by Juanita Kees
Louis Chalmers hadn’t reported his wife’s disappearance. He’d allowed the people of Wongan Creek to assume she’d left him and her daughter, walked away from the farm into the unknown at the edge of their outback town.
Pieces of the puzzle that was Mai’s disappearance dropped into place and he didn’t like the picture. Old man Chalmers’ rampage, cutting the Bakers’ supply to the dam. He was an arsehole, but would he really have murdered his wife and dumped her in the dam?
Leaping to conclusions again, Baker. With the house on Bakers Hill so close to the dam, surely they would have seen or heard something if he had? Harley cast his mind back to the night Mai Chalmers left. No, he’d seen nothing because he’d gone home to tell Mum and Dad, to talk through what happened before he’d slammed his bedroom door and punched his anger and frustration into his pillow at putting Tameka in the position he had. ‘Have you called the cops?’
Tameka nodded.
‘Good. Hang in there, baby. We’ll get answers soon.’ He hoped they were ones that wouldn’t cause anyone more pain, but the sinking feeling in his gut said they would.
What the hell was happening to this town? The bloody place was unravelling at the seams. It felt like one disaster rolled in on the heels of another.
The ominous click of a rifle echoed in his ears, chased by a low snarl from Loki as he leapt to his feet on full alert. But it was the almost inhuman growl Harley recognised as his heart clenched with dread.
‘Get your filthy fucking hands off my daughter.’
The underlying threat in Louis Chalmers’ voice sent shockwaves fizzing through Harley’s blood. Holy fuck. He straightened his spine against the cold fear that crawled up it. If Louis knew what had happened to his wife … if he’d thrown her in the dam … Jesus, he and Tameka could be in deep shit.
‘I’m letting go. You don’t need the gun.’ He moved slowly, releasing his hold on Tameka, debating over talking him into putting the gun down, but Louis Chalmers had gone beyond the edge of reason.
‘One move, Baker. One move and I’ll blow your fucking head off like I should have done years ago.’ His voice rose, ringing out across the water, making Loki snap and snarl. ‘Get the fuck up here, girl. You’re a no-good slut just like your mother was.’
Harley gripped Loki’s collar to stop the dog from leaping at Chalmers, and felt the wrench of muscles as the dog pulled against his hold. He didn’t want Chalmers shooting his dog … shooting anyone … but God help him, if her father insulted Tameka one more time, he’d face the consequences and ram his fist down Louis Chalmers’ throat.
‘Dad …’
Tameka scrambled off Harley’s lap onto her feet, her hands outstretched. Loki growled deep in his throat and went into stalk mode, hackles raised, teeth bared.
‘Call that fucking mongrel off and get up.’
‘Down, Loki. Down.’
Loki obeyed, but the dog’s sides quivered with the suppressed need to attack as Harley rose slowly to his feet. Any sudden movement could set Chalmers off and there’d been enough bloodshed on Golden Acres.
Harley moved Tameka behind him and got a good look at the older man. Louis Chalmers looked like he’d been dragged through the bush backwards. His face was grimy and unshaven, his clothes dirty, wrinkled and smelly. Wherever he’d been there weren’t any ablution facilities and it didn’t look like he’d taken a change of wardrobe.
But it was the sheer craziness in his bloodshot eyes that had Harley’s grip on Tameka tightening and his tongue clamping down on everything he’d like to say to the cold bastard. The tension mounted in his gut. Louis’ hands were shaking and the rifle was pointed right at Harley’s head.
‘I can explain.’
‘Think I’m interested in your excuses, Baker? You’re an interfering pain in the arse and you should be dead like your brother. That little shit got what he deserved intruding in my shed. And here you are, trespassing on my land, pawing at my daughter again like the filthy animal you are.’
The comment about Ryan had anger rising in Harley’s throat. And where had the old bastard been while his daughter lay injured in hospital, in excruciating pain, with burns to her back? When, even now, the worst of those burns still hurt. He had no bloody right to be so territorial about her or his land when he’d deserted both. Tameka shifted against Harley’s hold.
‘Don’t move, Tikki. For God’s sake, stay behind me.’
