Out in Nowhere, page 14
The ring box wasn’t in the top drawer.
Opening the second one, she rifled through old year books and journals. Cut-out newspaper articles that showed Alex and four other boys in a boat, rowing for Head of the River. A cursory glance told Hallie she didn’t know any of the team members except Alex. That was taken at boarding school.
Another article celebrating the time Alex had won the Young Farmer’s Challenge at the local show. He’d had to up-end tractor tyres, strain up a few wires of a fence, unroll a hay bale and complete other activities to win. Danny had come second and their fresh, excited faces, still glistening with sweat, stared back at her from the black and white photograph.
A display folder was at the bottom of the drawer, and Hallie pulled it out, flicking open the cover.
The headline screamed at her: STUDENT ACCUSED OF RAPE.
‘Oh,’ Hallie started. Then she ran her finger down the smooth plastic, finding the name in the article: Charles Dynner.
Charles. This was Charlie? Rape was the reason Charlie had gone to gaol?
Hallie had never thought to ask harder questions about why Charlie was in gaol. Alex had shut down every conversation about him, only repeating: ‘He didn’t stand for the same things we did.’
An Australian College of Agriculture student has appeared in court charged with rape. Charles Dwain Dynner, 24, is accused of raping an eighteen-year-old woman at a party at the college three days ago. The woman was later hit by a car and is in hospital in a critical condition.
The accused was denied bail and the matter has been referred to the Crown.
Mr Dynner, who has yet to enter a plea, will be remanded in gaol until his hearing in April.
Hallie’s eyes flew to the date and saw it was exactly as Alex had told her: as they were all finishing their last year of college in 2017.
No wonder Alex had distanced her from what Charlie had done. She guessed the boys had been there on that night, since they were always together, and knowing Alex the way she did, she suspected Alex blamed himself for somehow not being able to help the woman involved.
She turned the page.
CHARGES UPGRADED TO MANSLAUGHTER.
‘What?’ Hallie’s hand flew to her mouth as she read.
A woman involved in an alleged rape four days ago has died in hospital without regaining consciousness.
Police have upgraded the charges against Mr Charles Dwain Dynner, 24, to manslaughter.
More to come.
‘Shit!’ Hallie couldn’t believe what she was reading.
The next report told of the trial and then Charlie’s sentencing. Alex had collected a few more articles on the parole hearing as Charlie’s release date came nearer.
A loud ringing from outside made her jump.
Alex had rigged up an outside phone bell so she’d been able to hear the landline when she was outside. Was it only out here in nowhere that landlines were still in existence? Mobile towers were few and far between. Starlink and wifi calling were a godsend when rain came through and the lines went down.
‘Hello? This is Hallie?’ As she spoke, the clock showed it was nearly 9 p.m. Late for a phone call.
‘Hallie?’ A tiny, strained voice came down the line. It was laced with tears.
Hallie stood straight up. ‘Maggie? What’s wrong? Is it Ruby? What’s happened?’
‘Can you come and get Ruby please? It’s Dan. There’s been an accident.’
CHAPTER 16
‘Bec?’ Dave lifted the phone to his ear. The dial tone hadn’t even rung before he’d heard her voice. ‘Bec, it’s, um—’ He’d been about to say Detective Dave Burrows and stumbled over the word. ‘Dad.’
‘Dad, hi, how are you?’ Her voice was hurried and business-like. Dave smiled as she used the word Dad. The first few times they’d spoken, Bec had steered away from calling him anything and then had tried it out tentatively.
In the background, Dave could hear traffic and the clip-clop of high-heeled shoes. He looked at his watch, thinking it was late for her to be still working.
‘Fine, how are you? How are the plans going for the wedding?’
‘Everything is on track, thanks. Have you booked flights? I’ve made sure you have accommodation at the hotel where the reception is being held.’
‘Not yet. I was hoping to talk to you about that.’
The clip-clop stopped. ‘You are coming, aren’t you?’ There was a challenge in her voice.
