Dead and Gone

Chapter 4

‘Righto.’ She frowned at me. ‘That bad, huh? Someone rob the joint?’

‘No.’ A small shock ran through me. I hadn’t thought to check the safe, but all the takings for the day were ready to go in. ‘At least, I don’t think so. It’s, um, Big Macca. He’s... passed on.’ I hated euphemisms, but I lowered my voice all the same. ‘He’s dead.’

‘Crikey.’ She hunched her shoulders, her arms folded under her boobs. ‘Heart attack?’

‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you?’ I grimaced. ‘No, murdered. Two bullets, Connor said. Out the back.’

‘What? Did it happen here? In the pub?’ Her voice had gone all squeaky and her chin quivered. ‘Oh, the poor man! Who’d wanta do that?’

‘I don’t know where it happened, but his body’s out there.’

Immediately her eyes went to the side door. ‘That’s why you locked it. Connor didn’t want anyone going out that way. I wondered how come he didn’t do his usual walk-through tonight.’

‘He’s cordoned off the area and more police have arrived. Detectives, probably, and crime scene officers.’ I shouldn’t know this stuff, but I did, and it sent a crawling feeling up the back of my neck.

‘Hope it’s not that arrogant prick from Bendigo,’ Suzie said. ‘Detective Constable Barney. He couldn’t detect a stick up his arse.’

I couldn’t help laughing. ‘Don’t hold back.’

‘Well, he came out when my sister got bashed by her husband. Only reason Bendigo got involved was because they thought he’d robbed a couple of service stations.’ She grabbed a cloth and started wiping down the bar with short, sharp movements. ‘Wasn’t him at all. And Barney decided he couldn’t be bothered dealing with a domestic so he sent her file somewhere or lost it, and when she went to court for a restraining order, there was no police report so they told her nothing could be done.’

‘What did Connor have to say about it?’ I gathered up the canvas bags of takings and made a move towards the office. Time to put the money away, and check nothing was missing.

‘He was great. Better than a restraining order. Went and had a word with my sister’s husband and he ended up going to Sydney. Haven’t seen him since.’

‘Uh-huh.’ I held up the takings bag. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

Suzie kept on with the tables, and Mike and Billy were picking up the last glasses in the public bar. I knew Andre had gone home as soon as he’d finished, his face still pale with shock, saying he needed some time alone to get to grips with what had happened, and I hadn’t argued. I was a hundred per cent sure he hadn’t killed Macca, but the police wouldn’t be happy. They’d want to question him, seeing as how the dumpster was right outside the kitchen door.

In the office, I locked the door as usual and twirled the dial on the safe to open it, half-expecting to see it empty, but it looked the same as usual. A few bags of change, yesterday’s takings, about $400, and the cheque book. Nobody had touched the contents as far as I could see. The motive wasn’t about robbing the pub then.

I locked the current day’s takings in the safe, wishing there were more race days. We had nearly $3000 in cash, plus what had been charged on credit, and then all the money the in-house customers would owe. Knowing Carl, that’d be another grand or so. Race day every week and Big Macca could stop worrying about the bills.

Like that would matter to him now.

I sat down heavily, my legs shaky. What about me? Did this mean I no longer had a job? Who would the hotel belong to now? I wondered if he’d made a will. He could’ve left the place to his ex-wife, Wendy – they were still good friends. Trading was fair, not a wild money-making venture, but I couldn’t see how he wouldn’t make a small profit.

Maybe he had a niece or nephew he’d left it to – I knew he didn’t have kids of his own. If he hadn’t left a will, it’d take months to sort out. His solicitor might have to step in, if he had one. Experience told me that if I could show the place was making money overall, they wouldn’t close it down because they’d want to see the dollars still rolling in while they did all the legal stuff.

Oh well, no point getting my knickers in a twist over it.

I locked the office door and put my head in to the bar to see Suzie sitting with a drink and her feet up on a corner buffet. ‘Connor came in and said to wait – they wanted to ask me some questions. Just routine, he said.’

‘Has anyone else come inside yet?’ I was ready to go home; I considered sneaking out like Andre had, but I’d probably get Connor into trouble.

‘Yeah, the cops from Bendigo, including Smarmy Barney.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘He wasn’t happy to see me here.’

‘I’ll go and see what’s happening,’ I said. I used the front entrance to get outside, and halfway around to the back I was stopped by a tall, skinny cop in a leather jacket. His hair was slicked back and he had a three-day growth, which always irritated the hell out of me. What is so cool about bristles? These guys usually end up looking like they needed a good scrub down.

‘You can’t come around here, madam,’ he said, officiously. ‘Area is cordoned off.’

‘I know that. I was here when Macca was found.’ I glared up at him. ‘I gather you’re Constable Barney.’

His face reddened. ‘Detective Constable Barney. How did you know?’

‘A calculated guess,’ I said. ‘What’s happening? My staff want to go home.’

‘They can’t leave until they’ve been questioned, just like everyone else.’

‘Suzie was in the bar all night. She didn’t see a thing. The only ones worth talking to will be Billy, who found Macca, and Andre in the kitchen. And Andre’s gone.’

‘What?’ His head made little irritated jerks. ‘Who said he could leave?’

