The Cadet Under-Officer

by Christopher Cummings

  Mick looked up in astonishment as Sandra ran past into the scrub. Then he was up and after her. Jake was quicker. He was lean and tough and in his torchlight Sandra’s white dress stood out plainly.

  Sandra glimpsed rubber vines in the torchlight and swerved to avoid their grasping tendrils. Then she hit the barbed wire fence beyond without seeing it. She bounced back from it in agonized shock, her dress ripping in several places. The barbs had dug deep and lacerated her chest, hips and legs. She cried out in pain and staggered. Luckily she was able to stay on her feet and she turned to run along the fence.

  Footsteps thudded behind her. A strong, hairy arm gripped her and she was caught. She struggled gamely and almost wriggled free. Desperate to get free she lashed out with her hands and feet and clawed at the man’s eyes. In response Jake punched her, hard, in the mouth. Stunned Sandra reeled and tasted blood and began to scream. Jake hit her again in the face so that she went over backwards, hitting a fence post and the barbed wire again. The barbs tore at her clothes and lacerated her right shoulder.

  Jake dragged her to her feet. Sandra was stunned and bleeding and couldn’t see out of her left eye. She struggled still but when she tried to bite the man’s wrist he slapped her face very hard. It made her head spin and her ears ring.

  Her arm was twisted up behind her back till she thought it would break and she couldn’t help herself crying out in pain. Jake frog-marched her back to the car. Mick was full of questions and was shown the briefcase.

  He opened it and shone his torch in. The NORMAC documents at once explained it.

  Jake twisted Sandra’s arm again. “Where did you get the briefcase?” he snarled, twisting harder. Sandra cried out and hot tears came but she wouldn’t answer.

  “Answer me woman! Are you the girl we are looking for? Elizabeth Schein? Get her purse Mick. It’s on the front seat. Speak!” Jake hit her then - hard across the side of her face.

  Mick looked around at the sound of the blow. “Hey, der be no need for that Jake me boy,” he said disapprovingly. But he still moved to the front of the car and took out Sandra’s purse. He opened it and studied it in the torch light. “Driver’s Licence here says Sandra McEwen,” he said.

  Mick then shone his torch on her face then again on the Licence. “Photo is of her.”

  Jake rubbed his bristly chin. “So how’s she got this briefcase with NORMAC documents in it and all this money?” he asked. Sandra made no answer, just glared at him defiantly.

  Mick shook his head. “I think we'd better take her to Mr Falls to let him solve it,” he said.

  Sandra felt a stab of pure terror at that. ‘They murdered Elizabeth’s uncle, she thought. She swallowed and found her voice. “You’d be wiser to let me go. You are making a big mistake,” she began. Then she hesitated. ‘If I threaten them with police action they might just murder me too.’ The prospect rendered her quite numb with horror.

  Jake pushed her around to the rear of the Landcruiser. “I'll tie her up. You fix her car and drive it, Mick,” he said. He kept holding her with one hand while he took a rope and bound her arms tightly behind her back. Sandra was praying by this time, hoping a car or truck would come but the highway remained empty blackness. To her added dismay she was then pushed roughly onto the back gravel and her legs were tied together. While this was happening her mind raced, trying to come up with a plan of escape. But Jake was too strong and too rough and she found herself bound tightly and helpless. Again the terror surged in her.

  A filthy, oily rag was shoved in her mouth and a gag tied firmly over it. Sandra felt nauseous and panic gripped her. Jake then picked her up and dumped her on the back seat of her own car. Engines started and the vehicles set off.

  CHAPTER 20

  SANDRA’S SILENCE

  When Sandra was dumped, bound and gagged, on the back seat of her car she was as much outraged at the rough treatment as afraid of what might happen to her. Her face and body throbbed with pain and she tasted blood from her split lip. She could hardly believe her ill-luck.

  For a half an hour she lay while the two men argued what to do next. They stood too far away for her to overhear properly but from the snatches of conversation she gathered they were undecided. They searched the briefcase again, then her handbag. Then the Irishman, Mick, worried that they were abducting a woman and he told Jake he didn’t like the way she had been hit.

