all brought up nothing. The crime
far pre-dated the internet and the original news stories had not been deemed
worthy enough to have made the archive. The pair had reached a dead end.

‘Well, that’s that
then,’ said Matt.

Colin was speechless. He
really thought that he was going to dig up some dirt on his old foreman. He
stood up and roughly shoved his chair back under the desk, causing an elderly
library attendant to glance up, but she did not say anything. As he tried to
compose his thoughts, he briefly scanned over a series of framed photographs that
lined one wall of the library. There were three in total and one in particular
caught his attention.

‘You better take a look
at this, Matt,’ he said.

‘Look at what?’ replied
the Englishman, who despite his earlier reservations was also disappointed by
the lack of a result in their search.

‘This picture on the
wall,’ said Colin.

Matt glanced over. The
first picture was of a farmer posing with a prize winning goat. This was next
to a certificate awarded to Birribandi for reaching the final shortlist of ten for
the title of Australia’s tidiest town in 1981. Matt assumed that Colin was
referring to the third picture, which was of a sports team.