“You Ever Been in Love?”
BONY stared at the lounging American for three seconds before his gaze fell and his right hand conveyed the cigarette to his lips. For ten seconds Shannon noted that the hand trembled.
One of Bony’s burdens, and not the least, was fear of the dead, fear which, during his career of crime investigation, had often leaped from the subconscious to gibber at him, reminding him of the ancient race from which he would never wholly escape.
The American was unaware that it was grossly unfair to spring the information on Bony at this particular time and place, but the whites of the eyes and the trembling hand gave him an inkling of the devil he had loosed. Regret was tinged a little by contempt, and then because there was no tremor in Bony’s voice the contempt was banished by admiration.
“How do you know that O’Brien is buried beneath me?”
“Partly through Ferris Simpson, I came to find out about that,” Shannon replied. “When Jim Simpson was away I used to talk with Ferris, who’s mighty interested in the United States. Knowing there was a yardman employed at the saloon at the time my girl vanished, I asked Ferris what became of him. She told me she wasn’t easy about the way O’Brien left when she and her ma were away on a short holiday, and that her pa kept harping about Jim Simpson firing him for being drunk in the spirit store. Ferris said that on returning from that holiday she went to the spirit store and is pretty certain that no one had been in it since she herself was there the day before she went off with her ma.”
“What made her certain that no one had entered the store during her absence, d’you know?”
“Yes. There wasn’t much stock in the store, and she knew what the stock totalled. There were no broken cases when she went away and none when she returned.”
“Then what?” Bony asked, and Shannon’s admiration remained, for Bony had not moved an inch from his position over the grave.
“One of my jobs was to take the horse and dray into the forest and bring in firewood. I never had to go a mile away to load the wood, but someone, before I went there to work, had brought the dray right out to this place. You can see where the tracks ended, where the dray was stopped and then taken back. So I mooched around some. I said to myself: ‘If I had a body on that dray, where would I plant it?’
“I did a lot of arguing with myself, and I did a lot of trailing around, mostly when the moon gave good light because I could never be sure about Simpson. I came in here one afternoon and seen where a dog had done some scratching and given up. And I went back, not feeling at all good about it.
“You see, if there was a body buried here I couldn’t know whether it was that old yardman or my girl. Naturally, I didn’t want to do any digging if it was my girl, but I-I had to find out.”
Bony shivered. Sometimes imagination is less a gift than a curse. The soft, drawling voice went on:
“I couldn’t go on not knowing which of ’emwas buried here, if one was. Simpson didn’t go off anywhere to give me my chance to find out, and so I came here late one night-and I forgot to bring a spade. You ever been in love?”
Bony’s answer was a slow affirmative nodding.
“Sometimes it hurts, being in love,” Shannon said. “It sort of numbs a guy’s brain and makes him do funny things. It was a funny thing for me to do, to come here that night without a spade, and when I came here I knew that I’d never have guts enough again to come to do what I had to do.
“I set the torch on the boulder over there behind you. I had to shift a deal of sand with my hands and then lift up several stone slabs. I wasn’t thinking of much else but what I’d do to someone with my knives if I-if it was my sweetheart. I kept thinking mostly of how a Chinaman ranch cook showed me to use knives without killing.
“Anyway, when I’d gone down two feet I came to hair. The hair came away in my hand, and I had to get up and take it to the torch, and I wasn’t feeling too bright, not even when I saw that the hair was white and not light brown with a golden sheen in it like my girl’s hair. Still, I wasn’t sure, not knowing what being planted would do to hair, and so I went on digging and came to clothes, and the clothes were so perished that still I couldn’t be sure which one of ’emit was. It was the shoes that proved it. The canvas was rotten, but the rubber soles were sound enough. O’Brien always wore canvas shoes.”
The American used the glowing end of a stick to gain flame for his cigarette, and the vastly grotesque shadow flickered upon the granite ceiling and upon the bulging walls. For a little while he was silent.
“Yes, I guess it hurts sometimes, being in love, I was never in love before I met Mavis Sanky. She was a fine kid. Pa told me to keep smiling till I found out for sure. Well, I been doing my best, and I’m going on that way until I’m sure, sure that she was killed and didn’t just perish in this goddamn country. So I replanted, old Ted O’Brien exactly as he had been, and I went out backwards and smothered out all the evidence and afterwards sneaked in here now and then to see if the murderer had paid a visit.”
