Simpson and Karl stood eye to eye. Digger, standing behind Karl, put his hand on Karl’s shoulder and gripped hard, a warning for Karl to back off. They didn’t need Karl to be arrested for assaulting a cop.
‘Well, you blokes better let us know if you come across anything suspicious. Don’t take matters into your own hands.’ Bennett had stepped back, watching to see how far Karl Mason would go. ‘Our advice is to keep a very close eye on things and report to us! There’s nothing we can do until we have something to go on. At this stage all we can do is make a report. We’ll go now and look in on the youngsters. Let you know if we get anywhere with them.’
‘Fuckin’ bastards! They don’t give a shit! What good are they? What good did they do comin’ here this mornin’? Tell me that! All they did was stand and look around,’ ranted Karl.
‘Thought you were gonna knock that Simpson’s block off there for a minute, mate.’ Sam said
‘Yeah, good thing Dig was behind ya,’ Arthur added. ‘Last thing we want is to have ta bail ya outta gaol for assaultin’ a cop!’
‘Friggin’ fool he is. A bloke shoulda belted him one; it’d be worth a night in gaol just to have the satisfaction!’ snarled Karl.
‘Well, try to keep your head when ya around ‘em, mate. None of us have much time for ‘em but it’s no use getting’ on their wrong side. It won’t help matters,’ Sam said. ‘Now, seein’ as this is the third fire and the biggest, we better be on watch. We don’t want another one. We need a strategy. Me, Des and Eric are doin’ a walk ‘round the place, checkin’ everythin’ before we go to bed every night. We’re keepin’ a real close watch on things. You’se blokes do the same. No one’ll come on the property if they get wind that we’re all out and about, surely.’
‘Yeah, and if they do then we’ll have ‘em!’ added Des.
They came to the decision to do rounds of their properties every night and check all the sheds before going to bed. If word got around they were doing these patrols, then the culprit or culprits would hopefully stop the arson attacks in fear of being seen or caught in the act.
***
Ellie had been to the pictures with a friend
. Rock a Bye Baby,
a comedy, starring funnyman Jerry Lewis, was showing at the Regent Theatre. It was hilarious and Ellie had thoroughly enjoyed it.
She pulled into a service station for petrol on her way home. A car pulled in behind her and kept its lights on. After paying for her petrol, she pulled out to go home. So did the car
behind her
.
She didn’t take any notice until she was approaching the Centaur Road turn off. It was then that she realised the car was actually following her.
It came up close behind her Volkswagon then dropped back again. Ellie kept glancing in the rear vision mirror but couldn’t make out the type of car. The headlights were so bright that they blinded her. ‘Turn your bloody high beam off, you idiot!’ she cursed
.
As she turned off Urana Road into Centaur Road, the car following her pulled to the side of the road near the bridge that crossed over Bungambrawatha creek and stopped, still keeping its headlights on high.
Ellie put her foot down, thankful she was close to home. She sped the short distance up Centaur Road to Kia-Ora, not slowing down to turn into the driveway. The little volksie slid as the wheels hit the gravel. Ellie didn’t care, she was thankful to finally be home. She quickly grabbed her handbag and bolted inside. Up in her room she pulled the blind down before turning on the light.
Her reflection in the dressing table mirror showed a pale and frightened face.
‘Who the
hell was that?’
she wondered
.
Quickly, she undressed and got into bed.
A few minutes later, she heard a car come slowly along the road. She stiffened. Fear crept through her. The car stopped out the front of Kia-Ora; its motor idled loudly.
It seemed to Ellie that it was there for ages, but in all, it would have only been seconds, then just as slowly, it drove away.
‘What the hell is going on here in the Valley? ‘ she whispered, staring into the darkness of her room.
***
Next morning, she told Win about the previous night’s event.
‘I was frightened, Win. I couldn’t get a look at the make of the car, but it was bigger than the volksie
and
noisy.’
‘This isn’t good Ellie, you must ring the police.’
‘Yes, I will. Don’t you think this is strange? I mean, three unexplained fires, Kath’s fright in the orchard and now this?’
‘Yes, it’s too coincidental and think of this, Ellie, those damn kids don’t drive!’
Ellie stared at her sister for a second, then what she just said hit her. ‘I didn’t think of that Win, maybe though it’s some relative or friend of theirs trying to scare me because it’s common knowledge the men have been blaming them for the fires.’
‘That’s a thought. But we don’t know, so go and ring the police and when the men come in later we can tell them.’
***
‘You didn’t notice anyone watchin’ you?’ Digger asked after Ellie finished telling them about her fright.
