‘But that’s okay, Ben. You can use it, like. I mean, I’m due a beating anyway and I’m real worried about what the Gypsies are going to do to me. They’re not going to like having their house burnt.’
Claudia stepped forward with her white phone in hand. ‘Use mine. I can’t have his beating on my conscience.’ She tossed the phone and Ben fumbled the catch. He smiled at the girl as he bent to pick it out of the soft wet grass.
‘You not calling the law?’ Abe called. ‘Just I don’t want to be dealing with the law. They going be a bit curious, you know, like why I’m here in the country, near a crash site and my finger prints might be detectable, like in the van. I don’t think they’re going to understand why I ran.’
‘What are you running from?’ Claudia asked.
Abe ignored her question, but Pete stepped up. ‘Abe was the one who crashed that van with the children back on the A road. Fifteen of the little tykes, all dead.’
‘I did check on the children, but I couldn’t help them. The Smiths sent a van of armed men, dogs, and pigs after me. Didn’t they, Pete. We had to hide in that stream up over the hill. I really don’t need you calling no one that’s going to give me grief.’
Ben offered Claudia a wide eyed look in response to Abe’s concerns. He pulled the photo of Claudia from his pocket and dialed the landline number written on the back. As he waited for an answer, he noticed Claudia looking at her photo. ‘Different times, eh?’ he said.
She sighed. ‘No better, no worse.’
She turned to look down the hill. Abe fed leaves and twigs to the flames. Pete removed the boiling Billycan from the coals and proceeded to swing the tin in a wide vertical arc. Ben moved further down the hill as the phone was answered. The voice at Max’s end didn’t want to disturb him, but told Ben she’d tell Max he’d called. And no, there was no child called Lucas at the house. He dialed the mobile, hoping to get Winston, but the phone diverted to voice mail.
Pete crouched at Abe’s legs unraveling the bandage on his leg. The dog sat watching his work. The Alpaca’s remained at the road, their heads in the line of trees, looking to their left at the figures of Tommy and Loubie. Tommy stood at the side of the road watching as she sunk into the foliage.
Ben wandered back to Claudia and handed her the phone. ‘You still wanting to take me back to my dad?’ Claudia said.
Two tin cups of tea sat by the fire with steam rising. Ben shook his head at Pete’s clumsy effort to bandage Abe’s leg.
‘Is he paying you well?’ she said.
‘I’m not sure he’s paying me at all. He and Winston decided to cut me out of the game. Winston tried to shoot me at the Hangman and I don’t get why. It wasn’t like I’d shown any signs of fighting for the lad. I only ended up with him because he followed me from the Gypsy camp.’
Ben stretched his back and rotated his head to ease the tension in his shoulders. He needed sleep and drink and a chance to stop. He wanted to be back at Blacky’s, with the furnace bright and warm and the sofa all to himself.
‘It appears your father wants the child more than he wants you,’ he said. ‘Does that make sense? It don’t to me. I was employed to bring you back, but Winston was sent after me to take the child. They weren’t bothered about your plight.’
‘Well you’ve fucked up, haven’t you?’
‘How do you figure that out? I was paid to find you and I have. My true aim was to get out of Ostere for a period and refill my pockets with shekels. I think I’ve performed pretty well. And I’ve still got today to get you back and get paid. He gave me two days. This is day two.’
‘But I’m not going back.’
Ben couldn’t remember who suggested Claudia might be reluctant to return to Max. He guessed Tommy said it, but there it was, out in the open. And Ben had no appetite to argue with the girl. Stay, go, he was tiring of the game. He didn’t want to go back either, but he couldn’t see where else they were likely to find sanctuary. They couldn’t live around Pete’s fire for the rest of their days. There was no alcohol worth drinking and Ben didn’t fancy Pete’s method of making tea.
‘Why does your dad want Lucas so bad? You see, no one shared the child info with me, so I wasn’t expecting the child complication, eh? And why is he so obsessed with him? The doting granddad doesn’t hire a gun for a parental visit and he doesn’t risk the child’s life in a shootout. So I don’t get the drama.’
‘Max believes in family and wants us together. He’s fallen out with almost everyone, so he wants me and Lucas by his side. He’s not well, is he?’ Her brow furrowed as she watched Pete attending Abe’s leg. ‘I don’t know. It’s complicated, you know.’
