Blood Sisters

by Caroline de Costa

  Emily did not respond. She just sat very still, hating every second she was having to pass in her father’s company. In a few minutes she would be at Scarlett’s. Right now she needed to focus very hard on getting through this time without vomiting and then she would be with Scarlett. Scarlett would look after her.

  ***

  At the same moment, Meredith and Faith were sitting at the table in Faith’s kitchen. Also present was Tony Brunetto. Faith had produced a bottle of merlot and three glasses and they were now deep in discussion about the events of the afternoon.

  ‘Making a clear statement soon after the event was a good idea,’ said Tony. ‘And you did it very well, I must say.’

  ‘Was there a mark on her face from the slap, do you think, when you saw her at the bottom of the steps?’ asked Faith.

  ‘I don’t think so, but I can’t really say. I just saw her lying there, turning purple. It was only a very light slap. I wasn’t intending to hurt her, well, I know you both understand that. And she walked normally out the door, although in a huff. It wasn’t as if she staggered out and just made it to the top of the steps. She walked there.’

  ‘We’re just going to have to see what happens,’ said Tony. ‘She’s had a CT scan and apparently she’s going for surgery. I suppose there’s a chance that she might, ah, not make it.

  ‘We can only hope that’s not the case. But even if she does well with surgery there’s still going to be the question, from the police point of view, of what happened. After a head injury, Karen may genuinely not remember anything. The cops will be going to the neighbours to see if anyone saw what happened. But so far, it looks as if they didn’t. And forensics will be going through your living room, right now or very soon, looking for any evidence of violence there...’

  ‘Which they won’t find,’ finished Meredith.

  ‘Which they won’t find,’ he agreed. ‘But while there are no witnesses to say they saw you argue with Karen at the top of the steps, or push her down them, because that didn’t happen, there’s also no one who can definitely say they saw that it didn’t happen.’

  ‘So, the police will have to go on what they find to back up your statement, or take another tack,’ said Faith. ‘Darling, I think you should stay with me until this is all sorted out. Emily seems very happy to be going to Scarlett’s. They’re great mates, aren’t they?’

  Meredith nodded. ‘Yes, they are. Ever since they started school. Scarlett will look after Em, I know. And as for bloody Blake, well he can go to hell. I’m not interested in talking to him about it right now, and if he calls here, I’m not speaking to him. And yes, I’ll have another drop of that, thanks, love.’

  ***

  Scarlett was waiting on the pavement when Emily arrived, jiggling from one foot to the other. Pulling out the ear buds of her Ipod, she rushed towards the car as it stopped. Emily got out and fell into her arms, sobbing quietly. Blake stood awkwardly behind her, holding her backpack.

  Scarlett looked up. Blake understood at once that Scarlett considered him the root cause of the day’s problems. Which, he conceded to himself, was fair enough.

  ‘Just leave the backpack and things there,’ Scarlett said. ‘We’ll go inside in a minute.’

  ‘Is your mum here?’ Blake asked. ‘I want to thank her for having Emily at such short notice.’

  ‘She’s on evening shift,’ Scarlett replied. ‘She’ll be back after eleven. She knows Emily will be here.’

  Blake nodded, patted his daughter’s shoulder and got back into the car, grateful that this at least was being taken care of. He still had to face both Meredith’s friend Faith and Karen’s husband Gerhard. And somehow find out what was happening to Karen. Shit, what an evening it had turned out to be!

  Scarlett picked up Emily’s backpack and they went inside.

  ‘Sit here while I make us a big strawberry and banana smoothie. And there’s a tuna casserole Mum left.’

  Scarlett set about organising their dinner. When it was ready, she sat down with Emily at the kitchen table and they both began to eat. After a moment Scarlett said, ‘If Karen walked out of the living room and onto the veranda then she must have been fine. Then, somehow, she fell down the stairs. If your mum was still inside the house, I can’t see how it’s her fault at all.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Emily. ‘but no one else saw Karen. There’s no one who can say that Meredith wasn’t there, or that she didn’t push her down the stairs. Everyone, like Laurel, just came along afterwards when they realised something was wrong. There were no actual witnesses.’

