Du Rose Sons

by Bowes, K T

“Bye Mama.” Phoenix offered a lovely smile and a wave that involved more wrist than hand.

  “I’m not being arrested. Ignore the silly man.” Hana glared at Will, ignoring his smirk. The thought entered her brain in a rush, the memory faint but important. “Will, remember that day we talked about what was in the diaries and we heard someone moving around outside the door?” He nodded. “Well, what if the murderer heard what we said and felt as though the diaries implicated them in some way?” Hana’s eyes lit up in response to the catharsis.

  “So who was it?” Will asked without looking up.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see.” Hana’s body deflated in the chair like someone had let the air out of her. She sighed. “This is too hard.”

  “So leave it to the cops! It’s their job. The taonga will come back. I can feel it. They are linked to this place. They’ll find their way home. Until then, I’ll dedicate my life to stopping that stupid old woman dressing your daughter in clothing from the 1800’s so she can spill food on them.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know where she’s getting all those from.”

  “Well, ask her!” Hunger made Will snap as his blood sugars altered his mood. Hana raised her eyebrows.

  “Tell you what. I’ll see where Leslie’s getting the clothes from.” She handed the curator a blue pencil case and opened her arms to Phoenix. “Come here, babe. Will, do your bloods and I’ll go hunt you up a sandwich from the kitchen.”

  Hana returned an hour later with a ham and cheese sandwich for Will. He grumbled and moaned at her. “Good job I’m not dying! I thought you forgot me. I think you’re secretly the murderer and you was tryin’ to bump me off because I know too much.”

  Hana looked horrified and Will laughed. “Give me the bloody food, or I’ll wheel over your feet!”

  “Sorry, Helena made you the sandwich.” Hana reached into her pockets one at a time and produced a bag of potato chips, an apple and an orange. The old man smiled with genuine pleasure and sat them on the table next to his plate. “I called up to see Leslie but then couldn’t persuade Phoe to leave. They’re baking some weird cookie-thing together, although my daughter’s eaten most of the raw mixture. Apparently there are three more apartments on the top floor like hers, filled to the roof with family junk from when they converted to a hotel. Everything went up there. She said there’s clothes and well...loads of stuff. And, I’m going to try and find JD. Logan says he’s still alive, because he collects the rent from the paddock near the road every year. But he was there when the blonde drover died, he’s possibly Reuben’s father and he must know about Caroline being a Du Rose.”

  “Do you think he killed this woman?” Will asked, spitting sandwich onto his lower lip. He sucked it back in, much to Hana’s disgust and laughed at the prim look on her face.

  “Not really,” Hana conceded. “He’s probably up north somewhere. The Māori side of the family were a mix of Waikato and Ngapuhi tribes so he may have headed home - if he was even Māori. I’m having to make that assumption. And he might not even be a relative. Maybe he was a worker, or someone Phoenix Du Rose trusted. I think it’s fairly safe to assume they were lovers at some point, because of what she said.”

  “Does the lift go all the way to the top floor?” Will asked abruptly, his mind straying to the treasure trove above his head.

  “No. But I wonder if your son could carry you up there. Would that be too humiliating for you, if we could organise that?”

  Will looked at Hana in wonderment and she felt the soft glow of his approval. It was misplaced. His amazement was at her stupidity, not her planning expertise. “The boy wipes my bloody ass every morning, woman! What’s more humiliating that that?”

  Chapter 45

  Hana left Will to his diet of sandwich and sarcasm and headed for the stables. The clatter of unshod feet drew her to a loose box in the corner and Sacha’s dappled head poked over the top, at the sound of Hana’s soft tread. “Hey, gorgeous.” The woman responded to the soft wicker and kissed the downy spot just above the mare’s lips. “Nice whiskers,” Hana giggled and Sacha shook her head, causing the long, curly mane to swish from side to side. “Don’t worry, it’s an age thing. Logan would freak if he ever saw mine.”

  The huge head pushed at Hana’s stomach and she stepped back defensively. Sacha’s blue eye narrowed in a wink and the brown one blinked slightly later as she scented the apple in the pocket of Hana’s hoodie. “I forgot about that.” Hana extracted it with difficulty, its shiny redness glinting in the sunshine. “I was going to give it to Will, but he’s being a pig. I gave him the sour green one. Sour like him.” Hana pushed her bottom lip out like a child and Sacha blew gently on the woman’s face. Hana released the apple, rewarded by a torrent of apple juice and slobber as the mare snipped the fruit into pieces and left them in her hand, eating them one by one with long, delicious crunches. When she was done, Hana wiped the mess on the mottled forehead. “Why are you in? I thought Logan was going into the back blocks today. I saw him just before he left and you’re not even tacked up.”

