by Toni Pike
“It’s time, sir, be sure to sit up straight,” said the producer. She raised her hand to call for silence and then filming started.
I stared into the camera, ready to make my confession speech. At last it was time to plead guilty, and in the monitor I could see that a ghastly whiteness had spread over my face.
Chapter 20
With a determined look, I started to speak.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’m sorry to be interrupting you on this beautiful Saturday afternoon, but today I have a very important announcement to make about my past. First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for their support and trust over the last eighteen months and throughout my political career. I also particularly want to thank my Parliamentary colleagues and the people in my own electorate of Mangrove. This nation truly is the best country in the world.
“I will now be stepping aside as Prime Minister, and I’ve asked the deputy PM, Derek Slade, to act as Prime Minister for the time being until the Party Room can vote for a new leader. Today, I have a confession to make. You will find it shocking and be justified in thinking that I’ve betrayed the great faith you’ve shown in me throughout my political career. Let me begin by apologising and for taking so long to reveal the truth.
“Several weeks ago you may have seen or read about an interview with Joshua Byrnes, who was accused of murdering my parents. The story he told in that interview was the truth.”
I looked around at the production crew and could see their shocked looks. I took a deep breath and continued.
“When I was eleven years old, I was taken in and raised by Jane and Kevin Carmichael, a middle-aged brother and sister who owned the motel in a little town called Quarry in Western Australia. They were wonderful parents. My real parents, Peter and Kylie Thompson, were physically abusive to me. For several years, we had been travelling around outback Australia in an old campervan, keeping well away from other people. One night we camped beside Eighty Mile Beach, in the Kimberley region, and as the evening progressed I wondered if perhaps that night they would succeed in killing me. Joshua Byrnes, a stranger, was hiking in the region and stumbled on our campsite by accident. He rescued me, fighting with my parents to stop them hurting me. But when they were both lying on the ground, I picked up a rock and struck them on the head, bludgeoning them to death.
“Joshua Byrnes helped me to bury them and remove all trace of our campsite so that there would be no evidence left behind. After that, we drove the campervan into the desert until it ran out of petrol and left it there. He looked after me for a couple of days until we came to a road. I flagged down a truck that took me to the nearest town, which was Quarry.
“A few days later, I told the police that a man came to our campsite that night, and they formed the opinion that he might have killed my parents. When the police charged Joshua Byrnes with murder I didn’t say anything. I went to the last day of the trial in Broome, and that was when I stood up in the courtroom and yelled out that he was a murderer. He was convicted and spent twenty-five years in prison. I lived my life knowing that he was there for a crime he didn’t commit.
“As you know, as well as giving the interview, Mr Byrnes recently revealed where the bodies were buried. The police uncovered their skeletons, but were able to confirm only that the likely cause of death was severe head trauma.”
“I’m not asking for any forgiveness or understanding. I’m now saying farewell, and please accept my best wishes for your health and happiness. A great future lies ahead for Australia.”
My speech was finished and the producer raised her hand. “Cut,” she said. It was over.
The production crew packed up their gear in stone cold silence and left the room as quickly as they could. None of them could look me straight in the face.
Ranjit was the only person left in my study. “It was a very good speech,” he said.
My lower lip trembled. “Thank you for everything, Ranjit.”
“What about Letitia and Charlie?” he asked.
“I’ll be waiting here for Joshua Byrnes to bring them home.”
“You won’t do anything stupid will you?”
“Don’t worry about me – I just want to see that they’re safe.”
“I can’t leave you alone.”
“Oh yes you can. I want everyone away from here, all the staff. Tell Stan Wickowski that he needs to go and look after the new Prime Minister. I’ll be moving out within the next few days, of course. And right now I want to be alone.”
“I’ll tell security to wait outside, that will be the best I can do. Tyler, contact me as soon they come home. If they’re not back by tomorrow morning, I’m going to inform the police.”
“I understand. But they’ll be back by then, I know they will. They have to be.”
Ranjit spoke to the rest of the staff, then came back to see me one last time before he walked out the front door.
The silence amplified my loneliness and I suddenly realised that there was nothing else for me to do except wait for my family to come home. My stomach heaved at the thought of my speech, so I raced to the nearby bathroom and threw up.
Returning to the study, I checked to see if there were any phone or text messages. The security detail was huddled outside and two of the guards glanced furtively towards my window. I was relieved to be left alone in the house, but also understood that everyone in the world had deserted me, abandoning the Tyler Thompson ship without stopping to turn out the lights. My political career was over and everyone in Australia would soon know their former Prime Minister was a murderer. It had been a horrible day, a wild ride ending in a train wreck. History would record it as the day when Tyler Thompson came completely unstuck.
I half expected the police would turn up after my announcement to talk to me about the murders. But no one arrived, so perhaps they were not in a rush after so many years. I was sure they’d be coming to speak to me soon.
The safe return of my wife and baby was all that mattered to me. Counting every interminable second was edging me closer and closer to the point of insanity. Waiting was such an insidious form of mental torture. A mob of journalists had gathered outside the gate, though the security guards were trying to convince them to go home.
