The Washup, page 16
Aimee took his hand and shook it. ‘Aimee. Yes, it is. Terrible.’
‘Wait.’ Bruce tapped the skin under his nose. ‘I think I recognise you. You worked with Jack, didn’t you?’
Aimee nodded. She checked the level of her drink. ‘I’m gonna, um, go find a seat,’ she said and headed inside.
Bruce watched her go. ‘It’s going to be a tough day for all of us,’ he said, and his attention moved to Eve. ‘How are you going today?’
His eyes shone with such intensity and concern that Eve couldn’t lie. ‘I feel like I’m losing my mind,’ she said and allowed him to pull her into a hug, hugged him back, even. ‘Don’t squeeze too tight. You’ll make me cry. Feels like that’s all I’ve been doing lately.’
‘I’d be worried if you weren’t crying,’ Bruce said and released her. ‘This is a really fitting send-off for Jack.’ He gestured to the chapel. ‘He’s looking down on us now filled with happiness and pride, I guarantee.’ The he turned to Sandra. ‘I’m glad you’re here. I saw you outside and wanted to let you know that it’s a ficus.’
‘What?’
‘That tree outside in the carpark,’ he went on. ‘The one you were looking at so closely? You said it was a eucalypt but it’s a ficus.’ He smiled. ‘Not to worry. Common mistake.’
Sandra’s face fell. She opened her mouth to say something and then stopped.
‘I better run.’ Bruce glanced at a table by the doorway. ‘There’s a stack of programs over there but people don’t seem to be taking them. I might do Maureen a favour and hand a few out.’
‘Did he wink at me?’ Sandra said as she watched him leave.
‘You followed me out here?’ Eve said.
‘Of course I followed you. You’ve got a knife in your bag.’ She was still watching Bruce. ‘I think he did. He winked at me. What an arsehole.’
‘I was about to get some answers out of Aimee.’
‘A worthy endeavour but perhaps something that can wait until after the service?’ She put an arm around Eve’s waist and led her back inside. ‘First, we need to go rescue Shane from Lorna.’
They collected Shane and went inside to find seats. Louise was already at the front, two seats behind Maureen. She turned around and waved.
‘Come on,’ Sandra said. ‘She’s got room up there.’ The three of them went to the front and Eve scooted in beside Louise. Then the minister entered the room and made preparations while the murmuring died down to silence. Inside the chapel it was quiet. There was no noise from the highway. Outside, a peewee chirped loudly.
Eve watched the screen that had been set up to the side. It cycled through photos of Jack skydiving, skiing, walking on some American beach. Beside the lectern, up on a raised platform, sat the coffin. One of the expensive ones. Solid maple. Eve had chosen a wicker casket for Tilly. It was nice. Artisan-looking. The pamphlet had boasted about ‘elegant craftsmanship’ but really, Eve had chosen it because it was one of the cheaper options. Now, she didn’t know if she should be regretting that decision. The flower arrangement Eve had picked out for Tilly was also much smaller than the arrangement of pink lilies spilling down the sides of Jack’s coffin. She brought a thumbnail to her mouth and chewed it.
The minister made some generic remarks about the service being a celebration of life. Eve hated the speech almost as much as she hated the shrine. She let the words fade into the background, resolving instead to focus on the slideshow, when Sandra nudged her.
‘Is that the dump?’
‘What?’
‘Through the window.’ She pointed. ‘On the right.’
The window she was referring to would be called a picture window. Behind the coffin and overlooking the drive, it also pointed at the highway.
‘That big brown mountain,’ Sandra said. ‘Yep, that’s the dump and wait … Is that a truck driving round on top of it? Jesus. We come here to have a quiet afternoon of contemplation and we get a view of dump trucks driving around on a giant garbage mountain. That’s one final “fuck you”, isn’t it?’
‘Shh,’ came another voice from behind them. ‘Have some respect.’
Eve, trying not to laugh, turned around to apologise, but a figure standing at the back of the room grabbed her attention. It was Matt. His eyes flicked to hers and her stomach dropped. Her breath caught in her throat. He stood inside the back door, leaning against the wall. His hair, normally coiffed and set with product, hung down across his eyes like a ragged screen. ‘Fuck,’ she whispered and turned back to the front. ‘Fuck.’ She hugged her bag to her chest. ‘He’s seen me.’
Sandra gasped. ‘Is Matt here?’