  Sacha nuzzled Hana’s hand and then put her head back over the half-door. Hana peered in and saw a long cut trailing down the mare’s front leg. Blood and gore oozed from it.

  “Hey, Miss.” Rawhiti appeared next to Hana and glanced over at the horse. Sacha bared her teeth.

  “What’s happened?”

  “She went for Jack earlier. Mr Logan’s worried. He thinks she might be having mental problems. She shied up at him when he tried to tack her.”

  “She shied up at Logan?” Hana’s face paled.

  “No, she was fine with him. It was Jack. She kicked out and caught him on the arm and then scraped her leg down the wall as she landed. Never heard a horse make that kind of noise either. I swear she was screeching. Mr Logan looked devastated. He borrowed Toby’s bay gelding. They needed to go.”

  “Are you waiting for the vet?” Hana observed the dappled backside as it faced the door, loaded with veiled threat.

  “Na, don’t need him. He hates her anyway. Mr Logan said to bathe it, but she won’t let anyone in with her. She’ll have to wait until the stockmen get back now.”

  “Won’t it get infected?”

  “That’s her lookout. She’s played up once too often I reckon. Think she’s about due for the bullet.”

  Sacha’s sturdy kick to the wooden door shuddered it on its hinges and Rawhiti stepped back.

  “How’s Jack?”

  Rawhiti shrugged. “Says he’s fine.”

  “I’ll go see him. He’s getting too old to be knocked around.” Hana leaned over the door and spoke to the mare’s bum, watching the flesh creep and the ears at the head end flick back and forth. “Sacha, I’m going to see Jack. Then I’ll come back and bathe that leg.”

  The piercing noise split the air as the horse whirled round. Her eyes were staring and crazed and Sacha rose up on her back legs and smashed her front hooves into the wooden door. The wood split half way down and a hole appeared, revealing the other stamping feet. Rawhiti swore and ran backwards, almost pitching himself over an abandoned wheelbarrow. “Stop!” Hana shouted and the mare sank to her hooves, her mismatched eyes fixed on the woman. “That’s enough!” The shock in Hana’s voice wasn’t just from dealing with rowdy teenage boys over the last decade and a half; some of it was genuine. The mare put her head down and blood dripped from a cut on her poll from contact with the high ceiling.

  “Just stay away from her,” Hana ordered Rawhiti and she set off for the stable office.

  Jack sat behind his usual mountain of paperwork, examining a livid bruise on his forearm. He saw Hana knock and enter, even though he couldn’t hear the courteous sound in deference to his authority. “What’s going on?” Hana splayed her arms for the deaf man, hands palm upwards. He shrugged and pointed two fingers at his temple. Hana blanched as he mimed pulling the trigger. “No!” She shook her head frantically. “No.” She tapped her chest and pointed up the mountain. “I’ll take her home.
Don’t shoot her!”

  Jack sneered and pulled his sleeve down over his arm. He shook his head, mocking her. Anger flared in Hana’s heart, easily matching his. “What have I done to you?” She mouthed the words carefully. “Why are you being so rude?”

  “Get out!” The words were grunts but the gesture and the menace were clear. Hana took a step back, horrified.

  “Why?”

  Jack cast around him for his pad. He located it under a sheaf of invoices but a working pen was harder to find. The scribble on the paper came as a bitter blow to Hana, who had tried so hard to befriend the oldest Du Rose employee and respect his position in the hierarchy. “Stop digging up the past. Do us all a favour and leave us alone.”

  Hana’s hand shook as she read the words scratched into the page. She looked at the old man in confusion. “You know, don’t you? You know all about the Du Roses.” Confirmation shone from the wizened face and the pursing of his lips. His eyes were so hooded by elderly, sinking eyelids that their colour was no longer distinguishable. But there was hatred there, oozing out like black liquid. Hana took a step forward. “You know about Kane and...Caroline, don’t you?”

