Chapter Eighteen

 

Kevin placed his paintbrush behind his ear and pulled out the phone from the sagging pocket of his tracksuit pants. When he answered, he tried to disguise his annoyance at being rung so late at night.

‘Hello Kevin, I’m sorry to disturb you at this late hour, but I didn’t know who else to call,’ Rhoda Blake apologised to him in a frail, frightened voice.

‘What’s the matter Miss Blake, has something happened to Edi?’ Kevin was genuinely concerned; he could tell from the tone in Rhoda’s voice that she was upset.

‘No. It’s not Edi, she’s fine. But I think there’s someone outside the house. Edi said she heard a noise and thought she saw a prowler outside her bedroom window. We’re both a bit nervous, especially after what happened to poor Rose. Some of the neighbours have been saying that she was murdered.’

‘That’s rubbish and you know it. I’ll be right over to sort things out. Now don’t you go worrying yourself about anything.’ Kevin put his paintbrush in a jar of water and stared at the canvas in front of him. ‘It’s probably just a possum or a tomcat prowling around,’ Kevin reassured her.

‘You’re probably right, but please can you hurry, Kevin? Edi is so upset. I haven’t seen her this upset since Rose’s funeral.’

Kevin hung up the phone and wrapped his dressing gown tightly around his bulging waistline and knotted the cord. He wondered if he should change into something more suitable but Rhoda had sounded distraught and was insistent that he come immediately.

It was ten-fifteen and the night air was chilly. The automatic sensor light lit up as Kevin sat down on the back steps and pulled on his muddy, knee-high black rubber boots and a pair of woollen gloves. He grabbed a yellow Dolphin torch from his tool box, turned it on and hurried across the street. Eden Street was deathly quiet but it wasn’t unusual for it to be so quiet at this time of night. The street was filled with elderly residents and the only disturbance was the occasional screech from fruit bats as they flew overhead on their way to the clump of fig trees in the park across the river.

Kevin put on a concerned neighbour face and knocked at the front door. The outside coach light lit up almost immediately. The door opened and Kevin realised that Edi and Rhoda had been waiting for him behind the door, both anxious and afraid.

‘Kevin, it’s you. Thank goodness you’re here. We’ve been so worried.’

‘No need to worry, I’m sure it’s nothing, probably just a couple of ring-tail possums. I’ve brought a torch with me. I’ll go and have a good look around the backyard.’

Rhoda was glad that she had such a dependable neighbour in Kevin Taggart. Someone she could trust and rely on. Rhoda locked the door as Kevin walked down the front steps. He made his way around to the side of the house and as he skirted the perimeter of the property he shone his torch up and down the walls of the house and checked the boughs of the gum trees next to the neighbours’ fences. After spending almost five minutes walking around the backyard, Kevin was convinced that everything was in order. As he switched off the torch and walked around to the front of the house he brushed against a spider’s web draped between two bushes. He ran his fingers over his face and through his hair, frantically trying to remove the fine, sticky web. Taking two steps at a time, he sprinted up the front steps and knocked twice on the door which was the prearranged signal.

Rhoda opened the door.

‘Nothing to worry about, everything appears to be in order.’

‘I’m so grateful, Kevin. It’s such a comfort knowing that you’re just across the street at times like this.’ Rhoda had regained her composure, the fear she had displayed earlier had disappeared completely. She asked Kevin to join her and Edi in a nightcap – to settle everyone’s nerves. Kevin removed his rubber boots and left them on the verandah by the front door. He padded behind Rhoda in his bare feet across the timber floorboards down the hallway and into the lounge-room.

The television was blaring.

‘Turn the television down Edi, we have a visitor.’

Kevin sat down on one of the chairs next to the lounge, stretched out his legs and wriggled his toes in front of the gas heater. It was on high and the room was hot and stuffy. ‘I reckon it was probably just a possum. You know what the cheeky devils are like,’ Kevin said, as Rhoda poured him a sherry. Edi looked baffled. She wondered what the barefooted man dressed in his dressing gown was doing at this time of night sitting in their lounge-room, sipping their sherry.

The two sisters sat side by side on the lounge. Both were in their sleepwear and Kevin averted his eyes when he noticed Edi’s embarrassment. He pulled the gold dressing gown cord tighter around his waist. The dressing gown was at least fifteen years old and was fashioned from a coarse, saddle brown material. It smelt of mothballs and a fine mustard coloured check ran through the pattern. A strand of oily hair fell into his eyes. He ran his fingers over his skull and dragged the stray hair back to where it belonged with one hand and drained the contents of a delicate crystal sherry glass with the other. After ten minutes of idle chat and two more glasses of sherry, Kevin knew it was time he left. He walked over to the gas heater.

‘They don’t make gas heaters like this anymore,’ he said to Rhoda. Kevin adjusted the control on the top of the heater and placed his woollen gloved hands into the pockets of his dressing gown. ‘Well, goodnight ladies. Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite. You don’t need to worry about anything.’

