Yadwiga had returned to the lounge room. Ray had opened the wine and poured about half a glass for each of them. After sitting on the floor for a while, she joined Ray on the couch. They had hugged, perhaps they had kissed. She is sorry but she finds it hard to remember such small things now. “Please continue, Mrs. Quinlan,” entreated the Prosecutor. “You are doing very well.”
They had been together that way on the couch for some five to ten minutes when she heard the sound of the sliding door at the rear of the house. A few moments later Carly came in and said that there was someone on the back verandah. Yadwiga told her to go back to bed and that she would take a look. She told the jury that she had not been concerned. Ray was behind her by this time. He told her not to go. She went anyway, out through the sliding door from the lounge room to the driveway and in the direction of the garage, which was at the back of the property. A white car was parked outside the drive in the street. Geoff’s car was white. She had assumed it was his car. “It’s only Geoff,” she said, assuming Ray was behind her. She looked through the garage window, thinking that perhaps Geoff had crept into the garage. Geoff was not there.
The witness had the full attention of each of the jurors and, indeed, of everyone in court. The plump woman’s hands felt cool on her face as she heard how Yadwiga had whispered, “Geoff, where are you?” Why had she whispered? To avoid waking her son perhaps. Carly was not only still up but very upset by the time Yadwiga got back to the lounge room. She told her mother simply, “Geoff is in the back.” The witness said she did not know where Ray was when Carly had told her this. She told the court how she ran to the back of the house and into the rear hallway and it was there, outside her son’s bedroom, that she saw Geoff slumped on the floor.
Yadwiga had taken his hand to help him to his feet. Then she saw a pool of blood. Carly was screaming by now that someone should call an ambulance. Yadwiga told the jury that she did not see Ray during this time. From the time she came back into the house to the time she found Geoff on the floor, she had neither heard nor seen anything. She remembered wondering where Ray was sometime during everything that happened and even looking in his car but she was unable to say whether that was before or after the ambulance arrived. When she realized he was no longer there, she phoned him at his place but got his answering machine. Then she took her children with her into her bedroom. What did they all do in the bedroom? Nothing. They held each other and waited.
I know you don’t like thinking about it. I understand why. I was the one who told you not to think about it afterwards. Remember? Come on, you remember that. Good. I am on your side, Carly, but just for a few days you have to remember as much as you can. That’s all you have to do and then it will be over and you can forget about it again. Yes, I promise. Yes, you can go swimming. And horse riding. There’s a place not far from where we live. Where I live. I don’t know why. I meant not far from here, where I live. How’s your mother taking it? It’ll be over soon. Anything about the gun yet?
Although Ricky had owned various guns, Yadwiga said there were no guns on the property on the night Geoff died. She could identify the material shown in the police photograph as some kind of cloth car seat cover but it did not belong to her or to Ricky and she had never seen it before that evening.
Yadwiga remembered Geoff coming over about two weeks before his death. He was upset and had said, “Don’t ever leave me, always be there for me.” She remembered his words. Counsel for the defense asked her how she had responded to this. She said that she thought Geoff was being a bit “over the top” but she gave him a hug as a friend would and told him, “I’m there for all my friends.” At various times throughout the year Geoff had seemed dissatisfied with his work and with his lot in life generally. He would often tell her about a problem he was having at work with some project involving satellites. He seemed to regard his work as a series of challenges to be met. Yadwiga found that admirable. On the last few occasions before his death that Yadwiga had seen him, he had said nothing about his work. On that night two weeks before his death they had been drinking but they were just merry, not drunk, and he told her again that he had feelings that he should not have. He didn’t mention the project at work that night, the one about satellites. Yadwiga had been embarrassed. She thought this was understandable. The day after it happened she told Ray about it. It was understandable that she should find it embarrassing. The plump woman ran her finger between her collar and her neck.
Yadwiga said that she was not particularly upset by Geoff’s declaration and neither was Ray. It was just that it would make things uncomfortable for them in the future, for all of them, that was all. Ray was staying over two or three nights a week by this time. There had been some discussion about him taking a caravan to Bruthen and living in it there. This option had come up because of his work. It would have had the benefit of cutting down his living expenses. He would not have been able to see Yadwiga as frequently if this had eventuated, but at the time, she said, they had had no plans to change the nature of the relationship.
Counsel for the defense suggested that although the curtains to the lounge room were drawn, there might have been gaps. She agreed. The light was on? She agreed. Someone outside could have seen her and Ray on the couch together. Yadwiga agreed. At the time that Carly had said to her that Geoff was in the house, Yadwiga now knows, Geoff was already dead. She could no longer remember whether Carly had initially said there was a prowler outside or just that someone was outside. Carly had been concerned that someone was moving around outside the house and she wanted her mother to do something about it. After looking in the garage at the back, Yadwiga had gone to the front of the house where the white car was parked. She had peered inside the car before going back to the house.
