‘What are you going to do with that?’ Gordon asked. She could see a thin layer of sweat on his forehead and he was cradling his injured hand against his body.
‘Do you remember the last time you asked me that?’ Alice said brandishing the weight.
Gordon glanced down at his broken finger then gave her the angriest look she’d ever seen. If that look had been a physical thing it would have been a rabid dog crossed with a gorilla.
‘Where’s the gold?’ Gordon asked.
‘How do you know about that?’ Alice replied.
Gordon glared. ‘I overheard Betty talking to Owen about it. So I went snooping, trying to butter her up, but she wasn’t having it. Told me to get out. Said I needed castrating. Then had the nerve to complain to Tracey about me.’
‘So you thought you’d kill her and steal it.’
‘It’s alright for you,’ Gordon raged, his voice bouncing off the walls. ‘For all of you. I’m a retired civil servant. I had to sell everything I owned to afford this place. I needed that money or I was going to have to move. Betty didn’t need it. Why shouldn’t I have it?’
‘Because it didn’t belong to you,’ Alice said. ‘Didn’t you learn that lesson in kindergarten?’
Gordon took a step forward and she waved the weight again. It was getting heavy.
‘What gave you the idea about using the Ongaonga plant?’ she asked.
Gordon edged forward. Now he was halfway across the floor. Alice’s eyes darted around the room, identifying and dismissing possible options.
‘I used to work for the Department of Conservation,’ Gordon said. ‘I knew the nettle’s sting could be used to lower blood pressure. I didn’t really mean to kill her. I just wanted her out of commission while I took off with the gold.’
‘Why do it in a room full of people? Why not wait until you were alone?’
‘I didn’t know how long she was going to hold onto the gold for so I had to act fast.’ He smiled grimly. ‘No one was paying attention to me, so it was easy to slip up behind her and brush the spines against her neck. Her skin was so leathery from working outside all her life she barely felt it. I was worried I’d stick myself, even with my hand wrapped in a handkerchief. By the time she collapsed I was on the other side of the room, just another bystander concerned about poor Betty.’
Alice wished she had the strength to throw the weight at Gordon’s head, but she doubted it would go even a quarter the way.
‘So then Teresa told you about our conversation,’ she said.
‘Over dinner,’ Gordon said. ‘I’d searched Betty’s place and knew it wasn’t there. When Teresa said you thought an heirloom was hidden in this building I knew immediately what you must be talking about. I was on my way here when I saw Vanessa leave, so I followed her and made sure she wasn’t going to come back.’
Alice felt anger bubble up and she swallowed it back down. She needed her wits sharp, not dulled with fury.
‘You’ve overstepped, Gordon. You killed Betty, attacked Vanessa, and now you’re after me? The police will figure out it’s you.’
‘Who cares,’ Gordon replied with a shrug. ‘I’ll have the gold. With half a million dollars I can disappear and start again. So where is it?’
‘No idea,’ Alice admitted. ‘I was sure Betty hid it in the games room but it isn’t there.’ She inched towards him.
‘You’re lying.’
‘No, I... Owen, now!’ she yelled.
Gordon whirled around and Alice took a big step forward, closing the distance between them. Gordon realised he’d been tricked and turned back as Alice swung the weight as hard as she could, connecting with the soft bit between his legs.
Gordon let out a strangled cry, his eyes bulged and he fell to the ground.
‘Not quite castration, but it’ll do,’ Alice said as she dropped the weight and stepped over him.
She hustled to the door. She heard her name being shouted, as the door in front of her burst open and Owen strode in with Tracey right behind him.
‘Alice, are you alright?’ he asked.
‘Absolutely fine,’ she lied, ignoring the pain in her chest and the burning in her lungs.
‘Alice!’ Gordon yelled from the gym.
Owen looked over her shoulder. ‘He sounds in pain,’ he commented dryly.
‘I hope so,’ Alice replied.
‘What on earth is going on?’ Tracey asked, bewildered.
‘Betty was murdered. Gordon did it. You’d better call the police.’ Alice pushed past her and hobbled towards the door.
‘Where are you going?’ asked Tracey.
‘To find Vanessa.’
TWENTY
‘MY HEAD HURTS,’ VANESSA said.
‘My everything hurts’ Alice replied.
They were sitting in Alice’s apartment with Betty’s daughter Zoe, Tracey, Owen, Judith, and stretched out in a patch of sun, Maddy.
‘It was very unwise,’ Judith told her. ‘You should have come to the police.’
‘Excuse me, but we did,’ Vanessa said angrily. ‘You blew us off.’
Judith’s face went red and she mumbled an excuse, earning another scowl from Vanessa.
‘I’m glad you’re alright, Vanessa,’ Owen said.
‘So am I. I can’t believe that dickhead gave me a concussion.’
When Alice had returned to her apartment she’d found Vanessa lying on the floor, a nasty cut to the back of her head. After she came to and was seen by a paramedic, she told Alice how Gordon came to the door just as she was leaving, forced her inside and hit her with a vase from the side table.
