Outback Ghost

by Rachael Johns

  Drew’s expression remained impassive but he leaned forward, rested his elbows on the desk and clasped his hands together. ‘What makes you think this?’

  ‘That’s where it gets crazy. You know the little girl staying there with her mum? The one Ruby is giving riding lessons to?’

  ‘Sure. Heidi. Cute kid.’

  ‘Yes, she is.’ Adam took a deep breath, bracing himself for Drew’s reaction at what he was about to say. ‘And it seems to be she might be talking to my sister.’

  Drew said nothing for a long moment, then, ‘I’m not reading you.’

  ‘Heidi says Lily-Blue lives under the jacaranda tree at the back of the cottage.’

  Drew’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Okay, you’re right. This is weird. What exactly are you saying, Adam?’

  He took another breath, not that any of them felt like they were getting to his lungs. ‘Long story short, Stella told me Heidi has always had imaginary friends. She started talking to a new one not long after they arrived at the cottage and called her Lily-Blue. It’s an unusual name and Stella didn’t know where she’d gotten it from and then she saw my tattoo.’

  He tugged his T-shirt down slightly to show Drew the small tattoo. ‘She tried to ignore it, but Heidi got very upset recently and said that Lily-Blue was sad and missed her mum. Then Stella felt her presence. She never believed in ghosts but now she reckons there’s one in the cottage.’

  ‘Your sister?’

  Adam nodded.

  ‘Shit.’ Drew rubbed his jawline. ‘You know, Ruby mentioned a few weird goings on when she was cleaning at the cottage. She said doors would close when there wasn’t a breeze and that once she swore someone was playing the piano, but decided it must have been the cat or something.’

  ‘My sister was learning the piano. Stella’s heard it too.’

  ‘I’m not sure I believe in ghosts.’

  ‘I understand,’ Adam said. ‘I didn’t think I did either. I’ve certainly never had any experience of them myself and I can’t help wondering, if it is true, why Lily-Blue never tried to talk to me. Hell, Mum’s even been in the cottage this past year and she never felt anything odd.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But I talked to Heidi this morning and she knows things about my sister that she couldn’t possibly know.’ He quickly relayed to Drew the chat they’d had and his suspicions that something shocking had happened to his sister at the hands of his uncle.

  ‘Did she say she’s talking to a ghost?’ Drew asked.

  ‘No.’ Adam shook his head. ‘Stella reckons Heidi has no idea. She doesn’t even know Lily-Blue’s relationship to Mum and me.’

  ‘So the ghost is selective in the information she shares?’

  Drew’s amused tone annoyed Adam. ‘Look, if you’re not going to take this seriously…’ Feeling like a fool, he shoved back his chair and stood.

  ‘I’m sorry. Please sit down.’

  Only the fact that Drew’s reaction wasn’t far off his own initial one had Adam lowering himself back into the chair. ‘I told you it sounded insane. I’m not really sure I believe it either but now that it’s in my head, I can’t get it out. I guess what I need to know is can you do anything on the word of a child?’

  Drew sighed. ‘Look, I’ll be honest with you. It’s been a long time and the Missing Persons Unit is very busy. Around thirty-five thousand people are reported as missing in this country every year. Even if I believed your story – and I’m not saying I don’t – it’s highly unlikely that the rest of the force are going to throw resources at a twenty year old case without any concrete evidence.’

  ‘So that’s it then.’ Although he’d expected this answer, Adam had never felt more defeated in his life. He forced himself to stand and offered out his hand to Drew. ‘Thanks for your time.’

  Drew didn’t take it, instead he glanced around the room as if checking for eavesdroppers. ‘Off the record, if you happened to be digging near that jacaranda tree and stumbled on something… we’d have to investigate.’

  A chill seeped into Adam’s bones. ‘Are you saying I should take matters into my own hands? That I should get a shovel and have a look under the tree myself?’

  Drew held up his hands and shrugged. ‘I didn’t say anything of the sort.’

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘Mummy. Want to see Berta.’

