Butcherbird

by Cassie Hart

  ‘Cade,’ he said, shaking Jeremy’s hand, gripping it a little longer than necessary until Jeremy released.

  Jena sighed and rolled her eyes. Maybe she should have left him at the farm.

  ‘I better wash up before dinner. See you soon.’ And with that he was gone, down the hallway towards the back of the house.

  Flo continued down the hall, but it took a moment for Jena to come back to herself and follow. When they reached the kitchen, she handed over the bottle of wine awkwardly.

  ‘Here, I brought you this.’

  Flo took it with a smile. ‘Thank you, we’ll have it with dinner, shall we?’

  Mr Mertens – John – came in through the sliding door then, holding a bowl of vegetables. ‘Hey Jena, and ….’

  ‘Cade,’ Jena said. ‘He came with me to the farm to help sort the house out.’ It wasn’t a lie, but she caught the glare Cade gave her.

  ‘Nice to meet you, son,’ John said with a nod. He bustled into the kitchen and washed the vegetables, lining them up on a chopping board. ‘Nothing better than garden-fresh salad.’

  ‘Let me get you a drink,’ Flo said. ‘Cade, do you want beer or wine?’

  ‘Beer sounds good, thanks.’ He’d shoved his hands into his pockets and his shoulders were slouched forward. Jena wanted to take him aside, to tell him that he could at least act like he wanted to be there, but he perked up when Flo passed him a cold bottle from the fridge. ‘Thanks,’ he said, even managing a smile.

  ‘Why don’t you take a seat in the lounge. Jeremy will be in shortly. Jena, you can help me set the table.’ The just like old times hung in the air between them again, and the older woman turned towards the cutlery drawer, fishing out the required utensils and putting them in a little basket. ‘Grab some plates, will you?’

  Jena turned to the bank of cupboards and pulled one door open. John reached an arm past her and tugged on the next one over, giving Jena a wink when she flashed him a thankful smile. She pulled out six plates, and then paused with a frown.

  There were only five for dinner.

  John, Flo, Jeremy, Cade and Jena.

  Not John, Flo, Reggie, Jeremy, Joel and Jena.

  She slipped one plate back onto the pile and headed to the dining area. The wooden table was the same one they’d had when she was a kid – heavy, with an insert in the middle that opened to accommodate extra guests; not that she and Joel were really guests. It was closed up now, and she knew they’d have to pull it out; knew she’d be able to see the initials Joel and Jeremy had carved into the edge of the interior wood.

  Jena turned away, setting the plates on the side table before quickly getting to work. It was so much easier as an adult, and she was surprised to find that she could do it alone, her eyes sliding away from the spot where those letters were as she pushed the wooden pieces back together.

  ‘Oh, you didn’t have to do that. Surprised you remembered how the old thing works.’ Flo bustled into the room and spread out table mats in each of the places.

  ‘Hard to forget,’ Jena said, following Flo around as she laid out the knives and forks, putting plates into the spaces between. ‘Though I feel like I did a pretty good job of forgetting when I … when I went away.’

  She patted Jena’s arm. ‘I think that was what she wanted,’ Flo said with a nod. ‘Fresh start for you, not tainted with the bad things that happened.’

  ‘What did happen?’ Jena asked, putting the last plate on the table. ‘Do you know?’

  Flo pressed her lips together and looked away. ‘We should get the food. Don’t want it getting cold.’

  But Jena didn’t follow her back into the kitchen. Instead, she watched Flo go and wished that the older woman had said whatever it was that she had been considering.

  The next few minutes were a flurry of activity as the food came in and drinks were poured, places were taken at the table. John raised his glass and waited for the noise to die away.

  ‘To old friends, and new ones. It’s nice to see you back, Jena.’ He moved his glass towards Jena’s, and she gently clinked hers against his.

  The way he’d said that made it sound like she was staying for good, and she wanted to say that wasn’t the case. He must know Rose was selling, that her time here was short.

  But still, it was nice to be welcomed, and this welcome was warmer than the one she’d had at the farm.