‘No, Fay and I went to the Riverina Cafe for a cuppa afterwards. I didn’t pay attention to anyone else. Being a week night, it was really very quiet.’
‘This isn’t good, Dig. First Kath, now Ellie, what bloody next?’ Karl said.
‘What’d the cops say when you reported it?’ Digger asked.
‘Not much. I asked to speak to Detective Bennett, but he was out, so a constable took my statement and said he would pass it on to Bennett. Do you think it could be associated with the three fires?’
‘Maybe. The thing is, we don’t know… We just don’ know!’ Karl dragged on his cigarette and then ground it out savagely in the ashtray. ‘Strewth, this’s all we bloody need right on Christmas! Don’t mention it to Dad, will you?’
They had to keep Dave calm for fear of further asthma attacks. The fires had distressed him enough without this on top of it.
It was Friday evening. The remainder of the week had passed without further incidence and, after dinner, Karl and Digger sat talking about the fruit picking with Dave.
Win was glued to the television; her favorite comedy,
I Love Lucy,
was on. Emmie was showing Ellie how to master a crochet stitch, and Tammi, Kathy and Francis were chatting about the coming Christmas dance.
They enjoyed a pleasant evening. Then Karl and Digger went out to do their final check on everything before heading off to bed. Digger had to be up at daybreak. He was going out to Henty – a small country town that was about a forty-five minute drive from Albury along the Olympic Highway – to do some brickwork for the publican who was doing extensions to his pub.
Karl and Dave had plans to go into town to get some supplies from Farmers and Graziers. Win, however, decided to sit outside in the cool air for a little bit longer as it was still only nine o’clock.
‘Night, Win.’ Ellie poked her head around the corner.
‘G’night, Ellie. I’m just going to sit a bit longer.’
The house grew silent.
‘It really is lovely here,’
Win thought. Evening was the perfect time to relax and gather your thoughts. The stars were out and she let her thoughts drift to her plans for Christmas. She didn’t like to think about it, but nevertheless she couldn’t help thinking that this could well be the last Christmas with her father. His health was certainly deteriorating.
Towser came bounding up to her. He flopped himself beside her, snorted once, and went to sleep. She sat there thinking about the past weeks and everything that had happened.
Suddenly, Towser lifted his head. His nose twitched as he sniffed the air. Abruptly, he sat up.
‘What is it, fella?’ Win whispered. Towser edged his way forward, a low growl rumbling in his throat. Winnie nervously leant forward in her chair.
‘What’s wrong, fella? What can you see? Is it a possum?’
Towser didn’t move from his spot at the edge of the veranda, but he remained alert and watchful, every now and then wagging his tail. A prickle of fear ran down Win’s spine
Win stared out into the inky blackness of the yard, concentrating her gaze. She strongly sensed that someone was out there.
‘Good boy, Towser,’ she whispered, patting him on his head. Instinct told her
to get Dig and Karl fast. Her heart raced. She left Towser where he was and quietly hurried inside. If she could get the men up quickly, they might catch whoever it was. She was certain someone was out there!
Karl and Digger raced outside. They checked around the area near the house and sheds, but there was not a sign of anyone. All the sheds were shut and, after checking inside each one, they found nothing disturbed. Shining the torches around, they couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
‘Well, coulda been a possum,’ Digger said.
‘Yeah, everythin’ looks alright to me,’ Karl replied. ‘C’mon, better get back to bed. We’ve both got early starts.’
They went back to the house and reassured a worried Win that everything was fine.
‘I felt sure someone was out there. I suppose Towser would’ve barked if it was a person,’ she said. ‘I sensed something though, I know I did.’
‘It’s alright, love.’ Digger put an arm around her. ‘We took a good look around and no-one’s there. C’mon, we better hit the hay. A man’s gotta get some bloody shut eye!’
***
Meryl Nixon was on her way home after finishing her shift as a barmaid at the local pub. She drove up Centaur Road and, when she came over the small hill just before Kia-Ora, what confronted her almost caused her to run her car off the road. There was a
huge
fire at Kia-Ora!
As she pulled off the road and sped up the long driveway, she could see it was one of the sheds.
Skidding to a halt, she jumped out, leaving the car door swinging open. She ran to the front door
.
Banging her fists onto the front door, she shouted, desperate to make as much racket as she could!
It took only a few minutes, but to her it seemed like an eternity until a bleary eyed Karl opened the door.
She could barely get the words out. ‘Fire Karl! Fire… Your shed…’ she shouted.
Karl couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Not wasting time changing out of his pyjamas, he raced to the back of the house, pointing to the phone as he went, yelling at her to ring the fire brigade.
