by HMC
‘The police, the hospital, everyone – everywhere.’ Angus sighed. ‘Everyone lied.’
Her kitten, Hercules, was bigger now and he pawed at a toy by Jade’s foot. It was strange to think life had continued after she’d disappeared.
Angus described her funeral, the floral arrangements, the music, what people had said. It seemed he needed to get it out of his system. How horrible to suffer the burial of a loved one only to have them return from the dead. Though selfish, she hoped Angus would be long gone before she was buried for real. She would never want to put him through that twice.
‘I’m sorry about that ordeal.’ Jade stood, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. ‘It must have been so hard on you and Dad. How are you feeling, by the way?’
‘No need to play doctor with me. I’m okay now that I know you’re alive. Mad as a cut snake at the people who did this to you, though – to all of us. I still can’t get over it. Are you ready to tell me everything now?’
Jade was uncertain as to how to explain it to him, so she began from the day she started at Rowan’s Home. She told him about her patients, their theories, Green, Anne, and Dr. Hanson. They’d spoken briefly on the phone about the shooting. ‘When I woke up in the hospital and Green tried to convince me that I was insane, I knew Harry – the therapist who had worked at the home before me – was right. Remember, he was the one I told you about, the one who went a bit loopy?’
Angus did.
‘Well, so I was told, anyway. He left notes. Ones easily overlooked. Freddy hinted to me that there was something I needed to know in them, so I got curious and went looking. His notes were sort of in code, meanings hidden between the lines, but definitely there.
‘When I found out, well, I didn’t really do anything with it. Surely if something that big was going on, someone would’ve made sure it was covered up a whole lot better than it was.
‘Harry mentioned on more than one occasion that Dr. Green was taking patients who were sane, from Rowan’s Home, even other places, and altering them with drugs and other methods. When I came across it I paid attention. But as I said, I discounted most of it because I’d been told Harry was unstable.
‘I supposed he really had lost it and told Freddy his theory. He listened and tried to connect things. Obviously I realise now that no one was trying to connect a damned thing. It was all true, all of it. If it hadn’t been for Freddy and finding those notes, I might’ve bought it. I really think I would have. They would’ve manipulated me into thinking I was insane. They were so good at it, Angus. Really – nobody would stand a chance with those people.
‘The scariest part is knowing that they kill to cover up evidence. So if they find me, they’ll do the same thing they did to Martha-Jane.’
‘I’m not going to let anyone kill you.’
She nodded. Jade felt unbreakable – perhaps not the most useful of feelings, but the one that she needed right now in order to hold it together and live through all this. ‘This … place. It’s underground. It’s a research facility with restricted access.’
‘Oh man. I just can’t believe it. It’s like the Umbrella Corporation.’ Angus was a diehard Resident Evil fan.
‘I’m not sure how big it is. You know, I really think they believe they are doing good work down there. It makes me sick to think about it.
‘When Sam came and told me she thought they may’ve been experimented on as kids, I completely dismissed it. Three of my patients were all from the same respite centre, albeit at different times. They all had some freaky scars and all of their symptoms were a little off. I mean all people are different when they exhibit mental illnesses, but not like these three.’
‘You’re scarred, too.’
‘Don’t even go there. You know that was an accident.’
Angus giggled. ‘It would explain a lot.’
‘Stop it.’
He nodded. ‘This is all like a movie, isn’t it?’ He almost looked excited. Typical Angus. ‘So what do we do next?’
‘Get Dad, and take him away from here – somewhere safe. Both of you should get out of town.’ She didn’t want them to, but she hoped they’d go.
‘Bullshit!’ He stood. ‘There’s no way you’re doing this on your own.’
‘Angus, it’s too dangerous. I’m a big girl and can ... ’
‘... look after yourself and all that crap! I’m not listening to you right now, Jade. It’s my turn and you listen to me. I’m not letting you do this on your own, so forget about it!’