She grabbed Ben’s arm and pointed at the rag Pete used to clean Abe’s wound. She lunged forward and ripped the cloth from his pocket. ‘Where’d you get that?’
Pete looked at the rag and stepped back from Claudia. She followed, thrusting the cloth in Pete’s face.
‘Easy girl,’ Ben said. ‘That’s not how you get the truth out of Pete.’
‘This is Lucas’s blanket.’
Pete gaped and tried to speak. He pointed and shook his head. His eyes glared white and Ben suspected tears or rage were close. He grabbed Claudia and pulled her out of Pete’s space.
‘It’s all right Pete, you haven’t done wrong.’ Ben said those words, but he struggled to believe them. Pete had history with children Lucas’s age. ‘But where did you find it?’
‘By the crash.’ He pointed toward the road.
‘There was a crash?’ Ben asked. ‘Last night?’ Ben spoke slowly trying to coax sense out of the boy. ‘There was a crash last night?’
‘Yes, he was traveling too fast and that bend is bad and it’s all gravel and mud. And that truck was going like the clappers, too, and the car was all smashed up.’
He pointed at the road again. ‘It’s all burned out.’
‘No!’ The scream echoed in the small valley.
Ben held Claudia tight in his arms. ‘Were there any survivors? Pete, did you call the emergency? What happened? When was this crash?’
‘Just before you got here. Ben, I couldn’t help. It was dark and there was shooting and then the car blew up and the trucks drove off. I can’t go onto the road, because my tag can’t go past the fence. I’d have helped if I could. I’ve got me –’
‘Yes, Pete we know about your first aid badge.’
Ben let his arms drop and turned to the road. ‘I don’t think you need to be looking at this, eh?’ he said to Claudia.
‘Just go, but be quick. Lucas can’t be dead. This shit…’ She looked at Pete, tears in her eyes and her head shaking. ‘My Lucas can’t be dead.’
Ben ran down the hill allowing the gradient to determine his pace. He pushed through the trees and grass and stepped over the sagging barbed wire. He followed the grass verge until he found the burnt out shell. It smelt sour, of toasted rubber and metal. And two large, charred hulks lay lumped in the back with another slim figure taking up the front seat.
‘Claudia,’ Ben called.
She appeared from the cover of the trees, her arms hugging her body. ‘No, please tell me no.’
‘He’s not here. I’m not sure who is here, but the bodies are too big to be Lucas. If he was in this car then he’s escaped. Serious, he’s not here. He might’ve walked to the Smiths’. He knew the house when we were here earlier.’
Claudia eased her short legs over the wire and approached the car wreck. ‘That could be anyone,’ she said.
‘Yes, but what car did Winston drive?’
‘Why bring Lucas here?’ Claudia said. ‘You’d have thought he’d be heading straight home. It can’t be Winston’s car.’
She sat on her arse and slithered into the overgrown gully. Her ankle boots stopped in an inch of muddied water. She reached out to the car and caressed the bonnet. Ben’s foot kicked an object and he stooped to pick it up. He held a small toy figure.
‘Would Lucas own something like this,’ he said.
Claudia squinted at the small object and smiled. ‘It’s the wizard from the Balloon Man series. He loved those books.’
Her fingers traced the emblem on the bonnet. ‘This is Winston’s car.’
‘Ben,’ Tommy’s cry came from further up the road. ‘Help.’
Ben threw the wizard to Claudia and ran for the bend in the road. He found Tommy in the ditch with Loubie, holding her hands, his body pressing her into the steep bank. A bloodied knife lay on the ground and blood covered his hands and smeared Loubie’s arms.
‘She was stabbing at her arm,’ Tommy said.
Tears rolled down her face and a low mewing sound, barely human, squeezed out of her body as it shook and trembled.
‘I don’t know what to do, Ben,’ Tommy said. ‘She tried to stab me with the bloody knife. She’s gone loopy.’
‘Let her go.’
‘I can’t, she’ll go for me again or stab herself. She was cutting her arm.’
‘Let her go, now. And grab that knife.’
Tommy stepped back and Claudia rushed forward, clutching Loubie to her body. Together the two girls cuddled on the ground. Loubie’s mewing turned to loud, soul-releasing wails. She clutched at Claudia, shuddering against her shoulder. Ben grabbed Tommy’s arm and led him away.
