Cry Blue Murder Read online

  Kim Kane was born in London in a bed bequeathed by Wordsworth to . . . ‘a writer, a painter or a poet.’ Despite this auspicious beginning, she went on to practise law. Kim lives with her family in Melbourne. She writes whenever and wherever she can.

  Marion Roberts is a creative writer residing in Melbourne. Cry Blue Murder is her third novel. She has a masters in creative writing from the University of Melbourne and is currently studying performance writing at the Victorian College of the Arts.

  Also by Kim Kane

  Pip: The Story of Olive

  Family Forest

  The Vegetable Ark

  The Unexpected Crocodile

  Also by Marion Roberts

  Sunny Side Up

  Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Storms

  For Mum and Dad, with love and thanks;

  and to Marion Roberts (Co) without whom this novel would never have been a novel at all

  xKim

  To Kim Kane – for the fun, intrigue and even the sometimes frustrating parts of writing a book by phone and email late at night, among twins and teens, a day job and a wedding – I couldn’t ask for a better co-author

  Thank you Co xx

  WITNESSES

  Subject to the exercise of the prosecutor’s discretion at the trial, the Director of Public Prosecutions proposes to call all witnesses except those whose names are marked with an asterisk (*).

  Layton Keith BARNARD

  Elizabeth Jane FELD

  Terrence BARNES

  Susan Frances ROWE

  Ajay MEHTA

  Cleo Jane BEASLEY*

  Grahame John BEASLEY

  DSC Maurice BELL

  ADS Wayne NEWBURY

  ADS Peter DAVIS

  DS Ben NEWMAN

  Bridget WANG*

  SC Eva LUERS

  Description:

  PLEASE INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN THIS GROUP TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT HALLIE. YOUR SUPPORT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED.

  Privacy Type:

  Open: All content is public.

  Admins: Claire Knight (creator)

  Recent News:

  Our dear Hallie is missing. We are naturally very concerned and hope that she will be found safe as soon as possible. In the meantime, this is a difficult period for our family and Hallie’s friends. We will not be saying anything further publicly for the time being and ask that the media respect our privacy.

  Kelly Hibbard I had tears in my eyes when I saw her parents talking about Hallie on TV. I don’t know how they do it, it is so sad to think of how helpless they seem in finding Hallie.

  19th April at 6.01pm

  Melissa Patterson I PASS ON MY SYMPATHY AS NO FAMILY IS MEANT TO GO THRU THIS SORT OF THING.......2 CLOSE 2 HOME. LUV THE PATTERSON FAMILY......................THINKING OF U ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  19th April at 7.35pm

  Celia Beasley This is horrible! Much love to the Knight family. I only saw Hallie at gym but I am still so sorry. It’s terrible to recognise someone missing.

  20th April at 12.11am

  Tamsin Forrester Dear Claire, We are thinking of you and the family at this dreadful time. Much love to you all, Tamsin, Michael and the boys. x

  20th April at 2.34pm

  Claire Knight

  CANDLELIGHT VIGIL IN HOPE FOR THE SAFE RETURN OF MY SISTER HALLIE.

  Barrington Hall, Boatshed 16

  Sunday 24th April, 6-9pm

  Light a candle and cast a ‘hope-boat’ down the river for Hallie. This is an event her family and friends would like to hold, for everyone who knows Hallie or wishes to offer support. Everyone is welcome to bring their own candle, although some will be available.

  20th April at 11.40pm

  Janette Wilson God Bless Hallie and her family. I would love to come to the hope-vigil. See you there. xx

  21st April at 7.34am

  Alice King Hallie – hearing about this has shocked me so much. Thinking of your family through these hard times – hope you’re ok. Hope justice is served.

  21st April at 8.45am

  Amanda Jane Brooks Hallie......never forget you in a million years…...you touched so many peoples hearts. Barrington rowing girls all the way.......come home soon xxxxx

  21st April at 10.22am

  Celia Beasley Can I do anything for the hope-vigil? Need help making boats? x

  21st April at 4.10pm

  Alice King I wish I could help with setting up the vigil too.