‘Don’t look. He’s up the back.’
‘Shh,’ said the lady behind them again.
‘He’s staring at me.’ Eve rubbed the back of her neck. ‘I can feel it.’ She didn’t listen to the rest of the service. When it came time for the hymns she held up the right page of the program but didn’t sing or read the words. The back of her neck burned. She was sure Matt was staring at her.
When the minister thanked everybody for coming and turned the Bob Dylan back on, Eve left Shane and Sandra to look for Matt. She couldn’t find him. Instead, she spent the next twenty minutes getting pulled into half a dozen conversations and performing the correct moves – nodding, sad smiling, thanking, hugging – all the while looking for Matt.
‘Oh, he really is lovely, Eve.’ Lorna came out of nowhere. ‘You’ve done well.’
‘He’s not actually my, um, boyfriend.’
Pat appeared. ‘Does he come to the island a lot? Because I’ve got an old air conditioner I need brought down from the shed. Only if he’s got time, of course. I’d do it myself, but I had the knee replacement.’
‘I can ask him,’ Eve said and noticed a quick movement outside. She turned to see Matt. He was running in the direction of the lawn. ‘Excuse me,’ she said and weaved her way out the back door.
Matt was running full tilt down the hill and across the grass. A tall man in a suit ran ahead of him. The tall man was fast, but Matt was faster, gaining on him by the second. Matt caught up to him and grabbed him by the collar. Eve was too far away to hear the punch land but swore she felt it in her own face. Matt laid a second punch and Eve felt the shock of realisation. The tall, thin frame, the elastic limbs. It was Aiden. And it looked like Matt was going to kill him.
12
Eve hurried back inside and scanned the room. People were beginning to leave but there was still a crowd inside the chapel. ‘Shane?’ She tried not to let the urgency show in her voice. ‘Shane?’
She found him in the back corner. He was talking to the flower arrangement that had sat on the coffin during the service. As she got closer, Eve saw that Louise was holding it. ‘Maureen wants me to take this back to the island for her,’ she was saying. ‘Is that weird? I feel like it’s supposed to stay with the coffin.’
‘Shane.’ Eve touched him on the elbow.
‘I hope I can fit it in the back seat of my car,’ Louise went on. ‘Maybe it’ll get the cat smell out.’
‘Shane.’ Eve pulled his sleeve. ‘I need you outside for something.’
‘I was just going to help Louise take these flowers down to her car.’
‘Now, Shane. Sorry, Louise.’ Eve took him by the arm.
‘But those flowers look really heav—’
‘It’s Matt.’ She tugged him towards the door and called over her shoulder to Louise, ‘They won’t fit in your car. Call a maxi cab.’
‘Look.’ She let him go and pointed down the hill. They were fifty metres away. Aiden was a half a foot taller than Matt, but Matt was stocky and strong. He had Aiden on the ground, on his back. Grinding the back of his head into the grass.
‘Shit.’ Shane broke into a run. Eve ran behind.
Matt pulled no punches. He swung and hit Aiden on the cheekbone, knocked off his sunglasses. He swung again and connected with his ear. Aiden got his hands on Matt’s collar bone, tried to push him off, but Matt swung and hit him in the jaw.
‘I’m sorry,’ Aiden said. He put his arms up to protect his face and tried to curl into a ball. It looked like he was crying.
‘I’ll fucking kill you,’ Matt screamed as he wrestled Aiden’s hands down. He took a swing at his nose, missed, and punched the ground.
‘I’ll do whatever you want.’ Aiden kicked his legs and twisted, trying to get out from under Matt, but Matt grabbed him by the throat and squeezed.
‘I want you to fucking die.’
‘That’s enough,’ Shane shouted as he reached the pair. He skidded to a stop but slipped on the grass and came down on his hip. ‘Fucking dress shoes.’
Both of Matt’s hands were on Aiden’s neck now, and Aiden’s face was turning blue.
Eve raced forward and punched Matt on the shoulder blade, but he didn’t seem to feel it.
Shane got to his feet and grabbed a chunk of Matt’s shirt collar.
‘Get off me,’ he grunted, but Shane’s grip was strong, practised. He pulled Matt off Aiden but the man was still swinging. He spun around and landed a punch on Shane’s nose. Hard. The knock sent Shane reeling backwards.
Matt, stunned, watched as Shane put his hands to his face and doubled over.
