The Good Daughter (22 page)

‘Too many eyes, too much gossip,’ Kara says. She has a basket by her knee. She uses a bread knife to cut the stalks of the plants she chooses.

‘You shouldn’t let him make you hide like that.’

‘I’m not hiding; I’m keeping my head down, like you should be.’

‘I had to play, didn’t I? I thought we all had to go on like nothing’s happened? It’s like every other thing he does, right? We swallow it and keep on our merry way.’

‘You can’t blame other people for what you’ve done this time, Aden,’ Kara says.

She moves along the garden bed. She reaches for the basket. Rebecca leans down and passes it to her. ‘Thank you, Rebecca. You’ll have to come and work some more in the restaurant – Marc will not stop singing about you.’

Aden screws up his face. ‘How can you be so calm about it?’

Kara pushes to her feet. She tries to brush the dirt from her knees. Her bare skin is stained by the soil. ‘If anything has happened, if Ben has done anything, I will be as sad and surprised as the next person … and I’ll be very disappointed.’

‘You’re saying it’ll all have been my fault?’

Kara picks up the basket. She looks at Rebecca and pulls an apologetic expression. ‘We’ll stop arguing now.’ She steps out from between the plants.

‘Are you saying it will all have been my fault?’ Aden repeats.

The bread knife falls from the basket and Kara bends to pick it up.

‘I
can’t
handle you lying and protecting him,’ he says.

Kara lifts her chin and eyes him. ‘Aden,’ she says quietly, ‘we will talk about it when you’ve sobered up.’

‘No, even better – why not wait till the next time he rapes and murders someone? Let’s just do that.’

‘You’re the only one who thinks that’s what’s happened.’

‘Bullshit! You said as much yourself this morning!’

‘Aden …’ Kara leans closer to him. ‘Ben Kincaid did not hurt me the way you think he did, and I’m sorry you’ve always thought that. But I’ve tried to tell you, you never listen – he was —’

‘
You
said as much this morning.’

‘Listen to me – he was young and mixed-up. I don’t know why he let everyone believe what he did – perhaps he thought it was what his father wanted to hear. I don’t know. I don’t think any of us can really understand what it was like for him. He hurt me in the same way he has hurt you. He left me pregnant to bring up a baby on my own, and maybe that does deserve some kind of payback, but not this.’ She glances at Rebecca. ‘Take him in and sit him down in front of a strong coffee, would you? You must wonder what you’ve got yourself into with this family …’

‘Are you saying Joanne’s fine now?’ Aden asks.

Kara rubs her forehead; she leaves a smudge of dirt. ‘You listen to Nigel too much. Ben’s father may have been the hard man everyone says he was, but Ben
isn’t
. If Teddy is saying anything, it’s that you should distance yourself from Nigel Fairbanks.’

‘Don’t start pretending now that nothing has happened! Why are you acting like nothing’s happened? Don’t you want to get away from here, Mum? Don’t you want to get away from
him?’

‘No. This is my home and where my business is.’

‘Is that what Teddy and he fought about? This place? Mum … ? If Kincaid has given you the restaurant, doesn’t that tell you he’s got something to hide? Do you forgive
anything
as long as you’re written out a cheque?’

‘Ben Kincaid,’ Kara says, suddenly indignant, ‘would have given me the restaurant if it wasn’t for Nigel digging around and making trouble. All Ben has ever asked is for me to be quiet. If I have the restaurant now, it’s because Ben wants to wipe his hands of us. You should be pleased about that.’ She takes a shaky breath. Her eyes are shining. ‘You can tell Nigel to back off now he’s got everyone at each other’s throats. And while you’re at it, tell him to stop using my back gate as his drug drop-off point.’ She looks away. ‘For God’s sake … what were you thinking, bringing it to the restaurant back door?’

‘Has Teddy found Joanne?’

‘In future, if someone suggests being abducted from or buying drugs at my back gate, could it be discouraged? Have you two woken up to the fact it is bad for
my
reputation?’

Aden angrily glances off to the back gate and the riverbank. ‘I can’t believe no-one ever blames him. Kincaid is the problem – he is the start, the finish, everything. Him, just him.’ Aden jams his finger into the palm of his hand. ‘He’s the one to blame.’ He folds his arms across his chest and stands his ground. ‘None of this is my fault. And if you take this attitude, like it is … well, that’s fucked up, Mum.’

