The Princess and the Cop Read online

  So we walked out to the horse yard fence and the spectacle was just beginning.

  Tessa and I watched in silence for a while. She moved very close to me and occasionally looked back at her quarters. I thought ‘Marion’ and then I turned to her and asked, ‘Tess. Do you know about lesbians?’

  She turned quickly and her eyes were big in the moonlight.

  ‘Oh, yes! You mean Marion? Coming onto me?’

  ‘Could be?’

  ‘What do I do?’

  ‘Go inside now and tell her that it’s not on and, if necessary you’ll report her to me. I’ll wait out here.’

  She left like a flash and I heard a fairly loud conversation, but not the words.

  Tessa came out quickly. ‘She says she’s been in love with me since first meeting me and can’t resist it. That was quick! I’m a bit afraid, Bart. Please help me? I don’t want this. I was friendly to her because I thought I could learn lots from her. She tried to kiss me just now. She said I’d change my mind.’

  ‘Go to my quarters and lock the door. Use my shower, and borrow a pair of my pyjamas and sleep in my bed, Tessa. I’ll find somewhere to camp. I’ll look after you. You’ll be safe.’

  I walked to the homestead and knocked loudly.

  Jim came to the door.

  ‘We have a lesbian with us, Jim and she’s already come onto one of the girls. She has to go. I’ll drive her into Charleville tonight, if you agree.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Marion Parker.’

  ‘Who’d she come onto?’

  ‘Not saying.’

  ‘Fair enough. Then I think I can guess. Let’s go and see her now. This can lead to all sorts of troubles. Are you sure?’

  ‘I’m a cop, remember, Jim. Yes. I’m sure.’

  ‘Was Tes… the other girl harmed?’

  ‘Nope, but only because I nipped it in the bud, so to speak, and was just outside. Tess suspected but didn’t know what to do. Of course she didn’t and that’s exactly why I’m here.’

  Jim said, ‘Don’t you do anything. I have to sack her and refund her money and see her safely to the town. I’ll drive her. Tomorrow. You keep up the instruction.’

  Jim acted swiftly very early the next morning and Marion was gone before she knew it, or before the other girls were aware.

  They asked me where she’d gone and I replied, ‘Deemed unsuitable’.

  Tessa watched me throughout the day with very wide green eyes but she did all the work, very well. Sometimes green eyes, sometimes blue. Fascinating.

  I think she was going to make a good jillaroo. I hoped she’d find some Shorthorns to chase, back home in Europe.

  That night, as we watched the moon, I said, ‘You didn’t need Marion, Tessa. I’ll teach you all you need to know, out here.’

  The lovely jillaroo looked up at me with her perfect eyes and said, ‘I’m wondering whether I should go home, Bart? I thought I’d be safe in this wonderful country. But now I wonder. I didn’t expect that.’

  My heart dropped a little.

  ‘Don’t go home, Tess. Please don’t feel threatened? What happened was not normal. I’ll protect you, Tessadonna. That’s part of my job. I’ll look after you, I promise.’

  She put her hand on my arm. Her eyes were sparkling, even in the moonlight.

  ‘Now I really do feel safe, Barton. Thank you. I think I’ll stay.’ And went to her room.

  Why did I feel relieved all of a sudden?

  8.

  The work continued and I got as much fun out of it as the girls. They were a cheery lot and went at it vigorously. Some of the tasks were hard for young girls, beyond their strength in many cases.

  They had to rope and then tackle calves and then progress up to strong yearlings. I sat them on the yard fence and then shepherded the calves around the perimeter fence. My girls would sit on the fence with a rope, try to rope a calf, pull it back, and then dive down to embrace its head and twist it to the ground. It required timing and strength and more often than not the calf walked away, free and easy, with the jillaroo lying exactly where the animal should have been. There was some frustration and some language was emerging. The Princess was not above that but ‘bloody’ was the strongest she could muster. Frequently she’d utter what I thought was a German word but I wasn’t educated enough to know if it was an epithet. Sounded like it.

