The Elephant Tree

by R. D. Ronald

  ‘He killed mum and dad?’

  ‘Yeah, he killed our parents like he killed his years before. Tried to make both instances look like an accident, you were right when you joined those dots Scott. The police investigation into the house fire cited arson but he was never named as a suspect. He was crazy over the way he felt about mum. He killed them so he could move over here and be close to her again, but once he was here it wasn’t enough. Their affair took off again but the last time she told him it was over he must have seen something in her face, must have known she’d never leave dad again. Not while he was alive anyway. So he did something to the car. Mum and dad had been fighting and dad was due to set off for another weekend work trip away. Mum gave it her best shot and they reconciled. Decided the weekend away, just the two of them, might be just what they needed to get the marriage back on track. It was a last minute decision. Mum arranged for the neighbours to take us for the couple of days they’d be away and they set off together. Later that night they were dead.’

  ‘Jack, what the fuck? So you heard him confess all this? Why didn’t you go straight to the police?’

  ‘And then what? There was no proof one way or the other. Just me apparently overhearing an old man talking to the fucking trees? So either they arrest him and then we’re homeless, or they don’t and guess what? We’re probably homeless anyway, or he kills us in our sleep. I did the only thing I could do. I sat on it and waited. I’d come across people while hanging around the clubs, mean people who would do things for the right kind of cash. I planned to get enough together to have him taken out.’

  ‘What are you talking about, like a hit man?’

  ‘That makes it sound a bit dramatic but yeah, that was the idea. That’s where McBlane came into things. I paid what I could up front and arranged to pay the rest over the next few months.’

  ‘I can’t believe this.’

  ‘Well believe it, Scott. Bob killed our parents. What was I supposed to do, forgive and forget?’

  ‘But it was suicide though.’

  ‘No it was just made to look like suicide. I watched him Scott, he pleaded for his life which is more than mum and dad had the opportunity to do.’

  ‘You were there when he died?’

  ‘Yeah, I had to see it. I thought that was gonna be the end. That we’d be able to start over with all of it behind us and I’d pay off the rest of the money I owed to McBlane.’

  ‘So what happened?’

  ‘After Bob died I set up Zebra. With the control I had across the board now, McBlane suggested I repay some of my debt by laundering drug money he was making through his security company. I was reluctant at first but it was pretty easy. I’d set up fake jobs, fake printers, fake clients, take in bundles of money, bounce them between accounts before finally moving them offshore. Before long the debt was repaid and we were making a huge amount of cash. We began talking about what could be done with these stockpiles that were building up. We both had ambitions in the club industry anyway, but the owners of the major venues had gotten so fat and lazy from the constant revenue streams generated that they’d never have been willing to sell. Again we just put our heads together to come up with a solution. Problems with entertainment. No big name deejays willing to work the club. Problems with security. Drugs found on the premises. Acts of violence. Even problems getting supplies of alcohol. These were all things that could be achieved with a word in the right ear and the right thickness of envelope. Even a club of pristine reputation can nose dive quickly when these factors combine in a short space of time. Before long we were picking up places at rock bottom prices and immediately getting them back on track. The beauty was that nobody knew it was us doing it, right from the inside. Right now we own maybe a third of all major venues in Garden Heights and expanding all the time.’

  ‘Sounds like you’ve done really well for yourself Jack. So why did you want me?’

  ‘McBlane had a hunger, which at the start was great because he’d do whatever I told him to make things happen. But after a while, no matter how successful we were the hunger didn’t dampen. It only ever seemed to intensify, like an itch that

  couldn’t be scratched. I knew no matter how big we got, no matter how many clubs we ended up running, eventually he would turn on me. A simple and effective way to double the size of his portfolio. I thought by having you involved in the business, even on a low down rung to begin with I could watch your progress and see how you handled yourself. With me pulling the strings you could have climbed quickly and learned a lot. Then eventually when the time was right I could reveal my part in it all and together we could have overthrown McBlane.’

