Red Hot (20 page)

‘I asked you if you’d be at the pub tomorrow night.’

‘Are you going?’

‘Yeah, the others are all going too.’

‘Would you like me to take you?’

Kathy’s heart leapt. She had hoped he’d ask. She beamed at him. ‘I’d really like to go with you, Eddie.’

‘Good, I’m glad’

‘You can drive me all the way home, too.’

‘Won’t you get in the shit?’

‘It’s okay. Mum and I had a talk. She said she’d try and smooth things with Dad. I promised her I wouldn’t sneak behind their backs. So I’m showing her I can keep that promise.’

***

The family gathered in the lounge room. As usual, they were chatting about the goings on in the valley.

‘The detectives want another meetin’. They want us all ta meet down at the hall. There’s talk they’re goin’ to bring special detectives in from Sydney. The local blokes are completely baffled. They haven’t got one shred of evidence, so they reckon bringin’ the city blokes down will help get results,’ Karl was saying.

‘Yeah, I was up at Sam’s earlier. He told me they reckon the city blokes might be able ta find somethin’. Apparently they specialize in arson cases,’ Digger replied

‘Well, let’s hope new eyes on the case can find something and finally arrest the mongrel. We won’t have any peace until that happens!’ Win stated.

‘Well, I have to point out that the description you blokes got of him fits a few, even your own Des and Robert,’ Mary piped up.

Emmie gave a small gasp.
‘Des
… he’s a fine boy he wouldn’t dream of hurting his family like that! Our Robert wouldn’t do something so vile either! It’s preposterous to even think it!’

Everyone turned to look at Mary.

Mary blushed and decided she had said a bit much this time. Excusing herself, she left and went up to bed.

‘I apologize for Mary,’ Harvey stammered.

‘No, don’t worry mate. Mary’s obviously not herself. We understand,’ Karl told him.

‘I must apologize though. She truly hasn’t been herself lately and I’m sure she doesn’t mean to be rude.’

‘Leave it, Harvey dear.’ Emmie patted his hand. ‘She just needs a rest. It’s been a traumatic time for us all.’

‘I’m a bit tired myself,’ Emmie said, easing out of her chair. ‘I think I’ll be off to bed; it’s been a long day.’

‘How’s she been durin’ the day?’ Karl asked, watching his mother walk slowly out of the room.

‘She’s keeping up a good front. She’s helping Hazel a lot more. I think she needs to keep occupied,’ Ellie replied.

‘She’s lost a bit of weight, though,’ Win added. ‘We’re keeping a close eye on her.’

They chatted on for a while then eventually one by one they gave in to tiredness.

Ellie was tidying up some sheets of music that had slipped to the floor. Harvey came to stand beside her.

‘I need to talk, Ellie. Meet me on the veranda in half an hour.
Please?
’

Ellie noted the tone of pleading in Harvey’s voice and, although still a little apprehensive, she agreed.

‘I’ll leave you to lock up the house when you’re ready, Harv. Dig and I’ve been out and had a look around, all seems quiet out there. I’m hittin’ the hay too. We have to be up again in a couple of hours to take our turn on patrol. I’ve a full day tomorrow as well: Eric wants a hand ploughing old man Chuder’s top paddock.’

***

Ellie had been thinking about things ever since her talk with Emmie. Feeling torn between longing for Harvey and her obligation to Mary, she was almost losing her mind. So much had happened since Christmas Eve. Was she willing to enter into an affair, because that’s all it would ever be? Her mind was in turmoil.

Harvey was waiting for her on the veranda. She slipped silently through the French doors and, as Harvey opened his arms to her, she walked straight into his embrace.

‘We have to talk about things, Ellie,’ he said, his breath stirring wisps of her hair.

‘I know, Harv.’

‘Mary is definitely not herself. This is not her usual behaviour and I’m worried about her.’ Harvey dropped his arms from around her and went to sit in one of the cane chairs.

