Leopard Dreaming (10 page)

‘They’re dead, Bennet, and good riddance to them or I’d never be able to sleep again.’ As part of her recovery therapy, she’d glued headlines of the cargo ship explosion all over her bedroom walls and drawn missiles and bullets hailing down on the dramatic images. Smiley faces over their death notices had made him smile too, even though their recovery counsellor didn’t entirely approve. As a nurse herself in an emergency ward occasionally, Mel Chiron had learned the tactic from other victims of crime.

‘I called every day from the hospital too, Ma. I’m telling you, she’s not home any more.’

‘No doubt she’s shy of phones, living alone in that house. She’s probably got all the curtains drawn too, but it’s her own neuroses that got us into this trouble. Delusions that she can see things when her vision comes and goes. I mean, really. Who ever heard of such a thing?’

‘This wasn’t her fault, Ma. She
did
witness a military crime. She only kept the details to herself in the hope of preventing what happened to us. If you need to blame anyone, blame her traitorous bodyguard or the general who did nothing in the hope of catching the whole organisation in one sweep.’

‘If you mean that nice general who sent rescue troops into your house, guns a-blazing, then you’re as crazy as Mira. General Garland is the one who’s footing all our
medical bills. She paid for all the repairs to your walls, and replaced all the smashed windows. It’s hardly her fault those scumbags had us out before that.’

He clamped his woolly clubs up to his ears, not wanting to hear it. Not wanting to cause her any more pain either. ‘I don’t want to argue, Ma. Please just roll backwards a little, and let me past.’

‘She’s ruined our lives, Benny! If she hasn’t told you the real reason why such nasty people were after her then she’s too dangerous to get anywhere near again. You should give up trying. She’s gone now and you’re free.’

‘Ma, I love her.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. You haven’t known her long enough to love her. You’re only dedicated — to helping her and all the other patients you’ve helped over the years.’

‘It’s more than that.’

‘The hell it is. You help to fix damaged people, far less fortunate than yourself, because it’s how you help yourself after everything you’ve suffered in your own life. You need small victories every day, even if they’re for somebody else. Trust me, I know. You save yourself a little more each day that way. But you’ve spent most of your adult life trying to help others. Isn’t it time you found somebody strong enough to take care of you for a change? You deserve it, Benny. You really do.’

‘Ma, there’s nobody else for me. I’ve never connected with anyone like I do with her.’

‘What about that lovely soldier who tried to save you? The one they captured and tortured along with you? That poor girl had her hand shot off trying to get you out, so she’s not only damaged now, she’s redeemable. Maybe you should consider helping each other?’

Ben laughed. ‘She’s a soldier! She doesn’t need me. She has battalions of medical support at her fingertips … bad pun. You know what I mean. She’s
also brunette. And you know the long string of bad luck I’ve had with them.’

‘So why is she the one you’ve been talking about in your sleep all week?’

‘I have?’

‘You haven’t done that since fourth grade, with that swooning crush on Miss Hooper.’

‘I’m thirty-two years old, Ma. I have my own place, my own life, and I don’t have swooning crushes on anyone any more.’

‘Then how else would I know her name’s Tarin? That
is
her name, right? Tarin Sei. Hard to understand what you’re mumbling about from my room, but if you’re not dreaming of her purely as a woman, why else would you never mention her rank?’

‘I am not discussing this with you.’ He honestly didn’t know what to think anyway. He wouldn’t be male if he didn’t find Tarin attractive. Her stunning chocolate hair, sparkling brown eyes and shining smile could attract men from miles away. ‘We have nothing in common. Mira needs me, though. And I need to know she’s okay. So please try to understand, I need to hear her voice for myself.’

Nurse Willow Springs burst in from the noisy laundry and rushed to roll them apart.

‘Five minutes,’ she complained. ‘I can’t leave you two alone to hang out a single load of linen before you’re up to mischief. Worst patients in the world.’ She grabbed hold of Mel’s chair first and swung her around. ‘Back to your rooms, the pair of you. And relax, damn it!’

Ben seized the chance to make a break for the kitchen phone.

‘Don’t bother,’ Mel called over her shoulder. ‘It’s faulty. Maybe you should have tried it first, before you busted the only working phone in the house.’

‘Can I borrow your mobile phone? They smashed mine.’

‘Ha! Tough luck. Mine too.’

