10

TEDDY

Cole’s girlfriend’s house was a red-brick suburban home matching most of the others on the street, bordered by a rusted metal picket fence. Three cars were parked on the patchy front lawn, all Fords: one a chunky Territory, one a little old Focus, and lastly a sleek, recent Falcon ute, with a woman sitting in the tray. Before Teddy could turn off the engine, the woman hauled out of the ute and ran towards them, then opened the rear passenger door and climbed in the back.

‘Hey,’ she said. ‘So where are you taking me?’

Elizabeth was probably the same age as Cole, Teddy thought, with smooth skin, a lot of makeup, long straight hair and bloodshot eyes. She was, Teddy thought with shame, too pretty for Cole.

Elizabeth leaned in and asked, ‘You got a smoke?’

Teddy found one kicking loose in the centre console and handed it over. ‘You can’t smoke inside the car, though,’ she said. ‘Company rule.’

Elizabeth tucked it behind her ear. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Then can you take me somewhere close?’

‘How about your house that’s right there?’ Teddy said, pointing.

‘Nah.’ Elizabeth shook her head, and leaned over to retie her sneakers. ‘Let’s just go, yeah?’

Teddy went.

‘Teddy and Art, right?’ Elizabeth said. ‘From the phone call?’

‘You make a habit of jumping in cars without asking who’s driving them first?’ Art asked her.

‘You never go somewhere interesting if you don’t,’ she said.

Teddy worried this conversation could go astray easily. ‘When was the last time you saw Cole?’

Elizabeth drummed her fingers on Teddy’s headrest. ‘Hmm,’ she said. ‘I think it was on Thursday. He picked me up after he finished work and we got Kentucky Fried and went to the golf course.’

‘The golf course?’

‘Yeah. We didn’t play golf, obviously, but you know the one up from the old quarry, near my place?’

Teddy did not.

‘They have this car park with, like, a fountain and you can look at the view across to the hills. Also it’s good if you’ve got takeaway, because there’s a public toilet that’s not gross, and an outside tap to wash your greasy chicken hands. He wanted to go back to his friend Hank’s house for beers, but Hank is like insanely boring. I cannot listen to him talk. Maybe you want to talk to him about Cole too, but, you know, be warned. Anyway, Cole dropped me off at the shops, and he said he’d see me later. He texted on Friday, I think.’ She got out her phone. ‘Yeah, Friday. He said he was thinking of me, and did I want to go to his place, and I forgot to reply. See?’

Teddy pulled over. Elizabeth leaned forward and held out her phone so Art and Teddy could see the conversation. Short and loveless, it was just like she had described: Cole saying Hey do you wanna come over tonight and then Elizabeth’s reply, three days later on the Monday, when he was already missing, saying, How about now?

Underneath, her phone said simply Delivered. Not seen. His mother had seen him Friday morning, he had gone to work, and then, nothing.

‘You didn’t want to see him on the weekend?’

‘I had other things to do,’ she said, then, realising they might need more than that, added, ‘Club, recovering from club, another club, you know. I can send you my exact Google Maps timeline, if you want.’

‘Please do,’ Teddy said. ‘But you weren’t at any clubs with Cole?’

‘Not this time.’

‘And when he didn’t reply to your text?’

She shrugged. ‘How could I be mad when I forgot to reply to him too?’

‘Elizabeth,’ Art said, ‘you make a good point.’

‘Don’t call me Elizabeth. I go by Streets.’

Teddy thought that sounded like a nickname that assholes would call their poor friend, and asked, sharp with defence, ‘Why do people call you that?’

‘Because of my name,’ she said. ‘Elizabeth Collins. You know, like in the middle of the city, Elizabeth Street and Collins Street, where they meet? There’s all those nice old buildings there. It’s great. So, Streets.’

Teddy liked that a lot more. ‘All right, then.’

Art asked, ‘How did you and Cole meet?’