‘All right, already. I knew you wouldn’t take no for an answer anyway, Angus. Sit down, you fruit loop, and we’ll work out what to do next.’
He smiled, the storm in his eyes subsiding. ‘Damn straight. You’re not allowed out of my sight ’til we bring these sons o’ bitches down.’ Warmth stole over Jade like the sun moving out of a cloud bank. She loved her brother and felt lucky to have him.
‘More coffee?’
‘No, I’m good.’
Angus kept chatting as he put the kettle back on. ‘So the police are useless. Who do you know, Jade? Think about who you know, who might be able to help you. Who you’re sure is on your side and who has to know something about all of this.’
‘I’ve already thought about it. There’s only one person.’
‘Oh yeah?’
‘Karl Phillips – Samantha’s adoptive father.’ Although Jade couldn’t be sure the man was harmless or trustworthy, she had to start somewhere, and it felt good to have a plan.
‘Well, that’s it. We’ll go to him. How well do you know him?’
‘Not at all, really. We met once and he called a few times to check in on Sam, but that’s it,’ she said.
‘If that’s the best you’ve got, then that’s the best you’ve got.’ Angus brought his fresh cup over to the table and placed his hand on hers. ‘We’ll leave first thing in the morning, before sunrise. If anyone comes snooping tonight, the boys will let us know.’ Fin, Max and Pudding were Angus’ ‘boys’. They were fluffy, lovable dogs, but beyond ignoring when an intruder came near the yard. They were his pride and joy. ‘In the meantime I’ll call Dad and tell him Uncle Bruce is lonely. I’ll tell him he should take him on a fishing trip for the week or something. That should keep him safe. No use telling him you’re alive yet, either. He’ll get the shock of his life and his heart isn’t so good anymore. You have to understand how messed up this is.’
‘Tell me about it.’ Jade rubbed her eyes and realised how exhausted she was. Not sleeping properly for months at a time will do that to you.
‘I have all the equipment we’ll need and I’ll get the neighbours to look after the dogs.’ Angus always did that, engineered a compound sentence when he didn’t really want you to pay too much attention to the first half of it.
‘What equipment?’ Jade asked.
‘You’ll see. For now you should get some sleep – you look like ten miles of bad road – but I mean that in a good way.’
She chuckled and went to bed. Sleep came much easier than she thought it would.
The early morning frost was welcome after the heat of the night, and Angus let his dogs loose at the top of his neighbours’ acreage. He kissed each one affectionately on the snout, before they set off in separate directions to explore. Jade watched him as he said goodbye and wondered when he’d get to see his beloved fur babies again.
As she returned to the house, she looked around at the familiar space and would’ve loved to make herself comfortable on the huge, overstuffed couch. She yearned to sprawl out and watch her brother play video games for an hour or so, before falling asleep again as the birds awoke. It was such a shame life was no longer that simple, and such a shame that when it was, she was bored with it.
Angus returned back into the living room, looking boyishly eager. ‘Right then. Follow me.’
At the side of his
garage, he’d built a small room, the door of which was encrusted with padlocks. As he set to work on them, Jade became nervous.
So this was what he’d meant by ‘equipment.’
The room inside was small, musty and smelled of chemicals that were somewhat familiar to Jade, but she couldn’t quite identify. Angus had his more unique wares locked away in large, custom-made cabinets, built into the walls.
‘I’ve just got some amazing cryptic firearms in from Melbourne – top of the line.’ As she watched him pull items out of boxes, the extent of his operation and professional quality of his goods concerned her. It was a huge step up from the hunting rifles and knives he used to sell, and that was back when they were legal. Knowing Angus, in ten years or so, he’d be a full-scale operation arms dealer selling to other countries if she didn’t keep an eye on him.
‘Jesus, Angus, do we really need this much firepower?’
‘Of course! When else am I ever going to have the chance to use this stuff again? This is a mobile phone with .22 calibre rim fire. You can hold it up to your ear to shoot, but I wouldn’t recommend it.’