‘Willow?’ he called to the nurse.

‘Forget it, Benny boy. I’ll keep you safe if it kills you.’

Lockman navigated the cane fields as if he’d grown up in them. No apparent landmarks anywhere as far as Mira could see. She only knew that he took her out a different way since she didn’t cross over the creek again.

‘You really know your way around here,’ she said, attempting to make it sound suspicious for the sake of the listening device. ‘You care to explain that?’

‘No, actually, I don’t.’

‘Holding out on me again?’

Shifting into top gear, he accelerated over a crest that put air under them and made the engine howl until landing heavily onto bitumen. ‘If you must know, I spent a lot of holidays down here with my cousins as a kid.’

Mira opened her mouth, surprised at how closely she’d guessed. She wanted to ask more, but thought better of it. She saw a sharp bend fast approaching, and tried to brace herself in preparation. One hand slipped from the seat belt and found the gear stick, with his hand already on it. She wanted to recoil, but couldn’t until the cornering forces quit competing with her and eased off.

‘I’ll drive,’ he said, sounding almost amused.

‘You’ll have to land first.’

‘Just leave the driving to me, and check your passenger … please.’

Mira bit her lip, wishing her head had been clear enough to think of it first.

She reached behind his driver’s seat and unhooked the waterproof pouch that Lockman had made for her pet wallaby using the outer case from his own sleeping bag.

Pockets woke and wriggled as Mira made clicking sounds with her tongue, shifting the young marsupial into her lap until the joey laid back and bottle-fed from a small thermos of milk and honey.

‘Nasty man hopping the car all over the place,’ she said. ‘Do you feel like a milkshake?’

‘She slept through it, didn’t she?’

Mira tickled the little doe’s tummy while the orphan chewed on the teat more often than sucking it. Not really hungry. Just taking comfort from it. About the size of a rabbit, Pockets needed only four to six feeds a day, a few minutes stretching her legs at least twice, and daily moisturising to mimic the oils secreted naturally from a real mother’s pouch, making it impossible for Mira to leave her behind at their campsite every day — at least until the joey’s fur covered her whole body. Luckily, she spent most of the time sleeping or contentedly sucking her rear dew-claw like a human baby sucking its thumb.

‘Hello, hello?’ Mira found the shape of a tiny pouch bulging from the joey’s tummy. ‘You’re a little young to be tarting around and getting pregnant already.’

Smooth, dry and furless inside, the pouch had developed only as much as the rest of the joey, so the foreign object bulged and protruded far more than it would have for a larger doe. Hooking out the foreign object, Mira held it up for Lockman.

‘What’s this?’

‘Spare fuse for the indicators.’ He took it from her and she heard him cast it aside into a drink holder. ‘Little thief. I caught her pinching loose coins from the ashtray last night. Must be something comforting about keeping her pouch full.’

‘Or her tummy. She was nearly starved to death when Ben and I found her with her dead mother.’

‘If you want, we can drop her off at a vet somewhere.
There’s bound to be someone who can take care of her so she’s safe for the day. Out of harm’s way.’

‘Hey, I’m not dumping her in a cage with strangers. Not every vet is trained for the special needs of local wildlife. Just get me to the next ferry to Straddie, please, and quit crowding me. Honestly, you’re on me tighter than a straitjacket today.’

‘That’s a little unfair. A flak jacket, maybe.’

Mira huffed, hating herself enough already. She’d regretted it the second she’d said it, but she itched with frustration at being watched more closely now that she was “free” than she ever had been in a psychiatric facility. At least the nurses only pestered her in time with their rounds and checklists.

Lockman accelerated into the fast lane, where today’s traffic seemed to speed along in time with yesterday’s, more or less. Made normal peak hour traffic seem positively peaceful. A ghostly fuel tanker changed lanes, passing through her unexpectedly, and she gagged in reflex, submerged in the dark ephemeral liquid.

‘You okay?’

She nodded, but clamped her eyes shut, stroking the joey and trying to imagine all her stress floating away.

He veered hard left across three lanes and backed off, triggering a chorus of horns around them. Only one of his many manoeuvres for losing a tail, so she never would have said anything, usually. Except today, she had that blasted listening device looming over her. It seemed like the first time Lockman had let her down in failing to disarm them all.

‘Arriving in one piece would be nice, Lieutenant.’

