When Yesterday Comes Calling, page 19
I stood at the door of the utility room as she made her call. I couldn't hear what she said but when she laid the phone down, she sat staring straight ahead. I walked over to stand in front of her. I have never seen such a look of bleak despair on anyone before or since. Not even her mother's attempt to kill her caused that.
I squatted in front of her and reached for her hands. They were limp as if all the life had left them.
I waited for a response but when none came, I asked quietly, `What's happened, Anna?'
She looked at me as if she'd never seen me before, then took back her hands and stood up. I stepped aside as she walked past me to the back door then towards the barn. I had a sense that something terrible was about to happen. That Anna had completely lost control and was now beyond reach. Mine or anyone's.
It didn't look good for Luka Mladenovic, but if I let Anna do something she would regret I would never forgive myself. I ducked around in front of her and took her shoulders.
`Anna. Anna, tell me what has happened. Please. We can deal with this. But you have to talk to me.'
She kept walking ahead pushing me backwards. Her face was expressionless.
`Stop now,' I commanded fiercely. I'd never spoken to her like that but I had to get through to whatever place she was in.
She blinked, looking slightly confused. Had I broken through? I hung on to her. She looked up into my face and shook her head slightly.
`Harry?' she said. She was back, at least part of the way. I led her to the low brick wall at the edge of her vegetable garden, halfway between the house and the barn and sat her down. I held her tightly. I had no idea if she'd stay connected to reality.
`Tell me.'
Her face went still again and she tried to stand. I pulled her down. I realised her connection to reality was shaky and I knew I had to hang on to get her back and make sure she stayed. I took her face in my hands and turned it towards me.
`Look at me, Anna. Whatever is going on I'm here and I'm going to stay here. So tell me what's happened with George Mayhew and we'll sort it.'
She slumped and started shaking.
`Tell me.' Tears streamed down her face. `Please, Anna, tell me.'
`George is dead,' she whispered.
Everything around me faded and I felt I'd been kicked in the guts again.
`What happened?' I croaked, clearing my too tight throat.
In a high, clear voice she told how the cleaner had found George Mayhew and his elderly wife lying in their own blood with their throats cut. There was evidence that they'd been tortured before they died. Anna turned to me.
`Why did he kill him, Harry, and why kill Lila? She was just an old woman who knew nothing about any of it. And how much did George know? He was an old man; he did no one any harm. Who are these people?' She choked on a sob.
It wasn't clear that George did no harm but by Anna's family's standards it was relatively minor. He certainly didn't deserve what had happened to him. One more strike against Luka Mladenovic. That's how he got George to tell him where Tom Kelling lived. I stared straight ahead until Anna stood up.
`He—' she jerked a thumb at the barn, `did it and I'm going to—'
`No, you're not. The law will.' I stood beside her holding her tight. We needed one more detail. `Did the people you spoke to say when George died?'
My mind was as cold and clear as it had ever been. I had never met George Mayhew but from Anna's descriptions of him he seemed like one of the few people she'd ever known who showed her any kindness at all.
`The police officer said they'd been dead for about three days.' The tears were back.
That meant that Luka killed them while we were staying at Rocco's flat. So did he go to Sydney before he came up to Marysville? I had serious doubts that Bentford ordered Mayhew's death or the attack on Tom Kelling. More and more, I had the feeling that Luka was a loose cannon. Bentford was making plans and Luka was sabotaging them.
`Are you okay to talk to Luka?' She nodded and walked ahead of me to the barn.
At the door she turned. `I promise I won't kill him but…he will pay.'
It was as if we were transported back six months to when her beloved horse was slaughtered by someone she trusted. She had little mercy then and I knew she'd have none now. We made sure Luka heard us coming into the building and he didn't hold back his fury. I don't know any Serbian but I suspected he used every obscenity in the language and then added most English ones as well.