Rhoda stood up, took another mouthful of sherry. She was unsteady on her feet and swayed in a zig zag fashion up the hall to the front door. She placed a trembling hand on Kevin’s arm.

‘Thank you so much Kevin,’ Rhoda slurred. ‘You are such a fine gentleman and you are very, very kind. It’s a comfort to know that we have such a wonderful, caring neighbour. We don’t have anyone else we can call on you know, you’re our knight in shining armour.’

Kevin wondered if she was serious. ‘Knight in shining armour?’ he laughed, gave a quick backwards wave over his shoulder, walked down the front steps and out through the front gate.

‘Rhoda Blake, I hope you and Edi have changed your wills like you said you would, you know I’m counting on you,’ he spoke to himself in a hushed tone as he crossed the street but Rhoda had already closed the front door. She walked back into the lounge-room and joined Edi on the lounge and poured each of them another large sherry. She took a sip from the crystal glass and took her sister’s hand in hers. Edi had the remote control in her other hand and turned up the volume. The late movie had just begun.

 

*****

The first things Ashleigh noticed as she turned into Eden Street, were the red and blue lights flashing outside the Blake house which was cordoned off with fluttering police tape. Three ambulances and two police trucks were parked outside. It was always a bad omen when more than one ambulance was called to a scene Ashleigh thought as she parked the Landcruiser at the top of her driveway. She dragged the handbrake on and grabbed her handbag from the floor in front of the passenger seat. She jumped down from her vehicle leaving the driver’s door wide open and pulled her ID from her handbag. She flashed it at the police officer who was walking towards her. He waved her on. White suited men and women were everywhere. A young female police officer held the crime scene tape up for her as she ducked underneath.

‘What’s happening here?’ Ashleigh asked.

‘A couple of old ladies dead in the lounge-room. The TV’s still running, all the lights are on and there’s a strong smell of gas. The neighbour across the road made the call to 000 after he went to check on them when he noticed the lounge room lights were still on after midnight.’

‘Oh God.’ Ashleigh ran up the concrete path towards the front steps of the house.

‘Ashleigh?’

She recognised Kevin Taggart’s voice. What did he want? She stopped in the doorway under the verandah’s coach light and looked back over her shoulder at her neighbour. He was standing under the street light in front of his house wearing a dressing gown, his hair was standing on end as if he had been woken from a deep sleep. Looking as if he was enjoying the show he crossed the street and stood in the gutter, behind the crime scene tape.

‘Isn’t it terrible? Poor Edith and Rhoda,’ he called out to her. ‘What a terrible way to die, an awful accident. Must have been Edi, you know what she was like.’

Ashleigh stared at Kevin and didn’t say a word. His flabby chest was exposed to the night air and a pair of striped pyjama pants was visible beneath his dressing gown. A gold cord hung from his hips. He was wearing knee-high rubber gardening boots which Ashleigh thought odd. She turned away from him and entered the house. Edi and Rhoda were slumped up against each other on the lounge. Edi was dressed in a soft pink, flannelette nightdress buttoned to her throat. A pink ribbon was neatly tied in a bow on her chest and she was wearing matching satin slippers. Her hair was secured tightly in plastic rollers. Rhoda was wearing what looked to be a pair of designer pyjamas. She was barefooted and a pair of slippers was on the floor next to the gas heater. They both looked so peaceful, so ordinary, as if they had fallen asleep together watching a late movie in front of the television set.

‘Somebody turn that TV off for Christ’s sake,’ Rimis said as he approached Ashleigh. ‘What’s going on here Ashleigh? This is some neighbourhood you’ve moved into. Two more neighbours dead. What is it with the old ladies around here?’

Ashleigh was only half listening to Nick Rimis. She had her own theory. ‘Maybe they knew the perp. They were both trusting, they would have opened the door to anyone, especially if the intruder had a good excuse and they knew them.’

‘Ash, we aren’t ruling out some sort of suicide pact here or perhaps what our good friend Kevin has suggested, dementia and gas heaters. Not a good combination in anyone’s books.’

‘I just can’t believe it. They wouldn’t do anything like that. Rhoda had her wits about her, she always kept a close eye on Edi. They were devoted to each other; there was no reason for them to take their own lives.’

‘I’ll walk you home; you look like you could do with a drink.’ Rimis placed his hand on her back and guided her out of the lounge-room, through the front door and across the street to where Kevin Taggart was standing under the street light in front of his house. Ashleigh noticed all the lights in the houses in the street were on and the elderly residents were all standing around in their dressing gowns.

Rimis and Ashleigh passed Kevin as he stood at the top of his driveway. Kevin looked like he was about to say something but decided against it when he saw the look on DS Rimis’s face.

‘I’ll speak to you later, Kevin. Put the jug on.’