by G. S. Bailey
“No. I had more pudding.”
Her mother stroked her hair as they watched Charmed. They often watched Nell’s shows together.
“That was fun today,” Nell said.
“You liked that?”
“Yes. And he sent me another one after.”
Nell had tried email for the first time. Her mother had a computer that she used to check things on the internet. Nell had used it, but she had never actually communicated with anyone before.
“It was fun for John too,” her mother said. “What else did he send you?”
“A picture of the people working inside the market. It was just like through my scope but from the other side.”
“Oh, wow! And what did he write?”
“He wrote to me that he would send another photo tomorrow if I liked. He said I should send him another email to say what I want to see. He said I could use reply again instead of typing his address… I’m going to ask to see the new supermarket.”
Her mother laughed warmly. The Woolworths supermarket had been open for nearly ten years, but Nell had never seen it. She had been to the dentist a few times, but those trips were taken under tremendous stress, and the dentist was only at the bottom of the hill, near their driveway. She had been on two other outings in recent months with her doctor supervising. Those had been ventures beyond Nell’s comfort zone as well but were made with the purpose of attempting to treat her agoraphobia. Both trips had been a short drive along the foreshore late at night, without getting out of the doctor’s car. Nell had seen the Woolworths sign but was afraid to leave sight of the house by allowing the doctor to turn down the street.
She checked her emails again after her mother went back to bed. She had the two pictures: one from inside the fish market and the other of her mother and John standing together and waving. That one was interesting, in that it was the first time Nell had seen her mother and her boyfriend together. She liked the way John was cuddling and the way her mother was leaning into him and holding his waist. It was nice to see her mother with a man like that—the way it was for women on television.
Men fascinated Nell, but they frightened her up close. She always watched the gardener from her windows.
She returned to her telescope and the fishing boats coming to life as the eastern sky brightened. She watched the boats slowly drift out through the headlands to sea. She used to see them as pirate warriors of the evil king who lived in the lighthouse, which was actually a castle. Her mother was the good queen of her castle and she was Princess Song. She was a lonely princess, though, the daughter of a dead king, while her best friend, Princess Veil, was locked in the evil king’s castle. Her imaginary best friend, Nell recalled with pathos. She hadn’t pondered that childhood fantasy in ages.
Chapter 10
David woke with a headache. He had mixed a few rums amongst the line-up of beers the previous evening, and that usually earned him a bit of a hangover. He sought the fridge and the bottle of orange juice on the door. He tipped that up and gulped down about a litre of the icy, sweet drink.
He heard his sister approach and burped as he turned to find it was actually the stripper girl. She was wearing Amanda’s clothes. She had on jeans and a sweater that David recognised. It seemed she had stayed over in the spare room.
“Candy’s going to stay with us for a few weeks, if that’s alright?” Amanda said, lining up beside her.
David nodded. Hell, yes!
“Thanks,” Clair said to him. “It’s nice and homey here and too stuffy at the B&B.”
“Make yourself at home,” David offered sincerely. He was standing there in boxer shorts, though, and that suddenly occurred to him. He tugged them up and straightened them a bit as he closed the fridge and tossed the juice bottle in the bin. He tugged his singlet down too, double checking that nothing was hanging out of his shorts before turning back to face the women. There wasn’t much else to do really. He’d just gotten out of bed after all.
“Plus you have to take Candy to check out the old house,” his sister stated. “Because she’s scared of homeless people.”
“Homeless people?” David questioned, confused. “What homeless people?” Although the idea of taking Candy pretty much wherever she wanted to go was fine.
“That’s what I said,” Amanda teased her new friend.
“And spiders. And mice!” Clair explained. “I’m afraid of most abandoned house inhabitants.”
David smiled. “There’ll be plenty of spiders and mice.”
The old house was the one beside the mansion. It had been uninhabited for twenty years. David hadn’t been in there himself since he was a kid.
“So, you’ll take me?” Clair entreated, making him blush.
“Yeah…” he said, like of course he would!
“Today?” She had stepped closer and was peering up sweetly.
“I’ve got the day off, so…” He added a shrug as an open offer.
Amanda’s mobile phone rang, and she went into the other room.
“So, what do you think you’re going to find there?” David asked.
“I’ll make that.” Clair took the coffee from him. “How do you have it?”
“White with two.” David poured some Corn Flakes.
“I don’t know what I’ll find there. I think it used to be my grandparents’ house.”
“Your grandparents?”
“Yes, they’re from here. My parents grew up here and moved to Queensland after they married.”
“Oh, right… And you..?”
“No, I was born in Brisbane. I stayed here with my grandparents for a few Christmas holidays when I was really little. I don’t remember much about the place, but bits are coming back to me.”
“Yeah, that’s cool, then. Should be fun checking the old house out. I grew up here, so it’s all pretty boring to me.”
“Yes, I know you did. I know heaps of stuff about you,” Clair tossed back over her shoulder while pouring the water for coffees.
“Oh, you do?” David questioned.
“Yes. Amanda and I talked,” she explained. “Though I had you pretty much figured before that.”
