The Summertime Dead

by Robert Engwerda

  ‘I didn’t say that.’

  ‘She gave us a very clear picture of what happened. She says you punched Conor Quade several times and wrestled him to the ground. Says she feared for what you were going to do to him had the cavalry not arrived.’

  ‘He picked on me.’

  ‘But you started it didn’t you?’

  ‘No, I didn’t. He did.’

  Fielder leant back in his chair.

  ‘See, Lee, this is where I think we’ve running into a problem. It seems to me that you’re an chronic liar and that we can’t believe a single dirty lie coming out of your mouth.’

  ‘You’re the mouth,’ the boy returned, triggering an explosion from Fielder who grabbed him across the table, struck him hard and sent him crashing to the floor.

  ‘Christ, you’ve killed him!’ Risdale started for a moment when Furnell didn’t move.

  ‘No I didn’t. Pick him up and put him back on the chair,’ Fielder ordered testily.

  His punch had caught Furnell on the side of the face and it was already puffing up as Quattrochi dragged him back into the chair with further slaps to the head. Tears welled in Furnell’s eyes.

  ‘You going to cry now, Lee? You going to bawl for mummy and daddy?’

  Furnell’s head was down, his sobbing barely contained.

  ‘Well, are you?’

  Furnell shook his head.

  ‘I trust you read the article in The Sun the other day?’

  He hesitated before answering, his voice cracking, ‘I saw it.’

  ‘But did you read it, Lee?’

  The boy just stared weakly back at him.

  ‘And what impression did it make on you?’

  ‘He said it was me, didn’t he?’

  ‘Not in so many words, but I’m sure most people would have taken it that it was you being referred to.’

  ‘My family knows I never done it.’

  Fielder laughed, ‘Then they’d be the only ones. But there’s something else I want you to think about. How many times are we going to have to bash you, Lee? After these boys have finished with you today, I mean?’

  Chapter 24

  The next morning Ray Furnell walked into the Mitchell police station bleary-eyed and dishevelled to stand before the constable on counter duty. Seeing Cole at his desk beyond the counter he called out to him, ‘I need to talk to you, Lloyd.’

  Cole rose and sent the constable away.

  ‘Not here,’ Furnell said. ‘In private.’

  The mechanic put Cole on edge; by his barely contained agitation and his shaking when Cole looked closer. He took care to let Furnell walk ahead so as to keep a cautious distance between them.

  ‘Up there. To your left, Ray,’ he told him.

  Furnell trudged ahead and into the interview room. Cole left the door open as he waved at the table and chairs.

  ‘Take a seat.’

  Without waiting to sit down, Furnell blurted, ‘I did it.’

  Cole again directed him to a chair.

  ‘You did what?’ he asked.

  ‘I did those murders.’

  ‘Murders?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Sit down, Ray.’ Cole slowly took a seat himself. ‘Tell me again.’

  ‘I … ‘I killed those two.’

  ‘Faraday and Quade?’

  ‘Them.’

  Cole thought, before saying, ‘And why did you do it, Ray?’

  ‘Why, I just found them out in Quade’s car there by the lake, and it got my blood all up on account of them sneaking around behind Lee’s back. Quade talked back to me and I couldn’t help it. I just killed them.’

  ‘And what then?’

  ‘I … dumped the bodies.’

  ‘Whose car did you take for that?’

  Furnell searched wildly about him.

  ‘My own,’ he said then. ‘I took my own car.’

  ‘And if we searched your car we’d find evidence of Max and Rosaleen in there?’

  ‘I gave it a good cleanout, didn’t I?’

  Cole’s stomach tightened at the sorry sight before him.

  ‘Tell me about Rosaleen Faraday, Ray. Tell me exactly how you killed her.’

  Furnell drew a breath. ‘Well, I shot her didn’t I? I shot her and then got her in my car, took her out to that place.’

  ‘How many times did you shoot her?’

  ‘It’s hard to remember. Two or three? It happened so quick.’

