The Mak Collection (32 page)

“Ed Kemper, Ed Gein, Ed Brown. What is it about all these psychos named Ed?” Jimmy asked.

Andy laughed. If only offender identity were as simple as a common first name.

A doctor emerged from Makedde’s room and walked up the hall in their direction. “How is she?” Andy asked.

“Improving. Getting a lot of sleep. She’s healing well. We successfully drained the subdural haematoma—”

Jimmy stopped her. “Oi, English please.”

She paused. “We drained her brain haemorrhage. If she had gone untreated for much longer, she would have had serious trouble. But she’s a fighter. Strong as
an ox. We can’t say for sure, but at this stage we’re optimistic there will be no residual effects on the brain.”

Andy smiled. “What about her big toe?”

“The microsurgery appears to have been successful. Time will tell. She won’t have much feeling in it, but she’ll walk fine.”

The doctor excused herself and they continued towards room 312. Sitting in a chair outside her room, a young blonde in a short skirt was reading a magazine. When Jimmy noticed her, he nudged Andy’s side. Andy ignored it.

Before they reached the door, Jimmy pulled him close and asked in a whisper, “Does she know about Ed?”

Andy shook his head. Makedde had not been told. She didn’t need to know that Ed was temporarily in another wing of the same hospital. He was well guarded, and as soon as he was treated for a concussion and his shoulder and chest wounds, he would be transferred to Long Bay to await a committal hearing.

They approached a tall, grey-haired man who stood in the doorway. He was conservatively dressed, probably in his mid-fifties. Andy introduced himself. “Hello, I’m Detective Flynn and this is Detective Cassimatis. You are…?”

“Leslie Vanderwall.” The accent was Canadian. He
offered a hand shake. Makedde’s father had deep blue eyes like his daughter. His face was tired and worn, though still handsome. His clothes were wrinkled.

“Mr Vanderwall, I’m so pleased you could make it down—”

“I should have flown in weeks ago and taken her home,” he replied sharply.

“I’m so sorry. She’s been through more than anyone should have to,” Andy offered.

“When’s the committal?”

“I’m afraid it could take some time to get the brief together. I’ll see to it that her travel is taken care of when we need her to return for the hearing and the trial.”

Mr Vanderwall nodded. His voice softened. “I was glad to hear you’d been cleared over your wife’s murder. My condolences.” Andy nodded his head. “You saved my girl’s life,” Leslie went on. “I could never thank you enough.”

Jimmy interrupted them. “She’s waking.”

Makedde stirred in her bed, her face swollen and multi-coloured, jaw wired shut. A large raised bruise covered her face on the left side. A section of her head was shaved.

The blonde woman was in the doorway now, looking in. “Hi. I’m Loulou,” she said. She was wearing heavy make-up and looked a bit like Cyndi Lauper in her heyday. Andy thought there was something odd
about her eyebrows. He and Jimmy introduced themselves.

Mr Vanderwall had gone to his daughter’s side, and the rest of them stayed near the doorway to give the father and daughter space. Mak blinked away her sleep and opened her puffy eyes, joy enveloping her face at the sight of her father. She nodded silent hellos at her three other visitors, suddenly awake and alert.

“You’ll be fine, honey,” her father reassured her. “You’re healing well. You’ll be back to normal in no time.”

Andy wanted to make her laugh. “Oh, Miss Money Penny, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” he said.

Leslie Vanderwall looked up, puzzled, and through her wired jaw, Makedde began to laugh. It was wonderful. It was the sound of a survivor.

Brilliant white clouds stretched out, an endless Arctic landscape suspended in the air, soft pillows of mist cradling them as they flew steadily over the Pacific. Flying never bothered Makedde, but the white-knuckled grip on the arm rest of her companion didn’t go unnoticed.

“You all right, Dad?” she mumbled through an uncooperative jaw.

He turned, his face pale and startled. “You’re awake.”

“Yes. Wouldn’t miss this view for the world.”

“I knew you’d like the window seat,” he said, attempting to sound composed.

“I knew
you
wouldn’t like it. I still can’t believe you flew all the way across the planet to get me.”

He looked at her wearily. “I kind of liked it better when you couldn’t talk.”

Makedde still couldn’t speak very well, but over the weeks she had gradually improved. She could go home for a while, but it wasn’t over yet. There would be a committal hearing, and almost certainly
a long trial to follow. There was indisputable evidence that Ed Brown was a killer, but as with so many victims, it could take the police months to assemble a case. She didn’t know when she would have to go back.

