Bill nodded. "Please move away," he said to the Somervilles. "Please go over to the house. Wait outside the house and we'll call you. Richard, would you go with them, please?"
Barbara looked at Ashleigh. "Is this your boy?"
Ashleigh leaned over Lance to comfort him but he shook her off. "Yes," said Ashleigh. "I mean no. I've been looking after him."
"He can stay here. I will talk to you first. Now, what is your full name?"
Bill took photographs on his cell phone. He made a video of the scene, showing the Winchester rifle lying on the ground some distance away. He begins to piece together a story that made sense of the parts he was seeing. Who had shot the dog and the man?
Barbara came over to Bill as Ashleigh walked back to the house to rejoin Greg and Sally.
"Their statements can wait," she said. "We've got quite a situation here. The boy is autistic. The wife, the tall woman, Sally, left her husband to live with the neighbour, the victim."
"So the husband shot the victim?" asked Bill. "That makes sense with what I've seen, but it makes no sense of what Richard told us about attempted murder."
"Ms Moffitt is a house keeper cum farm hand. She is moving out and Mrs Somerville is moving back in. All very civilised," Barbara paused before saying, "The dead man is a neighbour, in fact the only neighbour, Philip Zinsli, Mrs Somerville's partner for the past two years. Her name is Sally and I need to speak to her so I get the story directly from her. It seems from Ms Ashleigh Moffit that this farm goes to Sally Somerville should Gregory Somerville die. Then if Sally dies, the farm passes to Zinsli. "
"So if Zinsli kills them in sequence, he gets to own the Somervilles' farm as well as his own?" Bill's question was rhetorical. "Puts Zinsli right in the frame. But he didn't shoot himself. What about my family?"
"Collateral damage. Zinsli did not predict the earthquake, nor the Wests arrival on the scene. The farm is worth a lot of money. They had to go."
And the boy?" asked Bill.
"He did the shooting. Whether he was defending his parents or getting revenge for the loss of his dog, I don't know yet. She didn't know if Zinsli was trying to kill the boy but it seems likely."
Bill agreed. "Probably in the same hole Richard told us about. Do you still need them to be kept apart?"
Ashleigh had already walked back to the shade of the house. Bill and Barbara followed suit. "Then Sally has the strongest motive for killing Zinsli," said Bill. Caution them all, and see if there is any way Sally Somerville could have used the boy to kill Zinsli."
"Let's get you all sorted out," she said. "I will see you are formally interviewed in Grantville, but meantime, I have to caution you as you are all under suspicion for the death or manslaughter of Philip Zinsli."
Barbara applied the caution. Richard had managed to stop them from talking about what had happened, but now Barbara said, "You will need to talk to each other because it has been traumatic for you, but please try to retain your own impressions and versions of what happened. Now, let's start moving you out."
Trevor Simonson was walking towards them. "Is it all right if I join you?' he asked.
Bill and Barbara had no objection, so Trevor continued, "I've been contacted by Inspector Frobisher."
Barbara's heart sank. This would be the end of her career, and probably that of Senior Sergeant Mayhew's as well. Senior had agreed that she should go with Mr Paki-Paki, which Frobisher would see as taking the limelight from him. And she knew what happened to junior officers who did that.
"The Rescue Organisation says this helicopter has been requisitioned by the New Zealand Police. Mr West, sir. Inspector Frobisher asks if you would allow your charter to work under the orders of Constable van Buren?"
"Yes. Not a problem," Bill replied. "But first we have to fly Jo and Alex and Robert West back to Grantville."
"Air Force helicopters are bringing a crime crew here," said the pilot, Trevor Simonson. "The finding of the Wests unharmed has gone viral through social media. The news was released by Inspector Frobisher almost immediately."
"I think we should get the boy and his mother and the dog out of here, Sir," said Barbara.
"Please call me Bill or Wiremu, officer," Bill replied. He accepted the compassion that lay under Barbara's decision. "Trevor, can you drop in on the three who are waiting for us, and tell them they should wait while we get things sorted out here?"
Bill put Sally and Lance , with Tricksy on a blanket on their laps, in the rear seats, with Ashleigh in the front. He, Richard and Greg remained behind with Barbara van Buren.
"Now, Richard," said Barbara. "I want you to show me historical death."
"What's that?" asked Greg.
"I think it might be Philip Zinsli's first wife, Georgina," said Richard. "In the earthquake the ground split and her skeleton was thrown out of the ground."
"Sally always said he killed her," said Greg. "She and Georgina were close. Georgina was so happy. She had just found out she was pregnant. She was over the moon. There was no way she would commit suicide, and highly unlikely she would run off with someone else."
"Mr Paki-Paki, Bill," asked Barbara. "Would you mind staying here for the police crew? You know what to do and you will have credibility in Court."
Bill agreed to stay while the three of them set of for Zinsli's farm, using Greg's ute.
Trevor Simonson had landed near to where Robert West and his grandaughter Jo were waiting. He had resumed his flight and was now speaking with the police in Grantville.
Philip Zinsli's dogs had been found chained to a fence next to his abandoned utility. Zinsli was regarded as a missing person so Trevor was asked to detour to look for a body or an injured man. Trevor made a note on his knee pad as he informed the Grantville Police Station that the dead man at Te Kouka Flats farm had been identified as Philip Zinsli. Constable van Buren was waiting for back up. The officer thanked Trevor, saying the finding of the Wests was incredible news, and could he release that news?
