Back to the Pilliga

by Tony Parsons

‘To be honest, I didn’t feel comfortable sending you an account. You paid me for four weeks’ work and I was involved for only one, not to mention you giving me a top-of-the-range four-wheel drive vehicle and some very nice camping gear. It just doesn’t feel right to ask you for the full amount you offered, especially since you were so worried at the time,’ I said.

  ‘Nonsense! You put your own safety on the line to save my daughter’s life and I can never really express my gratitude fully. You were shot and you could have been killed. A deal is a deal, Mr Sinclair. You don’t owe me anything and I owe you what I offered you and that’s all there is to it. Besides, Rosemary told me you’re thinking of buying a property and I’d love to think I can help you,’ she said.

  With that, she used my desk to write out a cheque for $250,000, which she passed across to me.

  ‘Thank you,’ was all I could say. It was by far the most money I’d ever held in my hands.

  ‘Not at all. Having my daughter back safe and sound is worth more than any amount of money. How do you like being with Rosemary?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s great. Rosemary’s a very nice woman and we get along well. Thanks for arranging that, Mrs Kendall,’ I said.

  ‘It was no trouble at all,’ she said. ‘Now, I’d really like you to come around for dinner with me and Caroline. When would be a good time?’ she asked, her invitation sounding more like a Royal Command. No ifs, buts or maybes.

  ‘Whenever suits you, Mrs Kendall,’ I said without hesitation.

  ‘Very well, then Caroline can pick you up from Rosemary’s this coming Saturday evening at six o’clock,’ she said.

  Caroline did pick me up very close to six – clearly she shared her mother’s attitude to time. When she got out of her car to greet me, I hardly recognised her as the woman I’d rescued. Wearing a beautiful blue dress, she was groomed to perfection and had put on some of the weight she’d lost over the two months she’d been held. Despite what Mrs Kendall had said about her state of mind, she looked both happy and tanned.

  It turned out that Mrs Kendall was unwell, so we ended up going to a restaurant on the water at The Spit. Caroline was clearly well known there and was greeted effusively before we were escorted to a table a little distance away from the others with a great view of the water.

  As we ate our entrée Caroline and I talked about how she’d been bearing up. She told me she’d slept poorly the first week back in Sydney and that she was still on sleeping pills and had nightmares but had started to feel a lot better over the last couple of days.

  Caroline told me that the abduction and subsequent incarceration had shaken her. Although she had met people of many nationalities, this had been her first experience of what might be termed the lower strata of men and their morality.

  I tried to steer her away from the subject of her abduction and on to other areas. She had a very good general knowledge and was very widely travelled so a lot of what she told me was quite fascinating. And despite her privileged background she was very down to earth and direct.

  When I asked her what she was planning to do next she said she was thinking of spending a couple of months on the Barrier Reef to try and fully recover her confidence, which had been battered by her abduction and being held prisoner. As she told me this tears sprang to her eyes and she said she wanted me to know how grateful she was that I’d found and rescued her.

  ‘As I said, you should really try to forget about all of that,’ I said. ‘I know the police have your statement so there’s no need to go over it again with me.’ Unlike Caroline, I had had a great deal of experience with thuggish men and their morality, women too, and now I wanted to put the thought of them behind me. But Caroline didn’t let up.

  ‘You were so clever working out where I was that I feel you should know the full story just in case I never see you again. If you hadn’t found me they might have killed me. I heard Reid saying that they should ‘get rid of me’. But Brewster said he wanted to find out who I was and see if he could get some money for me. The Challis men used to taunt me about Reid. They said I knew too much about all of them.’

  The words flowed out of her like something she had to be rid of so she could take up her life again.

  ‘There were about a dozen of us in the bank at the time the robbers appeared. The main man grabbed hold of me and pulled me to the door of the bank. I banged my head badly on the door and must have blacked out. When I came to I was in a car with the two men I came to know as Brewster and Reid. I didn’t show any sign I’d regained consciousness and was careful to only open my eyes when their voices indicated they were turned in the opposite direction. All I could gather was that we were in a private car park and they were waiting for someone called Ted.