Angus inspected the firearm carefully and Jade was a little troubled by his enthusiasm. It wasn’t time to go all secret-agenty and choose weapons like mobile phone guns. He wasn’t James Bond, for chrissake. She idly wondered if he had a shoe with a communicator in its heel.
‘What will we need that for?’
Angus looked at her as if she’d just bitten him on the leg. He thought for a moment and then informed her that getting past police or security was much easier with a phone than a glock. Jade decided to shut up and let him arm them – he obviously knew better than she did, and she was tired of thinking.
‘If you prefer something a little heavier,’ he explained, ‘we have these fantastic flashlights that take .410 bore shotgun shells.’ Angus was packing things into his navy knapsack when Jade had an idea.
‘Do you have any bombs?’
Pleased that she’d come around, Angus pulled some large boxes from the bottom of his one of his cabinets. ‘What kind would you like?’
OFF ROAD
Karl Phillips sat on his large teak balcony. It was a clear and beautiful morning. The summer sun was still soft and subdued and kookaburras laughed from the trees to one another. He could see far across the undulating hills, where houses scattered across the terrain. A lakeshore abutted his front yard. Ducks swam and splashed with a few ibis sneaking in to scavenge. Four of his chickens clucked around the steps, pecking at their breakfast. He felt a sense of stillness, just for a moment or two. But it was gone faster than it had come.
Karl took a sip of his tea from a delicate porcelain cup. It had been of his wife’s favourite set and he had used it every day since her death. It had been something he’d complained about when she was alive – drinking from such feminine teacups with the delicate flowers hand-painted around the rims. Of course, his annoyance seemed ridiculous to him after she passed, and he used it to remind him to let go of the unimportant things and to just get on with it.
Karl tried to push the dreaded feeling back down again. It was impossible to forget. The moment Samantha entered his head, it didn’t matter what picturesque view lay before him or how delightful his company was. She reminded him that he was a giant failure. He smiled sadly, picturing her skipping around the water as a child, throwing bread to the birds.
He missed her more every day. There was a void in his existence – even deeper and blacker than the one left by his dear sweet wife. This would’ve seemed impossible to him not so long ago. He supposed he’d let his wife go – that time had healed that wound some. However, he couldn’t let Samantha go. It was different.
They said she was still alive and he had to pretend she wasn’t. They said he could visit her someday.
Yet Karl Phillips had an awful feeling they’d lied.
It wouldn’t be the first time. Now, he just wanted it all to end.
If he were younger, he’d go in and get her. Then they could run away somewhere and start life again. This was an impossible dream now and it broke his heart, many times a day.
Moo Owl, Sam’s black tabby cat, pounced onto his lap. He purred loudly, spun once, headbutted Karl’s hand, then made himself comfortable. Karl jumped when a car stopped at his gate. Moo Owl flew off his lap, peeved as only a cat can get.
He hadn’t been careful, since usually he could spot a car or hear it from a few hundred metres away, giving him time to hide inside the house and pretend he wasn’t there until they went away. This time he was too late. They’d seen him on his porch and he had too much dignity to run now.
A young man and a tall slender woman in jeans and a t-shirt hopped out, came through the gate, and started down his driveway. They approached his steps. The woman was familiar.
‘Yes?’
‘Karl Phillips?’
‘To whom do I owe this pleasure at seven in the morning?’ There was a practised, curmudgeonly growl in his voice.
‘My name is Dr. Jade Thatcher, you might remember ...’
‘I should’ve recognised you.’ Karl was filled with a momentary flutter of hope. If the doctor could get out, maybe there was still a chance for Sam. ‘And who is this strapping young lad?’
‘This is my younger brother, Angus.’ Karl could see that Angus was tense and kept his hand in his pocket, holding onto something. Jade raised her eyebrows at him and the man visibly relaxed.
‘Hello, Angus.’ Karl shook his hand vigorously.
‘Hello.’ There was a moment of silence that lingered and Karl cleared his throat, after realising he’d been openly staring at them.
