The Unbroken Line

by Alex Hammond

  More like a girl. Teenagers – caught between one world and the next.

  His mood was dark enough already. It didn’t need his ruminations on the challenges of adolescence.

  ‘Your parents explained why I’m visiting?’

  ‘Connor’s suicide.’

  ‘That’s right. I’m representing Saxon. Connor’s mother is saying some things and Saxon’s family need a lawyer to advise them.’

  ‘What things is she saying?’ Dianna said, watching as the small dog started to tug at the cardboard sword in her sister’s hands.

  ‘That Connor was bullied by Saxon. And that’s why he killed himself.’

  Dianna looked at Will. She still had sleep in her eyes, but her face was far from groggy. ‘What does Saxon say?’

  ‘Why don’t you tell me what you think?’

  ‘He might have,’ she said, looking back to the dog. ‘I don’t know. They were friends. But something happened a few weeks before he died. I didn’t see Connor around so much after that. He stopped texting me.’

  ‘Were you and he . . . dating?’

  ‘Dating? No. He was Saxon’s friend, that’s all.’

  ‘I only ask because Saxon showed me a video. From after your school formal.’

  ‘I’ve seen it.’

  ‘You seemed quite close to Connor then.’

  ‘I was high and Saxon thought it would be a good idea. Nice for Connor.’

  ‘Saxon encouraged you to hang out with Connor?’

  ‘He said Connor was depressed and that he liked me. I don’t know. Saxon has a way of convincing you of things.’

  ‘Things you don’t want to do?’

  ‘All sorts of stuff. He helped me get my head straight before the mid-year essays. He’s been helping me study for my exams.’

  ‘So mostly helpful stuff?’

  Of course he knew he was looking under rocks by being here. There was no way this conversation could go anywhere but downhill. Was it his own ego that had brought him here? To prove that his instincts were right? That Saxon was trying to control Will’s understanding of the full story?

  Dianna looked at her Ugg boots and started to poke her finger through a hole in the sheepskin. ‘Are you going to tell anyone about any of this?’

  ‘No. Saxon’s family don’t know I’m here. They asked me not to speak to any of his friends.’

  ‘So why are you?’

  ‘Because they asked me not to speak to any of his friends. I don’t trust where that’s coming from. If you know something, something that might make a difference, you should tell me.’

  ‘I don’t know if it’s good for Saxon . . .’

  He tried another tack. ‘What about Connor?

  ‘Connor was always a bit fucked up. It’s awful that he killed himself, but it’s not a surprise. I don’t know why Saxon was his friend. He wasn’t really like the rest of us.’

  ‘What, popular?’

  Dianna snorted. ‘No. Just . . . he was just different.’

  ‘I’m defending Saxon. Trying to keep him out of trouble. But you might know of something that’s relevant, any time he might have pushed or tested you or your friends?’

  Dianna turned to look at Will. Her face was stiffening, her eyes scanning his.

  His instincts had been right. There was something there.

  ‘It’s all right. You can tell me.’

  Dianna pulled her feet onto the bench and hugged her knees. She tugged at the hole in the ugg boot, plucking out a tuft of wool.

  ‘There was the waterboarding.’

  Will felt his chest tighten. He nodded at Dianna. ‘It’s okay.’

  ‘We were in the boathouse. Just Saxon, Yasmine and me. We were a bit drunk. Saxon was talking about privilege again. Saying that we don’t know much because, where we live in the world, we don’t really know what it is to struggle. And that this stunts us, as people, because it means we don’t know our limits, we don’t truly know pain, suffering, fear. That if we never have to overcome anything, then we’re no better than dogs.’

  ‘Dogs?’

  ‘He says that a lot. He says that’s what most people are: desperate for approval, performing tricks. Kick them and they come back for more. Like dogs.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘For some reason it made a lot of sense at the time. Saxon showed us a video. He said we could test ourselves without getting hurt.’

  ‘Did you do it?’

  ‘Yasmine and me. Yeah.’

  ‘But not Saxon?’