‘I am coming,’ he told her firmly. ‘I’m trying to organise a couple of weeks’ leave.’ He paused. ‘Bec, I wanted to talk to you about Kim.’
The clip-clop started again, and Dave imagined his daughter striding down the street, briefcase in hand, long hair flowing over her shoulders and bouncing in time to her gait.
‘We’ve already talked about Kim. What more is there to say?’
Anger flared through Dave’s body. Little upstart, he thought. If she was my daughter …
She is your daughter.
‘Bec, I’d really like to bring Kim. Now I understand that it isn’t approp—’
‘No, Dad—’
‘If you would just hear me out.’
Silence except for the clip-clop.
‘Kim is my wife, and we all agree that meeting her for the first time at the wedding isn’t best for anyone. What I’d like to propose is that Kim and I come for the long weekend, later this month. If we all went to Margaret River for the weekend, then we could spend time with each other and when you were ready—if you were ready—Kim would be there and you could meet her. Perhaps given the chance you’d have to see her beforehand, you’d feel happier to have her at your wedding.’ He spoke quickly so she couldn’t interrupt. ‘Kim is very respectful of your decision, so this is coming from me as your father, and Kim’s husband, rather than from her. It would mean a lot to me if you would at least think about this option.’
Heavy breathing now as the clip-clop changed to a climbing-stairs beat.
‘When’s the long weekend? What are the dates? Hang on.’ Dave waited as he was told, hearing tapping on her phone screen.
‘No, sorry, Dad. No can do. We have Justin’s work dinner that Friday night and then it’s Mum’s birthday. I guess you’d forgotten that.’
I haven’t had to think about Melinda’s birthday for a fair while; sorry if it wasn’t at the top of my thought process, he wanted to say but reined himself in. This wasn’t an easy situation for anyone and, if he wanted to reconnect with the girls, he would have to give a little, just as Bec would.
‘Ah, so it is. It slipped my mind. Look, maybe check your diary and see if you’ve got a spare weekend. We can juggle things here to make it work with whatever suits you and Justin.’ He paused. ‘And Alice. She needs to be there, too.’
‘You’re right,’ Bec said, ‘Alice needs to be there. Have you talked to her yet?’
He felt his spirit lift. She hadn’t given a flat-out no, like he’d thought she might.
‘I’ve left a couple of messages, and she sent a text to say she’d ring when she could, but I haven’t heard from her yet.’
‘Hmm, she’ll call you when she’s able. The last time we spoke, Alice was heading out to the back of beyond. She could still be there. Leave it with me.’ Another lot of clip-clops. ‘I know she’s keen to talk to you, Dad. But Alice really does do what she wants, when she wants, and nothing gets in the way of that.’
‘I’ll be happy to hear from her when she’s ready,’ Dave said. He took a breath and turned back to the skyline, where the sun was setting. ‘Alice must really love her job.’
‘Being a tour guide in the north isn’t for everyone,’ Bec agreed. ‘Yet she seems to thrive on it.’ There was a pause. ‘Mum always says she must have got a lot of your genes to love the bush as much as she does. She always gravitated towards it.’
Dave felt a rush of satisfaction. At least he was acknowledged somewhere in his children’s lives. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Bec he’d always written to her and Alice, and for so long he’d tried to call, but he’d been met with a stone wall from Melinda and Mark.
Oh, how he wanted to tell her. He couldn’t, though. Dave had made a pact with himself never to cast any blame towards either his ex-wife or ex-father-in-law. They had provided his girls with a secure, happy upbringing, even if that hadn’t included him. He wouldn’t be the bitter, twisted father. He’d spent too many years doing that when he was younger.
‘The bush is a great place. Very soul restoring,’ Dave said.
‘Not my cup of tea, but each to their own,’ Bec replied. Her voice faded a little as she spoke to someone else for a second, then she came back clearly. ‘Oh, and Dad, Mum asked me to check with you about Bulldust. You know, making sure he can’t cause us any trouble.’
The air left Dave’s lungs. ‘Check with me about Bulldust …’ he repeated slowly.
