Run Beautiful Run, page 26
‘Chased me down by car.’ Maddison frowned.
Joe shifted his boots under the table as if ready to attack Tom.
Glenda, Earl, and Greg sat back, raising their eyebrows at Maddison, then swivelled their heads back to Tom like spectators at the Australian Open tennis tournament.
‘What happened then, dear?’ Glenda asked, with Greg nodding beside her.
‘Eric chased Maddison into that bikers’ bar,’ replied Tom. ‘We had to shoot our way out, because we were getting our arses kicked by that gang. And that’s when we saw you on the back of that Harley. It was a sweet ride,’ said Tom with a nod. ‘That bloke Match, sure could handle that thing.’
Joe scowled.
Glenda sipped on her empty cup. The china clinked, soon followed by a glug-glug from the teapot. ‘Anyone else care for a refill?’
Greg and Earl pushed their empty cups forward.
Maddison took the chance to sip on hers, which was still warm. This conversation and the calmness of afternoon tea seemed so surreal, with Glenda getting a bottle of water and a straw for Tom. ‘Please, do go on, dear.’
‘After we’d lost you on that bloke’s bike, Eric called up that copper with Match’s plate details and he gave us a couple of addresses. They were all fake, see. So, the next morning, we parked out front of their clubhouse waiting for that bloke to show up.’
‘Did he?’ She swallowed, fearing for Mitch’s safety.
Tom nodded. ‘See, we reckoned that bloke must’ve put you on that small plane to come out here, then rode straight over to the clubhouse to confront us.’
‘What did Mitch do?’
‘He punched the ever-living daylights out of Eric. He flattened Eric’s nose, split his lip, and gave him two black eyes, with the entire gang rushing out to back him up. We were lucky to get out of there alive.’
‘How did you get out, dear?’ Glenda asked with a biscuit in hand.
‘Um …’ Tom sniffed, dropping his head he muttered into his chest, ‘I used the semi-automatic machine gun we kept in the boot of the car.’
Glenda gasped in horror.
‘I didn’t shoot anyone. Swear it. I didn’t touch anyone except to drag Eric out, promising their president we’d never go back.’
‘What happened next?’ Glenda asked Tom, passing the plate of biscuits out to everyone.
‘Well, once Eric got out of the hospital, we checked into a hotel room.’
‘Did Mitch really do that much damage?’ Maddison asked Tom.
‘Yeah, they had to re-break and splint Eric’s nose. That Match fella almost packs a punch as hard as your boyfriend here does.’
Joe’s frown only deepened.
‘That was a compliment there, mate. Don’t mean to disrespect you none, see.’
‘Sure, no disrespect. Two men coming to kill one woman in my family’s home!’ Joe leaned forward as if to leap across the table to strangle Tom.
‘Shh …’ Maddison rubbed his large hand to calm them both down. ‘Tom, how did you find out I was here?’
‘That plane crash. Eric had a hunch. Hey, that was clever how your name was different. Those coppers never picked up on it in Melbourne.’
‘What is your name, dear?’ Glenda stared at Maddison with half-chewed biscuit in hand. Greg and Earl doing the same.
‘It’s Maddison,’ said Joe sternly. ‘Motor reg made a mistake mixing up her name order when Maddison renewed her licence. Her name is Maddison Janice Farley, not Janice Maddison Fraley.’
‘Typical of motor reg to cock something up like that,’ mumbled Earl matter-of-factly.
‘So, you don’t go by your middle name?’ Greg asked.
‘No, Janice is my middle name, and it’s also my mother’s name.’ Maddison squirmed in her chair to face the seated family. ‘I’m so sorry if—’
‘Before anyone else jumps to any conclusions,’ butted in Joe, ‘Maddison has always told us the truth, but not all of it, to try and protect us from all of this.’ He grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
‘Aren’t you here for a holiday?’ Greg asked.
‘Maddison needed to escape from these guys, and it was purely by chance she ended up here,’ replied Joe.
‘What were they after?’ Earl asked. ‘Is it that the thing you’ve been writing?’
Maddison nodded, filled with a guilt-laden misery for endangering Joe’s family like this. But she had to keep pushing forward, and asked Tom, ‘Why am I being hunted?’