But I was in no mind to feel any amusement. I was sure he was directly responsible for all the deaths around us in the last few days. Singly or at the behest of his malignant brother. He may or may not have driven the car that ran Wendy down but I bet the poison hat killed her was the same as the one that killed Zivko.
We pulled over a couple of empty feed bins, upended them and sat in front of him. We made no move to reduce his bonds this time. I started by asking him where he was yesterday morning. He sneered and refused to answer. Anna picked up the twine. Her face was completely blank.
`She's very angry, mate, and I don't think I have any control over her at all.'
Still the sneer, even more pronounced. Perhaps he thought not being able to control a woman meant you were a wimp. Fine. Let him. He probably believed women weren't likely to be violent either. The results of a patriarchal mobster upbringing, perhaps.
`Let me tell you what I think.' Suggesting things and watching for small, involuntary twitches was a good technique to get stuff out of people who had no intention of telling you anything. Like I'd picked up with David Bale at the beginning of all this in Kashmir. And again when Michael Bentford had signalled his guilt after I'd been tipped off the side of the mountain. Luka Mladenovic had already given plenty away showing that he wasn't much good at controlling his reactions.
I began. `I think you visited the financial adviser for Ms Felby's company three days ago. Perhaps without your brother Michael's knowledge. He knew about Mr Mayhew he almost certainly didn't want or expect him to be murdered.'
He stared at me, not moving a muscle. Anna turned to me as well. I shrugged and continued.
`But you murdered him anyway. And for good luck or because you enjoy killing people, you cut his elderly wife's throat as well.'
A growl rose in Anna's throat but I laid a hand on her arm.
Luka smiled contemptuously. `This is myth. Fairy story. You know nothing.'
`Then let me go on.' I smiled back. `You tortured Mr Mayhew and he told you about a lawyer, called Tom Kelling, another very old man. So you hopped on a flight to Sydney where Mr Kelling lives. Again without telling your older, and might I say, much wiser brother.'
This time there was a blink behind the sneer. `Older and wiser brother' was the trigger, I reckoned. So sibling jealousy was a factor in Mladenovic the younger's recklessness, was it? I'd push that, later.
I had him. Time to reel him out and back in. `I'm not quite sure what happened there—' The twitch was gone and the smug smile was back. Good. Gotcha. I thought. I could feel Anna was getting restless. She'd done what she did last time she was under threat, she side-lined her pain and concentrated on her hatred. The time for grief would come later.
`I suspect you didn't realise just how well protected old Tom Kelling was,' I continued, `but instead of cutting your losses and waiting to fight another day, or even another way, you went back. And very nearly got caught. Am I right?'
`You are so smart you tell me.'
`Tom Kelling is still alive I might add. He'll be able to identify you of course and Australian prisons are not much better than Serbian ones.'
That brought no reaction. Why? Was he masked?
`But I hope you didn't leave any markers behind. The Australian police are very good at identifying markers. You know, like threads, hairs and DNA, even tiny bits.' Again no reaction. `That might not be a problem if no one knew who you were, or didn't know where to find you, but here you are. With us.'
He snarled at me. `You know nothing.'
`Really? I think I'm doing quite well. Then there's the flight records and security. Someone might recognise you. But worst of all, Luka, my friend, you got nothing for all that risk. Your brother is going to be so mad at you that you'll be lucky to hold his bags from now on. And of course now your Daddy's here, he'll be upset too, won't he?'
Again he turned white and broke out into a sweat. This time he added to his stench by urinating onto the floor. Even the fear of being castrated hadn't produced this kind of reaction. Something else must be up. Added to Bentford's sudden flight to the city it meant something big was in the works. I'd only heard what Bentford had said, Anna was watching him. He'd sounded very abrupt but was he afraid as well?
We left Luka and walked outside. The light was fading and the evening shadows were stretching across the empty fields. Anna leaned on the fence staring out. I slipped an arm around her shoulders.
