Challis - 05 - Blood Moon (20 page)

The Sea Breeze Holiday Apartments,
dating from the 1960s, cheap, forlorn and barely viable at most times of the
year. I know Josh, I collected a change of clothes for you last night.

He looked about in a hunted way that
kept her smiling on the inside. I found your stash, by the way. But like I
said, Im not Drug Squad.

Leave me alone. I havent done
anything.

Why did you come here, Josh?

Schoolies Week. Im allowed.

But you left school
last year.
Had
such a good time you had to repeat it?

Leave me alone.

Partying, drinking, drugs, sex, you
had to come back for some of that good shit.

There was a nasty flash in his eyes
and his knuckles went white. Pam flinched: if he had an ice habit, he could be
violent and unpredictable. Steady, Josh.

Im reporting you.

She decided to push a little more,
tensing her body in case he struck out. The sex, Josh. Cool dude like you, you
always get lucky, right? You wouldnt need to use a date-rape drug, would you?

That nastiness came back, but then
he piled out of the car and ran toward his room, a corner room on the ground
floor. Pam watched him pat his pockets, saw him remember that his wallet and
keys were missing, and change direction, scuffing slowly toward the managers
office. Hed sort it out, Pam reflected. Mum and Dad would be there for him,
just as they always were for kids like him. Her phone pinged. A text from Andy
Cree.

* * * *

27

Late
Thursday morning, and Ellen Destry was sitting across from Carmen Gandolfo in
the Mornington office of Community Health, which was a converted 1940s house on
a street of similar houses, some of which were residential but most were
clinics nowdental, medical and physiotherapy. Gandolfos window overlooked a
black wattle that leaned dangerously over the fence dividing it from the next
property. Did Gandolfo know what a shallow root system wattles had? Should she
say something? But now wasnt the time...

Murdered? Gandolfo was saying. She
looked damp and wretched, sniffing, mopping her eyes.

Im terribly sorry, Ellen said. I
understand that you were close to Mrs Wishart.

Were best friends!

Im sorry.

Fresh weeping. You want to know who
killed her? Look no further than her husband.

He was violent? Abusive?

Controlling. Incredibly controlling.

And so are a lot of people, thought
Ellen. She gazed at the other woman for a moment. Carmen Gandolfo was large but
compact, with vast, cushiony breasts and auburn hair in a sunburst around her
big head. A wry face, under the grief.

I know this is difficult for you,
but I do need to ask you some questions, Ellen said.

Gandolfo said damply, Fire away.

Lets start with your meeting with
Mrs Wishart yesterday.

Gandolfo opened her mouth to reply,
then froze. You think
I
killed her?

Of course not, said Ellen
smoothly, keeping an open mind. But you did have lunch with her, and she didnt
return to the office.

She had appointments all afternoon!
So did I!

You had lunch together...

Gandolfo told Ellen where theyd
lunched, what theyd ordered, what theyd talked about. It was a special
lunch. Her thirtieth birthday. I gave her an MP3 player.

Ellen made a note: where had that
got to? And then?

Then I came straight here for my
two oclock appointment. I was booked solid all afternoon and didnt leave
until six.

Then you went home?

No. I had two clients to see,
elderly women in a retirement village. I didnt get home until about eight oclock.
My husband had dinner ready.

Thank you. Now, tell me about Mr
Wishart.

Ellen watched Gandolfo pull herself
together and grow reflective, as if conscious that she should be fair and
accurate, that Ellen wouldnt want hyperbole. Ive known Ludmilla for about
five years. We met at a shire Christmas function. She was going out with Adrian
at the time; shed met him when she was one of the planners, and hed consulted
with her about a building hed designed. They married about three years ago.
Mill and I became really good friends. She paused. It was limited, though.
Adrian could be very difficult. I had to see her alone, and almost never at her
house.

Tell me more about him. About the
marriage.

Hes an architect, said Gandolfo,
and stopped. Ellen waited. Hes the kind of man whos always disappointed. Hes
always being let down by someone or something. Its never
his
fault: or
rather, nothings ever good enough for his exacting standards. He could be very
successful if he was willing to compromise, but naturally his clients or
business partners end up disappointing him.

Did his wife disappoint him?

Constantly, Id say, but not in
ways that would disappoint a normal person, and not because she wanted to annoy
him.

Did he punish her for it?

Yes.

How? Did he hit her?

Gandolfo said slowly, Mill was
holding herself very stiffly one day, about two months ago. She was in obvious
pain, holding her stomach. She said it was her period, but she didnt get bad
periods. I think hed hit her.

Was she ever hospitalised, to your
knowledge? An accident in the garden, a fall off a chair...

No. Look, it was mainly
psychological stress that he put her through.

Such as?

The desk phone rang. Gandolfo
watched it apprehensively until it cut out. Like I said, he was incredibly
controlling. He chose what clothes she wore, what hairstyle. He kept a close
eye on her spendingeven though she probably earned more than he did. He had an
awful temper. Hed yell at her, get very angry about small things, then beg
forgiveness and act like he loved her to bits, so she was always on tenterhooks.

Ellen had heard it all before. You
witnessed this?

Gandolfo moved about in her chair. Kind
of. I mean, I saw it in him, and Ludmilla would let slip some of the things he
said and did to her.

So, nothing hard and fast, thought
Ellen. What else?