  ‘Thank you, all of you. I ….’ She pressed her lips together, not trusting her voice.

  ‘You’re welcome,’ Flo said, her words soft. ‘Now, eat up, dinner’s getting cold.’

  Her no-fuss tone made Jena smile, and then the Mertenses slipped into their easy-going dinnertime banter about the farm, the cows, the price of feed, and what the next few months had in store. Dishes were passed around, and Jena ate, savouring the food, the company.

  And waiting until the right time.

  Which was when John was almost to the bottom of his second glass of wine. He tutted and shook his head. ‘It was a damn shame what happened to your family.’ He said the words so quietly Jena almost missed them.

  ‘What do you think did happen?’ she asked. ‘I mean … why?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. Probably not the best dinner conversation,’ Flo said, patting Jena on the hand.

  She pulled her hand back. ‘No, I want to know. Please? You knew him.’ She locked her gaze with John’s, begging him with a look. She needed to hear some other story, one that wasn’t Rose’s, or the party line the paper had printed.

  ‘I don’t rightly know, hon.’ He sighed and put down his knife and fork before refilling his wine glass and taking a sip. ‘Probably a bit too much of this,’ he said, raising the glass and then having another sip. ‘Things were stressful. Young Mandy was a beautiful babe, but that girl had a set of lungs on her that would put a banshee to shame. Some nights I could have sworn I heard her, though it wasn’t possible. I have no idea how any of you lot got to sleep. And then there was the money ….’

  ‘John,’ Flo said firmly. ‘Things were a bit tight, Jena. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, just a bad season.’

  ‘Worse than bad for Mark,’ John added. ‘He wasn’t himself towards the end—’

  ‘Does anyone want dessert?’ Flo cut in.

  ‘I’d love some,’ Cade said. He leaned forward, his elbows on the table. Jena would have told him off for that, had they been anywhere else, but she was still focused on John. ‘What are we having?’ Cade asked.

  ‘I’m fine, thanks,’ Jena said. ‘John—’

  ‘Jena, come help me in the kitchen.’ Flo stood up and waited.

  Jena chewed on the inside of her cheek, biting down on the words she wanted to say. It was so hard, but losing her shit wouldn’t help.

  As Jena followed Flo from the room, Jeremy started up another conversation, asking Cade what he was into, or something.

  In the kitchen, Flo put her hands on her hips and set her shoulders back. ‘Look, I can see you want answers, but you need to stop. If your Gran didn’t tell you, then it was for a reason. Leave it alone, Jena. It’s not going to soothe any wounds you have. It’s not going to bring them back.’

  Jena’s jaw went slack, stunned at Flo’s blunt words, and her lips parted, but nothing came out. She tipped her head back and looked at the ceiling with a sigh.

  ‘I know I can’t bring them back, I just … I want someone to tell me that he was a violent drunk who hated us and that’s why it happened. I want someone to tell me that I’m not going to turn into the same kind of person as him, because it’s easier to believe he was an anomaly than to think that I might turn out the same. Easier to blame him than to think that somehow it was my ….’

  Tears slipped down her cheeks. She couldn’t help it. Why was she crying, here, in this house, with this woman, when she couldn’t bring herself to do that with Rose?

  Flo stepped forward ‘Oh, dear one. It was never your fault.’ This time when Flo put her arms around Jena, she didn’t shrink away, didn’t pull back; sh
e let herself be comforted. ‘He was a man having a rough time. I don’t think he’d ever have done it on purpose, not the Mark we knew, but accidents happen.’

  Accidents happen.

  That was one way to put it.

  She knew it wasn’t an accident, but despite that, Flo’s words made her feel a bit better. Jena might not have got what she hoped for, but she’d received something else, and knowing that none of these people thought she was to blame made a difference.

  ‘Now, I made your favourite for dessert. I hope you still like apple pie?’ Flo drew back and raised an eyebrow at Jena, who nodded. ‘Good. Why don’t you go and get the ice cream. And no more talk of this.’ Flo looked towards the door to the dining room. ‘John misses your old man, and he blames himself for what happened. Still thinks that if he’d followed his instinct …. Just, drop it, please?’