While the hours dragged on in the study, telling my story helped to stop me from turning into a gibbering nutcase. As the day turned into night, I talked to my computer, proceeding with my tell-all tale to avoid completely breaking down. At least it would be my own record of events, a way to stop the media inventing a hundred different versions of Tyler Thompson’s life.
I wondered if insanity would be a great relief, a way to hide from the truth and stop my pain, almost like falling into a deep sleep. But my mind was the only part of my life that was still under control and I wanted to stay sane until Letitia arrived. Then the men in white coats were welcome to take me away in their padded van.
My storytelling came to an end at eleven o’clock, but the conclusion was yet to come. Joshua had still not brought my wife and baby home.
I turned on the desk lamp and decided to check my phone again, find out why that device had been as quiet as a church mouse for the last eight hours. There was deathly, deadly silence, not a single call or message. No one had tried to contact me, not even Ranjit.
Prime Minister Tyler Thompson expected an endless list of messages and phone calls, a constant challenge to try to prioritise and keep under control. Since my resignation speech everyone had shunned me, dropped me like a red-hot coal they accidentally picked up with their bare hands. Only yesterday, they desperately wanted to be my best friend, my closest confidant. Now they were treating me as persona non grata.
Worst of all, there was still no message from Letitia or Joshua Byrnes.
***
The phone buzzed just before midnight. That shattered the silence and an adrenaline rush put all my senses on high alert. I pressed the answer button and blurted out my name.
“Hello Tyler,” said Joshu
a, his voice calm and steady. The same voice that had haunted my dreams for more than twenty-five years.
“Where are they?” I demanded. “When are you bringing them home?”
“Just listen to me for a moment,” he replied. “I know how much it cost you to make that speech tonight. I wanted to thank you just the way you thanked me that night.”
“Answer me,” I said, thumping my fist on the desk.
“When I suggested a camping trip and sounded so enthusiastic about it, Letitia couldn’t bear to disappoint me because I’d suffered so much. She’s so kind. We drove to a remote spot in Namadgi National Park, very close to Canberra. But it’s so isolated and packed with dense bush, you’d think there was no one else for hundreds of kilometres. We parked the car and set up camp.”
“Where are they?” I asked, fear making me almost black out.
“Like a gentleman, I put the tent up and did all the chores so that Letitia only needed to look after Charlie. I didn’t tell her I had a satellite phone to access the Internet and keep in touch with the outside world. While she had an afternoon nap, I went to collect some kindling and checked up on your speech.
I felt an overwhelming surge of anger. “Where are you now?”
“We’re at the house, safe and sound.”
“What house?”
“I decided not to go to The Lodge, after all. I brought them back to the townhouse so that we could have some privacy.”
“I’m coming straight over,” I said.
“Good, I’ll be waiting for you. You need to make amends.”
“What is that supposed to mean? I told the truth, I kept my share of the bargain.”
“You need to make amends for all the harm I suffered. You ruined my life when you betrayed me. That night I looked after you the way that your parents never did. You were only a child, so I wanted to protect you. Tyler, if you wanted me to take the blame you should have asked me first.”
I tried to speak steadily in an effort to calm him down, terrified of what he might be about to do. “I’m sorry, I was frightened. What recompense do you need? I can give you all the money we have. You can be comfortable for the rest of your life.”
“Money doesn’t matter to me. I want to have my revenge, don’t you understand that?”
My mouth went dry and my heart thumped as if it would explode. I tried to keep my thoughts focused in an attempt to negotiate. “Please, Joshua, wait till I get there and you can kill me instead.”
“If I kill you then your suffering will be over. But if anything happens to your wife and baby, then you’ll suffer for the rest of your life. You’re thirty-six years old now. That’s the same age as me when they locked me up. The years passed slowly for me, but I bet your life has raced by. I’m sixty-two years old. I might have married and had children. I couldn’t bear that Letitia was married to you – that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“I’m begging you, Joshua. Just wait till I get there, five more minutes.”
“Come here alone, Tyler. Don’t bring anyone else, especially the police - or I’ll kill both of them straight away.”
He ended the call as I ran into the back garden, and at the same time pressed Ranjit’s name on my phone. I knew I shouldn’t be contacting him, but had just one favour to ask. He answered and I spoke before he said a word. “Sorry to call, Ranjit. Please ring the police in exactly thirty minutes. Can do you that for me? Send them to the townhouse, say there’s a hostage situation.”
“What the hell is going on?” he snapped. “Are you doing something crazy?”
“Joshua has them there. He says he wants to kill them.”
“I’ve got to call the police now!” he said.
“No, please, in thirty minutes. Please trust me.”
I could hear him breathing heavily “Okay, thirty minutes, but for God’s sake be careful.”
“Thank you, Ranjit. I’ll never forget this.”
I had the key to the back gate and sneaked into the narrow side street. Ranjit had parked my car there that afternoon, just in case it was needed. That was the only way to avoid the security guards and journalists at the front gate.
