Cold Cuts

by Calder Garret

  ‘The other one … was Tony.’

  You what? Damn it, thought Arbor. He had just watched him leave.

  His appetite was gone.

  ‘I’d better get after him,’ he said.

  ‘Steady on, babe,’ said Jenny. ‘Have your breakfast first. And he’s not going to shoot through. I mean, he doesn’t even know you’ve sussed him, does he? And even if it is him, it doesn’t mean he’s the one who killed Butch.’

  ‘No, I suppose it doesn’t.’

  ‘Anyway, Danny,’ said Jenny. ‘You know Chatton. No one rushes to do things here, not even to run from the law.’

  Despite Jenny’s words, Arbor gulped down his breakfast and was back on the road within twenty minutes. No hot shower. No change of clothes. Not even a face wash. Thankfully, the Short property was not far away. Arbor was there in only a few minutes more. Tony, he hoped, would not have gone far. As Jenny had said, there was no reason for Short to have suddenly packed his bags and taken flight. Even if he had recognised himself in the photo, there was little else to tie him to the murder of Butch Paterson.

  Arbor knocked heavily on the farmhouse door, but there was no answer. The place seemed empty. He checked the carport. It was empty too. He had a sudden queasy feeling. He checked every door. They were all locked. God, no, he thought. What if Jenny was wrong?

  He peered through the windows. The interior was dark, but, thankfully, there were signs of life. He could see clothes scattered in several rooms. An ironing board was set up in the kitchen and the sink was piled high with dishes. A cat was asleep in the laundry basket. That settles it, thought Arbor. Not even a murderer would lock a cat indoors and then abandon it. He had missed Short, that was all. Jenny was right. Tony was probably already out in a paddock somewhere, seeding. But be blowed, thought Arbor, if he would drive around the farm looking for him. He would leave that for another time and, perhaps, to another officer. He headed into town.

  His entrance into the station met with surprising stillness. It was as if both O’Reilly and Burke had decided to let the previous night’s events slip into history. Fine, thought Arbor. If Burke and O’Reilly had decided to keep quiet about it all, that was okay with him. And what Jenny didn’t know wouldn’t harm her. No problem. But something didn’t sit well with him. He wasn’t sure what.

  He didn’t need to wait long for him to find out. Through the frosted glass of the station door, he could see Jenny’s SUV pull to a halt. He could hear the vehicle’s door slam as she alighted. She entered the station like a cyclone.

  It was that fucking perfume.

  ‘You!’ she said, pointing at Burke. ‘Words! Outside! Now!’

  She turned away and opened the door again. Burke laughed, but it was checked.

  ‘She’s not serious, is she?’ she said.

  ‘It sounds to me that she is,’ said O’Reilly.

  Burke headed for the door. She glared at Arbor in passing.

  ‘You’ve stirred up a heap of trouble, Arbor,’ said O’Reilly. ‘You should’ve known better than to play away.’

  ‘I didn’t think she’d find out,’ said Arbor.

  ‘Weak as water, lad,’ said O’Reilly. ‘Weak as water.’

  He could hear voices growing louder outside, first Jenny, then Burke, then Jenny again. He could see Jenny gesticulating through the frosted glass. Just don’t hit her, Jen, he told himself. Whatever you do, don’t hit her.

  He lifted the partition.

  ‘Don’t,’ said O’Reilly. ‘Don’t you get involved. You started it. Let them finish it. In fact, that’s an order.’

  Arbor closed the partition again and waited. Eventually, the door opened again and Burke entered. She was breathing heavily and had broken into a sweat. She stared daggers at Arbor.

  ‘She can fucking have you,’ she said. ‘You’re not bloody worth it. And she wants to see you.’

  Arbor looked at O’Reilly.

  ‘Yeah, go on,’ said the sergeant. ‘Just don’t drag your feet.’

  Jenny was already in her vehicle. She refused to look at him.

  ‘Nothing happened, Jen,’ he said. ‘I promise.’

  ‘Bullshit.’

  ‘Well, nothing much. I was pissed. She took advantage.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m sure she did.’

  ‘Are we … Are we okay?’ he asked.

  ‘Fuck no. We’re not okay,’ she said. ‘You broke my trust, Danny. I thought you were better than that.’

  ‘I am. I will be. What does this mean?’