‘Why? So you can look your best when you drag me along for your visit to Ben?’

‘How did you know I …?’

‘You just told me.’

‘No I didn’t.’

‘Not in so many words. We’ve still got trust issues, obviously.’ He caught her hands unexpectedly in her lap, where she realised she’d been steepling her fingers, as she always did when problems seemed to get too much.

‘That’s none of your business,’ she argued.

‘It is if it impacts on tactics and mission readiness. He’s in no fit state to cope if you lure goons back to his neighbourhood.’

She bit her lip, surprised he could be so considerate.

‘I’ve got my hands full enough just keeping you out of harm’s way.’ He sounded upset, but she could also hear a layer of pain in his voice that ran deeper than she’d expected.

‘Lieutenant,’ she said, trying not to sound too unkind. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve been in harm’s way since the moment I met you.’

‘Yet in all that time I’ve never seen you put your needs ahead of his.’

‘And I never would! I owe him everything. That’s no secret. Maddy may have matched us up for his skill at reaching difficult clients, but it was still him who cracked my shell and let me out.’

‘And since you’ll be in the area anyway, with plenty of time to kill?’

‘Jealous?’ she snapped. Then reined in her temper, with a tap of her ear to remind him of their mysterious eavesdropper. As if either of them could forget. ‘I’d really rather not discuss this with you right now.’ There had to be limits to how mutually cruel they’d be in creating the illusion of discord between them. ‘Ben’s too broken up to see me. He virtually ordered me to stay away. I’ll just peek in from a distance. Make sure he’s okay.’

‘Nobody’s too broken up for a pretty face. The joey’s asleep, by the way.’

‘Oh … yes, I know.’ She hadn’t fidgeted for the past few minutes. ‘I just wanted her to know she’s loved,
okay?’ She hadn’t felt the same way herself since her own mother used to cuddle and sing her to sleep.

Mira stroked the furry long ears one last time and returned the joey to her pouch behind the driver’s seat.

Lockman clicked the indicator to change lanes again, this time jolting over a rut as he braked and swung sharply around a circular interchange. Mira tried to lean into it without bumping him, and her eyes flickered open. Roadworks near the exit for Stradbroke Island weren’t new, but instead she glimpsed the ghostly exit to Warner Bros Movie World.

‘Hey, Straddie is that way!’ She pointed over her shoulder.

‘Not if we can’t get our act together. You’re staying on the mainland, while I go and scout the hotel.’

‘Oh no, I’m not!’

‘Oh yes, you are.’

Mira huffed, growing furious. ‘You know, Freddie predicted this. The longer I hang out with the military, the more likely this will end in Maddy’s death.’

‘For the last time, I’m just as much a civilian now as you.’

He shifted down gears sharply, veered for one exit, then changed his mind at the last second and jumped a gutter to take the next in the opposite direction.

Mira glanced over her invisible shoulder, listening for any familiar engines that might have been following a little too long.

Lockman chuckled. ‘If you’re worried about being tailed since the cane fields, I just took care of them.’

‘You did?’

‘Amateurs. Hired guns, or their apprentices. Kitching must be scraping the bottom of the barrel for talent. If they had any real experience with blending in around here, they would have posed as fishermen in rusty old Land Cruisers.’

‘Did you see any faces?’

‘No, but I think they crapped themselves at the last roundabout. Want me to go back for a DNA sample?’

‘Very funny. They’ll probably just do a lap and be right back on our tail.’

‘Ah, you’re missing the thrill of a freeway. Take one wrong turn, and that’s ten minutes up to the next exit and back again.’

Mira hugged her knees, hardly knowing what to believe. ‘Maybe they want us to think we’ve lost them.’

‘Now who’s being paranoid? They were right up our tailpipe until I jumped a gutter. Idiots should never try to tail a four-wheel drive in standard vans and sedans.’

With her knees tucked up under her chin, she ended up rocking and worrying why he’d say so much aloud.

‘Relax. We’re alone, aside from the usual satellites and so on. Now tell me everything you saw in that alley.’

‘I can’t. Not here. Not with the satellites and so-ons still watching.’ She turned sideways a little more so she could make sign language for the deaf clearer for him, while he kept driving.
I saw who killed the boy.
She used slow and large hand signals to give him more time to see each word.
Somehow it all ties in.