‘After you called yesterday I dug through some old family journals,’ Zoe began. ‘It turns out my great grandfather dug up two giant gold nuggets back when he was a gold prospector. He kept one and sold the other, which is how my family could afford the land for the farm. The remaining nugget was passed down from generation to generation until Mum decided to sell it and divide it amongst us kids so we could afford to buy our own houses.’
‘That sounds like Betty,’ Owen told her. ‘Practicality above sentimentality.’
Zoe smiled at him. She looked exactly like a younger version of her mother.
‘We still don’t know where it is,’ Vanessa said.
Alice struggled to her feet. She was covered in bruises and her arms and back protested. She winced as she straightened up.
‘You should book in for a massage when Georgina gets back tomorrow,’ Tracey told her.
‘Maybe,’ she replied as she slowly made her way to the kitchen. ‘Wait, what?’ She turned to Tracey.
‘When Georgina gets back from her leave,’ Tracey expanded. ‘She’s been on leave all week but she’ll be back tomorrow.’
Alice felt the beginning of the feeling she got when she’d been stupid.
‘How long has she been on leave?’ she asked casually.
‘For the last five days,’ Tracey replied. ‘Since Tuesday. Why?’
‘Sometimes I want to kick my own butt. Vanessa, come on.’
‘Where are we going,’ Vanessa asked when she joined Alice at the front door.
‘To get the gold.’
‘Huh?...Oh. Oh!’
‘Exactly.’
In a slow procession everyone followed Alice to the recreation building, where she stopped outside the massage room. She tried the door but it was locked. Vanessa leaned in and slid her card over the security reader. There was a click, and the handle turned under Alice’s hand. She pushed the door open to reveal a small windowless room. Off to the left hand side was another door. A massage table sat in the middle of the room and at the far end was a small table with lots of bottles on it.
Alice stepped into the room, closely followed by Vanessa. Owen crowded into the doorway and watched as Alice stood still, her head swivelling from side to side.
There didn’t seem to be many places to hide a big chunk of gold. Vanessa opened the second door but it led to a small closet, containing a rail and
some empty coat hangers.
Alice’s brain was working hard. She tried to think like someone who didn’t have a lot of experience hiding things. It had to be somewhere easily accessible.
At the end of the room, next to the table holding all the bottles, was a large wicker basket. A crumpled white towel was visible on top of the basket.
‘Too simple,’ she muttered.
She walked across the room and pulled out the towel, revealing another used towel. She pulled that out as well and found another one. The basket was half empty now. One more towel came out... revealing a wooden box. Alice reached in to pull it out, then remembered it would weigh at least ten kilos.
‘Vanessa, a little help?’ she gestured the girl forward.
Vanessa lifted the box out and placed it on the table. Alice fumbled with the latch, then lifted the lid, suddenly aware that the others had crowded into the room.
As gold went it was pretty unspectacular, not bright and shining like you’d expect, but dull. Yellowish. It didn’t detract too much from the fact they were looking at half a million dollars.
‘Whoa,’ Vanessa said.
‘Quite,’ Alice replied.
TWENTY-ONE
‘ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT to do this?’ Nanci asked.
‘Well, it’s one way to pass the time, don’t you think?’ Alice replied.
They were sitting on opposite sides of the table in the dining room, a deck of cards and several neatly stacked piles of poker chips between them.
‘I’ve already beaten you once,’ Nanci reminded her.
‘Well then, you have nothing to worry about.’
Nanci shrugged, picked up the deck of cards and shuffled them. She dealt five cards to each of them.
‘This is going to be fun,’ Nanci said with a smile.
Alice watched her opponent pick up the five cards and fan them out in her hand. It was small, but there was the tiniest hint of a twitch from her left eyebrow.
‘Yes it is,’ Alice agreed.
THE END
Author’s Note
THE ONGAONGA PLANT is a real plant from New Zealand. Its spines are poisonous and there has been at least one death attributed to being stung by the plant, although it isn’t usually fatal.
The largest nugget of gold found in New Zealand was 3 kilograms, but why go small when you can go big. It was important to make it worth enough money to spur someone to murder (which I know these days could be any amount at all).
Alice first appeared in Murder in Paint in a cameo and then returned in a more substantial role in Murder in Doubt. I so enjoyed writing her that I decided she needed her own series.
Acknowledgements
THE BUSINESS OF WRITING a book is definitely a team effort. Although my name is on the cover, it wouldn’t exist without the support and effort of the following:
My wonderful wife Sarah who is always encouraging and tells me off for over committing
My equally wonderful editor Anna Golden who takes the rough edges off my words
Daniela at Stunningbookcovers.com for making the book look pretty
Emily Simmonds for being a fantastic Alpha Reader (technically it’s a Beta Reader but she’s much more important than that)
All the people that told me they loved the character of Alice and I better not kill her off. Well I didn’t, instead I gave her a series of her own.
Also by Rodney Strong
Hitchhiker books
Murder in Paint
Murder in Mud
Murder in Doubt
Standalone books
Troy’s Possibilities
For children
Karmartha, The Last Garden (published under R.G Strong)
Poker Chips and Poison Page 11