The Search (8 page)

Flick stormed over to Kay’s car, wrenched open the front door, climbed in the passenger side and slammed the door after her.

‘She’s right,’ said Liz. ‘We’re coming too, aren’t we, Braden?’

‘Er…I guess so.’

Liz and Braden piled in the back as Kay revved the engine. With a spin of the wheels she reversed and planted her foot. They went roaring out onto the side road and zoomed off along the Great Ocean Road.

‘Er…shouldn’t you slow down?’ asked Flick, as Kay took the corner on two wheels.

‘I know this road like the back of my hand. Shut up and hang on.’

Kay whipped the car round the bends and they
made it to the Old Hill turn-off in record time. They bumped along a gravel road for ages, until she pulled up with a screech of brakes at a deserted-looking fibro shack with rampant bushes hanging all over it and a desolate air of neglect.

‘The Weezy mansion. Let’s go.’

The moon had disappeared behind a bank of clouds and visibility was almost nil. Flick rummaged in her tote bag, found her torch and switched it on. It definitely needed new batteries: there was barely a glimmer of light coming from it.

‘It doesn’t look like anyone’s lived here for years,’ Flick said as they stumbled up the overgrown path with only the feeble light of the torch to guide them.

Kay marched up the steps and banged loudly on the door. ‘Billy, I know you’re in there. Open up!’

Silence.

‘I’ll break in if I have to,’ shouted Kay at the top of her voice.

‘Er … Kay … I really don’t think anyone’s been here for ages,’ said Flick, waving her torch and pointing to the cobwebs festooned along the top of the door.

‘Smart bastard’s probably used the back door. Come on.’

Kay went charging round the side of the house,
crashing through the shrubbery until she reached the stairs. Crunch. One step gave way as she planted her foot heavily on it.

‘Careful.’

‘Termite-ridden dump,’ muttered Kay angrily as she hung onto the railing and mounted each step cautiously.

‘I don’t think anyone’s used this entrance for ages either,’ said Liz. A tree branch had fallen across the doorway. ‘Billy’s definitely not here, Kay. Are you absolutely sure it was him?’

‘I’d swear it on a stack of Bibles,’ said Kay. ‘He’s a big dumb oaf, but then he’s smarter than I thought not to hole-up here. I know he’s in the area somewhere and I’ll find him if it takes all night.’

Flick sighed. ‘Kay, we can’t go round searching the Otways and banging on people’s doors in the middle of the night. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to give up and wait till the police arrive in the morning. Someone might have spotted him driving around. He must have friends. Let the cops handle it, okay?’

Kay sagged against the verandah post.

‘I guess you’re right,’ she said slowly. ‘I’m just so mad, that’s all. I’ve worked my butt off for that money. Why should a lazy good-for-nothing march
into my store and rob me? Where’s the justice in
that
?’

‘Look,’ said Liz, as they made their way slowly down the weed-tangled path to the car, ‘it’s not fair that someone tied you up and robbed you. We all agree on that. But we have to go back to Coolini Beach and wait until morning. We can’t go looking for this Billy Weezy character in the dark. He could be camping out in the bush. He could be holed up at a friend’s place. He could be in a van in the camping ground at Wye or anywhere in the Otways for all we know. He could be halfway to the South Australian border by now.’

‘Liz is right,’ said Braden. ‘It’s too dark. Ugh. I’m sure a spider just walked over my hand.’

‘Okay,’ said Kay with her shoulders sagging in defeat. ‘I don’t know where to look next. And I’m not going to bust a window and crawl in there looking in case he stashed the money and did a runner, either. I tell you, this place is as creepy as that house in
Psycho
. I give up. It’ll have to wait till morning. But somewhere out there Billy Weezy’s counting my day’s takings, and when I find him, I swear, I’m gunna
shred
him!’

When Liz woke up she knew it was going to be a bad hair day. And a bad head day. And a bad everything day!

Her mouth tasted like burnt sausages and her eyelids were so heavy they felt as though they had fishing sinkers tied to them. Her stomach was churning round and round like a ferris wheel. Josh, Jessica and Angela. It had been
feral
. Could her life get any worse? She groaned and rolled over as the alarm went off. Six o’clock. She’d been in bed for about four hours and it felt more like four minutes.

