The Amber Trail (17 page)

Dig swallowed. “So, I think the
best thing we can do is just forget I came here at all, and I’ll
keep quiet, go home, and never talk to you guys again. No harm
done.” He held up his hands and tried to smile.

Maxine watched him with a deadpan
expression, before emitting a
humph
. She walked over to
dog’s basket, squatted down, and ruffled the skin behind the
animal’s neck. “Did you hear that Digit? The stickybeak’s decided
he’s going to let himself leave.” The dog’s ears pricked up.
“That’s funny isn’t it!” she said, and turned to Dig. “So you
decide to travel over here, snoop about our factories and
businesses—then announce you’re going home again, taking all our
company secrets with you?”

Dig pursed his lips. “That’s
not
why I came here. I came here to talk to
you
.” He
glanced from Maxine to Shiv. “You have to understand, Dad’s death
left us completely in the dark about the future of our brewery.
Without your hops, we’re ruined.” He swallowed. “But I realise
that’s how it has to be now. Let’s just forget everything, and
we’ll never even think about you guys again.”

“
Forget everything?”
Maxine’s voice raised an octave. “Yeah sure, I’ll just forget the
guy that sneaks into my private property, then enters my house and
tries to break up my family?”

Dig frowned, then recognition
dawned. That was why Maxine had seemed familiar—she was the lady he
had seen on the wall of Raj’s house near the brewery. She was the
boy’s mother.

“
No...” He shook his
head. “You’ve got that wrong. If that’s true...then I didn’t even
know it was your house. I was
invited
into it.”

She gave another
humph
,
and squatted back down to pat the dog. She spoke slowly. “You and
your family…have always been...problems. And I don’t like
problems.” The dog turned and offered the underside of his neck,
and she duly scratched it. “Shiv told me how much of a problem your
brother was. He also told me that he screamed like a baby when he
sliced him up.” She leaned closer to the animal. “Do you remember
that finger Digit? It wasn’t very tasty was it? It was a bit
rotten, travelling all that way from Australia. But you ate it all
the same.” She smirked. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you a fresh
one...just before we take the stickybeak on a nice fishing trip.”
She stroked the dog’s forehead. “Do you think he’ll scream too? I
think he will. He’s no more than a weak child, living under the
faded shadow of a weak father.”

Dig’s heart raced, and a flush
crept up his neck to pound in his ears. His hands balled into
fists. He clenched his teeth and forced a deep breath.

He glanced toward the stairs, but
they were blocked by the thugs. Shiv stood in the doorway to the
balcony. Would anyone hear him if he shouted? He doubted it. The
thumping bass from the dancefloor still resonated around
them.

“
Look,” Dig said.
“Whatever deal you had with my father, I can replicate it. I know
the hops are bioengineered with the opium poppies. I realise my
father was extracting the opium during the brewing process and
giving it to you in Australia. I can figure out how to do that for
you. You have my word. No problems.”

Maxine took another drag on her
cigarette and gave a pinched expression. The thick-jawed thug
handed her a bottle of beer. She took a large mouthful. “I can’t
trust my business to a couple of insolent kids.” She cocked her
head. “But, I’d love to hear how you came to your insightful
conclusion about how we engineer our crops.”

Chook shifted in his seat beside
Dig.

“
I...just guessed
it.”

“
You just guessed?”
Maxine sneered. “Or did somebody
tell
you while you were
sitting at the bar? It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.”
Chook dropped his gaze to the floor.

Maxine turned to Shiv. “What
happened to your mouth?”

There was a pause, before Chook
spoke up. “I punched him,” he said. “But I’m sorry. I shouldn’t
have done that. It looks like there’s stuff going on here I didn’t
know about.”

“
So what are we going
to do about that?”

“
Look,” Shiv said as
he glanced at Jules. “He was wrong. But he didn’t understand the
history.”

“
No! Tell me again.
What are we going to do?”

Shiv swallowed. “Punish
him.”