`When will this awfulness end, Harry?'
`I don't know. Soon, I hope. We've got one half of the team so we've got some leverage. And something strange is happening. Luka seems petrified of his father. I mean, his old man might be a murdering crook but Luka's his son.'
`I was my mother's daughter too. It didn't stop her. Maybe that's the curse of the Mladenovics. They eat their young.'
`But they don't. At least Milos didn't, he even provided for an unborn child. And Vlado gave both his sons every advantage. Criminal advantage granted, but dynastic. No. Something odd is happening. Now, do we leave him there to stew on it, or do we keep interrogating?'
`I don't want to be anywhere near that fucking little shit ever but I will, after a night's sleep, castrate him. I have no intention of going to jail for killing him but I told you, he'll pay.'
35
I left it at that and went back to throw some extra horse blankets and hessian bags over him. I didn't want him freezing to death overnight. Too good a death for the likes of him.
Anna and I were bone weary and after a cup of soup and the television news we went to sleep on the sofa. Sometime later we staggered to bed and slept in each other’s arms until daylight speared through the window and woke us.
Anna was up and about before me and a thought that had begun to form even before I opened my eyes slowly took hold. At first I wasn't sure if it was just the remnant of a dream, or a wish. But the longer it rolled around in my brain the more it explained Luka's horror and Bentford's sudden departure.
The afternoon before we had seen a news story of the arrival of a Serbian government delegation with Mladenovic at its helm. Far be it from me to question how a known criminal like Mladenovic could also be a government official but it was certainly one way for him to get into the country.
That could have been what stirred Michael Bentford, his elder son to bolt, abandoning whatever plans he had for Anna. And when I told his younger brother that his father had just arrived in Australia, Luka pissed himself in fright. An extreme reaction even for errant son, which Luka certainly was.
The brothers were here to rob Anna of her at least one-billion-dollar inheritance she knew nothing about from the grandfather she never knew. They were only a wedding away from the windfall of their lives, so why were they freaking out when their father suddenly arrived in the country?
Could it be that they hadn't told the old man about this money? That they were about to keep it themselves and cut him out? If I thought my father, who was the head of a major mafia type organisation, found that out, I'd piss myself too. I tested this hypothesis on Anna who said fear was part of Michael's abrupt departure the previous morning.
We kept our own counsel as we ate breakfast. We needed to frighten Luka into talking. I didn't have much hope of doing that but we had to try. I didn't know if Bentford was keeping up with the local news but there was a major story on the murders of George Mayhew and his wife. It emphasised the connections between them and Anna's family company.
Anna was furious. `How long will it be before the fucking press are up here again? I'll shoot to kill this time, Harry.' Last time she'd aimed at their feet and over their heads.
I rang around, calling on all my contacts to leave us alone, even threatening some with lawsuits if my friend Anna suffered any kind of emotional suffering. I also promised exclusive interviews to others, including Jerry. I didn't tell her that. I'd deal with the fallout after and if we survived the Mladenovics.
While Anna's name came up there was nothing to link any connection between the Mayhew's deaths and Bentford. But he sure as hell knew that Luka had killed the Mayhews. He'd be furious with Luka for putting all his carefully laid plans in jeopardy.
Now, with the old man turning up, my guess was that there were two possibilities. The first was that Bentford would cut his losses and run, leaving the country and us alone. The second, more likely one, was that greed would prevail and his marriage to Anna wouldn't wait for courtship or seduction but would be forced asap. Then he'd run.
We headed for the barn where the hapless Luka lay in his own excrement under some rough horse blankets and hessian bags. The stink was ghastly but I had no sympathy for him. Anna switched into cold and vengeful mode as she walked towards him rolling and unrolling the twine. His eyes rolled in terror as she kicked the blankets and bags off him and stared at his unzipped pants.
`Not yet, Anna. Luka has some more talking to do, don't you Luka?'
`Just keep the bitch away from me, you bastard.'
