Mad, Bad and Dead

3

3

We finished all the cleaning up and agreed that the bistro could stay closed for the evening. If anyone in the public bar wanted food, they’d have to bring a picnic box. I didn’t want to go and tell Charlie about Kate, but by the time I spoke to him, he already knew. The local gossip network on the ball already. Someone had probably already posted it on the bloody Candlebark f*******: page. I debated about closing the whole pub for the night but we couldn’t afford it. I’d have to come back later and do the closing with Marie. What a joy that would be.

Normally she didn’t bother me that much. I had to get over it, otherwise if she left, we’d be totally stranded. I told Charlie I’d be back to relieve him at seven, and went home, picking Mia up on the way. At the top of the road where Kate’s house was, I hesitated, then kept driving. Connor would find me if he needed me.

It turned out that was only half an hour later. He pulled up outside the house in his police 4WD and sat in it for several minutes, talking on his mobile. Mia and I were in the garden; she was helping me pull out several scraggly cherry tomato plants that had failed to produce much in the weird summer we’d had. Mia was eating three tiny fruits she’d picked while I yanked each plant free and knocked the soil off its roots before throwing it into the compost. As I worked, I kept an eye on Connor’s vehicle.

Finally, he emerged and walked slowly down the garden to join us.

‘Long, horrible day?’ I said.

He nodded. ‘The worst.’

‘Sorry you had to deal with that.’ I searched his face but all I saw was exhaustion and sadness. ‘Did you find Emma?’

He shook his head.

‘Shit.’

‘The good thing is we didn’t find her body, but…’

I frowned, trying to work out what he was saying. ‘You think she’s hiding? Too scared to come out?’

‘No. I’m bloody worried whoever killed her mother has abducted her.’

I gaped at him. That had never occurred to me. ‘Was there any evidence to suggest that?’

‘Not so far.’ He huffed out a big breath. ‘To be honest, we’ve got no idea. Emma…’ He looked at me for a moment.

‘I won’t tell anyone,’ I said. ‘You know me. Mouth zipped tight.’ Connor had often unloaded with me in the past – he knew I didn’t gossip – so his reticence now bothered me.

‘I know. It’s just the Bendigo guys. Barney made a big point of saying, “Don’t you go and blab to that nosy friend of yours”. Like I was a bumbling dickhead who didn’t know any better.’

‘Barney?’ I snorted. ‘He of the pea-sized brain and the elephant-sized ego?’ Detective Constable Barney had been a pain in the bum when Macca had been murdered. As useless as t**s on a bull, as the farmers around here would say, but he still tried to show off every chance he got.

Connor smiled. ‘Yeah, him.’

‘Stuff him.’ I put the gardening fork away and called Mia back from chasing the cat behind the shed. ‘Let’s go inside – are you up for a beer?’

‘Better not. The homicide detectives from Melbourne are due any minute. I’ll probably have to go back to the scene and help.’

Homicide detectives from Melbourne. My skin prickled and I tried hard not to smile. That might just mean I’d see Detective Sergeant Ben Heath again.

‘Yeah, not Heath, Judi. Sorry.’ He patted me on the shoulder. ‘They’ve already told us who’s coming and it’s not him.’

Bugger. I could really have done with one of his strong, warm hugs. And the rest. ‘Oh well,’ I said, trying to sound nonchalant and failing miserably. Maybe I’d call him later.

When we were sitting down in the kitchen and Mia was chomping through her dinner, I said, ‘So where are you at?’

‘There’s got to be a motive. Something we can’t see.’

‘What did Master of All Police Arts Barney say?’

He smothered a grin. ‘It’s an ex hunting her down. The fact that nobody around here really knows her background, or where she came from, is a flag.’

‘Well, there is some truth in that.’ It nearly killed me to agree with Barney, but Kate hadn’t said much to me either. ‘I employed her based on references and, I have to confess, I never got around to checking them.’

‘Fake?’

I shrugged. ‘Could have been. They were from Sydney restaurants I hadn’t heard of, but it wasn’t like she’d claimed to be working somewhere really swanky. No point if you’re applying for a job in a little country pub.’

Connor drank some tea and made a face. ‘Can’t I have proper coffee?’

‘Not if you want to sleep tonight.’

‘So why didn’t you check?’

‘She was a great worker right from the start.’ I thought back to those first days in the kitchen with Andre. ‘Knew her stuff, she clearly had some kind of cooking experience, even if there were no pieces of paper. Andre was happy, and then she also took over the waitressing when Kelly went off to uni.’

‘So she made herself indispensable.’

I frowned and thought about it. ‘I guess so. You mean so I wouldn’t bother with the employment check. Hmm, makes sense.’ Mia shoved some cucumber in her mouth and chewed while picking through the peas and throwing them to the cat. ‘Mia. Eating, not throwing.’ She checked the cat, who was ignoring the peas, and was forced to agree.

‘The name she gave everyone here was Kate Brown, right?’

I nodded.

‘They’ve found no Kate Browns in Sydney or Melbourne that match her.’ Connor rubbed his eyes. ‘Did she have a tax file number?’

‘Yes. She filled out the form and it all looked fine to me.’ The more Connor talked, the more Kate became a mystery woman. ‘Are you saying that there’s no Emma Brown either?’

