She was too wide-awake to go to bed, even though it was starting to get late. She kept thinking there must be something she’d missed, something that she should remember. She sat in her lounge and stared at the television, her mind elsewhere. The telephone rang shrilly, breaking her concentration. She reached over and picked up the receiver – it was Gran. Jasmine was relieved to hear her voice.
Gran was always there for her when she needed her the most.
* * *
“I don’t care – I’m never going back there again!” Jasmine slammed the door of her bedroom and plonked herself down on the end of her bed. She crossed her arms and thought about crying. The tears wouldn’t come, she was too mad.
The kids at school had no right to treat her like they did. They didn’t know what she was going through, they all had normal lives. What difference did it make living with grandparents anyway? They were parents once too. It didn’t make her a sissy and it certainly didn’t make her a loser.
A light tap at her door interrupted her thoughts. A soft voice followed. Gran was using her best sympathetic tone. “Jasmine, honey, I know you’re upset. Maybe we could talk it over? You know what they say, a problem shared is a problem halved.”
Jasmine didn’t want to speak with anyone at that particular moment. She wanted the whole entire world to just go away. She considered curling up in the foetal position underneath her bed. She remembered that in ‘The Hobbit’, they had Hobbit Holes carved into the side of the mountain where they lived. They were described in the book as places of refuge and sanctuary. Right now, she would have killed for a Hobbit Hole to hide in.
“Go away, Gran. I don’t want to talk about anything.”
Despite the protest, Jasmine saw the door handle turn and the door open slowly. Gran poked her head around, still hanging on to the handle.
“I don’t want to see you upset. What happened at school today?”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” The tears started now, she could no longer hide her hurt as her anger subsided. Gran stepped into the room and closed the door. She sat down on the bed and put an arm around Jasmine. She pulled her close until she eventually relented and placed her head on Gran’s shoulder. The tears were free flowing down her cheeks and her nose was starting to redden.
“Tell me all about it, honey.”
“They were calling me names. They said I was a loser because I lived with you and Gramps and didn’t have any parents. They were so mean, Gran. How would they feel if someone said that to them? I don’t want to go there anymore, please don’t make me. Maybe I could start over somewhere else?”
“I wish you could, love, but it’s the only school in town. We can’t send you to Cliffton every day, it’s just not possible. Would you like me to talk to the teachers? Maybe I could explain to them what was going on and they’d talk to the other kids?” Gran said softly.
“They won’t listen! It’s just so bad there, Gran. I only have one friend and we’re not even in the same classes. I’m sure they’ve done it on purpose. Even the teachers don’t like me! I just want to quit. I can get a job at MacDonald’s or something. Anything is better than being at school.”
“You can’t quit, that’s exactly what they want. You are a Parker and we are made of much tougher material than any of those bullies. Your father used to have the same problems at school, you know? He would come home upset because they had made fun of him. He was a bit of a nerd and they would pick him to pieces because of it. You see, it’s the strongest people that get picked on because everyone else is just so jealous. They don’t have the intelligence of you or your father, so they have to do something to make themselves feel better. You are better than MacDonald’s and you are definitely better than all of them combined. I won’t hear any more of this defeatist talk.”
“What am I meant to do then? They are always talking about me and yelling things at me. I can’t just ignore it.” Jasmine sniffled.
“You put your shoulders back and you hold your head up high and you walk away. Every time you react, they win. If you completely ignore them, then they will quickly tire of it and find something else to amuse their feeble minds. Trust me, it’s the best medicine.”
“I guess I’ll try it.” Her tears started to dry up. “I can imagine Dad as a nerd. Did you give him the same advice?”
“I did.” Gran smiled.
“And did it work?”
“I think it helped. Look at what your father grew up and did. He was a hero in the science community! It’s the nerds of the world that get ahead. The losers are the ones that spend so much time worrying about grinding all the others down. You never have to put others down to make yourself look good. That’s a bit of advice the students at your school could do with.”
Jasmine put her arms around her grandmother and hugged her tight. It’s true that she wasn’t her mother, but she was a good substitute.
Sometimes she thought about how different her life would be if she still had her parents. She wondered whether she would still be teased. It wouldn’t be about being an orphan at least, but it was bound to be about something else. She told herself she was lucky to have her grandparents. Had they not taken her and Lucy in, then they would have gone into the government foster system. They would have been shipped around from family to family. They probably would have been separated too. She promised herself that she would try to follow Gran’s advice, starting from tomorrow.
* * *
Gran’s voice brought Jasmine back from her memories. “I was just calling to see how you are. I tried calling you at work today and they said you were on leave. Is anything wrong?” She sounded concerned.
“No, I’m fine. I just had a fair bit of leave accrued and thought I’d take some time off.” Jasmine was relieved that it was Gran. She dreaded answering the phone since she’d had the threatening call.
“Oh good. What have you been up to?”
