Valley of Sinners Ch. 08

SO FAR: Divorcee Hope Honeybun has commissioned Nash Carson to write a novel based on her colorful and turbulent life, much of which spans the time she has lived in the valley But as Nash learns more about the development of the valley and about her lusty father and his three illigitimate children. He confirms through his research that this indeed is a Valley of Sinners and becomes entangled in that himself. This interloper and sinner also has the prospect of finding real love as Hope’s youngstest daughter Lisa comes home to be near him. Just when he accepts the novel is becoming Hope’s biography, the extended Bronkovic family applies pressure successfully to have the book cover a history of winemaking in the valley and dwell on all prominent personalities involved. Hope’s house has been burgled and it appears the break-in was to secure all of Nash’s work so far including write-ups of interviews, notebooks and work save to computer disks and the back-up CDs. The intruder or intruders also seriously injured Hope’s beloved dog Monty.

*

Lisa Honeybun who’d just arrived home from Australia rushed from the garage with a piece of heavy plywood and she held it up as Nash gently slid the unconscious terrier Monty on to it. Lisa’s mother Hope came running with a blanket to place over her constant companion. The improvised plywood stretcher was too wide to go into the cab of the pick-up so Hope clambered into the tray and helped with the lift as Monty was placed down beside her.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Nash shouted. “I want to check to make sure no one is in the house. Lisa we’ll leave you here with a loaded shotgun but I doubt anyone will return. I want you to phone the police and when they arrive tell them what’s happened.”

Nash was back within a couple of minutes. “It’s been a specific raid; the intruder or intruders were after my research material so Lisa, come with us as I now prefer you to be with us supporting your mother; leave the door unlocked and phone the police as we go. Come on, run.”

On the way to the village Lisa leaned out the window and shouted back to Hope that Nash believed the house had been raided to everything connected to the book project.

“Who’d do that,” Hope yelled.

“We have no idea – we were expecting you to have your suspicion.”

“I’m sure it won’t be the Bronkovic’s,” Hope shouted. “I’m thinking Tremain Hausman but what would be his motive? There’s no change in Monty.”

The vet confirmed Monty was still alive; it appeared the Jack Russell had been kicked a glancing blow to the head and kicked heavily in the chest. Being such a light dog probably meant the force lifted threw him some distance which would have soften the blows to save Monty from having his ribs caved in to probably puncture his lungs and other organs.

“These terriers are tough little sods,” the vet said cheerfully. “I’ll stitch him up and if we can stop any spread of infection my opinion is he’ll pull through. Hullo, what’s this?”

The vet reached into Monty’s mouth and pulled out a little piece of fawn material.

“I think your plucky guard dog has taken a piece out of the intruder’s pants ,” said the vet.

Nash whispered something to Hope, who looked shocked and said, “Well I insist you take Neven: don’t you dare go there alone.”

“Good thinking, you two go back to the house – call Mimi to give you a lift. Bye.”

He waved and was gone after asking Hope call and brief Neven and ask him to be waiting outside the winery.

Three minutes later Nash arrived at the winery – Neven and Drago were waiting on the roadside. The climbed aboard looking exciterd as Nash planted his foot and the V8 engine propelled the pick-up forward, burning rubber.

“Wow, has this ugly sod of a vehicle has real power,” said the impressed Drago. Nash had long being aware of many unused ‘horses’ under the bonnet – a term used by Hope; now was the opportunity to use them.

“So, if we find Tremain with a dog bite on his leg we know he is our man.”

“We’ll sure will Neven,” Nash said grimly, concentrating on the road ahead.

Arriving at the Hausman Winery they turned beside it in a power broadside, with Drago yelling ‘yippee!’ They rattled over the cattle stop and up the metal track to the Hausman homestead. Nash slowed to a crawl to avoid announcing their arrival.

The charged up Nash led the race around the house and was first through the backdoor by several yards. He saw Tremain sitting on a chair with his ripped moleskin trouser leg pulled up. Catherine was tying off a bandage.

With a roar, Tremain hobbled over to a gap between the dresser and the wall to pick up a small calibre rifle and aimed at Nash. There was no way of knowing if it was loaded.

Neven and Drago burst into the room, Neven turning left and charged Tremain, Drago racing around the other side of the table. Momentarily confused by the suddenness of this second wave of home invasion, Tremain waggled the rifle from left to right and back again.