  This led to a heated argument which went nowhere and left them with the problem of what to do. They considered telling Falls on the radio but Jake vetoed that in case the police were listening. Then they discussed driving her to Falls and whether they should leave their search area without orders.

  Mick then had the bright idea that perhaps Elizabeth had been with Sandra and had been hiding while she fixed the puncture. This sent them both off with torches searching the rubber vines and bush for another twenty minutes. Having found no sign of Elizabeth they decided to take Sandra to Falls and let him decide. The cars started up.

  Sandra’s face was in against the back of the seat and only by painful twisting could she see out of the car and even then all she saw were moving black silhouettes of trees and stars. They were enough to tell her the cars were driving back towards Charters Towers.

  When the car slowed and swung sharp right onto a dirt road going uphill she deduced they were on the Canning Road and her main fear was that she would be recognized and the crooks would at once move against 4 Platoon on Black Knoll. The car came to a halt. Dust billowed in on her and made her eyes smart and her teeth feel gritty.

  There were slammed doors and voices and then a torch shone on her. Sandra closed her eyes and tried to control her fear. A man she had never heard before spoke: “Not the girl, eh! But she had the briefcase! That’s mighty fishy. She must know where the girl is then.”

  There were questions by Jake about where Falls and Bargheese were. The other man was addressed as Vince. He spoke again, “Falls? He’s down camped with them cadets at the Canning Junction. He’s got Martinez and Berzinski wit ‘im and they’se gunna organize a big search in the mornin’ with all them kids.”

  Mick spoke. “We goin’ ter take ‘er down there then?”

  “Don’t be daft Mick. Someone ud see her,” Jake snorted.

  Vince spoke again. “Well, there’s only me and Lewis here. He’s asleep over there. If I was you I’d take her straight back to Mr Bargheese at the Mine.”

  This, they decided, was the best idea. They then debated which way to go to avoid curious eyes like police roadblocks. Vince told them to take the Canning Road which also went to the Mine. “Never been along it mind you, so I can’t say what it’s like but it goes there alright. It’s that track what joins the mine road just near the dam.”

  Sandra breathed easier. None of these men knew her and that would mean a few more hours before 4 Platoon were in danger.

  The Landcruiser and car then set off - down past Black Knoll - Oh what a feeling to know that friends were so close! - and across the Canning Causeway. Here they stopped for a minute to talk to a sleepy miner on watch but Sandra noted he wasn’t told about her. Obviously the enemy camp was not united. ‘The villains are playing the honest workers as dupes,’ she decided.

  There was then an hour of rough driving. The road was bad. There were at least four wire gates and once they took a wrong turn and had to back up. The car kept well behind the Landcruiser but she still got covered in dust as Jake drove with the window down. She was bumped and bruised as the car hit potholes too fast and once Jake braked so hard she was catapulted off the seat to land heavily on the floor, her back arched painfully over the drive shaft tunnel.

  All in all it was a nightmare of a drive. By the time the engine was switched off she was pummelled and bruised. Her muscles were cramped and her hands and feet were quite numb. She was also shivering with fright but was determined to say nothing. Jake hauled her roughly out of the car so that her head hit the door, cutting her right cheek. This led to an altercation between Ja
ke and Mick, who objected to the rough treatment.

  Sandra was carried into a tin shed and put on the concrete floor. A light was switched on - just a bare bulb in the rafters and she heard the two men walk out. Jake said: “You watch her. I’ll take this briefcase to Mr Bargheese and tell him.”

  The Landcruiser started up and drove off. Mick came back into the shed. He knelt and removed the gag. Sandra coughed and licked her dusty and cracked lips.

  “Can I have a drink please,” she asked in a hoarse whisper. Mick went out and returned a few minutes later with a cup. He held her head up and helped her drink. It tasted like mud and stung the cut lip but was a real tonic.

  “Could you please untie me. It hurts terribly.”

  “You won’t try to get away?” Mick asked doubtfully.

  Sandra shook her head. She felt sick and her head swam. He gave her another drink and she thirstily finished the cup. Then he rolled her on her side and untied her hands. But he wouldn’t untie her feet. She struggled into a sitting position and put her back against the corrugated wall.

