The Outback (24 page)

Jenny shook herself free
of her sister’s arms and crossed the room to where she took the book from Matt.
As she turned the pages and digested what they held, her confusion turned first
to disgust and then anger. Finally, as she collapsed into a chair, she felt
only despair. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Hiro tried to speak to
her, but his speech was garbled and incoherent. Seeing that he was not getting
through to her, he attempted to make a run for it. He was stopped in the
doorway by Niall, who had come to see what all of the commotion had been about.

‘Don’t let him go,’
barked Matt.

The Irishman held Hiro
firmly, but did not apply too much pressure. He was still completely in the
dark over what had just happened and had no desire to hurt the clearly
distressed Asian.

‘What’s going on?’ Niall
asked.

Rose and Jenny both
avoided the Irishman’s gaze and turned instead to Matt. They themselves were
not entirely sure what was happening and hoped that he could shed some light on
it for them too.

‘I don’t know how or
why,’ Matt began, ‘but Hiro is behind all of the awful things that have been
inflicted upon us this past week. It was Hiro who attacked Celeste. It was Hiro
who murdered Pierro and it was Hiro who planted the pills in Colin’s van.’

Niall did not believe
it.

‘What are you talking
about; do you have proof that he could have done any of those things?’

Matt glanced over to the
journal that Jenny still clutched in her arms and then back to Niall.

‘It all started with
something that Colin said to me yesterday. He had gotten it into his head that
Rhett was behind all of the crimes.’

‘That’s impossible,’ said
Niall. ‘Rhett’s dead.’

‘I said the same thing
to Colin, but he was adamant. He thought that somehow the old man had come back
and was doing all of this from beyond the grave. He thought that maybe Rhett
had possessed Stephen and acted out the crimes through him. I didn’t believe
it, but it did get me thinking. Rhett could not possess someone, but somebody
could choose to copy him.’

‘Copy him how?’ asked
Niall. ‘Rhett wasn’t a murderer.’

‘Actually, he was.’ The
revelation came as a surprise not just to Niall, but also to Rose and Jenny.
‘Thirty years ago, Rhett got away with committing both rape and murder. Those
two crimes have sadly been repeated this week, but this time not by the old
man. This time it was Hiro acting out a sick fantasy.’

‘I still don’t
understand,’ said Niall. ‘What do you have to connect Hiro to Rhett?’

Matt took the journal
from Jenny.

‘It is all right here in
this book,’ he said. ‘Now I am going to call the sheriff and put an end to this
madness once and for all.’

Chapter 33

Jenny sat in stunned
silence whilst she tried to come to terms with the events of the previous hour.
First Colin had been taken away and then Hiro; on suspicion of murder. Just
when she thought that things had been restored to some semblance of normality,
the nightmare had returned even stronger than ever. She had never felt more
lonely or afraid. Seeing Matt attack Hiro the way that he did had shown a side
to him that she did not know he possessed and it terrified her. Her boyfriend
had left with the sheriff to give a formal statement when Hiro was taken away
and she did not know what she would say to him when he returned.

‘Are you okay, sis?’ asked
Rose.

Jenny shook her head,
but did not respond verbally.

‘I know that you are
struggling to come to terms with all of this,’ said Rose, ‘but at least now it
is over we will finally be able to leave this place.’

This time Jenny nodded.
She so desperately wanted to believe that something positive had come from the
evening, but was struggling.

‘Why don’t you go and
freshen up,’ suggested Rose. ‘The boys and I can clean up here and then we will
get dinner on.’

Jenny stood and put her
arm around her sister.

‘Thank you,’ she said.
‘I just feel like...’

Rose stopped her.

‘We cannot allow
ourselves to dwell on what has happened; not now. It is too late to change
anything, so the best thing to do is to just try and move on. At least allow
some time to pass before you try and make any sense of what has happened.’

‘Okay,’ Jenny promised.

She then went back to
her caravan to prepare for her shower. At least now she had no need to fear
anymore. The one consolation that she could take from the evening was that the
worst had now passed. Finally, the threat that had hung over the camp for the
past week had been removed.

***

‘What happens now?’ asked
Matt.

‘Now we have to get him
to confess, which may not be easy given his level of English,’ replied the sheriff.

‘Why do you need a
confession? The evidence is all right there in that journal.’

‘I would not go getting
carried away with yourself. I admit that the journal does add a promising new
angle to my investigation, but it is far from being conclusive.’

