"What about us?" asked Greg.
"You and Ashley will remain here," said Zinsli, truthfully. "I have tied you and some trespassers up while I checked the property."
He looked at Alex, Jo and Richard. They were not buying his story. "I will take you back to the road in the morning. My wife, Sally, and I will go home to Gresham Downs and try to resolve our differences, or split up. It could go either way."
Zinsli sounded very convincing. Alex felt that Zinsli was trying to relax them, to ease their fears. No matter what he said, he still had them tied up so his intentions were obvious. More so if Zinsli found out that they had discovered Georgina's body.
42.
Although he was autistic, Lance was highly intelligent. He thought differently from other people. Sometimes he could see clearly what others could not. When he could not communicate his views to them he became very angry and frustrated. This was usually the case, pushing him further into his lonely self.
Lance and Tricksy had been walking and watching.
Tricksy knew that the bridge was not far from the house, just a few kilometres. It should have taken an hour to walk back from the ATV. She was a little confused. She knew they should be going to the village at Te Kouka, but Lance had crossed the river to take her home to Te Kouka Flats Farm.
Then he had made her silent and on guard as Zinsli and the girl-woman Jo took the ATV farm bike out of the swamp where it had stuck. Instead of calling out, Lance had remained hidden. Tricksy respected Lance's intelligence. She knew he was different from other people but he had a fast brain and often acted out of instinct just as animals do. They watched as Zinsli extracted the ATV, put Jo on the back, then rode off to Gresham Downs Farm or Te Kouka Flats Farm.
Lance and Tricksy set off again. They followed the farm bike's path back to the fork ion the road, where Sally walked three times a week to get the mail. Tricksy indicated that the farm bike had turned into Te Kouka Flats farm. The boy plodded on, not tired, not hot, not cold and not hungry. Now they sat on the hill above the house, the same hill Jo and her parents had walked down to get to the farm. They watched the house.
First the big truck from Gresham Downs Farm arrived. Then it went away, up the valley to the trees beside the river where the big eels lived.
Next Zinsli arrived on Greg's ATV. Then he left in Greg's pick-up truck and went upriver. He came back in the big truck. Lance tried to count how many people were in his house but he could not keep track of them all. .Her nose told Tricksy that all of the people were now in the house, including Sally, whose scent she had never forgotten. For once she was unable to communicate her knowledge to Lance.
Lance began to doze. It was early in the morning, when young boys should be sleeping in their beds but Lance had always lived by different biorhythms. Tricksy curled up with him as a bitch does to her offspring. Greg was her alpha male. Lance was his pup. Her job was to keep him safe.
43.
Bill Paki-Paki, the ex-Minister of Police, was having a difficult time hiring a helicopter. "I need to get to Nelson," Bill said to one charter company. "We are a group of four. Can I charter something to fly us there?
"Nelson Airport is closed for the night," said the booking clerk. "It won't open until six in the morning. I'm not sure we can take five in our biggest plane."
Four and the pilot. Should Syd and Jeanne stay behind? He wondered. "What about a direct chopper flight from here to Grantville and bit further?" Bill asked next.
"We could do a helicopter flight at five fifteen," said the woman. "I would have to arrange a refuel in Kaikoura. But it will take only three passengers."
"Hold on," said Bill. He turned to Syd his wife and to Richard's mother, Jeanne. "They can only take three. We would leave at five fifteen."
"I hate helicopters," said Syd. "Count me out."
"Me too," said Jeanne. "And five fifteen is quite uncivilised. I'll stay and keep Syd company."
Bill turned his attention back to the telephone. "Okay, there will be three passengers. Two quite large men and a policewoman."
Bill was six four, and large with it. A South Island Maori, he was sometimes mistaken for a Pacifica, but his body was pure muscle. Robert was also large, just under six foot tall like his son Richard. He was the same weight he had been for twenty years but his shape had changed with age as his muscles wasted to be replaced by fat tissue as part of the ageing process. He was still fit but was no longer fast enough to play cricket well. Barbara van Buren was not small.
