Two-Way Cut

chapter 12

Tess went very still. What drugs?

Leah indicated the little daypack at Tess’s feet. The drugs that didn’t burn up in Mitchs car. The drugs in your bag. The bag you wont be parted with. The bag you even took to the shower with you a little while ago.

Tess reached for the pack, swung it onto her lap, clutched it tightly. You mean you wanted to search my bag? What a bitch.

Don’t give me that indignation routine, it wont wash. So, what have you got in there? Coke? Weed? Ecstasy? Speed? A bit of everything?

Tess clasped the bag tighter. Why don’t you leave me alone.

All this time I thought it was me those guys were after, but its you, isn’t it?

Tess shook her head, a look stubborn and mulish on her face. Don’t know what you mean.

Or rather, they were after Mitch, who’d ripped them off, but now hes dead, so they’re after you.

This time Tess tried to work an expression of outrage and grief onto her face. I loved Mitch. He was the best thing that ever happened to me, and here you are, attacking him when hes dead and cant defend himself. What a bitch.

Leah ignored her. How did it work? Mitch dealt to the kids at your school, but he was also a courier, am I right? He made deliveries out here, the western areas of the state? Had a regular run—what, once a month, twice a month? Regular customers, regular drop-off points?

You’re dreaming, Tess said. Why don’t you get a life and stop talking dirt about Mitch.

Leah leaned forward, her face hawkish in the light of the candle. So what did our hero do, Tess? Decided to rip off the big boys? Thought he’d make his regular run, only not go back with the money but take off into the sunset with you at his side? How romantic

Tess snapped. Shut up. Just you shut up. It wasn’t like that.

How was it, then? Enlighten me.

But Tess was mute.

Leah waited. Eventually she said, as the darkness crept over the farm buildings and the bulky shapes altered, blurring into the greater darkness, But thats only half the story, isn’t that right, Tess? When Mitch was killed you thought youd take over the distribution, keep all that cash for yourself.

Leah thought back to the murder of Mitch, and how quickly Tess had recovered. Clearly shed sampled some of her own merchandise, to save from falling in a heap. Leah almost felt pity for the girl.

But she kept pushing. So much for the grief-stricken girlfriend. It was greed, pure and simple.

Tess let go of the leather pack for the first time and put her head in her hands. She said something, her voice muffled by her hands, distorted by sobbing.

Leah said sharply, Speak up, I cant hear you.

Tess raised a suffering face and wailed, You don’t know what its like.

Leah was determined to be unimpressed. So, tell me.

You don’t know what its like for me.

Yes I do. Poor little rich girl. No one loves you. No one cares. So you go off the rails. A cry for help. Poor baby.

Leah was being deliberately harsh. Tess’s self-destructive behaviour probably was a cry for help. But Tess was also a spoilt child, so she was apt to be evasive, to shift blame, to avoid facing up to who she was and what shed done. Leah watched Tess collapse, thoroughly wracked with sobbing now. She waited. She waited for five minutes before the girl grew calmer.

Start at the beginning. Mitch supplied the girls at your school, you got involved with him, maybe you were his go-between. Then he—or both of you—concocted this plan to rip off the people he worked for. How am I doing so far? It went wrong and they came after you. Hes dead, so now they’re out to get you.

Thats not the beginning, Tess protested. It starts long before

Leah ignored her. You’ve been supplying the local dealers ever since I hooked up with you, haven’t you? Either you’re familiar with the network or there was a list of contact phone numbers with the drugs. That guy at the flats in Prospect, the guy in the shopping-centre this afternoon. They were Mitch’s customers, right?

Tess shrugged miserably. So what? What do you care?

How much money have you made?

In a small voice, Tess said, Fourteen thousand.

Is there any of the gear left?

A bit, Tess said. Then she seemed to muster a semblance of dignity and determination as insects flicked about the candle, attracted by the flame. Why don’t you listen? You’re just like all the others.

Leah blinked. Sorry?

You told me to start at the beginning, but wouldn’t let me even start. You just want to know about me and Mitch and a few pills. None of thats relevant.

It is if you’ve got gunmen after you. What do they want the drugs? The money? Revenge?

Tess’s fists clenched and she pounded them on her knees. Why aren’t you listening? No one ever listens to me.

Okay, try me.

There was a considering pause, then Tess began. I loved my father, she said slowly. Thats the real beginning. He would have protected me. He was the most fantastic dad, then he died.