  ‘I don’t know what it means,’ said Jenny. ‘I need to think it through. But if you’re coming out to the farm tonight, you’re on the couch again. You got me?’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve got you.’

  ‘Anyway, I don’t want to talk anymore. I’ll see you when I see you.’

  ‘Yeah, okay,’ he said.

  She started the engine and turned the SUV around, back towards Melton. Arbor watched her go, until the vehicle was out of sight. The paddy wagon was parked facing Whitney. He felt every urge to get in, start it up and keep driving.

  Tony Short was a no-show, but Nathan turned up and the rest of the Blue Tongues seemed, for once, to have their minds on the job. Storm clouds were gathering, there was the odd roll of thunder, but the team showed no desire to quit.

  For Arbor, training floated by like a long bomb into the forward line. He had his mind, truly, on other things. Jenny was foremost in his thoughts. The absence of Tony Short was a close second. He felt a pressing need to wind things up early. But he resisted the temptation. He saw the session through to the end and made sure the players received enough encouragement to bring them back again. They left the field just as the rain began.

  ‘Just in time,’ said Nathan, kicking off his boots.

  ‘Yeah, I reckon,’ said Arbor.

  The rain came harder. Players were grabbing their gear and heading for cover under the trees. Others were foregoing cover altogether and running for their cars.

  ‘Have you spoken to Mandy yet?’ said Arbor.

  ‘No, not yet,’ said Nathan.

  ‘You shouldn’t leave it,’ said Arbor. ‘If you let things fester, they’ll only get worse.’

  ‘Yeah, well,’ said Nathan. ‘She knows where I am. She saw me in the front yard this morning.’

  ‘And how’s that going? My place?’

  ‘Bloody uncomfortable.’

  ‘How about …?’ said Arbor. ‘I’ve got a couple of things to do, but how about I come around after? We can go and see her. Together. I’ll act as a kind of … umpire.’

  Nathan laughed.

  ‘Yeah, I reckon we might need one.’

  ‘So it’s a deal?’

  ‘Yeah, all right,’ said Nathan. ‘Just don’t expect too much.’

  ‘I want to have a word with Toddy,’ said Arbor. ‘I’ll see you in a while.’

  ‘Yeah, I’ll see you.’

  ‘Matt!’ Arbor shouted.

  Matt Todd ran from the cover of the toilet block.

  ‘Fucking pissing down, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘It went pretty well, though, didn’t it? Better than last time, anyway.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose,’ said Arbor. ‘Listen, I need to ask …’

  ‘Sounds ominous,’ said Todd.

  ‘It is, a bit,’ said Arbor. ‘Listen, I know I pressed a few buttons the other day, touched a few nerves, but I’m afraid I have to do it again.’

  Arbor could see Todd’s body stiffen.

  ‘How’s that?’ said the man.

  ‘I hate to ask,’ said Arbor, ‘But I have to. Butch Paterson. Look, more and more … Hell, there’s no easy way of saying this, Matt. The more I look into it, the more I’m convinced that a good few of you Blue Tongues …’

  The menace on Matt Todd’s face returned.

  ‘You’re dreaming, Danny,’ he said. ‘You wouldn’t have a clue. You wouldn’t know if your arse was on fire.’

  ‘Really?’ said Arbor.

  He reached into his pocket for hi
s phone.

  ‘Then who do you think this is?’ he said, scrolling through the images. He thrust the phone in front of Todd.

  ‘Tell me it’s not Tony Short.’

  Todd remained silent.

  ‘I haven’t told my superiors yet, Matt,’ said Arbor. ‘But I’m going to have to. And we’ve got another thirty or forty photographs to go through yet. If you can tell me we won’t find any more of you lot in there, then I’ll say no more about it. But if you can’t …’

  Todd was gazing into the darkness, as if searching for … Arbor wasn’t sure what.

  ‘Come back to my place, Danny,’ he said, finally. ‘I need to tell you something.’

  Matt and Karen were alone. Arbor could hear a television playing in another room. They had made a point, it seemed, of keeping the boys out of earshot. Matt invited Arbor to sit on the lounge.

  ‘I don’t know where to start,’ he said. ‘We never … Things just got out of hand. It wasn’t us that did it, Danny. I’m telling you. But we were there. At Butch’s. That night.’