“Yeah, me too.” David tossed back with a mouthful of Corn Flakes.
“You too, what?”
“I had you figured when you stepped out of your car at the B&B.”
“Oh, you did not… You do not have me figured at all.”
“Sure, I do. Except for the baby seat.”
Clair blushed a bit. “It’s not mine.”
“Oh. That makes sense, then.”
“What does?” She was frowning.
“Just that if you had a kid, where is it?”
“Oh… I guess… But why would you want to figure me, anyway?” she pressed.
“Are you kidding?” David shot back.
“No.”
“Because you’re hot.”
She blushed a bit again. “Oh. Okay.”
Amanda came back, grinning gleefully. “It was him,” she cried at Clair. “Tonight!”
They squealed and hugged.
“Where?” Clair asked excitedly.
“The Lantern… It’s nice.”
David sipped his coffee. He was standing there with his Corn Flakes bowl in his other hand. The hot new girl in town was pulled away by his sister, but she looked back at him.
“This conversation isn’t over,” she said defiantly.
“Damn straight it isn’t,” David shot back, making her frown and smile all at once as she was pulled out of sight around the corner of the living room.
He put on jeans and a jumper, passing his sister’s closed bedroom door with his laptop in his hand. He set up at the dining table with his coffee to check the morning news stories.
David wasn’t sure why he had been dumped. Cassie’s explanation had been that they were not officially a couple, so she was free to fall for someone else. Which was technically true, but David felt like they were together. He was about to tell her he lo
ved her.
She had also talked about mature men and boy-men. She had basically called him immature and a bit of a clown. She had mentioned his drinking. She was probably right about that, he reasoned as he clicked on a story about another shark attack off a beach in South Australia. Shark attacks seemed to be becoming more common down there.
Cassie had compared David openly and harshly to her boss, Reece Norman. He wasn’t much older than David and had a different suit for every day of the week. He knew what wine to order with a meal, and Cassie looked great by his side the previous night. David had never seen her in that particular dress before and didn’t know if it was new or if he had just never dressed well enough to encourage her to wear it. He didn’t own a suit.
“We’ll be back soon. We’re getting Candy’s stuff,” Amanda called to him.
He leaned back to see around the corner of the wall, and the new girl in town pointed at him, smiling and shaking her head.
He shrugged innocently. “What..?”
“Just you wait,” she threatened him playfully. “Got me figured, my arse!”
He leaned back to look more deliberately. “Yeah, that too.”
She wiggled her bum and made him laugh. He walked over to the front window and watched them leaving. She waved and he waved back.
When they had driven away, he returned to the shark attack story then browsed a few more before searching his picture album for a family shot of him and his sister with their parents, and he used that to replace the picture of Cassie he had as desktop background.
The Corn Flakes were not going to cut it, though. He was still hungry and decided a stroll down to the shops was in order.
It was getting on mid-morning and quite warm. There was not a cloud to be seen. The air was still and kind of steamy with the scent of grass and flowers. The houses along David’s street were well established and well gardened. They were small fibro family homes from his parents’ era, and a lot of the residents were elderly.
Two streets over was the Woolworths supermarket, which was in a mall with a butcher, chemist, book shop, news agency and a bakery. David lined up at the bakery counter and purchased a fresh loaf of bread for lunch, along with the two sausage rolls he had decided on to complete his breakfast.
He strolled around past Cassie’s house on the way back home. He didn’t know why. It was the same distance as the way he had walked to the shops, so it was a matter of choosing to walk past her house or to avoid doing so. He guessed he was choosing to not avoid walking past, and he noticed her car there behind the gates, and that the front door was open with only the screen door closed. It was likely that she was home, and he almost called in to apologise for the drunken encounter the previous night, but he calculated it would be best to leave it.
He wondered whether she could see him, but he shook that off and wished he had walked the other way.
That route took him past the school and playing fields where he saw Brent with a few other cops and a white tent set up with FORENSICS stamped on the side. He waved, and Brent waved back but was busy on-duty. It was the site of the human remains someone dug up, as David recalled. He would have to mow the fields within the week. It was one of his contracts, and it had been over a week since he had last given the school and playing fields a trim. It was a twice a month arrangement through autumn and winter, and once a week through the hotter months when the grass grew half an inch a day.
He chomped down the two sausage rolls with another coffee and two headache tablets as soon as he got home. The headache was beginning to numb. He quietly played a bit of pool in his garage until it had abated completely and his breakfast had digested. He then took to his treadmill for some exercise.
David had given up playing rugby that year. He had played since he was six years old, right through the grades and on into the local adult competition, which was a regional grade and not fully professional. He was fairly wiry at twenty, and pretty quick on his feet. By his late twenties, he had built into quite a solid man. He was still pretty good with the ball in hand, being hard to tackle and bring down. The young guys, though, the 18-20-year-olds—well, he had become an easy mark for them in the defensive line. At thirty, he was just too slow for them, and he had packed his boots away at the end of the past season.
“Can I have a turn on that?” Clair called to him from his garage door.