‘It was so funny,’ Streets said, ‘We were at Soundbar, and I saw him on the dance floor looking so sad and I said to my friend, “I’m going to fuck him until he smiles.” And then I did! But he still didn’t smile.’

‘How long ago was that?’ asked Teddy.

‘About six months ago.’

‘You don’t seem enormously upset that he’s missing,’ Art said.

‘Oh, I’m not worried,’ Streets said. ‘I change up my boyfriends and friends all the time. I’m sure he’s just somewhere else. Doing someone else. No skin off my nose.’

‘Six months isn’t serious?’ Teddy asked, turning around in her seat. ‘It’s more than a fling.’

Streets shrugged. ‘I guess so.’

‘Why did you stay with him?’

‘Like I said. He never smiled. I’m a very cheerful person.’ She laughed too loudly to prove her point. ‘He was sad, and I wanted to show him that you could be happy even when things are really, really shit.’ There was a fleeting pause, which Teddy filled with the image of that house with Streets sitting outside alone and waiting for strangers to drive her away from it.

‘Were things bad for him?’ Teddy asked gently.

‘Not like it is for some people, but his parents – man. Have you met them?’

‘We met Heidi,’ Art said.

‘Sorry to hear it,’ Streets said. ‘I guess it’s not like he really had a chance to be normal, or know what it looked like to be an upbeat person. She never noticed him, and his dad was worse, because he did notice him, just to get mad about him being there. The less time he spent near them while they drained his soul, the better he was. I guess part of why I spent time with him was to keep him away from them, even though it’s not like I wanted to be at my place around my folks
either.’

‘So who taught you to be normal?’ Art asked.

‘Other people’s parents,’ she said. ‘It’s the joy of having friends, and that’s what Cole missed. It didn’t really matter that I tried to help him anyway,’ she finished. ‘I’ve never really got through to him. He’s always so sad.’

‘Yeah,’ Art said. ‘He is.’

‘Oh, you know him?’

Art smiled. ‘No, but you can see it all over his face in the pictures and from what everyone has been saying.’

‘Would people say you two got along?’ Teddy asked.

‘Sure they would,’ she said. ‘We didn’t have any problems. He liked having a girlfriend, and I liked being a girlfriend.’

‘You didn’t fight?’ Teddy pressed. ‘At all?’

‘Ted, just because you love to caterwaul with your clearance-shelf boyfriends doesn’t mean everybody has to,’ Art told her.

Streets smirked. ‘He was too busy fighting the entire rest of the fucking world. But we didn’t argue. There was nothing to fight about, or nothing he noticed anyway. I mean, sure, I was seeing a couple of other guys here and there and most weekends. But I had to, you know? A girl’s gotta be smiled at. You can’t have that type of face over you in bed all the time, right?’

Teddy said, ‘I guess not.’

Streets wound down the window and stretched her hand out for a moment to wave it in the air, though they were still parked. She asked, without looking at them, ‘Do you think he’s dead?’

Teddy didn’t say anything, but Art said, ‘No way. He’s just done a runner.’

‘But he was sad all the time,’ she said. ‘Like my cousin, Thomas. He was sad all the time too, and then he walked in front of a train and now his parents are sad all the time instead.’

Art drummed his fingers on his leg. ‘I don’t think that’s what’s happened.’

‘He didn’t leave a note,’ Teddy said.

‘But who would he leave a note with?’ Streets asked. ‘Me?’

‘Someone,’ Teddy said firmly, but she looked over at Art for help. He said nothing.

‘You know,’ Streets said, ‘there’s one place we could check. I’ve already been there, but I was looking for a person, not for a note.’ She slouched back in her seat and said, ‘If you don’t want me to smoke in your car, you better drive fast.’

~

At the end of an almost invisible dirt path in Hester Park, a tree – an elm maybe, Teddy didn’t really know – stood enormous in the shadows. Streets leant underneath it, finishing her cigarette and saying to them, ‘You won’t tell him I told you about this, right?’