  ‘No. The video he showed us. It was of him and Connor. They’d done it already. He said he’d make sure no one got hurt.’

  ‘Why did you say yes?’

  ‘I don’t know. It’s hard to say no to Saxon. He thinks really deeply about stuff. He seems to have his mind made up about things. He’s certain of everything and you feel you should agree with him even when you don’t want to.’

  ‘So why waterboarding?’

  ‘Saxon has read a lot about Afghanistan, about Iraq, the war on terror. His dad woke him up when he was small to show him the Twin Towers coming down. It stayed with him. He buys stuff online, bits and pieces that American soldiers sell when they get home. He’s the only person I know who’s actually read the Koran. Not even Yasmine has done that and her family is Muslim.’

  The small dog now had the sword in its mouth and was running away from Dianna’s sister. Each time she moved to snatch it back from the dog, it tottered around her, out of her arm’s reach.

  ‘The thing is, it all seemed spontaneous. Like it had only just occurred to him. We used a paddleboard that was on the wall in the boathouse and leant it up against the back of the couch. Yasmine went first and we tied a rope around her. Saxon had two black towels that he wrapped around her head. He put a tennis ball in her hand for her to drop when she wanted us to stop.’

  ‘And Saxon poured the water?’

  ‘No. I did.’ Dianna raised her head and looked up into the sky. A single tear ran down her left cheek. ‘Twelve seconds. That was all it took.’

  She wiped her hand across her face. ‘Then it was my turn. Yasmine poured for me. It wasn’t too bad at the start, just like you had a damp towel on your face. But as it got wetter, it became harder to breathe. The water went up my nose, down my mouth. The towel stuck to me like it was trying to force its way down my throat. I felt like I was drowning.

  ‘I only made it to ten seconds. Saxon still brings it up sometimes. He calls me ten. But he says it like he’s ranking us, like I’m a ten. Yasmine’s a twelve.’

  ‘Was this before or after the party?’

  ‘Oh, before that. It was months ago.’

  ‘And you’re still friends with him?’

  ‘Sure . . .’ She sniffed and wiped her hand down her cheek again. ‘He was right, though. After that day, I was more focused on a lot of stuff. It really helped me keep my shit together this year.’

  ‘Even though he taunts you about it?’

  ‘That’s not how it feels. It feels as though he’s proud of me. For making it to ten seconds.’

  Dianna’s mother appeared in the kitchen window at the back of the house. She looked down over the garden, watching them with a frown as she dried some dishes.

  ‘Did you tell anyone else about this?’

  Dianna shook her head.

  ‘Did Connor ever show you any of the photos Saxon sent him?’

  ‘Just once. It was a dead woman with her breast cut off. I told Connor not to fucking show me anything like that again.’

  ‘Did Connor seem upset about the photo?’

  ‘No. He didn’t seem . . . anything.’

  The dog had given up on the game and dropped the sword. It was kicking up damp clods in the sandpit. Dianna’s sister started to wander over towards them.

  ‘Have the police been to interview you?’

  ‘Police? No. Why would they?’

  Interesting.

  Either they hadn’t made the connection or they didn’t
think it was worth following up.

  ‘They might come by. They might not. Connor’s . . .’ The little girl got up on the bench between them and started to rock her legs. Dianna combed her hair with her hand. The girl began to hum.

  ‘. . . because of what happened to Connor. The police have to investigate. They might want to interview you.’

  ‘His mother isn’t letting any of us come to the funeral. She told the school it was going to be family only.’

  ‘She’s probably in shock. Angry. Try not to take it personally. Whatever you’re feeling, it will be worse for her. She’s lost a son.’ Will offered Dianna his card. ‘If anything else occurs to you.’

  Dianna nodded and sniffed again.

  Will got up from the bench and walked towards the house.

  ‘Goodbye,’ said the little girl.

  THIRTY

  Miller leant against the bookshelves opposite Will’s desk. Surrounded by a field of open law books, he stared at the windows that he’d covered with large sheets of butcher’s paper. On these he’d written their notes. The morning light glowed behind the paper, seeming to give the words an arcane significance. It was eleven a.m. They had been here for two hours already.

