Tina had created a bulletproof story and practised it over and over again as she drove for eight hours each day delivering packages. She could run the details backwards and forwards, inside and out, up and down, without missing a step. She had patched any holes, any forgotten particulars, and created a trail of evidence to back it all up.
Now, all she had to do was kill Juliette.
Tina cleaned the kitchen, being sure not to disturb the espresso machine and canister, then headed to her car, travel cup in hand. Instead of turning right onto Gladstone Mount Larcom Road that would take her into town, she drove straight through the intersection onto the barely used Targinnie Road. A road bordered by tall trees. No residential houses, only the odd rural property here and there.
For a distance, she followed that quiet route until she could park to the side in obscurity. Using a small spade, she dug into the soft dirt and buried the contaminated resealable bag inside, along with the shower caps and gloves, then covered them over, ensuring her hands didn’t get dirty. When done, she pitched the spade hard and deep into the thick scrub, then slid into the driver’s seat, flipped a U-turn and made her way to Gladstone.
For the past three mornings, Tina had tracked Juliette’s schedule. All the while, she had trailed Isabelle to and from work—a mere cover story to add substance to her stalker theory and provide traceable evidence that she was slowly losing her sanity.
She almost smiled as she recalled Chris’s face when she had told him his wife was a stalker. For a flicker of time, in the set of his features, she had wondered if he had believed her rather than Isabelle. For a flicker of time, he had.
Juliette was always whom Tina intended to kill. The police would never know that, though. They would be expertly lied to. Manipulated until they believed Tina’s version of events. She would swear black and blue that the woman she was beating to death with a wrecking bar was her stalker, Isabelle.
The only unexpected spanner in her plan was the baby. Her fingers gripped the steering wheel tight, her knuckles turning white. A baby could complicate the dynamics between Chris and Isabelle. Could strengthen their bond and create a hopeful future, resilient enough to counteract what Tina hoped was about to play out.
Chris and Isabelle’s romance had happened too fast. A rebound relationship. The fact that Chris didn’t agree to a proper wedding, indicated he had reservations about marrying again. Isabelle had been single for so long. Predictably, she would be too set in her ways and content with her independence to fully appreciate her new live-in husband. Add Tina into the mix—the murderess. No relationship that flimsy could withstand such horrendous circumstances.
But the baby added unpredictability.
Too late to turn back now, though. Tina would carry this through, exactly as intended.
She reached for her coffee and gulped it down, leaving a little in the bottom. The timing had to be exactly right, or her plan would unravel.
Ten minutes later, Tina slowed as she neared the road she had been parked at for the past three mornings. She watched the time on her dash. Barely thirty seconds away from when Juliette would rush out her front door, skip to her car, and drive down the street in Tina’s direction.
Soon enough, there was a flash of silver in the distance. Adrenalin sparked making Tina’s hands slightly jittery. Her senses were already beginning to alter. Her world a little dreamlike. But she knew what she had to do. She just hoped she had left enough time.
Juliette drove closer. As she passed, Tina yanked her steering wheel hard to the right and smashed into the small hatchback’s frontend. She slammed on the brakes, shifted her car into park but kept the motor running. She reached under her seat for the wrecking bar, hid it behind her back as she opened her car door and stepped out.
“Hurry up,” Tina whispered under her breath.
Juliette was visibly flustered, taking too long as she turned the motor off, unclipped her seatbelt and climbed from her car. Her expression was apologetic. Her eyes glossing with tears.
But Tina didn’t have time for weak theatrics. Already her vision was starting to change, turning black at the edges. Juliette’s face was warping.
“I’m so sorry, I don’t know how that happened,” Juliette said, coming closer. She was a beautiful young woman. Looked so much like her mother.
Such a shame.
Tina didn’t hesitate as she lurched towards Juliette, lifted the bar and unleashed until she was panting, covered in warm blood, and Juliette’s body fell like a sack of oranges to the road below.
Dizzy. Tina’s heart was racing out of control. She threw the wrecking bar to the ground with a clang, then slid into the driver’s seat, buckled her seatbelt, and sped away, driving until she couldn’t drive any longer.
Chapter 41
Time moved slowly in jail. That day, it had almost stalled as Maddison awaited her family. Her leg bounced as she sat in the visitors centre at a set of table and chairs in a newly built high-security women’s correctional centre that still smelled like fresh paint, located south of Brisbane.
She wore a standard-issue uniform of blue shorts and a collared t-shirt. White trainers. Her hair was tied back with little care. No makeup. No jewellery. No watch. She had already put on weight since arriving nearly three months ago, her face filling out, the hard lines of her limbs softening. An inevitable side effect of spending seventeen hours each day locked in her small cell.
At last, Maddison spotted Ben through the heavy glass windows. She smiled, anticipating her children walking beside him—not quite tall enough yet to be seen through the high window—and yet she felt like crying too. Always dissonant emotions.
Her family had visited three times before, but only for one-hour non-contact visits. Maddison couldn’t bear to see her children from behind a clear shield again and not touch, smell and hold them in her arms.