Tom shuffled in his seat. ‘Um, coz they’d spotted your uncle taking photos of the boss with some people he shouldn’t be seen with. See, I’d been told your uncle’s got this reputation as a reporter known to ruin people’s lives with the power of the pen. They weren’t gonna take any chances.’
‘So that’s why you warned the Thurstons about the press damaging people’s reputations?’ Earl said to Maddison.
‘Who are the Thurstons?’ Tom asked.
‘No one you need to worry about,’ replied Joe sternly. ‘You don’t get to ask the questions around here.’
‘Fair enough, mate. I’m cooperating, see.’ Tom lowered his head. ‘Ask me anything.’
‘Fine. When did you realise I’d found my uncle’s stuff?’ Maddison asked.
‘At first, we weren’t sure you had anything. Those Melbourne detectives thought the same. See, it was only when you ran to Adelaide, we were sure you’d collected something from the racetrack.’
‘Maddison’s been here for over a week. What took you so long to show up?’ Joe asked.
‘We had to wait for the police reports to verify the names. Then we got told to wait for the next plane, so you didn’t run again. They said you were flooded in and couldn’t go anywhere. While we’ve been waiting, I had a holiday in Adelaide getting ready to visit Elleron Downs while Eric’s been recovering from his injuries. I’ve always wanted to visit a cattle station. I even got new gear for this trip. See?’ Tom nodded down at his new cowboy outfit.
‘What happened to the real Jonathon and Christian?’ Glenda asked.
‘They got an all-expenses paid holiday elsewhere and were told that you’d shut down because of the plane crash and poor weather. I asked Eric the same question.’
‘So, who do you work for?’ Earl asked.
Tom hesitated, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.
‘Antonio Cottillard,’ replied Maddison, and Tom nodded at her.
‘Who?’ Earl, Greg and Glenda asked Tom.
‘Mr Cottillard,’ replied Tom, ‘builds high-rise office buildings and residential apartments around Melbourne.’
‘A man who pays you to chase women around the country where that croc-bait mate of yours—’ Joe rose from his chair.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know Eric was going to do that. See, all I got told was we were coming out here to search for the gear, then we’d fly back. That’s it. But Eric took it personally after he got his face punched in from her biker boyfriend, see. Eric wanted his revenge on Maddison, that’s Eric he’s—’
‘Spread out across the river system being digested by a bask of crocodiles. It’s where you’ll end up if you’re not careful.’
‘Joe, please,’ said Maddison, pulling him back. ‘Let Tom speak.’
Both men sat back as Glenda and Greg sipped on their tea, while Earl drummed his fingers on the shotgun handle.
‘Eric told me little of his plans,’ Tom said to the table, ‘and you don’t discuss murder with anyone. Eric only told me that we had four days to find the stuff.’
‘And what about us?’ Greg sat higher, putting a protective hand on his mother’s shoulder.
Tom shrugged again. ‘I thought his plan was that Maddison wouldn’t recognise us.’
‘Sounds like this Eric didn’t plan too much,’ said Earl.
‘That’s Eric, see. He’d let his temper interfere with common sense,’ replied Tom candidly. ‘Did Eric really get attacked by crocodiles?’
Maddison nodded.
‘Where?’ Greg asked.
‘Dead Man’s Gully,’ replied Joe.
‘What were you doing there?’ Glenda asked with wide eyes.
A shiver squirreled along Maddison’s spine as she explained. ‘The termites attacked Eric, and he dove straight into the water to get away from their bites.’
‘Bloody idiot,’ murmured Earl. ‘All of them crocs just sitting in that billabong.’
‘We never did explain the dangers of the waterways to Eric, did we dear?’ Glenda said to her husband.
‘No, luv, we didn’t.’ Earl then asked Tom, ‘Did your mate know anything about crocodiles?’
‘Doubt it.’
‘Well, that’s where I found Maddison, hanging high in this tree, with half a dozen crocs surrounding its trunk, and the billabong’s water the colour of blood,’ said Joe sternly to Tom. ‘They’d torn your mate’s limbs apart and were fighting for scraps in a feeding frenzy.’