  ‘Why did you tie her up then with that thick white rope?’

  ‘She could’ve run.’

  ‘After you’d shot her?’

  ‘I got her tied up first, then there was a struggle and I had to do it, shoot her.’

  ‘Where’d you get that rope?’

  ‘It was just lyin’ around the garage.’

  ‘Alright then. What about the rifle? Where did that end up?’

  ‘The old Mossberg,’ Furnell said. ‘I guess I ditched it in the Goulburn River somewhere.’

  Cole regarded him patiently.

  ‘The Goulburn’s a fair way from where the bodies were found, Ray. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just drop it into an irrigation channel near the Basin somewhere? Why didn’t you do that?’

  ‘It would’ve turned up. They dry them out in winter.’

  ‘So do bits and pieces of the Goulburn from time to time. I suppose you can show us the spot where you dumped the rifle then?’

  ‘I don’t know. There were a lot of things going through my head that night. I got confused. I think maybe I wouldn’t be able to remember, Lloyd.’

  Cole sighed. ‘No, I guess you wouldn’t. What about Lee when all this was going on? Where was he?’

  ‘Lee? I suppose he was at home. Or at that dance.’

  ‘We know he wasn’t at the dance, Ray. He only turned up much later. A number of people have said he was working late at the garage with you. No one’s contradicted that.’

  ‘But they weren’t there, were they? I know where I was.’

  ‘Sure you do. What if I asked Lee where you were that night, what would he say?’

  ‘He’d back me up.’

  Cole stared at him, felt his anguish.

  ‘I’ll say this about your boy, Ray. I know he’s not a liar. He’ll tell the truth wherever it takes him. And I like that about him. But I don’t believe he had anything to do with Max and Rosaleen being killed. And nor did you.’

  ‘I did!’

  ‘Rubbish, Ray. I know what you’re doing, and it’s commendable in its own way, but it’s not going to help either you or Lee.’

  ‘But aren’t you going to …?’

  ‘What, Ray?’

  ‘I just said I done it. If I confess to murder you have to charge me, right?’

  Cole kept his eyes on him.

  ‘Ray, the only thing I could book you for now would be wasting my time. And I’m not going to do that. Or at least not yet. See you later,’ he said as he got to his feet.

  ‘But I told you!’ Furnell protested.

  ‘Ray, if you can find that gun you said you used, and bring it here and lay it on the front counter in front of me, then I’ll listen to you some more. But not until then.’

  Furnell rose in a huff and strode out, pushing past an officer before slamming the front door, shouting accusations and allegations all the way.

  ‘Did I just hear what I thought I did?’ Holloway asked when Cole resumed his seat at his desk.

  ‘What you heard was the sound of a father desperate to protect his son.’

  ‘You don’t think there might be something in it?’

  ‘Not a chance. I know Ray’s in a bad spot with Lee, but he can’t help him in that way.’

  ‘It’s hard to know how anyone can, isn’t it? Espec
ially with that other lot getting in the way.’

  And in saying that, Terry was more accurate than he knew, Cole thought. Fielder was like a car crash you could see coming, but do nothing to prevent.

  He said, ‘It’s going to be a cancer on this town, on the Quades, the Faradays and the Furnells if we don’t get this right. I don’t know whether whoever killed those kids is local or not, but they’ve brought something rotten beyond the murders to this town. People like Fielder, that’s the new Australia, and the old one is starting to sink all around us. I see it in my own kids when they come back here – the few times we can convince them to come home that is. It’s all changing and sure, some of it will be for the better, but there’s other things too, things you can’t quite put your finger on, attitudes, people just looking out for themselves. Maybe you can’t fight those things. Maybe it’s futile from the start, but if you don’t fight to keep what’s important to you, you won’t be left with anything.’

  ‘This town means nothing to Fielder. We don’t mean anything to him. Do you think he’ll charge Lee Furnell even if he doesn’t have a watertight case?’

