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‘To look after Jonathan?’
‘Yeah… you should’ve seen him crying, when Rust and Alex died. He seemed to feel it worse than all the rest of us.’
‘You said it was happy at the farm sometimes. Were there other times when—?’
‘Nasty things started happening,’ said the old lady. Her lips had started to tremble. ‘It was Mazu, not Jonathan… it wasn’t Jonathan. It was her.’
‘What kind of nasty things?’ asked Robin, her pen poised over her notebook.
‘Just… punishments,’ said Sheila, her lips still trembling. After a few seconds’ silence, she said,
‘Paul let the pigs out, by accident and Mazu made people hit him.’
‘Can you remember Paul’s surname?’
‘Draper,’ said Sheila, after a slight pause. ‘Everyone called him Dopey. He wasn’t normal. Bit retarded. They shouldn’t have had him looking after the pigs. He left the gate open. Dopey Draper.’
‘Do you know where he is now?’
Sheila shook her head.
‘Do you remember a boy called Jordan whipping himself?’
‘There was lots of times people was whipped. Yeah, I remember Jordan. Teenager.’
‘Would you happen to remember his surname, Sheila?’
Sheila thought a little, then said,
‘Reaney. Jordan Reaney. He was a rough sort. Been in trouble with the police.’
As Robin made a note of Jordan’s surname, the cat beside her, bored of inattention, leapt lightly off the sofa and stalked out of the room.
‘Everything got worse after Daiyu died,’ said Sheila, unprompted. ‘You know who Daiyu was?’
‘Jonathan and Mazu’s daughter,’ said Robin. ‘She drowned, didn’t she?’
‘That’s right. Cherie took her to the beach.’
‘This is Cherie Gittins?’ asked Robin.
‘That’s right. Silly girl, she was. Daiyu bossed her around.’
‘Would you happen to know what happened to Cherie after Daiyu died, Sheila?’
‘Punished,’ said Sheila. She now looked very distressed. ‘All them who were involved were punished.’
‘What d’you mean, “all of them”, Sheila?’
‘Cherie, and the ones who didn’t stop it. The ones who saw them leaving in the truck that morning – but they didn’t know! They thought Daiyu had permission! My Brian, and Dopey Draper, and little Abigail. They was all punished.’
‘Hit?’ asked Robin tentatively.
‘No,’ said Sheila, suddenly agitated. ‘Worse. It was wicked.’
‘What—?’
‘Never you mind,’ said Sheila, her small hands balled into shaking fists. ‘Least said about that… but they knew Brian was ill when they did it to him. He kept losing his balance. Jonathan had been telling him to go and pray in temple, and then he’d be better. But after they punished him, he was much worse. He couldn’t see properly, and they still made him get up and go collecting on the street… and in the end,’ said Sheila, her agitation increasing, ‘Brian was screaming and moaning. He couldn’t get out of bed. They carried him into the temple. He died on the temple floor. I was with him. He’d been quiet for a whole day, and then he died. All stiff on the temple floor. I woke up next to him and I knew he was dead. His eyes were open…’