  21st April at 6.17pm

  Rachael McFadden I could definitely be there too if you need a hand, Claire. No one deserves this x

  21st April at 10.12pm

  Claire Knight Thanks so much for all your offers of help. The hope-boats will all be made beforehand but if anyone has any spare Frankie mags?? They’re Hallie’s fav so we want to make the boats out of them. Maybe if you do, you could drop them down to the Barrington office by tomorrow before close of school??

  21st April at 10.22pm

  Celia Beasley I have loads, Claire. I’ll drop them off ASAP. Let me know if there is anything else I can do. Anything at all. x

  21st April at 11.14pm

  Alice King I have a pile too – all the early ones – but I’m trapped up here in Mildura and the Frankies are in Melbs. Someone could pick them up from home though?? Just near Barrington??

  21st April at 11.27pm

  Celia Beasley Hi Alice, I can easily pick them up today. Message me with your email for pick-up deets.

  22nd April at 5.43am

  Claire Knight Thanks again to all for help and support. Please make sure all Hallie’s friends know about Sunday. See you there.

  Prayers for Hallie xx

  22nd April at 8.13am

  THE HERALD

  Police fear for Malvern schoolgirl

  Jane Johnston

  April 22

  Police have not ruled out foul play in the recent disappearance of 15-year-old Malvern schoolgirl Hallie Knight. Hallie was last seen at 5.30am on April 18 after leaving her home to attend rowing training. Hallie did not report in at the school’s boatsheds that morning and has not been heard from since.

  A spokesperson on behalf of the Knight family said, ‘Hallie’s disappearance is completely out of character as she always attends to calls and messages left on her mobile phone. The family is gravely concerned.’

  While police have few leads at this stage, they fear Hallie may have been abducted and are currently undertaking doorknock investigations in the Malvern area. Police IT experts are currently investigating Hallie’s social media networks. Anyone with information is urged to contact the police.

  From: Alice King [email protected]

  Friday 22 April 6:56 AM

  Hi there, Celia

  Just a quick note to thank you in advance for picking up the Frankie mags. We’re at 24 Thames Road, East Malvern (the train-track end). I left a message for my sister to leave the mags on the porch. I hope she actually does.

  Thanks, Celia

  Alice

  From: Celia Beasley [email protected]

  Friday 22 April 4:15 PM

  Hi Alice

  I went to 24 Thames Road after school today but there wasn’t anything on the veranda apart from lots of persimmons. Is your home the big Edwardian one with the long veranda? If I’ve got the wrong house, I can easily go back.

  I just feel so dreadful for Hallie and her
family. At least we’re doing something by helping them out with the hope-boats.

  CCB

  From: Alice King [email protected]

  Friday 22 April 4:47 PM

  Hey Celia

  I can’t tell you how TYPICAL that is of my sister. Sorry you had to make a trip for nothing but I don’t have much control up here – in prison. Anyway, Tess said she’d fix it and drop them down to Barrington herself. So soz! You had the right house, though.

  Wish I could come on Sunday but I’ll be stuck up here on the wrong river. Guess I could launch a hope-boat down the Murray instead. I feel kind of guilty for not being there. Just so awful.

  A

  From: Celia Beasley [email protected]

  Friday 22 April 6:15 PM

  Hi Alice

  That’s fine. We drive straight past there anyway.

  How well do you know Hallie? I’ve never actually met Hallie but we do gym comps against those Barrington girls and I’m pretty sure Hallie did gym. I lit a candle for her this morning and couldn’t help but feel hopeful. Also, sorry for asking, but I am curious. Are you really a prisoner? Like a no-right-to-vote-bread-and-water-orange-overalls prisoner?

  CCB

  PS Cute signature. Is that your dog?

