‘Just say it.’
‘The first thing is, don’t tell anyone what I’ve just told you about the will, or about Ken Bramley. Don’t make any contact with the Bramleys either, however much you might feel like it. I also need to know if you’ve been in contact with your brothers lately.’
‘No, I haven’t. I was dreading telling them they weren’t in the will Grimes gave me.’
‘Good. Let’s just keep it that way for the moment.’
‘What if Bramley comes here looking for me?’
‘He won’t. Not yet, anyway. He’s locked up in our cells. We couldn’t get to a magistrate in time yesterday. Bail could still be a problem today, too,’ he said.
She smiled. ‘Thank you.’
‘But I’ve got some even better news for you, too,’ he said, finding a peculiar pleasure in stringing it out. ‘We found Harry’s original will, dated at the end of last year. You and your other brothers are the only beneficiaries of that bit of paper.’
‘You’re joking?’
‘No, I’m not. We’re pretty certain it’s genuine. I won’t give you a copy of that one just yet because there are still a few more rocks to look under. But let your lawyer know, in confidence, and all going well you should be able to act on it before too long. You can tell your brothers then.’
‘That’s amazing. But you’re sure about that?’
‘Ninety-nine per cent, yes.’
‘And do you know who gets what?’
‘Only generally. It seems to be a three-way split between you and your brothers. So you’re a bit worse off than in Bramley’s will, where you got half, minus the cows.’
‘That doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘It’s the first bit of good news since this whole thing started. So long as Hilltop stays where it belongs, that’s all that matters.’
‘I’m curious about the fake will, though. Why do you think Bramley would have given you half?’
‘I’ve got no idea. Ask him. Maybe he thought that way it wouldn’t be challenged if someone in our family got at least half.’
‘Possibly. But there’s also no mention of baby George in the genuine will. Any idea why that might be?’
‘No, I don’t know,’ she answered warily. ‘Presumably he expected him to be taken into an adult’s care anyway.’
‘But you still don’t find it odd?’
‘I always found a lot of things about Harry odd, sergeant. There was no point trying to second-guess him.’
‘Most people allow for minors in their will, though.’
‘And here I am taking care of him. I have to say, Sergeant Cole, I was a bit worried about how you were going about Harry’s death, but I’ve changed my view now. Full marks to you.’
‘Thanks. But I better get back to the station now. If I don’t drown on the way,’ he said. ‘I’ll let you know as soon as there’s any more news.’
‘I’m so grateful to you,’ she beamed.
‘Just one thing though,’ Cole said. ‘The night of Harry’s death, when we were talking about the baby, you mentioned to me that you’d had it up to your neck with the law. What did you mean by that?’
‘Did I say that? I can’t remember. That night was a blur, sergeant.’
‘It wouldn’t have been anything to do with your husband’s conviction for illegal discharge of a firearm, would it?’
‘Oh that. It was years and years ago.’
‘He shot at the house of one of his pals from the Italian Club.’
‘It was just an accident. He never meant it to go off and he was heavily fined for it. Of course we were unhappy about that. We appealed and then we got hit with court costs, too. Is Gianni going to get his gun back?’
‘I’ll drop it in to you soon. There was no evidence of it being used lately.’
‘Didn’t I tell you?’
Cole tried to dodge the rain as he hurried back into his car. The weather forecast had predicted it would continue all day, and for once it looked like the bureau was going to be right.
But he realised he’d left his raincoat at home and headed back for it when he was likely to be out in the elements again before the day was over.
But as he ran from his car to the front door he was startled by it opening just as he was digging in his pockets for a key.
‘Nance, what are you doing here?’
‘I got a lift back in. Whatever’s happening, I’m not going to be away from you while it is. I don’t care whether you’ve caught the person or not.’
‘I know who it was.’
‘That’s good. I knew you’d catch him.’
He saw her suitcase in the hallway.
‘Anyway …,’ he said, lost for words until he laughed and gathered her up. ‘I’m glad you’re here. The single life isn’t much of a life.’
‘Oh, you’d cope. Sometimes I wonder if you need me at all.’
‘That’s not true. I do,’ he said above the sound of rain falling hard now. ‘You mightn’t see it, but I do.’
‘How long are you home for?’
‘Not long. I just came back to fetch my raincoat.’
‘Come into the kitchen then. The fire’s going.’
She took his hand. ‘I missed you, Lloyd. All the time I couldn’t stop worrying about you.’ She led him to a chair and seating herself opposite him looked him in the eye. ‘I know I haven’t been doing a good job at some things. The drinking. I know I’ve been pretending it hasn’t been happening, and that I can’t keep pretending any longer. I know it has to stop, for my own sake as much as anyone else’s. And I want to stop. Believe me, I do.’
‘It’s not just you, Nance. The way my punting’s been going I may as well have been cutting up notes with a pair of scissors and tossing them in the air. I need to lift my game. I’ve been thinking. I always wanted to get out of this house, to my parents old place or somewhere else. I think we need a change. It’d give us both a chance to start afresh. What do you think?’
