Dead Dry Heart_A psychological thriller

by Toni Pike

  I raced to the living room and picked out the first book on the top shelf, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. I sat on the sofa and turned the pages, devouring every word at top speed and managing to finish it in three hours. Then I rushed to the kitchen to tell Jane.

  “What did you think?” she asked, cutting me a slice of cake.

  “I think the Time Traveller is a brilliant man, but I hope the world doesn’t end up like that. I’d like to be a scientist and invent incredible stuff. I’ll read the next book tomorrow.”

  Jane came over and gave me a hug. “You seem to be a good reader. Do you know any maths?”

  “I’m not sure, but I know how to count.”

  “Would you like to help me with the accounts? That’s the only maths I really know.”

  I thanked her profusely, relieved that I might not look like such a fool on my first day of school.

  Chapter 5

  No one in Quarry had ever seen anything like the search for my parents. On the first day, the police found the green campervan and towed it to Broome. A helicopter arrived and hovered overhead as the hunt continued. On the seventh day, Sergeant Barry Elliot held a press conference outside the police station and announced that they had been unable to find any trace of Peter and Kylie Thompson.

  On day eight, the Emergency Service volunteers headed home and the search began to wind down. All the while, I was wracked with guilt.

  The following day, Barry Elliot asked me to the police station for a chat. Kevin and Jane came with me, but he asked them to sit in the waiting room and took me into his office.

  Penny Higgins sat next to me and I could smell her perfume. Barry asked how I’d enjoyed my stay with the Carmichaels and added that they really liked me. Then he leaned forward in seat. “Tyler, we’re starting to scale back the search,” he said. “I’m sorry, but we can’t find any trace of your parents. We’ve searched far and wide and been in touch with the communities in the region, but nothing has turned up.”

  That was the best news I ever heard. “No trace at all?” I asked, trying to look upset.

  “That’s right,” said Penny. “It’s almost as if they’ve disappeared from the face of the earth. They may have gone somewhere else, but that isn’t likely without their vehicle.”

  He frowned and looked straight at me. “Has something happened to them, Tyler – is there anything you’re not telling us?”

  That question hit me like a slap on the face. “What do you mean?” I asked.

  My head started to pound. Perhaps they had found the bodies and this was a trick. They were about to arrest me.

  “Is there anything else you remember about that day?” I shook my head, but his questions continued. “Was there anyone else, or any other vehicles?”

  Tears flowed down my cheeks. “Nothing,” I said.

  “We haven’t given up yet, I want you to know that. We’ll continue to work on the case and keep searching for a while longer. We can always conduct another search in the future.”

  I studied both of them, trying to work out if they were telling the truth. Did someone see the two of us that night, gravediggers in the desert? And if they kept searching, one day they might find the grave.

  “Has anyone threatened you?” asked Penny. She gave me an imploring look as if she expected me to say something. “What is it, Tyler, what do you want to tell us?” she continued.

  I stared at the wall and thought about my parents. They were probably watching me and laughing.

  Joshua told me what to say and how to stop them finding out the truth. But I blurted out the words before I could stop myself and regretted them ever since.

  I looked at Penny and answered her question.

  “A strange man came to our campsite.”

  ***

  Their mouths gaped as I fidgeted in my chair.

  “Did he hurt you, Tyler – did he tell you not to say anything?” asked Barry.

  “Is he the reason your parents disappeared?” asked Penny.

  “Or did he threaten to find you if you mentioned him?”

  There was no need for me to speak because they did all the talking. They created their own scenario and ran away with it until that stranger in the night began to sound like the beast from Hell.

  My head was turning in wild circles. Joshua had told me what to say. Just keep your story consistent. Always make sure that it’s the same every time but don’t use the same words. And remember that I don’t exist, that you’re all alone.

  In one careless moment I mentioned the stranger and now I had to backtrack, unravel my story and talk about my confusion. Maybe I wouldn’t need to betray him, after all.

