“I know what it is!” Ma said. “I went to Mount Lourdes Grammar, didn’t I? Let’s see if we can get this sorted.”
Tom began to relax. Admittedly, Ma looked terrifying, but this was a note of compromise. The word sorted was a good sign. Also, there was a strong hint of Ireland in Ma’s voice. She must have come over here as a little girl. The matriarch of Dutch Island was not the descendant of some isolated inbred cult of pagan idol worshippers. She was just another immigrant trying to make good in a big country.
Tom gave Heather a reassuring smile. He walked closer to Ma, head bowed, hands bound in front of him like a defeated enemy. “Obviously, what happened here is a terrible tragedy. It was my fault and I’m sorry and my heart goes out to Ellen’s family and Danny.”
“Danny will be gutted,” a man said from the crowd. There was a general murmuring of agreement.
Tom bit his lip. Yes, the entire island was one large family, but Ma ran the roost. Her word would be law. All he had to do was persuade her.
“I’m very sorry about the accident, but there was nothing malicious in it. It was no one’s fault. It was just one of those things that happen,” Tom said.
“You were going too fast on that road,” Kate said, and again there was grumbling from the crowd.
Tom knew a heated dispute would be fatal to his cause. He just had to agree and appear contrite. “Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps we were going too fast,” he continued. “I did try to save her. I tried hard. I’m a doctor and I did my best. And afterward, when we saw it was no good, we just panicked. We did completely the wrong thing. Look, there’s no way we can bring back Ellen. But we can offer you, um, compensation.”
“Do you mean money?” Jacko asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re a doc. How much is in that? Me niece Maya is a nurse and she gets paid shit,” Ma said.
“I’ve been doing well lately. I made Seattle’s Best Doctors this year and, um, well, to be honest, I married into quite a bit of money,” Tom said.
“How much money?” Kate asked.
“My late wife, Judith, came from a wealthy Seattle family. Have you heard of Microsoft?”
Matt and Kate and Ivan all nodded. “We know it,” Matt said.
“Judith’s father was an early investor. We have shares and—”
“Shares! How much do you have in cash?” Ma demanded. “Here in Australia?”
“Just a few hundred dollars in Australia,” Tom admitted.
“But we can get more here tomorrow by wire transfer from America,” Heather added.
“I was coming to that. We can get money transferred here from America quite easily. A lot of money.”
“How much?” Ma asked.
Tom leaned back on his heels. Everyone was looking at him. Moths were flying into the arc lamps. The stars were coming out. The air was freshening. Temperatures were cooling—both literally and metaphorically. He had won them over with common sense and calm persuasion. The thing they didn’t teach you in medical school, bedside manner, was one of the most important skills to learn.
He had this.
Money was the key. They had moved on from revenge to money. Tom knew he had to pick the right Goldilocks amount. Not too much to seem preposterous but not too little either. “Five hundred thousand dollars. U.S. dollars,” he said.
A few oohs went through the crowd.
“Half a million bucks?” Kate said skeptically.
“I have that in my account, yes,” Tom insisted.
“How does the transfer work?” an older woman in filthy blue jeans and a ripped tank top asked. She also had a gun, an ancient-looking rifle that she was using as a walking stick.
“Yeah, how—how is that supposed to work?” Ivan demanded.
“It’s in a checking account in America. I have more in a savings account but I can transfer everything from the checking account without raising any suspicions,” he said.
“It’s a load of bollocks,” Kate said.
“How is it bollocks?” Matt asked.
“If we let them go to Melbourne to get the money, we’ll never hear from any of them again,” Kate said.
More murmuring.
“We keep the nippers here. He goes and gets the half a million in cash and brings it back. And we swap the dough for the kids. A hundred thousand to Danny in compensation for his loss, the rest split between us,” Matt said and looked at Ma for her approval.
“A hundred thousand for a dead wife!” Kate said.
“Well, like me, she wasn’t blood, was she?” Matt said.
There was some laughter from the crowd. Tom saw that the mood was changing. They were becoming more reasonable. “I think that’s fair,” Tom said.
“It might be. Ellen’s only been here a year,” Ma conceded.
“No! The kids can’t stay here as hostages. They’ll be terrified. Tom takes the kids with him and I stay here and he—” Heather began but Tom interrupted.
“For God’s sake, Heather! I’ve got this, honey. It’ll be OK. Maybe I could take Olivia with me to help sort things out. You’ll be here to look after Owen. I’ll get the cash from the bank and be back this time tomorrow. Everything will be fine. Then we can all go home. We can get this done,” Tom said.
Her brow furrowed and then she nodded. “OK.”
Ma also gave him a nod.
He began to relax a tiny bit. This might actually work.
“How do we know he’s good for the money? That’s a lot of money,” Kate said.
“Americans are rich!” someone else said.
“Look at his bloody car, you idiot. It’s a bloody Porsche, ain’t it?”
“I’m good for the money,” Tom insisted over the rising hubbub.
Ma nudged Ivan next to her. He lifted the pistol and fired it into the air.
Everyone immediately shut up. In the silence Tom could hear Heather whimpering.
“Right! Now that I have everybody’s attention,” Ma said. “First off, Dr. Thomas Baxter, if you come back with coppers, you will never see your wife or little boy again. Do you understand?”
“I completely understand,” Tom replied.
“We will have taken them to another location.”
“I understand.”
“Second off, if you come with one dollar less than five hundred thousand, the deal’s off.”
“I won’t. I’ll bring exactly that amount.”
“Third off, if, after you’ve all gone back to America, the coppers come up here asking questions about missing money, you better watch your back, matey boy. ’Cause we will tell the coppers about what you done and that will only be the start of it. We’re a big family. One of us will get to America and find you.”