When she found Geoff on the floor, she did not think he was dead. She had heard nothing in the two or so minutes between leaving the house to search outside and returning to find the deceased in the hallway outside her son’s room. At the time she left the lounge room to search for Carly’s “prowler,” she was not aware of Ray coming with her or being in her presence with any kind of wrapped parcel in his hand. She was not aware that he had brought in any parcels, other than the food, when he had arrived with the chicken and wine. Yadwiga explained which parts of her house were shown in each of the police photos: the kitchen, the lounge room, the porch and outside sliding door where wood was kept for the fire, tools, a broom and spade. The juror with the bra strap thought of the barbecued chicken and coleslaw she liked to have in summer. Red wine goes well with potato salad. Beer too. She had been at the beach one night when someone had died. Drowned, she thought. Coleslaw has mayonnaise. Best kept out of the heat.
When Yadwiga had bent down to lift Geoff from the floor, she did not see any wounds on him but she did see the pool of blood on the floor in the hallway. Everything had happened so quickly. Counsel said quietly that he understood this and checked the order of the pages piled on the lectern of the bar table. When she saw Geoff in the hallway, he was slumped as though he was sitting down. This was not the way he was in photograph seventy-three.
The juror in the yellow T-shirt wondered about this. What could it mean? How could she not remember the car seat cover? It was right there in the photograph. They all had it in front of them. Unless she was going to try to suggest the police put it there: was that it? But why would they do that? Was it Ray’s car seat cover? The cops don’t really do things like that. Unless they already knew this bloke, Ray. But if he had a shady past, it would’ve come out already. Look at him in the dock. Stupid bastard. He’s gone. Why couldn’t he have killed someone, someone touching up Yadwiga and someone storing that rust heap of an MG in his garage, Yadwiga’s—in Ricky’s garage? He could have. Didn’t the police plant a glove or something in the O.J. Simpson case? A glove. What kind of man wears gloves, except for driving? That’s okay. Michael Jackson. Can’t laugh here. That poor bastard is no Michael Jackson. Look at him. Why doesn’t he say something. Whe
n is he going to say something? Where did the car seat cover come from, you faggot? She’s bull-shitting us.
Carly was screaming. Yadwiga remembered that clearly. It was around then her son had woken up. He had slept through the struggle and the gunshot, if there was any struggle. She didn’t see any. She got there too late to see any struggle. Her son had jumped over the body. He was in his pajamas. She sent him and Carly into her bedroom. The telephone was kept in the hallway. The kids had taken to making prank calls. Ray had never been the jealous kind. He didn’t own a gun. He had never mentioned owning a gun. She said her children knew Geoff well. They had always called him by name. She could not understand, even now, why he didn’t respond.
Ray didn’t move to Bruthen, after all. She was still with him. They were still together. The dumpy woman moved her hand down along the gap between the two sides of her blazer, fingers feeling for the lapel. There wasn’t one.
Just do your best. Be polite. Answer all their questions, and if you can’t remember something, just say you can’t remember. If you’re not sure, just say you’re not sure. The only thing you have to be sure of is that you saw him do it. Just like you told me. Well, ask her for something to help you sleep. But don’t say it was my idea.
On the morning Carly was due to give evidence, the plump woman brought her son and her daughter, Amy, with her to court and sat them on either side of her. During the morning break Carly and Amy stole glances at each other through the traffic of adults in the court, but they did not speak. Carly tugged on her right earlobe and her tongue came out of the left side of her mouth. A tug to the left ear made her tongue slide to the right. Her friend smiled. In return, she pulled the skin around one eye away from the other eye. Carly was almost twelve when her friend’s father came to visit one night and was killed.
Carly told the Court that she had been ill that day and had not eaten anything except jelly beans until the dinner Ray had brought. After dinner she had gone to her bedroom, where she had read and listened to the top forty for a while. She had been half asleep for about an hour when two headlights shone through the window from the street near the drive, waking her up. They were left on for a few seconds before being turned off. There were no sounds. She lay awake in her bed. Someone came out of the car and walked slowly towards the front of the house. Carly looked out of her bedroom window into the driveway. There was an adult near the rose garden. She thought it was a man.
He walked towards the rear sliding glass doors and then back towards the car and out of her view. She did not think he actually came through the sliding doors, only up to them. Perhaps she had not been sure it was a man. It’s hard to say because of what she knows now. She could not recognize him and she went into the lounge room to tell her mother someone was outside. As she left the bedroom it seemed to her that the person outside was walking back towards the car. Her mother and Ray were sitting together on the couch. “Somebody is outside,” she told them.
They got up to go to the lounge room sliding door and outside. She followed them as far as the door. Her mother went towards the garage at the back, Ray towards the drive at the side. Carly stood still. In the driveway light she saw Ray go to the driver’s seat of his car and pull out an object wrapped in some kind of dark material. The object was obscured by the material. She could not make out what it was except to say that it was about a meter long. Ray then caught up with her mother, who was now walking back in the direction of the car parked in the street. She heard her mother say, “Oh, it’s Geoff’s car.” Carly saw her mother go back towards the house before losing sight of her. Throughout this time she had not moved from the lounge room sliding door. She does not remember where Ray went.
