by Tony Birch
‘Sure. If that’s what you want.’
He stuck his knife back in his boot and showed her an open hand. ‘See? I did what you said. I don’t want anybody getting hurt. Now give me the gun.’
Her hands shook more and more. She was about to drop the gun.
‘I don’t believe you. And I don’t like you.’
‘That’s no way to talk to me, honey. I like you, a lot.’
He threw himself at her. Rachel closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. The blast threw her body into the air.
Ray fell back against the couch and slid to the ground. There was a dark hole in the white t-shirt he was wearing, just where his heart should have been. As he sucked for air the white around the hole slowly turned red. Ray’s eyes flickered and then closed and his head fell to the side. He looked like he was sleeping.
Rachel sat up, looked over at me, and then back at Ray. Her whole body shook as she burst into tears.
Carloads of detectives and uniformed cops with sirens blaring and guns drawn turned up within a few minutes. Two ambulances were not far behind them followed by a TV crew that set up in the street out front of the house with spotlights and cameras. I watched as the ambulance officers cut Ray’s t-shirt open with a pair of scissors, put a mask over his mouth and looked over him. Police with bulletproof jackets and helmets moved from room to room, searching for the gunman.
I’d seen stuff just like this before, on TV, so it wasn’t that unusual.
‘He’s dead,’ one of the ambulance officers said, and took the mask away from Ray’s face.
A tall skinny detective walked in and yelled at one of the uniformed cops for leaving us in the room with the body.
‘Get these kids out of here, into the kitchen with the old boy. And get hold of Juvenile Services. Put the mother in one of the bedrooms on her own. Move. I need this room taped.’
I sat beside Rachel at the kitchen table while Pop made us some tea. She was white in the face and her eyes looked strange. Pop sat down next to her, wrapped his arms around her and rested her head against his chest.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
She nodded her head up and down.
‘You don’t look it.’
‘I am, Pop. I am.’
She was holding something in her hand.
‘What you got there?’ I asked her.
She opened her hand and showed me a tarot card, the picture of the girl and the lion.
The skinny detective came into the kitchen carrying the backpack.
‘This belong to anyone?’
He dropped the pack on the table, unzipped it, pulled out Comfort and held him up. ‘What about this?
Rachel put her hand out. ‘He’s mine.’
The detective opened the bag a little wider and looked inside.
‘You’ve got a rich bear, love.’
He counted each roll of money as he laid it on the table: ‘Eighteen . . . nineteen . . . twenty bundles.’ He searched through the bag to be sure it was empty.
I did some quick sums in my head. There were four rolls missing. Eight thousand dollars.
A crowd was standing on the footpath across the street from the house when we were led out. A barrier stopped them from getting closer. I could see Donny hanging over it. He was wearing my jacket over a pair of shorts. He smiled, waved at me and patted one of the pockets.
Rachel was rubbing a finger across the scar on the top of her thumb. I put my hand in hers.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my family and friends, both near and extended, for the support you have given me over the journey, with this book and those that came before. At University of Queensland Press, John Hunter is both a true friend and supporter of my work, while my editor, Rebecca Roberts, has cleared my mess with the eye of an artist. Thank you, Rebecca. I must also thank Charlotte Wood, who gave me important advice when I wrote and published the short story ‘Blood’ in a collection she edited, Brothers and Sisters (Allen & Unwin, 2009). To my kids – ‘the famous five’ – Erin, Siobhan, Drew, Grace and Nina, we did it again. I love you. And to beautiful Sara, I cannot tell you how it ends, ‘It’s [still] a mystery.’
First published 2011 by University of Queensland Press
PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
www.uqp.com.au
© 2011 Tony Birch
This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Cover design by Design by Committee
Cover photographs © Getty Images; Tony Birch; StockXCHNG
Typeset in 12/17 pt Bembo by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
Twenty-seven words from ‘The Bitter Boy’ © Kate Rusby
reprinted by permission of Pure Records Ltd.
This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available at http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/
Blood / Tony Birch
ISBN:9780702239274 (pbk)
9780702247590 (epub)
9780702247606 (kindle)
9780702247583 (pdf)
University of Queensland Press uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