Over the years, Bill had made a fortune investing in the commercial endeavours of an immigrant to New Zealand, Ken Kovic. Kovic had been an importer and exporter. Bill gave him money and supported his endeavours. The company flourished. Ken Kovic insisted that Bill was in partnership, something Bill kept quiet because he was not sure if Kovic's actions were entirely legal. When Bill wanted to leave the business because he felt Kovic had become involved in drugs, his settlement was in the millions. Bill could well afford to charter a helicopter. He could afford to buy one outright if necessary.
Bill and Robert had to be at the airport hangar at five to five. It would still be dark then, although it was mid-summer and full daylight was scheduled for five fifteen, their take-off time. Although they were tired they were also suffering from time zone adjustments. Their wives were similarly affected. After a restless night, Robert's husband Jeanne got up at four and made Robert a cup of tea. Robert and Jeanne were English and drinking tea was essential for every crisis in their lives.
The Wests had immigrated to New Zealand before Richard was born. Richard was a primary school teacher who quickly adapted to the Kiwi way of life. Jeanne did not. She missed her homeland terribly, making unpopular comparisons between the two cultures, but always favouring the English practice.
"They are flip flops, not jandals," she would declare. "Why can't New Zealand people speak English properly?"
As soon as Robert turned sixty five he took her back to England in the hopes she would find the happiness that had eluded her in the 'Colonies'.
The Paki-Pakis were also awake. Bill got dressed in warm clothes on the basis that one can always take clothes off if one became too hot. He did not know what the day would bring, although the weather forecast assured him that the day would be fine with a temperature of twenty six, chilled somewhat by a ten knot southerly wind. That meant the helicopter would take a little longer to reach Blenheim for refuelling, and even longer to fly south to Grantville.
Barbara van Buren was waiting for them at the helicopter base. The pilot was ready. Previously a policeman, Trevor Simonson introduced himself to Bill. Trevor now worked in Helicopter Rescue. The hefty fee Bill was paying would help the Rescue Service with extra funds. It was unlikely that the service would be needed at that hour of the morning but by refuelling in Blenheim, across Cook Strait, he could ensure a fast return in an emergency that the other craft could not cope with.
Bill explained where they were going, and why. He said they needed to find the drain pipe and check the far end for evidence someone had used it as a tunnel. They might have to crawl through the pipe to ensure nobody was still in it. The pilot understood Bill's urgency. He decided not to refuel in Blenheim, which would give Bill and Robert a little more time at the site. The helicopter had to be back by nine.
There was little wind. The air was calm. It was going to be a good flight.
44.
Back at the Te Kouka Flats Farmhouse, the younger Wests, Richard and his wife Alex and daughter Jo, remained tied up in one room, while the farmer and his partner, Greg Somerville and Ashleigh Moffitt, were tied to chairs in the kitchen. Only Zinsli was able to move about freely.
An hour before dawn, Zinsli injected Ashleigh and Greg with ketamine. As he didn't want them to die but to be incapacitated and inhale smoke when the house burned, he did not give them an excessive dose. He was used to anaesthetising animals with ketamine and had become adept at varying the dose according to weight. He figured Greg and Ashleigh
were about a hundred and forty pounds in weight and measured seventy mg of the drug, about the same as he would for his younger heifers. The drug took about ten minutes before Greg began to sing quietly.
Ashleigh's head fell forward; she was smiling and drooling. Zinsli untied them. Ashleigh went to stand up but couldn't. She appeared to be totally disassociated, like patients Zinsli had injected sometimes in the past. They were entering what was known to addicts as the K-hole, the state in which one becomes totally disassociated with reality and hallucination takes over. Greg threw his arms around Zinsli, catching him by surprise.
"Good dog," he said. "Good dog."
"Come and sit over here," said Zinsli, taking Greg by the arm and sitting him on the floor next to Ashleigh. When the fire began, there was no way these two would even realise that they were in danger.
Zinsli wanted Richard to become disassociated and unable to save himself from drowning in mud so Zinsli then injected all three Wests with ketamine, enough to put them in the K-hole where life was one total hallucination. They all had to go. It was no use if one remained alive to tell the story.