Carly went back to her bedroom and stayed there for about five minutes before going into the hallway. As she turned right to enter her brother’s room, she saw, in the dark, a figure in a business suit leaning against the wall of the hallway. Geoff wore business suits and she assumed it was him. She said hello. There was no reply. She went back to the lounge room to tell her mother that Geoff was there. Her mother was sitting on the couch with Ray. She told them Geoff was in the back. She does not remember now the exact words she used. She walked back the way she had come with Ray following behind her. He was carrying an object wrapped in material. Her mother did not go with them.
Ray was carrying the object with the material around it in his right hand. As they reached Carly’s bedroom she stepped in, out of the hallway, but Ray kept going. When he reached the figure in the hallway he told him to get out and turned on an adjacent light. He said something like “Get out, you fucking cunt.” She thinks he said that at about the time she saw the light go on. This was when she was hiding in her room behind the door in the triangular space defined in a corner of her room when the door was open. From there she could partially see down the hallway between the hinges of the door.
Ray was shouting at him. She doesn’t remember what else he said. He had removed the material from the object he was carrying as they had walked down the hall. It must have been before she turned off into her room or she would not have seen it. He sort of pushed Geoff. She had not seen what was under the material but thought it was a gun. He pushed him over a bit and then just shot him. She heard a thud and then the sound of a slow drip from somewhere, something liquid. She saw little bits of Geoff, like his sleeve, through the hinge gaps. Ray nudged him with his arms, just a little push, and then he shot him. She heard the gun and then a dripping on the floor. From the triangle in her bedroom she waited and heard Ray walk back up the hallway to the front of the house. A car door was opened and a car was started and driven away. She had assumed it was Ray who had driven off. Then she left her bedroom to find her mother.
When Carly reached her mother, Yadwiga did not know that Geoff had been shot. Her mother had told her that she had not heard the gun. Over the next few days Carly spoke about it to many people, including her father, Ricky, who had wanted to know every detail, particularly everything that Ray had done. When it was suggested to her that she could not possibly have seen all that she said she saw from the triangle in her bedroom, Carly disagreed. She knew what she saw and what she heard. Five or ten seconds after Ray had told him to get out of the house, she heard a loud bang. Immediately after the bang came a soft sound and a dripping. She could not remember if she used the word prowler when she first saw someone in the driveway, but she did not think she subsequently told her mother and Ray that a guy was inside the back of the house. Carly had seen him clearly by then and, although he had not said hello back to her, she knew who it was, that it was Geoff. She told both her mother and Ray that Geoff was in the house. She did say guy sometimes, but not when she knew the person’s name. His name was Geoff.
I’m sure it’s not you, nothing you’ve done. You haven’t done anything. Her mother probably wouldn’t let her. Well, it’s a courtroom for Christ’s sake. Her father died. He was killed and this is the trial of his killer. You saw him do it. It’s a disaster for them. Well, try to put yourself in her mother’s position. They’d be devastated. She has to bring up two little kids on her own all because of what happened . . . what Ray did. Whether it’s murder or not probably doesn’t make much difference to Amy’s mother. Or to Amy. No, not till it’s over, and anyway, if anyone rings her, it had better be me, not your mother. Yes, I will but not till after the trial. You did your best, didn’t you? Then you should be proud of yourself. I am sure they did. Why shouldn’t they believe you? You just said what you saw. Told them about the gun. What you saw from your room. You did see it, you know you did. We’ve gone over it so often. You’ve done everything right. Oh, she’ll get over it. She didn’t see everything you saw. You told the truth. She can’t not talk to you forever. She will when it’s all over, I promise.
Deli Bishop was the owner of Superior Cleaning Services. At the request of the police Victim Liaison Officer, she attended the Quinlan home on Saturday the fifth of March and cleaned the house. She believed that the polic
e had already finished their investigation of the crime scene, otherwise she would not have been allowed to clean. This was the rule at crime scenes, and Superior Cleaning specialized in these sorts of cases. Deli Bishop had seen it all: brain, intestine, fetal fragments, bone and soft muscle tissue, all clinging to or embedded in the walls and soft furnishings of the places she had cleaned. They also did office work on a contract basis. They had to, she explained. There was not enough of the other.
It was Deli who found the dark car seat cover with blood on it. She remembers it had a hole in it and she asked the lady of the house, a Mrs. Yadwiga Quinlan, what she ought to do with it. The police had missed it, she supposed, or else they felt it was unimportant. They always took the things they needed before she was called in, the things they consider important to the case. In the end she had it incinerated. No one seemed to want it and it was filthy.
Lionel Kravitz had taken the oath before. He held the Bible in his right hand as he was asked to do but placed his middle finger within its pages, making it a book with two halves. He was the Psychiatric Registrar at Dandenong Hospital. At around one forty-five a.m. on Saturday the fifth of March, he examined Ray Islington, mostly in the presence of Mr. Islington’s solicitor, who kept coming in and out of the room. Dr. Kravitz observed that the patient was manifesting extreme anxiety. Mr. Islington was clearly upset, but the doctor felt constrained in the questions he could ask him. The solicitor had advised the patient not to speak to the doctor about the events that had caused his anxiety.