  From: Alice King [email protected] Friday 22 April 10:14 PM

  Hi Celia

  I’m not exactly an orange-overall-type prisoner but boarding at Ladywell Convent sure does feel like I’m here against my will. You don’t really want to know why. It’s a long story without a happy ending. Pretty IRONIC though – that they sent me to a Catholic boarding school when it looks like I’m turning out to be an atheist. I tell you, Mildura has absolutely nothing going on other than dried fruit and NUNS. Still, I did pray for Hallie this morning. I guess it can’t hurt – especially as God doesn’t listen anyway. I actually do know Hallie and the Knights. Well, mostly just from the tram and Facebook, like I know all those Barrington girls. Now I feel really bad that maybe I wasn’t ever really that nice to her, but those Barrington girls aren’t always that nice either.

  Hope the vigil isn’t too bleak. I don’t feel so hopeful. Let me know how it goes. Sorry again for the mix-up with the mags. If only Tess used her brains half as much as she used . . . some of her, um . . . other skills.

  Ciao x

  PS That is my dog! Gertie. She’s a miniature schnauzer and I really do miss her more than anyone in my family, which I know is very wrong to say. I especially miss her more than Mum’s cooking, which I know is also very wrong to say but, seriously, even Gertie won’t eat Mum’s Irish stew. Do you like dogs??

  From: Celia Beasley [email protected]

  Sunday 24 April 8:54 PM

  Hey Alice

  I went to the vigil tonight and you were right, it was pretty bleak.

  I had to go with my mum because since Hallie disappeared, she’s totally flipped her lid. Hallie went to Barrington, which Mum calls on the right side of the tracks and so she’s got all strict about us going out alone. From now on it’s either with friends (tricky – I’m a new girl so don’t really have many) or my sisters (tricky – not new but don’t really like them. Especially my big sister Jaime). I mean it’s silly because Hallie may have been taken from the right side of the tracks but she was taken from the street at 5am when I, for one, was happily tucked up in bed with fleece socks and a hottie. Anyway, Mum took me with my sisters Jaime (mentioned above, 16, musical theatre) and Cleo (8, mute). Even though it was the weekend, there were thousands of Barrington girls there in rowing gear, which must have been chilly as it’s getting cold and dark so early now.

  At first a puffed-up police officer stood and told everybody who they’re looking for (Hallie) and what they know (not much). Hallie’s dad tried to speak but he was too upset and kept coughing into his cufflinks and then went really silent until it became too awkward to breathe. So then a guy – some cousin or something – stepped in and spoke on behalf of the family and said how anxious the Knights are and how desperate they are to have Hallie home safely. Mrs Knight stood there clinging to the back of Mr Knight’s arm like she was giving him a Chinese burn and Hallie’s sister was staring at the chipped floor of the podium, probably so she didn’t cry. Afterwards, we all sat on picnic rugs and drank chai in camping mugs, which made my breath warm and cinnamony, and sang songs to wish Hallie home while a few Barrington girls played guitar and even Jaime, who is always ‘drawn to song’ when she’s emotional, managed NOT to steal the show and make it all about her instead of Hallie, which it obviously was.

  The Knights are a really organised family. Claire had folded hundreds of perfect little boats and we placed a tea light in each one and floated them in all their gelato-coloured glory down the Yarra. The sun had set and our breath was smoke and the boats were pulled along by the current and some even caught on fire and we stood and watched, silent, warm, golden and hopeful, until the last boat disappeared under the bridge. And Hallie’s hope, Alice, smelt of candle wax and mud and stars and cinnamon.

  As we left we saw the Knights standing in a little huddle under a white portable tent. There was a mannequin of Hallie in rowing gear with a grey hoodie and navy Crocs, which is what she was wearing when she vanished. Up close, Mrs Knight had big black pits under her eyes and tissues balled up her sleeves. Mum said, ‘C’mon Celia, don’t dawdle and don’t stare’, and then she stared at that model of Hallie Knight the longest of all.

  The thing about that model, Alice, is that Hallie Knight looks just like someone I would be friends with. Like someone who plays Scrabble and eats cream-cheese-icing and wishes her life looked a little more Frankie.

  I hope they find Hallie, Alice, I really do.