Eve lunged. Before she knew what she was doing she was swinging at Matt with her own hand, open and aimed at his face. She felt like she was having an out-of-body experience. She felt light, weightless almost. The cracking sound of her palm against his cheek was loud. So loud it surprised her. Matt’s head went sideways, and a lightning bolt of pain hit her palm and fingers. It throbbed quick and hard.
‘What the fuck, Eve?’ Matt held his face.
The pain was so strong it took a few seconds for Eve to speak. ‘I know what you did,’ she said.
‘What?’
Aiden scrabbled to his feet, panting.
Shane had a hand over his nose. The front of his white shirt was splashed with blood. ‘Everybody needs to calm down,’ he said.
‘You killed Tilly,’ she said, and the relief of saying that swept aside the pain in her hand. ‘And Jack.’
‘You’re insane.’ Matt turned away and made a lunge for Aiden, but Eve ran at him.
‘No,’ she shouted, put herself between the two men. ‘You leave him alone. What, you plan to kill him too? Right here on the lawn of a crowded funeral?’
Matt flexed the knuckles of his punching hand. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘The crash wasn’t an accident. You tampered with the parachute.’ Eve stabbed a finger into his chest. ‘Yeah, I looked that shit up. Those AADs can totally be tampered with. What are the odds of the main canopy and the reserve chute opening at the exact same time?’ She didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Pretty fucking low, that’s what. And you have the gall to show up here all pretending to grieve and beat up Aiden in the garden?’
‘What tampering? I didn’t tamper with anything. Why would I want to kill anyone, let alone Tilly and Jack?’
Eve squeezed her temples. ‘You think I’m stupid.’ She glanced across at Shane, who was standing now with his nose pointed at the sky, gushing blood. ‘He thinks I’m fucking stupid,’ she said to Shane, and then to Matt, ‘Because Tilly was cheating on you with Jack, obviously. God, you’re such a cliché.’
A pause. He brushed the hair back from his forehead.
Out of the corner of her eye, Eve saw Sandra appear and pull a tissue out of her bra for Shane’s nose. Eve shot Matt a mean smile. The feeling of victory made her talk fast, angry. ‘Jack’s mum told me everything. They’d been having an on-again, off-again thing for a while, you found out about it, and instead of dumping Tilly like a normal person, you decided to murder both of them and make it look like an accident. See, Shane?’ Eve gave an exaggerated shrug. ‘How guilty does his face look?’
Shane tried to look at her without lowering his nose. ‘I, um, I’m not sure this is the best time or place for this, Eve.’
‘What?’ Matt laughed. It was a nasty bark. ‘Okay.’ He wriggled the fingers of his quickly swelling hand. ‘I see what’s going on here. You’re clearly insane. Tilly and Jack were not having an affair. They did have a thing in the past, apparently, but it was over by the time she hooked up with me. Tilly told me that and Jack told me that. You think I flew into a jealous rage and killed them? Please, Eve, you’ve been watching too many movies. The crash was an accident. CASA said so.’ He straightened the collar of his shirt. ‘And why the fuck are you only telling me all this now? I’ve been calling you non-stop for a week, you crazy bitch.’
‘What?’ It was Eve’s turn to laugh. ‘I’m going to call you and tell you I’m onto you so you can come over and murder me too?’
Matt’s eyes narrowed and he leaned into her face. She wondered if he was going to hit her. ‘I’ve been calling you,’ he said, and his voice was quiet. Dangerous. ‘Because I have a right to help plan Tilly’s funeral.’
‘It’s okay, Eve.’ Aiden was behind her.
‘No, Aiden.’ She held up a finger, stared Matt down. ‘Don’t you move. I’m not letting this piece of shit wreck your face any more than he already has.’
‘Matt didn’t do anything wrong,’ he said. ‘If you need someone to blame it should be me.’
Eve spun around and glared at Aiden. ‘Why are you defending him? Look what he did to your face. He’s a fucking criminal and you’re defending him.’
‘No.’ Aiden began to cry. ‘It’s my fault, it really is.’
‘We don’t need to do this,’ Matt growled.
Eve looked from Aiden to Matt and back again. ‘Do what?’
‘It’s okay, Matty.’ Aiden touched his temple. When he brought his fingers down there was blood on them. ‘She needs to know.’
Matt looked at the ground and closed his eyes. Aiden reached out a hand and Matt slapped it away.
