Challis - 04 - Chain of Evidence (41 page)

Who else did Gavin have a history
with?

The question was unwelcome. He did
his job. He prosecuted several people over the years. Fair and square.

But was he fair and square in the
last few weeks and months?

Sadler looked away. Not always.

Spit it out. Im tired of this.

Sadler shrugged. He might have had
a couple of arguments with Rex Joyce.

Joyce? About what?

Mistreating a horse.

What action was taken?

None.

Why not?

Can you see Rex Joyce mistreating a
horse? I dont think so.

I can, actually, Challis said. He
has a bad temper.

Sadler looked hurt and astounded, as
though Challis had insulted the Queen.

Who reported him?

No one.

So how did Gavin know to
investigate?

For your information, Sadler said,
Gavin Hurst liked to sneak around. He
claimed
he just happened to be
driving past Mr Joyces property and saw him whipping one of his horses with a
length of barbed wire.

Can I see his report?

You may not. I destroyed it, as it
happens.

Why the hell would you do that?

No merit.

Did Gavin tell you he was going to
prosecute?

Like I said, the case had no merit.

Are you friends with Joyce?

Sadler blinked at the shift, and
stumbled. I dont know what you mean.

You were at boarding school with
him, perhaps? Belong to the same Liberal Party branch? Play golf with him?

Now youre being offensive.

Hes rich, right? Local gentry?
Long pedigree? Therefore he can do no wrong?

Get out.

What did your pal Joyce say when
Gavin charged him?

Sadler looked hunted.

Come on, Sadler, snarled Challis, youll
be asked this in court by Paddys barrister, so its in your interests to tell
me now, and tell me the truth.

Sadler rubbed at a mark on his
spotless desk. He might have said that Gavin would get his one day.

His just deserts, do you mean? Is
that how you understood his remark?

How would I know? It was just talk.
Rex can sound off sometimes.

So you
do
know him.

A bit.

He has a temper. He drinks.

I wouldnt go as far as that.

Wouldnt you? Did you tell Nixon
and Stormare any of this?

No need.

Why not?

Sadler looked for ways out and found
only a couple of mealy-mouthed replies. Ive already said too much. Nothing to
do with me. Plus it seems clear this Finucane character did it. Rex Joyce does
not strike me as the kind of person to...

Do anything quite so grubby as
murder another person. Challis left and buckled himself into his car, thinking
that Sadler pretty well summed up the Australian national character, which was
not fine and egalitarian but grovelled at the feet of men whod gone to a
private school or could kick a football or had become billionaires by being
allowed to evade tax.

* * * *

On
his way back over Isolation Pass, Challis scraped the guardrail. He was speeding
a little, distracted by tense speculations about how he should approach Lisa
and Rex Joyce, eyes screwed up against the setting sun, and failed to slow for
a bend called the Devils Elbow. The car rocked and screeched in protest and he
fought to get it back under control. His heart racing, he pulled into the next
lookout and surveyed the damage. The chrome bumper had been torn off, one
headlight mangled, the quarter panel dented and gouged. He crouched to view the
passenger side front wheel. It was scraping against metal and the wire spokes
and spinner were chopped about. He searched around for a fallen branch and
levered the damaged panel away from the tyre. The rubber itself looked sound.
He got back into his seat and drove sedately down the mountain, aware of his
mortality but ready for anything.

Lisa and Rex lived in a huge stone
house that dated from the 1890s. It, and the huge woolshed and stables on the
grounds of the property, were on the National Trust register. There were
railing yards behind the stables, the rails vivid white in the last of the suns
rays. Lawns surrounded the house itself, which looked cool and composed on a
slight rise, with tall gum trees, cypress hedges and fruit trees casting long
shadows and completing the general air of a long, stately history. Challis had
been on the place only once before, when he was ten years old and all
fifty-seven kids at the local primary school had been carted here in two old
yellow buses for a tour and a talk about pioneering endeavour in the district.
He could remember the occasion, not the talk. No doubt the Joyces were the
heroes in the story. But there had been one enduring benefit: there was an
airstrip on the property, with a Tiger Moth stored in an adjacent barn. Challis
had slipped away from the group and was found two hours later, sitting in the
cockpit. That had been the start of his love affair with old aeroplanes.

He thought about that now, as he
crept up the gravel driveway, the Triumph clattering miserably. He was
restoring a 1930s Dragon Rapide at the little aerodrome near Waterloo, but
various things had happened in his life and the Dragon was mouldering away in a
hangar there. He felt guilty about that. His father, whod valued hard work and
finishing the tasks you set for yourself, would have been badly disappointed.
Challis could hear the old mans voice in his head and he wished hed brought
his inhaler with him.

He followed the driveway around.
There were no vehicles parked near the house. No sign of life, either, until hed
parked at the bottom of the verandah steps and got out, when the huge front
door swung inwards and Lisa appeared behind the outer screen door. She stood
waiting for him, a hazy shape behind the fine wire mesh.

Hal?

Challis climbed the steps warily. Lisa.

Whats up?

Is Rex here?

Hes away. Why?

Challis let some silence build. I
think you know why.

Sorry?

Did Sadler call you?

She didnt say Whos Sadler? but
frowned. No. Why? Whats going on?

Ive just come from him. He claims
that Gavin intended to prosecute Rex for cruelty to a horse. I think Rex killed
Gavin, not Paddy.

She looked astounded. What?

Lisa, those Homicide detectives
will be back eventually.