“
Good.” Maxine’s eyes
lit up. “This’ll be a reminder of what happens when you bring
outsiders into the business. Especially the ones related to dirty
western
sluts
. You get...problems.”

“
Please,” Chook said.
“I won’t do it again.”

“
No you won’t.
Because you’ll remember this moment every time you pick your
nose.”

Chook’s eyebrows knitted
together, and he exchanged a look with his sister. Jules sat up
straight in her chair. “Max, you don’t need to do that.”

“
I suggest you keep
your mouth shut tramp, as you’re the one who brought him
here.”

Jules turned to Shiv, her eyes
pleading. His forehead creased and he stared at the
floor.

“
Shiv?” Maxine raised
her eyebrows.

Shiv blinked, then after a moment
he shuffled across to the bar, pulled open a drawer, and extracted
a pair of  pruning shears. The silver blades glinted in the
light, and looked razor sharp.

“
No!” Jules stood
with a hand on her hip. “Shiv! Stop it!”

Shiv flinched.

Chook leapt from his seat and ran
for the stairs, but the bald-headed thug tackled him to the ground,
placed a knee in his back, and twisted his arm
backwards.

“
Do it,” Maxine said.
“Now.”

Shiv clenched his jaw and moved
across to kneel beside Chook.

Jules ran at him. She only
managed a few steps before the thick-jawed thug caught her around
the waist and dragged her backwards. “Let...me...go!” she shouted,
and flailed at his arms. Chook struggled on the floor, wriggling
and grunting, trying to free himself.

“
Please Shiv,” Jules
sobbed.

Maxine stood beside Shiv. The
smoke from her cigarette wafted into his face. “Do it.”
 

Chook moaned as the thug yanked
his arm up into the small of his back.

“
If you do it we’re
over,” Jules screamed, and Shiv momentarily closed his eyes. The
hand that held the pruning shears was shaking, and it faltered to
his side. For a second all were still.

Maxine sighed. “You stupid boy.”
She stepped forward and pushed her cigarette into the side of
Shiv’s cheek. There was a sizzling sound, and Shiv flinched away in
a grimace. The stench of burning flesh filled the air. Maxine
snarled again. “Do it!”

Shiv nodded. His lips were thin
as he lifted the shears to Chook’s finger, and squeezed the handles
together.

There was a crunching sound and
Chook howled. The men released their hold and he rolled to one
side, clutching at his hand. Blood was smeared across the floor in
a crimson arc, and at the end of it, a bloodied finger lay forlorn
in the centre of the tiles.

Jules was released, and she ran
across the room to her brother and hugged him, burying her head in
his shoulder. “I’m…sorry,” she sobbed.

Dig sat frozen in his seat. A
mouthful of bile threatened to rise in his throat, but he fought it
down.

Maxine delicately retrieved the
finger from the floor, and held it up to the light. “There. That
should remind you to keep strangers out of our
business.”

Chook sat huddled on the floor,
supporting his arm, his chest rising and falling
rapidly.

Maxine grinned and hummed under
her breath. She turned to the dog by the door. “Digit!” she
exclaimed in a high pitched voice. “I have a
snackie
for
you!” The dog pricked up its ears. “
Fin-gers
!” she sung in a
melodic tone, waggling the appendage in the air.

The dog trotted across the room
to sit obediently beside Maxine. “See?” she said, and held the
finger down to the dog. “A nice fresh one.” The dog lifted its head
and plucked the finger from her grasp. It chewed twice, then tipped
its head back and swallowe
d it, before
lick
ing
its lips and cock
ing
its head.

“
You sick bitch,”
Jules sobbed.

Maxine patted the dog’s head.
“You still hungry? Well that’s okay. We still have a few snackies
left for you. In fact, our Australian visitor won’t be needing any
fingers in the near future.”

She turned to Shiv. “It’s his
turn.”

Shiv looked up, blank-faced and
bleary eyed. He nodded, and the thick-jawed thug sidled toward Dig
on the couch.