  CC

  From: Alice King [email protected]

  Sunday 24 April 11:56 PM

  Hi Celia

  Hallie’s vigil sure sounded like a grim ol’ scene. Kinda glad I couldn’t come actually, I’m hopeless with that sort of thing. I didn’t end up casting a hope-boat for Hallie either. Just said another prayer at morning mass even if I am an almost-atheist. Hallie wasn’t THAT unfriendly even if she did once knock me out of the way with her cello. Oh God, now I’m talking in the past tense like Hallie Knight WAS rather than IS, but when I think about where she might be or who might have taken her I just see black and want to vomit. So I only try and imagine good things, like Hallie Knight turning up on the 72 tram on Monday with a Queensland suntan and a phone full of photos of the Big Pineapple or the Giant Prawn or Sea World or something. I really don’t want to believe she’s been abducted. Hallie Knight from Barrington! I seriously can’t stop thinking about her, every time I’m doing anything, even normal things like brushing my teeth, I’m thinking, ‘What is Hallie Knight doing at this very dull moment?’

  Aghh!! I simply have to stop thinking about Hallie Knight, but I’ve hardly got any friends either and you can’t get out on weekends unless you make friends with a day bug and so far that hasn’t happened.

  Oh, and if you ever hear talk of nuns being a dying breed, it’s absolute rubbish. There are hundreds of them at Ladywell Convent, I tell you – old ones, young ones, mean ones, completely out-of-date ones like Sister Ruth, who thinks that wearing make-up is for girls who are Bargain Basement. Doesn’t bother me so much but Gloria Shelmadine (she’s from Minnesota) is completely obsessed with make-up. I’m pretty sure she even sleeps in it and is always sneaking out of class to do a full touch up and straighten her fringe.

  Anyhoo – nuns! What good are they? As far as I can see, they’re just weird and low-tech. And how can you take anything they’ve got to say very seriously when they’re not actually IN real life? I mean, they’re living in this in-between world where they don’t have to worry about the stuff that everyone else has to think about like earning money and getting a house and getting mar
ried and getting divorced and having pets that could die on the road. And God might feel real and all, but so did my feelings for Edward Cullen.

  So, mostly I hang out with Leilah Rowe who’s my dorm buddy, and also thinks nuns are redundant. I guess you could say Leilah is my best (Ladywell) friend. She’s a classic actually, and is always trying to think up ways to blackmail chocolate companies, like telling them she found a dead fly in her Fruit & Nut. Then they’re meant to send her a lifetime supply, just to make sure they don’t get on Today Tonight. Mostly they don’t write back, though, and Leilah has to rack her brains for another scam. Have I been ranting? I have to fly now. Sister Catherine shuts down the modem at 9.30pm but I’ll try and answer your other questions really quickly. My sister Tess’s in Year 11 and I hate to say this but, apart from being grumpy and unreliable, she’s also fairly . . . slutty. I like my dog more than my sister and that’s the truth. I also have one younger brother called Johnny who is actually . . . dead . . . and kinda why I’m being held captive up here. There! I said it – explain later.

  bye xx

  PS What year are you in, by the way?

  From: Celia Beasley [email protected]

  Monday 25 April 5:07 PM

  Hey Alice

  It’s none of my business and you don’t have to tell if you don’t want to, but how did your brother die?

  I’m in Year 9 – I just moved to Ashbourne from Evelyn College. I don’t like showbiz, split infinitives or change, which is why the move has been tricky. I do love Dijonnaise, op-shopping and walking until my arms swing loose and shake all my ideas free, but we don’t do much of that at school. I imagine I have rich dark glossy hair that hangs in a glimmering curtain, but when I see pictures it is actually a bit thin and a non-descript colour which I call Gruffalo and Mum calls donkey, and she’s always threatening to have dyed when Dad’s business is back on track. I have grey-green eyes and skin that tans quite nicely in summer but is very pale in winter, and, apart from that, I’m pretty medium. Medium height, medium weight. Average average average. Sometimes I think I might get a tattoo just so I have at least one distinguishing feature. What year are you in?