  ‘You’re fucking crazy,’ Scott said, incredulous.

  ‘Why, because I’m ambitious?’

  ‘No because you talk about killing people as if they are just losing their jobs. These are people’s lives that are ending for your ambition. How many others have died as a result of all of this? Do you know, or even care?’

  ‘Blood is thicker than water, Scott. Me and you together, there’s nothing that could stop us.’

  ‘So why Angela, then. Where does she fit into all of this?’

  ‘That is unfortunate. Angela and I had a relationship for a while. Things were great between us but all of a sudden she stopped taking my calls. Refused to see me altogether. I don’t know what went wrong but there was so much going on at that time I decided to just let it go. Girlfriends have always been something of a temporary thing in my life anyway, you know that. I got on with work, saw other women, but I just couldn’t put her out of my head. Eventually it got to the stage where I had decided to try and win her back, but that was when I found out the two of you had been spending time together.’

  ‘So you backed off on account of me? How very noble.’

  ‘You’re my brother Scott, what else could I do? I just hoped it wouldn’t get serious between you and that maybe Angela and I could reconcile further down the road.’

  ‘You know that won’t happen though, surely? Angela could never be interested in someone like you.’

  ‘That’s the unfortunate part. I see how serious you both are for one another and even if Angela did have feelings for me still, I cannot let the cycle of suffering go on.’

  ‘The fucking what?’

  ‘Samsara, that’s what Bob called it, right?’

  ‘You’ve lost me.’

  ‘History is repeating itself, Scott. The cycle of suffering goes on. Look at dad and Bob, they were great when they were kids. Then they end up falling for the same woman. They tried all ways to combat the problem but ultimately it ruined all of their lives, theirs and mum’s.’ We can’t make the same mistakes as our predecessors.’

  Scott looked at his brother but the figure sat in front of him was utterly unrecognisable from the person he’d looked up to whilst growing up. The light had completely gone from Jack’s eyes, leaving behind only a cold black stare and a shell of the man he’d once been.

  ‘You know what we need to do Scott.’

  ‘Jack, you’ve lost it. Just calm down. I’ll take Angela and go away. You never need to see us again. You can get on with your life here, it’s all yours now.’

  ‘It isn’t just her, it’s us. I built it for us. We were left with nothing because of a love like acid that ate its way through our entire family.’ Jack sat back in the chair and sighed. Visibly tired and frustrated from his brother’s inability to comprehend his reasoning. Scott noticed a glint of metal for the first time beside Jack’s leg.

  ‘Come on little brother, time to take a walk,’ Jack said, but didn’t move to get out of his seat.

  Scott’s eyes drifted to what was wedged between his brother’s leg and the side of the chair. Jack tracked their progress; when he saw that Scott understood he smiled and nodded. Scott stood and walked slowly to the door. Jack rose behind him and followed, holding the gun.

  ‘So where is she then, Jack?’ Scott asked, but he thought he already knew the answer to his qu
estion.

  ‘She’s at the only place that would be fitting to bring this whole thing to an end.’

  Scott kept walking and left by the back door. He didn’t say anything now, just listening to the sound of his brother’s feet a few steps behind. He’s unused to travelling over ground like this these days Scott thought, and a few times heard Jack stumble, but when he turned the gun was always still trained on him.

  Scott felt tired. His mind was no longer spinning, which considering all he’d learned in the last hour was a surprise. It just wasn’t doing much of anything. A reluctant acceptance seemed to have settled over him and he wondered if maybe this was how Jack had felt years before when he’d tried to process what he’d learned from their uncle.

  A chill breeze blew across the night. Scott shivered.

  ‘Why don’t you just forget about her Jack? I’ll do the same, she can go free and we can still do everything you planned.’

  Jack laughed behind him, a mirthless sound from a man who had been on the wrong end of life’s ironies too many times.