“Nothing much. Reading a good book, catching up with friends and I had coffee with Becky Storm yesterday, remember her?”
“I do. Her poor mother, husband just taking off like that. Although, some said that when he left it was the best thing he ever did for his family.”
“Really? Why was that?” Jasmine tried to remember what she knew about the family. All she could think of was Becky and her nasty comments.
“You didn’t hear it from me but there were whispers that he was violent, especially when he drank. Alcohol can do terrible things to a person, you know.”
“Yeah. That’s strange though, I don’t remember anything about that.”
“You wouldn’t, it was kept quiet. The only reason I know anything is because I was on the school fundraising committee with Jan Pringle. She was Cynthia Storm’s best friend you know. Jan liked Cynthia but she liked to gossip more.” Gran chuckled. Suddenly it was all making sense to Jasmine about Becky. She had been a bitch because of all the hassles at home. Well, at least partly anyway, the rest was probably in-built.
She remembered what Caleb had said yesterday over lunch. She had been meaning to call Gran about it. It was good timing actually.
“Gran, you know the fire?”
“Are you still thinking about that, honey?” She sighed. “Go on then.”
“Do you remember which room they found Mum and Dad in?”
“The bedroom – they had been asleep.”
“Do you know that for sure or are you just assuming because it was night time?” Jasmine wondered how much she could rely on her gran’s memory.
“I know for sure. I had to sit through a detailed report of it when I went to the police station.” She spoke matter-of-factly as if it was indignant not to believe her the first time.
Jasmine thought about the possible causes for why her parents had burned so differently. The second scenario was just disproved. Dad wasn’t less burnt because he was running from the bedroom. They had been exposed to exactly the same conditions.
She suddenly remembered something else, some
thing Sid Frasier had said. “Hey Gran, when did Dad have his appendix taken out?”
“No he didn’t, love. He was always so healthy. We called him the robot, because he never got sick. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering, I guess. I know this might sound really stupid, but can you be born without an appendix?”
“I don’t think so. It’s part of a throwback to our monkey days, isn’t it?”
“I think so.” They continued their conversation for another half hour, discussing everything from the weather, to what the latest celebrities were up to. It was past 10:00pm when they finally hung up.
Jasmine’s mind was whirling. She was sure Sid Frasier had said that her father was missing his appendix. “All intact, except for the appendix,” she remembered him saying. She pulled out the autopsy report again and read what is said about his heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, all checked. There is was ‘Appendix, previously removed’. She stared at the words. Her father didn’t have his appendix when he was examined.
She considered the facts. Maybe Gran was mistaken. John Parker didn’t have to tell her about an operation. He may have needed an emergency appendectomy and failed to recount his story to her afterwards. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t remember him ever going to the doctor, let alone going into hospital. He would have needed to stay there for a few days. It’s not usually a day surgery procedure.
She felt a faint glimmer of hope. She had always dreamed her parents might come back to her, that the fire was just a misunderstanding. She tried to think rationally and not about what this new piece of information might mean.
She replaced the report again and went to bed, vowing to find out more tomorrow. Tonight, there was nothing else she could do. She told herself she should talk this over with Caleb, he might be able to talk her out of the crazy ideas she was having.
* * *
Her sleep was intermittent to say the least. When she was sleeping, she was dreaming of a dark figure standing over her bed, just hovering there and watching.
Then the dream would change. She was a little girl again, playing with Lucy in the backyard of their old house. Mum and Dad were cooking a BBQ and singing along to the radio, keeping a protective eye on them. They would swing on their swing set, alternating with the slippery-slide. Then the dark figure would return and she’d be back in her room.
When she woke up throughout the night, her heart would be thumping, her skin feeling clammy. By morning, she was more exhausted than the night before. She dragged herself out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. After her shower, she tried to eat breakfast but found she had no appetite.
She pushed her bowl away and called Caleb. He answered straight away and listened to the update. She left out the appendix information, not ready to talk about it yet. They arranged to meet after Caleb knocked off from work. He could tell there was something wrong from the tone of her voice, but he didn’t push it.
She hung up the telephone and looked around the room, wondering what she should do with herself. In her mind, she told herself to buck up, get over it. It was after all what she wanted. She didn’t have to get the reports; she could have left it and never known what happened. But no, this was the option that she had chosen and would have to deal with the consequences. Wallowing in her own misery was not going to help. She would have to be pro-active and get to the bottom of everything.
She decided to walk down to the letterbox. At least the incoming bills would give her something mindless to do for a while. She passed one of her neighbours on the stairwell and said a polite good morning.
The letterboxes were at the edge of the property line, not far from where her car was parked. She opened her box with a small key and pulled out the mail.
As she started back to the apartment, she flicked through the envelopes. There was a credit card statement, a flyer from their local member of parliament, a mobile telephone bill and another envelope.