‘Sit here beside me, Ellie. I have things I need to say.’

Ellie eased herself into the cane chair beside him.

‘When we broke up and you married Denby, it tore me apart. For months, I was a wreck. I hit the town every chance I could. A different girl…well… there isn’t one I could say I would even remember their name, to be honest. Karl tried to talk some sense into me but it wasn’t until we went to Korea that I saw the light.’

‘After we got back, I met Mary. She was attractive, sexy… nice. I married her… my mistake. I never loved her! Not the way a husband should.’ He sighed, looking out across the dark yard.

‘At first we had a reasonable sex life, but after several years, we drifted apart. We still stayed together and put on this front for appearance’s sake. Being a devout Catholic, she wouldn’t hear of divorce, so we more or less started living separate lives but remained living together. I’ve had affairs with different women, many women! She got more involved with the church. Then I decided to move back here. I knew I would see you again
. I wanted to see
you.
You have never been out of my heart. I love you, Ellie,
I love you!
’
Harvey’s voice faltered. He stood and walked to the edge of the veranda.

Ellie followed. She put her hand on his arm. Taking a deep breath, she threw caution to the wind.

‘I love you too, Harv. I always have. I should have been more patient with your army postings. I will never forgive myself for the way I behaved. Our lives could have been so different… All these years wasted.’

‘I’ve promised Mary we will settle on a property next week. Maybe she’ll settle down when we’re in a place of her choice.’

‘What are you going to do about her, Harv?’ Ellie asked quietly.

‘She hasn’t really said anything, just a few snide remarks. I can sense she has suspicions about something between you and me.’ He looked suddenly sombre. ‘You heard her sarcastic shots. As for doing something… what
can
I do? She has to agree to a divorce and she won’t because of her damn religion!’

Taking another deep breath, Ellie whispered, ‘I want you, Harv. If it means having you without marriage, I’ll accept you that way
but
we have to be
very
discreet, and if people start to talk, or Mary blows up about anything, we have to think of another way, or simply walk away from each other for good.’

‘Good Lord, Ellie. I won’t let anything stand in our way ever again!’ Harvey choked out. ‘We’ll sort something out. Mary and I will get the property sorted out next week and we’ll take things from there!’

He turned and took Ellie in his arms and kissed her passionately.

‘Come with me, Harv.’

They quietly went upstairs.

Mary stepped back from the window.
‘Bastard!’
she thought.

Saturday dawned bright. At 5.30am, the men dragged themselves from their beds; they’d taken their turns on patrol and now they were rising for a hard day’s work.

Karl and Digger were soon ploughing their way through a huge serving of bacon, eggs, toast and piping hot coffee.

‘Ripper breakfast, eh Dig,’ Karl said between mouthfuls.

‘We’ll need it today, mate. What time are you meetin’ Eric?’

‘Six thirty. He has to plough Chuder’s paddock and throw a few more bales of hay into that shed Dawn’s got up now.’

‘How many will that make now?’ Digger asked.

‘A thousand. Bloody lot of hay but good feed for the cows if there’s a drought next season. Lotta work’s gone into that shed.’

‘Reckon she’s glad the firebug’s left that alone. Come ta think of it, Dawn and Arthur haven’t been touched at all. Damn lucky, don’t you think?’

‘Think there’s a reason they’ve been left alone?’ Digger asked.

A thoughtful expression crossed Karl’s face. Shaking his head, he shrugged. ‘I haven’t thought about it ‘til now, just pure luck I guess!’

They finished their breakfast and Karl left to meet Eric. Digger headed off to check the fruit trees to see what needed spraying and do a stock take on the diesel and insecticides stored. He would be busy all day as well. Saturdays didn’t always mean a day off at Kia-Ora.

***

Digger was really feeling the heat today. He’d spent all morning checking fruit trees and marking them for spraying and he still had the diesel and other stuff to stock take.