  ‘I was extremely frightened but I realised I needed to keep my smarts about me to outwit them. That was when I made the snap decision to fake a loss of memory.

  ‘When Ted Challis came back with the other vehicle, we left the underground car park and headed out of Sydney. We drove well into the night until we finally arrived at Brewster’s farm. They kept me there for a few days and I told them I couldn’t remember my name or where I was from except that I lived in a big house with two storeys. I used to sing snatches of opera and musical comedy which amused Brewster but not Reid. At first I don’t think they believed I’d lost my memory. However, with time my behaviour seemed to convince them. I had a big lump near one eye where my head had hit the bank door and it went down to a black and yellow bruise so that probably helped me to convince them that I’d lost my memory.

  ‘Brewster and Reid used to go to races all over the place so I was a nuisance to them and they paid the Challis crew to look after me. Brewster kept telling them he thought I was worth “big bikkies” and they’d better not let anything happen to me.

  ‘On my first day at the Challis place, old man Challis told me to take off my good clothes and all my “fancy underwear” and when I refused they manhandled me and took off my clothes. Because of my defiance they held me over a work bench and Jack Challis and the old man belted me with lengths of polythene pipe. When they’d finished they told me that if I didn’t do as I was told they would give me a hiding every time. Then the old man gave me a piece of yellow soap and turned a hose on me. They gave me that old grey dress I was wearing when you rescued me and put a manacle on one ankle and padlocked it to a long chain. They’d unlock the padlock if they wanted me to do the cooking and washing.’

  ‘There’s one point I’d like to clear up,’ I said, interrupting her. ‘Why did they take you into Coonabarabran, Caroline?’ I asked.

  ‘It was really because of Reid. He wanted to kill me and bury me in the scrub. The Challis lot were really frightened of him. One day when the Challis boys cleared out for some reason – probably to steal stock – Brewster was guarding me and he gashed his leg badly chopping wood. It was bleeding a lot and Brewster got very panicky about it and said he’d have to go to town so it could be stitched. He didn’t trust Reid enough to leave me with him so he insisted on taking me with him. Reid sat next to me the whole time and said if I moved six inches he’d shoot me. He had a silencer on his pistol so he might have.

  ‘So I sat in the car with him while Brewster went in to the surgery to get his leg stitched. When Sheila Cameron came outside and looked at me I was pretty sure she’d recognised me so I turned my head away and hummed songs like I was a bit of a ninny. But by this time I think they were convinced that I really had lost my memory,’ said Caroline.

  ‘Brewster was the best of the bunch. I’m not saying he was any good, because he wasn’t, but he had a bit more to him than the others. Reid was pure poison. He said I was a witness to what they’d done and that could only mean trouble for them. The Challis lot were a bunch of low life creeps. They got a big thrill out of humiliating me and making me do what they wanted. They used to call me the “rich bitch”. “Get the rich bitch down here to cook dinner,” they’d say, and “Get the rich bitch to do some washing.�
� That sort of thing. And they always stood around gawking when the old man hosed me down with cold water.’

  ‘That’s terrible,’ I said. ‘It’s amazing you’ve recovered as well as you have.’

  ‘They were a sick lot. Occasionally Reid would come and talk to me to try to work out if I’d really lost my memory. It was hard keeping up the pretence. I knew Mum would be doing everything in her power to find me and that kept me going. But I didn’t think it would take so long. You’ve got no idea the relief I felt when I saw you and Gaye run past me. I knew that everything was going to be all right,’ she said.

  I patted her on the arm as she dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. ‘You’re safe now. They’re all in custody and I reckon they’ll all be locked away for long stretches. You’ve come through your ordeal very well. Many a person would have gone to pieces completely in your situation. For what it’s worth I think you were very brave and very clever to play that memory loss stunt and maintain it for so long. Not many people would have thought to do that and it probably saved your life. You’ve got a lot of backbone, Caroline. The Barrier Reef sounds just the place for a nice long break,’ I said.

  ‘I’m enjoying being back in a familiar environment though,’ she said. ‘Home seemed very far away when I was chained up with the Challis crew. I used to cry whenever I thought about either home or my mother. It was my belief in her that kept me going,’ said Caroline.