  Jack squinted in concentration while he read Hana’s lips and then his face broke into an eerie grin. His mouth opened wide with hilarity and Hana spied a flash of pink, toothless gums as he let out a roar of laughter. He clutched his sides with mirth and enjoyed the illegal union of half-siblings, both of whom he clearly hated with passion. The old man had never been able to form words that were foreign to his deaf ears, but he could laugh with abandon.

  Hana took a step towards the elderly man, searching his face for the respected employee that Logan revered. Jack’s guttural noises slowed and he followed her silhouette against the bright sunshine outside as Hana approached. “Jack,” Hana put her hands on his littered desk and leaned forward. “Jack, do you know how I can find JD?”

  There was a momentary delay and then the old man detonated. The shout that issued from between his lips was feral and terrifying. Hana leapt back covering her belly with her hands and tripped over a stricken saddle lying on its pommel near the door. She managed to save herself on the doorframe, slicing her hand open on a spiteful splinter of wood and gasping in pain. Bulbous veins stood out on Jack’s neck and forehead as he howled unintelligible noises in her direction. He seized a dirty mug from the desk next to him, toppling a pile of papers that slithered onto the aged rug. Hana ducked as it smashed on the lintel above her head, showering her with stained ceramic chips that tumbled past her like heavy snowfall. Defeated, Hana ran.

  Chapter 46

  “He’s gonna kill me!” Rawhiti complained as the quad bike laboured up the endless driveway to Hana’s house.

  “Stop moaning!” Hana snapped. “At least you get to ride the quad. I’m five months pregnant and having to walk miles!”

  “Well, if Jack dunt kill me, Mr Logan definitely will!” the young man vented, examining a rip in the handlebar of the quad.

  “If you don’t shut up, then I’ll kill you,” Hana retorted and he pulled a face and looked down at the steep drop on the other side of the narrow road. Hana stopped for a moment as Sacha tugged on the lead rope and rubbed her face along the cut on her leg. “Don’t do that, honey,” Hana pulled on the rope and used her sleeve to rub the transferred gore away from the mare’s eye. Sacha blinked and snuffed at Hana’s zipper, chomping her great teeth and licking her lips. “Not far now. Nearly home.”

  The quad bike engine strained at the low speed it took to maintain walking pace alongside Hana. Rawhiti drove dangerously near the edge in his determination to stay away from Sacha’s dinner plate sized hooves. He eyed the mare with a wariness born of experience. “How come she responds to you?” he asked over the noise of the complaining engine. “I couldn’t believe it that day when you rode down the mountain on her, with your wee one asleep in front of you. She’s such a...” Rawhiti bit his lip as Sacha made a low sound in her chest that resembled a threatening growl.

  “Oh, we didn’t always like each other,” Hana said, running a gentle palm over the noble forehead as Sacha plodded next to her. “The first time I rode her up here, I spent the whole time complaining. I tried everything to get Bobby to swap with me, but she wouldn’t carry him.”

  “Who’s Bobby?” The engine spluttered and grumbled and Rawhiti fiddled with the throttle.

  “Flick,” Hana replied, sadness creeping into her voice.

  “Yeah, he took off, aye?”

  Hana nodded.

  “Do you reckon he killed that chick? The one they found over at Nev’s place?”

  Hana stopped immediately and Sacha halted behind her, as Logan had trained her to do. The mare’s face was peaceful but Hana’s was tortured. “Why would you ask me that?”

  Rawhiti braked and his muscular pectorals wobbled under the impact of the sudden stop. Hana wondered why the young man never wore a shirt against his silky olive skin. He turned his pretty face to meet Hana’s eyes. “Well, it just looks real dodgy dunnit? She gets knocked off and then he shoots through."

  “I suppose.” Hana’s brain worked overtime. “I never thought about it like that.” She chewed her lip and looked thoughtful.

  “He might have been protecting you,” Rawhiti offered.

  “Why me?” Hana’s eyes narrowed and she started walking again, towing the huge blonde mare after her. Rawhiti started the quad moving forwards again, kangarooing on the spot for a heartbeat.

  “Coz he was in love with you. That’s why. He knew you was upset about that chick bein’ here and he might have done something about it. I would have.”

  Hana looked at Rawhiti with a horrified intensity. He moved quickly to iron out any misunderstandings. “Oh, like...not because I’m in love with you...oh, not that you’re not gorgeous because you are...like all the boys say you are...but if I was him.”

  “I’m bored now.” Hana decided to put him out of his misery and the dark-skinned young man looked relieved to be let off the hook.