‘Strewth it’s hot,’
he thought as he wiped his hanky across his forehead. He was standing where the shed had once been. He glanced at the still blackened grass beneath his feet and the debris piled nearby. He thought back to the night the shed burned.

‘Bastard of a bloke!
’ he muttered. His mind went back to the conversation between him and Karl at breakfast this morning. Dawn and Arthur hadn’t had a fire – was it strange or just lucky? With the exception of Walter Hansen’s small fire, Rex Willi’s shed and Ivy Gelding’s haystack, the fires seemed confined to the Mason family, mostly Kia-Ora and Sam’s.
Was
there a reason? Could the talk he’d heard at the pub the other evening have some truth in it?

People were gossiping and tossing names around about who was responsible. The name at the top of the list was
Robert Mason
, Arthur’s boy!

Sighing heavily, he kicked his boot into a stack of tractor tyres beside the machinery shed. A cardboard box crumbled as one of the tyres slipped. Digger swore and bent to stand the tyre back up. Something caught his attention. That smell! Bending closer, he discovered neatly set on the bottom of the box…

A smouldering mosquito
coil!

Digger stood stock still for a minute, his heart pounding. He bent down and had a closer look.

‘Well bloody hell! So this’s what the flamin’ mongrel’s usin’! No bloody wonder he hasn’t been caught!’

Finally, they had some evidence!

Digger ground his boot into the mosquito coil and snuffed it out. He looked around but couldn’t find anything else amiss. If the coil hadn’t been found, the tyres and boxes would have caught on, easily fed by the cardboard, then the machinery shed would have gone up. They could never have replaced what was in there.

Mosquito coils are mosquito-repelling incense shaped in a spiral, made from a dried paste of Pyrethrum powder. Burning usually begins at the outer end of the spiral and progresses slowly towards the centre, producing a mosquito repellent smoke.

A typical coil can measure 15cm (6inches) in diameter, and smoulder for around eight hours.

Digger felt anger rise inside him. ‘
The bloody rotten bastard… He was targetin’ our friggin machinery shed!
He grabbed a screwdriver and threw it clear across the yard.
‘Ya didn’t succeed this time, ya fuckin’ arsehole!’

He strode across and retrieved the screwdriver. Drumming the palm of his hand with it, he gazed around the yard. Eyeing the woodheap, he hurried over and furiously began upending crates of kindling. He grabbed a rake.
Every nerve in his body was on edge; his senses told him that there was more than one mosquito coil planted here.

Tossing the rake to one side, he got down on his hands and knees and crawled under the saw bench. Wood chips went flying in all directions as he frantically searched.

‘What tha blue blazes are ya doin’, mate?’ Karl had come back home and spotted Digger on all fours under the saw bench. ‘Ya ok, mate? What ya lookin’ for under there?’

Digger backed out, covered in saw dust, and told Karl what he’d found.

‘Holy smoke… We woulda lost a friggin’ fortune! The cunnin’ mongrel! No bloody wonder he gets away with it!’ Karl was astounded.

‘Yeah, these friggin’ things smoulder for hours. He can set the bloody things and get clean away, knowin’ they’ll eventually catch on to whatever he’s put ‘em under.’

‘And I’ll bet he comes back to watch and laugh at us. What a sick mongrel!’

Karl strode backwards and forwards several times. ‘Ya think there’s more planted? Is that what ya were doin’ under the saw bench? Lookin’ for more?’

Digger nodded. ‘Me gut tells me there’s more!’

‘Shit Dig! C’mon, I’ll help.’

They both searched through the wood. The last pile was huge logs that hadn’t yet been split.

Panting and puffing, they slowly moved the heavy logs, one by one.

‘Strewth, Dig, he couldn’t put anythin’ under these, they’re too heavy for us. One bloke couldn’t move ‘em.’

Digger wiped sweat from his brow. ‘He wouldn’t have ta, he could slide it in. Getting it out’s a bit different.’ He knew his gut feeling was going to pay off.

‘Hand me that screwdriver over there, mate.’

