by Amos, Gina
‘But why did Isabelle go to all the trouble of taking Rose with her. Why not simply adopt me out and then return home?’ William asked.
‘Isabelle realised that she couldn’t go through the whole business on her own. She needed Rose for support and companionship. She knew Rose would look after her. After all, you have to remember Rose was a stakeholder in all of this. And as far as adoption, I can only assume that she didn’t want her name to be associated with any official record of your birth. Isabelle and Rose had a pact based on guilt and loss, but in the end they both won out. Isabelle's respectability remained intact and Rose had the baby she thought she had lost forever. Rose sent photos of you, but I don’t think Isabelle was that interested or maybe she just wanted to forget the whole thing. As far as she was concerned, she had only one son and that son was me, the one and only, Tommy Seymour Dwyer.’
They sat in silence.
William didn't know what to say. Words failed him as he stormed out of the apartment and left Suellyn and Tommy sitting together in the lounge-room. Neither of them knew where to look or what to do.
‘You should have told me Tommy, you should have told me from the beginning that William was your brother. I would never have got involved with you if I’d known. What am I supposed to do now?’
‘You’ll have to work it out for yourself Suellyn. I’m fed up with all this drama. At least the truth’s out now.’ Tommy pulled himself up from the lounge and walked towards the door. He was a little unsteady on his feet, he didn’t know whether it was from the alcohol or from all the emotion that had been floating around the apartment. He turned and looked at Suellyn sitting on the ottoman clutching the glass of whisky in her hand, her hair was loose. ‘Don’t worry Suellyn, don’t get up on my account, I’ll see myself out. I’m staying at The Barclay Hotel in town if you want to talk.’
Suellyn stared after him as the door closed behind him.
Chapter Seventeen
Suellyn parked her Porsche outside the house in Eden Street, and walked up the steps, across the verandah to the front door and fumbled with her keys before scraping them against the lock. The house had been shut up since the day Rose died and the air smelt like rotting stone fruit and sweaty socks. Suellyn stood still and listened. The house was drowning in silence, all was quiet apart from the slow ticking of the kitchen clock.
She put her handbag down on the lounge and prowled around the house, visiting each room wondering where an old woman would hide something she considered important. She walked into the kitchen and rummaged through the dresser drawers and the cupboards where Rose had kept her pots and pans. She picked up the tea caddy, unscrewed the lid and looked inside. ‘It’s got to be here somewhere,’ she said as she made her way into Rose’s bedroom. She’d looked in the bedroom before, when Rose had been preoccupied with her tea making, but this time she looked with different eyes. She tried to think where Rose would have hidden Isabelle’s letter.
The room was just as her mother-in-law had left it. Her lace-up shoes and slippers sat side-by-side on the floor next to her bed. As she sat down on the saggy mattress, Suellyn looked at the framed photo on the bedside table. She fingered it gently before picking it up. William had been such a handsome baby. She studied the black and white photo carefully before she pulled back the metal spikes that held the glass and the photo in the frame, and prodded her fingernail in between the cardboard and the photo. A sheet of writing paper fell from the frame into her lap. She smiled and her shoulders suddenly straightened, her eyes were wide like saucers. She unfolded the sheet of paper. This was what she had been looking for. It was here all the time. The dust from the faded pink chenille bedspread made her sneeze and she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. The letter was dated three weeks before Isabelle Dwyer had committed suicide. It was apparent from the letter, that Tommy’s mother and Rose had a friendship spanning decades which had been clouded in secrecy, deceit and lies.
‘What have you found Suellyn?’ William stood in the doorway of Rose’s bedroom. His voice was accusing.
‘Nothing. Just a baby photo of you.’ Suellyn slipped the crumpled letter into the pocket of her coat.
William walked towards the bed and looked at the photo and the frame lying next to Suellyn. She stood up from the bed.
Suellyn, what’s going on?’ he said in a raised voice. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Nothing,’ she replied.