I dont know what youre on about

Lets talk. Tell me what happened.
Did Gavin push too hard? Did Rex snap? You cant go on protecting him.

Stop it, Hal.

He took a step closer. She took a
step back. He stayed where he was. Lets sit down and talk, he said. Perhaps
you can make me a cup of tea. I almost crashed on the Pass and I feel a bit
shaken.

Good, she said. Pity you didnt
go over the edge.

He considered the words and her
mood, and realised that things had gone beyond her control and she was merely
striking out to deflect her guilt or misery. Lisa, he said gently,
approaching the screen door and extending one hand to the knob. The hinges
squeaked as he opened it, and then he could see her clearly. She was dressed in
spotless riding boots, jeans and shirt, as if about to exercise her horse, but
her hair was awry and her eyes red and darting.

Hal, dont.

He entered a cool, echoing hallway
as she retreated. At the end of the hallway he glimpsed a white door,
sufficiently ajar to reveal a huge black enamel kitchen range. Lets sit at
the kitchen table and talk. Please?

She looked sour, thwarted, but stood
back to let him pass, and then followed him. They sat at a long wooden table.
Lisa watched him tensely, and then her face cleared. Are you okay? she asked,
placing her hand on his. Im sorry about your father, I really am.

Challis withdrew his hand. Wheres
Rex?

Away on business.

That irritated Challis. Did you
make that anonymous call to the RSPCA all those years ago, Lisa? Did you set up
Paddy Finucane?

I beg your pardon?

Did Rex mean to kill Gavin? I bet
he didnt. There was a struggle and he went too far and when he realised what
hed done he came to you for help.

She said sharply, Hal, stop it. Youre
making a fool of yourself. Youre being offensive. Just go, all right?

Rex was relying on you to get him
out of trouble, just as hes always relied on you.

She gestured curtly. This only
involves Rex in the sense that your precious brother-in-law was a pig to
everyone.

Youre right, he was, toward the
end.

He said it gently, to encourage an
admission, but Lisa said, in her hard, emphatic way, So why are you coming
after us? Gavin harassed a number of people.

But only one person killed him.

People are saying your sister
killed him. I cant say I blame her. Now, shut the door on your way out.

She showed her cutting profile, as
if Challis were a tradesman with grubby hands. He looked at her consideringly. Youve
always had to cover for Rex, havent you. Hes a drunk. Does he hit you, Lisa?

As a way of turning her, giving her
a way out, it failed. The doors behind you.

Was it Rexs idea to make that
phone call to the RSPCA? I bet he took the photos on Gavins camera, too. Did
he also drive Gavins car out east and make you pick him up?

Hal, Ill call the police if you
dont leave me alone.

Whose idea was it to bury him in
Glenda Andersons grave? Youd been to her funeral, is that it? You knew the
ground was soft?

Hal, said Lisa, frowning and
reaching for him across the table, we were lovers, now were friends, but youre
spoiling everything. Please stop.

He jerked back, his spine rigid. Why
did you send Meg those letters? Misdirection? Youve always been good at that.

What letters?

You know very well what letters. It
was cruel, Lisa.

Her face tightened. Thats it. Thats
enough. Youre frightening me. Please leave.

She was unwavering. He didnt know
what would make her break. He didnt let himself think that he was wrong about
her. Wheres Rex?

Why? Want a quick shag before he
comes back?

When Sadler phoned, did Rex take
the call, or did you?

What
call?

Probably no more than an hour ago,
as soon as I left Sadler. Rex took a call, heard something he didnt want to hear,
and ran, am I right? Saved his own skin and left you behind?

Her gaze went involuntarily to the
window. Challis stood, looked out. The darkening blue ranges that sheltered
Mawsons Bluff seemed to stretch forever, into the stony saltbush country where
people died or disappeared. The sun was barely a fingernail on the horizon now.
Is he running? Hiding?

She joined him, her hip touching his
thigh. She was quite small, he realised. She packed a lot into it. You seem
determined to make yourself miserable, Hal. All this jealousy. Its unbecoming.
Im
married.
Get that through your skull.

Challis pointed. Is he out there
somewhere?

She bumped his hip and with a low
chuckle said, Whats out there is a little plateau, with a ruined shepherds
hut, just a couple of walls and a chimney. Thats where Rex and I had our first
screw.

It was intended to wound him, on
several levels, but what it did was convince him of her guilt. Wondering what
hed ever seen in her, Challis said coldly, I want you to come with me. Im
taking you in. Youll make a statement to Sergeant Wurfel.

Youre pathetic, you know that?

He tried to grab her. She was quick,
lithe, shrugging him off, almost as if they were young again and it was a
Saturday night and she was rebuffing his advances in the back seat of his
fathers station wagon. She darted down the hallway and into one of the rooms
along it. Fear grabbed him then. He was paralysed, his mouth dry. There would
be firearms on the place, for shooting vermin and putting injured animals out
of their misery. He called, Lisa, dont.

She emerged with a shotgun and
motioned with it. Out, she said, or I swear to God...

Challis tried to hold himself
upright but his spine tingled as he passed her in the long hallway and on down
to the front door and out into the gathering darkness.

* * * *

53

Meanwhile
Scobie Sutton had arrived home and found Beth getting ready to go out. She was
small, round, unfashionable and always did her duty as a wife and a Christian.
With a pang, he compared her to Grace Duyker, who seemed to him the kind of
woman whod admit some risk and improvisation into her life. Risk and
improvisation like him, in fact. If he dared make the move. If she let him.