CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ben studied the old timber home. It was in serious need
of some repair and looked as though it had seen it’s glory
days many years ago. The cream paint on the
weatherboards was peeling in chunks, the verandah
railing was bowing outwards away from the house and
the old louvres encasing the face of the home were
chipped and covered thickly with dust. It was far from what
he had imagined it would be. When he thought of youth
hostels, a picture of a neat brick premises sprang to
mind. Or at least something a bit tidier, anyhow.
He read the sheet of paper Anna had given him last night
and memorised the young girl’s description before
folding the paper into a small neat square and sliding it
back into his pocket. He had slept terribly last night. He
tossed and turned and couldn’t shake the fear that this
young Sarah Robertson may have fallen prey to the
monster that murdered Tessa, Kylie-Anne and Marla. Not
that there was concrete evidence to support their theory of
one murderer, it was just a fairly loose assumption that
he and Jay were working with. Anna’s lies or omissions
had played on his mind all night. No matter how he tried
to explain her actions away, she was looking guilty as hell
of something. He was certain she was not the murderer.
He knew she had issues, but a murderer? No, she was
capable of many things, he was aware of that, but getting
her hands dirty with something such as the nature of
these crimes didn’t sound like her. However time was
ticking away and he was running out of approaches with
her. She needed to start telling him the truth about
anything, everything she knew. Even though she had
given him a small piece of information to go on last
night, he still had the feeling that she was sitting on a
volcano of knowledge and pretty soon, that volcano was
going to erupt. He just needed it to happen soon.
He stood at the front door of the hostel. His eyes scanned
the verandah on his left and on his right. There was
nothing odd or out of place that he could see. The fly
screen door squealed and screeched under the pressure
of his hand prying it open, the high pitched noise
reminded him of fingernails being drawn across a black-
board. A shiver ran down his spine. With his other hand,
Ben wrapped loudly on the heavy white door. He heard the
sound of voices from inside, laughing, talking and some
bickering, everything one would expect when a handful of
teens were picked from the street and crammed into a
halfway house together.
Just when he was about to knock again, the door flew
open and a young girl barged through, her head turned
back towards the inside of the house. She was still yelling
obscenities and abuse when she ran right into Ben, nearly
knocking them both to the ground.
“Watch what you’re doing. Couldn’t ya see I was trying to
get through?” She snapped at him after regaining her
balance. Her eyes bored into him. Ben was struck with
how much hatred appeared to be present in her face.
Clearly her time on the unforgiving streets of Showsdale
had put its stamp on her.
“Excuse me,” he replied, opting to let her harshness slide
off his back.
“Yeah, well get outta the way next time, will ya?”
“I said I was sorry,” he answered, standing his ground a
little firmer now.
“Yeah, well sorry don’t do jack for me, buddy.” The girl
stormed past him and contin-ued on her way out of the
hostel.
Ben followed her path for a few seconds before returning
his attentions to the open front door. Inside on the left he
could see a small office window with a buzzer mounted on
the wall next to it. He stepped inside and pressed it. Then
turned, waiting for someone to greet him. The music and
conversation deeper inside the house grew louder, he saw
a young girl with black hair poke her head out from
behind a wall, looking down the hallway at him. She
disappeared and then he heard a voice yell, “There’s some
guy at the front door.”
Within seconds a group of three or four teens gathered in
the doorway, all whispering and giggling with each other,
staring at Ben before turning back to each other and
whispering and giggling some more. They reminded him
of the girls who hung out in the hallways when he was at
school. They’d all stand in the hallways leading into the
classrooms chatting about boys and the latest hot topics
and rate each boy as he walked past them and into the
class. He recalled how he often heard them rate him as a
‘hottie with a cute smile’. The memory brought a
reminiscent smile to his face.
“Can I help you?” a woman of about thirty or so
approached from the end of the hall.
“I hope so. I am looking for someone and I’m hoping she
might be staying here.” He produced his I.D. from his
pocket and held it out to her.
The woman read the credentials quickly before saying,
“Please come with me, Detective Payne.”
“Call me Ben,” he replied, following her into the tiny office
on his left.
The office was only about six feet square, barely big
enough to swing a mouse, let alone a cat. The walls were
freshly painted a light shade of lemon but obviously the
budget hadn’t allowed for the ceiling to be included in the
makeover. Chips of paint were lifting on the corners and
around the light fitting. Although the rest of the paint was
still stuck, it was cracking terribly and reminded him of
the pattern on Easter eggs.
“Take a seat, Ben. I’m Julie Allistaire.” she paused while
she pulled her chair out and sat down. “I’m the keeper of
this fine establishment.” She held her arms up the way
one does when they are showcasing their finest assets. A
broad smile of sarcasm on her plain face.
Ben sat opposite her and made himself as comfortable as
was possible in the hard stu-dent’s chair he was offered.
“I’m looking for a young girl by the name of Sarah
Robertson, I was told she was staying here.”
Julie’s head bowed down and a deep sigh escaped her.
“What has she done this time, Detective? I should have
known that girl couldn’t keep out of trouble for more than
a week!” She ran her hands through her thick red hair and
looked at him. “We have a strike system here and it’s not
too well received by some of our girls, Sarah in particular.”
“So Sarah is still residing here with you?”
“Oh yes, she’s here.”
Relief washed over Ben, one less young woman to turn up
in a wooded grave. He slumped back into the unyielding
chair and returned to their previous discussion.
“You were saying something about a strike system?” Ben
enquired.