Makedde had learnt the man who abducted and attacked her intended to try for the McNaghten defence, claiming diminished responsibility due to mental illness. There was already one forensic psychiatrist who believed that Ed Brown’s psycho-sexual disorder was somehow interwoven with a homicidal impulse to kill women who wore stilettos. For Ed, any woman in stilettos was a whore, and all whores needed to be killed to be cured of their promiscuity.

In light of his unhealthy relationship with his mother, this defence had some value. The basis for legal insanity was delusion, and that type of delusion, if genuine, would qualify. However, Ed’s sadism, precise methods and sexual interference with his victims suggested a very different side; someone purposely killing for sexual satisfaction, not seeking some delusional “cure” for perceived sins. He wasn’t a textbook psychopath, but on the other hand, did he really qualify as insane? It remained to be seen how the jurors would view it.

Put him away Makedde, put him out of your mind.

The flight home was comfortable, with ample leg
room and plenty to read. The
Sydney Morning Herald
and the
Telegraph
both sat on her lap. Every day there had been an article about the Stiletto Murders, but it no longer made the front page. Mak was more interested in an article about the once powerful heir to the Tiney and Lea surgical supply empire who was now being divorced by his wife and sued for everything he was worth. Poor James Tiney Jr. He had been demoted too. It seemed that his father, who was a board member of the AMA and had been a topnotch surgeon at one stage, was ultra-conservative. He didn’t take the news of his son’s adultery well.

“Tiney Junior. No wonder he had a Napoleon complex.”

“What?”

“Nothing Dad.”

An impeccably coifed stewardess moved through the first-class cabin offering treats.

“You’ve never flown first class, have you Dad?” “No,” he replied, staring with determination at the sick bag in the seat pocket in front of him.

“See the things I do for us? If it wasn’t for all this we’d be jammed up against those lavatories in the back, hearing a flush every thirty seconds. And maybe we wouldn’t even be arriving home in time for the birth.”

“Yes. Pushing you around in a wheelchair with that precious toe of yours and those fluttering
eyelashes is an effective combination. Not to mention that thing around your neck.”

“It’s a collar and cuff, Dad.” She had to wear it until her collarbone healed. It had been artfully decorated with a few choice messages from Andy, Loulou and even Charles, scrawled in felt pen. She remembered Andy’s message,
Please keep in touch. Love, Andy.
We’ll see, she thought to herself. We’ll see.

“I’m going to be a grandfather,” her father said.

She grinned. “And I’ll be Auntie Mak.”

She thought about her family. And Ed’s. She had been shocked to see the old photo of Eileen Brown. Mak looked so much like Ed’s mother when she was young. A copy of the photo of her and Cat had been found in Ed’s wallet, too. Andy must have been relieved to know that Ed was obsessed with Makedde
before
Andy became involved with her. She sensed he still couldn’t forgive himself for not finding her sooner though. And she couldn’t forgive herself for not believing him. Regardless of his temper and his motive, when the search of Ed’s bedroom turned up Cassandra Flynn’s gold wedding ring, there could be no doubt of his innocence.

Andy cared about her, and she cared for him, but there were a lot of problems between them, and now there was distance, too.

No more fear. Never. Fear is worse than death itself.

“Nothing freaks me out now,” she said. “Nothing. From now on, anyone messes with me, they’re toast.”

“Toast, eh?”

“Custard fried French toast. Besides, do I have psycho magnet written on my forehead, or what? Between Stanley and Ed, I have four lifetimes of bad karma out of the way. I should be so lucky now that miracles spring from my fingertips—”

An unexpected jolt stopped her mid-sentence.

The plane dropped, free-falling for a second or two. Mak’s stomach seemed to hit the ceiling and fall back down. Instantly she grabbed for her father’s hand, holding it tight.

The plane quickly levelled out and a seatbelt sign flashed above their heads. The tension around them broke, chatter resuming nervously up and down the aisles. Father and daughter held hands tightly as the sound of seatbelts fastening clicked around them.

In that moment she knew the answer.

Makedde, no longer a psycho-magnet?

Don’t bet on it. You’re in for a bumpy ride.

For my father, Bob

split
vb 1. to break or cause to break. 2. to separate or be separated from a whole.
∼ See also
split personality, split decision.