When she got back inside, she put all the mail onto the kitchen table and picked up the lone envelope with no company logo on it. The address was neatly handwritten. She turned it over but there was no return address on the back. She carefully opened it at the top.
Inside was a note typed on white paper. The same paper that was used for the note that started everything, only a short couple of weeks ago. She read it. The message was clear:
‘Your Parents Were KILLED! Do something!’
She turned it over. There was nothing written on the back. Just the six little words on the front. The font was the same as the first note.
Jasmine concluded it had to be from the same person. It was too much of a coincidence. She dropped it and the envelope onto the table, as if it was burning her fingers. It was strange to think someone out there knew the truth and wanted her to know it too, yet had decided to remain anonymous. For what reason, she didn’t know.
She stared at the note, hoping it would tell her who its author was. It just lay where it had landed, unmoving. Frustrated, she picked up her handbag and walked to her car. If the note wasn’t going to tell her anything, then maybe she should be getting out there and following its orders – Do Something! The words were burning into her memory.
She drove to her office and parked out in the street. Walking into the building, she prayed that Adam would be in a client meeting.
Some days she just couldn’t handle him, which was most days. The receptionist greeted her with a friendly smile, joking that she couldn’t stay away from the place. ‘Everyone’s a comedian,’ she thought to herself. Her attempts to lay low were ruined as everyone she passed greeted her.
Finally, at her desk, she logged on to the company software they ran to keep track of all their clients. She did a search on the ASIC database for Avalon Laboratory Industries Pty Ltd. All the directors were listed. They matched what was on the website. She scrolled down looking for shareholders. One hundred thousand shares were issued to a company called Avalon Investments Pty Ltd.
She repeated the search again for the new company. The directors were similar; the shareholder was WHBT Securities Pty Ltd. Again, she repeated the search on the shareholder. Director was Sly Sloane, shareholder Armour Technologies Pty Ltd.
Typing furiously, she started the search again. Director Richard Bush, shareholder Safe Net Pty Ltd. Frustrated and wondering how far this chain was going to go, she once again started another search.
Safe Net Pty Ltd was run by a board of directors. She scanned through each name, but didn’t recognise any of them. She read through the shareholders’ names. All up, there were five shareholders, all owning equal shares and all were private companies. She performed a search on each of them and finally ended up with some trusts holding stocks. She couldn’t search on trusts, so she quickly printed each report and turned off her computer. She hadn’t seen Adam and really didn’t want to hang around and risk it any longer.
As she hurried out, she folded the reports and placed them in her handbag. By the time she was back in her car, she had started to sweat. She started up the engine just as her mobile phone rang. She turned the car off again and looked at the caller ID screen – no number was listed.
“Hello?”
“Jasmine, I need to talk quick.” She was relieved to hear Lucy’s voice. “You know the little park on Anderson Street?”
“Yeah, Lucy, but I can hardly hear you. Where are you?” The phone line was crackly.
“I need you to come to the Anderson Street park straight away. I’ll meet you there.” The line went dead.
Hanging up, Jasmine was confused, but having full faith in her sister, she started the car again and drove towards Anderson Street. It was on the outskirts of town and was only a small residential street. If you missed the turnoff, you would be heading straight towards Cliffton.
There was no car park to leave her car in when she arrived, so she parallel parked on the street. She looked around to try to spot Lucy’s car, but she couldn’t see it. She stepped out and locked the door behind her. Sh
e cautiously walked to the park edge and looked around. She didn’t immediately spot her sister, but eventually saw her across the playground.
As soon as Lucy saw she had been seen, she quickly walked towards the thick mass of trees on the edge of the park. Jasmine followed her, quickening her pace to catch up.
“Lucy, what’s going on?” She hugged her. Jasmine could tell there was something wrong. She wasn’t acting herself and had never set up a meeting like this.
“Jaz, you need to drop whatever you’re doing. You have no idea how dangerous it is.” She spoke bluntly, but there was a quiver in her voice. Jasmine noticed there was a bright red scratch on her neck.
“I don’t understand what you mean. How did you get that scratch?”
“It was a warning. Look Jaz, I know you’re asking lots of questions about what happened to Mum and Dad. You have to believe me when I tell you to just drop it. It’s not worth it.”
“How do you know about this? What do you know about this?” Her voice was starting to quiver too now.
“I know that it’s dangerous and the people behind it have kept it hidden for all this time. They will have no hesitation in making sure it remains hidden. You can’t beat them Jaz – they’ll always win. I just don’t want to see you suffer the same fate as Mum and Dad.”
“I won’t, I promise. I just need to know what happened. If they killed our parents, then they should be brought to justice. Don’t you think?”
“They won’t be – laws don’t apply to them. I have to go. Don’t try and call me about this – my phones are all tapped. Just drop it, forget everything you know. I don’t want to be burying you too.” She started to walk further into the trees.
“Luce, wait. I need to know!” She watched her sister leave, until she had disappeared completely.
Ashes to Ashes Page 16