  This time it wasn’t a demand, it was a request, tinged with sorrow and guilt that was nothing to do with Jena. She nodded and headed for the garage to find the ice cream, and when she opened the freezer door she smiled.

  French vanilla. Just like old times.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  WILL

  Will paced in his room until he heard the front door close, then rushed downstairs to peer out the window and make sure they were really leaving. When they disappeared into a clump of bushes partway down the driveway, he let the curtain slip closed and turned to face the stairs.

  And then Rose buzzed the monitor.

  He shook off his nerves, his worry – what if Jena had dropped the files to Rose before she’d left? – and walked down the hallway, opening the door to Rose’s room.

  ‘Hey, Rose, what can I help you with?’ He tried to keep his voice measured, cheery, even, but it was hard. His fingers felt like they were twitching, so he gripped the door frame to keep them still.

  ‘How long until dinner?’

  Dinner. How could he forget?

  ‘Not long. Are you hungry?’

  Rose licked dry lips, and Will automatically moved across the room, lifting her glass and helping her drink.

  ‘Getting that way. Is it going to be another one of those ordeals?’ Rose raised an eyebrow.

  ‘No, Jena and Cade have gone to the neighbours for dinner, so it’s just you and me.’

  You, me and the truth.

  ‘Good. It’s better that way.’

  ‘You need to talk to her soon, Rose. The doctor said—’

  ‘I was there. I know what they said,’ she snapped. ‘Now go and get the food organised.’

  Will retreated, closing the door behind him. With Rose already in a bad mood, this was going to be harder than he’d thought. But still, if he could find the laptop ….

  He headed for the kitchen and grabbed two meals from the freezer, pricking their plastic tops with a fork before throwing them into the microwave. And then he headed upstairs, not bothering to take the quiet path. He went straight for Jena’s room. Even though she’d come into his without permission, he still felt a tiny bit of guilt about doing the same to her.

  He shouldn’t. He knew that. Fair was fair, and it was his ass on the line here. He needed this job, and this roof over his head. He literally had no idea what would come next, but he might need to think about that if Rose had her way and got them all off the farm.

  He left the door open and started a search of the room. Under the bed, the mattress, in the drawers and the wardrobe. He hesitated when it came to Jena’s and Cade’s bags, but then he got to his knees and went through those as well.

  Nothing. And it wasn’t like there were a lot of places she could have hidden it here, either. He zipped up the bag he’d been looking in and headed for the landing, closing the door behind him.

  Perhaps Rose’s room? He shuffled down the landing and swung that door open. Now, this room was the perfect place to hide something. It seemed like Rose had kept everything she’d ever owned: belts of all sizes, her husband’s shoes, her worn-out slippers, curling irons from before he was born that would no doubt fry someone’s skull if put to use now.

  It was like the rest of the house, really. There wasn’t a single drawer that didn’t contain at least one item fit for the dump.

  But it wasn’t his house, and it wasn’t up to him to make those decisions. That would fall to her family, once Rose had passed.

  He sighed, that thought weighing heavy on him. As much as he knew she was getting ready to die, he still found it strange. He’d been here, done this, so many times before, and yet there was something about Rose.

  Maybe it was the way she’d said ‘you know’ to him. The way she’d recognised something in him that she had herself.

  The monitor at his hip vibrated and his hand went to it automatically.

  ‘Where’s dinner?’ Rose’s voice sounded creaky through this line, echoing strangely from downstairs as well.

  ‘I’ll bring it now. Sorry, I got distracted.’ He scanned the room again, resigning himself to having to tell the truth.

  It would be better coming from him than Jena, right?

  ‘No surprises there ….’

  Will shook his head and clipped the monitor back to his belt as he left the room and went downstairs. In the kitchen, he fished the dishes out with an oven mitt, and arranged the contents onto plates so that it looked a little nicer than the plastic packaging.

  Mmmm, instant roast dinner ….