  “Don’t tell Mr Logan,” Rawhiti begged as he pulled alongside. Sacha turned her blue eye on him and squinted spitefully. He veered the bike to the right and Hana smirked.

  “There’s nothing to tell him! You put your foot in your mouth and choked on it. What’s he gonna do about that?”

  “Rip my f...head off,” Rawhiti gushed. “He’s real protective over you. The slaps he’s given people are legendary around here. Apparently his dad, Reuben Du Rose could box too. Mean left hook, both of them.”

  “Does Logan hit people very often?” Hana fished for information, Flick’s black eye occupying her inner vision and the oblivious young man opened his mouth and his brains rolled out.

  “Na. I’ve never seen ‘im do it. I just heard about it, bro. I wouldn’t mess with ‘im. He’d flatten me. I’m a bit scared of him actually, but not as much as Jack. He gives me the sh...he frits me bad.” Rawhiti winced with the effort of squashing his volley of expletives, in front of a woman who looked as though she’d never heard such vile expressions.

  “Nice people you work for,” Hana mused and Rawhiti put his head back and laughed. The mare snuffed and he shut up instantly.

  “Are we nearly there?” he asked as Sacha skittered sideways, faking fear as a tui burst from the trees. Her blue, wall-eye glistened with mischief as she lined the quad up with her hind feet.

  “Sacha!” Hana chastised her and the mare breathed out a huge, wet sigh of defeat. “Not far now. Don’t you like working for Jack?”

  Rawhiti pulled a face and tried to pick his words carefully. He looked at Hana with fear in his face. “I don’t know how to answer that. Well, not to you, anyway.”

  “Why?” Hana asked.

  Rawhiti exhaled in a quick snuff, very much like Sacha’s annoyed huff. “Because stuff always gets back to him. He knows everything. I will end up tū-ā-kiko.”

  “He would hurt you?” Hana’s mind strayed to the deaf old man who had welcomed her into the Du Ro
se stable yard the first time. His face had creased with a grin at the completeness that the redhead offered his employer. He attended their wedding reception, hanging near the back of the room to avoid pointless conversation and he had been ecstatic at the news of Hana’s first pregnancy. Phoenix adored him and Jack was firm but loving to the horses. Hana shook her head. “I don’t want to disbelieve you but...”

  “You’re gonna anyway.” Rawhiti’s face hardened as he gritted his teeth, his jaw line showing through the stubbly young face.

  “I don’t think he’s himself at the moment,” Hana offered, feeling pathetic as she saw herself handling the situation all wrong. “Why don’t I talk to Logan and...”

  “No!” Rawhiti’s shout was full of betrayal. “Don’t you dare!”

  Seizing her opportunity, Sacha masked her dislike of the young stable hand as defence of her mistress. She dragged the lead rope from Hana’s hand, leaving a burning line across the woman’s palm and aggravating the splinter’s nasty trail. With a terrible squeal, she lurched for Rawhiti with teeth bared and ears flattened against her head. The quad surged forwards with a horrific backfire and the pair set off up the mountain, the lead rope trailing as the white horse chased the terrified man on the bike.

  Hana stood on the single-lane track and ran a painful hand across her eyes. “Fantastic!” she said out loud. Her feet ached from the climb and she felt tired enough to lie in the undergrowth that spilled from one side of her. The darkened native bush with its ferny floor covering looked inviting. Hana peered over the edge that Rawhiti had hogged, looking down on the paddocks below. Nev’s house was a tiny dot on the landscape, Sylvia’s resting place still marred by the presence of a white tent even though the body was now in the morgue. The weight of the world and the awful montage of Du Rose secrets pressed down on her head. Hana tutted in irritation and forced her legs to crest the final incline to the gate.

  Rawhiti was nowhere to be seen but the quad bike ticked over to itself, its nose pressed to the railings of the gate. Hana flicked the throttle back to silence it and removed the key. Sacha nosed in the undergrowth nearby, her brown eye covetously eyeing the green grass around the house. “That was very naughty!” Hana bent at the waist and snatched up the lead rope. “Stop winding him up!” The mare snickered and rubbed her forehead on Hana’s sleeve as the woman wrestled with the gate catch. “It’s not funny!” Hana warned her. “I don’t want people to feel like that about you. Logan listens to the stable guys, especially Jack. It will break his heart, but he will have you destroyed if you become a danger.”