  ‘I’m afraid that’s what he’ll do. He’s talked himself into it now and has been trumpeting it high and low. A man like that doesn’t want to be seen to be changing his mind, or backing down.’

  ‘I agree with you there. He’s painting himself, and everyone else, into a corner.’

  Cole saw the pained look in Holloway’s eye, something beyond Gene Fielder.

  ‘What’s the matter, Terry?’

  ‘I’ve been thinking,’ Holloway said, his mind elsewhere. ‘Maybe when this investigation is over and things quieten a little, I might take some leave.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Nothing really. I’m just feeling … I don’t know. Not right.’

  ‘Then sure. Why not take some leave? You’ve got plenty owing to you. Were you thinking of going some place special? Audrey would love a trip away, too, I’d bet.’

  ‘I don’t know where,’ Holloway said. ‘I’m not feeling that good.’

  Cole watched him with concern.

  ‘That’s not like you to say something like that, Terry. Tell me what it is.’

  ‘I don’t know. It’s just like maybe there’s something wrong. Maybe it’s the same feeling that you’ve got about here, but maybe it’s something else as well.’

  ‘Have you seen the doctor?’

  ‘No. No I don’t think it needs that,’ Holloway stiffened. ‘And I don’t like to bother people if there’s nothing.’

  ‘But if there’s something wrong you ought to get to the bottom of it.’

  Holloway was rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, studying his hands. He looked up.

  ‘Do you think I should?’

  ‘Of course you should.’

  Cole didn’t add, Or the same thing will happen as last time.

  Holloway stared away pensively.

  ‘Maybe I will then,’ he said. ‘I’ll see, but maybe I will.’

  They settled back to work, Cole mulling over what Holloway had said, and then wondering where he should direct his attentions next. He thought of what Trevor Boland had said to him about Max Quade’s white-anting of Lee Furnell, how Quade had a reputation for that kind of thing. Boland had been formally interviewed by the detectives now – he’d read the record of interview – but the line of questioning had run only toward his connection to Furnell, not to teasing out who else might have been a person of interest. Perhaps he’d talk to Boland again, probe a little deeper into who was at the dance.

  And there was Amy Bridges still gnawing away at him, too. He’d have to cast the net wider than he had.

  He got up and wandered over to Janice’s desk.

  ‘I need a couple of things,’ he said.

  ‘I’m waiting,’ she answered.

  ‘I want you to fish out Amy Bridges’ file for me, please. See what Melbourne have on her, too. And can you also get in touch with the French Island prison? Ask them when they’re expecting to release Ken Jarvis.’

  ‘Will do, chief.’

  Even though it was only morning the station was already hotting up again. The run of searing weather had even the old-timers scratching their heads.

  He would try to phone his kids on the weekend, as hard as it was catching them in the accommodation they lived in. Their phones were either always busy or his children always out. Better things to do than wait for their mum or dad to call them, he thought. Nance wrote letters because the telephone made her nervous. Vicky would write back, but Alan was atrocious. But his mother’s letters must have prompted something in him as every two months or so, and without warning, he would appear at the front door as though he’d just been up the street for a packet of smokes.

  Nancy was having a better week. But he’d also seen the battle it was for her, the way she screwed up her hands, the way she couldn’t stand still, ants in her pants, always fidgeting about looking for something to do. He thought that perhaps he was being harsh on her when there was so little else he could even dream of criticising her for. And he knew how much she wanted to please him, how much she loved him.

  Her love and company was something he’d never taken lightly. He’d have to take her out for a drive somewhere on the weekend; bring a picnic out with them, try to give something back to her.

  Chapter 25

  Gene Fielder and Audrey Holloway lay naked on a picnic blanket in the grassy hollow, gazing up at sunlight filtered through thin eucalyptus leaves, their bodies dappled with light.

  ‘This in the third day in a row we’ve been together now,’ she said languorously, nestled into the crook of his arm. ‘Once more at the motel and then twice again here.’