  He shook his head and cut Rose’s into smaller portions before carrying both plates through to her room. She wasn’t going to eat much of it anyway, but it felt like the presentation mattered. Like it was a small piece of care that he could show to her, whether she appreciated it or not.

  ‘Dinner is served, madam,’ he said, presenting her plate with a small flourish.

  She didn’t look up at him, her focus fixed on something else instead.

  He put her plate on the side table on top of a book, and turned to see what had captured her interest.

  It was an old photo. One he hadn’t seen before. Rose was much younger here, standing with a man he didn’t recognise from any of the other photos in the house. He had a dark, frizzy afro, and dark skin, the opposite of Rose’s fair English complexion.

  ‘What have you got there?’ he asked. ‘It doesn’t look like this place.’

  ‘No, it was from before.’

  Australia; that must be her lover.

  ‘Is that Ronaldo?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes.’ She exhaled the word like it was a sigh. ‘With everything going on here, it’s made me think about him. I miss him still, even if he was partly to blame for what happened.’

  ‘Look,’ he said. ‘I need to talk to you about something.’

  Rose tucked the photo back into her journal and placed her hands over the top before looking at him. She narrowed her eyes, as if she were peering inside him, and then she nodded. ‘Spit it out then.’

  ‘I knew,’ he blurted out. ‘When I came here, I knew what had happened, and that’s why I wanted this job.’

  She nodded again, for longer this time. ‘And?’

  Will frowned. That wasn’t the response he’d been expecting. ‘I knew about the fire, and the deaths, and I thought there was more to it than that. Thought … thought it was like what had happened with my mother.’

  ‘And it was.’ She pursed her lips. ‘When you told me about that, I knew there was more to your story. And I don’t care. I won’t tell anyone so long as you promise to keep Jena safe.’

  ‘What?’ He rocked back in his chair, leaning against the back of it, his shoulders sagging.

  She sighed, like he was a silly child who wasn’t listening properly. ‘Keep her safe. Get her away from here before things go wrong. I don’t have the energy to be mad at you for lying to me. I need to keep my focus on what’s important. On making sure nothing happens to her, and you’re the key to that. You know.’

  ‘But I don’t know, Rose. I don’t know anything. You still haven’t told me enough.’

&
nbsp; Her lip quivered. ‘There is something in our family that seems to draw darkness. I knew if she was here it would take her, and I never wanted that to happen. The only way to ensure it wouldn’t was to send her away and not allow her back.’

  ‘But she’s here now.’

  ‘If I hadn’t let her return, she’d have done it after I’d gone. At least this way I can keep an eye on her. See whether the darkness has taken control.’

  ‘And has it?’ Will didn’t think so, not after what he’d seen Jena go through, not after the things she’d told him, her vulnerability, her hurt, her ability to be compassionate despite everything.

  ‘I don’t know. She’s so angry.’

  ‘And for good reason. It’s not like you showed her kindness when you could have. Do you really think the best way to ensure darkness doesn’t take root is to hide it away? Skeletons in the closet always come out, one way or another.’

  ‘Don’t you think I know that?’ She snapped the words out, her lips pursing into a thin line before she spoke again. ‘I just didn’t want to worry about it. When I was the only one here, I knew I was safe, that nothing would happen. The watch was gone, and I certainly wasn’t going to go looking for it.’

  Will leaned back in his chair. He needed to know more. This might be the missing link. ‘This watch … why is it important?’

  ‘It was my father’s, an heirloom.’ She locked her eyes on his. ‘When I said there were darker things at play, I meant it. This thing attached itself to the watch after I freed Ronaldo from its clutches. It came here with me from Australia when I ran. It infected Ernest …. And when I thought it was safe, buried in the ground, it found its way into Mark’s hands.’

  Rose took in a shuddering breath and Will waited, giving her the time to finish. He could trace the line of this evil now, all the way back to Australia, shadowing Rose and tarnishing Jena’s life, too.

  Finally, she spoke again, her eyes travelling to the window, looking far away. ‘I put it in the swamp. Made sure no one would go there. Hoped it would be enough ….’