One Hour to Midnight

by Shirley Wine

  Veronica nodded, she wasn't vengeful. "I'll do that. I'd hate to see any kid sent to juvenile detention."

  "Thank you." Sonia dashed tears from her eyes. "You're much kinder than any of us deserve."

  Veronica saw the swift glance that Leon and Sonia exchanged and knew there was more. Her anxiety level escalated.

  "What else is there," she asked giving her companions a nervous glance.

  "Did you ever wonder how I found you before anyone else even caught wind that you existed, Veronica?" The turbulent expression in his grey eyes made her nervous.

  For years, she'd wondered. Unable to find words, she nodded.

  Leon looked past her at the chalet walls. "You knew we'd both refused to meet any more of Yannis's gambling debts?"

  Veronica nodded. Julia had made certain she knew.

  "The night he died, Yannis rang me to say he had a sure fire investment due to mature in four months. He owed a lot of money to the wrong people. He pleaded with me to get you away from Jacobs Well as enforcers were on his tail."

  Leon's clipped words sent chills down her spine. Veronica glanced at Sonia who looked sick. Her innards churned as she struggled to grasp the implications of Leon's words.

  "Investment?" She croaked, looking from one grim face to the other, hand over her heart. "My baby?"

  "No you." Sonia caught Veronica's hand and held it tightly. "Yannis had pledged you as co-lateral for his debt with the gambling syndicate."

  "Me?" Veronica looked from Leon to Sonia fighting down the nausea churning in her belly.

  "The police euphemism for what Yannis was dealing in is human trafficking. You were not the only vulnerable teenage girl involved, either."

  "Prostitution?" Bile stung the back of her throat.

  "Ultimately, yes." Leon's tone was dispassionate. "But your pregnancy with a Karvasis baby made you a much more valuable commodity. Had the enforcers reached you first, they would have ransomed Jordan knowing the Karvasis family would pay dearly to keep one of their own safe. They always recoup their money, one way or the other."

  "And had I gone to term with Jordan?"

  "Yannis planned to steal your baby after it was born, sell you to the traffickers, and trade Jordan to Julia and me to cover his debt to the family firm."

  Veronica held both hands over her mouth as she forced down sickness. A commodity? Yannis regarded her and her baby as saleable commodities?

  And Leon knew?

  "I tried to tell you this, years ago, Veronica," Sonia said quietly

  She had, Veronica realised with the twenty-twenty vision of hindsight. Only she had misunderstood. No, she realised, a vicious hand twisting her heart. Julia ensured she misunderstood.

  Had Julia been in on Yannis's unconscionable scheme?

  Of course she was. Or why would Yannis bother with the inconvenience of getting me pregnant.

  Veronica almost doubled over with pain, hands clutched at her middle. Leon was off the rail and crouched by her side.

  "Don't touch me," she cried her voice thick and slurred. "Don't you dare touch me."

  Leon jerked backwards and walked away, his back unyielding. At last he turned to face her. "I vowed you'd never have to know this. Andreas's mischief makes that impossible. Some of it has already reached the press."

  The press? Veronica fought down as shudder as she asked the question that begged an answer. "Was Julia in on this plan with Yannis?"

  Sonia touched Veronica's shoulder. "I'm sure she wasn't. Julia was obsessed with having a baby and took advantage of you and your situation, but I'm certain she never conspired with Yannis."

  Veronica shrugged off Sonia's touch as she stood and faced Leon. Her heart raced. Fury, anguish and a searing sense of betrayal churned in her belly.

  From Yannis, such betrayal was expected and came as no real surprise. During the past ten years, she'd reached much the same conclusions.

  But Leon's betrayal cut so much deeper. He'd considered he had the right to tell her what information he thought she should know and what he could with-hold.

  "You knew this when I was pregnant? Living at Claremont?"

  "I did."

  "Why didn't you tell me all this, years ago?" Veronica stepped closer to him, clenching and unclenching her hand. "I was an adult."

  "You were a child, a teenager."