`Now that's not a nice way to talk about your future sister-in-law, is it?' That got a real reaction. He didn't think we knew anything about that plan. ‘Wait until we tell your brother that you told us that.'
`But I didn't.'
`You just did, Luka. Honestly, you'd be far better off if you come clean. I don't think even your Daddy being here will save you. From your brother, either. It's amazing how family relationships fall apart when there's enough money at stake, isn't it, Anna?'
She stared into Luka's face. `Yes isn't it? Did you know that my mother, a Miss Mladenovic, your father's cousin in fact, tried to kill me because of money? A family trait, I think.'
`Mmm,' I said, `and now that your Dad's found out that you and Michael planned to cut him out of Anna's billion dollars, he's gonna get real nasty. That's really why you're shitting yourself, isn't it Luka. Not because of Michael though he'll probably say it was all your idea and suck up to the old man. The old boy won't take that kind of disloyalty will he?'
He was beaten. He spilled the entire scheme begging us to keep him away from his loving family. As we guessed Michael had heard about this massive secret inheritance from his fiancée. He'd done his research, found the Australian Mladenovic connection and sent Luka to the antipodes to set everything up, like trying to seduce Anna but having to settle for Wendy. Only then did Michael himself set off.
`Set you right up, didn't he, Luka?' I said. `No way was he going to take the fall for any nasty stuff. No, that was for you to risk. But you know if you'd just listened to him…but you didn't, and here you are. Let's get him something to eat and drink Anna. Don't want the police thinking we were cruel to him.'
`Then can I take his balls, Harry?' Anna smiled through her teeth.
`Maybe later, dear.' We walked out to the sound of Luka wailing like a child.
Anna's fear of being invaded by the press was raised by lunchtime when a van with a TV company logo pulled up outside her gate. Obviously my entreaties hadn't made much of a dent in their enthusiasm for persecution. She reached for her rifle but I pushed her back and strolled out to where a man was attempting to unlock the gate.
`You are not a country person, are you?' I said.
He looked up at me in surprise. `No, so what?'
`Well, if you were you would understand that the owner of this property has every right to shoot you if you come through that gate. And I'm afraid, she will. You may go and complain to the local police but they will tell you the exact same thing. You can sit out there for as long as you like but we have nothing to say to you. If you make any attempt to enter this property at any point along its boundary you will be dealing with the police for trespass and your senior management for harassment. Capice?'
I turned and walked away as Anna appeared in the doorway brandishing her rifle. The fellow fled back to his van and it drove away.
`Wimp,' I yelled after him. I turned to Anna. `I think I might have a chat with Sergeant North of Richmond.'
She gave me a look. `Can he keep those vultures away?'
`Probably not, but I want to check out some things.'
I used a `burner' to call North. He was as laid back as ever.
`How can I help you Mr Nichols?'
`You contacted the Marysville police and sent them to look for me?
`I did.'
`Why?'
`You suggested that the lady who got run down by a car right in front of you, Ms. Lorimer, might have been poisoned. Why did you say that?'
`Was she?'
`Me first.'
`Okay. The hospital said she was likely to survive her injuries, then suddenly she was dead.'
`That's all?'
`Pretty much.'
`I don't believe you.'
`Really?'
`No,' he said, `and I'll tell you why. The hospital staff have no recollection of saying anything to that effect to you.'
`I didn't say they did. They said it to her sister. And her sister had some background information that made me concerned that somebody would like to make quite sure that Wendy did not survive.'
`Would you like to come downtown and tell us all about it, Mr Nichols?' He'd just indirectly admitted I was right. `Like names and reasons why you were so concerned. And perhaps you could explain why you didn't tell us about this before going off the grid for days.'
`I didn't think that vague suspicions would be taken seriously, Sergeant. I had no evidence. You seemed to be rather suspicious of me, and I had a lot to deal with, so I didn't see much point.'
