Blood Tears (24 page)

At the hospital, I
parked in one of the emergency vehicle spots. Walking to the ward,
I narrowly dodged the attentions of the stern nurse who’d already
told us off twice, by ducking behind a corner at the last minute.
After I poked my head around to assure myself she’d disappeared, I
made my way to Annabel’s room.

When I arrived, she was
busy changing her baby’s nappy. I could see she was struggling with
the task, but as I probably knew less about nappy changing than she
did, wasn’t able to offer any concrete assistance or advice. Though
skilled at subduing people, I was pretty confident that wasn’t the
right approach to take in this delicate situation.

She wrangled the baby
into the nappy, and then into a cute little onsie. With great care,
as if she was trying to replicate instructions she’d been given,
she placed the baby in the crib, tucking the blanket carefully up
to her midriff. When the little girl began to drift off, she turned
her attention to me. We sat on her bed.

“
Hello, Officer Tess,” she said softly.

“
Hello, Annabel,” I replied with gentleness. She looked tired,
as if she hadn’t slept much the night before. “You left me a
message this morning.”

“
Yes.
I’ve been thinking a lot since I spoke to everyone yesterday.” She
cast her eyes down at her hands, before shifting them to her
daughter. “I’m scared for both of us.”

I took one of her hands
and squeezed lightly. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

“
I
didn’t want to talk to the detectives again. And even though you
were tough on me with your questions –”

“
I’m
very sorry about that. It wasn’t the right time.”

“
It’s
okay. At least you seemed to care. And you did deliver Jamie. I
haven’t really thanked you for that, or for you being so kind to
me.”

“
You’re calling your baby Jamie?” I said, wondering if she’d
called me here just to thank me.

“
Yes,
I’ve decided on Jamie Holly. It seems the right name to give
her.”

“
I’m
sure Jamie would have been proud of that.”

“
I
was really upset yesterday when you told me about him, but I feel a
little better today. I knew something bad must have happened,
because he would never have abandoned me. Never.” Tears welled in
her eyes. “We planned to get married when we were old enough. We
were going to be a family. He wanted that as much as I did. We
talked about it all the time after I found out I was going to have
a baby.”

“
But
you had to get away first.”

“
Yes.”

“
Why
don’t you tell me what’s bothering you, Annabel.”

I wanted to ask her
about the fake name she’d given Mr X and Zelda, but thought it best
to let her tell her story in her own time.

“
Okay.” She peered up at me. “I lied to everyone yesterday.
And now I feel guilty about it.”

“
Oh.
Okay. Do you mind if I take out my notebook?”

“
No.”

I slipped it from my
pocket and flicked open to a fresh page, writing down the date,
location and her name. “What have you lied about?”

“
I
don’t know where to start.”

I smiled faintly. “I’ve
found it’s always best to start at the beginning.”

She gathered her
thoughts for a moment. “I am a runaway. That part is true. But, I
ran away when I was thirteen, before I met Jamie.”

“
Do
your family know where you are? Would you like me to contact them
for you?”

“
No!
That part is true too. I’m never going back there. Never. And I’m
never taking my baby there.”

“
It’s
okay,” I soothed, not wanting her to become any more upset.
“Nobody’s going to make you go back. But, one thing. That man I
told you about who came looking for Jamie and said he was his
father? I noticed you reacted to that. You know who he is, don’t
you?” She nodded silently. “Is he your father, Annabel?”

“
No.”

“
But
you do know him? And before you answer, let me show you that photo
of him and Jamie again.” I pulled out the scanned photo I’d brought
with me. “Does he look like a man you know?”

“
Yes,” she affirmed, so quietly I could barely hear her. “I’ll
tell you about him soon.”

“
Okay. So how did you survive when you ran away from
home?”

“
I
met a man. That man.”

“
The
man who came to my station looking for Jamie?” I clarified for the
record.

“
Yeah.”

“
What’s his name? He gave me a false name and address.” I
looked up at her. “And you did too with the detectives.”

She flushed slightly.
“I know. His name’s Merrick. I don’t know if that’s his last name
or first name. We all just called him that.”

“
We?”

“
Me
and the rest.”

“
Who
were the rest, Annabel?”

“
The
other kids.”

“
So,
let me get this straight. You and a bunch of other kids knew a man
called Merrick.”

“
We
all lived together. That’s how I met Jamie. He joined us after I
had.”

“
This
Merrick . . . he, um,
gathered
kids?” She nodded again.
“Were you all runaways?”

“
Yes.”

“
So
he gave you shelter and fed you?”

“
Yes.”

“
He
wasn’t part of a charity or religious group helping
runaways?”

A bitter laugh burst
from her. “No. Not
him
.”

“
Okay,” I said, writing furiously. “So what did he expect in
return for giving you shelter and food?”

She didn’t answer, but
merely looked at me plaintively. I read a whole world of pain and
disillusionment in her eyes.

“
All
right,” I said gently. “I’m getting the picture. Was it just the
girls he expected this from, or all of you?”

“
Just
the girls.” She flushed again, this time with unwarranted shame.
“But that wasn’t all he expected.”

“
What
else?” I prompted.

“
He
expected us to steal for him. We stole whatever we could whenever
we got the chance. He taught us how to shoplift and how to
pickpocket.” Her smile was wry. “Some of us were very good at it.
He rewarded those ones. The ones who weren’t so good, he
punished.”

“
Which were you, Annabel?”

Baby Jamie stirred and
she leaned over to gently pat her back to sleep. “Not so good.”