  Incensed, she stabbed a finger at his chest. "I was a woman and pregnant. It was my life, my baby."

  Leon stepped back when she stabbed his chest again.

  "Yannis my lover." Another stab. "You had no right to decide what I should know."

  Leon stood his ground.

  "I promised Yannis I wouldn't tell you." Leon's grey eyes glittered as he caught her hand to prevent her jabbing him again. "You were only seventeen. He should never have seduced you."

  Veronica laugh was filled with scorn. "Give the man top marks."

  Leon knew of his brother's diabolical plan and considered it more important to honour a promise to his brother, a dead man, than allow the victim of his crimes to know the truth.

  Unable to be so close to him, Veronica leaped down the steps and stalked off into the dusk and down the garden. At her clumsy approach, a mob of kangaroos drinking at the waterhole took fright, leaping away into the bush.

  Her sense of anger and betrayal grew with every step. When she reached the edge of the waterhole, she stared at the brackish water.

  "Veronica?"

  When Leon spoke directly behind her, she turned on him.

  "You adopted my son. You sought me out to save Jordan's life," she said from between clenched teeth. "You married me, for God's sake, and you thought I didn't need to know this?"

  "I hoped you'd never need to know,"

  The explanation merely served to increase her anger. "It was my right to know, Leon, the good and the bad. It was my life."

  "Look, perhaps I made a mistake." He raked a hand through his hair. "When you were pregnant, I didn't think you needed the added burden."

  She turned on him. "And when you brought me here? Married me?"

  "Jordan's life was at stake," he said grimly.

  "And you actually thought that if I knew the full details of your brother's villainy, I would refuse to help my son?"

  He remained silent, spreading his hand in a helpless gesture.

  Well now I know. He thought me so lacking in parental skills, I was capable of turning my back on my own flesh and blood.

  "You Leon Karvasis, are a real bastard."

  Veronica walked further down into the rough grass. Leon caught her arm and hauled her back. "For God's sake, Veronica, Take care. That's the ideal habitat for snakes."

  That brought her up short. In her anger she'd not even considered the possibility of snakes. Supressing a shudder, she walked back to the mown strip.

  "Look Veronica, Yannis knew he'd screwed up, but he wanted you to find someone else and get on with your life."

  For a long moment Veronica just stared at Leon in stunned silence, and then she started to laugh. Hysterical, high pitched laughter.

  It was either laugh or race off into the bush screaming.

  "What's so amusing?" he asked eyes narrowed.

  "And look where I've ended up? Married to you."

  Chapter Twenty-One

  As Leon watched, the video surveillance inside the bush chalet blacked out.

  Watching Veronica's distress in the night and being powerless to comfort her, ripped at his gut, but no longer being able to see her sent him into blind panic. Without giving himself time to think it through, he picked up the two way radio.

  Flynn answered immediately. "I was expecting your call."

  The unruffled words stirred Leon's anger. "What's gone wrong with the surveillance?"

  "Nothing. I've just turned the monitors off inside the chalet, is all."

  "Why?"

  Flynn's rough sigh was loud. "Veronica needs some privacy, okay? She's safe enough, all the exterior and access monitors are workin
g and in place."

  "Is that your call to make?"

  "When I undertook this assignment, Leon, you agreed to let me handle it. At the moment Veronica is fragile. You dumped one hell of a lot on her. Give her the courtesy of time and space."

  "Meaning?" The question came out on an explosive huff.

  "If you want a future with your wife, Leon, don't crowd her."

  "Too much time to brood isn't in her best interests."

  Flynn heavy sigh came across the transceiver. "I thought you'd have learned by now that you can't control everything. Veronica should have been given a copy of that coroner's report years ago. I warned you it was a ticking time bomb."

  "Okay, okay. I know. You do what you think best, over and out."

  When the transmission was cut, Leon walked to the library window, raking a hand through his hair. Flynn was right. And knowing this didn't sit easy with him.

  He had dumped a lot on Veronica.