‘No, Harley, this has gone on long enough. I want answers. Dad, put the rifle down.’ Tameka’s voice was scratchy as she moved from behind Harley to stand at his side. ‘You need to know the police are coming. Please, we don’t need any more trouble. Don’t let them find you with a loaded rifle.’
Louis swayed on his feet and the whiff of stale whisky hit Harley in the nose as he bellowed, ‘What the bloody hell did you call the police for?’
‘I had to. I think I’ve found Mum. Look, Dad.’
Tameka pointed towards the dress where it fluttered in the water as if Mai Chalmers would rise at any moment. Harley shivered. Louis Chalmers stared at the tree, his bloodshot eyes wide, his skin so pale the broken purple veins on his cheeks, drawn by years of drinking, stood out against his cheeks. Loki barked as the white four-wheel drive police wagon rumbled down the service road, throwing up red dust in its wake.
Chapter 20
Harley kept an eye on the wavering rifle as Sergeant Riggs stepped out of the police wagon, his newly sworn-in police constable, Merryn Haines, not far behind him.
Harley shivered. Another body, another life gone. How many more secrets lay buried between the creek and the hills?
‘Put that bloody rifle down, Chalmers. Haines, take that thing off him. I’ve got a thumping headache and a bloody lynch mob looking for you to deal with yet. I don’t need a God damn shooting on my hands too. What’s this about bones?’
Constable Merryn Haines stepped up beside him, notebook in hand, her eyes on Louis’ rifle. ‘Please put the safety on that rifle, sir, and slowly place it on the ground.’
Outnumbered, Louis obeyed, his movements automatic albeit reluctant. He kept it in his hand ignoring the constable’s request to lay it down on the ground.
‘I’ve put the bloody safety on, that’s enough. I’m not about to shoot anyone, you stupid girl. Not with fucking cops as witnesses.’
‘That’s not what it looked like when we arrived and you had these two held at gunpoint. And now I’ll have to fill out a report for the misuse of a firearm. I’ve got enough bloody paperwork to do with you being reported missing and then showing up again alive and …’ Sergeant Riggs rubbed his forehead and sniffed. ‘Let’s just go with alive, hey. I don’t want to have to file a separate report because you’ve insulted an officer of the law.’
‘Not much of a bloody police force if you’re letting women in to do a man’s job.’ His eyes trailed to Tameka, hatred burning brightly in them as he sneered at his daughter, anger making his shoulders stiff and his hands clench around the butt of the rifle. ‘Burnt the fucking house down while I was away, I see. Useless, absolutely bloody useless. Just like her fucking mother.’
The rage Harley had seen in the man earlier had intensified the moment he’d spotted Mai’s dress. Had he been waiting all these years to find out what happened to his wife or did he already know?
And raising the issue of the fire now in the presence of police, was he trying to clear himself of any blame? Exactly the type of dick thing Louis Chalmers would do.
Tameka stiffened against him before she stepped out of Harley’s hold, squared her shoulders and slipped on her sunglasses. ‘The bones I found are over there under the willow tree. Lodged in the roots. The dress … it’s the one Mum was wearing the day she left.’
Sergeant Riggs frowned. ‘Right. I’ll go take a look at it then. Chalmers, hand over that rifle now or I’ll cuff you. Understood?’
‘Do I look like a fucking moron?’
Merryn stepped forward and took the gun out of Louis’ reluctan
t hands. ‘I’ll secure the weapon and get the tape from the car, Sarge. Cordon off the area.’
‘Yes, do that, Haines.’ He turned to Louis. ‘Maybe you should come with me to identify the dress.’
Louis shook his head, his eyes darting away from the willow tree. ‘I’ve got no interest in how that stupid bitch ended up in my dam. Serves her bloody right if she drowned. I wouldn’t even know what she was fucking wearing when she left.’
Harley kept his eye on Chalmers. Where the hell had he been when his wife walked out the door that day, leaving her daughter behind? There were so many questions in his head since the fire.
Unease twisted up his spine, cementing his suspicions that Louis was involved in Mai’s disappearance, a sixth sense dredging up a few of the unpleasant memories of their childhood as neighbours. Chalmers’ uncontrolled anger triggered by the slightest thing. Mai visiting his mum with her jacket zipped up to her throat even in the heat of summer.