  I watched for signs of their giving up but they were determined, and kept at it until the success rate increased. Of course, the calves were growing all the time and the girls had a ton of fun handling it. Then they had to muster the cattle in the yard, heading them towards the gate. They did that on foot and then on horseback. On foot, I had to jump in to protect the odd jillaroo facing the odd ill-tempered cow but nobody was hurt. It was strenuous and, at night, after tea, there was not a sound from the quarters, except heavy breathing. But they stuck at it.

  Naturally, Tessa was my focus and she performed well. I was quietly proud of her.

  One moon night I asked her how this love for Australia had come about.

  ‘I was doing a project on Austria at University and pulled down this book that I thought would help. When I opened it I found that it was about Australia, a country I’d barely heard of. I started to read it and stayed until I finished it. I was fastened, is that what you say?’

  ‘Hooked, I think.’

  ‘Yes, hooked. So many different terms. Then I was obsessed with the big spaces and the horses. I knew I had to get here, pestered my family, so here am I arrived!’

  She was cute.

  I took them out to a paddock, a big paddock, and two of them and I mustered the cattle that were scattered in the scrub and then guided them back to the yard. The cattle had been out some time and were fractious and there were many mistakes, but the girls won in the end. I sat back a lot.

  And then two more with me helping them. One was Tessa and we got the cattle back easily, with me hardly helping at all. Tessa was glowing.

  Jim and Linda came out to watch these last exercises which were pretty well the final examination for the girls. They all passed and there was no prouder bloke on horseback that afternoon than Senior Sergeant Barton Corrigan. But what now for Tessadonna?

  She was thrilled, face shining, until we met for our regular moonlight view. This night there was no moon. That had happened before but we still met. Her face was very sad and, as she looked at me, her lovely eyes were moist. As she left to go to her quarters, she suddenly lifted up, kissed me on the cheek and hurried away. We hadn’t spoken a word.

  The next day would be the final journey into the bush, searching out wild scrubbers, holding them overnight and then mustering them back to the yard. The hardest task for last.

  Then I would have to tell her that I was a cop and I knew she was a Princess and, together, we had to make a decision about her future. From little comments she’d made over the months, my guess was that she wanted to stay in Australia and be a jillaroo.

  ****

  It seemed that my lovely girls had forgotten all they’d been taught. They’d handled scrubbers a few days ago but these were wild ones, and plenty of them. The girls had no teamwork, as if it had all deserted them suddenly. They got in each other’s way and some bushie’s language was flying.

  Finally, come lunchtime, I set up the billy and called them in for a feed. The cattle, now not being chased, stood mystified. Everyone, chasers and chased, needed a spell.

  I sat them down in the shade and served out the tea and grub. Everyone was very quiet.

  Tess got up to go somewhere and had only walked a few paces when she gave a yelp and called, ‘Snake, Bart! A snake bit me!’

  She fell to the ground clutching her leg.

  I ran to her and beyond her saw a big brown snake turning and lifting to attack her again. I headed for it, waving my arms, picked up a big stick and smashed it truly on the head, flattening it.

  I knelt to Tessa. Keep her calm is the watchword.

  I took out my kni
fe and sliced her trouser leg. There were two good-size fang marks. I got in her way. I didn’t want her to see them. The snake had got her badly, through her jeans. She was moaning a little, watching me with big trusting eyes.

  ‘I trod on it, Bart. It was horrible!’

  I snapped at the nearest girl, ‘Elastic bandage in my left saddle-bag, quickly! You other girls, leave your water with us and ride fast to the homestead. It’s that direction in case you’ve forgotten,’ pointing. ‘Tell Linda or Jim what’s happened and tell them it’s a big brown snake, and I’ve got it. They’ll know what to do.’

  I wrapped Tessa’s leg very tightly until she complained.

  ‘It has to be this way, Tess, to slow the poison. Sorry. Now be calm, Tessadonna. I’m very experienced in these things and I’ll look after you. Let’s get comfortable?’

  I carried her to deep shade and put her gently on the ground, got against the tree and lifted her over so her head was on my shoulder. She’d not taken her big eyes from my face.