  Will didn’t look at the notes. He watched Miller as though, if he looked long enough, he could see through to the heart of the man.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me that you knew who’d attacked us? As soon as you’d realised?’

  Miller kept his eyes on the notes, his arms crossed, a finger to his chin.

  ‘I didn’t realise at first. I was afraid it had been the Ivanics.’

  ‘But when we met in Roberta’s club. You knew then.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I’ll apologise every time you bring it up, okay? ButI can’t change what happened. Have you told Eva?’

  ‘No.’

  Miller looked at him. ‘So you understand why I didn’t say anything. It’s a hard thing to tell someone.’

  ‘This is different.’

  ‘Not so different.’

  ‘She’s going to be scarred for life.’

  Miller frowned and shook his head. ‘It makes me sick just thinking about it.’

  They stared at one another in silence – Miller committing to his relaxed pose, Will sitting at the desk. Miller relented and turned back to the windows. Will also scanned over the morning’s work. The first sheet had the police timeline of Miller’s and Mark Eldon’s activities:

  Tuesday:

  Night – Witness sees CM and ME using cocaine

  Friday:

  b/w 16.00–16.40 – ME overdoses

  Hyperthermia followed by renal failure

  17.00 – CM arrives at ME apartment

  Approx. 17.00 – Pathologist’s report: ME dies

  17.14 – CM leaves apartment for airport

  Sunday:

  15.35 – CM arrested

  The middle sheet had the heading Drugs, with the key points marked out. Tao, the witness who connected Miller to Eldon’s cocaine use, was not present at the club on Tuesday night. Therefore, even if the drugs in Miller’s apartment were his own and were the same as those that caused Eldon’s overdose, the chain of evidence was broken. The false statement of Tao was inadmissible, making all that followed forfeit. This had made Miller happy as he wrote it down.

  But this had only lasted until they plotted the final sheet for Eldon.

  Miller had scrawled Negligent Manslaughter in red and underlined it. Will had read him the notes he’d taken on his tablet, which Miller then transcribed:

  Nydam v R. (VIC) 1977 – negligence = breach of duty of care = ‘great falling short’ of standard of care of a reasonable person + ‘high risk of death’.

  R. v Stott & Van Embden (QLD) 2001 – defendant injected victim.

  R. v Natalia Burns (NSW) 2009 – administered methadone to victim.

  ***Appeal dismissed but found supplying drugs creates danger. Duty to remove danger.

  Justins v R. (NSW) 2010 – supplied prescription drugs, deceased had Alzheimer’s therefore incapable of informed consent.

  ‘The third one, Burns, is your problem,’ Will said.

  ‘Because of the appeal.’

  ‘It’s the basis for negligent manslaughter in Australia.’ Will picked up the tablet and scanned for a reference. ‘It’s backed up by Evans, an English case. The question is: did you assume care over a man who’d overdosed?’

  ‘Well, if we can find Eloise, we can put forward a witness who will dispute that claim and challenge this whole timeline. They must have fudged the time of death.’

  ‘But we have no idea where she is. We shouldn’t rely on it as part of our submission.’

  ‘There’s still time.’

  ‘There isn’t. We have just over a week. I’m not saying we won’t find her in time for the trial, that’s at least a month away, but —’

  ‘We’re not going to let this get to trial, Will.’

  Miller clenched his hands into fists and shoved them into his pockets. Will looked up at him from the desk.

  ‘You want to get it thrown out before the committal hearing?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, standing up from the wall and stepping overthe books on the floor. He took his hands out of his pockets and placed them on the table. ‘I want to shut this down and hard, before the ball gets rolling. While the police can still drop it due to insufficient evidence. The Covenant don’t get to fuck with me. They don’t get to ruin my father’s life. Not without paying for it.’

  ‘That’s a big ask.’ Will lay the tablet back onto the desk. ‘It’s not unheard of. But you’ve got a lot of heat from the media. The OPP won’t be too keen to drop it. They’ll lose face.’

