I nod, trying to slow my breathing. ‘Okay. Then tell me what you know. Tell me the truth.’
He gulps and nods. ‘I was supposed to meet her that night but when I got here she was already dead.’
He’s an actor, I remind myself, I need to assume this is an elaborate lie. ‘I’m listening.’
He paces in a small circle. He makes a crying sound but when I look at him his face is still. He claws at his eyes.
‘So you did see her that night?’
‘Yes.’
‘You planned to meet?’
‘Yes. We were going to meet after the play and then go back to her place. She was excited about it. She said she knew I’d be amazing. We were going to celebrate.’
‘So what happened?’
He steps back into the shadows. His voice floats out of the black. ‘I don’t know.’ A small sharp sob. ‘She left and I got caught up. Everyone wanted to talk to me. It took me ages to get away.’
‘What time were you supposed to meet her?’ I say.
‘Just before ten-thirty.’
‘Where?’
‘At the bench near the playground.’
‘What time did you get there?’
‘Maybe quarter to eleven. She wasn’t there.’ He’s crying again.
‘What did you do?’
‘I tried to call her but she didn’t answer. Then I just walked around a bit.’
‘Did you think she had changed her mind?’
‘I didn’t know. I wasn’t worried at first, but then I just didn’t know. She was the one who wanted to meet up.’
‘Were you angry at her?’ I ask.
‘No. Just worried. I wanted to see her.’
‘Okay. Then what happened?’
His voice is shaking. ‘I walked around the bend and came up to the tower. I like it up here. I was just thinking, I guess. And then I decided to leave, head to Jamie’s or go home. I walked down near the lake and that’s when I saw her. She was in the water. Right near the edge. Floating.’ He sobs and the sound is painful. ‘She was already dead. Someone had killed her. I could see blood on her head.’
I watch him for a moment. ‘Then what did you do?’
Still crying, he wipes his eyes as he says, ‘I didn’t want to leave her. I wasn’t scared. I … it felt like nothing mattered anymore. I didn’t know what to do.’
My throat twists. ‘Did you touch her?’
‘Yes,’ he whispers. ‘I held her hand. I tried to pull her hair away from her face. And I had flowers—someone gave them to me after the play and I’d kept them for her. I put them on her. She looked so beautiful.’
‘Rodney,’ I say softly, urging him to keep talking.
‘After that I sort of sat with her a while and then … I just left. I left her here. I went back through to the school across the oval and went to Jamie’s. I didn’t know where else to go. I didn’t want to be alone but I was pretty messed up. I drank a lot. I didn’t say anything to anyone.’ His back is against the wooden panels, his head in his hands.
He is still crying and I don’t think this emotion has been summoned. It’s out of control, sloppy.
‘I loved her so much. I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t care about anything.’
I take a step towards him. ‘Rodney, this is important. Did you take any of her things? Her clothing?’
He blinks up at me, wide-eyed. ‘No. I didn’t, I swear. When I found her, her skirt was, like, pulled up, like someone had … done something. I tried to pull it down.’
I can see the scene: Rodney finding Rosalind dead. His loving attempt at a watery grave. The flowers floating around her as she looked up at the stars. Is it too neat? It’s certainly very convenient, him finding her already dead. I remember the little boy giggling into a pillow as Jacob kissed me on the couch. But then I think about the moment in the car the other morning, him stroking my hand. The sudden roughness.
I don’t know him at all.
‘Why didn’t you tell anyone, Rodney? If she was already dead when you found her, you could have called the police.’
‘I knew that I would have to explain everything. About us being together. She didn’t want that. She didn’t want anyone knowing. I didn’t want to have to explain why I was here.’
I am suddenly so incredibly tired I’m worried my legs will give way. ‘Rodney, I need you to come with me. It’s important that you tell me all this again at the station. We need to figure this all out properly. Go through everything. Do you think you can do that?’
‘Will I be in trouble?’
I avoid his question. ‘Come on, Rodney. Let’s go. You know we have to do this.’
I step towards him. There is a sound behind me. A scraping sound. An animal?
The moonlight flickers as the gums wave in the breeze. Footsteps. I swing around. Or is it Rodney? I’m dizzy. Sick. Something about this place is poisoning me.
Someone else is here.
Suddenly the night explodes around me. Stars splinter across my vision. I fall hard onto the ground and feel a sharp yank on my waist. Someone is taking my bag. My gun! Panicked, I kick my legs frantically as I scramble backwards into a dark corner, breathing heavily. I feel a trickle of wetness snake past my ear. Blood.
‘Don’t move,’ says a husky voice.
I feel Rodney falter to my left but I can’t locate him in the darkness. He must be in the other corner.
Donna Mason steps into the moonlight. Her short hair is loose and bunches around her face. Her forehead is all lines, her stare is flat and hard. My gun shakes in her hands, a perfectly round black eye staring straight at me.
‘I won’t let you take him.’
Rodney’s breathing is ragged. ‘Mum?’
She ignores him.
My thoughts are flying, the pain is impossible. ‘Donna, I—’
She cuts me off. ‘You should have left it alone. She was nothing.’
‘Mum!’ There is terror in Rodney’s voice now.
I lean my head against the wooden wall, trying to keep it upright. ‘Donna, it’s okay. Come on, let’s get down from here. Talk about this properly.’
‘No. No more talking. I just want my son.’ Her jaw wobbles wildly. ‘We’ll leave. Tonight. Get out of this place. We should have left years ago.’
Instantly I know that she was the one who took Ben. She’s lost her mind. ‘Donna, what happened? Tell me.’
She shakes her head, and I see a flurry of muscles contracting all over her face. ‘She was trying to take my son away from me. Again!’
‘Mum, what did you do?’ Rodney sounds like a scared little boy.
‘Be quiet, Rodney.’
‘Donna, what happened?’ I press, feeling the life flow out of me. I’m trying to work out what to do but I can barely retain a single thought.
‘She wouldn’t leave us alone. First my Jacob, then my baby. She was pure evil.’
The wind picks up. Moonlight turns to confetti, scattering everywhere.
‘You found out about her and Rodney,’ I say.
Donna stamps her foot and I feel the thud underneath us. ‘She tricked him into wanting to run away with her! She was trying to take him away from me.’