  ‘Your mother is a remarkable woman,’ I said ‘and so are you and Rosemary.’

  ‘You need a younger Rosemary, Lachie,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t I know it,’ I said.

  ‘Not to worry. Something tells me that your luck might be about to change,’ she said.

  CHAPTER 25

  About a fortnight after my dinner with Caroline, I received a phone message from Mrs Kendall asking me if I could call around the next morning to visit her and Caroline. I’d told Caroline that I was selling the agency then going bush to look for a property, so I assumed I was being summonsed for a final thank-you and farewell.

  Mrs Kendall lived in an imposing two-storey mansion in Rose Bay with a truly magnificent garden, including an extensive lawn which was in good enough shape to host a bowls tournament.

  Mother and daughter were, as usual, beautifully dressed.

  We chatted about some of the recent developments we’d heard about. I told them that Zane Reid had turned out to have a record as long as your arm in the US and the FBI had applied for his deportation back to America.

  After a very pleasant morning tea, Caroline walked with me to long red gravelled drive where I’d left my car. ‘I hope you find the kind of property you want and the wife to go with it,’ she said and gave me a hug and kissed me. ‘And I hope we can keep in touch?’

  ‘We’ll have the trials to endure and I suppose I’ll be called as a witness,’ I said.

  ‘I’m trying not to think about the trial,’ she said.

  ‘That’s the stuff. And if ever you come to visit me I hope we can go riding together,’ I said.

  One Friday morning in the weeks that followed I rang Judy Stirling and asked if she and Luke and the kids would like to spend Sunday up at Wagstaff. She said that Luke had had a couple of tough weeks and could do with a break so they’d love to join me there.

  I’d been very busy myself so I was also looking forward to a day up at Wagstaff. After spreading the word about the agency being for sale, it looked like I had a buyer. Ballinger had sent an ex-detective called Dick Pollard to see me. Dick been invalided out of the Police Force after being injured in a bad car accident – though except for a slight limp, he appeared in fair shape. Christine thought he seemed too ‘gentlemanly’ to be a detective but he’d worked in housebreaking with some top cops so I was confident he’d know his way about.

  I’d also travelled up to Kamilaroi to have my third of the property surveyed, though not without several acrimonious exchanges with my brother. He wanted the best of everything which included most of the major improvements such as the woolshed, yards, silos and the two homes – mother’s and his – though he was fine to let Mum use the main house for the rest of her life. I wasn’t prepared for either Flora or me to get a bad deal so we surveyed up what would be Flora’s portion. Both Flora and I got more land than Stuart to make up for the improvements on his block.

  We also ended up getting Stuart to agree to hive off five acres surrounding the old homestead and give them to Mum with her own separate title. All of this was costly and involved a lot of work but we had no option. I hadn’t put my block on the market because I was giving Stuart time to investigate whether he could raise the money to buy it. I doubted it would be possible because he had to find a lot of money to pay Nicole half of everything he owned, but he was my brother so I had to cut him a bit of slack and gave him two months to organise finance, after which time I proposed to advertise my block. In the meantime I started looking at properties for sale.

  The Stirlings and I set off early for Wagstaff and got there before 8 a.m. We put the boat in the water and then fished up and down the channel for an hour or so. I fished for luderick with green weed and Luke opted for a hand line with pieces of mullet for bait. The luderick here were real ocean-going fish showing more bronze than usual. I caught three good sized fish and Luke landed a big flathead.

  After a while we moved up to Half Tide Rocks and put Judy and the kids ashore. A middle-aged couple were fishing from a small open launch kellocked to the left of the rocky point. We left all the gear for lunch and pushed out for open water. There wasn’t much chop as there was only a very faint breeze. But there was always some degree of swell when you got away from the shore. It was winter but it was a clear day and warm enough in the sun not to have to wear a heavy jacket.

  We fished on for a while and it was sheer bliss to be out there on the water with my best mate. We didn’t have to talk, just being together was sufficient. Presently, with the slap of the ocean against the side of the boat and the gulls screaming as they dived for tiny fish, I asked Luke as casually as possible whether he’d heard anything of Gaye Walker.