  Emily took another mouthful of tuna then said, ‘Also, I found Meredith’s phone when I went back to the house just now. So, I took it—there was a policewoman there because it’s a crime scene, but she’d gone outside. I was just worried about the text from this morning—Meredith asking me to come back with Karen and then keep out of the way. It could make it seem that Meredith was planning to do something to her. I deleted it in my phone.’

  ‘It just fits with the true story, though,’ Scarlett pointed out. ‘She wanted to talk to Karen and it was better if her impressionable teenage daughter was out of the house. But...’ Scarlett considered for a moment then continued, ‘if you were thinking of deleting the text from Meredith’s phone as well, then I wouldn’t do that. Because she might have to give the phone to the police and they can probably find texts even if they’re deleted, I’m thinking. And that would look suspicious when it really isn’t.’

  Emily nodded. ‘Yeah, that’s what I decided, when I thought about it. I’ll just keep the phone for her. I’ve turned it off.’

  ‘Anyway, everyone should know what a bitch Karen is,’ Scarlett said.

  ‘Yeah, I didn’t like her. And I feel sick to my stomach at the idea of her and my dad, y’know, doing it. But one minute I was there with her in the car, she was totally fine, and then half an hour later she’s in the hospital. That’s terrible!’

  ‘Of course! But you didn’t know anything like this was going to happen. No one ever thinks things like that.’

  ‘I need to get changed out of my uniform,’ Emily said. ‘I just went straight to the café from school.’

  ‘Have a shower. It’ll make you feel better. We can do our English homework together then.’

  Emily disappeared into Scarlett’s bathroom and got under the shower, applying liberal amounts of Scarlett’s citrus body wash. Refreshed, she stepped out, towelled herself dry, and pulled on tracksuit pants and a T-shirt. Scarlett was right, she felt much calmer now. The ends of her hair were damp from the shower. She began to brush them out and walked back into Scarlett’s room still brushing.

  Scarlett was in her bed. She had turned the lights down and lit a stick of incense; Emily could see that she was naked at least to her waist.

  ‘Oh!’

  ‘You smell deliciously of oranges,’ said Scarlett. ‘Mum won’t be back for hours yet. I think this was meant to happen this way.’

  Emily dropped her sponge bag and towel on the floor. A spasm of excitement she had never known before raced from her neck and down towards her thighs. Shaking, she climbed in beside her friend, whose arms enfolded her, her hands exploring under her T-shirt, slipping off the trackie pants, reaching deep into places that Emily had hardly dared to touch herself. She slid her hands down Scarlett’s bare back and began her own exploration.

  ***

  Over in the hospital, Dr George O’Malley was walking at top speed into the Emergency Department where the Emergency registrar was hovering at the desk.

  ‘Cubicle 3,’ she said.

  George pushed back the curtain. In rapid succession he noted, first, a Caucasian woman of about forty, unconscious on the bed, intubated and connected to a variety of monitors. Then a fair-haired, middle-aged man, seated by her side, in tears, and holding the woman’s limp hand. And standing uncertainly beside the nurse checking the monitors, was Dr Arthur Mellish, senior surgeon.

  George nodded at Mellish. ‘Hello Arthur. Those
are the scans?’ Sheets of black and white images were spread on the X-ray box beside the weeping husband.

  ‘Yes,’ said Mellish.

  George looked hard at the pictures then moved beside the patient. He raised her left eyelid and saw that the pupil was dilated.

  ‘She has a large haematoma there,’ he said to Mellish. ‘You’ll be taking her to theatre immediately?’

  Mellish nodded.

  ‘Mr, umm, Moster,’ George addressed the husband. ‘I’m George O’Malley. I’m a senior anaesthetist in the hospital. Your wife is very ill. We have no time to waste. She needs to be operated on immediately to have a blood clot removed. The clot is building up over her brain. If we don’t do this straight away, she will die. She cannot give consent herself, so in this situation as her next of kin, you are able to do so.’

  Moster looked uncertain. George studied him a moment and immediately saw what was wrong.

  ‘Mr Moster,’ he said, ‘yes, I am black. I am also Canadian. I have specialist anaesthetic qualifications from Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. I am very qualified to look after your wife in this situation. I urge you to agree to this surgery at once.’