Then she remembered. Kay had been robbed!

She leapt out of bed and padded across to open the curtains. The sun glared moodily as it sat on the horizon, as if trying to decide whether to keep rising
or go back to bed. Fiery red clouds smeared the sky, ominously waiting for the sun to make up its mind.

‘Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning,’ said Liz to herself. ‘Another hot day with a storm brewing. Just what I need.’

Dragging on her terry towelling robe she went to take a shower, hoping that the needling jets of water would wake her up. The shower did help. At least she felt half alive instead of half dead!

She went back to her bedroom to get dressed, pulling on some faded pink baggy shorts that had seen better days and a floppy orange top. Now
she
looked like the sunrise, but too bad. What was the use of dressing up when Josh had both Jessica and Angela, fashion gurus of Coolini Beach, falling all over him?

The kookaburras were lined up on the verandah for some raw meet and the cockies were standing guard in the gum trees waiting for seeds, so she fixed the feather-people first before slicing up a banana to put on her cornflakes.

‘Hey, Sis, what’s new?’

Her brother Tim was standing in the doorway wearing only a pair of black jocks, sleepily rubbing his eyes. He gazed beyond her to the ocean which was still and calm with scarcely a ripple.

‘Well, that’s shot surfing at Coolini to hell,’ he said. ‘The search is on again for the ultimate wave. Now, where could that be?’

‘I dunno, but while you’re looking can you keep an eye out for a dude with feet like paddles and grotty sneakers called Billy Weezy?’

‘Billy Weezy? That thug? What’s he done now?’ Tim grabbed a carton of milk from the fridge and started chugga-lugging it straight out of the container.

‘Ugh. That’s so gross!’

‘What is? Oh you mean this?’ He waved the now empty carton in the air. ‘No point in dirtying a glass.’

He tossed the carton into the bin. ‘What’s this about Billy Weezy?’

‘He robbed the store last night.’

‘You don’t say. He held up Kay? He’s braver than I thought.’

Tim straddled a chair and grinned at her.

‘That’s horrible!’

‘Yeah, well, she’s one tough lady. I wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of her. So, what happened? Were you there when it happened?’

Liz explained about the beach party and walking back to find the store unlocked and Kay tied up.

‘Yeah, we dropped into the beach gig on our way back from Moonlight Head,’ said Tim. ‘The surf was
filth. Like, these enormous sets. Unreal. We just kept on surfing all day and there was this wild sunset. We stopped at the Bay for a pizza about ten then came on here. Not much happening on the beach, but. The fire had died down and so had the action. Apparently there was a massive bitch fight between some girls and Cyril turned the fire hose on them. We just missed it. Nothing else going on down so we came back here and crashed.’

A massive bitch fight? Surely not Jessica and Angela? She could believe it of Ang, but Jess? She looked as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. No, it would be someone else, for sure. There were a lot of tough chicks there last night. Even a biker gang had dropped in. And then out, when they were sent on their way by Randy and Cyril.

‘Back to Billy,’ said Tim. ‘How does Kay know it’s him?’

‘I told you. His feet.’

‘And that wouldn’t stand up as evidence in any court,’ said Tim, who was doing third year law. ‘She’ll have to do better than that.’

‘Yeah. Right. She’s absolutely positive it’s him. In fact, we went there last night to front him and —’

‘You went to Billy Weezy’s shack!’ Tim’s mouth fell open. ‘Sis, that was stupid. No one, I mean no one,
fronts a Weezy. They’re bad news. How could you be so dumb?’

‘He wasn’t home. No one’s lived there for ages by the look of the place.’

‘Yeah, well be glad no one was there. You’d be shark bait by now.’

‘Aw, perlease. A bit dramatic, aren’t we?’

‘The Weezys are thugs. Always have been, always will be. The old man’s doing time for robbery with violence, the mother’s in Fairleigh for armed hold-up, and the last I heard, the brothers were in Boga Road for attempted murder and a few other choice things. They got extradited to New South Wales. It was in all the papers.’

‘What’s all the noise?’

Mum was standing in the doorway, frowning. ‘Liz, I know you have to go to work but can you be a bit quieter about it? We’re trying to sleep.’

