Murderer's Thumb

by Beth Montgomery

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  That night Matt picked Adam up to take him to footy training.

  ‘Didn’t know if you’d make it or not,’ Matt said when Adam got in the ute.

  Adam had been worried about Matt too. The Brolga’s arrest was the best gossip the town had had since Emma vanished. It wasn’t exactly the best time to go socialising, but footy was Matt’s first love. It came before people, before relationships. Adam sighed. ‘I didn’t say anything when we were milking, in front of your dad like…I have to thank you, a million times over, I guess. You got me out of there.’

  Matt grinned. ‘I meant footy practice. I didn’t know if you’d make it tonight.’

  ‘Oh, right,’ Adam laughed. ‘Just take it easy, hey? You and me, both.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Matt didn’t attempt to start the car. Instead he opened the glove box and took out an envelope. ‘Read it,’ he said.

  The envelope was marked with a business logo on the front and ‘Matthew Thackeray’ was typed on the front with the appropriate roadside mailbox number. There was a letter inside dated just last week. It was in Lina’s loopy script.

  Hi Matt,

  It’s been a long time, I know. I’m such a bitch for not writing. I should have written years ago, but I was afraid. I still am. I have to stay hidden. If somebody asks for that key I gave you and it’s not Mongrel or Loody, then you need to trust that person. They’ll be after the truth. Maybe this doesn’t make much sense to you but when I heard the police found Emma’s body a few days ago, I felt awful. Should I come forward? Tell the police?

  I couldn’t. Not now. Not after I’d set up my own shop and begun a new life. I’ve been in hiding successfully for all these years. Hidden from my family, hidden from those jerks, Loody and Mongrel. I didn’t want to mess it up. I know what they’re capable of. They’d track me down, easy! Snatch me off the street, smash the shop, beat me up or worse. Who knows, but they’d do it.

  I hid my diary, like I said I would. It’s on the farm in pieces. Now is the right time for it to be found. So I’m holding the diary in my mind, meditating on it, willing it to be found. I can see the pieces clearly, even feel them, smell them. And the person who asks for the key is after the diary too. That’s how you’ll know.

  But it’s not enough. I have to be sure. I rang the Booradoo police. They were grateful I’d rung. They thought I’d been bumped off too. I told them everything I knew, everything that was in the diary But I don’t want to go to court.

  I want to stay hidden, Matt. But I always think of you and remember your smile. Even though nothing much really got going with us, you’re still special in my memories.

  Love M.T.

  Adam folded the letter and put it back in the glove box. He felt a huge sense of relief. Lina was alive. He looked at Matt who was watching him closely. ‘You knew she was OK?’

  ‘Only s…since last week.’

  ‘You should have said something…’ Matt was shaking his head. ‘Y…you were doing fine on your own. I didn’t want to interfere. Best to keep your mouth shut round here.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I see stuff all the time,’ he stammered. ‘Like all the thieving that went on before Emma died. It was Loody and Mongrel trying to frame Lina.’

  ‘And you said nothing?’

  ‘That’s how I survive. Better to act dumb.’

  ‘Is that what it is with you? A bit of an act?’

  Matt started the engine and reversed the ute. ‘One day I’ll show you where some owls are nesting,’ he said with a grin on his face.

  Adam laughed but one thing bothered him. Lina had been wrong. So much effort had gone into hiding the diary and it had all been for nothing. Olwyn Thackeray had totally surprised him. Adam guessed it didn’t sound so unreal when he thought about the Brolga and how she treated her daughter. She must have hated being a woman so much she wanted to deny it even in her own child.

  But you couldn’t always control hormones. Your body just took you on a spin all of its own. Like doing circle work in the silage paddock, stuff got out of control. No amount of punishing haircuts and bible-bashing were ever going to knock sex out of you. Thank God Rosemary wasn’t like that with him. His mum was a pretty damaged unit but she was cool about Toot.

  So much for boring country living at boring old Falcon Ridge. Adam had never felt more energised in his life. He was alive, he and Toot had a good thing happening and footy training was beckoning.