Neven simply reached out and with his huge meaty hand ripped the rifle from Tremain’s hand, breaking Tremain’s index finger that had been inside the trigger guard. Neven ejected a cartridge from the chamber and pulled out the loaded clip.

Nash and Drago lifted Catherine to her feet; she’d been thrown to the ground by her husband’s charge to get the rifle.

Taking one look at the blood from Catherine’s nose which had run on to her tee-shirt and the angry welt where she’d been savagely slapped earlier over both cheeks, Neven shouted, “You cowardly bastard!” Tremain anticipated what Neven had in mind and threw the first punch, catching Neven hard on the chest. Neven didn’t seem to notice the heavy blow. He hooked his right fist into Tremain’s soft midriff and as Tremain sank gasping towards the floor Neven hit him with his left fist on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.

Catherine fell sobbing into Nash’s arms, saying that she never should have given Nash that long lists of grievances and allegations against her husband.

“The villain has been keeping Catherine virtually a prisoner in her own home,” Nash told the Bronkovic’s. “He rarely let her out of his sight and had her so brain-washed and terrorized that she even refused to go out with him. The guard dog was to keep her in her studio when he was away from the property.”

They sat down with Drago pouring Catherine a brandy and the three men decided to have one too.

Nash continued, “Catherine had given me two long interviews making all kinds of allegations, including Tremain forcing her to sign across assets to him. He could deny all that, of course, alleging that she’d become an embittered woman and was now seeking to destroy his good character. However, the evil get greedy and she gave me copies of three documents which she had managed to photocopy. She also handed across to me two A4 original sheets on which he’d practised copying her signature and unwisely made some incriminating – at least I think they are incriminating – dates and notations between batches of those trial signatures. He also has boasted that he has a wife in Melbourne which requires investigation, as perhaps she is his first wife, never been divorced. But what he really came after today were a folder of copies of pages from his diary Catherine sent me yesterday via a washing machine repair man who’d been called her to fix a fault in the machine. He found a man’s sock jammed in the water outlet pipe by clever-thinking Catherine.”

“This man’s truly evil,” Drago said.

Catherine sobbed and she said, “He told me he dropped everything into a so-called bottomless pit in the limestone quarry – there are scores of them in a fault going through the limestone. He says they all have water in them. So Nash’s laptop and papers will be ruined already and he said he smashed every CD he’d found. He reckons they include all back-up disks.”

“Oh Christ,” said Neven. “That’s all your work gone for naught, Nash.”

Nash grinned, saying that he backs-up all of his computer’s working files nightly, writing first to CD and then e-mailing a copy to his home computer.

“All I have lost are my laptop on which I do most of my transcribing plus all of my original material. But all original material was scanned, including the diary pages I received yesterday evening before I did my back-ups. So in effect I can retrieve a copy of everything I have written or scanned. I’d had two hard disks crashes in the past and lost everything. Those bad experiences encouraged me to be meticulous about back-ups, For this project I added off-site back-up storage, knowing my dependence of stored electronic data when I ultimately commence writing many months later.”

“You’re a bright boy,” Neven said. “What now?”

“Let’s tie Tremain up and get him to Hope’s home to the police,” Nash said. “You better come with us, Catherine, as they’ll need a preliminary statement from you. Bring his diary.”

Neven and Drago rode in the back with the tied and gagged and now conscious Tremain propped between them. They arrived at the Hope’s home to find two police vehicles outside plus a home repairs contractor who was measuring up for a replacement front door.

A police constable strode over to the pick-up and was startled to see a trussed up man in the tray.
“Get your boss man, sonny,” Neven said to the young constable. “We’ve captured the villain for you.”

“I’ll get the sergeant,” said the constable hurrying off, looking back twice as if checking to make sure it wasn’t a hoax.

An attractive but no-nonsense female sergeant emerged looking at them curiously. “And who are you and what do we have here?” she asked. “I am Sergeant Elizabeth Norris, of the Henderson Police.

