Chapter 5

Jenny helped me up to my room, she was chattering away like a married magpie, "this is your room Jimmy, the bathroom is through this door and my room is on the other side, if you need me you just have to call out."

"Thanks Jen, I'm a little bushed at the moment, I'll just lie down for a while until I get my strength back; will you let Jessica know and I'll be down in a short while."

"Why don't you rest in the sun room, Mum and I have set it up for you convalesce in, it's a lovely spot to relax in, Mum's flowers look and smell great, I'm sure you will like it." Jen seemed like she had put a lot of time into getting the sun room ready and I didn't have the heart to disappoint her.

"OK Jen, it sounds great so lead on McDuff" Jen had a little giggle and took my hand pulling me towards the sun room. She was right the sun room was a lovely room and the perfume from Jess's flowers flooded the room, "wow Jen, you weren't kidding, this is a great spot to relax and get better."

"I told you so, I love it here, it's so peaceful," she sounded pleased at my comment, "I'll leave you to rest now and I'll come and talk to you later."

I stretched out on the cane day bed, lying there I considered what little I knew to date, not very much; I need to talk to Jess and Jenny to find out a bit more about 'Jimmy' and I definitely need to talk to Ron, how is it that he's my father and yet Jess tells me my father died six months ago, where does this 'John' fit into the picture and why is Jess scared of him?"

I had dozed off still puzzling my situation when I was abruptly awakened by an angry voice demanding "what the hell do you mean by getting into brawls, you hit a teacher and another kid and put both of them into hospital didn't you stop to think what effect that would have on the store, how it would effect the income? I'm warning you young man, either you pull your socks up or you're out on your ear. You've been expelled from school and I don't expect you to lay around the house bludging on me so you better start looking for a job pronto." Before I had a chance to reply he was off yelling at Jessica to get his meal ready. So this was "John' I definitely need to get into his head and see what makes him tick.

Jenny came into the sun room with a worried look on her face, "I don't think Uncle John is in a good mood, its best if you keep clear of him for a while, I'll bring you in some dinner when things quieten down a bit." I thanked her for being so thoughtful and her smile lightened up the room, she's a lovely natured kid I thought, I hope that bastard John doesn't give her a bad time.

Looking through the sunroom window into the living room I could see John sitting in a easy chair having a smoke, an ideal time to get into his head I thought. I concentrate on him and sure enough I was getting a feed back, what I found was sickening. His name wasn't John De Vent but Cyril Metcalf, he had done time for raping a 12 year old girl, there were other rapes that he had gotten away with, he had killed a woman in Queensland many years ago and had gotten away with that as well. He had a brief affair with Jessica when she was younger, the result was Jenny although he didn't stop around to find out; he came back on the scene about six months ago and immediately latched onto Jess only by this time she was married to my father who thought Jenny was his child.

'John' proceeded to blackmail Jess into restarting their affair, if she didn't comply then my father would find out who was the real father of Jenny. Delving deeper I found the reason for my father's death, Dad had a ritual every evening after his dinner, he would sit in his study in a big comfortable chair with a glass of port and a cigar; Jess had inadvertently mentioned this to 'John' and when Jess wasn't looking he swiped one of his cigars. Later he replaced the cigar after it had been laced with poison; he had killed a tiger snake and extracted the venom from its gland, this he injected into Dad's cigar. Dad had a heart condition and the venom was absorbed into his bloodstream through the tissues in his mouth, it was enough to kill him. Things worked in John's favour because he knew that Doc Downs was going away for a week's holiday with his family so he chose to replace the laced cigar that day. The Doc, being aware of Dad's heart problem assumed that was the cause of death and didn't do an autopsy.

I desperately needed to talk with Ron. Jenny brought me in my meal and stopped to chat as I ate it, it was great tucker and lovely company, the more I saw of Jen the more I appreciated her, how could someone so lovely be spawned by such an evil bastard? After my meal I begged off claiming I needed to rest, I wasn't kidding I was bushed and my head was banging, not only from the injury but what I had discovered about John. I vowed not to rush into this but to keep my eyes and mind open to this scumbag.