‘Yeah, she got a phone call a while back to say he’d been released from gaol. Do you know where he is or has he been in contact?’
Mel knew. Mark, of course, would have his ways to find out and sometimes the parole officers let the victims of crime know their perpetrator had been let out. Dave hadn’t been told. In fact, he wouldn’t even know his nemesis had been released from gaol if it hadn’t been for the one time he decided to check on his status.
Seven or eight months ago, Dave had made a bad decision—he’d never call it a mistake, because he had knowingly opened Bulldust’s file. That same day he had received the letter from his mother, enclosing the newspaper clipping about Bec’s engagement to Justin. Dave had been all sorts of angry, sad and frightened, and had wanted to check out Justin. Make sure he didn’t have any convictions against him, for his own peace of mind. Didn’t matter that what he was about to do was against the code of conduct for police officers.
Instead, he’d brought up Bulldust’s file and found out he had been released from gaol a few months before.
‘Dad, can you hear me?’
Clip-clop. This time the footsteps echoed down the line, and he thought Bec was probably in a building with high ceilings and tiled floors.
‘Ah, yes. No. No, I don’t know where Bulldust is. There’s been no contact. You can assure your mother of that.’ This part was true. ‘And look, he’s an old man now. I don’t think he’s at all a risk to anyone.’ He couldn’t be sure about the risk part, but the old was true. Bulldust had a good ten years on Dave and, if he was feeling the way Dave was these days, he’d probably be happy to set up camp on the edge of a creek with an esky full of beer and stay there.
‘Right. I’ll let her know. Well, let me talk to Justin and Alice. See if we can work something out. Bye now.’
Before Dave had a chance to move the phone away from his ear, the call ended.
‘“Bye now”?’ he muttered to himself. ‘Who says that? Your daughter, obviously.’ Dave shook his head. ‘Wow.’ His daughter was so different from how he’d imagined she would have grown up. He’d always pegged her as soft and kind. Gentle. But there didn’t seem to be too much of that in Bec. Her self-confidence was right up there. Along with a few other traits that, for Dave, weren’t that desirable. He remembered that someone had told him once that, when they divorced their partner, they had started to see in their children the traits they’d never liked in their ex.
‘No one ever warns you about that,’ whoever it was had said. ‘We’re supposed to love them no matter what, then they start acting like your ex and you can want to divorce them, too. Well, not quite divorce, but you know what I mean.’
Dave hadn’t, until now. Although divorce was probably too strong a word, especially since he was just trying to get to know Bec and Alice.
Kim came out onto the patio and put a beer on the table for him before pulling out her chair. ‘What’s happening, my love?’ she asked.
‘Very quick phone call with Bec,’ he told her, then talked about his idea.
When he’d finished, Kim reached across and took his hand, squeezing it. ‘That was really kind, honey. Thank you.’
‘Let’s see how we go.’ He took the lid off the stubbie and drank deeply. ‘Be nice to talk to Alice some time. Sounds like she’s often out of range.’
‘It will happen at the right time, I’m sure.’
The air had cooled and the voices of kids playing on the oval rose on the breeze and drifted towards them.
‘Joan rang me a little while ago to say that she’d driven past the cemetery on her way home, and there wasn’t any sign of the man who Ruben Forrester rang about. The shed was empty and nothing in there to look like anyone was sleeping rough.’
Dave frowned. ‘Why was Joan doing that sort of thing? That’s not in her job description.’
‘It’s been ten years since Harry died. Remember, her husband? She was visiting his grave.’
‘Ten years?’ Dave couldn’t believe time had passed so quickly. ‘You know, honey, we’re going to be in a grave before we know it. Where have all the years gone?’ Did he still have time to do everything he wanted to? Perhaps not. Who knew what the future held.
Maybe he should be thinking about his bucket list and Kim a little more, rather than wrestling with drunk, disorderly locals.
‘I think you’re being a bit dramatic there, love. Three score and ten remember. We’ve still got ages to go. Speaking of funerals, has Alex’s been organised?’ Kim asked.