She smiled. ‘I think you’re right. We’ve been drifting along since the kids left home and this should be the best time of our lives, where we do things and go places. Instead we’ve been moping around like two lost souls, you with your work and me with I don’t know what.’
‘We have to get better at this, don’t we? It’s our lives, isn’t it? It’s no small thing.’
‘No, it’s not. It’s a big thing. And sometimes it’s scary for me, Lloyd. I mean, how do we start with all this, getting it right again?’
‘We start like we just have. I don’t really care where I go. Look at this place. It’s worn out and tired. Why don’t we work toward a new house with all the mod cons?’
‘Could we do it? Afford it I mean?’
‘We could. It’d obviously mean borrowing from the bank, but we could do it if we set our minds to it.’
‘But that’s only part of it, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘We have to take care of all sorts of things, don’t we?’
‘We do. I’m sorry I haven’t given you the time I should, Nance. When this case is over I’m going to take a break, a proper one. I can’t remember the last time either of us had a decent holiday.’
‘Really, we’ll do that?’
‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’
‘I hope not,’ she said. ‘Where would we go?’
‘Where would you like to go?’
She thought. ‘Why not a trip along the northern coast somewhere? I’ve never been there and they say it’s lovely.’
‘Done then. And this Saturday. Why don’t we go down to Melbourne and surprise the kids? Take them out to lunch somewhere.’
‘Without calling them first?’
‘Sure, why not? They’ve done it to us often enough, haven’t they?’
Nancy laughed. ‘True,
but aren’t we supposed to be the responsible ones?’
‘We’ve already proved we aren’t,’ he grinned back.
‘And what if they aren’t home when we knock on their doors?’
‘Then you and I make a day of it for ourselves. Find one of those Italian restaurants in Carlton for lunch. Take it from there.’
‘That sounds a wonderful idea to me. But what’s happening about the Colstons? I’ve been hearing things at the Bridges.’
‘It’ll all be over today or tomorrow, touch wood. I tell you what Nance, you think you’ve seen everything and then something else pops its head up that really takes you by surprise. What’s happened there is sadder than I could tell you.’
‘But it’s important that you get to the bottom of it.’
‘I think so. But sometimes you wonder if you shouldn’t let sleeping dogs lie.’
They talked until he happened to glance up at the kitchen clock.
She said, ‘You’d better go. You’ve got lots to do by the sound of it.’
They kissed and he was just about to step outside when she called to him, ‘Lloyd!’
‘What is it?’
With a wry smile, she pointed to the coat hooks by the front door. ‘Your raincoat.’
Chapter 35
As soon as Sheridan reported in for work Cole took her aside.
‘Sorry, but I want you to go home and get changed into civvies, then take your own car to the caravan park and keep a close watch on it for me. We’re looking at a bloke called Jan van der Sloot. He’s about six feet tall, he’s got light-coloured hair and a pointy chin he was trying to grow a beard over the last time I saw him. He lives in a broken down Sunliner caravan about ten spots past the toilet block. Watch that van and the moment someone else comes along and goes into it, come straight back here and get me. Okay?’
‘Should I be looking for anyone in particular?’
‘Not at this stage, just any person going inside that caravan with Van der Sloot, young or old, male or female.’
‘Got it,’ Sheridan said and departed.
Janice sauntered into Cole’s office and said, ‘It’s as black as the ace of spades out there. I wish I was in the umbrella business. By the way, Mr Kinross has just dropped in. Says you wanted a word with him.’
‘Right. Send him through please, Janice.’
Bill Kinross was taken into his office and stood surveying the room as if he might find a use of his own for it.
‘Take a seat, and thanks for coming by,’ Cole said.
Kinross set his large frame uncomfortably on the chair, saying, ‘Robyn tells me you’ve been out to the asylum again. You’re wasting your time, whatever you went there for.’
‘Why do you think I’d be wasting my time speaking with your wife?’
Kinross laughed gruffly. ‘It’s an asylum. You know what kind of people get put in there.’
‘Who get put there, is right. No one would choose to go there, would they?’
‘When a person isn’t quite right in the head, they can’t choose for themselves, can they? The decision has to be made for them.’
‘In their best interests, we’d all like to think. Tell me this, Mr Kinross. I’d like to ask you about an episode that occurred in 1941. The time your wife’s brother was shot. I want you to tell me what happened that day.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m not sure the truth about it ever came out, and we should lay it to rest once and for all, shouldn’t we? The common opinion was that John Colston, accidentally or otherwise, shot Cameron Dunbar. True, it seems Colston was carrying on and lording it over everyone in the Citizen Forces, and his gun may have discharged, but I’m not convinced it was Colston who actually fired the shot that killed Cameron Dunbar, or caused him to die.’
‘It was him, alright.’
‘Fine then. Tell me what happened.’
‘It was a long time ago. I can hardly remember it,’ Kinross said. ‘All I know is we were having rifle practice, and Colston was explaining some rubbish about the best way to sight a target. I doubt he’d hardly picked up a gun in his life. He probably didn’t even realise his rifle was loaded because Dunbar started laughing about something and Colston got worked up. Next thing we knew Dunbar was on the ground and Colston was running around like a chook with its head cut off.’