The Wests struggled more than Greg and Ashleigh. Zinsli did Richard first. He thought the man was about a hundred and fifty pounds, so he injected seventy five mgm. It did not matter if Richard overdosed as ketamine was a 'safe' drug compared with heroin, for example.
The effects would last about an hour, which would be enough time to drown. Alex was about a hundred and ten pounds, and the young girl probably about eighty. He gave the mother fifty five mgm and the daughter fifty five. In fact they were all heavier than he had estimated but the margin just meant that they would not enter the K-hole of total disassociation. They would be unable to help themselves in about ten minutes. Zinsli could leave the Wests tied up for a short time, and release them when he got back.
With everything in order and ready to roll, Zinsli took the ATV across the dam and up the road to his house. Zinsli was a good farmer who cared for his animals. He had to feed his dogs and have a quick look at his MeatMaster sheep. The pick-up truck belonging to Greg was still at the clearing near the cabbage trees, while his own truck was stuck on the road from Te Kouka. He still had the refrigerated truck, plus the ATV that belonged to Greg. The ATV. On the ATV it would take a few minutes only. He set off, crossed the dam and rode up to his own house.
In the pale light of dawn he could see the extensive damage to the building. It was insured but it would be a long time before the house could be lived in. Perhaps a new house could be built, or he could move into Greg's house a decent time after Greg's death?
Zinsli noticed gates had been left open, or had become detached in the earthquake. He let the dogs go and went to check whether his prize sheep were on the loose. They were in the paddock above where he had buried Georgina, grazing peacefully and not at all spooked by the occasional tremors that trembled the soil now and then. He wanted a close look at them, so he drove through the gate and up the hill to where his sheep were grazing.
Suddenly, what he saw made him skid to a halt. Where he had buried Georgina was a crack, a wide crack. Zinsli turned the ATV so its headlight shone on the bank where he had put her. His worst fears were realised.
Zinsli got off of the ATV and walked up the slope towards the spot where Georgina lay. As he got higher he could see that the crack in the earth had exposed her burial site. She lay in the crack with her hand raised as if in protest. The mutton cloth had become rags and her body a skeleton.
Then Zinsli saw footprints of a man and a woman; Size 11 or 10, so the man would be a little shorter than Zinsli's six two. About West's height. He judged the woman's shoes to be about a six or a seven in men's. The woman with West, his wife, Alex. Probably not the daughter, she was still growing. He still thought of Jo as twelve or thirteen even though she had a bust and hips.
Zinsli realised that he would have to bury Georgina properly. Greg had the short handled shovel strapped behind the seat of the ATV, the shovel Jo the young girl had used when she had got the ATV stuck in mud. Zinsli untied the shovel.
He did not try to cover Georgina's remains. Instead he dug underneath Georgina so that she slowly slipped downwards below the lip of the crack. The soil he dug fell into the crack, which widened as Zinsli dug away. Suddenly, Georgina fell into the pit, on top of Zinsli.
Zinsli struggled out of the sandy soil. Luck was on his side. Georgina was now six feet below the edges of the crack in the ground. If he could push more soil on top of Georgina, she would never be found. That did not take long. Satisfied, Zinsli put the shovel back in behind the seat and got back on to the ATV. He whistled the dogs to run after him as he drove to the top gate. It was secure. His precious MeatMasters were safe. Apart from the zigzag crack below the paddock, the gash where Georgina now lay buried, the land here was undamaged, with the sheep grazing contentedly and in no danger.
He whistled the dogs again and rode down to the house. He chained the dogs and fed them. They had plenty of water, unlike the dogs he had left beside his ute. They were going to be his alibi. He would say that he had walked from his ute to the broken bridge, slept rough for the night, and walked back to his ute and dogs. The ute was going nowhere so he had walked into Te Kouka to get help. It was a credible story. Everything was falling into place.