Sheriff Lee sat back in
his chair. In his hands was the journal kept by Hiro throughout the Japanese
man’s stay in Birribandi. As the policeman flicked through the pages his
lifetime in law enforcement prevented him from reacting in the way that the
others had. He was desensitized to such images, but that is not to say that he
was not disgusted. There were many incriminating pictures and each had a common
theme.

There were multiple
depictions of the assault on Celeste; all pencil sketches displaying exceptional
detail. These were followed by drawings of Rhett standing over the blood
spattered body of Pierro with the still dripping knife in his hand. After that,
they began to take on a more surreal theme. In one drawing the Australian was a
marble giant with a mighty sword in one hand and scales in the other. Impaled
on the sword was the lifeless form of Pierro, contorted in hideous agony whilst
a helpless Stephen sat bound and gagged on top of the scales. Another picture
showed what could only be described as the resurrection of Rhett. Here the
Australian was drawn as half man, half phoenix as he ascended from the inferno
of his exploding truck.

Hiro’s talent was
evident throughout the series of pictures with his most extravagant work being
the most telling. Dozens of simplified drawings of Rhett appeared to be spread
throughout the page at random. However, when the observer pulled back and held
the page at arm’s length, he could see that all of the tiny points joined to
make one coherent whole. That whole was a self portrait of Hiro himself.

‘Why do you think he did
it?’ asked Matt.

The sheriff put down the
book.

‘It looks like a classic
case of schizophrenia. If what we suspect is true, then I would say that our
young Japanese friend has been acting out his delusions under an assumed
personality.’

‘Why Rhett, though? In
fact, why any of this? What could have made him flip like that?’

‘The trigger could have
been any number of things. He’s spent the last couple of months isolated in a
strange place and unable to bond with anyone around him. I guess the loneliness
finally got to him. Perhaps, he saw some of that loneliness in Rhett before he
died and felt some sort of connection.’

The sheriff’s theory
made sense to Matt. He thought back to Colin’s fixation with the idea that they
had placed a curse on Rhett, pulling the deceased man back into this world. He
wondered if maybe Hiro really had been possessed, but thought better than to
voice such an outlandish thought to the sheriff.

‘What will happen to
Stephen now?’ he asked.

‘I’ll make a call in the
morning and he should be released by lunchtime. There won’t be a problem in him
making bail now that we have a more promising suspect in custody.’

‘Make bail? Surely you
can just let him go now that you’ve caught the killer.’

The sheriff straightened
in his chair.

‘It isn’t that simple,
kid. The only evidence we have is purely circumstantial and the means by which
we acquired it is dubious to say the least. We certainly need something more
solid if we are going to get a conviction and there is still the possibility
that Hiro didn’t do it.’

‘Of course he did it.’

‘I hope for your sake
that you are right. If he is innocent then I won’t be able to turn a blind eye
to the fact that you assaulted him tonight.’

Matt had not even
considered that his earlier treatment of Hiro might have been unlawful.

‘I was protecting my
friend,’ he explained. ‘Hiro was alone with Jenny and who knows what he could
have done had I not intervened.’

‘Like I said; I hope
that you are right.’

Matt was starting to
worry. He now realised that although the journal had convinced himself of
Hiro’s guilt, the sheriff needed much more concrete evidence to build a
credible case.

‘What about the drugs
that were found in Colin’s van?’ he suggested. ‘Have you taken fingerprints?
Maybe we can prove that Hiro planted them.’

The policeman shook his
head.

‘Sorry, but I don’t see
any connection there.’

He then reached into his
drawer and pulled out a photograph, which he placed on the table. It was the
same one he had shown to Colin earlier.

‘Do you recognise this
man?’ the sheriff asked.

Matt looked at the
Polaroid. He had no idea how the policeman had found out about Colin’s
misjudged drug deal, but he was careful not to give anything away. As he looked
back up at the sheriff he shook his head.

‘His name is Scott
Donovan,’ said the sheriff. ‘He’s not a bad kid, but we do know that he
sometimes dabbles with drugs.’

‘What does that have to
do with Colin or Hiro?’ Matt asked.

‘Scott went missing a
week ago. His friends have told us that they saw him talking to Mr O’Meara and
they think that he may have bought marijuana from him. If you can come up with
anything that may link Hiro to this man’s disappearance then I may take your accusations
seriously. Otherwise your friend is staying where he is.’

Matt could not even
remember if Hiro had been with them that night at the bar. There was certainly
no connection he could think of that would link the two men.