  ‘How can I forget about her? That would be like telling a compass to forget about North. Fate is set now Scott. I knew when I saw her today, when I looked her right in the eye, that she was the woman I should have been spending the rest of my life with. Don’t you think that must have been the way Bob felt, all those years ago? We’ll get through this. We can get past it in a way they never could. In the sleep of death, what dreams may come?’

  Scott didn’t understand but his thoughts immediately sprang to his own dreams, the bus dream. Could Jack have been the unseen driver all this time?

  The silver birch stood just up ahead now. If Jack had left her at The Elephant Tree then he was almost out of time and still had no plan. He looked back over his shoulder but Jack was maintaining a safe distance and had the gun drawn and raised.

  ‘Don’t think about doing anything stupid Scott. It’s almost over now.’

  They walked further down the track and he saw her. Angela had been bound by her wrists and ankles. Ropes looped back around the tree allowing her minimal movement. Her wrists were raw where the rope had bitten into them with the effort of struggling against her bindings. Now she lay back limply against the tree, defeated.

  Scott started towards her but a shot rang out behind him stopping him dead in his tracks.

  ‘Don’t do it Scott. Move away.’

  He turned as his brother was lowering the pistol from the warning shot he’d fired into the air. Angela was alert now, eyes pinned wide with fear.

  ‘What the hell are you doing Jack?’ she asked, pleadingly. ‘Is this because I’m dating your brother? I knew Scott way before you and when you and I started going out I had no idea you were even brothers, until right at the end. I recognised the photo in your apartment of you both as kids. Scott carries the same one in his wallet.’

  ‘It’s more than that Angela. But I don’t expect you to understand. It just matters that Scott does,’ Jack said, raising the gun and pointing it at Angela.

  ‘No Jack, fuck. There has to be another way out of this, you can’t let any more people die.’

  ‘I’m sorry Scott, but in time you’ll realise it was the only way.’

  ‘I won’t let you kill her Jack,’ he said, walking to stand between his brother and the woman he loved.

  ‘Don’t test me. That would be a mistake,’ Jack said evenly, his sight focused intently on the target in front of him; the target that was now his brother.

  ‘I’m not testing you, there’s just no other play I can make Jack. This is all I have left,’ Scott said and closed his eyes, as his brother cocked the pistol.

  The roar of a shot rang out.

  * * *

  Despite his best efforts, the trail, if you could even call it that, was cold and Detective Fallon was under increasing pressure to move on and prioritise other cases. Bryson made his thoughts pretty clear about what he described as Fallon’s obsessive persecution of Paul McBlane. But there were too many coincidences that just kept piling up for Fallon to let it go.

  Unfortunately no-one was talking. The only other chance he’d had to speak to Stephanie Hutton had been when she’d awoken in hospital following her attack, which had only compounded Fallon’s suspicions that she knew a lot more than she was letting on. Speaking to her then got nowhere. It was clear how scared and confused she was, so he’d planned on seeing her again before she was discharged, giving her further chance to rest and recover. But then she’d gone and checked herself out early and fallen off the map.

  Fallon had been to the hospital to see Glen Thomas as well and applied more pressure there. But whatever he could threaten Thomas with wasn’t enough to make him give up what he undoubtedly knew.

  Twinkle still hadn’t turned up to shed any light on the incident surrounding him. All efforts to find him had so far proved fruitless, and without anything else to go on, Fallon was finding it difficult to justify this as his priority case, especially without the backing of his partner.

  In a last ditch effort he’d decided to go back one more time and shake Neil Bennett down to see if anything worthwhile came out. They had pinpointed him as staying in the Walker building with a girlfriend, so that’s where Fallon was heading. His shift had officially ended and Bryson had been off sick anyway, but Fallon was determined so he went alone.

  Flashing his ID in reception was enough to allow him to travel up to the apartment without anyone being alerted to his presence. The softly softly approach had gotten him no-where questioning this guy in the past so this time Fallon decided to go in hard.