The commotion had woken everyone else, and Digger, also in his pyjamas, was close on Karl’s tail as he raced outside to try and save the shed.
It was pointless. The shed was well and truly alight, burning fiercely end to end. The heat radiating from it was intense. There was absolutely no hope of saving anything in it.
It was a wall of fire!
‘The rotary hoe… hell, the bloody thing’ll be burnt.’ Karl shot over to the burning shed, disregarding the heat from the inferno and grabbing the rotary hoe which was beside the shed, trying desperately to drag it away from the fire. Digger rushed after him, and, between the two of them, they struggled to move the red-hot heavy machine. Pain seared through their hands, burning their skin. They ripped off their pyjama shirts, wrapped them around the handles of the machine and heaved and tugged until they finally managed to get the rotary hoe to a safe distance from the inferno.
‘No hope of savin’ anythin’. It’s just end to end. The bastards really made a job of this one!’
Karl watched the shed collapsing in front of him. He stood helplessly listening to the sound of tin falling and glass popping.
Sam, Eric and Des arrived, breathless from running.
‘Bloody hell… We thought the house was on fire!’ Sam squatted down on his haunches to get his breath back and to slow the rapid pace of his heart. He’d been woken by Des, shouting that there was a huge fire down at Kia-Ora. He thought it was the house.
Fearing for the family, Sam had also shouted to Eric to wake up, and rushed off down the road.
‘Thank God it isn’t the house!’ Eric sat on a log of wood to get his breath back.
‘What can we do? Garden hoses won’t put that out.’
‘There’s nothin’ we can do!
’
Des looked on helplessly.
‘We’ve gotta keep the grass around here wet so it doesn’t spread, and keep a hose ready near the house too, just in case a spark gets into somethin. Betta start soakin’ the roof, just to be sure. The brigade should be here any minute.’ Digger felt helpless but there wasn’t anything they could do to save the shed, let alone save anything in it.
‘Yeah, get over there and soak down the roof of the cottage and the other sheds too!’ Karl said urgently to Des and Eric.
The shrill wail of sirens could be heard gradually growing louder. Frank Smith arrived in the fire truck. The smaller water tanker followed.
Jumping from the truck and grabbing the hoses, he shouted orders to his crew. ‘We’ll need the big Albury tanker here. Get on the radio and tell ‘em we need ‘em! Tell ‘em to hurry! Get that water pumpin’ on this, quick as ya can!’ He turned to Digger. ‘What’d you have in there, mate?’
‘Hell, a lot of stuff : bits of furniture, buildin’ materials, tools, a few bits and pieces Em, Win and Ellie were keepin’.’ Digger replied.
‘Well, ya still thinkin’ this was done by them kids? Coz if ya ask me I reckon ya just might be barkin’ up the wrong tree. This ain’t done by kids, it’s been done by some bastard that knows what they’re doin and doesn’t seem to like people ‘round here, ‘specially you Masons!’ said Frank.
‘Well, Win was sittin’ on the veranda up there tonight when she got a feelin’ somethin’ wasn’t right. She came and woke us. Towser sensed somethin’ but he didn’t bark or take off down here. We took a look ‘round but couldn’t see anythin’ out of the ordinary!’ Dig rubbed his hand over his face in frustration. ‘We thought it must’ve been a possum. Some bloody possum. For fucks sake, what’s a bloke gotta do to stop this bastard?’
‘You’re right, it’s gone way too bloody far. This ain’t done by them kids, no way. We got ourselves a mad man runnin’ ‘round the valley!’ Sam said.
Woken by the sirens and realizing there was a fire at Kia-Ora, Arthur rushed straight up through the paddocks. He was climbing over the wire fence further over near the wood heap. The glow from the fire didn’t cast enough light in this direction for any person to be properly distinguished.
‘Fuck me!’ Nat Willis shouted. Who, with his brother and several other farmers, had also rushed to Kia-Ora to help. ‘There’s the arsehole… get him!
’
He thundered across the yard and crash-tackled Arthur, knocking him flat on his back. Nat landed on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
The other blokes dashed after him.
‘Get the fuck off me, ya moron!’ Arthur struggled to get Nat off.
At the same time, Karl shouted, ‘Nat, ya fool, that’s bloody Arthur!’
Nat, realizing his mistake, rolled off poor old Arthur and sheepishly offered his hand to help him up.
‘Shit, I’m sorry mate, truly I am. When I saw ya climbin’ the fence I thought ya was the idiot that did this!’ He jerked his head to the fire.
‘Well, if ya do come across the bastard, I hope ya barrel into him as hard as ya just did me. Ya bloody knocked the wind outta me!’ he gasped.