It was nearly six o'clock. Time to get things tidied up; two lots, one lot in the swamp and one lot in the house. He would set the coals on the floor so Greg and Ashley would burn, then take the three Wests in the refrigerated truck to the end of the pipe and leave them face down in the slurry. It would be all over Rover before seven. First, he had to recover Greg's utility. He could not take three bodies on the ATV and the refrigerated truck would sink in the swampy ground near the mouth of the pipe.
45.
The ten year old autistic boy had followed Tricksy along the road to his father's house. He found where the Wests had walked down from the ridge when they first came to Te Kouka Flats Farm. Instinct made him climb above the farmhouse so that he could look down to observe what was happening. Then, feeling tired at last, he had lain down and gone to sleep.
Lance was woken up by the noise of the ATV. The dawn light was pale grey. Tricksy was warm beside him. She opened an eye and flicked her ears in a way peculiar to German Shepherds.
"Sit, Mr Tricksy," said Lance. He was not hungry. He felt neither hot nor cold. He was not worried but he was concerned. Zinsli was trouble. Lance did not like Zinsli. He had taken his mother away and he had shot the dogs. Why had he spent the night in Greg's house?
"Come, Mr Tricksy," he said as he began to walk to the house. Tricksy accepted his command and walked behind him. For the moment their roles had reversed; Lance was in charge. They walked down the hillside across the long grass. Tricksy's ears pricked. She stopped and growled. She had heard Zinsli on the ATV, returning to the house where he had left Ashleigh and Greg in the kitchen while the Wests, still tied up, were in the lounge room. She could not smell what was happening, only that they were there.
Lance flattened into the long grass. The cattle should have been put in here before now. Lance thought he could handle that chore later, with Tricksy's help. Tricksy lay between him and any danger from Zinsli, flattened but with her ears up like a radar receiver.
Lance waited. He was good at that. He could be in his own world for hours.
46.
Zinsli had not been away for long despite having had to bury Georgina's remains. He was upset at the damage the earthquake had caused to this house. It could not be lived in. He needed to take over Greg's farm and Greg's house urgently. They would both be his very soon.
Zinsli now faced an unpleasant task, that of disposing of the Wests, who had blundered into something that was none of their business, and of getting rid of Greg and Ashleigh, and later Sally also. Then the whole of this end of the valley would be his, a farm big enough to be viable. He would turn the flats into dairy production on a large scale. 'Dairy; that's where the money is,' h
e thought. 'No more farm kill for me. Apart from one last job. Farm kill, that's what I do for a living. Getting rid of them is just farm kill, the same as the sheep and cattle. All in a day's work.'
He entered the house cautiously. The Wests were away with the fairies. Alex was crooning a baby to sleep. Jo was barely conscious. Zinsli did not want her to die of an overdose because that would arouse suspicion. Zinsli untied Jo, then Alex and finally Richard.
"Come on, young fellow," Zinsli said. "Come and sit here with the Queen.
In a slurred voice which Zinsli could hardly understand, Richard said to Alex, "Your Majesty, I am deeply honoured. Give me a cuddle?"
Ashleigh and Greg were on the floor. Greg was on his back, driving a racing car. Ashleigh was on her side, quietly singing to herself. Zinsli went over to the coal range. Opening the door of the firebox, he raked the coals so some fell on the floor. He left the firebox door open for the fire investigators to find. He put a syringe on the sink bench, then looked around imagining what the scene would look like after the fire. Satisfied with the scene he had created, Zinsli left the room, leaving the door to the dining room open so that the fire would get a good hold.
47.
At the Grantville Police Station over thirty five kilometres from the farm where Zinsli was preparing for the deaths of five people, Senior Sergeant Mayhew had a problem. He had to break some bad news to Inspector Frobisher.
Tom was in his early fifties but looked ten years older. The job had taken its toll and Mayhew was ready to draw his pension. The earthquake and its repercussions had exhausted him. His large frame was aching from tiredness. He had worked long hours and led his team by example but now he was ready to get some decent sleep. First, Frobisher. Mayhew went over what he might say. He did not like Frobisher, saw him as a glory-seeking opportunist, so Mayhew must take pains to hide his feelings. He gave a chuckle as he reviewed what he might say. Then he picked up the phone and made the call.
Farm Kill Page 21