Merryn retrieved the blue and white police tape while the sergeant studied the bones and discoloured dress. Riggs prodded at yet another yellow-brown stained object with a stick as it drifted towards the edge, drawing it up onto the muddy bank. His flushed features paled. ‘Haines!’
‘Sir?’
‘Contact Crime squad. We’ll need forensics and a dive team.’ Riggs stepped away from the bank. ‘Tape across the entrance to the farm. No-one in, no-one out. Chalmers, it will take a few hours for them to get here. I’ll need to ask you some questions in the meantime.’
‘You can ask as many questions as you damn well like, but I don’t have a clue as to how the bitch ended up in the water.’
Harley wanted to grab the man by the throat and shake him. As a kid he’d been terrified of Chalmers and his temper. No more. Because here stood a man who’d abandoned his daughter and had no respect for the living or the dead.
A real dad—a normal dad who loved his family—would have laid down his gun and come across to comfort his daughter. He’d seen the burnt-out homestead, yet he had no questions about it, only accusations.
Tameka’s reluctance to discuss the events leading up to the fire. Ryan dying in old man Chalmers’ shed. Her mum’s remains in the dam. Jesus, he hoped the picture his mind was putting together was wrong, but it explained why she’d kept her distance from him for so long, hadn’t let him see what was really happening on Golden Acres. God knew what she’d suffered at the hands of her father. It chilled him to the bone just thinking about it.
He reached for her hand, laced his fingers through her freezing cold, stiff ones. She turned into his side and Harley held her close while the sergeant questioned her father.
If the old man didn’t like him holding her, he could damn well stuff it where the sun didn’t shine. Because if he so much as looked at Tameka in the wrong way again, Harley would have no hesitation in taking Louis Chalmers down and teaching him a lesson. But violence didn’t work on cruel men like her father, so Harley prayed the law would do the job for him.
‘Chalmers.’ Sergeant Riggs pulled out his notebook. ‘Can you recall the events following your wife’s departure from your home?’
‘Why don’t you ask Mai’s offspring why her mother left? What she was doing that made her mother walk. Bringing shame on the family name by screwing around in the front seat of Harley Baker’s ute. A whore just like her mother.’
Sergeant Riggs adjusted the hat on his head and stabbed the notebook with the tip of his pencil. ‘Right now I’m more interested in your version of events.’
‘Typical bloody coppers. Always ready to lay the blame where it isn’t due.’
‘No-one’s blaming anyone, Chalmers. We’re fact-finding. It’s what we do. You can answer my questions now or you can wait for the detectives to arrive.’
‘How the bloody hell would I know? Maybe she jumped in, decided to finish off her own useless damn self.’ Chalmers spat on the ground.
Tameka stiffened against Harley and he rubbed her shoulder. He hated that she had to go through this.
Riggs squared his shoulders. ‘Did you argue with your wife the day she left?’
‘Well of course I argued with her. She had no control over her bloody daughter who should have been focusing on the job instead of spreading her legs.’
Anger surged through Harley. He released his hold on Tameka and stepped forward, hands raised to grab hold of Louis’ filthy collar and shake the man for his disrespect. Loki growled and snarled.
‘Stand down, Baker,’ Riggs warned. ‘And keep control of that dog.’
Tameka’s hand closed around his arm. ‘It’s okay, Harley.’
It was far from okay, but Harley stepped back and let Riggs do his job.
‘What happened after you argued with your wife?’
Chalmers glared at Tameka. ‘I taught both the bitches a lesson they’d never forget. Then I packed Mai’s suitcase and threw her out the door.’
Sickened by what he was hearing, Harley looked at Tameka. She didn’t meet his gaze. Instead, she stared at her boots and his heart ached with the same pain her father had put her through.
‘Did you take her anywhere? To the train station, a bus stop?’
‘No, but I followed the bitch down the road to make sure she didn’t come back.’
‘Did you go anywhere near the dam with her that day?’ Sergeant Riggs made a note in his book.