‘I wondered when I might meet you again, Dr. Thatcher. I assume you’re here because you believe I have more information than you do?’
She nodded. ‘You assume correctly.’
He sighed deeply. ‘Come with me.’
Jade watched him. He’d said he wondered when he’d see her again and everyone was supposed to think she was dead. The old man knew she wasn’t and probably assumed his daughter was still alive, too. No wonder he was glad to see her.
As they moved inside, Jade watched Karl struggle up his steps. He looked much older than she remembered. She recalled having a slight crush on the old man when she first met him, ages ago, it seemed. He looked frail and sickly now. He looked his age.
‘You were not followed.’ It was more of a statement than a question.
‘No. We took an interesting route to get to you.’
‘Good. Then you realise how much danger you’re in. This way, please, follow me.’
Karl offered them seats in the living room. The red chairs were worn out and comfortable, a regulator pendulum clock tick-tocking on the wall above them.
‘How did you get out?’
Jade frowned.
‘From underneath Maine Hospital, Dr. Thatcher, how did you get out? They’ve never let anyone out unless they were incapable of looking after themselves in the outside world and needed full-time care. They pass off those in vegetative states, those adults who are incomprehensibly insane or small children who would be disbelieved. You look capable to me. Not only that, but you’re supposed to be dead. Your face around these parts is a terrible liability.’
‘You knew where I was? You know what’s been going on?’
He nodded. ‘I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do about it. Were you with my daughter?’
‘No. They must’ve taken her to another part of the hospital.’ Her lips stretched to a thin hard line. She was furious but had to hold it back. He knows everything.
‘You must understand that handing Samantha over to Clancy Green was my only option. She was drawing too much attention to herself for their liking. If I hadn’t given her to him willingly, they would’ve taken her anyway. They would’ve been very agitated.’
She sto
pped him. ‘Would you mind not talking in code? I don’t know who ‘they’ are and why would you give your daughter to someone as unstable as Green?’
‘He promised to keep her safe at Rowan’s Home. I know now that it was a mistake. You’ll need to hear it from the beginning, in order to understand.’ Karl looked exhausted. ‘Is she all right?’
‘I haven’t seen Sam since the fire. I don’t know where she is and I don’t know if she’s alive. But I am going to need you to tell me everything you know.’ Jade spoke truthfully to him; there was no use pretending – no time, either.
Karl thought for a moment. ‘If it means it could help her, then of course,’ he said, ‘I have nothing to live for anymore, anyway. I honestly don’t know why they keep me breathing. We’ll need tea for this.’ Karl stood and left the room. Angus tailed him – hand on the gun in his pocket. It was a good thing, too. Jade recalled how much work Karl had done with Green, and he could’ve been making a call instead of tea.
Karl soon returned with a tea set on a tray. He poured three cups and offered it to his guests.
‘Thank you.’ Jade knew to keep quiet. Karl would tell her what she needed to know. He was dying to. She simply had to let him. He made himself comfortable on the couch.
‘Clancy Green and I went to university together.’ He paused to sip from his cup. ‘It would’ve been before you two were even born, of course. Psychiatry was more popular after the Second World War as you can imagine. Ironic. They say men who wanted to sign up to fight were turned away for mental instability. Then the rest came out of it worse off than all the others. Our generation had suffered so much and Clancy and I both shared in a ‘save-the-world fantasy.’ Jade knew what that felt like. He placed his teacup on the table. ‘We were quite young and it was around 1948 that Clancy and I became interested in the claims of the effectiveness of the lobotomy.’
Oh my. It was just what Jade had feared. Angus gaped at Karl. ‘You must understand that these were very different times. We know so much more today than we did back then and we still have so much more to learn. Clancy would say that our historical mistakes are what make us so great today. Perhaps he’s right. However, so many tolerated so much. There was, and still is, so much unnecessary pain.’ Karl’s shoulders slumped.