He got down on his hands and sniffed around, then he pushed the screwdriver as far under the very bottom log as he could. Carefully, he moved it around, then slowly brought it back out
along with another smouldering
mosquito coil!

Karl stood looking at it. He was furious and stunned. ‘Good grief, Dig! There’da been a helluva mess here later! I hate ta think what coulda happened. Shit, the shed and the whole wood pile! Thank God ya kicked those tyres… thank God for your instincts too!’

‘Well, now we know how he’s settin’ the bloody fires! We have’ta get the cops out here right away. Fuckin clever bastard ta think of usin’ coils. We’ll get him though… We’ll get him.’

Karl rubbed his eyes. He was damn tired but his brain was working overtime now. Working all day and patrolling the properties at night was catching up with him.

‘Dig, this means he can set the fire during the bloody day, knowin’ he’s got hours before it goes up! He
has
to live ‘round here, shit! He could be talkin’ to us every day, even workin near us, worse still
with us
! We wouldn’t be any the friggin’ wiser! All we know so far is it looks like he’s a local bloke, and that’s just guessin’!’ Karl rubbed his face furiously, the frustration eating at him.

Sitting his bum heavily on a log, Digger gave in to exhaustion. Rubbing his eyes and breathing out noisily, he said, ‘We’re gonna have ta patrol night
and
day, mate. We’ve got no damn choice.’

‘Yeah, I know. Look, we’ll ring the cops, an’ while we’re waitin’ for ‘em, we’ll get Sam, Arthur and the boys here. We have’ta get this underway. Better get holda Nat an’ Rex too.’

Karl’s mind was spinning.

‘Good idea,’ Digger agreed. This meetin’ the cops want is gonna be a beauty! They’re gonna have’ta do more than they have been now we’ve found these! The valley blokes are gonna be even more riled up. Everyone’s worn to a frazzle
and
pissed off.’

‘Look, Dig, I don’t think we should take any chances with this bloke. Most of the blokes are keepin’ loaded shotguns beside them at night. I reckon we should arm ourselves durin’ the day as well! We dunno who he is, or what he might try an’ do when we do corner him!’

‘Karl, you’re spot on. That fire he was plannin’ here today, it had the potential to burn all of Kia Ora if it had of taken off. That bloody terrifies me. The women are gonna
have
to be very damn careful. More so than ever; now we know he’s sneakin’ ‘round in daylight. Mate, after the Harry incident, it’s become
very
ugly. This bloke’s capable of anythin’.’

Karl agreed. ‘C’mon, he’s gotta be stopped one way or another. We’ll go up an’ ring the cops now and tell ‘em what ya found here.’

***

The hall was packed with locals, both men and women. The atmosphere was very tense from the word go. News had spread rapidly about Digger finding the mosquito coils and the locals were vying for blood!

‘I tell ya, we dunno who we’re talkin’ to anymore.’ Old Bob Johnson was talking to his neighbour and friend, Sid Jackson. Bob had left his wife home, armed with his shotgun, not wanting to risk leaving her defenceless.

‘Edna’s had enough. She jumps at every little noise and won’t stay in the house unless everythin’s locked up tight!’

‘Can’t say I blame her. Hell, now we know how the mongrel’s lightin’ the fires, it means he could be standin’ here with us and we wouldn’t know it. Meantime, he’s already been and set a fire somewhere and we’re all none the wiser,’ Sid said. ‘It fair makes me blood boil ta think one of us valley blokes could stoop to doin’ somethin’ so low,’ he added.

‘Yeah, Sid, it’s a bloody low act alright. Can’t say I feel comfortable not bein’ able to trust any of the blokes I know, but someone here in the valley has lost their marbles and the sooner we get ‘em the bloody better. It’s a sad day when ya have ta think twice before ya can talk with ya mates!’

The crowd was becoming rowdy and when someone shouted that the cops had finally arrived, they all surged towards the front of the hall, each trying to have their say as Bennett and Simpson pushed their way towards the stage steps.