‘Jesus, Ben, she tried to stab me.’
‘Well, she’s okay now, eh? Claudia will sort her out.’ Ben turned to Claudia. ‘Get her back to Pete so he can check out her arm. I’ll get Abe out of her way, eh?’
Ben and Tommy clambered over the fence. ‘You all right?’ He nodded. ‘Good. Let’s grab Abe. He knows these Smiths, so he’s going to help us nick a car, eh?’
Pete had added further fuel to the fire, the flames roaring ten foot high. He had the Billycan above his head, whirling it in a large circle.
‘Old Scout trick,’ Pete said. ‘It makes the tea leaves settle. By the sounds of that scream we’re going to need a lot of tea.’
Abe had moved away from the action. Ben and Tommy kept back, no one wanting to get scalded by Pete’s tea shenanigans.
‘Pete, Claudia is walking with Loubie. Why don’t you go and help get the girl back here so you can apply some first aid. Me, Abe, and Tommy are going to look for a car.’
Pete dropped the can and ran to Loubie’s rescue. Ben punched Tommy on the arm. ‘Ready to nick a car?’
‘Sure, but I don’t think we’re going to find much out here.’
‘What do you reckon, Abe? The Smiths must have a load of jeeps and trucks lying about. I saw a couple of sheds on the far side of the house worth checking out, eh?’
‘Yeah, they will have, but I don’t want to be going anywhere near the Smiths’ place. And you don’t want to be stealing anything that belongs to them. I’m a dead man for crashing their truck. Like I want to make that worse by stealing.’
‘I’m with Abe, Ben,’ Tommy said. ‘That man wasn’t happy. He’d lost his family and then you beat him up.’
‘We need transport and it’s getting light. Lucas isn’t at the Smiths’ and he isn’t at the pub and he’s not in that burnt out car. He’s got to be somewhere, eh?’ Abe had no idea who Lucas was, but he nodded with Tommy to Ben’s reasoning. ‘We can’t stay here,’ Ben continued. ‘This is a prison, right, and I’ve spent a good two years keeping my head out of prisons. You too, Tommy. We’re wanted by the army and the police and they wouldn’t lock us up in something as luxurious as what Pete’s got going here, eh? So we need transport. That child is alone on these roads or he left in that van I saw earlier.’
Abe nodded to that. ‘That van was full of children. Off to the bloody mines, the poor tykes.’
Ben pushed Abe forward. ‘You’re coming because I’m not leaving you alone with that poor girl. I don’t know the history. I don’t care about the history, but she don’t like you, so we don’t like you either. So get moving.’
They followed the riverbank skirting the building’s rear end. Abe grew tired of bitching about his leg after the fourth slap from Ben, but he never stopped with his dire mutterings. ‘This is madness,’ he said. ‘The Smiths are going to kill us. I’m a dead man. Have you seen how many pigs they got? Pete tells me they never feed them. Never.’
Finally, Ben turned on him and straight punched him through the nose. Abe dropped to the ground and Ben dropped with him. Tommy backed away, chewing on his cheroot and keeping watch on the hill.
‘Enough of your fucking whining,’ Ben said. ‘We are going to nick a vehicle and you’re coming with us. Simple, yes?’
Abe nodded; all the fight gone from his body.
‘No more talking.’
Abe held up his hand.
‘What?’
‘How we going to drive it out? They’ll hear us and they’ll chase us forever until they catch us.’
‘He’s got a point.’ Tommy had wandered to the top of the hill. Ben followed him and they looked across the valley at the house. It had a wall standing, but the ground was a mess of glowing embers and thick smoke. A jeep faced the front wall, its headlights shining on the burnt shell. Three men leant against the bonnet and a van had parked to the back of the building.
‘Is that the van?’ Ben said. Abe nodded. ‘We saw it leaving before the Hangman attacked the house.’
‘That’s the van I saw in the shed.’ Abe stood behind them.
‘So they haven’t taken them far.’
‘The mines,’ Abe said.
The threesome set off across the hill, keeping well below the summit. They climbed the hill behind the house, approaching the shed from its rear. The back door stood open revealing a horse trailer, a tractor with several items required for tilling the land, and two jeeps and a battered pickup.
