Secrets & Lies

by Gina Amos

The first things Ashleigh noticed as she turned into Eden Street, were the red and blue lights flashing outside the Blake house which was cordoned off with fluttering police tape. Three ambulances and two police trucks were parked outside. It was always a bad omen when more than one ambulance was called to a scene Ashleigh thought as she parked the Landcruiser at the top of her driveway. She dragged the handbrake on and grabbed her handbag from the floor in front of the passenger seat. She jumped down from her vehicle leaving the driver’s door wide open and pulled her ID from her handbag. She flashed it at the police officer who was walking towards her. He waved her on. White suited men and women were everywhere. A young female police officer held the crime scene tape up for her as she ducked underneath.

  ‘What’s happening here?’ Ashleigh asked.

  ‘A couple of old ladies dead in the lounge-room. The TV’s still running, all the lights are on and there’s a strong smell of gas. The neighbour across the road made the call to 000 after he went to check on them when he noticed the lounge room lights were still on after midnight.’

  ‘Oh God.’ Ashleigh ran up the concrete path towards the front steps of the house.

  ‘Ashleigh?’

  She recognised Kevin Taggart’s voice. What did he want? She stopped in the doorway under the verandah’s coach light and looked back over her shoulder at her neighbour. He was standing under the street light in front of his house wearing a dressing gown, his hair was standing on end as if he had been woken from a deep sleep. Looking as if he was enjoying the show he crossed the street and stood in the gutter, behind the crime scene tape.

  ‘Isn’t it terrible? Poor Edith and Rhoda,’ he called out to her. ‘What a terrible way to die, an awful accident. Must have been Edi, you know what she was like.’

  Ashleigh stared at Kevin and didn’t say a word. His flabby chest was exposed to the night air and a pair of striped pyjama pants was visible beneath his dressing gown. A gold cord hung from his hips. He was wearing knee-high rubber gardening boots which Ashleigh thought odd. She turned away from him and entered the house. Edi and Rhoda were slumped up against each other on the lounge. Edi was dressed in a soft pink, flannelette nightdress buttoned to her throat. A pink ribbon was neatly tied in a bow on her chest and she was wearing matching satin slippers. Her hair was secured tightly in plastic rollers. Rhoda was wearing what looked to be a pair of designer pyjamas. She was barefooted and a pair of slippers was on the floor next to the gas heater. They both looked so peaceful, so ordinary, as if they had fallen asleep together watching a late movie in front of the television set.

  ‘Somebody turn that TV off for Christ’s sake,’ Rimis said as he approached Ashleigh. ‘What’s going on here Ashleigh? This is some neighbourhood you’ve moved into. Two more neighbours dead. What is it with the old ladies around here?’

  Ashleigh was only half listening to Nick Rimis. She had her own theory. ‘Maybe they knew the perp. They were both trusting, they would have opened the door to anyone, especially if the intruder had a good excuse and they knew them.’

  ‘Ash, we aren’t ruling out some sort of suicide pact here or perhaps what our good friend Kevin has suggested, dementia and gas heaters. Not a good combination in anyone’s books.’

  ‘I just can’t believe it. They wouldn’t do anything like that. Rhoda had her wits about her, she always kept a close eye on Edi. They were devoted to each other; there was no reason for them to take their own lives.’

  ‘I’ll walk you home; you look like you could do with a drink.’ Rimis placed his hand on her back and guided her out of the lounge-room, through the front door and across the street to where Kevin Taggart was standing under the street light in front of his house. Ashleigh noticed all the lights in the houses in the street were on and the elderly residents were all standing around in their dressing gowns.

  Rimis and Ashleigh passed Kevin as he stood at the top of his driveway. Kevin looked like he was about to say something but decided against it when he saw the look on DS Rimis’s face.

  ‘I’ll speak to you later, Kevin. Put the jug on.’