The Port Fairy Murders (23 page)

‘It’s your Aunt Aggie, Rose.’

Aggie’s voice was unstrained.

‘Aunt Aggie?’

‘Yes. I’ve slept on what you told me yesterday, and I feel I was rather harsh and unfair to you.’

‘I see.’ Rose didn’t see at all.

‘I spoke to Matthew after you left, and I must say I was rather set back by the way he spoke to me. I mentioned that girl’s name, and he was, well, he became quite vulgar about her. I don’t know what’s come over him, but I’m sure there’s more to this than meets the eye. He’ll be here in half an hour. We need to sort this out now, this morning. Can you come? It won’t take you 15 minutes to get here, and we can discuss what it is we’re going to say before Matthew gets here. And come through the back gate. Matthew might not come in if he knows you’re here.’

Aggie spoke quickly, not giving Rose time to comprehend fully what she was saying.

‘It’s very early, Aunt Aggie. There’s the milking …’

‘Rose, if you don’t come I’ll have no choice but to take what you told me to the police.’

‘So you believe Johanna Scotney?’

Aggie paused for effect.

‘Yes, I’m afraid I do. I’ll tell you why when you get here.’

‘All right.’

Aggie collected her thoughts. She had only a vague idea what she was going to do. She had no choice; that much was clear. Matthew’s desecrated body gave her no choice. As she waited for Rose to arrive, she was elated by the sensation that she’d always had this in her, this capacity to act decisively and righteously. She’d never been called on to do so before. Her life had been one of quiet service, but building inevitably to this great test. The burden that Selwyn had placed upon her, and which she’d borne with fortitude, made sense to her now. Her reward wouldn’t be in Heaven — Father Brennan was wrong about that, but he was wrong about most things. Her reward would come to her in a few minutes.

There was one thing she needed to do. She went out into Selwyn’s shed, holding her breath against the fug of body odour and stale air, and picked up his slate. He was sound asleep, and didn’t hear her. Outside, she scratched on its surface, ‘I done it because I hate them.’ She held the slate away from her. That wouldn’t do — the letters were too well formed, and the word ‘because’ was too sophisticated to be convincing. As far as the people of Port Fairy were concerned, Selwyn had no vocabulary at all, but Aggie knew she could claim that this wasn’t the case, and that when he was at home he would often say a few simple things. People saw him scratching away on his filthy slate every day. How would they know whether or not he could form letters?

She cleaned the slate, and in laborious, infantile script, wrote, ‘Me do bad. Them bad, but.’ She was satisfied with that. She wiped around the edges of the slate, put it on the end of his bed, and took up the shovel that leaned near the back door. Matthew kept its blade sharp for her. Just for a moment she faltered, but the opening of the back gate galvanised her. Rose entered the yard, saw Aggie, and raised her hand in a small wave. Aggie strode towards her niece, holding the shovel in both hands. Rose thought nothing of this. Aggie was always digging in the garden.

‘I came as quickly as I could …’ were the last words Rose Abbot spoke. The flat of the shovel caught her full in the face, and she’d barely hit the ground before Aggie drove the blade into the side of her head. Two movements — that was all it took. Aggie had no idea that she had such strength in her body. She began to move rapidly. She wiped her fingerprints from the handle of the shovel, and, using a towel to manoeuvre it, scooped blood into its bowl and splashed it about Selwyn’s shed. She then placed the shovel on the floor beside his bed, used the towel to soak up blood from Rose’s wounds, and smeared Selwyn’s hands and face. He woke up, confused. But by the time he’d sat up, Aggie had locked the shed door and returned to the house.

She telephoned the police, and the exchange put her through to Constable Paddy Filan’s house. He was half awake when Agnes Todd told him that her retarded brother, Selwyn, had gone berserk and murdered her nephew Matthew and her niece Rose. He was safely locked in the shed, but she didn’t know his strength, and someone needed to come immediately. She hung up before Constable Filan could ask any questions. She hoped he would take this as the action of a woman on the edge of hysteria. She then walked out into James Street and waited.

