The righteous men

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Monday, 2.20am, Darwin, Northern Australia

The music had stopped, that was why he had gone in. He kept this up throughout his shift, whether it was day or night — tip-toeing into the room to take out the finished CD and replace it with a new one. The bedside cupboard was full of them, Schubert mainly, left there by the old man's daughter.

The family had not asked Djalu to do it, but he knew it was what they wanted.

He put on the record. He could hear wailing from the next room along; he would have to be there in a second. But he wanted to stay a while with this resident, Mr Clark, the man who loved music. Djalu had only seen him awake for an hour or two each day; the sedative kept him asleep the rest of the time. But in those conscious minutes, Mr Clark seemed healed by the sounds of violins and cellos which uncoiled from the CD and into the room like stretches of fine thread. His aged lips parted as if to taste the melodies; his mouth sometimes made the same tiny movement even when he was in deep slumber.

Djalu would seize on those moments to take the small sponge, mounted on a stick, dip it into the bedside glass of water and brush it onto Mr Clark's mouth. The old man, nearly eighty-five, could no longer eat or drink, not without vomiting. So this was the only way to give him sustenance.

He was dying, like so many of the people in this place, not from the disease that had assailed him for months but of starvation and eventual dehydration. Once it was clear that the patient could never be cured, the organs would be allowed to pack up, one by one until death finally arrived.

It seemed a cruel way to let a person die. Djalu's father denounced it as typical of 'white man's' medicine, all science and no spirit. Sometimes Djalu thought he was right; after all, he had seen some terrible things in this place. Old women lying in pools of their own urine; men crying out for hours to be helped to the toilet. Some of the nurses quickly lost patience, shouting at the residents, telling them to shut up.

Or addressing them by their first names, as if they were babies.

In his first few months, Djalu had gone with the flow. He did not want to draw attention to himself, one of only two aborigine care assistants in the home. His position was hardly secure, not with a resume which included two spells in jail — one for burglary, the other for shoplifting. So he said nothing when the senior staff would hear moans or screams from down the corridor — and would turn up the TV to drown out the noise.

Even now he said nothing. He made no complaints to the matron or the manager; he wanted no fuss and no hassle.

Sometimes he even joined in the jokes about the 'crinkly old buggers'. But he did what he could.

So when he heard a resident crying out, he ran. He was part of what the nursing home called Team Red, responsible for about two dozen beds. But if he saw a light flashing for a resident in Blue or Green, he went anyway — often sneaking in, hoping none of the staff would see him. He made sure Mr Martyn sipped some water or that Miss Anderson was turned over. And if they had soiled themselves, he would clean them up, wiping them gently, afterwards stroking their hair, trying to soothe away their shame.

He heard how some of the residents referred to him.

'Matron, I don't want that boong touching me,' one had said when Djalu had first appeared at his bedside. 'It's wrong.'

But Djalu put that down to their age. They did not know any better.

Mr Clark had not been much friendlier. 'Which one are you?' he had asked.

'Which one, Mr Clark?'

'Yes, there's that other abo, whatisname? Which one are you?'

But Djalu could not feel angry, not with a man who was in the last days of his life. So he brought tea and biscuits when Mrs Clark visited; brought her a tissue when he found her quietly sobbing; and when she fell asleep in the chair by the bed, he draped a blanket over her.

Maybe his father was right that European medicine was a cold, metallic discipline. So he, Djalu, would give it a warm, human face — even if that face seemed to scare so many of these dying white folks.

This was his favourite time to work, late at night when he could have the corridor to himself. He would not need to explain his presence in the rooms, would not need to make up excuses for why he was reading the newspaper out loud to a woman on the second floor, not on the Red list, or simply holding the hand of a man who craved the touch of another human being.

So he jumped when he saw the door to Mr Clark's room creak open. The woman who came in had her finger to her lips, hushing Djalu. Her eyes were smiling, as if she were planning on giving Mr Clark a surprise and did not want Djalu to ruin it.

'Good evening, Djalu.'

'You gave me a fright. I didn't realize you were working tonight.'

'Well, you know death. It never sleeps.'

Djalu leapt to his feet. 'Did someone die tonight?'

'Not yet. But I expect it.'

'Who? Maybe I should-'

'Djalu, don't get excited. OK?' Calmly, the woman bent down and pulled out several of the CDs in the bedside cabinet, letting them fall to the floor.

'Hey, miss. That's Mr Clark's music. I'm looking after it-'

'Here it is.' She had reached behind the discs for what looked like a bandage. Now she lay it on the bed, on the square of mattress next to Mr Clark's chest, which was rising and falling like a set of bellows. The old man was fast asleep.

She opened up the bandage, pulling one flap of material to the left, the other to the right, to reveal a hypodermic needle alongside a vial of clear serum.

'Is the doctor coming? No one told me.'

'No, the doctor is not coming.' She snapped on a pair of latex gloves.

'You giving Mr Clark a shot? What you doing?'

'I'll show you if you like. Come closer.'

'Don't hurt him.'

'Relax, Djalu. Now come over here and you can see. A bit closer.'

The woman held the needle up to the window, where it made a silhouette against the moonlight. 'Now, Djalu, if you can place your hands on Mr Clark's shoulders. That's it, just bend slightly.'

Cleanly, the woman jabbed the needle into Djalu's neck, her thumb pushing the plunger hard, sending the drug swimming into his veins within an instant. Djalu had a second to turn around, his face frozen in astonishment. A second later, he fell forward, landing heavily on Mr Clark's heaving chest.

His killer had to use all her strength to haul Djalu off and lay him smoothly on the floor. She laid a blanket over him, stopping only to close his eyes with the palm of her hand.

'I apologize, Djalu Banggala, for what I have done. But I have done it in the name of the Lord God Almighty. Amen.'

She packed the needle and the empty vial back into the bandage, tucked it into her pocket and headed out, noiselessly.

Mr Clark did not stir. If he heard anything, it was only music — the insistent strings of one of Schubert's most famous pieces. Death and the Maiden.