It took Keith Brewster and several constables to bring them under control before the detectives were able to speak.

Detective Bennett raised his hand for quiet and waited until the murmur of voices at the back of the crowd diminished before he spoke.

‘We know you’re all frustrated and angry that the firebug is still on the loose.’ A few shouts from within the crowd responded to this comment. Ignoring them, Bennett continued. ‘However, until now we have had absolutely no clues to work with.’ He held up his hand again to shush them. ‘I’m sure you’re all well aware by now that mosquito coils were found by Digger. They had been planted under a stack of tyres and boxes, but also amongst sawdust at the wood heap, and left to smoulder. Eventually, they would have caught on and there would have been another
major
fire.

It is obvious that this is the method the firebug is using, hence enabling him to get away undetected.’

‘Well, what ya gonna do about it?’ A voice shouted from the centre of the crowd. ‘Ya can stand there talkin’ all bloody day but we want action!’

‘Too bloody right, action’s what we want,’ Bill O’Toole bellowed from the very back of the crowd.

Detective Simpson called for them to be quiet and to allow Bennett to speak. A buzz of voices reverberated around the hall. They quieted again and he was able to continue.

‘You will also be aware that some very disturbing phone calls were received while you were all busy fighting the fire on Christmas Eve, and it has also come to our attention that some of your women have been followed at certain times.’ A roar of anger went up and again the constables had to intervene.

Bennett waited until the crowd settled again. ‘Now, because of the times these incidents took place, we have to assume that the perpetrator is a member of the local community!’

‘Ya accusin’ one of us now, ya bastard!’ a local yelled. ‘Can’t catch tha bloke so ya gotta point the finger at one of us.’

Keith Brewster called for them all to shut up and let Bennett get on with it.

‘I’m saying we have to assume so at this stage of our investigation. Either he is a local or he lives with someone in the valley and they are protecting him!’

The crowd jeered at this, Bill O’Toole’s voice rising above the din. ‘Ya bloody stupid poofters… Couldn’t catch a shit in a paper bag if ya tried. Ya tried ta blame me kids for the fires; I told ya’s ya had it wrong. Now ya’s are accusin’ one of us blokes.’ He shook his fist in the direction of the stage. ‘Ya useless pricks! Ya’s are graspin’ at fuckin’ straws!’

‘Let him speak, O’Toole, he’s got more to tell us,’ bellowed Sam.

Bill O’Toole pushed through the crowd to stand in front of Sam.

‘Well, ya know what I reckon? Ivy Geldin’s hit the nail on the head!’

‘What’d’ya mean? What’s she got ta do with this?’ Sam fronted him, standing toe to toe.

‘She says that Eric Mason burnt her haystack. She says he’s the firebug and I reckon she just might be right!’

Before anyone could react, Eileen, who had been standing quietly listening to them all, rounded on O’Toole and slammed both hands into him. The suddenness of her attack took him by surprise and he stumbled backwards. Before he could recover, she lit into him.

‘How
dare
you speak about my brother like that! He’s fought every bloody fire in the valley! That dried up old spinster Gelding should shut her hypocritical mouth. If it hadn’t been for Eric, she would’ve lost everything.’

Bill O’Toole had recovered his balance and glared furiously at her. ‘You watch ya mouth, ya little hussy! You friggin’ Masons think ya’re all better than the rest of us!’

‘You should keep an eye on those kids of yours instead of looking down the neck of a bottle, you drunken prick!’ Eileen spat back.

Joyce O’Toole grabbed Eileen’s shoulder, giving her a hard shove.

‘You bloody upstart! How dare you speak to my husband like that! And they’re my kids you’re talkin’ about,’ she yelled.

‘And Eric’s
my
brother, so fuck off you cupboard drinking bitch!’

Sam took hold of Eileen and pulled her away from Joyce before the confrontation became more physical. Privately, he was thinking, ‘
Good on ya girl!’