Ruby and Riley consumed her mind in every moment she was there. Six-minute phone calls were not enough to fill the aching hole in her heart. Initially, the jail had been unbearable. Knowing she had at least twenty years ahead of her, the claustrophobia, the sheer panic, almost broke her. She sobbed, shook and pleaded for the first week, alarming the correctional officers enough to put her on twenty-four-hour suicide watch.
Killer Housewife, the other prisoners named her before she had even stepped foot in the jail. Taunted her with it. They had watched her trial play out on prime-time news and had bets on whether or not she would be convicted.
In the early days, she would beg them to believe her innocence. But they would laugh at her and say, “Yes, yes, we’re all innocent in here.”
The guard opened the door. The thought of cuddling her children was making her shake. A big smile filled her face as she watched Ben and the kids stride into the room. She lurched to her feet, held her arms open wide. Ruby and Riley ran to her. Tears filled her eyes as she drew them into her arms, kissing their faces and head, holding them so tight. She never wanted to let them go.
“Oh, my gosh,” she said, gripping Riley by his shoulders. “You’ve grown in the month since I saw you last.” His thirteenth birthday was in a fortnight, but she was trying not to think about missing such an important milestone.
Riley wasn’t meeting her gaze and was blinking fast, trying to be brave and hold back his emotions, but a mother could see behind that façade.
“It’s okay, Riley,” she soothed, stroking a hand through his hair. “You can feel upset about all this.”
Tears flooded his eyes. “I just don’t know why you have to be in here.”
Maddison didn’t have the answer to that. She always maintained her innocence for her children’s sake, but, deep down, she couldn’t definitively say if she had drugged Tina or not because she could not remember. The evidence during the trial proved that she had, so that’s all she could rely on.
“I know. I know. It’s hard, but this will start to feel better soon. I haven’t gone away forever, okay? We still get to spend time together. I’ll al
ways be here for you, no matter what.”
He nodded, angrily wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. She kissed his forehead. “You’re such a strong boy, Riley. And I’m proud of you. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” he whispered.
She hugged Ruby who was hiccupping with sobs and held her against her chest, stroking her fringe from her forehead, until she eventually calmed down. Maddison’s children were her entire world. They were who got her through in those first few days and weeks. She had to be strong for them.
Enough of her life had been wasted wallowing in her self-inflicted insobriety. Even though she was now tucked away behind prison walls, she was still their mother and they needed her. Not an ideal situation. Not one she even remotely liked, but nothing she did was going to change her circumstances. She had to do the best she could with the hand she’d been dealt.
Maddison took a seat. Ruby settled on her lap and Riley sat beside her on the chair, her arm around him.
“Hi, Ben, thanks for bringing the kids again.” The strain of the last two years was evident in the deepening lines on her husband’s face. The dulled colour of his eyes. Greying hair. He was thinner.
“That’s okay.”
“Did you get to fly here?” she asked Riley.
He nodded. “We got little muffins this time.”
She smiled. “That would have been yummy.”
“It was.”
“And you’re staying with your Aunty Jacinta?”
“Yep,” Ruby said. “Aunty Jacinta is going to take us to Australia Zoo tomorrow.”
Maddison’s eyes widened. “Wow, well that makes the trip more than worthwhile. You’ll have to tell me the best parts when I call you next.”
She had petitioned in advance for two hours of contact time this weekend, an hour today with the kids and an hour alone with Ben tomorrow. She didn’t want Ruby and Riley to know about Ben’s solo visit. They wouldn’t understand.
“So, what’s been happening at school?” she asked Riley. He was coming to the end of his first year of high school. Her stomach swirled with the realisation that she would miss every major event in her children’s lives for many, many years to come. She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, forcing that thought away. If she allowed it to fester, it would devastate her.
“We’ve been cooking this term,” Riley said. “And I got to make lasagne, fried rice and san choy bow.”
“Keep that up and you’ll be taking over dinner duties.” Her heart ached, as she wished with all her might that she could be at home with her family preparing the evening meals for them.
He grinned. “Dad said that too because it tasted really good. Didn’t it, Dad?”
“Sure did,” Ben said. “I’ve had him prepare lasagne three times since.”
Maddison laughed. “And what about you, Ruby? Not long and you’ll be in grade six.”
“I have to give a speech next week to the whole school to see if I can become a student leader.”
“Have you prepared the speech already?”
“Yep, Dad’s been helping me.” She rolled her eyes. “He made me read it to him three times for practice.”
“You know what they say about practice?”
“Yes, I know. Practice makes perfect.”
“Exactly.”
“My teacher says I have a good chance. But then my friend Juniper told me that the teacher said the same thing to her too.”
“Well, you can only try your hardest and we’ll see what happens.”
For the rest of the hour, Maddison held it together as she listened to her children talk about their lives—school, sports and friendship dilemmas. It spawned a craving inside of her so strong, she thought it might eat her whole, no bones left to spit out.