“Yes, each girl is given three chances to ke
ep their noses
clean and stay out of trouble. If they stick to the rules they
stay, if they don’t they get a strike against their name and
when they have three of them, well…”
“They’re out?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Seems a bit harsh.”
“It is harsh, we need to be harsh. These girls end up here
after being plucked from the streets, Ben. They’re usually
hooked on drugs, starving, emotionally unbalanced and
most are quite aggressive. If we didn’t display some
expectation of behaviour on them, well, they would quite
simply bring their street lives into our life. We simply
don’t allow that.”
Ben stared at her, considering the logic behind her
expectations and rules.
“I guess that’s fair,” he answered her.
“Sarah is on strike number two at the moment, so your
little visit today could be unwelcome news for her.” Julie
slid her chair back, stood up and walked to the office
door. She poked her head out and yelled, “Nat… Natalie.”
A young blonde girl came rushing down the hallway to
Julie. “Yeah?”
“Tell Sarah to come here will you please?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.” Julie returned to her chair and sat down again.
“So what has she done this time?”
Ben shook his head at her and was about to answer when
a girl with short, light brown hair knocked at the door.
“Come on in, Sarah,” Julie told her. Sarah smiled broadly
and did what she was told. Ben noted her missing front
tooth. This was definitely his girl.
“This is Detective Ben Payne, he’s here to see you.” Julie
motioned to Ben.
Sarah’s smile soon turned to a scowl and she began to
rant. “That dirty, skanky bitch! She told me she wouldn’t
rat me out…”
A grin ran across Ben’s face. He rose from his chair and
said, “Take a seat Sarah.” He then turned to Julie and said,
“May I speak with her in private?”
Julie stared at him for a moment. “We usually like to
accompany our girls when there are police matters
involved, Ben.”
“I assure you that this is not an official police matter and
she has done nothing wrong. It is however, a private
matter and I’d really appreciate a few minutes alone with
her.”
Julie reluctantly nodded at him and made her way to the
door. “I’ll be right out here if you need me, Sarah.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Ben closed the door and walked over to where Julie had
been sitting. He made himself comfortable in her chair
and then looked at Sarah.
“So I wasn’t ratted out then?”
A smile tugged at his lips, “No, you weren’t.”
“Well good, cause I can tell ya now that it was that other
ho’ who stole them cigarettes. Not me!”
“Sarah,” Ben began, “I have absolutely no idea what you’re
talking about and maybe we should keep it that way,
hey?” He could barely contain the laughter that was
building inside him. He had forgotten what it was like to
be young, when every little thing was always someone
else’s fault. It was refreshing.
Sarah relaxed somewhat. “I can live with that. So what do
ya want?”
His expression turned more serious and he moved his
chair a little closer to her. “This is a delicate matter, Sarah,
and I don’t quite know how to broach it, so I’ll just let the
words find their own way out, ok?”
She shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Yeah, right-o
then.”
“Sarah, some people have been worried about you and
I’m just here to find out that you are ok.”
“What people?”
“Do you recall visiting a Wellness Clinic some time ago?”
“Those sleazy slags.” she turned her head toward the
office door, then leaned in towards Ben. “They promised
me that all that stuff was confidential and that no-one
would find out.” Her voice was a whisper.
“It’s ok Sarah, Julie doesn’t know and I won’t tell her. This
is between you and me, alright?”
She loosened her shoulders and nodded her head in
agreement. “So what about it anyway?”
“They were concerned about you, when you didn’t show for
your procedure and didn’t notify them that you were okay.
They have your best interest at heart, they weren’t
deliberately dobbing on you.”
“Well, as you can see, I am fine. So they can stop worrying
about me.”
“Why didn’t you turn up for your procedure Sarah?” Ben
asked.
“Turns out I didn’t need to,” she casually replied. “After I
saw some counselling chick the day before I was gonna
get done, I came home and started bleeding real bad.”
“You had a miscarriage?”
“Yep.”
“Did you go and see a doctor?”
“Yeah, yeah… I’m not dumb you know. I went to the
hospital and they kept me there for a night or two and
sorted everything out. Julie was mad as hell when I turned
up again though.”
“Why is that?”
“Stupid rules. Am supposed to report in every night so
they know we’re here, y’know? And cause I’d been gone a
couple of nights, she freaked and gave me a bloody strike!
Nearly lost my spot here cause of all that mess.”
“It looks as though you have it sorted out now though?”
he smiled at her.
“Yeah. You ain't gonna tell her what happened though are
ya? I’ll get another strike and get booted out. It’s no great
castle here, but is sure beats the street.”
“Of course not, this is strictly between you and me Sarah. I
won’t say a word.” He moved his hand over his lips,
pretending to be pulling a zip across his mouth.
She eyed him suspiciously and then said, “Thanks.”
“I think we’re done,” Ben slapped his hands on his knees
and got out of his chair. “Thanks for all your help Sarah,
you can go now.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it,” he answered with a smile.
“What about Julie? What are ya gonna tell her?”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll square it away with her for you.
You won’t be getting any strikes from her.” He thought for
a second before adding, “At least not from this incident
anyhow.”
Sarah laughed at him. “You’re pretty okay for a cop…” She
left her chair and opened the door. A cheeky grin unfolded
across her lips, “You got a cute smile, too!” With that she
ran from the office and down the hall. Ben let out a small
laugh and shook his head.
“Everything okay?” Julie poked her head through the door.
“Everything is just great,” he beamed at her. “Sarah just
helped me out with a couple of enquiries I had. She’s not
such a bad kid.”
Yeah, tell that to me when she gets collared for
shoplifting again, will
you?” Julie smiled at him weakly.