Death on Dangar Island

Shelly

Frankie blew a loose strand of frizzy hair out of her eyes and tucked her notebook into her apron. ‘Yeah, sounds good. I need to get off my feet for a minute or two anyway.’ She stepped across the courtyard towards the open door of the cafe and called out for James to bring her a coffee before turning back and sitting down with them.

‘It must have been terrible finding a dead body like that. What did the police say?’

She was warm and engaging and the two men took turns answering her questions, enjoying her attention. She leaned towards Israel and lowered her voice: ‘There’s no suggestion there was anything fishy about her death, is there? All those interviews seemed to take a very long time.’

‘Not at all, Miss Frankie. It was just standard police procedure. They tend to pay close attention when healthy young people turn up dead in their jurisdiction.’

Frankie covered a smile with her hand and put her other hand on his arm. ‘I’m sorry, Israel, please don’t think I’m callous, but it’s been a long time since anyone called me “miss”.’ Her smile dropped and her eyes hardened. ‘I hear on the grapevine they think it was a snakebite. Is that right?’

‘It certainly seems to be what they are thinking.’ He paused and sipped at his coffee, watching, amused, as Frankie eyed off his companion. ‘Frankie?’ he said. Her head twisted sharply back in his direction. ‘Gary tells me you had a break-in at the shop here not so long ago.’

‘Yes. Some of Jamie’s otherworlders broke into the shop. They nicked some smokes and the hundred-dollar float. It was barely enough to make an insurance claim, which is the really annoying bit. Jesus, we’d be better off if they’d burned the place to the ground.’ She stopped short and looked a little shamefaced. ‘They’re lucky Jamie didn’t catch them at it. He’s been on a seriously short fuse the last few weeks.’

‘By ‘otherworlders’ does James mean all people who are not from the island, like us?’ Israel indicated Gary and himself. ‘Or does he mean the emo teenagers in particular?’

‘Just those kids in particular. I don’t know why they come here, but they flock over on the weekends and party hearty.’

‘Did this break-in happen on a weekend?’

‘Come to think of it, no. It was a Wednesday night.’

‘Yet you are sure it was one of these teenagers who broke into the shop?’

‘Well they caught one of them with our stuff in his bedroom … so, yeah, we’re sure it was them. Apparently the police got an anonymous tip. There wasn’t a lot left from what he took, but at least they got him.’

A broad-shouldered bald man marched across the sandstone paving towards them, holding a cup of coffee. Frankie looked up and smiled. ‘Oh, hi. Thanks, babe. This is Israel and Gary. I was just telling them about our break-in the other night.’

James attempted a smile. ‘Bloody little rats. Frankie tell you they caught one of them? Fat lot of good it’ll do. He’ll just get a slap on the wrist, you watch.’

‘Did you know that Israel and Gary were the ones who found that poor girl’s body over on Bradley’s Beach?’

‘Yeah? That’s no good … You never know what these kids are going to get up to next, but Jeez, you don’t expect a dead body, do you?

‘You obviously have a poetic streak, James,’ Israel beamed. ‘Otherworlders is a fitting name for these young people. They have an alien feel to them, like creatures from a fantasy novel. You know, I happened to run into a man named Jon Morris while I was walking up on the hill. He told me that these otherworlders, as you call them, based their party at a property he’d rented out to the son of a friend of his.’

‘Well, aren’t you the privileged one?’ snorted Frankie. ‘I don’t think he’d even bother to raise a finger if I walked by him.’

James pulled a face. ‘Yeah, richest man on the island and he doesn’t even come into the shop. We’ve got customers who spend more money here in a week than he does all bloody year. Pretty ordinary, not supporting the only shop on the island, I reckon.’

Gary smiled his empathy, and James watched on as his wife beamed across the table at the big blond man.

‘So, were you concerned about the party that happened the other night, James?’ asked Israel. ‘The rental house where it took place must be near here.’

James switched his gaze back to Israel. ‘Yeah, it’s just round the corner from us.’ He pointed off to the left. ‘Too close for comfort for me. I knew those ratbags had a party planned, so I spent a bit of time out here making sure things were locked up and checking they weren’t hanging around. There was a fair whack of noise coming from over there but, other than that, it was all okay. No one came down to the pier here like I expected – I guess they learned their lesson after their mate got carted off to the cop station.’

Frankie laughed. ‘He didn’t do a very good job of standing guard. He fell asleep and spent half the night out here! Poor thing’d had a few beers with his friends on the mainland that afternoon and just couldn’t keep his eyes open.’ She stuck her tongue out across the table as he pouted.

‘Tell me, James, how did you know the party was going to be held there?’

‘Oh, I got a water taxi back to the island earlier that afternoon and I happened to share it with a couple of those kids. Sam dropped them off at the rocks in front of Deep Water.’

Israel made a low humming noise and looked out over the river.

Gary stuck his finger in his ear and scratched, his face contorting with the effort. ‘I thought that water taxi bloke was pricey?’

James waved the question away. ‘Yeah, he is. Sam gave me a freebie.’

The others looked at him expectantly.

‘He had the fare anyway, so he called me over and told me to hop in. We dropped the otherworlder kids off and then he dropped me here.’

‘You never told me that,’ said Frankie.

His lips pressed together. ‘Well, you didn’t ask. And, anyway, like you said, I’d had a couple of beers. I guess it just slipped my mind.’ Glancing up, he mumbled excuses about people waiting at the counter and slunk off. Israel watched James drift back across the courtyard to the shop. He couldn’t see any potential customers.

Frankie read the look on Israel’s face. She blew her fringe away again and shrugged her shoulders without speaking. Israel summoned his most charming smile and opened his palms, eyebrows raised. He remembered the lines of Shelley he’d seen posted on the wall of the shop’s back office.

And the sunlight clasps the earth,

And the moonbeams kiss the sea –

What are all these kissings worth,

If thou kiss not me?