  Sandra looked around. The shed was quite large - about ten metres long and five wide. Apart from a table and two chairs, a stack of boxes and some rubbish it was empty and she could not determine its purpose. It was very quiet outside - no voices, no traffic noise, so she decided it was out in the bush somewhere, away from the mine. She sat rubbing the red weals on her wrists and found she had to blink back the tears.

  She was a prisoner.

  ‘No-one will know where I am and no-one will come looking for me!’ she thought. ‘Even if they do look they won’t know where! They will think I have gone to Townsville.’ Worse still, she pondered, she obviously knew too much. Mounting apprehension about her possible fate reduced her to a jelly inside. Then came the sound of an approaching vehicle and it took all her self-control not to cry out.

  The vehicle stopped. Doors slammed. Footsteps - and into the room came Bargheese. He seemed to fill the room with evil and Sandra ceased to be aware of Jake or Mick unless they spoke.

  Bargheese shone a powerful torch in her face and began to question her, his eyes boring into hers as though he would hypnotize her. His gaze filled her with fear and loathing and she closed her eyes and looked away, lips tight shut.

  ***

  After Jake had woken him Bargheese had spent ten minutes doing a quick search of the briefcase. It had been at once obvious that only some of the missing material was there. With relief Bargheese found one of his own passports - his real one. He slipped this into his shirt pocket. Most of the money was also there and some computer print-outs which he saw at a glance were very incriminating. A hurried emptying of everything onto his bed where he sorted it showed no sign of most of the missing computer discs and, worst of all, the brown notebook.

  “Have you seen a brown, leather-covered notebook?” he snarled.

  Jake shook his head. “That’s all there was.”

  Bargheese felt a film of sweat on his palms. If that brown notebook fell into the wrong hands! “Where is the girl? How did you catch her?”

  “It ain’t the girl we bin lookin for Mr Bargheese, it’s some other woman,” Jake answered. He then related how they came to catch Sandra. Bargheese was more worried than elated. ‘Another woman! Who could she be? Is it some sort of a conspiracy? Had she been working with Schein and the girl as part of some plan? Who else might know? Was she police?’

  Grinding his teeth with anger and frustration he snapped, “Take me to her. There are a few questions we need to ask.”

  The two drove from the mine to the airstrip in Jake’s Landcruiser. The woman was in the shed where the illegal immigrants were kept out of sight if they had to be held there for a day or so. Bargheese looked at her but there was no recognition. He was mystified. He never looked at women much and apart from a niggling suspicion he had seen her somewhere he couldn’t place her.

  After Bargheese’s first few questions Sandra was also surprised that he didn’t recognize her. But when she thought it over she decided it wasn’t so strange. By his manner he was an arrogant man who looked down on women so he probably had taken no notice of her on the three occasions she could think of when he’d spoken to her. As well she had then been wearing sunglasses whereas now she had one good eye and, from the feel of it, one black eye. She had also worn an army hat with her hair tied up at the back. Now she had no hat and her brown curls were in some disarray. Her face felt as though it was covered in dust and blood from her swollen and split lips - which it was. ‘And I’m wearing a dress and not army uniform,’ she thought. She decided that nothing in the men’s description of events linked her with the cadets. ‘Not yet, anyway,’ she thought - other than the coincidence of being in the general area.

  Sandra refused to answer Bargheese’s questions and looked away. This got her a stinging slap from the Indian on her cheek which brought tears to her eyes. She bit her lip in determination and it began to bleed again.

  Bargheese leaned close and snarled at her. “Answer me, woman, or it’ll be the worse for you.”

  Jake cut in. “Here, Mr Bargheese, leave her to me. I’ll soon make her talk,” he said in tones heavy with menace.

  Mick shook his head. “Hey, take it a bit easy, eh?” he said in a worried voice.

  “Shut up Mick or I’ll belt you too,” Jake snarled.

  Bargheese gestured angrily. “Has she got any identification - luggage, a handbag?” he cut in.