Louis looked at Tameka again, his face triumphant as if he’d won a prize. ‘Unless I’m under arrest, I refuse to answer any further questions until the detectives arrive and I have a lawyer present.’
Riggs snapped his notebook shut and pulled the cuffs from his equipment belt, his professional mask slipping just a little to reveal the irritation and disgust behind it. ‘Fine. Louis Chalmers, I am taking you into custody for questioning with regards to the unlawful use of a firearm endangering lives. Hands behind your back.’ He snapped on the cuffs and walked him towards the wagon. ‘I’ll take you into town with me so we can get you cleaned up. The station has perfectly good shower facilities you can use.’
‘Nothing but a trumped up bloody charge.’ Louis threw a mean look over at Tameka and Harley as the sergeant put a hand on his head to help him into the back seat of the wagon. ‘Wait. One last thing for you to think about, girl. You know why you’ll never inherit Golden Acres? Because you’re not my daughter. You’re the daughter of a whore. I wouldn’t have a fucking clue who your father is. Your mother was pregnant when I met her. I thought she was having a son.’
Tameka clamped a fist to her mouth and her shoulders shook, but her spine stayed straight and Harley wished she hadn’t had to face the truth. Not that Louis Grade-A-Arsehole Chalmers deserved a daughter like the one he had, step or otherwise.
Harley’s hands itched to reach for Louis’s throat and choke him until he never uttered a word again, but that wouldn’t help Tikki.
Riggs muttered something under his breath as he pushed Louis into the wagon a little more roughly than expected. Harley tightened his hold on Tameka and vowed to make sure Louis Chalmers never came within shooting distance of her again.
Chapter 21
The police dive team and forensics arrived at the same time the news of the discovery hit town and people began laying floral tributes at the gate. Sergeant Riggs made his statement to the press, a small matter of community interest added to the growing reports of damaged crops, farmers facing financial ruin and John Bannister’s land grab.
She’d spent most of the afternoon and evening of the previous day at Wongan Creek’s police station answering questions and lifting the lid on the Chalmers’ box of secrets while Harley and Loki had waited patiently to take her home.
Tameka’s back ached from the hard chairs and the burns still healing over, the happiness she’d found for such a short while scattered like her mother’s bones, and accusations and threats from the man she’d always thought was her father echoing in her head. She’d stayed all this time for nothing.
She and
Harley had hardly slept despite his weird concoction of hot chocolate and chamomile tea. They’d barely even spoken, neither sure of what to say, the whole crazy situation in limbo until the police recovered what answers they could from the dam.
Now, in the cold early morning, Harley’s arm came around her shoulders as she watched the sun rise over the dam and the dive team gather their equipment in preparation for the depths of the ice-cold water.
She shivered against him. Louis had spent the night at the station and she was glad about that. His threat rang in her ears, a promise that he wasn’t done with her yet.
Having to tell the police everything had left her full of regret, without room even for the humiliation of having allowed herself to be controlled by him the way she had been.
Merryn Haines had understood. The police dealt with victims of domestic violence every day. They accepted the psychological reasons wives and children couldn’t leave, couldn’t talk to anyone who wouldn’t understand unless they were victims themselves.
The police never asked that question a victim couldn’t explain—why didn’t you leave?—even when perhaps they didn’t quite understand it themselves.
She’d seen the candles, letters and flowers left at the gate to Golden Acres in memory of Mai as Harley had driven past it last night on the way to Bakers Hill from the police station.
Thankfully the crowd had been kept from the scene, detained outside the gates. She couldn’t handle the mix of gossip and sympathy, the speculation when truth and lies collided. There’d be enough of that to deal with later.
She accepted the thermal mug of tea Harley pushed into her gloved hand and sipped the hot, strong, sweet brew. Let him wrap his scarf around her neck and tug a beanie onto her head.
She’d come down before him, unable to settle, her mind churning on the possibilities of what had happened the night her father had followed her mother out the door. Before he’d returned to destroy almost everything in the house.
She didn’t want to believe he was capable of murder, but she’d seen the madness for herself. With Ryan. As he’d stepped over her in the burning kitchen and left her to the mercy of the flames.