She swallowed a couple of times. He’d already been married before. His first wife was killed in an accident. Theyd had a son, Ian, my half-brother, who was about four when my father married my mother. I was born soon after. I was never really close to Ian, and he’d always say to Mum, You’re not my real mother. Sometimes I feel like that, too. She and I fight all the time.

What about?

When Dad died she married again. Two years ago. Dad hadn’t even been dead a year.

Leah went cold. Has your stepfather been

Tess looked at her knowingly. Yeah, well, he is a bit of a sleaze, though hes never touched me.

Your half-brother?

Ian? Ive always adored him. You know, this gorgeous older brother, a bit wild when he was growing up, probably because he hated it when Dad married again and gave him a new mother and baby sister he didn’t want. She smiled sadly. He left home as soon as he could, went to uni, started making money buying and selling shares online, always got these beautiful girls hanging off his arm.

Leah was frustrated. What had all this to do with Tess’s running away and being followed? There had to be more. But Tess went on, Anyway, I don’t care about my family; in five years Ill be independent of them. When I turn twenty-one I can tell them all to get stuffed.

Tess, you don’t have to wait till then. If you’re sixteen and can show the authorities that you

Oh, I know all that, Tess said scornfully. What I mean is, my dad set up this trust fund for me. No one can touch that money, and it all comes to me when I’m twenty-one, so they can all go to hell.

Leah sat back in distaste. So you talked Mitch into the rip-off, right? Get yourself some running-away money, set yourself up somewhere until you get rich legally? Nice one.

Tess wouldn’t look at her. Leah pushed on. What were you going to do? Dump the poor guy once your trust money came in? Dump him once you’d sold all the drugs?

No! I loved him!

Leah sighed. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Another question: what does your mother think of this trust fund?

Pissed off, thinks of it as rightfully hers, not mine and Ian’s.

The trust funds for both of you?

Separate trust funds. Ians twenty-one, so hes already cashed in.

The story still seemed weak and unconvincing to Leah. There was a trigger somewhere, one strong enough to make Tess run. So you go on this crime spree because your mum didn’t wait for a decent interval before marrying again, is that what this all boils down to?

I cant stand my school. I’m always getting into trouble. They hate me there. I’m way behind, Ive failed everything, whats the point?

Maybe so, but thats not enough, Tess.

Tess was biting her nails. Theres this teacher, she muttered finally.

A teacher was mean to you? Gave you detention? Big deal.

Tess took a ravaged finger from her mouth. What would you know, Miss Perfect?

Tess, tell me what the matter is.

His names Mr Vale. I had him at my last school, no, the one before last, the school where I did Years 7 and 8. Swimming coach. I reported him then and I reported him again last week, but no one listens.

I’m listening.

Do you even care? At my old school he was always touching me and stuff, when I had my bathers on. I couldn’t believe it when he turned up at Penleigh.

Maybe there’d been complaints, Leah thought, and the school had quietly encouraged Vale to move on rather than take action against him. She shrugged inwardly. That had happened with priests in some parishes. Who did you report him to?

My mother, but she was too busy running around trying to find another husband. Plus I was always in trouble about something, you know. She was used to that.

Leah nodded. She herself had always been a handful for her elderly parents. What happened at Penleigh?

Tess squirmed in her seat. I was better at avoiding him, you know, being older and everything, but last Friday morning he cornered me when I was training. I used to swim every morning at six o’clock when I had the pool to myself. He made me touch his thing and showed me these gross pictures he’d downloaded.

Tess was rocking a little, her arms wrapped tightly about herself.

Who’d you report him to?

Dr Heyward, the principal.

And?

All shes interested in is the public image of the school, stupid cow.

Leah tried to picture the scene: a high-powered principal, intimidating and no doubt concerned with the image of her high-powered school, trying to gauge whether or not a chronic troublemaker was simply trying to make more mischief. Tess, no school principal is going to ignore that kind of thing, not these days.

What would you know?

Did you tell your mum this time?

You must be joking.

What about the police?

Yeah, right, like anyone would believe me. I got done for shoplifting last year.

Did you tell this Vale character you’d reported him?

I’m not stupid. The principal must have told him there’d been a complaint, because he got me into this corner and said stop making waves, no one would believe me because I was a known troublemaker and expelled from two other schools. I was just garbage as far as he was concerned. He said he had money and powerful friends, and it was his word against mine.

So you ran away because no one listened. I can see how that

I ran away, Tess said, because he threatened to kill me.