A second later I was in the driver’s seat of my own car, a ten-year-old Mercedes. I turned the key in the ignition and sped off like a Formula One driver, the screech of tyres filling the night air. My car accelerated past a lone pedestrian having a midnight stroll. He gave me a wide-eyed glare and shook his arm at me as I broke every road rule in the book.
To avoid the main road I twisted and turned through suburban back streets as if it was the Grand Prix. At the same time I tried to phone Letitia but the only answer was the voicemail message that filled me with rage.
The three-kilometre drive took me just over a minute and I brought the car to an abrupt halt in the driveway. I jumped out and scanned the scene. There was Letitia framed in the nursery window on the second floor, waving frantically with Charlie in her arms. She bashed her hand against the glass, pointing towards the window ledge to indicate that it was locked and she obviously didn’t have the key.
Joshua may have locked her in the room, or else she barricaded herself in there to keep him at bay.
Then she stepped away from the window and probably put Charlie in his cot. She returned a second later, holding the blue lamp that normally sat on the chest of drawers, and smashed it with all her strength against the windowpane. There was an ear-splitting noise as a waterfall of shattered glass fell on the front paving.
“Tyler, help us, he locked us in here!” she cried as I ran to the front door.
“Don’t let him into the room,” I yelled back.
Every muscle in my body was tensed ready for action and my reflexes were on their highest level of acuity. I was on a rampage as I banged on the door.
“Let me in, Byrnes!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
Although he’d asked me to come over, the front door was shut. I could go around the back, but for a fast entry my best choice was to kick down the front door. I knew the weakest point was just below the doorknob, and braced my body ready to use my right leg as a battering ram. Giving one almighty kick, the door flew wide open as jarring pain shot through the length of my body.
Not wanting to waste a second, I leaned forward and charged inside. I wanted to rescue my wife and baby like an all-conquering hero, and the years of waiting to collide with my own demons were almost over.
Or so I thought.
Chapter 21
I was expecting him to be there to confront me, but there was no sign of Joshua or anyone else. In the living area there were a couple of baby toys on the sofa and on the dining table was the notepad where Letitia always wrote her daily schedule.
A knot tightened in my stomach. Perhaps Joshua was hiding and waiting to pounce on me, or he was upstairs or outside in the garden. Any normal person would run up the stairs and break down the nursery door to save Letitia and Charlie. I’d been waiting so long to see them and there seemed to be nothing standing in my way.
But a primal instinct blew that thought away and filled me with a desire for vengeance. I presumed that my wife and baby were safely secured in the room upstairs, and that gave me a chance to deal with Joshua Byrnes. I could permanently resolve the problem of him causing mayhem in my life.
The only complication might be if he was in the nursery with them, but I doubted that was the case. I’m sure Letitia would have indicated that somehow, and he would have stopped her breaking the window. They were probably safe for the time being, although in a state of distress.
If Joshua was hiding downstairs, I was determined to find him. He was clearly not in the kitchen and living area. Racing to the powder room and laundry, I kicked the doors open but my frustration reached boiling point when I found them empty.
With my back against the wall to avoid an ambush, I walked past the kitchen again on my way to the backyard – and nearly jumped out of my skin to see him standing in the corner, leaning against th
e bench with a smug smile on his face.
He must have snuck in there from outside, and he didn’t appear to be armed. I was suddenly torn between the urge to race upstairs to Letitia or charge forward and vent my fury.
“Good evening, Tyler,” he said.
Anger welled up in me, turning me into a monster with no concept of mercy or forgiveness. I leapt over and punched him in the face.
A shock of pain radiated from my clenched fist as he doubled over and grabbed at his bleeding nose. “That hurt Tyler. You shouldn’t have done that,” he said.
As he stood up, I grabbed his neck with both hands and squeezed hard, trying to throttle him. He looked at me with bulging eyes as if his head was about to burst.
That made me come to my senses and release my stranglehold. I took three steps back and faced him off from the opposite corner.
Letitia shouted from the room upstairs. “Tyler, what’s happening?”
Perhaps I should have run up there, kicked down the door and rescued her, leaving the police to deal with Joshua when they arrived. That’s the choice most people would have made.
He suddenly sprinted past me into the living area, then sat on the sofa and put his hands over his nose. I followed him and saw the blood dripping on the carpet. “It’s all over Tyler,” he said. “I’ve got what I wanted. Your life is ruined.”
I blinked sweat from my eyes as I stood there transfixed.
He kept on talking. “The first time I saw Letitia was on television, at your election party. She reminded me so much of a woman I knew in Broome, and her surname was the same. We had a brief affair but then she cut me off cold, told me to keep away and refused to answer my calls. I left town but returned a few months later. I tried to contact her but she ignored me.
“I soon gave up and left, vowing never to go back there. I didn’t, either, not until they sent me to jail in Broome. It tore me apart to see that beautiful girl was married to you, having your child – the boy who betrayed me and put me in jail. So while I was keeping an eye on your career, I also looked into Letitia’s background. Found out that she’d spent her first three years in Broome – and that woman I knew was her mother.