‘Can you get it started,’ Ben asked Tommy.
‘I think so. It’s the electrics that are the problem, but I should be able to sort it, you know. Prefer older cars, but.’
‘No need,’ Abe said.
He pushed the sliding door closed and revealed a row of nails holding a collection of keys. He took them down and clicked at fobs until one lit the vehicle.
‘Easy, if you know how.’
‘What now?’ Tommy said. ‘Abe’s right, Ben. They’re going to give chase.’
‘We push it out and back down that hill behind the property. Once we’re in the valley we should be able to start it and travel along the river bank. Keep it slow. Keep it quiet.’
The jeep rolled well enough, but it bitched about starting. When it kicked into life every bird in a five-mile radius woke. They travelled low and slow, keeping the jeep splashing through the shallows of the brook. They pulled out of the river bank to the left of the pig paddock, and kept below the skyline, as they navigated a route past the house. They breached the driveway at the bottom of the hill. A lone guard stood at the front of the burnt out house. He held a rifle.
‘No time for panic,’ Ben said. ‘But a little more gas might be required.’
‘What?’ Abe looked at Ben, then at Tommy in the back.
‘Drive. Do not look back. Straight line for the gate and the road.’
Shots sounded and Abe found the accelerator while three heads ducked low.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Pete Talks with the Army
Pete stood at the top of the hill talking with a woman dressed in army fatigues. A copper stood five foot down the hill swatting at the curious Alpacas. Smoke rose from the timbers into the bright, clear day. The occasional chill breath blew at the hot embers, reigniting small bursts of flame. The top of the house lay in ruin, burnt and charred. A piece of the staircase climbed into free space and the front wall stood alone.
One fireman stood at the front of the property poking at the burnt timbers. Another fireman stood in the middle of the house stamping on smoking timbers. He joined his colleague on the porch, removed his hat and sat on a blackened rocking chair. A local country fire truck stood on the driveway. Both doors gaped open while a fireman worked the yellow hose.
He stopped his work when the small chair gave way with a loud crash and the fireman landed on his arse.
‘Who are those clowns?’ the army officer said.
The copper stood with his hands clasped behind his back watching the firemen. ‘Local volunteers,’ he said. He pinched his nose, wiggled then sneezed. ‘We’ve been getting a lot of scrub fires up here, so we set up a local volunteer crew.’ He wiped at his nose and checked for discharge. ‘Most of them are firebugs, which can be problematic.’
An eruption of barking greeted the first splash of water onto the smoking ashes. A group of animals stood on the metal roofs of the charred kennels pawing at the blackened wire.
‘They need water,’ Pete said.
‘Rockets were fired from the woods?’ she asked.
Pete nodded and pointed at the woods beyond the house. ‘But before the rockets three caravans exploded.’ She checked her notes. ‘And shots fired from the front of the property? Is that how you saw it?’
‘Yeah, it was the farmers blowing up the vans.’
‘And you know this…’ the copper said, ‘…because…?’
‘I helped get Ben to the house.’
‘And Ben is…?’ the army woman asked.
‘He’s my mate.’
‘Does he have a surname?’
‘Probably.’
The copper and the army woman looked at Pete, wondering if he was joking with them. Pete stepped back under their scrutiny. He pointed at the dogs.
‘Do you think someone’s going to offer the dogs some water? Dogs shouldn’t be left without water. I’d do it myself, but I can’t go near the Smith’s house because of my anklet. But I hate to see them suffer. We had a dog at Blacky’s and I was always filling up the trough for him to drink out of. It was pretty mank, that trough, but Dog liked it.’
The army officer spoke into her radio, turning to look at the jeep parked on the laneway. ‘Soldier, can you sort out some water for the hounds?’ She pointed toward the house and clicked her radio off.
‘Are you going to tell us this Ben’s surname?’
‘I don’t know it. He’s just Ben. We sometimes call him Ben the Butcher. We all got names like that. They used to call me Pete the Nose because I had this sore on my nose. I used to pick at it because I thought you could pick out the cancerous bits.’ The army sergeant turned her nose up. ‘Yeah, but you can’t pick it out. You can’t, and it wasn’t cancer anyway. Ben said it wasn’t. The Doc here at the Prison sorted it out with some pills.
Heroes Don't Travel Page 18