–11–

AS SOON AS
Constable Paddy Filan entered Aggie Todd’s house and saw the bodies of Matthew and Rose, he knew he was out of his depth. There were usually three policemen in Port Fairy, but Sergeant Macpherson was in hospital in Warrnambool with a kidney infection, and the junior constable, Jimmy Doggart, was laid up with a heavy summer cold, made more severe by his asthma. Filan was on his own. He was well liked in the town. His father had been the sergeant here back in the 1920s, so no one was surprised when Paddy Filan had followed in his footsteps. Filan never threw his weight around, and even the Protestants found him agreeable and helpful. He was used to dealing with drunks, and could hold his own in a fight, but he had never seen anything like the scene on Aggie Todd’s property. Selwyn was banging on the locked door of the shed and making noises that sounded like distress. Having quickly checked the state of Rose Abbot’s head, there was no way that Paddy was going to let Selwyn loose. He touched nothing, except Rose’s wrist to make sure that she was dead. There was no need to confirm that Matthew was dead.

Filan telephoned Warrnambool for advice and assistance. He was told what procedures needed to be followed, and he then went out into James Street, where Aggie Todd was sitting on the grass. She seemed to be in a daze. She stared up at Filan as if she couldn’t quite make out why he was there. Her look reminded him of the look he’d once seen on the face of a man who’d been pinned under a tractor — shock, disbelief, wonder. He felt a little like this himself. He knew Miss Todd. He used to see her at Mass, and he knew both Matthew and Rose to say hello to. He knew Selwyn, too, of course. He’d never been any trouble.

‘I know this is very difficult, Miss Todd, but can you tell me anything about what happened here?’

Aggie made to form a word, but appeared unable to do so.

‘Would you like a glass of water?’

Aggie nodded, and Paddy Filan returned to the house. As carefully as he was able to, touching nothing except the glass and the tap, he filled the glass and took it to Miss Todd. She swallowed the water slowly.

‘Can you tell me anything?’

‘Selwyn became violent. I’ve always been afraid that he might. He’s so strong. I don’t know what set him off. I couldn’t stop him.’

‘What did he do?’

‘He strangled Matthew. I didn’t see him do that, but I heard them struggling, and then he came out of the room, looking like a maniac, like some sort of wild animal, and he chased Rosie into the backyard and he …’ She paused, as if what she was about to say was almost too difficult to manage. ‘I saw him take the shovel and hit her in the face with it, and then he, then he …’

‘Yes, I understand. How did you get him into the shed?’

‘I didn’t. It was so strange. He just walked into the shed of his own accord. It’s his bedroom, you see. I rushed out, terrified, and locked the door. It will be dreadfully hot in there.’

‘There’ll be policemen coming from Warrnambool in half an hour. They’ll take him into custody. So, after you’d locked your brother, Selwyn — Selwyn is your brother?’

‘Yes.’

‘After you’d locked him in, what did you do?’

‘I went into the front room to see if Matthew was all right.’

‘You didn’t check on Rose first?’

‘Of course I did. She was right there, and I could see that she was … I checked on Matthew, and I found him sitting there. At first I thought he might be alive, but when I went closer I could see that he wasn’t.’

Constable Filan had been discreetly taking notes while Aggie was talking.

‘Is there someone we can get to come and keep you company?’

‘No, thank you. I don’t think I could bear it. Matthew’s fiancée will have to be told, and Rose’s husband.’

‘I’ve already telephoned Mr Abbot. He’s coming into town as soon as he can.’

‘He’s not coming here!’

‘No, Miss Todd, he’s going to the police station. My wife will meet him there if he gets away from the farm early. I can’t leave here until Inspector Halloran arrives from Warrnambool.’

‘What about that awful Macpherson, or Doggart?’

‘I’m afraid I’m all that there is for a few more days. Can you tell me anything else?’

‘No.’

‘Why were your niece and nephew here at such an early hour?’

Aggie thought quickly. There’d be more of this sort of question. She mustn’t seem flustered.

‘It’s a private, family matter.’

‘I’m sorry, Miss Todd, but privacy is the first thing to go in a murder investigation.’