She supported him emotionally. He
was always going on about his breakthrough, which to my mind was never going to
happen. He had fussy standards, like that little car. It had to be a Citroen,
it had to be European, it couldnt be something cheap and reliable like a
Toyota. He turned the best room in their house into a studio and filled it with
top of the range drafting and drawing equipment. All that took money, so she
was always steering clients his way via her job, drawings, blueprints,
proposals things like that. They needed the money, but he considered the work
beneath him.

Ellen saw a small man, a fearful
man. Beneath him?

He gave that indication, but I
think he was afraid hed fail. And because he denigrated the work he did, he
lacked a sense of purpose and control, it seems to me. Therefore he made sure
he controlled Mill. He became really obsessed with what she was up to. Of
course, she wasnt up to anything, but hed ring her six or seven times a day,
send her texts and e-mails all day long, drop into the office on the stupidest
pretext or hang around on the street outside. He needed to know where she was
at all times. It was as if he thought she had a secret life.

Maybe she did.

No! She was so loyal it broke my
heart.

What did she do about the phone
calls and visits?

What could she do? She tried to
talk to him about it but his line was, Youre my wife, Im allowed to call you
or I just happened to be passing, sweetheart. Gandolfo paused. Mill told me
it was uncanny the way he always seemed to know if shed been out making field
visits during the day.

He followed her?

Probably.

Ellen tried a different tack. So
they had money troubles?

I didnt say that. Adrians work
had slackened off recently, but they didnt have debts, I dont think. Where
are you going with this?

Ellen was going in several
directions. If the Wisharts had been struggling, was Ludmilla Wishart taking
backhanders to finance her husbands lifestyle? Had she delivered an ultimatum
to him:
Its time you got regular work?
Had he killed her because shed
left him everything in her will? Was he expecting a huge life insurance payout?
Ellen didnt ask any of these questions, merely stared and waited.

Carmen Gandolfo cocked her head
eventually. Behind the rawness appeared a look of calculation. Adrian already
owned the land their house is on before he met Mill. He designed the house, but
I think most of her money went into paying for it. Mill told me once that
everything was in their joint names, the property, her car, their bank
accounts. He made sure of that.

They watched each other for a while.
Did she ever talk about leaving him?

I
talked about it, Gandolfo
said. Shed listen, agree with everything I said, then tell me that hed fall
apart if she left him, and she couldnt do that to him.

Ellen had heard that before, too. She
must have revealed things about her marriage if you were urging her to leave
him.

Gandolfo twisted her mouth
pensively. Well, to some degree. She had more spark when Adrian wasnt around,
she was prepared to have a bit of a laugh about him. Shed tell me things that
appalled me, yet she took them for granted. Hed time her phone calls, for Gods
sake. Hed time her on the loo, tell her she was using too much toilet paper.
He was a bully, a control freak, and in my experience as a counsellor those men
are dangerous.

And in my experience as a cop, Ellen
thought. Did Mrs Wishart say exactly where she was going after you had lunch
together?

Gandolfo blinked at the direction
change. Only that she had to make some field visits.

What was entailed in these field
visits?

Gandolfo spoke slowly, as though
stating the obvious. There are strict regulations about what you can and cant
do on your own land. You know. You cant put up a five-star hotel or clear
native vegetation or demolish an existing structure without a permit. Millas
job was to follow up infringements and pursue action, which might be a fine and
orders to repair the damage.

A job that would have made some
people angry.

I know what youre getting at. You
think someone like that killed her.

I have to look at all scenarios.
Did she ever say that she was threatened or abused by anyone?

Not really. There was a lot of
public scrutiny, and its not as if anyone was ruined financially or went to
jail.

People have been killed for less.

Gandolfo winced. She did mutter
something about planning deliberations being leaked to the wrong people.

By an insider? A shire employee?

I guess so.

Did she give a name?

No, but I got the feeling she didnt
trust her boss. She was pretty upset yesterday, something about a property
developer who bulldozed an old house before a heritage protection order could
be placed on it. Thats all I know.

Ellen nodded. All of this could be
verified easily. But Carmen Gandolfo wasnt finished:

I think it was Adrian who killed
her, I really do, she said fervently, her upper arms quivering.

Ellen waited.

Gandolfo deflated. Did she suffer?

It was a vicious blow, but very
sudden and immediately fatal.

There was a long pause. Poor Mill,
said Gandolfo miserably. When things got too much for her shed have panic
attacks, cardiac arrhythmia.

By too much do you mean dealing
with people who blamed her because theyd been caught out and had to pay for
it?

No, I mean dealing with a jealous,
obsessive stalker of a husband. Look, this man comes across as warm and
charming. Im sure he sounded genuinely grief-stricken when you talked to him
this morning. Its all an act.

Wishart
had
seemed genuine.
Perhaps it wasnt an act, thought Ellen. Perhaps hed killed his wife but was
mentally unstable and able to rationalise it: Someone else killed her or Yes,
I killed her, but she provoked me so it wasnt my fault.

Hes cunning, Gandolfo said.

Ellen got to her feet, nodding
slowly. I promise Ill bear that in mind.

* * * *

28

Thats
awful! Athol Groot, head of planning for the shire, put a plump hand over his
chest and slumped into his chair. I mean, I saw her yesterday morning, staff
meeting, and she seemed fine.

Challis didnt state the obvious,
that of course Ludmilla Wishart had been fine back then. The guy was shocked,
thats all, trying to assimilate the information. What time was the meeting?

Ten oclock.

She was here all morning?