  She looked at him expectantly, willing him to say something affirming. Instead he stared at the end of his lit cigarette.

  ‘Is that so?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Three days.’

  ‘You know what they say then,’ he said, drawing himself up with an effort. ‘Three strikes and you’re out.’

  He stubbed his cigarette into the ground.

  ‘Is that a joke?’

  ‘Audrey,’ he said, looking at her. ‘Don’t take yourself so seriously.’

  ‘I’m not. We’re not going just yet are we?’

  ‘Don’t you want to get back before your old man gets home?’

  ‘It’s still early. You know Terry never leaves the station before five.’

  ‘A pillar of society is Sergeant Holloway. I’ll say this for him, the man’s a creature of habit.’

  ‘Let’s stay a while, Gene. It’s so peaceful here.’

  But Fielder was preoccupied by something else.

  ‘What is it about that town, Audrey?’ he asked. ‘Is there something going on that no one’s telling me about?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Fielder tapped another cigarette from his packet, lit it.

  ‘Mitchell. Do you think there’s some protection racket of Furnell going on? Otherwise why hasn’t someone given him up by now? His parents must know something, though you’d expect them to shut up shop. But someone must have seen his car the night those two were murdered. In this place kids all hang out together, too. Virtually every one of them must have been at that dance. And kids talk. They can’t help themselves. So why is it no one’s come forward to put up their hand?’

  ‘Maybe it wasn’t Lee Furnell.’

  ‘And maybe the sun doesn’t rise in the east. Of course it was him. Who else could it be? Furnell’s as guilty as sin, it’s written all over him.’ He inhaled from his cigarette, exhaling through his nose. ‘And Cole’s no help. I’ve got a feeling he knows more than he’s letting on. He probably wants to take all the glory for himself and can’t stand seeing me in the driver’s seat. I’m the guy that’s taken over his cru
mmy little town and he doesn’t like it.’

  ‘Lloyd Cole isn’t like that. All he wants is what’s best for our town.’

  ‘But when it comes to personal glory everything else goes out the window, honey. Trust me, everyone wants their moment in the sun. Everyone. He’s had a taste of being in the Melbourne papers and now he wants more.’

  ‘It’s not a competition is it? Between you and him?’

  ‘It’s something, I’ll tell you that,’ he said, his eyes squinting at the river. ‘No man worth his salt wants to run second to another. Ever. Not even Cole. Or maybe especially Cole. I’ve got the feeling he’s getting a kick out of seeing the case turn into quicksand. That he’d like to see me disappear into it like a drowning cat.’

  ‘I think you’re reading something into it that isn’t there. And do we need to talk about it right this minute, anyway? Didn’t we come here so we could be alone together, and not have police business spoil it?’

  ‘You might be right,’ he said, cigarette in the hand he propped himself on as he began caressing her with the other, tracing a line over her body with a fingertip. ‘I swear you’ve made this trip worthwhile though, Audrey. Imagine what it would’ve been like staying cooped up in that damned motel the whole time.’

  ‘I hope I’m more to you than just a diversion from the motel.’

  ‘Oh, you are. You are,’ he laughed.

  She didn’t care where he looked, where his gaze lingered. She lay still, enjoying the touch of his hand, his exploration of her that she was just getting used to. She was ready to give herself over again, to want him. But a stray thought tinkled too.

  She felt her teeth working against her inside lip, before she said, ‘Do you think we might go somewhere, to … I don’t know …’

  ‘Go somewhere?’

  ‘You and I. After you’ve finished your business here I mean. When the case is over.’

  He drew his hand away and sat with both knees tucked up.

  ‘There’s a case to solve you know,’ he said. ‘What happens after, who knows?’

  She’d been dreading asking the question, and knew why.

  ‘Don’t you want to be with me, Gene? I mean, this shouldn’t just be a passing thing, should it?’

  He puffed on his cigarette. ‘I’m here with you now, aren’t I?’