  “What did he do to you, Tyler?” asked Penny. “You can tell us anything, no matter what it is. Did he attack the three of you?

  “No!” I cried, and that stunned them into silence. Barry Elliot frowned as if he was sorry for upsetting me. “Nothing like that. He was very nice and chatted to us. My father gave him a beer. After that he went away.” I lowered my head. “That’s all that happened.”

  “Do you remember his name?” asked Penny.

  “Not really.”

  “Try hard to remember. What did your parents call him?”

  Trying to stick to my story, I wanted to say he was a friendly man who stayed for an hour and moved on. Then they would forget about him.

  “Mr Byrnes, I think.”

  “What did he look like?” asked Barry.

  I had to tell the truth in case they found him, so I hoped that by then he would be too far away for them to track him down. He could already have moved to another state. “He was tall and thin, with dark hair and eyes. And he looks about your age.”

  “So perhaps he was in his late thirties. Did he have short hair?”

  “It was long, down to his shoulders, and wavy. That’s all I can remember. It was dark.”

  “I’ve seen cases like this before, when I was working in South Australia,” said Penny. She stood up and opened the door that led to the waiting room. “Jane, Kevin, you might want to come in and listen to this.”

  My heart sank at the thought of facing them. They came in and sat either side of me.

  Barry Elliot spoke to them as if I wasn’t there. “Tyler just told us that there was a stranger who came to the campsite the night before the disappearance. He seemed friendly at the time.”

  Jane furrowed her eyebrows in concern. “Were you frightened, dear?” she asked.

  “No, not at all. I was only afraid of my parents.”

  “You didn’t see him again after that?” asked Barry.

  “No, not at all.” I wondered if their questions would ever end and how I could reverse time so that I could erase the last few minutes and keep my mouth shut.

  I wanted them to forget about Joshua, and then I saw a way of escape.

  Perhaps I could make them believe my stranger was a fantasy, something from my crazy little mind. After all, I’d been through quite an ordeal and could pretend that I was confused.

  My throat was so tight that it felt as if I was choking. I took a deep breath. “One night, a day or two after I started walking, there was a thunderstorm and I thought I saw the figure of a man in the distance, lit up by flashes of lightning. Perhaps it was a ghost. I think Mr Byrnes was a ghost or perhaps a nightmare. I don’t think he’s real. I felt sick the night before my parents disappeared, and my mother said I was delirious and told me to shut up.”

  “That’s terrible, darling,” said Jane, wiping away tears.

  “Do you think there are ghosts out there in the desert?” I asked.

  “So you might have imagined that man?” asked Penny.

  “Yes, definitely,” I said.

  Penny looked convinced, but Sergeant Elliot was not about to enter into my fantasy world. He stood up and paced the floor, then sat down again and tapped his fingers on the desk. “I think I know exactly what’s happening here,” he said. “Once, about ten years ago, an elderly couple went missi
ng. They had just retired and were driving around Australia. After leaving Broome we think that someone murdered them, but we have no idea what happened to them or where they are.”

  “That’s terrible,” I said.

  Penny squeezed her chin. “What are you thinking?” she asked, looking at Barry.

  “I think your Mr Byrnes is very real, just as real as you or me, and I’m going to find him,” he said.

  My effort at a ghost story had turned to disaster. Somehow, I had to steer the situation in a new direction, telling them nothing and everything all at the same time.

  “He seemed nice, he was kind to me,” I said. “It was my parents who hurt me, and I don’t think he liked that. That’s why he left so quickly. My parents didn’t want a stranger interfering in their business.”

  Barry squinted. “So he fought with them?”

  “He told them to stop being mean to me, that’s all, but then he went away. He left and I never saw him again. Maybe I saw a ghost in the desert that night, or a kangaroo.”