He was red faced, puffing and sweating beer, rum and sausage roll juice.
“Sure!” He stepped off his tread mill and grabbed a towel.
Damn she looked good! She had her long, blond hair pulled back into a pony-tail. Is that lycra she’s wearing? She had on three-quarter length tights and pink highlight Nikes. Her top was basically a black halter-neck sports bra. Her belly was flat and lean.
“I’ll just wind this back a bit for you,” David said cheekily.
“Okay, thank you,” she replied, countering his cheek with sincerity and shutting him up.
David was not easy to shut up. He always had a comment to offer.
“It’s fine like that,” she said when he had the machine running at a brisk walking pace. She was looking around at his bar, television, rugby trophies and framed photos, at his pool table and sofa chairs. “This is like a man-cave,” she concluded.
David beat his chest and did a mock Tarzan noise. “Me Tarzan!”
She giggled. “Me Jane’s girlfriend from the big city.”
“You look like a Jane,” David said agreeably. “If I was a stripper I’d probably go with Tarzan.”
“You mean after you trimmed a few kilos?”
“Yeah, after that.”
She laughed that time. “Well, I think I’ll stick with David but you can call me Jane,” she said. “I’d like that.”
David smiled. “Okay, Jane.”
“It’ll be like a secret name, though. For when you’re helping me snoop.”
“I’m helping you snoop?”
“Well, yes. Aren’t you?”
David kicked back in one of his couch chairs. Clair’s body was glistening sweat. Her cheeks were rosy. Her pony tail was swishing and bobbing.
“I guess I am,” he agreed. “So, we’re snooping the Mulvanes?”
“Yeah, but just for fun. I actually got some stuff from the police station just now that covers everything I need for my assignment. I got a whole summary from the file and some basic crime scene pics… It’s not like I have to solve it or anything. I’d still love to talk to the widow, though.”
“She doesn’t say much,” David affirmed. “I have dealings with her about the grounds and what she wants done, but we don’t talk or anything… She’s pretty cagy.”
“Cagy?”
“Well, secretive… She doesn’t talk to anyone if you ask Amanda.”
“I know. I was going to ask Amanda,” Clair confessed. “I wanted to get to know her so I could pump her for info, but she’s too nice, and I can’t bring myself to snoop with her.”
David chuckled. “It’s alright. Mandy turns everyone to mush.”
“Yes. Exactly! And that’s why you have to help me snoop instead.”
“Hey, I’m in!” David declared. “Sign me up! Just got dumped and have nothing the hell better to do!”
“Oh, I know. Sorry.”
“Pfft… I’m better off,” David lied. He didn’t feel better off. Although, he was beginning to as he watched Clair step it out for a few more minutes.
She took his sweaty towel and used it to dab her wet skin as she stood before him. She either had great legs or the lycra was doing wonders shaping them. The swell of her chest was pushing her boobs out of her top as she released her pony tail and ruffled her hair.
“Do you want to play pool?” she asked sweetly. “Winner gets the first shower!”
“Ha! Like it will be a contest,” David scoffed.
She sidled closer. “Or we could play for lap dances. But if I win you have to give me one, Tarzan!”
David laughed. “Yeah, that’s funny. Ma
ybe after a bunch of beers.”
She laughed too. “And after the kilos, so you don’t sit on my lap and squash me!”
David clutched his love-handles and wobbled his gut. “Yep,” he said. “I used to play rugby, you know—used to be a Tarzan.”
“You still look pretty good,” Clair said sincerely. “Can’t imagine what that other girl was thinking.”
She was setting up the pool balls. She had glanced up and passed the comment as would his sister or a friend. She had left it there and moved on chatting about what the local rules were for pool, but the comment resounded with David, and the kindness in it warmed him.
They played a few games, which he won easily until he started playing left-handed to make it fair.
“So, the town’s in like, blocks. It’s all square,” Clair commented as they walked toward the cove.
Amanda had some housekeeping work to do for an elderly lady up the street and had left them for the afternoon. They would check out the old house later, but Clair wanted to browse a few shops in town first.
They walked across to the water and leaned there on the rail watching the fishing boats for a while. David then took her into the fishermen’s pub because she couldn’t come at the idea it was for men only. She had her nose screwed up.
“Told you.”
“It’s not that bad,” she denied. “It just smells like the ocean.”
“It’s because of the water lapping at the back landing, and waste from the market spews out in the rocks there. It’s not so much the guys, although they’re all used to it and don’t care.”
“So, you don’t bring your dates here, then? Wise!” Clair concluded with a giggle.
They had a beer on the back landing before moving on into town and the few clothing shops. “I want to buy a suit,” David said.
“What sort?”
“I don’t know. I usually hire one for weddings. There’s a wedding I’m going to next month.”
Clair had bought a new raincoat and a heavy woollen scarf. David tried on a few suits, and she helped him decide which one to buy. They were strolling along with their shopping bags, laughing and chatting, when Cassie appeared walking toward them.
“Should I make myself scarce?” Clair asked.