  Stella turned from where she was still staring off at the jacaranda on the back veranda. Deep in thought about the little lost girl and all the heartache Adam’s family had had to endure over the years, it took a moment for her to register who Heidi meant. ‘Oh, Roberta.’ She summoned a smile for her daughter. ‘Unfortunately Ruby is busy today. She said she’s going to do some last minute Christmas shopping.’

  Heidi frowned as if thinking this over. ‘We done Christmas shopping?’

  Stella laughed. ‘Well, I’ve bought you some special presents.’

  ‘I not buyed you anything, Mummy.’ Heidi looked set to burst into tears.

  ‘Darling.’ Stella dropped to her knees and pulled her into her embrace. ‘Christmas isn’t about buying gifts. It’s about spending quality time with the people you love and doing fun things together like decorating Christmas trees and baking treats.’

  ‘I did tree with Esther. I love her.’

  ‘I know you do, darling.’ This fact filled Stella with both joy and worry.

  ‘But we need tree,’ Heidi added.

  Stella sighed. It was the one thing she’d forgotten to bring with them from Perth. Heidi had been okay with this fact a few days ago, but now Stella realised a little girl needed a tree. Part of her reason for coming away had been to give her daughter the best Christmas she’d ever had and she’d failed on the one obvious thing.

  ‘You’re right,’ she said, an idea forming. ‘Get your sneakers on, we’re going tree-hunting.’

  ‘What?’ Heidi giggled at the thought.

  ‘Just get your shoes on, missy.’ Stella turned her daughter towards the back door and patted her affectionately on the bum. ‘Go on.’

  They could go into Geraldton and buy a tree but the last thing Stella felt like doing so close to Christmas was going shopping, where every man and his dog would be in crazy-last-minute-gift-buying mode. If she were honest with herself, there was another reason she didn’t want to make the trip. She glanced down at her watch, wondering if Adam was at that very moment talking to Constable Noble about their suspicions. The very idea made her stomach twist. To anyone who hadn’t felt Lily-Blue’s presence it would no doubt sound insane. She wished she could be with him – not only because she’d been the one to raise the possibility but because she wanted to offer him comfort and support in what was likely going to a difficult and highly emotional conversation.

  Constable Noble seemed like a nice enough guy, and his fiancée had become a friend to Stella over the last week or so, but she worried he wouldn’t take Adam seriously. She wanted to be here if Adam came back and needed to talk.

  Heidi returned to the veranda, her velcro sneakers on the wrong feet and her sunhat back to front on her head. The sight made Stella’s heart swell and she had an irrepressible urge to hug her daughter again. The people who looked at her with pity when she and Heidi walked by had no idea how blessed she was. She deserved the best Christmas ever and Stella only hoped that the things currently hogging her headspace weren’t going to threaten that.

  It’s out of our hands, she told herself silently. The best thing for her and Heidi would be to keep themselves busy for the day. Vowing to try to forget Adam until he returned with news, she grinned at Heidi. ‘Right, let’s do it.’

  She helped Heidi switch her shoes to the right feet and then they went inside so Stella could get dressed and find appropriate footwear as well. She slathered them both with sun cream and then they were on their way, stalking across Adam’s farm on the look out for a fallen branch that would masquerade as a Christmas tree and singing Heidi’s version of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer at the top of the
ir lungs.

  ‘Hey, how about that one.’ Stella stalled and pointed about ten metres away to a eucalypt branch lying on the ground. It was a little bigger than she’d hoped but not so far away from the cottage that she wouldn’t be able to carry it home.

  ‘Yes. Yes. Yes.’ Heidi jumped in the air and then pumped her little legs towards the branch.

  Laughing, Stella followed her but as she bent down to test the branch’s weight, she saw a flash of brown in the dirt ahead of them and her heart flipped. Her reflexes kicked in. Strength she didn’t know she had poured into her arms and she snatched Heidi up and out of the way, turned and charged away from the branch.

  ‘Mummy? What wrong?’

  Stella kept moving, unable to talk and run while carrying Heidi at the same time. Her heart felt as if it would explode any moment, her legs ached but she didn’t slow until she’d run about a hundred metres to a clearing well away from the trees. She glanced around her and then lowered Heidi to the ground, before dropping her hands to her knees in an aim to catch her breath. Ghosts, snakes… what horrific thing would conspire against them next?