‘What did you do then?’
‘I stayed and tried to save Dunbar’s life while Colston ran for help, but it was no use.’
‘How many others were with you then?’
‘I couldn’t recall exactly. Maybe ten people?’
‘Are you sure about that?’
‘Pretty sure. Yes, about ten.’
‘That’s strange then, because according to the Advertiser of that week only four people were present at that shooting practise session.’
‘Well, who knows? A long time ago, wasn’t it?’
‘Just because it’s the past doesn’t mean we should be free and easy with the facts, Mr Kinross. I’m inclined to think that the Advertiser was right, that there were only four people present the day Cameron Dunbar was shot. And I reckon I could have a good stab at saying who they were: Yourself, John Colston, Dunbar and Bob Fry.’
‘Who said Fry was there?’
‘You can go back and read the papers if you like. There’s quite a nice photo in the Advertiser of all you boys pretending to be soldiers. What I think happened was that Dunbar might have been accidentally shot by John Colston in the first place, who then ran for help like you said. But while he was gone you saw an opportunity, and while Dunbar was presumably wounded and unable to defend himself, either you or Bob Fry might have smothered him or finished him off in some other way.’
‘That’s a joke, and you weren’t there, so you wouldn’t know.’
‘And I’ll never be able to find out. Is that what you’re saying? Everyone would have just accepted the story Colston told, wouldn’t they? Why would they have thought any differently? It was just an accident, wasn’t it? It was war time and no one would have looked any further. And you had an interest in Dunbar being dead. Your wife loved her brother, John Colston had had an affair with her and you wanted to ruin both him and her. So better if Dunbar was dead rather than just wounded. And with him gone only your wife then stood in the way of you inheriting her family’s wealth. Greed and revenge, it’s the perfect motivation, isn’t it?’
‘A lot of nasty speculation, more like it. Who said Colston had an affair with my wife?’
‘It seems to be common knowledge around here. But I think your hand was in that business of her brother being killed. I think there’s a whole pattern here: your wife’s dalliance with Colston, her inheritance, her brother’s death, Elsa’s convenient locking away. If I were to write away to someone in Scotland I might find out that you’re already drawing on your wife’s estate, that you’d already have something like power of attorney over her finances and are using it.’
‘Prove it,’ he said with sudden menace, but the colour had drained from his face.
‘I don’t have to, but I just might, as well. I know the reasons you’ve put your wife in that dump at Bendigo. So let’s hope nothing further untoward happens to her, because if it does, I’ll be all over you like a rash.’
He sent Kinross on his way, the farmer shaken by these skeletons returned to life.
If nothing else, Cole thought, some attention focussed on Kinross’s history might dissuade him from hastening his wife’s demise any further. He had held back the other key piece of information – Robyn’s paternity – because he thought Kinross might turn it against her.
There was one other thing yet to be played out; if his theory was right, by giving Kinross this scare there was also a good chance he’d put the wind up Bob Fry, too.
‘What was all that about?’ Janice asked as she came t
o retrieve some files from his desk.
But before he could answer, his telephone rang and Janice closed the door and left.
‘Rowlands here. From the State Bank,’ the manager announced himself, as if he was being introduced at a Grand Ball.
‘Lloyd Cole. How’s the state of banking in Victoria, Mr Rowlands?’
‘It’s very well, thank you, senior sergeant. But I telephoned to give you some news regarding that false account Mr Colston put money into, the so-called Balfour account.’
There was a bright lilt in Rowlands’ voice and Cole knew that as a man who wouldn’t like loose ends, the banker was confident he had put an end to this one.
‘Please go on,’ Cole said.
‘The young teller who initiated that account. She was on her lunch break yesterday and noticed a chap walking along the street who, she said, rang a bell. She followed him a distance to make sure she wasn’t mistaken, but she is certain now it was the same man who opened the account.’
‘Was she fairly certain, or absolutely certain?’
‘The latter. There was no doubt in her mind it was one and the same person.’
‘What did she say he looked like?’
‘I had her write it down. Here, just let me slip my glasses on and I’ll read it. Here we go. According to her, He was above average height, quite well built, with light-coloured curly hair. He was wearing a red and white checked shirt and long, blue trousers. There was a large dark bruise on the side of his face.’
‘Thank you Mr Rowlands. You’ve been really helpful there.’
‘Do you have you any idea who it is?’
‘I do.’
Cole sat back in his chair, the rain still pelting down outside. There were a few things going his way now, enough for him to make his move. And it was time to get Barry Jennings into the station and for him to be more talkative than the last time they’d met.
Chapter 36
Christine Sheridan’s initial excitement at being given a surveillance job paled even as she returned to Mitchell in her everyday clothes. The car heater had stopped working again and each time she drove something else rolled out from underneath the seat reminding her that she hadn’t quite completed the task of moving in yet, and that her car needed a good clean.
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