‘Murder?’

Paddy Filan was taken aback by Aggie’s incredulity.

‘Yes, Miss Todd, murder. That’s what this is.’

Until the word had been spoken, Aggie hadn’t considered that this was the crime
she
had committed. Rose had murdered Matthew. She’d simply dealt with Rose. They hanged people for murder in the state of Victoria. She felt faint, and began breathing rapidly. Paddy Filan diagnosed this as continuing shock. She recovered, her face beaded with sweat.

‘They can’t hang Selwyn, can they? He’s retarded.’

‘I don’t know, Miss Todd. Can you tell me what the private family matter was? Would it help if Father Brennan was here?’

Aggie straightened her shoulders.

‘Father Brennan? Certainly not. If you must know, we were discussing what was to be done about Selwyn. I’m getting too old to look after him. Living on a busy dairy farm is out of the question, and Matthew and Dorothy can’t be expected to take him. They’re getting married soon.’

‘That’s Dorothy Shipman, isn’t it? I didn’t know they were engaged.’

‘Well, they are.’ Aggie realised what she’d said, and choked. Paddy Filan fetched another glass of water.

‘We were discussing putting him somewhere.’

‘The lunatic asylum in Warrnambool?’

‘Somewhere. Perhaps he overheard us, and that’s what set him off.’

Aggie was pleased with this scenario.

‘But why were they here so early?’

‘My nephew and niece work long days, Constable. The very early morning was the only time that suited everyone.’

Among the notes he was taking, Filan made short observations about her demeanour. He’d noticed the sharpness in her reference to John Abbot, and he’d noticed, too, that she always mentioned her nephew ahead of her niece. ‘Niece and nephew’ was the usual order, and surely it was easier to say than ‘nephew and niece’, yet Miss Todd carefully put ‘nephew’ first. But maybe it meant nothing.

The banging on the inside of the shed had stopped. Paddy worried that Selwyn might have passed out in that hot box. He hurried through the house and into the backyard.

‘Selwyn Todd?’ he called.

Scuffling noises and then giggles assured him that Selwyn was fine. Filan had had no experience of a murder scene, let alone the scene of a double murder. He was, however, an observant man, and there was something about this that didn’t fit Miss Todd’s version of what had happened. She, of course, was above suspicion. She was a good, boring, Catholic spinster. The idea that she would have had the strength to strangle Matthew Todd or batter Rose Abbot was ludicrous. Her story of Selwyn going berserk made sense, especially if he’d overheard them planning to lock him up in an asylum. But would Selwyn Todd know what an asylum was? Was Miss Todd covering for someone? No. He put the thought out of his head.

When he returned to the front of the house, Inspector Greg Halloran was pulling up in a police sedan. Close behind him was a second car, this one fitted with a coal burner at the rear. Halloran and a uniformed man got out of one car, and a second uniformed man got out of the other. Aggie, alarmed by the spectacle of so many policemen — whose job it would now be to expose her, and see to it that she was hanged — retched dryly.

CONSTABLE FILAN GAVE
a thumbnail sketch of what they would find beyond the front door. In anticipation of the obvious first query, he said that the suspect was securely held in a shed down the back.

‘His name is Selwyn, sir, and he’s known around here as the village idiot, I’m afraid. Until now, he’s been harmless.’

Inspector Halloran asked if the Port Fairy lock-up had anyone in it at the moment. Paddy Filan said no, and that it rarely had anyone in it for very long — the odd drunk-and-disorderly, but even they mostly staggered home without causing trouble.

‘All right,’ Halloran said. ‘I want this Selwyn character out of harm’s way, so that’s the first job.’

The policemen entered the house, gave a cursory once-over of the body in the front room, and moved through to the backyard, where Rose Abbot’s body lay exposed in full sunlight. Only Greg Halloran had seen anything like this before. The others experienced a mixture of horrified fascination and fear. The man who’d done this was inside that shed, and it was their job to contain him. Paddy Filan pulled back the bolt on the door and swung it open. They’d all been expecting someone to rush out at them. Instead they heard a barking laugh. Halloran called.