Get Charlie Noah

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Charlie watched Ben from a window in the house as he walked slowly around the base of the huge banyan tree. He stopped from time to time, looking up through the tangled roots and branches. He occasionally kicked at the ground. The sun was about to sink behind the jungle in the west. Ben continued to walk around the tree. He stopped again and kicked the toe of a heavy jungle boot into the ground. Then he squatted down and touched the earth with the fingers of his right hand.

Back inside the house he split some of the timber into kindling with his heavy jungle knife and lit a fire on the rusty grate of the ancient oven and cook top. Charlie poured him a glass of red wine. She sat back at the kitchen table and watched him carefully. Ben didn't speak. He poked at the fire and fed in more dry timber kindling.

'What?' she asked.

Ben turned to face her. 'What do you mean; what?'

'What the hell are you up to?' asked Charlie.

'I'm making sure that mice and cockroaches or whatever vacate this oven before I start cooking dinner.'

'What were you up to outside?'

'Nothing much,' said Ben.

'You're not going to tell me, are you?'

Ben opened the small battery operated fridge and took out two large boneless fish steaks. He dropped them on a timber board, drizzled olive oil across them followed with a splash of fresh lime juice and a dusting of Garam Masala, Smokey Paprika and a pinch of Caraway seeds. 'Peter is going to bring down some fresh produce from his garden tomorrow,' said Ben. 'That's very thoughtful of him.'

'You've given him more electricity than he's had in a while,' said Charlie. 'He's good with horses and vegetables but lousy with machines and electricity.'

'A few of your batteries are almost stuffed as well,' said Ben. 'We'll have to arrange to get some brought over from Luganville.'

'You are avoiding my question.'

The moulded handle of Ben's jungle knife, which he had placed on the kitchen bench top, began to rattle. He glanced at it. Charlie looked at it also. Ben walked over to the knife and picked it up. The handle was warm. He drove the point of the knife heavily into a half log at the side of the old fuel oven.

'Must have been an earth tremor,' said Charlie. 'We get them here from time to time.'

'It wasn't an earth tremor,' said Ben. 'He's pissed off because he knows I'll find his grave.'

'What?'

'The man who killed those women comes in here from time to time but he's not strong enough to move the knife. He's pissed off.'

Charlie stared at him.

'Don't leave anything light and sharp lying around,' said Ben as he went back to stove and poked in a few more pieces of kindling.

'I'm sure there are only women in here,' said Charlie.

'Trust me...he comes inside but he's very much hiding in the background. That is why you don't hear much from the women. They're still frightened of him.'

'How do you know this?'

Ben shrugged his shoulders. 'I don't know how I know.'

'What are you going to do if you find his grave?'

'Dig him up,' said Ben as he took a sharp kitchen knife from a drawer and cut open a small bag of jasmine rice.

'Dig him up?'