‘Don’t lie to me.’ He slapped her across the face with his open hand and Suellyn dropped to the floor. William slumped down beside her. Their backs dug into the steel bed frame and Suellyn’s cheek was smarting. Shocked, she held her hand against her face, tears welling in her eyes.
William looked at his wife through rolling tears. ‘Suellyn, I’m sorry, forgive me. I didn’t mean to...’ his voice quivered. ‘I just don’t know what’s going on anymore. The woman who I thought was my mother is dead, my birth mother died without me even knowing her, you want a divorce, real estate agents are hanging around like vultures and this guy Dwyer appears from out of the blue claiming to be my brother, it’s just all too much. It’s all so unreal, it’s like I’m playing out some character in a cheap thriller. I know I should’ve forgiven my mother, I’m sorry for that now.’ William shook his head and looked down at his legs splayed out in front of him. ‘If I’d only listened to her when she tried to tell me about the business with my father all those years ago. I just got up and walked out of the café. I should have let her explain. She wanted to tell me, but like a fool, I wouldn’t listen.’
Suellyn looked at William. She didn’t know what to think or to say. She’d never seen him cry before.
‘You know I never cheated on you Suellyn, honestly, despite what you think. All the times I said I was working, I really was. How do you think I got to be a where I am at Stockland Lewis, it wasn’t by playing around that’s for sure.’
William pulled out a handkerchief from his trouser pocket and blew his nose. Suellyn looked at William and realised they had both made a lot of mistakes.
Chapter Eighteen
Kevin placed his paintbrush behind his ear and pulled out the phone from the sagging pocket of his tracksuit pants. When he answered, he tried to disguise his annoyance at being rung so late at night.
‘Hello Kevin, I’m sorry to disturb you at this late hour, but I didn’t know who else to call,’ Rhoda Blake apologised to him in a frail, frightened voice.
‘What’s the matter Miss Blake, has something happened to Edi?’ Kevin was genuinely concerned; he could tell from the tone in Rhoda’s voice that she was upset.
‘No. It’s not Edi, she’s fine. But I think there’s someone outside the house. Edi said she heard a noise and thought she saw a prowler outside her bedroom window. We’re both a bit nervous, especially after what happened to poor Rose. Some of the neighbours have been saying that she was murdered.’
‘That’s rubbish and you know it. I’ll be right over to sort things out. Now don’t you go worrying yourself about anything.’ Kevin put his paintbrush in a jar of water and stared at the canvas in front of him. ‘It’s probably just a possum or a tomcat prowling around,’ Kevin reassured her.
‘You’re probably right, but please can you hurry, Kevin? Edi is so upset. I haven’t seen her this upset since Rose’s funeral.’
Kevin hung up the phone and wrapped his dressing gown tightly around his bulging waistline and knotted the cord. He wondered if he should change into something more suitable but Rhoda had sounded distraught and was insistent that he come immediately.
It was ten-fifteen and the night air was chilly. The automatic sensor light lit up as Kevin sat down on the back steps and pulled on his muddy, knee-high black rubber boots and a pair of woollen gloves. He grabbed a yellow Dolphin torch from his tool box, turned it on and hurried across the street. Eden Street was deathly quiet but it wasn’t unusual for it to be so quiet at this time of night. The street was filled with elderly residents and the only disturbance was
the occasional screech from fruit bats as they flew overhead on their way to the clump of fig trees in the park across the river.
Kevin put on a concerned neighbour face and knocked at the front door. The outside coach light lit up almost immediately. The door opened and Kevin realised that Edi and Rhoda had been waiting for him behind the door, both anxious and afraid.
‘Kevin, it’s you. Thank goodness you’re here. We’ve been so worried.’
‘No need to worry, I’m sure it’s nothing, probably just a couple of ring-tail possums. I’ve brought a torch with me. I’ll go and have a good look around the backyard.’