  But her decision not to return with him to Claremont came as a shock. He'd thought he'd be able to sit down and discuss that goddam coroner's report with her.

  As if there hadn't been plenty of time. I've sat on that damned report for damn near eight years.

  The uncomfortable thought sent him striding to the sideboard. He poured himself a whiskey and knocked it back in one swallow.

  You adopted my son. You sought me out to save Jordan's life, you married me. And you thought I didn't need to know this?

  Unable to escape the echo of his wife's scathing words, Leon poured a second whiskey. As he sipped it, he walked to the window and stared out at the garden.

  It was my right to know, Leon, the good and the bad. It was my life.

  It was her life. And he'd taken it upon himself to deny her the closure he'd gained by attending the Coroner's inquest into his brother's death.

  Yannis's nefarious activities still left Leon sickened and shamed.

  He raised his eyes skywards.

  Yannis had had such a huge impact on her life; she had the right to be apprised of the facts. Why had he not listened to Flynn? Cassie and McKenna had torn a strip off his sorry hide over it as well.

  Hell, the other girls they'd rescued had been subpoenaed to give evidence at the inquest. Veronica had been spared this ordeal, only because he and his legal team kept her name and her pregnancy under the radar.

  And were my motives so altruistic?

  He closed his eyes but nothing could dim the image of Veronica's burning anger, her hurt and disillusionment.

  Julia conspired with your brother.

  Did his late wife conspire with his brother? Was Julia so distressed at not being able to conceive that she'd resorted to such desperate measures?

  Hell, Julia was so anxious to become pregnant. I knew first-hand the strain that put on our marriage.

  Leon shook his head, dismissing the thought.

  The woman he'd known and loved would never consent to such a scheme. Once the specialists explained in-vitro was not possible for Julia, they'd openly discussed surrogacy.

  And then he'd received Yannis's frantic late night call, Julia had a pregnant houseguest at Claremont, and there was an expected Karvasis baby that Julia was hell bent and determined to claim as her own.

  Did Julia conspire with my brother?

  No matter how hard Leon tried, the kernel of doubt refused to be dislodged. Veronica is right, it all fits. It's far too neat to be co-incidence.

  He walked to the sideboard to pour another whiskey.

  For the first time in years, he had the overwhelming urge to get thoroughly, absolutely, stoned-out-of-his-mind, rotten drunk.

  There was a knock on the door and Cassie entered.

  "Sonia and the Police Inspector are here. I've shown them into the rose sitting room"

  "Thanks, Cassie." A sigh escaped Leon.

  Getting drunk was not an option.

  The last thing he wanted to deal with was Andreas, Sonia or the Feds. But it was a necessary evil. "Where's Jordan?"

  "He's resting on Veronica's bed. If he's not asleep, he soon will be."

  "Why Veronica's bed?"

  "That's something you need to ask him."

  Not at all sure what to make of that cryptic comment he merely said, "Keep an eye on him for me, will you. The less he knows about this the better."

  "Sure."

  As he watched Cassie leave, favouring one leg, it suddenly hit him that this past week had really upset her. She looked all of her sixty years.

  He picked up the folder with Veronica's written statement, the enrolment forms from Craven, and Andreas's school transcripts. He gripped the back of his neck with a hand, breathing deeply. He did not relish this unpleasant task.

  As he approached the room, he was thankful Cassie's intuitive insight ensured this meeting would be conducted in one of the least used room of Claremont.

  He knocked on the door and opened it.

  ~***~

  Veronica watched two King Parrots circle and come into the bird feeder in a blur of crimson and green. They settled down to eat while a pair of grey and pink galahs hovered in a nearby gum tree.

  Eucalyptus hung heavy in the hot afternoon air.

  From the trees overhead came the cooing of mourning doves. The serenity here soothed her battered soul.

  In the week since Leon and Sonia left, Veronica spent almost every hour on the veranda. What sleep she'd managed had been in a deck chair, being inside gave her claustrophobia. Every time she lay down and closed her eyes she heard Leon and Sonia laying out his brother's diabolical plan for her and Jordan overlaid with her own, almost manic laughter.