  Jane put her arm around me. “Sometimes in the desert your eyes can play funny tricks,” she said. “You can forget what you’ve seen, particularly if you’re upset. And the sun is so bright that it can easily affect your brain, especially if you haven’t had enough food or water. I know it’s hard to remember everything, Tyler, after what you’ve been through.”

  “He was a stranger, a friendly one. That’s all I know,” I said. “But my parents, they just got lost in the outback, and now they’ve fallen over a cliff or something.”

  “Don’t worry, Tyler, we’ll find that man,” said Sergeant Elliot. “You can go home now and have a rest.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Kevin. “Tyler needs to settle down now and try to live a normal life.”

  ***

  The search continued for three more weeks. Every night I lay in bed, looked out my open window at the moon and stars, and waited for something dreadful to happen. I wondered if it would be better for me to fall asleep and not wake up. Everything in Quarry would then be peaceful again and they could forget all about the Thompson family and Joshua Byrnes.

  The daylight hours were much better. School started in late January and I loved it. Quarry Public School had one class for each grade and they put me in the sixth grade to see how well I would cope. The teacher was Mr Woollard and everyone thought that he looked like James Bond. The principal was Mrs Bertorelli, who also taught the fourth grade class. By the end of the first week, her son Brian was my best friend.

  On the first day, Mr Woollard announced some homework that made everyone moan. I did too, just to be sociable, although it sounded like fun to me. We had to write an essay about the best book we read during the summer vacation. Brian told me that he hadn’t read a book because he was too busy having fun.

  That night I wrote a long essay about The Time Machine, but was too embarrassed to show it to Kevin or Jane.

  One week later, Mr Woollard told me that he was amazed by my achievement and that it was the best sixth grade essay he had ever read. He recited it to the class who looked bored by the time he’d finished. Joe Badgery, who always sat at the back, said that he didn’t understand a word.

  I loved working my way through the maths textbook in my spare time. After two weeks at school, Mr Woollard gave me a note to take to the Carmichaels. Wondering about what was inside that envelope on the way home had me almost shaking with fear, so I took a peek inside.

  I read it several times.

  Dear Kevin and Jane,

  Please join me for a meeting tomorrow at eleven o’clock. I want to discuss giving Tyler some special work to help him.

  Yours sincerely,

  Craig Woollard.

  He wanted me separated from the other kids and I wondered if Mr Woollard could read my mind. Did he know that I was different – that I was a murderer?

  Late that night, Kevin and Jane were talking in the living room. I sneaked down the hallway and cupped my ears to hear them.

  “He loves school, I don’t understand,” said Jane.

  “Don’t worry, Jane, I’m sure it’s nothing serious, he just needs to catch up a bit.”

  “We need to tell Mr Woollard that he’s very intelligent and we can help him at home.”

  My heart leapt with joy to know that someone believed in me.

  The next day, when Jane and Kevin arrived, Mr Woollard invited me to join them in the office. That surprised me, and I could see the concern in Kevin’s eyes. “Craig, we don’t think Tyler’s had much schooling until now,” he said.

  Mr Woollard nodded. “I know, and that’s what makes him all the more remarkable. It’s my belief that Tyler is highly intelligent and he needs advanced maths work. I hope that you don’t have any objections to that.”

  Kevin broke into a wide grin. “No, not at all, whatever you think will help him.

  There were tears in Jane’s eyes as she looked at me. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Tyler?” she asked.

  “Yes please,” I replied. That was the best moment of my life until then.

  Mr Woollard continued talking, and I hung on every word in disbelief. “I’m friends with a high school maths teacher at Melaleuca College in Perth – a very smart mathematician. We’ve spoken and he’s going to send me some textbooks and notes for Tyler.”

  “That very kind,” said Jane, patting my arm.

  “We’ll see how he progresses and reassess things in a few months time.”

  “I’ll work very hard,” I said.

  That night, every word they said circled around in my mind. I wondered how a murderer could be so lucky, with wonderful new parents, a great school and brilliant teacher. I hoped that Joshua was far away and decided to forget the past.