  I stroked her head and said, slowly and gently, ‘You’re safe with Bart now, Tessa. I won’t let anything happen to you.’

  I was determined about that. I’d become very fond of this girl and I was going to keep her alive, but I knew it would be some time before help arrived. She mustn’t sleep or even close her eyes.

  So I talked, shaking her awake when her eyes closed. I asked her questions about Bassenburg du Mont and forced her to answer.

  I had many follow-up questions.

  Then, trying to join in the spirit of things, she started to question me about my boyhood in the bush.

  Patsy Hunter was the girl who’d stayed behind and I got her to keep giving Tess little sips of water.

  But I really didn’t know what I was doing despite what I’d said. In all my hours in the bush as a boy and a man, I’d never encountered snake-bite. Close but not the actual thing.

  Patsy joined in with the questions but was giving me anxious looks as Tessa’s eyes were closing more and more frequently.

  I patted her face, pulled her ears, pulled her hair, to try to keep her on the surface.

  Now, my feelings were coming into play. I didn’t want to lose this girl. I’d become very fond of her. I wondered whether I loved her. There was no way that I was going to lose her.

  At times her eyes closed and she was in repose, and she looked beautiful. But that couldn’t last and I slapped her face quite firmly at times. Once she snapped awake and said, ‘Ow! Bart. That hurt! I thought you liked me?’

  ‘I do, Little One. I do.’

  I kissed her on the forehead, many times, with Patsy watching curiously. I looked at her and she said, ‘Don’t be embarrassed, Bart. We’ve all watched you two for quite a while now.’

  Tess forced her eyes open and said, sleepily, ‘On the lips would be better, Bart,’ and then closed them again. I bent down to kiss her when Patsy cried, ‘Truck, Bart!’ And Jim came hurtling through the scrub in his Land Cruiser.

  He gave Tess an injection and then we all lifted her onto the truck on a mattress.

  Patsy got up on the back and held her head. Tess opened her eyes, saw me still on the ground as the truck began to move, and called, ‘Please stay with me, Bart?’

  I waved and shouted, ‘See you in hospital, Tess. Very soon.’ And she was gone.

  ****

  That night was very solemn and quiet at The Gums cattle station. Jim or Linda kept ringing the Charleville Hospital and got the message that, ‘She’s sleeping quietly.’

  An ambulance had met Jim half-way on his journey to Charleville and she’d had another injection, which lifted her past the danger mark.

  I rang Don in Brisbane and he contacted the Foreign Affairs Department who, in turn, contacted Tessa’s family in the palace at Bassenburg du Mont. The lines ran hot.

  The next morning I told Jim and Linda that I felt my job, for them, and for Tessa, had finished. I’d head off now to the hospital to see her, hang around for a while and then return to Brisbane.

  I walked over to the quarters to tell the girls. One by one they came up to me, put their arms around my neck and gave me the mother of all kisses. Jim shook my hand hard and Linda, after a little hesitation, kissed me on the cheek. Jim and I smiled at each other.

  They stood in a happy group as I drove out of the station yard and headed for Charleville. I had a light heart. Tessa was recovering and I couldn’t wait to see her, and perhaps, finish that kiss. I knew now that I more than liked her. Love? Perhaps?

  I fleetingly thought of glorious Gloria. She had the looks and strong personality but Tessadonna was sweet and had qualities which I’d never found in any other woman. She was exceptional, in my view, but I knew she was a Princess and I was a lowly cop and then, during the drive, I came to that realisation with a thud.

  What was I thinking? I’d got used to being with her as an ordinary person but she was a Princess, Bart! Wake up!

  And now I was depressed. From exhilaration down to depression.

  When I got to the hospital I didn’t know how I was feeling.

  Ok, I thought, as I got out of my truck, let’s see how Tess feels about it all?

  And then another thud to earth. Her family had arranged for her to be flown to Brisbane to a big hospital there, to prepare her for the flight home. They thought better treatment would be available in Europe.