‘About what?’ Art said.

Streets pointed up.

There was a treehouse above them, hidden in the boughs of the tree. Streets grabbed onto some low branches and hauled herself up, then stopped, her head above the platform, calling down. ‘You coming or what?’

‘Is it going to hold all three of us?’

‘Sure.’

Art clambered up, and Teddy followed. She paused at the base of the platform, looking at the joints, the nails hammered into the wood. She knew a little about carpentry from Lucky, and thought: Not bad.

The platform was walled on three sides; the fourth opened into the branches, shielded by leaves. The base was sturdy, and thick, the walls straight, the roof solid. There was no water pooled on the floor, and there were cushions inside that weren’t damp. There were a few empty vape cartridges in a corner, a packet of Chappy’s dill pickle chips with the top folded over, a stack of magazines. It seemed far too clean for a parkland treehouse.

‘Council hasn’t heard about this one yet,’ Streets said.

‘This one?’ Art asked. He had the Chappy’s in hand now, reaching in without looking.

‘Fucking hell, Art,’ Teddy said. ‘That could be full of spiders.’

‘So could your brains,’ Art said, pulling out a chip and taking a bite. ‘Not even stale.’

‘He’s made treehouses before,’ Streets said, and she touched the wood softly, with a single tender brush of her fingertip. ‘Council finds them and knocks them down, puts up a notice. He just finds more out-of-the-way places. This one’s been up for a few months.’ She lifted a corner of the wood that seemed like an uneven part of the floor, showing them the small cavity underneath. Three loose cigarettes, two condoms, nothing else. Streets gave a little sigh.

‘I guess it’s a good thing there’s no note,’ she said.

It was nice inside. Quiet. You could sit a long time and think. Teddy picked up the magazines: architecture ones, with the covers torn off. ‘He gets them out of the skip behind the newsagency,’ Streets said.

‘Where does he get the wood?’ Art asked.

‘I dunno,’ Streets said. ‘Maybe you could ask the guys at the wood­cutting company he works for?’

Teddy smirked at Art, then asked Streets, ‘Do his friends know about this place?’

‘Don’t think so. He doesn’t trust any of them not to tell their other friends. Too many people, and that’s when council notices. But luckily they’re busy bulldozing everyone’s dirt skate ramps at the moment like a bunch of pricks. I think he always wanted a treehouse as a kid, but his folks weren’t up for it, so he’s built it for himself and for any kids who figure out where it is. You’ll see when you meet his dad – there’s no way that man would put up a treehouse when he could knock one down instead.’

Teddy felt a different Cole in here, one who built something for others, because nobody had bothered for him. One, Teddy thought, with rising fury, with more layers than the single pain-in-the-ass one that everybody had labelled him with. He was a man who deserved to be found because everybody did. She wondered if Art could see that now too.

Teddy edged out onto the branch at the entrance and peered up onto the roof of the treehouse, but there was nothing there except bird shit and a piece of gum. She ran her hand around the tree trunk, feeling along the bark, and found a natural hollow, up a little high out of sight. She reached inside, trying not to think about spiders, and found something else: four bags, small, with little buds of weed, maybe five grams each. Right at the back of the hollow, weighted down by some small rocks, there was a hundred-dollar-note with a post-it on it, completely blank.

Teddy opened one of the bags and took a whiff. It smelled good – pungent. She pocketed it and pushed the rest back in.

She turned around, and Streets was peering up at her. ‘Better hope he doesn’t come back and figure out what you did,’ she said.

‘He can call me if he does,’ Teddy said. ‘I’ll sort it out.’

They climbed back to the ground. It had started to rain a little, and Streets shook herself off like a bird. Teddy thought, It’s just weed, sure, but maybe this is about drugs. She also thought, Because why the fuck else would you kill some guy whose biggest crime is building treehouses in the wild for free?