When the guard announced the hour was up, she fought back her tears as she cuddled and kissed Ruby and Riley and held them both so tight to her body in an embrace she couldn’t bring herself to end. That was the real punishment. Maddison could handle being locked in a small cell for most of the day. She could deal with the substandard meals, the schedules, the uniform, the company of criminals, but she was hanging on by a thread when it came to her children. Not being able to exist full-time in their lives was the worst kind of torture.
But it wasn’t death. She was still there. Still a mother. As brief as the visits were with Riley and Ruby, they were more than she had with Kadie, so she would not take what little time she did have with her children for granted.
Eventually, the guard was forceful enough that Maddison let her children go. She didn’t cry because she summoned all her courage to show them that she was strong, and she would get through this and they didn’t need to worry about her. When the door closed behind them, she burst into tears and couldn’t stop.
Maddison was led back to her cell and locked inside. She bawled all afternoon until she finally fell asleep. When she woke the next morning, she was herded out for muster, ready to repeat the same day.
When Ben arrived for the one-hour contact visit, nerves beat in her belly. This was a long-overdue conversation. One that if had five years ago, could have prevented the path she had stumbled onto.
Ben was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt—still the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on, but none of that had mattered for a long time. He sat on the chair across from her in the visitor centre. His smile was small, strained.
“How were the kids this morning?” she asked, desperate to hear that they weren’t suffering because of her.
“They were fine. Excited about going to Australia Zoo with Jacinta.”
A sigh of relief. “It’s great that she lives nearby, so you can all stay there when you come to visit.”
“She’s a godsend.”
Maddison nodded. “I know.” She wished now they’d had more to do with Ben’s sister for the kids’ sake, but the six-hundred-kilometre distance between them had hindered that.
“She’s loving having Ruby and Riley visit so often,” he said.
“That’s so good to hear.” One thing Maddison wanted for her children was for them to continue with a normal existence and that meant family connections.
“She suggested we move to Brisbane, to be closer to her and you. Give the kids a fresh start where nobody knows their history.”
Maddison tensed. “Are they getting teased at school?” She held her breath as she awaited the answer.
A small shake of his head. “No, not at all. The school has been incredible. Taken control of the situation. Riley has a small group of really good mates, and they don’t seem to care one bit that you’re” – he gestured around the grey, cold walls – “in here. Ruby and Juniper are like two peas in a pod. I think it would be harder for them if I moved them away from their friendship groups.”
“Then don’t. I know it’s a pain to have to travel here all the time, but we need their lives to stay as stable as possible. I mean, if it’s too hard, maybe you could reduce how often you vis—”
“No way. The kids need the visits as much as you do.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “And you still haven’t spoken to Chris?”
A sad shake of his head. His eyes focused on the table. “Nah, that’s gone cold. I’ve tried to call him a few times, but he doesn’t answer.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Yeah.”
She pressed her palms to the tabletop. “Look, Ben, there was a reason I needed this private time with you today.”
His eyes widened as he nodded, urging her to continue.
“I’m going to file for a divorce.”
He shook his head. “That’s a bit hasty, don’t you think?”
“No, it’s not hasty at all. We should have had this conversation five years ago. Staying in our marriage—a marriage that is based on some twisted arrangement where I dish out as much punishment as I can, and you take it—is not even remotely healthy. For me, living that way was a prison. No different to wher
e I am now. And I’m certain it was for you, too.”
“I just… I know you’re upset. I am too, but we need to keep things stable for the kids. You said that yourself.”
“What we have isn’t stable. It hasn’t been stable for a long time. Look where I am for Christ’s sake.”
He sighed, shoulders sagging. “I don’t know. It feels like the wrong thing to do. The wrong time.”
She reached across the table, placed her hand on his. “Ben, I should never have blamed you for Kadie’s death. Never. That was the worst thing. The lowest, most horrible accusation to make. And to have blamed Tina as I did… No wonder I ended up in this mess. The lives I’ve destroyed because of my blame and anger is unforgivable. I’m so sorry for ever putting you through that. You loved Kadie so much. You would never have intentionally hurt her. It was just a horrible, horrible accident.”
Ben wiped the tears from his eyes with his free hand.
“I want you to get on with your life. You and the kids. I’m not getting out of here anytime soon. Find someone new. Give Ruby and Riley a mother figure. A happy family. Somewhere they’re glad to arrive home to. I’ll always be their mum, no matter what. But all I want is for them to be happy, okay? That’s it. If I know they’re happy, then I can endure this place.” Her voice wavered with emotion. “Please, Ben, it’s all I have to hope for.”
Ben sniffled. Used his shirt to wipe his eyes. His bottom lip was trembling.
“Please,” she whispered. “If you can give me one thing, this is it.”
His exhale was shaky. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”
“Of course, you do.”
“No, I don’t. Look, Maddy, I need to tell you something.”
Her hand drifted away from his and she leaned back against her seat, arms crossed.
“Tina isn’t to blame for what happened when Kadie died.”
Maddison’s head twitched. “What are you saying?”
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