‘Don’t you fucking touch me.’ His eyes were wild. ‘Don’t you ever fucking touch me. I don’t want to see your ugly face ever again.’ He turned to Eve and his face was wet with tears. ‘I switched Tilly for Jack because Aiden was on acid.’
‘What?’
Aiden stared miserably at the ground.
‘He was on acid.’ Matt screamed the word. ‘The useless prick can’t seem to go a day without it.’
Eve stepped back. ‘I don’t understand. Didn’t you say CASA does random drug tests?’
‘Yes.’ Matt nodded with his head and shoulders. ‘They do do random drug tests, don’t they, Aiden?’ he said in a singsong voice. ‘But acid is the one thing they can’t test for. Ha! So, some fucking morons like to get on it before a jump.’
Eve felt all the blood in her body drain into her feet. ‘Is this true?’ she said to Aiden, but Matt didn’t let him answer.
‘We’re all standing on the tarmac beside the plane, and Aiden’s got this stupid grin on his face. It’s the grin he gets when he’s on acid. So, I freak out. I’m like, “No way Tilly’s jumping with you, you high fuck,” and I make Jack take her instead. And we all know what happens next, don’t we, Aiden? Jack’s reserve fucks up and he’s dead. Tilly’s dead. But you’re still here, aren’t you, you piece of shit fucking junkie. Why are you still here when Tilly’s dead?’ He lunged at Aiden and Shane dived in front of him.
‘Don’t do it, bro.’ He put a hand on Matt’s chest. ‘It won’t make anything better.’
‘Why?’ Matt asked Aiden over Shane’s shoulder. ‘Why couldn’t you skip it that one time?’
‘I figured it wasn’t a big deal.’ Aiden had his head in his hands. ‘I always jump on acid. Nothing bad had ever happened so I figured it was just another day. I’m sorry.’ He dug his fingers into his hair. ‘I wish it were me, not them. I’m—’ He broke off into sobs.
Eve didn’t know what to make of Aiden crumpled on the ground, crying into the grass. Hatred and pity battled in her. ‘But you did make the switch,’ she said to Matt. ‘You told me Murray made it for some weather or wind reason. But it wasn’t Murray, it was you. Why did you lie to me about it?’
‘He was protecting me,’ Aiden sobbed.
‘I wasn’t protecting you, dipshit,’ Matt snapped. ‘I was protecting myself.’ He turned back to Eve and his eyes were cold. ‘From you.’ Gasps went up but Matt wasn’t finished. ‘Aiden’s fine on acid,’ he said. ‘He jumps on it all the time without any dramas. He’s competent. He’s safe. But I knew that wouldn’t matter to Big Sister Eve.’ He dug a toe into the ground. ‘You should have heard the way Tilly talked about you, how you hated all her boyfriends, how no one was good enough for her. What would you have done if you found out I knowingly let Tilly jump with Aiden while he was on drugs?’ He paused, waited for Eve to say something, but she was frozen to the spot. ‘I would have been persona non grata for the rest of my life. You storm down here accusing me of all kinds of bullshit when maybe you’re the one who needs to take a good look at yourself. The reality is that if it wasn’t for you, Eve, I would have let Tilly jump with Aiden, and she would still be alive.’
It was a terrible thing to say. Nobody spoke. Another cattle truck roared past on the highway and Eve looked around the garden. A light breeze rustled the leaves of what she now knew to be a ficus. Somewhere near the highway, an unseen kookaburra called to its family. Aiden’s shoulders shook but he was silent. Friends and strangers from the funeral milled about at a polite distance, pretending not to watch.
Sandra was digging in her bag for another tissue. She lifted her head to see Matt shake his punching hand. ‘Dude.’ She almost shouted it. ‘You can think you’re all that, but you just gave a cop a broken nose.’
‘Oh shit.’ Aiden wiped his face and looked at Shane. ‘You’re a cop? You need to arrest me.’ He threw himself at Shane’s feet. ‘I’ll give you a full confession, all official. Please. Arrest me. Take me to the watch house or wherever.’
‘Whoa.’ Shane took a step back. ‘I can’t arrest you for taking drugs a week ago.’
‘But it’s my fault.’ Aiden shuffled forward on his knees. ‘Please, officer. I’m ready to go to jail for this.’ He shook his wrists at Shane. ‘Come on. Please. Cuff me. I’m serious.’ He looked across at Matt.