~

Streets told them she had something else to show them, in St Kilda, and Teddy told her there was no fucking way she was driving that far.

‘I’ll tell you all about Cole,’ Streets pleaded. ‘Anything you want to know.’

Teddy looked at Art, who shrugged,

‘You gotta tell us a little about the drugs if I drive you,’ Teddy warned.

‘Sure,’ Streets yawned. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘Who does he sell to?’

‘Not that many people. He said he cut back, something about his dealer.’

‘Did you know who that was?’ Teddy asked.

Art nudged her. ‘I don’t think people like to give this information freely,’ he stage-whispered.

‘What, you think I’m going to tell them who told me?’ she said, put out.

‘These people can figure this stuff out,’ Art said.

‘Whose fucking side are you on?’ she hissed.

‘I just don’t want her to get murdered by some fucked-up dealer.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ Teddy said and looked in her rear-view mirror at Streets, who was staring at her. ‘That’s not going to happen.’

‘I literally don’t know anyway,’ Streets said. ‘Why would he tell me? Wouldn’t I go straight to the dealer so I didn’t have to pay whatever Cole was putting on top?’

Teddy, settled now, said, ‘I don’t know whether or not to be mad at you for not wanting to support your boyfriend’s small business.’

‘He never told me who it was,’ Streets said. ‘But I know it’s a guy in his, like, twenties or thirties, I think? He thought he might’ve been on TV or something.’

‘Why?’

‘Thought he’d seen him on some show.’

‘Do you remember which one?’ Art said.

‘Those were his literal words – “some show” – so no.’

Streets talked all the way to St Kilda, telling them nothing useful. She thought if he’d gone anywhere, maybe it’d be to the Gold Coast, but she couldn’t remember if Cole had said that to her or if she was just cold right now and wished she was there.

She told them to pull over near Luna Park. When Teddy parked, Streets got out before the car had fully stopped and called, ‘Come on!’

The sun was low on the horizon, clouds thin in the sky, and the water lapped gently against the sand. There were a lot of people around, roller-skating and laughing and sitting in the late-week dusk.

Streets left her sneakers on the sand and ran straight into the ocean, the water lapping around her ankles.

‘What did you want to show us?’ Teddy shouted after her.

‘This!’ Streets hollered back. ‘It’s so nice to go in the sea in autumn!’

‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Teddy growled at Art, who was beside her, watching Streets splash some kids.

‘She played us for a ride,’ he said. ‘We should hire her.’

‘I’ve already got one disobedient child,’ she said. ‘I mean you.’ Then, ‘What did you think about the treehouse?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What do you think about Cole now?’

‘I don’t think anything,’ he said. ‘I’m impartial.’

‘Don’t you think he’s a good person?’

‘I don’t think good matters.’

He wasn’t answering how she wanted, and she kicked the sand in frustration. ‘Why are you so sure he ran away?’

‘Because his life sucked and would be better anywhere else?’

‘But did it? He had a girlfriend, was building things, saving money.’

‘A girlfriend with other boyfriends, treehouses that kept getting torn down, and maybe he was broke.’ He looked at her in the fading light. ‘But we’ll find him anyway,’ he told her.

Eventually, Streets came back to them, picked up her shoes from the sand and looked at Art. ‘Want to come party for a while? I won’t smoke all your cigarettes, I promise.’

‘We’re in the middle of a job here,’ Teddy said.

‘Oh, I didn’t mean you,’ Streets said sweetly. ‘No offence.’

Art looked at Teddy, and she said, ‘Oh, God, really?’

‘What were we going to do tonight anyway? We’re not seeing anyone else until tomorrow. I won’t be out late. I’ll show up at yours first thing in the morning, okay?’

Teddy stayed standing on the shore as they walked off down the beach together. Art spun and looked back guiltily and Streets followed his gaze and waved with her fingers. Then Streets turned back and put her arm in Art’s, leaning in close, and Teddy thought: Well, I hope he asks about Cole again at least once.