Nula always avoided Charlie’s so-called ‘petting’ zoo. Lizards, geckos, tarantulas, snakes, caimans – they were like aliens, she often said. Not like a cat or a dog, something you could stroke and relate to. So Charlie was amazed to see her coming in there.
He was feeding the caimans, tossing chicken carcasses into the water, when the door opened into the superheated interior jungle with its endless running waterfalls, wet moss-greened walls and tropical greenery. Seeing Nula there, he paused, chicken in hand. One of the caimans, the biggest one, George, eased closer, waiting.
‘What you doing down here, babe?’ he asked, distracted. There was only one buggy and he’d driven it down here. Nula must have walked, all this way. And she wasn’t much of a walker.
Nula was out of breath. She hadn’t walked. She’d run all the way down here, through the grounds and then through the orchard. She had to talk to Charlie. She had to tell him what Milly and Belle had just told her. And that would prove it, once and for all. That she wasn’t mad. That she hadn’t been imagining things. Then she looked at what was moving near Charlie, hauling itself out of the black brackish water and up onto the stones . . .
‘Charlie!’ she shouted.
The caiman he’d been tossing chicken to had lumbered further out, over the stones and on to the big ornamental rocks. Distracted by her arrival, Charlie had missed it. He looked down and the thing was there, right there. His heart was suddenly in his mouth. He stumbled back as his ‘pet’ approached, quicker than he would ever have expected. It was near his leg. Near enough to bite. Christ, the things could move. Thirty miles an hour, all the manuals said. He could be dragged in and drowned in an instant.
Panicking, he tossed the chicken into the water, and the caiman instantly turned, plunging back in, its jaws gaping and then snapping shut on the thing, ripping it in half. Pieces of pallid flesh floated and then the caiman turned again, gulping down what was left. Charlie’s heart was thundering like a drum. His face was slick with sweat.
Christ! It nearly had him.
Charlie stepped back, out of the caiman enclosure, pushing Nula ahead of him. He shut the big thick plastic door, then rounded on his wife.
‘You fucking idiot! You don’t come in here when I’m feeding the caimans. You damned near got my leg chewed off, you daft mare.’
Nula had been so shaken by what she’d been told that she hadn’t given it a second thought. She’d just blundered in.
‘Sorry, sorry, but I had to talk to you, it’s important, it’s . . .’ She ran out of breath and leaned a hand against his chest. ‘Oh God. I feel like I’m going to faint.’
Charlie took her arm. ‘It’s the heat in here. Come on, let’s get outside.’
Out in the fresh air, Nula began to feel better. There was a bench set out near to where the buggy was parked. She went to that and sat quickly down, breathing deeply, steadying herself. Charlie sat too, feeling weak with the aftermath of fear, and began rubbing her back.
‘You OK now?’ he said.
‘Yeah.’ Nula turned her head and stared at him. ‘I’ve just heard something, that’s all.’
Charlie was frowning. ‘What have you heard?’
‘Milly found something in Harlan’s room in the summer.’
‘Dirty mags, was it? Come on. We’ve all done that at one time or another.’
Nula gave him a look of pure disgust. Yeah, you dirty bastard – I bet you have.
‘It wasn’t anything like that. It was a tape recorder. She played the tape on it. And . . . he’d recorded Jake crying. He had it right there, recorded. And I think he was playing it sometimes when I was alone in the house, to frighten me. To make me think I was crazy.’
‘Babe . . .’ Charlie was shaking his head. He looked sad. Like he was going to say any minute now, Oh babe, I thought we’d covered all this . . .
‘Charlie, listen to me! Beezer saw Harlan going into Jake’s room after the christening, on the morning he died. I think . . . Charlie, this is awful but I think it’s the truth and I can’t get it out of my mind. I think Harlan killed Jake. That he was jealous of him. That he wanted to be number one son. He couldn’t stand the thought that Jake was always going to be your favourite.’
Charlie stopped rubbing her back. He stood up sharply, walked away from the bench.
Then he turned back and pointed a trembling finger at her.
‘You know what?’ he said.
Nula dumbly shook her head.
‘You are fucking crazy,’ said Charlie, and he got in the buggy and drove away, back up to the house, leaving her sitting there, aghast.