  ‘Mummy?’ Heidi’s tiny hand landed on Stella’s back and rubbed little circles in the way Stella did to Heidi when she couldn’t sleep.

  ‘I saw a snake.’

  Heidi’s hand dropped. ‘Real one?’

  ‘I think so. Remember I told you we had to look out for them at the moment?’

  Heidi nodded earnestly.

  ‘So, we might leave the tree hunting for a bit and go back to the cottage to make some decorations.’

  Heidi, thankfully obliging, went happily back to the cottage and they spent the morning making paper chains to go on the tree they’d hopefully acquire later. Heidi coloured in and decorated strips of paper and then Stella stapled them into rings. When they had enough paper chains to decorate a whole eucalypt tree, never mind one small branch, Stella moved onto cooking. She’d already bought the ingredients needed for gingerbread men and they put in most of the day making dough, cutting out shapes and decorating. This was the quality time Stella had longed to spend with Heidi when they lived in the city and there always seemed to be something else more pressing, but she couldn’t relax and enjoy it, no matter how much she wanted to.

  She couldn’t stop thinking about Adam and the whole Lily-Blue situation. Late afternoon, when he still hadn’t phoned or visited, Stella had to accept the possibility that maybe he wouldn’t.

  Maybe she’d been presumptuous to think he’d tell her about his conversation with the police or discuss his feelings. They barely knew each other. He had good friends at the end of a phone line and family nearby. Stella got through Heidi’s dinner, bath and storytime on auto-pilot, hoping her daughter didn’t notice her absentmindedness and when Heidi finally slept, she went straight into the kitchen and poured herself a much needed glass of wine.

  Determined to put thoughts of Adam aside and trust that somehow the Lily-Blue issue would be solved for Heidi’s sake, she sat down at the table to edit. Her laptop had barely roused to life when she heard the distinctive sound of a ute outside. Not just any old ute. Adam’s ute. In the space of a short time, she’d come to know the sound of his vehicle in much the same way as she knew Heidi’s different cries. She wanted to be cool and calm but her whole body, even her toes, buzzed with the prospect of seeing him. Taking a quick sip of her wine, she stood and went to meet him. He was just coming up the steps as she opened the door. She couldn’t read the expression on his face. Didn’t know if he was angry again, simply exhausted or relieved.

  ‘Hey there,’ she said, offering him a tentative smile.

  ‘Hi.’

  They stood staring at each other for a few long moments, then Stella realised maybe it was her place to invite him in. ‘I’ve opened a bottle of wine. Can I tempt you?’

  ‘Is Heidi asleep?’ he asked and Stella experienced déjà vu from the night before.

  She nodded, guessing he’d stayed away because he wanted to talk when Heidi couldn’t hear. But Adam stepped right up to her and talking seemed to be the last thing on his mind. He slipped one hand behind her back and tugged her against him, kind of roughly but she had to admit, she liked it. Before she could respond, his mouth took hers, his tongue almost immediately entering her mouth in a hard, possessive kiss. Heat flowed from his lips into hers and right through her, pooling at the V between her legs. As if attuned to her desire, he skimmed his hands round to her front and snuck them under the old T-shirt she’d been wearing most of the day. Glamorous it was most certainly not, but he obviously didn’t give a damn.

  This hadn’t been exactly what she’d had in mind when she thought about being available for him today but maybe it was better. Her hormones certainly thought so and she’d been craving his touch since she’d first experienced it the other night. Despite the issue hanging over their heads, she wanted him more now than ever and because she’d told him all that was on her mind, she couldn’t see any possible reason to push him away.

  The things she’d been trying not to think about all day fled her mind as he lowered his head and dropped kisses down her neckline. She moaned with pleasure and although she desperately wanted to lift her hands and explore his marvellous body, she couldn’t seem to function with his lips taunting her bare flesh. Sensations she’d been scared she’d never feel again swamped her and it was all she could do to remain upright. Once again, Adam appeared to sense her feelings. He lifted his head from her chest and before she could mourn the loss, he’d slipped his arms around her and scooped her into the air. Instinctively, she clung to him and found herself giggling as he strode down the hallway and into the main bedroom. This was becoming a habit – one she could too easily get used to.