  ‘Apparently she’s resigned, Lachie,’ he said. ‘The Super told me that Mrs Kendall gave her a new car and a decent amount of money for her part in helping you find Caroline Clemenger.’

  ‘But why would she resign?’ I asked, stunned. ‘She had a great future ahead of her in the Force.’

  ‘Seems funny to me, too. Funny peculiar, I mean,’ said Luke, looking at me appraisingly.

  I quickly turned the conversation back to other things. I could hardly believe what I’d heard. I hadn’t been able to get Gaye out of my mind because I felt sure she was the woman for me. Yes, she was several years younger than me but she had a good head on her shoulders and she liked the bush.

  We fished for a while longer and then cruised back to shore where we had the freshest possible flathead for lunch. Was there a nicer fish? Was there a sweeter fish? I doubted it.

  Judy reminded me that Luke’s birthday was coming up and she hoped I wouldn’t be away for it. I asked her how she felt about having the evening meal at my Neutral Bay house. We could have a barbecue under the big Moreton Bay fig and the Stirling family could meet Nicole and her daughters. It would be good for Nicole to meet some new friends as she seemed a bit lonely without the strong social network of friends she’d had in Coonabarabran. I’d probably invite Christine too as she was steadfastly resisting getting involved in any kind of relationship, and I was sure she’d get on with Nicole and Judy. Being the mover and shaker she was, she might be able to use her networks to help get Nicole some work.

  ‘That’s a lovely idea, Lachie,’ said Judy warmly.

  ‘Okay, we’ll do it,’ I said. I didn’t tell her that I planned to invite Gaye in case she didn’t come. I thought having Gaye there with some other friends might allow me to put my toe in the water, so to speak. If I was rebuffed then that would be the end of it but I wanted to glean some idea of whether there was anythin
g between us or not. Thinking about my last contact with Gaye in Coonabarabran I’d begun to wonder if I’d acted badly on that occasion. Now I had to know one way or the other whether there was any chance of a relationship between us, especially before I finalised my choice of possible properties to buy.

  I rang Gaye on her mobile and said that if she wasn’t busy would she like to come to my place at Neutral Bay for an evening barbecue. ‘It’s Luke Stirling’s birthday and his and Nicole’s kids will be there. No dressing up. Very informal.’ I got it all out in a rush and waited anxiously for her answer.

  ‘I’d love to,’ she said without hesitation.

  ‘That’s great,’ I said, relieved.

  Gaye asked me what I’d been doing and I told her in abridged form that I was on the verge of selling my agency and had done some preliminary property-hunting on the internet.

  ‘What have you been doing, Gaye?’ I asked without letting on that I’d heard she’d resigned from the Force.

  ‘Oh, this and that. I resigned from the Force,’ she said.

  ‘Why did you do that? You had the world at your feet,’ I said.

  ‘Mrs Kendall sought me out when I got back to Sydney and insisted on giving me a decent amount of money and a car and I’ve been doing a couple of courses,’ she said.

  ‘Well, I’m stunned. I thought you’d be well on your way to making sergeant,’ I said.

  ‘There are more important priorities than making sergeant – no matter how worthwhile that would be,’ she said.

  I wondered what those priorities were and hoped she’d elaborate when we spoke at the barbecue. Gaye had intimated when we were at the Gorge that she wasn’t in the police force for the long haul. However to resign so soon after being actively involved in what was regarded as a police triumph seemed a bit odd.

  The day and the weather were both on our side for Luke’s birthday barbecue. Nicole’s three girls all helped out making salads, though when the Stirlings arrived the two younger girls quickly teamed up with Roger and Kate. Vickie clearly regarded herself as too grownup to be with the younger kids and opted to keep helping Nicole and me get things ready for the evening. Vickie was in the middle of a secretarial course which was only a stopgap measure while she worked out what she really wanted to do. Christine was also coming early to help. She knew Gaye was coming and I suspected she wanted to be there when Gaye arrived because she’d been subtly trying to discover whether I was secretly seeing Gaye and not telling her.