‘Not so far.’

‘You’re the cop here,’ I said, leaning my chin on my hand, suddenly tired. ‘Why do people change their names, fake who they are? Was Kate hiding from an ex, like Barney says?’

‘It’s a real possibility,’ Connor said. ‘Women on the run from violent partners have to change their whole lives sometimes. Names, ID, move interstate. Sole parent payments, like Kate might have been getting, can be tracked.’

‘What the hell happened to confidentiality?’

‘Anyone working at Centrelink, or a few other government departments, can access records if they really want to, if someone pays them enough. There’s also the possibility of hackers via the dark web.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s also possible that’s where she got a fake ID, if it is fake.’

‘So even if she was in hiding, somebody could track her down.’ I sat back, fuming. ‘I could have put her at risk by registering her as an employee.’

‘Look, don’t blame yourself. If someone was that bloody determined, they’d find her no matter what. This is the cyber world we live in.’ He tapped his fingers on the sides of his mug. ‘And if she was hiding – if – she’d be on the lookout for anyone from her past life.’

‘Yeah, well… none of that answers the most important question, does it? Where the hell is Emma?’

Neither of us could answer that. Connor said, ‘We’ve searched about a two-kilometre radius around the house so far, checked the neighbours’ houses and sheds, and got nothing.’

‘Do you know what time Kate was killed?’

‘The acting coroner here, Dr Smythe, said his initial estimate was she’d been dead about twelve hours. He examined her body about noon, so that means around midnight.’

‘She was killed while she was asleep?’ I blinked away the image of Kate’s head. Will I ever get rid of it?

‘Looks like it. Probably used a silencer.’ Connor got up and lifted Mia out of her chair, giving her a hug. ‘What did you do today, Mia?’

‘Painting,’ Mia said. ‘I made a picture.’

‘Cool. Where is it?’ Connor asked.

‘On the wall,’ she said proudly. ‘I bring it home later.’

She ran off to find the remote and Connor sat down again, checking his watch. ‘I need to go soon. Liaison to do, and all that stuff.’

I was still deep in thought, imagining what might have happened. ‘So if Kate was shot, even with a silencer, did Emma hear it and climb out of her window maybe?’

‘Windows were all closed and locked. But the back door wasn’t.’

I frowned. ‘Was that how the killer got in? Was the lock broken?’

For a moment he just looked at me, then he sighed. ‘Why did you never train to be a police officer? A detective? You could have Barney’s job.’

I was in the middle of swallowing some tea, and half of it came out of my nose. I laughed and coughed, and laughed again. ‘Oh my God. Surely you’re kidding.’

‘Nup.’ Connor regarded me for several long moments, as if debating something in his head. Then he spoke slowly. ‘The killer might have got in the back door, because the front door wasn’t forced. But the rest of the house was like Fort Knox. Well, compared to ninety-eight per cent of houses around here.’ He waved a hand. ‘Do you lock up when you go out?’

‘Yes. But I always thought that was my city girl habit.’

‘Mm-hmm.’

‘Fort Knox?’

‘Yep. Proper locks on all of the windows and doors that were new. Len said he didn’t put them in. So why was the back door open?’ He had a glint in his eye like a challenge.

‘Emma left it open?’ I ventured.

‘Why?’

‘No idea.’

‘They have an outdoor dunny.’

The one I’d heaved over. ‘So… you think Emma was in the dunny?’ My voice went up two notches. ‘Really? What did Maestro Barney say?’

‘Nothing. He and Hawke left it all to the crime scene technicians. They let me put on a suit and walk around and ask questions. I said I wanted to learn, being a country copper and all.’

‘I see.’ I could just imagine the crime scene, Connor’s face red with Barney’s scathing comments, and then him sneaking off to have a look around for himself. ‘Seems to me like you’re the one who should have Barney’s job.’

‘Don’t want to live in Bendigo,’ he said. ‘I like doing a variety of things and knowing people. Helping them. I wish…’

‘What?’

‘If someone was after Kate, and she’d told me, I could’ve helped.’

‘Maybe.’ I thought about what he’d said. ‘This all sounds… I dunno. Professional?’

‘Mmm.’ He sighed. ‘Now, what about this phone call you had?’

I’d completely forgotten about it. ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing compared to what happened to Kate.’

He eyed me stonily. ‘You’re not getting away with that.’ He pulled out his notebook and asked me a bunch of questions and made notes. ‘You’re sure you didn’t recognise the voice?’

‘I was thinking about it earlier, until… No, I didn’t.’

He tapped his pen on the table. ‘OK. I don’t think it’s connected to Kate, not that I can see.’

‘Connected because she worked for me?’

‘It was possible somebody rang you by mistake, instead of her, but she didn’t have a landline.’

‘Time doesn’t line up either,’ I said. ‘By the time they called me, she’d been dead for a while.’ Saying it out loud made me shiver.

‘See? The Bendigo detectives wouldn’t have worked that out.’ He grinned. ‘Detective Constable Judi Westerholme. Has a nice ring to it.’

‘Oh, piss off,’ I said, laughing.

His phone pinged and he checked the text. ‘Homicide guys have arrived. I’d better go.’