“
And
what about Jamie?”

“
He
was okay, but not as good as some of the others.”

“
Were
you based here in Big . . . in Wattling Bay?”

“
We
moved from town to town. When it became too hot for us, we moved on
again.”

“
Did
Merrick steal too?”

Again that bitter
laugh. “No. He always said he was our manager, and needed his time
to keep the accounts. That’s what he called them – the
accounts.”

“
Did
he do the fencing of the stolen items?”

She shrugged. “I guess
so. He never told us about that part of his job. But he did seem to
have a lot of friends in each town. Some of them were pretty
dodgy.”

“
You
didn’t just steal money? You stole goods – jewellery, watches,
portable electronic devices, phones? That kind of
thing?”

“
Like
I said, we stole anything we could find.”

“
Who
did you target?”

“
Any
easy mark we spotted. Some of our favourites were women not paying
attention to their handbags, and men with their wallets in their
back pockets. School kids on buses were sometimes good for a haul
if they left something behind on the bus seat. We’d swoop in on it,
pocket it, and get off at the same stop.”

“
Sounds pretty organised. Did you ever rob houses?”

“
Sometimes. If it looked as though the owners were away. You
know, if there was mail piling up, or the yard looked overgrown,
and all the windows were shut up.”

She glanced down at her
baby with such tenderness that I felt a small stab of jealousy. I
wondered if I would ever feel such love?

“
I
never liked the house breaks. We stole precious things from people.
Things they could never replace. Things like medals and cameras
holding family shots. We’d take expensive photo frames. We’d ditch
the actual photos and sell the frames. I remember once a couple of
the guys stole Christmas presents that some parents had hidden in
the cupboards for their kids. Once they came back with a valuable
urn. They tipped out the ashes of the person inside, and sold
it.”

“
That’s a terrible thing to do to a family,” I said,
shocked.

“
I
know,” she whispered. “I was a part of that. I’ve done a lot of
terrible things.”

“
What
made you want to escape that life, Annabel?” I asked, even though I
was sure of what the answer would be.

“
Jamie,” she said, her eyes turning to her daughter again.
“And her.”

“
You
left when you found out you were pregnant?”

“
No.
I didn’t have the courage to. Jamie wanted to leave, but I was
scared. Even though I hated being with Merrick, at least it was
shelter and food. Some kind of security. I didn’t know how Jamie
and I would survive without Merrick.”

“
How
long were you and Jamie together?”

“
About a year. But it was a secret relationship. We couldn’t
let anyone find out about it.”

“
Why
not, Annabel?”

“
Because Merrick would have been so angry.”

I laid my hand on her
arm in sympathy. “Sweetheart, who is your baby’s father?”

She started crying
softly. “I don’t know. I told Jamie she was his, but I don’t know
for sure.”

“
Were
you still having sex with Merrick even when you started being with
Jamie?”

“
Yes,” she said, with such self-hatred and shame on her face
that I regretted asking the question. “I didn’t have a
choice.”

“
It’s
okay. It’s over now.”

“
I
told you I wasn’t very good at stealing. If I didn’t . . . make him
happy, Merrick told me he’d kick me out of the gang. I had no money
and nowhere to go. I can’t go back to my family, and I have no
friends except for kids in the gang. I didn’t think I had a
choice.”

My heart broke for her.
“Annabel, there are groups who can help you in that kind of
situation. Community Services and charities are two that pop into
my mind. Also, you could have contacted the police.”

She looked at me with
incredulity. “The police? Are you kidding me? What would I have
told them? That I was part of a travelling criminal gang? They
would have thrown me in jail. And what do you think Merrick would
have done to me when he found out about that?”

“
We’re not all about arresting people, sweetheart. I’m
listening to you, and I’m not throwing you in jail. And the
detectives yesterday didn’t throw you in jail. Part of our job is
to help people too.”

“
I
know. Thank you. You helped my baby and me when we needed it.
That’s why I wanted to talk to you.” She looked past my shoulder as
if checking on something. “I’m glad you came alone. That other cop
with you yesterday was a bit, um . . .”

“
Intimidating?”

“
Yes.
He’s so big and looks really serious. I didn’t think he’d be kind
to me. I thought he might judge me.”

“
That’s where you’re very wrong, sweetheart. He’s probably the
nicest man I’ve ever known. He also did everything he could to help
you with Jamie when she was born.”

“
Oh.
Could you please thank him for me too?”

“
I
will, I promise.” I flipped through my notes, trying to get us back
on track. “What finally made you and Jamie decide to leave the
gang?”

“
Eventually, Merrick suspected I was pregnant. I couldn’t hide
it anymore, so I had to confess to him.”

“
He
wasn’t happy about it?”

“
No.”

“
Did
you let him think it was his?”

“
Yes.”

“
What
happened?”

“
He
wanted me to get rid of my baby. I refused to, and he became really
angry. He . . . he hurt me.” Her voice faded to a
whisper.

“
Oh,
sweetheart,” I said, pulling her towards me. She leant on my
shoulder and started crying again. I patted her back.

“
And
then,” she gulped with tears. “He made me have sex with him, and
told me the next day he was taking me to a clinic to get rid of my
baby.”

“
You
told Jamie about this?”

“
When
Merrick fell asleep, I found Jamie and told him. He wanted to kill
him, but I think Merrick has some weapons, and I was afraid that
he’d hurt Jamie. So we decided to leave that night.”

“
Did
you come to my town straight away?”

“
No.
We stayed in Wattling Bay for a few months because we knew
it.”