‘Sorry, Mum.’ Liz looked at Tim. ‘I was telling Tim that Kay got robbed last night. We found her tied up when we were walking past after the beach party.’

‘That’s awful. Was she hurt?’ Mum looked worried. She’d known Kay ever since the store had been taken over, and she tried to patronise the place as much as she could. Since Liz had started working there she’d stayed away so as not to appear to be the
doting mother checking up on her daughter. But she had to shop, so she’d planned to stock up on groceries today.

‘No, just a bit shaken up. She’s okay. But she was boiling mad because she reckoned this guy called Billy Weezy did it and he’s got thirty thousand dollars of her day’s takings.’

‘She shouldn’t keep that much money in the store,’ said Mum. ‘That’s plain stupidity.’

‘The bank in Lorne shuts at five, remember, and she couldn’t leave the store before that, so what’s she supposed to do with it?’

‘There’s things called night safes,’ reminded Tim.

‘Yeah, and she’d probably get mugged driving there to deposit the money.’

‘Liz, lower your voice. There’s a houseful of people still asleep.’

Liz looked at her watch, gave a cry and jumped to her feet. ‘I’ve got to get down there early because she’ll be busy with the police and we’ve got to cook brekkies.’ She rushed to the door then looked across at Tim. ‘Where are you and your mates off to today?’

They hadn’t spent one day at Coolini Beach even though the surf yesterday had been good. The search. That was their mission in life. The ultimate waves. They’d found some yesterday at Moonlight Head, but
there were always bigger, better waves to find. The search would never be over.

‘Dunno.’

‘Well, drop into the store and meet my friend Flick and we’ll shout you a shake, okay?’

‘Made by you?’ He grimaced but she knew he was only teasing. ‘I’ll see.’

Liz shot down the road at a fast jog. She’d meant to get there earlier but Tim’s appearance in the kitchen had thrown her. She hardly ever saw him now he was at uni and in residence at one of the halls. And when he was home, either here or in Melbourne, he was always off surfing. Dad and Mum both said he needed a girlfriend to steady him down. Tim partied and cruised through life not exerting himself, which was showing in his uni results, even though he was managing to pass.

Liz reached the store. Although it was only ten past seven a cop car was already there.

‘What’s going on?’

Rob the dunny budgie was trying to peer inside and the door was locked.

‘Kay got robbed last night,’ said Liz. ‘She was bound and gagged when we found her after the beach party, but she wasn’t hurt. The police are probably getting the details.’

Liz knocked on the door. She couldn’t see Flick, but then she remembered that she wasn’t starting till eight. Kay poked her head out from the office and came to unlock the door. Of course Rob was hot on Liz’s heels.

‘Are you open for business as usual?’ he asked. ‘I want some eggs and bacon.’

‘I can make it for you,’ said Liz, looking at Kay, who nodded briefly before disappearing into the office again.

Liz switched on the hotplate and while it was heating she found the bacon and got a plate and cutlery ready. Two more customers came into the store wanting bread, milk and papers, so she served them before cooking Rob his breakfast.

‘Do you want tomatoes or hash browns with that?’ she called to Rob through the servery.

‘No. Just bacon and eggs.’

‘Liz, the police want to have a word with you,’ said Kay, coming into the kitchen. ‘I’ll take over.’

Liz went into the office. The two officers were looking at the cut ropes lying on the floor as if by some miracle the pieces were going to writhe themselves around to spell out the name of the perpetrator.

‘You found Kay last night?’ the older one said to Liz.

‘Yes. I was with Flick and Braden. They both work here.’

‘You didn’t see any strange cars in the area? Or hear anything?’

‘No, we’d been at the beach party and there was a lot of noise, you know, like loud music and everyone yelling and having a good time.’

The police took her statement and were about to leave when a mobile phone rang. The officer pulled it off his belt and answered it.

‘Yes? You have? Well, that solves this case then, doesn’t it?’

He looked at Flick as he turned off the mobile and replaced it on his belt.

‘Seems like Kay was right. Billy Weezy’s been picked up at Portland after he lost control of his car on a bend and hit a tree. He was found unconscious at the wheel and a lot of money was in a bag on the front seat.’