  Leon was outraged when she refused to return to Claremont. His retreat beyond an icy façade left her chilled to the bone. Once alone, she'd spent the night alternately vomiting and pacing.

  But she hadn't cried. The hurt went too deep for tears.

  Near dawn, Flynn had propelled her into a chair, put two pills and a glass of water in her hand, made her take them and insisted she drink a nip of whiskey.

  Then I promptly passed out.

  She woke late the next afternoon, on the bed covered with a sheet. Since then she'd only slept in snatches.

  She shivered and looked up at the cloudless sky.

  Had Andreas not pulled this stunt, Veronica knew she would never have learned any of this. Had she known of Yannis' diabolical plan, she could have been spared so much anguish wondering where she'd failed.

  The answer was simple. She hadn't failed.

  She'd been the victim of an unscrupulous man.

  Telling her now, at this late date, confirmed how little she mattered to Leon. Other than the help she could give his son, she meant almost nothing. And she'd thought he would learn to love her?

  That thought almost set her off into another burst of hysterical laughter.

  Nothing in the past tension laden weeks was in any way amusing, least of all marriage to a man still in love with his dead wife. Why had she imagined she could supplant Julia in Leon's affections?

  He at least had been honest.

  He'd offered a marriage of convenience, another child and a secure future. It was her, as usual, who'd somehow expected her marriage to Leon to deliver so much more.

  There was only one thing she was definite about.

  She needed time away from Leon, away from Claremont, Julia's ghost and all the associated pressures. Too much had happened in too short a space of time. Now she needed time alone to find herself, to find her way through the deceit, the lies and the betrayal. She needed to find a way to face a future that stretched out in front of her as empty as a barren plain.

  Veronica turned from watching the birds and walked indoors.

  That folder lay untouched on the table. She knew she had to deal with it, but not just yet. Coward! Ignoring it won't magically make it disappear.

  With a reluctant sigh she sat on the cane sofa and with fearful slowness, she opened the folder, not quite sure what to expect.


  The first page was a copy of that hideous photo that had been pinned to the steering wheel of her car.

  Yannis's body! I didn't realise.

  Only this one had the official seal of the Melbourne Coroner's Court.

  Veronica's hand shook as she picked up the coroner's report.

  She'd never seen it and didn't know what verdict he reached over her lover's death. This was yet one more item Leon had decided not to share with her.

  Now, as Veronica read the official report of the events leading up to Yannis's death her heart slowly broke and all her idealised, youthful dreams shattered.

  Everything Sonia and Leon related was laid out in black and white script, detailed in police evidence, Federal Police evidence, the human trafficking ring, the young women rescued from a life of degradation.

  There but for the grace of God go I.

  And Leon Karvasis.

  How often had she heard Kathleen say that? Now Veronica understood the true meaning of the old saying.

  Shell-shocked, she continued to read, determined to know every last detail. Laid out with clinical detachment, was the money Yannis owed to gambling syndicates, the impact Yannis's embezzlement had on Karvasis Inc.

  She laid the report on her knee and stared out the window.

  McKenna's words echoed. Leon worked like a dog cleaning up the mess Yannis left.

  And what was it Milas had told Tania?

  Karvasis has held onto control tighter than a miser holds onto a bag of gold.

  The comments made much more sense after reading the contents of this official report. How had Leon managed to stave off bankruptcy?

  And yet he'd somehow managed to find the money he'd given her, so she could start a new life.

  Blood money, she'd accused Leon. An accusation that now left her shamed.

  His brother truly did deal in blood money.

  Yannis entrapped young, vulnerable girls and sold them into sexual slavery. The only good thing to come out of his death was the Federal police were able to shut down at least one human trafficking ring.

  Sick at heart, Veronica stared unseeingly at the chalet wall.

  And to think I honestly believed Yannis loved me. Loved and wanted our baby. How could I have been so very wrong?