  ‘Who’s we?’ said Arbor. ‘And why were you there?’

  ‘Karen, me, Shorty, Benjie and Alan Wells. We just wanted to scare him, Danny. And I swear to you. That’s all we did.’

  ‘Are you saying that he …?’ said Arbor. ‘Did he …? All of you?’

  ‘Yeah. All of us, Karen included. I’m sure in time you’ll find happy snaps of all of us in your collection. He was an animal, Danny. I’m telling you.’

  ‘But why now, guys?’ said Arbor. ‘Why now after all these years? I mean, surely you could have done something or said something years ago.’

  ‘We were only kids, Danny. We didn’t think anyone would listen. And the truth was, Danny, even after we grew up, we didn’t know. Seriously. About each other. We never talked to each other about it. We spent all that time not knowing that he’d been doing it to all of us.’

  ‘And what changed that?’

  Karen spoke this time.

  ‘It was the kids, Danny,’ she said. ‘Young Ian, he’s coming up for six. He’s been looking forward to joining Liam in the Nippers. But, the closer he got to his birthday, the more Liam was pushing him away, telling him he didn’t want him to play. We thought it was just a bit of jealousy going on, Ian has always been a much more energetic, active kid, but then Liam started wetting the bed. We knew then there was something wrong.’

  ‘Paterson?’ said Arbor.

  ‘We put two and two together,’ said Karen. ‘Each of us independently. As Matt said, Danny, in all of this time, neither of us knew about the other. When we got to talking, it all sort of came out. And we figured that if it had happened to us, it must have happened to others. We started asking around. We had to be careful, but it turned out there were quite a few of us. But us five were the only ones who wanted to do anything about it.’

  ‘And what did you do exactly?’

  ‘We just gave him a scare, that’s all,’ said Matt. ‘We broke into the back of his shop and made a bit of noise. When he came down for a look-see, we cornered him and told him we were going to do him a mischief. But it was all talk, Danny. We didn’t mean any of it. Except when we told him to get out of town. We meant that. We told him that if he didn’t clear off, we’d turn him in to you lot.’

  ‘But he was alive when you left?’ said Arbor.

  ‘I swear to you,’ said Matt. ‘As alive as you or me.’

  ‘Shit,’ said Arbor. ‘And what about after? Did you all stay together? After you left his place?’

  ‘I think so,’ said Matt. ‘I really can’t remember. We were half tanked already. You know. Dutch courage. And we had some more grog in the cars. We sort of made a thing of it.’

  ‘Benjie didn’t,’ said Karen. ‘He headed home. He had an early start. He was off to Ashby first thing.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Matt. ‘And I guess we can’t account for Tony either. He’s teetotal. He generally doesn’t hang around when we’re on the grog.’

  ‘So it was just the three of you, then?’

  ‘Yeah, I guess it was.’

  ‘And so did either of the other two, Benjie and Tony, have a reason …? I want you to think about it. Do you think Paterson might have harmed either of them worse than anyone else?’

  ‘I can’t see how,’ said Matt.

  ‘Oh, God,’ said Karen.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘It’s Tony,’ said Karen. ‘It’s not something I’ve thought about until now, but, now, given we’re all talking about it … When he was maybe thirteen or fourteen … Remember, Matt? It was the summer we first started going out … Shorty’s dad put him to work. He spent the summer working as Butch Paterson’s lackey.’

  ‘Sarge.’

  ‘What is it? I’m in my PJs.’

  ‘I reckon I’ve an idea who killed Butch Paterson.’

  ‘Uh-huh. And who would that be?’

  ‘Tony Short. You know, from out Melton way?’

  ‘And what puts him in the frame?’

  ‘I had a chat with Matt and Karen Todd. It seems that they and Tony were part of a whole tribe of kids Paterson diddled. And Matt and Karen admitted they broke into Butch’s place that night. They said it was to give him a scare.’

  ‘But they didn’t hurt him?’

  ‘No. But it seems Short might have gone back later.’

  ‘So might a lot of people. So what do you want to do? Do you want to pull the detectives away from their piss? Or pull them out of bed? That Burke is dark enough with you as it is. Do you want to rile her even further?’