Rhoda was glad that she had such a dependable neighbour in Kevin Taggart. Someone she could trust and rely on. Rhoda locked the door as Kevin walked down the front steps. He made his way around to the side of the house and as he skirted the perimeter of the property he shone his torch up and down the walls of the house and checked the boughs of the gum trees next to the neighbours’ fences. After spending almost five minutes walking around the backyard, Kevin was convinced that everything was in order. As he switched off the torch and walked around to the front of the house he brushed against a spider’s web draped between two bushes. He ran his fingers over his face and through his hair, frantically trying to remove the fine, sticky web. Taking two steps at a time, he sprinted up the front steps and knocked twice on the door which was the prearranged signal.
Rhoda opened the door.
‘Nothing to worry about, everything appears to be in order.’
‘I’m so grateful, Kevin. It’s such a comfort knowing that you’re just across the street at times like this.’ Rhoda had regained her composure, the fear she had displayed earlier had disappeared completely. She asked Kevin to join her and Edi in a nightcap – to settle everyone’s nerves. Kevin removed his rubber boots and left them on the verandah by the front door. He padded behind Rhoda in his bare feet across the timber floorboards down the hallway and into the lounge-room.
The television was blaring.
‘Turn the television down Edi, we have a visitor.’
Kevin sat down on one of the chairs next to the lounge, stretched out his legs and wriggled his toes in front of the gas heater. It was on high and the room was hot and stuffy. ‘I reckon it was probably just a possum. You know what the cheeky devils are like,’ Kevin said, as Rhoda poured him a sherry. Edi looked baffled. She wondered what the barefooted man dressed in his dressing gown was doing at this time of night sitting in their lounge-room, sipping their sherry.
The two sisters sat side by side on the lounge. Both were in their sleepwear and Kevin averted his eyes when he noticed Edi’s embarrassment. He pulled the gold dressing gown cord tighter around his waist. The dressing gown was at least fifteen years old and was fashioned from a coarse, saddle brown material. It smelt of mothballs and a fine mustard coloured check ran through the pattern. A strand of oily hair fell into his eyes. He ran his fingers over his skull and dragged the stray hair back to where it belonged with one hand and drained the contents of a delicate crystal sherry glass with the other. After ten minutes of idle chat and two more glasses of sherry, Kevin knew it was time he left. He walked over to the gas heater.
‘They don’t make gas heaters like this anymore,’ he said to Rhoda. Kevin adjusted the control on the top of the heater and placed his woollen gloved hands into the pockets of his dressing gown. ‘Well, goodnight ladies. Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite. You don’t need to worry about anything.’
Rhoda stood up, took another mouthful of sherry. She was unsteady on her feet and swayed in a zig zag fashion up the hall to the front door. She placed a trembling hand on Kevin’s arm.
‘Thank you so much Kevin,’ Rhoda slurred. ‘You are such a fine gentleman and you are very, very kind. It’s a comfort to know that we have such a wonderful, caring neighbour. We don’t have anyone else we can call on you know, you’re our knight in shining armour.’
Kevin wondered if she was serious. ‘Knight in shining armour?’ he laughed, gave a quick backwards wave over his shoulder, walked down the front steps and out through the front gate.
‘Rhoda Blake, I hope you and Edi have changed your wills like you said you would, you know I’m counting on you,’ he spoke to himself in a hushed tone as he crossed the street but Rhoda had already closed the front door. She walked back into the lounge-room and joined Edi on the lounge and poured each of them another large sherry. She took a sip from the crystal glass and took her sister’s hand in hers. Edi had the remote control in her other hand and turned up the volume. The late movie had just begun.
*****
The first things Ashleigh noticed as she turned into Eden Street, were the red and blue lights flashing outside the Blake house which was cordoned off with fluttering police tape. Three ambulances and two police trucks were parked outside. It was always a bad omen when more than one ambulance was called to a scene Ashleigh thought as she parked the Landcruiser at the top of her driveway. She dragged the handbrake on and grabbed her handbag from the floor in front of the passenger seat. She jumped down from her vehicle leaving the driver’s door wide open and pulled her ID from her handbag. She flashed it at the police officer who was walking towards her. He waved her on. White suited men and women were everywhere. A young female police officer held the crime scene tape up for her as she ducked underneath.