‘Sorry, officer, but
I’ve never seen that man before in my life.’

The sheriff smiled.

‘Somehow, I thought you
would say that.’ He stood up and took his hat and jacket from a clothes stand.
‘Come on, I’ll give you a lift back to the caravan park. It’s already dark and
this town is no longer safe at night like it used to be.’

As they were leaving
they were joined by the deputy.

‘Do you mind if I tag
along?’ the younger policeman asked. ‘The two prisoners are safely locked away
and I want to take a look at the Jap’s van. If he kept a record of his crimes
he may have taken some souvenirs as well.’

The sheriff nodded and
the three of them climbed into the patrol car. The two policemen took the front
seats and Matt was placed in the back where the criminals would normally sit.
With no handles on the inside of the doors and a mesh screen between him and
the men in front, he was given a unique insight into how Colin and Stephen must
have felt on their respective journeys to the station.

***

Jenny turned off the
shower and wrapped a towel around her body. She did not feel the cold as she
was still part numb with the shock of the evenings developments. Could Hiro
really have perpetrated those vile crimes? At least now there was no doubt in
her mind that she would be leaving at the first opportunity. Birribandi held
far too many unpleasant memories for her to stay for one moment longer than she
had to.

The night air was still
and the sky clear as she walked from the shower block to her caravan. All above
her the stars shone with the intensity of fires that had raged for millennia.
It was as if God had taken the roof from the doll’s house and was peering in,
but for once she did not feel like looking back. She got dressed and then
stepped out to find her sister. The park was unusually quiet for this time, but
she assumed that was because everyone was still in shock from the latest
revelations. Hiro had always been so quiet that nobody could quite believe what
he had done. A light was on in the dining hall and she guessed that was where
they all must have been.

‘Hello?’ she offered,
inquisitively, as she stepped into the eerily quiet room.

The chairs had all been
put back in their places so that there was no longer any sign of the earlier
scuffle, but where was everybody? She could detect the scent of marijuana in
the air, but it was unlike any of the boys to smoke in the dining hall. As she
crossed the room to open up a window and clear the smell, she noticed something
unusual in the corner of her eye. There was an ashtray on the bench, but that is
not what was unusual. It was the object inside of the ashtray that had caught
her attention. It was the smallest, most tightly rolled cigarette that she had
ever seen and it was still smouldering.

***

‘Looks like you folks got
a visitor,’ said the sheriff, as he turned onto the dusty driveway leading up
to the caravan park.

A car was parked by the
side of the road. It had been strategically positioned so as to have been out
of view and earshot of the park’s inhabitants.

‘Have you any idea who
may be calling at this time of night?’

 ‘Nobody that I can
think of,’ answered Matt

‘Perhaps I better take a
look first. You two wait here.’

The sheriff parked up
just behind the other vehicle. He got out of the car and closed his door behind
him. Matt watched the lawman walk slowly through the front gate and then
disappear, leaving him alone with the deputy.

‘You did really well
tonight, kid,’ said the deputy. He was only about five or six years older than
Matt and his tone seemed condescending. ‘It takes a lot of guts to confront a
man that you think is a killer.’

‘I didn’t really think
about it like that,’ replied Matt. ‘I just wanted to make sure that I got that
psychopath as far away from the girls as possible.’

The deputy smirked to
himself before turning to Matt.

‘You’re absolutely
convinced that the Jap did it, aren’t you?’

‘Of course,’ replied
Matt. ‘I’ve always known that Stephen is no killer and who else could it have
been?’

The policeman smirked
again, but this time he did it so that Matt could see.

‘There is one part of
your theory that doesn’t quite add up,’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’
asked Matt, starting to feel concerned by the policeman’s tone.

‘Well, you said that
Hiro was acting under an assumed personality; repeating those infamous crimes
of thirty years ago.’

‘It seems the only
logical motive,’ explained Matt. ‘I mean, you saw the journal that he kept.’

‘Don’t get me wrong, I
know where you’re coming from, but where the story falls apart is the means by
which Hiro learned of Rhett’s past. Nobody knew about the old man’s guilt apart
from Naomi Green and she’s dead. You see, it isn’t possible that Hiro could
have known those things that you say he did.’

Matt was visibly lost
for words and he knew that the deputy could read the doubt that was now forming
on his face.

‘There is, however, one
other explanation for all of this, added the deputy, ‘but I don’t think that
you’re going to like it.’