  ‘No, not really. But—’

  ‘No, I didn’t think so. If you’ve learned anything in your time here in Chatton, then surely it’s that things don’t happen in a hurry. Have yourself an early night, get in here at sparrow’s fart and we’ll see about talking to your Mr Short then. Fair enough?’

  ‘Yeah, all right. Fair enough, Sarge.’

  Arbor hung up. It was hardly the conversation he had meant to have, but, on reflection, it was probably the right one. As far as he knew, Tony Short still had no suspicion he had become the prime suspect. And the last thing he had done was to swear Matt and Karen Todd to secrecy. Any serious action could wait until morning. Besides, he had an appointment to keep, with Nathan and, if things went to plan, with Mandy.

  He knew that any mediation that he might attempt between Nathan and Mandy could not be done as a police officer. That would be, in a word, wrong. As a police officer, he had no business in their domestic affairs. But as a friend, he figured and hoped, things might be a little different. It was not out of place for a friend to try to calm the waters. The first thing he did on alighting from the paddy wagon was take off his police shirt and slip on a jumper.

  Nathan opened the door.

  ‘Come on in, Danny,’ he said.

  I just might, thought Arbor, considering the place is still mine.

  Inside, the house was warm. Nathan had the gas heater going and he had scored himself a portable telly and a sleeping bag. Arbor could detect the smell of Jack and Jill’s.

  ‘Are you just about ready?’ he said.

  ‘Yeah, I’m ready,’ said Nathan. ‘But do we have to?’

  ‘Yes, we have to. Comfy as it is, you can’t keep living like this. Come on, turn off the fire.’

  Nathan did, under sufferance.

  ‘Do you know if she’s home?’ said Arbor.

  ‘Yeah, she’s home,’ said Nathan. ‘She can’t afford to go anywhere, can she?’

  They left the house and raced through the rain. Arbor knocked on the Webbs’ front door. Mandy, too, looked much calmer now.

  ‘Hey, Mandy,’ he said. ‘Are you going to let us in?’

  ‘Sure, Danny,’ she said. She stood to one side and let them pass.

  ‘We’ll sit in the kitchen,’ she said.

  They entered and took seats at the table. Mandy filled the kettle. Then, without warning, she turned to Nathan.

  ‘I’ve cut
it up, hun,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry, eh? I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ll work extra shifts. Whatever. Whatever it takes. And no more gambling. No Lotto. Nothing. I promise.’

  Nathan didn’t respond. He just stared at the Formica tabletop.

  ‘Nathan?’ Arbor said gently.

  In a flash, Nathan was on his feet, embracing his wife.

  ‘Hey, I’m sorry, too, babe,’ he said. ‘I was sorry as soon as I said those things.’

  ‘Then why didn’t you come home?’ she asked.

  ‘That was Danny’s idea,’ Nathan said. ‘He told me I should stay over the road.’

  Thanks a lot, mate, thought Arbor. Thanks a lot.

  ‘Well, you’re home now,’ said Mandy. ‘That’s all that matters.’

  Arbor’s phone rang. It was Jenny. Perhaps he had won a reprieve as well.

  ‘Hey, Jen.’

  ‘Danny,’ she said. ‘Did you say something to Tony Short?’

  ‘No. I haven’t seen him,’ said Arbor. ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘Because he’s out here,’ said Jenny. ‘And he’s causing all sorts of fuss.’

  ‘How do you mean?’ said Arbor.

  ‘I mean, I think there’s something wrong with him,’ said Jenny. ‘You need to be here, Danny. One minute he’s screaming at the top of his lungs. The next he’s sitting quietly, talking about old times. And he’s … he’s got a knife, Danny. I’m scared. Amira is terrified.’

  ‘Yeah, all right,’ said Arbor. ‘I’m on my way. Stay on the phone … Nathan, sorry to interrupt the reunion, but I need your help.’

  ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘I’ll tell you on the way.’

  ‘All right,’ said Nathan, kissing his wife. ‘Let’s roll.’

  ‘Bring your phone,’ said Arbor. ‘We’ll need it … Jen, we’ll be there as soon as we can.’

  With siren on and lights flashing, Arbor tore Palm Street apart. At least as much as the paddy wagon and the rain would let him. He hit the Melton road sideways and fishtailed his way to 140.

  ‘Are you still there, Jen?’ he shouted into the phone.