Challis - 04 - Chain of Evidence Read Online Free PDF Page B

pebbly
dust, washaways, mallee scrub and hidden gullies. Men had died out there. They
called it doing a perish, and many in the district believed that thats what
had happened to Challiss brother-in-law, five years ago now. Gavin Hursts car
had been found abandoned out there. No body. Hed been the districts RSPCA
inspector, a difficult man. Challis had never liked Hurst, but his sister had
married him, had loved him, so what can you do?

    The conquering hero returns.

    Challis wheeled around with an
answering grin. Meg, two years his junior, was smiling tiredly at him from the
verandah. A moment later she was embracing him, a round, comfortable shape. Driving
the same old bomb, I see, she said fondly, beating the flat of her hand
against the chrome surround of his windscreen.

    Hey, dont mark my pride and joy.

    She snorted, throwing her arms
around him again. Its so good to see you. Youre a sight for sore eyes.

    When she released him he saw that
her eyes were, in fact, sore looking. How is he?

    Sweetie, Meg told him gently, hes
dying.

    Well, shed told him that on the
phone earlier in the week, and so hed hastily arranged a months leave. What
she meant now was, how else did Challis expect their father to be? It
was faintly reproving, and Challis couldnt blame her. Their mother had died a
year ago, and their father had immediately declined. Meg, who lived on the
other side of the Bluff, near the tennis courts, had been the one to nurse both
of them. Their mother would have been undemanding, but Challis guessed that
their father, an exacting man even in good health, was making hard work of
dying. There rose between Challis and his sister a knot of unresolved feelings:
Challis had escaped, Meg hadnt. Im sorry.

    She brightened. Youre here now

    Challis had asked for a month, but
McQuarrie, his boss, a superintendent in regional command headquarters, had
clearly thought that excessive. As if he wants my father to hurry up and die,
Challis had thought at the time. I have several weeks of accrued leave owing
to me, sir, hed said. And Sergeant Destry is perfectly capable of holding
the fort until I get back.

    McQuarrie, a small man who
disapproved of many things, said, Your father, did you say?

    Hes dying, sir.

    Very well.

    The super, who knew more about
meeting procedures than catching bad guys, would give Ellen a hard time, but
Challis couldnt do anything about that now. Besides, Ellen knew how to look
after herself.

    He followed Meg along the path to
the verandah steps. Wheres Eve? She inside with Dad?

    Meg shook her head. Studying.
Always studying.

    Challiss niece was in Year 12. Hed
last seen her a year ago, at his mothers funeral: tall, lovely, and absolutely
desolate. He hated to think of Eve in pain. First her father, then her
grandmother, and now her grandfather.

    Youll see her eventually, Meg
said.

    Challis stepped into the house
behind her, into rooms unchanged from when hed been a boy, into sluggish air
laden with the odours of a dying man. For a brief mad instant, he looked for
his mother to come bustling from the kitchen, ready to wrap him in loving
smiles and hugs. The grief hit him like a punch to the heart: he stopped,
swayed, breathed in and out.

    Hal?

    Challis swallowed. Nothing, sis, Im
okay. He paused. Mum.

    Meg looked fleetingly unimpressed.
This wasnt a competition, but shed been closer to their mother than Challis
had, and shed had to cope with their fathers decline. Then, relenting, she
gently touched his arm and called, Dad! Look whos here.

    Shed set the old man up in a
brightly upholstered cane chair in the screened-in back porch. Here the sun
penetrated for the greater part of the day. It was a cheerful room, furnished
with other cane chairs, a pair of glass-topped tables on cane legs, flowery
curtains pulled back on the windows. White walls, a couple of vaguely Turkish
rugs on the terracotta tiled floor. Challis took these things in first, a way
of delaying the inevitable. Then, his heart