  Adam couldn’t say what had come over him. He’d been driving around most of the day unable to think about anything else bar the last thing Drew had said. He’d steered clear of his mum’s place and not answered the phone when his dad rang because he honestly didn’t know how he could talk to either of them and not mention the possible ghost in the cottage. At the same time, he couldn’t see how mentioning it would do any good. As Drew had said, no police department would put any weight in such information. For lunch he’d gone to the café, desperate to talk to Frankie but she’d been so busy all she could offer was a brief wave. He hadn’t gone to the cottage, believing that to be because he didn’t want to tell Stella what Drew had said with Heidi around, but the moment he’d laid eyes on Stella he had to admit it was for another reason entirely.

  He couldn’t control himself around her. He shouldn’t want to take her up against the wall after the crazy things she’d put into his head. Especially not while her daughter and possibly the ghost of his little sister lingered in the next room, but that’s exactly what he wanted. Maybe even needed. And the good thing? Stella appeared to be on the same page.

  ‘Oh. Adam.’ His name left her throat on a pant as he lowered her down to the ground. Her feet had barely touched the floorboards before she was tugging his shirt out of his jeans and yanking it up over his head. He assisted, hurling it somewhere behind them and then removing her top just as quickly. He undid the clasp of her bra, hoping he wasn’t being too rough, but unable to help himself, as he tore it from her chest. The most perfect breasts he’d ever laid eyes on spilled free, her nipples pert and begging for his lips. He took the first one in his mouth, groaning at the sweet taste of her skin, while his hands worked quickly at the zipper of her shorts. There wasn’t room for even one scrap of material between them.

  Within seconds she stood naked before him and he lifted his head to see her smiling down at him. ‘Take off your jeans,’ she ordered in an authoritative tone. He liked it.

  ‘Why don’t you?’

  ‘Okay then.’

  But he didn’t make it easy for her. While she fumbled with the button at the top of his fly, he ran his hands over every nook and cranny of her body. As his button popped open, he slipped his hands between her legs and pr
essed a finger upwards. She thrust herself against his hand, moaning as her fingers fell from his waistband. How could he not smile at the feel of her hot, wet and ready? He wanted to make her moan and squirm, wanted to make her cry out and come over and over again. Everything about her – the softness of her skin, her real-woman curves, her scent – had snuck under his skin and he wanted to be the one to bring her pleasure.

  He worked hard, although it wasn’t a chore, and neither was it long before she began to tremble against his fingers. Her hands landed on his shoulders, steadying herself against him as the most beautiful sound ever spilled from her lips. He felt like the cleverest, luckiest man on the planet. Even now he could die happy with the knowledge he’d been the perpetrator of such intense pleasure, but he was greedy. He wanted more. Desperate to hear that sound again, to feel her shudder in the most intimate way possible, he walked her backwards until she collapsed upon the bed. Her chest heaved as she lay like a contented fairy sprawled across the covers.

  He was rock hard for her and only the desperate need inside him gave him the wherewithal to do what she hadn’t been able to achieve. Kicking off his boots, he stripped his jeans and jocks down his legs so they were both naked.

  ‘You make me want to take up life painting,’ she breathed, her hair wild around her head and her eyes hot for him.

  ‘That’s the best compliment anyone’s ever given me,’ he said, before joining her on the bed, lowering his body over hers and giving them both exactly what they wanted.

  Two hours and more orgasms than she thought she could achieve in one night later, Stella lay in Adam’s arms wishing she could hold onto this fantasy just a little longer. Resting her head against his chest, enclosed in his hot, naked embrace, dreaming about the things they’d just gotten up to, might just be the best feeling ever. If only they could live in their lust-fuelled bubble and forget about all other responsibilities for a while. Not that she wanted to forget about Heidi – her world revolved around her daughter – but Adam had awakened parts of her she’d all but buried under the responsibilities of motherhood and it felt amazing to dust off those parts and give them a workout.