‘Yes, Aden,’ Kara says.

It’s eight-thirty before they leave. Nigel turns up in his ute. He’s hunched like an old man over the steering wheel, still on his internal loop-the-loop. ‘When you’re fighting, you’re not thinking. You don’t think. There’s no time to think. It’s only looking back that you see how strange the whole thing is …’

Aden stands with the ute door open, waiting for Rebecca to climb in.

‘Can’t you drive me home in the morning?’ she says.

He waves her comment away. She climbs in and slides across into the centre of the bench seat. Nigel’s clothes are dirty, his boots are caked with mud, he smells of sweat and outdoors activity. The cap is low over his eyes. He avoids eye contact. Aden climbs in beside Rebecca. Nigel backs up the ute. ‘He wanted to fight – he had this look in his eye …’

‘Teddy’s got Mum the restaurant.’

Nigel almost mounts the ute onto the kerb. He straightens the vehicle. ‘Really?’

Aden shrugs. ‘That’s what they were fighting about – the restaurant. Not Joanne. Now they reckon she’s okay. Kincaid is let go, and Mum gets the restaurant. It’s the same as it’s ever been.’

Nigel drives slowly down the road. ‘I knew it … That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you – nothing’s adding up. Teddy wouldn’t let us know whether he knew if something had happened to Joanne, especially now that he’s got your mum the restaurant. He wouldn’t hand us that information, right? And Kincaid wouldn’t run around throwing punches if he’d just murdered someone. Would he?’

‘I don’t fucking know!’

‘Well, he wouldn’t.’

Aden breathes out, exasperated. ‘So what if we took her up there! So what if her fingerprints are all over the car and shed – let them be. We’ve done nothing wrong. I don’t care about the money. I just want Kincaid fucked up – it’s all I want.’ Aden moves, swinging his whole body around to look through the back window and into the ute tray. ‘Just as well, too,’ he sits around straight again, ‘because your running around panicking has left us with nothing else. It looks like you’ve taken out the crop.’

‘Or how about
Thank you, Nigel, for working your arse off all day, for getting things straight, just in case.’

‘I didn’t tell you to do it.’

‘That’s my point – someone’s got to think ahead, you dickhead.’

‘Don’t call me a dickhead.’

‘If she is alive …’ Nigel grips the steering wheel in frustration, ‘I’ll be more pissed off than if she’s dead. How hard is it to pick up the phone?’

‘Did you burn it?’

‘Teddy can think himself bloody lucky —’

‘You didn’t torch it?’

Nigel shakes his head. ‘Couldn’t light the match.’

Aden leans across and puts his hand on Nigel’s shoulder. Rebecca can smell alcohol strong on his breath. He rubs Nigel’s neck. ‘Good boy.’

Nigel shrugs him off. ‘I need to think about this.’

‘She probably went to ground because Ben got to her.’

‘Teddy has deliberately let us think she’s dead? And your mum knew?’

Aden dips his chin, his gaze glowing. ‘You really did shit yourself.’

‘Did you know?’

‘Girls never ring you, mate.’

‘I’ve taken down the shed, ripped up all the piping. All that work putting in the lines, it’s all gone now.’

‘Having you as her contact was always a bad idea.’

Nigel brakes the vehicle. ‘Did you know?’

‘No,’ Aden says, smiling, ‘I didn’t know. I promise. They’ve done us both over. They wanted us to sweat.’

‘What if I’d burnt the crop?’

‘I’d be angry.’

‘I
am
angry. You don’t know how close I came to burning it. Do you know for sure that she’s alive?’

‘It was kinda funny how you panicked. The big criminal element of Kiona, and the first sign of trouble and you shit yourself.’

‘We can’t all play cricket and get on the piss.’

‘Can you imagine how stupid you would have looked? Burnt it all cause a cop told you to.’

Nigel sits, idling the car, staring at Aden.

‘What!’ Aden says, slumping back into the corner. ‘You shit yourself.’

‘Tell me one thing you’ve done other than screw, smoke dope and make a mess of it. It’s all you ever do. You’ll take everything that comes your way, though …’

Aden lifts his hands and links them together around the back of his head. ‘I thought you said you had Teddy wrapped around your little finger?’