‘I’m sorry you had to see that, Maddison,’ said Earl. ‘Wild crocodiles when they get into that feeding frenzy nothing stops them, not even gunfire. They’ll attack everything that moves, and each other. It’s that fight for survival, they’re known for it.’
After a moment of silence, Tom asked, ‘What happens now?’
They all looked at each other, unsure.
‘You said four days,’ replied Maddison.
Tom nodded his bald head.
‘When are you expected to contact your boss?’
‘When we land back in Adelaide.’
‘How long have you been working for Antonio Cottillard?’
‘Almost a year. I used to work at a nightclub Eric visited all the time. See, that’s how we met, I saved Eric from getting his head punched in. I got the job through Eric to drive Mr Cottillard’s trucks.’
‘From where?’ Maddison asked, slowly approaching Tom.
‘From the docks to some warehouses Mr Cottillard owned.’
‘What were you carrying?’
‘Sea containers unloaded off the cargo ships.’
‘Do you remember the names of those ships?’
‘Not really. See, they came from up north and travelled down the east coast.’
‘Do you remember where those warehouses are, where you delivered those containers?’
Tom gave a slow nod.
‘If I were to give you a map, could you point it out?’
Tom shrugged.
‘Stay there. I’ll be back in a second.’ She ran for the library, soon returning with the Melbourne Street directory, flicking through the pages. She slammed it down in front of Tom to point at the area of the main shipping docks. ‘Where on this map are those sheds?’
‘Um …’
Glenda rummaged through the kitchen draws and pulled out a pencil. ‘You can use this, dear.’
‘I’ll do it, Mum.’ Greg took the pencil and held it out to Tom to bite down between his teeth as Joe stood protectively beside Maddison.
‘There,’ Tom muttered through his teeth, holding the pencil.
‘That’s the quarantine yards,’ said Maddison. ‘The legitimate side of Cottillard’s business. Are there any other sheds that Mr Cottillard used?’
‘A couple for special deliveries, I guess.’
‘Can you show me where? Please? It’ll help your situation if you cooperate.’
‘I want to cooperate.’ Tom gazed up at her with sad eyes. ‘I swear, I was never going to hurt you or anyone here. See, I’ve never hit a woman. Me Nan would kill me if I did.’
‘Okay, so where are these other warehouses?’ Maddison tapped at the street directory.
‘They were southbound.’
Maddison turned the page and waited, rubbing her fingertips together.
Tom leaned over the street directory with the pencil poised between his teeth. ‘There.’ He drew an awkward circle on the street map and then dropped the pencil.
Maddison looked over his shoulder with Joe right beside her.
‘We’d leave them sea containers in the middle of the night in these deserted warehouses. Someone would meet us to unclip the trailers. See, we never got out of the trucks, only stopping for a few minutes at a time. It was easy money, a thousand bucks for an hour’s work.’
‘How many sea containers did you deliver there?’ Maddison asked.
‘One. Occasionally two. Once we had five containers to deliver in broad daylight.’
‘How often do you do these deliveries?’
‘Depends. See, in the beginning it was once or twice a month, then he expanded, I guess.’
‘To how many more?’ Maddison asked Tom.
‘Once a week, a couple of containers would get delivered to these warehouses, day or night. I never saw what was in them?’
‘Weren’t you at all curious at what was inside?’
‘Nah, I guessed they were smuggling something. They weren’t heavy, see, they weighed like they were empty.’
‘Those containers were filled with people, Tom.’ Maddison dropped heavily into a nearby chair, putting her at eye level with Tom. ‘You were part of Cottillard’s people-smuggling racket, where he sells those poor souls as slaves.’
‘Nooo.’ Tom’s face crinkled up in horror.
‘Is that true?’ Earl asked with a deep frown.
‘This Cottillard’s making billions out of it,’ butted in Joe, bitterly.
‘No wonder they want you dead, Maddison,’ said Greg, ‘especially if this ever got out …’
‘Which means everyone here is in danger. I have to leave.’ Maddison stood and faced the four family members. ‘I’m so sorry to have done this to all of you. I honestly didn’t know what I had until after I’d arrived.’
‘It’s okay, dear.’ Glenda came around the table to hug Maddison. ‘That’s what families do: we stick together. We can sort this situation out together.’