  “Aw, yeah. In the car,” Jake replied. He went out and soon returned with Sandra’s handbag. This was emptied onto the table. Bargheese sat facing her and began sorting the items.

  Mick picked up a card holder and passed it to him. “Here’s her driver’s licence, Mr Bargheese. In this little booklet of credit cards and whatevers.” Mick looked very worried and Sandra deduced that he didn't like the way things were developing. ‘He is a natural gentleman who is hoping to save me from further rough treatment,’ she decided. But how to turn that to advantage?

  Bargheese flicked through the small plastic booklet. Two credit cards, a library card. He looked at that. A Cairns Library. Well, that made sense. The girl Schein came from Cairns. All of the cards gave the same name. S.F. McEwen. A Medicare card added the Sandra. The driver’s licence added the middle name - Fiona - her home address and date of birth.

  “Is she a Mrs, Miss or a Ms?” he queried.

  “No rings on her fingers,” Mick said. Sandra at once tucked her left hand under her arm, annoyed that it had betrayed even one thing to them.

  Jake chuckled. “Probably no husband to worry and ask questions then,” he offered. The implication sent ice down Sandra’s spine.

  Bargheese dug out another card from behind a credit card. “Teacher’s Union Card! She’s a school teacher! What school do you teach at, Miss Sandra Fiona McEwen? Do you teach a girl named Elizabeth Schein?” Bargheese’s voice rose in anger and fear. He pushed back his chair and strode over to her, seizing her jaw with his hand. Sandra struggled to push him away.

  Bargheese slapped her again. “Answer me woman!” he grated. “Hold her you fools. Tie her hands!”

  Jake seized her arms and leered: “Just leave her ter me Mr Bargheese. A few touches with a cigarette and she’ll talk.” Sandra’s mind recoiled at the thought of the indignity and the scars, and the pain - least of all the pain!

  Mick licked his lips nervously. “Hey, take it easy Jake. We don’t want none o’ that.”

  Sandra’s wrists were retied. Then the men began to argue over whether to torture Sandra, and methods that might make her talk. Horrified and disgusted Sandra slumped over, emotionally and physically exhausted.

  Bargheese looked at his watch. It was just after midnight. He began to ponder what it all meant. Perhaps the woman had been waiting at a farm or cattle station for Schein, and the girl’s flight through the bush had not been just random panic? In that case, had one of the places he had been to been hiding the girl? Was that why she was so hard to find; becau
se she was being harboured?

  He clicked his fingers. “A map. You’ve got one? Get it.”

  Mick went out to his vehicle and returned. Bargheese asked them to show him exactly where they had caught the woman and which way she had been travelling. It didn’t leave many options. There were only two farms, three cattle stations and the army camp on that side of the Bunyip River.

  “Did you check if she had passed our people at the army camp - or on the highway bridge - or at Bunyip Bend roadblock? No? You fools!” he snarled. That meant she could have come from a dozen other places. ‘I must find out,’ he thought. He also needed to inform Watton - and make sure Falls knew. “Take me back to the mine Evans. I need a phone. Murphy - you watch the girl. Don’t let her escape - or else.”

  Sandra listened to the receding footsteps with such relief she breathed out an audible sigh. The vehicle drove off and she looked up to where Mick stood uncertainly.

  “Untie me please and let me go,” she asked.

  Mick shook his head. “I can’t do that Miss. They’d give it to me for sure.” he replied. He looked most unhappy.

  “They’ll torture me ... then they’ll kill me,” Sandra said quietly. “You know that don’t you? They think I know too much. Do you want to be involved in murder?” It took all her self-control to keep her voice from pleading. Pride helped, even if it was supposed to be sinful!

  Mick was obviously torn by his fears but lacked the conviction to act. After ten minutes Sandra gave up. “Well then, at least let me go to the toilet,” she asked.

  That embarrassed Mick, confirming Sandra’s belief that he was one of nature’s gentlemen. ‘Even if he is a villain!’

  Mick got her to promise not to try to escape. Then he untied her feet and led her outside to a small outhouse. He refused to untie her hands but did use his torch to check there were no spiders under the seat. It was something.

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