  Miller glowered. ‘That’s why we need Eloise.’

  Will pushed his chair back, putting some distance between them. He popped a tramadol and swallowed it with a sip of the cold tea resting on his desk.

  ‘How many of those are you taking?’

  ‘The normal amount.’

  ‘You’re not developing a . . . thing?’

  ‘What, a habit?’

  Miller nodded.

  ‘No, Chris. It takes a lot more than two months of pain medication to develop a habit.’

  Miller shoved his hands back into his pockets and turned to face the paper-covered windows.

  ‘Maybe we don’t need Eloise,’ Will said.

  Miller cocked an eyebrow.

  ‘We’re already working on tossing out the false witness statement. If we do that, they can’t show that you supplied the drugs to Eldon. From there the whole negligent manslaughter case falls.’

  ‘That’s fine and well for a manslaughter charge. But, as I’m sure you can appreciate, I don’t want to set up Mark’s family to sue me. They’ll try it if we give them any reason to believe that I was present and did nothing to help their dying son.’

  ‘It’s something, at least. It’s you out of a jail cell, for starters.’

  Miller hunched down and picked up an open copy of the Crimes Act. ‘I dropped by Roberta’s club last night. They’ve put extra security on the door. She’s bunkering down.’

  Now it was Will who was scowling.

  Miller smirked. ‘I guess this means you’re getting better, getting back to your old fist-of-justice ways.’

  ‘I don’t see what’s so amusing. The last two fights I had were thanks to you. Eva was cut up because of you.’

  ‘She was cut because some corrupt arseholes hired some other arseholes to try to intimidate me.’

  Fucking Miller.

  ‘You really do have a way of putting yourself at the centre of everything while assuming no responsibility.’

  ‘You need to tell her what really happened.’

  ‘Deflection.’

  ‘She deserves to know.’

  ‘Another deflection.’

  ‘Will, we need to find a way to move forwards here. We can’t keep rehashing the same recriminations.’

  ‘Oh, we can definitely hash
a while longer.’

  Miller snapped the book shut. ‘I think you put fear in Roberta. That well is now dry.’

  Toby emerged from under the desk and started to butt his head against Will’s leg. Will exhaled and reached down to the cat. ‘There’s definitely something going on,’ he said. ‘She escalated while we were speaking to her. She was being defensive. It could just be that she doesn’t want any press or police attention.’

  ‘What happened when you spoke to her?’

  ‘She became very agitated when we asked after Eloise, if she’d been in to collect her pay. She threw a teapot. Her bouncer tried to remove us by force.’

  ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been in a fight in my entire life. It’s as though you draw them to you.’

  ‘Maybe. But not this time. This bouncer, the false witness, he also escalated rapidly.’

  Miller raised an eyebrow at Will.

  ‘Chris, I was very calm about everything.’

  ‘So what are you thinking then?’

  ‘I think someone else has been in there looking for Eloise. I think they intimidated Roberta Grange and may have bribed the bouncer to falsify a statement.’

  ‘Hang on, “we”? Who was with you?’

  ‘Teresa Brennan.’

  ‘The senior counsel? From the OPP?’

  ‘Yes. She’s been looking into why the police have all but dropped their investigation into the tunnel attack. She’s good people, Chris. She wants to help.’

  ‘I thought she didn’t like us.’

  ‘No. Just you.’

  Miller smiled and waved him off. ‘Oh, that’s just for show.’

  Toby moved out of Will’s reach and stalked over the law books. Miller reached down and scratched him under his balding chin. ‘How are your other cases going?’

  ‘Compared to yours, they seem like a cakewalk. Aaron was talking to the police without me, almost cut a deal.’

  Toby allowed himself to be lifted into Miller’s arms. ‘Stupid. He would get a better one with you there.’

  ‘As it turns out, he didn’t have anything they could really use.’ He was surprised at how easily that deception had come. Miller was preoccupied with working his charms on the cat. The lie simply fell into place.