  Beside him, Arthur Mellish nodded vigorously. ‘Only course of action, old chap,’ he said.

  Moster stood up, nodded, and reached for the pen George had ready. Then he signed.

  ‘Right,’ George said to the nurse. ‘Let’s get her to theatre straight away.’ Then, leading Mellish outside the cubicle, he said to him, softly: ‘Nimal Jayasinghe says he’ll come to help you. He’s done a lot of these in Sri Lanka.’

  Mellish sighed audibly with relief.

  18

  Cairns

  Tuesday 28th August 2013

  At lunchtime, the four friends sat under the raintree. They’d spent the morning in class texting each other whenever they could about Meredith’s likely fate.

  Dorcas was taking legal studies: no way can she be charged with assault no evidence & don’t even think about anything worse she texted.

  its just good sense added Mai Ling; karen fell downstairs police will c it was accident dont worry

  dork and ml right added Scarlett dont worry

  But Emily was very worried. She was in a state unlike any she had ever experienced. Agitated about what might happen to Meredith but exhilarated by her new intimacy with Scarlett. She had called her mother at Faith’s that morning and although Meredith had tried to be upbeat, Emily could hear how anxious she really was.

  ‘The police must have my mobile,’ Meredith had said. ‘I must have left it in the house. They’ll probably want to go over it. They’d be entitled to do that. I wonder what they will make of my text asking you to bring Karen home.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Emily quickly, ‘I’ve got lots of texts from you like that from other times that are still in my phone. They’d soon see that there isn’t anything different about that one.’ But she decided to keep quiet for the moment about having the phone herself. She couldn’t explain why she had decided this, only that when she thought about her mother’s phone, she had a tingling feeling in her arms and legs.

  During the morning there had also been a text to Scarlett from Erin. have some information 4 u can u come to my place @ 6 2nite erin

  ‘I have to go to work tonight,’ Scarlett said to Emily. ‘So, can you go there and see her? And text me what she says? And you know I’ll be back as soon as I can...’

  They stood apart in the playground, avoiding eye contact, hoping no-one was watching them, each wanting to fling her arms around the other and hold onto her. But that was a bad idea.

  ‘Okay,’ said Emily, though she didn’t feel okay. She felt faint with longing to have Scarlett close to her again. ‘And I can try calling the numbers Erin gave us, from your place. That’ll pass the time until you get back.’

  ***

  ‘Hi there!’ said Erin, when she opened the door for Emily in McLeod Street that evening.

  ‘You look a bit stressed. Where’s your friend—Scarlett, isn’t it?’

  ‘She’s at work. It’s just me.’

  ‘Well come in, just you! Did you find Marcie, yet?’ Erin asked as they walked down the hall.

  ‘No, we haven’t had time to call. Because... it’s just... my mum...’ Emily burst into tears.

  ‘What’s up? Is she sick?’

  ‘No... but she might be charged with a serious crime. I’m so worried about her.’

  Erin’s eyes widened. ‘Baby, just sit right down there on the couch. How old are you? Sixteen? Nearly seventeen? Well I’m not about to offer you alcohol but I will make you a cup of tea. And you can tell me all about it.’

  Erin made the tea then sat herself down and listened to Emily’s story.

  ‘And have you got someone you can talk to?’ she asked at the end of this. Emily nodded.

  ‘Yes, Scarlett. And other friends.’

  ‘Ah, yes,’ said Erin. ‘Scarlett. You two are an item, right?’

  ‘How did you know that?’ asked Emily.

  ‘Sweetheart, I just picked up on it as soon as I saw you both together. In my job, you know, I pick up on lots of things. But, none of my beeswax. Sounds like she’s good for you. And anyway, you can do the phoning when you have time. Now, what I was going to tell you... I’ve been in touch with all the places I know in Sydney and Melbourne where Filipino women might work. No one’s come across any girl who’s recently come from Cairns, and no one who might be Marcie or Maria Ramos.

  ‘But I did get onto someone who was friendly with Rita when she worked in the brothel in Sydney. She knows I started Rita’s Friends so she was happy to talk to me. She’s Chinese not Filipina.