‘So Kay gets her money back and he gets sent to jail,’ said Liz calmly. ‘Good.’

She walked back out to serve some customers while the officer went into the kitchen to tell Kay the good news.

‘Is my thirty thousand intact or has the bastard spent some of it?’

‘I didn’t ask. You can phone Portland and they’ll tell you.’

‘You mean I’ve got to drive all the way there to get it?’

‘You’ll get it back eventually. It’s evidence.’

‘Oh great! And I’m missing out on the bank interest.’

‘I suggest you find some way of banking your takings during the day, and you should have someone with you when you lock up each night,’ he said to her severely, accompanying her as she walked out to give Rob his breakfast. ‘Being alone with that much cash is asking for trouble.’

‘I can come over while Kay locks up,’ said Rob, who’d been listening avidly to the conversation. ‘I don’t go to bed till midnight. I usually watch the horror movie till late.’

‘There’s an offer I can’t refuse,’ said Kay. ‘And I’ll have to see about getting the bulk of the money into Lorne some time in the afternoon, though I don’t know how.’

‘I can take it,’ Rob offered.

‘How do I know you won’t leave town and do a runner with it? Or lose it?’ Kay put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

‘Aw, Kay, you know I’m dead honest. I’m not going to touch a cent of it, or lose it, either. And I don’t
want to be paid. You can just sling me a free brekky.’

‘Hmm. I’ll think about it.’

Liz busied herself serving more early-morning customers. Although Rob was kind of gross, she thought he’d be honest and trustworthy. It was a good solution, really.

Flick came bustling into the store. Today she looked really cute, with her hair twisted up on top of her head and a giant-sized blue hair clip pushed in to anchor it. She was wearing a bright blue top and navy shorts. The colour of her top made her eyes look even bluer.

‘You look chirpy today,’ said Kay. ‘And guess what? The cops found Billy Weezy in Portland with my money. How about that for good news?’

Flick beamed. ‘That’s fantastic. Maybe the rest of the day’s going to be fantastic instead of ordinary!’

‘I don’t know about that,’ said Liz. ‘Here comes Mr Ordinary himself, looking like he needs a quick and fast-working hangover cure.’

Flick didn’t look interested at all. In fact she didn’t raise a flicker, let alone a sparkle as Nathan came in the door.

‘Hi, Beautiful.’

‘Hi,’ Flick said shortly. ‘You’re early. Do you want brekky or your usual chicken and salad roll?’

Liz blinked. What had happened to sex appeal and charisma?

‘Something greasy,’ he smirked at her. ‘Good for a hangover. I always eat greasies the next day. Settles my stomach.’

He strolled over to the fridge and grabbed a large bottle of Coke which he proceeded to chug-a-lug with big gulps. Some of it dribbled down his chin. He removed the bottle from his lips and gave a large burp. ‘That’s better.’

‘You said you always have greasies and you’ve just downed a Coke?’

‘Sugar and caffeine, love. I need the energy. I scored number twenty-seven last night and number twenty-eight this morning.’

‘Oh, in your dreams!’

Flick shook her head and went into the kitchen to make him the greasiest breakfast she could — eggs, bacon and hash browns swimming in fat with a greasy serve of chips on the side and fried bread. That’d fix him.

As far as she was concerned, the game was over. Even if she conned him to the point of getting down on his knees and
begging
for it she wasn’t interested in playing any more. She’d proved a point to herself. She could turn on the charisma and the
sex appeal if she wanted to, so why waste it on a slob?

Allowing the food to get a little cold so that the fat would congeal and look revolting, she carried the brimming plate out to Nathan where he was sitting under an umbrella talking to a guy she didn’t know, although she suspected he’d been one of the dope-smokers and heavy drinkers at the party the night before. He was wearing a sarong, but, on closer inspection, Flick could see it was actually a sheet wrapped round his waist. He was dripping wet. She guessed that he’d jumped out of bed, staggered down to the beach and flung himself in the sea totally nude, to sober up.

‘Ah, the gorgeous Flick with my food,’ said Nathan. ‘Coming over to my van tonight, darling?’

‘Hell will freeze over first.’

The two guys laughed as she walked off.