Nigel’s face is deadpan.

‘If a sergeant tells you to clean up your act and burn all illegal substances, aren’t you a little bit suspicious they might be … doing their job?’

Nigel says, ‘I want to hit you so much right now.’

Aden laughs. ‘You’re the most law-abiding drug dealer I know.’

Nigel reaches across in front of Rebecca and grabs Aden by the shirt. He hauls him forward. Rebecca is crushed against the seat as the car lurches suddenly. She brings her knees up to protect herself. Nigel’s forearm knocks her temple. The blow throws her head back. Nigel lets Aden go.

Aden flops into his corner. ‘Big man!’

‘You’re not worth it.’

Aden pulls Rebecca onto his lap. She twists out of his hold. Her eyes are smarting.

‘You all right, baby?’

‘Don’t.’

‘What’s the date?’ Nigel says. ‘It’d be a week or so, wouldn’t it? Aren’t you done with Rebecca yet?’

‘Not yet,’ Aden says.

Rebecca looks at him.

‘She’s a bit young, this one, Aden.’

‘Hey, you know … I hadn’t noticed!’

‘I’m pleased you get like this,’ Nigel says, turning to the steering wheel. ‘It reminds me you’re not worth shit.’

‘Love you too, mate.’

Rebecca touches her forehead and rubs her fingers over the bump already forming.

They accelerate off down the road.

The dogs are gone. Rebecca knows before they pull up at the gate. The headlights swing in and shine up the driveway, illuminating their empty enclosure. Nigel cuts the engine. A thin strip of daylight lingers on the horizon. The first few stars are out. The security light over at the truck shed comes on and floods the yard with brightness.

The side gate is open. Down beside the hakeas the side gate is open, and the top of the Kincaid farm ute is visible.

They get out and walk together up the driveway. A night chill is in the air. A shiver of apprehension goes down Rebecca’s spine.

The front door is open. Ben Kincaid is sitting on the couch. He gets up as they enter. If he had planned on being confrontational, aggressive, the thought leaves him in that moment. He folds his arms across his chest and looks away. There are burrs on his socks, a piece of blackberry cane stuck to his jumper. He is bruised like Nigel. They are a matching pair, two halves of a fight.

‘I’m here to tell Rebecca her dogs have been shot,’ he says. ‘They’re in the back of my ute.’ He runs a hand through his hair. It’s possible he’s drunk, or he’s so fatigued it’s affecting his speech and his stance. Rebecca looks down at her feet. No-one speaks. There’s the night air through the doorway, the sporadic buzz of a blowfly dying somewhere and a leaky tap dripping in the laundry.

It gets too much for Aden and he moves forward. He has the rolling gait of someone overly confident. He leans heavily into one hip. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing here? You can’t come in here like this.’

‘It’s my property.’

‘Everything’s your property, isn’t it? Did you kill her dogs because they were your property too?’

‘They were out of the yard, chasing sheep.’

‘Were you hoping if you sat here long enough she’d come home alone and you could sort her out?’

‘I’m looking for Zach.’

‘Have you lost him too?’

Mr Kincaid lifts his gaze.

Aden says, ‘You’ve got balls, coming here like this.’

Mr Kincaid shifts his focus to Rebecca. He moves like someone submerged in water, and has the flatline gaze Rebecca remembers from some of the patients in the cancer ward – wiped out inside.

‘Your dogs were chasing stock,’ he says. ‘There’s really nothing else to do in that situation. I’ll bury them in the bush for you. I’ve already spoken to your father.’ He looks towards the phone. ‘He rang.’

‘You spoke to my dad?’

‘So you answer her phone now as well?’

‘Is there somewhere Zach goes?’ Mr Kincaid asks her. ‘I thought he might turn up here?’

Nigel has hung back, kept out of it, but now he says, ‘Zach shot the dogs, didn’t he? What did you tell him that pissed him off?’

A muscle twitches in Mr Kincaid’s cheek. He doesn’t hold Rebecca’s gaze, but looks right through her. If you held up your hands and blocked out the rest of his face, isolated his eyes only, you wouldn’t be able to tell him and Aden apart.