“When did you find the body here?” Bony asked.
“It was about a fortnight before you arrived at the saloon. I watched you mooching around the place. How did you know I was watching you?”
“No man walks in this country without leaving his tracks.”
“Tracks, eh! I didn’t think- I thought tracks were only on sandy or dusty-”
“It’s a gift. The gift of tracking others is a shade less than the gift of leaving no tracks for others to follow. I thought, on seeing you had been observing me, that you were in Simpson’s pay. My apology. The old man told me of O’Brien being discharged for being drunk in the spirit store, and I noted the significance of those cart tracks. Why do you think Simpson killed O’Brien?”
“I don’t know, unless O’Brien knew he had killed my girl and her pal.”
“What happened to cause you to leave the hotel at such speed?”
“So’sI wouldn’t be caught up with and have something framed to put me in jail. You get a chance to go into the room where Simpson’s organ is? No? I did. I unlocked the door with a bit of wire one night when Simpson and his sister were away at Dunkeld. I don’t know anything about organs, but I bet that one cost a few thousand bucks. The room’s always kept locked and, according to Ferris, no one’s ever allowed to go in excepting Simpson’s pals. There’s only one thing funny about that room, and that’s the telephone set on a perch at the side of the organ. There’s a fixture to itso’s the organist can wear it like radio head-phones and do his talking while he plays the organ to stop anyone hearing him using the telephone.
“Well, when Simpson told me I’d have to quit the next morning it was when we were finishing up dinner. After dinner Simpson went in to play the organ, and I had a hunch that he might be up to tricks with his pals over at Baden Park. Just what, I didn’t make out, but I wasn’t going to risk being stopped from looking for Mavis. Besides which, Simpson might have guessed I knew about this planting.
“So I decided to quit right then. I packed my gear and took it to the garage. Ferris saw me and wanted to know things. I told her about getting the push-off, and she said I was a wise guy to get going. We talked some more as we cleaned up after dinner, Simpson continuing to play on his organ. I said nothing about finding O’Brien and she said nothing about her brother. It wasn’t what she actually said at any time which counted, it was the way she said it and the look in her eye when she said it. I never told her about Mavis and why I’d come back to Australia.
“Anyway, it was dark when I finished up, and as I went to the garage to load the gear on the bike I saw the lights of a car coming over the range from Baden Park. I pushed the bike out of the garage, and there was Simpson waiting for me, wanting to know if I was going for a spin. I told him I was going for good, and he said O.K. and I’d better go in with him for my money.
“He delayed somewhat, telling me I needn’t leave till the morning, and when he did pay me the ranch car arrived and three of the boys came in for a drink. They wanted me to stay and drink with ’em, but I walked out on ’emand left. Didn’t ride fast, but I did want to get clear.”
“Do you know that you were followed as far as the road junction?” Bony asked.
“No. Was I?”
Bony related what he had seen and then asked another question:
“Where did you go that night?”
“To Dunkeld. Stayed at the hotel, and the next morning I bought a quart-pot and stores. Hung around that day and later left to come back to where I hid the bike in the scrub and set out on the war-path.”
“You don’t think it probable that Simpson might have telephoned to someone in Dunkeld to watch you and report what you did?”
“No. Do you?”
“Yes.”
Shannon chuckled and Bony was startled.
“Going to be a good war,” he drawled. “Wish Pa was here. Pity you’re a cop. You thinking of interfering?”
“Perhaps.”
“That’s off the target.” The American pondered, then said unsmilingly: “You’re a good guy, but you don’t know how to stick afella up properly. A character minds less being drilled through the heart than being shot in the stomach. Always keep your gun pointed at a man’s stomach. It sort of intimidates. If you ever come to thinking of arresting me, you hedge around the idea.”
In his turn Bony chuckled, and Shannon grinned and stood up.
“I’m having an hour or two of shut-eye,” he announced. “Oh! What about this cottontail?”
“How long have you had it?” asked Bony.
“How long! Shot him this morning.”
“Better bury it. The flies will have got to it.”
The American picked up the carcass, turned it to the fire glow.
“You’re right, and I’m sick of Simpson’s chickens.”
“Simpson’s chickens?”
“Yep. Visited his hen-housescoupla nights. Pa showed me how to wring a chickenso’s he don’t squawk. Must get me another, I suppose.”
“It might mean the pitcher going too often to the well.”