‘Mmm, they thought it would be this Saturday.’ Dave flicked through the newspaper he’d been reading, then closed it and put it on the table. He rubbed a hand across his creased forehead. ‘Bec asked me about Bulldust. I hate that she even knows his name.’
‘Did she? What did you tell her? There hasn’t been any noise from higher up about the breach last year, so you didn’t have anything to say, did you?’
Kim had been the first person Dave had told when he’d looked up Bulldust’s file. He’d get the sack if anyone inside the police department ever found out and although he’d been confident that wouldn’t happen, he could never be one hundred per cent certain. Even after eight or so months.
‘Not yet. Hopefully the risk factor has gone now. I thought it might only happen if that bloke … what was his name? The one who headbutted Mia?’
‘Nathan.’ Kim took a sip of her wine.
‘Yeah, that tosser. If he had decided to put in a complaint about me after I belted him, then I could’ve been in real trouble. So far, so good.’
It had felt good to punch that Nathan. Totally out of character for Dave these days—not so much when he’d been young—but all those horrible whirling feelings about Bec and Justin being engaged without anywhere to put them, along with Nathan’s terrible attitude towards Mia, had been enough for him to let fly. He’d broken two code of conduct laws within the space of about half an hour that day. Something he never wanted to do again.
Kim swiped at a mozzie before lighting the candle sitting in the middle of the table. She took the glass jar and placed it on the ground near their feet.
Dave wrinkled his nose at the scent of the citronella. ‘Why is it that something so useful has to stink?’ he asked.
‘I quite like it.’
‘I know you do. Anyhow, let’s hope that Bec comes back with a date and we can all go somewhere to get to know each other again.’
‘Your mum and brother could come, too,’ Kim suggested. ‘Why don’t you ask them?’
‘If we’re going to do it, I probably will. It will be the almost-inaugural meeting of the Burrows Family.’
Dave’s mobile phone vibrated on the table. ‘Mia,’ he said, picking up the phone. ‘Hi.’ He listened, then frowned. ‘Are you joking?’
Pause.
‘Jesus Christ.’
Pause.
‘Okay, I’ll meet you out the front of my place.’
Dave stood up, then sat down again. He took Kim’s hand. ‘I’m getting too old for this shit,’ he said.
Calmly, Kim ran her thumb over his. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Danny Betts, Alex Donaldson’s mate, was changing a flat tyre and the vehicle has fallen off the jack.’
CHAPTER 17
‘What the hell happened?’ Dave asked Mia as she pulled up in front of his house and he climbed into the troopy. ‘And how did you get the call?’
‘Hamish,’ Mia answered shortly, flicking the blinker on and pulling back out onto the street. ‘He got the call from triple zero. It’s happened out on the Tanaram Road. I think that’s one-lane bitumen isn’t it? It branches off from the road that goes out to Alex and Hallie Donaldson’s place.’
‘Yeah, it is. But that’s almost a dead end. There’s stuff-all out there a local would want to see. Where was he off to?’
‘Not sure. I haven’t spoken to Maggie. Hamish just said the call came in from a couple of caravanners. They were about to park up for the night and they saw something in the distance. Decided to get a bit closer in case someone needed a hand and found the ute crushing Danny. They rang for an ambulance before they realised there was nothing to be done.’
‘Fuck, this must’ve only just happened. We haven’t been back from the Donaldsons’ for very long. He’s dead?’
‘Wish it was still daylight.’ Mia flicked the lights to high beam and activated the spotlights, which were still broken. ‘Yeah, Hamish says it’s messy.’
‘Where’s Hamish now?’
‘Waiting for us.’
‘Fuck,’ Dave repeated. Then added: ‘No doubt about the messiness. Anything more?’
‘Not really. I’m about to ring Maggie. Unless you want to?’
Dave rubbed his forehead. ‘We should get out there and see what we’re looking at before we ring.’
‘Maggie took Ruby home with her this afternoon. I heard Maggie and Hallie organising that before we left. She’ll have a child with her.’
Grunting, Dave thought about the situation.