“This man beside me, Tremain Hausman is the guy who kicked the dog almost to death, kicked the door down and made off with computers and private documents either owned by the owner of this house, Mrs Hope Honeybun, or her writer, Nash Carson who is standing beside you. I am Neven Bronkovic, of the Te Henui Winery, and the distressed lady sitting in the front seat of this vehicle, the crook’s wife, Catherine Hausman, will corroborate what I have just told you as well as supply further incriminating evidence against her evil husband.”

“Thank you Neven, I am Mary Stitchberry’s married daughter, a friend of your wife’s.”

“Oh Elizabeth, of course. I did not recognise you in clothes, I mean in uniform.”

The sergeant grinned at Neven and asked Catherine to accompany her inside for a cup of coffee and to make a formal statement.

“Constable, bring in the suspect for questioning please.”

Without speaking and working as a well-drilled unit, Neven and Drago lifted up Tremain and dropped him face down on to the grass.

“Tsk, tsk, boys,” the sergeant smiled. “We have no wish to charge you with the unnecessary assault of your prisoner.”

“He just slipped, ma’am,” Drago said impassively, “just as his boot slipped when it thudded twice into Hope’s lovely little dog.”

Hope and Lisa, who’d been told to wait inside, came running out, Hope rushing to help Catherine get out of the Chevy and Lisa going Nash to make sure he was all right.

“Yes, yes; don’t fuss,” he grinned.

“Nash, good news and bad news,” called Hope. “Monty has come around and has taken in some liquid. He’ll have to stay at the veterinary clinic for a couple of days to ensure there is no infection. Charles says Monty should be back to his usual self in a month, perhaps sooner.”

“That’s great,” replied Nash.

“Yeah,” Drago added. “Cute dog like his owner.”

“That’s really great news, he’s a tough little dog,” Neven said, sounding quite emotional.

“Okay, what’s the bad news?”

“Terrible new actually, Nash,” Hope aid, beginning to sob. “Everything connected with the book has gone as far as I can see – even my computer. It’s a total cleanout; this is devastating.”

Nash took her by the shoulders and pressed her head sideways against his chest.

“My computer is insured and I guess yours will be too. So we’ll get new ones. I’ve got an electronic backup of everything I’ve written and transcribed or scanned. Everything and it’s all in a safe place.”

“Oh,” Hope wailed, “you wonderful boy. You definitely are the right man for my daughter.”

“Mother! Do you have to be so embarrassing; we’re not even an item, yet.”

“Come on, everyone, upstairs,” Sergeant Norris grinned. ‘It’s well past lunchtime and everyone will be hungry. Constable Perkins, here’s a chit that I’ve just signed. Go into the village and get $50 dollars of fish and $20 of chips, and make sure you’re not short-measured or short-changed.”

“Yes, Serg. I’m on my way.”

* * *

It was almost 4:00 when Tremain’s solicitor, Thomas Brewster arrived. He greeted Lisa warmly; when a teenager she’d occasionally stayed at his home, being a pony club friend of Shona, his youngest daughter, and Lisa had been one of Shona’s bridesmaids.

Eve Livingston, the barrister mother of one of Lisa’s old school friends, had arrived almost an hour earlier to represent Catherine Hausman and others. Tremain had warned that he would be lodging a complaint of assault and home invasion against Neven, Drago and Nash and possibly a complaint of attempted grievous bodily harm against Neven. For most of the past hour Eve had been shut away in the upstairs office with Neven, Drago, Hope and Nash trying to determine exactly what had happened, why it had happened and what part each of them had played.

Thomas spent less than ten minutes with Tremain before he came charging out and complained, “Where are these assailants. Sergeant, I want them charged and taken into custody.”

“I’m sorry Mr Brewster but the only person at the moment to be taken into custody will be your client.”

Thomas bristled. “I beg your pardon?”

“I have had the benefit of taken statements from all those involved, and your client will be facing more serious charges than breaking and entering. Mrs Hausman had collaborated most of the charges being made against her husband. I suggest that you take her into the downstairs bedroom and question her. In particular ask her about Mr Hausman’s diary which is now in my custody.”

Lisa was most impressed with the patient and demeanour of the sergeant when a simple breaking and entering incident turning into something much more serious.

With evidence mounting against Tremain, including his ripped trouser leg, an obvious dog bite to that leg and three witnesses saying they had seen the vet remove the missing piece of moleskin from the mouth of Monty, Sergeant Norris issued a new order. She instructed Constable Perkins to go the veterinary clinic and take a statement from the vet and return with the piece of material from the dog’s mouth that remained in his possession.