  ***

  Two weeks later I was at school when my happy world came to a sudden end. We were having thirty minutes of silent reading, Mr Woollard’s favourite time of day. The heat was oppressive and the only sounds were the buzz of a fly and the endless whirring of six ceiling fans. A fly landed on Brian’s desk and that was a fatal mistake. He swatted it with his hand and took a bow, his third kill for the day.

  We heard the wail of police sirens, so we jumped up and scrambled over to the windows. Three police cars drove sedately down the main street and it was obvious that the sirens and blue lights were only for show. As the car in front drove past the school it slowed to a crawl so that all the children could gape at the man in the back seat.

  There was Joshua Byrnes staring back at us, his mouth held in a grim line. I ducked behind Brian, so afraid to meet his gaze and hoping that he didn’t see me.

  He would not have known that I was a school student at Quarry Public School or even recognise me with my new haircut and school uniform. Just a few weeks earlier we’d been in the desert. He’d expect me to be far away, perhaps taken to Perth or a large town.

  When the police cars disappeared, we went back to our desks and the classroom returned to normal. But the sound of those sirens kept ringing in my ears.

  I heard later that Joshua was fishing at the mouth of 6 Mile Creek, a wide, peaceful estuary near Port Hedland. He was standing on a rock shelf, staring at the water and lost in his own thoughts. Two police officers saw him there and called for reinforcements. He didn’t say a word as they approached.

  Jane and Kevin brought me to the police station the next day. Sergeant Elliot was waiting for me in the office with Penny Higgins. “It’s great to see you looking so much better,” he said as we sat down. “We hear you’re doing very well at school.”

  I tried to appear calm and stop my hands from shaking.

  “We’ve found a man called Joshua Byrnes,” said Penny. “Was that his name?”

  “It might have been, I can’t remember.”

  Her face softened. “We’d like you to take a look and confirm if he’s the man who came to your campsite. Could you do that, Tyler?”

  I lowered my eyes and nodded in reply as my stomach turned to i
ce.

  “Good boy, Tyler,” said Jane.

  Sergeant Elliot led me to the last room in the corridor. There was a tiny one-way window so that we could see inside the small interview room. Joshua Byrnes was at the desk, bent over and holding his head in his hands.

  Penny leaned over and spoke to me softly. “Is that the man you met?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I can’t see his face – that might not be him.”

  “I’ll ask him to look up.” She unlocked the door and walked inside. “Excuse me, Mr Byrnes, would you look at me for a moment, please?” Joshua raised his head and looked straight at her with his big eyes. His face was devoid of all emotion.

  “Well, Tyler?” asked Barry.

  “That’s him,” I said, torn with guilt. Joshua turned and stared straight at me as if he could see through the wall.

  I stepped back, just to be sure I was out of his sight.

  Jane put her arm around me. “It’s okay, Tyler, he can’t hurt you.”

  “You didn’t see him any more after that night?” asked Barry.

  “No way,” I snapped, terrified of revealing the truth.

  “Thanks Tyler, that’s all we need to know,” he said.

  Joshua slowly stood up. “Who’s out there?” he asked as if he was confused.

  “Can we take Tyler home now?” asked Kevin. “This is no place for a young boy.”

  “Of course, thank you very much for bringing him over,” said Barry. “Thank you, Tyler, and don’t worry. Joshua can’t get out of his cell and we’ll be transferring him soon. You’ll be perfectly safe.”

  Two days later, a white prison van arrived to transport the prisoner to Broome Regional Prison. The vehicle drove past the school at two o’clock, which was towards the end of the lunch break. The children lined up along the wrought iron fence to watch the spectacle.

  I stood behind Brian to avoid being seen, although there were no side windows on the van. “Do you think he could escape?” I asked.

  “Maybe, but only if he’s got a gun,” he replied, “or maybe if he belonged to a gang that was waiting to ambush them.”