"You will have to check with Inspector Frobisher about that. I think the investigation is ongoing," said Trevor, his police training coming to the fore.
In the back of the helicopter Tricksy was breathing very shallow breaths. Sally and Lance's knees and thighs were aching with the weight of the dog but neither complained. The noise in the helicopter was too loud for conversation anyway. Sally was dying to explore the new Lance, with his boy's voice instead a falsetto squeaking. He was able now to address people, something he had not been able to do before, although he had said on one occasion, "I'll ask Mr Tricksy." Sally could see that the dog was dying. She willed the pilot to go faster but in her heart she knew that Zinsli's bullet was fatal.
Tricksy gave a shudder. Then air blew out of her jowls. She jerked then lay still.
Sally put her mouth against Lance's ear. "I think she's gone," she said.
"Dead?"
"Yes. Say goodbye to her. She can still hear you."
"Goodbye Mr Tricksy!" shouted Lance at the top of his voice. Trevor Simonson heard and glanced over his should at Sally. He raised his eyebrows inquiringly. Sally nodded.
Tears flowed down Lance's cheeks, something that Sally had never seen before. She put her arm around Lance and hugged him. Always in the past he had pushed her away, often quite violently. This time her buried himself in her side and sobbed. Sally's throat hurt with grief. She put her head on his and cried, not only for the dog, but for Philip Zinsli whom she loved for a while, and for Greg and the whole mess she had created. Trevor Simonson began to slow as he approached Grantville.
Kyle Jordan was waiting for them with a photographer when the helicopter landed with Ashleigh in the front. As she got out and the rotors slowed, Inspector Martin Frobisher stepped forward to help her. The photographer recognised publicity seeking genius when he saw it. This guy was a star. The photograph was printed first in the Guardian, before the whole story was written, and wired to the New Zealand Press Association. It showed a beautiful woman being assisted
by a handsome senior officer, a stunning picture. But it was not as stunning as the pictures that captured British hearts, two police officers holding a dead dog on a blanket of some kind with a wide eyed boy and his mother looking down at Tricksy, with their personal tragedy clearly written in their faces.
PART SEVEN: AFTERWARDS
53.
Mr Weatherall was very pleased.
"The little fella seems to have come out of your ordeal without too much damage being done," he said.
Sally thought Mr Weatherall was joking. He was a tall man, very thin, with a markedly narrow face. She thought of him as an animated playing card, maybe a Jack.
"He has another German Shepherd," said Sally. "He doesn't need to talk through Rex, though. And unlike the previous dog, this one doesn't know all the tricks."
Mr Weatherall felt Sally's hesitation over what he had thought was a humorous statement. He missed the implication that Lance would have to teach Rex instead of Mr Tricksy teaching him.
Mr Weatherall hesitated then went on to the next thing that he wanted to say.
"I don't see anything significant in Lance seeking knowledge about gender differences in the middle of a crisis. Children say what is on their minds, and obviously to find the dog was female occasioned reclassification of gender in his mind. But I am worried that he could shoot someone in cold blood and suffer no psychological consequences," he said.
Sally could see clearly the black and white decision Lance had made. Logically and with no emotion at all, Lance had gone about saving their lives. He had not expected Tricksy to defend him against Zinsli.
"Oh, Mr Weatherall," she said. "It had a huge effect on him. Luckily his new communication skills allowed him to talk to us. We explained that when a bull went mad and became dangerous, we shot it but it made us sad. He said, 'Are soldiers sad too?" which told us that he understood the call of acting out of duty. You know the Humane Society are going to give him a medal?"
"What about you?" Mrs Somerville?"
"Greg and I are back together. I inherited Gresham Downs after Philip died. I have a clever lawyer. Actually, I am back working for Mr Middleton," said Sally. "Ashleigh, Greg and I have gone into partnership, running all three farms between us. Greg and Ashleigh deal with the farm work, together with her fiancé, Michael Bainbridge. Greg and I live on Ashleigh's property near town so we can have help with Lance, while Michael and Ashleigh live in a caravan while our old house is being rebuilt. I do the books and work for Mr Middleton's firm of solicitors."
"We talk regularly on the phone. They are back in Weatherston where Alex runs a shop. Richard is back with the Ministry of Education, sorting out problems with schools. Mr and Mrs West Senior are back in England. Jo is going to go to University. Everything is back to normal."
Not quite, it seems. Barbara van Buren received commendation for her work. Inspector Frobisher was appointed to Head Office, in charge of new innovations in electronic media, while Syd and Bill Paki-Paki flew back to Europe to pick up the next Princess cruise to stop at Dubrovnik. Barbara's morning sickness meant she was largely confined to her desk but her husband Malcolm Greenslade assured her it would not be for long. What would he know about morning sickness?
Lance is at school full time. He sometimes does stupid things and is still called Spaz. He will always be different from normal people: a little withdrawn, private, and apparently uncaring. But what is a normal person anyway?
FROM ROBERT
THANK YOU FOR READING my story. I hope you enjoyed it and read some more of my work. You and I share something in common, a love of reading. I would love to have some feedback, either through the site where you ordered this book, or direct to me at [email protected]
Best wishes
Robert
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Farm Kill Page 24