  ‘Open up it’s the police,’ he commanded, and pounded on the door five times with the heel of his fist.

  The hurried sounds of the latch being withdrawn on the other side indicated that at least someone was home. The door swung inwards revealing a female with pale skin and large frightened doe-eyes, wearing a white robe.

  ‘What do you want?’ she stammered, obviously not used to dealing with an intimidating police presence.

  ‘Neil Bennett, I need to speak to him now.’

  She stepped away from the door, allowing Fallon inside.

  The apartment was tastefully decorated; the only thing that seemed not in keeping with the surroundings was the man he’d come to question, who was sprawled out along an expensive looking couch.

  ‘Get up,’ Fallon barked at him.

  ‘What the fuck is this about? I told you everything I know already.’

  ‘No you haven’t, I know you’re lying and unless you give me something then both of you are being placed under arrest for obstruction of justice and taken to the station,’ Fallon lied.

  ‘Jesus Christ Neil, tell him what he wants to know,’ the now panicked Elizabeth said from behind Fallon.

  ‘I don’t know anything. I don’t know where Twinkle is, I don’t know where Scott is, there’s nothing I can tell you.’

  Fallon decided to play out the bluff. He took out his handcuffs, turned and walked towards Elizabeth.

  ‘Mother fucker you better give him something right now,’ she shouted frantically, visibly shaking.

  ‘Alright alright, there’s drugs. A stash of drugs up at Scott’s place,’ Neil stammered.

  ‘Go on,’ Fallon said, turning back towards him.

  ‘It’s a box, buried. With our drugs in.’

  ‘Not ours,’ Elizabeth pleaded.

  ‘No, mine and Scott’s.’

  ‘Is there anything else in the box? Any papers or other pieces of information that could reveal the location of Scott or Twinkle?’

  ‘I don’t know man, I wasn’t there when he buried it.’

  ‘Right, you’ll show me where it is.’

  ‘Now?’

  ‘No, not if you don’t want to, we can all go down to the station first and do that later if you’d prefer,’ he said, raising the handcuffs again.

  ‘Alright, fucking hell,’ Neil said, before Elizabeth could protest again.

  Fallon
drove as quickly as he could back out to Scott’s place in the country. A sullen Neil sat in the backseat not talking. He was no doubt regretting what he’d revealed under duress but knew it was too late to take it back now.

  They pulled up onto the gravel approach to the property which was already occupied by two other cars: an old red Toyota 4x4 and a brand new black Lexus parked up with no-one inside.

  Who else is here?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Neil said, and sounded perplexed so Fallon didn’t push it.

  They got out of the car and walked to the house. Fallon turned the handle without knocking first and discovered the door was open. He cautiously made his way inside and went room to room looking for occupants. Nothing, the house was empty although a television murmured in the living room and two glasses stood on the table.

  ‘Where are they buried then?’ Fallon asked, unsure whether

  he should wait here for the owners of the vehicles to return or follow up on the lead immediately.

  ‘Out back in the woods.’

  ‘You know the exact location?’

  ‘Yeah I know where they’ll be.’

  * * *

  Scott instinctively moved his hands to his chest searching for any pain or wetness from blood loss, then heard a thud like a sack of mail being dropped to the floor. He spun around. Angela remained bound to the tree, upright, eyes wide, uncomprehending.

  Scott looked back around and saw his brother’s crumpled body on the ground. He didn’t understand.

  ‘Scott, are you alright?’

  Scott looked up and saw the voice belonged to Detective Fallon who stood with his service revolver drawn, beside the silver birch.

  ‘Yes,’ Scott said, and ran to Angela and immediately began working loose the ropes that bound her to the tree. As soon as one wrist was freed she reached out and, taking a handful of Scott’s shirt, pulled him towards her. The sudden intensity of her kiss surprised him but he returned it with equal enthusiasm, sliding both arms around her back and holding her tightly against him.