***
Up at the house, Dave, Emmie, Win, Ellie and the girls watched on in horror. They could plainly hear the shouts of the men as they fought to keep the blaze from spreading to the nearby grass area and paddocks.
Emmie dried her old eyes. She had stored a lot of sentimental things in that shed. She would never be able to replace them. Win and Ellie had things in there as well. When Ellie and her son had returned to Kia-Ora, it was decided that the shed would be used as storage space, and now everything was gone.
Dave sat in his chair on the veranda taking in the scene, a grim look on his old face.
‘All they can to do with this one is let it burn out. It’s too far gone. There’s no hope of savin’ anythin’!’ Dave spoke for the first time since he’d been woken by the commotion.
‘There’s a fierce heat coming from it. You can feel it, even from this distance!’ Ellie could feel the heat from the fire and it worried her that a spark might reach the roof of the house. Some of the blokes had come up and were wetting the roof, but she was still extremely concerned. The flames from the shed were so high, she felt herself tremble with fear.
‘You ain’t wrong about the heat, Ellie love,’ Hazel said, coming out onto the veranda, ‘I just closed the dining room windows and they’ve both got cracks right across the middle of them. That heat’s really bad!’
The heat radiating from the burning shed was so intense it had actually caused the two big dining room windows that faced towards that part of the property to crack across the centre.
‘Where’s Ted?’ Dave asked her.
‘He went back down to the cottage. Francis told him he’d keep the roof wet for us. Poor ole Ted’s in a bit of a panic I’m afraid, he got a terrible shock. Quite pale he was.’
The men struggled with hoses and battled the intense heat, trying to extinguish the fire. They were afraid of the other sheds going up. Desperately, they soaked them with gallons of water, hoping to prevent a worse disaster. The hayshed was close by, the tractors and other machinery were only feet away and so was the cottage. Ted looked utterly distraught.
The larger water tanker from Albury arrived with more equipment. The crew sprang into action, spraying water onto the flames with tremendous force. Gradually, the flames became less angry until finally a smouldering pile of debris was all that was left of the shed and its contents.
Wearily, the firemen rolled the hoses back onto the fire trucks.
The others dropped the garden hoses where they stood and heaved sighs of relief.
‘Well, ya know what I think,’ Frank said loudly so they could all hear him. ‘I reckon you’se got yourselves a friggin firebug, no doubt about it!’
They stood around looking at each other, their faces serious.
‘We can’t blame young O’Toole and co. for this,’ Digger said. ‘It’s too far outta their league. Small stuff like the horse jumps yeah, but this? Nuh.’ He shook his head.
‘Well, it wasn’t them,’ Rex butted in. ‘O’Toole and his mates took ‘em all fishin’ for the weekend! He was in the pub earlier carryin’ on in his usual way, made sure everyone heard him too, said how they were gettin’ the kids and headin’ out to Darlington Point.’
‘Well then, that puts ‘em in the clear. So, do we all agree with Frank? We’ve got a bloody firebug in the valley!’ Sam looked around the group of men.
‘Looks that way!’ they all agreed.
‘Fuckin’ hell…’ Karl swore.
***
The men trooped towards the house. They were dirty and tired, eager to wash up and fall into bed. As they neared the house, Eric spotted a movement under the old mulberry tree that grew in the backyard.
‘Hey! There’s someone near the mulberry tree… look!’ As he spoke, a figure emerged from the shadows of the tree.
Father Damien had once again appeared on the scene, unnoticed by anyone.
‘Strike me pink! Father Damien! What the blazes do ya think ya doin’? What the hell are ya thinkin’, hidin’ there in the dark?’ Sam stepped in front of the priest, glaring at him.
Father Damien took a step backwards, aware that Sam was rather angry. ‘I, aah… didn’t want to get in anyone’s way. What a terrible thing, the fire. Do you know how it started?’
‘Done deliberate like the rest of em!’ Sam told him, still glaring down at him.
‘Father, ya gotta be careful. Ya gotta stop this habit of sneakin’ up on us. We’ve some stupid fool runnin’ ‘round the valley lightin’ fires, an’ if ya not careful, ya could be mistaken for him and get yaself hurt… hurt bad…’
‘Sam’s right, Father.’ The others had circled around the priest. ‘We’ll catch this bloke an’ when we do he won’t be lightin’ anymore fires… Ya better be very careful wanderin’ ‘round the valley from now on, eh Father?’ Karl warned him.
‘Yes… yes! I understand. I only wanted to stay out of your way until the fire was out. I’ll… I… will be more cautious. I’ll be on my way now then, looks like you have things under control… Nasty business. Goodnight.’ He had a flustered tremor in his voice.