* * *

Tremain, you’re done for, though Lisa. What a stupid twit keeping a diary of your mental, physical and financial victories over your wife.

Lisa now greatly admired Catherine who’d lived partly in terror of her husband and had been mentally abused by him, yet the swine had still had failed to break her spirit. Indeed, it seemed that she was now in the process of ensuring that his future cell door would be his home for quite a number of years.

Thomas came up the stairs with Catherine, looking quite shaken although he wore a smile of sorts.

Lisa heard him tell the sergeant that Catherine had told a completely different story to her husband, and it seemed she had some hard evidence to back up her allegations. No doubt the police in Victoria would be asked to enquire into the allegation his client was suspected of having committed bigamy.

“All that notwitshstanding, when I am at the police station with my client we will lay charges of assault against Neven and Drago Bronkovic and Nash Carson and my client wants a dangerous dog order being taken out on the terrier that was on this property and for it to be put down.”

Lisa couldn’t believe her ears. Catherine had told her that her husband had pointed a loaded gun at Nash and Neven had managed to disarm him and knock him to the ground when Tremain turned ugly. Later, when unloading the trussed up Tremain from the pick-up he’d resisted the start of the transfer into police custody and had slipped from their grasp, falling on to grass rather than concrete as he was being lifted from the tray.

Lawyer Eve came into the room with the people she’d been questioning. Before going off to talk alone with Catherine, she told Lisa not to worry. Charges of assault against a man with a reputation for being pugnacious, who was accused of a number of felonies, were unlikely to stick unless it could be proven conclusively that undue force was used in his apprehension.

“We’ll get a better idea down at the police station,” she said, smiling confidently.

There was quite a procession to the police station. The first police car with the sergeant and two constables and the suspected felon left first closely followed by the two legal representatives, with Catherine traveling with Eve. After them followed Lisa and Hope in the Rover, followed by Nash in the Chevy with Neven and Drago, who had called Mimi to let her know what was happening.

At the police station a chief inspector asked each of the witnesses taken before him separately, to read and confirm that statements taken by Sergeant Norris, as being true and accurate account of their involvement. The statements were then signed.

The chief inspector questioned Tremain Hausman in the presence of Sergeant Norris, a constable operating the recording equipment and solicitor Thomas Brewster. After forty minutes Chief Inspector Tawa re-entered the waiting room with Thomas; Lisa saw that Thomas was not a happy man.

“You all can leave as soon as the sergeant has confirmed your contact details,” Mr Tawa said. “Tremain Wilson Hausman has just been charged with breaking and entering and further charges against him are likely. Hausman’s complaints alleging home invasion and assault against various individuals have carefully considered, along with the statements of individuals involved. In my considered opinion there is no case to answer in respect of any individual or individuals collectively so no further action is contemplated by the police unless further substantial evidence is brought to our attention. It is Mrs Hausman’s contention that the three men who entered the home did so with her consent and they went to her assistance using reasonable force to restrain her enraged husband who already had beaten her and was waving a loaded gun around in a most dangerous matter. If Mr Hausman wishes to pursue his complaints alleging assault and home invasion he may do so, of course, by way of private prosecution.”

Lisa saw Drago and Neven shrug but was unable to catch Nash’s reaction because he was hugging the still distraught Catherine Hausman.

“You may see your husband now, if you wish, said the chief inspector.

“No thank you, I’m going home with my friends,” replied Catherine, now being held by Hope.

Lisa waved to Nash as he drove off with Neven and Drago in the Chevy. She sat in the back of the Rover, holding Catherine who was almost asleep.

“Take her to our house, mum,” Lisa urged. “The new door should be on by now and she’ll sleep better in our environment.”

“An excellent idea. Catherine can have your bed and you can sleep with me.”

“I’ll think about that,” Lisa said softly, knowing that he mother – although driving – would turn quickly to look at her, so she set her face in the stubborn, impenetrable expression that Hope knew so well. In Lisa’s teenager years her mother used to say in anger, ‘You’ve got that look on your face – you’re not giving in are you, you little bitch!’

Checking the road ahead, Hope swung round, but saw the look. She frowned and turned back to concentrate on driving.