She ignored Scobie and got out. There was a small wooden rack mounted to the wall beside the front door. She took out a brochure and read that Neville Clode’s Wellness Centre specialised in wellness for children, promising to cure their irritability, hypertension, nervousness, fears and phobias. ‘Let me unlock the feelings, emotions and hidden belief systems that block the journey process to true maturity,’ he offered.
Scobie stood beside her. He pushed the bell. She thrust the brochure at him. ‘Jesus Christ, Scobie-he works with kids.’
Scobie read. Time ticked by. Here on Clode’s street the houses were silent and far apart from each other, separated by trees and high paling fences. No witnesses, in other words. ‘I’m checking around the back,’ Ellen said.
She prowled down the side of the house, passing a carport hung with grapevines that sheltered a Saab. A moment later she rounded the corner onto a broad yard and a scattering of fruit trees. There was a small aluminium garden shed. Two children, a girl and a boy aged about twelve, were disappearing over the back fence. They looked gleeful, panicky and hard-eyed, as if they’d been in trouble with the authorities for all of their short lives and weren’t about to reform. Even so, they were children, and they should have been in school.
Ellen shouted futilely, then turned her attention to the rear wall of the house. Scobie was coming around the corner, still reading the brochure. The back door opened and a man stepped out, moving stiffly. Facial bruises were vivid on his face; blood streaked the whites of his blackened eyes; his top lip carried a couple of stitches..
‘Mr Clode? My name is Sergeant Destry and you’ve met Constable Sutton.’
‘Did you get the little buggers?’ Clode said, his voice melodious, as though remembering that he was supposed to be a healer, a man who brought comfort to people. He approached Scobie warmly and shot out his hand. The two men shook. Then he offered his hand to Ellen and she ignored it. ‘Do you know those children, Mr Clode? Were they visiting you?’
Through the damage to his face she could see a bleak, scoffing expression. ‘Kids from the Seaview Park estate,’ he said. ‘Surely no strangers to the police.’
‘Do you think they’re the ones who attacked you, Mr Clode?’ said Scobie.
‘Could well be.’
Ellen wasn’t having this. She’d read Clode’s statement. ‘I thought you said that men attacked you, not children.’
‘Youngish men, I think.’
‘All right, did you recognise those children just now?’
‘No. I told them to clear off…’
‘Would you recognise them again?’
‘I only saw their backs.’
Ellen stared at him, unconvinced. But she doubted she’d recognise them, either. ‘Are you in the habit of inviting children to your home, Mr Clode?’
He flushed. ‘I didn’t invite them.’
‘But you treat children.’
‘That’s different. And their parents bring them to me for therapy.’
‘May we come inside, please?’
He looked uncertain, but took them through to his sitting room. ‘Has a parent made a complaint against me?’
‘Are the parents present when you treat their children?’ Ellen responded.
‘No way. It destroys the energy.’
Ellen supposed that it probably did. ‘Can you tell us what you were doing between Thursday afternoon last week and Monday afternoon this week?’
‘What’s this about?’ said Clode, appealing to Scobie.
‘Just answer the question,’ Ellen said.
‘I was in hospital for two days.’
‘And the other two days?’
‘Here.’
‘Can you prove that?’
‘I live alone, so no, I can’t,’ said Clode, irritable now.
‘Your appointment book might hold the answer.’
Clode coughed and shifted about. Actually, I didn’t have any appointments. I’m retraining.’
‘Retraining? As what?’
‘A thought field therapist.’
Ellen smirked.
‘Look, why do you want to know my movements? What am I supposed to have done? I’m a victim, remember.’
‘Do you own a white van?’
‘No, why?’
‘Do any of your friends or family?’
‘Don’t think so. How would I know?’
‘I understand you have a spa room, with toys in it.’
To cover his confusion or apprehension, Clode threw up his hands. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘Is it part of children’s therapy?’
‘No. It’s for when my granddaughter visits.’
Ellen watched him for a long moment. He didn’t waver. ‘Is your wife with you, Mr Clode?’
‘She died.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Ellen said unconvincingly. ‘How many children do you have?’
‘My wife had a daughter from her previous marriage. Her name’s Grace.’
‘Oh.’
‘I rarely see them.’
‘Them?’
‘Grace is married. Husband and one daughter.’
‘They live some distance away?’
Clode shook his head. ‘Just on the other side of the Peninsula.’
‘But you rarely see them.’
‘I’m not related by blood,’ said Clode.
‘How old was Grace when you married her mother?’
Clode thought about it. ‘Early teens.’
‘How old is her daughter?’
‘About seven.’
‘An address, please, Mr Clode.’
‘Why? You haven’t told me what this is about.’
‘Whose white van did you borrow last Thursday?’
Clode was ready. ‘I didn’t borrow a white van. I didn’t rent a white van. I don’t own a white van. I don’t know anyone who owns or drives a white van.’
Ellen sneezed and her eyes itched. She fished a damp tissue from her pocket, feeling obscurely undermined by her hayfever.
‘Satisfied?’ said Clode. ‘I get beaten up and you lot treat me like I’m a suspect in some crime.’
‘We were thinking the assault on you might have been personal,’ Ellen said. ‘I understand they also trashed your house pretty badly.’
The signs were still apparent in the sitting room: the remains of a chair in the corner and a crooked print on the wall. Clode shook his head. ‘They would have been high on drugs. They stole a digital camera and a coin collection.’
Scobie frowned. ‘You told me they hadn’t taken anything.’
‘I’ve had time for a proper look since then,’ Clode said. ‘This is just a junkie burglary.’
‘More than that, Mr Clode,’ Scobie said. ‘You were beaten up pretty badly.’
Ellen was watching Clode, and saw him go very still. ‘I’m fine. I don’t want to make a fuss,’ he said. ‘It hardly seems worth bothering about.’
Now, why is that? Ellen wondered. Muttering about briefings and deadlines, she nodded goodbye to Clode and hurried Scobie out to the car. ‘So, what do you think?’
Scobie swung his mournful face toward her. ‘About what?’
‘Scobie, wake up. What did you make of Clode?’
He seemed to make an effort. ‘Er, it’s hard to tell.’
His head was all over the place. ‘Forget it,’ Ellen said. Hal Challis had always been her sounding board, but he wasn’t here.
28
This was his routine now, to leave the house for a couple of hours in the afternoon while his father napped. Meg was usually sitting with the old man when Challis returned. A freelance bookkeeper who worked from home, she had the freedom to come and go.
That Wednesday Challis made for the little library, briefly pausing on the footpath for a road-train as it headed north with huge bales of hay to where the drought was most acute. He crossed the road and went in. The library opened on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, and he was the only borrower. He selected three talking books for his father and took them to the desk.
‘How’s your dad doing?’ the librarian asked.
Retired now, she’d been Challis’s English teacher twenty-five years ago. ‘Fine, Mrs Traill.’
She sighed. ‘And Meg? I bet she needed the break.’
Did Mrs Traill know how demanding the old man could be? Challis smiled neutrally. Nothing was sacred or secret in the Bluff.