‘But I can’t risk any of you getting involved.’ Maddison then faced Tom. ‘Will your boss keep looking for me anywhere else?’
‘No. They know Eric and I are out here with you.’
‘Are you meant to check in with anyone?’
‘No. Not until we return to Adelaide. See, we were told to not leave any phone records, nothing.’
‘Good. I have a four-day window to get out of here and finish this. I won’t put any more people in danger.’
‘Where do you want to go?’ Joe asked in a rumbling low tone.
Her heart plummeted at the thought of leaving Joe, but she had to. ‘How long will it take for me to drive to Alice Springs?’
‘Most of the roads are closed because of wet season flooding.’
‘There has to be a way out.’
Joe took her hands and again asked, ‘Where do you need to go?’
‘Sydney. If I can get to Alice Springs, I’ll try and hitch, or rent a car from there. I can’t take any of the major airlines in case they’re still watching.’
‘I’ll take you.’
‘How?’
‘By chopper,’ said Joe with a glimmer in his blue eyes.
‘Joe’s got his pilot’s licence,’ said Greg with his chin up and chest out.
‘You do?’ Maddison arched her eyebrows at the man who was so near perfect.
‘In the top shed we’ve got a short-range helicopter we use for the musters,’ Joe explained. ‘We may need to make a few fuel-stops on the way to Alice. There, I’ve got some mates that’ll get us into Queensland where we can sneak a ride into New South Wales.’ He grabbed her hand and gave it a tug. ‘Come on, let’s pack our gear. Dad, can you and Greg get the chopper ready?’
Maddison pulled Joe to a standstill. ‘You’re coming right back, aren’t you? Once you’ve dropped me off in Alice Springs.’
‘I’m not letting you out of my sight, not until we sort this whole thing out.’
‘But, what about your family? And Tom?’ She didn’t want to put Joe at risk, he’d done too much already.
‘Tom won’t be a hassle, dear,’ replied Glenda.
‘Joe’s right, Maddison. You’ve only got four days to get this sorted out.’ Greg, raced for the door. ‘I’ll grab the ute, Dad, and load up the fuel.’
‘I’ll sort out some food for the trip, while you two get ready,’ said Glenda.
‘You’ll want to get a wriggle on there, son,’ said Earl, grabbing his wide-brimmed hat off the hook. ‘I wouldn’t want you flying in the dark.’
‘But—’ Maddison stood, unsure.
‘I’d rather Joe joined you, dear. To keep you safe,’ said Glenda.
‘Not wrong there, luv. Joe will be a pain in the posterior worrying about Maddison all the time. He’ll be no good for work distracted like that,’ said Earl, stepping out the back door. ‘Son, I’ll see you up at the chopper. Tom, behave, or my wife will shoot you. She’s a better shot than all of us combined.’
‘And I’m not giving you a choice, Maddison. You don’t need to do this alone, so I’m sticking with you until this is over.’ Joe led her through the doorway to face the hall. ‘Now, have a shower. Pack light, there’s not much room. You’ve got ten minutes if we’re going to make it to Alice before sunset.’
Maddison ran for her room to pack for Sydney, a place she was supposed to fly to in the beginning. But she hated to fly.
Fifty-seven
ALICE SPRINGS, NORTHERN TERRITORY
Slashes of a rich crimson colour stretched across an endless horizon, with shadows deepening over the red desert when Joe, with Maddison, flew the small muster helicopter into Alice Springs. With the rocky ranges in the distance, they hovered over a large junkyard full of old cars and aeroplanes. A large stretch of tarmac like a wide road, ran through the centre, its edge disappearing into the desert’s dust.
Joe landed the helicopter beside a large, enclosed hangar.
‘Where are we?’ Maddison tried to shake the tremors out of her hands and to control her heartbeat. Even though Joe had reassured her, it had been both an inspirational and terrifying flight.
Joe had flown above winding rivers and floodplains as wide as an inland sea, as distant heavy clouds cast rainbows to curve within the sky. They’d flown over cattle and wallowing water buffaloes. Basks of crocodiles sun-baked among the incredible birdlife that filled the panoramic landscape, untouched by man. The expansive Northern Territory outback was spectacular, mesmerising Maddison to briefly forget her fear of flying.