  I chased, but it was a long way and, by the time I got to Brisbane, many, many hours later, she’d gone, in a chartered plane.

  I drove home to my scungy little flat and fell into bed, and slept for 10 hours.

  9.

  When I awoke, the first person I thought of was Tessa, and I knew I’d think of her for the rest of my life. She was like no other woman I’d met. I didn’t hear any news of her and gradually worked my way into the view that I shouldn’t. She’d been the subject of an assignment, which I’d carried out, nearly unsuccessfully.

  She would move on with her life in the grand palace that I supposed she lived in, and I’d carry on with my life in Police Headquarters in Brisbane and, regardless of my feelings, I should expect no more.

  And my life, believe it or not, was still the Lily Osbourne case. Nobody had done a thing about Lily’s murder since my sudden departure. It was regarded as my case and, on my first day back, Don assigned me to it solo. But with diversions to other cases, as they came up.

  He said Henry Chang had been ringing to talk to me so that was my first task---talk to Henry.

  Because Henry had been the main suspect and then charged with Lily’s murder, he was naturally reticent to talk to us before. Not that his lawyer let him, anyway.

  So I went out to Henry’s parents’ luxury home in a luxury gated community in a high-income part of Brisbane. I’d been given the gate code to allow me free access during my investigations and was interested to note that it hadn’t been changed. Henry was waiting for me.

  He made coffee and we sat. His mother and father were out.

  Lily Osbourne, Henry’s girlfriend, and the murder victim, had been promiscuous, remember? And when being questioned before, Henry was reluctant to name her other lovers. Henry had been the main one. Now he opened up and named six of Lily’s schoolmates. The girl had been busy alright.

  The following day I visited Lily’s school and spoke to the Headmaster, Mr. Ted Carson, to arrange to interview these kids. I gave him the list. Their parents would want to be at the interviews and they could have solicitors although I pointed out that they weren’t suspects, but that I had to talk to them. They’d had sex with Lily.

  Strangely, Carson objected strongly. There was no evidence that Lily had had sex with anyone except Henry, he said, and Henry was still his vote for her killer.

  Whatever, I insisted that he make the requested arrangements or down to Police Headquarters we would all go, Carson included. We might even sound sirens.

  He rang me later to say the parents had all agreed. Solicitors would be present.

  I took a
detective named Alberto Silva, Bert Silva to all, and we set about the tedious task of interviewing six randy young high school kids, all ready to lie their teeth out. They’d all got together and all swore they’d never even met Lily much less had sex with her.

  ‘I have a witness who’ll swear that Lily named you to Henry as a lover. She wasn’t shy about it,’ I said. ‘You’re not being charged with anything. We just want to know whether the witness was telling the truth, because we have others in the frame, none of them you guys.’

  I wasn’t exactly telling the truth here but I did genuinely have someone else in the frame. These kids weren’t murderers, just apprentice playboys. The parents must have been wondering when the kids found time to do their study. And fitted Lily into their timetables.

  And at last we started to get the truth. Yes, they’d banged Lily, and each one told us when and where.

  As the last one was leaving he came back into the room.

  ‘It wasn’t just us kids, you know. You should have a look at some of the adults at the school too.’

  He started to leave again but Bert leaped to the door and closed it.

  ‘Name names,’ he said. ‘You can’t say something like that and walk away. Name names, son. There’s such a thing as obstructing justice and it’s a crime. Name names, son.’

  I thought Bert was stretching it a bit there, but the kid caved and gave us four names of staff members. One of them was the Principal, Mr. Carson, he of the jumpy demeanour of a few days ago.

  ****

  I telephoned Mr. Carson and arranged to interview him and the teachers the next day. He was jumpy again and almost refused until I produced the threat of Uniforms and Police cars arriving at his posh school to transport everyone to Headquarters. Then he became very co-operative.

  I took these places as I found them, particularly since I’d been around Lily’s gated community, among the wealthy, for some time now. A lot of them were snobby and superior but most were good people. And I’d spent a couple of months with a European princess, who was delightful. Aren’t you, Tessa?