  ‘She told me that in the few days before she was murdered Rita spoke to her twice by phone. Called her from Cairns. Rita said there was a special man in her life who wanted her to go to live with him and be his wife, but Rita was worried because he already had a wife. She didn’t know if he was planning to leave her, though. The person I spoke to thought this man must have arranged for Rita to come to Cairns in the first place, because Rita was doing well where she worked in Sydney. In fact, the management weren’t happy when she left.

  ‘Whoever it was, apparently Rita sounded quite afraid of him even though she liked him and thought he was rich. She was also worried that if she went to live with him, she might never see her child again.

  ‘My friend told Rita she should get out of Cairns and come back to Sydney. So you can imagine how shocked she was when a few days later she heard Rita was dead. The police contacted her because her number was in Rita’s phone, but because she was really spooked, she told them that she knew absolutely nothing about anyone who might have had it in for Rita. I would have done the same, too.

  ‘She told me that she really didn’t know anything else about this man Rita was afraid of, and I’m sure she’s being straight with me. Maybe the police found out who he was and checked him out and decided he had nothing to do with the murder. I’m just passing this on.’

  ***

  Just before five o’clock on Tuesday, Cass took a call from Dr Nimal Jayasinghe at the hospital.

  ‘Detective Diamond, I’ve just spoken to the neurosurgeon in Townsville. Mrs Moster’s condition is now stable and it looks as if her surgery last night went well. She’s still in intensive care now but she is out of danger.’

  ‘Oh, that’s good news, thank you. Can you give me any idea of what actually caused the trauma, Doctor?’

  ‘Mrs Moster was suffering from an unusual but not rare condition—an aneurysm of one of the arteries in her brain. It’s called a berry aneurysm—the wall of one of the blood vessels was weak. She was born with this condition but, apparently, she had no sign of trouble up until yesterday. That quite often happens with these things: suddenly the aneurysm bursts and blood leaks into the brain.’

  ‘So, did falling down the steps make the aneurysm burst?’

  ‘That’s possible, but I think it’s more likely that it hap
pened because her blood pressure had gone up suddenly; the aneurysm burst, and the sudden bleeding into the brain caused loss of consciousness, which then caused her to fall downstairs. I under-stand from the history that she was under some stress when the incident happened.’

  Cass considered this for a moment, then asked: ‘So are you saying that she had a condition that predisposed her to have a brain haemorrhage, and she’d had this since she was born?’

  ‘Yes. In a sense it was something just waiting to happen. Sometimes these patients have headaches first, and they can be diagnosed and treated before the aneurysm bursts. That didn’t happen with Mrs Moster. And she had such a severe bleed yesterday that we had to treat her urgently here in Cairns last night, and then transfer her to Townsville. The surgeons there tied off the aneurysm completely, so it won’t bleed again. And they expect her to make quite a good recovery. Perhaps not completely back to what she was, but nevertheless very good.’

  ‘I’m sure her husband is very relieved,’ said Cass. ‘Thanks for calling me so soon. And we’d be grateful for a written report of these details, please.’

  ***

  After emailing Drew the news of Karen Moster’s condition, Cass was about to pack up for the day when she decided to have another try at finding Marcie. She called Marcie’s mobile number again, and again there was only Shari’s voicemail.

  ‘Marcie, this is Cass Diamond. There’s no problem, I’d just like to know that you’re all right. Take care of yourself.’

  She sat at her desk for a while, thinking about Marcie and wondering where she was. Then she went downstairs and got into her car. On the way home, she drove through Mooroobool, via Marcie’s unit. As usual she parked around the corner and walked as far as the unit. The blinds were fully down, and her knock echoed through an empty house. As she turned to go, she saw a man coming towards her. Okay, she’d meet this one head on. She stood there expectantly. But this guy was different from the one who’d attacked her: he was wearing a suit, white shirt, smart shoes. Overweight, though. The man came closer and looked hard at Cass. He seemed to recognise her; she had a vague feeling of having seen him before, too. Then he turned on his heel and almost ran back down the driveway. She walked briskly after him, wanting to see his car and its rego if she could. He was moving fast. Around the next corner and there he was getting into a grey BMW. She was just able to see the rego number, tucking it away in a corner of her brain.