Madman's Bend. Arthur W. Upfield
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never to rise.
A man shouted from the east bank and Bony saw young Cosgrove standing beside a horse. As Bony joined him the fair-haired man grinned his good morning and said that Jill Madden was at the house and did Bony have the keys?
“I thought it wise to lock up,” Bony said.
“I’m taking her to Bourke for the funeral, and she wants clothes and things,” Cosgrove said. “And the telephone’s all right now. A tree branch fell on the line.”
They proceeded along the east bank, Cosgrove leading his mount.
“Is the search for Lush continuing today?” asked Bony.
“Yes. The men will be going through Madman’s Bend again, and then mustering the up-river bend. I don’t think Lush is holed up anywhere, except down in that hole you were looking at. Still, we have to give it a go.”
“I’ve been trying to cut his tracks and have failed,” Bony admitted. “Any information from Bourke this morning?”
“Superintendent Macey telephoned saying the autopsy on Mrs Madden would be done today, and that she could be buried this afternoon. Funeral timed for five o’clock.”
“Who else will be going?”
“Mother’s going with us. We’ll be back late because we’ll have to make two wide detours. The flood’s already filling billabongs and creeks for twenty miles south of Bourke. Should be here tomorrow night or the next morning. There’s a hell of a lot of water above Bourke. I wouldn’t delay leaving Madden’s place after tomorrow evening. You could be cut off for weeks. Jill wants to pack things to take to Mira. She’ll have to live there.”
Cosgrove tethered his horse opposite the small homestead and they crossed to it. They found Jill Madden sitting on the bench outside the back door. Her dark eyes widened when Bony bowed slightly and offered condolences.
She said, “I can’t take it all in, Inspector. Mother and I were very close. Mrs Cosgrove’s been very kind, and I must thank you for looking after the place. You even milked the cows, I see.”
“Yes, I attended to everything bar the cats.” Bony regarded the two on the bench. “They must have cleared out, being frightened of strangers. What’s going to happen to everything?”
“Mrs Cosgrove is having the cows and fowls and dogs and cats all moved over the river, and what I’ll pack up for myself. Can I ask you something?”
She was standing, the keys in hand, infinitely more feminine than when Bony had first seen her. He thought she would be still more so if she arranged her hair differently. It gleamed blackly and promised to look luxuriant if permitted.
She said, “Have you found any sign of my stepfather?”
“As I’ve told Mr Cosgrove, I have been trying to cut his tracks. It is hardly time for questions, but there are several I’ll have to ask you. Inside, perhaps?”
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry.”
“You start your packing and we’ll fire the stove and brew tea. Tell us what to do to help,” Bony said. “We can talk later.”
“All right. And you have actually washed up everything and tidied.”
“I have been thoroughly domesticated, Miss Madden,” Bony boasted as he lit paper beneath the chips he had pushed into the range.
The small bedroom door was open, and the girl said, “And you’ve even made your bed.”
“More than I’ve ever done,” Cosgrove boasted, cheerfully trying to lighten the gloom. “Sing out if you want a hand, Jill.”
The girl went to her room and proceeded to pack clothes into a suitcase. Like every woman, she had, of course, nothing to wear, but Bony noticed her filling a second large case, and then she was asking Cosgrove to fetch two wood cases from the laundry. Assisted by Cosgrove, she packed into these the office books and records, and several books, among which was a large family Bible. At last she was done, and Bony poured tea into the cups he had placed on the table together with a cake he had found in a tin.
“Think you have all you’ll want?” asked Cosgrove. “What about the kitchen sink?”
“I think we’ll leave it, Ray,” she said, essaying a wan smile. “The small case I’ll take over now to go to Bourke with. What will you be doing, Inspector?”
“With your permission I’d like to stay until tomorrow. Your stepfather could turn up, you know.”
“And you’d arrest him for what he did to Mother?”
“I would do that.”
“Stay as long as you like, or as long as the flood will let you.” Her mouth became grim, probably from long practice, and her eyes became hard, giving her face a hint of wild anger.
“He’s a simpering, foul beast,” she said softly. “I hope he will resist arrest and that you’ll have to shoot him.” Involuntarily she glanced at the corner where the oiled rifle had been, and from it looked directly at Bony. “Someone’s taken his gun.”
“I removed it with the others, Miss Madden,” he said, and she saw his eyes widen and felt herself irresistibly held by them. “I thought you would not want another shot fired through the ceiling.”
Cosgrove looked upward, and so did the girl, pretending astonishment and failing to deceive. The young man said nothing, and the girl fell to staring beyond the open panel door. Bony said, “The old door is of interest, Miss Madden, because recently it was put on there in place of a new one. The new one was burnt to ash at the killing-yard. Can you tell me why?”
Jill Madden continued to stare through the doorway at the sun-lit country. Cosgrove pursed his lips, looking from her to Bony and back to her.
“Yes, I’ll tell you,” she said, again softly. “It doesn’t matter now, not now that Mother’s dead and can’t any more be afraid of gossip and shame and hurt. That night I sat up with the rifle and waited for Lush to come home. When he did he found the doors and windows locked. When I wouldn’t let him in he went for the woodheap axe and began smashing the door in. I fired a shot into the ceiling to warn him. When I saw the axe coming in through the door I fired at it to give him a fright.”
Her voice ceased, and Bony added, “And killed him.”
“No. I sat with my back to the wall there all night. After I fired through the door there wasn’t a sound. I thought I might have killed him, I thought he might be foxing and would try to break in through one of the windows, and I had my mind made up that if he did I’d shoot him dead.
“It was a terrible night, just listening for him, expecting to hear him breaking in at any moment, and Mother in her room moaning with the pain he’d given her. Towards morning I felt sure he was lying dead outside the door, and when it was light and I opened it he wasn’t there.
“I didn’t know what to do then. Mother called, and I went to her, and she wanted to know if she’d heard a shot in the night, and I told her what had happened. I wasn’t sure she understood till she said to take the door off and put on the old one in case anyone called and saw it and would guess what had happened. I got her to take a little tea, and gave her aspirin tablets, and then I went looking for Lush.
“I took the rifle with me. I went to the men’s hut, and then into the sheds. I couldn’t see him, although I kept shouting for him. When I came in again Mother was asleep, or I thought then she was, and so I took the damaged door off and put on the old one, and then burnt the damaged one, as you found out. That’s all, except that I sat a while and then couldn’t rouse Mother, and rang Mrs Cosgrove.”
While the girl was speaking Bony rolled a cigarette; noticing her looking at it he offered it to her, and almost blindly she took it.
“Why didn’t you admit all that to Constable Lucas when he took down your statement?”
“Same