‘He’s been here since eleven this morning. He was tired.’

‘You should’ve known better than to allow him to leave a crime scene.’

‘How about you fetch your boss for me, Constable?’ It was satisfying to see him colour with fury again. ‘I need to sort a few things out with him. Unless you lot want to pay the overtime?’

‘Detective Sergeant Withers is busy at the moment. This is a murder investigation.’

‘I know. We found him, remember?’ I was itching to punch the smartarse, but just in time a guy I guessed was his boss came around the corner.

‘You can’t come this way, madam,’ he called.

Oh, for f**k’s sake. ‘Why would I want to?’ I snapped. ‘I’m the manager on duty tonight. I want you to question me and my staff and let us go home. It’s been a very long, upsetting day.’

Withers was a heavy-set man with a bulbous nose and greying sideburns, and his expression was sombre. He came up to me and gave me the once-over before answering. ‘If you could gather everyone in the lounge bar, we’ll come and talk to them in a minute.’

‘She’s let one of them go home already,’ Barney said.

Tattletale. ‘I already told you – he’d done a twelve-hour shift, and he has to be back for breakfast tomorrow.’

After some muttering, they decided Andre’s questioning could wait. Connor was right – they were really waiting for Homicide to arrive, and any questioning now would be repeated tomorrow.

Barney and another young detective followed me back to the lounge bar, where Billy and Mike were now sitting, chatting to Suzie. ‘Is this your whole staff?’ Barney asked.

‘Kelly’s not here,’ Suzie said. ‘I think she left with Andre. And Charlie went at ten thirty as usual.’

‘s**t,’ Barney said. ‘This is bloody hopeless.’ He looked at me as he said it.

‘It’s Candlebark, Constable,’ I said. ‘Do you think some of us are going to make a run for it?’

‘It’s not proper procedure,’ he said.

‘Come on, Barn,’ the other detective said. ‘Let’s get the questions done. Homicide will be here in half an hour, and we’ll look a bit pathetic if we haven’t even got that far.’

Barney shot him a venomous look and took Mike and Billy off to the other end of the bar, leaving Suzie and me with Detective No 2. He introduced himself as Detective Constable Hawke, and kept his questions to Suzie short and sharp, once he established she hadn’t been outside since she arrived at 3pm. She was allowed to go, with the proviso that she stay available for Homicide to question her further tomorrow.

Then it was my turn. I told him everything that’d happened since I arrived at work.

‘You didn’t go near the dumpster? Look inside?’

I couldn’t hide my shudder. ‘No. I took Billy’s word for it that Big Macca was dead, although we didn’t know who it was then. Connor – Senior Constable Byrne – told me it was Macca and confirmed he was... gone.’

‘Were there any strangers in the hotel tonight? Anyone acting suspiciously?’

I laughed shortly. ‘It was race day at Bendigo today, so we were flat out with punters and parties heading back to Melbourne. They were nearly all strangers, and acting like the usual drunk racegoers we get here.’ I had a flash of Simonetti and it must’ve showed on my face.

‘You don’t seem a hundred per cent sure about that though.’

He was quick, this one. ‘It’s just one of our house guests – a Mr Simonetti. Never seen him around here before. But he wasn’t acting suspiciously, just being rude.’

‘We’ll be interviewing all the house guests as well,’ he said. ‘I’ll make a note about Mr Simonetti.’

‘You’re not going to get them out of bed, are you?’ That’d do the pub’s reputation no good at all, not that murder would help either.

‘We’ve talked to those who were capable of coming downstairs. For the others, the hotel exits are secured, so if anyone tries to leave, they’ll be stopped.’ He checked his watch. ‘They’ll be interviewed first thing in the morning, when they’re sober.’

I handed him the notebook with the names I’d written down. ‘I thought this might help Connor, er, Senior Constable Byrne. But like I said, a lot of the customers were strangers from the city.’

‘We took the names and addresses of everyone who was leaving the premises as soon as we arrived,’ he said. ‘It caused less fuss that way. But thanks. No doubt we missed a few.’

The door opened and Bob, Macca’s weekend night manager, walked in. I’d completely forgotten about him – it appeared he’d had no trouble getting past the ‘secured exits’. The lines in his face looked deeper than usual, and his face was grey under his bushy white eyebrows. He seemed to already know Macca was dead, but I briefly explained what’d happened, finding his body, and Bob had to sit down for a few minutes to recover. Macca had been a long-time mate of his, and I wished I could’ve broken it more gently. I got him a brandy while Hawke waited, frowning.

‘Now, as you’re the person in charge of the hotel, we’ll need you to stay around, maybe all night. Do you live on the premises?’

‘No.’ I had organised Mia for the night, but I didn’t fancy sleeping in the tiny box room. ‘Bob’s the night manager, and he’ll be here – do you really need me to stay?’

‘Er... possibly not,’ Hawke said. ‘But can you wait until Homicide get here?’ He seemed a little apologetic, whereas Barney was now hovering in the background, glaring at me, clearly wanting to butt in.

‘Yes, OK. I’ll go and do the upstairs check on the guests, Bob, and you stay here in case the police want anything.’ I hesitated. ‘Macca lived in the pub.’ I pointed above my head. ‘Are you going to prevent access to his rooms?’