Tears of the Moon - Di Morrissey [94]
‘Tomorrow, Olivia.’ He took her hand and smoothed her hair back from her forehead.
The pills gradually took effect and she drifted into a nightmarish sleep, though her grip on his hand never lessened. Several times she cried out in her sleep. After one of these cries of anguish Tyndall slid onto the bed beside her and gathered her in his arms, rocking and soothing her as he murmured words of comfort, but she barely registered his presence in her drugged state of shock.
The threatened storm finally hit, crashing and raging over the house, the beating rain on the tin roof drowning Olivia’s fitful breathing and sad cries.
By morning, the storm had passed. Olivia was now sleeping calmly and a weary Tyndall slipped from the room, giving Minnie instructions to watch over her.
The town was stirring, but everything seemed different in the light of the night’s events. When Tyndall reached his home he was met by a tearful Niah, cradling their baby, whom they’d called Maya.
He held her for a moment then drew back and touched the cheek of the sleeping child. ‘I’ve been with Olivia. She’s in shock.’ He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘Have you seen Ahmed?’
Niah shook her head. ‘Tuan and Mem Metta come and tell me what happened. I see no one.’
Tyndall stood quietly for a few moments, thinking, then poured himself a strong whisky. ‘Run a bath for me please, Niah.’
‘You very tired. Need sleep.’
‘Later. A few things to be done yet.’
They exchanged brief smiles and Niah went to the bathroom. Tyndall headed for the verandah, where he sat looking, but not seeing, as he pondered the complexities of his world, a world that had changed dramatically overnight.
He was dressing after his bath when Niah came into the bedroom.
‘Minnie come with message, John.’
‘I’ll see her in a moment. See that she’s comfortable, Niah.’
‘No stay. Leave message. Ahmed down near foreshore camp with Minnie’s mob.’
Tyndall dressed in work clothes and walked nonchalantly to his deserted foreshore camp. He pottered for a few minutes then checked to see if anyone was around before walking quickly by the fringe of mangroves and into the bush. From the upstairs verandah of the shed’s crew room he had seen a wisp of smoke from a campfire.
He found the camp in a few minutes, a temporary and shabby collection of humpies made from sheets of rusted roofing iron, sacks and old canvas. The ground was still wet from the night’s deluge and the humpies dripped on huddled families. He exchanged greetings in their language and joined a couple of old men sitting on logs arranged under a banyan tree. He offered them cigarettes and they smiled in gratitude and lit up.
After a few minutes Ahmed walked into the camp accompanied by an Aboriginal man with a spear. He squatted down with the group at the banyan tree and silently took a cigarette offered by Tyndall. His face was drawn and sad.
After a few puffs on the cigarette he spoke in Malay. ‘Sorry, tuan. I let him get too far ahead of me. I was too slow. Was hard to see what was happening in bad light.’
Tyndall reached out and put his hand on his off-sider’s shoulder. ‘I’m sure you did your best, Ahmed. It was very thoughtful of you to make the effort to follow Conrad. Glad you got the bastard anyway. Problem is, it amounts to murder. Did anyone see you?’
‘No. Don’t think so. Not close anyway.’
Tyndall drew thoughtfully on his cigarette. ‘Have you told anyone what happened?’
‘No. But this mob know things, you know these fellas. Just know things.’
‘Yeah. But they’re not going to talk … not to anyone in the law.’ Tyndall stamped his cigarette butt into the mud and put his arm around Ahmed’s shoulder. ‘I’m going back to the shed. In a few minutes you come along. Just act normal. Say nothing about the affair. Just tell anyone who asks that you spent the night with the mob here. Right?’
Ahmed nodded.
Tyndall had a few words with the men under the tree, shook hands and left.
They spent an hour at the shed and the boats, making out to be checking