Dig stood up. His heart thumped
and adrenaline coursed through his veins. He looked around the
room, searching for an escape, but his path to the stairs and
balcony were blocked. A hand clamped around his elbow. His eyes
turned to the open lift shaft, and he took a quick intake of
breath. He knew what to do.

He jammed a hand into his pocket
and fished around inside. His hand eventually grasped what he was
looking for, and he held it tightly.

The thug dragged Dig to the
centre of the room and dumped him face first onto the tile. A knee
pressed into his back, and a sickly, wet warmth soaked into his
midriff; Dig guessed he was lying in Chook’s blood.

Maxine stood over him, smiling.
Her cigarette dangled from her hand. The dog sat beside her, its
tongue lolling in time with its breath. Shiv knelt beside
Dig
, shears ready.

Dig met Maxine’s eyes for a
moment, then he turned to the animal.

“
Digit!
” he
said, mimicking Maxine’s high pitched voice from earlier.
“
Fin-gers!
” He extracted his prize from his pocket—the piece
of dried chouricos sausage from his trip over to Anjuna, and threw
it across the room.

The sausage bounced once, then
skidded across the tile, tracking through the smear of blood before
it came to a stop at the edge of the lift shaft.

The dog bound up and ran across
the room, chasing the sausage, its claws clicking over the tiled
floor.

“
Digit!” Maxine
shouted
. “Come here!” But the dog kept
going, scurrying across the floor
. A
s it
approached the sausage it pushed its front paws out to stop. But,
instead of halting, the paws landed in the pool of blood and the
animal slid forward across the tile.

“
Stop him!” Maxine
screamed, but it was too late. The dog skated across the bloodied
floor with its ears pinned back to its head, turning clockwise as
it scrambled for purchase on the wet tile. It reached the edge of
the shaft, tipped backwards over the drop, and
disappeared.

“
Digit! Mummy’s
coming!” Maxine ran to the shaft, the fat on her hips jiggling
through the fabric of her sari as she moved. She reached the
opening and knelt down. “Are you okay?” A pained howl echoed from
deep within the shaft.

Maxine turned quickly. “Come on!”
she shouted at the thug holding Dig. “Go get him!”
 

Dig felt the grip on his neck
release and the thick-jawed thug ran for the stairs and
disappeared. The bald-headed man moved to the stairway entrance,
blocking it.

Dig pushed himself to his feet
and
glanced around the room
.
“Come on!” he shouted to Jules and
Chook
,
and ran for the
balcony.

Shiv’s eyes widened and he dashed
to the balcony doorway, trying to block Dig’s exit.

Dig ran straight at him, clenched
his teeth and dropped his shoulder forward, slamming Shiv in the
centre of the chest. He sent him crashing into the bar with a
clatter of broken glass.

Dig pushed through the balcony
doorway and skidded to a stop at the handrail. He surveyed the beer
garden below, a collection of plastic chairs and tables amongst
gnarled trees and waist-high brick walls. The tables were half
occupied, and beer bottles were strewn across the surfaces. Dig
grasped the handrail and hoisted himself over the edge.

He dropped through the air and
landed on a table. It imploded under his weight, spraying beer
bottles to the floor. Something hard ripped at his lower back
before he thumped into the ground.

Jules’ feet dangled above him
before she dropped. He pushed to his knees and tried to support her
fall, but her rear caught him across the shoulder, knocking him
back to the ground. He took a couple of ragged breaths.

Chook crashed down to his left,
pulverising another plastic table full of bottles, then lay on his
back, eyes squinted in pain, cradling his hand.

Dig scampered over to him,
pulling him to his feet. “Let’s go!” Chook nodded, and Dig slung
Chook’s arm around his neck and dragged him toward the car
park.

“
Keys,” Chook panted.
“My pocket.” Dig reached into Chook’s pants pocket and removed a
key tied to a strip of leather.

As they reached the car park,
Chook pointed to a battered trail bike. The three squeezed together
on the seat, with Dig at the helm, Jules behind him, and Chook at
the rear. The seat buckled under their combined weight as they sat
down. Dig turned the key in the ignition and the bike roared to
life.