“I know that one. Pausta say: ‘Never mind the pitcher, it’s the water that counts.’ ”
Bony added the last of the wood to give light and, picking up his swag, carried it to the passage. Shannon joined him there and they made up their bunks together.
“Don’t much fancy camping too close to Ted O’Brien,” Shannon said casually. “Don’t fancy that place anyhow, after looking him over. I’d like to know for sure just why he was bumped off.”
“We will,” Bony said.
“You think so?”
“Yes. I always investigate a murder to the very end.”
“Always get your man!”
“Always.”
“You aim to copy the CanadianMounties, eh?”
“Not copy them, Shannon. I have always set the example which they try to copy. I shall establish who killed O’Brien and why, and who killed your sweetheart and her friend-if they were killed. You must realise that if you conduct a private war, as you name your proposed activities, and I discover you have killed someone, I shall be obliged to arrest you or have you arrested.”
“I’ll have to go careful, won’t I?”
There was mockery in Shannon’s voice and extraordinary good humour.
“Very careful,” and only with an effort did Bony keep his voice stern. “In view of your great personal interest, with the addition of other circumstances favourable to you, the best course to follow would be for me to call upon you, in the King’s name, to assist me in apprehending certain suspected persons-if in the plural. Not being unintelligent, you will appreciate how far I am willing to go when I add that if, during the process of apprehension, your pistol should be discharged with fatal effect, the results to yourself will be much less unpleasant.”
“What a guy!” murmured the American. “One hundred words!”
“Under those circumstances you will not use your pistol unless and until you receive my permission.”
“Sounds a bit tough to me. What about my throat-cutters?”
“They, too, are considered to be lethal weapons,”
“You’re telling me.” Shannon stretched and bumped a hole in the sand to take his hip. “I like freedom, and you sound too army-ish. What did we fight for? Search me, but the idea at the time was freedom. I’ve lots to think about when considering your proposition. There’s Pa, for one. He considers my girl one of the family. Igotta consider Pa’s principles and the family. I’m leaving the causes to you. You can do what you like with the causes behind the killing of my girl and her pal-assuming they were killed, which I am assuming. Them that killed my girl are mine to do to just what I like.”
Bony stretched. A freedom for which his feet ached was freedom from boots, but boots are necessary adjuncts in the bush. He said with a bite in his voice:
“What a guy. I ought to arrest you and conduct you to the lock-up at Dunkeld and charge you with being a walking arsenal. I have listened to your threats to disturb the peace and, too, interfere with a police officer in the execution of his duty. Candidly, I’d like you to work with me, but in accordance with my over-all instructions. Mine is the responsibility to the constituted authority.”
Shannon said sleepily:
“I’ll think it over, buddy. You’re a good guy, even though you are a cop. What’s your real name?”
“You may call me Bony.”
“Bony what?”
“Just Bony.”
“Bony it is. We’ll rub along O.K. Pleasure to work with a guy who sets a good example to the CanadianMounties.”
Silence for thirty seconds, and then the low and regular snoring of an American “character”, the like of whom Bony had never met. The red embers of the fire stained the walls of Edward O’Brien’s vault with the colour of the blood which doubtless seeped from him. In the short passage between the chamber of death and that leading to the good clean air, Bony and his companion lay in darkness.
Bony was exceedingly tired. His body ached. Again and again he almost fell asleep, only to flash back into keen wakefulness as the items of information given by Shannon marshalled themselves for re-examination.
When the American stirred and ceased to snore the silence worried the wakeful man, the silence and that instinctive fear of the dead lying within a dozen feet of him. Once repose was beaten off by the thought that Shannon could have mastered him physically on several occasions, and then he came wide awake to find himself compelled to look at the picture of Shannon scooping with his hands and a stick in the sand.
Because he could not see the stars, he could not see the time. The red walls and the roof of the rock chamber imperceptibly faded into the colour of a pall, leaving the darkness to press heavily on him. Twice he sat up and blindly rolled a cigarette, and with the flame of the matches assured himself that Shannon was still there. He decided the dawn must be at hand and was thinking of going out to see if his snares had trapped a rabbit, when he heard an exterior noise which froze his body.
The silence crowded back upon him, and he raised himself to lean upon an elbow. Then he heard it again, the distant creaking of dray wheels. He reached for Shannon, and the American said:
“Bit early to come for a load of firewood.”