‘What’s happening here?’ Ashleigh asked.
‘A couple of old ladies dead in the lounge-room. The TV’s still running, all the lights are on and there’s a strong smell of gas. The neighbour across the road made the call to 000 after he went to check on them when he noticed the lounge room lights were still on after midnight.’
‘Oh God.’ Ashleigh ran up the concrete path towards the front steps of the house.
‘Ashleigh?’
She recognised Kevin Taggart’s voice. What did he want? She stopped in the doorway under the verandah’s coach light and looked back over her shoulder at her neighbour. He was standing under the street light in front of his house wearing a dressing gown, his hair was standing on end as if he had been woken from a deep sleep. Looking as if he was enjoying the show he crossed the street and stood in the gutter, behind the crime scene tape.
‘Isn’t it terrible? Poor Edith and Rhoda,’ he called out to her. ‘What a terrible way to die, an awful accident. Must have been Edi, you know what she was like.’
Ashleigh stared at Kevin and didn’t say a word. His flabby chest was exposed to the night air and a pair of striped pyjama pants was visible beneath his dressing gown. A gold cord hung from his hips. He was wearing knee-high rubber gardening boots which Ashleigh thought odd. She turned away from him and entered the house. Edi and Rhoda were slumped up against each other on the lounge. Edi was dressed in a soft pink, flannelette nightdress buttoned to her throat. A pink ribbon was neatly tied in a bow on her chest and she was wearing matching satin slippers. Her hair was secured tightly in plastic rollers. Rhoda was wearing what looked to be a pair of designer pyjamas. She was barefooted and a pair of slippers was on the floor next to the gas heater. They both looked so peaceful, so ordinary, as if they had fallen asleep together watching a late movie in front of the television set.
‘Somebody turn that TV off for Christ’s sake,’ Rimis said as he approached Ashleigh. ‘What’s going on here Ashleigh? This is some neighbourhood you’ve moved into. Two more neighbours dead. What is it with the old ladies around here?’
Ashleigh was only half listening to Nick Rimis. She had her own theory. ‘Maybe they knew the perp. They were both trusting, they would have opened the door to anyone, especially if the intruder had a good excuse and they knew them.’
‘Ash, we aren’t ruling out some sort of suicide pact here or perhaps what our good friend Kevin has suggested, dementia and gas heaters. Not a good combination in anyone’s books.’
‘I just can’t believe it. They wouldn’t do anything like that. Rhoda had her wits about her, she always kept a close eye
on Edi. They were devoted to each other; there was no reason for them to take their own lives.’
‘I’ll walk you home; you look like you could do with a drink.’ Rimis placed his hand on her back and guided her out of the lounge-room, through the front door and across the street to where Kevin Taggart was standing under the street light in front of his house. Ashleigh noticed all the lights in the houses in the street were on and the elderly residents were all standing around in their dressing gowns.
Rimis and Ashleigh passed Kevin as he stood at the top of his driveway. Kevin looked like he was about to say something but decided against it when he saw the look on DS Rimis’s face.
‘I’ll speak to you later, Kevin. Put the jug on.’
Chapter Nineteen
Suellyn pushed back the glass sliding doors to the wardrobe. With Tommy in the garden she decided to make herself useful by going through his clothes looking for anything to give away to the local charity store. As she bent over to pick up a pair of trousers which had fallen from a hanger, she noticed a cardboard storage box at the back of the wardrobe, hidden behind a pile of old blankets and a set of rusty golf clubs. Her curiosity was aroused. She wanted to know more about Tommy Dwyer - she wanted to know who he really was. She calculated that she wouldn’t be disturbed for a while. Tommy enjoyed working in the garden and if he was left alone, he wouldn’t reappear for hours.